Projects 54-79: Oh Christmas Tree!

Wow. There are a lot of projects in this category to be posted! It is December after all, and I love Christmas!

These projects are mostly Christmas cards, but there are also a few other items such as homemade wrapping paper, gift tags, and of course my Christmas Tree!

Some of these cards were made at various stamping events, and so some of them are not my design. I have noted the items that I did not design (but totally assembled myself!) on each photo in Flickr.

So, ready for the holidays?

54 - Christmas Tree (Easy to Difficult - your choice!)
55 - Wrapping Paper (Easy)
56 - Martha's Holiday Card (Medium)
57 - Homemade Tags (Easy)
58 - Jacob's Ladder Gift Card Holder (Hard - this one takes practice!)
59 - Lacy Christmas Card (Medium)
60 - Dasher Card (Easy)
61 - Happy Holidays Card (Medium)
62 - Green Bow Christmas Card (Medium)
63 - Rudolph Card (Easy)
64 - Christmas Treats Holder (Easy)
65 - Christmas Tags (Easy)
66 - Sparkly Tags (Easy)
67 - Joyful Tags (Easy)
68 - Snowflake Napkins (Easy)
69 - Warm Winter Wishes (Easy)
70 - Fancy Tags (Medium)
71 - Tree Gift Tag Holder (Easy)
72 - Season of Sweetness (Easy)
73 - Layered Christmas Card (Medium)
74 - Wrapped in Joy Card (Easy) * See image in post
75 - Snowflake Card (Easy)
76 - Peek-A-Boo Holiday Card (Easy)
77 - We Three Trees Card (Easy)
78 - Joy Card (Easy)
79 - Layered Christmas Tags (Easy)

Whew!

I'll keep trying to post every couple of days with the other projects as I complete them.
Feel free to harass me if I don't update this page on a regular basis!

Happy Holiday Crafting!

Projects 48-53: A Bit of Randomness

There are just some projects that don't easily fit into any specific category. Kind of like people!

Some of these projects were made with a particular purpose in mind - like the scraps bag, which I bring to all of my workshops so that we can put our little bits of trash into something without getting adhesive backings all over the house!

Others, like the star card, were made without a specific purpose or recipient in mind, but allow for a little bit of experimentation! (Nothing wrong with experimentation in crafting, it's only paper after all... just be careful with your glitter...)

So, here's a little list of random creations:

48 - Leigh's Grad Card - my brother just graduation from med school... scary! (Easy)
49 - Sunny Thank You (Medium) * See image in post
50 - Thanksgiving Place Cards (Medium)
51 - Scraps Bag (Easy)
52 - Star Card (Easy)
53 - Flower Napkins (Easy)

Keep Crafting!

Projects 39-43: The Gift of Giving

I love presents! I mean, of course I like getting them, but nothing is better than seeing someone open a present from you and them absolutely loving it!

I love to give presents... I spend a lot of my disposable income on others... and why not?

So, here's the round up on some of the gifts that I have completed in the last little while. There are a lot more in progress, and will probably constitute the majority of my crafty items between now and Christmas!

39 - Red Toddler Hat (Medium)
40 - Penguin! (Medium) * See image in post
41 - Gingerbread Recipe Cards (Easy)
42 - Hostess Halloween Gift (Easy)
43 - Baby Blankie (Easy)

'Tis the season... to give!

Projects 30-38: Happy Birthday!

Ah birthdays... in my family they tend to come in clumps. About half of my immediate family has a birthday in December as well as a couple of my friends. The others have managed to group themselves in March, May, and October. I refuse to have kids in any of those months, especially December!

Ahem.

So, birthdays are a big deal, and making birthday cards is a lot of fun! My difficulty seems to be making "boy" oriented cards (not little boys, they're easy, it's the grown up boys that are difficult!)

Here's the list of Birthday related items that I've finished over the last little while. I've put the relative difficulty of the projects in brackets beside the titles. Don't forget, all of these items have a picture on Flickr that you can see!

30 - Sue's Birthday Card (Medium) * See image on this page
31- Wine Bottle Birthday Card Holder (Medium)
32 - Aunt Liz's Birthday Card (Easy)
33 - Bold Birthday (Easy)
34 - Striped Birthday Card (Medium)
35 - Birthday Gift Card Holder (Medium)
36 - Birthday Wishes Card (Easy)
37 - Cake! (Easy)
38 - Teeny Tiny Birthday (Easy)

I still need to make one more birthday card for this month... sigh.

Day 18: Warm Woollies part 2

What is a pair of mitts without a hat to complement them?
Nothing, I tell you! And awfully cold if you live in Canada during the winter... no one likes frostbite.

Today's hat is from the same pattern book that I used for the mittens from day 17. It is an easy project - 30 rounds of single crochet with gradual increases, and one row of reverse single crochet to create the brim. I can make one in an evening as I've completed the pattern several times. If you are new to crochet, it may take you two evenings, but certainly no more. Definitely a project for beginners.

Warm woolly hats... ah...

But I'm still not ready for winter - give me the sunshine!

Day 17: Warm Woollies part 1

I am not a fan of winter. I don't like being cold, I dislike how long it takes to trudge through the snow, and I hate wearing sock. Winter requires all of these things.

However, I am a fan of making nice and toasty warm things to keep me and my loved ones from being as cold. It's Canada, we need our woollies!

I have made several sets of hats, mitts, and scarves over the years and tend use the same pattern time and time again. This familiarity allows me to make a pair of mittens in a single evening. The pattern is pretty easy - single crochet, sew up the side seam, and more single crochet to make the thumb. It's one of the first patterns I ever used after graduating from making granny squares, so I would definitely recommend it for beginners - it's a Patons pattern.

Remember, the more wool the better when it comes to winter!

Day 15: Decorative Cookie Jar

I love glass jars. I love organizing. I love cookies! A match made in heaven, don't you think?

I have a bunch of jars in the kitchen labeled for sugar, flour, tea, and coffee (all of which get used on a frequent basis!). I also have a large, lonely cookie jar. It doesn't say cookies. It doesn't say treats. It's a very lonely little jar... there should be a song - check the Country/Western station.

Well, the jar has now had life breathed into it! Or, at least, a little decoration. I've mentioned before how much I love the decor elements that my company sells - especially the decals (see the project from day 1 - Butterflies on the big blue wall). So, to make my cookie jar more special, I took a chocolate brown decal (appropriate colour, wouldn't you agree?) and applied it to the jar - it sticks just as well as on the wall, and can be wiped with a damp cloth if it gets mucky. It's a cute picture of a song bird - sweet and pretty, just like chocolate chip cookies!

Talk about an easy project!
Pictures are up on flickr - have a look!

Day 12: Weekend Invite

Good news! I am now the proud owner of a digital camera, thanks to a big sale at a local store - sweet! Which means I will finally get to take some pictures and post them for all of you to see.. stay tuned!

Today's project was a simple invite card. I'm planning a romantic weekend away for my boyfriend, who's having a milestone birthday this year. I'm trying to make a big deal of it, so I made a invitation with basic instructions on when and where to show up! I'm going to try and sneak it into his backpack when he is visiting this weekend. If the opportunity doesn't arise, I'll just send it to him in the mail - snail mail is still fun to get, after all.

I'll post a picture of the front of the card once the batteries are charged on the camera. It's a very basic card that I tried to make masculine and romantic - not as easy as you would think!

Day 11: Krafty Kitchen - part 2

I've received a few comments about the lack of pictures being posted - something that I promise I am working to remedy!

In the mean time, I've posted three more photos of recent crafts on flickr - 2 birthday cards, and a cross stitch I made for my nephew when he was born in 2009. That's all the "historical" data that I have, so we will have to make due with new projects I create.
I'm hoping to get some more photos done tomorrow...

This evening's project completed the sets I started yesterday. Now those three lovely ladies will all be getting tea towels to go with their dish cloths! How exciting!

Again, this is an easy project - I don't really follow any pattern, I just make them up as I go. They are larger than yesterday's project though, about an hour each to complete.

Day 10: Krafty Kitchen - Part 1

I have 3 wonderful women in my life (well, more than three, but I'm thinking of a very specific three at the moment). These women have been around my entire life, and have taught me a great deal - they've also become great friends in my adult life.

Which is why every Christmas I try to give them something that expresses how much they mean to me. Now sometimes these ladies do not use their gifts as they were intended...

"Your gift was so lovely, I couldn't use it!"
"But grandma, it's a dish towel!"
"Yes, and it looks so nice on top of my dresser!"


I love you, grandma!

Anyway, this year I'm going to try kitchen stuff again (it's been a few years since the last attempt) - and part one was completed today.
The wool sale I attended yesterday had some great deals on handicrafter cotton. So, today I made dish cloths for my 3 lovely ladies, and hope to complete another piece of the present tomorrow. No more details are available, as there's a possibility they are reading this (love you guys!), but the project is simple, simple, simple - about 20 minutes to crochet each one.

Day 9: Simple Organization

Today was the last day of my vacation (sigh). Now I usually spend my last day doing laundry, moping around the house, and resisting the urge to check my work email (why deal with the stress a day early???). This time, however, I spent the day with some of my girlfriends - and what a day! We took a trip out to Listowel, home of the famous wool sale (6 balls of yarn for $7.00 - sign me up)!!

A few dollars and a bunch of yarn later, we returned happy, and full of ideas - now that's a fantastic way to end your vacation!

My little crafty project for today was designed to help me organize my crafting space just a wee little bit!

I needed a container to hold all of my stamping markers, and didn't just want to use a tin can! I found a clear vase from the dollar store with a wide mouth, and a hefty bottom and wrapped it in designer paper (this paper, sold by my company, has a different pattern on the front and back of the paper - so you can actually see a different pattern on the inside of the vase). I added a ribbon bow, stuck my markers inside, and voila! Instant organization.

Any easy project, but remember that the more angled or curvy the vase is, the more difficult it is to add flat paper! I recommend that you lie the vase down on a blank sheet of paper, and trace one side. This will give you a pattern that you can transfer to your fancy paper.

I also started a crochet project today - it's going to take me a few more days to finish...

Day 4: Little Notes of Thanks

Okay, before I even start talking about crafts, I have to say the coolest, most serendipitous thing happened to me today! I spent the morning shopping around Toronto, and stopped into the Worlds Biggest Book Store (I'm a librarian, how could I not?). Anyway, as I was deciding which books to put back and which ones were actually coming home with me, I noticed someone in a corner signing a cart of books...

Now earlier, I'd noticed said cart of books, and by whom they were written - and there he was, Mr. Cory Doctorow, signing a bunch of books for the bookstore to sell, and no one there the wiser!! So there I was, very fortunate to meet Cory, and tell him how much my teen book club enjoyed Little Brother, which won an Ontario Public Library award last year. If you haven't read any of Cory's books, please proceed to your nearest book store or library and pick one, any one!!!

Ahem, right, crafty stuff...

Have you ever had a thank you gift for someone that just didn't warrant a full card? Ever want to slip some one a subtle thank you that didn't require envelopes and sentences of sentiments?

Today's project was a set of 16 mini thank you notes. There are four different designs which really play into the type of thank you you are trying to portray, and I tried to pretty them up with different techniques such as punching edges, piercing the paper, using mini library clips, etc. These notes can be as easy or difficult as you choose, and can even be used as tags on a gift. They took me about 2 hours from design to finish for the set.

The notes can hold about one sentence on the back, so you're not trying to fill a lot of white space! They're great for keeping in your desk drawer at work, or even in your purse.

No camera yet, but soon I promise!

Day 2: A gift that keeps on giving

Today's project was a set of gift tags to give away to a friend. Gift tags are a multi-purpose and personalized gift - just the way I like it! The obvious use is for gifts you are giving away - it adds to the packaging, making each gift unique and special.

The tags I made today are the first group in a number of sets that I am planning on giving away to friends and relatives this Christmas. There are a lot of crafty people in my life, and these tags will give them an extra special bit to add to the gifts that they give away throughout the year.

In terms of difficulty, tags can be any where from easy to hard to make, depending on the complexity and design. Having the right materials such as punches and stamps can make the project quicker to complete, although there is something to be said for simply using your own artistic skills and a pair of scissors!

As for a picture, well, I had to give the camera back yesterday, so no picture yet. I promise to put one up as soon as I beg, borrow, or buy a camera!

Keep smiling, crafters!