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.

Projects 19-29: Necklaces

Ah pendant making... such fond memories!

The best part of necklace making is that I make them with a group of fabulous ladies around a gigantic dining room table. There's laughter, wine, and occasionally minor incidents over the best papers to use!

The necklaces are not very difficult to make, but they take a while as you have to wait for the glue to dry a couple of times. The glue also has some major fumes, so I recommend this project for a day when you have no trouble leaving all of the windows in your house open for a few hours!

Here's the list of projects (not very imaginative titles, sorry!)

19 - Red Necklace
20 - Black Floral Necklace
21 - Gold Geometric Necklace
22 - Blue and Green Flower Necklace
23 - Blue and Gold Necklace
24 - Blue and White Flower Necklace
25 - Brown and Teal Necklace
26 - Blue and Green Necklace
27 - Green and Pink Flower Necklace
28 - Bright Blossoms Necklace
29 - Dainty Flowers Necklace (* See image in this post)

Happy Crafting!

Day 16: Tree of Life on the Fridge

The Tree of Life is a beautiful image that has been stitched, painted, tattooed, sketched, scorched, and otherwise recorded for a long, long time. And now, it's been punch needled.

A bunch of friends and I took a class in the spring to learn how to create punch needle projects. It was a great evening filled with laughter, jokes, and just plain fun! We had picked a design for the class a few weeks earlier (the aforementioned Tree of Life), and got down to work with our own selected colours and flare. It's amazing how many ways the same pattern can be interpreted! Punch needle is not a difficult technique - it simply requires the correct tools and materials, a little patience, and a good imagination (you stitch from the back, so if you are writing something, you have to do the mirror image!) - overall I would rate the project as medium in difficulty, most likely because I had never tried this type of project before!

The problem was, however, after that class I had no idea how I was going to finish the project - no idea what I actually wanted it to be! So it sat on my crafting table for months, taunting me... until yesterday when I was cleaning my kitchen (random, I know). I was about to through out a magnet that was on my fridge when I realized that it was not much bigger that the punch needle project. The wheels started spinning, and with a few more rows of thread and a glue gun, I now have a much prettier and craftier magnet on my fridge.

You never know where inspiration will hit!

Day 14: Sweet Teddy

So, after the god of chaos, I needed to balance out my karma again - or at least try to!

We found out about another pregnancy in the family (not me!), and so baby projects are going to be prevalent over the next few months. I've had a pattern for a sweet little crocheted teddy bear for a while, and hadn't tried it before, so no time like the present!

The pattern wasn't too difficult, and used less than one skein of yarn. A little embroidery floss was used for detailing the nose and feet, and a new darling was created.

I'd say this project qualifies as medium in difficulty. As with Cthulu, the stitches are done on the round, and careful attention is needed not to get lost!

Day 13: Cute Cthulu!

Cthulu. God of Chaos.

I have some pretty twisted friends, so when I found a book full of crocheted Cthulu, vamps, ninjas, zombies and more, I couldn't resist trying it out! (Plus, the god of chaos has been having way too much fun at my expense lately).

These projects are about a medium in difficulty - mostly because they are completed in rounds, not rows so it can be difficult to keep track of where you are in the pattern.

I made the eyes out of polymer clay, and glued them on with a glue gun (what did we ever do before glue guns?) I do have to say that they are absolutely adorable!

With all this crazy cuteness, anyone else having flashbacks to a notorious Buffy Halloween episode?
"Whose a little fear demon!"
"Zander, stop."
"Why? Can he hurt me?"
"No, it's just tacky!"

Or something like that...

Anyway, pictures will be on flickr later tonight for your perusal!