Valentine's Week

The good news is I am making crafts. The bad news is that I am not reporting on them daily.
So here goes a long, picture heavy post to catch you up!

Valentine card. This card riffs on this one. I used the Petite Petals punch from Stampin' Up with Real Red, Rose Red, Cherry Cobbler, and Pink Pirouette papers. The centers are tiny pearls. Not sure which set the sentiment comes from. I see that the original creator die cut a heart to use as a template for laying out the flowers, but I just winged it. I know what shape a heart is. ;)

 This felt heart ornament is a riff on these. If you search for heart projects you will see a lot of very cute felt heart ornaments that I can only describe as regular, definitely cute but not whimsical or irregular. Kind of the opposite of this one. I'm not sure I 100% captured my vision, but I do like it.

It seems I am featuring the hutch in this week's photos. LOL.  Here we have a heart garland I made following this tutorial. She used super cute paper. Mine are a little less bright and fancy. Still cute.

Okay, these did not come out the way I imagined at all! I started with the pictures on this tutorial, and I did the painting mostly the way she suggests. I guess the handle was not half-heart-shaped enough. Also, I think I traced the outside of the handle, but I should have traced the inside. Then the heart on the mug body would have matched the handle better. They're not awful, just not what was in my head! (Get the oil-based Sharpie! It'll stand up to washing.)

Hello! This is Shepherd's Bush Be Mine Tag. These little kits work up so fast. I think it took me about two hours to do. I did briefly think about painting the sled white--I saw that in one of the Strawberry Sampler's newsletters--but I like the dark wood contrast. And pink and brown maybe out but they are fabulous together.

I saw these wrapped hearts here, and I thought they were so cute! And it's a craft that requires shapes and yarn and that's it. No glue. No sew. Just wrap and go. (You attach the hearts to the wreath form with wooden skewers.) But something just doesn't work here. It's so Gender Reveal Party. Welcome to the baby shower. Not Valentine's Day. I don't get it because I used the same colors they did. Maybe I just didn't realize how shower-y their colors were until I had done it myself? Oh, btw, that gold one uses crochet thread. While it is possible to do this with crochet thread, I'm not going to recommend it!

And the party. The Fake Party as the dude calls it, since I put all this stuff out and then don't have anyone over to eat it. This time we're having mix-ins with our date night movie accompanying popcorn. Except we ran out of popcorn. I bought a ton of mix-ins and no popcorn. (Heavy sigh.) Pretend the red bowl is overflowing with popcorn. This time, I created printables using Microsoft Word. Insert-->shape-->the heart is under "basic shapes." Then I filled it with the pastel colors of conversation hearts--white, green, peach, yellow, lavender--and used a san serif font in pink to replicate the Necco treats. One half of the toppings are savory--cheese, pretzels, nuts, spice mixes--and the others are sweet--Mike and Ike's, mini Reeses, honeyed almonds, and the Valentine's day M&M's. (Do you know how hard it was to save those?) The dude is going for the savory, but I pretty much live for the salty-sweet-crunchy combo.

Still with me? You are a trooper! Now that I am back on track, I'm going to try to swing by every day.

Wrapping Up Birthday Party "Week"

My last two projects for Birthday Party Week.

First, a crazy balloon wreath. I'm not going to lie. There were a lot of times when I was making this wreath that it reminded me of nothing more than a sad clown. Then I started blowing a little air into the balloons before I pinned them on to the wreath form. It fixed their shape a little. Then I washed my hands halfway through and they were filthy and I couldn't believe I was putting the balloons in my mouth! The things I do for you and this blog...

Anyway, this is the brainchild of Shannon from Sew Sweet Cottage. She put a letter in the middle but I didn't want the wreath to be so specific to one person. I did look around for a birthday sign that I could add, but I couldn't find anything. (I could probably have made something, but I wanted to move this party along.) I kind of feel like if scrapbooking was now where it was two or three years ago even, I could have found something no problem.

The last project is a Sundae Bar. Bars are definitely the rage on Pinterest, and I think that's what made me decide it was a craft, as opposed to just entertaining. I do think that one of the things that makes bars work--a uniformity of presentation--does rely on craft. In my case, I decided to do a sort of chalkboard look with my labels. 

I used my favorite "font"--do you still call it a font if you are writing it?--I don't have a name for it but I put a little ball on the ends of letters. This helps you even out your letters if you, like me, have a tendency to write some letters smaller than others.

You can tell I went all Pinterest perfect when I covered the whipped cream can with grey paper. You can choose crushed (homemade!) cookies, toffee, sprinkles, berries, nuts, M&Ms, or maraschino cherries. Caramel or chocolate sauce. Whipped cream or not.

What are you having?

Finally a Spring Wreath

Thanks all for the permission to love myself for using an adorable kit this month! You've all been so kind to me.

Today's wreath is finally the spring wreath I needed! I had bought these felts last year (the year before?) so I'm glad to have put them to use. My sister has made one of these yarn-wrapped wreaths, and she told me that it took forever to wrap, but I managed to get through it while watching Hot Fuzz. I only used one type of flower, the spiral--from four inch and three inch circles. Two of them I wrapped two colors together (the top dual pinks and the hot pink and orange). I also wrapped two colors together sequentially, yellow and orange.

I'm very pleased with how it came out!

Wreath Wednesday: Nautical

Conversation with a FB friend who isn't crafty and who has small children.
Her: So what's with this craft every day?
Me: It's National Craft Month.
Her: So?
Me: I just make a craft every day for fun.
Her: Is that even fun?
Me:  It starts out really fun but at about Day 19 it starts to feel like a chore. Now I'm at the point where I'm almost done, and I've come too far to give up.

Original inspiration: Tiffany, Making the World Cuter.

(I will post the picture tomorrow am. I tried to send it from my phone to my computer but Gmail is doing that thing where it is sending the picture around the world first. Really, today my admin wanted to test something so she sent a picture to me at around 11:00. I got it at 1:08. I can't wait that long. Check the Instagram. Or the sidebar. Thanks for your patience.)

Day 16, Drying

Today's craft, a wreath for Valentine's Day (still not a summer wreath...) is drying. Full report when it is finished. For a sneak peek, check Instagram. Back soon with photos!

Wreath Wed: Felt Flowers

In searching for wreaths to make, I found a lovely one on etsy. They had sprayed a grapevine wreath grey and added felt flowers. I had a grapevine wreath in my stash, as you do, and decided I surely had enough felt, wool, and old sweaters to be able to put something together, all I had to buy was the spray paint.

I made the flowers based on directions from betz white (link when I'm back on my computer) (loopy flower, rosette (instructions for paper, work for fabric). I had a little vision for the blue buds. The big takeaway from making those is, if you are using acrylic felt use hot glue and not tacky glue. (Tacky works fine on 100% wool and mostly wool.)

I know it's not the spring or summer wreath I needed but I adore it!

Wreath Wednesday: Pinwheels

I am one of those people who changes the front door wreath seasonally. I'd love to change it monthly but I'm a few wreaths shy of a calendar. (There's a new one for you. "Oh, that idiot? She's a few wreaths shy of a calendar.")

Most of the months I am missing are in the spring and summer range. (I actually have three wreaths for October.) When I was perusing Pinterest for ideas, I came across several pinwheel wreaths. Very spring-y I think. I chose these three papers from the Birthday Bash series from Stampin' Up and whipped these pinwheels up pretty quickly.

Directions:
Paper pinwheel wreath directions from HGTV.
You can make pinwheels with one sided paper too.
With double sided paper but with the crazy addition of eyelets.
Someone made a variation (mistake) that you can learn from.

Sissy Sunday

Last fall, I showed you a wreath my sister made. Today, I was futzing around on Pinterest, and I saw that my sister had posted a new photo of her Halloween wreath. She made it last year. I love it. Her husband is so proud of this wreath; I find that charming. She posted another new wreath she made, and you can find it on her board "I Made It." It's all her Pinterest successes; to my knowledge, she's had no failures.

Don't get lost down the Pinterest wormhole now, you hear?

Nine Divided by Two...

When I saw this wreath on pinterest, I knew I wanted to make something similar. I have plenty of October wreaths (three to be exact) but I needed one for September. (I'm also searching for June and July.) I thought apples would be a good substitute for the pumpkins. And even though the dude and I don't share a last name, we do share a last initial. That S is like Harry Truman's. It stands for both and neither. It stands for us.

I was a bit disappointed with the directions. They say to cut the 1/4 yard burlap to 2" strips and to wind them into rosettes. I knew I didn't need the whole 44" length but how much would I need? The directions don't say. But they do tell you to you to remove the pumpkins from the sticks and spray paint the letter. One friend suggested that the directions meant I should cut across, so the strips are 9" long but I don't think a 9" strip would give you a full rosette. (But if that's right, I think you'd get 18 rosettes.) Someone else suggested her strips aren't really 2", but closer to 1.5". In that case you'd get about 12 rosettes. Still not 13. Anyhoodle, buy more burlap if you're making this. Actually, my rosettes are definitely fluffier than hers, so maybe I've screwed up. Who is to say?

Despite the gloomy photo (try to imagine the door it's true color) I like what I came up with. I just wish there were a few more rosettes because I think 13 was exactly the right number for this wreath.

Not gonna lie. Working with burlap is super messy. It cannot stay woven. Stray bits end up on the floor and my craft room looks like a stable.

Day 3: Rag Wreath

About six years ago I made a cute Christmas wreath out of the recycling bin. I wrapped several small boxes in wrapping paper and glued them to a wreath form. It was cute, but the western sun has done a number on it; it's faded badly. It needs to be replaced. I took this opportunity to make a new one. I had a wire frame and plenty of fabrics so I decided to make this wreath again.

The results:

The secret to making these wreaths look good is using more fabric than you think you can jam on there. Also, there are a lot of tutorials out there for a wreath made with a wire hanger. Those are never going to be full enough. 

I think if I did this again, I might put the white on the inside. Okay, gotta make something for today!

Good Things

If you're sick of the snow, avert your eyes*.

I finished the wreath, and promptly put it up. Yup, I bumped the maribou feather heart-shaped Valentine's Day wreath for the snow wreath. The neighbors are going to love the reminder that we are ass deep in snow.

If you're new here, the door color is Behr (Home Depot) Grape Leaves in semigloss.

You'll notice that I added some bling** to the snowflakes. I was inspired by my house bling:

Let's pretend that isn't a portent of danger and sign that the gutters haven't been cleaned since,well, since before we moved in. It's house bling!

Just how much snow did we get? Enough to bury the Stella:

Photo bravely taken by me in the middle of the storm.

And a Honda:

Photo taken less bravely also by me after the melt had started.

*Remember when I chaperoned the 10 year olds? When they were in the bedroom changing to go to the pool, they all kept saying, "Don't look!" And then one precocious young'un said, "Avert your eyes!" The adults in the living room cracked up and "avert your eyes" became one of those phrases we use to make each other laugh.

**They're stick on rhinestones, and I hope the stick is very sticky. We'll soon find out.

A Couple of Finishes

I'm still not sure about this wreath. I saw a fabulous scrap wreath sometime last summer and raced right out and bought a wire wreath frame. I finally decided to try it. After two rounds--orange and beige--I thought I'd really fucked up. But that was around 11:00 on Saturday. (I know, lots of swinging evenings 'round these parts.) It looks a lot better during the day than it does at night. How many people are going to be looking at my door at night? It's a pretty quiet neighborhood...after all, we're all at home in the evenings knitting and crafting and baking bread. (Actually, I don't know what my neighbors are doing.)

In the daytime, I think you can see the rusts and oranges and browns and it does give a feeling of fall. I am pleased that I was able to use up some really hideous beige fabric that I moved across the country. But I did need to fill in the browns and rusts. Fortunately, I only had to get six quarter yards. Yup, this took a ton of fabric. Maybe next time, I'll really do it with scraps...

I also managed to finish the Sorting Hat for my nephew. I'm trying to figure out what to do next. Should I stitch the first verse of the sorting hat song (You might belong in Gryffindor...) or his name (Last, First--like the book) and Gyffindor underneath it? I'm leaning toward the latter but if I do that, should I do the same for both of them? This took me longer than I thought it might but the Gryffindor crest will take much longer, definitely. Man, it's hard to make decisions about gifts for boys you see every other year for, like, a day. And well, boys, we don't really have many of them in the family. A little help*?

* The boys in question are 8 and almost 6. The younger is on the Asperger's spectrum and has fantasies that he is Harry Potter. Both totally dig the Hogwarts business.