The book has six different ornaments made by six awesome bloggers, and each will tickle your different areas of interest. For example, my ornament is crocheted, Kayte and Betz’s ornaments are sewn, Susan’s is made with jewelry/wire techniques, Patricia’s is paper crafty, and Diane’s is straight up crafty-crafty. All use materials that you probably have on hand, meaning you can stash bust and make gifts at the same time. And just in case you’re not familiar with them, e-books are pdfs that you can download and print right after you purchase them, meaning that if you’re ready to start making rightthissecond, you’re good to go.

Each ornament comes complete with step by step instructions and how-to photos to walk you through the project. The ornaments lend themselves to your own personal touches, whether it’s the fabric you choose or what you embellish them with.

I’m really excited that Diane contacted me about participating in this project. If you read her post announcing the e-book, you’ll see that one of her goals was to produce a collaborative project where the collaborators actually get paid. That’s an idea I can support, and I’m proud to be included. And the icing on the cake is that we all agreed to donate 15% of the proceeds from the e-book  to Project Linus, a nationwide charity that distributes handmade blankets to children who are suffering from serious illness or trauma, or otherwise in need.

Here’s a close up of my Crocheted Flower Ornament. Not including my experiments with basic crochet stitches, my very first real crochet projects were these stars made from crochet thread. I’d like to say that the flowers I designed are even easier to make, and  if you have any crochet experience at all, you could hook up a whole batch of these while watching a few hours of TV.  And with a ball of crochet thread running about $2.50 these days, these will totally fit your budgetary needs. Try them out with any weight of yarn (hello scraps!) for a range of colors and sizes. I hope you’ll try them out!

Click here for more info on the e-book.

Since  ideas are still running around in my head,  I will still be posting over there occasionally, but I wanted to let you know what was happening. and why there won’t be as many updates from me and the other bloggers. The plethora of great how-tos remains at the site, though, so I hope you’ll still check in.

While we’re on the subject, let’s take a tour of some of my projects from May. The theme was celebrations/DIY Weddings.

Above is my paper flower bouquet- I was really impressed with how easy these flowers were to make and how pretty they were, considering they were made with crepe paper. When I was styling the “finished” photo I spotted this ball of yarn and knew it was destined to be the vase. I really love this project.

And here’s a sweet little crochet/beading combination: a bridal necklace. Of course, you do not have to be a bride to make or wear this necklace– try it in a bright color for every day appeal!

My final project forMay was this gnome place card holder. Here I was just having fun with my cupcake toppers and styrofoam balls because there are only so many DIY Bride projects that I can think of in one month. But worry not- two more bride/wedding posts are on their way from me in June. I just raided the silk flower section of the craft store this weekend to prepare myself for the challenge.

If you’d like to see more of my tutorials and posts, check ‘em out right here.

1. i’m a deep sea diver, 2. all in a row, 3. ceramics class, 4. my new purse, 5. my new shirt (Simplicity 4589), 6. simplicity 2962, 7. my first crocheted socks!, 8. sewn bowl, 9. Sweater for Tegue, 10. Fuschia and Blues Jacket, 11. my apple picking skirt for fall, 12. potato printing, 13. sewing, 14. earrings for tart, 15. scrap wreath, 16. crocheted sweater ornaments

I dabbled in a little bit of everything, but mostly sewing and crochet. And, this post makes me realize that I want to sign up for another ceramics class if I can squeeze it in. In my head I feel like I must have made some other, bigger things but I guess they were work-related. I did finish one huge project in 2008, more on that to come in 2009!

I also wanted to announce that I reopened the Hope For Jasenn shop. I think that this will be the last update since I’m more helpful here on the ground, so to speak (although you can still make monetary donations if you so desire, see the “Donate” button in the sidebar). Ann wanted to say thank you to everyone who donated and purchased from the shop, it has helped them pay off their health insurance deductible for the year. In the interest of Jasenn’s privacy, I’m not going to do much more updating on the blog but please, please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

#2! That’s Debra Cooper. Debra, I’m sending you an email to get your address so the Sukie Iron Ons can be sent your way. And for those of you who didn’t win, the Chronicle Books sale has been extended through Wednesday (enter code: FRIENDS at checkout for 35 percent off and free shipping!), so you can still get your hands on some affordable goodness. Personally I caved and ordered the Sukie box of labels for myself.

And if you’re in need of a quickie craft project, be sure to check CraftStylish for some options. I love this embroidered sweater tutorial by the dazzling Erika Kern, so I went to Target and picked up this number for $15. I finished embroidering the daisies in a couple of hours and am very pleased with the results. Yes, I even picked an orange sweater like Erika’s. I never claimed to be totally original. 

And whoa, it has been a while since I’ve taken a self photo. Always a fun process, I suppose. That’s what I look like, again, in case  you were wondering.

I’ve participated in various ornament swaps over the years, with varying results. I wanted to dig in and really take the time to make some nice ornaments this year. And well, what can I say, I wanted to make sure I got some equally thoughtful ornaments back. So instead of participating in the big random swap, I contacted a few of my favorite bloggers to play along. (I would have asked more people to play, but I only made so many mini sweaters). I think they’ve all recieved them by now, so I wanted to show them off. I made the sweaters in the middle of the summer or so, when I was completely bored and too fried to think of anything new.

Then, maybe around September, I found them again and added little edgings using embroidery floss. I sewed on felt shapes, sequins and vintage buttons. And I even found some thick floral wire to make coat hangers for each ornament (only I didn’t photograph them! whoops!).  They are so cute, if I do say so myself. Don’t worry, I kept a few for me. If you’d like to make your own, there are a lot of tutorials on the web. If you’re an intuitive crocheter (ie. don’t need it spelled out stitch by stitch), this one is the best I’ve found. If you knit, just google- there are plenty of free patterns.

Actually,  when I got out my ornament box this year was overwhelmed with all of the cheap and crappy hanging things I’ve collected. This wouldn’t be a problem if I didn’t also have some really special ones I want to show off– but I do, and I have a tiny 2 ft tree, so I need to declutter. Too busy to go through them this time, I just threw a few on the tree, closed the box, and figured the ones I recieve can fill in the gaps. I’ll go through them next year. Yes, that’s it. Next year. I don’ t know, even the super cheap dollar store ornaments I bought my first year in New York (when I only had half of a job) mean something to me. Maybe I just need a bigger box.  I’m excited to see what I get this year!

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PS: I thought you all might like to know that Jasenn got some of his first test results back from the doctor this week, and his cancer is stable. As in, not growing. YAY. This is very good news and I want to thank you all for keeping him in  your thoughts and prayers. In related good news, I’m a little more than halfway to my fundraising goal so a great big THANK YOU to everyone who has helped. I keep adding new stuff to the shop, and wouldn’t complain if I say, exceeded the goal, so remember to check back in occasionally. (Despite the good test results, he won’t be able to go back to work, so every little bit of extra $  helps).  Thank you thank you!

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PPS: There’s still time to enter to win the Sukie Iron On Pad. I love reading your ideas for what to do–especially the Geek+Nerd, who said she’d use them to make little stuffed ornaments. I love that idea!! I wish I had more than one to give away (but at $13, they’re quite reasonably priced).  The random number generator will dictate the winner.

(sorry for the gray photos…we got a bunch of snow last night)

The transfers worked really well on the onesie– taking nowhere near the 3-5 minutes mentioned in the instructions. Be sure to pay attention- they recommend using a hard surface (not your ironing board), so I used a 7 x 10 wooden plaque I got at Michaels for about $2. It fits the page size perfectly, and easily slips into a onesie. FYI, the design did transfer through to the wood, so don’t use your table as a surface.  I also tried the iron-ons on some cheapie canvas bags I got at the craft store– with less than stellar results. Mainly, the canvas is more toothy so the transfer doesn’t take as well (my fault, not the transfer’s) and I ended up burning it. Whoops. But it is perfect on thinner, more cottony material, such as: onesies, t-shirts, tea towels, flour sacks, etc.

Some of the designs would also look cute if you just transfered them to plain white cotton, then appliqued them to darker fabrics with layers of printed fabrics beneath/around the iron on (my way of getting around needing a light surface for the transfers to work). Wouldn’t they make sweet patches?

I just love these houses too. And, as the title indicates, Chronicle Books has generously offered to give away 1 FREE copy of the iron-on pad to a Lindamade reader. To win, leave a comment below telling me how you would use the iron-ons. The winner will be picked randomly; please make sure there’s a way for me to contact you from your comment (ie. enter your email address in the appropriate box). Deadline to enter is this Friday, December 5th, at 12 pm NOON.

And, in case you’re living under a rock, Chronicle Books‘ Friends and Family sale is still going on through this Friday– 35% off the books, PLUS free shipping. Use the discount code “Friends” at checkout.

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P.S. On a shop note, I just added some adorable felted baby elf hats to the shop in red and green. Check ‘em out!

And a reminder- today is the last day for free shipping. I might do another free shipping date sometime before the holiday closure, but now’s your best chance to snap things up. I just added some earrings I made this weekend…

And tomorrow I’ll be adding some more hats. I’d do it now, but I MUST get back on track with the whole working thing.

I did a lot of crafting this weekend. I really, truly, did not work on anything work related and that was SO nice. Sometimes it can be hard to separate things, there’s that guilty feeling of working on something fun when you could be working on something…for work. Or maybe only I get that feeling? Anyway, it was nice. It was all xmas stuff, though, so instead of showing it to you I’ll show you some bowl variations. Remember the bowls? I’ve been playing with some more ideas.

For this one, I played with adding a rick-racky edge on the top. It came out pretty neatly, but was a royal pain. I like it more now that I’ve been staring at it for a while (I completed these a few weeks ago, at least. I figure I’m not spoiling anyone’s surprise since I don’t even know who is getting what).

I also tried changing the shape at the bottom, making the sides wavy as I traveled up the bowl. You kind of have to see this one to appreciate it, but you get the idea. I think I’m done with bowls for a little while (because now I’m on a knitting kick), but I’m sure I will revisit them in the future.

And now for the super simple crafty holiday idea I promised to share (just pretend it’s Friday!).

Ladies and gentleman, introducing The Colorful Scrap Wreath. I found a wire wreath frame (it looks like this, with 4 concentric, slightly raised wire circles) at Joann’s and it jumped into my shopping bag because a) I’d never seen a non straw/grapevine/styrofoam one before and b) it was $2 or so. Here’s how to make the wreath: cut your fabric scraps into pieces about 1- 1 1/2″ wide by 5″ long. Tie them around the form. Repeat 200+ times. Trim the scrap ends and fluff up the wreath as desired. Sew adornments on to front of wreath (I happen to have a bag of crochet swatches from a big project I was working on, so I used some of them. Bows, flowers, birdies, and rickrack would also suffice). If I had it to do again, I might try to stick to all green scraps, but it’s fun to look at all those fabrics from my scrap bin….

plus it kind of goes with my thread rainbow, so I’ll probably keep it up all year.

The name cards are as simple as it gets: pretty paper + letter stickers = fun times.  If you’re still seeking ideas, check out last year’s post about sewn paper place cards. Even if you’re thinking, “Who uses place cards?!?!”, try it– they will add a touch of festivity to your day (and personally, I don’t care where anyone sits). We’re going over to a friend’s house for the meal and I’m planning on making Alicia’s delicious looking Sour Cream Apple Pie.  I’m very excited about that one. Usually I’m a stickler for pecan and pumpkin, but this time it will be apple.

In the meantime I have been working on adding things to the Hope For Jasenn shop (you can’t see anything just yet, tricky). If you would like to donate something for me to sell, there is still time- please just send me an email or leave a comment and I’ll get back to you with details. I really appreciate it. And, here’s one of the items that will be in the store starting Friday, a one of a kind Lindamade hat festooned with a completely detachable sparkly bird brooch.

Four sparkly birdies flew in from Jenny at least a few months ago and I knew I wanted to use them on limited edition hats, so I layered this one with a yo yo and some buttons, and here it is. This one will go for $45.

Spoiler Alert: If your name is Ann and  you’re my sister, stop reading now.

In the mean time, check out this great felt ornament tutorial from Sister Diane on CraftStylish. I decided to give it a go last night after I finally realized how easily I can print photos on my new printer. See?

The hardest part was cutting a perfect inner circle, but I got close enough.

I also made a toy for my nephew, who you know I just love to spoil. Every time I visit him I think of some new toy ideas that will allow him to explore things in a not-going-to-pull-the-laptop-off-the-couch way, so this one incorporates some stretchy elastic that he can pull on. You can bet I sewed each elastic piece down like, 8 times, no exaggeration. I love the little elephant.

The corduroy and felt textures should be fun for him, too, and the ear is moveable. I machine stitched everything with my fun #28 blanket stitch. I only wish I had a squeaker for the inside–or, you know, the patience to wait to stitch it up till I obtained one. Oh well!