Here they are hanging in the window with battery operated tea lights (that really flicker!) inside. I also took some photos of them by the tree (which I set up just to take these pics!) but my tree is silver and tiny, so these are a bit large for it. But, if you had a big green tree, these also look awesome hanging from one of the “spokes”. They also look great on the table next to the tree, and if I was having a holiday party I would stick them on the table with the hors’d'oeuvres.

I have a few tips for you if you decide to make these. First, definitely do score the pieces as Patricia mentions. I used a point turner (usually used for sewing!) since I don’t have a bone folder, which worked out fine. And secondly, I used hot glue to glue all of the tabs in place. It might have been the glue stick I chose, but it didn’t dry fast enough for my impatient ways so I got out my big low-temp glue gun (low-temp is good for impatient people, because when “they” squeeze the pieces together with their fingers, they don’t end up with a big blister!).  I also found that I could fit all of the pieces on one 12 x 12 piece of cardstock, so since I put 2 pieces together for each ornament, that was a grand total of 4 pieces of cardstock to make these. Since I know you will ask, I used Cosmo Cricket papers from the “Earth Love” collection, which I got in a pad at Michael’s. These ornaments were fun to make and it was nice to do something that didn’t involve yarn for once. Well, I did use yarn to hang them….

If you’d like to purchase a copy of Crafty Tree Trimmings, head over to the Craftypod Store. The book will only be on sale till December 31st, and 15% of proceeds will be donated to Project Linus.  To see the other takes on the ornaments, check out these posts by Susan, Patricia and Betz.

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.

(That’s my photo, and sorry, it was a gray day). I actually got to keep the project, but I sold it off in my Etsy shop to a lovely blog friend (You know who you are. I was going to mention you by name but then I thought, what if they are presents, and your recipient magically reads my blog? Just in case, I’ll be quiet).  I want to make more at some point, but I am not all that into the holidays just yet. Maybe because I experienced them in June or whenever I was making these projects?

I also made these paper and fabric cards. Super easy- check the magazine for detailed instructions. As you can see, I did not stick to just one style of card, so you can get lots of ideas from the magazine. I’m thinking I’ll do something similar for my cards this year, if I can get around to making 20 of them. It’s kind of funny, but something happens when you start making everything and people begin to appreciate it–they actually notice when you send them a cute card that you didn’t make yourself. As if you no longer have the right. I was actually somewhat accosted the other day by an acquaintance who wanted to see if I was wearing any jewelry I had made. It’s coat, scarf, hat, and longjohns weather, and she actually started stripping off my scarf!  She was disappointed that a) I was not wearing any jewelry and b) the scarf I was wearing was knit–by H&M. Sigh. It was $3, what can you do? The yarn alone would have cost me more. Moving on….

I also made some, for lack of a better word, cute projects for the winter issue of Crochet Today. The baby blocks were fun– you’ll get to practice your colorwork and textural skills to make an enticing visual and tactile festival for baby if you decide to work these up. And the cupcake tea cozy–well, I just looked at the colors they’d sent me, and I couldn’t see anything else. It had to be a cupcake, so there.

And last but not least, I wanted to mention this wonderful new book written by my friend Betsy Greer (who you may know from Craftivism.com), Knitting For Good. Her book is full of essays on why we knit and how to build positive change through craft. It really doesn’t matter whether you knit, crochet, tat, sew, or make recycled vases out of milk jugs– the ideas in the book will translate. This book would be a great holiday gift for your favorite crafter–young or old–and in addition to the essays, it’s full of pretty patterns to knit for good. I  contributed a knitted hat pattern for the book (my first!) which would be perfect to work up and donate to a homeless shelter, or, in softer yarns, a chemo caps program. Definitely check it out. Betsy was also kind enough to donate a signed copy to my shop, which has already been swooped  up– so now please go support her!

As always, let me know if you end up making any of these things. I’d love to see them!

I love how they turned out, plus they were quick and I didn’t even have to leave the house. I wrote short messages on the back side and they are sitting in their envelopes, ready to be mailed. I will show you what was in the envelopes once they have all been received.

I also wanted to share these goodies I got from the lovely Lauren of My Aunt June. These are just my favorites of all of the things she sent me (I won her studio cleaning giveaway)– fun! I actually washed the fabric shortly after taking this picture. Halfway lazily, and halfway curious, I threw them in on hot with a sweater I wanted to felt, so they all turned a little bit more blue than they were before. But it looks pretty cool and wasn’t a total accident– and I’m happy with the results. I want to experiment a bit more with overdyeing (in a more intentional way) in the future. Like I need another hobby. I also love the sweet quilt covered lady on the ceramic tray– I have a stash of porcelaine markers and…well, again, that’s another thing I want to try and probably could live without doing.  If you are interested in seeing more of Lauren’s painted ceramics, check out her etsy shop.

I set myself up with an embroidery project for the plane (I must have been inspired by Floresita), and in case I got bored in New York (yeah right) and wanted to stay home. I almost n-e-v-e-r make time for embroidery, it is truly time consuming, but I’ve had these patterns for a couple of years now and I thought it would be a good change of pace. I used a bird transfer I ordered from Colonial Pattern about and referred to their suggested colors and made it up as I went. I haven’t done a lot of embroidery, but I think it came out pretty well.

The guy next to me on the plane asked me what I did with the things I was making. I said “I’ll use it to dry dishes.” And he was incredulous, “No, really, do you make pillows or what?” At which point I said that I could do that, but I just like to add a little bit of color and art in my life even for mundane uses. I don’t think he followed. I guess I might turn this into something other than a tea towel, but if it remains a tea towel, that would be fine with me, too.

In other news, I posted some photos from Wave HIll Gardens. I had never heard of Wave Hill but I read about it on someone’s blog while in New York and thought “Hey, that’s here!” so my brother and I made the trek. And it was a trek- make sure you get your directions straight before you go– although wandering around the pretty houses in Riverdale is not a bad way to spend time. I love that my brother lives in NYC, because I don’t think I could have convinced anyone else to go there with me, even though in reality it is not that far away.  One thing that was good about living in Queens was that I could never be the lazy one (it was bad too, trust me), and I went all over in terms of exploring the city. My theory: yes, it may take an hour to get there, but what else am I doing, really? Once my more adventurous friends moved away, it really started to piss me off that no one would ever come to Queens, and that everyone who lived in Astoria was always flocking to Manhattan. Sigh.

(Photos from a paper flower menagerie exhibit by Jun Eun Park in the Sun Room)

So during my 6-day vacation, I hit 4 boroughs (Brooklyn: flea, Queens: Egyptian food, Bronx: Wave Hill, Manhattan: everything else). More photos on Flickr, of course, because I think that’s all I have to say about the trip. See also Kayte’s post about our visit to the Crochet Coral Reef. 

Paul and I headed downtown with a bunch of friends and we came upon a little Ugandan Craft sale. There were tons and tons of paper beads. TONS! And so inexpensive, for what you were getting, with all proceeds going to charity. Despite the fact that we’re not really putting up a tree this year (so sad, but I left my tree at the curb when I moved here, andI’m leaving on Sunday anyhow), I had to buy a “garland”– which was really ten or eleven necklaces strung together. Of course I detached one necklace to wear myself. I think it wil also look great on the tree. The some day tree.

I also got this super cool blue necklace. I wasn’t sure about it in the basket, but it looks GREAT on. This is definitely something that you can make from old magazines (or specialty papers, if you feel fancy), and if you choose a monochromatic color scheme, you can achieve a really nice look. There’s a tutorial on some very similar beads in the winter issue of Craft. Just taper your strips of paper and wrap them around a toothpick instead of the safety pin they recommend so that they can get chunky. You can slip them off the toothpick when they dry and string them however you want. I think the seed beads are a nice touch.

Other activities at the stroll included listening to the local high school’s Jazz Choir, sipping hot chocolate, and petting an alpaca!

I was seriously excited to pet the alpaca, and I made everyone come with me. Luckily most of the kids were lined up for Santa by this point. The alpacas were already full from being fed by kids all afternoon, but I lured one over with my teleke-knit-ic powers. I had an 8-year old’s smile on, according to my boss. I wish we had gotten some better pics of the alpaca, but it was dark. Some of them had these cute white faces and their fleece was trimmed so stylishly. Oh, those alpacas. One day I’d like to have a pair of my own.

And here we are, in a rare blog photo appearance. Coming to a Texas near you! Hi Mom(s)!

p.s. Tomorrow is the last day to order from my etsy shop in time for the holidays. After that, I’ll be out of town, so no orders will ship till 2008. Thanks to everyone who ordered from me this year- it really helps encourage me to keep on making stuff.

I like the mix of patterns and the not quite matchy-matchyness of this set. I was drawing inspiration from the pattern layering I used to see all the time from the in the outfits of crafy and stylish miss Kayte (our stylist, when I was working on Adorn). 

The fact that it’s not technically winter yet and I’ve already fallen on the ice three times (twice today, one in sight of a bunch of kids waiting for the school bus) has me feeling a little bummed. I fell so hard my hat flew off, and that’s never not embarrassing! I ordered some ice cleats (who knew they existed?) at work, though, so hopefully that won’t happen again. Here’s hoping it’s not freezing where you are.

Supplies:
-Assorted scrapbook paper in solids and patterns. If you have 8 x 8 paper,  cutting the 4 x 4 squares is a breeze.
-Ruler
-Scissors and Decorative Edge scissors
-Felt flowers (I used pre-cut flowers from American Crafts, you could also cut your own, use paper flowers, stickers, or whatever you want!)
-Sewing machine
-White Gel Pen or letter stamps and white pigment ink

Making It: Determine how many tags you’ll need. Cut that number of 4″ x 4″ squares from patterned scrapbooking papers. Fold each square in half. Next, cut that same number of 3 1/2″ X 1″ rectangles from  your solid papers with decorative scissors to make the name rectangle. For each card, center one rectangle over the bottom (”front”) half of a folded square. Place flowers on top as desired. Put the whole shebang under your sewing machine needle and stitch around the name rectangle with a long stitch. If you’re nervous about the flowers and papers moving while you sew, you may secure them with a glue stick, just make sure the glue dries before you sew so your needle won’t get sticky.

 
Note: The needle will  dull from sewing through paper, so you may want to mark it and set it aside for your next paper project– don’t sew fabric with it after sewing paper.

And voila! Place cards! To finish them off, I’m either going to write or stamp the names in white ink. There will be fifteen people at our dinner, so I’m going to wait until I have a list to do that part.

Gobble Gobble!

This weekend I continued to make more stuff for my local craft fair. I think I may be going a little overboard, but it’s always better to have too much stuff than not enough, right? I’ve wired at least 20 button necklaces– here are some of my favorites:

I also made some quick journals that I’m either selling or gifting. I haven’t quite decided. The felt flowers are from American Crafts (I love them!).

And I worked on a fun placecard project for Thanksgiving, which I’ll post later this week. For now, enjoy this weekend vignette: me sewing labels into hats between scrabble turns. They finally came from namemaker, and I have to say, I’m pretty disappointed. For the cost (about $70 for 100), they aren’t super high quality (they weren’t even cut!), and I also had no idea they’d turn out so long. They tell you they’ll make the length as long as your type mandates, but I guess I didn’t have a good idea of the font size (my last labels were the same height and about half as long). Needless to say, once I run out of these I’ll be taking my business elsewhere. But hey, at least I am winning this scrabble game –for now!

He simply folded a 4″ square of origami paper in half and cut out most of the detail, then went back in for details like our hairlines.  I think they’ll be a nice memory a long time from now. If you’re in New York and would like to stop by, Portraits by Ming is on the southwest corner of Broadway and Prince street.

Blogging might be spotty for the next few weeks. I’ve been acting like a tourist with Paul each day, and at some point we’re supposed to pack boxes and drive to Montana. For now, enjoy the view.