Teacher Gifts

My boys are only in their first year of school and already I'm thinking of teacher's gifts. I love to see the look on their face when you give them something they need and want. (Please forgive the terrible photos, we were losing daylight and I really wanted to share these with you.)
We still have a full blanket of snow on the ground so I didn't feel bad using my holiday paper. The adorable snowmen and polka dots are from My Mind's Eye. These are not double sided papers so I had to glue them together. I'll tell you more about that later.

This paper is double sided. It is from K&Company. The 'thank you' is cut from cardstock and then I used modge podge & glitter to make it sparkle.
Here's and inside peek at the markers. I love that it holds them perfectly and it can stand up and be a decoration as well as a gift.
Now, this is why you want to use double sided paper. It is not so pretty inside. Here's a quick 'how to':

1. Cut your paper 12"x6"

2. Score vertically at 1.5", 2.5", 4.5" and 5.5"

3. Score horizontally at 1"

Fold on all your score lines. The first 7.5" of the horizontal score will be folded for the bottom of your box. The remaining 4.5" will be cut off. Tape or glue together and you have a great little teacher's gift!

Upcycled Mittens

Anyone tired of my upcycled sweater yet? This is the third and final project I made out of this little $4 sweater. Can you guess what it is? (If you didn't already read the title.) It's mittens!
Here's what I had left of this sweater. First, I made pillow covers and then I made the sweet little flower pom barrette. I had the entire sleeve left and I HAD to do something with it.

I did a super simple pattern: I traced around my hand. I cut it on the seam so I only had to sew up one side. I did the same with some leftover fleece I had. Here you can see the inside.
What mittens wouldn't be complete without a couple of fabric rosettes?

I am very happy with how they turned out. The sweater is not felted so they won't hold up to our Wisconsin snow but they'll make great driving mittens.

Note: Since making these little guys I been informed of a video tutorial to make super cute felted mittens. I will be trying that next! Here it is, if you'd like to give it a shot. There's even a hand drawn mitten pattern.

New Blog Design

I decided it was time to take down the Christmas banner and background. I changed it up, fairly easily, last time. However, this time, I had a little glitch that took me FOREVER to figure out. I couldn't get my background to load due to size. Grrr. I tried and tried again. Finally I realized it was my own silly error. I read the maximum size wrong. Ooops. It was a good hour I wasted. Oh well, it finally worked out and here is my new lovely blog. I love it. I used digital Echo Park Walk in the Park paper.

I just got PhotoShop Elements for Christmas so while I'm learing how to use it Iuse Picnik to make the banner.

So, what do you think? I love comments.

It's time for Valentine's Day Cards

I made my first Valentine card last night. I really struggle with cutting the beautiful paper. I never want to make the first cut and mess it up. Ho hum. I used We R Memory Keepers Be My Valentine collections and American Crafts ribbon.

I have 3 more Valentine's on the table and ready to be glued together so be ready for more delicious-ness soon.

'HUG' Valentine Decor

I have a frame with 3 openings in it and every holiday I try to make something cute and festive to go inside it. Here's what I came up with for Valetine's day. It is very hard to photograph the frame so I have taken them out of the frame for the following pictures.
The pink paper is from DCWV the "HUG" letters are from K&Company. The hug was also cut using the Lyrical Letters cartridge on my Cricut Expression.
I love these hearts. They are whimsy and fun. I cut them with the Cricut Home Decor cartridge and used Glimmer Mist in Tattered Leather to get the brown aged color. I am loving Glimmer Mist. I spritz on just about anything I can.

Lastly I used crepe paper streamers to make the ruffle. They were white before I spritzed it with the Glimmer mist.
I'm very happy with the outcome. It's not too cutesy or too pink.

Upcycled sweater to barrette flower pom

I had a lot of sweater left over from my upcycled pillows. I couldn't let it go to waste, could I? I made this sweet little flower out of half of one sleeeve. Don't you just want to cuddle up with it?

I cut 3 inch round circles from one sleeve. I used 9 circles; one for the base, 8 for the pom. I folded them in half and then in half again and hot glued it to the base.
I then cut a rectangular(ish) piece of felt and hot glued the pom to it. I got the barette at the dollar store, 6 for $1.

These would be cute pinned to a purse, a scarf, a sweater, shoot, just about anything! Let me know if you decide to make one of your own.

Upcycled Sweater

Don't these PB knit pillow covers look super warm and comfortable? I think they do but the price tag was too steep for me. I made my own using thriftstore sweaters. Each sweater was $4 and I already had the pillow inserts. I am in the mood to decorate for Valentine's day hence the red and pink.

I simply cut the sweater under the arms and then did a simple stitch at the open ends and wa-lah! a super cute holiday pillow.

I, of course, had to put a sweater rosette on it too. It just adds a little sass to it. Enjoy!