Valentine's Cards

A few weeks ago I noticed a few fun ideas while looking around one of my favorite stores, Impress Rubber Stamps. I bought some red and pink velvet ribbon, a greeting stamp, and made a mental note of a few paper punches to look for on a sale at Michael's. Since finishing the string of crochet hearts, I've had the past couple days to pull all my paper craft stuff out and create!

Some of my favorite products right now are alcohol based Copic markers, punches and these super fun grass cutting scissors from Martha Stewart.

I hope you enjoy them! I've even listed a few on my Etsy shop!

String of Hearts

I started working on this string of hearts about 2 weeks ago. I got the idea when I saw one similarly made with crochet snowflakes before Christmas. I made the snowflakes, but didn't have time to get them strung so they're tucked away for next year! I found this crochet heart tutorial, printed it out, and started working away. I used a variety of hook sizes and yarns. Once I had the pattern down, I could make a heart in about 20 minutes!

Valentine Wreath

Last month a couple friends posted a wreath they made in a similar fashion as this, along with this wonderful tutorial! A couple weeks ago I realized I should probably take down our Christmas wreath on the front door, but wanted something fun to put up in its place. I remembered the cute felt wreath and decided to see if I could make it work with a Valentine's theme. I bought a foam wreath form, a couple yards of white and ivory felt, and a few small sheets of reds/pinks/oranges to cut 3" circles from.

It took me about 3 days of intermittent circle tracing, cutting, and pinning to get it finished. I definitely have a blister on the tip of my thumb from pushing in about 200 straight pins! Once the felt circles were all pinned, I decided to add some fun flowers and the little bird to cheer it up!

Ellie-phant

I made this cute little guy for a cousin of Tom's who is having a baby. I found the pattern on Etsy.com for a very reasonable price and set to work on him! This is one of the faster projects I've knitted recently. I started 2 weeks ago while waiting for my surgery to start (I had to check in about 4 hours early) and finished exactly one week later! It's knit in the round with very basic knit, purl, and increase stitches. I'm already contemplating a color combination for the next one, and have noted a few ways to improve the pattern.

Knitted Newsboy Hat

I bought the pattern for this hat (Hannah Newsboy Hat) on etsy about 2 1/2 months ago. A friend I used to work with at a coffee stand has started her own business creating knitting patterns and knitting hats, mittens, etc. for people. She also recycles yarn and resells it! You should check out her shop, Pepperberry Knits!

I started working on my first hat from this pattern (beanie with scalloped band) a few weeks after purchasing the pattern, but got discouraged after a bad TSA experience. The first time I flew to Virginia with Tom for his job, I got a TSA gal who treated me horribly because I wear an insulin pump. She decided she needed to go through all my bags, testing for explosives. In the process she pulled all 4 needles out of the hat I was working on, and grabbed through the part I'd knitted so far. I took out quite a few rows on the following flight, but didn't pick it up again after that for a couple weeks. I tend to hop around from one project to another rather than just working completely through something. Now it's finished, and I love it!

Christmas Card 2009

Guess what? I'm finally posting an art blog! I know it's been a few months, but I've been working on some larger time-consuming projects. I've spent a few days off and on working on our Christmas cards, and they're finally (all 60!) in the mail! Check it out! My favorite part is the little poof ball on the snow hat.

It's a Card Day!

I got some new stamps last week, and spent Friday evening and some of the day on Saturday making cards, finishing up the last season of Murder She Wrote (tear), and trying not to get dizzy. I made some Christmas cards, some baby cards, and some just for fun cards. Many of them are now listed on etsy! Below are some that I had fun making.

The following 2 cards are my absolute favorites!

Crochet Baby Blanket

About 6 months ago my best friend told me she was pregnant. I knew I wanted to make something special for her, but didn't know how long a crocheted blanket would take, what colors to use (boy or girl?), or even if I could follow a pattern all the way through successfully. I found a pattern I loved in the Spring 2009 issue of Interweave Crochet and some super soft recycled cotton yarn at Ben Franklin that looked perfect. I figured I could start the project with sage green, brown, and cream colored yarns, then add either a blue or pink border later.

As I started the project I made several trips to the local yarn store in Bellevue. They helped me learn how to form Tunisian stitches and showed me what a Tunisian needle is. The stitches ended up being easier than I had expected, almost like knitting with just one needle.

About two weeks ago I had all six star sections completed and began reading about stitching the chunks together and learning how to block. I didn't really think that blocking would help my pieces all fit together, but I was so wrong! Due to stretching while I was making them, the pieces were all slightly different lengths. Once I had them all flat on the table, I squirted the edges with water so they would stretch or shrink a little as I needed, then I pinned them all in place to dry.

I finished the blanket the night before the baby shower, perfect timing!

Quilted Pillow Covers

When we got our new-used couches back in the spring, we knew we'd eventually need some throw pillows to jazz them up and to stuff behind one's back while watching a movie. I'd looked at pillows at a few different places and finally decided to just buy uncovered pillows and make something fun to cover them with. A few weeks ago when we were at Ikea I found two 19" square pillows that I thought would be dense enough. They've been hanging around on the couches since then, making me look like an odd decorator, but now they're finished!

I used a couple of ideas I found at Red Pepper Quilts because I decided it would be fun to use some of my fabric scraps. The first pillow cover used strips of fabric cut into 3" x 9" randomly sewn together. I used 1.5" strips of white in between the colors. The second pillow I used sets of 4 pieces of fabric from one color group cut into 1.5" x 4.5" strips. I finished the tops just like a quilt, with batting for stability, then sewed a double sided envelope-style back.

A Batch of Cards

30 cards that is. A little over a week ago I got two orders for thank you cards. One was for 10 cards, the other for 20. It took me a little longer than normal to get through them because I've been sick for the past couple weeks, but at last they are done and in the mail! I took some pictures of the process. Basically, I cut the card paper, stamped the trees and cut them, cut yellow and blue layering paper, added the yellow twine, stamped and cut thanks, layered and cut the blue behind the greeting, and glued them all together!