I specifically learned how to make earrings, because I planned on making all my gifts this past Christmas, and my mom loves earrings.  WOW is it ever addicting!  I made earrings for some girlfriends' b-days.  I made earrings for each of the girls at daycare.  I made earrings for my lovely neighbor.  I'm still new, but I'm learing and lovin it!
The set I made for my mom:

My father is really into happy faces, (He's a happy face kinda guy!)  I saw a plastic decoration in the dollar store that had plastic happy faces all in a long string that a kid might hang 5 or 6 from their door.  Not exactly dad, but I thought I might come up with an idea for it.  And I did!  Stiff floral wire, fishing line, and some pliers, and I came up with a mobile!  He loved it!  But it was really hard to photograph.  Ah well, here's my attempt at a pic!  Merry Christmas all!

I may not be creative, but I can copy soooo well!  And I enjoy it!  They do say that copying is the highest form of flattery!

This Christmas my mom knew that I was crafting all my gifts.  So she mentioned that she always enjoys using different placemats when she hosts dinner parties.  With the challenge in hand, I scoured craftster for inspiration, and came along this fab post:
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=208120.0

Duly inspired, hints and tricks given, I produced a set of six for my mom.  She was almost moved to tears!  (Mainly because I'm really new to this whole sewing thing).  Many thanks to Mimiw!

Oh I wish I bookmarked it.  Someone posted these great and easy ornements, and I had a craft night to host with kids aged 4 to 10.  I scoured Craftster for ideas and this is the one I found.  (I just wish I could find the original!~)

Anywhoo, it worked out FAB!  All ages could do it, and the older kids put good thought into their patterns.  I wish I had taken pictures!  I had to bring my two year old with me, and he could do them too!  (He could also make a good mess of the beads ;P).  I made one with them, and I liked the result so much that I decided to make a set for my mom for a stocking stuffer!  Plus I gave her the ones my little guy made.  Here they are:



Next, ready to wrap for the stocking:



Two from my ds, Aiden (Two yrs).  One we made together, the other he did ALL BY HIMSELF!!!  Really!  I put the pipe cleaners together, and then let him at it!  What an awesome craft!


Merry Christmas!!!

Hi Everyone!
Thank you so much for all the positive feedback!  I have to say, that even though it isn't as detailed as some of the others, I was still pretty happy with how the binding turned out!  I don't have much time to make a nice, comprehensive Tut, but with Christmas coming, I thought I'd at least scribble something down to help out others with the binding issue!  Here's what I scribbled...





I tried to keep all the felt pages in line, but they're not the right size in the pictures, just so I could try and illustrate what I did.  If there are any specific questions, (It was a pretty ghetto tut! lol!)  I would be happy to answer them!  I can't wait to see others pics.  Could you post a link here when you're done?  Merry Christmas everyone!

So, my first try at quilting was a success!  It's not a quilt, though, just a tester.  I made it with this soooooper soft stuff, and I love it!  It's part of my handmade christmas, and will be for a little 3 month baby boy named Brayden!  But BOY did that soft stuff walk around!  (Meaning whenever I tried to pin, it wouldn't be straight!!!  soooo frustrating!) Ah well, that just means that when I try cotton, it will be a little easier!  lol!
Merry Christmas to All!

Three cheers for the handmade christmas!  I just finished a felt book for a little girl who's not quite two yet!  Each page is the letters of her name, (Georgia).  I can't find the insperation link to this one, but there are some gorgeous ones on craftster.  I didn't have quite as much time, so mine's kinda simple.  I still am really happy with the results!  

Merry Christmas to everyone!










TUTORIAL LINK: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=211040.msg2273903#msg2273903

On my ongoing quest to craft all my Christmas prezzies this year, I surfed craftster and found this...
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=199301.0
Then and there I decided to learn how to crochet, (I have a family member who loves rabbits), and though I did not succeed in creating a bunny quite as wonderful, I'm still pretty proud of my own mini success!  And I'm sure the recipient will appreciate that I learned to crochet just for them!!!




Yay Craftster!

So I have decided to go on an uber budget to pay off my credit card.  This translates to not spending any money on anything not needed to survive.  It won't be forever.  But in the meantime, all my friends keep having birthdays!  I love 'em so much, so that's why I found this site so I can learn how to make gifts.  I tell ya... I'M HOOKED!  I think I'll be making all my gifts from now on, budget or not!

I've seen some great glass etching on here, and followed some great tuts, and came up with this idea.  I was hoping to find a glass mug, but no such luck.  So I decided to experiment with ceramic, and it worked!!!  Still, as a back up I bought a candy jar.  I etched on his favorite quote that he made up himself.  I thought maybe he could put it on his desk and toss candy to students who came up with the right answer.  I bought some hard candy and filled it up before giving to him.  Dollar store mug, dollar store jar.  Etching cream and letter sticker cost a bit, but it's better than giving a cheapo $10 gift... Way more heart in this, and I do have cream and letters left over for another project, so a good investment!  His name, btw, is Mr. Steenburgh...




Thanks for all the inspiration, craftsteronies!~

So I have decided to go on an uber budget to pay off my credit card.  This translates to not spending any money on anything not needed to survive.  It won't be forever.  But in the meantime, all my friends keep having birthdays!  I love 'em so much, so that's why I found this site so I can learn how to make gifts.  I tell ya... I'M HOOKED!  So, I found some of those swartski crystals that I bought a while ago, for an incompleted idea.  I sought them out because I saw a fab gift idea on here, and researched and made some similar!  I am so happy with the results, and had so much fun!  Each of the three recipiants loved them, and put them on right away.  The aunt that rec'd the long pair has worn them, like, ten times since she's gotten them, and that was less than a month ago!  It's so encouraging!  To save money, I made the gift boxes out of paper, (finding the fold in an origami book given to me a while ago)  Total current cost, (cuz everything else was found around the house) $1.00 for the hooks, and $2.00 for the wire things.  And there's lots left over!  Guess what christmas prezzies I have planned!  Oh, I do wish I had more  white tissue paper on hand.  The earrings looked so much better presented on white...  Thanks again Craftsteronies!