So I was inspired by humboldtcherry's door hanging and decided to make a mantel hanging for my own home. It's based off of swedish and norse folk art, as well as german hex designs. I finished 2 flaps and have 7 more to go, but I was super excited and had to post 'em. Work in progress.

For both I used white aida and sketched my design in pencil then started stitching. Eventually I'll make a piece that ties em all together. I only ever did cross stitching before, so the other techniques are literally the first time I tried them.

The first is my welcome sign. It took me about 2 hours and I used padded and satin stitches and cross stitches.


close up:



The next is my distlefink, which is for good luck, and the tulips are for love and happiness. It took about 2 hours as well and is also the padded and satin stitch (see, i'm getting better from the first one, lol) and cross stitches.


close up:



So that's it for now. Next up is my dala horse. Teaser:

i was inspired by lilninjabear's valentine bulb post http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=338390.0 and figured since my hubby is an electrician, i'd make him one for his bday today.





i used a scrap block of wood, some wire i painted red, a burned out bulb and lots n lots of hot glue. made it for free (don't you love those?) fuzzy in the picture, but it says: "i'm glad you're not a plumber because i would've hated playing with s**t. (ich liebe dich immer mehr.)"

i had to make it funny to cancel out the mushyness. the german is what's engraved on his wedding ring and roughly means i keep loving you more and more. i generally sign off my cards to him with it. i hope he likes it.

I was looking online and some of those acrylic stands for flyers and business cards run upwards of $500! I've seen some cheaper $5ish ones, but the shipping alone was more than the product. I just needed one to display, so I figured i'd just make it for free out of wood i had in the back.

Surprisingly, I got a lot of compliments on it. Since I already put out the better one I made (and of course no pics), I whipped up this one up out of cardboard in about 15 minutes for a tutorial. It looks like crap, but bear with me. It looks way better once you throw some love into it, promise. 




Excuse the rough edges, I couldn't find my ruler and did this one fast just for a tut. the top has cutaways so it's easier to grab the flyer.

Tutorial:


my measurements. after you cut it out on cardboard you can tweak it to how you like it. (For wood, run it through a planer so it's all the same thickness, and cut all those pieces out. Sand out the rough parts)


cut it out and score the creases


beautify, hot glue together, and fill up. (For wood, wood glue together, then use small nails to fasten it. Sand, then paint if desired)

i added a card holder last minute. it's basically card sized, with 2 side flaps and a bottom flap.
it also works fine if you don't use the side flaps, and add one fin in the back.

So I just had these french toast muffins from costco that were amazing. Well, I really want to make it into a cake, and I can only find muffin recipes. All the cake ones are like coffee cake with maple syrup in it, or are more like bread pudding with french toast in it instead of bread.

I made the muffin recipe anyway (found at http://www.grouprecipes.com/53402/maple-french-toast-muffins.html )and used a maple donut glaze recipe (with a sprinkle of cinnamon) for the top. (I don't know why I decided to take the picture after it was in a ziplock bag, but I'm not happy with it yet, so more later)



I used the same recipe but only a 1/2 cup of sugar and used 2 tsp maple syrup since i didn't have maple flavoring. I also didn't make the topping or butter in the recipe, and made them in cupcake tins.

Now questions:

Is the muffin recipe pretty much the same recipe as cake? I'm guessing I might need to put more eggs in to make it fluffier, but would that be the only difference between muffins and cake?

And it had crumbles on top. All the recipes I'm looking at calls for crumbled real french toast... doesn't sound right to me. How else would you make crumbles?

I'm still in the process of making a bunch of things for my bff's baby, but i've been lurking around this thread recently and have been getting antsy about posting what i have completed. (ps sorry about the streaky phone cam pics...)

Here's the baby's name spelled out. I got some decorative paper and modge podged it on those huge 3D cardboard letters you find at craft stores then decorated it with huge stickers and knick knacks. Each letter is about a foot tall. Can't see it too well, but I did the sides of the letters in paper too.








Next is just some odds and ends. My friend was complaining about all the onsies she was finding being in pastel colors (she's overseas on an airforce base) so I got her 2 packs and dyed them all deep purples, reds, and mostly blacks. I polka dotted a few of them


Baby beanie. I made it in pink with silvery threads in it.


Last, her nursery is ladybug themed, so I painted over these ones I bought from joann's (they were in these headache-inducing lime greens and bright pinks). I made 6 of them and attached sticky foam so she can put them wherever in the room.


The rest is store bought stuff like little socks, bibs, toys, and burp clothes so i didn't add pics in.