Ribbons and bows and sparklies, oh my!

We live.  Just busy.  But, I have a feeling the floodgates are about to open up!

Alicia sent me the cutest craft and I had SO much fun with it.  Even better, my daughter scored. It all started off with these instructions (which I thought were pretty spanking awesome):

I set up all the goodies Al sent me:

I knocked out approximately three hairbows and then my glue gun crapped out.  Which sounds like a setback, but actually I was totally stoked at the chance to run down to Michaels and pick up the super cute pink glue gun I wanted anyway.

I got back, fired up the cuteness and had SO much fun.  My daughter got involved, picking out the ribbons she wanted and the "flair" she wanted added to each pin.  Then, she refused to leave my side, intent on averting any accidental mixup of the 12839387423293 hairbows she had picked out for herself with the 5 or so hairbows she had assigned to various friends.

Here's the finished haul:

One of them apparently tipped over and somehow I didn't notice that despite shooting about a dillion pictures of the lot.

Some of them came out really well:

Others of them didn't quite work out the way I had hoped:

I had a blast and my daughter cleaned. up.  All around WIN!

I sent Al's next craft off to her last week, so look for that next...

Ribbons and bows and sparklies, oh my!

It’s been a looooooong time coming…

You may remember that Alicia sent me two crafts in her first dispatch. I’ve been working on craft #2 for, uh…let’s not go there. Between training my replacement at work, prepping the house for sale and general extracurriculars and sports/household stuff/kids gotta eat/etc…, I’ve had a tough time squeezing in the fun stuff like this adorable stuffed owl kit.

Alicia suggested I let Cheeseball (my four year old little girl) help sew up the smaller owl, which was a fantastic idea! Unfortch, trying to squeeze that in to daytime hours just didn’t happen and I finally gave up and completed it myself. She’ll be the beneficiary of the two little owls, though, and that completely makes her sparkly little day.

This kit was a lot of fun and so, so easy. Alicia is one smart cookie and knows that a craft kit that includes all the materials and is designed for the skillset of a smallish child is right in my craft sweetspot.

I think I actually managed to execute just as well as a smallish child if you pretend not to notice the fact that these poor little owls are woefully understuffed. Even without the giant leftover blob of fluff, I can tell these needed more belly. Which leads into my very few tips for the project:

Sew up to the recommended opening on both owls before stuffing either.

Stuff, sew the recommended opening mostly closed, then stuff some more.

Yep, that’s it. Seriously – so, so easy, you guys!

It’s been a looooooong time coming…

Vintage Brooch Magnets

Jen sent me a great little craft. I would have finished earlier, but I had to go buy a new glue gun. I know I had one. I think it's been reappointed to garage duty. I bought a pink one this time. I bet I'll always be able to find it.

Here are the supplies she sent: a package of magnets, a package of small blocks, and four future magnets.

I threatened to keep the pink brooch to wear. But I didn't. I made it into a magnet and it is now up on my fridge.

This is a brooch, complete with pin on back. You can see a glimpse of my pink glue gun in the upper right corner, and a glimpse of my pink needle nose pliers on the right edge. I always know where they are. They don't get taken to the garage.

Using the needle nose pliers and a slight twisting motion, as though I was dialing each piece, I broke off the pin on each side. I opened the pin first so I could do each side separately and wouldn't get a flying pin in the eye. I's a jeenus.

This is one of the magnets right after I've glued it all together. I went back and added a small bead of glue all the way around to add some strength and clean up the look a bit.

Ta-Da! Four pretty new magnets on my fridge!

Jen already has her second project, and I think she's finished it. I am patching some jeans for her and then I'll be able to send out project number three with it, also.

Vintage Brooch Magnets

Giant Snowflake!

I first saw this kind of 3D paper snowflake last week when I took my daughter in for a doctor's appointment. They had several up around the reception desk. Then again today in another office, I saw more. I can't believe I've never seen these before. More likely I have, but just never noticed them. Today when I had some time while my three year old was down for her nap, I got out some paper and tried it. I didn't look up instructions first (which I probably should have) but it still came out rather well. I opted for paper with a print on it - three sheets in the star pattern and three in the stripe pattern, and alternated them around the snowflake. It was a super easy project that took probably less than 10 minutes to put together.

This snowflake is giant because I used 6 12x12 pieces of paper. Really 8x8 would have been better, or I could use one sheet of 12x12 for 4 6x6 pieces. I did afterwards find a youtube video on how to put this together:

It probably explains this craft more easily than I could.

I didn't send this project to Jen to do, I know. I must be really selfish. :) Really, I knew by the time it got there it wouldn't really be time for Christmas crafts and decorations anymore. And that's because I plan to stay away from the post office during this time of year as I really don't enjoy standing in line and having the joy sucked out of me. Jen does have another project in her hands already that I'm sure she'll post about soon enough.

Giant Snowflake!

Glitter Trees

All done!

This super fun Martha Stewart Tree Centerpiece Kit turns out the cutest, glittery little trees. Like all things Martha Stewart, the quality is excellent and the details matter. Everything you need comes in the kit (perfect for a total craft loser like myself) and the instructions are clear and easy (come to think of it, also perfect for a total craft loser like myself).

Here's a close up of the sparkle (my favorite part of...well, pretty much anything).

Bling!

And here they are in their little spot in our Christmas decorations.  I feel compelled to point out that these are on a mantel far, far above my little head and I had no idea it needed to be dusted AGAIN until the pictures called me out loud and clear.  (AGAIN!? I mean, I swear I dusted up there last year.)

And now...I have another part of Al's last package that I get to unwrap!

Glitter Trees

Batter up!

I received this adorable card and lovely craft assigment from Alicia this week.  It's so cute, in fact, that if I hadn't managed to fall prey to The Heinously Evil Stomach Bug Of Evil  (SO evil that the fact it knocked a few pounds off my scale STILL does not endow it with any redeeming qualities) this week, I would have already done it!

Coming soon....

Batter up!

One- From WA to NC

Today I went out and bought the first two projects I'll be sending to Jen. I hope to get them in the mail tomorrow so she can get the first one done this weekend.

One- From WA to NC