Working on Christmas Tree Ornaments this year!

I am diligently working on making new Christmas Tree ornaments this year.  I hate putting up a tree, but I have managed to convince myself that it is okay if all the ornaments on the tree are handmade.  One year I made snowflakes from toilet paper tubes and glitter (they are so beautiful!!!!), the next year I made Santa ornaments out of paperclay and ribbon.  They were time intensive but worth the effort.  I love hanging these on my tree.  This year I am making crepe paper ornaments to hang.  I am having fun and they are getting done.  I hope to be finished soon, but will go ahead and put up the tree without them for now.  I also have an idea for a garland that will be so beautiful.  May not get that one done this year, but I could start now for next year's tree.

Here are some pics of my work in progress:

I still have to put the glitter on them, but I want to do that after all are made because it will be sooooooo messy.  I'll have to go out to the garage to do that part.  They are pretty cute, huh?

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

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Christmas Craft Ideas - Christmas Angel Ornament

Christmas is less than 2 months away.  It's past time to be doing your shopping, and decoration making.  I found this lovely angel pattern to crochet and felt it would be quick enough to make that I would put it up here for those last minute crafters.  These little angels would really be cute included in your Christmas cards you mail to friends and family far away.  They could be hung on the tree to remind the recipients of you.  I found this pattern on Craft Town and I invite you to visit this site for more wonderful ideas for crafts.
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Christmas Angel Ornament

Designed by Crafts by Starlight
All Rights Reserved


Fill your Tree with hand-made Ornaments! This Christmas Angel is a  simple and easy ornament to make. Great for Gifts especially sending them through the mail for family that are a distance from you.
Materials: Autn Lydia's Classic Crochet thread -Size 10; Red, Green, and white Thread. Hook Size 1.8 mm, and Fabric Stiffener.

Ch = Chain SL = Slip Crochet
SC = Single Crochet HDC= Half Double Crochet
DC = Double Crochet
TR = Treble Crochet
R = Red Thread
G= Green Thread
W= White Thread

Dress
R-Base: Ch 9.
   Row 1: 8 SC, Ch 1, Turn.
   Row 2: *SC, Ch 3, Rep across from, Ch 1, Turn.
G-Row 3: SC across in sc sps, CH 1, Turn.
   Row 4-5: 8 SC, Ch 1, turn.
   Row 6: 1 SC, Dec 1, 4 SC, Dec 1, 1 SC, Ch 1, Turn.
   Row 7: 6 SC, Ch 1, Turn.
R-Row 8: *1 SC, Ch 3, Rep across from *, end with SC, Ch 1, Turn.
   Row 9: SC across in SC sps, CH 1, turn.
G-Row 10: 6 SC across, CH 1, Turn.
   Row 11: * 1 SC, CH 3, Rep across from *, CH 1, Turn.
   Row 12: * 6 SC in CH 3 sp, SL in next SC sp, Rep across from * SC in last sp, CH 1, Turn.
   Row 13: CH 6, SC in 7th SC (not CH) from hook, *CH 5, SK 5 sps, 1 SC in next SC, Rep 2 times      from*, CH 6, SK 6 SC sps, 1 SC, Ch 1, Turn.
   Row 14: 4 SC in CH 6 sp, * Ch 3, 1 SC in next CH SP, Rep 2 times from *, Ch 3, 4 SC in next sp, CH 1, Turn.
   Row 15: SC in 2nd sc from hook, SC, *6 SC in CH 6 sp, SL in SC, Rep 2 times from *, 6 SC in CH 3 sp, 1 SC, SL, CH 1, turn.
   Row 16: SC in 2nd SC from hook, CH 3, SK 2 sps, 1 SC, * CH 5, Sk 5 sps, 1 SC, Rep 2 times from *, CH 3, SK 4 sp, SL in last SC, CH 1, Turn.
   Row 17: In CH 3 SP (1 SC, CH 3 and rep 5 times), * In CH 5 sp (1 SC, CH 3, Rep 7 times) repeat from * 2 times, In Ch 3 sp (1 SC, Ch 3, Rep 5 times) tie off.

Wings
W - Base: Ch 7, Sl to 1st CH made, Ch 1, turn.
   Rnd 1: In CH sp (5 SC, 3 HDC, 1 DC, CH 3, 1 DC, 3 HDC, 5 SC,) SL to 1st SC made, Ch 1, Turn.
   Rnd 2: 6 SC, 4 HDC, in CH 3 sp (3 DC, 1 TR, CH 3, 1 TR, 3 DC), 4 HDC, 6 SC, Sl to 1st sc made, CH 1, Turn.
   Rnd 3: 13 SC, in CH 3 sp (5 SC, CH 2, 5 SC), 13 SC, SL to 1st sc made. Tie off
Repeat Wing 1 more time.

Head
White- Base: Ch 12, SL to 1st CH, CH 1, Turn.
   Rnd 1: 30 SC in CH 12 sp, Ch 1, turn.
   Rnd 2: SC around, Ch 20, Sl in 18th CH from hook. Tie off.

Take all four separate pieces and stiffen with Fabric stiffener and let dry. Take two wings and arrange them touching together at the base and glue the base/bottom of the head on the top part of wings as seen in picture. Then place Christmas Dress on top of the base of wings and glue down. Now you are finished!

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Here's and update on my Easter crafting

I am steadily working on this Easter swag.  I am really enjoying the work and I think it will be really pretty once done.  I have scaled down my finished product some, so the work does not feel too overwhelming. 

Anyway, here are some pictures of where I am on the project.  It is starting to really turn out nice and I can't wait to be hanging it up on my nursing unit.  I hope it brings some cheer to my patients.

Here's the mess I've left out

Starting to look like something

This is the pattern that repeats

Seems a little flimsy so more work needed

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Crafting for St. Patrick's Day

As usual, I'm a day late and a dollar short!  Well, I did finally get started on those St. Patrick's Day crafts that I posted the tutorials on.  I had to work quickly, since tomorrow is the day.  However, I had lots of fun making the pins and will continue to explore this concept for other holidays. 

As you can see from the pictures, I am still working on the Shamrock swag.  I hope to sew the shamrocks all together tonight, but if not then I will have to do it EARLY in the morning so I can take it to my work and hang it in the window on my unit.  I love it when my unit is festive and happy, so if this is what it takes, then I'm in for it!

Below you can see my progress.  Let me know what you think.

 Here's the shamrock pins ready to wear on my lapel tomorrow.  I know I will have my GREEN on, will you?

These are the shamrocks for the swag all ready to be sewn together and hung up to announce the holiday!

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Free Heart Book Template

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, I thought I'd post something easy to do that would be a nice valentine to give to others.  I found this really cute tutorial for a Valentine Heart Book on About.com and I hope you enjoy making at least one of these cute books to hold special mementos from this year's Valentine's Day.

On another front, we started to decorate the nurses' station at work yesterday, but decided that it looked too much like a baby shower because we could only find pink and green valentine cards and pink streamers.  We just gave up and went to the store next door for rootbeer float supplies instead.  I think the floats were a hit!

Here's the tutorial.  Enjoy.  After you make this book, go to the original site and see all the other wonderful templates and tutorials they have to make beautiful boxes and cards.

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Folded Paper Heart Book

Folded Paper Heart Book

Kate Pullen

This folded paper heart book is deceptively easy to make. The book is formed from a single piece of paper. When the cover is added the book contains four pockets, each providing a space to hold a heart shaped billet-doux or love note. If you don't want the book to contain pockets then simply glue the pockets together. Although this book is small in size, it contains plenty of space for decorations, small photos, special notes and more.
The heart book is made using this free printable template - Heart Book Template. While I normally suggest printing templates onto scrap paper and using these as templates to transfer the design to best paper, in this instance, where the folding and cutting needs to be reasonably precise in order to get a neat finish, I suggest printing the template onto best paper. I have included two versions of the template, one in black and the other in a light gray. The gray template is ideal for use on lighter paper. Although the print is on the reverse of the book, the light gray ensures that the folding lines will not show through the paper and this is ideal if you are using a lighter weight paper.

Materials Required

• Template
• Paper and card
• Scissors, glue, paper folder or folding bone and ruler
• Ribbon
• Rubber stamps, inks and other embellishments as required

Cut Out the Template

Cut around the template

Kate Pullen

Print the template directly onto best paper or onto scrap paper and transfer the image to best paper as required. Cut around the edges. Add decorations to the paper now or at a later stage if more appropriate. This is the best time to stamp on the paper as it is still flat.

Fold the Paper

Fold the Paper

Kate Pullen

Use a paper folder or folding bone to score and fold the paper. With the right side facing, fold the first heart under and continue folding the rest of the hearts in concertina style. This will give you a book with four pockets. Folding it the other way will give you three pockets. I prefer the four pocket version, however this is just a personal choice.

Make a Cover

Make the Cover

Kate Pullen

Cut a cover from a piece of paper or card stock. Use the hearts as a template to cut the cover, making it slightly larger than the hearts. Score and fold the cover.

Attach the Ribbon

Add the Ribbon

Kate Pullen

The ribbon that ties the book is sandwiched between the cover and the first pocket. Cut two lengths of ribbon. Mark the point on both sides of the cover where the ribbon is to be attached. Glue the ribbon in place on the inside of the cover. Glue the cover in place.

Make the Inserts

Make Inserts

Kate Pullen

Cut four heart shapes for the billet-doux inserts, these need to be a fraction smaller than the heart pockets. Add any decorations as required and attach a ribbon tab to each insert.

Put the Inserts into the Pockets

Place the Inserts into the Pockets

Kate Pullen

Add any decorations as required on to the inserts. Place the inserts into each pocket. If you are looking for inspiration for things to write on the inserts, take a look at these short love poems or why not turn them into fancy conversation hearts!

Finish the Book

Add any finishing touches as required to the book. I added a row of beads around the edge of the one in the photograph.

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No Craft night after all

Image via Wikipedia
We had to cancel the craft outing because one of the participants got sick.  So, no crafting and no pictures.  However, I did get all the supplies together and I will try to work on my ornament in the morning.  If I can muster up the motivation, I will also take pictures along the way.  These are really cute ornaments and I really want to show you how to make them. 


I think these could possibly be used at my workplace because they are made of paper and have no "contraband" items anywhere.  So, sorry that I don't have pics today, but check back tomorrow to see if I get my act together.

Christmas craft that is easy and pretty!

I have been talking about getting a monthly craft night set up with some of the nurses I work with for quite a while now.  It seems that finally this event may actually become reality.  We have a place to meet and a tentative date and even some idea of what craft we want to work on.  I hope this happens because I think working as a group will inspire us all to stay motivated and I know it will help me to get going on other projects I have in various stages of completion at home.  This is the perfect time to start a craft group with the holidays fast approaching, so keep your fingers crossed.


In this spirit, here is a quick and easy Christmas ornament that you and the kids can put together in a short period of time.  Enjoy.


Everyone loves personalized gifts for the holidays.  Make these Easy Photo Christmas Ornaments by Fawnda Norman for everyone on your list this year.  They will also look great on your tree!
 
Materials:

• Christmas cards
• Paper Cutter
• Big chunky beads
• Double sided tape
• Wallet size photo (I printed mine on paper)
• Twine or Ribbon
• Exacto Knife

Instructions:

1. Cut your cards in to 3X3 inch squares and group them by color. You need 6 squares for each ornament.
   
   
   
    
2. On the back side of each square find mark the midpoint on each side (at 1.5 inches)
   
   
    
3. Score a diagonal line connecting your midpoints. Do this on each square.
   
   
   
    
4. Fold on your score lines. You should have 6 squares that look like this:
   
   
    
5. Choose two squares to be your top and bottom. Find the middle (I drew lines across from each corner to find mine) and use your Exacto Knife to cut a whole in the center.
   
   
   
    
6. Use your double sided tape to connect your 2 of the corners of 2 of your squares.  This is what the back should look like:
   
   
   
   
   And this is what the front should look like:
   
   
   
    
7. Continue connecting until you have 4 of your squares together that make a "tube".
   
   
   
   
    
8. Choose the bottom and sting your twine or ribbon through the hole and attach onto the bottom of your "tube"
   
   
   
    
9. Pull your twine up through your tube and through your top piece. Connect your top piece to the rest of the ornament.
   
   
    
10. Tie a loop on the top.
    
    
     
11. And tie a bead onto the bottom.
    
    
     
12. cut out your photos (about 2X2 inch square) and attach it to one of the sides.
    
    
     
13. You're done!
    
    

Tuesday Tutorial -- Halloween Ghost Garland

With Halloween so close, I thought I'd showcase a quick and easy craft for decorations for Halloween.

I've seen these before and I always thought they were cute, so here you go.

For this craft, all you need is a pencil, recycled paper of which one side is white, and a pair of scissors and Scotts tape.

The craft instructions are pretty straight forward:
1. Fold the paper length-wise
2. Cut into two long strips along the fold.
3. Fold each strips in four equal parts.
4. Make 4 to 8 pages worth of folded strips.
5. On the front of one of the folded packages, draw a ghost. 
Garland Making Tip: Make sure that the ‘hands’ of the ghosts are right at the edge of your paper section, so that when unfolded, it will look like the ghosts hold hands.
Can’t draw? Print my free Halloween ghost template, cut it out and overlay it onto the paper. You may have to scale it to fit your exact paper. The good news is that ghost drawings are pretty ‘forgiving’ and free form. You can’t really make a mistake with them.
6. Cut all the packages following the template or your own drawing.
7. Use the Scotts tape to attach the ghost garland sections to each other.
8. With a black marker, paint on the two spooky eyes on each ghost.
Your garland is ready to be hung.

Tip: To make it hang properly and not ‘fall over’, you might want to give the ghost hands in the center of the garland a little folding squeeze.
BOOO!! Well, actually, these ghosts are rather friendly and cheery. As there are good spirits and bad spirits in the world,  I guess we only want the good ones to join our Halloween Party. So, these little white spooks are invited!

This garland is of course also a perfect decoration for ‘Dia de los Muertos’, or the Day of the Death, which this year will be celebrated October 26-November 2, 2009, but most people celebrate it November 1.

More Halloween Garlands

If you want to create a whole bunch of garlands, here are some other ideas for you:
1. Use black crepe or tissue paper to create cats, bats or witches, and use orange paper for pumpkins.  Use the instructions as above. The sections will be much larger, so you may not even have to tape any together.  
2. No skulls will be found in my home (it’s bad Feng Shui) however the recycled white office paper would be good also for skull garlands. Or crepe paper.
4. For bats, cats and pumpkins you can probably find Cookie Cutters
to help you create your shapes, or you can simply draw them.


5. Consider keeping the design or the garland simple. 
If you are not throwing a party, but simply want just a touch of Happy Halloween shimmer in your home, consider using the above techniques for a small garland, such as this.  This one is made with just 1/2 a sheet of white paper, folded 4x. 
I left it white, however, you could use glitter glue and/or a few markers to add a splash of color. (With this self-created ‘coloring page’, you actually have created a fun Halloween craft project for your kids.)
For more color, use recycled ocher yellow or orange paper and add green curls of rag pipe cleaners, for a little bit more dash. Finish it off with drawing in the black detail lines.

6. That’s all I can recommend, besides have fun. Enjoying the Holidays, is all about the process, the time in between, so have fun crafting. HAPPY HALLOWEEN.

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Happy Easter Bunnies

Here's a quick Easter activity you can do with your children to decorate their bedroom doors.  Make these cute Easter Bunny Door Hangers out of craft foam.  These should only take a short time to make and the kids will get a big kick out of making their own decorations.

Here's where I found this guide

Happy Bunnies

Supplies:

Printable Happy Easter Bunny Pattern
White craft foam (you can use cardboard instead)
Chenille Stems (2 colour of choice)
Scrap ribbon piece for bow (you can paint this instead)
Pencil crayons (markers work too, but I like the pencils better)
Permanent Marker or paint pen
Tacky glue

Happy Easter Bunnies

How to:

Print out the full-size bunny pattern and trace it onto a sheet of white craft foam (or cardboard) and cut around outside lines.

Using a coloured pencil, tilted to the side slightly with the point of the pencil facing away from the foam piece, colour the perimeter of the pattern pieces. Refer to photo. The pencils create a nice shading effect, where as markers will be a little more defined.

Following the lines on the pattern, shade the circles around the bunny's feet, tummy and ears with the same colour as used on the perimeter of the bunny. To paint the bunny's face, use a black permanent marker and a red pencil to shade the rosy cheeks. Using a green pencil draw little lines at the bottom of the bunny for a little grass. Tie a bow with a scrap ribbon piece and glue in place at the bunny's neck.

Refer to the photo often for colouring and details. Using a permanent marker write "Happy Easter" across the ribbon banner. Poke holes where indicated on the banner and on the bunny. I used a sharp toothpick for this. Chenille stems can poke the holes, but it is a little more difficult. You don't need a large hole, just toothpick size.

Twist one chenille stem around a pencil to create a swirl and insert the ends into the top of the ribbon banner. Insert just enough to be able to twist the chenille stem up to secure in place (about 1/2 inch). Cut a second chenille stem in thirds and wrap two pieces around a pencil to create a swirl. Insert one end of one piece of the twisted chenille stem, into the ribbon banner and the other end into the bunny ear hole. Fold the stem up to secure. Repeat for second hanger on bunny ear.

Sign your name on the back with a pen or marker and Happy Easter!

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