greetingarts

she's six

Since the last time I posted, I've joined a gym, been to Disneyland, seen fireworks, finished a quilt block, baked and decorated a three-layer cake (no, that's not the cake I made in the photo), thrown a birthday party, had an 11th anniversary, taken the girls to the Aquarium, and seen my little sweetheart turn six. 

Details later, I need to sleep for a long time...

my gabba gabba

I actually finished this about a month ago, but finally got around to taking a decent picture yesterday.  If you're not familiar with Yo Gabba Gabba (and why would you be?), you can click on the link to find out about the show.  I wasn't crazy about it when it first aired, but my kiddos like it and it does kind of grow on you.  The retro cartoons and songs can be very cute.  Anyway, I made Jessie her very own Brobee from a pattern I saw on Craftster.org, from the very kind Alliecat30.  The pattern is no longer posted, but I hear there's an Etsy shop...

one hour fifty-two minutes

That's how long a block of ice and some well-placed treasures (beads, sequins, some plastic toys, buttons and other random elements) kept my daughters playing together in (relative) harmony.  Unbelievable.  We all had a lot of fun with this, and I know we'll be doing it again during the next heat wave.  I even heard a "C'mon, Jessie, let's do teamwork and get this treasure!"  No lie, I heard those words followed by an enthusiastic, joyful "Oh-kay!"

Just look at that intense concentration.  I pulled out a couple of cheap paintbrushes, tongue depressors, medicine dispensers (those syringe-type ones for infants), a couple of bulb syringes, a sponge and a bucket, and they just went to town on the back patio.

Big, icy, wet thanks to The Crafty Crow and Let's Explore for the simple, entertaining idea.  It's a keeper.

sticky notes books or sticky notebooks

Using pads of sticky notes, scrapbook paper and a few other supplies, I made one of these books for each of Rebecca's classmates to celebrate the last day of Kindergarten.  It didn't take that long, and I thought some of you might like the idea.  Who knew this was going to turn into a book making blog?

For the books I made this time, I used 3" x 3" Post-it Notes (in their Ultra colors), so all the measurements I'll give you will reflect that size.  But I've made these before with the 1" x 2" pads and shipping tags that I decorated with rubber stamps instead of scrapbook paper, so use your imagination and see what you come up with.

I got this marvelous stack of 12" x 12" scrapbooking cardstock at 50% off, and cut pieces that were 3¼" x 7¾".  If your paper is directional, you need to make sure your pattern runs horizontally.  I was able to make three book covers from one sheet of directional paper.

Find yourself a scoring tool (I used my handy dandy #2 double pointed knitting needle), turn your paper upside down but with the right side still facing up,  (trust me, I don't know why it works better when you turn the paper upside down, but the thickness of the scoring line affects the measurements ever so slightly, I think) and score at  3⅛", then ⅜" from that first line, then 3⅛" from the second line, then one final line another ⅜" away from the previous mark. You should have a little section left over that is ¾" wide.

Turn the paper over to the wrong side, with the large section on the left, the little flap on the right, as in the photo above.  Next you're going to make two small holes at the midpoint of the paper, about 1" from the edge on the left, and the other in the middle of the last flap on the right.  You can just barely make out the little holes in the picture, I think.  I just used my knitting needle, pressed down firmly on my self-healing mat and twisted it back and forth a few times.  Bend all lines inwards, towards the unprinted side of the paper.  Pull the backing sheet off of the pad of sticky notes, and press in place, fold sides up and around. 

I punched two circles from contrasting cardstock with a ½" circle punch, poked a hole in the center of each, and inserted a mini brad. 

Next comes the kind of fiddly part.  Take a length of perle cotton, embroidery floss, whatever, and tie it onto the underside of one of your circle/mini brad things, or you could use the teeniest dab of glue if you prefer.  If you use glue, make sure it's completely dry before you continue.  You don't want the circle to be stuck to the cover of your book, you only want the thread to be stuck to the circle/brad part.  So you'll end up with a pair of circles with brads attached, and one will also have a thread stuck or tied onto it.  Insert one circle/brad into each of the holes on your book cover.

Then just wrap the thread around and around, or in a figure 8, like an inter-office envelope, remember those?  You can use eyelets to attach the circles, too, I just find mini brads to be easier.

Let me know if you have any problems with the instructions here, I had a heck of a time writing this tutorial (since June 11th!).  "Circle/brad thingy," "left edge," "midpoint" and all of that seemed hard and confusing to write down.  It always is easier for me to just do or show, rather than try to explain it in words accompanied by my lame photos.  I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have.  

And there you have it.  Repeat instructions as desired, until you have a satisfyingly wobbly little stack of sticky notes books.  Then let your three year old have one, and it will become a sticky notebook in no time flat!

whole lotta melty love

Thanks to all the dads and men out there that make our jobs as mothers easier and more worthwhile.  The girls and I made these little things to send to my dad, and now we're off to pamper their dad today. 

Happy Father's Day, we love you!

sweet treats

My Special Swap package arrived last week from the Swap Mama herself, Lynne.  This month's theme was Sweet Treats, and everything inside was absolutely scrumptious.

I hesitated to open everything for just a second, because really, it all looked *so* cute, but then I got over that pretty quickly.  I mean, they are a pile of amazing goodness but, c'mon.  A package (especially one that's so lovingly wrapped) just begs to be torn open.  And the girls dove into them, quite literally.

Now, keeping in mind that some things didn't make it into the photo (like cupcake wrappers for my collection, a giant flower cookie cutter, popsicle makers, sherbet colored initial notepad, for instance), look at all those colors!  The Sugar N' Creme (get it?) yarn, such bright, cheerful, happy colors.  Will make some amazing Japanese tawashi, I think...

Betz's gorgeous book which I've drooled over every day since it was published.  Now I have my very own copy.

And here's a close-up of the fanciest pin I could ever hope to own.  Isn't it so funny and amazing?  Such a colorful, mouth-watering bunch of goodies to really sweeten our days.  My kids just about fainted from joy at those candy buttons alone!

The package I mailed to my swap partner, Kim, wasn't wrapped very prettily, but I tried to include some special things as well.  I sent it the day before the due date, so I'm hoping she's gotten it by now and I won't be ruining any surprises by showing what I made as part of her package.

Piece of crocheted cherry pie, anyone? 

last day of school

Well, that's the end of Kindergarten for Kid #1.  It all whizzed by so quickly.  I had a knot in the pit of my stomach last night, but today I'm fine and happy for her.  The last two weeks have been a complete whirling dervish of activity, I've been going and doing and spinning around, crafting in my sleep practically.  When I actually get any sleep, that is.

There was an embellished canvas tote bag for Rebecca's teacher, which I got smart about and didn't start from scratch.  I purchased a very sturdy, nice quality tote from a department store instead of sewing a sub-standard one myself (or raising my blood pressure and killing myself trying to do everything), then had Rebecca draw a picture.

Here's the closeup, her and her teacher holding hands, in front of a school.  What a mishmash of stitches.  I used split stitches, French knots, chain stitches, lazy daisies, backstitches, straight stitches and then bordered it with a buttonhole stitch, which also attached the embroidered fabric to the bag.

Then there were the birthday party invitations that needed to be made before all her classmates split up for the summer.  I couldn't envision gathering all those addresses and details and then having to mail everything out.  I thought it would be easier this way, for her to have them ready and then just pass them out subtly right before the bell rang on the last day.  Well, I forgot that I'd have to finalize the date and reserve our party space before then, too.  So I set everything in stone yesterday, got all the materials together and scrambled to finish everything early this morning.  As in 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. early-this-morning. Since we'd decided on the dot theme a couple of months ago, I'd already taken a page out of Martha's book and gotten the CD envelopes for the invites.  But instead of making cards, I just decided to write directly on old CDs instead.  I had a stack of junk mail CDs that I was saving for one of those "they've-got-to-be-good-for-something" projects.  So I just wrote the details on the shiny side of the disc with an Ultra Fine Sharpie, and used a glue stick to adhere some polka dotted scrapbooking paper onto the advertisement side.

And, lastly, there were 24 of these babies. 

But I'm going to wait to tell you about these guys, because I'm going to post a tutorial for them soon.  Right now I'm going to space out in front of the television with my husband and some knitting, and just revel in the fact that I don't have to set the alarm clock for tomorrow morning.

animal button stampede

It took a little longer than I expected (well, okay, a lot longer), but the animal buttons have all finally been swapped out, and will be on their way home tomorrow.  They were amazing.  Seriously.  I wanted to keep all of them, but refrained and played fair.


These are just a few of the amazing creations that I got to see and touch in person.  Such a lot of talent and creativity all in one place.  There are other photos in the Embroidered Buttons Flickr! group, search for "animalswap" in the group photo pool and you'll see everything that has been uploaded by the swappers so far (ladies, make sure to get your photos in there and please don't forget to tag them). 

I made about 28 buttons this time around, and am still not tired of hearing that little *snap* when you click the backs onto the covered buttons.  More, more, I want more!

I'm already starting to dream up all sorts of themes for the next round...