Teacher gifts

Here are the teacher gifts I made for the boys' teachers this year for Christmas.

For Colin's Teacher (who is an Aggie):



The Tissue Holder is a Puff to go tissue holder. The coasters are the crisscross coasters. The coffee mug corset cozy is my pattern. I'm not overly happy with the grommets on this one. They didn't set like they were supposed to, but I couldn't take them off, once I put them on.

This set is for Gavin's Teacher (Gavin picked the purple fabric):




Same set that I made for Colin's teacher, but I hand embroidered the openings for the lacing on this coffee mug cozy. I picked the turquiose coordinating fabric for this set.

Gavin's aides and math teacher:

I made each of them a puffs to go tissue holder. I'm putting them in a special gift bag (I've only made one so far).

I'm hoping to make some bigger ones for the boys regular teacher too. I made the one above out of left over microterry that I had left over from my diaper making supplies. I used scrap fabric for the nose and coal mouth and eyes. The lining fabric was some Christmas fabric that I wasn't overly fond of after I bought it. It was too thin to use as gift bag fabric on its own. As a liner for the microterry, it works great.

And last, but not least, I made some more crayons for Gavin's classmates.



2 of the ones in the photo above are ones I made before, but the rest are new.

Christmas Gift Bags

Well I made some more gift bags. I'm hoping I'll have time to make more before Christmas. Some of these I made from patterns so they are alot smaller than I'd have made on my own, but they turned out adorable so thats okay, LOL.
Most of these bags are made from 3 different fabrics but some are made from only 2 different fabrics. I almost always line my bags so that you can't see through the fabric to the present inside.

This first one is my own pattern:


Open - this is made from 3 different fabrics, has drawstring ribbon and jingle bells


Closed - I love the way this one turned out. I only have one complaint, the gap in the top is too big when you have the bag pulled as closed as the fabric will allow. I need to tweak the pattern a bit, but you can't tell and I always put out presents on Christmas eve anyway, so there won't be any peaking.

My pattern, I used three different fabrics:


Open


Closed and tied

The next 2 were made from the pattern/directions from a book called "Omiyage" by Kimiko Sudo. The pattern is called Candy Twist (ironically enough) The bags turned out pretty small and they took 4-5 times longer to make than I usually spend on a gift bag but I think the results were worth it. I had to tweak the pattern just a little to suit my taste after making the first one, but it was no big deal.


Here they are open and flat.


And here they are drawn up. When they are drawn up they look like Christmas ornaments.

Here is a close up:


Here are the last 2. The bag on the left was made from left over fabric with no pattern at all. I just didn't want to waste the fabric so I made a small bag. The bag on the right is from the same book from above but this pattern is called Chrysanthemum. Its very small and would only really work for jewelry.



Here is the Chrysanthemum bag opened:


Here is the bottom of the Chrysanthemum bag:


Hopefully I'll have more bags to show you in the near future. I know I won't be making my New Years resolution but I'll try to atleast make a few more. I'm thinking of increasing the size of the candy twist bag. Plus I just need to make some more bigger bags.

Baby Octopus

My youngest son is in Speech therapy. His therapist is pregnant due with her first baby. So I made this octopus for the baby and the giftbag that it will go in. The Octopus is made out of cotton yarn is stuffed with cotton yarn. The eyes are saftey eyes. I hope she likes it. Its my own pattern. I liked it so much that I'm in the process of making one for my neice as well, but we will see if I get it finished.



Here's the bag I'll put it in:

Halloween Costumes 2009

Well I cheated all around this year. I didn't make anyone's costumes new this year. My husband went as a doctor, so we had him in scrubs (we didn't get a picture of him). I went as a goth/steampunk/witch something, LOL. I made my skirts last year and forgot to post a picture of them. The corset and blouse I bought. The spider necklace is silver and brass and something I made in college. It came together nicely but I didn't accessorize like I wanted to (I wanted to make a gun holster for a ray gun and make some gauntlets or something similar, oh well). Anyway, here I am....



The boys decided they wanted bought costumes this year. Funny story behind that, I was trying to get my youngest to buy a cheaper costume with nothing that would go on his head or face (in the past, he wouldn't wear them since he is autistic and couldn't stand the feel of them on him). Well as we were leaving the costume isle he latched on to the swamp monster costume and would not leave without it. By this time I had my oldest convinced to pick a cheaper costume too, but when the youngest picked the more expensive swamp monster costume, I had to let them both have more expensive costumes to be fair, LOL. Anyway, to make sure that my youngest would actually wear the costume on Halloween night, I wanted them to try them on but we had to eat dinner first. Well he decided dinner could wait and started stripping at the table, LOL. He wore that costume (mask, gloves, feet and all) almost until bed time. Guess he proved me wrong, I was sure he wouldn't wear it. Anyway, I had to share it. Its not anything I made, but I couldn't resist showing it.

Back to School

I know, I know, I should have posted this back in September, but better late than never. I made covers for the boys' 18 oz. Klean Kanteens for school. I made the pattern and hand embroidered their names on the covers. I think they turned out great and no one is going to mistake who they belong to.



I need to make a few more covers actually, these are already starting to show wear and tear. The boys love thier new bottles and will carry them around the house and take them out when we are running errands.

Snail making instructions

A few years ago, I made alot of felt toys for my kiddos. I found a Waldorf inspired craft book that had a pattern for some really cute snails in it. Well, I was on a board that had alot of mamas on it also making felt toys for their kiddos and they were confused by the instructions in the book. So I made a set of detailed instructions. The book is called: Feltcraft by Petra Berger





Here are my instructions:

Materials
Pattern from Feltcraft by Petra Berger
wool felt or wool blend felt
pipe cleaner or thin wire
embroidery floss to match or compliment felt
card stock or scrap piece of cereal box or other thin cardboard
wool for stuffing



Tools
scissors
needle
bamboo skewer (or anything skinny with a blunt end to stuff the shell)

Hints
1. I cut the "horns" for the snail wider than the pattern. Basically double the thickness of the pattern. I've found it makes it easier to sew on.
2. Use scrap pieces of felt to cut out the horns.
3. I've found cereal boxes to be the best thing to use in the bottom of the snail body to ensure that it stays upright.
4. Using a bamboo skewer's blunt end to fill the shell was the best thing I found to stuff the shell.
5. I've found that stuffing the shell as you sew it is the easiest way to stuff it. Because of the small size of the shell, the wool tries to ball up before it gets where you want it.
6. The shells look good plain or decorated. You can do strips, dots, flowers, etc.
7. Shape the cardboard with a little notch for the neck, so that it makes the head of the snail look nicer. The pattern for the cardboard piece is not in the book but its well worth the effort to make yourself.



Instructions

Cut snail pattern out of felt.

The shell
*If you are going to decorate the shell with embroidery, then do so now.
*Take the embroidery floss you've chosen for the shell and cut a piece 36-42 inches long. Separate 3 pieces of the floss to use to sew up the snail body. Set aside the other to use later.
* Start at the small end of the shell. Fold over and begin sewing. Take the pipe cleaner and bend the tip so that when you stuff it into the shell, it won't poke through the stitching or felt. When you get about 1/2 inch - 1 inch down the long side, insert the pipecleaner.



Continue to sew and stuff with wool (using the bamboo skewer if needed) as you go all the way to the end of the long side. Before you get to the end, cut the pipecleaner to the same length as the felt & fold the tip over.



When you get to the end of the long side, start a running stitch



and pull the floss tight



and knot the floss.

Creating the shell's spiral
Take the piece of floss that you set aside earlier and begin to spiral the shell. To do this, fold over the tip of the shell, keeping the seams to one side (this will be the underside of the shell)



Take a couple of stitches to hold it in place.



Begin to spiral the shell. I found that if you come up through the part you've already folded and down into the new section that your spiraling



is the easiest way to sew it together. Oh and spiral which ever way is most comfortable to you. I had to do it backwards once because I did a directional print on the shell wrong and it was soooo awkward to sew.



When you get to the end of the shell sew down the gathered end.



Knot the floss and trim one of the floss "tails"





Body

Sew across the front of the head on the body and knot floss. Then sew the top seam starting from the head and stopping in the middle of the body where the shell will be and knot the floss.





Sew across the tail end of the body and knot. Insert the cardboard. Stuff the head portion of the body with wool. Start sewing up the tail from the tip of the tail to the middle of the body. After you get about 3/4 of an inch sewn, finish stuffing the body. Sew the hole closed and then knot. Trim the extra floss and you end up with this:



Attaching the body to the shell

Sew the shell onto the body using the floss that is still attached to the shell. You may have to shape the shell a little by pinching it to get it to site properly on the body. There is no real trick to sewing the shell on, so I didn't take any pictures. Just go in and out of the body, then go in and out of the shell, repeat all the way around the shell until the shell is firmly attached to the body. Knot and trim the floss.

The Horns

Take one of the horn pieces and fold the felt over. Sew up one small side and down the long side. Then sew onto the head.



Knot and trim the floss. Repeat with the other horn.

Now you have a snail!!!!!

Your snail options are unlimited!

Swaptree is soooo cool!!

Okay I'm a book nut. I confess. I really really really like to read. Well my husband told me about an online book trading site this summer. After we moved I decided to join. After all, I had a ton of books that I was thinking of selling but the local used book store doesn't give you much. I figured it would be nice to swap a book for a book and it only cost shipping. That's cheaper than buying them at the used book store, though not as cheap as buying them at goodwill or a garage sale. Anyhoo, I've traded tons of books and I've gotten books for just about every member in the family. They trade more than books, they trade dvds, cds, books, etc. But I'm only interested in the books, LOL.

Books are my other hobby besides crafting. Recently I've started replacing all of my favorite books with hardcover versions where I can, so I have even more books to get rid of on swaptree. I get packages almost everyday. Colin looks forward to the mail too, since I get alot of books for him also.

My little bit of Halloween this year.

I didn't go all out this year for Halloween. I just haven't gotten into my groove in the new house. I did, however decorate the living room. Usually I do a little bit in all of the public rooms of the house but I just limited it this year. I'll make more of an effort next year. So without further ado, ROFL...

Here are the only new apothecary items I made this year. More unicorn horns. I made them out of crayola clay. Colin made the one on the right. I added the details for him.



These are actually pretty easy to make. Take 2 pieces of clay that are about the same size, roll them out into a snake that has one end thicker than the other. Spiral them together and smush (a technical term) the thick ends together. For the texture, I used a blunt pencil and poked the thick end over and over to give a porous boney appearance. Then I used the side of a tapestry needle to give the horn some texture. I left any minor cracks in the clay for added texture.

We have built in bookcases on either side of our fireplace, so that is what I decorated this year with my apothecary/witch's kitchen stuff.

This is the left side of the fireplace:



This is the fireplace or what I like to call The Alter and The Owlery



This is the right side of the fireplace, my youngest son was watching Thomas the Tank engine, so ignore the nonHalloweeny tv show, LOL.



Here is a picture of this year's Halloween tree:



I decided to leave off the wizard's hat on the top of the tree/skull. I redid the garland yet again this year. The lights on the barb wire garland I made last year stopped working UGH!!! So I found this really cool faux chain at the dollar store and decided to use it for garland. I also added some rubber snakes to the tree this year. As for the garland from last year, I took it apart and used the barbed wire beneath the tree along with the tree skirt(a fleece halloween blanket), some black tulle, a strand of purple lights that did work and the gargoyles. On the other side of the tree I put all of the sewn pumkins but you can barely see them in the picture.

Here is a picture of one of the side tables in the living room:



Here are the "window treatments":



Here are some closeups of the bookcases: