Well its past that time of year again....Halloween Planning

Its past time to start making stuff for Halloween. Since we just moved and our stuff is just finally starting to go where its supposed to, I haven't spent much time thinking about what we are going to decorate with. I've still got all of the stuff that I made last year, so that's no big. I've even found a few more owls recently to add to my Owlery. But this year, we are in a neighborhood so we get to think about the outside of the house as well as the inside. WooHoo!!!!

We aren't going to do a ton this year but I will be making stuff throughout the year for next year. I am, however, trying my hand at paper mache. In fact, I'm making large paper mache pumpkins. I've got 2 started now. I'm going to make them creepy looking. I'm so excited. I don't know what else we will make this year. But those 2 pumpkins are my only goals this year. Everything else is gravy. The best part about this project is that its extremely cheap. Your talking, newspaper (free if you ask your neighbors or coworkers if you don't get it yourself, its trash and this is recycling it), glue and/or liquid starch or flour, and water to make the pumpkin itself. Then you want paint to decorate it.

So here are some inspirations and technique info for making paper mache pumpkins and other stuff:

Stolloween has some great pumpkin advice and details....
http://www.stolloween.com/?page_id=67
His pumpkins look intimidating to make but if you really look through his directions, he breaks it down and give great advice. They are actually fairly easy, just time consuming.

Spooky Blue also gives some great information on making pumpkins and details for them....
http://www.spookyblue.com/halloween/giant-jackolantern/
These are spooky looking, but you could easily adapt the different techniques to make them not so spooky.

This site give a different idea using a real pumpkin as a mold to make paper mache pumpkins.
http://www.memoryelixir.com/props/pumpkin.html
I'm not overly fond of the directions but they show you basically how to make a mold out of a real pumpkin, which is informative.

Last but not least, here is a tutorial on how to make your own foam faux pumpkins.
http://usersites.horrorfind.com/home/halloween/juggernaut/pumpkins/pumpkins-index.html
Just in case you just don't want to paper mache.

Don't forget you can make pumpkins out of balloons also. The ones I'm making now are using Stolloween's technique (sort of) of using trash bags and newspaper.

Moving woes

Well we bought a house and moved and are mostly settled in now. I've even been crafting, YEAH. So why am I not posting....I can't find my camera. Yep, its disappeared.

But atleast my crafting room is put together. I have A WHOLE ROOM now for crafting, woohoo!!!! While unpacking, I ran across an odd occurence. When you have to pack your stuff into, this and that because you don't have room, it tends to dissappear. When you move and have room to get organized, you find that you've bought 2, 3, 4 even 5 of the same things because you couldn't find what you were looking for when you got ready to craft and just went out and bought more . I had 5 things of red glitter.

As soon as I find my camera I'll take pictures. I've made covers for the kiddos new 18 oz. Klean Kanteens and some produce bags. I learned something valuable about the produce bags, don't make them too big or they will rip when they get too full of heavy stuff (like apples). Oh well. I'll fix the bag and won't make anymore that big or I'll add another layer of fabric. I made them out of tulle and pettiecoat netting (one layer of each).

UGH!!!

I know, I know, I said I would do better with updating this blog but I haven't done a whole lot of crafting lately. I did make one more dvd bag, but I've decided for now that the whole new years resolution in going out the window. We've decided to move and I've been busy with that. I did, however, make the kiddos' teacher, aides and bus drivers presents at the end of school. Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of any of it. I painted sayings on ready made canvas bags for them. For the teachers and aides (5 total), I quoted Dr. Seuss's The Lorax:

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better. It's not. (If that's not the direct quote its darn close, LOL, I've already packed the book so I can't quote it exactly)

For the bus drivers and aides (3) I simply wrote: Bus Ladies are Cool! I was going to paint the Dr. Seuss quote for them as well, but after painting it 5 times before, my hands were tired. I kinda put off making the gifts for lack of inspiration. I didn't start them until the Sunday before school let out.

We have been steadily looking for houses and we finally found one. We are moving into town, woohoo. When we bought our current house, we didn't realize just how isolated we would be. It will be nice to be around people on a regular basis again. It will also be nice to have our kiddos in better schools. We've lucked out so far with their teachers and such but we felt it was better to move now. I think the whole family is excited about the move. I know I am.

Oh but here are the pictures of the Easter Chickens I made this year. I made pompon chicks to go inside the eggs. I made them for a friend at Gavin's speech.

My New Years Resolution

Well it seems every year for the past few years, I have the best of intentions to make cloth giftbags and wrap for Christmas and Birthdays. I never seem to get around to it. So that is my New Years Resolution..... to make at least 50 cloth gift bags and/or cloth wraps this year for my own personal use. I'm also thinking of making so to sell, so you see why I put that last bit in. Well I've gotten a good start this year. See what I have done already.

Here are 1-8 of the the 50 I'm making. Yep I've been a busy bee.

The first 4 are Media Gift bags that can hold dvd's/Wii games/Playstation games/books/etc. I'm still tweaking my pattern but I think I've almost got it perfected. I'm hoping to sell both bags and possibly the pattern to make the bags soon. I think I'll have it for sale soon. I'm still trying to write the directions, tweak the pattern, etc.

Anyway here are the first 3 in Christmas fabric:



This next one is another Media gift bag that I made especially for my neice. Her birthday was this month and we got her a game for her Wii so I had to make a gift bag for it, LOL. I think this one is my favorite that I've made to date.



The next 4 gift bags were made on my circular knitting looms. I made them using different size looms (I have a set of 4 looms) and made them to different lengths. I think they turned out fabulous, LOL. I made them using Yarn Bee "Airy" yarn. The results are awesome and I love how they sparkle.

The first 2 are my "Santa" bags. I made them out of traditional red and white and I just LOVE how they turned out. I used the same sized loom for both (the 2nd smallest loom) but I made one longer than the other.



The last 2 are my tribute to Dr. Suess bags, LOL. When I saw these 2 colors together I just had to make a couple of gift bags out of them. The small one is made using my smallest loom and it makes the perfect bag for wine bottles and smaller items. The larger bag was made with my second largest loom and took a while to make. I think the results speak for themselves....

Christmas Coaster

This year, for Christmas, I made coasters Teacher/Aide/Bus Driver appreciation gifts. I didn't get a chance to take pictures of them. I ended up making a total of 28 of them for my kiddos to give to their Teachers, Bus Drivers (and Gavin's Aides). They turned out awesome, so I ended up making myself some as well. Here is a picture of the ones I made for myself.



I think they turned out awesome and I believe they were well received.

Christmas presents

I didn't make a whole lot of presents this year but I did paint some shopping bags I bought premade. Actually they are more the size of book bags than shopping bags, but I didn't realize that when I bought them.

I made this one for Nana:



I made one for Pawpaw too, but I didn't get a picture of it.

I made this one for mom for her birthday. It said Baaa! on the other side. She plays a lot of World of Warcraft so I thought I'd make something for her that tied into that:



This one is my favorite. I made it for a friend who works at Walmart. I found the cartoon in a newpaper a while ago and had it on my frig. He saw it and liked it so I thought I'd paint it for him. I think it turned out awesome and I found out later that he really likes Pinky and the Brain (what's not to like about mice trying to take over the world, LOL):



Another friend of mine is a penquin collector and teacher so I thought I'd make her a penguin bag. Here is one side:



Here is the other:



I thought it was appropriate.

Halloween Costumes

I can't believe I forgot to post the boys in their Halloween costumes this year (I didn't get a picture of my husband and I in ours).

My oldest is Ben 10, my youngest is a Jedi Knight. I put together both costumes, though the Jedi Knight took alot more work. The Ben 10 costume was just painting a white shirt and finding green pants and the Omnitrex in the toy department for him to wear. I sewed everything for the Jedi Knight costume except the lightsaber and the boots.

Gingerbread monsters

I made gingerbread men monsters for my husband. He wanted some to take to work. I think they turned out awesome. I'm hoping I get a chance to make more. I drew up the pattern. I cut out the patterns in felt and embroidered on the details and added beads and buttons. I put heavy card stock and a ribbon in between 2 gingerbread man shapes.


Zombie, Vampire, Mutant/Alien, victim, Cthulhu





I didn't get any good close up pictures before he took them to work.

Okay I finally got some good (not great but good or atleast better than the ones above) pictures of these monsters :

Christmas Bags

I made some cloth Christmas bags. I'm hoping to make more, but this is it so far.



These are bags for dvd's and games.

Thanksgiving Owls

These are the only Thanksgiving crafts I made this year. Owls for my Thanksgiving tree. I forgot to take a picture of them on the tree, but here they are anyway.





I found the pattern for the owls here:
http://moonstitches.typepad.com/photos/owl_pennant/index.html