Friday, October 31, 2008

hubble bubble


hubble bubble
Originally uploaded by prairie.mouse
Happy Halloween!

The ADORABLE witchies were found in prairie.mouse' flickr stream.

Hope you all have a great time trolling for treats. One thing I loooove about having kids - I can steal their treats!

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Notebook Party Favor or Stocking Stuffer Tutorial (and a giveaway to boot!)














Cute, huh? Wanna know how to make 'em? Thought you did!















You'll need:

A notecard
two sheets of paper
paper cutter
corner rounder
crayons
and not shown, but you still need...
sewing machine
ribbon















Cut two sheets of paper in half















Trim your paper to fit the card you are using to make the notebooks














flod your cut sheets of paper in half and place into the card. Sew along the fold to make a binding.














Round the corners of the notebook and attach the box of crayons with ribbon.




















And now you have yourself a super cute party favor that took all of 5 minutes to make! They impressed both kids and moms alike at the birthday party and each one cost probably less than 50 cents to make. No lie, my friends, no lie.

Hopefully this next tidbit will make your day! We are going to be giving away a little party pack to one lucky commenter! It will include 8 notebooks and eight cupcake picks (and maybe some extra treats, too!) . We'll make them in gender neutral primary colors so you can use them for a boy or girl (or maybe just for fun for yourself!).

So comment on this post by Tuesday and I'll pick a winner! If you want an extra chance to win just blog about the contest on your own blog (let me know in your comment that you blogged about it or intend to!) and I'll throw your name into the hat twice!

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

CHA contest!


Allison Adoff of CHA emailed me last week and asked me to blog about a wonderful new contest and booth they are putting together for January's CHA in Anaheim. They are launching new booth celebrating indie crafters and artists and are looking for 30 exceptional pieces to showcase in their Indie Craft booth!

She says, "
The purpose of the Indie Craft booth is to introduce Indie Crafting to the general craft industry and to get them excited about this growing movement. The highlight of the Indie Craft booth will be a display of the 30 Indie craft project winners submitted for the CHA Indie Crafting Contest which I am announcing this week. This contest is open to all crafters."

Here are the nitty-gritty details!

If you’re interested in sharing your crafts with the world this is your chance!
Just send us a photo and description of your work and we will select the top 30 projects and display them.

Guidelines:
- Project must be innovative and creative

 This contest is open to ALL crafters

 Completed winning projects must fit in a 1 ½’ wide by 3’ high by 1’ deep space or 3’ wide by 3’high by 1’ deep space.
 You may enter up to five projects

How to Enter
 Email a photograph and description of your project(s) to aadoff@craftandhobby.org.
 Entrants have until November 21, 2008 to submit original ideas to be considered in the contest.
We will notify you if you are a winner by December 19, 2008.

 Winners will be chosen from entries received based upon quality and originality.
Winners are responsible for shipping projects to CHA. Projects will be returned free of charge.

Opportunities for Winners
1. Extensive visibility and promotion. Projects will be displayed in a showcase located in the Indie
Craft section of the Innovations booth on the Show floor.
Over 15,000 show attendees will have the opportunity to view the winning projects.
2. Selected winners will have an opportunity to provide individual promotional sheets that will be
available at the booth for attendees to take.

For more info please visit the CHA site!

Cupcake Pick Tutorial


October is the beginning of hardcore cupcake season for us. My older daughter's birthday is in October, husband's is November, holiday parties in December followed by my son's birthday in January. That's a lot of cupcakes! For my daughter's third birthday last week I came up with these super easy cupcake picks using a few simple office supplies I had on hand. Office supplies for cupcakes? Read on, my friend, read on!
















First, gather these supplies:

toothpicks (preferable the flat kind)
tacky glue
Office supply dots (labels) in two sizes; mine are 1 inch and 3/4 inch
stamps and ink pads
super fine glitter















Stamp images onto your office supply dots. Make sure the stamps you use take up as much space on the dot as possible.















Take the bigger of the two dots and place the toothpick on the sticky side and dab with a dot of glue (your dots may be sticky enough not to need the glue, so don't use it if you don't need to).














Next stick the smaller sticker on top of the bigger one sandwiching the toothpick in between.














Here's the cool part: Because the larger sticker shows behind the smaller one, we have the perfect canvas for putting the glitter on! Glitter that baby up and there you have it! Glittered cupcake picks!














Thursday, October 23, 2008

Dollarstore Crafts Blog













i just stumbled upon a fabulous blog by Heather of Croqzine (another wonderful blog and zine in and of itself!) called Dollarstore Blog. As a mum to three kids I find myself frequenting the local dollar store for billions of things, craft items included. I was just there a few days ago and actually thought how my next Handmade Parade challenge (after He:Craft, that is) should be dollar store crafts! Hmm do I smell a collaboration mayhaps?

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Recycled Packaging Labels

Polka Dot Cottage has a really cool new label for download. It alerts people that you are re-using packaging for their purchases. Love it!

Friday, October 17, 2008

Resurrection Fern: Crocheted Acorns


Thank goodness I know how to crochet, because that means that I can make these little babies to my heart's content! Resurrection Fern (my fave blog of the moment) has a tutorial on making crocheted acorns! Also in this post are directions for making felted pumpkins, but my heart was lost to these little guys.

(photo is from resurrection fern blog)

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Russian dolls


Russian dolls
Originally uploaded by PlanetCoco
This was made by flickr user PlanetCoco from various cardboard tubes. Each doll fits into the one before it. As if I didn't already save too much stuff, now I'm gonna have to save tubes for these cool dolls! I just love the modern interpretation of traditional matryoshka dolls!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

oilcloth lunchbag lime matroyshka

Rick Rack Queen sells kits for these cute lunch bags in the Handmade Parade Pattern Shop. Check them out!

Saturday, October 11, 2008

No Carve Pumpkins

It's pretty well known around our friends that both my husband and I hate carving pumpkins. We just don't like the mess and the guts and how long it takes to carve the bloomin' things. I know, we are Halloween bah-humbugs. I have nothing against the squashes in general and like having them around, so I went on a search for no-carve pumpkin ideas. These were my faves, but there lots more.

from Good Housekeeping:




















Better Homes and Gardens:


She Amazes Me ....(Us too!)


She Amazes Me
Originally uploaded by Vintage Pleasure
I hope that my daughters are as artistically inclined as Kristy's daughter Lily is! Lily has an etsy shop called Novelty 12 and hopefully these sweeties (or sister creations!) will be listed soon!

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

for my (sometimes) sweet kids

i love the pretty (er, scary) packaging Jane's apron put together for some treats to her children. Puts me in the mood to make something for my own kids!

Argyle Pumpkins


Argyle Pumpkins
Originally uploaded by georgie, my love
I love pumpkins and the look of carved, but hate the pumpkin guts and cleaning them! These painted pumpkins by flickr user georgie, my love are awesome!

I might actually carve fake pumpkins, though...

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Homemade Halloween decorations

Super smart way to use old grocery bags! Thanks flickr user shotbycrockett for this one!

DIY Noggin Halloween Decorations

I love these homemade Halloween decorations by flickr user B_Kitty. her little cutie guy seems to love them too!

Found in Handmade Parade Flicr Pool


My creation
Originally uploaded by littlelovelies
1. belair3, 2. felted owls, 3. September 07 218, 4. Owl Swap Offerings for Doe!, 5. IMG_6140, 6. new skirt? who me?, 7. Vintage Tablecloth Bags, 8. 092, 9. kingmecollage

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Flickr has plenty of ornament inspiration!

Stumped on what you might make for the ornament swap? No worries! Flickr is loaded with ideas. Remember, October 4th (tomorrow) is the last day to sign up for the Handmade Parade Ornament Swap! Don't be left out!