Wishing You a Very Merry Christmas!

And a Prosperous New Year.

Paisley of the Week will resume next week.

Let it Snow!

For everybody Christmas is a crazy busy time.  Shopping, decorating, cards, crafting special gifts and the list goes on.  I'd say I'm about half done which is good for me.  But the one thing that's been cramping my style is the COLD.  Today it was 13 degrees BRRRRR!  I say there ought to be a law that if it's going to be that cold it ought to snow.  Here's some sketchbook snow for you to look at.  Happy Holidays!

Paisley of the Week! Not Too Early - no, really!

There's no time like the present to get going on your holiday stuff.  Here are two of the same paisley with two different feels to them.  Halloween and Christmas.  I'm partial to the Halloween one.

Both of these designs were born out of this one doodle.  I left off the fussy bits around the edge because it looked less cluttered with the design.

Amy Butler Pinwheel Ornament Craft

My kids and I were looking for something to do last week to get into the Christmas mood.  My Mom emailed me a link to make pinwheels designed by Amy Butler.  They looked very festive and we thought we'd give it a try.  You can guess from the picture above that all was not as easy as it seemed.

This pinwheel was crafted by my 11 year old son.  Done was better than perfect as far as he was concerned.  But I think those Amy Butler craft testers must have 3 hands because this craft was really very tricky.  I decided to re-do the craft tutorial for those of us who are 2 handed.

You start off with a 12x12 sheet of cardstock and measure it into strips that are about 1.5 inches wide.  Glue or tape the strips end to end to make a continuous strip.

Take a pair of fancy scissors and cut the edge of the strip.  Then you fold the strip accordion style.

 Now comes the tricky bit. 

Open it up until it fans out.  Ours kept springing open and it was extremely frustrating.  After this happened a few times and everybody was good and aggravated, I came up with the idea of this extra step.  Put some glue on the cut edges and stick a small rectangle of extra paper to make a sort of book-binding.  I'm showing it here in white so that it's easier to see, but I recommend using the same color

When you've got your pinwheel fanned out, tape the two edges together to hold it in place.  Then, glue a circle onto the front.  Amy's people used a large circular hole punch.  I don't have one of those so I just cut my own.  The one on the right is a bit wonky looking.  Note to self, buy a big circle hole-punch.

Punch a hole, attach some thread and hang on a tree. 

Busy-ness

So what haven't I been working on since October 6th? It's amazing how when you've got things to do, the time just flies on by.

This angel is part of a digital Nativity Matroyshka set that I designed for Express Yourself Vinyl. I love the sort of job where someone has a good idea, and then it all just pops into your head. I may offer a smaller digital collage sheet of the whole set. Packed up and ready to go are two of my best drawings Minty Leafy and Tres Fabu. They are going to be shown this weekend at my Alma Mater WVWC as part of an alumni invitational art show at the Sleeth Art Gallery. They don't have any pictures of the alumni show up yet. I hope they do, I want to see who else submitted something!

This week I worked on a set of icons for Dream Press Online. Go over there and take a peek, they sell adorable stationary and Christmas is closer than we like to think ;) It is so cool to see what I've made adding personality to this business and website.

This is my weekend to put some time into Halloween costumes. This year Ryan is going as Mario. This is a set of blue flannel overalls in the works. I'm going to have to make a red hat too--but one thing at a time!

While I sewed, Katie came in and started a craft of her own. I love to see my kids being creative!

Katie's crafts are usually made with cheerful smiles both by her and put into her creations.She made this adorable kitty cat (wearing a witch hat with a feather) out of felt, buttons and pipe cleaners. I love it!

Fun Fuzzy Hair Tie

This is a tutorial to make quick and easy stocking stuffers for all of your favorite little girls.

You will need some eyelash yarn, a ponytail tie and a small crochet hook. I used size G/6 - 4.25 mm.
Step 1. Slide your ponytail tie over your hook, then make a slipknot in your yarn and place it over the tip of your hook.

Step 2. Single crochet all the way around the ponytail tie, moving the hook underneath the ponytail tie, as you would when crocheting in a chain space. Scrunch up the stitches as you go to make it fuller.

Step 3. Tie off and weave in ends. Then make another one for a matched set!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial :)