Teacher gifts

The last day of school for Big Bear was on Thursday. I made a couple of gifts for his teacher.

First was a collaborative gift I put together from the class (heavily inspired by Pinterest, of course!).

Each student painted a 4" square of watercolor paper and signed the back of the square. I then used a Cricut machine to cut out the butterfly shapes from the painted squares as well as from colored tissue paper. I glued tissue paper butterflies to the back of each cutout both to cover the writing on the back as well as to give some more color. I then pasted the tissue paper cutouts onto the background (a 12" x 12" heavyweight scrapbook paper) to act as sort of "shadows" for the dimensional butterflies. The background paper turned out not to be heavy enough and was bowing/curling from the glue even before I added the dimensional butterflies. So I backed the whole thing with some thick paperboard cut to size which flattened everything back out. Then I scored each of the painted butterfly shapes on either side of the middle, carefully folded up the wings and antennae and used hot glue to position each atop a "shadow."

The quote was one I found online that I printed onto vellum and glued to the background. It was perfect as they spent the last 2 months studying butterflies as a part of their second grace curriculum.

I didn't have time or space (12" x 12" was a tight fit for all those butterflies!) to have the kiddos sign the actual piece. So before cutting, I photographed the names on the back of the squares. Then I used Paint Shop Pro to resize the names so they were proportionally the same size. I printed them out and then traced them onto the corner of the background.

I found a relatively inexpensive 12" x 12" shadowbox frame at Michaels to finish it off.

As papercrafting is not my thing, I'm pretty pleased with how this project turned out. And Big Bear's teacher was happily surprised and touched by the gift. Yay!

In addition to the class gift, I also decided to put together a little gift basket to the teacher from our family. I used Pink Penguin's happy little patchwork basket tutorial, but enlarged it a bit so that it finished at 5" x 7".

I used some linen for the body of the basket and a cute linen/cotton charm pack (purchased from Michelle Engel Bencsko's Cicada Studio way back in 2008) for the patchwork. I interfaced the linen before sewing to give it some stability and used fusible fleece for the inner lining. The lining fabric is quilting cotton from my stash.

The basket didn't go together entirely as expected. The thickness of the charm square fabric did not lend itself to finishing in the manner as called for in the pattern. So I improvised, resulting in the narrow border of lining along the top of the basket. It worked out okay, but it is not as tidy as I would have liked.

I didn't get a picture of it all filled with goodies, but they included a Starbucks tumbler (one of the fancy duo-chromatic ones that just lately came out), a Starbucks gift card, a gourmet chocolate bar, and a gift card to her favorite restaurant, along with a heartfelt thank you card.

Hopefully, she enjoys it!

One Thing, One Week Challenge :: 5 So close...

Alas! I had good intentions, but this week's One Thing, One Week Challenge just didn't happen for me.

Between cooking, feasting, best friend visit, and little boys with colds, there just weren't enough hours in the day to accomplish my stated goal (posted in the comments section of the challenge announcement):

Yay for your challenges, Amy! It is going to be a busy week, but I really hope to get a good start on some holiday crafting. Specifically, I want to get a fabric basket made and a mug rug started. Here’s hopin’! :)

What did I accomplish? I chose fabric picked for the basket and mug rug projects I had hoped to complete. I also managed to plan a design for the mug rug and calculate all the measurements required. I even got the pieces cut out. So, I was definitely off to a good start!

Then, last night I got to spend some time in the sewing room...


...and finished a holiday fabric basket! Because it just wouldn't be the holidays if I didn't make at least one of these! For the third consecutive year, I have made use of the fabulous Pink Penguin tutorial. This time I used 2.5" cut squares for the patchwork and then enlarged the other pieces to suit.

I also managed to complete my first mug rug:


I've been seeing these popping up all over blogland over the last couple of months, and decided I needed to give it a try. Using a tutorial from Jennifer of That Girl... That Quilt... as a starting point, I designed this happy holiday mug rug.


Here's an action shot. I love the addition of the pocket. I embellished it with a little embroidered tree and some happy rick-rack. Cute!

These two items are going to packaged up together along with a mug and some tea or hot chocolate mix. I think it is going to be a a fun contribution to the holiday gift exchange I'm attending this weekend.

I may not have finished in time for the challenge, but I sure feel pretty darn successful! Yay!

Holiday hiatus

Happy holidays!!! I hope y'all have had a wonderful holiday season so far. It is so hard to believe that it is nearly the new year. Crazy! It seems that I have taken another unplanned blog break. What with all of the holiday preparations, celebrations, and stress, posting here just fell completely by the wayside. Besides which, I really haven't been doing all that much crafting in the last couple of weeks. Certainly, not as much as I would have liked to do!

But I do have a couple of things to share...


I made another basket using the fabulous Pink Penguin fabric basket tutorial. I did a little bit of math and enlarged the basket to finish at about 7" x 5" and 4" high. Just a bit bigger so that I could fill it up with more goodies, including a little set of 8 coasters (pattern from the fabulous Joelle Hoverson book, Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts).


I also included some homemade spiced biscotti, a mug, and lots of chocolate treats.

One of my son's toddler friends celebrated her third birthday a couple of weeks ago, and so I put together this little apron for her.

The pattern is "Abigail's Apron" by LadyBug Bay, Inc. (I can't find a link to it anywhere, but if you're interested, let me know, and I can give you the info on it.) It's a simple, quick pattern, and it's reversible! I used the super-sparkly dragonfly fabric on one side (because sparkles are very important to princess-obsessed toddlers). And then...


...a happy, starry purple on the other. I love how it came out, and foresee making more of these in my future.

I did shoot to finish a couple of quilts for Christmas gifts, but it just didn't happen. The "My Friend Maisy" quilt for my son will just have to wait until his birthday next month, I think (but no worries... there were so many other gifts for him this Christmas, that one less was no matter). The other quilt (for my father-in-law) is also a work-in-progress at this point. So he received an IOYAQ (I Owe You A Quilt) card (inspired by Leah Day). I used fabric scraps from the quilt and stitched them to the front of a blank card and wrote a little coupon-text inside. I wish I had taken a picture! Hopefully, I'll be able to fulfill my coupon obligation in the next month or two.

And, lastly, just a little bit of cookie decorating fun:

Gettin' my craft on!

I can't believe it's already been a week since my last post. Time really seems to fly by this time of year! I spent most of the last week though recovering from the same cold I was struggling with the previous week. Thankfully, I'm finally feeling more-or-less myself again. Yay! I think after getting through the holiday family party last Saturday (which was a lot of fun!), my body decided to kind of decompress and relapsed back into illness for a bit.

Anyway, last night was my Bunko group's annual holiday gathering. We played a couple of rounds and then did a gift exchange. This year, I went a more handcrafted route and made a basket (à la Pink Penguin):


The basket came together so quickly and I'm thrilled with how it turned out.

Of course, then I had to fill it up with some stuff, including this cute little bird ornament from Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson:


I put a penny in this picture to give some scale. I didn't realize when I decided to make it exactly how tiny this little birdie is. So cute! And it took me about an hour to make. It was really a quick and simple project (which is good since I truly did make it at the last minute!). I'm definitely going to be trying some of the other projects from this book.

Also in the basket was a mix CD (I even made the label), a pretty glass votive candle holder (with a simple, unscented candle), and a beautiful bar of handmade soap I found at local market.



And then all assembled:


The recipient seemed to be very happy when she opened it. Yay!

Easter basket

Having nearly run out of thread for my reversible embroidery quilt class quilt, I made a trip to Keepsake Cottage Fabrics yesterday afternoon. So I bought some thread... and then I saw the way-too-cute Easter fabric right by the cash register and just had to buy a yard. But I don't feel too horrible because inspiration struck:


Since the boy is going to a neighborhood Easter egg hunt on Sunday, it seems as if a basket is a necessity. And how could I resist that bunny fabric?

I'm really happy with how it turned out—and pretty proud too, because it's my own design! :) I enjoyed making it, so I think another is in my future. Another baby friend has a birthday in a couple of weeks, and I think a basket with a couple goodies might just be the perfect gift.