Ah, Nuts!

So it seems like all I want to do these days is work on things for the baby's room. In related news, I have been through 7 paint samples...all blues and greens. I think it's between the last 2 that I tried so at least there's progress. The nursery theme is forest friends...you know, woodland creatures and such. We got this Carter's crib set. Although the Gnome loves squirrels, there are no squirrels featured in this crib set. To make up for this slight against squirrels, I decided to feature them in one of my crafty projects for the room. 


I saw a project in a magazine a while ago that involved cutting out a shape multiple times in different patterned papers or fabrics and then placing them in a framed grid. The project I saw had a grid of teapots with a teacup in the bottom right corner. Enter my Cricut Expression and Give a Hoot cartridge. There are actually several squirrel shapes in this cartridge. I chose some patterned papers from my stash and swiftly ordered my Cricut to cut some squirrels. I got a little squirrel-happy and cut too many out, but that left me with more of a selection so it's okay. There's also an acorn shape on the cartridge so I cut out one of those too for the bottom right corner.


For the grid, I used my Martha Stewart 12 x 12 cutting mat and some scrap yarn. The frame I bought was a 12 x 12 frame so I used a 12 x 12 piece of textured cardstock for the background. I taped down pieces of yarn to outline exactly where each squirrel would be placed. Here's what the grid looked like:

I got out my adhesive roller and started positioning those squirrels. Here's what the page looked like after gluing and grid removal:

And here is the completed project:

Last week, I ended my post with a peep of a project that was still in progress. Well, it's still in progress, but here is a pic of the next step:

I used my Cricut and Sure Cuts A Lot (SCAL) software to cut out the tree. LollyChops made the tree .svg file, which you can find here (the tutorial for her original project is also in that post). I cut the leaves out of different colors of felt and cardstock. The buttons are from my grandmother's stash. I haven't glued the tree down yet (in fact, the buttons aren't even attached). I can't figure out what to do next. LollyChops put some strips of felt along the bottom with the word "home." Any suggestions?


That's all for now! See you next Friday!


Leaf out.

Happy Friday!

I don't know how the weather is in your neck of the woods, but it is fantastic here. The thermometer in my car was at 68 degrees this afternoon. Unheard of for February here. In honor of the warm weather, I went with a couple of friends to get a pedicure in my flippie floppies. My toes are so very happy and pink :)


Alright, let's get down to the craft business. I have wanted to knit some fingerless gloves for some time and finally settled on a pattern. Here they are:

The pattern is from Knitty.com and is called Fetching because the cables on each glove twist "fetchingly" toward the thumb. These were my first cabling attempt, and I love it! I think I'll put cables on everything now. The yarn I used is called Ella Rae Bamboo Silk in Apple.


The gloves had a different bind-off technique that I hadn't used before so I got some instruction from my LYS. It's a picot bind-off. Here's a close-up:

So the technique creates these little bumps along the edge. The gloves haven't been blocked yet (and I knitted one more tightly than the other) so after that they'll look a little more uniform and not so curly at the edges. 


Nextly, here is the promised photo of the necklace I made for a friend's birthday:

And here is a close-up:

My favorite flower is the one in the center.

I have been working on an art project for our woodland/forest friends-themed nursery, but it's not finished yet. LollyChops made an awesome tree .svg file that she used for her tree artwork. I loved it so much that I'm making one too (thanks Lolly!)! Lolly has a video on UStream for the project here. Here's a peep:

Have a great weekend! See ya next week :)

Leaf out.

3 Months Later

Hello Again. I haven't posted in 3 months. Yep, it's been that long. I really have no excuse other than the holidays. Well, and there was also finding out my eggo is preggo :) I love the movie Juno.


I do have some crafty projects to share. Unfortunately, I repeatedly forget to take pictures of my finished projects. I'm going to have to get better about that. Before Thanksgiving, I made a bib necklace for a good friend's birthday. I went a little crazy crocheting and knitting flowers and leaves in some of her favorite colors. Just for some added texture, I threw in some felt flowers and leaves. Here is the disassembled necklace:

I am going to post a picture of the finished necklace soon. I promise. I also crocheted a flower and tie to dress up the wrapped package:

The other project of which I forgot to take a picture was the shawl I made for the ?L for Christmas. Remember this yarn?

That's the yarn I used to knit the shawl. I was supposed to get a picture of the ?L in it after she opened it on Christmas, but the giant snowstorm that arrived made us depart on very short notice. I'm still waiting on a picture from my parents to share.


I was looking for some new techniques for making cards so I decided to try embroidering cards. Here's one that I made:

I cut out the "birthday" using Sure Cuts a Lot (SCAL) software and my Cricut. I haven't played around with SCAL very much, but it's going to be a very useful tool. You can use any font on your computer to cut out words in one piece. 


I have a bunch of projects lined up for the nursery so I'll be posting pics along the way.


Glad to be back!


Leaf out.