Tower of Animals

I had another 11 x 14 canvas from the pack of 2 I bought to make the tree canvas. The Gnome likes animals stacked on top of animals so I figured I could do something along those lines. I started by painting the canvas with tan acrylic paint. Then, I searched my Cricut Give a Hoot cartridge for animals I could use. I cut some shapes out of patterned cardstock, but it looked too busy. So I decided to stick with solid, textured cardstock for our forest friends. I used some dimensional adhesives to pop the animals up off the canvas a bit. After adding some coordinating buttons from my grandmother's collection, I called it done!

Yes, that is Mr. Prickles again :)


I'm still working on the baby hoodie. I'm on the second sleeve though so I should be finishing it pretty soon. I just have to knit up the front bands for the buttons and buttonholes, and then I'll be finished with my very first sweater. Hooray!


Leaf out.

Leafy

Happy Friday!

Remember this?

And this?

Well, I finally decided how to finish this project off. So here it is!

(Thanks for the suggestions EG!)

I didn't have a scalloped edge die so I cut the yellow strip of felt using a scalloped rotary fabric cutter (I have the white Martha Stewart one with interchangeable blades). I cut the letters out using my Cricut Expression and SCAL (Sure Cuts A Lot software).


Here's a close-up of the tree top so you can see the dimension:

The tree was put together using two tree cutouts. I attached some of the leaves to the bottom tree cutout and some to the top to add some dimension.


As in my previous posts about this project, I'd like to give a shout-out to LollyChops for the original inspiration and tree .svg. Thanks Lolly!!!


Now, that this project is done, I can move onto working on a mobile. I'm also taking a baby hoodie knitting class at my local yarn shop (pattern here). The yarn I'm using is Berroco Weekend in Matcha.


In personal news, I've spent most of this week on my couch due to the lovely stomach bug I have. We were supposed to go out of town yesterday, but that didn't happen. Lots of Gatorade is being consumed, but not a whole lot else. I'm hoping I'll start feeling better soon.


Have a great weekend!


Leaf out.

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.

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.