Stamped & Sewn Christmas Cards - Mittens, Stocking, and Hat

Need some inspiration for your holiday cards?  Well here is one of my favorite Christmas cards designs from a few years back.

I used the Stitch a Card stamps from Art Impressions.  The stamps include the outline of the object plus the stitching pattern, so piercing the holes and adding the floss is easy.  After I stamped the images, I cut the images out, pierced the stitching holes, and added the stitching using embroidery floss.  I stamped white snowflakes onto blue paper to give a nice contrasting background.

For the mittens, I added a white ribbon to connect the pair.

I embellished the hat with white ribbon and blue beads.

For the stocking, I used metallic floss to add extra pizazz to the holly leaves, and used a red button for the holly.

Be sure to keep checking back for more holiday projects.  I'll be posting more Christmas card ideas, decorations, ornament projects over the next several weeks.  

Baby Food Jar Christmas Trees

It's finally Christmas season -- my favorite time of year for crafting.  For weeks I've anxiously been anticipating getting through Thanksgiving so I can get my Christmas tree up and my decorations out!  So to start out my month of holiday crafting, here is one of my favorite home made Christmas decorations -- a frosted Christmas tree made out of baby food jars.

I remember having a one of these that my aunt Kim made for my mom, and it would sit on our mantel every Christmas.  So when Landon started eating baby food, I saved all his jars so I could make one of these frosted trees.

This was a really easy project.  I thoroughly cleaned all the jars, including the label and glue on the outside of the jars.  Then I used hot glue to permanently adhere the jars together.  Once the glue dried, I sprayed the jars with a frosted glass finish.  Next, I wrapped a sparkly red ribbon around the outside and secured it with hot glue.  And finally, I added the string of Christmas lights, making sure each jar had a couple of bulbs. 

The baby food jar trees fit in perfectly with the decorations I keep above the kitchen cupboards.

Well I need to get back to getting more decorations up and more Christmas craft projects completed.  Be sure to keep checking back.  I will be posting lots of holiday craft projects between now and Christmas.  So until next time, have a Sew Scrappy Day!

The Cutest Little Pirate

Landon's favorite show lately is Jake and the Neverland Pirates -- so we decided a pirate costume would be a great Halloween costume for him (or so we thought anyway).  So I went to Joann Fabrics, Hancock Fabrics, and Hobby Lobby to buy a pattern (Simplicity 2561) and fabric and got to work making the fabric.

For all the time I spent running to three stores just to get the necessary fabric and then making the costume, Landon was not very appreciative.  In fact, he wanted nothing to do with the costume.  I had to bribe him with a tootsie roll sucker just to get a couple of pictures.

For a brief moment we almost were able to get a smile out of him.

But by the second house he stripped off his jacket.

And by the third house he ditched his hat.

But at least he kept his pants on for most of the night, and we were able to snap a few cute pictures.  On  a positive note, he thoroughly enjoyed trick or treating and especially loved riding in his wagon while his Nonny pulled him.

Maybe next year he'll be more in the Halloween costume spirit.

Chipboard BOO in time for Halloween

Happy halloween fellow crafters!  I've been a little busy the last few weeks with my in-laws visiting, painting the house, putting on a Halloween Party for the mom's group, and trying to get Landon's Halloween costume finished.  But I was able to get one quick project done last night just in time for Halloween.

All the supplies came from Hobby Lobby and were on sale for 50% off, so the the entire sign was under $5.  I started with chip board letters and Halloween themed scrapbook paper.  I traced the letters onto the scrapbook paper and cut the letters out.  (I actually trimmed the letters out slightly smaller then what I traced to allow the black border to show through)  Next I painted the chipboard letters black and painted the edge of the paper letters.   Then I adhered the paper to the chipboard letters using mod podge.  And that's all it took!

And with that I better get going -- my door bell is ringing with more trick-or-treaters.  Enjoy the rest of your Halloween, and check back tomorrow to see pictures of the cutest little Pirate I've ever seen :)

Halloween Tile

At the start of fall I just love unpacking the decorations and getting excited about previous year's craft projects.

Here is one of my favorite Halloween projects I made a few year's back.  It was really simple and inexpensive.  I started with a 14 " x 14" ceramic tile that only costs $0.99.   Next I used yellow and orange spray paint to the tile.  And lastly I applied a black ceramic sticker.  I got this vinyl sticker from Upper Case Living.  Not counting dry time for the paint, this entire project took about 10 minutes.

I hope you enjoyed today's project!  See you next time!

Simple Halloween Scrapbook Layout - Landon's First Halloween

As we get closer to trick-or-treating I have been reminiscing about Landon's first Halloween.  He was so little and and didn't quite get the concept of Halloween, but he loved the pumpkins and he loved the giant chunk of cheese that went with the mouse costume I made for him.  The mouse costume was my first sewing project and was full of frustrations, seam ripping, and re-sewing -- which makes me appreciate the completed costume all the more.   And Landon won 2nd place at the Germantown Hills costume contest :)

The letters were made using the Cuttin Up Cricut cartridge.  All the patterned paper is from the All Seasons paper pad from The Paper Studio.   And the 3-D pumpkin stickers are something I found in the seasonal section at Hobby Lobby.

Here's some close ups of the cutest little mouse ever:

That's all for now folks.  I've got more great fall and Halloween projects coming up, so keep checking back.  Until then, have a Sew Scrappy Day!

Sew Scrappy Day -- Ravamped

I spent the afternoon working on refurbishing my blog. Gone is the original standard boring template, and in its place is a style that more fits my crafting personality.

I searched google for free blog backgrounds and headers, and I stumbled My Style Backgrounds.  It's a great blog with lots of unique, pre-made headers and backgrounds.  In addition to hundreds of very stylish, and best of all FREE backgrounds and headers, the blog includes instructions for applying the backgrounds and headers to blogger.   And if you want to pay a little bit of money, they will even make you a custom header and background.  I opted for the free version.

 I choose Butterfly Kisses because it fit my scrapbooking style. Using Photo Shop I inserted Sew Scrappy Day into the white space on the generic header.

I still have some tweaking and additions to make, but I am pleased with this rendition for now.