valentine's

Valentine's for various swaps and Valentine's gifts. Left is the box, right is the valentine.

More ornaments. And a stocking

Mini stocking for a swap over at Swap-Bot. Filled with scrapbooking stuff as that's what my partner is into and it wasn't a stretch to fill it with supplies I had around. I love this fabric and wish I'd gotten more than a 1/2 yard; too bad Hobby Lobby was out when I went back to get more.





More ornaments...this time little wooden snowflakes painted pink and blue, then coated with clear micro-beads, then glued together back to back to make a little hanging snowflake.

Snowflakes from this Etsy shop. Microbeads from here (and they come in so many fab colors!)

Before: my Ikea Fira chest. Used next to my sewing table to hold interfacing and misc. little bits like snaps and extra needles.

You can tell that I just quickly covered it when I got it and never did much to it. (And it's been 3 years already!)

After: a light coat of pink spray paint and some paper from Basic Gray and SEI. And while this is an awful pic, there are fabric covered buttons for knobs.



Done following this tutorial!

I should really redo the pic!

Kinda like Martha

After an exhaustive search for wooden blocks (not really. It was just hot and I wanted to go home), I finally found a bag of six at Hobby Lobby. The last bag of six. I was assured, though, that they would be getting more in stock this week should I require anymore. That's great news, because after this project, I know I'm going to need more.


(Note. I could just order them online and be done with it.)


I gave the unfinished blocks a light sanding then painted them with the Golden Glazes. I was going to go the acrylic paint route, but decided I wanted a softer look. So Glazes it was.

The paper just came from my scrap bin and the stickers were some letter set I'd picked up who knows when. I did screw up my idea though: I wanted to do an A-B-C and an X-Y-Z. I was distracted and went A-B-C all the way through, but you know what, it works.


The key, I've found, to Martha Stewart projects is you can't expect yours to turn out as PERFECTLY as hers. You just can't. If you do, then you'll hate your end results and chuck your project in the trash when you are done. In fact, that's how I live my crafting life: I have to know that my projects are not always going to look like what they do in the pictures. Or even in my head, sometimes. It really takes the pressure off my creativity level.

I love these blocks. These are going to my 2 year old cousin Sullivan as a late birthday present. They're also going to be baby gifts for Christmas. I'm even considering making a set for adults; I can think of a few that would enjoy a set of blocks to have on their desk to play with.