Winter-Time Snow-Couple!

A friend of mine loves snowmen and so do I. She asked me to make her a snow couple with a slight Americana Theme to theme. They are made from white thick felt and easy to make. The bodies are just made of felt pieces sewn together and stuffed with fiberfill. For the eyes, you can embroider them and the mouth with black floss or you can sew on or glue on tiny black seed beads. For the noses, I took white sculpey clay and handmade carrot shaped noses. After I baked them for 2 minutes and left them cool, I then painted them dark orange and glued them onto the faces. The clothing is just simple americana navy blue fabric with dark gold stars on them. Nothing fancy about it as she wanted them to be simple. You can attach a black felt hat to the male snowman or make your own matching fabric cap like I did and just tie a bow or attach a rosette at the neckline of your girl snowman or look at mine for some ideas. They each measure about 6" tall by 4" in width by 1" in depth. If you don't have a sewing machine, they are simple enough to sew by hand.

The one pictured below isn't dressed yet and is larger in size (about 10" long) and is wearing a black hat. I haven't decided on how to dress him yet but wanted you to see a photo of the body undressed.

You can find FREE Crafting Patterns and Projects over on my official crafting blog at Passtionate About Crafting ---> HERE



~*Shelly*~

Framed Hydrangeas and Sea Shells

Last month I purchased a Dimensions Cross Stitch Kit from Joann's and the website is at: http://www.joann.com/joann/index.jsp

This kit is made by Dimensions (tm) and is called Hydrangeas and Shells. Since I am a beach lover and love Hydrageas, this kit was right up my alley. It took me 36 days to complete and was well worth the time.

It is worked on 14 ct. white Aida fabric using Dimension Floss using cross stitches, half cross stitches, back stitches and some french knots.

I chose to mat mine once completed in a double mat (white inner mat and navy blue outter mat) with a weather wooded frame under glass. Mine now measures 12x16" in size. Its a nice large piece and will be hanging in my master bedroom once my remodeling is complete as I am changing my bedroom over to a cottage beach theme this spring.

The piece was semi-easy to work up, but I feel its NOT a beginners piece, definately for someone with some experience with counted cross stitch.

You can find FREE Crafting Patterns and Projects over on my official crafting blog at Passionate About Crafting ---> HERE



~Shelly~

Our Daughter and her pregnancy!

As most of my blog readers know, our daughter J is expecting our first grandchild on May 25th, 2009. My husband and I are very excited about getting our first grandchild in a few months. Our grand daughter will be named Gianna Nadine.

So far our daughter J's pregnancy is going smoothly. She is now starting to experience some edema in her legs and ankles, but then again, most pregnant women get that!

The above pictures were taken 1 week ago of our daughter J and her growing belly with our precious little grand daughter inside! We set the date for the upcoming baby shower which will be held on April 25th.

Crochet Christmas Candle Decorations!

I have a slew of left-over yarn from various craft projects and back in December, I found this pattern online and decided to make a few.

You can find the pattern at: http://www.crochetnmore.com/christmascandle.htm

I used left-over green, red and ivory yarn by Red Heart (tm) yarns for mine. They are super easy to make and you can whip up several of them quickly. I bet they would be great at Church Christmas Bazaars!

You can find FREE Crafting Patterns and Projects over on my official crafting blog at Passionate About Crafting ---> HERE

~Shelly~

Pillowcases with Cross Stitched Boarders

The pictures above show 2 more sets of pillowcases that I recently completed in Cross Stitch. Both sets are in the standard size and one set (the rose themed set) has a scalloped edge hem.

I think both sets came out beautifully!

You can find FREE Crafting Patterns and Projects over on my official crafting blog at Passionate About Crafting ---> HERE

~Shelly~

Classic Crochet Granny Square Afghan

Over the winter months, I enjoy staying in where its warm and to get busy crocheting. Since I craft all year long, I like to save ALL of my little scraps of yarn so that in the winter months I can use them up with a Granny Square Afghan. I made this one and just completed it the beginning of January 2009. I used black as my background color as it really makes the colors pop. I used all acrylic yarns and all were scraps except for the black. I bought 2 (one pounder rolls) of Red Heart Acrylic Black Yarn to attach all my squares together and I used a simple single crochet stitch to do that.

I made the entire afghan using single and double crochets along with the chain stitch. I used 3 different colors of yarn for each square and then my 4th color was the black. I made all my squares first and then attached them using a simple single crochet.

The photo shows the afghan folded in half and draped over the door so I could get a decent picture of it. Enjoy!

You can find FREE Crafting Patterns and Projects over on my official crafting blog at Passionate About Crafting ---> HERE

~*Shelly*~

Rainy Day Project for Kids!

Check out these cute refrigerator magnets made out of craft foam! These are so easy to make and a great rainy/snow day project for children.

Supplies:

Patterns (you can make your own patterns using kids coloring books. Cut out the design from coloring pages and use as a pattern.

Various colors of craft foam
Wiggle Eyes
White Tacky Glue
Magnet Strips
Chenille Stem (for piggy tail, feathers, additional accents for your designs)
Black Fine Tip Sharpie Marker (to draw on accents such as nose, mouth, etc)

We did farm animals: piggy, horse, lamb, cow, puppy, etc.

You can do any design, just cut out the image from a coloring book page. Trace that image onto the desired color foam as this will be your base piece. Then use other pieces/colors of foam as accent shapes and glue on top. On the backside is where you will glue your magnet. These take about 15-20 minutes to dry but are easy to make. A great school, scouting, youth group, rainy day project for kids. I think they would be fun to make at a childs birthday party too!

You can find FREE Crafting Patterns and Projects over on my official crafting blog at Passionate About Crafting ---> HERE

Seashells in Cross Stitch

I completed this cross stitch project back in January. I actually made 3 of them because once other people saw it, they wanted one too!

Once matted and framed, it measures 8x10" in size. The mat has a 4x6" opening so the cross stitch design area measures the same. I chose to frame them in a pale sandy colored wooden frame because I stitched the design on 14 ct. sand colored Aida fabric. I used DMC floss for the stitching. I love nautical and beach designs so I really enjoyed making these which only took me 4 days to complete so its a great weekend project. I purchased my frame at Micheals craft store as they have a great selection of mats and frames in a slew of sizes so I usually go there to purchase my framing materials.

My husband and I love the beach so I do a lot of crafting with a nautical and beach theme.


Shelly

Baby Shower Party Favors In Cupcake Designs!

Our daughter Jenelle is expecting our first grandchild (a girl) in May 2009 so I am hosting and planning a big baby shower for her. Our new grandbaby will be named Gianna Nadine.

Photo is of Jenelle 5.5 months pregnant and glowing!



I am determined to make 200+ baby shower favors and I decided to make a variety of favors for the party. (I get bored easily if I had to make 200+ of the same item).

From the paper wishes website at: http://www.paperwishes.com/

I purchased the 3-D Cupcake Template for $5.99 and decided to make the Delicous version of the cupcake. The template has 2 different patterns for cupcake favor boxes, one named YUMMY and one named DELICOUS. I found the template to be very easy to use. My advice though: Use a piece of scrap paper (paper you don't care about) to make your first one until you get the hang of it, in other words, a practice one!)

I decided to use some of my scrapbooking papers and scraps to make the cupcake boxes with most having the pink color in them. Below is 2 pictures of some of the 75+ cupcake boxes I have made so far. Instead of using the pattern for a cherry or flower top, I decided to just glue on pink or red 1/2" pompoms for my cherries. Inside my cupcake favor boxes, I have been placing wrapped Baby Shower Mints, Chocolate Candies and some baby themed confetti.





I also decided to make up some baby girl themed bookmarks for the shower favors using plain white cardstock for the base measuring 1 1/2" wide by 7" long. I then cut from scrapbooking paper a piece measuring 3 1/4" wide by 7" long. I wrapped the cardstock bookmark with the scrapbooking paper and glued with a glue stick. I used my hole punch to punch a hole at the top and then used pretty pink and purple eyelash yarn to make the tassles. I was able to find some baby girl stickers with clear boarders at my local store and I have been using them to decorate the bookmarks. I also handstamped some baby words onto the front of the bookmarks such as *baby* *Special Delivery* *Nap Time* *Proud Parents* and so forth. They are very simple to make and you can use up a lot of your paper scraps to make them. You can change the theme to make them as birthday party favors and so forth.



I will post next week some other baby shower favors that I am making for the baby shower too. Most are easy and inexpensive to make.

You can find FREE Crafting Patterns and Projects over on my official crafting blog at Passionate About Crafting ---> HERE

Shelly

More Cross Stitch!

As promised, here are a few more photo's of some projects that I recently completed. If you are interested in more details or prices, just let me know as I also do custom work and can provide you with a list of referrences.

The below Angel was stitched on 14 ct. white Aida using DMC floss. Once she is framed and matted she will measure 8x10 inches. She turned out really nicely and I am sure Carol will enjoy her. I call this one the *Gaurdian Angel* and her dress can be done in a variety of colors.

The next item is a set of white pillowcases in a standard size. This set would make an excellent gift for a new couple or bridal shower. They are floral his and her pillowcases and were made using DMC floss.


Finally is an item that I cross stitched onto 16 ct. white AIDA using DMC floss. Once matted and framed, it will measure 8x10 inches in size. It has a beautiful lighthouse with rolling ocean waves and a sailboat. A great reminder of a perfect beautiful day at the beach.

You can find FREE Crafting Patterns and Projects over on my official crafting blog at Passionate About Crafting ---> HERE

Shelly

My Recent Cross Stitch Projects

Since being sick for the past 7 months or so, I have had a lot of time to work on some cross stitching and embroidery projects.

The piece below is from a stamped iron-on pattern of roses which I cross stitched and will be turning it into a ruffled throw pillow for my mother.

The next item I did was back in November which is a set of pillowcases done in cross stitch and embroidery from a Bucilla (tm) kit featuring lilacs and butterflies.

I did the below set of cross stitch pillowcases back in December 2008. They are made from a Bucilla (tm) craft kit. A friend of mine paid me to make the hummingbird pillowcases for her and they came out fantastic if I say so myself.

As you can see, I have been keeping busy. In a few days I will post more photo's of some craft projects I completed the past few months.

You can find FREE Crafting Patterns and Projects over on my official crafting blog at Passionate About Crafting ---> HERE

Shelly