April Craft Night and Happy Easter!

Well, this is the only picture I saved from our craft night at my house.  It was simple and back to basics.  We frosted carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese icing and added sprinkles and other decorations.  Then they were carefully nestled in a pretty basket.  I made sugar cookies with Easter colored M & M's for the other basket.  The bag holds our fun Easter and baby cards we made.  For some reason, the picture is gone.  I already gave away all the cards!  They really were cute.

I just wanted to say Happy Easter to you.  We'll be at church at 6:00 am. and then having Easter brunch here for 14.  It will be a lovely day.  I'm making homemade cinnamon rolls among other things.

February Craft Night

I posted awhile ago about the vintage card baskets I adore.  My mom did a Google search, found the directions and patterns and we made our own at our last craft night.  None of us can crochet, so we used the blanket stitch to put the baskets together.  We saved our Christmas cards (which seemed to dwindle in number this year) to make Christmas baskets.  You could use any kind of cards for any holiday or birthdays.  Here are our creations.

And here is a close up of each one:

This was mine.

My sister's.

My mom's.

It took us awhile to get the hang of it and at one point we almost abandoned the project and went out for the evening.  I will make some more now.  She found the pattern and instructions at allfreecrafts.com.  Check it out!

It seems I've forgotten about the blog the past month.  We've been busy installing new floors in our bedroom and living room/dining room, painting, selecting furniture, fabrics, etc.  The house is getting a whole new look.  I have stuff everywhere -- the china hutch is emptied as well as the hope chest, closet, assorted cupboards.  I have a couch in the middle of my kitchen, hutch drawers on the family room floor, boxes in the hall, garage, etc.  It took awhile to find the camera and then some batteries! 

January Craft Night

Our January craft night was at my house and it was my project.  I found this darling Valentine project in my Simply Handmade magazine.  There were some trials and tribulations associated with the project.  I went to Joann's to buy the frames and other materials.  You needed a frame, mat, crackle paint medium, white paint, scrapbook papers, glue (Tacky Glue is my favorite), scalloped scissors (we could find every other style so adapted) and some embellishments.  First problem was that all the frames were on sale except the frames I picked!  Then they ended up with a different finish on the wood and the paint wouldn't stick.  So we were off to Target to buy new frames that worked out fine (and were less expensive).  Our next challenge was rolling all these strips of paper and making them uniform sizes.  We did our best.  These are our finished projects.

This was my mom's and we think it looks the best.  The frame is 8 X 10" with a 5 X 7" mat opening.

This is mine, not sure it looks like a heart.  I think I could remove a couple of spirals to clean it up.

The last one is my sister's.  It sure looks pretty.  These were harder and trickier than we thought they would be.  My mom called the next day and said hers looked better the day after!

December Craft Night

It was my turn for craft night this month but my sister had a picture of a stocking she wanted us to make.  So she brought the project and I made dinner.  We made some adorable burlap stockings with a picture to guide us.

We traced and modified a stocking pattern from some stockings I had around the house.  My sister found the sage burlap at Walmart of all places.   My mom made the yo yos from muslin.  The ruffles were very time consuming as making ruffles usually is. 

This stocking has three yo yos but it takes too long to make a lot of stockings with three.  This project was tougher to finish in an evening but they are lovely and look so sweet hanging up around the house.  Next project will be mine -- I think I'll find a fun Valentine idea.

November craft night

This craft night was a little trickier than the last couple.  There was lots of trial and error and we learned a lot about proceeding with making our "forest of trees".  Sometimes the pictures and directions don't tell the whole story.  Here's my "little forest".

We used skewers, wood blocks, circles cut from old music sheets and sewing books, green paint, walnut stain, glue, felt and glitter.  It was lots of fun and everyone who has seen these think they are as cute as ever.

Here is my smallest tree.  It has white glitter on it and doesn't seem to show well in this picture.

This one is my favorite.  It's made from the pages of a sewing book.  And I LOVE the silver glitter.  I plan to make more and hope we perfected the process.