A mouse, a river, and a turtle

These have all been special requests by my favorite fans. Thanks you guys for supporting my hobby!!!

Reduce, Re-use, Recycle

To make these I pretty much took the materials out of the recycle box except for the paint. My little way of thinking outside the box. Hope you like them. The flowers were painted on a cereal box and the background is ripped up newspaper. The frames I had in the Goodwill pile and fished them back out. What do you think?

Ideas

What I like so much about crafting is that the first glimpse of an idea in my head is never the same as the finished product. Life's little way of teaching me to go with the flow and see what happens. This project started with a tutorial that a friend sent to me. I love that people can look at beautiful crafts and think of me. It's the greatest compliment a beginner like me can ask for. Thank you so much! Anyhow, that tutorial led me to another tutorial a while ago that just sort of got stored in my brain. As I was cutting miles and miles of fabric to be made into ruffles (will post more about this later) I remembered this idea for making frayed rosettes. I just meant to play around with them a little, but I just couldn't stop myself! I am TERRIBLE with a glue gun, but I love these!!! Perfect little flowers for my perfect little daughter.



I was not planning on making these. They just kind of happened. The pictures don't really do them justice. They are so much cooler in person. Never mind all the hot glue showing, it gives it dimension, right?



The chunkier the art, the better!

A Very Custom Bag

It makes me smile that friends ask me to make things for them that I have never made before. It's because they believe that I can do it (even if I'm not so sure) and that means the world to me. A friend in KY asked me if I could make her a hemp bag with a cool tree (something with lots of limbs) hand painted on it. This is what she got. What do you think?

Space Shirt part 2

I Love Hands

Hands are so special. When Jeff and I got married we included a special hand ceremony. When I finally got to hold each of my kids, the first thing I went for was their hands. I have my dog's paw print (a paw is a hand, right?) tattooed on the back of my neck. I love hands. I am so grateful for mine and what I have chosen to do with them. I have a pretty bad case of eczema on my hands making them hurt all the time. I don't understand it because I have finally found something worth doing with them and it seems like they are working against me. They are always red, inflamed, raw, extremely itchy and cracked. I will be honest, they are incredibly ugly. I can't wear my wedding rings, I can't get them wet, and I have to be really careful about chemicals and acidic food. It hurts to do daily things such as holding and playing with my kids and most of the crafts I do. It's OK though because it just makes me appreciate what I can do with them all the more. I love the fact that even though my hands are ugly and painful, they do beautiful things. They GIVE..........



I don't care what my kids decide to do when they grow up, as long as they are givers.

I Love Felt

I love making things out of felt. What I love even more is being able to share my love with friends. It makes me feel proud when people ask me to either make things for their kids or to give as a gift. It just feels good. I have never really been really good at anything so this is nice for me.









None of these shirts are really all that great or special when you look at them, it's knowing the fingers that made them and why they were created that makes them special.

Going Away Gifts

When we moved to North Carolina I was so sad to have to leave the people we had grown so close to in Kentucky. They were my family. My kids were born and raised there. I think of Kentucky as my home. It's where I learned to be a mom. :) I recently met somebody who has to move for a while. Her husbands job keeps him on the move. I thought I would give her something to remember us by. These were really easy to make if you ever have to say goodbye to a friend. Just trace out your state, sew a little heart near the town, and put it on a shirt. Cheap, easy, and thoughtful.

Fun with Polymer Clay

There are many, many things that one can do with Polymer Clay. I sort of did these the hard way and got white clay and painted them. I wouldn't do it again. It took at least seven coats of paint for everything! I realize that is probably why the clay comes already colored. I will remember that for next time. The one thing is that I saved a few bucks only having to buy one color and I borrowed cookie cutters from a friend (the same one who gave me all the scrapbook paper) to make all these neat things. She actually gave me the idea for these from Christmas ornaments she was making for her friends and family. I love having friends that like crafting as much as I do!


The picture for this one doesn't really do it justice. It is actually small and delicate-looking. I used a cookie cutter for the umbrella if that gives you an idea of the size.

Space Shirt

I met another mom who makes really cute knitted hats and we decided to trade. Her two boys are getting space shirts and my kids will get hats for their noggins. Here is one of the shirts. I still haven't thought of something cool for the second one, but I am working on it.

A Monster of a Mobile

For my littlest monster. Cost of materials, zero. I love a bargain!

The Mary Benson House

For Christmas this year I decided to make shirts for all the women at the Mary Benson House in Asheville, NC. It is a treatment facility for substance abuse and they house seven women and their children. I made a shirt and a necklace for all of the mothers there, but since the turnover rate is pretty high (a sad statistic) I made some extra for any new mothers that come in. It won't cure them, but if it makes them smile just once during their long journey ahead then I am happy.

The Guitar Mobile

A new friend of mine liked the heart mobile that I made for Sophia and asked me if I could do a guitar one for her rock star son. Here is what I came up with.