Wood Carved Blocks - Just Something I made

I recently made my niece some custom wood-burned blocks for her 1st birthday using my trusty wood burning tool and some pre-cut wood blocks from my local craft supply store.

My original intention was to decorate each block with one letter and add one or two designs, leaving some sides bare on each block. Somehow they just did not feel complete, so before i knew it, my birthday present was belated, but I had all 6 sides covered!  

Each woodland themed design you see is my own, which I first sketched on paper, then on the block, finally burning with a wood burning tool (similar to a soldering iron).

The font for the numbers and letters shown in the above images is Cooper Black, a serif font that should come standard on your PC or Mac.

I hope my niece has a ball (or a cube) with these blocks!

 I also hope to reuse some of these designs in other projects soon!

Twine and Rope DIYs to Try!

I recently ordered 5 thousand feet of twine by mistake (don't ask). And while I will be using it to wrap up packages from my online sales, business is not THAT good. So since I am stuck with a giant spool of twine that could double as an ottoman, I though I'd try a few projects:

Clockwise from top left:

Make a rope bracelet from a shoppoing bag from B is for Bel

Make pretty little twine wording signs with Green Wedding Shoes

Make wine balls for decorating with Ada's Interior Design

Make twine wrapped Letters with Sense and Simplicity

Make a rope wall or room divider with The Brick House

Make a Spool Side Table with Flamingo Toes

Make twine wrapped flower pots with Shelterness

Make a Felt Heart Puzzle: Guest Blog Post!

Today's Tangram-esque Heart Puzzle Tutorial comes to us from Jen of An Evergrowing List. Jen is my first guest blogger, so please make her feel welcome :)

Take it away Jen!

. . . . . .

I have had this on my pinterest for awhile now but haven’t gotten the time to make it happen. With Valentine’s Day coming up fast I figured I’d make a heart version first.

After browsing the internet a bit without coming up with anything I liked I made my own pattern (and a tutorial for you). This project can be done very simply with no sewing or a bit more complexly with some sewing involved. Choose your own adventure!

Materials:

red felt (or a color of your choice)

printable pattern

scissors

chalk

sewing machine (if sewing)

red thread (if sewing)

Directions:
Print out the pattern. You can enlarge it or make it smaller depending on your wants and needs.

 

I made a sewing allowance around each piece only to realize later it wasn’t necessary. Oops! You can see in this picture the pieces I end up combining.

 Cut out the pieces. I ended up combining some of the smaller pieces to make it easier for myself to make and my son to solve (he’s 3). You can do the same or keep it the way it is.

I realized here that I only needed to cut out one of each shape since some of them repeated. I made sure to write on the pattern how many I would need of each piece. Since I sewed mine I made 2 of each pattern piece.

Using the pattern pieces as a guide, trace around each piece with chalk onto your felt. If you plan on sewing the pieces make two of each piece to sew together. Cut out all the pieces from the felt.

 If you don’t plan on sewing you’re done! Put the pieces together in their heart shape and enjoy.

If you plan on sewing match each of the pieces into pairs. Sew almost around each shape leaving room to turn them inside out.

You can see here how much room I left to flip the pieces inside out.

 Flip each piece inside out using a chopstick or pencil to push out the corners. Iron each piece on the polyester setting to insure your felt doesn’t stick to the iron.

Sew all the way around each piece or close the pieces with a blind stitch. You’re finished!

 My son has really enjoyed trying to make the heart puzzle as well as making other shapes with the pieces. I hope you enjoyed my tutorial and come check out more at my blog, An Evergrowing List!

Simple Embroidery Ideas for Valentine's Day

There's something really charming about a simple hand stitched embroidery. Embellishing handmade or store bought items with one could make for the perfect thoughtful little Valentine's day gift :)

Images Clockwise from top left:

X-Stitched Hand Warmer DIY Tutorial at Instructables

Free Hug Bot Pattern from Sublime Stitching

Hand Embroidered Rose Sachets from TheStoryofKat

Zipper Pouch from allisajacobs 

$5 pattern from FlapperDoodle

Make a Coffee Sleeve for Your Valentine

Valentine's gifts can get way out of control (you won't see any dissapointment from me when I do not receive a diamond tennis bracelet or an open heart necklace :). I do have fun giving cards and making thoughtful little crafts though, like this coffee sleeve from Smilemonsters. I may have to make myself one so I can cover up the beer glass I usually drink my morning tea out of!

 How will you celebrate Valentine's Day?

Twig Christmas Tree

I love this Christmas tree! I can never justisfy buying a real one for our place, considering it's just the two of us, and we are usually celebrating somewhere else. I am a sucker for the holidays though and love to get into the Christmas spirit, which often means driving my husband bananas by listening to Christmas music on December 1st. Let's see what he thinks of me making a twig tree like this one from The Art of Doing Stuff. :D

To Craft Show or not to Craft Show? A Realization.

Last Year I sort of swore off craft shows. Why you ask? Don't get me wrong, for the buyer, they are an excellent way to find unique gifts at reasonable prices. For the seller however, they can be a lot of work with little return. Even at the good ones, it's hard to offset the cost of the entry fees, sales commission, table rentals, and the countless hours of preparation and transportation of all my breakable houseware items. To top it off, I had an item stolen at the last one I did. An item so special to me, it was marked "not for sale". FINE. NO MORE CRAFT SHOWS.

 Fast forward one year to the 2011 holiday season and I am in a bit of a funk. Aside from one or two things, I haven't listed many new designs. To be honest, I haven't even had much holiday spirit. Needing some inspiration, I decided to hit a few local boutiques on small business Saturday. While perusing the aisles, I felt the glimmer of excitement I once had discovering new treats while meeting my fellow vendors at craft shows. Not only did I find many unique gifts, I recognized many Etsy seller's items on the shelves. How awesome to see these artists' handmade creations in the flesh! At one location, a vendor was carefully restocking her shelves with her husband as I browsed her darling laser cut ornaments. With a sparkle in her eye, she stepped aside and struck up a conversation as I made my selection. Then it really hit hit me. THIS, this is why I do craft shows. It's discovering something new while meeting new people with a common passion. It's the excitement of knowing that a stranger might choose to spend their hard earned dollars on my creation. So there I was, now wanting to participate in some way in a Holiday Craft Show on November 26th, with surely no way to do so.

Enter Melinda of Dress and Nest. Like a little Handmade Holiday angel, she sent me an email with a last minute invitation to participate in The Perfect Winter Pop Up Shop. With music, drinks, and shopping, not only does this sound like a great time on a Saturday night, but it may be that kick in the pants I was looking for. And the bonus? Tables and linens provided, and no entry fees or commission taken! Only a donation of five $5 dollar drink tickets for five lucky visitors. It's win-win. Thanks Melinda!

Hope to see you all there!

Alternative Christmas Tree

If you don't have the space or money for the usual Christmas tree, or are simply looking for something different, check out In The Loop by CB2 for some unique ideas!

Recycle Plastic Bags Into Beautiful Little Vessels

A beautiful, functional new use for old stuff: turn those annoying plastic grocery bags into cups, bowls, and vases! Fabulous idea and lots more wonderful images from Supercyclers found via PoppyTalk.

Make a Sock Monkey Hat

As my mom always says, "sock monkeys bring joy to everyone". Well now you can spread some joy by making this adorable baby sock monkey hat with a tutorial from Do Ah Diddy. My cousin Juleah made the one pictured here for her little boy (also pictured here - could he be any cuter?). She claims this was her first crocheting project, but I think she must be lying. Closet crocheter!

 Thanks to Juleah for sharing this idea and beautiful picture of her little boy, who certainly needs no sock monkeys to bring joy to those around him.

Need some general crocheting tips? Check out these helpful videos on You Tube from Crochet Geek!

Make a Wine Stopper with a Drawer Pull

I've had my eye on all those cute drawer pulls at Anthropolgie for quite some time. I was just sure they were a craft project waiting to happen, but never actually got around to making it so. Well, the clever girls at the Spotted Fox have done it and you can too! Check out their tutorial for these wine stoppers here.

Wall Art to Make with Paint Chips

Make something unique on the cheap with paint chips! I have to wonder how many paint chips are walking away from home improvement stores these days to be used for crafty projects and not for paint sampling ? :)

Clockwise from top left:

Geometric Wall Art from Angelina La Dawn via Iamalongfortheride

My personal favorite paint chip art from the 3 Rs blog. Check out the other color schemes!

Circular paint chip art from the 3 Rs blog.

Letterpress Paint Chip art by Paper Stories found via Not Beige

Wall paper paint chips via Pageslap

Creative Wedding Gift Wrap Ideas

It's wedding season, and unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your personality :), wedding registries don't leave much room for creativity in your gift giving experience. Well, get your creative juices flowing again with some not so run-of-the-mill gift wrap!

Images clockwise from top left:

1. Use vintage stamps and twine to embellish plain brown craft paper. Perfect for destination weddings or for the couple who loves to travel. Found on Signed By Tina.
2. Create dramatic gift wrap with hand cut silhouettes of the bride and groom. See more at Woman's Day.
3. Give your husband or wife something they can re-use after opening their gift, with reusable gift wrap from Chewing the Cud. Many more styles available!
4. Create a unique keepsake for the bride and groom with vintage scrabble tiles. This one is on a pillow, but could work just as well on gift wrap. Found via Creation Inspiration

Do you love this collection as much as I do? <3

Fun Magnet Projects

These magnets are so freaking cute, they make me want to clutter up my fridge with all sorts of stuff!

Clockwise starting at the top left:

Pantone Magnets from How About Orange. I want to try this with paint chips!

Vintage Milk Bottle Magnets from Design Sponge

Tiny Polaroid Magnets from Ambrosia Girl.

Miniature Terrarium Magnets from ThatSovietGuy

Wedding DIY and Inspiration: It's All In The Details

Sarah from Deeds and Petunia has just debuted her beautiful Online Magazine, "It's all in the Details", a Wedding e-zine with lots of easy tutorials and really inspiring photos. Take a peek here and then stop by her blog to show her some love! You may even just spot some familiar items and pick up some discounts while you are at it :)

Inspirational e-Zine: At Home with Valley & Co Spring Edition!

Here is just a preview of the inspiring online magazine just issued by the talent over at Valley and Co. Whether you prefer a good cocktail or are a teetotaler, this edition has lots of entertaining tips for you. Pictured above is just one of many spring brunch ideas featured (in which my new hand printed plant marker placecards just happened photographed :). The spring magazine also offers many beautiful wedding and honeymoon ideas, all presented with eye catching photographs. Read the full edition here now. Enjoy!

DIY: Not So Boring Magnet Board

Ok, this is not rocket science, but it is a cheap an easy way to turn a run of the mill magnet board into a functional piece of art for as low as 16 bucks. Get yourself a metal magnet board (Ikea has them in several fun colors) and then find a vinyl sticker that speaks to you (Etsy has a TON of them) and voila! you have a magnet board that can hold lots of useful notes and look good while doing it!

Below are mock-ups of the two I made (stickers not necessarily to scale) for my home office using vinyl stickers from Byrdie Graphics ($3) and Vinyl Fruit ($17, but I could not resist the kleptomaniac sasquatch!).

DIY Bridal Clutch

The Wedding Chicks  created a tutorial for this cute little clutch good for weddings and non-wedding occasions. It looks so easy to sew, I might even give it a try (I will try to resist the urge to use fabric glue :).  Found via One Pretty Thing.

DIY Gold Leaf Embellished Rocks!

Use these simply beautiful gold-leafed river rocks for a wedding decoration or favor or a fun little holiday gift. Aren't they amazing??? Get the easy how-to over here. Found via Design Sponge.

DIY: No Carve Pumpkin Idea

Tired of all the mess associated with carving Jack-O-Lanterns? Try your painting skills with this idea from Good Housekeeping!