Eva's birthday card

Emily asked why I never showed off the card I made for Eva's birthday, so here it is!

Cards!

I haven't made many cards the last few months (summer was too busy so I didn't push for orders), and of the ones I've made, I haven't really remembered to take pictures of...

HOWEVER, I recently got a card order for a card for a girl aged teen or older, two toddler girl cards, and two toddler boy cards. No other requests or requirements. AND I remembered to take pictures!

This is what I came up with:
(hard to tell, but the flower is three layers of textured paper flowers with a light green gem in the center)






(please excuse that these next two are pictured together; I was running out of space on my memory card!)


Connor wondered why I would make such cool boy cards for someone else and not HIM, so I will have to make him a "cool boy card" very soon, JUST BECAUSE!

Quack Quack

I recently donated a basket to Connor's preschool for their annual auction. I knit a white infant sweater (they requested gender neutral) with ducky buttons down the front, and I did a white hat with and clipped on a little hair clip I'd made (easily removable if the set was purchased for a boy). I also sewed flannel ducky material down the centers of three burp rags, and made 10 ducky-themed cards. Last, I included two rubber duck toys. I was sooo excited about this set, and the few people who saw it in advance were really going crazy over it. I expected it to do really well.

Come the night of the auction, Dan and I were perusing all the baskets in the silent auction, and I come across my donation. My heart sunk when I saw how they'd wrapped it all up. You couldn't see the fronts of the cards, the hat was buried at the bottom, the duck toys were hidden, and you could barely see the sweater (and they had it all folded so that you couldn't see any of the raised detailing on the sleeves or waist edge). Of course, there were no bids. I was extremely frustrated to have spent that much time making everything, only to have it shoved in a tiny basket and not displayed in a way that would show it off and make people want to bid on it! One of my good acquaintances came up behind me and saw the problem and took it upon herself to undo the wrapping of the basket and pull it all out so people could see everything. Not 30 seconds later, an announcement was made that that table would be closing in ten minutes. Three bids came through in that ten minutes, but most people had already come and gone from the silent auction area by that point, so everything in the basket only went for $38. In all honesty, I would have MUCH rather just handed them $40 and called it good, and saved the donation to gift to someone down the road... After the table was closed, I heard quite a lot of people commenting that they would have bid on the basket in a heartbeat if they'd known all what was in it!! GRRRRRR!! In the end, it brought $38 to the preschool that they didn't have otherwise, and the basket went to an extremely nice family, so I can't complain, but STILL, it's disappointing to put that much effort and excitement into something and then have it fall rather flat, by no fault of my own...

I do not have good lighting in my home, so excuse the bad coloring. The knit stuff is a nice bright white in reality




The burp rags


again, poor lighting... The cards are bright white with a nice bright yellow for the duck (light orange for the duck bill, and real feather tips for the wings)


Not to toot my own horn, but the ducky-themed basket was ADORABLE!

Recent Crafts

As promised, here is some of the stuff that has been keeping me busy these past few weeks!!

Here is a sweater/hat/mittie set I knit for my niece-to-be, Eva, as part of the gift I gave at the baby shower my SIL's sisters threw:


I wish the lighting were more cooperative! There's a very pretty shimmer to the yarn, as well as the buttons, while still being really soft (soft to touch, but also isn't stiff and bulky)

close-up of the hat:


This is a sweater/hat set my cousin Heather ordered to gift her sister, Heidi (who is due with a baby girl, Gracie, at the end of March)


These are larger sized, double-sided flannel receiving blankets and coordinating burp rags that I made my SIL and cousin, Heidi (they each got a set of what is pictured below):


I made them because I remember being really frustrated with the TINY, THIN store-bought receiving blankets. These should be big enough to actually swaddle a new baby, but are a good size to lay down as a play-mat or tummy-time mat as baby gets older. The coordinating burp rags were just something fun to throw in as an "extra". The gifts were a hit at the double shower my mom and I hostessed for my SIL and cousin Heidi, and another cousin of mine put in an order for boy-themed ones! yay!

Here is a gift bag and coordinating card set I made to gift the pink sweater set (crappy lighting, yet again): (I did go back after I'd taken the picture and add a raised square with the little shoe image to the gift bag as well. It just felt like it was lacking something without it)


some baby cards:






some birthday cards:








Of course there are a number of cards I totally forgot to take pictures of!!

As you can see, I've been pretty busy! Thanks for looking!

Crafts

Matching gift bag and card set I did for Emily's tap teacher:


You can't see the glitter glue I used to replicate snow for the trees and deer to be standing on, or the glitter glue snowflakes added on the white background. I think it all came out pretty cute! I need to do another set for Emily's ballet teacher, and one for her elementary school teacher. The boys' classrooms are both doing a group gift, and I'm not in charge of purchasing or wrapping so I'm off the hook!

oh! And you can't smell the peppermint scented Christmas tissue paper I found at Target! It was only 99 cents a pack (unless I read the price tag incorrectly) and you get several scented sheets in each pack. It was an impulse buy, and a fun one!

Emily's Dance Recital--Part Two

Emily and one of her best friends, Katie, before the recital (they hadn't been given their soldier hats yet)


Emily during the ballet performance


Emily during the tap performance


Emily and her cousin, Ali, after the recital


I hadn't thought about it enough in advance to actually follow through in time for the recital, but I wanted Emily to give both of her dance teachers thank you cards for their work in getting the girls ready for the recital, and choreographing everything, etc, so I spent some time Monday afternoon putting together a thank you card for each teacher. I thought it would be fun to use my new Cricut Cartridge (Everyday Paper Dolls) to try to create a card resembling the dance costumes Emily wore. The lighting in the picture STINKS, but you can get the main idea of the cards. I think they came out pretty well! (if I do say so myself...LOL)


I cut out a yellow football jersey then cut off the big shoulders and fringed it to use for the epaulettes, and cut strips for the shirt. I had to make the hat on my own. I realize now I forgot a little yellow brim, but o'well. I saw Em's ballet teacher receive her card, and she loved that it matched the girls' costumes. I didn't get to see the tap teacher receive her card, but Emily said she liked it.

My little dancing queen is already asking when she can have another dance recital...

Recent Crafts

I knit this sweater set for a fellow blogger's grandson-to-be at her request. It was the first knitting project I've been paid to do, and it was very fun! Made me wish my boys were babies still. I love this little set, but have zero desire to do them big enough to fit my boys at their current sizes!


This set was a gift for a girlfriend's new niece


This was a card I made for that same girlfriend for her birthday


And this is the card I gave along with the pink/purple sweater set (the darker color is actually a bright pink. The color showed up weird in the picture!)


And this card is a spin-off of the card I made my girlfriend. I really liked it, but it was going to be for my mom for HER birthday, and she likes the up and down style cards better than the sideways ones, so I fiddled. Now I'm not sure which one I like best!

New Baby!

Our neighbors had their new baby, Ryder Dean, on Tuesday. Emily and I got to meet him yesterday afternoon for the first time. The boys were both in a funk (J has a bit of a cough and CJ has a bit of a runny nose) so we left them home with Dan. Ryder is so tiny and new. I could have happily held him all day.



Here's Emily and Sydney (Ryder's big sister) holding him


Emily was so excited to head off and play with Sydney that she forgot we were there to visit the baby! ha ha! I called up the stairs and asked if she wanted her turn holding Ryder and she all but flew down the stairs in her hurry


We took him some presents:

Here's the little sweater I knit for him. It's the first sweater I ever knit, and although the pattern says it's sized for a newborn, it seems HUGE to me (even with the sleeves cuffed up)


better view of the buttons


The matching hat (which fits him NOW, but the sweater won't fit awhile, so they won't end up being a matched set afterall. LOL)


And here's a picture frame I decorated with cut-outs using my Cricut machine


I put his name down the one side


I used the trucks at the bottom to coordinate with this paper


I couldn't get a clear picture through the glare of the glass to show off the wording on this paper, but I really liked it and wanted to use it and it tied in color-wise! (it says things like "cute as a button", "bouncing baby boy", "my pride and joy", "sweet little angel", "love at first sight", etc)


and finally, here is the card

Happy Birthday Rinna!

My cousin's birthday is actually tomorrow, but I figure there's probably better blog traffic for wishing her a Happy Birthday TODAY!

We celebrated her birthday with her last Saturday by having a luncheon at our Aunt's house. This is the card that I made, to go along with the bottle of Juicy perfume that my mom, my cousin-in-law/friend Jessica, and myself gave her as a gift.

(I made it somewhat camo in honor of her boyfriend, who is over in Iraq right now)


Again, I apologize that it's blurry. Em's camera and I do frequent battles and I took no less than 15 pictures trying to get one that wasn't blurry. At least you can see it well enough to get the point...

Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY RINNA (tomorrow)! I hope you have a fabulous day. We ♥ you!

home-made card

I haven't been as busy making cards the last 6 months or so. Life has been extremely busy! I did make three in August and two in October, but of course, I didn't think to take a picture of a single one of them.

I made this one for our neighbor, Lily's, 8th birthday this past weekend (sorry it's a little blurry; Em's camera and I butt head rather often with this issue):

Paper Crafting

Here's the card I made for my friend Bree for her baby shower yesterday evening:


And because this is just the sort of person I am, I decorated the gift bag so it would coordinate with the card:




The gift was a hair wider than the front to back depth of the bag, so the top kept puckering open funny, which prompted me to tie it closed. That still didn't seem like just the right touch, so I whipped up a little tag that would hang down and finish everything off:

Valentines Cards

Here are the cards I made for the kids for Valentines Day:

Emily's


Jared's


Connor's


This is a picture my friend Kaci sent me. Hilarious!! LOL