Starting with the cheer…

Yes…

 It’s starting…the homemade, creative, made with love goodness!!!! This time last year, one of my friends got me into card making (she’s really really good, much better than I will ever be!!, it’s TRUE C!!!) anywho, I love making homemade items, and giving them to people close to me. Not only does it save us moola, but it is also well recieved, especially those who are fellow crafters themselves…and shows the time and thoughtfulness of each item as well. (not to mention you can personalized certain things to suit each person!!)

I have started this tradition, and hope that it continues throughout the years. May I introduce, my first creations of the holiday season:

On the homemade kick, I also emphasize  re-using things that one would not normally use for holiday wrapping/giving. The first is a special treat for friends of ours, (the Kellers’- won’t say what it is, just in case they see this), I used wool felt and cardstock for the tag, I sewed the felt on using a zigzag stitch ( I really love this sewing on paper thing..it’s really cool!!!) , red ribbon, bells, and some cute christmas elements, and Voila! The wrapping is actually a paper bag, that I stamped with festive greetings, and added confetti stars too. I really love the way the tag turned out!

The second item was an old paint jar. I added pizzaz by adding scrapbooking paper, and wool felt flowers. This is going to be a mini pedicure kit, hence the “Pamper” tag on it. The third item is something I would give one of Taylor’s friends…it’s “Magic Reindeer Mix”…I know…wha???? (it’s oatmeal with glitter…shhhhh, don’t tell!!) but on the back of it, it says: “On Christmas Eve, sprinkle this magic reindeer mix on your lawn to guide Santa’s Reindeer to your rooftop. While Santa makes his special delivery inside, Rudolph and his friends can have a snack!”.

What a cute way to get the kids excited about Christmas!! I may have to make another for Taylor!

I’m also still making Christmas Clips, just not as enthusiastically as I want to be… I don’t have time!! ughh, I need to find some time this weekend, to crank out 15 or so… hopefully.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving!! Keeping with the Homemade topic, I leave you with my very special recipe for Homemade Cranberry Jelly!! it’s SOOO much better than the canned stuff, believe me! Hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Homemade Cranberry-Ginger Jelly

Ingredients:

4 bags of (fresh or frozen{thawed}) Cranberries.

4 cups of sugar

4 teaspoons, finely grated, peeled fresh ginger.

4 1/2 cups of water

2 tablespoons unflavored gelatin.

Directions:

1. Combine Cranberries, Sugar, Ginger, and 4 cups of water in saucepan. Cover, bring to simmer; cook, stirring occasionally, Until berries have burst and softened. *about ten minutes.

2. take off heat, and have a bowl ready for you to transfer the liquid into. Pass through strainer, pushing on cranberries, to extract liquid, making sure to catch all the liquid in the bowl. Discard the solids.

3. Meanwhile, sprinkle gelatin over remaining 1/2 cup of water, stir until softened. Add it to the cranberry mixture bowl. Stir gently until the gelatin has dissolved. You can either leave it in the bowl or transfer to your preffered dish.

4. Refridgerate in an air tight container, at least 4 hours before consumption (up to a week).

This recipe is perfect to make ahead of time!!

Enjoy!!

-G

New skin…

Decided to start all over with the blog, a redesign, if you will. So many projects that I have done in the past are now wiped clean, hopefully will be able to bring those out at a later time. For now, I want to focus on my newest adventure…Etsy. I have started to post things on my site, slowly but surely they will get on there. As many of you know, I am such an obssessed crafter, I tend to focus on one craft and devote all the time in the world on it (well…besides taking care of Tay throughout the day), okay…if I’m honest I’m happy if I get 2-3 hours to myself for this in the evenings. She decided to take an early nap, so I here I am devoting this extra time to get my blog re-organized. Right now, my latest obsession is Hair Clippies for little girls and Clippie holders, just look at some of these!

Make It and Love It (a blog by a mom,and fellow crafter), has a tutorial on how to make some felt hair clips, using the snap clips. here’s her Tute. Really easy, and super cute!

 

I have made a few felt clippies, and I can’t wait to make some more:

Will be adding the Matryoshka doll and Kimono doll to my etsy shop soon…

anyways, that is what is going on.

Elmo 2nd Bday Party!

(above: Tay in her new apron I made her with some of the superbuzzy fabric I had left over)

What a crazy, busy weekend it has been for us. Our little baby is no longer a baby!!! I can’t believe she is TWO years old!! Man, it’s true when they say that time flies… it’s no joke. I still remember taking her home from the hospital. This weekend we had her second birthday party at Lemos Farm… She had so much fun, and it looked like so did the party guests!  We did an Elmo party…Here are some pictures from this weekend:

some close ups of the party ideas:

Elmo Napkin Rings, with stamped Elmo, tied with some string. These were SO cute!

Goodies, in colored paper bags, tied with twine, and for added color, the same elmo tags as the napkin ties. Inside these bags: a rubber duckie, some stickers, a thing of crayons, small bugs, a small toy car, a bag of cookies, a small box of raisins, and some lolipops. Along with the goodie bags, the kids took home an elmo coloring book:

that were laid out on paper spread across the picnic table. Nearby were tins full of crayons, and decorating the table we a few of Tay’s elmo stuffies and elmo books. A cheap way of decorating, I’d say…and the kids played with some of the toys on the table, so it was a hit!

feel free to take some ideas!! I hope you have a great Elmo Party!! just let me know if you are going to be using some of my ideas! I’d love to hear from you out there!! What are some of your favorite cost effective party ideas?

Mommies Funding Research

Hey everyone,

please visit this amazing auction going on over at Mommies Funding Research!!!! (which you can also access by clicking the first blinkie on the side of my blog!)

This auction was formed by the July 2007 mommies over at the Babycenter website, when two of our fellow July mommy’s lost their little ones… you can read their bio’s over at Mommies Funding Research.

They have loads of items up for auction, the proceeds will go to Funding SMA and MPS research!

If you want to learn more about SMA click HERE.

If you want to learn more about MPS click HERE.

I have participated by offering up a personalized resin pendant, with a bead necklace…posted about it here.

In other news,  I have finished putting together my secret leftover’s surprise birthday gift!! I am sending it out today!! woohoo! I can’t wait til they recieve the package in the mail! Here’s a sneak peek at one thing I am sending:

(Tay is always my little model.. lol, it’s bigger, cause I want it to last a little longer!)

and YAY! My book came!!

Things I can’t wait to make from it:

(Baby clothes for my baby neice!)

Cute Dress!!!!

anyways, bye for now!! make sure you take a peek at items listed in the auction!!!!!!

-Gloria

Smocked Dress…

While Tay napped today, I decided to take that time and whip up that little smocked dress I’ve been dying to make for her. The pattern is in Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross… It a fairly simple dress to make, I think I got it done in about an hour…with time leftover for Mua! lol

I might have her wear this for her Birthday… I want to make matching bloomers with the 3/4 yard of fabric I have left over. I think Amy Karol has a pattern for bloomers in her book… so fun!!!

that’s all for now… will be back to post pictures from Lemos farm (tomorrow’s birthday party).. that should be loads of fun, and can’t wait!

-G

New Birthday Quilt for Taylor…

I fugured I would get started on Taylor’s 2nd bday quilt. I have never made one from a pattern before, so since I thought Iwould be taking my time on this one, I’d start early. I didn’t know it was going to be so easy!! I used a Bunny Hill Design pattern… their patterns are always really really cute, so I knew I had to get one, so I picked it up at “Always Quilting”.

and Decided on this one:

It’s a smaller quilt, just the right size for Tay. I’ve finished it, all but the binding…

Here’s what I have so far:

(don’t mind my embroidery, it’s awful, but from afar you can’t tell, and Tay isn’t as picky…lol)

on another topic, the “walk a mile” walkathon turn out was great! Taylor had so much fun, here are some picks from that:

It was SO much fun, and what a great way to help the community!

anywho, that’s all for now!

-GG

Waldorf Doll…

So, I’ve started to make Taylor a cloth doll. I’ve made a few already, but they didn’t come out the way I wanted them to, and plus I was sort of experimenting with different materials…don’t get me wrong, the first few are actually pretty cute, If I do say so myself:

And Tay doesn’t mind what they look like. I’ve given the little boy away to a friend, and also made another pink one for a friend as well.

As much as I like these, I wanted to try to make a more Waldorf  looking one, sort of like THESE.

So off I went on a new endeavor…

I came across THIS website, and decided to give it a try.  Upon that website, I stumbled upon THIS one, which provides a more detailed instruction. I know my hand stitching sucks, but Taylor doesn’t mind my workmanship very much, so went and got the fabric today.

here’s the Dollie in it’s beginning stages:

It took me four hours to put together…not too shabby, I suppose.

I have yet to embroider the face and mouth on, but it’s late, and I should be in bed. Rest assured, Taylor is warming my side up as I write this.

I’ll be sure to update once I’m finished. Unfortunately, because of the new CPSC law coming into effect in Feb. I can’t offer up any of my services to make any of you interested in one… Don’t know what I’m talking about? read HERE, and if that doesn’t clarify enough, here’s a BLOG that breaks it down. I’m truly saddened that my short crafting period is over, I mean, I can still make some stuff for Taylor, but no longer can make any money from it!! This is a real outrage, and I hope they are able to ammend this law, for many artist’s sakes.

Bye for now…

-G

Handprint Ornaments

Hello everyone,

I wanted to share with you a crafty idea for Christmas using your child’s hand print. These are really cute, and SO easy to make… this is my first tutorial, so bear with me, and sorry about the picture quality..(I had Tay down for her nap, so I couldn’t really turn on any lights, so the pictures may be a bit blurry, but I think you’ll get it)

Here is the finished product:

So, these are really sweet and you could make these for special gift tags, or just hand them out to family. I know Tay’s grandparents will love and cherish these, you could even put magnets on the back and use them for the fridge…the possibilities are almost endless.

 On to the steps: 

1.Items you will need: Assorted Colors of Felt (EcoSpun is the kind I use, since it’s a recycled material, and less expensive than wool felt), needle and thread (assorted colors), Glue Gun, white card stock paper, your child’s hand print, and small ribbon.

2. Trace and Draw your child’s hand on either another sheet, or straight onto the felt, and cut it out. You can use this as your template, or if you used a separate sheet, use that as your template. Cut out as many as you need. Cut out the back piece of felt, and a small contrasting heart to go in the middle of the hand.

3. Trace the back piece onto the card stock paper, and cut it out.

4. Write on the back of the card stock paper.  (I put my child’s name, year, and a small greeting.) Cut out a small piece of Ribbon.

5. stitch (blanket stitch, or whatever you like)  the hand print onto the back piece of felt. Stitch the heart (using the cute button method if you like), onto the hand.

6. Hot glue gun the Ribbon in place, on the back. Hot glue the Back card stock paper to the back so you are sandwiching the ribbon in place, with the message facing the right way.and voila! you are finished! See, very easy! and they turn out really adorably cute!

 

Enjoy! please leave a comment, if you are going to try this!

Homemade wooden Kitchen…Finished!

it’s all done! I took it home today…and it looks great! Taylor is sleeping now, but I can’t wait til she wakes up to see it out with her pots and pans on iit. Let me know what you think of it!

Here are some more pictures:

-G