Jewelry Dilemma

So, we had a yard sale this past weekend. My mom was going to be in town, so she said that she would bring up my Grandma's old jewelry so that we could put it in the garage sale. I was in a rush, but I quickly opened the "jewelry box" and found countless clip-on earrings inside. Seriously... how could I sell those awesome earrings? My grandma didn't have a lot of money so they aren't expensive real jewels, but they are totally cool, vintage clip-on earrings, nevertheless.

I even found a pendant in there from when my Grandma was the fire chief of the first all women's fire department in her small town of Kanarraville, UT. That thing is priceless... not garage sale material.

So, here is where I need your help!!! What do I do with all of these earrings??? Do I just stick them in my cedar chest and pull them out to look at every few years? Or do I make something out of them? And what do I make? Please leave a comment and give me suggestions!!! This is my grandma's so called "jewelry box." I for sure know what to do with that! It holds 12x12 paper. I've been wanting something to organize my scraps.... yeah! I think this will work.

-Anisa

Got your thumbs in a bind with yarn left-overs?

UPDATED! Scroll down I've been doing a lot of crocheting lately. Amigurumi, fashion scarves, bracelets for my daughter, more amigurumi... Now I have a lot of unused bits of yarn. I found a great, very easy project in Crochet! magazine which I check out from my local library. It is a pet mat/cushion for inside animals that need a place to sit and stay. You simply use your yarn scraps by crocheting in the round, making a long tube that you stuff with poly-fiber-fill. You spiral the tube around itself, sewing as you go, until you have a pad for a pet to sit on. (I'm not done. I estimate that I have 60% more to do.) My little sister's dog, Sadie, is going to love this when I finish it. This project is reminiscent of those old braided rugs that many of our grandmothers had in their homes at some time or another. I like doing things like this while watching movies with my husband. I like to keep my hands busy. Now that I've gotten this far with the project, I'm going to work on designing large amigurumi snakes following a similar pattern to this. I know my boys will LOVE them. Another note on crochet, check out the Free Form crochet movement via http://www.freeformcrochet.com/ or http://www.marloscrochetcorner.com/freeform.html It's definitely unique and those who do it, liken it to painting with yarn. Even Björk Guðmundsdóttir likes free form crochet. Sydney asks: So how do you sew it together? My grandma used to make rugs kind of like this. I want to try! Reply: The instructions say to use a tapestry needle. I was going to weave in and out and use yarn (since it's thicker and will bind it strongly), sewing as I coil it. I'll do it through the center of the tube so that it won't be visible.

May Wood Craft Classes

I (Anisa) teach wood craft classes in my home. I live in South Jordan, UT. You come to my home, paint and assemble your craft and go home with a completed craft. If you don't live nearby, I am willing to ship the unfinished wood. If you have your own saw, you can buy my patterns here. - Anisa (anisascholes@gmail.com)

May Craft Classes

Dates:

Tuesday, May 18th 10am-noon

Thursday, May 20th 6pm-9pm

Saturday, May 22nd 10am-noon

Mushroom & Snail: $12

(this is kind of small... it's about 8" tall by 10" wide)

Gnome Yard Stake: $18

(can also be a shelf sitter)

Hanging Frog: $15

Bug Trio: $10

(stands $5)

Black Apple Doll Party... so much fun!!!

So, I wanted to post the pics of the girls and their dolls. This turned out to be so much fun.

They are so great because they each have their own characteristics. The girls picked their fabric, felt hair color and all of their embellishments. They even painted their own faces on. It took us almost 2.5 hours to complete the dolls. I did all of the sewing, but the girls did the rest. They cut out the fabric, stuffed, drew on faces, etc. They all loved their dolls and had tons of fun chatting while they worked!!! -Anisa

Sunshine Award

A big Thank You to Jennifer at Because I Can Crafts for awarding us the Sunshine Award!!! It's always nice to know there is someone out there that loves what we do!!! The Sunshine Award, is awarded to bloggers whose positivity and creativity inspires others in the blog world. The rules for accepting this award are:- Put the logo on your blog or within your post, Pass the award on to 12 bloggers, Link the nominees within your post, Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog, Share the love and link to the person from whom you have received this award.

So, here are my 6 favorite blogs...

1. Maggies Holmes Photography and Scrapbook Blog... She used to live across the street from me and I just LOVE her scrapbooking style! I also love her photography.

2. UCreate... I just have to go to her site whenever I am looking for a new creative idea.

3. Nanny Goat... Cute ideas that are my style.

4. Games for Family Night... easy, simple, ready to print FHE lessons.

5. Dear Lizzy... love her scrapbooking style.

6. Make it and Love it.... The blog has a totally new look and it's even better than before.

-Anisa

And six of my (Cami's) favorites:

1. A Beautiful Mess -Once a Creating Keepsakes darling, Elsie is an individual in a sea of crafters. She's adorable to boot and has a really fun personality. Lately, she's been adding mini-tutorials to her blog.

2. How About Orange-A fabric designer with a fantastic sense of humor and self. She has great ideas, finds great stuff at Etsy.com and occasionally has a great internet time-waster on there for fun (or inspiration). Tutorials and photo-fun as well.

3. Craftaholics Anonymous-This girl oozes clever creativity with the power of using-your-supply-stash

4. The Purl Bee- This is mainly a knitting site, but they have crochet as well, but truly, I like visiting because it is an absolutely lovely site.

5. My Mama Made It- So creative when it comes to sewing. I have little blips of sewing skills, but this woman oozes skill. I LOVE the kids' clothes.

6. Ric-Rac- Lots of fun here! Toys, dolls, felt, vintage charm, sewing...

-C

Chained Daisy Pin

It's Teacher Appreciation week at my son's school and we LOVE his teacher. When he told me that her favorite flower was a daisy, I wanted to do something crafty as a little gift for her. I came up with the Chained Daisy Pin. First of all, I crocheted this daisy (found in 100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet by Lesley Stanfield)Instructions: Chain 6 with yellow yarn and join with slip stitch into a ring. Chain 1 then 11 single crochet in ring (12 stitches). Using white yarn continue [11 chain, slip stitch in next single crochet] twelve times in each single crochet from the first round. Fasten off and weave in ends. Next, I lightly misted the flower with water and gently stretched and shaped the petals to how I want them to look and let that dry flat. I cut pieces of moss colored felt freehand: one petal and two circles for mounting the flower. I used embroidery floss (1 and 2 ply) to bring it all together.

Taking the larger circle, I sewed on the brooch mount.

You may be tempted to use hot glue.

Don't.

Hot glue doesn't like metal, long term. Sewing holds it closer and looks so much better.Sandwich the leaf (make sure it's where you want it in relation to the brooch mounting pin) in between the two circles and whipstitch around the smaller circle, joining all three felt pieces.When flower is dry, use tiny stitches with floss to attach petals to the felt. You want the petal tips to have free movement, so stitch around the edge of the larger circle and leave them free. Just make sure you stitch into each side of each petal to keep it lying flat.Here you have it!

I used a size G crochet hook and worsted weight yarn. Any variations with make the flower larger or smaller.

--C

Scrapbooking Again!!!

So, I had to get a job about 5 months ago. The job is dumb.... I answer phone calls for people who call in to buy stuff from infomercials. But, I get to work from home in my PJ's in my craft room. I can't complain too much. So, for the past couple of months I have been spending my time at work getting ready for the boutique. I have to admit I made everything for the boutique while I was at work. I can even sew on slow nights.

So, after the boutique was over, I found myself a little bored. I haven't quite come up with any projects for myself... yet. So, I decided to catch up on a little scrapbooking.

This layout is a 11x8.5 of my two boys and their "bling" necklaces my dad gave them.

This layout is a 6x6 of my baby at 16 months.

We do have a blog where we post our layouts occasionally. It's called Twiddle Scraps. I may be posting some of my other layouts there, so check it out!!!

Black Apple Doll Party!!!

Now that the Seedlings Craft Boutique is over, I can start working on my own crafts:) Not quite. Maybe next week.

So, I had a friend ask me if I would teach her daughter and 3 of her friends how to make Black Apple Dolls for her daughter's birthday party. How fun is that. This little girl is turning 11 and it was her idea to do this for her birthday. My husband said that I'm the clown at the birthday:) Anyway, I am going to bring my stash of supplies and teach/help these 4 little girls make Black Apple Dolls. I hope all goes well... these little dolls can be kind of tricky. I made a couple of new dolls to just refresh my memory of how they are made. Loving them!!!

-Anisa