Real Craft Projects!

In November I finally found some time and motivation to make some real craft projects.  Jerry and I don't have a wreath, and I was striking out on finding one that was affordable that we liked.  Instead I bought an ornament set for $5 from Target, a plain wreath, and some battery operated lights and made this:

 If I had been thinking I would have bought an ugly wreath from ARC or Savers and remade it, but I didn't think about that until after this was finished.  Next year it will need an upgrade.  I used the ties that came with the ornaments and they don't hold very well.  Shortly after it was hung, it was bumped off the door and is now missing a few balls.











This month I also signed up for an ATC swap again.  I made two cards - one a collage based on the Hunger Games district 7; the other done with water color pencil, is a Nativity scene.  I'm probably not going to do ATCs this month because I'm actually attempting to craft some Christmas presents.  Clara is crawling now, so I am finding I can only craft when she's sleeping.  Hopefully I manage to get everything finished!

Diving Back In (Little Projects)

I really haven't had much time for crafts since Clara was born.  In the last 8 months I've worked some on a couple of big projects, that will hopefully be finished before 2013, and the two projects in this blog.
First up we have a very failed experiment.  I finally signed up for Pinterest a few months ago.  This led to my believing I could paint my nails fancy if I just followed the directions others had posted.  Oh how wrong I was.  I found this pin on plaid nails.  They look great.  Then I tried it and got this

I won't be trying this again.
The good news is my second project came out great.  I've been reading about people making their own vanilla extract so I decided to try it.  This was facilitated by the fact that Jerry has been given about 4 bottles of vodka over the past year.  Some of my loved ones may be getting vanilla extract for Christmas.  If you want to make your own just do a Google search.  It's super easy!  The pic is just so you can see something that wasn't a complete flop :)  After it sat for the required time it was much darker, and tastes great.

Off to a Good Start

I've actually managed to finish more in January than I thought I would.  I'm posting my February post early to show off these goodies because I'm really hoping the baby makes an appearance this week!
Speaking of baby - my first finished project of the year is a baby blanket.  It's the OpArt baby blanket from knitty.com.  I used the recomended dk yarn from knitpicks and did the 4 skein version.  It took me a while to finish, but came out great.  Sometimes the easy patterns (this is all garter stitch with increases in the same place each round) take the longest because I get bored.  I started out joining the yarn in different colors by just dropping and then attaching the new color.  Since I hate weaving in ends I decided to Russian join about 1/2 way through.  It turned out ok, but the ends really poke out on the Knit Picks Swish.  If I use this yarn again I won't be doing a Russian join.

My crochet project for the month was a Coming Home Poncho for myself.  I finished it yesterday.  This is a pretty popular pattern based on the poncho that Martha Stewart wore when she was released from prison.  It's also a free pattern that can be found on the Lion Brand website.  I also used the recommended yarn for this pattern, Lion Brand Homespun.  Wow, two projects with recommended yarn - I've become a follower :o)  I used 3.5 skeins for this, and didn't do all of the border rows.  I was afraid I'd run out of yarn so stopped after the second row.  I like how it turned out and it's pretty cozy.  It's working great as a cover-up at work!

Finally I decided to do one more round of the ongoing ATC swap on craftster.org while I still could.  This round I only signed up for two people because I didn't want to risk not sending to someone on time.  The two themes I picked were glitter and steampunk.  I tried using acrylic paint on the steampunk card.  I actually like how these turned out and my sign up for more ATC swapping after the baby and I have a routine that allows crafting.  For the steamship it's not glittered, it's a sparkly paper that I thought would be fun.

Christmas Cards and 2012 Craft List

Now that all the cards have been sent out and, hopefully, received here are all of the lovelies that I stamped this year.  Some of them I made with my friend Renee, and some I just did at home by myself.  The picture quality isn't the best, so sorry about that.  My favorite cards where the set with the silver snowflakes and the red ornament.

I also managed to get one more crochet project done before the end of 2011.  This is a baby dress for our soon to be here little one. 

It was supposed to be a newborn size, but it's closer to one year by the time I finished blocking.  I used the Solomon's Knot Crochet Baby dress pattern which is free and can be found here.  Last Christmas my MIL gave me some wonderful sock yarn (Dream in Color Everlasting Sock in passion) that I used for this dress.  I've got about half a skein of it left and want to find something else lovely to make with it.

Finally, I'm posting my to do list for crafts for this year.  You may notice that it is pretty similar to the one from last year.  That's because I didn't add anything new, just kept the uncompleted stuff from 2011.  With the baby coming I'm not expecting to do 50 projects this year.  Last year I only managed 46.   I'm interested to see if I can stick with my list better in 2012, or if most of my projects will end up being from off list like they were in 2011.

2012 Craft List

Quilts

1.       My  quilt

2.       Christmas lap quilt

3.       Quilt kit from mom

Crochet

4.       Crocheted table cloth

5.       Violet Beauregard

6.       Phoenix Mitts

7.       Thrummed Mittens

8.       Papyrus

9.       Coming Home Poncho

Knit

10.   OpArt blanket

11.   Cable Rolling Socks

12.   Grace Cardi

13.   Old Navy Scarf

14.   Central Park hoodie

15.   Celtic Tote

16.   HoneyCowl

ATCs 

Christmas tags

Random gift tags

Scrapbooks

19.   Hawaii scrapbook

20.   Wedding scrapbook

21.   2006 scrapbook

22.   2007 scrapbook

Stamping/other paper crafts

23.   B-day cards for family

24.   Thank you cards

25.   Art journal

26.   Random event cards

Embroidery

27.   New embroidered pillow cases

28.   Punch needle quilt motifs

29.   Set of towels for on hand gift

30.   New set of kitchen towels for us

31.   Monogrammed hankie for Linda

Polymer Clay

32.   Polymer clay/bottle cap magnets

33.   Stitch marker beads

Household Crafty

34.   Sand/re-varnish deacons bench

35.   Refinish desk

36.   Shadowbox from Grandpa’s frame

Sewing (not quilts)

37.   Headbands

38.   Halloween costume

39.   Purse

40.   Reversible bags

41.   Cup cozies