Hanging on for Dear Life

Good day crafty people!

Today I'm showing you an ornament I made for a

friend for Christmas.
She loves frogs and I've had this pattern for a long time.

I put off making it, because I just knew it was going to

be a tough one to make.

I was so wrong.
I used cotton crochet thread, rather than a yarn.

Honestly, I think it would have been really big

if I had used yarn.

I was just to visit Mary for a week and I gave her the

ornament at that time and she loves him.

It won't be going on her tree though,

she wants him out all year round.

I think he turned out pretty cute.

If you are a crocheter, give it a try and see what you think.

Using a tiny hook and finer thread isn't as hard as you

would think.

And the results are so fun.

Thanks for visiting today.

I hope you'll come again soon.

Until then,

try something you think is out of your

skill set, it may not be.

 

Growing Candy Canes

Hello my faithful followers!

Sorry I've been pretty absent lately.
I've been busy with Christmas projects

and not a lot of time for posting, but I

will get back to it soon.

Today, I'm showing you what I did with 

Marie last Christmas season.

I decided to grow some candy canes with 

Marie and Asher.
I got a container with potting soil and

we planted a few "starlight mints"

you know those pink and white swirly

peppermints.

She was very excited to see what would happen.

We put the pot on the back counter near the window.

Low and behold the next time they came over,

the candy canes had sprouted.
The kids were very excited to see them grow.

The next time they came, their elves,

Bernadette and Bernard, came along and

they found the candy canes had grown even more.

And they just kept growing.

Here are both the kids, with G-Pa checking

out how much they had grown.

Look how big they are getting!

They grew into full sized candy canes!

Harvesting the candy canes.

So excited that we grew them.
Of course, I got clean ones once she was out

of the room.  I told her I needed to clean the 

dirt off.

She was so excited to take them home and show 

Mommy and Daddy what we grew.

Thanks for stopping by today to see what

I've been up to.

I hope you will keep checking in.
I'll be posting some of my Christmas projects soon.

Until we meet again,

do something magical with some kids!

 

General Cards from Stash

Good day my crafty followers.

Today I have a couple quick and easy cards 

to show you.

I had some pages from an old planner that my 

daughter gave me, so I decided to use them

for cards.

I simply fussy cut some of the flowers and leaves

for this one and adhered them to a card base.

I stamped a sentiment on the front and was done.

For this one, I simply cut the page to size,

and adhered it to a card front.

I then used a die set to cut the hello and it's

shadow and adhered them to the front as well.

It's hard to see in these pictures, but these pieces

both have some beautiful gold foiling on them.

The vellum in the lower card is gold.

On the inside of this card, you can barely see some

trim on the inside of the card.  
I cut a piece of polkadot card stock from one of the

pages just to give it a little pop on the inside of the card.

I do love how these cards turned out.

They were quick and easy to make

and used some more of my never ending stash.

Thanks for stopping by today.

I hope you have been inspired in some way

and will come again soon.

Until then,

use some of your stash!

 

Trunk or Treat

Hello crafty loving friends!

My granddaughter's school had a "Trunk or Treat" 

and we participated.  We had so much fun.

Marie chose the theme for the trunk and she decided on

unicorn, which didn't surprise any of us.

She is obsessed with unicorns! 

Here is my creative part of the day.
I decided to do unicorn hair.
I used my Pebbles chalks and colored my hair.

Since my hair is mostly white and gray, it was simple.

Marie loved it and wants me to color it again

for her birthday party, which, of course, will

be unicorn themed.

Here are the kids with G-Pa aka Yoda

Marie was Miraculous Ladybug and

Asher was Hulk.

Sara was Sully.

We handed out some great snacks as well as

stamps and temporary tattoos.

There were over 400 kids there and we gave out all

of our goodies.
We all had a fun time and would definitely do this 

again.

Thanks for stopping by to see what I've been up to.

I hope you will come again soon.

Until then,

use your craft supplies in a different way.

Note the links are only to give a reference so you can

see what the products are.
I didn't necessarily purchase from these sites,

except where specified,

and you may find better prices elsewhere,

I am in no way promoting any particular site.

 

Arts and Crafts with Marie

Hello craft lovers!

Today I'm going to show you a few things that my 

granddaughter, Marie, has made recently.

One day she was working away on a picture and 

when she was finished she was very excited to give it to

Mommy.  When Sara arrived and Marie gave it to her, she knew

right away that it was their cat that had passed away a couple

years ago.  This is a picture of Poo Poo Kitty and I think

she did a great job.

I bought a few of these wood masks for the

kids to color, Marie, of course, had to do the 

cat.  Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of

Asher with his dog mask.

And Marie also colored a jack o lantern.

She is learning little by little how to give expression to

her drawing.  She put the V between the eyes to show that

the jack o lantern was angry and mean.

And there's the artist behind the masks!

One day when I brought Marie home after school, she got 

out of the car and found a stick, a leaf, and a petal from a 

flower.  She picked them up and said "I can make something

with these."  As soon as she finished her homework,

she got started.
She used a piece of card stock and I helped her glue

the stick onto it.  She was making a tree. 

The leaf was a little too big, so she decided to tear a piece

off to make an appropriate sized leaf and then added the

petal for a flower.  She drew more branches onto the

tree and added a few extras on top in the form of 

different shapes.

Our girl was so proud of her work.

And this is where she really takes after G-Ma!

She had a Slurpee and the top was sitting on the counter.

She pulled it over and said

"Hmmm, can't waste any garbage.  I'll just color on this."

She didn't get much coloring done on it, because it was

dinner time.  But she agrees with the saying
"Everything is a craft supply, until proven otherwise"
as said by Pam at the Paper Outpost

I have so much fun with Marie, she is my crafty girl

and has a great imagination and so many ideas.

Asher, our grandson, is 2 and he's starting to love

arts and crafts too.

Thanks for stopping in today to see what's been going on 

with me.  I hope you have enjoyed your visit

and will come again soon.

Until then,

encourage someone to craft.

Found In My Stash

Good day crafters!

The other day I was straightening things up

in my space at My Happy Place and 
I found a few pieces that I had made a while

ago, but had never made into anything.

I made this card from one of those pieces.

Quick and easy since it was mostly done for me.

I trimmed it and adhered it to a card base.

I found the Thinking of You stamp in my stash

and used that to make this an any occasion card.

The inside is blank, so I'll add a sentiment when 

I'm ready to use it.

Easy peasy.

I do love when I find something that is ready

to use and I can whip up a card in no time at all.

Thanks for stopping by today,

come again soon.

Until then,

check out your stash and see what

surprises you find.

 

Halloween Cards for the Grandbabies

Hello crafty people!

I love to make cards to send my grandbabies for

holidays.
Here are the cards I made for them this year for

Halloween.

I have a small stack of burlap paper and decided

it would be perfect to use for their cards

I cut out a pattern with scrap card stock

and traced it onto the back of the

burlap papers, then cut them out.

For the background on the pumpkin, I inked

some clouds for the sky and

cut green paper into grass.
I love googly eyes, so used them for the 

eyes on each card.

I stamped the background on the spider card

with a stamp from my stash and

black ink.  I hung the spider with some 

black thread glued to the card.

Inside the cards I used a simple 
Happy Halloween

greeting.

I think the kids will like receiving these cards

 in the mail.

Thanks for stopping by today.

I hope you will stop in again soon.

Until then,

make a kid smile!

 

Koi Basket

Good day my friends!

My girls keep me busy with projects

for their business.

They wanted a basket that would be a pond for

the Koi fish that they make.

Kelsie and Sara chose the yarn and I made

this basket.

They didn't want it to be totally round, so I made it a 

bit more oval.

And it's not too deep.  

The love how it works with their little

Koi, which are a very popular item for

Clumsy Cloud Gifts.

People love these little fish,

by the way his name is Kevin the Koi.

Thanks for stopping by today,

come again soon.

Until then,

try something new.

 

Wedding Layouts - Family

Hello and welcome!

It's been 2 & 1/2 yrs since our daughter got married,

and I'm finally getting close to the end of 

creating their wedding scrapbooks.

Yes, I said scrapbooks.
When I did Jaryd and Sara's books I ended up with

6 full books.

I'm sure Kelsie and Brad's will be just as many books.

Today I have a couple layouts to show you.

These are a couple of our family layouts.

I love these pictures of Dave with Kelsie.

So many beautiful pictures that it was hard to not

 choose all of them.

This layout is Dave, Kelsie and Me.

I love how this turned out.

I wanted to do something a little different,

so I cut the large heart with the same paper

as the other background page.
All the flowers were stamped on coordinating 

papers and fussy cut and arranged on the page.
I've really enjoyed working on these

layouts for the wedding.
Now just to finish them all and get them

together for a Christmas gift for 

Kelsie and Brad.

Thanks for popping in to see what I've been up to.

I hope you have been inspired in some way and

will come again soon.

Until then,

try something new and different.

 

Clouds for Clumsy Cloud Gifts

Hello craft lovers!

Today I'm showing you some clouds I made

for my girls and their business.
Their business name is 

Clumsy Cloud Gifts.

They asked if I could make some clouds

to hang in their booth at craft shows.

Of course, I said sure.

I bought a yard of white felt at Michael's.

Did you know that Michael's now sells fabric?
They have some beautiful choices and the prices

are fabulous.

I created a cloud on my computer and printed it out

in 3 different sizes.  The clouds were traced onto the felt

then cut out.

I stitched around the edges with the left over crochet thread

from the doilies I made for them and stuffed them

with a little poly-fil.

I think they are going to look cute hanging in their booth.

Thanks for stopping by today,

I hope you will come again soon.

Until then,

use your talents to make something fun.

 

First Day of School Shirt

Hello crafty friends!

Marie started kindergarten a couple weeks ago.

Hard to believe she is almost 5 yrs old.

I made a shirt for her to have her picture taken in.

It says Class of 2037 on the front and I made an

XL pink shirt, as pink is, at this point, her favorite

color.  The idea is to take her picture in it the

first day of school every year.

When she graduates from high school,

all the pictures can be displayed at her

graduation party or in a scrapbook.

She is very proud of her little wild flower

garden behind her, so this is the perfect place

to have her picture taken.

Gosh I love that little girl!

Thanks for stopping by today,

I hope you'll come again soon.

Until then,

be creative!

 

I Love You Cards

Hello everyone!

Today I'm sharing a couple cards I made for my 

grandbabies.

Every now and then I like to send them cards, just to 

let them know I'm thinking of them and love them.

After all, who doesn't love to get snail mail, 

especially when you are 2 and 4 yrs old?!?!

This card was made for Marie, she is 4 yrs old

and she loved the funny bird I put on the front of

this card.
Inside I wrote, "Flying by to say I love you."

This card was for Asher who is 2 yrs old.

Inside I wrote "Sending you a big sloppy kiss."

He loved the dog on the front.

Both these cards were made with things from my

stash.  I had already stamped the images and 

colored them with colored pencils.

Thanks for stopping by today,

I hope you will come again soon.

Until then,

send someone a card for no reason.

 

Doilies for Clumsy Cloud Gifts

Hello everyone!

My girls, Kelsie, my daughter and Sara, my daughter in law,

have a business called Clumsy Cloud Gifts.

A little while ago they asked me to make them some 

doilies for their display.
These are just 2 of the doilies I crocheted for them.

Unfortunately, I totally forgot to take pictures of the others

that I made for them.

This heart was the last one I made, with the crochet 

thread that was left after making a bunch of others.
I love how it turned out.

This is one of the purple ones I made for them.

It doesn't lay totally flat, but that's okay, as it works for

what they need it for.
All the doilies I made for them, I made up as I went.
I kind of fly by the seat of my pants on these.

They are happy with them and that's the most important thing.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you'll be back again.

Until then,

think something up and make it!

 

Pillows for the Grandbabies

Good day everyone!

Today I'm showing you a crochet project that I did for 

my grandbabies.
One day I has some very small scraps of yarn and Marie wanted

me to make a pillow out of them.  I explained that those

small pieces weren't enough to make anything.
So of course, in her 4 yr old wisdom, she told me that

I could just buy more.  Ha ha ha, of course, I did.
Her favorite color is pink and that's what she wanted.

She also told me she didn't want a small pillow she wanted a bigger

one.  Again, I did what she wanted.  NO! I don't spoil her, not at all!

I used Bernat Blanket yarn for the pillow, so it's 

very soft and hugable.
She loves it!

I couldn't make one for Marie and not make one

for Asher, so I got some yarn for him too.

He loves his pillow and has to have it to sleep with

just like "Moonie" his lion. 
They were simply double crochet all the way and 

crocheted together around the sides.
They are stuffed with "fiber fill"
Now Marie would like a blanket made with the

same kind of yarn, but she wants it to be

in pink and purple.

Asher says he wants one too.
Christmas is coming kids!

I told her that I'd need to buy a lot of yarn for a

blanket, so now she's going to ask Santa for yarn for 

me to make her a blanket.
She'll be surprised when she opens that blanket from me.

Thanks for stopping by today.
I hope you've been inspired in some way and

will come again soon.
Until then,

start working on Christmas gifts.

 

Barclay Family Vacation Shirts

Hello crafty people.

Sorry I haven't been posting lately, things have

been a little crazy around here.
Today I'm showing you some shirts I made for some friends.
They were going on their annual family vacation and 

wanted shirts for all 11 of them.
I'm sorry the pictures aren't the best, but you'll get

the idea.

This was on each shirt.

Here are the 3 generations of shirts together.

Our friends are the grandparents so they had

all three generations on their shirts.

Here's a closer look at their fish.
Fish was the "theme" of their vacation.

Their kids and spouses had the 2nd generation

of fish.

The grandchildren had the 3rd generation.

I loved designing and making these shirts.
But I did make it a big job for myself.

Between all 11 shirts I had over 250 pieces of 

vinyl to cut, weed and press onto the shirts.
It took a while, but it was totally worth the effort,

and they loved how they turned out.

Thanks for stopping by today to see what I've been

up to.  I hope you'll come again soon.

Until then,

make something fun!