Dr. Seuss Headbands

I find myself still crocheting Dr. Seuss items... you would think my hands would be a tangled-painful-mess after crocheting the sixty Cat in the Hat bookmarks I blogged about in my previous post, but they seem to be unfazed by it. So,  I made a "Cat in the Hat" headband with cat ears for my grandaughter to wear for the upcoming celebration on March 2nd. I used the pattern on Sarah's blog, "Repeat Crafter Me."

 I think it turned out pretty cute. I just hope she likes it and wants to wear it.

 It was a super easy pattern, so you guessed it, I whipped up a bunch more. No, not sixty. Just five in total. One for my grandaughter and her teacher. One for my grandson's teacher and the other two for the teacher's they had last year. I finished all of these in one day!

I probably should box up all my yarn and put it out in the garage so I can get some house work done.... Oh wait... I was going to Google how to do "Yarn Pooling" using variegated yarn.... no, no, no, walk away from the yarn. Box it up- box it up...
big hugs,
Cheryl

Dr. Seuss Day

Dr. Seuss day is fast approaching. This year it falls on Thursday, March the 2nd. It is also known as "National Read Across America Day." But "Dr. Seuss Day" sounds so much more fun! In honor of this fun-filled reading day at my grandkids school, I thought I would make them both a fun Cat in the Hat bookmark.
I found a crochet pattern online, I think I have it pinned to one of my Pinterest boards, either under "Crochet" or "bookmarks" any~who, the little hat bookmark whipped up pretty fast.
 
 So fast in fact.... that I whipped up sixty of them. Not only can my grandkids have fun with them, but their classmates can too.
 
big hugs,
Cheryl

Valentine Pockets

My friend Sandra gave me a little paper Valentine pocket (with chocolate in it) recently... and I fell in love with it, I fell hard. So simple--- yet over the top adorable. So, of course, I had to make a bazillion myself to pass out to some of my friends...

Currently, I am in the mindset of using what I have on hand... so the paper choices I made are not really Valentine themed---- but I don't think any of my friends will mind one bit.

Of course, I had to make it my own and switch things up a little bit, because that's how I roll. I made mine bigger and instead of pulling one side down, I kept both ends up.... and glued the front pieces into place creating a pocket on the outside as well as on the inside.

I wrapped a piece of chocolate in pink tissue paper and stuffed that into the larger pocket. 

 Here you can see the size difference. I punched a hole and tied the little pocket closed--- I decided after tying this one... to leave the rest untied so that my friends could get to their chocolate faster! I'm a good friend like that!Here are instructions on how to fold an origami cup/Seed Envelope if you would like to make some yourself. You need to start off with a square piece of paper, I used an 8"x 8" sheet of card stock scrapbooking paper to get the size I wanted. I stopped at the fourth step shown below and glued a piece of a gold doily over the edge of the outer pocket. It really isn't a true pocket as the bottom isn't fully closed, but it is perfect to hold a Valentine :-)
 
I can see myself making a lot more of these in the future. Saint Patricks day, Easter... maybe even using them as part of a place setting with names on them. I could even whip up some using maps and pass them out for our upcoming Pirate parties! Aaaarrrgggghhhh~ Thank you Sandra for the inspiration--- and of course, the chocolate!
big hugs,
Cheryl

Valentine Cupids

I bought a box of six Fontanini Angels (two of each kind) a few months back, I immediately thought of turning them into little Valentine Cupids!

I added some iridescent glitter to the wings and let that dry...
Next, I added fine gold glitter to each piece of the cherubs sash and let that dry. I then made each one a quiver covered in red glitter and added two arrows with each tip covered in pink fine glitter to finish them off.
Lastly, I added a ribbon hanger to each one before wrapping them up.

The photos make these little cupids covered in glitter to appear a little garish--- but in person they are not SO brash. I have talked  a bunch of my friends into having a Valentines day swap... of sorts. Ok-ok-ok, its a party with presents, yes, that's how I presented it to them! *wink* There is a group of six of us that get together to craft and visit with each other a few times a month... so I thought it would be fun to craft for each other.

I have already informed them that we are going to be having a "Saint Patrick's day" party too... Why should kids have all the fun right?
big hugs,
Cheryl

Tinker Bell House

A few months ago when I was in Los Angeles I popped into a thrift store that I always frequent when I'm there.... and purchased a small resin miniature domed house. I only paid $4.00 for this little resin house, what a deal! I thought it would make an adorable miniature house for a little Tinker Bell doll I have.  The outside of this house needed a good scrubbing, as did the carpet of dust that had accumulated on the floor of the mini-house. Yuck.

 There is a lot of detail in this little house-- that I figured just needed a few things done to it to bring it to life.

I painted the little mounded house to look like it was made up of rocks and dirt. I also added green moss, flowers and real rocks to the top of the domed house, along with some jewelry quality rhinestones for a little sparkle. For each window I vewwy-vewwy carefully added some plastic to the inside of each window frame. That alone took me three days to create, due to the fact once each window was set in place it took a full 24 hours for the glue to set up.

I love how the windows were created to look like they were made with sticks....
I think the moss really makes the entire piece come to life. 
Initially, I was going to create little bricks to hand set in place inside this little house--- but then I had an "ah-ha" moment when I was wondering what to do with a bag of glass seed beads I had recently bought for mere pennies--- use it for a flooring in the little house! I coated the floor with Modge Podge and poured in handfuls of beads and swirled it around until the floor was covered. Once the glued on beads had dried, I coated some Modge Podge over the top of the beads to help set them in place. So sparkly! I love it!

Once the house was painted inside and out and the floor was finished, I used E6000 glue to adhere the miniature house onto a thick substantial candlestick. Now it's coming together!

 I had plans to fully load up this little house with all kinds of miniature goodies..... I have a lot of miniature stuff!!! Most of these items shown below would be fabulous in a little country store.....

Miniature Christmas stuff?

I've got that too....

But alas, everything just seemed to big for this little house! Skunked again! For now I just have a little stool turned into a table with a few small mini's inside the tiny house.

I am thinking of furnishing the little house with handmade items that I can control the scale on. Also, adding little things like a thimble for a seat, a little tin box for a bed... etc. That would be super cute!

I had to style Tink's hair so she looked presentable.... Gosh, why do they put so much hair on these little dolls? Below you can see how she looked before I fixed her hair. She was a .25¢ find at a yard sale. I simply snipped off her pony tail, glued her hair to her head with Elmer's glue--- then rolled a little bun out of a few strands of hair from her pony tail--- and hot glued that sucker to her head. I also thinned out her bangs.

It is going to be fun to try different things inside this little house to get it furnished. Fun times, fun times~

Now, I'm on the lookout for a miniature store front and a little house I can make into Santa's workshop! 

big hugs,

Cheryl

Pencil Snap Bags

With the rainy/cold weather we have been having lately-- I have been staying indoors a lot more which of course is driving me bonkers! I'm such a big baby when it comes to cold weather. It is a running joke amongst some of my friends that I even survive the frigid cold... ha, ha...  I do live in California- not in a snowy-zero temperature state... I get the humor, but its cold none the less--- trust me. Trust.Me.
While perusing Pinterest, I found a tutorial for snap bag pencil cases. The tutorial is provided by the company "Therm-o-web" They use their product in the making of the pencil case... but, seeing how I didn't have any on hand- and I didn't want to go out in the freezing death-chill-cold & rain to get some, I made do with what I had on hand. I used a little spray adhesive and glued on a piece of felt in place of the fusible interfacing that the company had recommended using. It worked like a charm! What makes them snap open and closed is two pieces of a metal tape measure that is encased in the top section of the bag.  I think it turned out cute and it was easy peasy to make...

 So, I made 40...

and it is still cold out.*sigh*
big hugs,
Cheryl

Who-who...

Whooooooooo is selling Girl Scout cookies? My grandaughter, that's whoooooo~

Next month is the start of Girl Scout cookie sales for my grandaughter's Brownie troop. Every year she sells over 1,000 boxes of cookies!

I thought it would be cute for my grandaughter to pass out OWL coffee cup cozies along with a note advertising that if they would like to purchase some Girl Scout Cookies, that she had some for sale! I made a bunch of these owl cup cozies for her to pass out to some of the teachers and staff at her elementary school.

 You can't see it to well in these photos, but the little owls have an eyebrow that is 3 dimensional.

 They fit nicely over a coffee cup...

 I packaged up each coffee cup cozy with a label at the top proclaiming she has cookies for sale... and her room number *wink*.... (her last name and classroom number have been removed in this photo below) On the flip side of each package, I added a list of the Girl Scout cookies that they are selling this year. This of course should help those that are not familiar with which cookies are being offered.

 It was fun to dabble with a crochet hook again. With this colder weather upon us--- I just want to sit in front of my little heater and not move!
big hugs,
Cheryl