Just happenings

I haven't had a lot of time for projects lately. I did host card club. I need to post those pics. It was fun. I have been trying to organize and start thinking about gardening. We have had a couple of funny experiences happen, and I figure this is probably the best place to write them down.
First, during Spring Break, KC called me. "Sweetheart, I need to utilize your spanish." "Why?" "Gunther (our dog) got into the neighbors chickens and killed 2 of them. When I went to the door, she (our neighbor) didn't look too happy, but she couldn't understand a word I said, and I couldn't tell her anything." OOPS! I wrote a nice card, enclosed some money, and we took over a fresh baked loaf of bread. Hopefully, we are in good graces.
Second, shoot! I don't remember what the other story was I meant to write down (ha ha). Guess that is all!

Little Bits of Fun

Hello! Hello!
I have been able to do lots of little things. I haven't taken pictures of everything and not everything is worth sharing, but here are a few of my favorites:

This is a thank you card I made for our Pinewood Derby. We had a local bakery donate the cake for our refreshments. I was asked to make a card so everyone could sign it. I dry embossed a pattern over the blue cardstock, aded texture and dimension using my crinkler and pop up adhesives. Inside there are 2 half page inserts to add more room for signatures (they stick out with tabs).
Apparently, this is the only recent project I have taken a picture of. Shoot. Well, I guess I will tell you about some of them and then will have to post some others. I have made Barbie tights and leggings. I found a pattern for them at www.perestroika.ca/html2/her_tights/her_tights.php. I found that I had to add 1/4 in. extra to the top and sides.
I have also written a poem. It is entitled:
PATIENCE
Sweet is the sound
Of a soft voice,
Content is the heart
That is slow to anger,
Peace is the feeling
Found in a loving moment,
Joyous is the soul
Who becomes like Christ.

OK, so this is more for me. This is an area I need to work on!

I also wrote a piano arrangement (accompaniment) for a hymn called "Jesus, Once of Humble Birth." If you would like to listen to it, you can find it at noteflight.com. I will add that link to my blog soon.
I made strawberry jam using frozen strawberries from Costco, apple juice concentrate and No-Sugar-Needed pectin. I like it. It tastes like the natural flavor of strawberries without all the extra sugar. For anyone who wants a really sweet jam, this is not for you.
I have done other projects, but I am going to post pictures of them, so they will have to wait.
Happy Spring

latest projects

Hello! Hello!

So, I haven't had a lot of time to craft lately. I have been potty training two toddlers. It has taken up a LOT of my time. Go figure!

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, I made a gift for one of my visiting teachers. She just had a baby boy, so I crocheted a little hat for him. I thought it was adorable. My sweetheart, though, said it was girly. My response was, "No. If it was for a girl, it would have had lace and pretties." Of course, I had to make a gift bag to take it in.

This week was our card club. Instead of exchanging cards, we decided to create a card file box. It was fun. They were supposed to hold blank cards that you could attach label sentiments, but I am always in need of boys' birthday cards for my cub scouts, and I thought it would be perfect for that. I filled it with 12 birthday cards. They were fun to create, but like most of my designs, they took a LOT of time. Oh well. I now have enough for the rest of the year. Yea!

That is the extent of my creative juices lately, except for my boys' book clubs. We made marshmallow popcorn bookworms and bookmarks.

Thanks for looking!
Dari

Fun Stuff!

OK, so I haven't posted for almost 2 weeks, and I have lots of fun things to share!
I crocheted an inlay for one of my low cut shirts. I like it, but I still think I have sewn it in a little crooked (I undid it TWICE).

I have also done a few scrapbooking pages. I am not going to give all the details. It just takes too much time, but if you would like to know how I did them, just ask.

The layout sketch came from pagemaps.com.

This is supposed to be a two page spread, but I am too lazy to take it off and fix it (lol). This, too, was a pagemaps sketch. My inspiration for this page came from Emma's daisy receiving blanket. I loved the color combination. I also did something I didn't think I would ever do. I used silver with the blue and white. This is one of the trends I have seen lately, and I have not been very impressed; however, as I sat there trying to add some "umph" to my stamped background, I thought it might give the background the fill it needed without changing the colors, and it worked!
Thanks for sharing with me.

This week's creations!

By the looks of it, you would think that I didn't do anything but create this week. Actually, thanks to my little craft corner, I can work on a project here and there for 5 minutes at a time.

I love this layout. I used cream cardstock and stamped two different flowers (Stampin' Up) along the bottom of the page with a soft rose inkpad. Using the same ink and a damp paper towel, I sponged the entire cardstock. Then, with Close to My Heart's Bamboo ink, I stamped a foliage stamp (not sure name of set, but it is clear). With my cricut, I cut "Blessings" from the Inspired Heart cartridge, the border and the pink swirly from the Cindy Loo cartridge. I pieced the border together with my cricut design studio. Oh. I also cut the tag from the George and Basic Shapes cartridge. The flower is from Dollar Tree. My large photo is 4x6 and the smaller ones are 2x2.

I finished this one today. Again, I LOVE IT! These are both typical Dari style. Basic cardstock, stamps and my own thing. This photo doesn't do it justice, so I had to take a couple more highlighting individual areas. I used the same cream cardstock for this background. Using CTMH's (Close to My Heart) Sunflower ink and a butterfly stamp from the same set as the foliage from the layout above, I stamped all over the cream cardstock. Then, using another flower from this same stamp set and Marvy Uchida Leplume II' Citrus yellow(#69), I filled in the empty spaces. Then, I rubbed the brush marker on the back of my acrylic block, and using a damp paper towel, wiped it off and smudged the eges of the cardstock. Next, I cut a green print ("Baby" from Provo Craft (I think)). I cut it down to 9x11 in, then tore the right edge. I have to give credit for the layout sketch to pagemaps.com. I printed all of the photos out wallet size, then I cropped three of them so they were square. The flower and sheer ribbon were Dollar Tree finds. Here's where details come into play:

Using my cricut design studio, I made a 7x 2.5 in. rectangle (George & Basic Shapes). Then, I added a flourish to the top of it (Cindy Loo), then I placed "christening" (Inspired Heart) 1.5 in. in the middle of it and welded them all together. I cut this from white cardstock and inked the edges with the sunflower ink. I set aside the cutout "christening" for future use. Next, I cut the same flourish from Cindy Loo out of a soft pink cardstock scrap and glued it onto the top of my title tag. Using Cindy Loo, I cut "emmas" out of white cardstock as well. I used one of the drops from the "e" as my apostrophe.

Using my design studio, I created a 4 in. circle (George), then added a flower border (Cindy Loo). I had to shrink this to fit inside the circle and then rotate it for the angle I wanted. I repeated the flower border 2 more times. Then I cut it out of white cardstock and inked it. Using the flowers cut out of this, I glued them next to "emma's", under the title tag, and in the top right corner of the green print. The center picture was also a wallet size. I just cropped it to fit the circle. I used a zig memory pen for the journaling. Lots of fun!!

AND... I finished another hat! This one is for my brother-in-law's girlfriend. I used Caron Simply soft red yarn. The pattern is my own design. Then, I created a flower. There is not another one like it. Don't ask me how I made it, because I didn't follow a pattern. I hot glued this flower onto an alligator clip so that it can be removed from the hat if desired. What a week! Oh. I also made a Winnie The Pooh cake for a friend's child, but alas, I didn't remember to take a picture of it before I gave it away.
Happy crafting!!

3 of 3

OK, so this is the last one. As you can see, we've actually accomplished some things lately. Nothing grandious, but creating makes me happy!
You saw what KC made me for Valentine's Day. Well, he has wanted a remote control holder that hangs from the couch for awhile. So..... that is what I made him for Valentine's Day. I made my kids some magnetic bookmarks for Valentine's Day (shoot! I forgot to take pics of those), because they love to read and are constantly using scraps of whatever they can find to mark their places. KC felt left out that he didn't get one, so I made him a bookmark yesterday.

I also made a necklace for Emma, because she really likes her "little pretties." Albeit, she broke it not 5 minutes after I had finished it. I fixed it of course, but who knows how long it will last. I thought it was cute, so I made myself one, too. This was a project that I did with Elizabeth, the young girl I help teach arts and crafts to.

The last project that I finished recently is this scrapbook page that I started a year ago. OK, maybe not quite a year ago, but it has been at least 9 months! When I organized my new craft area, I came across my last page I had been working on. All I had to do was the journalling and glue the tag, journal block and flower cut-outs onto the page. This was perfect for me. It gave me a taste of scrapbooking with something I had started before I got rusty. And, it looks great.

2nd of 3

OK, so I finally finished a few crochet projects that have been hanging over my head. The first is a scarf for myself! I really like it. I found the pattern on caron.com (I think). Anyway, it is very simple. It is all done using the double crochet stitch.

The second project that I finished is a hat for a friend. Alayna, yours is done, I just haven't mailed it yet. Maybe tomorrow!! This one I did for a friend who works at a local restaurant. The restaurant's colors are black, white and yellow. She wanted a black hat, and I thought it would be fun to add a little white and yellow to it as well. This hat, however, I did not sew the flower onto the hat. I attached it to an alligator clip so that she can remove it if desired.

First of 3

Hello! Hello!

I am going to begin with the present that KC made me for Valentine's Day. It is something that I have wanted for a couple of years. And, he did it out in our garage, because we rented out his dad's woodshop to someone while they are on their mission. Anyway, this is what it is:

They are craft cupboards! They are perfect. I still have my fabric cupboard in Emma's room, but there simply is no space in the laundry room for that. Who ever said that jewelry was the best present? I, personally, don't wear very much. I LOVE my craft area!!! Thank you sweetheart!

Two Year Old Christmas Present

Last week I finally had some inspiration for the clock pieces my dad gave to me for Christmas. You see, he had my name for Christmas, and family tradition says that you have to make the gift. Well, he ran out of time, so he gave me the pieces so I could make my own present (ha! ha!).
Anyway, as I was exercising one morning, it came to me, and of course, I had to start on it while the thought was there. I painted the board that day, and cut out all the embellishments using my cricut. Then, I had to stop. I had to cut a hole in the back of the wood for the clock paraphernalia to fit in. KC brought down his dad's drill press, and we set it up ON the kitchen table. That's right. Using a square drill bit, I drilled ALOT of holes to hollow out the right size. It was fun, though, and I am thrilled with the results!!

Paper Crafting

Hello! Hello!
Some of you might have a heart attack because I am posting twice in one day. I really hope that doesn't happen. I'm on a roll! KC gave me a Cricut for Christmas. I have been having lots of fun with it. Here are some of the things I've created with it:

This is my card for Card Club this month. I cut the circles out using my cricut and the title "Love."

I couldn't just throw away the scraps from my card, so I used them to make another one.

I found this cute box pattern in the February 2011 "Crafts 'n'Things" magazine. I had a wedding gift to make, and I thought it would be perfect. I used my cricut to cut the flower on top. I just used the cartridge that came with my machine. The bottom flower is 3", the next one 2.5", the next 2", and the top one 1.5". Hard, I know.

Here is a picture of what the box looks like opened up.

And these are the cute thank you cards I made to go inside the box. I cut the heart out with my machine. Then, I created the envelope with the "Cindy Loo" cartridge and my cricket design studio. I had to change to envelope dimensions so that it would fit in the box and added a heart from the "George and Basic Shapes" cartridge. I put 12 3.25" square cards in the box and 12 matching envelopes, too. What is even better is that I didn't have to wrap up the box. I just took it to the reception with a card.

Of course, you can see I still used my stamps. I LOVE my stamps!!

I am off to finish my scout preps. We are making bookworm neckerchief slides for the opening activity, thanks to my cricut!

Crochet Happy!

I think that 6 months is a little too long. So much has happened since I posted last, and so much has happened! I decided to participate in a Craft Boutique in December. It turned out to be quite fun, and I found out that people really like my crocheted items. I have wanted to share these. If you would like to make any of them, let me know.







And these are not the only ones I've made! Some I forgot to take a picture of before I gave them away. Some are different colors than the ones posted. Many are just reproductions of those shown. And others, well.... who knows!

I am working on a scarf for myself. Yes. I am actually making something for me. After that, I am going to make some inserts to go in some of my shirts that are lowcut. I will have to post pics of those.