Painted Wine Glasses

Finishing up with my Christmas posts, I wanted to show you guys the wine glass I painted for my cousin, BUT I forgot to take a pic. I know, blogger fail. Although I don't have a pic of hers I do have a pic of the one I painted for myself as a test run.

To make this I used a contact paper stencil that I cut with my x-acto knife an painted the stars with Folkart Enamels paint in a silver. For the one I made for my cousin I put a J on the front for her initial, and sponged the bottom of the glass for a fun detail.

Crochet - One Skein Wrap

First off I wanted to say HAPPY NEW YEAR!! So excited for 2012 it's going to be great

Moving on with my "what everybody got for christmas series". I made my aunt this beautiful crochet shawl. The pattern for it I got from the Caron International Yarns website, you can get it here. This wrap only takes one pound of yarn, with a little to spare. I made my wrap a little longer, and left off the frindge and still had a decent amount left over to do something else with.

Sorry about the pic, I forgot to take one, the "Christmas Day" pic was the only one I had.

I don't know if this makes a difference though but I used Lion Brand's Pound of Love because that was all they had at Wal-Mart at the time.

My picture really does not show the drape well so here is the picture from the pattern to give you the idea

Craft Clay Ornaments

Keeping with my "what everybody got for Christmas" series of posts, this next one was also for my husband but from the kids. We made craft clay ornaments and I had the little one paint them for his daddy. I even painted one myself with baby girl's hand print, as a baby's first christmas kind of thing. Sorry I don't have any pictures of him working with the dough cutting out the ornaments. We were having so much fun I totally forgot to take pictures.

Normally I like to use salt dough, but I wanted to try something different and actually make something that I have pinned on pinterest. So I used this Easy Craft Clay recipe I had found. You use baking soda and corn starch (that's where your box of  baking soda went honey haha) and cook it on the stove, which was really cool to watch. It also comes out a bright white color which was nice.

Noah LOVED playing  with the dough, he rolled it and smashed it, after we cut out all the ornaments we needed (using a glass, and a straw for the hole) he played with the left over dough for a few hours, it took forever to get him to stop.

One thing I did not like was that the bigger ones we made cracked. You were supposed to let this air dry, which takes a few days, and over those days the craking starts. I would have much rather used a salt dough next time and baked it so that it came out right. But who knows, it could have been something I had done wrong. If you try it let me know how it turns out.

It took a while to get nana's handprint right, the internet makes it seem easy, but it's not, she did not like it. I even tried her foot, which i realized was too big to actually hang. When I first painted it, it didn't look christmas enough, so I added glitter with Mod Podge. I recommend if you do, add Mod Podge to top to seal it in. I just added the words with a fine tip sharpie.

He also had fun painting them, I was a little nervous about letting him use my acrylic paints because I never painted with him before but he was very good and we both had a blast. I tried to coax him into using more christmas colors,  but then I figured he was having fun let him do what he wants. But next time I think I may draw designs on a few for him to work on painting in the lines.

Stenciled Apron

Hope everybody had a wonderful Holiday. I know that I did! Christmas being over always makes me a little sad because I love it so much, but I am excited I get to share with you all the fun projects I made as gifts this year.

This first one was for my husband. A stenciled apron I made using freezer paper. Now this was my first time using freezer paper stencils and I am VERY happy with the results and have to use this technique more.

The technique is pretty easy and doesn't really need a tutorial but for the newbies to this I'll just tell you how I did it. First thing I did was cut my paper to 8 1/2 X 11  and printed off my design (on the matte side). After I had already printed it out, I had the idea to next time just set the font to an outline to save computer ink.

I taped my paper to the back of my cutting mat and cut the shapes out with an x-acto knife. Clumsy / accident prone people shouldn't have sharp objects, so the whole time I kept saying to myself go slowly and carefully. Once my hand started to get a little shaky I stopped and finished again later.

Once all cut out place on your fabric (don't forget to put the little pieces back inside, like in the D and the A) shiny side down. Iron down the paper with your iron setting to a medium to high setting. DO NOT over iron! After it sticks and looks good, stop. I think I started to over iron a bit and it started to picker up and not stick anymore in some places. Once attached take out our paint and paint away!

 Here it is all painted before I removed paper. Removing the paper is easy it just pulls right off any doesn't leave anything sticky. There were a few spots around the edges where it sort of bled through but that was where I over ironed, I think it adds character and over all I am happy how it turned out, and the hubs loved it!

Last Minute Gifts - Crochet Cowel

Today I wanted to show you one of my (very) last minute Christmas gifts that I made. Last Thursday my husband comes home and asks me to make something for his supervisor at work to give to her tomorrow. Freaking out on what to make with only having one skein of yarn and only a few hours I browsed raverly on a good and quick pattern. This cowl is super cute and only took about 5 hours of continuous work to complete ( I went to bed about 2am that night). I was super exhausted when I was done but was so proud I had created something so cute in such little time. You can find the pattern for this here and create one for yourself or as a last minute gift for someone else.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

Today I thought I would share with you the hub's Christmas gift from last year. This adorable little crochet Christmas tree with matching tree skirt and even little yarn covered presents to put under.

This was such an easy project to do, it was my first "amigurumi" type project that wasn't a hat or a scarf, and although a very last minute idea (made on Christmas eve) I was very pleased with the outcome. Honestly it took only a couple hours for the tree itself, would have been shorter if I didn't have to keep pulling it out and starting over.

I found the pattern for it online, you can see it here, for my tree, however, I used a regular green worsted weight yarn (Lion Brand's Vanna's Choice) and the size hook it said on the label. Also I used some brown yarn and made a circle the same diameter as the bottom, stuffed, and sewed it on. This is stuffed with an old t-shirt because at the time its all I had, but I'm sure you would get a much fuller tree with some poly-fill.

For the skirt I just made a circle with a double crochet stitch until I liked the size,then added a scalloped edge. The yarn I used for this was Lion Brand's Homespun. I don't know if this is the correct way to do the edging, but the way I did it was: {single crochet in first double crochet, chain 4, skip next double crochet, single crochet in next}repeat around.

The boxes are just paper origami boxes. Here is the tute I used. I'm not quite sure how I made the smaller box, but it was made with paper also, after that I just used glue to wrap with yarn, used some yarn scraps to make a bow, and sat under the tree.

I have been wanting to make little ornaments to go on the tree, or at least a tree topper but I'm not quite sure how I wanted to make it. I felt that a topper should be made with yarn too, so if you have any ideas please leave them in a comment below ( I love stars, so if you know a pattern for a little 3D star that would be nice). I was thinking that for ornaments I would do pretty round beads on ear ring findings as bulbs, but I wasn't quite sure if it would look right since the tree "branches" are so close together. For right now, the simplistic look is just perfect.

I may make some garland from embroidery thread and beads.....when I ever find them in my boxes of stuff haha.

Dear Santa...

I'm so excited for Christmas to get here, it feels like it is taking forever. I finally figured out what handmade gift everybody will get so I hope to start on them tomorrow!

Yesterday I told you about the number one things on the lists for the kids, today I thought I would share whats on Mama's list.....Craft storage.

Since moving I haven't been able to craft like I want to. Part because of space, part because I'm still trying to balance having to kiddos and baby girl grows so fast she wants to be into everything, and mostly because I know what I have but i have no clue where in the 4 stacked boxes and 1 suitcase it is. HIGHLY discouraging. Sometimes I feel like I would rather buy new whatever instead of attempting to dig around to find it. This year I asked Santa for a tall dresser to store all of my madness in an organized fashion. Now the thing I WISH Santa would bring me is a Workbox. What? You never heard of one? Let me introduce you to one of the greatest things ever made. The workbox by The Original Scrapbox.

Isn't this thing great? Look at all that storage, and a workspace too. It's like a little crafting sanctuary all in one little piece of furniture that looks oh so nice when tucked away. Not only does it come in white they have a few other colors/finishes to choose from. The Original Scrapbox makes a few other styles of crafting furniture that is worth going to the site and taking a look at.

If you want to see a really cool craft room that uses all of the Scrapbox products check out Linda's craft room from Craftaholics Anonymous. She even has a video tour to envy this room even more. Seriously, if this room had pink accents, and a papasan chair, it would be my vision for my future craft room with the grey walls and white furniture.

That's all for now, maybe I will be good enough for Santa net year, who knows. ;)

Thinking About Christmas

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend. I know I did, it's so nice to spend time with family! Now that thanksgiving has passed us by everybody is thinking about Christmas. I absolutely love Christmas so I have been thinking about it for a while now. We have even had our tree up for a week already, haha.

I have a few upcoming projects in mind to start on, but the sad part is I cannot post them until after Christmas since they are gifts (don't want to spoil the surprise). That being said, I love giving handmade gifts, they are so much more personal and heartfelt. What kind of handmade gifts will you guys be giving this year?

Sometime the smaller kiddo's don't appreciate the handmade gifts as much and rather have a new toy with extremely hard to open plastic packaging. That's ok though, I picked out the perfect gifts for them this year. For the boy we are getting the Leapster Explorer by Leapfrog with the camera attachment, because he loves to take pictures like his daddy.

I've done a lot of research on this toy and have read lots of reviews and I absolutely LOVE it. I know he will have tons of fun playing games and I will know he is learning. You can even track your child's learning progress by hooking it up to your computer. There are a ton of games for this toy but my favorite part is that you can download games, videos, and interactive books directly to your handheld... NO LOST GAMES! If he does get an actual game cartridge we will probably go with the Mr. Pencil game as it seems like one he would really like. Oh, and I forgot to add my other favorite part. The difficulty of these games change as your child learns, how could you not love that, you know its not going to be a game he completes in a day and is done with it.

For baby girl we picked out the cutest little doll perfect for her age. The Baby Stella doll by Manhattan Toy. This doll comes in a few different styles but we choose the one with the black hair, isn't she just the cutest?

There has been TONS of good reviews for this doll as the perfect "first doll" for little girls, and I am a big advocate of every little girl having a dolly. Stella is a nice cuddly soft doll which I love. I think soft dolls have so much more character than the plastic face/bodied dolls. She even comes with a little magnetic binky to give her

You can get lots of clothes and accessories for her which I love, every girl (even a dolly) needs lots of accessories. Looking around the Internet I did not find a lot of free (or even paid) patterns for diy clothes for this doll...except one for a diaper pattern from Treasures For Tots. I know when she gets it I will try to work on lots of clothes and accessories patterns to post as there is a lack of them on the net already. [so excited!] One day I hope to get her a Waldorf doll like the ones here, but for now, this one is perfect.

 That's it for now, tomorrow I will share with you whats on my Christmas list.

Disclaimer: I was not paid or compensated by anyone to write about these products. I just really liked them and wanted to share my opinion.

A Not So Orange Halloween..YAY!

Ok, so before I say anything, I know I have been slacking on my blogging duties and I am trying harder, lack of projects is no excuse since I am always doing something creative in one form or another. I have just been so wrapped up with research for my new design that I am SOOO excited about so I've really been spending all my free time with that. I promise I will have the first installment of my Kids Krafts Friday this upcoming Friday, if I don't, you can hog tie me and beat me up I swear, anyway on to my post.

I'm not really big on the whole Halloween thing. I mean, its just not exciting to me, love a good fall decoration though. And my hubs habits are rubbing off on me and I'm turning into a Christmas fanatic like he is. (I have asked a few times already to put decorations up) When I saw this i thought it was the cutest thing ever, you put hello kitty on anything and I'm sold.

Besides the hello kitty pumpkin which is to tie for, look at the super cue pink glitter candle. This pic was found on a website called Prunille Fiat Son Show but I found it via Craft Gossip. Just a word of advice that the original website is in some other language so I have no clue what it says and the google translator never works for me. Which is sad because craft gossip featured another post of theirs about baking bread in a pringles can which i thought was a cute idea.

Anyways, I just thought it was too cute not to share with you, hope you enjoyed it as much as I did

Till Later,

Natasha Nicole

I'm Baaaack!

YAY! I know right, all of you are excited I can tell, but still not as excited as I am to have internet again. While I was gone I did not do much of anything crafty. I did however make this cute little cross stitch/beaded snowman ornament that I got from this super cute yarn store in town called The Red Thread. ( If you live in the area you should go check it out, if not, road trip maybe?)

Isn't he cute? It felt so good to actually have a project and finish it, I haven't had the chance to do that in a while. Now, I know what you all may be thinking, and yes, I did go in a yarn shop and come out with a small cross stitch kit. The store was full of such beautiful yarns I was overwhelmed and didn't know what to get so I though a quick project was just what I needed. But moving on, because I could go on and on about my experience there for a while.

While I was away I also got to take a little trip to Jo-Ann's to pick up some embroidery stuff to go with my new book. (read about that here) I was so excited that the first thing I did was organize all my thread on the bobbins and arrange by color. A little OCD I know, but what can I say, at least it looks pretty....see...

Ahh, behold, the beauty of color. The actual embroidering was a little less successful. I did a few stitches and then got tired of it. I think it was because I didn't get any transfer stuff, and with no real design I wasn't exactly 'inspired'. I will try again later once I get settled. I also need some inspiration on coming up with a face design for a crochet doll for my princess.

On a different note I do not have any projects planned for the near future, but I did promise my little one I would help him make a pinata  so I may do that next week hopefully. That being said I wanted to add a feature to my blog. I will call it Kids Krafts Fridays. It will feature a fun craft that I make with my little ones. I would like to do one every week but for now I will try to do as many as possible. I'm really excited about this because not only do I get more crafts to share with you, I also get a chance to sit down and have a little Noah, Mommy crafting time. Hopefully you will be seeing those in the very near future.

Last thing I wanted to add was that I am doing some research on a future project that I am spending all of my random online time looking up for. If you follow my pinterest you may have an idea of what it is. ( if you don't, there is a button on the right side of the screen, DO IT! - just kidding but it would be nice) For those of you who are not pinterest users - although I don't know what else you would be doing with your time - I'll give the surprise away.....its a craft bag. I don't know how long this project will take since I don't have much sewing experience and I am more of the learn as you go kind of gal, but I hope to open an online store -etsy or art fire- from it. So if anybody has any FREE online resources on handbag making please feel free to add it in a comment below.

Sorry to babble on, but Ive just missed this so much lol. Till later ;)