Printable Calender!

I told you guys in a previous post about my new half sized binder in an attempt to get organized. I love this thing. so easy to take with me and keep track of stuff and I am no longer looking a bunch of places for the notes that I took somewhere and I even keep my coupons in there.( I plan to get some business card holders to keep those organized better rather than just stuffing them in a pocket)

My only problem was that I wanted to add a monthly calender in there so I can keep track of all the important dates. Before I bought it I thought it would be easy to find a free printable online to use......its not.  There were all kinds, but to find exactly what I was looking for....something simple, includes basic holidays, and was a half sized sheet of paper....was hard. I found some nice ones but the problem was that I pre-cut and punched my paper and the printable were to print first, and then cut the paper after, and I couldn't print front to back. I know, I'm picky, but when I want something, I want it.

Today after another search, I sucked it up and made one myself. I couldn't figure out how to do the automatic formula thing so I typed each date in, no biggie. But since I spent all that time working on it I figured there has to be someone else who might need this so I wanted to offer it to you guys

download the half sized (5.5 x 8.5), 2-page per month, 2012 calender. here (PDF)

I wanted to save it as a word file for you guys to edit with your important dates. BUT every time I uploaded it to something it distorted my file. If you need to edit file leave your e-mail in a comment and I will get it to you as soon as I can.

If link does not work please let me know. I'm new to this whole making download able files thing. If you have any other question please feel free to ask and I will help.

My New Friend

I know, I did it again. I stopped blogging. BUT I have a good reason. I have been working on the logo and branding for my husbands photography business which has taken up all my internet time. I am so excited about it! I can't wait until the big reveal to show you guys.

Yesterday was the first day that I really sat down and brought all the ideas in my head to life. It was amazing and so much fun, and doing so I have made a new friend. Photoshop! I remember using it as a freshman in high school when taking a graphic imaging class, but because I never kept up with it I had never used it since, until yesterday.

I'm a learn as you go type of girl so YouTube an Google have been a big help. I'm excited to use my newly found skill in something crafty for myself that I can actually show you guys. Maybe after i finish all of this I'll think of something.

So until later,
happy crafting!

Sparkle Clutch

I follow some really awesome blogs but its nice that I have a couple from people I actually know. Stephanie is someone I went to high school with and is an amazing photographer. Seriously, I would really like to do a family / couple session with her, she has a good eye. She also has a blog called My Sketchbook where she features her wonderful work. Recently she posted about this adorable sparkle clutch that she made. Isn't it darling?

The best thing about it is, she offers a well illustrated tutorial so you can make your own! So what are you waiting for? You know you want to make one so get the tute here. Oh, and while you are there, check out the rest of her blog and follow it because I'm sure there are more great and creative things to come. You don't want to miss out.

Gettin' A Little Organized

I've been MIA for a little while, sorry. My 2012 promise to myself was to blog more and have more projects (I figure, if I don't call it a resolution it will get done haha). I have a couple of things to post a bout and I'm working on a crochet project I am very excited about that I hope to have done soon.

Going through my daily news feed everybody is getting organized for 2012, I'm hoping to hop on that bandwagon too. I have already started with a new way to get rid of my many notebooks of randomness where I write down creative ideas and such. I had a few spiral notebooks where I wrote down stuff, nothing was in order, there were notes on random pages and I had to flip through everything and each book if I needed to locate something. The sad thing is, I never realized it was a problem until I was looking for a sewing pattern that I had wrote down a few months back to make more flags for church.

The first idea I had to this problem was to go to staples and get the ARC system notebooks. I LOVE this system. The paper is nice and thick, you can remove it and place it back, there are lots of accessories such as dividers and folders and pockets. I liked that if I wrote something on the first available page (like I always do) I can move it to where it belongs and stay ORGANIZED. But alas, it was out of my budget. There was no actual blank paper (just graph paper) so I would need the 30 dollar punch to insert my own.

So what did I get instead? A simple binder! I know right, why didn't I think of that first. I got the half letter sized (5.5 x 8.5), some filler paper and folder dividers all from Staples. The binder was like 7 bucks and both the paper and the folders for a few dollars each. I've only had it for a few days and I love it. Everything has its own place. I have a section for my crochet and my sewing. I printed out some PDF patterns to size and rigged my regular 3 hole punch to size also. It fits in my bag with my yarn (and my new yarn holder I will tell you about later) and other purse stuff nicely. I really like this size, I think I want to buy binders in this size for everything.

It does look a little plain. I hate the "pretty paper" in the front look, so I'm thinking of sewing up a binder cover for it. Maybe a tute to come in the near future too?

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

Win A Silhouette Cameo!

I just wanted to take a quick second to tell you the amazing thing that is going on today.
Little Miss Momma is giving away a Silhouette Cameo!!! I'm super excited. Those of you who are my facebook friend can tell because I have been entering giveaway's all morning. Go over there and check it out, There are also some more giveaways, check my blog roll to enter more.

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.