Penguin Pom Pom Animal

I have one more pom pom animal to share today.  My son requested that I make him a penguin and then shortly after, a friend emailed me that she wanted to make a penguin as well.  So, yesterday, I figured out how to make one:
I made a black pom pom for the head and a half black and half cream pom pom for the body.  (To create half colors just wrap the yarn around the cardboard in one color on one side and the other color on the other side. Slide off sleeve, place on floss and tie and cut just as you would a single colored pom pom.)
 I cut the beak and feet from orange felt.  The arms were cut from black felt and attached where the head attaches to the body.
I made the eyes by using some textured white brads and then adding black rhinestones to the centers.
Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by!

Pom Pom Animals

Hello! Hope you had a great week!  I finally had a chance to get some more crafty ME time.  Since reading the book Adventures in PomPom Land by Myko Diann Bocek,  I have been thinking of trying to reproduce one of her fabulous pom pom creatures.

I must say, she does an excellent job explaining the process of making the animals.  After learning how to make a uniform pom pom, I went to work creating these two animals. 

I used some of her ideas but then changed a lot of the design.  For example, I didn't want to needle felt arms or legs so I relied on felt and just the contouring of the pom pom for mine.  But, I think part of the fun is taking a design and then making it your own.

Here are the two critters I made--a bunny and a hedge hog.  I am thinking they were a hit since they have already been adopted by my daughter and son. (They barely gave me time to take a picture of them before they were whisked away.)

It was so much fun making these.  I hope to get the chance to make a few more soon!
Thanks for stopping by today!

Owl Pillow

It's homecoming weekend here so I spent the afternoon yesterday making chocolate covered pretzels and bagging them so that my daughter's Ultimate team could sell that at the football game tonight.  Afterwards, I relaxed for a bit and decided to make an owl pillow using Lori Whitlock's Heart Owl  file as a template for my design.  Here is what I came up with:

I just printed the owl out on cardstock and then cut the felt and fabric shapes using the paper shapes as a template. Very easy!  The last time I used this design to create something, I made my youngest daughter a tooth fairy pillow.  You can see that HERE.  This time, I just made a cute little fun fall-ish owl pillow...just for kicks:) (Was that enough adjectives?)

Have a great weekend!

Nice tail :)

Since Easter is right around the corner, thought I would share this easy little stuffed animal bunny I made using some fabric, felt, ribbon and baker's twine scraps :) 

 .......and here is his tail :) Cute, ugh?

 Happy April 1st! Thanks for stopping by!

Spring has Sprung!

Hi there!  I am excited because today I have my very first post up on The Twinery blog!
Here is a peek at my project but you will have to go to The Twinery blog to see the whole thing:

Thanks for stopping by!

Imaginisce Hop

Hi There! Welcome to the Cardmaker Blog Team imaginisce Blog Hop!  Imaginisce is the amazing company behind the I-Top and they generously gifted the team with the i-top tool and all the fun punches and brads/button accessories to go along with it. THANK YOU imaginisce!!

So, today we are sharing all of the creations we made!  I am excited to see what all the gals made! This tool was a blast! As I started playing around with it...I thought of more and more ways to play with it.  I have so many ideas in my head but settled on these for today:

For my first card, I used the small 16 mm brads to create a paper rainbow--I covered each brad with colors of the rainbow and then I poked them through the card stock layer.  After inserting the brads in the rainbow shape, I took some twine and ran it under the brads and tied it on one side.  I added the cloud with sentiment on the other side of the rainbow:

(Stickers (SRM Stickers), baker's twine (The Twinery)

Tip: when using paper with your i-top, it is sometimes helpful to lightly moisten the paper with a damp paper towel to make the paper more pliable. It will remove the paper wrinkles. 

For my next card, I went super simple.  I covered a large 34 mm brad with fabric to create the center of the flower.  The flower itself is actually made with the coordinating punch that you can use to punch the paper for the brads.  I thought it made a fun flower with a covered brad in the center:

 (Stamp- Sentiment Sampler (Paper Smooches); baker's twine (The Twinery)

Finally, I ventured off the card "path" (smack my hand) but I wanted to make something else with these.  I designed a simple Scotty Dog stuffed animal (I can post details on this later if you are interested.) I sewed and stuffed the animal and then I wanted to make him a fun collar.  So, I used two 16 mm brads and one 22 mm brad and attached them to some baker's twine (The Twinery) that I gently wrapped around the neck. I bent the brad prongs around the twine and using a wire tool, wrapped them back so they would stay in place.

It was so much fun to play with the i-top tool. Thanks again, imaginisce!!!


Now before you venture too far, head on over to Trudy's blog for some more imaginisce inspiration!!

Here is the complete blog hop list in case you get lost along the way:
Cardmaker Blog
Tami Mayberry
Carolyn King (You are here!)
Trudy Sjolander
Colleen Schaan
Kimberly Crawford
and also joining us this week---
Melanie Muenchinger and
Lora Brickman

Thanks for stopping by today!

Yipeee! Fun news and a giveaway!

Hello!  I JUST got back from a weekend trip to Atlantic City to celebrate my sister's 40th birthday! What a fun time!!!   I quickly wanted to add this post because I am so very excited to announce that I am a part of the 2012 SRM Stickers Design team.  I use SRM stickers a LOT! A lot  a lot!  So I am so excited to be representing them.

Susan and Jenyfur announced the wonderful new team on the SRM blog today.  Go check it out---they are giving away the new SRM sticker collection that will be released at CHA!  Leave a comment on their blog to win.

Also, they will be showing off all the new product on the blog this week so you can get a sneak peek at all the awesomeness and enter to win some each day!

I used a Magic Wand tube (38008) to create a treat dispenser for Valentine's Day.  The lid can be removed to get the candy and it can be refilled and used over and over!

I trimmed down the top of the tube to make it a bit shorter and then cut the bear shape from fleece.  The back of the bear is on the back of the tube and I stitched it into place, adding a bit of stuffing in the arms, ears and legs.  I cut a heart from cardstock and added a SRM sticker on it --Fancy Sticker Sentiments- LOVE (55003).  A bit of The Twinery pink sorbet baker's twine wrapped around the lid is the finishing touch:

 Here is a close up of the bear:

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Don't forget to enter to win the new release on the SRM blog! 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Hello! Today I am signing off for a bit---my kids will be off from school all next week and we will be celebrating the holidays with family and friends. I always try to take this week off to just enjoy the holidays!
Here is a quick Christmas card I created using Bella Blvd paper and Helmar Quick-Fix Adhesive Runner:

And....here is the fleece owl tooth fairy pillow I made for my youngest (I mentioned it in my previous post.) The front section is a pocket that she can put her tooth in and put it on her pillow. (REALLY hoping this helps the tooth fairy in instances where she cannot find the stinkin tooth under the pillow. Just thinking that probably happens often. Not sure!) Again, I used the My Favorite Things Hearts a Plenty die to cut out the heart:

Most of all----Wishing you a very Merry Christmas from my family to yours!!! >

...and....we cannot forget the new addition to our family, Timmy! (Timmy is actually a Tammy---we just found out at a recent trip to the vet but we haven't decided on a new name yet so poor Tammy is still being called Timmy!)

I hope your holidays are wonderful. Enjoy the time with family and friends. I will see you back here in January---LOTS of fun things planned and might even add some video tutorials to the mix this year!!!

Happy New Year!
Thanks for stopping by!

a short LONG story

Ok...so sort of a long story but the LONG (get it, LONG giraffe neck!) and short of it is that I made an owl tooth fairy pillow for my youngest, who is starting to lose teeth. It is cute and has a little front pocket for her teeth. (Hmmm, definitely will post a picture of that one soon!)

But, anyway, I bought wayyyy too much fleece for it and so my oldest daughter was eyeing it up and told me to make a giraffe for her. (She collects them!)
Good heavens. I am not a seamstress or a stuffed animal designer person but I am not one to turn down any crafty challenge and two hours later I had made this for her: I sketched the giraffe right on the fabric and cut it out (two pieces for front and back.)

I was going to go with different colors but I think she wanted muted colors (She IS 15!) So, instead, I thought I would make the spots on him heart shaped. But....did i really want to hand cut a whole bunch of hearts?!!?! No...I am waayyyy too much of a perfectionist for that.

So, I pulled out my My Favorite Things Hearts-a Plenty Die-namics die and thought "What the heck? I will try it! After all, I have plenty of fleece!" And guess what? It cut the fleece. Shut up!
Yes, it did. Only two of the hearts needed a tiny scissor slice at one point but the others cut perfectly. (And keep in mind, those hearts are on both sides!)

I used my Cuttlebug machine: Plate C, fleece with die facing down, and Place B on top. Success!

Anyhoo....thought that was purty darned neat so had to share :)
The giraffe is cute too---at least according to my daughter who was positively delighted with it.

Mission accomplished.