Handmade Holiday Fun Beggins

My Seeds and Sawdust Necklace was featured in LandMstudio's Etsy treasury!  And I've gotten a good number of favorites lately as well.  Nice to know people like what I make - probably means I should be making more of an effort to sell stuff!  

Don't Forget the Little Things...

Instead I am helping out my friend Emma with an order of scarves.  She is selling them on consignment in a friend's shop in Vermont.

Fox and Bauble

It's relaxing to be knitting and knowing I'm going to be payed for it without having to put in all the work around selling it!

Now I need to start thinking about what I am going to make for Christmas presents this year...

Penant Baby Quilt

A friend posted pictures of a quilt she made for her baby girl and I fell in love with it.  Had to make my own version.  


I used only fabric I already had in my stash. The pennants are material from childhood costumes. The ribbon is made from the waistband of one of my grandmother's skirts. The background of the front is material from my mother's former futon factory. The back is scrap flanel and scraps from the recipient's brother's quilt I made several years ago.

 Front

Back

These pics are pre-ironing.  Promise I did not give it to it's recipient this wrinkled, or with dangling thread!  I had a lot of fun making it.  Tip - sew all the way around the pennants (including across the top) before sewing the ribbon over them to secure the edges.


The original idea came from http://helpinglittlehands.blogspot.com/2012/01/bird-and-bunting-quilt-with-pattern.html

Pretty Papier-mâché Night Stand

I believe my mother first sent me a link to this project (we are always sending each other pretty things and fun ideas - I love my mum!) I absolutely loved it, so when I moved to Chicago and found myself in need of a night stand, I decided it was time to give it a try!

From: www.curbly.com

I had lots of cardboard boxes to use after unpacking, and collected news paper from friends and family. Hooray for re-use!

Cut out the basic shape (mine is a little more basic than the original.)

Added a shelf...

 with reinforcements.

 Added overhang and reinforcement to the top.

 Then a couple of layers of papier-mâché!

 Next up - paint!

 I used what paint I had, and used much simpler methods. Basically, puts some paint on it.  First coat was a dusty peachy color.  The newspaper showed through a bit, but I decided that would just add to the patina look.

 Then with a brush on the dry side, I brushed a light coat of pale blue over the peach.

It turned out pretty nicely, though you can't see much of the peach showing through in these pictures.

And it looks neat in my tiny room!

I am still considering rubbing some gold paint over it.  We'll see.