Will You B Mine?

A couple of good bloggy friends and I are swapping handmade Valentine cards that our children are making for each other and with the mailing deadline of Feb.1st just a couple of days away I thought we'd better get cracking! We found all sorts of fantastic valentine craft supplies at the dollar store the last time we were in town. There were paper hearts, foam shapes, glitter, ribbon roses, and so much more. It was hard to keep to a budget and not just splurge by grabbing tons of everything. LOL.

My daughter fell in love with a cute little critter kit to make these adorable 'Love Bugs' as she calls them so we made up a whole bunch of them to. Not sure what we're going to do with all of these love bugs but they're awful cute and she's having fun hiding them around the house for me to find *grin*. How about you, what sort of Valentine crafts are you up to?

~ Rosina

Valentine's Day Tree

Every year the kids and I decorate a cute little tree with all sorts of bunnies and Easter eggs for Easter and this year I thought that it would be fun if we had a Valentine's Day Tree.



There are so many cute valentine crafts but for some reason we have never really put a lot of thought into it before. We always make handmade valentines to give to each other with sweet little sayings inside and waaay to much glitter, but a couple of months ago I actually got really ambitious and made a plan to do something special :)



I bought some regular semi-gloss white paint in a spray can, found a suitable branch to pluck off of our dormant snowball tree outside the back door, gave it a good dosing of paint and hung it by the wood fire to dry. I then filled an aluminum pail with rocks and planted our new valentine tree inside :)



Previously the kids and I had started making cute little handmade felt hearts in an assortment of styles, using embroidery floss, pearls, buttons and more to make each one of the a unique creation.



We thought it was a bit bare with just the felt hearts so we started to raid my craft cupboards finding cute little painted birds in red to boot, and some vintage reproduction valentine's cards that I had just picked up. They are the sweetest things with flocked velvet on them, reminding me so much of when I was a little girl.



We set the entire thing down on some red crepe paper adding more valentine cards, and a another felt heart with a crocheted trim inside the pail :)

I don't know whey we didn't do this years ago!

~Rosina

Handmadeology ~ Everything You Want To Know About Selling Online

I just have to share with you about a fantastic new website that is up and running as of today! Timothy Adam has created a 'how to' site on selling your handmade items online and how to do it successfully! Timothy is a self taught metal artist making a living selling online and has very generously put together an amazing cache of information to help others get their businesses up and running. There are a series of videos to watch which are easy to follow along with, links and common questions asked. So make sure you go and check out Handmadeology and be sure to sign up for his newsletter as well to keep you up to date :)

~Rosina

Simplicity Jumper in Corduroy

Just before Christmas I found this cute corduroy apple print by Robert Kaufman for my daughter but wasn't sure exactly what I was going to make with it. I love the feel of corduroy for the winter months and was thinking some sort of jumper style dress would be perfect but couldn't find a pattern that I liked :)

So when I came across this Simplicity pattern 2828 while browsing online the other day I just had to have it *grin*. It's perfect and I love the photo on the cover with the buttons on the bodice. I've got 4 yards of material, more than enough for one.... maybe two and I found the pattern at Fabricland yesterday when we were in town shopping :) The instructions look super easy so I can't wait to whip one up!

~ Rosina

Cute Spotted Owl Fabric

Oh my goodness this new Spotted Owl fabric from Alexander Henry is so cute. Don't you just want to get this?! There are only a handful of fabric shops on Etsy carrying it and apparently supply is limited and hard to find. Oh the fun things I could make with it :)

~ Rosina

Fabric Eye Candy

I received my secret swap partner's name from Holly for her apron swap and thought that I better get my butt in gear and pick out some great fabric and hurry to so that I can get it mailed to me in time to leave me at least one day... maybe two to get it sewn up *grin*. I don't know what it is but I get a totally absurd mental blockage when it comes to matching colors! I must have clicked back and forth through the pages of Amy Butler fabric over at Fabric Supplies etsy shop more than a dozen times before I finally made myself a little collage of my favorites to help me sort out my thoughts :) I'm pretty happy with the ones I decided to go with so far. Now if only I could walk to the mailbox tomorrow and they would all be waiting for me.

~ Rosina

Owl Swap

Apryl from Meridian Ariel is hosting a great little Owl Swap and she does some really fantastic paintings on book pages to like the one above. Isn't he adorable *grin*. I am crazy about owls and actually just finished drafting up a cute little guy that I was planning to make into a rubber stamp so joining in on this swap was perfect timing! If you want to join in you still have a couple of days left. So hurry on over, January 14th is the last day :)

Botanical Papercut

I finally had a chance to try papercutting! It's been something that I wanted to dabble with for a while but just never got up the nerve to do it. Looked to delicate I guess :) I borrowed a couple of books from the library on Scherenschnitte and found one with great botanical patterns like the one above and bought some great Japanese linen paper at a little shop that has fantastic handmade papers and printing supplies. In the books they all recommended using teeny tiny scissors but I found that I really liked working with my craft knife the best and did most of it that way. I can't wait to try another one! If you want to see some truly amazing papercuttings, you have to go to The Heart of Papercuts and see her work. Fantastic stuff!

~ Rosina