4 Haiti with Love

I know that you all remember the horrific destruction that left Haiti in shambles after the massive earthquake that hit them on January 12th of this year. Despite the lack of news coverage in the months since the height of the crisis there are still so many people there that are struggling every day.

So when my uncle told me that he was returning to Haiti with the Global Aid Network (GAIN) I knew that it was our chance to do something for the children even if it was something as small as sending little notebooks with stickers and crayons.

So the kids got busy cutting fun papers to make our plain old dollar store notebooks look really pretty, added some cute little stickers...



and I started measuring and sewing lengths of elastic into loops that would securely hold crayons inside them.

I had seen this project done on another blog and it was such a great idea. So I measured out a 6.5 inch piece of elastic for the piece that would wrap right around the notebook and marked 6 lines on it in the center that were spaced 1/2 an inch apart. Then on a smaller 4.5 inch piece of elastic I marked another 6 lines on it that were 3/4 of an inch apart. Placing the shorter piece of elastic on top of the longer piece I just matched up the lines, sewed, and created the little loops. I then attached the two ends of the longer piece together to make the band complete.

With the elastic loops complete we were ready to place one on each of the notebooks...

and start filling them up with crayons. The measurements worked out perfectly and the crayons were nice and snug in each of the loops.

Each of the children wrote special little messages inside of the notebooks and they were ready to get packaged up and shipped.

Luggage space was limited so we made 50 sets of the notebooks which ended up filling one of the giant warehouse sized cereal boxes and boy was it heavy!

We shipped it today and it will be on its way to Haiti with my uncle very soon and into the hands of the children that he and his fellow medics help during their stay. I pray that they will bring many smiles to the faces of the little ones :)

Hugs,
Rosina

Handbound Love

I love journals especially ones that use traditional stitching like these lovelies that I have acquired over the last couple of years. No they're not all mine *grin*. The center one is my special treasure and the other two were gifts for my parents :)

I want to share with you an amazing seller on Etsy that was super sweet, accommodating of my requests, and is Canadian! Oh how I love to find Canadian sellers :)

I have been secretly drooling over La Paperie's beautiful journals for a little over a year now. I could never quite decide on which one I wanted as I really wanted them all *grin*.

My mother had recently mentioned that she wanted a journal for putting pictures of her flowers in and a place to jot down garden notes so that she could look back each season to see what she had done the previous years. I just knew she had to pick one from Beverly so I had her come over to choose the one that she liked.

She picked the above cherry red sketchbook with a lovely little silver button and the package arrived yesterday. It was wrapped in tissue, tied with a simple jute bow and it was so much fun to watch my mom open it up, feel the paper and breathe in that wonderful smell of real leather.

I hadn't yet told her that it was going to be a special gift from me to her :)

Of course since I was getting one for mom I just had to get one for myself and finally make a decision as to which one I was going to pick *grin*.

I love to browse through the past sales in all of my favorite Etsy shops to see what sort of items had previously been available in their shops. Don't be to shy to ask a seller if they could make one of their sold items as they are almost always able to recreate one that is similar if not the same!

As I looked I found this beautiful little mahogany journal with it's feminine ribbon tie and pretty little flower button... I just knew that it was to be mine :)

One of the special little touches that Beverly has available is the option to customize the front page of your journal with a personal message of your own or one of the well know quotes of the past. I chose to go with a favorite of mine by Helen Keller

"The most beautiful things in the world
cannot be seen or even touched.
They must be felt with the heart."

I can't wait to put pen to paper and fill it with my thoughts.

~ Rosina

Valentine's Garland ~ 'Sew' Easy To Make!

We are totally into Valentine's Day mode around here! I know it's a little bit early but if we don't do it now we may not do it at all *grin*. I love paper garland and thought it would be so much fun to make a Valentine themed one.

I made some quick cardboard templates of X's, O's, hearts & kissy lips. Of course we had to have big kissy lips to go with our X's & O's which if you aren't familiar are for kisses & hugs. Perfect for Valentine's day :) I made the templates out of an empty cereal box and traced them onto construction paper and then my little crafty helper, L, cut them all out for me :) Kids and scissors just seem to go hand in hand so this was one fun project.

Then came the fun part for mom :) I took each piece, repeating them in a pattern and sewed them all together with the sewing machine. So easy!! I mean there is no work involved. The machine stitches through them without any trouble and as I finished each one I gently pulled it and the thread out in equal intervals between each piece.

Done :) We swapped the kitchen curtain and put up a fun red gingham one, hung our newly made valentine garland & added some cute little tin birdies that I attached to the curtain to :)

It is so stinking cute and anyone can make this! Have fun creating one of your own :)

~ Rosina

Thinking Christmas

I seem to be totally fixated on Christmas at the moment and getting my Christmas letter in order so that maybe, just maybe I'll get it out before December 1st this year! I'm really hoping it will make it to everyone before the holidays are over this time around *grin*.

As if getting my very unorganized holiday letter system kicked into high gear isn't tough enough and I'll admit it's always a major challenge I thought that maybe I might endeavor to hand make all 45 of my Christmas cards on top of it :)

Nah, just kidding! I may be slightly over zealous in my thoughts but I'm going to knock that total down to around 10 close family members that will get one of my new papercut creations. Especially since the scrolling 'Happy Holidays' gave me a wee bit of trouble!

I'm going to see if I can find some new blades for my craft knife or at least a really sharp pair of mini scissors before starting my next ones to see if I can get a smoother cutting effect as this one is a little bit choppy. LOL.

~ Rosina

My Newest Papercut

I was inspired by a fellow Etsian's haunted house papercut and just had to try my hand at designing my very own pattern. It's actually much easier than you would think since you don't have to be a great artist to do this! All you need is a vision and if you can draw an outline you're good to go *grin*.

It sort of took on a life of its own as I drew it. Originally it was supposed to be two trees flanking each side of the papercut but somehow the tree on the right ended up turning into a 'ghost' tree as my daughter calls it since the branches resembled a ghost like shape floating upwards. So I gave it some eyes and a bleeding heart and thus the ghost tree was complete :)

It's hard to tell from the top photo but it is actually compiled of 4 layers of papercuts to give it a really neat 3D effect. I'm just not sure how to display it. I have this great vision of it being in a shadow box like it is above but with some sort of light source below it that illuminates it while it hangs on the wall. I've explained it to my husband and he's mulling around the idea of creating something for me so I'm crossing my fingers he'll come up with some ingenious plan! LOL

For now I'll have to be content with placing it on a flashlight to enjoy it. It seems like such a shame to tuck it away so hopefully it will get a permanent home soon. If you have any ideas on how to create a permanent illuminated display I would LOVE to hear from you :)

~ Rosina

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