Merry Christmas!

A quick card for a Christmas gift. Gotta work on my lettering for next year. Maybe I'll make it a new years resolution... :)

Merry Christmas, everyone!

A Little Christmas Baking

Blackforest cupcakes with fresh whipped cream topped with crushed candy canes. Yum!

Christmas Cards: A Mass Production

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone is enjoying some blessed time with family and friends to celebrate our Lord's birth.

This post has been long overdue but today was when I finally found a little time to put it up. (Sorry for the delay, gals.)

There are some crafts that require many painstaking hours to produce a single final product and then there are others which you can churn out en mass. A few weekends ago, my sister and I went over to our friend Nissi's apartment for an afternoon of crafting. I have no idea how many cards we cranked out over the course of 4 hours but it certainly wasn't just one (as evidenced from the picture above).

Nissi has a love of calligraphy and an indifferent attitude towards card design. I enjoy designing cards but have weak lettering skills - really, it was a perfect match! :) We spent a happy afternoon gushing over paper and art supplies and bonding over our daydream of one day opening an Etsy store. (There's just the small matter of our day jobs which unfortunately, takes up a great deal of our time... :P)

Now for a closer look at some of our creations:

These two cards were designed and lettered by my friend, Wyanne. 

She lined the snowflake with tin foil which looked great in person but unfortunately, I wasn't able to do it justice in my photos.

This was my favorite design. Who knew that black would work so well as a Christmas card? I think it looks classy!

The great thing about punches is that you can use both the positive and the negative. Black snowflakes look surprisingly good.

This was designed and lettered by my sister. Do you recognize where the pieces of the tree come from? That's right, from the tinges of a green punched snowflake. Creative, no?

Will this be the start of a new Christmas crafting tradition? Who knows... but either way, I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas this year! See you in 2016!

'Tis the season to be yarning...

Fa la la la la la la la la ...

Merry Christmas, everyone! Christ is born - it's time to celebrate!

This year, my sister and I wanted to give our crafting friends gifts. Ambitiously, we thought to knit them each a face cloth and bundle it with some facial cleanser to make a gift set.

We made a few versions of the same type of set.

You all know that my sister knits so for her, it wouldn't be a problem. However, what you may not know is that the last time I picked up knitting needles was 15 years ago. Yep. And I never even finished the sole of the booty that I was working on.

What I have discovered is that it is easier learning how to knit properly as an adult than as an impatient preteen. My first face cloth was a mass of uneven knits, reversed patterns and dropped stitches. My second face cloth was an improvement in spades. Check it out:

This neat pattern is called Nai Nai's Favorite and can be found here.

Practise does make perfect. After churning out a handful of these, I have now got this pattern memorized and am not only making better stitches but am faster overall. 

Both Allison and I want to wish everyone a happy holiday. May you have a wonderful time with friends and family but do not forget to thank the Lord for giving us the greatest gift of all - his one and only son, Jesus. Today, we celebrate Christ's birth - Merry Christmas!

Oh Christmas Tree...

I don't give out a lot of Christmas cards during Christmas. The main reason is that I want to hand-make all my cards but I always spend way too long on each card. This card I made for a family friend. It's been years since I last made a pop-up card and recently, while wandering through the library, I came across this book:

The designs are pretty basic but versatile and it made me want to try my hand and making pop-up cards again. I remember why I loved these so much as a kid. 

I got my inspiration for the front from - where else? - Pinterest, of course. It was a clean, simple layout which worked.  

Tonight is Christmas eve. I like to think of the shepherds out in the field tending their flocks, probably a little bored, completely unaware of what's awaiting them a few hours ahead. A child is being born and he is going to change the world...

A Craft-y Sunday

The weeks leading up to Christmas can be so busy. I haven't had much time to work on this blog and my hard drive currently holds a large stock of crafting pictures just waiting to be posted.

A few weeks ago, my sister and I hosted our first crafting afternoon at our house (I say 'first' because I hope for many more such afternoons in the coming year :) ). Michelle, Tracy, Amy and Emily came over for lunch before we busted out the supplies. I had this vague idea of us all making Christmas cards but we ended up each working on different projects. Still, it was an awesome afternoon and we got some nice stuff out of it.

Emily was our shutterbug for the afternoon - the rest of us were too bent on our projects to document (as you can see by the many hands visible in the photos).

Amy was the only one who actually worked on Christmas cards. :)

Watercolour and calligraphy - just the right handmade touch!

Tracy ambitiously decided to learn how to knit. She was working on a scarf with a few pointers from my sister and Emily.  There were many Youtube videos being played in the background while we worked.

I'm not sure how far she got but I have heard that it has since finished. I can't wait to see it :)

My sister and Michelle set up a clay sculpture shop. It took up half the dining room table and was quite the production. My sister is slowly building up her arsenal of clay sculpting tools. Recently, our family bought a new toaster oven so now, our old one is specifically devoted to baking our crafting creations. Move aside Dolly Maker Oven - we've got big girl toys now!

A cute, festive bear bearing a candy cane.

Michelle was the one who was especially excited to be working with clay. She decided to work on a set of ornaments and experimented with a bunch of different techniques.

Oh, and did I mention that we also have a pasta maker dedicated for clay sculptures? Yes we do. 

She make some really neat colour mixtures.

Into the oven they go!

Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of Michelle's ornaments after they were baked. They still need to be spray painted with gold (oohh...fancy). However, here's my sister's adorable Christmas bear:

So what did our shutterbug (ie. Emily) work on? Well, for the past few months, she has been diligently working on a cross-stitching pattern for her niece. In between shooting our photos, she got a few stitches in.

Coming along nicely, Em.

So what did I do? Aside from talking non-stop for 4 hours, of course :P. Well, that will have to wait for next year. Stay tuned!

Happy 2014!

Happy 2014! *Blows a party horn and throws confetti* I love New Year – so much potential, so many possibilities…so many potential crafting possibilities! My Pinterest boards are loaded with plans and my craft supply cupboard is bursting. I am all set!

Every year, I make a bunch of New Year’s resolutions and even if I rarely carry mine through the whole year (*blush* I am a bit ashamed to admit…), I still love making them. Hope springs eternal  ; )! This year, I fully intend to have at least one post up on this blog each week. They will be released every Thursday simply because Thursday has always been and still is my favorite day of the week. Everyone can also look forward to Allison finally posting up some of her creations. She knits the cutest things and I always feel like I am dragging an elephant up a hill trying to get her to show them off.

This year, I am also going to try taking some ‘work in progress’ photos and maybe even create a tutorial for something. All big plans!

I was really not sure what to post as my first crafting diversion of the year but I figured a winter theme was a must. This doodled coffee cup was completed thanks to a 3-hour church annual general meeting. My friend had bought a coffee from a local shop and the entirely blank paper cup was irresistible to my pen. This was definitely an impromptu craft and when life hands you an opportunity like that, you cannot pass it by. I would have preferred a sharpie but I suppose one cannot be too picky under the circumstances. As you can see, I am so productive at meetings ; D!

See that sparkly Christmas card on the right with the ornament and the snowmen? That is a handmade card from a friend of mine in Thunder Bay. I have craft-y friends : )

I am not a doodler by nature and I have not seriously drawn something since high school so I was feeling a bit rusty with my scribbles.  I am going to have to start decorating the margins of my notes more often.

My friend was kind enough to shoot a video of my rotating coffee cup because you really cannot appreciate the full effect of the wrap around doodles in the photos.

From both Allison and me, we want to thank all of our family and friends who have been reading our blog. Of course, if anyone else out there is also reading, thank you to you also. Onwards to a craft-y (crafting…?) New Year!