Impossible Box and Art Impressions' Beauty in Progress

The woman who cuts my hair shares my interests in paper crafts and knitting. I often take something with me to show her, and lately, I've been placing her payment inside a card or other paper creation.  This week she will be getting an Impossible Box which holds a container of Ice Cubes gum.

The directions, including a video for this box, can be found at The Paper Pixie.  

I haven't decided yet if this image, Beauty in Progress, from Art Impressions, will become the front of a card or perhaps go in a plastic easel frame. 

Not many sit under a dryer like that anymore, but we do remember them. Coloring was done in Copic markers and some Prisma Color pencils. 

Christmas Scrapbook Pages

It is time to get back into scrapbooking. My grandson is 11, my granddaughter is 6. I have more pages done for him, not simply because he is older but events in my life interrupted the joy and available time to scrapbook. Honestly, scrapbooking has never been my primary hobby, but I do enjoy the pages when they are done. 

The papers and embellishments were sold as a kit at Remember When? Scrapbooking. The print papers and embellishments are from Doodlebug. 

 

Sun and Moon Birthday Card

This is a birthday card for my younger son's upcoming birthday. It is directly taken from Shari Carroll's card (here), the only changes being the paper used for stamping the sun and moon, stars and greeting coming from different sources, and because I didn't have a stencil for the sun rays (for ink blending), I cut my own mask from scrap paper to create them. 

New Year....new enthusiasm?

I hate to think of myself as being unwilling to change. I've certainly adapted to changes to changes I never would have chosen, but when it comes to social media, I can still be in control, so here I am. I'm not an Instagram gal and that is unlikely to change. 

I have two Facebook accounts, but not for nefarious reasons. If I want to share a creation with other makers and not spoil the surprise for someone who might be the recipient of the sweater or card, that is the place where I will post. Also, when the world on FB gets ugly as it sometimes does, I can avoid it all by logging into my second account where only craft groups exist. 

Writing this is mostly talking to myself but I'm going to attempt to share photos of projects here in case someone needs inspiration for a project. 

I'm going to start 2022 with this which I made on New Year's Eve. I regret that I don't know where I saw this, but the woman who shared her photo said the idea was not originally hers, she saw it on Ravelry. Click here for the link to Knitted Lights by Leila Raven  I ordered the 66-foot spool of fairy lights from Amazon and had them the following day. The needles are size 11 needles that I seldom use (plus I have another style of size 11 needles), and the black board is a message board that I wasn't using. The needles are held in place with two small, clear Command (brand) hooks. 

Not the best photo, but you get an idea of size:

This is simply a stockinette stitch but obviously, rather loose. 

Here it is, unlit. The lights plug into a USB port or an electrical outlet. There is a remote to turn them on and off, and they can fade and resume brightness or flash, neither of which will be used often, if at all.

 

The lights cost $16.99 as of December 2021. It was fun to do and while not difficult, it took longer than knitting with yarn. Still, I finished this in an evening and I think it is a fun accent when lit.

Butterfly Card and (unrelated) a Baby Sweater

I've been making things but summer has flown and I don't seem to post much. I keep trying to get into using Instagram but it isn't "my thing", probably because I do much more on the PC than on a mobile device. 

This became a sympathy card for a neighbor whose mother had died. The inspiration was Jennifer McGuire's "Lined-Up Window Card" and her tutorial is HERE.

The stamps (Beautiful Butterflies stamp and die, sentiment is from Natural Silhouettes) and cardstock are from Gina K, the coloring was done with Prismacolor pencils

This sweater will be going to my son's coworker. It is a 12-month size pullover, pattern name is Cable Rings 5336 by Hayfield. This was knit with Snuggly DK weight yarn by Sirdar. The color isn't splotchy, it was drying when I photographed this. 

Father's Day

I helped my grandkids with cards and gifts for their dad, my oldest son, for Father's Day. I stamped the images for the fronts of their cards with stamps from Stamping Bella. Both of the grandkids have red hair. When my grandson got ready to color the dad's hair in the image, he stopped to ask me what color his dad's hair is because he has been shaving his head for ages! 😄

My card used images from Colorado Craft Company. All of us used Prismacolor pencils for coloring. 

and inside:

One of their gifts required a photo of the two of them. Getting the 6-year-old to take a photo without hamming it up is an issue lately as the first photo shows. I asked her not to do that for the next photo and she didn't....but her brother did! The laughter was priceless. I did get the last picture as a keeper for that project, but all three photos went into a scrapbook. 💕

 

My Granddaughter's Mermaid Party

Avery had a belated birthday party for a few classmates right after school ended in June. With a pool and expected hot weather, she wanted it to be a pool party with a mermaid theme. I made these invitations with the pertinent information on the back. The mermaid body is a die from Karen Burniston, most of the fish and seaweed is from various Lawn Fawn sets. 

The guests had mermaid cupcakes after lunch. Leaving a few plain in case someone didn't care for sprinkles, most of the icing was tinted a pale lavender and had sprinkle from an assortment called Mermaid. See the tails among the baubles and bits?

The weather wasn't ideal that day but the girls swam anyway, then came inside to warm up and play. Their goodie bags had bracelets and mermaid-themed lip balm in them with this thank you attached to the bag.

Six is a fun age for mermaids and their grandmas.