Tah Dah!!!

It's finally here! The grand finale of my paper crafting weekend! Are you ready?? Are you sure? Here they are....

Ta dah! Houses!!!

Aren't they fun! Have you ever seen those chipboard/cardboard houses at the craft store? Thats what these are. I bought five in 3 different sizes. For ages they sat around painted in solid colors- a little boring. After I found the fun scrapbook paper I knew these houses had to be covered in it some how.

I can't take credit for all of these houses though. My mom joined in the paper crafting and together we created a cute little village that we are calling "Hopscotch Lane"! I think our two different styles make these houses look so unique and look as though they belong in a cute little town.

                            Aren't these little chipboard figures fun? The kids are just too cute.

I added an extra little surprise inside. They aren't just cardboard houses, oh no, they light up!

 

I just cut a hole in the back of each house with an exacto knife and added a light bulb. I found a strand of 5 c7 lights that were made for a village at the craft store. How lucky was that find?!

                            I love love love anything that lights up so this makes me insanely happy.

So I hope you were inspired to pick up or use some scrapbook paper you have been coveting and have fun making some cute projects for your home!

Paper Bunting and a Simple Crochet Flower Pattern

So what did you think of that wreath? Pretty cute huh? :)

You can't have a wreath without some sort of garland and the bunting banner is probably the cutest of all garlands.

Again a very simple project. Make a bunting banner template and trace it on your different papers.Cut out with scissors ( I used scallop craft scissors). I ended up making 2 different sized banners because my first  triangles were just too big.

Attach together by hot gluing solid white ribbon to the top of each triangle.

 

Of course I had to add something crocheted so I made some colorful flowers. The two colored ones are a free pattern from mollie makes. I just followed the directions for the 1st 3 rows and changed the half double crochets on the first row to single crochets.

The smaller flowers are my own pattern. Here it is. It is only one row!

ch 5, join to make ring.

In the ring ch2, 2 dc, ch2, slip stitch in the ring. Repeat until you have 5 petals. Fasten off and weave in ends.

Glue the flowers between each triangle and your done!

I'm nearly bursting with excitement to show you the grand finale paper project! What could it be???

Yarn and Paper Wreath

The other day we were out and about and stopped at Archivers (a really cute scrapbooking chain store). I'm not a scrapbooker or a paper crafter, but I saw this "dear lizzy" scrapbooking paper and fell in love. I decided to pass because I had no idea what to do with a stack of  paper. 

A week passed and I was still dreaming about the paper and while on pinterest I realized I had a board titled "paper crafts". Well duh! Now I had a board full of inspiration and a reason to buy paper. Yay! So that day out we went again and I bought 2 of sheets of each design in the collection.

When we got home I instantly new what to make with all of this paper. I am really excited to share with you over the next few days what I came up with. The last day will be the big finale:)

Here is the first project. At Michaels I found these really cool wooden flat wreaths in the floral section.They had nice big sizes (I think this one is 20 or 22") and the price ($2!) was much cheaper than the pricey styrofoam ones.

This is so simple to do: 

Just wrap the entire wreath with yarn adding some hot glue here and there. I used sugar n cream cotton in a medium shade of pink. Then make different size pinwheels using scrapbook paper and add some buttons or any embellishments you wish. There is a great tutorial for the pinwheels here. Then simply hot glue the pinwheels to the wreath, I like mine grouped together in the lower corner. 

Weave a piece of floral while under the yarn on the back of the wreath and make a secure loop to hang, and there you go you have a bright summery yarn and paper wreath!

Summer Doily Blanket

Have you ever started a pattern that is just so addictive that you can't stop? This is one of them. I had every intention to take in progress pictures and do a wip post, but this little blanket worked up so fast that by the time I had the post all ready I was finished and was ready for the reveal post.

 

So here it is... my summer doily crochet blanket! What do you think? Very granny chic is it not? :) 

The pattern is anya from goodknits. It is written very well and easy to follow. I highly recommend her patterns.

I decided I wanted a super colorful doily, I love traditional white doilies, but I really wanted to make it as modern as possible. I used Hobby Lobby's "I love this yarn" in a variety of colors. If you have never tried it, it is a wonderful acrylic. It is soft but it still feels sturdy and that it won't break at the slightest snag. You can't beat the price at $3.99 for 355 yards and many a times they have it on sale. I will definitely be using it again!

I'm thinking up next should be some smaller projects. I'm a little blanketed out for now (2 blankets in 18 days!Phew), but I love it!

weekend wrap up

Happy June everyone! I had a great first June weekend. It involved a major amount of relaxing, crocheting all kinds of new cuteness for my reopened shop, and a baseball game (Go Tribe!).

Oh my, I think I have to crochet up another set of these for myself. I want to stick them on every inch of my wall, they make me so gosh darn happy. I'm thinking I might make a wreath will all of the different appliques attached. Do you think it would be too much to include the bird, owl, and butterfly?

Two Potholders

Potholders are one of my favorite things to crochet. They are fast, colorful, and as simple or complicated as you want. I finished both of these potholders in a day and had so much fun playing with colors.

This first pattern uses attic 24's hexagon how to, but I used HelloYarn's modifications to make the potholder shape. The yarn is sugar n cream solids with hook size US G. The hexagon pattern is super simple but the assembling together became a little complicated as more of them were joined. I am sure it was just me making these harder than need be as usual.

The second potholder is also a free pattern that you can find here. This one was such a joy to crochet! I loved doing the petal outlines in white, it was great fun watching the circle become a flower. It is also made out of sugar n cream cotton with a size F hook.

I have plans to make one more potholder with these colors to have a complete set.  I am thinking a simple granny mandala with a shell border will fit the bill perfectly!

May 2012