Happy 2011!

Over the past couple weeks, I have come up with three goals for the coming new year. I think they are fun, hopefully not overly ambitious and definitely a reminder to take care of myself in this hectic life. I made a quick visual reminder of my goals in Illustrator that I plan on printing out and hanging at my desk. Hopefully that will motivate me during those rough weeks!




















Happy new year! I wish you all the best in 2011!

Featured on Craftster!

I was just browsing through the various topics on Craftster.org. One of my favorite sections is the Home Sweet Home section because I always find inspiration for DYI projects and ideas for decorating my apartment. I was looking through the December 2010 inspirations and saw a picture frame that look oddly familiar...something I had posted ages ago and made for a swap! I was so excited I just had to blog about it!

Christmas memories

I know this last Christmas post is a bit late. I was in Germany this past week so I didn't have a chance to post anything.

Anyways, I decided to make my mom something festive for her Christmas present. Inspired by this idea at MarthaStewart.com, I decided to make some magnetic Christmas clips to hold photos of my sister and I...perfect for decking out the fridge!

















Here's a close-up of the pipe cleaner, beads and sequins I used to decorate these Christmas magnets made out of felt:



















I used a wooden clothespin and some round magnets to create the clip. Craft glue worked perfectly to attach the clothespin to the felt.




















Finally, to end on a cute note, here is one of the Christmas clips in use! Pictured here: my younger sister and I back in the day.

Sackboy

My boyfriend introduced me to My Big Little Planet, this really cute PS3 game with crafty graphics. It's the best way I can explain it, but you could see how I might love it! Anyways, with much encouragement from my boyfriend, the inspiration for my second crochet project came from this game. I crocheted the main character Sackboy as part of his Christmas gift. I didn't even have to hunt around too long for a pattern since my boyfriend beat me to it!

Anyways, here is the finished product:



















Here he is again with a full body view. The eyes are random beads I had lying around that happened to be the perfect size. The mouth was sewn with black embroidery thread and the zipper was made with gray felt.
























One of the best parts of the game is personalizing Sackboy (or girl) with all these fun accessories. You can give him or her a helmet, a poncho, and a mustache for instance or a peasant dress, a cape, a zebra head and pigtails. The world is your oyster! Anyways, I really wanted to make some accessories out of felt, scraps of fabric, or basically anything I could find in my crafting closet. I was going to include some as part of the gift but ended up making coupons for said accessories instead.



















Things just got really hectic as December progressed. But more importantly, I'll be getting a sewing machine soon! So what better way to learn how to use it then to use this as an excuse to play around with the machine!

Look for future posts on Sackboy accessories!

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Funky polka dot giraffe

Trips and travels: California

I'm in California for the week visiting some close friends and escaping the frigid temperatures that have overtaken the east coast. I'll be posting some more of my holiday crafting projects next week when I get back. But for now, I'm just going to share some moments of my vacation so far.

The marina at Redondo Beach...I wish this was the view outside my apartment!


















I miss the ocean.















Sea lions have it made. During the thirty minutes I was gazing at them, they were either sleeping lazily in piles or frolicking about in the water.















We went to an a cappella concert at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. My favorite part? The amazing architecture of the building.

















The interior was full of warm woods and white walls...basically really clean design. The cooler exterior and the warmer interior made for an interesting contrast. And there were just as many interesting organic architecture features inside the building.

I really loved the lighted Walt Disney Concert Hall sign on the building:
















So far, it has been a great trip! I'm looking forward to the weekend where our plans include wine tasting in Santa Barbara and visiting my old haunts in the Pasadena area.

A thank you note

As I mentioned in a previous, I've been wanting to make a collection of greeting cards. Here's my latest addition to the collection...Thank you cards!

Winter comforts: spiced hot chocolate on a snowy day

Okay, it's really not snowing here in North Carolina (although it did snow here last Saturday much to my surprise!). I was wrapping a gift for my Secret Santa for tomorrow's Christmas brunch (super excited about some eggs, coffee cake, pancakes, mimosas and gluhwein!) when I felt the need to adorn the package with something cute and festive. I've been stalking Martha Stewart's website for the past couple of weeks in order get some ideas for holiday crafts. I saw these snowflakes made out of pipe cleaners and thought they were perfect for being that little something to add to any gift!

Here is the snowflake amid some red curly ribbon:
























One gift I love making for friends and family is a jar of homemade hot cocoa mix. It's an excuse to decorate the jar and design the labels to go with the gift!



















In case you're curious, here's the recipe for the mix I prepared (makes about 17 servings):

2 c powdered milk
3/4 c sugar
1/2 c unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 c non-dairy creamer powder
3 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves

To prepare a cup of hot cocoa, add 1/4 cup of the mix to 3/4 cup boiling water.

Holiday Greetings

Happy December everyone!

Anyways here is my design for this year's holiday cards. I decided to go minimalist and combine my love for scrapbooking paper and Adobe Illustrator.

Here's the two designs for the front of the cards:



















A close-up of the festive Christmas tree silhouettes:
























Here's the inside of the cards. I made folders out of scrapbook paper, which is perfect for giving gift cards or, let's say, bookmarks!

















And here's the inside page that I designed in Illustrator:
























Thanks for looking!