Make A Custom Journal

In preparation for my first show, I wanted to make a hand-made guest book. 

Check out the post over at A Blue House Blog for the full tut and pics along the way!

I Heart Trees & Your Paper Craft Can Too!

As you may or may not know, I am a contributor to the newly rolled out abluehouseblog. Head on over to  to read my post about how to make some custom gift packaging- green style.

A Handmade Valentines- Part 1

This year Valentines has been a great excuse to get crafty, and boy have I been (see here and here)! I went to a workshop at Blue House instructed by the very friendly and talented Ashley from Again Goods. While there, I managed to make three great felted gifts.

One for Ava, her B-day is on Valentines after all! She could use this as a tag on her backpack or craft bag, or for whatever her imagination desires.

One for Brian- I resisted putting on hearts. I figure if I am to have a chance that he will use it, it better not have hearts! He could use this as a luggage tag, key chain, etc...

The last tag I admit I intend to keep for myself (hehe). This tag could be used on one of my crafty bags, luggage, or a key chain. I admit I was a bit rushed when making this one. It shows...I should really re-sew these on by hand instead of using the machine.

While at Blue House I spotted these absolutely adorable robots made by deets. Siobhan (from Blue House) told me that the creator is an engineer, but now makes art for a living. Awesome! 

When I saw them I just had to get one for Brian, it was quirky and the kind of thing he would appreciate. I figured Valentines is as good of an excuse as any to give him a small trinket. 

Over the summer I went to the Shadow Art Fair, where I scored some hand illustrated cards. One of them I have been holding on to for Valentines to give to Bri;

Did you make something for Valentines? Or maybe you were the recipient of a handmade gift? Please share in the comments below!

Fabric Flowers for Ava

I decided I would use my nieces upcoming 4th birthday as an opportunity to try this tutorial on fabric flowers. My intention is to make headbands and/or hair clips out of them. 

It was a little harder than I anticipated to add 'dimension' by creasing the hearts...so instead I got out my curling iron. Yup, that's right! I used it to curl the peddles up and down on different layers. It gives it a sightly different look than the original flowers, but still cute.

More flowers...

...and this one...

last but not least...

I ended up making 5 total...one of which is a little sad looking (note to self- thin petals don't work so well), here is how that one turned out...

Plenty for both my nieces! Still need to get hair clips and/or head bands to attach them, but I'm thinking if nothing else works, a hot glue gun will!

It's raining...hearts?

Over the weekend I managed to get my paper craft on AND take photos. These were inspired by some finds on Etsy and by these decorations I made around Christmas.

I sorta winged it and tried two different ways of making them. I learned two important things;
1. knots work better on top (pink heart, right) than double sided tape between two punch hole remnants (red heart w/blue & white interior, left).

2. use mod podge (and clips while they dry) instead of double sided tape to hold the bottom of the hearts together (or else risk the tension of the paper pulling on the sting, resulting in a malformed heart).

These are currently adorning our dining area, but I will be making a few more for my nieces 4th birthday (which happens to fall on Valentines day).

I Heart Holiday Paper Craft

This year has been a very busy holiday season. So busy in fact that Brian and I did not have time to get a tree! Which was a bit of a bummer to me...BUT I spent time making some great holiday paper crafts instead of time decorating a tree.

You can find directions for these here.

And as part of my hand-made pledge, I made more of these for my coworkers as gifts this year...

Easy Ornaments

Cold weather + snuggling under a blanket + cup of tea = feel like gettin' crafty.

This year I took a handmade pledge, meaning all gifts I give will be hand made either by me or another artist.  Ready Made's Nov/Oct issue featured little geometric balls made out of paint samples. When I first saw them I immediately thought it would make neat ornaments for a Christmas tree.

Blue House also used this idea to make ornaments at one of their workshops. I learned a few great tips there. One was cutting out an equilateral triangle out of card stock (instead of tracing triangles on every individual circle). Another was punching holes in them and using them as covers on a string of lights. So cute!

Building each side with 5 circles and adding the middle layer (left)...Top & Bottom portions (right)...

This ornament along with some super cute magnets I scored from Blue House were packaged together. I used them in a traditional $5 gift exchange at a family Christmas party. Perfect!

Full directions are here for detail on how to makes these guys.