Embrace Your Inner Witch

Ah... it's nice to be back. To say that my family has had things... uh... "going on" for the last 10 months is an understatement. It's been too much, really, and instead of helping me cope with the stress, my creativity took a nosedive. I now have a lovely craftroom with *gasp* natural light but for months now, I've just been sitting at my worktable staring out the window looking for inspiration.

Well, I've finally found some! Life has thrown me a bone in the form of a new friend who enjoys crafts as much as I do. She's SUPER talented and I'm honored that she considers me artistic too. This week, I attended her annual "Witches Luncheon" and I want to tell you all about it! I'll begin by introducing my friend, Christa McInturff from Sweet Life ART!. Christa is a graphic artist and mother of two and, in addition to the gorgeous gift items she creates for sale on her website, Christa creates delightful framed works of art that are full of whimsy and color, like this cute pumpkin to the right.

Christa's friend, Mary, hosted the first Witches Luncheon three years ago after hosting the same type of event for Valentine's Day. Mary, Christa and their artist friends all agreed it was a great way to spend time together, exchange handmade gifts and build their boutique-quality decoration collections.

Christa has taken on the role of hostess for the last two years and she truly excels at it! According to Christa, "My party decorating inspiration comes from diving into the details. I open my craft cupboard looking for ways to dress up my table to put smiles on my guest's faces. I love mixing up patterns that make my table decor visually pop with festive flair. Setting up and decorating my table for a party is always a happy moment for me."

Over the years, artists have contributed spooky terrariums, journals, clay bones in vintage bottles, necklace charms, candle holders, martini glasses, and witch and pumpkin creatures... all handmade or decorated, of course.

When I asked Christa what inspires her most when crafting, she said, "My inspiration comes from taking something I have and turning it into a unique gift (all I have to do is open my craft armoire and ideas jump right into my brain)." That must be some armoire!

Some Creations by Christa and Her Artist Friends

I have to tell you, I was thrilled when Christa invited me... honored, really, that she considered me an artist. I was so nervous thinking about what to bring, wondering if my item would be "artsy" enough. I made the little pumpkins to the left and thought they turnout pretty darn cute. They are soft fleece and only about 4"-5" wide so they are really sweet.

It felt great to create again and oh, so lovely, to chat with women about their art forms and lives in general while enjoying Christa's delicious food and wine. Thank you so much, Christa! I hope this inspires some of you to make time to create something and gather among friends.

Here we are, embracing our "inner witch"

Wahoo! I Won!

What a friend! After reading my post Handmade Gifts for All 2008, Tara at Feels Like Home suggested I enter my creations in a contest over at Foodie Mama.  And guess what!  I won a prize!  And it is sooo perfect for me.  

I won the Blue Avocado Cool Kit, a set of 5 reusable shopping bags that replace 13 plastic bags! I already use reusable shopping bags everywhere I go (even the mall!) but these add so much to my arsenal and I am so excited.  

The Cool Kit includes:

• 1 "pak" (carry-all) bag
  
• 1 "gro" (multi-use) bag
• 1 "chil" (insulated) bag
• 2 "veg" (produce) bags

Here is a photo of the kit straight from the Blue Avocado site:

Aren't they gorgeous?  

And the site... wow.  So much helpful information on  storing the kit compactly, growing the kit later and remembering your bags when you leave the house.  I am thoroughly impressed and just so thrilled to have won this prize.

Thank you, Foodie Mama, Blue Avocado and Tara from Feels Like Home.

Handmade Gifts for All 2008

I am finally feeling the peace of the Christmas spirit! My to-do list is DONE and I can sit back, relax and laugh at all those folks running around last minute. No, I wouldn't do that... well, maybe just a little. I have totally finished my teacher gifts (can I get a "whoot, whoot?") and I'm very pleased with them. I hope my handmade gifts inspire you. You can make gifts just like these... they can easily be adapted to your style and craftiness-level.

Let's start with my kids at school. I teach ten 3 year olds and wanted to send home just a little something. Not something junkie and plastic, but a little something. I was thrilled when Christy at Southern Plate mentioned her S'mores Kits. They were JUST what I wanted: affordable, quick and easy. All you need are reclosable plastic baggies (preferrably without any printing on them), graham crackers, mini Hershey bars (which I purchased on sale at a local grocery store... 8/$1!) and mini marshmellos. Christy has a template for labels with all the writing done for you but I had fun making my own. They are just folded over the top of the bag and stapled (with GREEN staples, though you can't tell from the picture). I used some old holiday stickers think they turned out super cute!

As for teacher gifts, this year most teachers and helpers will receive a layered jar. I made 4 oatmeal chocolate chip cookie jars and 5 harvest soup jars... I'll post the recipes when I find them again (ack! clutter in the kitchen!) but if you need something sooner, http://www.allrecipes.com/ has lots of great options. Both turned out cute and I was able to find the ingredients on sale or use what I already had in the pantry. If you're on a budget, I highly recommend the soup recipe; I used 6-8 bags of beans total and they each cost just $.88. Plus, the recipe makes 16 servings so it will go a long way for your recipient. The cookie recipe was hard to fit into the jar, even with me packing down each layer as it was added. And I messed up one little bit... after the second layer of brown sugar, I was supposed to add the second layer of oats. I forgot about that step until AFTER I'd added the flour/baking powder/baking soda/cinnamon layer. Whoops. But I think it will be okay. Not all of that second cup of oats fit but I think it's better to be missing some oats rather than flour, baking soda and baking powder.

To decorate the jars, I tied a 1" brown ribbon through the metal hinge and clasp and then used a smaller brown ribbon to add a tag. The tags were decorated on the front but had the cooking directions on the back. I had a great time making the tags using Stampin' Up!'s "I Wish" Simply Scrappin' set. I stamped just a few things; the stickers really made faster work of it. The soup jar above (stamped with Baroque Motifs from SU) was a prototype I did for my girlfriend who wanted to use that stamp set on her tags. For me, I wanted to simplify and use what I had so I stuck with the I Wish materials plus some random things I found among my stash. I made 9 tags in all:

For two special-special folks, I decorated containers I've saved (and people always wonder why I never throw anything away...) and filled them with handmade ornaments. I used pieces from SU's I Wish again to decorate plus SU's Star Bright ornament die cuts to create the ornaments. The photo at the top of this post is one example and to the right is another. These were so simple to make and yet they are really impressive. Those ornament die cuts are just so EASY!

And then there was the one MALE teacher... yeah, you heard me. My son has a male teacher; how cool is that?! Totally cool for a seven year old boy but a little challenging for moi since I have this need on a cellular level to make my teacher gifts each year and my husband said, "No. You cannot give a guy a jar of cookie or soup mix. You just can't." My husband was, however, very supportive when I suggested I buy the teacher a Starbucks gift card. Of course, I had to make some kind of cover or box for the gift card. Duh. I found a tutorial by Andrea Walford and went to work.

I used an envelope in Very Vanilla by SU plus pieces from the I Wish set (can you believe I made all these things and still have more pieces left???) and some basic red ribbon I've had for years. I think it turned out sufficiently masculine, although my husband is convinced the teacher will never know the holder is handmade. Oh, well. Here are views of the front, back and inside.

The jars were quite heavy and the ornament boxes were difficult to wrap since they were round so I went the green way and used brown paper gift bags. I love these bags because they are reusable (less waste in a landfill and less energy used in a recycling plant) and simple. They can be dressed up for the nicest gift or decorated by my kids for birthday parties. I stayed simple and just hung a star ornament from SU's Star Bright die cuts plus a little wooden bead (can you believe I've had these beads since I was a child?) on the silver elastic cording that came in the Star Bright kit. I love the way they turned out. I wrote the To: From: information on the star so they doubled as gift tags.

There you go; my handmade teacher gifts for 2008. I hope you've enjoyed seeing them and maybe are even a little inspired to try making them yourselves.

Happy holidays, everyone!

PS: FoodieMama.com is having a contest about food gift items. Let's see how I do! Thanks, Tara, from Feels Like Home for letting me know about the contest!

Buying Mom-made

Consider buying mom-made gift items this holiday season. Why? Buying mom-made supports mothers, many of them stay home with their children and create their products around the needs of their family. Buying mom-made means you’re buying something HANDMADE. That’s special in this day of mass-produced, under-priced stuff (could that pair of gloves for your brother-in-law REALLY cost just $9.99 to make and distribute or is someone else paying for the deal somewhere down the line?). And buying mom-made means you are buying something UNIQUE. Check out http://team.etsy.com/profilest/moms.shtml for a list of Etsy stores that are mom-run, http://tipjunkie.com/shopathon for more mom-made shops

Wahoo! I Won!

I am so excited. I just found out I've won the Mothers and Daughters Creations weekly design challenge for table decor. I am stoked to go created more!

Here is my original blog post.

Thank you so much, MDC!

Calling All Craft Bloggers

Hi there, fellow craft bloggers. What do ya say we share the love and promote one another? Let's do a button swap and a give a Twitter shout out about each other and see what we can do. Leave a comment with your URL and I'll be in touch! As a list grows, I'll post here to increase exposure.

MDC Table Decor Challenge: Part II

Once I finished the table decor for the Mothers and Daughters Creations challenge, I made the framed image above left. I thought it would be a cute wall decoration. But then I couldn't help myself and I made a winter scene too! How cool would it be to change out the scenes for each season? So now I'm going to make spring and summer scenes and display these proudly in my kitchen. Fun! (And using the same tree image in different ways is a fun challenge for me.)