Pikachu!

Hello!  Well, it's been a while again!  Still feeling a bit shlumpy.  I don't know if that's a word but that's how I've been feeling lately.  But I decided to finally finish up this crocheted Pikachu hat that I started making a super long while ago.  I think I stopped making it because I found a Pikachu costume for my son and it came with a mask but it's kind of a lame mask cause it's so hard and there really isn't a place for my son's nose.  So it's like smashed and not comfortable.  But once I stopped making the hat, I just forgot about it.  I took it out the other day and I realized the basic hat part was almost done!  I just had to finish the face parts and the ears.  Good thing I had some good notes.

So I finished up the details and put the hat together last night and my son can use the hat as part of his Halloween costume.  Yes, he can reuse that costume for the 3rd year in a row.  It's been a while so I can't even remember the site I got the basic hat pattern from.  She had crocheted a bunch of Sesame Street characters.  The ears and facial parts I got from this site.  But I made the eyes a little differently and added a mouth.

Here it is on my son's head.  Pika's ears flop forwards and backwards but still looks pretty cute.

A different angle.

Alrighty, I got some goodies today so maybe I'll get back into the crafty swing of things.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Crocheted Market Bag

Hi!  So today's been very exciting after finding out my little baby memory box made it into TGF's Royalty Contest Final Four.  Then I got a little nervous so I had to clean the house to use up some nervous energy.  But with 3 kids on summer break the house doesn't stay clean for long.  And thanks to everyone for the sweet comments!

Anyway, onto today's project.  Over the past few days, I've been crocheting this market bag.  The pattern is from Lion Brand Yarn #60551.  It's not too large or small and fits a good amount of stuff in it.  I put my kids toys in it just to see what would fit.

I had originally planned to make bags similar to this one as Xmas presents last year but started too late. 

Here's my youngest trying the bag on for size.  Yeah, it's really too big for him.  Excuse all the messy toys in the background.

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Penguins & Flowers

In the quiet of darkness, while my kids are sleeping, I've been making this little project for my daughter.  It uses Sunghee's (from Creativity in Progress) template called Almost Square Bag.  You can find it HERE.  When I first saw this template, I thought it was the cutest thing but didn't really know exactly what to make it for.  I usually need some occasion or person to inspire me to create something.  Then I thought of making this for my daughter.  But it took me a while longer cause I could only work on it at night.  I had some of these leftover double layered flowers that I had crocheted from a PTI tutorial (HERE).  Then I just crocheted a simple chain stitch to make handles.

My daughter loves, loves, loves penguins so I stuck one in the middle.  This penguin stamp is from Dandelion Designs.  I punched it out with a half inch circle punch and stuck it on a button and placed a clear epoxy sticker over it.  That was also something that I had read over on PTI.  I used some leftover felt and rhinestones to finish it up.

I also made this little Matchbook Album from Sunghee.  You can also find it HERE.  This is the cutest little book.  But I decided to do something different with it. 

The book opens up just like a matchbook would.  You can see a little of what I placed inside.

Typically, you can add multiple pages into this template like a book.  Sunghee stapled hers in but since I didn't have a stapler big enough, I made my page slightly longer and scored it to leave about a half inch section in the middle where I could attach the page to the cover with flower shaped brads. 

Yes, there's another penguin too!  This is the full size of the image.  I attached flower shaped earrings onto the penguin like he's wearing them.  Hahaha.  My daughter will think that is funny.  I bought these earrings some time ago to give as a gift, either birthday or Xmas.  I tend to buy things early and save them for special occasions.  Her birthday is still some months away so hopefully I can hide this until then. 

All the felt flowers were die cut with PTI's Beautiful Blooms die set.  The "h" is also from PTI's Outlines Alphabet.

Thanks for reading.  Have a great day!

Crocheted Flowers

This is a simple birthday card I made for Cheryl's birthday.  I won't tell you how old she is though.  The sentiment is from a Stampin' Up set.  The flower I crocheted myself after finding a tutorial on PTI's site.  See HERE.  I crocheted it with embroidery floss from when I used to cross stitch.  I still have a lot of embroidery floss and good thing I saved them cause now I can crochet.

These are some other flowers I crocheted with yarn and embroidery floss using 2 different basic patterns.  I gave this set to Sunghee after I got the Sizzix die from her.

I also crocheted these bunny cozies for my kids for Easter.  Cute, yeah?  The pattern is from Lion Brand Yarn's site.  See HERE.  You have to register to see the pattern but it's free and they have lots of cute patterns and some are very affordable to make.  So far I've been able to crochet a couple of small blankets and a little cap for my daughter.  Knitting looks neat too but haven't gotten around to teaching myself that.  And I still haven't learned how to use my sewing machine but I really like the look of cards that have some sewing embellishment on it.

That's it for today.  I still have a lot of projects to finish up.  I fell asleep too early last night after a long day running errands and going to my daughter's school early to find parking and a good photo spot for her May Day program.  It was very low key this year because of the furloughs cutting into their instructional time but still nice.  Have a great weekend!

An alligator, a hippo and a penguin ...

Hi!  Happy Easter!  Today I want to share the three little animals I crocheted for my kids for Easter.  I had posted HERE some crocheted Easter baskets and an amigurumi bunny.  That's when my kids saw this book I had called Easy Crochet Critters to crochet amigurumi animals.  It's a book by Vanna White!  Yes, the same Vanna from Wheel of Fortune!  I bought my book from Lion Brand Yarn.  Anyway, the kids requested some animals and I think I had told them maybe for Easter.  So my middle one kept asking me if I had made him the alligator yet and I still wanted it to be somewhat of a surprise so I kept telling him no.  So Easter morning they'll all be surprised!  I'm hoping I can hide them somewhere and maybe make a little treasure hunt out of it.

Here's the alligator for my middle one.  And I finally tracked down some safety eyes.  I had to order them at Etsy from HERE.  The prices seemed reasonable and the service very quick.  I think I like these eyes better than the beads I sewed onto the bunny.  This particular store also had safety eyes in all sorts of colors.  Pretty neat.

Here's the alligator fighting off some Ninjas!  Hahaha, my hubby took these photos for me.

Some views of the hippo for my youngest.

Hippo's turn to fight the Ninjas!

A sweet, purple penguin for my oldest.  This is my favorite and it's not in the book I mentioned above but the pattern can be found on Lion Brand Yarn's website.  It's pattern number 70583.  I decided to go with purple since that is her favorite color.  This penguin is round like a ball.  Super cute!

Sorry, no fighting for the penguin.  The three new friends together.

And a shot of their behinds.  Heehee.

Thanks for reading and hope you're having a great weekend.  We're lucky, the kids get one more day off on Monday.  Now I'm off to think of some clever rhymes for this Easter treasure hunt.

Easter Baskets

Hi!  I crocheted these Easter baskets after Christmas when I was tired of making Christmas gifts and needed a break from stamping.  The pattern number is L0136AD from Lion Brand Yarn.  They are only about 6 inches wide so a cute little basket for little kids.

I also crocheted an amigurumi bunny to go in the basket.  ETA:  Sorry, forgot to add that the pattern for the bunny is also from Lion Brand Yarns (60480).  Amigurumi are small and seem quick to make but for me it takes a while cause they are so small.  You crochet all the little body parts separately and then sew them together.  Sometimes I'm not that patient.  So this bunny took me several days.  I'm contemplating making another one cause there are 2 little girls we give Easter baskets too and I can't give one a bunny and not the other.

The ears are large and floppy and I sewed beads on for eyes but maybe that makes him look kind of scary.  I'm looking for safety eyes to use for little projects like this but haven't found any here so maybe I'll have to search online.  I already have requests by my kids to make an alligator and a hippo and a penguin.  Geez, it never ends. 

Thanks for reading and have a great week!

Papertrey March Blog Hop Challenge

Hi!  It's time for another PTI blog hop challenge!

For the March Blog Hop we are challenging you to use embroidery floss in a fun and inventive way on your project.  This could include stitching, wrapping it around and tying it like ribbon, braiding, accenting tags, embroidered patterns or anything else you can dream up!  We look forward to seeing your creations!

I've used embroidery floss a number of times on other projects and I went through my older posts.  I've crocheted flowers, made tassels, used it for sewing, decorated tags, and made spider webs with embroidery floss.  So I thought I'd try making something I've been holding off on because it looks pretty time consuming.  I still consider myself a beginner at crocheting but I've been wanting to crochet my own doilies or decorative trim. 

I found this pattern for crochet trim at Lion Brand Yarn.  I should have taken a picture of just the trim before I stuck in onto the card.  This pattern wasn't too difficult.  I just wish I used a different color but I've already used my pretty colors.  I told myself no more buying stuff just for challenges and to use what I already have. 

It's like a little scalloped border.  And I finally got my PTI order today so I had to use my new goodies.  I just gotta say that the Tiny Tags stamp set and dies are so super cute!  I stamped BABY using Simple Alphabet stamp set.  The little birdie is from Tag-its 2.

And the little buttons too!  They are so adorable. 

Here's a picture of my doily attempts.  The pattern is from HERE.  This pattern is pretty time consuming!  So I have to give up for now.

Can't wait to see everyone else's ideas for using floss!  Thanks for reading!