All Stuffed Up

Another day at home with a cold, another craft project started and completed! This project took probably an hour, I wasn't actually timing it though. I used a storebought pattern and the bear turned out much larger than I was expecting so I think for future bears I will take the pattern to a copy machine and shrink it down to a smaller scale!

I have a friend who makes bears like this for a charity called Operation Teddy Care. They give the bears to counselors, medical professionals, military personnel, etc. who then give the bears to kids who are impacted by abuse, neglect, illness, conflict, war, and so forth. I think this is a wonderful outlet for crafting energies so in the hopes that I might someday be proficient (and proliferent) enough to contribute to this cause, I decided to try making a bear. I've made wearable things, pillows, quilts, and bags before but never stuffed animals, so this was quite a fun opportunity to sew together a three-dimensional cuddle friend.

As a bonus I was able to use up most of this blue fabric I had leftover from a nursing cover I made for a friend a couple of years ago. Now I will need to make more stuffed animals and use up more fabric!

I also took the opportunity to snap a couple of new shots of my "Midnight Fantasy" quilt which is currently adorning a twin bed in our guest room. This is the first quilt I ever made, which I completed back in 2007. It is actually sized for a queen bed, but on a twin it drapes over the sides to cover the mattress nicely, which is a good thing because we don't have sheets on this bed yet!

On a /roll

Decorating the first group of pillowboxes was so much fun last night that I continued the project today and tried some different colors and styles. Mother's Day is coming up (my mom loves purple!) as well as several birthdays in our family. If I don't plan a gift ahead of time, there's always the last-minute gift card and if I already have these little boxes decorated, they would be a great way to quickly wrap up a gift card (with room to spare for a handful of candy!).

[Rosey Pillowboxes]

I think these pillow boxes would make great gifts for any occasion, such as wedding favors, baby or bridal shower favors, or gift wrapping for small gifts like candy or gift cards.

One piece of 12x12" scrapbooking paper was more than enough to decorate two boxes and I used some of the scraps to create coordinating gift tags. Ivory satin and organza ribbon leftover from my wedding added a finishing touch.

I look forward to making more of these! There is no end to the way these can be decorated to fit the occasion, whether with paper and ribbon or perhaps fabric and twine or even a felt wrap with a button closure.

Happy Easter!

Bunnies and eggs are for kids! I decided to stick with a spring floral theme for these Easter cards. Pastels and bright colors helped bring Spring to the cloudy gray rainy Sunday.

[Silk Floral Pew Bows] by the dozen

I created 24 pew bows for my wedding ceremony, 12 in green and 12 in blue.

Materials (for one):
1 Silk Hydrangea stem
1 Pew clip (from orientaltrading.com)
5-6 yards 6" ivory organza ribbon
2 yards 1.75" ivory satin ribbon
1 floral wire, about 1' long
3/4" masking tape

The first step was to secure the hydrangea stem to the pew clip. I cut the stem to about 6 inches so that the head of the flower sat on top of the clip with the stem pressed against the outer face of the clip. Then I wrapped masking tape over the entire stem and clip.

Next I created a bow out of the 6" organza ribbon, creating three loops on each side with a tail hanging to the floor. I used floral wire to secure the bow to the clip just underneath the flower so the clip and masking tape would be covered. Lastly I tied a length of satin ribbon in a double-knot over the center of the organza to hide the green floral wire.

It was easy to store and transport these by hanging them by the clips on three plastic hangers, eight pew bows to a hanger. This kept the ribbons from wrinkling and I think it kept things simple for my friends who were setting them up.

images by Siang of Lightphoria - www.lightphoria.com

This [Card Box] takes the cake!

This weekend I finished another one of my wedding craft projects. I made a box for cards that looks like a wedding cake!

Materials:
1 set of 3 hat boxes
1 roll of 1.5" blue organza ribbon
1 roll of 1" blue satin ribbon
2 feet of wired blue ribbon (optional)
1 tube of ivory acryllic paint

Tools:
- hot glue gun
- Craft knife
- Scissors
- Sponge paint brush

Basically I got three round nesting hat boxes from Michael's, cut holes in the tops of the bottom two boxes and a slot in the top box, painted them with acryllic paint, hot glued them together, then added decorative ribbon using double-stick tape. It was a fun, fast, and easy project.


3/24/09 Post-Wedding Update - The wedding cake-shaped card box served as functional decor at the gift table in the foyer as guest entered the church for our wedding. We received a lot of cards!


Picture by Siang of Lightphoria - www.lightphoria.com