Fun Freebie (Midwest)

My friend Jackie sent me this link to a site by Marilyn Scott-Waters. This site catalogs a variety of images, templates and paper patterns (downloadable as pdfs) for creating a variety of paper toys. As Marilyn says on her site, "Welcome to my odd, little world of paper toys, holiday cards, valentines, sun boxes, baskets and bags, origami and ephemera... all for you to make. My goal is to help grownups and kids spend time together making things. It is my wish to amuse and delight." The best part is it's FREE!


The image at the top of the post is for creating a paper rocking horse and this one is a paper gazebo. There is so much more on this site. Check it out here.

More Balls (West Coast)

These felted balls are really wonderful. Can you see the tiny ones that are on bobby pins? So cute! Each one is embroidered with tiny stitches. They reminded me of the balls you made with the kids a little bit ago. I was thinking a strand of them on a colored thread would be really pretty hanging from someplace in my house... I just have to find the right place.


This past weekend I bought some roving at Imagiknit (in San Francisco)—to make some balls of my own (and I thought the kids would like to try felting as well).


I also bought these balls... More sock yarn! I couldn't pass it up, the color is wonderful. My camera doesn't do it justice. I have a sock yarn habit these days! This is a new yarn put out by Colinette, the British yarn company that always has yummy colors. It reminds me of Koigu.

West Coast: My Swap Group (plus Amy!)

Here are my ornaments hanging in my office. They look so cute together. So far almost my whole group did something sewn. They all look so cute together! We have yet to pull out the decorations for the rest of the house. I have been too busy crafting!

Cool Finds

Part of my birthday weekend included going to a great Japanese book store in San Jose. They had some really nice craft books. I found it difficult to decide what to get. Alan was no help, he told me to get them all... So I did. Here are some samples.



I love the colors in these first few pages. I thought these little objects would make some cool pin cushions!


I love the colors and the graphic shapes on this bag... I really like the stitching elements as well. The photography is perfect also... Such cool stuff!

Incoming! (Midwest)

After much anticipation and extreme impatience on my part, my Swap Ornaments are finally arriving. Whoopee! I have received 4 so far. That's half. And, of course the bonus ornament from Laurie. I'm so excited.

This first picture is the ornament from Emily in California. She must be a graphic designer type because her label, card and tags all worked so well together paper wise, type wise and color wise. Just yummy.




This second photo shows the others grouped together. I really like how they all work as a set with the reds, ribbons, and transparent materials. The far left ornament is simple yet intricate with it's detailed curved red wires. Laurie's ornament is second from the left. You can see more photos of it if you scroll down through our blog. Makes me want to buy more vintage buttons. I love it. The next ornament from Lindsey is a resin (I think) ornament with glass beads on the inside. Will be neat in front of the tree lights. And the last from Lauren is glass (hand cut maybe?) with glass beads and a mirror. I like the concept of reflection at this time of year and it will also be interesting in front of the tree lights.

I have four more ornaments to go. I will be at the door waiting for the mailman again tomorrow! Oh, and Laurie, I can't wait to see pictures of the ornaments you received (hint. hint.)

A Small Forest

I made these simply sewn felt trees with embroidery embellishments using the pattern posted on the Little Birds blog (scroll down a ways, it's posted in November just before Thanksgiving). I could seriously whip out a dozen or so of these in one night. Hmmm. Should I actually do that? I'm just digging how generous this crafting community is. I've been seeing projects, tutorials, free patterns everywhere. I'm passing them along to my crafty friends, as well. I love it.