Valentine, I love you beary much!

I love paper piecing!  It is a great way to use up scraps and you never quite know what you are going to end up with.  I wasn't sure if the brown paper I chose for this little guy was going to work out.  I was a little worried that he might look like he has chicken pox!  Now that he's done, I think he's cute!

 

I have a light box, so I scanned the pattern, then used the light box to trace the pieces directly onto the paper I planned to cut them from.  It's much easier than tracing and transferring. I also cheated a little bit on this one.  Normally, would trace the pieces in pencil, cut them out and mat them on black card stock.  After that, I would trim the card stock, leaving a 1/8 to 1/16 inch black border, but I ran out of black card stock and there weren't any craft stores open late at night, so I just traced the pattern pieces with black ink. That was MUCH faster, and I think it looks almost as good as the other way.

This pattern came from one of my favorite resources for paper piecing,  a book called 202 Paper Piecing Patterns by Annie Lang.  I bought my copy several years ago, so I don't know if you can still get it. If you can, it's well worth picking up.  It includes clear instructions on how to use the patterns as well as completed full color examples of each one.  And of course, the art is just plain adorable!

I have done several other cards using patterns from this book.  A few of them can be seen at: http://www.handcraftedgreetings.com/paperpiece.html

Birthday Card

Here's a birthday card I made for my mother-in-law.

 

The paper is from David Walker studios.  I love the colors, but they didn't scan well.

Here's what I used to make the card:

• Coluzzle mini envelopes template
• Coluzzle tag template
• Coluzzle book plates template
• Uchida flower punch
• EK Success 1/8" hole puch (for flower centers)
• Studio g birthday stamp
• Paper Shapers decorative scissors
• Embossing tool

Once I decided on a design, this card went together fairly quickly.  The flowers were an afterthought.  I thought the card needed something else, so I added them.  I used the embossing tool to give them dimension.

Gift Bags From Old Calendars

Hopefully you haven't thrown out last year's calendar yet, because here is some more treasure from trash!  This idea came from my mother and they are so easy to make.  Even the handles are from recycled material, they were crocheted using plastic shopping bags cut in inch-wide strips.

These cute little gift bags can also be made from scrapbook paper, heavy weight gift wrap, or you can stamp your own design on plain paper.  In fact, these are perfect for stamping since you start out with a flat, unfolded piece of paper.

Craft Recipe:

• Gift bag instructions
• Page from an old calendar
• Scoring tool
• Ruler
• Hole punch
• Double-stick tape, or glue
• Scissors

You can view my other treasure from trash projects at:
http://www.handcraftedgreetings.com/miscprojects.php

Another Basket

I'm a packrat.  My husband and sons will readily attest to that.  It annoys them, but sometimes it pays off.  I have been saving a Victorian calendar forever (I think it was from 1984) because the pictures are so pretty I just couldn't bear to throw it away.  As I was trying to decide what to use for my next basket, it occurred to me that the pictures on that calendar would be perfect.

Here's how it turned out.

 

 

Since calendar pages aren't nearly as stiff as cards, I cut a center layer from heavy card stock to make the pieces sturdy enough.

Craft Recipe:

• Basket Pattern
• Calendar or patterned paper
• Heavy card stock
• Crochet cotton
• Size 5 crochet hook
• Size 9 crochet hook (for shell border around lid)
• Hole punch

For the basket top, the bottom and each basket side, cut two pieces from the calendar/patterned paper and one piece from heavy card stock. You will end up with six hexagons (4 patterned and two from card stock) and 18 side pieces (12 patterned and six from card stock).

Mark and punch holes using the template for 1/8" holes.

Single crochet or blanket stitch around each piece (for crochet instructions see pattern).  Stitch or crochet the bottom of each side to a side of the hexagon shaped basket bottom.

Stitch or crochet the basket sides together. Single crochet around the top of the basket.

Basket lid:  Using a size 5 crochet hook, Single crochet four rows around the basket lid.  In each row, make two single crochets, one chain and two more single crochets in each corner.

The trim is just a simple shell border.  I stitched it with a size 9 crochet hook.  I'd write the instructions if I knew how. It's easier for me to draw, so here's a diagram:

Basket made from Christmas Cards

One of the things I remember from my childhood Christmases was a basket my mother had that my grandmother had made out of Christmas cards.  I don't know what became of the basket, but when my sister was visiting last month and we were trying to figure out what to do with a box of old Christmas cards, both of us thought of the basket.  Unfortunately, neither of us had any idea how to make one so that's where the conversation ended.

A few days later, I found this link to a basket that was similar, but it wasn't quite the same as the one I remembered: http://www.allfreecrafts.com/christmas/card-basket.shtml

As I recall, the basket my grandmother made was crocheted together, not stitched and the sides were curved, not straight.  So, I decided to try to make a pattern of my own.  Here is my first attempt.

 

I think it's pretty close to the one I remember.  I think Grandma's had a little more curve to the sides, though.  I'll have to show it to my mom and my sister and see what they think.

Here's a view from the top:

And another view from the front:

If you'd like to make one, you can find the pattern and instructions here:

http://www.handcraftedgreetings.com/miscprojects.php

Be warned, though, I have never written crochet instructions before so they might be a little hard to follow.

Stained Glass Window Card

I finished the stained glass window on this card several years ago, but I never could figure out what to do with it.  Yesterday, someone sent me an e-mail asking if I had a pattern for a stained glass window, so I decided to dig this card out of the unfinished box and finish it.

The clilp art is from PCCrafter.  The bride and groom are from the November 2005 PC Hug Club "Topper" set.  The bird is from the Friends Forever collection by Tricia Santry.  I did the bride and groom in 3-D using three layers.  I started to use pop-dots between the layers, but they were too thick, so I glued three layers of lightweight card stock together and used that instead. It was a little more work, but the spacing is much better and I don't have to worry about the card being too bulky to go in the mail.

You can download the pattern for the window at: http://www.handcraftedgreetings.com/irisfoldinst.html

If you've never done 3-D decoupage before, there's a brief description on my website at www.handcraftedgreetings.com/cfbirthday.html (see steps 10 and 11).