Craftyminx

Crocheted Valentine Bunting

I had a lot of time on my hands during the snow storm last week. This allowed me to finally put away Christmas decorations and start thinking of Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays to decorate for because it means lots of pink and red, cute candy, hearts and other girlie things that I love. To be honest, I often keep a few of my v-day decorations out year round because I love them so much. Having too much time at home = crafting ideas and I came up with this cute Valentine's Day Bunting pattern to share with you! You can download it here.

I also created a granny square from the big heart that I'm sharing the pattern to on the Granny a Day blog.

I've added this pattern to Ravelry too for those of you who have an account. Add it to your queue here.

Special thanks to Danielle for testing my pattern for me :)

Guest Post on Thompson Family Life

I am pleased to announce that I'm a part of a wonderful group of guests posting on Danielle's blog for the next few days.

 
I shared a fun Valentine's Day Embroidery Pattern

 
Check it out and download the pattern!

If you make something with it for your loved one for V-Day share a link here so I can see it :)

Also, Don't forget last year's vintage valentine embroidery patterns I shared.

You can download those here.

Updated 06/21/2011 to add the full tutorial.

We have a new niece who is named Olive and her mom has been asking me to design some cute clothing with the theme of olives for her for a while now. Since Valentine's day is less than a month away, I decided she needed an "Olive Ewe" onesie for the holiday and designed this pattern for her.

DOWNLOAD THE PATTERN HERE

 
Obviously, this doesn't only have to be used on onesies. You can embroider it on anything to give to a loved one.

Keep it in the hoop or frame it to give as an art piece.

 
Or get crazy and embroider a card for your special someone.

 
Here are some tips for embroidering on card stock:

Pre-poke your holes with a sharp needle making sure not to poke them any closer than an 1/8th of an inch. I use a t-pin for this because it doesn't hurt my fingers in the process and it makes the right sized hole for the needle I use.

 
Very carefully use the holes like you would a sewing card. Skip the satin stitch because those stitches have to be made too close together. The trick here is to keep from creasing or tearing your paper. If you've used a thick enough card stock and didn't punch your holes too close together this shouldn't be a problem.  

 
 I use tape on the back to hold down my ends so there are no bumpy knots.

 
I don't recommend using painter's tape, I just wanted you to be able to see the tape. You can cover the inside with a complementary paper after you've finished to clean it up a bit too!

If this design doesn't tickle your fancy, I have some vintage valentine embroidery patterns I created last year that you can use the same technique on to make some really cute cards. 

A bird and her nest

This is my final post for the 12 Days of Christmas! I wanted to share another recipe, but we already have too many desserts here to eat so I'll save the last one for another time. I'm going to put together a post with links to everything in this series for easy browsing after this one.

Have you heard of the Swedish legend about putting a bird in a nest in your Christmas Tree and it bringing you happiness for the coming year? When I was in kindergarten we made these bird's nests to take home for our trees.

It has been a treasured ornament of mine. I remember getting so excited about putting the bird in the tree each year. So I decided to share a pattern to make your own bird's nest ornament for your tree. We could all use happiness for 2011 right?

You'll need the pattern (download at the end of the post), felt, embroidery floss, needle, scissors and fabric glue.

I forgot to add the legend tag to my finished ornament, but I've added them to the pattern printable so you can add them to yours.

Download Bird ornament

Perfect Match

I figured not everyone would love the animals and these two are too cute!!

flipped

You can't see it very well in these pictures, but the white ruffle is iridescent DMC light effects. I like the subtle sparkle it gives to the valentine.  

Thank you to everyone for the awesome comments! I am so glad that so many of you appreciate these little freebies. I've really been excited to share them with you!

Feelin' Foxy

I've been in mad love with foxes lately. I guess I'm just adding to my love of woodland creatures. So when I saw this valentine I had to stitch it too!

And the pattern for  you...

 flipped version

I decided I wanted a polka dot shirt instead of plaid so I didn't transfer the plaid and added a bunch of french knots for dots. 

I have one more pattern to stitch up and share. These are taking me about two evenings per image to finish. I'll have the last one up by Sunday. 

Let me know if you have any questions and if you stitch it please send me a photo or link so I can check it out. Enjoy! 

You're a Deer

I was looking through vintage valentines on google image search and suddenly decided that these need to be embroidered. I mean come on they are cute, send the perfect message, and since vintage ones are hard to get a hold of, why not stitch one up for your love?

Now you know I wouldn't hold out on you right ;)  Click on the image to download the original on flickr.

There is also a flipped version in case you use an iron on transfer pencil. The image is about 6 inches high and 5 wide. It is displayed in an 8 inch hoop to give you a frame of reference. 

 I have two more to share with you, so come back and see me before valentine's day and get the whole set! Oh, and if you don't like the animals I pick, check out the vintage valentine flickr group for more inspiration.

Let me know if you have any questions and if you stitch it please send me a photo or link so I can check it out. Enjoy!

Cupcake Hats Going strong

I went to ravelry to check out my Have a cupcake hat stats, and I discovered two hats on the project page that weren't mine.  Have a looksie... They are sooo cute! I am very impressed with the different color choices. When I wrote the pattern I envisioned a bunch of different amazingly unique hats and that is what is happening. Keep it up people!

For those of you around Oklahoma City. I will be at Live on the Plaza this Friday night selling yarn and jewelry and whatnot. I'm excited, it is always a fun event with good music and great handmade goods to buy.

The new job is going great! I really love it. It is very stressful at times, but I know I will get my timing down and things will get much easier.

School may kick my butt this year. I have so much on my plate and I alwasy let that be at the bottom of my list. Perhaps I should move it up this year?

Oops I must go... Bella just woke up. Time for mommy to put on pants and let her out. I hate mornings. Where is my coffee?

Have a Cupcake

I finally have a hat pattern for purchase. Squeee! After all of the secrets here it is :)

It has apparently been a cupcake day for me. Of course I've been working on this hat for over a month, so I've had cupcakes on the brain for a while now.

It is knit in fingering weight yarn so it will be a perfect autumn hat. I've already been wearing mine since it has rained here all week. And since cupcakes can be any color and still look good, so can this hat. I think doing the frosting in leftover sock yarn would look really cool. Oh here I go thinking of all kinds of ideas when really.... I don't want to knit this hat again. I've already knit it three times, that is enough for me, thanks.

So here you go... Have a cupcake!