Christmas Cards, 2015 Edition

Coming soon to a mailbox near you!

Sprucing Up the Walls. . .

not really wall-related, but I did wind the
yarn blanks that mom & I dyed in May.
future mittens?

Happy March! Winter is still hanging on around here - we got a little bit of snow today (fresh powder SB & MRG!), and it's supposed to be wicked cold tomorrow. I don't mind it - I'm a huge fan of winter and am always reluctant to see it go, so hopefully we have a few more weeks left!

I'm slowly chipping away at little house projects. I've been hanging photos, maps, posters, etc. that have been collecting over the years and have been unearthed in the unpacking process, sewing curtains, agonizing over what color to paint the living room half of the main space (which actually won't happen until April, I'm sure), setting up the guest room (now that the brief foray with a roommate is over), etc. Here's a little update on what's been done the past few months.

Fruity Wall Art

Remember Crafternoon in Driggs? While on a ski vacation to Driggs to visit some college friends, I went a little crazy with my friend K's watercolors and made a slew of fruit & veggie-themed cards. I've since used most of them (it was three years ago, after all . . . wait, THREE years? Eesh, time flies!), but had a few still in my card collection. This year I've (kind of) committed to slowly working my way through my stock of craft supplies, and so I decided to turn a few of the leftover cards into wall art with the help of an 8x10 canvas I also had on hand.

Christmas Cards, 2013 edition

The past few years I have been a bit ambitious and made cards with individual designs; last year was the paint-chip theme and quite a few cards were designed with the recipient in mind. The year before was a mixed bag of different designs, both catalog-collage & stamped. Back in 2010 I cut out a crazy amount of paper snowflakes that were the cover of each card (by the way - I found a dozen or so extras when I was gathering supplies for this year!). 

This year I stayed simple with two designs, and minimal prep: just folding the cardstock, punching approximately 90 little snowflakes (give or take the few that may be under the couch or that the cat absconded with) that were affixed with glue tape, and stamping.

Creative & Crafted Pay-It-Forward

Around the beginning of the year, a facebook status started making the rounds. Offer to make something for five people who promise to do the same for others. A creative pay-it-forward, if you will. With the end of grad school and the resuming of "free time" in my future, I decided to bite.

want something?

'Tis the season: gingerbread men and 3-D paper stars

A little round up of some baking and crafting from this week/weekend.  Despite the 3 or four inches of fresh snow that fell overnight, I took this morning to finish up procuring and wrapping presents for the family.  Zoe makes an excellent backdrop, and her patience was rewarded with an hour or so hike on some trails across from the nearby elementary school.

wrapping paper courtesy of old seven days papers.
just another way to cut down on waste during the
holidays, doubling as a great fire starter!

Christmas Cards, 2012 edition

Another Sunday crafternoon.  It's snowing outside, "White Christmas" is on TV, and the holidays are just around the corner.

What to do with paint chip strips that have been laying around? Make Christmas cards, of course!

some paint strips

June Sky Blanket Square

The six-month mark in this project/endeavor passed nearly a month ago, and if I hadn't just arrived in Boston for the second summer session for my grad program I would have posted the June update. . . so here it is now:

june!

Calendar Craft



paper source wall art calendar

I have  a growing collection of calendars from past years that I've kept for the photography or artwork. I've had intentions of "doing something" with them - frame the photos, perhaps - although I've yet to make that happen. Not for lack of ideas or time, but perhaps motivation.

Enter the Paper Source Wall Art Calendar.  The genius folk over at Paper Source sell a calendar that not only has gorgeous, colorful silk screen images, but the back side of the each month is a template for making the artwork into one of a number of projects: gift box, gift box pillow, note cards, book mark, file folder. The pages are sturdy cardstock so will hold up well to being handled. Now there's no excuse NOT to do something with the pages right away - the instructions are right on the pages! I love built-in motivation! 

Christmas Cards, 2011 edition

I haven't been all that crafty or creative as of late, in part due to the craziness that is the new job and grad school. Last years family-imposed hand/home-made gifts was a huge motivation for crafting - I think I need to impose that on myself again in the future, simply to make my self do something creative on a regular basis! I really enjoyed making Christmas cards last year and decided to give it a whirl again this year.

I had already decided to do something in a tree-theme with some green origami paper and several stamps I'd bought through Paper Source - this store is one of my favorite sources of stamps, papers, funky gifts, their catalog is full of beautiful and colorful pictures. Further inspiration came as I flipped through a recent Paper Source catalog.

some trees and
some papersource catalog pictures

Paper Elephants

Well, I found an excuse to be crafty this past weekend! My roommate's birthday was earlier this week and I decided I want to make her something.

She has an affinity for elephants (a tasteful affinity, of course), so I wanted to do something along those lines. Mostly because I've only lived with her for a few months, and I haven't got her totally figured out yet. Elephants come up enough in our random conversations that I decided it was appropriate to follow that theme.

If I'd had more time (maybe next year) I might knit her an elephant, or a hat with an elephant. But, being short on time I needed to come up with something else. Cue my bin of craftiness.

Crafting in July

I've been on a bit of a crafting hiatus (at least a pie-baking hiatus) since I was away for the start of my grad school program for three weeks, although I did manage to be a little bit crafty at grad camp (as we have affectionately dubbed it - it really did feel like camp most of the time!).

We were journaling almost every day, so I was drawing and sketching a lot.

Crafternoon in Driggs

I just got back from a great trip to Driggs to visit college friends, K & A, and hit the slopes at Grand Targhee. I got in two fantastic days of powder skiing (amazing!) on Sunday and Monday, we made a touristy visit to Jackson Hole (picked up some WY yarn!) on Tuesday, and on Wednesday we took a snowshoe land tour, then had a quiet afternoon of crafting & cocktails. A's family was visiting as well, so crafternoon included A's mom, K, and I.

Holiday Crafting

Because there isn't quite enough to do around the holidays, what with getting the kids prepped for Christmas break at school and all the other random things going on, I decided to make Christmas (or Holiday or Winter or Seasonal or Etc.) cards this year. Of course the idea festered before I finally started them, and I'm not sure they'll get to anyone before Christmas - but everyone loves a New Years' card, right? Granted it was a bit of a process, but I'm kind of psyched about how they've turned out. The inside of the card features a sweet stamp with a generic seasonal greeting that I figure anyone can appreciate. It will very likely make an encore performance at future holidays.

Surprise, surprise, I went with a snowflake motif.