welcome home and happy birthday, Hobyn

Did I tell you? My dear bestie and her family have now moved back stateside. Yay! Their years in Rio were lovely but there's no place like home. And now it's her birthday. So I thought a couple of mementos from her time in the warm southern climes of Brazil would be appropriate!

First I put together a photo book of our time together in Rio. I love making iPhoto books. I spend way, way too much time arranging everything just so. (If you'd like to see more about the trip, go here, here and here.)

Then with the help of my intrepid brother-in-law, Robby, I was able to make the Brazilian coins I brought home from my trip into this charm bracelet.

Sometimes it's a little unfair how pretty coins from other countries are. I especially like the two-tone gold/silver ones.

This bracelet looks a lot like the one I made myself when I was a young teen. And that is because this one is made from the same silver necklace that I frankensteined to make my own coin bracelet some thirty years ago. *coughhoardercough*

Just goes to show you, pack ratting pays off. I think that double chain makes a cracking charm bracelet! And goodness knows the silver finish has proven impervious to the passage of time. (And I still have enough for at least two more bracelets!)

After my failed first two attempts at drilling tiny holes in the coins myself (I don't know why it was so hard for me, this tutorial makes it look like a piece of cake), I handed that job over to a professional. Thanks, Robby! Once that was done, the rest was easy. Harvested jump rings and put the lobster clasp on and finished. I love the cheerful clinky clink sound it makes on your wrist.

I also threw in these pattern weights for her that I've been meaning to make for months. Pretty easy to make. The tutorial is here.

Basically you hot glue two 3/4" oversized zinc washers from the hardware store together and then wrap them tightly with ribbon to make it purty. If you hate to pin patterns you need to make yourself some of these. So that's everyone. I still need to finish my own set. I have been known to anchor my patterns with scissors, rulers, jars, coffee cup, and anything else within arm's reach on my craft table. These will be really handy. And less sloshy.

And lastly, her birthday card. A September birthday deserves a warm, orangey autumnal card. (It's also pumpkin spice flavored.) It is made from paper, wool felt, ribbon, and those tiny pom poms you can get en multicolored masse at the craft store. I never thought I'd have a use for tiny, pale orange pom poms but I did. Hoard, people.

curated felt color collection/felt & floss color guides for Turtle Dove

Once again, Benzie Design has come through with a bundle of felts and floss that you can purchase if you want to make Turtle Dove ornaments that look like my samples in the picture above!

This Benzie felt collection includes:
1) Peacock
2) Aqua
3) Swan
4) Magenta
5) Burgundy
6) Orange
7) Mustard
8) Ochre
9) Silver
10) Graphite

It's an easy and quick way to get the matching wool blend felts and flosses for my pattern. I highly recommend Renae's shop. I've always received the best customer service and lovely wool-blend felts!

The photo above shows the pretty felts alongside the matching floss bundle. You will need the matching flosses in order to sew your pattern pieces together, so purchasing the floss add-on is handy. PLEASE NOTE: You will also need to purchase contrasting colors of floss for the decorative embroidery from your local craft store.

Blue/orange Turtle Dove felt colors:
Body: Swan (optional: I used Peacock for the body back)
Wing: Orange
Wing inset and beak: Burgundy
Eye detail: Magenta

Blue/orange Turtle Dove decorative embroidery colors:
DMC Blanc (white) or B5200 (snow white)
DMC 310 (black)
DMC 3844 (dk bright turquoise)
DMC 3804 (dk cyclamen pink)
DMC 947* (burnt orange)

Grey/mustard Turtle Dove felt colors:
Body: Silver (optional: I used Graphite for the body back)
Wing and eye detail: Mustard
Wing inset and beak: Graphite

Grey/mustard Turtle Dove decorative embroidery colors:
DMC Blanc (white) or B5200 (snow white)
DMC 310 (black)
DMC 3799 (v dk pewter gray)
DMC 3852* (v dk straw)
DMC 947* (burnt orange)
DMC 666 (bright red)

*These colors are included already in the floss bundle

You can purchase the curated wool-blend felts only OR you can purchase the felts bundled with the matching floss. The pull down menu includes options to purchase the Partridge & Pear felt/floss collection as well, and that list will grow as I release new patterns in the series. Pretty awesome!

you'll be gladder without your bladder

Gladder. That's not a word but it's funny. I quite enjoyed making these cards for Chelsea and Mattheus. It was a nice break from Christmas ornaments. My niece Chelsea has recently parted ways with her recalcitrant gall bladder...

(if you didn't know, this is really and factually what a sick gall bladder looks like)

 ...and neighbor Mattheus had a birthday.

Both cards are 4.25 x 5.5 inches folded (that way you can get two cards from one 8.5 x 11 sheet of card stock, so I prefer this size). You can see I was feelin' the black/chartreuse/green/orange color palette. The paper eight and the gall bladder were drawn and cut from card stock and then enhanced with colored pencils and punches. I used foam pop dots to elevate them on the black card stock and then added white gel pen details. Taped an iTunes gift card inside and voila!

FYI: If you are wondering about a felt color collection for Turtle Dove, Renae at Benzie Design is working one up as we speak! Great choice if you would like to make some Turtle Dove ornaments that are the same colors as mine. The felt bundle (with matching floss) will be available in her shop soon. I'll post about it!

Turtle Dove pattern in the shop!

I'm done, I'm done! Here's the second ornament in the Twelve Days ornament series, Turtle Dove. (Here's the post for the first set, Partridge & Pear.) I'm really happy with the way this turned out and I'm still loving the Sulky stabilizer which makes this handmade ornament series so so easy to make. If you can handle basic embroidery stitches you can totally do this project, and do it well.

The key is the Sulky Printable Stick 'n Stitch (formerly known as Sulky Printable Sticky Fabri-Solvy), a wonderful felt crafting stabilizer. You simply print my ornament pattern on the water soluble stabilizer, adhere it to felt and then embroider right through it. No tracing or transferring complicated embroidery patterns by hand. Outstanding! Read through this earlier post to learn more about how the process works. I've listed some sources where you can purchase the stabilizer in the pattern.

You can purchase this instant download Turtle Dove pattern PDF in either my Etsy or my Craftsy shops. Go to the listing to get more details on the pattern itself. I hope you enjoy it!

what we're up to

We are enjoying our summer school break! I'm busy sewing up ornament samples and tweaking the patterns for Turtle Dove, French Hen and Colly Bird. The picture above is wool felt that is drip drying in my laundry room. (Pre-soaking the felt is an important step that ensures your embroidered creations won't shrink when you soak off the Sulky stabilizer!)

You can see that after a quick press it's back to looking exactly like it was before the soak!

While I'm upstairs banging away at the patterns, Thing 1 is learning to touch type. She's doing really well! She's also reading The Hobbit to gear up for her first year in a homeschool academy starting in September. Middle school, here we come.

Thing 2 is busy playing Monopoly with her Equestria Girls. I'm sure there are some educational benefits to that. Economics. Math. Real estate. Funology.

And in other news, my Schmoopie bought me a bike! It's the kind that you can sit upright on and has a bell. Ding! Just like the one I loved during my family's brief move to Holland. And my favorite part is the huge, cushy Oma seat. Aaaaahhhh. I've been having fun riding the bike trails around here with him. I forgot how much I love to ride a bike. It's the one athletic ability I have.

hand cut father's day card

After-the-fact post for this Father's Day card because of course I wait until the very last minute to make cards. It reads Supa Dad...or does it read Supa Bad? You know it, uh huh, rockin your Dockers and cell phone holsta.

Made by hand with an Xacto by printing/sketching on the back of white card stock in reverse then backing it up with blue and chili pepper colored papers.

Thanks so much for all the great feedback on my new Partridge & Pear pattern! I'm looking forward to working on Turtle Dove. But right now I think I might have drafted myself a peplum top that I can actually wear. I need to look into that further.

curated felt color collection/felt & floss guides for Partridge & Pear

Photo courtesy of Benzie Design

I am delighted to show you this ten-color felt collection I put together recently at Benzie Design. I chose the colors to match my favorite yellow and pink sample ornaments for Partridge & Pear.

Benzie felt colors in this collection:
1) Swan
2) Moss
3) Fern
4) Mustard
5) Ochre
6) Orange
7) Cotton Candy
8) Magenta
9) Burgundy
10) Peacock

If you want to match my samples above you can save some hassle/worry by purchasing this ready-chosen felt set from Benzie. (Note: as new patterns in the series are released, the listing will have new options for different color collections. Choose the one you want from the handy pulldown menu!)

Photo courtesy of Benzie Design

And looky, you can also purchase the handy add-on set of matching embroidery floss! You'll need matching floss for sewing the parts of the ornaments together so that set is a really nice feature and will save you some time squinting at the craft store. PLEASE NOTE: You will also need to purchase contrasting colors of floss for the decorative embroidery from your local craft store.

Yellow Partridge & Pear felt colors:
THE FRONT SIDE:
Ochre: Bird body and pear background
Mustard: Bird wing
Swan: Bird belly and plume
Moss: Bird beak, pear stem and pear inset
Fern: Bird beard and pear leaf
ON THE BACK SIDE:
On both ornaments I used Mustard for the backs (but sewed them together with floss that matches Ochre)

Yellow Partridge & Pear decorative embroidery colors:
DMC Blanc (white) or B5200 (snow white)
DMC 310 (black)
DMC 3844 (dk bright turquoise) partridge breast only
DMC 935 (dk avocado green)
DMC 891 (dk carnation)
DMC 3846 (lt bright turquoise)

Pink Partridge & Pear felt colors:
ON THE FRONT SIDE:
Cotton Candy: Bird body and pear background
Magenta: Bird wing and pear stem
Swan: Bird belly, plume and pear leaf
Orange: Bird beard
Burgundy: Bird beak and pear inset
ON THE BACK SIDE:
On both ornaments I used Orange for the backs, but used floss that matched the fronts when I sewed the front and back together.

Pink Partridge & Pear decorative embroidery colors:
DMC 310 (black)
DMC 3846 (lt bright turquoise)
DMC 947* (burnt orange)
DMC 917 (md plum)
DMC 741 (md tangerine)
DMC 154 (v dk grape)
DMC 818 (baby pink)

*This color is already included in the floss bundle

Photo courtesy of Benzie Design

 
I love working with Benzie's wool-blend felt and I highly recommend her shop from my (many) felt purchases. You'll just have to visit to see the wide range of colors and sizes available and check out her blog too for lots of feltcentric tips and tutorials. Renae always offers friendly, accurate service and prompt shipping. I love getting her prettily packaged felt in the mail. It always feels like Christmas!

Renae, thanks for the opportunity to curate another collection! (See here and here for my previous collections!)

Partridge & Pear pattern is now available!

The blog's been quiet lately because I've been feverishly working to finish this pattern. It's a bit later than I anticipated but still in plenty of time for lots of handmade pre-Christmas makery! This is the first of the Twelve Days ornament projects that I'll be releasing as they get done. I've worked out all the production kinks on this one so hopefully the other patterns will come faster as I go along. I'm really excited about this!

Make partridges and pears galore in whatever color scheme you like! I love being able to match any Christmas decor. They make such a unique handmade gift that will look beautiful on a Christmas tree for many years.

There is a No. 1 on the backs since this is the first of a series of twelve. You can also easily add the year or a name if you like, of course.

And let me tell you that you are going to LOVE how quick and easy these are to make. No pattern tracing or tedious embroidery transferring is required! If you know basic hand stitches, you can totally nail this project because of this lovely and magical stuff:

Sulky Printable Stick 'n Stitch (formerly known as Sulky Printable Sticky Fabri-Solvy) is quite possibly one of the best products to ever happen to felt crafters (thanks again, Wendi). It's a sticky backed stabilizer that you can print directly on. It washes magically off with water, leaving no trace of itself. And it is readily available and affordable! (There's a handy list of sources in the Resources section of the pattern.)

So, basically you print my pattern pieces directly on the stabilizer, peel off the backing, apply it to wool felt and stitch the embroidery designs directly through the stabilizer. Once the stabilizer is soaked away you are left with a perfectly executed embroidery design on felt. No pin dot tracing. No guessing. No fading ink marks. No re-appearing ink marks. FANTASTIC.

I know you are thinking, 'Wait a minute, you can't wash wool felt in water!' Oh, yes you can. The key to this process is to pre-shrink your wool felts the day before you start the project by simply soaking them in cold water and letting them air dry. It won't change the texture or thickness of the wool felt if you do it that way, and the pre-shrunk wool won't shrink when you soak off the stabilizer. I've tested this with wool-blend (wool + rayon) and also 100% wool felt and it works equally well for both. Are you excited yet?

(If for some reason you can't use the Sulky stabilizer, you can still make this project with the help of freezer paper. I've included instructions for that in the Resources section of the pattern.)

You can purchase this instant download Partridge & Pear pattern PDF in either my Etsy or my Craftsy shops. Go to my listing to get more details on the pattern itself. I hope you enjoy it!

P.S. You can get a preview of a few of the upcoming patterns because they will be based on the original ones I've made as gifts for my BFF:
Turtle Dove
French Hen and Collie Bird
I'm currently working on a couple of her ornaments and will be sure to show you when they are done too!