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So here is a little back story about this shirt. I was flipping through the Threadless book and saw this shirt, which I immediately thought was perfect for my friend Joy. I believe it was listed in the book as coming out in 2004 or thereabouts so I assumed (wrongly obviously) that it was no longer in print. And I knew my silhouette machine could do this. So I made it for her. I do feel a tang of guilt that I did not buy this in support of small time designers but at least I’m not selling it or anything!
These were for the Cure My Sad Mailbox swap. We had 5 partners to send to!

This was for Send Your Handmade Specialty. I used this pencil pouch tutorial from noodlehead (added an inch in height) and made a butterfly applique using a stencil and my ColorArtz. I love how it came out! Must make some more!

This is for the Something Scavenger Hunt. My partner lists 5 things and I pick two. I chose something handmade and something with stars.

This coin purse was using yet another tutorial from noodlehead. I totally screwed up on the tab. I had a snap but it was my first time using the snap applicator and I totally botched it up! So I ended up cutting it with my pinking shears so it wouldn’t fray and glued on velcro instead. I now have a snap stuck in the snap applicator! Not sure if it is salvageable!

And this last one is a gift for Sienna’s friend, Alexis. Sienna told me to maker her a Dora necklace and she picked this image. Her card is here!

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Our holiday card this year. I used my Silhouette machine. Have I mentioned how much I dig that machine?

This was another holiday card I made for the Brooklyn Bride Christmas card swap. Also using my Silhouette. I realized after the fact that I should have made this a vertical card (I already wrote the sentiment inside for a horizontal card) as it has a hard time standing up.
As a graphic designer, I always used Quark as my layout program. I have used it for many years so obviously knew a lot of shortcuts so I was reluctant to make the switch over to Indesign. Learning that they have scripts may help me make the switch! They have a calendar script and made setting up this calendar so easy! I usually just make a calendar on one of those photo sites and get extras to give as presents to Sienna’s grandparents but not anymore!!

Spread out

All hung up! I perforated the top of each page so it would be easy to rip off.

Remember the advent calendar I made for Sienna? Well, one of the little presents was to make a Belle doll. As of right now, Belle is her favorite princess and the disney site has a few princess crafts and the 3D doll is one of them. I used my Silhouette again! They have a new auto trace feature and it cut everything out perfectly (way better than if I did it by hand!) Have I mentioned how much I dig that machine? Too bad I couldn’t get the machine to fold it up and glue it as that was a tad more challenging than I anticipated! Here she is posing with it (lately, she has been into posing with funny faces. Wonder where she learned that from?)

And Belle gets played with a lot. This was about the 3rd time I glued her top back (and she is currently on my craft table right now waiting to be fixed again!)

These next few things are Christmas presents I made for Sienna’s teachers. Mrs. D is the main teacher, Mrs. V is the assistant and Mrs. C is the helper when one of them is out. I made all 3 gift bags, tags and boxes with the Silhouette. Did I mention how much I dig that machine? 🙂

For Mrs. D., Sienna picked this butterfly.

I used Japanese chiyogami paper for the back (I love that paper especially the ones with metallic in it. I’m not sure if that is called something different.)

For Mrs. V.

For Mrs. C.

I made this bag for the winner of the Bingo game I hosted in a group on swap-bot. Her profile mentioned she wanted to learn embroidery so this is a starter kit. I included the first instruction booklet I got since I don’t need it anymore and also made her a zine of Alice in Wonderland freebies to embroider. Included inside the bag are needles, transfer pen, hoop, box of thread, tracing paper and floss bobbins. The pattern for the bag is from Sew What! Bags. I just mailed this off today so I hope she doesn’t see this!

A fabric bookmark from Pretty Little Presents.

I saw this tutorial online to make these cd rosettes and thought they were so pretty. I’m not sure about mine but it was fun.
And rounding off the creativeness, some birthday present shirts for Sienna’s friends (using the Silhouette!). This first two was actually made a bit ago but for some reason I just didn’t give it to Leah until recently and poor Sylvie still hasn’t gotten hers.

Samantha’s shirt

Daniel’s shirt and the first time I put something on the back!

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Here are some crafts I’ve done (mostly for swaps) in the last few months that I haven’t posted yet. Either I was waiting for my partner to receive the swap or it didn’t fit into a specific category. It’s a lot of photos and I don’t know if clumping them all in one is going to bore you or make you glaze over them a little too fast. Just trying to keep up to date!

For the send you handmade specialty (my partner likes Georgia O’Keefe)

Dia De Los Muertos embroidery swap


Paris photos and crochet dishclothes (2 different partners) as part of the Etsy Inspire swap (I posted the other projects under the Silhouette machine post)

Pocket Alien swap (from the Felties book)

Part of the Handmade Holly Jolly Christmas. The glitter is supposed to be orange and it doesn’t look as bright in the pendant as it does in the bottle. I think I know what to do next time to make it brighter. Also for the same swap, since my partner likes orange and flowers, I made these with my Sizzix:

And a magnetic bookmark for the same swap/partner (pattern from Pretty Little Presents):


Photo Scavenger Hunt. I’m bummed that the partner I sent this to has fallen off the swap-bot planet so I won’t be rated and she flaked on her partner.

Part of the Month of Sundays swap (you send 4 sealed envelopes of stuff so your partner gets to open an envelope per Sunday)

Domino Book swap. This was a lot of fun to do! I made a travel theme and used my Silhouette to make the negative. I thought it appropriate to use a photo of me and a camera on the back. This one from Chicago circa 2007 was the only one I could find!

The fabric flowers (tute from Lil Blue Boo), paper flowers (Silhouette) and these 2 carvings were part of the 12 Days of Christmas swap. I’m really digging that tree! Might have to carve one for myself!

Ornament swap. The photo doesn’t really show the metallic thread I used with the regular thread. Free pattern from Colonial Patterns.

These earrings were part of the Holiday Lucky Parcel swap.

This was for the Secret Santa swap in the Nuts for Sewing Group. My partner is a big pen pal writer so I made up this stationery folio for her. And her favorite color is green, if you haven’t guessed!

And last but not least! Not for a swap obviously but I’ve been wanting to do this to Sienna’s room since she outgrew these foam mats we had bought for her when she was a baby. I’m still not sure what to do with the other part of the mats!

next up for her room is a little vinyl jungle by her bed. Wonder how long it will be before I make that!!

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I bought a Silhouette Machine back in September! There were a whole bunch of blogs hosting giveaways of the machine and I had entered every one of them. Needless to say, I did not win. I tried to convince myself I didn’t need one but then discovered that Overstock had a great price on it plus I had a $10 coupon and with $3 shipping, well, welcome to your new home!

When I bought the machine, their software wasn’t compatible with Mac just yet but they were supposed to release the software around the same time (they were a little delayed.) There was a plug-in to use it with Adobe Illustrator so I was using that for a bit. I was really excited when the software came out because then I was also able to shop the store for shapes! There were some glitches in the software and I was pleasantly surprised that contacting customer service was a nice experience! They responded pretty quickly and put me in direct contact with the programmers of the software. I helped them test out different versions of the software so the machine got a bit of a workout early on. That’s a good thing, tho! It helped me get used to the machine. Here are some projects I did with it.

One of my first projects was making this card set for a swap. Pretty simple stuff but I was still feeling the machine out. I used the sketch pens for the thank you card on the right.

I made this with vinyl for Sienna’s door. It’s a tad bit crooked because I didn’t use transfer tape to help it on.

I made this shirt for Hailey’s birthday.

These were for Emily and Olivia’s birthday. I wanted to do a different design but my brain wasn’t functioning (I was just starting to get sick!)

Christmas tags for a swap

I’m really happy with how this came out! This was for an Etsy inspire swap. You look on your partner’s Etsy faves and create something inspired by their faves. I hadn’t intended to outright copy it but when I saw it on my partner’s list, the Silhouette was the first thing I thought of. I did this by layering paper and coating it. Here is the original item, which is made from recycled vinyl record, pretty cool in itself!

This is for a recipe swap on the Silhouette users Yahoo group. I cut out the tag, the snowflake and the title with the machine. I used the sketch pens to write out the title and also for the hors d’oeuvres written on the snowflake.

This was also for the Etsy inspire swap. My partner had Paris bookmarks on her list so I made her bookmarks with photos from my honeymoon in Paris (bookmarks will be shown in another post). The holder was also cut out and was intended to be used as a money holder and I cut out the Eiffel Tower in the middle.

This one held photos of Paris and I used the cut out from the previous item and glued it on here!

I used the Silhouette to cut out this GS logo (my partner is a Junior GS leader) and used it to etch it on the glass ornament. I suppose I could have left it as is but I used alcohol inks to give it some color. It was so much fun! I have 2 more glass ornaments that I am definitely going to do something similiar (not with the GS logo tho!)

This was the latest item I made. Sienna somehow got grease stains on this shirt and although this logo doesn’t cover all the stains, I figured you would be distracted by the logo to notice the stains! HA! The pink is neon and I think I had the iron too hot so it melted it just a tad. That is why there is a little white around the pink. I’m very happy with it just the same!

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Some Halloween themed crafts for swaps:

The cards were already die cut with the pumpkin and spider web. I enhanced with some rubber stamps and cut outs from my Silhouette machine.


the devil and zombie are from the book Creepy Cute Crochet

Finger puppet pattern from the Lion Brand website

From the Zombie Felties book

Count Truffula pattern from q.D.Patooties.

From a recent Stampin Up meetup. We also made a candy corn box that I forgot to take a photo of and I sent it in a swap!

I really like that frankenstein!
And last but not least, Sienna painting her magic wand for her princess costume!

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I can’t believe it is already September! The summer seemed to fly by and in a couple of weeks, Sienna begins school! It’s just nursery school for 3 hours a day but this will be the first time she is away from me for so long. This is just the beginning. Before I know it, she will be in real school all day!! I can’t even imagine. At any rate, this post isn’t about Sienna! Here are some of the swaps I sent during the summer!

A shaker postcard swap. My partner likes lighthouses so I dug through my archives and found this photo I took when Yves and I went to Washington State right before Sienna was born.

An owl stuffie from the Stitch Fall 09 magazine. I’ve already made the raccoon and the chipmunk is the last one in the trio!

The owl stuffie was part of the Woodland Profile swap. I made my partner an owl pouch, woodland creatures glass magnets, hedgehog keychain, and a mushroom keychain.

I’ve been experimenting with some glitter and rub ons (print my own rub ons that I got for my birthday from Yves). I made the top one into a keychain for a keychain swap and the bottom one is a pendant for a WTA in one of the groups I’m in.

Bird pc for a mail art group

I joined a swap to make Red flowers from this pattern. I had so much fun making them that I joined the swap to make orange ones. I almost did not want to send the orange ones away. (Unfortunately I’m still waiting for the orange swap from my partner and it’s past the due date. argh!)

We had 3 partners for a handmade earring swap. The above 2 sets were for someone I knew personally!

These 2 sets were for the host of the swap, who likes flying pigs (I had her for a partner before!)

It was hard to make this last set for the last partner because she really didn’t indicate her likes in her profile. Still waiting to hear if she likes these!

This was for a Sublime Stitching embroidery swap. I had bought these Aunt Martha paint pens thinking I could use them to color in the patterns (I see such beautiful coloring by so many people!) They didn’t turn out the way I thought (it’s supposed to be used for outlining, why would you want to do that?!) Anyway, I figured out how to use them, which I’ll show in another post. Here I used my gocco fabric paint for the brown and used the glitter paint from the same Aunt Martha order.

These notecards were for the Hand Carved Stamp group. I just finished reading Water for Elephants and was inspired to do a circus theme. I carved the circus tent, CIRCUS, elephant and ringmaster. I even had some clown scrapbook paper!

And finally, for the woodlands wearable swap (I’m finally happy with the photos) ! I made my partner a bunny pendant necklace and a bird bracelet. I’ve gotten a lot of uses out of the woodland graphics I got from Etsy seller Plan F Studios and the bird is from Piddix.

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I know I say this all the time but I really need to be a lot better documenting the swaps I receive from people. I got a couple of really good ones lately. I was really wowed by this swap from Pandessa for the Make me Something/Anything swap. Having done felt food, I know how much work goes into making it. Check it out!! A whole bento box full of sushi!

(a little blurry because I was trying to be quick! See those snatchy fingers in the top left corner?)

Sienna loves playing with it and now has her own when we get sushi!

And as if the felt sushi wasn’t enough, she included this cup cozy she crochet!

These earrings came as a complete surprise for me! Mamacrafter, the partner I sent the A-Z Creative swap to loved the package I sent to her so much that she bought these from my Etsy Favorites! How sweet is that?? The earrings are from Heather Boyd.

Here’s one I did a couple of months back for the Handmade Summer Dishtowel swap. My partner likes things showing where you are from so I used the taxi cab fabric from the City Quilter and printed out one of my holga shots of a street sign onto printable fabric and sewed it on.

Here is one of the items I made for the A-Z Creative swap I mentioned above. My partner had something similiar to this on her Etsy favs so I made her one! The artwork is from TTGart.

I had lots of fun stitching this one up! It’s a free pattern from Aimee Ray (I can’t wait for her new book to come out!) This was for the Make Me Anything profile swap as I mentioned above. My partner loves unicorns/pegasus so I made this pillow using one of Yves’ almost made it to goodwill linen shirts. Her hair and tail are made up of 3 different strands of floss with one being a metallic. Unfortunately, the photos don’t really show the sheen of the metallic, which is too bad because it looks really cool!

This next one is for the Woodland Handmade swap. This pattern is from Fall 2009 Stitch magazine (I made the cat pillow from this magazine too!) The tail called for needle felting and I finally pulled out my kit that I bought earlier this year and never tried. Well, I need a lot more practice as it came out pathetic (my partner rated me a 5 with a heart anyway!)

This one is not for a swap. My friend Barbara from Seattle put a call out for some penguin stamps so I carved one for her.

And speaking of carving, I made this for a Winner Takes All game on one of the group forums on swap-bot. It was for profile surprises and my partner (Pandessa) likes pentagrams.

These are the Altered Domino Magnets I made for the swap of the same name.

And 2 holidays in August for the Wacky Holidays swap! A crocheted potholder for Happy Watermelon day and a pendant for Happy Daughter’s day (her daughter likes Nightmare before Christmas and black and pink!)

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I joined a Minion swap that was sponsored by Universal Pictures to promote the release of their latest film, Despicable Me (came out Friday, the 9th). They sent out a blow up minion to all the participants and all you had to do was take it around and take photos of it (like the Flat Stanley project and a similar Where in the World is Crusher swap I did). I was surprised at the nice quality of the minion and that it was weighted. We named ours Larry. First we did some shopping. Sienna was nice enough to lend Larry one of her hats.

Then it was time for lunch!

Now every time Sienna sees a commercial or an ad for the movie, she gets all excited and says Look! Larry! ha!

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Continuing on the earring kick, I joined an earring swap and made these for 2 partners (preface to say I am not totally happy with the photos! They didn’t really capture the essence and I have to work on that):

One partner got the green pair and the other red. I also made these for them:

And of course here are a couple for myself (although I did make myself a pair of the above copper hearts too!)

And guess what I made? Something I’ve been wanting to make for awhile…

I painted a couple of wooden frames with a new kit I got that is eco friendly called Earth Safe Finishes and I used Mod Podge to secure some fabric and my dad gave me some screen door mesh for this…

And do you know what it is?

Woohoo!! The top one is 8×10 and the bottom one is 5×7. There wasn’t really any rhyme or reason to how I laid out the earrings and am happy to have room to add more. I’m so glad that I am now able to see most of my earrings (my post earrings and ear wires are still in the jewelry box.)

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I am participating in Christy Nelson’s craft challenge for June. They are turning out to be quite fun and not as stressful as I thought it would be. For this month, I am also hosting a swap for the challenge where we mail out our completed projects to our partner. A chance to win a prize AND get someone else’s wonderful creation! True to form, when the packet came, I thought to myself, “Oh boy! What am I going to do with this stuff?” I was a little concerned because the packet included some clay. With all the crafts I dabble in, I don’t do clay (besides precious metal clay) so I am not very familiar with working with it.

I thought I took a photo of all the supplies but I can’t find the image! Argh! I know I said that about last month’s challenge and couldn’t find the image. Well, I found it while looking for this month’s image. I guess I’ll find it during the August challenge (there is a month break for the challenge so no July challenge). Anyhow, Jennifer aka hippofairy has posted an image on her blog so here is a link. The only difference is I got white clay and my glitter paper were blue and green. So we got some clay, a pill bottle, raffia, glitter paper and a favor cup. Really, what was I going to do it this???

I did not take step by step photos of my project. I really have to get better with that. I promise to do that for August. Anyhow, I somehow came up with an idea way before deadline. Truly shocking! And I was really happy with the idea so went with it. And I got to pull out my dremel! I love my dremel and I don’t use it in my crafts as much as I thought I would. I used it to drill a hole on top of the bottle and a little window on the side.

I applied some gesso to the pill bottle, painted it blue and used the raffia as a cord to hang (if my partner wants to). I flattened out the favor cup and painted it a bright yellow. I used my sizzix to cut out a scallop shape and the letters E A T. I worked the clay into something that resembles a bird (it may not be the best bird but I’m happy that it somewhat looks like one!) baked it and painted it. Put it all together and this is what we have:

A miniature bird feeder complete with sun roof! HA! The “seeds” are little shake on beads made by Tulip that I got ages ago at 75 percent off. It finally came into use! I really think it is so cute! I hope my partner likes it!

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