Felt Badge Display

Here's what I made for my partner in the Felt Badge Swap at Craftster.  She likes trees, poppies, and the color orange.  I made this badge using wool felt, embroidery floss, and seed beads:

I loved it so much I decided to make one for myself in my favorite colors:

I'll tell you a secret:  every part of the felt is hand-cut, except the flowers.  I used a leather punch for those!  It is similar to a paper punch, but it has six different sizes of holes to choose from.  I don't think I would have been able to hand-cut perfect 1/8" circles!

The back is covered with a second pink felt oval, and the two are blanket-stitched together.

Now that I have a pretty good collection of felt badges, I need to display them.  I found this cool shadow box at a bookstore; it is really just a bulletin board under glass.  It measures 9" x 12".

The top swings open easily, and it closes with a magnet.  I just arranged my badges and pinned them in place.

All ready to hang on the wall (it has picture hangers already installed on the back.) 

I bought a larger one too, so when my collection expands, I can transfer them to a larger home!

Craft Gossip Invitation!

I've gotten my invitation!  On Friday I will travel to Little Rock, Arkansas, to attend the second "Fork and Talk" blogger's meet-up, hosted by editors of the website Craft Gossip, and sponsored by EK Success Brands (which produces crafting supplies and kits, including Martha Stewart and American Girl Dolls).

I attended the first Fork and Talk last September.  Since then I've had several of my projects featured on the Craft Gossip website, which has really helped to boost my readership, and inspired me to constantly work to make my blog as interesting as possible.  I love Craft Gossip!  Since I also love making little crafty things and giving them away, and I know all the other bloggers at the meet-up love Craft Gossip too, I decided to make pin-back buttons to bring with me and distribute to everyone at Fork and Talk next Saturday.

I got this wonderful button-making machine for my birthday last year.  It makes high-quality buttons, and I've discovered that I can be very creative with them--often I print words from the computer, like I did for these buttons, but I can also draw a tiny piece of art and turn it into a button.

The words are printed on pretty scrapbook paper, and the hearts are stickers (I started out cutting each little heart from paper...it was taking too long, so it was stickers to the rescue!)

I'll be blogging all about it next week--I can't wait to see what new products will be in the swag bags--I'll show you everything, and I just might be giving some of it away to readers!

Liebster Blog Award

I was pleased and honored last week when Charlene at t'was brillig and gave my blog the Liebster Blog Award!  Thanks, Charlene, I appreciate it!

What is this award?  My impression is that is it just a fun way for bloggers to draw attention to small blogs (under 200 followers) that they enjoy reading.  There are some "strings" attached--the blogger who accepts this award must do the following:

1.  Thank the person who have you the award.
2.  Link back to their blog.
3.  Copy and paste the Liebster award to your profile.
4.  Pick 5 blogs that you feel deserve to be in the spotlight (they must have 200 followers or under).
5.  Blog about it and leave a comment for your nominations to let them know that you have chosen their blog.

I am happy to announce my five choices for this award.  Here they are, in no particular order:

1.  For Excellence in the Field of Photography:  Susan at The Sloppy Sewer.  She is a busy career woman, so she doesn't have time to blog frequently, but when she does, it's worth reading!  I especially love her photo essays.

2.  For Excellence in the Fields of Home Decor and General Crafting:  Suzy at unRuffled.  She has a lot of projects that she has done in her new home, and recently she has branched out to show us some knitting, sewing, and craft swaps.

3.  For Excellence in the Fields of Beading and Sewing:  Rebecca at Crafty Mama Beads.  She makes amazing beaded jewelry, and she sews up a storm!

4.  For Excellence in the Field of Cooking: Peggy at  Pork Chop Tuesday.  She shares recipes she's tried for her family, and she tells it like it is! 

5.  For Excellence in the Field of Embroidery:  Sewphie at Threadhead.  Her skill and creativity with embroidery needle and thread are amazing!

Please visit these talented women at their blogs--you will be glad you did!

Octo-Bear Update

Thanks to all who left comments about yesterday's "Octo-Bear" post.  Since a couple of you are interested in knowing how it was constructed, I have good news:  I'm going to make another one, and take lots of pictures, and show you how I did it!  All secrets will be revealed sometime within the next couple of weeks.

A Different Kind of Stuffie

Every month on Craftster there is a Birthday Craft Swap; March was my birthday month, so I joined the swap!  Everyone who joined posted a list of things they would like to receive, and the other people in the swap could choose to craft anything on anyone's list.  The only requirement was that you "claim" at least one item to craft during the month.

I made two claims, and I've already shown you the pink and gray Kindle Cover.  The other thing I made was a little outside my comfort zone as far as style goes, but it was right up my alley in that it was a stuffed toy.  I present to you:  Octo-bear!

 Usually I go all uber-cute when I'm making stuffies, but this one wasn't for me, so I had to make it to my partner's liking.  She had a creature very much like this on her Pinterest, with a teddy-bear for the top part; I used my Mystery Critter pattern for that.  I gave it a zipper for a mouth to make it look scarier, but that wasn't quite enough, so as a final, touch I gave it the scowling eyebrows--THEN it had the proper demeanor!

I had some black and white checkerboard fleece that worked great for the legs; they are stuffed with fiberfil and have heavy wire all the way to the end so they can be posed any way.  Sewing the legs to the body turned out to be very simple (I had worried about it and thought it through a LOT!)  For the finishing touch, I tied a ribbon around it's neck with a key and a coin bearing the words "secret" and "unique". 

My partner said it was the best stuffie ever, so I guess I got it right!  I learned from this swap that I can be flexible with my style when I need to be--that's nice to know.

Bedankt, Wendie!

I got the nicest surprise in the mail today--Wendie K., who won two of the prizes in my Seven Days of Giveaways last month, sent me this awesome handcrafted "thank you" package!  Wendie lives in The Netherlands, and we met in a Craftster swap.  We were swap partners, so I already know how talented she is with a needle and thread!

This kitty eating a fish pouch is on my Wist.  Look at the perfect fabric she used on the inside--it has little fish on it!!

I love needlebooks, and this one is so pretty; I love these colors!

On the handmade card, Wendie wrote "bedankt Leslie"; I don't know Dutch, but I can tell that means "thank you".  You're welcome, Wendie, and "bedankt" to you!  I truly appreciate this thoughtful package and I will enjoy using my kitty pouch and needlebook.

Seven More Bags

About two months ago I was contacted by Dale at Dale's Floral Designs in Warsaw, Virginia (about two hours away from where I live).  She had bought one of my zippered purses here in Williamsburg a while ago--it's the frog purse I blogged about HERE--and she liked it so much she wanted to sell my bags in her store.  Her little town doesn't offer much in the way of shopping, which is probably why her floral business is doing so well that she is expanding, and she wants to carry gift items, like my bags.

Since I am not actively marketing my bags at the moment, I didn't have anything to offer Dale in the way of a catalog to order from, so she decided to make a trip to a fabric store to look for fabrics that would make good bags.  She knows the themes that would appeal to customers in her area, but she admits she didn't really know what she was doing when she was choosing fabric!  She's more of a flower person!

Dale sent me seven different prints and asked me to make one bag from each.  I used her fabrics for the front and pockets of each bag, and used coordinating fabrics from my stash for the accent stripe on the front, the lining, and the back and bottom.  Here they are:

Hummingbirds, horses, and cabbage roses

Ladybugs, rosebuds, tropical fish, and crabs

I love them all!  Dale, you did a GREAT job choosing these fabrics!