Sweet Little Tote

Look at this sweet little tote I made!  Good news--you can make one too, because the pattern is FREE from http://www.wendigratz.blogspot.com/.  The name of the website is Shiny Happy World, and I love it because it is, well, shiny and happy!  Wendi Gratz is on a mission to teach people to sew, and many of her patterns are free, and all of them are cute.

The pattern for this tote is well-written and easy to follow.  It is easy to sew, too, because there are no pesky pockets or zippers to contend with!  The pattern also tells you at which point to add your own decoration, so I found this kitty embroidery pattern at Urban Threads ( http://www.urbanthreads.com/).  I downloaded it, printed it, traced it onto the fabric using a light box (but you can hold it up to a window) and embroidered it using the stem stitch and two strands of embroidery floss.  The whole project took less than 2.5 hours from start to finish, including finding and adding the embroidery. 

This tote is small, only 7.5" tall and 8.5" wide--just big enough for your lunch, or your latest small sewing project, or your child's coloring book and crayons.  Wouldn't it make a nice gift, filled with goodies?

Speaking of filling it with goodies, my friend Susan and I are planning to organize a swap on Craftster in the near future called "Craft this Tote and Fill It!"  I can't wait to see all the different fabrics and embellishments everyone comes up with for their totes.  If you want to join in the fun, just sign up at Craftster at http://www.craftster.org

Orange Alert!!

I'm sending an "angel" package to a craftster member today; she was flaked on in the Sewists/Yarnies vs. Papercrafters swap, so I volunteered to send her a package.  Perhaps you can guess what her favorite color is?

She asked for bags and pouches, and it is my pleasure to deliver!  She also has a soft spot for candy corn, thus the candy corn pouch.  Usually I put a heart on the front of my bags, but she doesn't strike me as a "heart" kind of person, so I made a button using my button machine, featuring the phrase that accompanies her avatar on Craftster:

If she doesn't love this package, I'll eat my shoe!!

Making a Stuffie

Recently I tried making a stuffie (stuffed animal or whatever) for a Craftster swap.  In the past I've made very simple ones that I was happy with, but I felt that I needed to try harder this time, since I would be sending my creation to someone!  When I looked at my partner's profile, I saw that she had participated in a previous stuffie swap, and for that partner she had made a fabulous jointed dinosaur!!  I didn't want to disappoint her, so I really put some time into creating the cutest little monkey possible (she LOVES monkeys), and this is what I came up with:

I loved her so much, I made one for myself, too!  She is made of fleece, with wool felt for the face, flower, and heart.  I beaded the heart, added a button to the center of the flower, and put wire in the tail to make it poseable. 

As I was working on the pattern, I kept making adjustments, because I realized that the secret of cuteness is this:  big head, small body!  I probably could have gone smaller with the body, but it was hard enough to sew as it was, because the size from rump to flower is only 5".

Here they are, two little monkeys, before one flew away to live in Mexico!  My partner received her recently, and she loves her! (I was sure she would!)

Bird Matchbox

I'm happy to be able to show you the second matchbox I made for the recent matchbox swap on Craftster (http://www.craftster.org/).  My partner has received it, so here are the pictures:

The front and inside:  I drew the bird with a micron marker and colored pencils.  The rest of the decoration was scrapbook paper.

The back and inside:

One of the two crafted items inside the matchbox was this birdnest book thong:

The other crafted item was this "Be Happy" pin-back button that I made on my button machine.  I drew the bird with a Sharpie and colored it with Copic markers:

And the two matchboxes together, as they looked when the recipients opened them, stuffed full of fun:

I love the book thong as a little gift!  For this one I made the birdnest charm out of polymer clay (in the Halloween box it was a purple monster); just add a few more beads to a cord and you have a nice handcrafted gift.  I found it on Fave Crafts:
 http://www.favecrafts.com/Gifts/Beaded-Book-Thong

Try it!  And check out lots of other free crafts there.

Country Treasures

There is a store just outside of Williamsburg where I sell all my handmade items; it's called Country Treasures, and is located in the Williamsburg Outlet Mall.  Here are some pictures of the store and my little booth.

The front of the store:

 My Happy Heart Designs booth:

My "pin tree", and little stuffed creatures:

There are a few other crafters with booths at Country Treasures, but I think I am the only one selling things that don't fit the description "country"!  I guess I add variety to the store!  The zippered purses are what I'm best known for, but all the little things sell very well there too.  Some of the other items I make that aren't pictured are:  eyeglass cases, zippered pouches, key chain pouches, scripture verse pillows, scripture verse sachets, tissue holders, and pincushions.

If you like what you see but can't make it to Williamsburg, you can find me on Etsy.  

http://www.leslieshappyheart.etsy.com/

Fabric Cuff Bracelet

Recently I have been exploring the idea of making fabric cuff bracelets, because I love the way they look, and they are small enough that making one wouldn't take forever.  BUT...would I ever actually wear one?  That's the question I struggled with as I went ahead and made one yesterday.  Usually I dress very simply, without jewelry (except my pearl earrings that I wear every day because they are the only ones that don't make my ears hurt!--and I do wear pins, but that's a subject for another day).  I find that rings, necklaces, and bracelets get in my way when I'm doing stuff, so I just don't wear them.  My thought is that a soft fabric cuff that stays put on my arm (rather than rolling around like a metal bracelet) might be something I could wear.

This is my first effort, and any time I make something new, it is usually not until the third try that it gets "good".  So here it is:

Browsing on the internet this week, I've seen that there are many different styles of cuffs.  I decided I wanted mine to be fairly narrow, because I definitely wouldn't wear it if it was really big!  This is 1 3/4" wide, which sounds small, but actually feels pretty big when I'm wearing it!  I just chose braid, little beads, buttons and charms that I liked, in a very quiet color palette, to hand-sew onto the canvas base.  You can see that I left the edges raw and frayed.  I stamped the word "happy", and added a pony-tail elastic for the closure, then hand-sewed a second, smaller piece of canvas to the back to cover the stitching.

This time I just placed things randomly as I got a feel for the process of making the cuff; next time I will plan it out better.  I would like to incorporate some embroidery too.  On this one I purposely used light blue thread to sew everything, with the intention that it would show and look interesting and random...but it doesn't really show.  Next time I will try a button hole...maybe...

Matchbox Fun

Here's another post where I go on and on about I swap I just participated in on Craftster!!  (Here's the website again:  http://www.craftster.org/ ).  This one was so fun:  I got to decorate two matchboxes (one for each partner), using my choice of themes suggested by my partners.  Today I am going to show one of the boxes because this partner has received hers.  When my second partner gets hers, I'll post pictures of that one too.

For this box I chose the theme "Halloween".  First, I covered the matchbox with scrapbook paper that has a pattern like old, dark wallpaper--something you might find in a decaying Victorian mansion.  Then, using a micron marker and colored pencils, I drew a jack-o-lantern with a loooooong vine, and cut it out.  I glued it onto the box so that the vine wrapped all the way around.  Unfortunately the sides don't show in these pictures, but the back does. I drew the leaves separately and glued them on after the vine was in place.

I don't know why I have two pictures of the interior of the box, but I do!  I drew the bat silhouette on black paper, cut it out and glued it inside the box.  Below you can see the back of the box.

The next part of the process was perhaps more fun than decorating:  filling the box!  Since it's Craftster, we are encouraged to make something crafty to go inside, in addition to any small treasures we can find that will also fit.  First, I made a cute monster book mark.  I made the monster from polymer clay, then strung it with some beads to make the bookmark.

Next, I made a refrigerator magnet, using my new button-making machine.  I drew the image using a fine-tip Sharpie and my daughter's Copic markers (they are the kind used by professional artists--she will be going to art school in the fall!).  Skulls usually aren't my thing, but this fit the Halloween theme.  I saw the image

online somewhere and I liked the surprise of the skull on the cupcake.

In this last picture you can see the box packed full and ready to send.  You can see a mini scrabble tile sticker, one of two with my partners' initials.  And since she makes jewelry, I added lots of little things like clasps, spacers, beads and a charm or two to fill up the rest of the matchbox.



The green pull loop is just a piece of ribbon glued to the bottom of the box. 

The amount of fun I had making this was huge, considering that it was something so smalll!  I want to make more!  One would be great as a gift box for a small item, anytime a gift-giving occasion arises. 

Check back in a week or two for Matchbox #2.  It was sent to Canada, so it may take some time to clear customs.