crafting this and that

Hi again!  I had plans today to take my boys for a haircut but the weather didn't agree with me.  It has been raining all morning and not just a light drizzle either.  It's pouring and the water is puddling around the yard.  So we decided to stay in and make our traditional ornaments that I'll share another day.  Today, I want to share the treats I made for my boys' classmates.  My daughter doesn't pass out class treats anymore but just a handful of gifts to close friends.  They all got calendars this year!  While I was looking for simple crafts to do with my youngest one's class, I came across candy cane mice.  I'd never seen them before and my boys loved them.  Of course, because they like rodents.  I wasn't too sure if girls would like them but I thought since it is their treats to give I would let the boys decide.  There are tons of templates online.  I used this one HERE and found a cute poem HERE .  If I ...

Hello!  I am slowly working my way through my December crafts that I shared on Facebook but not on my blog.  These are little gift bags I made to hold gift cards for family members.  I used Lawn Fawn's Goodie Bag die and Riley's ABCs to spell out the names.  The recipient's names were heat embossed in gold on the front of the bags.  On the back of the bags I put the names of my 3 kids. Instead of twine or ribbon I thought these cute clothespins would be a nice touch.  I was lucky enough to win the poinsettia die from my bloggy friend, Karen .  I die cut the flowers in red and glued them onto some small clothespins.  I added some gold cardstock and dark red rhinestones in the middle.  I love how these came out!  I want to make a ton more! I have a few other items to share in the upcoming days.  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Hi!  I think it's been a while since I shared something here.  I made this pillow case in the beginning of December and now it's almost Christmas.  Can not believe that Christmas is next week! Here's the pillow case I sewed up using this fun fabric I bought from Stitch Stash Diva on Etsy.  I love the bright colors and the rainbows, so girly.  I followed the instructions from here on how to sew this envelope style pillow case.  I kind of just guessed on the pocket and used some heat bond adhesive for the n.  I don't think I'm ready to do that complicated looking zigzag stitching around the letters and appliques.  I will try to practice that next year. The pocket is large enough for some money or a little gift or maybe even a small toy.  The pillow is 12 x 16 inches. These past few weeks have been a bit busy with lots of crafting.  I think I have just a couple more things to make and then I'm done.  So today is finally a kin...

Hi everyone!  Have you started your Christmas shopping yet?  I can imagine it will be getting a bit crazy from here on out.  I still have a few things to get on my list and then it's wrapping everything that will take a bit of time. Today I have the rest of my monthly planners that I finished up to share. These are large planners that I made pretty with some washi paper.  So usually I would try to make them all different by using different washi papers but it is so much easier just to make them all the same!  Plus I really like this pink washi paper.  I added Hello Kitty made from a Sizzix die and the year made from PTI numbers die. This is the back.  The front piece overlaps to the back if you can see it. Here is a different one I made since I ran out of the pretty pink washi paper.  I like this one too.  This is a sample of the inside pages.  They all have vinyl covers too. The past couple days I've been doing som...

Hi everyone!  Hope you had a great Thanksgiving holiday!  I am just getting over my turkey coma so I thought I'd post a little something today. I finished up all my 2 year pocket calendars.  I think I take a long time to finish projects sometimes because I think I have to make each one look different. These are the three that I shared previously using Sister Stamps . Here are three new ones with more Sister Stamps . These calendars feature Mama Elephant stamps.  Love these cute animals and the fun sentiments. Here is a close up of the bunnies.  Love the bunnies!  I think they are my favorite. Here are the bears.  So I kept the Mama Elephant ones fairly simple by using the same Copic colors and sentiments.  Trying to do things a little bit faster. Here is a sample page of a month. All of these are for sale too.  US orders and PayPal only.  Feel free to email me if you have any questions craftingthisandthat@...

Hi everyone!  Sometimes I think I am so crazy for making the things that I make.  I'm sure my kids and the hubby too wonder why I do the things I do.  I think this was one of those projects that I was just about to give up on.  So time consuming because I didn't just make 1, I made 6 sets!  Oh boy, I need to give my fingers some time to rest. If you are one of my FB friends, you might have seen this photo that I posted using Taylored Expressions new 3x4 calendars and a whole bunch of Sister Stamps images (the little pumpkin is from PTI).  I guess the purpose of these calendars is to use in pocket scrapbooking but I wanted them to be a bit more functional as well so I came up with a desk top calendar idea.  Once the month is done, you can add it to your scrapbook too. Excuse my poor cropping here but I didn't want to rearrange the cards again to take a better photo.  I know, I am lazy.  I attached each month to kraft cardstock and ad...

Hello!  I feel sometimes scattered wanting to do so many different crafts.  I wish I had this huge crafty room where I had lots of large tables and each table would be designated for a specific craft.  Like sewing, coloring, paper crafting.  Then I wouldn't have to clean up everything to start another project.  Sewing definitely takes up a lot of space with the cutting of fabric, space for the sewing machine and even ironing.  That is the only ironing I am willing to do!  Anyway, I finished this cute ornament yesterday.  You've probably seen them around blogland ever since PTI introduced their latest kit with the clear domes.  PTI's kits are so enticing with all the fun stuff included in them but they are just too expensive for me especially if I'm not sure I'd be using them often.  But I had seen the clear domes before at my local Ben Franklin store so I knew I could make those ornaments/tags without spending so much money.  Plus...

Hi again!  Today is release day!  Thought I would pop in to share my latest 2 year pocket calendars featuring Sister Stamps Ai and Mitsuyo.  First up is Ai, the girl Taiko drummer.  I printed up some of these sentiments that I first saw with an Uptown Girl stamp.  I loved the sentiment and wanted to buy the stamp cause of it but I thought twice and saved some money by just printing the sentiments myself.  As usual, I used washi paper to cover the calendars. Here is Mitsuyo.  I love the color combo of this one.  So pretty!  And the same sentiment. Here they are in their vinyl covers.  I love the practicality of these calendars.  I mean, you get 2 years worth!  But I notice the calendars aren't cut exactly straight.  So that makes me have to fiddle a bit with the washi paper to cover everything up nicely.  Not sure if it's just my order that was cut crooked but I think these are still cute and worth the bit...

Welcome back & Happy Halloween!  Sorry, nothing Halloween-y to share today.  I am still in the process of making calendars!  Yeah, I make a lot of calendars but I think they are so practical to give away as gifts. Here is a larger planner that I found at Walmart!  Now these calendars were so cheap and they came with a vinyl cover so I got some to pretty up.  Again, I used washi paper over the covers.  They were orange before!  Then I added the gold cardstock and used the negative part after die cutting the numbers out.  This strip kind of added a teeny bit of bulk when putting the vinyl cover back on so next time I'll probably not do that. Here is a close up of Ai. And here is her boy counterpart, Yoichi. Please be sure to check out the DT! Christine (Guest DT) Jenny Debi Rina Rina's YouTube Channel Thanks so much for stopping by!

Hello everyone!  Ready for some new Sister Stamps ?  There are 2 new images coming out November 1st. The first image I'm sharing today is called Mitsuyo!  It is purely coincidental but that is also my daughter's middle name.  She was named after her Great-Grandma Mitsuyo. I tried something new this time around.  I had a set of 6 brown plastic coasters that had a sticker on them.  So I ended up peeling them off and then using some Goo Gone to get the rest of the adhesive off.  Then I added a couple of layers of gesso to cover up the brown.  I used some mod podge to adhere some washi paper on to the coaster and then to glue the images on too.  Then I added lots more mod podge over the whole piece.  I didn't add any clear acrylic spray on yet though I've read that is recommended. I think it came out cute but didn't realize there are so many different kinds of mod podge!  I used the shiny one cause I like shiny things but then i...

Hello!  My post title sounds a little gross but that is what it took for me to finish my latest sewing project.  Okay, maybe it was mostly just sweat cause it is so hot and humid again here but there were some frustrating sewing moments.  Just wanted to throw my hands up in the air and then bang my head on the sewing table and maybe just silently say some choice words but I am so happy that I'm done.  Here is my youngest one holding all three fabric Trick or Treat bags.  I love the print on here.  Both the black and green liner fabrics are from Riley Blake Doodlebug.  The gingham fabric on the bottom of the bags was from Walmart.  I am so happy I found the gingham fabric.  I was looking for just plain black or orange or some other Halloween-y color but couldn't find any so thought I'd try the gingham and it adds so much fun to the bags. I found this tutorial HERE and used the measurements as my starting point for the bags.  I al...

Hello!  My daughter turned into a teenager one morning!  We recently celebrated her 13th birthday.  She didn't want a big production over turning 13 even though I thought maybe she'd like to have a dinner or something with a few close friends.  But she's very low key and much like us, a homebody so she didn't want to do anything special except have cheesecake for dessert.  It was a yummy cheesecake! As usual, I made my traditional bookmark birthday card. I turned this one into a shaker card too.  I was able to order the foam adhesive sheets from PTI which made it much easier to make this.  And I finally caved and bought this stamp set from Mama Elephant.  I love this set cause they are so cute!  I used the smaller version of the animals for this bookmark.  I was really tempted to buy the matching dies but it is so expensive to buy matching dies for every stamp set!  But it is convenient.  I ended up fussy cutting these ou...