Gettin' Crafty on Hump Day...

Hey everyone, hope you all had a fabulous Christmas!!!!! This week I'm a little behind, but I hope you'll forgive me :)

The winner of the lovely purse from last weeks giveaway is...........KRISTIN!!!!!

Kristin said "First of all I have to say that I LOVE that purse! My favorite thing about purses is that it is an easy way to show your style when you work somewhere where you can't always wear what you like!"

Congratulations Kristin, please email me your address so I can get this lovely handbag on its way to you :)

Ok, so, lets party. NO solicitations pleaseeeeeeee :)

Its not too late!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know some of you (like me) are thinking "CRAP, I forgot to get something for..." well, no need to fear. Luckily for me I have a VERY talented group of readers!!! And thanks to them I have a couple of "last minute" gifts you can whip up in a jiffy! (yes, I just said jiffy) These are crafts that were posted on my Gettin' Crafty on Hump day party :)

First, we have this adorable snowman candy jar from Inside BruCrew Life

Next up, we have this awesome zipper necklace from over at Potholes & Pantyhose

Or how bout this nifty chalkboard countdown mug from over at small fine print:

Or how bout this super cute Vintage Button Tree from Red Heads Craft More Fun:

Or how cool are these snowflake soaps from over at Suzy's Artsy Craftsy Sitcom:

Well folks, there you have it, a few ideas that you can whip up and have under the tree in no time!!!! I hope you all have a VERY Merry Christmas, and DON'T stress yourselves out too much!!!! :)

Gettin' Crafty on Hump Day....

Well folks, I made my goal last week!!!!!!! We had 54 links and I have to admit, you made my day!!!!!!! So, to show my appreciation, I'm having A GIVEAWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm giving away this lovely Kate Spade inspired handbag:

This handbag boasts a croc skin patterned basket weave in warm Tuscan colors. Accented by a cute black butterfly.

To enter:

Leave a comment telling me what you love about purses

Follow me and leave me a comment telling me you do

Post this giveaway on your blog/facebook/twitter and leave me a comment with a link

That's up to 3 entries!!!!!! I will draw the winner next Tuesday and announce the winner at next week's Gettin' Crafty on Hump Day party :)

Ok, so back to the party, please please please no solicitations, and share some comment love!

Lets get to it!

Quick and easy homemade luxury scarf...

A few years ago I decided I wanted to learn how to knit. I went to Knittinghelp.com and started by learning the long tail cast on. Then I went on to learn the Continental Knit Stitch and the Continental Purl Stitch and the Basic Bind Off, knit and purl.

I realize that I probably lost a lot of you at long tail cast on, but honestly, these videos were SOOOOOOOOOOO helpful to me, and taught me how to do a basic simple pattern like the one I will share today! When I was ready to move on to more complicated projects, I had to find a knitting guru in person to help me out :)

So, when it came time to make gifts for my little man's teachers, I knew I wanted to knit them something nice. So, for each of these scarfs you'll need 1 and 1/2 skeins of chenille yarn. The thick and quick Chenille is super fast and easy to work with. I used size 13 needles, and cast on 17 stitches. Then, I just knit, and knit and knit until the scarf got to be 6 feet. Each scarf took a couple of hours, but in the end I wound up with 3 fabulous and luxurious teacher gifts!!!

And my knitting guru friend even hooked me up with some fabulous labels to attach (with washing instructions on the back.)

So my encouragement to you is, if you've always wanted to try something like knitting, DO IT!!!!! There is so many online videos and help sites, and until you try it you just never know, so go for it!! :)

Gettin' Crafty on Hump Day....

Well folks, it time to party once again!!! This week, I'm trying a different linky host, and HOPING that for Christmas, alllllll of you get to link up with no problems!!! :)

I had a craft to share, but I was just too excited so I had to post it early. I made these:



They are Printed Burlap Tree Sachets, and you can see the tutorial here :)

Ok, so feel free to link up your projects, recipes, tutorials, etc. NO SOLICITATIONS!!!!! Please don't link to a store or I will delete it :)

Leave me some comment love if you link, and if you visit other links, leave them comment love too!!!! My goal is to hit over 50 links before the new year, so PLEASE please pretty please, make sure my button is on your blog and you tell all your friends!!! :D

Hope you're all in full holiday swing and creative magnificence, let me see your stuff...

Printed Burlap tree sachets...

Ok, so really they're ornaments, but doesn't "sachet" sound so much fancier?!?!?!? They are scented, don't get me wrong, but we'll get to that later. I had an idea earlier in the year for an ornament I wanted to make from burlap, but I couldn't figure out how to get my design onto the burlap. I figured I'd probably have to use iron on transfers, but THEN, I saw this tutorial over at Domestically Speaking and I knew exactly what I wanted to do!

To start with, get yourself a yard or 2 of burlap, and some freezer paper. Then take your burlap and cut an 8.5 x 11 piece (it doesn't have to be exact). Heat your iron up to medium and iron your burlap. Once the burlap is nice and smooth, then lay the freezer paper down onto your burlap, shiny side touching the burlap, and iron. Magically the freezer paper adheres to the burlap and makes it stiff...like a fabric piece of paper if you will.

Once you have your sheet, its time to work on your design. I knew I wanted a silhouette manger scene with the lyrics to one of my favorite Christmas songs....this is what I ended up with:

Once you have your design all set, decide how many you can fit to a sheet. For me...I was able to get 3 on a sheet. When you go to print your document, go to "properties" and change your paper type to "specialty." Then stick that burlap paper into your printer and print away!!!!!!!!!!

Then once you pull the paper off the printer, peel the freezer paper off, cut your designs out and get ready to sew! Here's what I used to get started:
I used the sisal as the "hook" for the ornament, and then for the backing, I decided to use jute webbing. Once you sew the 2 sides and the bottom, its time to stuff. but I didn't want to just stuff it, so I used this:

Oh come on, you mean you've never used a meat tenderizer to pulverize some cinnamon sticks??? Well thats just how I roll, so I broke them into good sized chunks. Then I mixed chunks of the cinnamon sticks with the stuffing :)

Once its all stuffed, you're ready to sew the top, but first you need to put the sisal in. Make sure you tie a knot on the ends of your piece so that it doesn't slip out of the ornament after its sewn. Place your sisal like so, and then....sew:

Of course I had to add a cute little red bow to finish it off. And when you're done, you have a SUPER cute/ EXTREMELY inexpensive ornament to give that not only looks great, but smells wonderful too! :)

I love burlap...but I love Christmas more! :)

Gettin' Crafty on Hump Day....

Hey folks, its time to party again. Hope you are all in preparations for the holidays...I, in my usual fashion have procrastinated like bananas and am now rushing around to not only shop, but create. I have 10 days to knit 3 scarves, make a dozen ornaments, plan a birthday party, oh and sleep :)

But, I'm still looking forward to seeing what you guys are up to! :)

So, lets link. PLEASE no solicitations, do not link up to your store, and please leave me some comment love :)

Party Hardy folks......

The simplest Christmas baking you can find...

I love baking with my little guy, but as we've already established, I am not the most patient person. So I'm always looking for simple, kid friendly recipes, and man did I hit the mother load when I stumbled on this one!

Start with 1 bag of circle pretzels, 1 bag rolos candy (1 bag makes what you see in the pic), and 1 bag m&m's.

Preheat your oven to 325 and line a cookie sheet with wax paper. Fill sheet with pretzels and place one rolo in center of each pretzel (see pic)



Then stick them in the oven for 4 minutes, and when you pull them out press an m&m into the top of each one. Then let them cool and enjoy the yummy deliciousness (is that a word?) No mess, no mixing, and once you throw away the wax paper....NO DISHES!!!!!!!!!! Amazing right?!?!

Seriously, buy more than one bag...I think half of this cookie sheet was gone before this post got published....