Valentine's Day Swap...Sent

Last month I signed up for the Oh Strumpets Valentine's Day Swap. I'm so glad I did because I really branched out with the type of crafts I usually do. I'm not really a hearts and pink kind of girl. This gave me the perfect excuse to look for fun heart fabric and all kinds of pink and red felt.

I knew right away that I wanted to make a bunting for my partner, Erin. Not for any particular reason other than, who the hell doesn't love a good bunting?! While at Joann's I found these two coordinating glittery heart fabrics. Although the fabrics themselves are kind of busy, I felt just the fabric by itself would be a little boring. I decided to cut out some hearts from that sticky backed felt to add. I originally went a little far and added white hearts with red X's and O's on the other flags but it was WAY too much so I got rid of those! I also used some pink thread and a zigzag stitch to attach it all together.




Also, while I was at Joann's I milled around in the area with Valentine's Day decorations to find some other fun tidbits to send my partner. I saw some cute little heart ornaments. They were a bit on the country clutter side though. You know what I mean? With the burlap, red gingham fabric and twine? It wasn't my taste but it gave me an idea...I could make my own stuffed heart ornaments!! I did a tutorial yesterday if you want to make some of your own! These are the three I sent Erin, I hope she likes them!



This was such a fun swap. Like I said, I branched out of my so called "comfort zone" and used different types of fabrics and themes than I normally would have. It was nice and refereshing. Plus now I have a few of the heart ornaments of my own!
I can't wait to see what Erin made for me!!

A special thanks to Becky and Olivia for organzing this awesome swap together over on Oh Strumpets!


Jamie

How to Make a Valentine's Day Heart Ornament

For today I present you with my first tutorial!! I am super duper excited and I really hope you try and make some of these on your own. They aren't hard at all and make the cutest Valentine's Day decorations. You could also hang them up whenever you want to bring a bit of love into your home anytime of year!

So let's get started!


1. Supplies:
Felt in any color you want
Fabric to compliment the felt
Embroidery Floss also to compliment your felt and fabric choices
Ribbon
Scissors and an Embroidery needle
(Not Pictured) A scrap piece of cardboard and some sort of stuffing - fiber fill, scrap pieces of fabric or yarn, etc.


2. Stencil
You will want to draw a heart onto your cardboard. Also draw a smaller heart to cut out of the center.
Cut out your stencil.
I drew this by hand but I have a feeling some heart cookie cutters would be the perfect template!


3. Felt
You will want to fold your felt in half and pin together.
Trace your heart stencil, the outside and the center.
Cut the largest heart out from both pieces of felt.
***Now if you kept your felt pinned together while cutting out the large heart UNPIN NOW!!!!***
Cut the center heart out of only ONE piece of felt.
(in a sleepy, crafty stooper I cut the center out of both sides of felt twice! You read that right, TWICE!! I'm a genius kids, a pure genius!)


4. Fabric
Trace the large heart onto your pretty fabric.
Trim around the outside a bit so that it is smaller than the big heart but still larger than the center.


5. Sew Fabric to Felt
Pin your fabric to the felt heart with the center cut out.
Stich around the center heart to attach your fabric.


6. Add detail
If you want, now would be the time to add any cute little details to the back heart. Make sure you embroider on the side that will face out.
I did this so that if the heart spins around, it will still look super cute!


7. Sew Felt Together
You will want to cut a piece of ribbon long enough to hang wherever you choose.
Pin this ribbon to the front piece of felt.
Pin the two sides together and embroider about 3/4 of the way around.
Make sure you stitch over the ribbon so it is nice and secure.
*Tip* Start your embroidery on the inside so that the knot does not show on the back of the ornament.


8. Stuff your ornament
Once you get to about the 3/4 mark you will want to stuff the ornament.
Don't overstuff or it might get kind of puckered looking (unless this is the look you are going for then by all means, stuff away!)
Once stuffed, continue stitching your ornament closed.
*Tip* Tie your knot on the inside so it doesn't show on your ornament either.


Now you can admire your adorable new heart ornament!!



I love all the different felt and fabric combos I came up with. All the emboidered details were just off the top of my head too.

I hope you try to make some of these for yourself or as a gift. If you do, leave me a link so I can see it too!

Have a lovely day friends!



Jamie

Evil by Request

My friend, Kara at work requested that I make her an "evil animal". It's not often that I get to make gorey, evil things. Pretty much only for myself and Jeremy. It was nice to be able to make something totally creepy for someone new!
I racked my brain for a while trying to figure out what to make. I had saved this pattern of a severed finger that I found ages ago on Ravelry. So I thought, "Ooo a little animal eating a finger!" I searched some more on Ravelry and came across this Robbie the Rabbit pattern. I am not a gamer in the slightest so I have no idea what Silent Hill is or what this rabbit has to do with a video game...however, he was exactly what I was looking for! This pattern is an extension pack to the Creepy Cute Crochet book. I ran right to the library and picked it up. I decided to alter the bunny pattern a bit. Obviously he's a different color, I also added feet, a tail and made his face not so happy but more angry looking.
I also ended up changing the entire finger pattern because it turned out WAY too big for this lil' bunny.
I am sooo in love with the face made from clay! It was a lot easier to work with than I had anticipated and it just looks so great! I definitely think in the future that I will be making faces more with polymer clay.
So without further adieu...here is Bubba Bunny.

Bubba lives in the mountains of Pennsyvania. (queue that creepy banjo music)

As you can see, his favorite treat is not a carrot. He prefers to gnaw on the fingers and toes of hikers who get stranded and sometimes "disappear" from the Appalachian trail.

I decided on this story while watching "Into the Wild" last night. Muahahaa!
I had a ridiculous amount of fun making Bubba. There were just so many elements used to put him together besides just crocheting. Clay, felt, paint...so awesome!