Friday, March 01, 2013

Creative Outlets

I like to make things.

Lately, I have made two albums for the grandparents of Nolan's first year, using the pictures from this post.  They were very simple homemade 6x6 albums, chipboard covers and colored cardstock to match the photos.  I printed the age for each picture and cut it out with a circle punch, and bound it all with two rings.  Simple, but I really like how they turned out. 

I also made a little Valentine book for Sean:


The front one was the one I made last year, and is filled with random stuff; the one in back is this year's Valentine, and is filled with unused note pages and address book pages from the back of an old planner.  I'm in an online small group based out of the (in)courage website; we meet on Facebook and it has been a good encouragement this year, actually.  (They have lots of groups with different focus areas; the one I'm in is geared for those of us who are just balancing and building the marriage and parenting relationships.)  Back in November we did a month of jotting down one thing a day that we were thankful for our husbands for - I wrote them in my journal and made a point of letting him know I was thankful for stuff, but for the Valentine I wrote out all 30 things in one place for him.

And I dug out the new I Spy quilt and started sewing again.  I found this free pattern online - maybe you want to make one, too??  I've got the main middle part with all the patterns done; next is to do the border pieces.  I adapted it... meaning you were supposed to cut a certain amount, arrange them into 5 rows of 10, and you would have 5 pieces left over...  My counter is wide enough for 4 rows, so I arranged them, cut 4 more to make the ends flush, and have 4 rows of 14.  It's not wrong - just adapted!  Ha.  I will be able to adapt the rest to make it work, so no stress.

It will come out again once I've got a good stash of magic bags built up.  My friend Lori took hers to work last week when it was so cold and ended up selling a ton of them for me.  I only had a small stash, so I've been sewing all week to keep up with the orders she has coming in.  She posted a note on their bulletin board and has been 'making new friends' all week!  I like how they sort of sell themselves.

If you've got a crafty streak, I hope you find time this weekend to play and make something!

2 comments:

Nicole said...

I have been making baby blankets. Dave thinks I am nuts but I found this really cute John Deere fabric. Of course Ez keeps trying to steal them.(John Deere fan) Dave keeps asking who are these for??? haha I got a new sewing machine for Christmas so am enjoying getting to know it. Baby blankets are square so nice and simple!!!

Carolyn Ward said...

John Deere - that's Sean's brand, too. We don't have any baby stuff with it, but I'm sure the toy tractors will be coming along when N's the right age...