Foxy

Hello Friends!
Not so long ago I participated in an embroidery swap on Craftster, the theme of the swap was "Twinchie". What in the heck is a twinchie, you ask? Well, it's a little embellishment, a piece of art, in this case embroidered, that is less than 2" square.

For this swap I was lucky enough to be partnered with my friend, Crystal and so I was also lucky in that I knew exactly what I wanted to make for her, love that! No fretting this time around like I usually do, wanting to make just the right thing for my partner. This time I knew... I was gonna get FOXY! 

Crystal loves foxes as do I, all woodland animals actually, so this was really going to be a pleasure, I just needed to find the right fox and when I stumbled on this image I knew it was the one. Crystal is a wonderful mama, her little boy Baxter is a cutie pie, who just turned two years old, I feel lucky to get to see him grow into a little boy, it's astonishing how time flies though, seems like he was just an infant yesterday!



Picking colors for this sweet, nestled mama & baby fox was fun, russets, burnt oranges, browns and creams, a fox has all of those colors and more. As soon as I had a good mix I started right in. Stitching was a dream, some projects just flow and this was definitely one of them. Even though it was early summer when I started this project this snoozing autumnal duo had me dreaming of fall.

See? All nice and little and confined to two square inches. Yay twinchies!

I did hit one snag when it came to hooping up this mama & baby, I'd ordered some special tiny 2" hoops, so that this could be an embroidered pendant necklace but alas, two inches was the size of the outside of the outer hoop, poop. My foxes didn't fit. Plot twist! I grabbed a 3" hoop from my supply (yes, I actually keep a supply of a variety of hoops at all times as evidenced here) and was back in business.

To add a little sparkle, I embellished the hanger with a couple of gold & amber beads.

This is how I've been finishing the backs of my hoops lately, card stock glued to the back of the hoop with Fabri-Fix. I finally, finally have found a way to finish these hoops that I really like and gives me a neat, consistent result. I've done this a couple dozen times now, love it. I've tried lots and lots of different methods and for me, this one is best. Usually I use plain brown card stock, but for Crystal's foxy pair, I wanted something a little different.

I was very pleased with how this mama & baby came out, my favorite is the baby paws, eep! So little! And his (or her) tiny face.

Crystal knows me so well, look at what she made for me!!

A Vespa, with rainbow toots! Lol, I'm sure they're not toots, but the thought of a tooting scooter makes me laugh and laugh.

Seriously though, how sweet is this? I love mint green, I love eyelet, I love rainbows and lawdy, lawdy do I love me a red Vespa! It's so perfect. Thank you, Crystal!!

This was a really fun swap, I'm so glad I got in on this one.

What about you, are you participating in any swaps this summer? There are a LOT of them going on, I wish I had time for all of them! There are a lot of stitch-a-longs going on as well, I'm doing two of them, I'll post about them soon, promise!

oxo,

Lisa

All Treats, No Tricks

Hello-hello!

Today I wanted to share with you what June of I Sew Cute sent me in our Weekend Trick or Treat Swap.

 Let's open the box and see what's in there!

Oooh, candy!

June sent me one of her fab jewelry pieces, she's a whiz with the resin! She makes the cutest stuff, you've got to check our her Etsy store. This one is my most favorite!

She also painted me the most darling haunted teapot notebook. I've never seen anything like it, and I think it's just as charming as all get out! 

And socks! I love Halloween socks, I have a bunch of them but none like this, love em.

And then...

And then I opened this!

Eeeep! Look at this cute little owlet! 

Oh, he's the cutest lil owlet ever, just look at those big eyes! He's soft and snugly and he needs a hug!

I'mma go hug my baby owlet! Go check out June's awesome jewelry, ooh, or her Pinterest boards, she pins awesome stuff! Fun fact, I was already following her when we were paired up as partners for this swap! It was great, I felt like I already knew her a little bit.

The Halloween Tea party yesterday was a smash! But of course I only managed a few photos before everyone got here, that's always the way it goes, darn it. Once the party gets going, and I get busy making tea and chatting, I completely forget about photo taking... Anyway, here's a couple of shots of the table before everyone arrived.

I have a lot of teacups so for this party, I chose about a dozen of my prettiest fall-ish colored ones; oranges and yellows. Browns and dusty mauve's and golds. I love that pallet.

This is a quick shot of the table with most of the goodies laid out. So many goodies...

Psst... if you look carefully in the upper left hand corner you can see a peek at the witches hat I made to wear for the tea party (which it ended up being too darn hot to wear, boo.), more on that later!

Hope your week is off to a great start!

oxo,

Lisa

Trick or Treat!

Hello Ghoulies!

We're creeping ever more closely towards Halloweeeeeen, mwuah-ha-ha-ha-haaaa! Are you as excited as I am? I'm hosting a Halloween tea at my house this weekend, so I'm excited! I'll definitely try to get some pictures.

In the meantime I thought I'd share what I made for my partner in the other Halloween swap I participated in this year on Craftster, this was called the Weekend Trick or Treat Swap, and it was a mad dash! We were assigned our partners on a Thursday and had to send out the following Monday - craftapalooza!

My partner was the super fun lady behind I Sew Cute, who's name is June. Here's what I made for her. 

June mentioned to me that a treat or something for her two adorable kiddo's would be something she'd enjoy - what a good mommy! So I made a couple of stuffed "poppers". 

 I gathered up some Halloween goodies, small things like plastic skelly's, stickers, buttons, erasers and zombie finger notepads, along with some suckers. I jammed them into empty TP rolls and stuffed the ends with shredded paper.

 I rolled them up in polka dot wrapping paper and hot glued a squishy little pumpkin to the top of each.

Lastly, I used a couple of images from an old Mary Engelbreit  day-by-day calendar to add a bit of cuteness and a name tag for each of the kiddo's. These were really easy & fun to put together, I'm thinking of trying to make a couple more of them for the kids attending the Halloween Tea on Sunday.

For June I made a couple of grown up goodies, like this Halloween themed, felt & embroidered broach with a beaded edge.

I learned a new stitch for this one, it's called the Beaded Picot Stitch. My dear pal, Paulette is a master at this stitch and we were chatting about it recently, she sweetly sent me step-by-step instructions and I had to put them to use straight away, thanks P!!!.

This is the pin when I thought it was done, but I was unsatisfied with it, it was missing something... more beads & stitching!!

I added little beaded eyes and a small scattering of "stars". For the moon, I used DMC glow-in-the-dark floss and covered it entireley in big, uneven (on purpose) stem stitches, I wanted it to look almost like brush strokes (think Van Gogh), pretty cute, aye?

Speaking of the moon... 

The other thing I made for my partner is this little coffin... it holds a secret!

The moon, the magical moon!

It's a tiny curio!

I'll let the pictures to the talkin'.

A lot of steps involved in this piece special paint techniques, decoupage, various trims, Fimo sculpting,  and even a little bit of poetry, all worth it! My partner thought it was magical! Aww, thanks June!

It's funny, I made this little curio so fast and sent it out as soon as it was finished, now looking back a couple of weeks after the fact, I love it, too! I wasn't so sure at the time because I just don't have a lot of experience in this type of craft. Apart from the vintage inspired keepsake box I made for the other Halloween swap I participated in recently, I've never made anything else remotely like this, and didn't really know what I was doing, so I went with the "too much is never enough" theory and just kept adding layers and layers until almost ever surface was covered. *nervous laugh*  It all worked out in the end :)

I also sent June a little Barbie. Because really, when was the last time someone gave YOU a Barbie? And she was cute, her dress has candy corn on it!

So here are all the goodies ready to fly away to my partner, lol, Booger candy!!

This was a really neat swap, I liked the quick factor, very like trick or treating!

Next, I'm going to show you what June made for me, it's so great!!

Wishing you a happy, haunty Friday!

oxo,

Lisa

p.s. I know there are a lot of details in this post, if you have any q's, hit me in the comments, I'd be happy to answer any you might have

More Vintage Halloween Goodness!

Hi All!

Weren't Nixiebum's goodies terrific? I felt pretty spoiled when I opened that package, and since this was my first Craftster swap, I wanted to spoil my partner, too. Here are the goodies I made for her.

First up, a little pumpkin pincushion and some Halloween straight pins.

I sculpted the three pins, the witch hat, the bat and the tiny pumpkin out of Fimo, I haven't used that stuff in eons! It was fun to play with that material again, and now I'm on a kick wanting to make several other things with it! The pumpkin pincushion came out pretty darned cute, especially since it was conceived to be a Halloween inspired hot air balloon...

Yeah, no.

All righty then, moving on!

Check it out, I got crafty with paint and Mod Podge! This vintage inspired keepsake box was the plain, brown, paper mache variety you can get at most craft stores, I changed it up a bit starting with a coat of black spray paint all over as a base coat, then a coat of acryllic black, then crackle coat, then a coat of a sort of creamy white that I blended myself. Mostly white with a couple of drops of a two other browns. This was the first time I've ever used crackle coat (I know, super late to that party) and I thought it was magical! Now I want to crackle everything!

Next I layered these cutie pie vintage Halloween girls over some scrapbook paper that looks just like handwriting. Mod Podge is awesome, I will never bemoan it's price again. I trimmed out the papers with sparkly, silver pipe cleaners and a few rhinestones. 

I'm not sure if it was because of the layers of moisture (several layers of paint & Mod Podge), but after all of those layers were applied, the box didn't stay closed, so I added a simple elastic-over-button closure so the box would stay closed by drilling tiny holes and using one of these cute fabric brads I bought a some time ago from Stampin Up. Worked like a charm!

I also glittered the bottom, inner ledge of the box, yay glitter!

The inside of the box got the full treatment, too. More paint, scrap booking paper & Mod Podge, woo! 

A couple little vintage looking Halloween ornaments were quick and fun to put together. I could make these all day.

BOO!

You know I had to make a bunting, I have a thing for buntings. These cool letters came off the bottom of a fabric panel that I'm using for another project, they started out like this, in case you're interested in making one yourself. I trimmed the top of the bunting with polka dot ribbon and added some large, felt flowers to inbetween each with some stripey ribbon, too. Then I blinged out the bottom corners of the individual flags with buttons, rhinestones and tiny felt flowers and trimmed the very bottom of the bunting with black pompom trim. I'm really happy with the way this lil bunting came out. 

♥

Every trick-or-treater needs a new candy bag! I made this one out of some pretty, Halloween fabric, the very essence of "Vintage" Halloween, me thinks.

A simple drawstring bag, start to finish - 15 minutes! I used the same polka dot ribbon for the handle as I used on the top of the bunting. 

Lastly, I made this little kitty sweetheart!

 

I sculpted her head & ears from Fimo and painted her tiny little face the next day after it had plenty of time to cool. That was hard, I don't think I'm a very good painter as far as itsy bitsy details go. Her body is made from fluffy pipe cleaners and she's perched atop one of my stash of antique thread spools that I trimmed out with pompom and that same polka dot ribbon.

She looks like she's leading a Halloween parade, doesn't she? Her baton is actually a toothpick that I painted white & black and added another of the teensy pumpkins I sculpted from Fimo to the top, and an an orange wooden bead to the bottom. Oh, and I added a tiny bit of purple, metallic DMC up under the pumpkin for extra pizazz. A small felt flower and purple rhinestone on her lil ear make her a fancy kitty.

Her shirt is another pipe cleaner wrapped around the main portion of her torso, and her skirt is a bit of ribbon that I gathered with a running stitch until it looked about right, simple & cute!

I think she might be my favorite thing that I made for this swap, I've never made anything like her before. Fun stuff!

So here again is my entire package for Nixiebum, I like to think it has a theme and is cohesive, I can get a bit obsessive about things, can you tell? *wink*

Anyway, like I said this was my first Craftster swap and I was tickled to pieces with the whole process, the moderators were great and communication with my partner was excellent which made the whole process a lot easier. I still found the high level of craft a bit intimidating truth be told, the folks involved in this swap make some incredibly detailed, imaginative and amazing items! If you'd like to see the picture gallery of the items from this swap, click here. I still get major swap anxiety (which I think is pretty common) every time I send out something I've made, will they like it? Did I hit the mark, etc, etc. But my Nixie liked everything, and I'm so happy that she did. Swapping is good, keeps you on your toes - keeps your skills sharp!

Once wasn't enough, and I love Halloween, so I joined another swap after this one! Once again I was blessed with an awesome partner and I can't wait to show you what she made for me! I've got a whole bunch of Halloween posts lined up, so stay tuned, folks!

I hope you've enjoyed this little peak into what I've been up to, do you have a favorite? I'm still crushing on the Halloween Kitty. ♥

oxo,

Lisa