Etch-A-Sketch Ornament

The Etch-A-Sketch ornament I did for the ornament swap at Craftster.org has been getting a lot of attention since it was sent and then posted on Craftster and Flickr.  It’s been blogged about in several places from what I understand.  A couple of places I know it’s been posted are:  Craftzine, Crafty Crafty, Pimp Stitch and ThreadBanger. All very cool places to have your stuff posted.

It’s also been twittered, wisted, and Favorited on Flickr several times. All of this is awesome. I’m so happy that it turned out so well and that others believe it is worthy of their notice.

But last week I came across a contest over at Living Creatively.  It was their monthly contest and this month’s theme was handmade Christmas ornaments.  I decided, “what the heck!” and entered the Etch-A-Sketch ornament on a whim.

Well, today it was announced that IT WON!  *doing the Snoopy dance*

The Etch-A-Sketch ornament is featured on their website and I won a bit of money too. Very cool.

Someone pinch me.

So, if you didn’t already realize it, this was the exciting news of the day.  Hope you’re having as nice of a day as I am!

I Got It!

I went out yesterday to get my sewing machine and I love it! It’s not the cheapest model and it’s not the most expensive model, but gosh darn it I love it!

Bonus? My daughter loves it too! She’s already pulled it out twice to practice using it and has planned a simple gift to make for my mom on it for Christmas.  This is an unexpected but wonderful bonus for me.  I’d love for us to learn this craft together.

I’m a happy girl today and tomorrow I get to post my great news! Double Snoopy dance.

Christmas Ornament Swap

My wonderful partners in the recent Christmas Ornament Swap over at Craftster have received my packages, and so I’m finally able to post pictures of my recent creations. I hope you like them as much as I enjoyed making them.

I enjoyed the process of creating these.  Most of the work was design/logistics versus actual creation time. Overall I’d say they worked up rather quickly.  I was afraid that I got myself in too deep, but felt is wonderfully forgiving. I’d recommend trying something like this!

If you’re interested in seeing more detailed pictures of these ornaments you’re welcome to visit my Flickr Photostream where I posted several close up pictures of each of the ornaments.

The Good And The Bad

I’m about half way done with my R card for the ATC alphabet swap and already in love with it.  I’ll give you a hint.  He’s naked! *shock*

I was able to do a paper mock up of one of the ornaments I’m putting together for a swap, while making a template of one of the others and designing the embroidery portion.  I also got my patterns ready for several other ornaments I’m making for Christmas.  That was the good part.

Unfortunately, I’ll have to get even more ready to whip up because I just found out that I’m out of a job after this week.  *sigh*  I’ve been in a very good temporary job while I was looking for/applying for other jobs and they gave me notice today.  So now I’ll either need to find a holiday job or another temporary job somewhere else.  Days like this makes my brain want to implode.

I’ll be sad to leave this job.  The people are really nice and the work wasn’t too stressful (most of the time).  I’m still applying for jobs here, but the hiring process takes so long that it could be months before anything else comes along.  So it’s some retail gig for the holidays probably.  Although it’s so late in the season who knows if I can find anything.

Okay.  I’m officially done whining about it.  I’m looking forward to more time stitching things up for the holidays, tidying up the house and…did I just say I was looking forward to tidying up the house?

Good lord someone help me now.  I’m turning domestic.

Crafty Update

I’ve finished stitching two out of three ATCs and I must say that I’m absolutely in LOVE with the second one. My Q card is stunning if I do say so myself.  I wish I could keep it and stare at it for days really.  I had to go out and get the color red embroidery thread for the third card, and since I only have the last card hooped, I’m going to pick out some pictures to stitch for xmas ornaments.  I already picked out one picture from the Hoop Love Flicker group for one of the ornaments for one of my ornament swap partners.

Since I’ve decided on the other ornament I need to figure out the dimensions so I can make a pattern and then cut it out and embroider it.  I have another week after this one but I really would like to get this done since I’ve decided to embroider several ornaments and tea towels for family and friends for Christmas.

I’m even designing some items for my brother and sister-in-law based on an online game we all play.  I’m making some tea towels to go in their kitchen.  They don’t really have a theme, but they LOVE this game so I know they’ll appreciate them.

I really love embroidering while I’m watching TV, so it really works out nicely.

Where I Am Today

Last night I was bouncing up and down in excitement.  Why?  Well, you see I frequent Craftster and am involved in a couple of swaps and last night I finalized the patterns for my first ATCs ever.  They are SO adorable (if I do say so myself!)!

I’m involved in two swaps right now.  One is for the ATCs, specifically for ATCs using the letters P, Q and R as a jumping off point.  The other one is for a Christmas ornament.  I LOVE Christmas ornaments and wanted to try my hand at making some this year.  Also I recently finished my first swap and wanted to do more without getting myself into too much.  I figured these two would be perfect.

Since this is my first time doing ATCs I wanted to ease into it by using a method that I’m familar with rather than trying a new technique my first time out.  So I picked embroidery for my medium.  I recently completed my second embroidery piece and, after brainstorming for ideas, I knew that my ideas would translate well to embroidery.  Unfortunately I can’t share any more about this as it’s more fun when a swap is a surprise!  Later I will take pictures and post them for you to see.  As for my other swap, I have one planned out but am still trying to narrow down my choices for my other partners.  I have three total and can’t wait to see what I get in return!

The thing about all of this is that I just look at what sorts of things I am trying to accomplish today, versus what I thought I could do six months ago…and the change (to me) is astonishing.  For instance.  I carry a sketch book and pencil in my bag every day.  Not only do I carry it, but I use it.  I pull it out at random moments, brain afire with an idea, a concept, a picture of something that I want to do…

And to me that’s just amazing. Wonderous.  This place where I am today.