I am in love ...

with two new blogs I have happened upon. These women are crazy creative and very generous to share their ideas, and often downloads, with visitors! Check them out :)

Skip To My Lou
She is going to do one awesome craft a day throughout the entire month of June! Hurry, sign up now. Its free and June is right around the corner.

Today's Creative Blog
Wait until you see what she can do with duct tape! Awesome :)

My baby turned 5 on May 17th! I can't believe my chubby baby girl with the big gummy grin is now a super skinny and sassy chick about to start kindergarten! Boo Hoo! She wanted a mermaid birthday party which we morphed into a backyard water park theme. Which would have been super cute but the weather did not cooperate. We attempted to turn the garage into a tiki hut. It was the best we could do. The kids had a blast splashing around in their bathing suits even though it was only mid-60's! Brrrrrr! Here is her invite and thank you note.






Happy Crafting! Remember its COOL to craft and when its 90 degrees outside, do you really need another excuse?

Crafting with YouTube

Did you know there are thousands of cool creative videos on youtube.com? Probably. I am always a bit behind the times. I found some fun ones for you to try out. In the search field on their main webpage, type in these as keywords:

Erin Bassett
Jyn Designs
LexiconLover
LiveLoveScrap
ShopCropSuey
Dawn McVey
CreativityPrompt

I am sure you will find more. Now I am off to play with used laundry sheets ;)

February Creations

My wonderful SWAP group had taken off December, and maybe November (I can't even remember!!) but we regrouped and started back up in January. I am running late, however, but did get my design all worked out. I have a few more to make but here is the final product:



My sister-in-law just moved into a new house, so that was my inspiration. I love to multi-task! The new clear stamps from SU! are wonderful. I love that they take up so much less space, of course. But, they stamp very nicely, too. Just like the wood, really. This set, Good Neighbors, is from the Sell-A-Bration set and so is the paper, Welcome Neighbors DS. It's so cute. Not sure what I will use all that paper for but it is adorable. You can never have too much paper, right??

And, I was asked to make a friend's birthday card, because we were going out for margaritas last night (in a small snow storm, I might add). My sister suggested the "Cheers to You" stamp set which was perfect for this occasion. Here is what I came up with:



Thanks for looking,

January Craft Club Projects

In case you missed my January Craft Club, here are the projects. I will also sell kits for $17 a piece. Let me know if you are interested in purchasing one!







The next class is Saturday, February 20th from 10am-1pm. Cost is $15. There will be 4 projects plus a bonus. Kits will be available for $17 following the class.

Kimberly

Craft Show 2009

I was talked into doing a craft show, by a good friend, and I am so glad that I was! It was a couple weeks ago and Parkway Central High School. I shared a both with three other fabulously creative new friends. I wasn't too sure how I'd do but as it turns out I'd chalk it up to a success. I didn't have a ton of product but here is a glimpse of some of what I took with me. I didn't bring all that much home which was kinda nice!







Thanks for checking me out :)

Kimberly

Teacher Gifts

Well, having sick kids for about a month has given me some much needed craft time. I was asked by Kammy's teachers to whip up some notecards and such for a student teacher who has been in their classroom all semester. She leaves this week so here is what I delivered this morning. I think they turned out cute and had a little bit of a hard time letting go :)











And here is what all the teachers are getting for Christmas. My fabulously talented friend, Roxanne, made the cute "snow" shovels. We added hot chocolate, a yummy chocolate bar, and some marshmellows for snow :)



Thanks for looking! Happy Crafting!

Kimberly

Boxes, Boxes and More Boxes

I had a moment of insanity or spurt of creativity and bought a ton of cigar boxes. I got some on ebay and some on craigslist. I had no plan whatsoever for them. I had never done anything with them prior. I just felt like I needed to have them and thought I was getting them for a steal -- which I have confirmed :) They are so cool! Lots of different sizes, shapes; some cardboard, some wooden. And I have been making jewelry boxes! The insides are covered in felt, some have dividers to keep your jewels nice and tangle free, and they include a mirror on the top cover to check out how beautiful you are :)

What do you think??? I am going to charge $15-$25 per box. Anyone want to order one??







Thanks for looking :)

Sew, What's New?

I purchased a sewing machine from a family friend's garage sale sometime in the early 90s. The machine itself was her first sewing machine and dates back to 1975. Almost as old as me. She took fabulous care of it. I had grand ideas about learning to sew and, I don't know, making curtains for my residence hall room or something?? Anyway, I have moved this machine too many times to admit but it has been in several states! My children have done a number on my couch and pillows ... juice boxes, bottles, spit up, throw up, etc. So I purchased some fabric on sale and thought maybe, just maybe, I'd pull out that old sewing machine to make new pillow covers. Well, that was months ago. And yesterday I got the urge ... not sure why! Coupon from JoAnn's maybe?

So, thanks to the organization of this family friend, I was able to reference all the original instruction manuals and such. After fighting with the bobbin for a very long time, I finally mastered sewing in a straight line. WooHoo! So here are my first two creations ... SNAKES :) A girly snake for Kammy and a boy snake for Teagan. Just used some old fabric I had lying around. Cute, huh? Hee hee!



Well, then for the second reason the sewing machine came out. I have always wanted to donate to Locks of Love. I have very curly, very thick hair, though. And my hair has been short since grad school. My hair does not just get longer, it gets wider. I am badly in need of a hair cut but this LOL thing has been on my mind so yesterday I decided that I am going to *TRY* to do it. And in order to get through the hell that this will undoubtably be, I need to have some nice tight and wide headbands. Viola! Another sewing project. I made three of these :)



I might even attempt one of the 6 pillow recovers today ...

Happy Crafting,

Octo Purse

Morning! This is gonna be a quick post, as my kids are parked in front of the TV and we are all still in our PJs. Definitely need to be productive today! I made this card for a friend who was so kind to give me birthday present last month. Thanks, Sandy!




I also made a set of four cards for a Party Lite friend. She had mentioned maybe buying some cards from me a while ago but we just kept talking without any specifics. So, I decided to be assertive and just make her some to see if we could "make a deal". And it worked :) So, these were a gift. I didn't get a good picture of them unfortunately. They are square cards with a window in the center. I punched some scalloped squares from printed paper and cut out the window. Than, on the inside, layered another scalloped square of printed paper, a smaller solid colored scalloped square and than the candle party stamp which I thought worked perfect for this occasion. I popped up the candle stamp so it comes through the window a bit. Than tied a ribbon along the side, after running the front of the card through my Big Shot to add the embossed polka dots. Not sure you can see any of this in the pictures so hopefully this will give you an idea. I like how they turned out and were actually very quick to do!



Thanks for looking! Happy Crafting :)

One Project Finished

I have actually had a lot of time in my craft room lately. Not sure exactly how I managed that?? And Tim starts his marathon of work in August. So, that should continue for a while. I am officially a married single mom. Just until after Labor Day.

Anyway, next Tuesday, I start a book club at Kammy's preschool and wanted to have something to take notes in for that. Plus I wanted to post some altered composition books on my etsy store, Creations By SeaStar. So here is my finished project!





We are reading, No! Why Kids - of All Ages - Need to Hear It and Ways Parents Can Say It by David Walsh, PhD. I have only read chapter 1 so far, but it is really good! I am super excited about the club and the book. So, now I am already with my cute journal, too!

I have also made some progress on the other two projects on my craft table, but not enough to post yet. I want them to be completed -- who wants to see another sneak peek at the same unfinished project, right? Besides that gives me a little incentive for finishing them up.

Thanks for looking! Happy Crafting :)

Works in Progress

I don't usually start more than one project at once, but for some reason I was feeling a little ADD at my craft table this past week or so. Nothing is finished, of course! Thats what happens with too many things in progress at once. But I didn't want to disappear from my blog again for too long, so here is a super sneak peek!

My sister won the "whats the weirdest thing you have used in a stamp project" question. She made a pencil box for her desk out a tampon box. In fact, she made three of them because they turned out so cute :)

So, here is a sneak at her "prize". When its all finished I will show the complete picture.



Then, I wanted to alter some composition books since school is coming up fast, I thought those might be quick sales on my Etsy Store. And I am starting a book club at Kammy's preschool so this will be used as a sample for the store and my personal journal for that.



And lastly, another work in progress using some fun flocked paper I found on sale at Hobby Lobby. This one is really rough but stayed tuned for the finished masterpiece :)



Happy Crafting,

Don't Count Your Chickens

I was given this very cute Southern Living wire basket a long time ago. I had decided (separately) to do my downstairs powder room with a garden theme -- seed packets and such. So this basket seemed to fit in with that theme. Up on the wall it went. But what to put in it? At first it sat empty. Then I stuffed some straw colored bag filler in there. Looked pretty blah. Still, it stayed that way for a L-O-N-G time. Then I had a vision of paper covered eggs. I think I must have seen this in magazine somewhere but can't remember exactly where. I have made pinecone Christmas ornaments but those are time consuming and hard on the fingers! These were much easier and super fast. I whipped out four of them, with the help of my neice who handed me the small punched circles, in less than an hour. That was working slowly, too, as I had four kids running around my craft area at the time.






Making them was super easy. I got a package of 4 styrofoam eggs at Michael's for a couple bucks (if that). I picked out four different patterns of designer series or printed paper. Cut 1 inch circles with my SU! punch. Than randomly attached the circles to the egg with a straight pin. On some, I used the same pattern for the entire egg, others it was totally random. These are fun to make and make a good filler for that spare basket or decorative bowl you have lying around.

Happy Crafting,