Vintage Valentines

Who doesn't like vintage valentines?  I just finished doing up some vintage valentine ATC's for a swapbot swap. There are unlimited resources on the Internet for vintage inspiration and lots of freebies.

The Frugal Crafter has this sheet of valentine kewpies for downloading here.  She made lovely little lollipop covers with them. 

Altered Stuff has a wonderful collage sheet of vintage valentines that can be downloaded in pdf or jpg format. 

Scrappiles has digital scrapbooking freebies including a sheet of cute vintage cut-outs.

If you want to send vintage ecards, West Virginia University Library has put together a selection of valentine cards and postcards.    This is a sample from their collection:

The valentines that I used fort my ATC's were from Zwani graphics.  This site has html code ready to cut and paste so that you can add a wonderful vintage valentine to your site!

My ATC looked like this

Wordless Wednesday #1

Common Finch Outside My Kitchen Window, originally uploaded by poketypatch.

Snow Day - Not

It was supposed to snow 4 inches today.  We were really looking forward to a good old fashioned snow day, since we haven't had one in several seasons.  Needless to say, it flurried big white yummy flakes all day which accumulated to NOTHING!  It is just cold, wet and muddy! Ugh, I hate global warming!  

As a result, I got nothing done today.  I kept anticipating that the snow would actually amount to something, and school would be dismissed early, and as a result, I was distracted and nonproductive.  I did have to take my mother-in-law to the doctor, where I ran into my hair stylist.  It was a bit awkward - sort of like seeing your GYN doctor at a cocktail party - trying to make small talk in an atmosphere that is just completely out of context.  She wasn't all made up in her hair stylist perfect hair and makeup garb, and my hair was curling and frizzing up the wrong way.  I wondered what she was thinking about styling (or lack thereof).  Thankfully, I had washed my hair this morning, so at least it was clean!  I guess I need to make an appointment soon.  

The best thing about the day, was that I received some comments and emails from my swapping partners on the BLOG swap at swapbot.  I feel like my blog is getting getting resuscitated and that it might actually live again!  It is certainly fun to be introduced to some new blogging friends - Yarnigras, This Handmade Life, and My Lil Toy Haven - who share similar interests to me.  Be sure to check out these blogs!  I also found a blog that offers free vintage clipart, The Vintage Moth.   Not only was there wonderful clipart for the taking, but the blog is full of great links to other resources.  I was so taken I added a link on my sidebar!  This is definitely worth a look!

Valentine Pillow Tutorial

This is an easy and quick project to knit up for that special someone. I made one for a relative who has been ill; and, when my boys saw it, they wanted one too! Yarn: Lion Brand Fun Fur in Color # Red; Bernat Softee Chunkee in Color # Red.

Needles: Size 11 circular Notions: 1/2 yard of fabric to make pillow ( this is enough for 2 pillows). Needle and Thread for sewing knitted fabric to pillow. Stuffing for pillow. Gauge: Doesn't really matter Directions:

KNITTING:

Holding the two yarns together, CO 2 stitches. Row 1: K 2 stitches, Add a stitch by CO 1 at end of row (3 stitches on needle). Row 2: K all stitches, CO 1 at end of row (4 sttiches on needle). Continue in this pattern, Knitting all stitches and adding one at end of each row by the cast on method, until you have 30 stitches on your needle. Knit 4 rows. Knit 2 rows, adding one stitch by the cast on method at end of each row (32 stitches on your needle) ; Knit 4 rows; Knit 2 rows adding one stitch at the end of each row with the cast on methond (34 stitches on your needle; Knit 20 rows; Now you will Divide for the top of the pillow. Knit 17 stitches. Slip these onto a knit holder. With the remaining 17 stitches: Row 1: BO 1, Knit to last 3 st. K2tog, K1. Row 2: K all stitches Row3: K1, Sl 1 as if to Purl, K1, PSSO, K to last three stiches, K2 Tog, K1 Row4: K all stitches Repeat Rows 3 & 4 until 7 stitches remain on needle. BO these stitches Rejoin yarn, and repeat this process in reverse for the opposite side stitches that were on the holder.

SEWING:

Lay your knitted fabric on top of two layers of regular fabric. Cut out 2 hearts adding 3/4" to the edge.

Sew the heart, right sides together, leaving an opening on one side for stuffing.

You should now have a pillow. Stuff it to your liking and then sew up the edge.

Now, lay your knitted pillow on top of your fabric pillow and sew them together at the edge.

Once done, your pillow should look like this from the back:

Enjoy!

PS.  The "Be Mine!" in the pillow was added afterwords via text on an image.  If you like it, you could add it via hand or machine embroidery.

Zentangled

     I think of myself as an crafter with ADD...I jump from one activity to the next.  My workspace is usually an utter mess, with several projects going at the same time.  A couple of days ago, while surfing online for images, I  became impressed with some doodle art.  One thing led to another and I was at the Zentagle homepage.  What is a zentangle? Here is a quote from the Zentanlge website:

"Zentangle is an easy to learn method of creating beautiful images from repetitive patterns. It is a fascinating new art form that is fun and relaxing. It increases focus and creativity. Zentangle provides artistic satisfaction and an increased sense of personal well being. Zentangle is enjoyed by a wide range of skills and ages and is used in many fields of interest."

This is my first attempt at a zentangle.  Even though I am an avid doodler (at work, on the phone, in meetings...) I have to admit that I had to search within to come up with more patterns to add to my doodle.  The whole process was sort of hypnotic - so I guess it met the criteria of "fun and relaxing".  It definitely got the creative juices rolling, but the jury is still out on "artistic satisfaction" and "personal wellbeing".  I am also not sure how it stacks up in terms of the accepted method of zentangling, but it was a good opportunity to try out something new. 

There are lots of zentangle images out there.  Since flickr is usually at the top of my list to check out what others are doing, I found several zentangle groups which offered lots of zentangle eye candy.  If you are interested, here is the list: 

• The official Zentangle group (I think it is official because they use the little zentangle icon)
• Zentangle Mania (this one only has 19 members...so I think it must be for the hard core zentanglers)
• Zentangle Love (I joined this one to post my "artwork" since it has the most members and had some fun discussions going on.)

This morning, I worked up enough courage to show my zentangle to the ultimate critic, my 12 year old son.  He looked at it for a long time, seemed a little impressed, but didn't have a lot to say about it.  I think he was hypnotized by it.  I tried to get him interested, since he is a bit of a doodler himself.  His reaction was that he didn't think he could do it.  I told him it looks harder than it really is, you just have to start drawing, and then make lots of patterns. We were running to get to school on time (we were late), so I am going to work on him later tonight.  This one is to be continued...

My First Dotee

dotee doll #1, originally uploaded by poketypatch.

Today I was notified that my little dotee had been received. The recipient, Maggie, was very kind to say she liked the doll. If you are looking for inspiration in order to start handcrafting a dotee, you should definitely check out Maggie's flicker set - crazy for dotees. She has quite a collection!

Dotee Doll Swap

Recently I joined a swap for Dotee dolls.  Happily, this one came in the mail to me from Brandy.  She named her Carla.  Dotee dolls are tiny, handmade cloth dolls (4 to 6 inches).  They have a circular face that can be drawn with markers, embroidered or even painted.  The stuffed doll usually has a hanger made out of ribbon or beads, and a beaded tail (or legs).  The stuffed doll is embellished with beads, ribbon, sequins, yarn...just about anything.  I believe that the craze was started by Dot.  There are lots of tutorials online to help you get started.  There is a video tutorial here and a nice pattern here.  Once you have made a few dolls, you can start swapping!  There are so many swaps on swap-bot.   And, there are lots of pictures on flickr.  I made one for swap as well, but am waiting to post until it is received by its new owner.  

Another fun thing that I like about the swaps on Swap-bot, is the packages usually contain a few "extras".  In addition to the doll, Brandy included a cute, handmade card and a little magnet.  How thoughtful!

PRESIDENT OBAMA

020 - OBAMA, originally uploaded by poketypatch.

I became a living room photographer today as I tried to document this most wonderful day.  With HD tv and a good camera, it is amazing some of the shots you can capture!

Here are some more I took...

The Clintons

The First Lady with the Lincoln Bible

The new First Family

Feeling a little Blue today

So, I am feeling a little blue today.  It has been one of those stressful weeks being a parent.  Sometimes you just need to take a break from parenting...my head hurts from trying to make the right decisions.  It always helps to look at pretty pictures....here are the ones that came up with the tag "blue" on my flickr site...

my blue cornflower

a little blue pengquin

my brown and blue purse

blue flippers on Willy

a blue shirt on Crenshaw

and, beautiful blue eyes on Henry

Okay I feel better now. I love my kids.

Strawberry Swaps

I joined another swap on swap-bot. This is a website that organizes swaps for everything from scrapbooking supplies to atcs to quilt blocks to funny socks! If you look hard enough, you can find a swap for just about everything. There is a deadline to sign up for each swap. After the deadline, I am guessing that a computer program sets people up with their swapping partner. You send out to one partner(s) and receive from another. I have only completed two swaps so far, and I am becoming a little addicted to getting packages filled with fun goodies. 

This one was a pincushion swap. I read my partner's profile and learned that she likes miniatures. She doesn't crochet or knit, and indicated she would like amigurumi. I picked an easy pattern from Amigurumi!: Super Happy Crochet Cute.  This book is full of cool patterns and easy instructions.  I chose an easy strawberry pattern.  I had some strawberry pincushions that were my grandmothers, and these reminded me of them.  I have to say that they were really easy to crochet up, and fun to embellish with felt and little beads.  Here is the finished project.