Has It Really Been That Long?

Unbelievable how time got away from me....I have definitely been crafting, but still tremendously busy with life! Company came and went a couple of times, my cousin and his wife, and Kristi and her son (Eldy's daughter and little grandson). I traveled to Houston to visit my little grandson, then battled my way through three major sinus/cold infections this past winter...PLUS, a diagnosis of diabetes which I am currently trying very very hard to bring down my numbers without going on medication. So far I've lost ten pounds, but my numbers are all over the place! 

At any rate, here's what I have been doing as far as crafting...I WAS going to do a craft fair in March, but that's when I got sick, so postponed doing that and will gear up for a craft show this November...Looking at ideas for Mother's Day right now....

First, I decided to make some projects with painted and distressed mason jars....In shades of blues and melon colors. These were time intensive...black chalk painted as a first coat, then two coats of acrylic on top of that, (hand painted) then sand and distress the jars, then finally, seal with polyurethane. I decided to add charms and scrapbook paper lid inserts to make mine a little different from all the other ones you see out there. I'm selling them with the option of having flowers with them or as a little bank jar. You can see them here. http://etsy.me/1NvgueC

I think I like the melon shades better...What do you think?

Then I saw a cute idea for a teacher gift for the end of the year using Ball mason jars. I might add a curled felt leaf to the lid top for this, I haven't decided yet.

I made a spring ruffled scarf from really pretty Red Heart Sashay yarn. Although these scarves were wildly popular for awhile, interest seems to have waned just a tad, but I still like this teal and shades of ocean blues for one.

I sold some earrings on a new Facebook site called, "Spectacular Earrings Auction" which I was happy about. Etsy is so hard to sell on! You have to constantly keep adding items and renewing existing items and costs mount up. Very hard to get views on there, but I'm still trying. These tulip end cap earrings sold quickly on the Facebook earrings site.

As Easter approached, I plopped a couple of knitted egg cozies into my Etsy shop, JeanBeanGifts.  http://etsy.com/shop/JeanBeanGifts

Both of these egg cozies go over those ugly plastic eggs that most parents end up buying or receiving at one time or another to fill Easter baskets.

I made the little bunnies with ears out of Red Heart Gumdrop line, which comes in wonderful confectionary colors of grape, raspberry, lime, turquoise and more. And they have wonderful flecks of random, eye popping colors that make the bunnies really fun to knit. The bunny pattern was free, and you can either leave the bottoms open to insert the plastic eggs, or you can stuff the bunnies with fiberfill and stitch the bottom closed.

I made some glammed up bobby pins for fun....I thought they would be pretty for a bride, and for bridesmaids, I would offer them in pretty pearl pastels to match dresses.....These are made with Swarovski pearls.

Then I decided to go a little mod and sewed a purple, black and white polka dotted pencil case. It went into my store as well.....

I added a pewter butterfly charm as a zipper pull. (not pictured)

One of my favorite projects of all during this time frame were fabric cookie bags. I made a couple of bags with contrasting lining, inserted a ready made cookie mix inside (Krusteaz) and attached a bamboo wooden spoon with it for decoration. I added a little hand stamped birdie tag to tell what flavor the cookie  mix is. The instructions are inside the bag. They haven't sold in the store, but when I take several of these to a show, when you see them in person, I think they will sell! You have a beautiful recyclable gift bag after you use the cookie mix!

One last project.....I saw a very talented lady on Etsy, Larissa Holland, selling beautiful felt work Christmas ornaments. Her shop is called MmmCrafts. I fell in love with this beautiful needle book, so I made one. It's all hand sewn and embroidered except for the zig zag finished page edges. I guess old crafts like hand sewing are going out of style, but this needle book will last a long time and it certainly is useful! It's in my shop, too...Even if things don't sell in my shop, they will eventually be used by me or my family will love to get something I've made....So I will send these things along eventually to someone who will appreciate them....

Until next time.....Might be awhile, but I'm still loving my crafts and making different things as I'm working hard at adding items to my little shop.....check back after awhile to see what I've been up to! Thanks for stopping by......