Recipe for Love

This year my husband and I will celebrate our 15 year wedding anniversary. After 15 years when it comes to going out we usually go through the same process of “I don’t care what do you want to do?” and usually do the same thing we always do, so I decided to create a Valentine gift for my husband we can use all year and I’m calling it “Recipe for Love”.

This little jar is filled with 2” hearts in four different colors that represent different activities for us to do at least once a month. I really had to sit down and think about what to put on the hearts that would be activities we would both enjoy doing (a little give and take) along with activities we would normally not do to spice things up. I thought I would share some of my ideas with you to help kick off activities you can include – I included activities we could do at no cost along with some that would take a little planning.

Bright Pink Hearts – Outdoor Adventures: Taking a hike, picnic in the park, play in the rain (no lightening of course), share our passion – volunteer at the animal shelter, etc.

White Hearts – Night on the Town: Road Trip – drive, check out the sights, and stay overnight wherever we stop, drive in movie, tour a winery, etc.

Light Pink Hearts – Getting Cozy: Both share top 10 memories, snuggle and watch a movie, candlelight dinner at home, go for a couples massage, etc.

Red Hearts – For Your Eyes Only: I will let you come up with your own ideas

 

 

To decorate our Recipe for Love jar I used red vinyl to cut the Outline Heart Border (#37145) on my Silhouette. The hearts will not lay flat around the jar so I did cut some of my hearts at the point to remove the bubbles.

 

 

I used heart ribbon I had from a previous project to go around the edge of the lid. To cover the lid I cut a circle just smaller than the lid using pink cardstock and then created two medallions to layer on the top. For the center of the medallion I cut a small circle from white cardstock, used a flourish embossing folder for texture, and then applied pink ink.  

 

 

I cannot wait for all the fun we will have as we pull a heart out of the jar throughout the year. Do you have any fun activities you would like to share?

Tracey



Fun Scarf – No Needles Required

Maybe crocheting is not one of your hobbies but you still want a quick and easy scarf with NO needles required. Red Heart has a yarn in their Boutique line called Swerve that comes in several different fun colors. The best part is you only need two hands to make a scarf using this yarn.

Depending on how you start your yarn determines if it will be long or average length.

 

You can find a video here showing you how to make these scarves using only your hands (you might want to fast forward the video to about 4 minutes to skip them talking about the event they were attending).

 

The blue/green scarf was made by not doubling the yarn together before making the scarf. This gives you more yarn allowing your scarf to be longer. The longer scarf gives you a little more flexibility in how you can wear it as well.

 

This is a quick and easy project and the best part you do not have to use crochet or knitting needles to make them. I was able to make both of my scarves in about 5 minutes after watching the video.

Tracey

Crochet – Long Cowl & Hat

Earlier this week I shared with you the scarf I made using the crocodile stitch. Today I want to share another crochet project where I attempted to make my first crocheted hat. I have looked online and have not been able to find the patterns to share with you but I did purchase the book at Wal-Mart. The book is by Leisure Arts, Inc. and is titled “Hats & Scarves – 12 Designs to Crochet” by Melissa Leapman. There are several cute patterns in this book.

I was able to make the long cowl in one evening as it only consists of double crochets and slip stitches after chaining 155.

 

Making a hat was a new challenge for me trying to work around each row and then decreasing. When I finished my hat it was obvious that my decreasing was incorrect because the hat was too big for me so I decided to change the pattern up a little. I continued decreasing using rows of single crochets and then to add a little design I double crocheted in every other single crochet for one row. I then finished it off (until it fit the way I wanted it) with more rows of single crochet. This made the hat bigger than the pattern which is okay with me because it went from a fitted hat to a slouch hat.

I have learned in my short time of crocheting that it is okay to bend the rules (or patterns in this case) because sometimes you end up with a project you like even better. The yarn I used for the cowl and hat is Homespun in Deepest Gray by Lion Brand Yarn.

 



 

Next time I will share an easy scarf where needles are not required.

Tracey

Crocodile Stitch Scarf

 

“…Baby it’s cold outside…” I don’t know what the weather is like where you are but here we are experiencing 30 degree rain that started yesterday. If you are somewhere tropical then I’m headed your way and if you are under a foot of snow this project will help keep you warm.

 

When the temperature starts to drop I always enjoy breaking out the yarn to crochet and this year I wanted to learn some new techniques. The first scarf I am going to share is made using the crocodile stitch. I love the design and it’s not one you see many people wearing (I like to be different).

 

I will not try to teach you how to do the crocodile stitch but I will share with you the best video I found to follow. It took me a few times of taking the first couple of rows apart and rewinding the video several times but once you get started the rest goes together fairly easy. You can access the YouTube video here.

 

To make my scarf I used two skeins of Red Heart Boutique in Midnight. The pattern for the scarf I made can be found here (you will need to scroll down toward the bottom). I did add tassels to my scarf from the yarn I had left over so remember to leave enough yarn if you want to add them to your scarf as well.

 

 

Tracey



Scrolling by My Dad

If you have read “About Me” you know I have bragged on my Dad’s ability to do delicate scroll work. Every year he gets creative in making Christmas decorations and ornaments so I thought I would share what he made me this year (along with a few of his other projects – see below).  

 

The natural wood is beautiful but I wanted to add some color and sparkle so I decided to get the paint and glitter out. This is not one of his most intricate pieces but I can tell you he has to have a lot more patience than me because I learned how detailed this piece is when I started trying to paint.

 

The letters have two coats of Martha Stewart Blue Sky paint. I then painted the snowflakes with Martha Stewart Wedding Cake and sprinkled white glitter while the paint was still wet.



 

I think it turned out really cute and goes well with my snowmen collection.

I wanted to brag on my Dad a little so give him some love and leave a comment (I know he will be reading this) and tell him what you think about his artwork (not my painting)! J  

Here are a few other pieces he has created.

 

 

Tracey

DIY - Glitter Christmas Tree

 

I have a couple more Christmas projects I want to share with you before moving on for the year. This project is quick and easy. 

I found this cute candy jar at Wal-Mart before Christmas and knew it just needed a little glitter.

 



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I followed the same steps for making my glitter ornaments but the tree took a considerable amount of glitter.
 

Once I allowed time for the inside to dry I started working on decorating the outside. I knew I would need to cover the section where the jar fit together so I used several layers of Martha Stewart red glitter eyelash yarn to make the garland. I tied the strands together in the back and tucked in the ends.

I didn’t want the “ornaments” to be flat so I used 3D Zots by applying glitter and then simply sticking them to tree.

 

 

It was an easy project and added some sparkle to my Christmas tree collection.

 

Tracey



Christmas Centerpiece

As I am still playing catch-up on my posts from the holidays I wanted to share with you the centerpiece I made this year.

First we will start with the “snow” covered cylinders. I started by mixing Epson salt and Martha  Stewart Carrara Marble (white) glitter in a sandwich bag to give it a little more sparkle and then I heavily coated the bottom of the cylinders with Mod Podge. I found that if I rolled the cylinder in the salt/glitter mix it would pick up the course salt and not the glitter using my hand and letting the mix fall into the Mod Podge worked better so I didn’t end up with only the Epson salt.

I found a wonderful idea on Pinterest to create the effect of ice in water. After my Mod Podge was dry I added plastic wrap and a few red berries from a floral pick I cut apart to make it look like the water was actually ice. When doing this you will have to work with the plastic wrap as it all wants to float to the top so I continued to separate it and add more when needed. I also wrapped the berries in the plastic wrap to keep them from floating to the top. The “snow” around the bottom helps to hide that the plastic wrap doesn’t stay on the bottom.

***Warning – do NOT put plastic berries in water for two reasons. 1) the next morning my water had a pink tint and 2) when I decided to remove the berries from the plastic wrap a couple of days later they had a horrible toxic smell so I would either skip this part or use real berries.

To create the centerpiece I used a few pine floral picks and arranged them so you could not see the stems then added the cylinders and a few different size candle holders with tea-lights and added floating candles in the cylinders.

So what do you think?

Tracey

Happy New Year – 2013!

Happy New Year everyone! I have to say that 2012 was filled with many blessings for our family. We welcomed Brooklyn to our family, my oldest son got married, we celebrated my Mom’s 70^th birthday, God protected my youngest from being badly injured when he totaled his truck, my husband and I have wonderful jobs, we are surrounded by a loving family and friends, but most importantly our family is healthy and filled with love.

I am also blessed to have you sharing in my other passion of crafting. Thank you for your support, comments, and suggestions – I love them all. In a couple of months I will be celebrating my first year in blog land so thank you for continuing to follow me in this journey and I truly hope we can continue to share and learn from one another.

Wishing you and your family a blessed and prosperous 2013!

Tracey