Christmas Idea

I'm the type of person who mulls over what to make family (and friends) for Christmas. I think about this for MONTHS before I actually decide on what to do.  I do like to make useful items rather than decorative things that will only be used once a year, however; this year I came upon an idea that could be both useful and decorative--hanging dish towels with matching pot holders! Now we all know that you can NEVER have too many kitchen towels or pot holders, so I think these will be wonderful gifts! And I can make them in either Christmas, kitchen, or novelty fabrics.

Logo Bookmark Tutorial

I truly appreciate my customers. As a thank you, I like to enclose a free gift with every order. Something small, yet something that will let the customer know I appreciate their business. I've been giving away corner bookmarks, but I thought, "What about full sized bookmarks"? And wouldn't it be neat if I could put my logo on them so the customer would remember my shop? So, how to do it?

I decided to use my shop banner for my design. I resized it to 35% (you may have to play around to get yours the correct size)and printed it out. Then I cut around it with decorative scissors. I cut it small enough that I could put a background behind it to make it "pop" a bit more.Next, I needed to make a background. I used solid color card stock (but you can use designed card stock if you wish). Using my bookmark lamination sheet (mine measures 2 1/8" x 6" but you can buy them in various sizes), I made a template. You will have to make this slightly smaller than your lamination sheet. If you are using 4"x6" or 5"x7" sheets, you can make these any size you wish. Just cut them out after you've laminated them. I drew as many backgrounds as I could get onto my card stock sheet. I did manage to get six out of an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet and 12 from a 12" x 12" sheet.Apply double sided tape to the back of your design. Center over your card stock background and tape into place. I decided to write my shop site on the backside.
Place your bookmark into your lamination sheet and laminate! Now you have a nice little gift to give to your customers!

Wrist Rattles

I am so excited about my latest project! I have made quite a few of these and they are so fun! Introducing wrist rattles for babies. They feature cute prints that babies will love. Each of them are stuffed lightly with polyfil and contain bells for a soft jingling sound when baby shakes his/her arm. Velcro on the bands make these fit even the smallest wrist. These are listed in all my shops and would make a great addition to your gift basket--or stocking stuffer! Christmas will be here before long!

Animal Blankies

After deciding I wanted to focus more on making baby/children items, I came up with these animal blankies. I had a pattern of the monkey, but after I made it, I thought I should come up with more animals. So, I made a teddy bear, cat, lamb, frog, and robots. I daresay they came out cute! Since these little blankies woke up my creative side, I have a list of other animals I'd like to try to make also. So I may be working on these for quite some time!

These are made from flannel fabric so they are nice and soft. The faces are made with fleece that are appliqued onto the heads. Face features are hand embroidered. They do have safety eyes but I guarantee these cannot be pulled off! These are the same type of eyes they use on stuffed animals. They measure 19" wide x 22" high so are small enough that a toddler can carry it around without tripping over it.

These are listed in my etsy shop as well as my Artfire shop. So, if you have a baby shower or b-day coming up, these would make great gifts!

New Projects

I have been working on some new projects for the past two days. For some odd reason, I
felt like working with paper. I have tons and tons of scrapbook paper (haven't scrapbooked in five yrs), so decided I should do something with it. So I started making mini envelopes. They're so cute!! They're just big enough to hold a gift card, money, or a business card.
Or you could punch a hole in them and use them as gift tags! I'm making them in an assortment of colors and styles.

I also tried my hand at making corner bookmarks. They came out pretty nicely with not too much muss or fuss lol. They just slip onto your book's page corner so your place is marked nicely.

I will be selling both of these items in my etsy store so be sure to check them out! I also posted pics of both in my Misc album here. I can make either of these items in colors or styles of your choosing (i.e. animal, colors, elegant, fun, etc.).

Sample Box

I am thinking of selling sample boxes in my etsy store. The box would have three to five samples of smaller items in it. These may or may not be items in my store . I came upon this idea because I had participated in The Spotted Box (www.TheSpottedBox.com). I didn't seem to get any orders from that, so I decided what if I made my own sample box with my own items instead? Customers could see a sampling of my handiwork before they actually purchased an item.

Also, I'm thinking of giving away a free sample of my work to those that purchase from my Lots O' Patterns shop. Maybe draw them to my Sassy store that way. I just need to find some way of promoting my Sassy store a bit more so I can draw some business there.

Eye Pillows

My niece owns her own massage shop. She had asked me if I could make eye pillows and cases for them. She said that her shop is decorated in a Tuscany style and wanted the cases to match as closely as possible. So, I went online to see how big an eye pillow was, since I had no idea, and took down the measurements.

I finally got the inclination to make them today. They came out very nicely. I filled them with rice so she can scent them herself and heat them if necessary. The prints I used were the closest I could come to in a Tuscany style. I made her four extra cases also. I hope they will do.

The black bags are the eye pillows themselves and the printed fabrics are the cases. I made her a total of six pillows and 10 cases. The first picture shows what the cases look like with the pillows inside of them.