The Greate Create!

It really is great to be creating! I get all in a funk if I go a few days without getting my fingers singed by a glue gun or having paint stuck under my nails so I have to tell you how excited I am about The Greate Create. The "gist" of it is a monthly craft round robin swap set up and it's created to get YOU creating more. It's a great motivation for me thus far and I am just excited to see what these crafty ladies are making each month. Come create with us if you need to get your mojo back!




Here is the info provided by our fearless leader, Melissa, at My House is Vanilla. This gal is a great supporter of 2 Katie Designs and just a cool chick, I wanna ring her like a sponge so I can have a drop of her creativity.

What is The Great Create?


Basically, just a small group of crafty girls who have committed themselves to crafting each month with the purpose of marking things off their "to-do" list and, at the same time, swapping items with each other.

Can I participate?


Fo shizzle. Email (myhouseisvanilla@yahoo.com) and you're in.
What are the guidelines?


Pretty simple. Choose 12 items that you want to create this year. Each month, you'll mark one of your items off the list by making TWO of whatever it is (two bags, two stuffed cats, two balloon paintings... um, whatever). You'll keep one - and the other will be shipped off to your monthly swap partner.




Who's my swap partner?


Each month, you'll get a new partner - the goal is for everyone to receive something from each person participating! I'll send out an email each month with the name of your partners... which won't be a secret because, well, that's just too many emails for me to commit myself to sending. I'm lazy.


JANUARY GREATE CREATE RECAP


So for the first month I had my BFF to give my creations too...spoiled her a bit with a Frame, a Super Glitter Cup and a glittery XO for her Valentine mantle motif. I recieved from Jessisa at Our House on the Hill an awesome Valentine garland which made a great addition to my own mantle when I added my personal photo booth pics. Sa-weet! Also she can SEW and I am SO jelous!

Did a mention children are involved here? They can join too! Great huh? We have a JV sqaud and I'm not sure if it was coordinated or not but it worked that Kaia had to send her Greate Create project to Kensey (Jessica's daughter) which was neat. Kaia was thrilled to see a pic of Kensey wearing her creation and thought it was cool that Kensey's daddy is in the military too. Kiddy connection.

Kaia made a headband (after spending an hour shopping for a fabric she liked, we ended up with 5 super cute Amy Butler patterns BTW) which she is seriously better than me at doing. Guess she doesn't over think it. She made a necklace as well from a rock she had been tumbling...and tumbling...and tumbling. Literally since Christmas I have had a low hummmmm huuuummmm happening in my garage waiting for these polished gems to emerge! They finally did and she fitted it into a necklace shown below on Kensey!

Kaia also received her crafty item for the month which was this one of a kind clipboard. The perfect motivation for homework in my eyes - anything to get this kid excited about writing or reading! yippee from both Kaia and mama.

Thx - Crafty Katie : )

Sharing the LOVE

Just thought I would share a bit of the LOVE fest that is going on at my house right now...Valentine's decor has gone up and it's always a bit different from the year before. I have decided to focus seasonally on the mantel and entrayway table area to transform them with each holiday or season. So next up is Valentine's day!

The pics aren't the best because they are with the iphone and I'm too busy/lazy/whatever to actually upload from the "real" camera today so this will suffice...

although I will have to get the real camera pics because my husband ROCKED it, making me this 18" tall X and O to go on the mantle so it's already changed a little. I even glitter-fied them so they are over the top sparkle fab. So wait to see that soon!...sorry : (

Some of the details on the pics;
...Kaia my ever so helpful kiddo staple together doilies to make the heart banners in a jiffy!
...all the Zebra is crepe birthday streamers which make my heart so happy. Kaia also added various hearts to a few of those to hang the jumbo entry hearts.
...I have 5 pink feather boas laying around the house in various places to use for this...which was a bit disturbing. They are stuffed in the hurricanes on the mantle along with pink Christmas bulbs as well as the garland on the tree of love.

I love transforming the house from season to season, for me it's part of making each holiday special for my family. Hope this goes a little way in letting them know how much I love 'em! XOXOXO

ADDED - 1/14/11 Here is the XO I promised to add!

Crafty Flowers

[caption id="attachment_163" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="My handmade flowery things"][/caption]

As usual when I find a new crafty thing I dive right in - buying all the necessary STUFF to conquer a new craft project. I've done it with paper-pieced t-shirts, tutus, haloween decorations...I just get myself into all these new things... and that is just what happened this weekend!  I became obsessed with fabric flowerly things. It started when I saw these outragious flowers on a cardigan at NY & CO. and then my brain starts going...hmmm I could make those (and cheaper than buying them at $4.50 a pop). Then the next thing I know I am searching u-tube for "how-to make a fabric flower", "retro hair accessories" and anything related.

Nothing great there so I surf over to etsy.com and find some flowers I like and just start cutting out scraps of fabric and guessing how they made their lovely flowery creations. I used hot glue  (cuz I am far too impatient for sewing!) and some scrapbooking buttons I had around, and before long I have some flowers of my very own.

 

However, my next trip to Hobby Lobby of course included Organza, Fabric Stiffner spray, fun fabrics, more buttons and various attachment devices costing me nearly $100 so my effot to save $ by making the flowers myself is shot down and I have a kitchen island completely covered in hot glue and fabric scraps but they are OH SO CUTE!