Craft Day Part One

Hello! Sorry for the long absence. I began teaching kindergarten at the end of August, and the job sort of took over my life. It's been incredibly fun, but also incredibly time consuming. I found that there were some things that I just didn't have time for anymore (such as blogging!). Now that I've been teaching for awhile, it's getting easier to do, and I'm finding I need to put less time into my prep and therefore I have a little more time for myself. I appreciate those of you who checked in with comments and emails during my absence. It was nice to know I was missed! I will have a lot of catching up to do with all of you, and that probably won't all happen this weekend, but I thought I'd take advantage of the Thanksgiving break to put another post out there. (And Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who celebrate it!).

This is very belated, but this summer just before I started my job I did a major craft day with a friend of mine. I finished a bunch of projects that I wanted to share with all of you. It was really fun and satisfying to work on things that I could finish in one go. I love knitting and scrapbooking, but they are not typically one-day projects. Here are some of the things that I did, with links to directions for the projects. I have even more projects that I completed that day, if you can believe it (I'm telling you, it was productive!). I will try to post those this weekend, but if not, then expect me back over winter break at the latest! :)

I love these paintings. I found the directions on Martha Stewart, and they were so much fun to do. She has two templates on her website (one being the bird above) but since I did this one I have just searched on google images for silhouettes, and found others that I could do. I am planning on making several similar paintings for Christmas gifts. Basically, you staple fabric to a canvas frame. Then you use Mod Podge to make it hard. Once that dries, you copy your template on the fabric with a fabric pencil. Then you can paint either inside or outside your template lines. Or you can choose to do both and have a set, as I did above. Check it out: Painted Fabric Silhouettes.

I also made wine glass charms. These were really fun to do, and I will definitely be making more of them. They don't take long, and would make great hostess gifts or something like that. I bought the beads, charms, and loops at Michael's. They can be found in the jewelry-making section. I looked at several websites for the ideas for this, but didn't really follow any one set of directions.

If you visit Not Martha, there are some ideas for wine charms, plus lots of links to other places.

I found directions for these 'crayon nibbles' on another blog, and thought they would be really fun to try. They are also very easy, and take no time at all. They would be cool gifts for kids. I think they would look great packaged up in clear cellophane bags with a cute ribbon, and would look good tied to a bigger package or present. Also a fun project to make with kids.

You can find directions at Crafty Daisies.

It feels really good to be back! I may spend some time this weekend catching up on some blog reading, because I have missed seeing what all of you are up to. And stay tuned for part 2 of my craft day!