Valentine's Day...or "You Are All"

I spent this past Saturday making valentines with my friend and her 6-year-old daughter...what fun!

I used to love making special valentines when I was a kid. These are the ones I received on Saturday...my favorite is the heart person which says "You are all" (or "You are all heart," depending upon your interpretation).



Like most kids, we usually got some cheapo box of generic valentines to give out to the whole class. My brothers and I found it vastly amusing (in a toilet-related way) to save the valentine that said "You wipe me out!" to give to the kids in the class we did not like. It had a picture of an alien on it, which I never understood...maybe they intended this in a "aliens take over the world and wipe out humans" sort of way? I prefer the toilet interpretation.

I had a couple of etsy treasury features this week--Never Tired of a Snowflake, Sunny and Bright on a Gloomy Sunday, and  Sunny Spring Flowers.

Also, I worked on some more heart pins on Sunday and have one up in my etsy shop already--go check it out!

Placemats, snow, birdies, and boredom!

I have decided that being sick is really boring. The snow seems to be melting, so I'm not really snowed in...but I still have a bad sore throat and probably shouldn't go anywhere.

However, I have managed to do lots of cleaning, sorting, and crafty things. Here are the latest pics:

More ribbon placemats! I finished 6 of these last night.

Also, cut more felt shapes for heart pins...

And here's a look at the snow. Most of it has melted around here, although we didn't get hit as hard as other parts of MD.

Here's Tiny's impressive batch of eggs. Well, several batches. She has 18 eggs currently and I suspect another is on the way. Poor baby.

 Here she is...she was annoyed with me for taking pictures of the eggs.

Still sick...

But I'm being productive! Last night I was up super-late working on (finally!) finishing the edges of the ribbon placemats and table runners I started several months ago. Once I got a technique down, I was able to breeze through and finish 4 placemats and 2 big table runners.

After much inner debate (and some earlier failed experimentation with stitching the edges), I decided to go with Stitch Witchery fusible web hem tape. It's not perfect, but it gives the stitch-free look I wanted and is not difficult to use.

It's kind of dark in here this afternoon (snow is coming!!!) so my pics are not great but here's a preview of what I finished so far.

I like the way the green placemat and the blue table runners came out best. I definitely prefer the edges with the thin ribbon, which means I usually have to cut the fusible web in half to fit underneath.

On some of the corners I used Liquid Stitch (a clear adhesive for fabrics) as well to give it some extra hold. The corners were not easy! I even thought about doing a mitered corner but that was too complicated.

More to come tomorrow...with better pics, of course. :)

This little piggy stayed home.

I've been sick the last few days with a cold, so there's been plenty of time to work on piggies! (Mostly while semi-watching Return of the Jedi and The Fugitive.)

Here are the latest:

Fat Piggy (aka Mr. Plumpy)

Slim Piggy

I hadn't originally planned to use such a thick marker to outline them but I like the way it looks...although it is more cartoony than I had planned.  I am a strong supporter of Slim Piggy in his fight against Mr. Plumpy.

Also, I just remembered this illustration I did in college as a birthday card design:

I love it--so cheerful and colorful! So I'm going to do a couple of more festive piggies today just to see how they come out.

This little piggy went to market...

So a while ago, my friend Emily asked me to work on some piggy watercolors for her new baby's room. I'm in the process of working on these...I decided to do a few different ones and see which one(s) she likes best.

These two went slower than expected, even though I already know the circles are a painstaking process. I did start another piggy a few weeks ago using collage but it's not working for me...I might show it later if I can get it to redeem itself.

What do you think?

And now for something completely different...

Today's photo is of a totally different kind of art...my friend Jenny asked me to design her a flower tattoo!

This is actually the second tattoo I've designed for her...the first one (several years ago) was a dragonfly. She picked out a few flower designs she liked and let me know what color scheme she preferred. I just sent the picture over to her...and I'm hoping it's just what she wanted! :)

What an honor to have my design drawn on one of my closest friends! Very cool.

Custom Order--Purple Heart Pins

Mike, who I used to work with, put in a custom order this week for some of my purple heart pins to give as gifts. He wanted two pins so I made a bunch for him to choose from:

I haven't made these in a while but I'm thinking they would also be nice to sell in my etsy shop for Valentine's Day. Yay for custom orders!

Octopurses!

Today I finally finished my two new octopus purses!



I love how glam the blue/green one looks with the sequins. The orange one is just kind of plump and cheerful.

It reminds me of when I was in middle school, and we had the opportunity to get pen pals in French class. My best friend asked for a boy pen pal from France. When he first wrote to her (in English), he said, "My name is Sebastian and I am quite plump." I love this.

I just listed the purses on etsy as well, go take a look!
 

Coaster frenzy!

I just posted a bunch of new sets of coasters to my etsy shop...new colors and stuff! :) Go check it out!

What's new...

First, a sneak peek at my octopi purses! I have selected lining fabrics and will be working on the stitching this evening.

Also, I just posted a bunch of new items to my etsy shop! More flower pins, hoot owl necklaces, a birdy felt tag, and some woodland bookmarks.



New pins up on etsy!

I just put a few of my new embroidered pins up in my etsy shop...go take a look!

Also, pictures of several new octopus purses coming soon! The octopi have been stitched on and I'm currently picking out lining fabrics.

Yay! The winner of my December giveaway is:

TanyaMcGuire

Congratulations!

Thank you all so much for entering!