Irish Blessing Printable and a coloring page

When I was young, my mom had a little stained glass knick knack with the old Irish blessing on it.
"May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand."
I remember it, and how pretty the sun looked shining through it, but I don't recall exactly what it looked like other than it had a lot of orange and green and the blessing. I decided to turn the idea into greeting cards and coffee cups at Zazzle. I resized the art to make the printable poster above. (The original is 7x5 inches at 300ppi). After spending entirely too many hours drawing the frame part, I decided it would make a good coloring page as well. 

 

Usual terms apply. Use it for crafting, woodburning, coloring, embroidery. Just please don't offer the image itself for download.  You can find a lot more braided designs on my coloring page.

Click on images for full sized versions.

Links I love

Abigail just recently started a craft blog, and it's a really great one. She has instructions for making a periodic table table out of card board, various knit projects, various beading projects and she's planning some origami and other projects in the near future. Very worth checking out.
Abigail's Craft How To

American Science and Surplus! I just received my most recent order from them. The catalog full of things you never knew you needed until you found out it existed. I ordered the push drill from them, as well as some googly safety eyes, buttons, bottles and other neat crafting things.
American Science and Surplus

Cold Porcelain is a lot of fun. My daughter and I recently made some Tardis pendants in a Tardis ice tray using cp. Great instructions here.

Between the Folds DVD, a mathy look at origami. We watched the show on PBS and if it comes up on your local listings, it's well worth watching for people into origami or math. Or you can buy the DVD here.

Given Moments Bonnet Tutorial
Because everyone needs bonnets

Fortune Cookie Earrings with printable fortunes

On Valentine's Day my husband brought me to a little Chinese restaurant we used to go to a lot when we were first dating. When we opened our fortune cookies, I had to laugh because his fit him so perfectly. I put both fortunes in my purse planning to make earrings with them.

 

I have a little card laminator. It's not much,but I use it for small crafts and for those occasional laminating jobs my dad asks me to do for him. In the past, when I'd done laminated paper for necklaces and such, I trimmed it with enough extra laminate on top to punch through just the layer of laminate. This time I used 2 hole punches. My 1/8 punch on the fortunes and fortune cookies, then after laminating, my 1/16th punch in that hole so it was still sealed around the hole. Sort of like this. The laminate is the teal outline, the paper is the black outline.

It worked out very well. Then I used simple wrapped loops and chain to put the earrings together with some pretty pearls and sterling bead caps.
You could use your own fortunes and pictures of fortune cookies from the internet. I drew the fortune cookies I used my earrings. I think it makes a nice sentimental keepsake. Packing tape would probably work instead of laminate but it won't be as stiff. Cut out the fortune cookie and punch all the pieces before arranging them in a laminating sleeve and laminating them, then trim the laminate around the images leaving a bit of a margin to keep it all nicely sealed.
I used the same technique to make this double sided pendant for my daughter using trading cards from the Star Wars Science Meets Imagination exhibit as our local museum.

 

My handy dandy 2 inch circle punch and then trimmed the sides so it fit my laminating sleeves a bit better.  

I had to run it through the laminator twice to get a real good seal because the two layers of card were a bit thick, but she's very happy with how it turned out.

You can download my fortune cookie art and two silly fortunes here 

Publishing in Kindle format- Formatting tutorial

I wrote a very basic beginners tutorial to formatting an e-book for the Kindle you can find here. For the tutorial I put together a short collection of some of my daughter's favorite recipes. You can buy that here if you're interested.

I also have an e-book for making brick stitch earrings and one that really needs reformatting for baking yeast breads.
I'm also posting reviews of some of my favorite filk music that's available on Amazon. If you don't know what filk is, it's the music of fandom. Sci-fi and fantasy inspired music that can be hilarious, touching and thought provoking.
Favorite filkers I've reviewed so far
Tom Smith's And They Say I've Got Talent
Escape Key's Shadowbeast
Vixy and Tony's ThirteenEscape Key's Michelle Dockrey new group.
Blake Hodgett's Blindsight
Marian Call's Got to Fly
These artists cover Star Wars, Star Trek, Serenity, Alice in Wonderland, Battlestar Galactica, Illuminati and sing about dragons, aliens and mermaids. I'm not done by a long shot reviewing all my favorite filk. But I think this makes a good start. If you find any of the reviews helpful, please click on the yes under the review.

Friendship Quote tag and box set

 

  

This is all in 300 ppi, PDF format.

The folded circle tags

Blank pages if you want to make little booklet of the circle tags. Tutorial here

The box

I was thinking of offering customization of this set, color and text in my Etsy shop, but decided against it. If you really want it customized, let me know and I'll create a listing. 

Alien Valentine Printable Set

 

 

A bag topper and a matching box. The bag topper is set up to print 2 on one sheet and it's 6.5 inches x 2 inches. The box is my 3x3x1 box. I hope you like them! Click on the images for the full size 100 ppi versions.

  

 

If you're a friend of mine on FB, then you know when the "post a picture of you and your sweetie for Valentine's Day" thing came up, I drew a kokeshi style picture. I loved the alien so much I had to post something with it. The witch and alien is an old joke between my husband and I.

 

Printable Mini Princess Crowns 2

With the first set, I said that I was making a pattern for a felt crown for my daughter. 

She's thrilled with how it turned out.

  

It's stitched to a hair comb because her hair is so thick and wavy they work very well for her. For girls with finer or straighter hair a head band made of elastic, ties, or a barrette might work better.

Here's the pattern for the crown.

  

I used two layers of craft felt glued together with PVA glue. I spread a thin layer glue on a sheet of felt than folded it in half width wise. Put it between 2 layers of wax paper and set it under a book to dry flat. The next day, trace the crown pattern on the felt and in the jewel color, cut out 5 circles to fit in the top. With embroidery floss, all 6 strands together in a tapestry needle, blanket stitch around the whole thing, stitching the "jewels" in as you get to the top of each point. Butt the ends against each other and stitch them together. Stitch to whatever you are using for your hair. 

Lots of different things possible. Sequins, embroidery, whatever. I went with simple but do plan to play more with the pattern.

Here are printable versions if you'd like those instead. I didn't mark the holes for the elastic cord like the other crown, but the holes go roughly halfway between the center point and the back seam towards the base of the crown.As usual, click on the small versions for the full sized versions.

 

 

Mini Notebooks

After cutting out all the animal cards yesterday, I kept looking at them thinking "They would make cute mini notebooks" and after a bit I grabbed a sheet of blank paper and did a quick notebook with one.

First, you'll need the card. This is just the example. The pdf has 300 ppi cards on it.

It was so easy. I pulled out my 2 inch circle punch and folded a sheet of paper in half length wise, unfolded it, and folded in the edges to the middle, then refolded the middle in the other direction.


Then measuring by eye, I cut 8 sets of pages going through all 4 layers of paper and leaving a folded edge intact.

If you don't have a circle punch, just trace the outline of a folded card 4 times butting the folded edge of the card against the folded edge of the paper and cut out the pages.
Then I nested the pages together, making  a stack with them unfolded and lined up the fold with the fold in the open card. Tie a piece of embroidery floss around the fold in the middle. Close it up!

You can put it under a book overnight so it's very flat if you'd like.
I'm absolutely making more of these.

Cute Animal Valentine Cards

 

Actually I think these are okay for all seasons. The shine in the eyes is heart shaped which is what makes them Valentines. They are blank on the inside for a personal note.

Cut them apart, then score and fold on center line. Line it up in a 2 inch circle punch so the folded edge doesn't quite meet the edges of the punch, then punch through both layers, or fold it in half and cut around the edge of the circle. I use a Uchida circle punch and had no problems getting through both layers.

Download the PDF HERE.

Review: Day of the Dead Crafts

Day of the Dead Crafts: More than 24 Projects that Celebrate Dia de los Muertos by Kerry Arquette, Andrea Zocchi and Jerry Vigil
I purchased this book for my daughter and I. It was her choice.
It contains a bit of history about Dia de los Muertos and a lot of full color projects and pictures of wonderful art for inspiration.
It's better for crafters with some experience, most of the projects aren't step by step to make exactly what's pictured but rather guidelines for allowing your own creativity to flourish.
The section on calaveras was a favorite. It explains how to make them out of polymer clay and gives lots of ideas for other mediums including paper, wood and my personal favorite, the idea of embroidering skeleton features on a rag doll. That one doesn't have a pattern, but the idea is great and I think that's the sort my daughter will want to make.
There are instructions for making paper mache skulls or skull masks using a purchased plain face mask and a balloon that I know will be a family project this year.
The jewelry section has some great projects in it. My favorite are the different charms. I have some plastic skull beads and one charm was a very nice colorful wire and bead skeleton. The painted pearl earrings were lovely as well.
Very recommended for the variety of crafting mediums and the gorgeous photographs.
The Amazon link is an affiliate link and helps pay some of the costs of maintaining this site.
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I posted a new pair of earrings to Beadwork at BellaOnline.com. You can find the pattern here.

Printable Mini Princess Crowns

 

I hope you think these are as cute as Dea does. I'm working on a little felt crown for her to clip in her hair and decided it would make a cute printable party hat. Print on cardstock, cut out, glue tab then use a hole punch to punch the holes and string elastic through and knot to wear headband style.

Dea suggests a jaunty angle for a very cartoon-y look. 

I included a blank version to personalize or to print out for little or big princesses to color themselves.Click on the images for the full sized versions. I think they would look really pretty encrusted with glitter if you don't mind getting glitter in your hair!

Flying Panda Cross Stitch Patterns

After posting the flying panda story, someone said they liked the pattern but they didn't do brick stitch. She does however do bead point. So with that in mind, I graphed a flying panda for bead point.

 

I think it's very cute. I also decided cross stitchers needed flying panda love.

  

I also did it with the squares completely filled in, just lighter for the cross stitches then for the back stitch.

  

Flying pandas make me very happy. 

Click on the images for the full sized versions.

Vintage Craft Books

Saturday, my beloved husband took me to Bishop's Attic. Bishop's Attic is a local thrift store that's just the absolute definition of thrift store to my mind. They will sell almost anything they are donated. There are half tubes of paint, fabric, books all over the place and my favorite is their 3/1.00 "work clothes" rack. Jeans, button down shirts, teeshirts, all sorts of things that are a little too worn or a little too stained for most places to sell, but they do sell them. 34 cent jeans are great for upcycling!

I spent 20 dollars and walked out with 8 books including 2 new old craft books for my collection and a few cookbooks, a bunch of fabric for The Turnip including a scrap of a loteria print which I might steal a piece of for a pin, a skirt each for The Turnip and I. Mine is a plain black skirt, hers is a wild diagonal pink stripe she loves and wore with complete disregard for fashion with a red blouse and a blue diagonally striped tie, and a nice bunch of dpns. Some incomplete sets but incomplete sets make nice hair sticks.

One of the craft books was Better Homes and Garden's Treasures from Throwaways published in 1976. Some of the ideas in it are brilliant. Closer to Christmas I'll post scans of my 2 favorite Christmas ideas. I really loved this idea for a stool to sit on.

 

Pretty sure I can get a couple old tire rims if I ask around. The cushions are sewn to fit. I imagine you could use the depression on the insides of the rims for some storage as well, or strip the hardware off an old door and make a coffee table using the same idea.

The real treasure was this.

  

Nifty enough. I love old cake decorating book, but what made it just wonderful was the inside cover.

  

I think the person who owned it originally did wedding cakes and took pictures of them. Aren't those brides lovely? The lines of their dresses are so gorgeous.

  

  

I do so hope they had their happily ever afters. 

Valentine Quilt Box

Taking a brief break from working on a pair of earrings to post a new box. I hope you like it. 3x3x1 inch at 100 dpi. Click on the images for the full sized version.

 

  

If you'd like it in a different shade, leave a comment. 

Don't forget, I have a bunch more free printables at my website, including an easy to assemble miniature book of She Walks In Beauty by Byron. I've been thinking of putting together more miniature books soon.