Pixel Beading

I just posted an article on pixel beading using cube beads. I didn't really have room in the article for all the patterns that I made, so here is the full set if you'd like it.
Based off of these mood icons.

Click the image for the full sized, full set of patterns.

And as a bonus, this simple pattern for a Book of Spoilers necklace or pin. I'm beading this up for my daughter.

Day Night boxes and cupcake flags

The upcoming contest at Spoonflower is bunting designs. There are going to be simply a ton of sweet designs in that contest. My entry was more swirls because I've really been enjoying swirls lately as a background to a day/night sky design. I liked the finished results enough that I put them on to cupcake flags (changing the orientation of the moon) and on boxes (not cupcake boxes, just 2x2 boxes). To make the flags,print them on paper, cut out , apply a thin even coat of glue and glue them over a toothpick. The cupcakes in my photo are store bought, but I did get a cupcake maker for Christmas which I'm looking forward to using!
ETA: The bunting contest is voting now! Check out the cuteness!
These are 300 ppi, click on the images for the full sized versions.

Peace symbols

My darling husband totally surprised me with a Yudu machine for Christmas. Honestly, I was expecting a bottle of perfume or possibly a new Nano. But there it was, huge and wonderful.
So while I'm waiting to go to the craft store and get more emulsion sheets and screens for it, I've been working on ideas for the single emulsion sheet and screen that came with it, deciding what to print for that first screen is hard!
One thing I've been wanting is to make more peace symbol shirts. My kids love them, but like me, don't like mass produced shirts. So, this is some of the art I've been working on. It's in GIF format and 2 colors because it's for silk screening eventually. You can use it as you wish. Except you know.. mass producing shirts for very low wages in countries that don't protect human rights. Since it is a 2 color gif, it would be easy to remove the white background and use them for digital stamping. Or print it to color if you wish. My son loves the faux bois effects best so that's in the near future.
Click on the images for the full sized versions.

I also posted some digital delivery 1 inch circles with peace symbols on them in my Etsy shop. 

Here's an example at full size. 300 dpi, on your monitor it will show a bit bigger than it's meant to print!

3x3x1 inch heart boxes

As promised, the 3x3x1 inch boxes, 100 ppi, click on the images for the full sized versions.

New banner+Boxes to match!

I made a new banner for myself, and to celebrate, made boxes to match. But since not everybody likes pink, I made them in a couple colors. Click on the images for the full size 100 ppi versions. Next post will be the 3x3x1 inch size boxes.

Book Review- Cake Pops by Bakerella

Bakerella needs no introduction I'm sure. Her adorable cake pops have taken the crafty baking community by storm.
If you haven't heard of her or Cake Pops yet, Cake Pops are very cute cake on a lollipop stick. She forms cake into animals, miniature cupcakes and all sorts of other cute things, and dips them in candy coating. Darling mouthfuls of cake that are sure to be impressive for parties and bake sales.
This book has the basic technique for making them using boxed cake mixed and jars of frosting. The ease of the basic technique will just astound and delight busy people. The craftiness to decorate them makes them a great project.
You honestly need no special skills to make these wonderful creations. You don't need to know the difference between tips for a pastry bag, and you don't need to be able to make a perfect cake from scratch. The supplies are all fairly easy to find and affordable.
This book has over 40 cake pop designs that will suit every occasion. Little sports inspired ball cakes for the sports enthusiast in your family to little skull pops for Halloween, the ideas in this book can keep you busy for a long time and inspire more ideas. You'll look at canape cutters and candy differently imagining what you can make using them.
One of my favorites is the clown pops which use burnt peanuts in a very clever way for hair.
Spiral bound so it lies flat when open, this is a fantastic book to share with a teen or pre-teen. My daughter was even more enthused than I was by it.
I expect Dalek and Tardis cake pops in our future.
You can get this book directly from the publisher, Chronicle Books,

Another snowflake set

The colors are actually the ones in the gift tags because I toned the colors after printing the boxes.

And I made a little mistake on this set, I try to make sure that sets are all in the same ppi, but this set I mixed them by accident. The 3x3x1 inch box, the coloring page and the gift tags are all 100 ppi. The gift card pillow box is 300 ppi.

I hope you enjoy the set, click on the images for the full sized version! I had a lot of fun drawing this snowflake.

Beaded ornament and matching paper box

You can find instructions for the ornament here. The paper version is something I made up to make it easier to understand how the ornament goes together, but it would also make a good favor box I think. To make it, print out the template on paper or card stock, and glue the blank tab inside the other side of the box. Then tape down the tabs to close it. I lined up the lines so that it will all line up right if you tape them on the outside. I used paper for the version above and didn't score or fold the lines. 

Print at 100 ppi. Click the images for the larger versions.

The blank version is for you to decorate, I think it would be great filled with candy as a place card!

Gift Card Pillow Boxes

A couple gift card pillow boxes today. These are sized to fit normal gift cards and at 300 ppi. Click on the images for the full sized versions.
I really like this template. I checked to make sure it fit gift cards and set it up to print 2 on one page. The band can wrap around the box either way. It looks better if you fold it where has to go around corners. Two color ways and I think either will work for men. I'm willing to take color requests though if you want this design (the patterned box) in different colors.

Coffee and family

Above is a photo I took today. 

Today my family and I went out to Palmer, Alaska for a community supported agricultural open house event at the Matanuska Creamery. The Creamery of course sells milk to most of the grocery stores. The other things they make they just don't have in enough quantity to sell to the stores. Like flavored cheese curds, rich ice creams and a lovely not too sweet egg nog. Combined with the open house was a farmer's market with the last of the summer harvest, fresh eggs, and the bakery that makes the cinnamon rolls that the kids and I enjoy on market days during the summer. 

After that, we went into Palmer for their Christmas Colony celebration. Palmer is a small town, about 8-10 thousand people, and the Christmas Colony is a tradition there. There are always lots of things going on, but what I was primarily interested in was the craft fairs. We hit a couple. I had a nice conversation with Kellie of Fish Lips and Birds Teeth Studio. We also stopped and talked to Ember of Silver Bear Sundries. She was selling very pretty hand thrown cups, reasonably priced in lovely colors. We love our mismatched, locally made cups and we each got one. 

Then we hit Indian Valley Meats concession van for lunch. Reindeer stew, buffalo steak sandwiches, and reindeer sausage! Yum yum! 

At all our stops, various people were selling coffee from the Coffee Roastery but not the specific coffee I wanted. I love trying new coffees, but for every day drinking, I want one that I know and love. The Coffee Roastery makes one of my favorites. The Arctic Wolf blend. It's a dark roast and a very unlikely blend of beans but it's a bright, flavorful dark coffee that's very smooth and very good.

So on the way home, we stopped by the Roastery.

If you're EVER in Palmer, or even in Anchorage and have a rental car, I think it's worth the trip.

We got there, and it looked all closed for the day. There was a man putting garbage into his truck. I stopped and told him the truth "I'm desperate to buy a couple lbs of Arctic Wolf." and he said "Come on in."

So we pulled up next to the main building, and I got out of the car and went in. In there, freezers lined the room, and the smell of coffee hit and covered me. I could taste it, breathe it, it was heaven.

While he put my coffee together, he told me the story of how that particular blend had come to be. I could tell you here, but I think it's more fun to hear it from Ron himself.

Then Ron said "Would you like to see the Roastery?" Oh.. would I? I love my coffee. Learning more about it? So after getting the rest of the family out of the car, we went into the Roastery.

His roastery is built out of railroad generator car with an addition built to it. He has 3 roasters, including a small one for a custom roasting experience. That's something I'd love to try, to make up a special roast for my friends.  

As we were leaving, he told us we could take some of the burlap bags. So you will see coffee bag crafts soonish in here since we have a surplus of bags now! Yay!

I'm home, enjoying a cup of my favorite coffee. It was simply a wonderful way to spend a day with my family.

Candy twist box and gift tags- Christmas

Printable box and gift tags. The box is my twist box template, and I printed the gift tags out on a blank sheet of sticker paper. 

They are at 100 ppi. Click on the images for the full sized versions.

In other news, I posted instructions for knitting markers here, and a Hamsa pattern for beading here.

You can still buy any of the templates or bead patterns using coupon code Thanks2010 at my Etsy shop for 20% off.

Moon through trees- gift boxes

Taking a short break from beading, knitting and other "OH! It's only 19 more days?? Really?" frantic rushing.
For these boxes, I took a photo and cropped it down to fit one of my favorite templates, then ran that through Paint It (affiliate link), and cropped those to 1 inch and made tiling backgrounds with the images so the colors matched the photos.
First, the pictures and backgrounds. Feel free to use them for non-commercial projects. Click the images for the larger versions. The first one is the original photo, unretouched except for cropping.

Now for the boxes! 300 ppi, click on the images for the full sized printable versions. I hope you enjoy them.

Well, back to beading, knitting, cutting, gluing and all those other things that have to get done.

Hey, if any of you play guitar, can you give me a recommendation for a good electronic tuner for a beginner? I gave Michael his Christmas present early because there was just no way to hide it. He's been wanting an electric guitar for a while. Anyway, then he started to tune it. And he can't tune by ear. After about an hour of listening to him tuning it, he said "I think I need an electronic tuner." I replied "I was just thinking the same thing." He laughed very hard. So.. if you have a recommendation, I'm all ears.