I thought I’d share with you some of the recent cards I made as well as a hot-off-the press craft.

This was for a baby shower for a couple at church:

I had seen several ideas similar to this on Pinterest. The “onesies” were made with the Cricut machine. I learned you can make a reasonable looking cloud by cutting an oval or circle with scalloped scissors. I was a little afraid the twine would come loose, but I kept the card propped open on my table for a couple of days, and everything stayed put.

This was a thank-you card for a friend:

This was another instance where the paper itself was so pretty and had enough detail that adding much else would have been superfluous.

This was for a little boy in our church recovering from surgery:

I asked someone who knew the family well if there was an animal or character he particularly liked, and they mentioned dinosaurs. None of the dinosaur shapes on the Cricut looked like what I wanted, so I used puffy stickers. I cut the grass and hills free hand and snipped across the strip of grass to make it look a little more 3-D. then I tucked a couple more packages of dinosaur stickers inside for him to play with.

This was for Jesse’s birthday:

He is very much into computers – his work, his major, his classes, and his hobbies all revolve around the computer. So I wanted to reflect that. The computer shape was done on the Cricut, and the desk was a scrap of wood-grained paper I had on hand. I liked it better before I added the “snacks,” so I should have left well enough alone. But they also reflect him accurately.  🙂 The bottle was done with the Cricut and was supposed to look like the type of flavored water he drinks. The plate and brownie I did free-hand.

When I put out my autumn decorations, I realized there was a door I had no wreath for. And we can’t have that, can we? 🙂 Somehow I must have misplaced one, because I remember having a scarecrow one in addition to the one near the front door. Anyway, I remembered I had the same thought about needing another wreath last year, and even bought supplies for a burlap wreath, but didn’t get around to it then. So I found them in my craft room closet and worked on it bit by bit. It didn’t take all that long, but I had to work it into odd bits of time. I found a plethora of burlap wreath ideas on Pinterest. I found instructions for the burlap part here, and a helpful video tutorial here. The felt roses came from a site I had used before for them here. This is a much simpler way to make felt roses than many tutorials I’ve seen that tell you to cut multiple petals and sew them all together. I used a hot glue gun instead of stitches. I was really pleased with how it turned out!

I cut the leaves freehand out of felt and glued everything on with hot glue. I learned to do the bow when I worked part time for a florist friend in early married days.

True confessions: I didn’t realize until I got the burlap part all done that I hadn’t gotten the burlap loops even in length all around. So I put the flowers and bow on the place the difference was the most noticeable. Also, a couple of times while pushing the burlap through the wreath form, my thumb accidentally poked a hole in the burlap. But thankfully the loose weave that enabled the hole also enabled fixing it by just moving the threads around.

I’m trying to decide whether to put an initial or something on the other side. But for now I like it as is.

It felt really good to get some creative projects done!