Sunday, February 7

Etsy Sunday

One day while perusing Barnes and Noble, with my tall nonfat green tea latte, I stumbled upon Sublime Stitching's newest book Embroidered Effects.  I fell in love with the idea of coloring with thread, hand embroidering scenes and pictures.  I've finished a few projects and find it to be a fun and relaxing hobby.
So here, today's Etsy Sunday, ode to hand embroidering.

Princess and the Pea
Felt skull garland
Two squirrels lunch bag
Cherub in a frame
Sugar skull
Sweet Sophie
Tree of Life

Saturday, February 6

Potato Stamps

I wanted to share the old, really old craft of making potato stamps.  You can use these to stamp everything, and they are super easy to make and much cheaper than store bought rubber stamps.
What you'll need:  a couple of potatoes, a knife, ink pad or paint, pencil, dish cloth
Cut a potato in half (not lengthwise), then use the dish cloth to dry the cut end of the potato.  This will help the ink stick better.




Use the pencil to draw a shape on the cut end of the potato.  Then use a knife to very carefully cut around the shape.


Making sure your potato is pretty darn dry, press your potato stamp onto the ink pad and transfer it to the article of your choice.  I used the backside of Christmas wrapping paper to wrap a Valentine's gift for The Pope.  Then I used my stamps on blank note cards.
(The "all you need is love" stamp is leftover from our wedding.  I used it to stamp takeout boxes for our candy buffet.)

Wednesday, February 3