Craft Night is Back!

It's been almost a year since I did a craft night. My last pregnancy and then getting used to having 4 kids has been a fun challenge so I haven't had much time for crafting. The crafting bug came back this Christmas when I made my SIL these super cute countdown blocks.

I've been wanting to decorate for various holidays, but the only one I've ever decorated for is Christmas. This year, that's going to change. So, for craft night, we'll be making Valentine stackers and LOVE/NOEL blocks.

(Original idea found here)

I made my stackers double-sided. They're the same front and back. Double-sided stackers: $7.00; Single-sided stackers: $5.00. *Ribbon/cording may vary.

(Original idea found here)

I also decided to have my LOVE blocks serve double duty for Christmas as well. I LOVE how they turned out! You can choose white or red vinyl. Double-sided (LOVE and NOEL): $9.00; Single-sided (LOVE or NOEL): $6.50. *Scrapbook paper may vary. Available paint will match the vinyl.

Craft night will be Wednesday, Jan. 18th at 7pm at my house. Money is due the week before, Wednesday, Jan. 11th. If you would like to make the craft but can't come that night, I will have the kits available to pick up at my house that night or later.

**Sorry out-of-staters, I do these craft nights as a way to have a fun girls night. I don't currently make or sell these kits outside of craft nights**

Christmas blocks and stockings

I made my SIL a set of red and green countdown blocks for Christmas this year. I really like how hers look, so I might be making me a new set just like them before next year!

This year, I also decided to tackle making family stockings. When I was a kid, my parents had an entire set of coordinating stockings, one for each family member with our names embroidered on them. I love mine (it has a cute little mouse in a rocking chair on it) and have wanted coordinating stockings for my family. I picked up everything on Black Friday weekend at Joanns but it took me until 2 days before Christmas to actually pull everything out and do it. They turned out great!



I ironed Heat-n-bond to the back of the Christmas tree fabric and using my vinyl cutter, I cut out everyone's names in the fabric and ironed them on the stocking fronts. Then, I appliqued around each letter and the toe on my sewing machine. It took forever, but was worth it in the end. I sewed the fronts and the backs together and then sewed matching bias tape around the edge to hide the seams. I added the faux fur cuff and a little loop to hang them from and was done. My husband took over taking care of the kids and cleaning the house for Christmas so I could sit at my sewing machine and make these beauties last Friday. It took the whole day and part of the night before. I also bought enough of everything to make more for any kids we have in the future. That way, we'll all always match!

Closet shelves!

"Shelves in the closet? Happy thought indeed." - Name that movie! While the character was a bit skeptical, I'm beyond thrilled!!!

My husband and I have been talking about turning the back wall of our bedroom closet into a wall of shelves since the space was just a clutter spot and we needed more storage. I'd finally talked him into letting me hire someone to do it in January since we'd never actually do it ourselves... Until 2 days ago, anyway! We went to Home Depot on Tuesday and picked up all our supplies, 4 melamine shelves and 8 wall brackets (with 1200lb limit!). After putting the kids in bed, we drilled and screwed until we realized we needed an offset screwdriver for the screws near the support bar. So, my sweet hubby got up early and ran to Lowes to get us one. After that, we cut some extra wood down to support the sides of the shelves and nailed them in last night. Ta-da! I love it! and personally think it makes our closet seem bigger. Maybe that's just the mess being gone?

So, what gave us the ump to get this done? I've been wanting to go through our food storage and I figured, why not do the shelves and I can go through it all as we move it to our bedroom? All of our food that doesn't fit in our pantry in the kitchen has been filling our boys' bedroom closet, so it's nice to give that storage back to them. Plus, with all the shelves in our closet, we actually have more room than we did before. Yippee! I'm in love! And, right now, my loving hubby is installing a new garage light that he gave me for Christmas! Yea for better light in my garage so I can work on stuff out there at night!

Crafty projects

I've got a ton of craft stuff and I'm not sure what to do with most of it. Right now, it's hanging out in our spare room (mostly) and I'm feeling in a dejunking mood. So, I dug through my stuff and made a few things that I'd been planning on making "one day".

Here's a nativity deco block. I found a nativity silhouette, vectorized it and cut it out as a stencil with my vinyl. I spray painted the block with frosted spray paint a bunch and then peeled it off. It looks great. Tied a ribbon around and done! The block has a hole in the side so you can stuff the block with Christmas lights to make it glow. I gave this lovely away, since the whole point of making something with my craft stash (right now anyway) to get rid of stuff.


I saw this idea for a jewelry dish back in February and went on the hunt for the perfect, cheap square plate. I finally settled for a round one and promptly lost it. I found the square plate at Goodwill a few weeks ago, brought it home and found the round plate. So, I made two, one for me and one to give away. The funny thing is, after finishing them, I decided I liked the round one better. It sits on my lovely nightstand by my bed and I use it almost daily (I love taking naps and you shouldn't wear your jewelry when you sleep, or so I hear :).