• I had photos from holiday projects I did in 2012 ready to go
• I did a couple of tiny projects for the holidays
• I had big plans for bigger projects for the holidays

And then life happened, as it so often does. There was a lot of travel (some trips more expected than others), a lot of good stuff, some less-good stuff, a lot of work, a whole lot of editing, and just not as much crafting or blogging here or anywhere else as I had expected.

People – I didn’t even craft Christmas gifts this year. I KNOW!!!

Which is a nice segue of sorts into what you can expect around here in 2014. I’ve just finished shutting down the Chickyscratch Etsy shop. Oh, did you forget that existed? No worries, so did I, more or less. Actually, I never forgot it existed, I just decided that’s not why I make things and I didn’t want to keep dealing with it.

I don’t make things to sell them so much as I make them to share with people, hopefully making them happy. I make things because the process of creating something tangible makes me happy. I make them because sometimes the process of putting together a project is a very therapeutic distraction from other things going on in my life. Not because it’s something I’m supremely talented at or because I think I have some great skill and it’s going to pay my mortgage. Too much pressure for me and honestly not much fun to create something to stock a store versus creating it to send a friend.

So last year, I had a grand plan to post twice a week. That happened well for awhile, then stopped, then I did OK again for a bit. This year, I commit to posting… sometimes. I commit to creating things… when I’m inspired to do so. I commit to looking at the world around me with open eyes to appreciate beauty and color and texture… more often.

Yeah, those are resolutions I can keep.

Here are all four cards, though without the finishing touch of rounded corners. I forgot that part until later. Still, you can see the different colors here.

The first card, in green, was for my friend Jenny.

Yellow was for Melinda (you can see I reused the one floral paper from Jenny’s card).

Purple was for Brigitte.

And pink was for my sister, Christine.

Each card followed the same process. I printed just the word “birthday” on a piece of white cardstock, cut it to size, and folded it in half. I then used a circle punch to cut a ridiculous number of circles from 4 or 5 coordinating papers. I glued down the bottom row and center row first, making sure I had 5 solid circles on the bottom row, then randomly put in the rest of the circles before trimming any that managed to hang over the edge. I stamped “happy” on the bottom row, then used my round edger to finish off the corners of the cards.

I left the insides blank to write each of them a birthday note.

It ended up being a fun project, making a little assembly line of birthday cards. And because I made each one slightly different, customizing the colors to the individual’s tastes, it didn’t become too cookie cutter or impersonal. I may do this the next time I have  a bunch of birthdays all at once. It beats the alternative of getting overwhelmed and not sending cards at all!

My mother’s birthday this past May fell over Memorial Day weekend. We were actually visiting with my brother and sister that weekend, plus respective spouses and my brother’s new baby. This is the card I made for her. For my mom, I mean, not for the baby. I showed you her stuff the past two weeks.

All of these people are famous…

The outside of the card is a printed list of famous people: Al Jolson, Lauryn Hill, Genie Francis, Lenny Kravitz, Helena Bonham Carter, Miles Davis, Jay Silverheels, James Arness, Pam Grier, Hank Williams Jr, Masaharu Morimoto, Matt Stone, Dorthea Lange, John Wayne, Stevie Nicks, Peggy Lee, Sally Ride. An impressive list to include a jazz great, Oscar winners, and an Iron Chef!

…for sharing a birthday with you!

And the inside finishes it off. Of course, I then signed it, adding my own birthday greeting.

Happy birthday, mom!

onesie card for shower

This is the only photo I seem to have of the onesie card I made for her shower in March. I made it in a bit of a rush after a lot of travel and by the time I finished, I didn’t take the time for a proper photo shoot. In fact, I don’t think I even took a photo of the inside.

outside of bib card

I had slightly more time for the bib card I took with us when we met Adelaide for the first time after her birth in May. This is the card that accompanied the squirrel and “A” I posted last week. I used the same floral paper from the onesie card and the same pink ribbon that I used to make the squirrel’s rose.

close-up of bib front

Despite having proper time to work on this card, I somehow manage to forget the strings for the bib. You know, the part that would come off the points where the bows are and tie around the baby’s neck if it were an actual bib? Sigh…

inside of card

The inside (which I cut off a bit when messing around trimming the overall shape of the card) says:

Babies are cuddles and memories to keep
(three a.m. feedings and too little sleep).
Babies are laughter and smiles to share
(and bottles, and booties, and bibs everywhere)!

Babies are sweet, and though they are small,
they fill up your hearts – and your house – wall-to-wall.

Judging by photos my sister-in-law has posted in the months since then, that last part about filling the house is very true. The adorable munchkin has taken over!

A gift for my niece, Adelaide, when we went to meet her in late May.

Squirrel

My brother is a fan of squirrels and my very kind and patient sister-in-law chose a woodland nursery theme so squirrels can be a part of my niece’s surroundings. Knowing this, I decided to make her a stuffed squirrel.

The idea and pattern from Cassie at You Go Girl!. I modified it slightly (mostly through not reading directions and making mistakes) and enlarged it to make more of a stuffed animal as opposed to an ornament.

close-up of face (eyes, nose, and rose all separate pieces)

I used this tutorial from Carla’s Scraps to make the ribbon rose. The rose, eyes (buttons) nose, grey face/ears, and white body are all sewn on as separate pieces, then the two grey body pieces sewn together and stuffed.

Embroidery is no joke, people! I tried flowers and failed miserably so I went with these simple pink starbursts instead.

back of squirrel

embroidered name

I stitched her name into the squirrel’s tail. It’s not perfect, but it turned out OK. I was glad by the time I finished that her middle name was short and that I had decided not to include her last name. Plus, the squirrel’s tail wasn’t long enough for the last name too.

2013 – birth year

For a finishing touch, I embroidered 2013, her birth year, on the back of the squirrel’s head.

Baby A

This is one of my favorite simple gifts to give regardless of occasion – I’ve given them before. Cover a wooden letter with some decorative paper, perhaps add an embellishment, and it’s a thoughtful, personal gift. For new babies, you can’t go wrong with the first letter of their name.

simple ribbon embellishment

I added a bow in a coordinating color and glued it on. It’s girly but bold, a lot like I imagine my little niece.

Next week, the card that went with it.

fronts of snugglies

These are simple stuffed snugglies I made to go along with books I bought my niece and nephew. If you don’t know me, I’m a HUGE lover of books and if the gift I’m giving isn’t I make myself, my other favorite choice is a book. In this case, I did a lot of looking around Amazon and checking with friends who have kids of similar ages before deciding on the books I bought Corbin and Carly and then setting out to make coordinating snugglies to go with them.

monster face detail

Corbin’s monster goes with the book “Leonardo, the Terrible Monster,” written by Mo Willems. I haven’t read it but I’m willing to bet he’s not too terrible. In fact, the whole point is that he’s terrible at being a monster – he can’t seem to frighten anyone! And this blue monster doesn’t look a whole lot like Leonardo, which is fine by me. I used a piece of black elastic for his mouth and two different sizes of black buttons to give him slightly wonky eyes. His body shape is based off the pattern found at dailyplush.com – and then I modified it a bit and friendlied up the face.

owl face detail

Carly’s owl was made to go with the book “Little Owl’s Night” by Divya Srinivasan. The Amazon page has an adorable little book trailer to go with it and once I saw that, I was sold. Plus, I’ve had this owl pattern from Button Bird Designs pinned forever and finally I had found an excuse to make one. Score! Modified, of course. Isn’t the little face adorable?

backs of snugglies

And finally, the back of the snugglies. Corbin’s monster is flannel on both sides but the wild pattern is on the back. Carly’s owl has the same flannel on the back as I used for the monster’s front but the the owl front is actually quilter’s cotton from a fat quarter I bought.

Overall, I like how they turned out. I’m not a big fan of giving stuffed animals as gifts because kids get so many and it seems like such a copout. But if you DO give them, handmade seems like a nice way to go. And you can never go wrong with a book!

Along with a couple of other things, I decided to make my own versions of hoodies I had seen on Pinterest last year as Christmas gifts. I started by buying rather basic gray hoodies at Target for my niece and nephew, though hers did have some sequins on the front.

Butterfly hoodie

For Carly’s hoodie, I used bright pink flannel and cut two separate wings. I sewed each individually with a layer or two of batting in the middle to give it some body. I attached the two wings one at a time by hand at the center of the wing quite securely. I also tacked down each of the outer points to keep the wings from flapping about too much.

Close-up of wing detail

Before attaching, I did a freestyle wavy quilting of sorts with my sewing machine and sewed around the outline of it as well to give it some texture. Otherwise, it looked really dull.

Carly in her hoodie

And here’s a picture of Carly wearing her hoodie, I believe Christmas night, playing with her new dollhouse.

Dino hoodie

While I would’ve liked to embellish the butterfly more, Corbin’s dinosaur ideally needed more spikes. In fact, I made more spikes but ran out of time to attach them. Originally they were supposed to go all the way up onto the hood. However, I underestimated how long it would take to complete the project doing it the way that I did and really should’ve used a different technique.

Individual spikes

I used my machine to do about 3/4 of the stitching on the spikes, leaving open the hole to stuff them with batting so they’d stand up. Most of the versions I found online only used a bit of interfacing but I had the bright idea to actually stuff the spikes. It was cute but it took forever to stuff them and stitch them closed. In addition, I then stitched them all onto the hoodie one at a time. I think I could’ve used a looser stitch. Or perhaps used some sort of looser stitch to secure them onto another piece of fabric and then used my machine to attach that to the jacket.

Regardless, I ran out of time to attach the rest of the spikes. And I don’t have a photo of Corbin wearing his hoodie despite seeing him in it because Corbosaurus Rex isn’t exactly known as being a species that stands still long enough for photos. Though he does have an impressive RAWR!!!

front

inside

That’s right.

When cake you see…
the fork you use.

I even downloaded a special Star Wars font for this project. So don’t be fooled that just because there weren’t a lot of special decorative punches or glue sticks involved that I didn’t put time and effort into the recipient and his card.

Next time I post a card project it will feature something a little fancier. But next week, I think I’ll share a non-card project.

As in –  why do I make stuff?

First, a bit of background. Last year, I opened an Etsy shop. In order to do so, I had to fill out a bazillion pieces of paperwork for reasons plus we’re in city limits so that was more paperwork. None of which would have been necessary except I had some vision of making things and selling them on Etsy. I then opened the shop, listed some bookmarks, a few cards, and a couple of superhero capes. I sold a cape to a friend within minutes of opening, did nothing to promote the shop, eventually my listings expired, and here we are. I was going to let the shop die but decided to renew the business license ($50) for another year and give it one more real try.

Then earlier this week I had an epiphany that maybe that was a really dumb idea because why do I make stuff? Making things just to stock a store isn’t a whole lot of fun when nobody is buying. I still have a bin full of the unsold items I made before. I love to make things with the recipient in mind. I love to make things for my home or your home. I love to make them because they’re fun. But to make them just to list on my website and then tuck away until someone maybe buys it doesn’t excite me.

And if I’m honest, there’s nothing I feel so skilled at or talented at that is really unique enough to offer. I’m not saying I have no skills – I’ll continue to tinker away and make gifts and things for my home and post things to the blog but I don’t think my things are so grand that anyone really wants to pay for them. Also, for the time spent trying to promote an Etsy shop, I could do some more editing and make more cash if that’s what it’s about.

So it seems the answer is NOT to Etsy. Yet somehow that makes me a bit sad, only because it’s something I really did want to do and never really gave a proper try. But I’ve certainly ruined other hobbies and fun activities by turning them into work, so maybe it’s a bad idea after all. What to do, what to do…

What about you? Ever ruin something fun by turning it into a business? Or do so successfully and still find the joy in it? Why do you do whatever it is you do that’s crafty?

In fact, this post isn’t just a couple of months late – it’s actually over a year late. This is the card I made my dad for Father’s Day 2012. That’s right – I’m back to posting and catching up a bit of a backlog.

This year, I was doing a lot of travel and working way too much around Father’s Day so I’ll admit I cheated and sent him a card I bought in a store. The shame!!! But last year, I sent a card that was simple in its construction but included a message Hallmark just wouldn’t know to include.

A message that only really works for my dad.

outside

inside

inside close-up

To the dad who taught me
That there’s never an inappropriate time
To whistle Jingle Bells…

That’s right. Jingle Bells wasn’t just for winter with my dad. One of the most memorable times I remember him whistling it was in line for a roller coaster at Hershey Park in June when it was eleventy bajillion degrees outside.

Making this a simple but appropriate Father’s Day card for my dad with a message perfect for only him.

Look for more posts soon – I’m going to start clearing a backlog of projects and trying to post more regularly again.