My Life with Yarn

Work in Progress Koi Cross Stitch

2017-10-03T20:22:00.001-04:00

I found this cute cross stitch online and decided to copy. The picture has since been unlinked so I can no longer link to credit it. I am going to add some lily pads next.

Framed Mario Cross Stitch

2017-02-09T22:14:00.000-05:00

I finally got around to framing the Mario Cross Stitch I had been working on for Alfredo. I used a $10 frame purchased from AcMoore, which included a mat and I happened to have a coupon. I attached the fabric in the frame using command strips so that I could remove the piece later if needed and had some wiggle room when placing. I think this is an easy framing idea for beginners and because the piece is under the mat the edges are hidden :)

Post again soon :)

Mario Reach For the Stars Cross Stitch

2017-01-30T20:10:00.001-05:00

Stitch-Tober Days 1 to 4

2016-10-04T22:58:00.001-04:00

I am participating in this really cute project called Stitch-Tober where you do a cross stitch each day in October. This is actually my first time doing cross stitch ever. So I will be alternating patterns and finished projects.

October 1st I designed this cute little pumpkin:

And

October 2nd I finished my first crochet stitch :)

October 3rd I designed two versions of the same cat:

October 4th I picked the cat design on the left and placed him behind the pumpkin I had stitched previously:

I am so excited to learn cross stitch! So far it has been a fun and wonderful experience :D I've wanted to try it for years and this finally gave me the inspiration and reason.

Etched Drinking Glasses

2016-09-15T21:41:00.002-04:00

I used my new silhouette cameo to etched some glasses. I wanted to make a personalized glass for

my dad and his friend Libby. Libby is a big fan of a bar called Bobby Ray's and thinks their glasses are cute. So I made her some glasses based on her own fictitious bar.

My dad, on the other hand is a big fan of rubber ducks. So I made him a beer mug based on the bar from Tangled, the Snuggly Duckling.

I simply cut the shape I wanted out of contact paper, similar to the bleached shirt tutorial and then use glass etching cream, following the instructions on the container.

Post again soon, =)

Crochet Cactus #2

2016-09-01T18:00:00.000-04:00

I just completed another cactus and I think this one came out more realistic and cuter than the first one =) This one includes a blue flower with light blue details and yellow filaments. The person who requested the pot provided the terracotta pot which she had painted gold.

Pokemon Go Team Mystic Shirt! DIY

2016-07-13T23:26:00.003-04:00

I love Pokemon and Pokemon go is a dream come true for me. I have met tons of people while playing and the first thing people always ask is "What team are you?". So I made some Team Mystic/ Blue Team spirit wear. I have nothing against any of the other teams, I have close friends and family on all the teams, but Blue aligns with me because I love evolution. This shirt has a sort of distressed look to it, which I like. The final image doesn't have a perfect edge, but is definitely clear enough to tell what the object is and helps with the distressed appeal of the shirt.

Here is the finished product:

**The round bubble blotches are from before I started the project. I carried everything home from the store in the same bag and the bleach leaked.

The materials you will need include:

A Shirt in the color of your choice
Freezer Paper
Piece of Cardboard
Bleach
A Squirt Bottle
An Iron
Some kind of cutting tool.

*Optional: Silhouette machine, Transfer paper

I used my silhouette machine, but that is totally optional and this project can be completed with scissors or an exact-o knife.

Transfer paper is also an optional tool which just makes it easier to transfer the freezer paper to the t-shirt but is not necessary.

The first thing I did was make my design in silhouette and cut it out:

I then spread the transfer paper over the freezer paper and pealed the unwanted parts of the design away. The image below shows what it looks like up to this step:

I then put the piece of cardboard inside the shirt and flipped the transfer paper over so that the wax side of the freezer paper was against the shirt.

I then ironed it and pulled the transfer paper off, leaving just the freezer paper:

I then sprayed the shirt with bleach using the squirt bottle and waited for the desired level of lightening:

I then filled the bath tub and rinsed off as much of bleach as possible:

I then removed any of the remaining freezer paper that was still attached:

and tossed it in the dryer:

Here is what it looked like at the end:

Hulk Chart Crochet Corner to Corner

2016-03-29T20:14:00.001-04:00

Little 8-bit hulk crochet project :)

Crochet Cactus

2016-03-08T13:24:00.000-05:00

I made this cute little cactus last night. It didn't go exactly as I planned, but i think it came out ok overall. I just made a basic bulb shape and then pushed in 4 places and sewed it into shape. I made a pom pom from pink and yellow using a pompom maker and then just tied that to the top. I sewed the cactus to the brown felt and then stuffed the felt and placed it in the pot. I then added stitches to each of the four outer edges, which I think adds a prickly look to it.

Crochet Baby Sandals- WIMTW- What I Made This Weekend

2016-02-01T20:57:00.001-05:00

This weekend I made these adorable baby sandals. They have a heal strap that is suppose to have a button, but we figured not having a button was safer. They also have a super cute bow as a toe piece. They are super quick to make once you figure out the pattern.

I made these ones for my mom for a baby shower gift. The set included one pink pair, one blue pair, and a purple pair.

The pattern comes from here

Post again soon :)

Graduation Cap Decorations

2016-01-05T12:13:00.000-05:00

Its been a couple months since my graduation, but I still wanted to show how I decorated my cap. It was held in MetLife stadium and they had the whole place decorated with FDU logos and signage. The only downside was the weather, it down poured right in the middle of the ceremony.

The truss is made of white electrical tape

The words are white and gold stickers from staples.

The red arrows are made from cut pieces of red electrical tape.

and the stars are silver stars you can also get at staples.

Post again soon

Day 4 of the 12 Days of Christmas Challenge! Holly

2015-12-17T22:14:00.000-05:00

The third day of the 12 Days of Christmas is Holly. This was definitely the easiest pattern so far and took about 15 minutes.

The pattern is quick, cute, and simple. The berries are so small and cute and assembly was the hardest part. The pattern came from Lion Brand's website again.

Tomorrow's item is is a Christmas Tree and that looks exciting and I'm looking forward to it.

4/12 Complete =) Post again soon

Day 6 of the 12 Days of Christmas Challenge! Snowflake

2015-12-16T15:46:00.000-05:00

I didn't have much time today to crochet, but luckily I have already made snowflakes. So I will just share those :) I made these for the changeable weather scarf for Britney a couple years back. If you would like to see the other weather options or full post you can find that here: http://mylifewithyarn.blogspot.com/2013/12/christmas-gifts-i-made-this-christmas.html?m=1

6/12 complete :) Post again soon

Day 5 of the 12 Days of Christmas Challenge! Tree

2015-12-16T15:45:00.002-05:00

Day 5 of the 12 Days of Christmas Challenge is a Tree. This one was fun to make because I got to decorate it how ever I want. I don't know how to make French Knots so that was a challenge.

Tomorrow's pattern is a snowflake. Post again soon :)

Day 3 of the 12 Days of Christmas Challenge! Candy Cane

2015-12-16T12:38:00.002-05:00

Day 3 for the 12 days of Christmas Challenge was a candy cane :) I'd been looking forward to making this for a couple days and whipped it up during my lunch. Which means it took about 20 mins.

It's about 4.5 inches tall and I thought the way the stripes are done gives it a neat look.

Tomorrow's item is holly and the pattern comes from the same site as before. 3/12 complete :) post again soon

Day 2 of the 12 Days of Christmas Challenge! Present

2015-12-15T22:15:00.000-05:00

The 2nd day of the 12 Days of Christmas Crochet Challenge was a Present. The finished project was bigger than I had expected, at about 3" wide and 4" tall. It was a cute little pattern and used mostly beginner stitches and techniques. I got this pattern from the same place as the wreath, Lion Brand's Website. I think I may try a keep with the classic Christmas colors for most of the challenge.

Tomorrow's item is the Candy Cane and comes from the same site as the previous patterns. I have been super excited to make the candy cane so I hope it goes well.

2/12 complete! Post again soon

Day 1 of the 12 Days of Christmas Challenge! Wreath

2015-12-14T19:56:00.001-05:00

The first day of Christmas is a tiny wreath motif :) sparkely green yarn tied with a red bow. I got the pattern from Lion Brand's Website ---> here.

This took about 20 mins to make and that includes the time it took me to crochet the bow twice to get it just right :)

I think it's pretty cute for such a quick and small item :) 1/12 complete!

Tomorrow's item will be a Christmas Present and the patten is from the same set as the wreath

http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/L32338.html

Post again soon!

12 Days of Christmas Crochet Challenge!!

2015-12-13T20:48:00.002-05:00

I had so much fun doing to crochet challenge in October that I decided to make my own challenge. That is how I came up with the 12 days of Christmas Crochet Challenge. Starting on Monday the 14th and continuing for 12 days until Dec 26th I will make one simple Crocheted Christmas item a day. Below is a rough calendar of the items I intend to crochet.

The first day's item is a Wreath and the pattern I will be using is from Lion Brand's Website. http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/L32338.html

Please follow along if you would like =) I chose very simple patterns that should take around 30 minutes a day to complete maximum.

Post again Soon

Crochet Challenge!! Day 29: Black

2015-11-03T12:43:00.000-05:00

The last assigned theme is Black. Black is one of the hardest colors to crochet with, because it is difficult to see what you are doing with such a dark color. As soon as I noticed today's theme was black I knew what I wanted to make. It's a soot sprite from "Spirited Away". I've actually never finished this movie, but Kiki's delivery Service is my favorite movie and they are from the same studio. I simply crocheted a block ball and then Alfredo brushed the surface with a slicker brush until it became this furry, fluffy texture.

Here is an example of what a slicker brush looks like and I actually found mine at the dollar store. They are meant for brushing animal hair, mostly fluffy dogs.

You can find the challenge on usscrafty's blog:

Halloween Candy Wrappers

2015-10-12T12:00:00.000-04:00

SWE needed a fundraiser for this year and as previously mentioned I love Halloween. So I figured putting them both together was a good idea. I spend a lot of time each day on Pinterest and found this cute idea. They also had a mini version, which is what we eventually used in the sale. This is their PDF for the mini versions. Unfortunately we did not have a paper cutting machine so we cut all of the shapes by hand.

When I showed the bats to the group a lot of people mentioned that not everyone likes chocolate. I spent a couple days brain storming and then came up with these. Twizzlers are one of my favorite candies. So I made the Twizzler gut Zombies. One side of the wrappers have been taped back and the other side is stuck through a slit and taped to the back of the zombie abdomen. It looks like hanging guts which I really enjoy.

Then I got inspired to find other shapes that we could make in order to use up other colors in the variety pack paper I had. Ghosts were an obvious choice which I had also seen on Pinterest. I didn't use anyone's actual instructions, but I used the picture featured in this one as inspiration.

This is the finished table. We hung a clothes line between two twisty sticks and hung the candies up to bring more attention to the booth and to show off the shape. These would also be cute for parties or trick or treaters.

Crochet Challenge!! Day 30: Crochet Family Tree

2015-10-06T19:31:00.000-04:00

The theme for the last day of the challenge is random. So I thought it would be nice to reflect on my favorite part of crochet, the people. The best thing I ever made while crocheting was the crochet club at my college. It was a wonderful group of sweet and kind people that met together once a week in the library to crochet. There were around 11 of us normally and about 70% of those people didn't know how to crochet when we started. I feel like we started a same little family for a while and in honor of this I created my "Crochet Family Tree". If you click the link, the tree is interactive.

http://prezi.com/q5qbs8ylysf3/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

The challenge was a wonderful experience and I recommend it to anyone who is able to do it. You can find it on usscrafty's blog:

Crochet Challenge!! Day 28: Grey

2015-10-04T21:05:00.000-04:00

I don't use grey use grey super often, but I do use it every once in a while and those projects were some of my best and ironically a lot of the ones that I've sold. My favorite of these projects was a game boy classic back pack. It was requested by a client who had seem the orange game boy back pack that I made for myself. This one was much better proportioned then the one I made myself and I feel like it came out very well.

Here are some of the other grey projects that I have made. The blanket that I made Magan for her wedding, a fluff ball, and a braided bracelet.

Crochet Challenge!! Day 27: Favorite Crochet Book

2015-10-03T23:02:00.000-04:00

My favorite crochet book is actually the first one I ever got. It is so much loved that all of the middle pages are falling out. It's called Amigurumi World and it has the cutest, simplest, and best designed amigurumi's out there. When I make my own patterns I try to make them to this standard.

The author is absolutely brilliant and all the pattern books she put out after this are just as fantastic! And unlike most crochet pattern books where it is the same basic pattern over and over again, each of her patterns is different and has a purpose. It is a great book for anyone, but amazing for anyone just starting to learn. I would definitely recommend all of her books. Here are some of her other titles:

You can find the challenge on usscrafty's blog:

Crochet Challenge!! Day 26: Amigurumi

2015-10-02T21:57:00.000-04:00

The definition of amigurumi: (crocheted or knitted stuffed toy) is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures.

The word is derived from a combination of the Japanese words ami, meaning crocheted or knitted, and nuigurumi, meaning stuffed doll.

Amigurumi's are my favorite thing to make and I've made quite a few of them. Here are some of the amigurumi's that I have made over the years. There are others that I have just not had a chance to photograph.

You can find the challenge on usscrafty's blog:

Crochet Challenge!! Day 25: White

2015-10-01T22:56:00.001-04:00

The theme for today was white and I don't use much white for crocheting because it gets dirty to easily. So started this little bunny at 9:15 and it is currently 10:30. So it's a pretty fast project. He didn't come out so well and I think it's because I used to big of a hook which caused odd holes and made it not fold as nice.

I found the picture instructions on Pinterest and I will post a link to it tomorrow morning. But for now it's bedtime.

You can find the challenge on usscrafty's blog: