Share it Saturday - A wave in the Ocean....

This week I wanted to share with you a baby blanket I am crocheting. I received the idea when my baby sister said she was pregnant with her first and her theme was the ocean. (She changed her mind - maybe.) So I figure it's okay to share it right now. I don't believe she is reading this, but it's okay if she is. It's not such a huge surprise.

What I started with is a ripple pattern from Attic24. Any crocheter should know who she is. You can find the pattern here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/neat-ripple-pattern. It is a free pattern. I did it with the clusters she provides, but I extended until I got a length I thought appropriate.

I am using Red Heart in Warm Brown, White, Light Blue, Blue, and Dark blue. The plan is to create small flat sea turtle motifs to attach to the warm brown (beach) and the white/light blue area (surf) as they are attempting to go into the sea. I am unsure whether to do the blue turtles from Yertle the Turtle by Dr. Suess or green sea turtles.

Either way, my goal is to provide a "turtle" gift set as both follow the "sea" and "Dr. Suess" theme.

Okay...here's the preview:

It is slightly longer than a baby blanket should be. I wanted it to also be toddler size so my sister and her husband can get more use out of it. The white replicates the waves. And as you can see, I have not gotten too far along on the blanket. I have until September before the craze to get it finished hits. I believe that I have 15 rows of the sand and plan on doing 15-20 for each of the sea colors.

If it looks horrible in the end (which I don't think it will), I always have a turqua and yellow baby blanket finished which is also toddler size. LOL!

What are you working on?

Sarah

Throwback Thursday - Reading what?

Hello friends!

Today is the day that I share some exploits of the past...and by exploits, I mean craft/crochet that I did. In the coming weeks, I am going to share some of my "firsts." By that, I mean that I am going to share with you the first time I completed a certain type of item. The horrible, the improved, and the best, in essence.

This week's share: My first designed kindle cover - Love Themed

I created this cover around Valentine's day as a product in my Etsy shop. It was never purchased. I am thinking about creating the pattern to sell on my Ravelry and Craftsy pattern stores. I have some ideas for a technology set. We shall see how that goes.

What was your first cover like?

Sarah

It's been three weeks since my last......blog post....lol

You know those moments in time where you are so busy that you can hardly see straight and the stress is almost too much to take? Well, that has been me in the last three weeks. I had an unfortunate encounter with a woman bent on making my life horrible for the last three weeks. Don't worry. I am not going to vent here! I just wanted to clarify. I am in college, attempting to get a BA in English. I am just 3 classes away from finishing. So you can imagine my frustration at being teamed up with someone who cares little for anyone but herself.

Now that I am finally rid of her, I can get back to my stress-free programming! I.E. pattern making, preparing for autumn craft fairs, crocheting, and my writing. It has been too stressful to even think about any of that.

If you notice, I did a Share it Saturday late last night to show what I was up to - now free from stressful, uncaring people.

What I really am up to is something very tedious, but necessary. Any crafter who attempts to sell their product will understand. Since I had the opportunity to join a juried show with my crochet with shows in November and December, I thought I would do ornaments.

1. I LOVE crocheting ornaments.
2. I LOVE Christmas.
3. I LOVE imagining my ornaments on other people's tree or given as gifts.
4. It is extremely easy to decorate a booth for Christmas.

What more could I ask for?

So, tonight I am doing two things - making a list of ornaments that I could potentially make and making them while timing myself.

Timing myself, you ask?

Yep! Timing myself. I am not the type of crafter (anymore) who wants to forget the time aspect of crochet. I believe that there are many undervalued crochet products being sold with no one the wiser. 3x the cost of the material is okay for someone who just randomly sells things; however, for someone wanting to be in a juried show that requires true value, no sales, and representing the actual product - well it is not okay.

This is my formula.

7.25 (federally mandated minimum wage in the U.S.) (divided) / how many I can make in an hour = total for just 1 of those items.

Total of 1 item + (material costs x 3) + packaging costs + taxes = true value of the item

Take the pine cone for example. The small version allows me to get 4 done in an hour. When dividing 7.25 by 4, I get $1.81 for making them just as a wage. I have not weighed the item or found the proper packaging, but I can assume that my price would be between 5-8 dollars per pine cone.

That is the true value. That is what my work is worth. And that is an uncompromising price and value for my work.

As you can see, it is a busy evening and week for myself. I hope that you are still around to view more future posts.

Sarah

Share it Saturday - Pine Cone Ornament

This week's Share it Saturday is a quick little project that will end up as a pattern in the future. I love the look of them; however, I think there should be some changes made to it.

Medium Pine Cone Ornament

Small Pine Cone Ornament

As you can see, they are so cute! I can see these on a tree. What about you?

Sarah

Throwback Thursday - A Rose by any other name....

This week, in honor of Mother's day, I am sharing with you my first crocheted rose. I inserted a pipe cleaner and wrapped it in a green yarn to create the stem. If I had to do it over again, I would probably use a wooden dowel instead of a pipe cleaner. It would be sturdy.

As you can see the pipe cleaner shows. I used Caron Simply Soft and that might have caused it. It wasn't wrapping very well!

Happy Mother's Day to All the Mother's out there

Sarah

Make It Monday - 2 Autumn Cards

Were you excited when you saw the preview on Saturday? I couldn't believe how cute they turned out. I plan on sharing another card I made using a Jack N Jill set soon. The goal of my Make it Mondays is simply to work on increasing my stock or other business ventures for the upcoming fair/sale season. Feel free to use the search bar to the right to search for my previous Make it Monday posts.

Before I go any further, please be aware that I am not a professional card maker. I am not a consultant. I make cards because I like to and as a beginner. This tutorial is at a beginner level.

This week is 2 in one! Yep, using the same stamps and same paper I am creating two different looks. Here's the preview: 

Material List

• White cardstock
• Brown cardstock
• Cream cardstock
• Colorbok Luxe Designer Paper
• Jack N Jill Stamp set - by Prima Marketing
• Autumn Sentiment stamp set - by Inkadinkado
• StazOn Ink pad in Timber Brown
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink pad in Walnut Stain
• Pop Dots
• Snail glue - or whatever adhesive you want to use
• Gold Glitter Ribbon
• Scotch tape

As you can see in the photo above, there are two different sizes of cards. I will post the dimensions for each card.

Card one - Side Open

Dimensions of card cut and folded - 5 1/2 x 4

Mat in brown - 5 1/4 x 3 3/4

Designer paper mat - 5 x 3 1/2

(This card was cut in half on the long side. Almost, I do not have a cutter that breaks down further than 1/4.)

Card two - Top Open

Dimensions of card cut and folded - 5 1/2 x 4 1/4

Mat in brown - 5 1/4 x 4

Designer paper mat - 5 x 3 3/4

(This card was cut in half on the short side.)

Stamp Mats In brown

For Jill - 3 1/4 x 1 1/2

Sentiment - 1 1/4 x 2 1/2

Stamp Mats in cream

For Jill - 3 x 1 1/4

Sentiment - 1 x 2 1/4

First, I gathered all the materials together so I did not have to struggle to find something. I cut the cards and mats at the same time. 

*Note: My cutter is a little weird and leaves fibers on the sides of the cuts, so I trim when I see issues. My dimensions do change when I trim. 

After cutting the mats, Cut the ribbon and used two pieces of tape and attached the ribbon to the side open card.

You can see how I accomplished that in this photo.

Add the designer paper to the brown cardstock mats by using snail glue.

Not pictured: Stamp the images to the cream cardstock and attached them with snail glue to their respective mats.

In this photo, I was attempting to figure out where I wanted the images to sit. You can change the layout to fit what you want.

Attach the backings to the card base.

Add pop dots to each of the stamped images.

Place them in the correct position.

Stamp a secondary sentiment inside the card. This is optional, but I think it matches the card.

I did not notice until afterwards that the sentiment inside matches the choice of ribbon, but it goes well together!

 

What do you think of this week's Make it Monday?

Card making is so versatile! I found it easy to create two similar cards with one set of materials. Yet, they look different and appeal to a different set of people. I would love to see any photos or creations you make from this tutorial. You can share them via email at smchatton.writer@gmail.com or on my Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/DandeCreations. Who knows! You may find your creation (with your permission of course) on the Share it Saturday post.

Happy Crafting!

Sarah

Saying goodbye to the gardening posts......

Hello again everyone!

I noticed a trend in this blog that mixed my gardening with my crafting/crochet/paper cards. While this is okay with me, I realized that gardening was taking on a life of it's own in this blog. So I began a new blog that will cover my gardening posts. If you found them interesting, please follow me at: http://thecountrycontainergardener.blogspot.com/

In the mean time, the gardening posts will make their way to that blog as a transition to separate the topics.

Sarah