knick knacks & ric rac

hey, are you on facebook? i just made a Made with Love by Hannah facebook page…

take a peek at it here http://www.facebook.com/pages/Made-with-Love-by-Hannah/56466612802 and become a fan!

i just added this new skirt to my website, just in time to wear while you’re snacking on your valentine’s chocolates. i’m calling it the swiss chocolate skirt.

i printed it on cotton duck, i call the colors vanilla bean, cocoa powder and strawberry. yum!

remember when i showed you this cute swiss chocolate mold i found at the thrift store last spring? i guess the inspiration is obvious!

every year it’s the same old dreaded calendar hunt for me. i want something cute and smallish (but not too small) and the calendar part has to have the traditional square boxes big enough so i can write reminders to myself in them.

this year instead of hunting for one, i decided to make one myself. there are lots of free downloadable calendar templates floating around online. i modified one to the size and color i wanted and made the type a little more fun. then i added one of my knick knack images to it. the finished size is about 7 5/8″x11″, the calendar pages are 7 1/8″x5 1/8″.

i made this one for the kitchen…

and this one for my workroom…

want to make one yourself? you can download the calendar pages here!

print out the first page (with december on it) on cardstock and the rest of the calendar pages on regular paper. if you have adobe illustrator, you can open up the first page in that and place your image in before printing it out, otherwise just add your image later by gluing it on.

trim the january through november calendar pages at the crop marks and stack them in order.

i trimmed about 3/8″ off of the left and right sides of the december page. place the stack of calendar pages on top of december and staple at the upper corners…

then add your image! the space on top is just right for a 5″x7″ picture. glue it into place. you could also use a swatch of your favorite fabric or a cute piece of vintage wrapping paper, anything that tickles your fancy!

my friend and i went to the pasadena city college flea market last weekend. we got there kind of late and people were already packing things up, but i picked up a few cute goodies…

a clock for my kitchen. the lady totally lied and told me she plugged it in and it worked but it didn’t. i was able to use the clockworks from my old clock after a little drilling and gluing and cutting. they are both by general electric so the set-up was similar.

a sweet little painting from bavaria, it says 1950 on the back.

and this lovely tea towel that i couldn’t stop looking at. it looks hand printed. i had to buy it for the inspiration.

i wanted to make these cute mushroom ornaments. i printed out the tutorial last year but never got around to it. so a few weeks ago i was in joann’s in the styrofoam aisle and i thought ‘oh i can make those cute little mushroom ornaments i’ve been meaning to make forever!’ and i picked up the 6-pack of little styrofoam balls. then i looked over and saw the balls that were a little bigger and i thought ‘oh! i’ll get this 4-pack and make them a little bigger!’. then i looked over and saw the GIANT styrofoam ball. i was envisioning myself surrounded by giant sequinned mushrooms. it was a lovely sight! then i thought that might be overdoing it so i put it back. then i picked it back up again, handed the cashier my 50% off coupon and checked out.

 i glittered the styrofoam red first so i wouldn’t have to pin thousands of sequins on it to cover it. i found the milky white glass vase at the thrift store for 99 cents which i thought would be perfect for the stem. somehow it just didn’t look complete without a pixie so i bought these cuties on etsy to live on top.

 

the mushroom ended up being 10″ tall and the cap is 8″ wide. maybe next year i will try the actual project.

i also whipped up a log pillow based on erika’s awesome ‘buche de noel’ tutorial on craftstylish.

i used some brown velveteen scraps for the base and felt for the bark details. to make the rings on the end i decided to stitch on some thick yarn. then i made a couple of log rounds too. these are fun to make! i’m trying not to go crazy and have a couch full of logs with no place to sit, i already have a pair of the log pillows erika makes too.

have you been reading the shop local series on etsy? it’s fun to see the pictures of the people who make the things! today’s features california, and i’m included! take a peek at it here, and check out the sampling of creative californians on etsy. my friend jenny took my ‘portrait’ at the Arroyo Seco mini golf course (and totally kicked my butt in mini golf while doing it!), which is really close to my house. i love mini golf, and this is such a cute course! it was built in 1955. here are a few more pictures from that day…

the windmill, the last hole

by the spooky old church

by the old red barn. that’s the castle in the background.

i wanted to show you this beautiful embroidered table runner from hungary that my great-aunt deda sent to me recently.

the stitching is so perfect it’s hard to tell which side is the front and which is the back!

here is a cute picture of some hungarian ladies in the 60’s.

the thing i especially love about this picture is their fantastic colorful socks with little bumps knitted into them! where can i get myself a pair of these?!

they remind me of those candy dots on paper strips.

i put together this page of three different knick knack gift cards for you to download and use for all of your gift-giving needs (or any other occasion where you need a little card!)

all you have to do is print them out–i recommend a heavyweight paper or cardstock, and if you have a ‘photo’ setting in your printer preferences then select that too–then cut and fold!

use the solid crop marks as a cutting guide. i also put dotted lines as a folding guide but they’re really unnecessary, just fold them in half. the finished cards measure about 3″x3″. i hope you like them!

download the knick knack gift cards PDF here!

i just added these new goodies to my website…

the snow white winter woods skirt, which features a tawny owl brooch…

and the snow maiden matryoshka skirt i promised earlier…

and i also made the blue polish pottery print into an apron and trimmed it with giant red ric rac!

how do you feel about winter white? i think i’m really starting to like it! i just finished up this winter white version of my matryoshka skirt. i used sparkly metallic bronze and pewter ink, along with icy aqua and lavender regular ink.

i’m going to call it the ‘snow maiden matryoshka skirt’. it makes me think of russian princesses frolicking in the snow. maybe they’re wearing these boots…

(boots are by frye, from a couple of years ago)

it’s printed on unbleached cotton duck and has a beige velveteen hem. i should have it up on my website sometime next week. i’m thinking of making a winter white version of the winter woods skirt as well, with tan branches.