Stitch Swap: Complete

It's finished! Finally! A few days late, and not nearly as many stitches as I would have liked to put into it, but it's finished!

I had a ton of fun participating in the Stitch Swap hosted by Mollie @Wild Olive. For my first piece, I'm super proud of it. The fabric was gorgeous and easy to work with, and I just love all the bright colors.

I'm still working on making my petal stitch perfect, but I've just about gotten the chain stitch down.

One of the last things I added was this back stitching along the stem and petals. It's probably my favorite part. I used all 6 strands so it would be heavy and thick, and I love the way it turned out.

French knots...they are not my friend. I hate them to the bitter end.
Okay so that's a dramatization, BUT they are tough. I still haven't perfected them...as you can very well see.

I really wanted to keep this piece for myself, but I will surrender it to my swap partner. I'm happy to say I DID buy extra material. :) I just hope she loves it as much as I do!

After the frustration of first starting and getting over the learning hump of knots pulling back through the fabric, etc., hand stitching and embroidering is a really relaxing hobby. I had fun with this piece, and plan on doing more in the future!

-Jenn (With 2 N's)


Inspiration:
Fabric Wrapped Hoop
Embroidery Basics
Stitch Swap Participants

What I'm Up To

I'm really excited to be in the middle of my first embroidery project. Granted, I did learn to cross stitch when I was younger, but I got to sit down with my Mom a few days ago and she showed me all the basic stitches.

They say practice makes perfect, and I REALLY need to practice on french knots. Those boogers are hard! My big fingers get in the way. BUT, I'm slowly mastering the petal stitch and the split stitch. Those are definitely my favorites.

I found this YouTube video that also helped a lot.

As much as I researched and wanted to do a "tea" themed piece, I just have run out of time for my first piece. So, I found this amazingly beautiful material, and plan on embellishing it with french knots, petal stitches, etc. I'm excited to see how it turns out!

In other news, look what came in the mail the other day...

I am official! And I'm REALLY going to Africa! I'm so excited I could just scream. I can't wait!

-Jenn (With 2 N's)

Stitch Swap

So, now that we only have two weeks left in March and I haven't even STARTED on this project, I figured I'd tell you about my latest venture!

I blogged last month about wanting to start hand stitching. I've sort of lost my craft mojo and I'm really wanting to get it back. As busy as I am, I still have extra time. I could easily sit down for 20-30 minutes on a given day and relax with something like embroidery. Granted, I probably won't be relaxing on this first project but ya know...

Mollie from Wild Olive is hosting a fun stitch swap this month and I signed up! Instead of pairing people up, she just started at the beginning of the list and assigned each person a name. So I might send to PersonA, PersonA will send something to PersonQ, PersonQ sends to PersonB and PersonB sends something to me. You only know whose name you have. It's a secret who has your own name until you receive your package! When we signed up, Mollie asked what some of our favorite things were, so the person who gets our name could make us something we would truly love. The only real guidelines are that is has to be a finished, ready to hang piece of embroidery.

The person I got gave me a few guidelines to go off of, and I'm excited to get this project started, because I need to get it in the mail before the end of the month!!

Here are just a few ideas I've seen that I may play off of. I'm heading to the store this afternoon to pick up my supplies. We'll see how this stitching thing goes!

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As you can see, my partner said she loves "tea." I love tea too! So, this should be fun. I'm thinking about incorporating some of these cute ideas and using the tea bag to stand out. Maybe use a piece of colored felt to make the project 3D like?

We'll see... I'm excited to get going and see how well I do. I really want to start more embroidery and stitching so hopefully I have the patience for this.

Happy Friday!

-Jenn (With 2 N's)

Goal For March

I hate to say it, but the craftiness bug hasn't bitten in awhile. A few weeks ago I got my craft table all nice and clean, laid out things for a new craft project, and now when I look at my craft table there is more junk piled on it and I have no desire to sit down and craft. It's sad.

I have, however, been wanting to try something new. I'm thinking it's just the thing to get the crafty juices flowing again.

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A few months ago I came across this tutorial from Leigh Ann over at Freckled Nest on stitching your own handwriting. She's a lovely blogger who I follow daily, and I was thrilled when I saw this.

Years ago my mother was a master cross-stitcher. She tried to pass that knowledge on to my sister and I, and while I thought it was fun, I always lost interest halfway through a project. A few weeks ago while cleaning out some old junk drawers, I came across a half finished project I had started for my BFF from high school. My mom had helped me plan out a pattern using graph paper taped together. I texted a picture of my find to my friend to show her the present she almost got. ;-)

That unfinished project reminded me of all these hand embroidering projects I've seen lately on Pinterest.

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Mollie at Wild Olive has some precious embroidery patterns. This one just makes me smile all over.

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This adorable Etsy find makes me want to create my own pattern of a "self-portrait." It's very similar to the unfinished project I found in my junk drawer.

In junior high and high school, my BFF and I came up with our own special logo, before we even knew what logo's were. :) It was two little stick girls, each with flowing curly hair, their hands joined in the middle by a heart. Underneath them we would always write "Together Forever."

I loved those little girls so much!

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This blog from The Humble Nest has lots of tips and embroidery tutorials for beginners.

I just love all these hand-stitched, embroidered things to death. I got a little burnt out on all the hair-bows and headbands, so I'm thinking getting my hands on some embroidery floss, a large needle and a simple pattern will be the trick to getting over this craft hump.

Have you recently had a bout of the craft blues? How did you manage to get over them?

-Jenn (With 2 N's)

Coming Soon: A hearty recipe to cure the cold weather blues.

Craft Madness

Monday night I had enough. The craft area in my room was the pits. Literally. Just imagine 10+ canvas bags, plastic bags, various sized bags filled to overflowing with t-shirt scraps, material, ribbons, headbands...it was a nightmare. I was HAVING nightmares!

Spools of ribbon lined my tables and dresser.

Scraps of tshirt yarn and fabric laid strewn about. Forgotten by their mistress.

Headbands and hair pretties laid in wait...hoping to be purchased by someone special.

It was tragic, folks. Very, very tragic.

I have done ZERO crafting since before Christmas. And my hands are itching to get some things made!

So, I straightened and organized. Color coded and filed away.

Think I have enough headbands???

I picked up, reassembled and nearly got my craft area back to working order. And now, I have room to create my next project!

Any ideas?? I promise to have the tutorial and finished craft up next week! Yay for crafting!

And yay for clean areas to craft in! :)

Happy Friday friends. Go out and celebrate the day.

-Jenn (With 2 N's)

Scrap Happy

I haven't scrapped in so long. I miss it. But, the hairbows and other things have taken over my crafting table and it's just so hard to drag all the papers and ribbons and stickers and glues out.

We did just that, though, for Christmas. After helping Mom put together a mini scrapbook for one of her fellow classmates for graduation, she got the scrapping bug and wanted to make some cards for different people. I had an un-opened pack of cute Christmas paper, so we got to it one evening!

I wish I could show you pictures of all our cute cards, but most of what we did was in a crazy rush at midnight. My brain doesn't function so well at that time of night. I did make a replica of a card from last year for my sister's fiance who couldn't be with us for Christmas. He is stationed at Fort Rucker during his Army training. We missed him like crazy, but got to put together a box of goodies to send to him along with our homemade cards.

This has been one of my favorite cards to make. It's so simple, but so cute! I know there's nothing new under the sun, but I'm pleased to say that when I made this, it all came from my head. I didn't see a picture or anything...I just came up with it!

Cut your red card stock to whatever size you want your card to be. Cut a strip of black, about 1.5" wide, the same length as your card. I made my black belt wrap around the back, as Santa's belt would do, glued the belt onto the red, then folded them together. Cut a rectangle of gold paper, the same height as the black, and a smaller rectangle of black. I used white vellum for the center piece, and just cut it to the width I thought looked best. Glue it all down, and you have a super easy Santa card!

My cousin had been wanting to decorate her son's room in trains, using the vinyl made for the Cricut, so I borrowed the Expression from a friend, and we had fun Christmas Eve!

We are messy crafters in this family!

She had a train cartridge (can't remember which one) and we set out trying to make the vinyl work. We had a little bit of difficulty figuring out the layout of how each piece should go, but we did about 10 thousand test runs and got it to work.

She doesn't have all the pieces up yet, but it's going to look awesome! Her son is absolutely obsessed with trains, so I know he's going to just love having his very own on his walls.

Since I had the Cricut, I wanted to use it for a project I've had my eye on from Pinterest. We are very close with our neighbors, and the husband is an avid fisherman. When the weather is good (and sometimes when it's not) you'll see his truck leaving with his boat attached. He LOVES being out on the water.

Before Christmas I picked up some paper and these perfect stickers.

I used the standard Cricut George & Basic Shapes cartridge to make the letters. My cousin helped with putting them through my Xyron, which is pretty much the coolest scrapbooking tool, ever. She was in awe. If you do much scrapping, or anything to do with stickers, invest in a Xyron. It will change your life!

If you don't know what they are, it's that little pink X in the picture. You can take any piece of paper and turn it into a sticker. It comes with long stripes of adhesive paper. All you do is put the piece into the top, and pull the paper from the bottom. Easy as pie! I LOVE my Xyron.

Mom helped me get the letters all level and even, and pinned the finished page to the frame back.

Because of the horrible lighting in our house I couldn't get a decent picture, but I love the way it turned out! We gave it to them on Christmas, and they liked it too. It's no secret I love giving gifts. It's the best part of the holidays!

Doing all these last minute projects has made me really want to get back in the scrapbooking groove. I love making hairbows and headbands, but my hands are wanting to paper craft. I have another opportunity coming up in the near future to set up a booth for a craft show, so I just might make some cards to sell!

-Jenn (With 2 N's)

Blogger's Anonymous

Hi.

My name is Jennifer.

And my life is so hectic I can't get to my blog.

(Hiiiii Jennifer.)

Regularly scheduled blogging will resume shortly. =)

In the meantime: a sneaky peaky of what I've been up to.

Orange Blossom Special - $8

-Tshirt wrapped headband, with 2 orange, cotton rosettes.

I was just fiddling around, and took a strip of t-shirt I already had cut out (about 1.5" width) that had been stretched out (it makes the fabric roll into itself), and started wrapping it around a cloth headband. I LOVED the effect it gave. Consequently, it's a super comfortable headband.

The Tessa Rosalie - $6

-Miniature hot pink daisy, accented with light pink tulle, with a green & yellow button center. Attached to a narrow, lime green stretchy band.

This little cutie (above) is named after THIS little cutie (below)!

The newest cousin to enter the family: Miss Tessa Rosalie herself! She's gorgeous (the perfect blend of her Momma and Daddy) and I LOVE her. Congrats Alex & Serenity!!

Black Diamond Beauty $6

-Puffy black flower (cotton & satin mixed) with a large argyle button center. Attached to a no-slip stretchy band.

As you can see, I'm kind of obsessed with hair accessories at the present time. It's just so much fun! If you are interested in any of the pieces above, or a custom made piece, just send me a message at jlsdesign@att.net. I'll be happy to oblige!

And if you can keep a secret...I'm looking into opening an Etsy shop when I get a few more pieces under my belt! I'm super excited about it, and hope it all goes as planned.

Happy Crafting!

-Jenn (With 2 N's)

Where has the morning gone?

It's Friday! I was hoping I wouldn't get to this point with only one blog under my belt for the week, but alas, that is what has happened.

It's been a busy sort of week. But, the weekend is upon us, and I'm looking forward to it!

I have had lots of interest in my new hand braided headbands, so I will be hitting the thrift stores this weekend to find some t-shirts! And I've had a hankering to do some new projects that do not involve hair accessories (I know....I'm obsessed), so I'm going to see if any of the local craft stores have some good deals on scrap material.

I've found some wonderful inspiration over on Pinterest for some new crafts, and I can't wait to try them all!

Awhile back I purchased some large and small canvas tote bags from Hobby Lobby that were 1/2 price. I've been itching to do something with them, and I've found tons of ideas this week.

I've seen this done before, and just love the effect the painted doily gives. The tutorial looks super easy, and would be very inexpensive!

This bag just spoke to me. :) I love how it's not perfect. And the patterns are all totally different but they blend so nicely. I don't own a sewing machine, and frankly, sewing machines and I don't usually get along, so I would hand-sew my tote, which I think would give it a nice effect.

If you know me, I mean, REALLY know me, you know I kind of love flip-flops. I have more of them in my closet than regular shoes. I just love them!

So when I found these DIY flip-flops, I feel madly in love. I ADORE these zebra ruffled flippies. The tutorial is in-depth, and requires a sewing machine, so I've been contemplating how to create these sturdy enough by hand sewing them. Ideas??

These, on the other hand, would be MUCH easier to create. And I also love the way they look! I actually used this tutorial and created some flippies, but I used braided cotton (similar to the headbands.) Unfortunately, they didn't turn out so fabulous. So I am going to rip out the fabric and do it over.

So that's what's been going on! Lots of brainstorming and contemplating. Hopefully this next week I'll be able to get back to my craft table and have some stuff to show you!

Have a wonderfully FABULOUS weekend!

-Jenn (With 2 N's)

Recent Projects À la Instagram

The craft table is complete! And before I could get a beautiful picture of it, I went and messed it up. I've found out I'm a messy crafter.

One of my favorite little girl's had a birthday today! So, I spent the weekend making fun hair things for her. She moved with her family at the beginning of summer, and it's been a killer without her and her sister here. I miss them something fierce, but I sent lots of love in her birthday package, so I know she will love them!

Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining (Big Mama & Lil Baby)

-5 strand, hand braided headband in black and gray. Accented with 4 hand woven rosettes.

The adult sized headband was custom ordered, and I had JUST enough material leftover to make a Lil' sized headband for the birthday girl!

Purple Rain

-Purple daisy clip, accented with black tulle and purple & gold center embellishment. Attached to a black stretchy headband. (Can be worn as a clip or headband.)

I have a secret...the middle embellishment is an old clip-on earring I found at a garage sale!! I think I paid a quarter for a handful of old earrings and broaches. Score!

Double Flower Power

-Stacked flower buttons on cloth headband with frilly pink fabric accent.

I'm so happy my craft table is set up, and I can get back in the groove of using my hands to make things. It's better than therapy, people!! And I've found something out: It's hard to mindlessly snack when your hands are busy crafting. Weight loss for the win! =)

What have you been doing with your time?

-Jenn (With 2 N's)

(All items can be duplicated or customized. If you're interested in purchasing, email Jenn at jlsdesign@att.net)

Sneak Peek

Monday night was spent cleaning, rearranging, and moving...all for my craft table!!

It's a little baby 4 footer, but she'll do just fine. Any space, at this point, is wonderful. I'll be on vacation at the end of this week through July 4th, but when I get back, this little corner will be getting lots of attention!

We are Branson, MO bound this Saturday, so the blogging will be limited. But, when I get back, I will be back to crafting!! With plenty of posts and tutorials.

Stay tuned! =)

-Jenn (With 2 N's)

Tuesday Haiku

I've got the craft blues.

My supplies were stored away.

Now I can not craft.

I dream of ribbons.

Headbands. Pretty bows. Flowers

Oh, to be crafting.

Scrapbooks put away.

My creativity weeps.

Bring back my paper!

Satin. Tulle. Cotton.

Where has all the fabric gone?

I just want to craft!

Christmas, Christmas Time is Here

I heard my first rendition of the Chipmunks Christmas song last night. That's when you know the holiday season has definitely started. :)

I knew going into November that my blogging would get sparse but goodness! It seems I'm a busier bee than normal this holiday season. It isn't even December 1st (almost!) and already every Saturday in December has something written on the calendar! And almost all Friday's have something written on them as well.

Of course, after December 22nd it all won't matter because I will be in (wanna guess??).... Yep! You got it! NEW YORK! :)

So, I have TONS of homemade projects going on right now, and I can't blog a single thing about any of them! It makes me sad. BUT, I don't want to be giving away any surprises to certain people I know read my blog. So they will just have to wait. And of course I will post tutorials after Christmas. There's always birthdays and next Christmas! ;-)

We had family over this weekend for Thanksgiving and I attempted a hurried 10 minute project 30 minutes before everyone arrived. I was trying to save some space in my bathroom, and it worked! Just to tease you, I'll post the tutorial tomorrow.

If you have tons of headands, you'll love this!

Happy Monday bloggers!

-Jenn (With 2 N's)

P.S. New Word of the Day!