Things to come to my Etsy Shop...

It's a new year and once again, I am in awe of how quickly another year is gone.  And with the New Year, I am excited to switch gears for a while and return to scrapbooking!  I love working with felted wool sweaters, but I have been working on nothing but feltedl wool for the last 4 or 5 months  (fall craft shows)...but now,  I am ready to work with paper again. 

I have set several ambitious goals for myself  in regards to scrapbooking.  I intend to start and finish several scrapbook albums.  What are the themes?  My kids birthdays and traveling/vacation books. 

Thankfully, I created so many new felted wool  items in the last few months, I think it is also time to update my Etsy store.  The downside of Etsy is that it really does take time to take pictures, edit and do all the postings.   Since my kids went back to school today, it was a good day to start the process of working on my Etsy shop.  I spent most of the morning taking pictures and editing my photos so I am all set.  Hopefully, starting tomorrow I will start working on posting 3 or 5 items each day.   

So, here is a preview of what I will be posting on my Etsy shop.  Lots of felted wool pins...actually they  have a dual purpose, they also have clips so they can be clipped to hair, a headband or even a tote/handbag.

My friend June was the inspiration for many of the pins with the fabric yo-yos.  When she came to visit me last August, she re-introduced me to yo-yos and using them to create pins/clips.    I love using layers of felted wool sweater flower shapes, layers of tulle, fabric yo-yos, and crochet flowers/doilies with button or brad centers.

 These felted flowers were popular this fall at the craft shows.  So I will also be posting these on Etsy in the coming days...weeks.

 Probably my favorite and most time consuming to create are these Felted Rose pins.  Each petal is handsewn to create a large rose pin/clip.  I will also be posting these on Etsy...soon.

A Quilt for My Son Alex

Alex is a 6 year old boy who loves dinosaurs, trains, cars and construction trucks and machinery.  A couple of months ago I was at a local fabric store when I came across this Construction Scene  fabric.  Although I had no intentions of buying fabric to create a quilt that day, that is what I ended up doing.  I have created little baby blankets in the past, but never actually created a quilt, especially one large enough to fit a twin size bed.

While at the store, I thought to myself  "I can do this."  I have friends who quilt and I am sure they will help me with this project.  So, I took a leap of faith (believe in myself) that I could create a special quilt for Alex.  

 My friend Amy loaned me some quilting books and more importantly, showed me features my sewing machine has that I was not aware of....like the fact that my sewing machine has the ability to lower the feed dogs and that my machine came with free motion quilting foot and a walking foot! 

And...

My friend Kelli invited me to join her this December when her church group had their monthly quilting get together.  The ladies were full of encouragement and gave me great advise on how to proceed with the quilting...especially the free style motion quilting.  

So, I basically jumped in and worked many days and nights to create this quilt for Alex.  My first quilt.

Alex loved his quilt and was surprised on Christmas Day.    I can't get a picture of the entire quilt (due to its size), so I have pictures of showing portions of the quilt.  The center panel is what started this, an entire construction scene including a food truck...which Alex loves (we watch a lot  of food network shows and the food trucks show is one of Alex's favorite).

A Christmas Eve Tradition

Baking and decorating a gingerbread house has been an annual tradition for my family since Christmas 1997...the year my daughter Laura was born.  Like the sugar cookies, I had decorated gingerbread houses since I was a teenager, on and off.  However, this has now become an annual tradition for my family.  We all add our decorative touches and over the years, our goal is to make each year's gingerbread house a little different from the prior years.  We all decorate our own gingerbread boy or girl since it represents us.

This is the Wagner Gingerbread House for Christmas 2010:

Laura decided to create snowmen in front of the gingerbread  house...probably because we have an assortment of snowmen decorating the front of our house.

L

 Alex was also very creative this year.  He created many toys for the gingerbread house.  I decorated the trees and Alex added toys like a toy train circling the train. Other toys he created was a sled and a truck.

 Gingerbread decorating the Christmas Tree on the back of the Gingerbread House represents David.  Alex has a candy cane smile and is surrounded by toys, (all created by him...so creative!)

In the back of the Gingerbread house is "David" and "Alex"

 Laura decorated the side of the house with crushed cany canes and added a little candy cane bow to her gingerbread girl "Laura."

 "Isabel" by the front door of the house.  I love ruffles so my gingerbread girl has a ruffled skirt.  Laura did a fantastic job with "Laura's" swirl skirt...again, very proud of my kids creativity.

A bird eye view of our gingerbread home...

Christmas Sugar Cookies - Our Family Tradition

After David and I  married, we  have created our own family traditions.  After our daughter Laura was born, more Christmas traditions were started.  When Laura was a toddler, I started an annual tradition of decorating sugar cookies.  I had decorated sugar cookies, on and off for many years prior but it has now been an annual tradition for us for over 10 years.    Ten years ago, I decorated most of the cookies.  Now, I only decorate a few cookies while Laura (age 13), David and Alex (6 year old son) decorate most of the cookies and I am more of a facilitator. I love providing this experience for my family...it is our family tradition, one I hope my kids will continue with their own families.

This year, we were able to share this experience with Sophie (age 14).  She helped us bake and decorate the sugar cookies.  Sophie did great and we all had a great time and now Sophie has many cookies to share with her family. 

Laura's Cookies:

 Isabek, Alex and David's Cookies

 David's Sugar Cookies:

 Alex's Sugar Cookies:

 Sophie's Sugar Cookies

Turquoise, Green and Ivory Felted Wool Scarf - Another Christmas Gift

This scarf is a Christmas Gift to a dear friend in San Antonio.  Like all the scarfs I recently created, I found them an enjoyable experience.  Especially after I realized I like created the finished edge which gives it a scallop like finish.

Blue, Grey and Green Felted Wool Scraf

This is a scarf I cut about a year ago and then put it away in a ziploc bag.  Like many of my projects, I start but I don't always complete.  So, a year later, motivated by an upcoming craft fair I finally completed it.  It's a good thing I took pictures of all my new scarfs before the craft show because this one sold at the Bear Creek Craft Fair.  I really had a lot of fun creating the small rosette pin.

Another Felted Wool Scarf - A Christmas Gift

Since my mom does not have a computer at home she does not get to see my blog posting....unless my sister shows her the blog.  So, Gaby...don't show this to mom.  I hope my mom likes it, it's one of her Christmas gifts this year.  Like me, my mom loves flowers...especially roses.  I see a rose, I think of my mom, always. So I created a more simple type of rosette, grouped them in a cluster of three for this pin that I attached to the scarf.