Knit a Kindle Kozy!

I always thought “cozies” were kind of silly, as if inanimate objects get chilly LOL! 😀 But after receiving a Kindle Fire for my birthday I realized I needed a case for it so I could carry it in my purse without it getting damaged. Now, I could go out and buy a plain black boring one OR I could knit one that fits my bright pink, pom-pom with fluffy trim personality!

 

I still think I might add a crochet flower or felt applique to the front or something. When I got near the end I though “gee, this would be a great project for a simple cable on the front but as you know “I do not rip out stitches, it is forward or nothing with me!” so maybe there will be a cable on the next one. These are so quick to make maybe I’ll whip up a few for this years craft fair! It is a perfect “Knit it in an evening” project!

 

Here is the pattern for a small knitting loom (24 pegs). I used the blue loom from the Nifty Knitter round kit. The Yarn I used is all from Lion Brand: Hometown USA (Super bulky), Fun Fur and Funky fur (held together for the trim. 2 pairs of #10 (US) needles, a large crochet hook (J), plastic yarn needle and scissors.

Directions: Knit on all pegs of the round blue loom (use the directions that come with your loom) until your tube is as long as your tablet.

Divide the stitches between 2 #10(us) needles. You will have 12 stitches on each needle and the ball end of the yarn should be at the point end of your needles. Hold both needles in your left hand. Now you need to do a double needle bind off: Using another needle slide through the front of the first stitch on both needles, draw one loop through both of the stitches (you are making a stitch on the right hand needle) and drop the two stitches you just went though. Repeat. Now use the left hand needle (you have two needles in your left hand, you only need to use one) to pull the first new stitch over the 2nd new stitch thus binding off the fist stitch on the RH needle, Now you have 10 stitches on your LH needles and 1 stitch on your RH needle and 1 stitch bound off. Repeat until you have bound off all stitches and one stitch remains on the RH needle. Cut string leaving a 6″ tail and pull the loose end through the loop on your needle, remove needle, and tug to tighten. Weave end in with a plastic yarn needle. Tip: Turn the knitting inside out and weave in the ends there where it cannot be seen!

To finish crochet fun-fur and fancy fur (hold strands together and weave in ends as you go) around the top edge. I used a DC stitch to add lots of fluff but you can use a simple chain stitch, it is very forgiving since the yarn is so fluffy no one will notice a bad stitch 🙂

 

If you are knitting this for the original kindle you may want to try adding a cable, it will add some more stretch to the sleeve and grab the smaller device better. If you have an iPAD try using the next bigger loom. You can make purses, bags and even hats this way. Looms are great for beginner knitters, kids or folks that are tired of slow knitting and want to complete a project fast! If you can’t find super bulky yarn simply hold two strands of worsted weight yarn together! This is a great project for that lonely one ball of beautiful yarn you have kicking around:)

 

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

 

Let’s Have a Backyard Campout!

Nothing says summer like tenting out in the backyard. If you are hosting a camping themed birthday or just want a fun way to invite someone “uptacamp” check out these fun interactive invitations now available at Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff:

The kit also comes with a sheet of 5 water bottle wraps (you can print the campers name on them so they know what drink is theirs!) and a sheet of 4 treat bag toppers that would be super cute to package up a s’mores kit to go! Since it’s digital you can print as many as you need and use it over and over again…not bad for $3 eh?

I made the envelopes out of free maps I grabbed at the local tourist brochure rack, I got 5 from one map! The step by step instructions are also included in the kit!

I recommend printing the invites on plain cardstock. The folding of the tent flaps can crack the surface of photo paper:

Weather you are a mom looking for a fun birthday party theme or a scout leader getting the kids ready for camp the Campout Printable Party Kit is the perfect fit! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy camping…er, I mean happy crafting!

You Party Animal, You!

Happy Saturday folks! do you have a lot of birthdays to attend? Well, why not make a few fun card like these using fun “party animal” stamps from Lost Coast Designs:

 

I can’t resist animals dressing up or acting like people, it’s just too dang cute! These shakers (I did a video on making shaker windows, you can see it here) are filled simply with standard 1/4″ punched scraps of cardstock. I love how the paper circles bounce around in the shaker. Wouldn’t it be cool to use this technique on a scrapbook page with a photo of a kid an a “ball crawl” house? I think I have a photo like that from out first trip to Storyland…I’ll have to find it!

 

So, at the Stampin up party I went to I bought the jewelry tag punch that I used for the banner on the cards (FYI you can use any shape for a banner!)  I sell handmade jewelry at craft fairs so it would be very handy and I love little spaces to stamp words and letters on cards. The tag does not have a hole in it though and if you want to punch one it likes to get stuck in your tiny punch. So I solved the problem by punching the inner hole first, you can use this tip to make tags from other small shapes too, use what you’ve got!

Here are the two cards close up, this first one is for a party we are attending tomorrow using the Circus Dog stamps:

 

Ane here is a generic one using Party Hat Cats I can have on hand when I need it:

 

I really recommend you have a look at the fun and funky stamps from Lost Coast Designs, they are unique quirky finds you can’t get elsewhere, I use them so much!

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

DIY Card Candy & 2-Step Stampin’ Tip!

Remember how I said I couldn’t bear to part with any of the scraps from my Kiyoshi Basic Grey papers? Well, I have nothing left but a few megar scraps and I had to put them to use on a card/bookmark set. I was down to my ugliest scraps but I still love it!

I even punched circles and flowers out of the wee scraps and embossed them with a ball end stylus to make 3-D embellishments:

 

Here is a quick video to show you how:

Here is a photo for those of you who don’t like to watch videos:

 

Now, I have a gripe with this stamp set, it was the $5 special from Stampin’ up this month, I went to a SU party and decided to get it, I figured “$5, what the heck?” But these buggers are hard to line up, not to mention the solid stamp is larger than the outline…I’m not a perfectionist but that irked me! So, Here is what I did to make the best of the situation. I picked a point on each of the stamps and made a mark on the edge with permanent marker, I made sure the mark was in the same place for its corresponding outline/shadow. Now when I stamp I can be pretty sure the images will line up.

 

Another tip is after inking the shadow stamp I rock the edges on a scrap of paper to erase the outside edge of ink making the colored area fit in the outline better. See the nasty inky outline on the card vs the softer more lined up images from the bookmark.

I also bought the cheveron embossing folder at the SU! party, I really like it too! I’ll be sharing the other couple of things I bought later, til then happy crafting!

Shaker Box Tutorial & WOYWW

Happy Wednesday folks! A week or two ago a blog reader asked me to do a tutorial on making a shaker card. The shaker tag I had made was roughly slapped together (it looked fine from the outside though and that was all I cared about) but I wanted a more elegant method if I was going to show someone else how to make one…I know “Lindsay” and “elegant” are not commonly associated but I came up with a rather elegant method of making a shaker:

 

All the stamps are from About Art Accents, they carry the best Oriental themed stamps, use the coupon Lindsay10% to save on your order! This fun shaker card only takes 10 minutes to make and it is easy. Also I share several stamping tips in the video:

Here is a close up of the window:

 

You can use confetti, glitter, beads, buttons or small punched shapes in the window, be creative!

 Oh and before I forget, today is Wednesday (as in What’s on Your Workdesk Wednesday) so here is a pic of my desk after I made my card:

 

In case you are wondering I promptly cleaned it up after taking the photo! No, really! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Gettin “squishy” with it!

Happy Monday everyone! What does hair gel have to do with scrapbooking? It’s an odd question huh? Check out these projects and you will see:

 

The jam jars on the card and scrapbook page are made with hair gel! Do you want to find out how? Check out the video:

How do you like the new camera angle? I finally figured out how to film right-side-up…It only took 93 videos LOL!

 

I know many of you are horrified at the thought of a bag of hair gel living in your scrapbook page, if that will keep you up at night just make the card instead 🙂 I am not too worried about it because if something did leak it will be in a page protector all by itself so it could only sully its own page. Besides, I can always print more photos.

 

How can you resist the squishable goodness?

 

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Love & Marriage…

Yesterday was my husband’s and my 11th wedding anniversary! It’s hard to believe we have been married that long, we dated nearly 3 years before we got hitched too, my how time files! I made him this card to celebrate:

 

The sexy couple on the card is a stamp from About Art Accents (save 10% with the coupon Lindsay10%) the set of stamps is called Best Day and it is on sale for $9.99 and the postage is only .75 cents, I love it that they don’t gouge you on postage. 🙂 The sentiment I found on the internet, it sums up my feelings perfectly:

 

I used a variety of my alcohol based markers for coloring. I picked up a pack of the new skin tone Spectrum markers by Crafter’s Companion on sale a month ago, I used them to color the skin. Both times I used them they felt really dry, I know the lighter alcohol markers often don’t feel as juicy as the darker ones but these were really dry.  Has anyone else had that problem or did I get a bum pack?

 

I wanted a little extra “oomph” around the couple so I stenciled a border for a stencil book I have, easy peasy! The rolled flowers are a Quilled Creations die (set of 3) I grabbed with a coupon. They had a whole display of quilling products at ACmoore the last time I was in and that makes me really happy because I love quilling and I am glad it is getting popular again!

In case you are wondering what we did for our anniversary, we went ti dinner, a movie and hit the batting cages…as they say growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional! Til next time happy crafting!

Tutorial: How to Mount Rubber Stamps

Honestly, I had in mind a much more exciting blog post for today but after locking myself out of my house, breaking back in and taking three surly arguing kids to the grocery store my creative energy is KAPUT! Not to mention that this ordeal has made me a tad bit irritable myself 🙂 Luckily, I can share a video on mounting rubber stamps that I shot earlier this week, have a look-see:

Any questions? So, go ahead an order unmounted rubber stamp from your favorite online supplier and buy them at stamp shows. They are easy to mount and much cheaper too! Anyone up for a game of Jenga?…Oh, wait, I used all of my Jenga blocks to mount stamps on! 😀

Happy crafting!

Video Tutorial: Pop-Up Slider Card!

Howdy folks! This weeks challenge at Oriental Stamp Art was to make a pop-up slider card. Since I have never tried this type of card before I decided to give it a go:

 

FYI the card on the left shows the card with the tag pulled out, the one on the right has the tag pushed in…It will make sense when you watch the video. The blue ink I used is Stampin Up! Brilliant Blue.

It was really fun and super quick to make (like 15 minutes!) and these beautiful Asian stamps from About Art Accents were just perfect. Remember you save 10% on all About Art Accents and Art Neko Stamps with my coupon code: Lindsay10% Ain’t it good to have connections 😀 Here is a real-time video on how to make this card, see I told you it was quick!

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!