Bug-Eyed Owl and Rainbow Blanket (crochet)

 

Hello everybody :) How is your May starting off?  We are getting rain (as usual) but today was just sunny enough to be able to get a few quick photos taken in the back yard. 

This big bug-eyed owl toy was a pattern from a book by VooDoo Maggie. I don't have it on hand to put the exact title, but I'm fairly certain no one else has that name if you go look it up!  The book is full of unique crocheted toy patterns that don't look like everything else out there. (A plus!)  

 Second up-- a rainbow stripes blanket with fringe/tassels on each end.  This is crib-sized, or lap sized if you like.  One end has red tassels and the other has purple. I couldn't decide which color, so went with both. :D  I will be posting this one in my Etsy shop as soon as possible.  

For everyone enjoying sun right now.. LUCKY!! And for those of us in the rain.. at least we have an excuse to stay inside and crochet. :D 

Monster and Bear Hats (crochet)

Monster Hat!!!!!!  Even though it's a monster, it's hard to not think of it as cute. :D  I was asked to make this hat for one of my nieces and I was more than happy to do it.                                                The pattern is from www.emiegracecreations.etsy.com and was well-written to follow and make it look exactly like the one in the Etsy.

I can see where it would be very simply to make variations on this hat for a million different looks. :)

And a bear hat!  This one is actually my own pattern/design.  I was asked to make a bear hat and although I have patterns for several different animal hats for kids, bear hat is not one of them.  When googling images of other bear hats to get an idea of what they look like, this is about what I was seeing...in various colors.  I like this one but I think I might like it even more if it was a dark brown with tan accents. (the opposite it is).  

This particular hat will be a give-away item on another blog soon- stay tuned for more info!! :D

Crochet Candy and Clay Gnome

Good afternoon! Wow two posting days in a week...I'm shocked at myself. :)  And I even have a bit of the flu going on today, so I'm amazed anything is getting done at all.

Well for starters, sharing a cute little candy...uh..thing.  I didn't have a pattern for this, just made it up.  It became part of one of my niece's birthday gifts last month and she can put it on a necklace or barrette or whatever she likes.  Or add it to her play kitchen foods! :)  One of these days I'll write up a pattern for it hopefully!

Another garden gnome pick to add to my growing collection! This time he actually IS a gardener, complete with watering can and a flower behind his ear. :D  I do wish I'd gotten a better picture of the back..he is one of the only ones I've made without a jacket because he is wearing over-alls with suspenders and I wanted to see that.  But anyway, he is living with the rest of the gnomes now and he makes an even dozen so far that I have managed to keep. :) I'll have to get pics of the whole set soon to share.

Pie Afghan of many colors (crochet)

 This is one of those projects I couldn't wait to share!  I bought a Leisure Arts book called "Great Grannies: 7 scrap afghans" from Amazon.  I want to say it was around $8 or $9 but definitely worth it because all 7 of the creations are now on my to-do list.  Not like some books you buy and only want to make one or two of the things inside. 


One of the best parts, aside from the wonderful photos and unique blanket ideas that aren't in every single other crochet book... is that they are all made using only small bits of yarn for each motif.  And you don't have to be an extremely experienced crocheter to do these!!

 The blanket I chose to do first is called "Piece of the Pie" and you can probably see why.  Instead of all squares, it is all triangles!  136 to be exact!  I didn't even care about which particular colors I put together, just used up every bit of scrap I had and then started in on make dents into new skeins.  The whole project is using Red Heart Super Saver yarn. Normally it would take me a while to finish a blanket, but I was so excited to see how this one turned out that I completed it from start to finish in only 13 days!

The only problem I ran into were making the white circles that attach the points together (in the center of each hexagon).  That part is done after the whole blanket is sewn together and for some reason, the pattern wasn't telling me quite right how to do it...so I just made up my own way and it worked out just fine.  Maybe the pattern was wrong...maybe I was.   ??  Either way, you do that, then add the outside border and voila! All done. :)  

It's just over 4' by 5' or so... great throw for the couch or use as a bigger lap blanket. :)  
Haven't decided wether to sell or keep this one yet...I suppose if the right offer came along, maybe.  But for now it is living comfortably in a clear bag (so I can still admire it) next to the couch. :D

Angry Birds, Mike Wazowski, and Beanies! (crochet)

Good evening!  I can't believe it was actually 62* outside today when just a couple weeks ago it was snowing and 15*! Crazy weather can't make up its mind.  No matter what kind of weather it is, it's always fun to make hats. :)

The pattern for this awesome Angry Birds hat came from a youtube.com user by the name of "tjw1963".  She has a video showing how to crochet it as well as links to the written pattern.  I made this particular one for one of my SIL's husband. 

These six were for family members.  I'd asked each of them before Christmas what their 3 most favorite colors were and here we are.  Now they all have their own custom colored hat!  Just basic beanies. :)

And finally for tonight.... an amigurumi Mike Wazowski toy (from Monsters, Inc. movie).  I don't know why the photo came out with him looking a mustardy-green color... he is actually more like lime-green.  Like the cartoon!  Silly camera!

I made him for one of my nieces who just turned 3 and is going through a "Monsters, Inc." phase.  Unfortunately I did not write down how I made him as I went along, though I really wish I had because he isn't from a pattern- I just made him up.  I do think if I made another one, I'd make his head/body bigger.  But for a first try, I think he came out pretty good!

His mouth, by the way, is crocheted grey underneathe, but the teeth are cut out of felt and craft-glued on.  I tried crocheting the teeth in several ways and it was just not happening....so felt it was!! What do you think of the final guy? :)


Off to work on more projects!! :)  Hope everyone enjoys the pictures above and maybe get inspired to make some as well. :)

Throw rug and granny square pillow (crochet)

Good evening!! I am back from a somewhat-partial break after the holidays.  Here we are over 2 weeks into the new year already, so I figured I better make myself present! :)

 How did everyone's holiday go?  I am back into the full swing of things around here and currently working on a nifty blanket which I hope to share soon.  For now, though, I can start sharing things that were made as Christmas gifts that I couldn't share before in case anyone peeked here and saw! :D


This awesome rug started off as 16 (yes SIXTEEN!!) skeins of yarn in very, very random colors.  If you look closely you can see there are 2 different striping patterns...one with 8 colors and the other also with 8 colors.  Individually the yarns were actually rather ugly and none of them matched or coordinated.  But when you put them all together, they turned into this fabulous thing and were a great way to use up a lot of out-dated yarns! (I inherited a bunch from my grandmother and this throw rug thus became a sentimental gift for my mom!)  P.S. I used a "Q" hook and just did an oval, working extra stitches (all in SC) where needed to round out the ends and such, but there are plenty of patterns and books available, too, if you wanted to use them.

 Next up is one of my newest favorite things to work on (granny squares!).  This was also a gift for my mom, although this time I picked the colors on purpose to match ;)  No pattern was used, just bought a 14x14" pillow form (around $6 at Walmart) and started working a basic granny square (I believe with an "H" hook) until it measured big enough to fit across one side of the pillow.  Then I made an identical second one, held the two together and worked a SC border through both thicknesses on 3 sides (working in extra stitches around the corner to keep it flat and nice), stuffed the pillow into it, and finished up the 4th/final side.  Weaved in ends and voila!  :D 

Up close view of granny square pillow :)








Alrighty, I've got to get more photos downloaded to share for next time, but I hope everyone is having a wonderful start off to the new year!! :)

Candy Cane Nails and Amigurumi Squid!

Hiiiiiii!! I keep trying to be more diligent about adding posts to my blog but I swear this time of year is always the biggest challenge.  Lots of things on the ol' to-do list!


Here's an easy holiday nail art design that almost anyone could do.  Peppermint candy cane!  Simply apply a base coat to protect your nails, then paint the entire nail white.  Allow that to dry a couple minutes, then add red stripes in varying thicknesses either using a striping polish, or a thin paint brush from the craft store!  Finish with a clear top coat and you're all set!

I'm sure everyone knows being close to the holidays, it gets harder to share things on here since a lot of what I make are for gifts and I wouldn't want to spoil any surprises!! But that doesn't mean I haven't made anything outside of that... :)

This little crocheted guy (squid) was a special request as a Christmas gift for someone through Etsy.  I will be shipping him off tomorrow morning to his new home.  

I have also been adding new items to my Etsy shop for those looking for any holiday gift ideas... everything is unique and there's a lot of variety!! Check it out :)

www.maebellecreations.etsy.com      Also feel free to contact me about custom orders!

"Chinese Acrobat" hat (crochet)

This crocheted hat is called a "Chinese Acrobat" hat in one of Leisure Art's latest pattern books all about hats called 'Heady Affairs'.  There are 7 hat patterns altogether and they all seem to be on the above-beginner level side.  Several of them feature cable patterns or other complex designs rather than just your plain ol' beanie cap.  

It took me a couple of days to complete this one and it was made for someone specific for Christmas.. so hopefully he doesn't see this any time soon! haha :D  

I do recommend the book if you want some different styles of crocheted hats and are ready to take the next step up from beginner patterns. :)


On a separate note, I will be adding several jar necklaces with mico-mini polymer clay gnomes, candies and snowmen to my Etsy shop this afternoon.  If you are on the hunt for holiday gifts, head on over and check it out!  www.maebellecreations.etsy.com

Pink Cable Hat and Purple Neck Warmer (crochet)

Happy Veteran's Day to everyone!! And a special big Thank You to all veterans out there :) 

Today's post (just had to have one on 11/11/11) I have a couple of new crocheted items that I've done over the last week or so.  Above is a pastel pink hat done in a cable stitch.  It's the first time I've tried making a hat using that stitch pattern...and considering that, I think it turned out great! :D  Adult size (or teen) and thick, so very warm.  I will be listing it on Etsy in the near future...if you're interested before I get it listed, drop me a line. :)

And second, a beautiful neck warmer in a fluffy, soft purple yarn with bright purple buttons to close it. This pattern design came from one of my more recent Crochet World magazines and was relatively quick to make.  I love that it has a popcorn stitch in it for some variety on the look and also to make it a bit thicker and so, warmer.   I will also get this listed on Etsy soon and as above, drop me an email if you're interested in purchasing it before I have a chance to list it.  

I did also make another of these in the exact same style/yarn but with a mint-green color. :) 

www.maebellecreations.etsy.com                maebellecreations@hotmail.com

Mummy, Gnome and Gingerbread Man Scarf!

Rawrrr...No?  Well that's what I picture looking at the top photo :)  I didn't make that guy...the other half did.  I made the birthday gnome and there they are all ready to get wrapped in bubbles for their trip to my S.I.L.s house.  They were part of her birthday gift. :D  She loves gnomes and zombies...so he decided to make a mummy instead (do they count as zombies?). 

And this scarf- what a pain in the you-know-where! But it turned out so great, I'm glad I decided not to scrap it.  The pattern is from the Twinkie Chan book and the little gingerbread guy are indeed super fast/easy to crochet...but sewing them all together and putting on the details was time-consuming.  The suggested way to do white "icing" is to make a long chain and sew it on... I decided to surface crochet instead.  I do think it looks nicer than it would have if I'd sewn on a chain, but boy did it take some time!!   I probably would've made the mouth smaller than the pattern specifies, too, but oh well... it's done!

Definitely cute results :)

Slouchy Hat (crochet) and Marble Nail Art

One of the hat designs I've seen a lot lately for crocheting are these slouchy hats. They are really roomy and comfortable, so even people with long hair could wear them and keep their hair inside the hat if they chose.

Front view ^^^ Most hats I make start at the top, but for this one you make the band first and work your length from there. I used a variegated mixed-fiber yarn. The pattern is from the Caron yarn company website as a freebie under the title "Urban Jungle". You can go to www.caron.com to look it up if you'd like to try it also.

One difference I made from the pattern was the style of "popcorn" stitch. Their version has you do 9 SC into the spaces for each popcorn and I didn't like how difficult that made it for me to manipulate the hook and work the yarn. So I did mine as DCs instead and only used 5 per. So if you go try their pattern and do it as written, it will probably have a slightly different look, but the same basic idea. :)


Again with the huge photo of nails!!!?? I don't know why it does that. As you can see, I still needed to do a little more "cleaning" up around the edges from where polish got on the skin. But you can see the idea of what I was going for! This is called Water-Marble nail art and happens to be the first time I tried it. Definitely not perfect, but not bad for a first shot. If you'd like to see how it is done, head on over to youtube.com and look up "water marble nail art"...you will see many choices and end results that are very pretty and varied! :)

Sparkly Nail Polish Rings and more Nail Art!

I absolutely love crafts that are easy to do and are inexpensive to try. These 3 rings are all made with cabachons (or flat-backed clear marbles) that I bought in the floral department of the craft store. You simply paint the flat side with a sparkly nail polish of your choice and let it dry. Then glue it to either a ring finding (far right photo) or you can do like I did and crochet a little setting and band with size 10 cotton crochet thread. For those two on the left, I used a dab of hot glue in the inside to push the bottom of the rock onto so it would be sure to stay, even though I did the setting portion pretty tight so it wasn't likely to fall out even without the glue.

If anyone is interested in knowing how I crocheted up the setting and band, please leave a comment.



For this design of 5 different Halloween monsters, I was inspired by a Youtube user by the name of "IHaveACupcake". She makes very clear videos and always manages to make them look easy. ;)



And last but not least...candy corn inspired stripes!! This was my own idea, though I'm sure other people have probably done it. I don't know why the photo is so darn big compared to the others either..??? Oh well :)

Here's how I did them:
*base polish on bare nail first.
*paint whole nail an opaque white color (I used "snow me white" by SinfulColors)
*paint the nail tips a yellow of your choice (I used "the wonder yellows" by WetNWild)
*paint a stripe in the middle with an orange of your choice (I used "9.0.2.1.Orange" by WetNWild)
*finish up by letting the paint dry a couple minutes, then cover with a fast-drying top coat

That's it! :) These WetNWild colors are new, and they all seem to have t.v. show themed names... The orange is great- has a golden sparkle in it and the yellow is more of a pearly color. I recommend them. :)

2 Capes, a Gnome, and a Candy Necklace!

Good evening!! We had a moment of sunshine today (shock!) so I took advantage of it to get a couple of photos of these two capes I finished up this week. The red one is going to be part of a Little Red Riding Hood costume for Halloween. The multi-color one (Red Heart's "peruvian print") is for one of my niece's Christmas gift. Figured I better start now so I have time to make all this stuff!! :)

I love the pom-pom tie for the red one, but it was suggested in the pattern for use with kids over 3 and the button-tab option for kids 3 and under, so that is why they have different closings. I have to apologize I don't have the name of the book the pattern was from...I checked it out at the library already had to turn it back in. (Forgot to write down what it was). I did end up making several changes along the way, but for the most part the pattern was easy to follow.





A new gnome was created, too...this guy has a nice curly beard and is sticking out his tongue to get at his lollipop he's holding. If only he could reach!!! :D



With the left-over clay from making the gnome's lollipop, I rolled out some super thin "snakes" and cut them into candy sticks. :D Like yesterday's post with the micro mini gnome in a necklace...these are the same kind of bottles. Approx. 1 1/2 inches tall and a cork glued in..whole thing strung on a ball chain necklace. The little candies are pink, white and purple shades all swirled together... I love how bright it is. :)

Snowmen, Zombies and Granny Square Gloves (clay & crochet)

Had some fun with polymer clay a few days ago and not sure why (maybe the fact that we had to turn on the heat for the first time this Fall??) but I decided to make snowmen!! These two poor snowmen are sitting on a snowy hill roughly the size of a fifty cent piece. One fell over and the other is sad over it :( :(

SUPER-miniature snowman in a bottle, which is approximately 1 1/2" tall. It is hanging on a necklace and all sealed up so he can't escape! :)

Granny square fingerless mittens I made up using brown, cream, and fushia pink... I love the color combo!

And finally something a little more in-tune to the current time... a ZOMBIE!!! He is a custom order for a special person and hopefully they either don't see this post or already have the zombie hehehe....it's a surprise ;) I had to sew on a heart button to make him less creepy and 100% adorable, too. :)

All of the other items are available...if interested before I get them listed on Etsy, drop a line! :) (other than the zombie! sorry :P )

Amigurumi Peanut Butter & Jelly (+ g.i.t.d. and plaid nails!!)

If you're looking for a great polish for Halloween this year, I'd like to recommend O.P.I.'s "zom-body to love"... it is a glow-in-the-dark green color (see above left) and it REALLY glows quite bright! Design on the right is done with a random assortment of polish brands and colors into a simple plaid design. Use purple, orange, black and white for Halloween!! :)


4 pieces ... bread slice, peanut butter, grape jelly, bread slice....

...put all together into a peanut butter and jelly sandwich!! Fun toy for kids :D This pattern is from the "Tasty Crochet" book if you're interested in checking it out. :)

I have lots more to share over the next several days (still catching up from the non-internet stretch). Stay tuned! :)

Birdie, Tree Stump, Cupcakes, Strawberries! (crochet and nail art)

A couple other nail art designs seen around here recently...cupcakes on the left and strawberries on the right. :)

This cute little set is actually two toys. The red bird is just sitting on top of the tree stump, but not attached. The pattern is from the "Amigurumi Toy Box" pattern book. I love that book and have made *almost* everything in it...still a few more to do. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves to crochet little toys!!

Amigurumi snowmen, long elf-ish hats, and tiny stockings! (crochet)

Is anyone else glad that it is finally Fall and Summer is over? I don't know why, but this has always been my favorite time of the year. Maybe someday if I get into a house big enough to have a garden, I'll be more outdoorsy and like the Summer. But for now, I am enjoying being able to turn on the oven to bake cookies and pies without heating up the house too much!

Another thing I love about this time of year is making hats!! Somehow the lighting is off a bit in the photo, but it is supposed to be green and yellow stripes with white in there. It hangs really low, about down to the top of your pants pockets with a huge pom-pom. I can do these in any color combo, but chose these for this one. I've got similar ones listed in my Etsy shop if you're interested, of if you do want specific colors- drop me a line!



Mr. and Mrs. Snowman all bundled up! These were something I just made up while I was watching a (rather boring) movie last week. I've decided they have to go as a pair because I wouldn't want them to be lonely. :) They're not listed yet, but hopefully soon...



And finally a miniature stocking. These are perfect for throwing small stuff in, or even holding a gift card. The pattern for this is from "The Big Book of Holiday Crochet" by Annie's Attic. I found it pretty easy to follow and there were other color varieties in there as well, so you're not stuck with just the traditional red/white look if you wanted something else. :)

Super Long Stocking Hats (crochet)

Howdy all!! As you can see...I finally managed to pick up a fake head to use for modeling my hats and getting pictures! The thing is scary and when not in use, it lives on top of a shelf where I don't have to look at it. :P

Anyway, today's post is about 2 stocking hats I crocheted over the last few days. The green and black one above is a bit longer than the variegated one below, but both are quite long. I *love* this style of crochet hat and it makes me happy to make them. No two are exactly alike because I use random yarns and color schemes and no pattern at all. Just start at the end and work my way to the base for as long as I feel like it.

The variegated hat below is with a yarn from Hobby Lobby called "I Love This Yarn" and I had bought it last time we were traveling and I had the opportunity to go into that store. We don't have Hobby Lobby where we live (boo!) but I sure wish we did because I'd love to get more of that yarn...it is super soft and feels like the expensive stuff without actually being expensive! It is a little more than the basic Red Heart brand, but not much. And so worth it!! :D

I've already listed the striped hat above on my Etsy shop for anyone interested in getting it... this other one will be listed later today or tomorrow. :)