Men's Christian retreat table decorations

Helping out with a men's retreat by creating a table 

decoration which illustrates the theme.

It was a struggle to come up with an idea, 

but here is what I have.

The theme is Lay Your Burdens Down.

This first picture is a man carrying 

heavy burdens.

 This next one is the man laying the burdens 

down at the cross.

 This last one is the man praising God 

for taking those burdens.

 Here is a side view of the triangle, and 

for those who want to know each side 

is the size of a piece of printer paper.

It's made with heavy poster board for the 

silhouette frames, tissue paper for the colors, 

clear plastic inside to prevent puncturing the 

tissue paper, and it's all just taped together.

 And, inside is a string of micro LED lights hung 

on a couple of strings.

Have a great day!!  :)

Charm Earrings & Rubberband Bracelets

I received many packages of charms and wondered 

what to do with them.  Then I decided that I could 

make earrings out of them.  Our sweet granddaughter 

chose the Neapolitan Ice Cream Sandwich charms 

for her earrings, and this is her first ever pair of 

hanging earrings and she loves them.

 Another view.

 There were these adorable donuts, but no one wanted 

them so they became a charm bracelet for a young 

girl we know.   As you can see there were plenty of 

other novelty charms turned into earrings.

 And a lot of these plastic flowers in various colors. 

 More charms in a great variety.

 And even more.

 And our wonderful granddaughters made these 

rubberband bracelets(the items on the left are some 

of my tatting which were posted long ago on my 

tatting blog.

Hope this inspires you!!  :)

Empty Tomb Treats

I wanted a neat Easter treat to make for one of our church groups and this is what I found.

The "recipe" is here:  

 http://www.freefuneaster.com/wp-content/uploads/Easter-Empty-Tomb-Treat-Recipe.pdf

 I changed it a little.  I added these little chocolate butter button cookies I found, and I used chocolate graham crackers, and green spray icing.  The little flags come with the "recipe" and you just print and cut apart.  We didn't glue them to the tooth picks, we just taped them.  :)

Granddaughter costumes DONE!!! :)

Natalie's Cape and mask(mask was bought).  

 Natalie's Princess costume.  (wish I could see her in it)

 Madison's Fairy costume front.  (would love to see her in this too)

 Madison's Fairy costume back.  :)  (wings were bought)

Costume update

Madison's Fairy dress getting close to finished.  But.....it still needs lots of work!!! 

 Another view-this time with the light behind it.

 Natalie's top DONE!!!  :)

Told you I wasn't a professional!!  :D    Just doing the almost best that I can-I am finding out that I really, really prefer my tatting now!!!  :)

Madison's costume(Fairy)

This is Madison's Fairy costume in progress.  It's just an idea of how it will somewhat look when finished(hopefully!!).  :)

 This next picture is hopefully to show the iridescence, shimmery, and glittery materials closer.  

Can't wait to be done with both!!  The girls are coming this weekend for fittings and hopefully to take them home, but I sure can't promise that today!!!  :)

Working on Natalie's Princess costume

Here is the Princess costume I have been working on for our oldest granddaughter.

This week I started sewing on Wednesday and have this much done already.  

This is the top(the purple bead string will have to be sewn on by hand and where it's laying is a rough  idea of how it will look when attached).

 Next is the skirt.  The puffs on the side look much better than I thought they would.  The waist isn't finished yet, nor the hem.  Also, there will be 3(if I get them all done) strands of the purple bead string running completely around the skirt toward the bottom.

 Here is the top without the beads, and the hem still isn't finished yet.

 The pink material is so stiff that the skirt stands on it's own.  It stood on the chair all night.  :)

 And here it is from the back standing.  Crazy huh???   Oh, there is a cape to make to go with this also-hmmmm....will I get all this done?????

I really only have 2 weeks to get this finished and get the Fairy costume(which the material is mostly cut out already) done, because my dad is having surgery the following week.  Oh well, back to work on these next Monday.  :)

Cookie and Candy Turkeys

Made this "flock" of turkeys for Thanksgiving dinner at church. :)

They are made from Fudge Striped Cookies, Caramel squares, chocolate kisses, and candy corns.

Jessica's purses for Caitlyn and Bethany

Caitlyn's purse. The material is almost a satin, brownish, greenish, blueish, goldish(it depends on the direction you see it and in which light). It has a really cool gold bead and cord trim and pockets inside.

And here are the 2 finished products. Bethany's on the left and Caitlyn's on the right.

Bethany's pockets are on the outside of the purse and her's is monogrammed.

Pretty great for a first time sewer!!!

Not actually mine

A purse for Bethany made by Jessica(my 22yr. old artist wanting to learn to sew so she can make her own clothes)...assisted by me a little.

Crocheted hanging towel

I have had friend make me towels to hang which they just did the tops, but I found several patterns to crochet online and tried one(this is not true to the pattern because I just couldn't figure the pattern out, but I am ok with this).

Crochet heart

I crocheted this heart for my mom and she was so amazed by it. I loved the colors on the edge, just wish I could get a little more arch to the center top so it looks a little more like a heart than it does, but otherwise I like the pattern. Quick and simple. :) Especially if I can do it :D

Here is what I have been working on for July. I want to have as many as possible to use for donations during our Jamboree. I used to make these zipperpulls forever ago, but I can still make them each in a half hours time and I got these 5 done today.

Crochet and bracelet

Last night I started a new project. It's a crochet pattern for a dishcloth from 1919. I completed it today. And then tonight I started another new project, a crochet heart. It's done and I am pleased with my first attempt.

Yesterday, I also completed 3 zipperpulls to add to the collection I am making for the youth fund at church, but I don't figure I need to post a picture of every zipperpull since they are all about the same just different colors. Maybe at the end I will get a picture of everything I am making for it and that will be good enough.
I also added this picture of a bracelet I made many years ago while getting into plastic lacing. This is the only bracelet of this type I ended up making due to the supplies and work involved, but I love it. I just gave it to my daughter to proudly wear.

Zipper Pulls

I used to make these for a lot of kids and have plenty of supplies left just sitting around so I was inspired to make up more zipper pulls, keychains, and dragonfly pins(I will have pictures of all later) and sell them kinda cheap and give all the money to God for a youth ministry for our kids at church. The church is small and God provides, but what better thing can I do with a ton of supplies just sitting around??? You can't out-give God! :)

Here are some of my origami cube crosses. I can do different sizes. And I have done them with different colored paper too.

These are origami paper doves. I like this patter cuz' they actually look like doves.

Crafts, crafts, and more crafts

I made these chocolate and white chocolate covered apples as a Christmas gift several years ago for my sister and her family.













I just made this tatted flower today(sorry the picture isn't too clear, but there are little clear beads all around the center.













I made these candy canes yesterday.

This is my tatting collection so far. I just started tatting in January and I really like it.

I made this chocolate candy bar house this past Christmas and it turned out ok for a first time. And my niece Bethany ate the whole thing in something like a day-the big goof! I'm just glad she enjoyed it. :)

This is my Origami.

Most of the origami I have done I have learned from the internet. You can find step by step videos on Youtube and they are very helpful.

This first one is called a Butterfly Ball. When you toss it up into the air and give it a light "whack" it's pieces come apart and fall to the floor like butterflies.

This one is called LEROY's Origami Chrysanthemum Icosahedron Kusudama

These are called origami paper stars or (I believe) wishing stars. I made these on clear fishing line so I could hang them.

Here is my rainbow of stars.

If you look in the upper right hand corner of this picture you can see my origami paper strips for my stars. This cross is my from colored printer paper.

This cross is made from origami paper. It's much larger.

This cross is my own design. It's not too stable in the center, but it's constructed from origami cubes(boxes) that I had learned when I was around 12 years old.

These are pictures of my favorite origami project which is called Fireworks.

This first one is done in origami paper and it's a smaller one.

These are made from colored printer paper.

These are my own idea. The are rainbow caterpillers. I think they are so cute.

I made these bracelets. The first I call a promise bracelet cuz' it's rainbows all the way around and God used a rainbow as a symbol of His promise.

This is more origami called a dodecahedron.

This is one of my origami Fully Rely On God frogs.

And this is my pastel collection of the Fully Rely On God frogs. (I have a rainbow collection too)

This is one of my origami cubes(box). I found this pattern in a book from the library.

This is a mennorode star.

This one is so beautiful. It is called a Spiral.

These are Spiky Stars.