Hi there.  Last week I went on Etsy and looked through the Alchemy listings to see if I could find any crafts that I could make for someone.  I ran across this listing from this military family.  The lady was looking for a pillow or a toy for someone to make for her daughter because both her and her husband are supposed to be deployed for a year.  The listing just broke my heart.  I didn't know exactly how to make her original request, but I e-mailed her and told her that I could make a photo pillow for the little girl free of charge.  I also offered to make a pillow for her and her husband also free of charge because of all the sacrafices that their family was going to make on behalf of our country in the coming year. 

She was so grateful that I offered to do this.  I asked her to e-mail me the picture.  When she sent this picture I was so glad that I had committed to doing this.  I didn't realize how young their daughter was.  She looks like she is about a year and half or younger to me.  No wonder the mom wanted me to put these taggies on it.  I had no idea what she was talking about.  I kept thinking she wanted dog tags sewn on the pillow.  Apparently, there is a blanket called a Taggie for young kids.  It is different textured ribbons with bright colors sewn around a blanket.  Once I figured out what it was, I was able to make it with all the ribbon that I had around the house.  I used some remenant fabrics that I found at JoAnn's for the rest of the pillow.  I'm not that great of a seamstress, so I think this turned out rather good for my ability levels.  I was just grateful that I could make this for their family.  I hope that during their deployment they will find much comfort by seeing the picture of their family while they are homesick and start missing each other. 

If you have a chance, take the time to make a difference in the life of a complete stranger.  Simple random acts of kindness have deeper impacts than you will ever know.  I took these pictures before I finished sewing them to show the mom.  I haven't uploaded the finished ones yet. Have a great day.

Hi there.  I did it.  I finally designed some new onsies.  I had so many stashed in my closet, I finally added a design to them and they are ready to go on the market.  It was fun coming up with all the sayings for them.  A friend and I had come up with the sayings on a slow day at one of the markets in the summer.  It took me long enough to finally use them.  I'm so glad I wrote them down, because I never would have remebered them.

I used the Comic Sans Font on most of them.  A few of the fonts were downloaded from a free fonts site.  I think it was called urban fonts.  I used the make the cuts software to create the design and the cricut to cut it out.  I used heat transfer vinyl for the lettering and I had bought the onsies a long time ago.  Make sure to cut out your image by using the mirror image key.  It is so much easier to cut the sayings out with the make the cut software because it has the mirror image key.  With the cricut cartridges, you have to think about writing the phrase out backwards and then hitting the reverse key. 

I'm going to try to sell these at the Lawrence Welks Farmers' Market today if it doesn't rain today.  I have a feeling that the market is going to get cancelled.  But I can still sell these online or at one of the other shows I'm doing this month.  I'll be at the Killer Pizza From Mars in Oceanside on Nov 9th and Nov 23rd.  They have a craft fair inside that pizza parlor every week.  They use the booth fees to buy pizza and drinks for all the vendors and the visitors that visit all the craft booths.  I committed to these 2 dates, but I don't know if I'll do it any more after that.  There's also going to be a show in Carlsbad on State street on Nov 27th that I'll be selling at too.  So if you're in the area, be sure to stop by and say hi.

Here's the pictures.  Enjoy.  I hope you have a blessed week and remember that you can make a lasting impression through crafts.

Hi there.  Life has been crazy.  I have spread myself so thin, I haven't been able to keep up with all the demands of work, family, dog, bills, and everything else.  I had to take a break from writing the blog until things around here started settling down, but now I'm back.  I'm going to try to post the pictures of all the stuff that I've been making, but haven't yet had a chance to tell you about.  There are a lot of new products in production at this time.

I'd like to start off by telling you about my latest project.  I had a friend ask me to make her favors for a bachelorette party with a theme of 27 Dresses.  I had never seen the movie before, so I googled the trailer of the movie to get the basic idea of what the movie was about.  27 bridesmaid dresses that some girl wore before she got engaged herself.  So I suggested to my friend that the favors be these dress favor boxes.  She loved the sample.  They had used several different kinds of paper to make the invitations, so we used several different colored papers to make the dresses and added some ribbon to tie them together.  Each favor can hold about 3 tootsie rolls....I tested it with some left over Halloween candy.  They were really quick to make using the Make the Cut software and the .svg file that I had.  I finished all 20 in one night while I was watching tv.

I need to finish writing the November newsletter, make some more crafts for Tuesday night, and try to fight off this cold.  The change of weather here is killing me.  Tommorrow I get to change the brakes in my car, and hopefully we can be driving around again tommorrow night.  Have a great week and I hope that you have an awesome weekend.