handmade cass

I have been working on a new item in my fresh crafts shop that I am really proud of! Take a look at the advent calendars I made using a wood soda crate and stamped muslin bags. Gold Crate Advent Calendar with Muslin Bags Rustic Wood Crate Advent Calendar

I have so many active craft projects right now!  December is crazy with both my daughter's birthday and Christmas at the end of the month.  So I am trying to get everything done early this year.  These are the things I am currently working on: Quilted crib blanket Decorations for the John Deere tractor birthday party Sewn and embroidered goodie bags for the party A craft project for the kids to make at the party December Daily mini album Christmas cards I need to have most of these done this month - yikes!  And this doesn't include ongoing crafts like items for  fresh crafts Etsy shop , book of lists, cards, and daily crafting with my mini crafter.

I have been loving all the packaging and branding ideas I see on Pinterest lately.  I got inspired this weekend to make some confetti business cards for my fresh crafts etsy shop , similar to some that you can see in my pins here . For these ones I used small glassine bags, my Crop-A-Dile and a standard hole punch, an Anthropologie catalog for confetti, tiny attacher (Tim Holtz), red StazOn ink, and my custom rubber stamp with shop info. I can already tell that I need brighter colors for the confetti, so I'll be saving some paper scraps for future cards.  Maybe some sequins too!  I also added some Peppermint Divine Twine to finish off this batch.

When presented with free time for crafting I often get overwhelmed (by the mess in my crafting area) and don't get much done.  But today my husband took the baby to the zoo and I was very productive. First things first, I had to add some new products to the Fresh Crafts etsy shop .  I'm slowly but surely adding some of the packaging that I really love.   It sure does take a long time to get decent pictures for the shop.  I'm considering getting a small light box so I don't have to rely on the sun.  Then I could stay up all night listing items... After the shop update I had a little bit more time to make a card for my mother-in-law who has been having a rough couple weeks.  Hope this frilly card lifts her spirits.  And pulling everything together for it reminded me how easy it is when you have a matching collection - like the collection packs from Basic Grey. Supplies: cardstock: Stardream, Basic Grey (Oh Baby Girl! collection) alphabet...

My husband's grandma turned 100 last week - amazing right?!  The fact that she is still healthy and happy is pretty incredible.  So we packed up and went to Florida for a week to help her celebrate.  My mother and sister in law are both very crafty and had big ideas for the party - see this pinterest board for inspiration . I volunteered to make some birthday banners and bring some berry baskets for take home treats. My sister in law tied tulle around each place setting and they looked so nice! The lighting was terrible, but wanted to get the whole birthday banner effect.  See below for detail. Each letter had some ants "crawling" along to fit with the picnic theme.  And the letters are strung on twine. I made this pennant banner with fabric and seam binding - really easy.  Planning a future tutorial. And the fruit salad was just one of the delicious things my sister cooked up...yum!   I am hoping to get more pictures from m...

I'm jumping in!  I had this great idea to make a few gift baskets for birthdays and mother's day, and while I was at it I figured I might as well open my etsy shop  too.  So please take a look and I promise to add more fun and exciting things soon.  I have big plans! These were a couple of the gift baskets I made... And the tags - using stamps from Papertrey Ink and baker's twine from Divine Twine.