A New Home

This blog is getting a new home!  I am relocating Craft Rules for Happiness to my WordPress blog also known as The Resplendent Beauty which can be found here www.theresplendentbeauty.com!  It is my hope that by consolidating my writing efforts, it will be easier for me to manage!  I will also be moving my other blogger blog over but it may take longer as it has many more posts!

This blog will eventually be removed but not to worry...  Everything is already safe at the other site and I hope you will follow along!

Felt Ornament

Continuing on my Pinterest theme...  I found this cute ornament from zakkalife who has one of my favorite blogs for crafts.

All of the samples I have seen use red felt and red thread.  I think this is a perfect ornament for experimenting with some different color combinations. I did not go too far off the original for my first attempt.  :-)

I have some gold organza ribbon that I used for the hanging loop and then I found some metallic braid in my beading stash!

This braid is from Kreinik...

And my favorite thing about it...

Hooray for Kreinik!  I think the bowl is another story.  My youngest received it as a gift from a cast mate when she was in King and I locally.  But it measures just under 4.5 inches and after I traced the bowl, my circle was just right.

And I will leave you with a close up of the knot details.

I think the metallic thread adds just the right touch of sparkle to this ornament!

A different sort of crafting... Part 2

Tour is today!  Yea for Stars and Clowns!

Top Hats, Berets and Muffs are all done.  And now bow ties and earrings are nearly complete.  Nearly?  Yes, nearly.  Why, oh why is Hobby Lobby not an all night store during December?  I need large safety pins (have plenty at the school) and more clip-on earring backs.  I found one pair of clips in my personal stash and none in the school supply box.  So I will be heading to Walmart as soon as it starts to get light.  Got to have the clips! *update*  Walmart does not have clips!  I wound up taking apart some vintage earrings from my grandmother and using those clips.  That worked great!

The safety pins need to be glued to the back of the bow ties so that the boys can pin them at their collars.

I've got more photos to share of all this too...

Bows waiting for their center bands....

Center bands waiting to go on to the bows.

Bows waiting for safety pins....

I did find two safety pins here and they are attached already.  

Working on all these bow ties requires working with hot glue.  My glue gun gets very hot.  I have a blister from using it yesterday when I was adding the floral trim to the top hats.  I hate that!  So adding the red sequins at the end is an easy place to burn yourself but I found the perfect tool to help!  My DH bought this for me at Mike's Merchandise several years ago.  I think it is a wax carving tool.

This is a picture of the complete tool.  I never really found a use for it before so I am thrilled to now know how I am going to use it!

 Earrings are done for pierced ears but I still need to go buy clips for 5 pairs.  More hot glue!  I wanted to use E6000 or G-S Hypo Cement to attach the backs but neither one of my glues was working properly.  Too old I think....  So hot glue is what I used.

A different sort of crafting

I am helping the Stars (middle school show choir) with their accessories before their Christmas tour tomorrow. This means making earrings, bowties and decorating top hats, berets and muffs. They look gorgeous when they are all put together. I started on the earrings with this...

Then I spray painted them...

Thanks to my DH who helped me with the straws.  This was a great use of the florist foam that was sitting under my sink.  I never do fresh flower arrangements with it!

More finished products later....

Snowy Basket

I am going to put it out there for everyone to see. I love Pinterest! Yes, it can be an easy way to waste time, but I try to use it for finding inspiration.  The sheer number of craft ideas and sewing projects is astounding!  I am so thankful that crafters and sewers are such a generous group!

While looking through the DIY list yesterday, I found a great pin which took me to an excellent tutorial for making fabric baskets.  The Sometimes Crafter made this look so easy, I had to try it!

I am so pleased with how this turned out!  I think I will use it for Christmas cards this year and I suspect I will be making quite a few more too!

Oh yes, I should mention that we are expecting our first snow of the season tonight and tomorrow.  It's still November and that is crazy early for North Alabama!

Playing with the Whimsy Sticks

I had the opportunity to make a Whimsy flower last Saturday while attending the Stitch, Craft and Create launch party.  My girls and I were hooked!  This is one of the flowers that my daughters made.  Isn't it beautiful?

Then, I stopped at JoAnn Fabric today with the girls in tow and my youngest wanted to get more of the velvet ribbon.  The only color she could find was this deep burgundy.  It was wider than the the widest one we used on Saturday and we also got one even wider.  We used the narrowest one (3/4") on the smaller Whimsy Stick to make this flower.  For the center, I cut a length of the widest ribbom and tied two knots in it.  Then she glued the ends together in the middle.  We wrapped the Whimsy portion around the knots.  (These are two sided flowers!  They make great ornaments!)  I will try to get another picture with better lighting so you can see the details.

Then we looked at what other ribbon we had on hand.  This is a 1.5" grosgrain ribbon.  She wrapped it around the larger Whimsy Stick and sewed it down on one side instead of in the middle.  I then gathered it for her and she sewed it into a circle.  The button is attached with FabriTac.  We are not sure what we will do with this one but we have several ideas brewing.

So these Whimsy Sticks were kind of pricey but I think they are going to be getting a lot of use.

My First Art Quilt

I started and finished my first art quilt this weekend!!!  It was a gift for a friend and I was able to give it to her today.  I think she liked it!  Yea!  This allowed me to fulfill the first of my handmade commitments that I made on FB too!

I got some help with choosing fabrics from a sweet friend at church who is a wonderful quilter.  I used tricks I learned from another friend for the batting (warm 'n' natural).  I also learned how to bind it by following a tutorial at Stitch, Craft & Create's website.  It is not perfectly square but I'm not sure that isn't because of the felt that I used in the center.  The snowman is needle felted as is the star.  I had so much fun making this for my friend!