Crafts | Bead Happily Ever After

Mrs. Cottontail, I Presume

Posted on March 31, 2010 by crystal

What’s 5 inches tall, sewn entirely by hand, and wearing a purple vest?

That would be “Pamela Cottontail” – a little bunny I just finished. 😉

Years ago, I used to make a lot of these for craft fairs. Lately, I’ve been having a yen to sew something, and since it’s almost Easter, I decided to pull out my old design.

My sewing machine is currently packed away, but no matter because I especially love to sew small items by hand. What fun I had making this cutie, again!

Her buttons are vintage Swarovski crystals in a beautiful multi-color effect called “Vitrail Medium”.

“Pamela” could use a brother or a sister, but I’m afraid I’m out of time to provide one by Easter.

However, after this short spell of sewing, I’m inspired to make another one (or three) for next year! 😀

Is there something that you used to enjoy that you’ve been meaning to do again?

Grape Jelly Slinky

Posted on March 9, 2010 by crystal

What looks like Grape Jelly….

And moves like a slinky?

Why it’s my new scarf! 😉

I love the way it turned out!

Scarves of all kinds are fun to wear, but sometimes a long scarf can get in the way. The nice thing about this shorter style is that it will fill-in that open area inside your coat’s collar (so your neck is snuggly warm) without adding a lot of extra bulk. It’s really pretty enough to wear indoors too – maybe to cover a neckline that’s too bare for winter, or to jazz up a crew neck sweater.

This was one of my TV Time projects, so the pattern is an easy one! It’s crocheted and you can use any yarn and hook size you choose.

I used:
(1) 6 oz. skein of soft, medium weight, acrylic yarn in variegated violet. (I have about half of it leftover.)

Hook Size: J

Several of you ladies have said that you don’t crochet, but wish you did. If you ever decide to give it a go, you’ll discover that it really isn’t difficult. Just search on youtube for some basic “how-to-crochet” videos. All you need is a ball of yarn and a hook.

You can do it! 🙂

I Heart – Hearts!

Posted on February 10, 2010 by crystal

Last week, Sir Beads brought home a bag of these . . .

We both remember them fondly from when we were kids.

Having them around the house (and eating them of course) put me in the mood to make a small heart of some kind. I decided to do a search for “crochet heart” and came across this pattern. I made a few one night while watching TV.

The pattern mentioned making a garland of them, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to do that. I started thinking of the conversation hearts again and one thing led to another. I began by sewing on a felt backing and then cut some felt scraps to make a flower.

But, what does this have to do with conversation hearts you ask? Well, I had an idea to make a “pocket” on the reverse side to hold a little message.

And here’s the final result . . .

The nice thing is that the felt version has no calories! 😉

Feathering the Nest

Posted on January 21, 2010 by crystal

Sometimes, it’s easy to feel a bit of sympathy for the male of the species. Many of them have absolutely no understanding of the pretty little frills and frou-frou to which women are innately attracted. Take decorative pillows, for example. 😉

This particular point was driven home to me one Saturday morning as Sir Beads was helping me make the bed. We were in a hurry to leave the house that day. He dashed back into the bedroom to see what was holding me up and decided to help. After the comforter was in place, I began to arrange some small throw pillows and tossed a couple towards him to position on his side.

He groaned:

“It’s that darn Martha Stewart! She’s making life miserable for guys! Who needs all these extra pillows? What is their purpose?”

Well, I cracked up laughing. And I had to agree. There is no purpose for them . . . but they do look nice! 😀

I guess all of this supports the theory that “Men are from Mars; Women are from Venus”.

And since I’m from Venus . . . I made another small throw pillow this week.

I had seen some over at don_mae’s that were so cute – I just couldn’t resist. The pattern is fairly basic crochet. I made two hearts; single-crocheted them together, and then experimented until I got a ruffle I liked. I settled on 6 double crochet stitches in each single crochet around the perimeter of the heart for a very full effect. The pillow still looked a little plain somehow, so I added the felt flowers.

It’s adds a cute little touch of Valentine’s Day to the sofa, don’t you think? 😉

A Berry Pretty Scarf ;-)

Posted on January 13, 2010 by crystal

The other day I finished a scarf that I’ve been crocheting for a couple of weeks – on and off.

I always like to have an ongoing project – something I can easily pick up and work on during TV time.

It makes all those commercials a little easier to bear! 😉

The pattern is called: “Queen Anne’s Lace”, and I’m so grateful to Carol for telling me about it. (You can find it here by scrolling down the page. The photos are no longer with the pattern – but more will turn up with a web search!)

This was fun to make, and easy enough that there’s no need to look at the directions once you get going. I used Red Heart “Soft” Yarn – a medium-weight worsted acrylic. Ordinarily, I’m not too crazy about Red Heart yarn, but I’d never seen this “soft” version before, and decided to give it a try. It’s fairly nice to work with – though it did separate a bit here and there, but nothing serious. The real test will come in the future after the scarf is washed.

The color is “Berry” and it’s “Very” pretty!! I couldn’t resist the pun in today’s title – shame on me! 😉

What are you working on these days? Maybe you’re reading something that we’d all like? Seen a good movie, lately? 🙂

See ya tomorrow,