My etsy shop just got a lot more fun...

... because I am finally taking the leap and selling peg dolls!  I'll be selling custom families like the ones I've shown here and here, and I've also created some fun "other" sets to list.

Up first: "The Hobbit" character collection, in honor of the upcoming movie -- Bilbo, Gollum, Gandalf, Thorin Oakenshield, Legolas (don't freak out -- I know he's not in the book, but they're putting him in the movie and I wanted another tall character!), and Smaug the dragon.

You can see closeups of each character on my new shop FB page!

Next, the knight and the princess.  My little Eliza LOVES these and plays with them for hours.  Sometimes the knight saves the princess, and sometimes the princess saves the knight.  But someone is always in danger.  I'm planning on adding a dragon to this set as well (in case she gets tired of having them be in danger from dinosaurs, snakes, and giant puppies).

And I really love this sweet little set: Faith, Hope, and Charity.  I think these would make such a happy little present for someone.

I have lots of other ideas for peg doll collections -- cupcake toppers, dolls for various hobbies, Hunger Games and maybe even Downton Abbey, because I'm obsessed.  (Not sure about that one -- that's a LOT of characters.  Any other Downton Abbey fans out there who think it would be awesome?)

I'm also going to start adding digital stamps created with my doodling, so watch out for that coming soon.

And if you'd like to keep up on all of this AND find out about a giveaway that I will be doing very soon, I'd love for you to come "like" the new Facebook page I've just set up for the shop.  I promise not to totally overwhelm your news feed. :)

Thanks for all your continued support!

More fun cards from Apron Strings Designs!

Hello again!  I'm happy to share my cards from the February All-Year Cheer card kit over from Apron Strings Designs!  I had so much fun working some beautiful papers and accents -- I hope you enjoy the finished product!

This card is from an adorable monster collection from Jillibean Soup:

 These two fun little boy cards are from the October Afternoon "Rocket Age" collection -- LOVE the retro graphics and colors!

These last three are from a collection by Studio Calico -- absolutely beautiful!

That little kraft pocket is perfect for a gift card!

So go check out Apron Strings!  This month's kit is all sold out, but you're not too late to get in on next month!

The truth about Crafty Moms...

I don't know what these are called or how they got started, but I have been seeing them all over FB and Pinterest the past few days.  So of course I had to make one for us crafty moms!

Anyone else with me on this one?

A Creative Baby Shower

My sweet friend Shauna had a baby a couple of months ago, and another friend of ours and I teamed up to throw her a baby shower.  I just love baby showers, especially for little girlies!  I also love it when the decor from a baby shower can live on as decor in the new baby's room!  So before going to town on decorations for the shower, I consulted with Shauna about the colors of her new nursery and knew that she was using purple and baby blue, so away we went!

The big tissue paper pom-poms are the same ones that are everywhere these days -- I'm partial to this Martha Steward tutorial, if you aren't familiar with them yet.  I made the light blue orbs with regular white chinese party lanterns, which I covered with blue crepe paper.  I gave it a ruffled effect by hot gluing every few inches and folding and tucking as I went along.  I would add a dab of hot glue, fold the paper, and press the fold into the hot glue.  I'm sorry if that's not very clear -- I had all these pictures for you for a tutorial and they apparently never made it off my camera and have disappeared.  But it's pretty simple to do and not even too time-consuming -- I'd say each lantern took about a half-hour or so.

I also added these crepe paper rosettes, glued back to back on fishing line, and book page garlands saved from my Grandpa's 80th birthday, to give a pretty chandelier look over the table.

But the creative part of the shower had everything to do with the activity we chose.  Shauna is very artistic and creative, and we wanted to do something fun and different for her shower.  We decided that instead of traditional baby shower games, we'd get wood blocks and have everyone paint a block for the baby to play with.  I just covered my kitchen table with the kids' art paper (off the big IKEA roll), then put out paints and brushes and the blocks, in apothecary jars because that just makes everything fancier. The activity was a hit at the shower, and the blocks turned out delightful!

There's just something about a baby shower that gives you permission to be as girly and frilly as you could wish, isn't there?  Love it.  And I'm just starting to plan a shower for my little sister in April, and I can't wait to show you what we do for that one!

Oh, and just one last thing.  Our friend Sarah made this absolutely adorable diaper cake to go along with the shower.  Isn't it so sweet?  I know she makes them to sell as well, so if you're interested in contacting her just give me a holler!

Darth Vader Pinata

I totally cannot take credit for this creation, but I thought it was too cool to not release onto the WWW. :) My sister Emily threw a very fun Lego Star Wars party for her son a few weeks ago, and was inspired by my Dr. Doofenshmirtz pinata last month to create a Darth Vader pinata.  She used the same paper grocery bag + crepe paper technique (you can find a link to it on my that post), and then found a tutorial here for how to draw Darth Vader.

I think the addition of this awesome cape might be my favorite part.

And of course, what would a Darth Vader pinata be without a giant light saber whacking stick?

Here it is in action, after already having taken quite the beating.  It was a huge hit at the party. (Pun totally intended.)

I was so proud of Em's creativity with this guy -- what an awesome pinata!

More peg doll AND mixed media fun...

When I fell in love with peg dolls earlier this year, I immediately started planning the little families I would paint for all the little girls in our family.  We do a cousins' gift exchange on both sides of our family, so I was really happy that my kids drew the names of two of our nieces, thereby giving me an excuse to do it sooner rather than later.  Here they are!  (You'll have to excuse the poor lighting -- I had to hurry to take these late at night because I was trying to pack them to ship in the hopes they'd get there in time for Christmas.  Ah, procrastination...)

And this one is my favorite -- in our siblings' exchange I drew my sister Ange, who is at that just-starting-out-crossroads-what-do-I-do-next-with-my-life stage.  I wanted to make a cool mixed media canvas with a She Art girl on it for her, but she is a live-out-loud 3D kind of girl, so I thought it would be fun to make a peg doll to coordinate with the canvas instead.

I cut a bunch of thin strips of paper (from Basic Grey) and mod-podged them on for her dress, then painted the cardi and scarf over the top.  (I also gave her a ruffly yellow scarf just like this.)  I also used a "Just Be YOU" stamp from Unity at the bottom.

Here's a close-up of the Dr. Seuss quote I used, which I did with a combination of paint, marker, scraps of the same Basic Grey pp, and bookpaper.  I love how it turned out!

I am having so much fun painting peg dolls that I think I will be listing custom dolls in my etsy shop soon.  Always a fun new adventure!

A fun announcement and a stack of cute cards...

Hello, friends!  Today I am very excited to announce that I have been invited to join the design team over at Apron Strings Designs, a kit club that offers various scrapbooking and cardmaking kits chock full of fun and current goodies.  (The current part makes a big difference to me -- I've been a part of kit clubs before where it seemed like everything was last year's scrapbook trends.)  I'm the "All-Year Cheer" card kit designer, and I'm really excited to be able to stretch my card-making muscles and see what I can create.

These cards were created with the January card kit, and you can see more layouts and cards created from this month's kits over at the Apron Strings blog! (Click on any picture to enlarge.)

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you'll check in again too see more fun from Apron Strings Designs!