Hand Warmers

I don't know about you, but my hands are always cold.  Especially at work.  I did a little searching online and found that it was pretty easy to make some.  I looked at several different tutorials and came up with my own. 

First, I cut four pieces of fabric (I used flannel) in 5-inch by 5-inch squares.  

With wrong sides together, I stitched all the around, leaving a little opening one side.  I clipped the corners, turned the squares inside out and poked the corners with a crochet hook (it was the only thing I could find!). 

 

I filled each hand warmer with about 2/3 cup of rice.  This seemed to be just the right amount for a 5-inch by 5-inch hand warmer.  I sewed the little opening closed and was ready to heat them up in the microwave!  I tried a few different times to see what worked best and found that 45 seconds in the microwave was perfect.  

I actually used these at work today.  Our office is quite chilly and my hands are always cold.  I'm also going to be giving these as some Christmas gifts as well.  I just need to make up a little tag with instructions on how to use.  These little hand warmers are great way to use up scrap pieces of fabric and super easy to make.  I know I'll be using them a lot this winter!

O Christmas Tree!

Last Saturday, Jeremy and I went to Giordano's Tree Farm in Freedon, NJ.  This was our first time here.  They had a nice selection of trees and we were able to find a tree that would fit in our apartment.  And you can't beat the price...$40 a tree, any size, any type!  That's pretty cheap for cute your own in New Jersey. 

Giordano Tree Farm

Jeremy with our tree!

All decorated!

Craftaholics Gift Swap!

Back in November, I signed up for a gift swap over at Craftaholics Anonymous.  My partner Natalie and I exchanged emails and she was excited to see that I was from New Jersey.  She grew up in Sussex County, which is the same county I grew up in!  Such a small world!  She told me her fabric stash has lots of bright colors and polka dots.  So this is what I came up with!

I sewed a cute little zipper pouch with a detachable handle/key chain and made a snowman ornament (with glitter of course!).  I really hope she liked everything!

Christmas Cards

I'm really slacking with this blog lately.  I guess that's what happens with Christmas right around the corner!  This year, like most years, I made our Christmas cards.  I tried using what I had since I have tons of paper and envelopes.  The only thing I did buy was the base for the card.  I didn't have enough of one color and wanted them to all look the same.

For the tree, I stamped the image using black StazOn ink.  I used StazOn because I was going to color in the image with Stampin' Up watercolor pencils and then use a blender pen to give the tree a watercolor look.  I colored the entire tree, stump, and star.  Then went over with the blender pens.  I used markers to color in the ornaments and garland.  And of course, the tree needed some sparkle!  So I used Dazzling Diamonds for the star and ornaments.

After I finished coloring and blending, I corner punched each tree and then glued them on to red card stock.  By the way, I love the Martha Stewart Adhesive Tape Roller!  And I love the fact you can buy it at Michael's and use a 40% coupon.  Once the cards were assembled, I added more sparkle with these little stick-on gems I found.  I'm really happy with how the cards turned out.  And I realized I never took a picture of the inside!  I printed off a little saying, backed it on card stock, and signed the cards.  Here is a picture of the finished product!