
I was at Michael's today and wanted to share a great deal I found!
I have oogled over Small Things designs for...ever. They're so cute, petite, chic, simple and timeless.
I found a pendant today at Michael's for $3.99.

But I just haven't been crafting or swapping. I signed up on a lark for a swap. This one is all about Cupcakes!
What else is new...I've starting riding lessons (horses) and I'm about to be promoted at work. It's just been a busy stretch of six months or so. I'll keep posting whenever I do crafts.
So I just discovered this "Craft a Day" blog. It's pretty neat. Anyway, you can check out her projects here.
I was browsing the Paper Craft section of Craftster and stumbled on the idea of making my own rubber stamps. I saw some Suuuuuuupppppper cute stamps done up in the Image Reproduction Technique section. It's like stenciling but BETTER! Ha.
So I think I'm going to try my hand at stamp-making.
Here are the cute stamps that inspired me.

And here's one flickr tutorial for creating stamps with rubber erasers...it gives a basic idea of how to create a stamp. Of course you could change out the medium, the image, the tools...it's all very personal. You decide what you like!
I haven't been feeling too crafty lately. So I joined a supply swap. Maybe this will motivate me to make something, getting out and shopping for supplies and receiving a bucket of supplies. Something's gotta invigorate me. The swap is an altered paper swap. You fill a 8.5"x11"-ish envelope with scraps and whimsies.
I haven't posted in awhile. But I haven't swapped in awhile either. I haven't been doing much of anything except working.
I set a few hefty resolutions so I've been chipping away at those. Did anyone else make resolutions? My two big ones were
1. Read the Bible, cover to cover, in a year.
2. (Keep) training for a half marathon in October and December.
So most days, I work out and read.
I received this awesome Twilight charm bracelet in a swap that uses shrinkydinks, so I've been thinking about trying my hand at that. There are also some cool bead stores I've been wanting to check out, but haven't. So maybe this week(end) will finally be the time I do it. My other craft wishes for learning are metalsmithing and resin casting. I don't see those happening anytime too soon. But they're out there, in my imagination. I do look at Craftster on Facebook and see updates with new projects but I just haven't seen anything that cried out to me.
Looking forward, I will probably be posting for some Valentine's romantic/friendly gift ideas. And my anniversary is in March, so I might try some new stencils. I was *pretty* inspired by some of the stencils I saw on stencilry on other folks' blogs. I believe there was a stencil for Danny Effing Tanner?! Here's John Stamos.

http://www.stencilry.org/stencils/famous%20people/john%20stamos/
I'm also a big fan of the peacock feathers.
http://www.stencilry.org/stencils/nature/feathers/peacock-feathers-2.gif

I see the feathers in a rainbow stencil. It could be awesome. It would take a long time to cut out each quill thingy but it could be awesome. Then you need some funny feather pun. Anyway, that's my craft update. I'm still here. I'm just uninspired.




I made some friendship bracelets for friends this year for Christmas.
I was inspired by
these on etsy.
They took about 45 minutes each. They require about $.10 worth of embroidery floss, which one can purchase at Michael's for $.35. The purchase yields about 2-4 bracelets. Hemp is also an option. I bought my touchstone/words at Michaels for something like $3. There were 6 of them.
One can search YouTube for square knot bracelet tutorials. Or whatever type of knot you'd like to use. Even just "friendship bracelet" will return results.
A simple, understated gift that the recipient will hopefully look at every day.