Dec Daily & Loom Knitting Progress

It's pretty windy out there right now and there's a chance of thunderstorms tonight. Some surrounding counties are under a tornado watch until 11 p.m. One of them I have to take B. to a dentist appointment tomorrow so I hope the bad weather has passed us by then. It's been a cloudy, rainy day all day today.

Today I got all my dates stamped, punched out and mounted on glitter cardstock for the month of December for my holiday album. I just need to do November's yet (from Thanksgiving on). I used the Ali Edwards December Daily stamp set that I bought from Technique Tuesday over the summer, Jenni Bowlin inks in Cough Syrup and Seed Packet, and a 1-1/4" circle punch to punch them all out. Then a 1-1/2" punch for the glitter cardstock mats from some scraps that I had...

I just slid the date circles into the page protectors where they go in the album. I won't adhere anything down until I have my pictures...

I'll be putting something in between most of the pages probably. Things like either Hambly transparencies, envelopes, journaling cards or tags, etc.

I picked up some nice Christmas scrapbooking stuff. Not necessarily just for my holiday album but because I didn't have a whole lot of scrappy stuff for the holidays. So I got a packet of K&Co. acetate and cardstock Christmas embellishments this morning at JoAnn's. There's a whole bunch of pretty things in there  - 40 altogether - and they're on sale right now 50% off for only $1.99. A whole lotta bang for your buck. They're really pretty with glitter and gold foil accents.....

I also picked up one of the chipboard embellishment sets for the same price. It's dimensional and has glitter, rhinestone and satin bow accents.  I plan to use some of the embellishments from both of these packs for this album and probably for regular Christmas layouts and that other (ten year) Christmas album that I'm planning on doing as well. I won't get to that until next year at the earliest.

I also got some of the seasonal Martha Stewart Christmas punches recently either on sale or with a coupon at JoAnn's. I absolutely love the peppermint and jingle bell ones especially. I know these will be getting a lot of use. Too cute...

The ornament punch actually stores three little clear cling stamps inside the top. You can use the part that has the ornament on it as your stamping block, but I prefer to use my regular acrylic stamp block instead. Just my preference. What you do is stamp the image at the top of your paper and then flip the punch over to line up the image to get a perfectly punched out stamped ornament...

Sorry about the badly focused picture, but you get the idea I'm sure. I think this one's gonna be a fun one to use as well.

Well yesterday I decided to give my new round knitting looms a try while watching the Steelers game and then one of our new favorite TV shows on AMC - Hell on Wheels. I really need a hat that matches my winter coat better and I thought this bulky yarn from Red Heart went perfect. This is what I've got done so far and I even made my brim too. So far loom knitting is pretty easy and mindless (lol!) I'm not following any real pattern with this hat, I'm just gonna keep going until it looks right. The hardest part has been my yarn getting knotted up from the skein. Actually it was knotted up as I went to pull it out of the center after I had been loom knitting for a little while. My husband says that's because I'm supposed to wind it into a ball first. I'll have to figure out how to do that too I suppose. Here's my progress so far...

Well that's all for now. Hope you all have a crafty week whatever your craft of choice may be...

Lazy Saturday

We stayed up late last night after going to the local high school football game, so we've all been a bit tired today. Our school had made the playoffs for the first time in 15 years. They had had a really good year this year. But, needless to say, they got their butts kicked by the other team. Really really bad. :(  They started out really good for the first quarter and then it was all downhill from there. The other team has made it to the playoffs 23 times before this year - 11 straight years before now, and they've won 3 state championships,  plus we had to play at their home field. Personally, I think the game should have been at a neutral field. But it doesn't really matter now. But, still, I had faith that our team could win.  I'm still really proud of them and of the fact that they even made it to the playoffs. Gotta think positive. It was freezing cold and the stadium was packed to the gill on both sides. We were literally shoulder-to-shoulder in a crowd of people trying to get to the bathroom, concession stands, etc. We ended up leaving during halftime since the other team already had 40 some points and there was no way we'd ever beat them. We came home and had pizza, watched Chuck (DVR'd) and went to bed late. Before the game, we went to have an early supper at a local Italian restaurant we'd never been to before. We had homemade gnocchis with "pink sauce" - alfredo sauce with a touch of marinara. It was really good. I was only able to eat about half of what they gave us. We'll definitely be going back. We left our car parked there and walked to the stadium. A lot of other people did the same and the whole parking lot was packed. But all the stores were closed so it didn't really matter.

Anyhoo... I've been working on my December Daily album that I mentioned the other day. Today I cut down all the Christmas patterned papers for it. I ended up using papers from three different stacks, but mostly from the DCWV Christmas stack from last year and the Merry Christmas one from this year. I think I'll make the foundation of this holiday album in small steps. Like today I cut down the papers, then I'll stamp all my dates in circles or however I end up doing it. Cut my tags out and stamp those, stamp my journaling spots and cut them out, cut down my transparencies to 6x6, etc. etc. I am flying by the seat of my pants with this project and am completely out of my comfort zone with it. I tend to scrapbook around my photos - not the other way around. That's why I'm not gluing anything down until I go to put my pictures and journaling on the pages. I'll keep my journaling spots and date circles in Ziploc bags until I need them. I'll have to decide how I'm going to decorate the covers. The album has really nice thick chipboard covers. I'm really liking the American Crafts album that I chose for this project a lot so far. I just hope it holds all that I plan to put in it.

Other than that, I've decided recently that I'd like to learn how to knit. Yeah I know, I haven't even gotten very good with crochet yet (which I'm also practicing when the mood hits me), but I figured why not. It's always nice to learn something new. And since they're both yarn crafts, it would be nice to know how to do both. So I picked up this beginner's kit at Wal-Mart the other day....

It comes with a 15 minute instructional DVD. If you're planning on buying this kit because of the DVD, I suggest that you save your money. It's awful. I found better tutorials on YouTube. But for $10, the amount of knitting tools that you get, plus the book, makes it worth it. So along with crochet, I'll be practicing knitting this coming winter. At least that's the plan. Gotta have a plan, right? lol! I think it'll be fun learning how to do something different and new than what I'm used to.

I also picked up a set of round knitting looms from JoAnn's with a 50% off coupon. I think this will probably be easier to learn than knitting, and so after I figure it all out, I'm planning on teaching B. how to do it. The first thing she asked me is "can I make a hat for my American Girl doll?" I told her "of course". And so that will be our first project. No, B. doesn't actually have an "American Girl" doll - her's is Madame Alexander. But she wants Julie from American Girl. It's all she's talked about all. year. long. She's absolutely crazy for the 18" dolls. She plays with the two Madame Alexander ones she has all the time. Let's just say that she'll be getting something very special for her upcoming birthday. ;)  I got an extra hook tool so we can make winter hats and other projects together. Again, there are some fabulous tutorials on YouTube showing different projects you can make with these knitting looms. And after watching some of them the other day, it looks easy enough to do...

I'm beginning to wonder if I have a touch of craft ADD. lol! I love it all though. :) And I think crafting with yarn would be a nice way to spend the evenings during the winter while watching TV late at night. I mean when I'm not cross stitching but of course. :)  I rarely spend the evenings scrapbooking unless I'm on a deadline with trying to get a gift completed. I'd rather be in the same room as my husband watching TV or a movie together. I feel too guilty scrapbooking and would rather spend time with him. So that's why I like having a more portable, relaxing craft to do. I can't just sit there and watch TV. I have to be doing something at the same time. Even if it's watching videos on YouTube on my iPod or laptop, reading, stitching, or whatever. 

Well my Salsa Chicken is about ready to come out of the oven and the rice cooker just told me that the steamed rice is now done. Hope you all enjoy the rest of the weekend and thanks for stoppin' by...