Baby Shower #1

This must be the time to have babies because we know 7 families having babies! It's ridiculous. I feel like I'm missing out on something. I'm not ready to go there again, though. I love my Joey, but I remember that experience like it was yesterday.

In any case, I finally got around to blocking out some address and other sensitive info to protect the innocent, blah, blah, blah, and now I get to show you the pictures! For my baby momma sister-in-law, I made the invitations for her baby shower. She has the good fortune of having a pretty cool nickname (Jenny Bee) so I had a great time making the bee the center of the theme. I love bees myself so I definitely had the materials for this one! I made it nice and neutral because gender is unknown (but not for long!). Yellow and grey is one of my personal favorite color palettes. :) As you can see, there's a super adorable bee as the feature element, but that's not any ordinary bee... It's a bee stamp that originally came holding a flower. I masked the flower out and added the umbrella. I know, I know, pretty cool, huh? ;)

I also used glitter! Those who know me will be saying what?! Rayna used glitter?! I know, it's the herpes of craft supplies. It gets on everything, and you'll find it a week later in your underwear. I think I used it pretty well, though. I just put a bit on the edge of the wings to contribute to some translucence. I had a ton of fun doing some watercoloring (one of my new favorite things to do), and I added the cool little embellishment on the bottom. I cut out the envelope with my cricut, curled some wire and cut out the little green flower with my cricut also. I thought the green was a nice little pop of color. It's only in the second picture, but the envelope was for the little heart that has the registry information. I love that part. :) Ooh, I also printed the envelopes so the typeface would match the invitations. It's the little things that really make a project!

In addition to the invites, though, I always have to make something. Especially for family! I usually have a formula: clothing, toy, blanket. I had to deviate this time, though because I just didn't have the time. We still just moved into our house so we're kind of overloaded with all sorts of house stuff. It's slowly getting better, but, I swear, it never ends. Anyway, I did make the toy because I saw this bird and decided they had to have it! I've also been wanting to make this hat for a while. So that's what I ended up doing.

The bird came from a book I got for Christmas called Knitwit. I LOVE it. It's got all sorts of weird critters in it, and I can't wait to make myself something! Of course, there are some things I'd like to make for Joey, too. I want to make him the alien pirate. :) I did end up changing the eyes for the bird because I liked my way better. :) I very often change a pattern to suit my own style. I think it came out much better! It was really fun to knit, though and took very little time. I also changed up the pattern for the hat because they had you knitting just a square bag, which is cute, but the flour sack version is cuter. So I had to improvise a little bit, but I think it turned out well in the end. :) That one came from Closely Knit, which is one of my favorites. I've got a long list of things to make from that book. I'm actually in the process of making something from that book right now! I'm making a sweater vest for Joey for his birthday, but that's another blog post...To top all that off, I made her Thank You notes. No, this was not a preemptive move. I made sure to tell her I was not expecting one back. :) And, to be absolutely clear, she asked for them. So there. They don't match the bee theme, but I also have a soft spot for elephants (check out my shop ;)) so I couldn't pass up this pattern. I used a new technique on these cards that I couldn't believe I had never tried before. I colored the images with chalk and then set it with a fixative. It took no time at all, and it looks great! I might be using these thank yous for myself also. ;)
I'm working on a TON of stuff so keep an eye out! I'll try to keep up with everything! Happy Crafting!

Like a MoFo!

I have been crafting like crazy, and, honestly, it's been nice being busy making stuff. I've finished up a load of stuff that I need to be getting on here soon, but, for now, I'm going to stick with the easy stuff. :) I've been making a lot of cards, which is awesome! I had been in papercrafting purgatory for a while unable to make anything due to our transitory existence in that creepy hotel. No, not The Shining creepy, but when you've lived in the same hotel for 5 months, nothing seems normal anymore. We're slowly getting back to that normal state. Slowly. I had a ton of thank yous to send due to Christmas, wedding anniversary and my birthday so I had some fun making some of my own. :)


I love the bird thank you card. I was able to do some quick japanese stab stitch on that one to add a little extra oomph. Mostly, I was just experimenting, but I had a great time. I was amazed Joey even let me work for a little while! On that note, I need to do some maintenance on my shop. It's been such a long time since I was able to sit down and do some work for my little stationery shop. :) I miss it! So, watch for these! There are also some other new things I'd like to add to the shop, but my little Joey will be 1 in a week and a half! Wow, I can't believe that... yikes.

In any case, we're having a party!!! I'm planning the whole thing and trying to come up with some clever ideas for decorations and favors and such. I already finished the invitations and got them out, and they're adorable, of course. Our theme is monsters. Now I have to make a banner, some cupcake toppers and get some favors together. I can't wait! I love parties. :) And this one's mine! Well, watch for more. I'll try to keep things updated. :)

Oops, forgot one. This one was super fun to make because I used 4 different stamps (from the same set so it would still look cohesive) to make this pattern. Making paper is one of my favorite things to do, and this is really something new for me. I make my own patterned paper all the time using a single stamp, but I've never piece something together. I had to take a picture of it so I would remember just how I pieced them together for this one. :) I love how it turned out! I also love putting a little something extra on the envelope. When you get an envelope like that, you know there's something awesome inside. :)

It's Thanksgiving, ya'll!

I hope everyone had a fantabulous Thanksgiving... I know I did! Joey got to see his first hockey games ever (his uncle was playing), we ate super good food, and we got to spend time with family. Isn't that what it's all about? I'm sure that's what everyone did, except maybe minus the hockey. That's an Austin family thing. :) And I love it! I made Justin (my kid brother) some extra special celebratory cupcakes since he made the high school hockey team this year. They're little mini cupcakes you can just pop in your mouth, and I made a little chocolate team logo and his number to stick in the frosting.

I felt like a true pastry chef when I made the little chocolate toppers. :) I printed off his high school logo and put it under some wax paper so I could trace it with the chocolate. I heated red and blue chocolate and then piped it onto the wax paper. It was delicious! They peeled off the wax paper really nicely, and I didn't break any of them. I was pretty proud of myself for that. Again, the chocolate technique came from my 'What's New, Cupcake?' book. Congrats, Justin!


So I did end up doing some crafting for Thanksgiving, and since my crafts are fairly limited in the hotel room we call our home, I'm learning some new things. I did some cupcaking again! How can you go wrong with cupcakes? I made some Thanksgiving cupcakes made to look like stuffed turkeys. This one also came from 'What's New, Cupcake?'. The turkeys and turkey legs are made of rolled caramels, the turkey legs of potato sticks and the stuffing and lettuce are corn flakes. I will say the corn flakes got really soggy in the frosting. I ended up pulling them off and not eating them. Yuck. I did like the turkey legs, though because they were solid caramel! They were a huge hit, and everyone ate them all. I think Grandpa ate the most, despite the fact that my dad said Grandpa wouldn't eat them because they looked weird. :)

Scott bought me some new tools of the trade that I am realizing I don't know how I lived without. If anyone is going to get into any kind of baking hobby where icing is involved, please get pastry bags and tips. They work wonderfully as far as control and technique go, and they just make it more fun. It's not fun when it's difficult, right?

So I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and ate tons of food. Nothing brings people together like food does. On to the next holiday!

PS - Since I've received my yarn to continue my cardigan, I've completed both front panels and a sleeve. I just might make my goal of finishing before Christmas! One more sleeve to go... Happy Crafting!

Sneak Peek Monday!

It was going to be Sneak Peek Sunday, but I wasn't quick enough on getting this out. So you miss out on the alliteration, but you still get the sneak peek. Yay, you! I can't work on my awesome new cardi because I ran out of yarn, and I'm still waiting to get new stuff in. So I decided to share what I have because I'm just so darn excited. And you get two sneak peeks in one! We finally closed on our house, and I get a craft room! I can't wait to have my own space to mess up again. I will say, though, it's really sad to leave my craft room in Holly as we put so much time and effort and thought into it. *sigh*

We'll start with my new craft room since it's the less cool of my cool sneak peeks. This is my new craft room in the new house. There's not really anything in it so it may not be the greatest look, but it's got so much potential! I can't wait to fill it with my crafting things. It will definitely be epic. Epic, I tell you. Plus, I'll have a place for the Rayna Crafting Tornado to pass. I understand how these pictures are probably boring, but I can't help but picture all my crafting things and all the ideas that will be buzzing around in there. It gives me chills. :) My room has one very large closet and lots of space. And also two windows and a ceiling fan. Thrilling, I know. :)

On the other hand, we have my awesome new cardi. Once again, it's a free pattern on ravelry. (if it's free, it's me!) I heart free patterns. :) I'm not the kind to knit sweaters. I'm way too impatient for that. I get bored with long runs of doing the same thing so this pattern is perfect for me. It uses a bulky/super bulky yarn with giant needles. So it takes a fraction of the time that a normal sweater would. I chose Plymouth Yarn Baby Alpaca in a beautiful deep blue color, and it's sooooooo soft. I can't wait to live in this thing! This is what I have of the back panel. As you can see, it's got a really cool lattice pattern with some cables on the side. Now, tell me, have you ever seen anything like this in the store? Exactly. It's mine. Because of the yarn I chose, it's quite an expensive sweater, but I am strangely okay with that. In any case, I can't do anything until I get the remaining 8 hanks of yarn. This is 2, so far.

Please to enjoy my exclusive sneak peeks. :)

Special note: I took all the pictures here with my new phone, the LG Optimus. I freaking love this phone! It replaces my uber-crappy Samsung Reclaim. I am never buying Samsung again. I called them so many times with issues about my phone, and they didn't seem to care. So take that and stick it in your powdered donut, Samsung.

Cupcakes are crafts, too!

I'm trying my hand at a new hobby. Rayna, do you really need yet another hobby, I hear you say. One can never have too many hobbies. I find joy in many things so why should I limit myself? So there. Yes, another hobby. But this one's delicious... I'm making novelty cupcakes! Well, I've made one batch, at least. But I do plan on making more! Scott bought me a really neat book for a housewarming present (warm my house with cupcakes!), and it's got so many cool recipes in it. I'm definitely planning on making more. I've already planned things like Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays ( I can't decide if I want knitting or goldfish cupcakes for my birthday. Maybe knitting goldfish? Awesome!).

For those of you who know me, I hate cooking. Maybe not hate it, but I'm terrible at it. I mess up macaroni and cheese, and I usually eat ramen when it's just me. I cannot cook. I will not cook. Although, I have been making Joey's food. That's beside the point, though. I can puree anything. That's not hard. So, anyway, cupcakes. Mmm, cupcakes. This book has everything in it. There are several recipes for cupcakes, which is good because I like everything in one place. There are also a bunch of frosting recipes. I went kind of cheap on that front. I bought frosting. :) Hey, you have to start somewhere. :) It's just as delicious, I can assure you. I'll get to making my own.

I made the Bake Sale Pies. Delicious! Anything with M&Ms is a hit with me. This was also marked as an "ez" recipe so it was a good place to start. There are so many cupcakes I want to make in this book. There are cupcakes that look like eggs, monsters, jungle animals, whales and bees, just to mention a few. Of course, there are also things you wouldn't want to eat. For some reason, there is a recipe for cupcakes with roaches on top of them and cupcakes that look like nasty rats. Ew. Definitely do NOT want to eat. This book has all the techniques and recipes you need to know to make their cupcakes. I love it! As you can see, Scott and Joey loved them, too. These cupcakes make a great snack! ;)

The Frog Prince

I can't believe it's November already! We had a wonderful October as we took our boy trick-or-treating for the first time. It was so much fun! We have since moved to Ohio, but we haven't yet moved into our house. Preemptively, we trick-or-treated around the new neighborhood where we will be living very soon I hope. We met a bunch of the neighbors, and we got candy, of course. It was awesome! On that note, the craft for this time was Joey's costume. I knit him the cutest little frog costume. I, personally, thought it was genius. :) Plus, none of the other kids had the same costume.
I got this pattern from a book called Wacky Baby Knits, and, despite all the problems other people had with it, I had a great time knitting it. When it comes to knitting, I just trust the pattern. Even if it doesn't make sense to me at the time, I always just do what it tells me. It always turns out. :) I wish everything worked out that way! There were a couple times I had to check the ravelry forum to see what other people thought of the pattern, but then I just went for it. Sure, I'll make the frog eyes just like I made the frog eyelids. It doesn't make any sense, but I'll figure it out. I'm usually one to make it up as I go, anyway. Everything turned out fine, as you can see. The pattern was free, by the way. I'm sure you can google Wacky Baby Knits along with frog or you can just go straight to ravelry (if you have an account) and look it up there. Ravelry is definitely my go-to place for patterns. Google is kind of a waste of time that way.

Scott also had a hand in this, and I always value his design opinion, but he really helped with this one. The pattern had me stitching the black part of the eyes. We went button shopping for all the buttons to close up the legs and the collar, and Scott found the coolest green froggy eyes! They match the yarn perfectly, and they really just made the outfit. So, thank you, baby. :) Your input was invaluable.
I hope everyone had as much fun this Halloween as I did. We're finally starting to move into our new house! We should close on Monday so I can't wait to get my craft room back. I'll have to post new pictures! I get my own room with a ginormous closet! Hurray, me! I hope everyone's looking forward to the holiday season. I finished knitting Scott's Christmas presents, and I have to start work on Joey's sometime soon. I'm hoping I'll be able to wait until we get into the new place. For now, I'm working on something for me. ;)

For My Favorite Baby Momma

This post is a very special one because I get to announce... dun, dun, dun... my sister-in-law's pregnant! As you may have noticed, I go gaga over babies, and this is an extra special baby because they will be my very own niece/nephew! I can't tell you how excited I really am so I am dedicating this post to my very favorite family right now: Jen and Kevin Ehlert and the little bun in the oven. :) I haven't had a lot of time to do yarn crafts for the little bugger, yet, but I have definitely been inspired by Jen herself. I found the coolest stamp at Michael's in the $1 bin (Yay, $1 bin!), and it really brings out the fun in pregnancy. :) I had a lot of fun with this stamp. I made my own paper print by stamping a really fun curlique-type stamp in red, and then I stamped the little pregnancy dress on top of it and cut it out. This is a super fun technique called fussy cutting. It's one of my favorites! Then I made it even more fun and whimsical by stamping it on the paper print again and cutting out the bottom part of the dress so I could pop it out with a 3d dot tape. I thought Jen would love the realism. :) I also heart rhinestones so, of course, I had to add some of those.

I also made the envelope myself so I could coordinate with the card (for themed party coordinations, hint, hint... ;)). I used my much-loved cricut to cut out the envelope and stamped the same curlique-type stamp from the card on the corners of the envelope. Then, instead of adding rhinestones (because I'm sure they would fall off the outside of the envelope), I colored the little circles red.
There are a couple things I love about this card. One, I made it. Call me egotistical or whatever you'd like, but it's genius. Two, it's a little less baby (although we all know babies are indeed wonderful) and more a celebration of pregnancy and the beginning of motherhood. In other words, it's more about Jen! So, yes, we're all really thrilled about a new baby, and we can't wait to meet them, but it's also always fun to be celebrated and spoiled a little yourself. :) So this one's for you, Jen. We'll get to the baby when they get here. :)

To go back a bit, there was a card I made a while back that was also inspired by Jen. Her nickname is Jenny Bee. I guess I don't actually know if it's Jenny B or Jenny Bee, but in any case, she likes bees. So, for the sake of argument, it's Jenny Bee. I was trying to come up with some themes for a baby card, and baby bee sounded so cute! So we'll give this one to you, too. :) You're just so inspiring! This one was fun because I also made my own paper print, and I got to use some embellishments I don't normally use in the wire and the button. Plus, kraft paper is the best.

So, this post, dear Ehlerts is for all 3 of you! But mostly Jen. Take all the time you can get together because it will disappear quickly when you have a little one. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but store up face-time with each other because between sleeping and work and baby, you may not see each other for a little while. :) But you know who you can call for help, should you need it! Crazy Aunt Rayna will be on the move...