Envelope of Doom Swap

I have joined an "Envelope of Doom" swap, on the "Trash to Treasure" group I belong to on ravelry.com, it is my first swap of this kind.

The object of the swap is to send an envelope of crafting materials from your personal stash, that you can't figure out what to do with. You know all the little bits and pieces of leftovers from past projects, or things you never really got down to useing and forgot what they were originally for, and all those things you recycled and saved from the trash but never got around to useing.

The reciever of your envelope of doom is suppose to use as much as they can from your envelope, and whatever they need to go with it from their own stash, and make an item or items, and then send what they make back to you.

I have so many idea's for the fun things my partner "auntlola" sent me, I can't wait to see how many of the item's I can get done before mail out date. I spent a few pleasent hours the night before last, brainstorming, and then sketching pic's of my ideas, so I would'nt forget them before I could get to them to get them done. I have one project done already, and it turned out so cute, but I won't be able to share it until after my swap partner recieves her goodies. For now all that I can share is a picture of all the goodies I recieved from my partner to craft with. I'll post pictures of all the items I create as soon as I can. :)

Chick Egg Cozy CAL

It's great to have crafty friends. My friend Claudia, a.k.a. delights on ravelry, just hosted a CAL for another of her patterns. It was at the "Good Things Happen" group, and everyone has been having a blast, makeing these cute little "chicks." It was so much fun that delights and others started making other animals based on the original pattern, with a few changes here and there. To date they have patterns made up now for, piglets, bunnies, a possible ladybug, and I don't even remember what else there might be. There was talk of a lamb, among others.

Also everyone started to embelish their "chicks," and other barnyard animals, in fun, and cute ways to make them more one of a kind-ish, lol. I myself had to do my own thing when it came to the embelishing of my "chick," as you can see from the this cutie sitting on her fuzzy nest, which was my take on this little "chick", lol. They also started to name them all, lol, so say hello to "Penelope Henwy," lol.

I am planning on making quite a few of these cute little "chicks," and some other animals as well, and will keep adding pic's of them to this blog page as they are finished. :)

Thanks friend delights for the heads up on this fun CAL, and for makeing it so much fun with all of your chicken jokes and such. I had a blast, and can't wait for the next one, hopefully soon. :)

A Thrifty St. Patrick's Day

Last year I found a bag full of St. Patrick's day decorating bits and pieces at the thrift store for less than a dollar. In it were 3 felt shamrock ornaments, 2 small plastic doll sized lucky hats with elastic straps, 3 pieces of "Kiss me I'm Irish ribbon in different lengths, and 5 mini Lucky glitter hats, that had apparently been pokes, only one of the hats actually still had a wire stem in it. This year I decided to see how I could use all these items to decorate for the holiday.

The ornaments were easy, all I did was add some of my beloved glitter to them, and re-do the hanging cords, so they would hang faceing forward.










The small plastic doll hats were easy too, I just put them on two of my teddy bears. I made a few pin on bow ties, and a headband for the teddy bears, out of the ribbons.

And I made these little glitter hats into ornaments.I could'nt put a whole through the center in the top, because of the thick shaft in the middle that had held the stems, so I just put a spot of glue in the center of the top, laid a piece of yarn across it and left it overnight to dry. The next day I glued a tiny white flower to the top of the hat, tied the ends of the yarn togeather, and frayed the ends to make it look like a tassel, and ta..da, I now have 8 ornaments, and a bunch of well dressed St. Patrick's day teddy bears to celebrate with. :)

Use what you have

In February when I was decorateing my Valentine's tree, it just seemed like something was missing, and did'nt really look finished no matter how many ornaments I added. I did'nt have a bunch of money to buy new wired ribbon for the tree, and did'nt have enough of any one kind on hand to do the job right either, so I had to brainstorm to come up with an idea.

Last year my dear friend "delights" from ravelry sent me a box of crafty goodie's, and included in that box was a cute crocheted Christmas wreath brooch, which she had decorated with beads she had slavaged from bead strands she had bought at the thrift store. I then made some as gifts myself, and went on to design a "Christmas Tree Ornament" that also used those same beads, as the ornaments on my little trees. This got me thinking of other ways I could use those beads in my crafts, so when I needed an idea to add a finishing touch to my tree, at little or no exspence, this is what popped into my head.

I love to window shop for ideas at my local craft stores, and at decorating displays during the holidays, at all the local stores. While doing this one Christmas I had seen these pretty bead strands, that were being used in place of tinsel, but they were about $2 or more a piece, or sold in sets of a dozen at a price of $12 or more, to exspensive by far. I decided that I could make some myself, useing the bead strands I had already had in my stash for better than 10 years. So I got my little scissors, and took a strand over to the tree, to drape one end over a limb and see how much I would need to get the right look. I then cut that one piece, and used it as a measure to cut all the other's. It took me all of 30 to 40 minutes, to cut all the strands I had into these cute little tinsel replacements, enough to cover my whole tree, and I did'nt have to shop or pay a thing for them, because they were already in my stash.

Now it is St. Patrick's day, and again I was'nt able to find pretty, and in-exspensive green ribbon for my tree, so beads came to the rescue again, and probably will again at Halloween, since I have a large quantity of coppery orange bead strands in my stash.

Here is a pic of the still in progress tree for St Patrick's day. I will probably be adding new crafted ornaments to it for the rest of the month, till it is time to change it again.

I have used beads in many different ways over the last 20 years. They have been used on the tree as a garland, wrapped around the curtains for tieback's, draped across the top of the curtain rod as a treatment, and to tie the curtains back to the posts on my canopy bed, strewn across the dinning table to add some glitz, cascaded over the top of a basket or bowl or jar from time to time, just to name a few of their uses. Maybe this post will inspire you with another way to use them, and I hope you will share it with me. :)

St. Patrick's Glitter Clothespins

I just recently recieved a few fabric postcards for Valentine's Day, from my friends "KristyRecycles" and "peace2knit." They were from a "Valentine's Card Swap" on the "Trash to Treasure" group at ravelry.com. I wanted to hang them on a banner that I recieved from my friend and swap partner, "minervas-hand," from a "Valentine's Day Swap", also on the "Trash to Treasure" group, with some mini heart clothespins I've had for years. The thickness of the banner and the cards togeather were just too thick for the little clothespins, so I decided to make a few sets of full sized decorated pins to use instead.

I knew St. Patrick's day was only a few weeks away, so some of the sets I made were for this green holiday. They have to be done in steps, over a few days, so I did this craft right after Valentine's day was over. The:

1st step - was to paint the pins with a foam brush and acrylic craft paint, then let them dry.

2nd step - the next day, was to paint the pins with the foam brush and glitter glue, then let them dry.

3rd step - the next day was to glue on the shamrocks, which I salvaged from a St. Patrick's day necklace, then let the glue dry.

Then my pins were ready to use.

*If you don't have glitter glue, you can just paint the pins with regular craft glue, or elmers school glue, and then sprinkle with loose glitter.

It's so much fun finding different treasures to glue on to these pins, and crafting your own decorations, and this is such a simple project, that with a little supervision, the kid's can help you with them. Outdoors on a not too windy day is best. :)

Simple Shamrock

I was looking for a cute and easy shamrock pattern to crochet, to add to some of my crochet and craft projects for St. Patrick's day. I found a few I liked, but they did'nt have that little dip in the middle of each leaf that I was looking for, so I played with hook and yarn, and came up with this quick and cute little pattern that I want to share with you.

Pic's of the seperate shamrocks will be up as soon as I can get a descent shot. :)

*If you want to add a button to the center of your shamrock, you need to start by leaving a long enough piece of yarn at the beginning, before you make your slip knot, to attach it with.

PATTERN:

Ch 4, join with sl st in beginning ch, to form a ring (or you can start with a magic ring). :)

Rd 1- *ch 3 - counts as 1st dc, (trc, dc, trc in ring), ch 3 - counts as dc, sl st in ring* (one leaf made). Repeat from * to *, 2 or 3 x, depending on wether you want to make a 3 or 4 leafs on your shamrock. After the last sl st, ch as many as you like for your stem. Fasten off

*If you want to make it into a bookmark, make the ending chain longer, and add a tassel, a charm, or a button to the end. You can even make a double chain, and attach them when you finish the leaves, by leaving a longer piece at the beginning before you crochet the leaves, then crocheting over it, into the circle, it will be right beside the finishing length where you need it, to start the second chain. Just do a sl st every 3 or 4 ch, to attach them to each other.



*If you want to applique it to another project, like a purse, a banner, or a square, etc., leave a long enough tail to sew it onto your project with.














* you can also make them into ornaments by adding a beaded hanger to the top.

I hope you enjoy this simple pattern! :)

St. Patrick's Day Craftin'

Last week I started crafting and decorating for St. Patrick's Day. Each year I look for a new collectible or two, to add to my collection for each holiday. I purchase them either on sale, or from a thrift or antique store. This year I added this cute little couple to my St. Partick's Day collectables. I found them at Michaels crafts, marked 40% off this past Friday. I just fell in love with them, and could see myself useing them for years to come, in my March/St Patrick's Day decorating. They were a great bargain, and will be a much loved addition to my decorations collection. :)

Welcome / A little bit about me

Welcome!

I am very excited about the start of this blog. I finally have a place to share my crochet patterns and projects, my crafts and decorating, for holidays and every day. A place to meet up with friends and family, and best of all to make lots of new friends as well.

I am known to my friends on "ravelry.com" and "flikr.com" as "spookycuddles", and even though Halloween is my very favorite holiday, it has nothing to do with my avatar, but rather is the combination of the names of two of our kitty babies, "Spook" and "Cuddles".

My friends frequently and good naturdly tease me about my love of "GLITTER" and "Glitz" in my crafting, hence the name of my blog "PlentySparkles".

I love decorating my home for all the holidays, throughout the year, with my crochet and crafts, and with decorations I find while thrifting or clearance shopping.
I also love talking every day to all my friends on the ravelry group, "Trash to Treasure," where we all share lots of good idea's for recycling, re-purposing, and for all types of crafts.
I love to do craft swaps with all my friends on Trash to Treasure too, because I always get lots of pretty things from my partners, that I can use to decorate my home with.

That's about it for now, but I can't wait to start sharing pattern's and ideas, and bits about my everyday crafting life.

Thanks for your visit! ;D