Felt Bird Kits

New Felt Bird kits are available at

www.OutsideTheMargins.com

Each kit comes with step by step instructions and are 

designed for both sewers and non sewers

Pink and Chocolate Felt Bird Kit Click HERE	Giant's Themed Felt Bird Kit Click HERE
Kitschy  Red & Turquose Felt Bird Kits  Click HERE	Paris Themed Felt Bird Kit Click HERE
Pink Polkadots Felt Bird Kit Click HERE	Chicken Themed Felt Bird Kit Click HERE

Crafty Blogger Blurbs

Carmi's Art/Life World 
Carmi get's to work with the new Claudine Hellmuth HSN kits! 
Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at our crafty world 
This week at Craftside there are chances to win 2 sets of 3 fabulous craft books, your choice of Indygo Junction patterns along with info on the Vintage Inspired Modern Style Design Challenge, a tutorial on how to paint on fusible web and a recipe for vegan Oreo cookie cookies.
Crafty Princess Diaries 
When does quality matter? Tammy takes a look at her second trip to a local yarn store and considers the cost of good yarn. 
Eileen - The Artful Crafter 
Sew a cute pin cushion bracelet to keep your pins (literally) on hand.
Mixed Media Artist 
Mixed media cards were the order of the day when Michelle Mach hosted a challenge! 
Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery 
An old purse gets a new look with Simply Spray paint. 

Lemon..Lemon..Yellow..Yellow...

I love lemon flavor....not eating them directly *shudder* but a nice tart lemon flavor is tasty to me.  This year we have an abundance of lemons on our lemon tree, since we pruned the heck out of it last year it went wild and produced a ton of lemons.  Problem is what to do with them all...I'd love to have lemons year round, so I've been searching for different ways to keep the lemons to be able to use them aside from squeezing them and freezing the juice.  In my search I came across a tasty lemon crinkle cookie recipe from Whipperberry.com  that I baked today.  I must tell you they are very easy to make and very delicious. I added extra lemon juice and zest and I traded a cup of regular flour for whole wheat flour after I had doubled the recipe. Unfortunately, they did nothing to put a dent in my bumper crop of lemons.  I did come across some interesting recipes...Preserved lemons anyone? Over at Foodgal.com she tells you all about them which in itself turns out to be somewhat of a science experiment. While there I also discovered Lemon Marmalade (YUM!).  Not sure about the perserved lemons though I am tempted to do at least 1 jar.  I'll be sure to let you know if I do preserve some.

Hanging Felt Bird

Here's a hanging felt bird I created for a 1 on 1 bird swap I'm in.

I had such a hard time narrowing down what I wanted to do because I had so many different ideas.  Finally today I sat down and just started playing and came up with this one that I'm very pleased with.

Close up

New Tool

Its not often I get excited over a new tool for the kitchen but I'm thrilled with this cupcake pen hubby bought me.  I really dislike making cupcakes because I inevitably get batter everywhere.  I tried using a squeeze bulb, but that didn't work  at all.  By sheer chance we came across this cupcake pen at the store the other night, and I was ecstatic to get it and try it out....guess what it actually works like a dream. I had no idea they even made such things but I'm thrilled to no end that I discovered it.

Get Your Grunge On...

Grungy Heart Shrine

...by creating your own grungy textured heart shrine.  When I created this grungy shrine I used the same color mixers as I did creating my Fly Away Torso Necklace and my Art Saves Torso Lamp.
Click HERE to see my step by step tutorial.

Happy Creating!
Aileen~

Cutie Patootie Cupid

Mr Kevin turned into Cupid with his little friend Caydance.

Aren't they both cutie patooties?!?

Groovy Kind of Love

Here's a piece I just finished to give to hubby for Valentine's Day using our wedding song Groovy Kind of Love by Phil Collins.  I gleamed the idea from Scoutandnimble.com. which I of course discovered on Pinterest. On my piece though I wanted to give it a more aged layered look, so I first misted my blank canvas with  Color Mists (Copper Kettle, Tiger's Eye Brown and 22 Karat Gold).  I then Let it drip and run while I dried it with the heat gun and then sealed the first layer with PYM II.  Next after printing the sheet music I tore the edges around the entire piece sheet of music so it wasn't a clean line and then adhered it to the canvas using Golden's semi-gloss soft gel medium.  Once that was dry I misted it several more times with the Color Mists letting it run and drip as I dried it with the heat gun.  I then stamped using stamp and white and black gesso and gold metallic paint.  Dried it again with the heat gun letting some of the paint bubble up and then misted several more layers of Color Mists then sealed it completely with another layer of soft gel medium.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Knowing it was for hubby I had to keep myself from going overboard on it which was probably the hardest part.  I'll let you know how he likes it when I give it to him tomorrow.

Crafty Blogger Blurbs

About Family Crafts 
Want to participate in a fun craft challenge? Check out Sherri's current pirate make-it-over crafts challenge!

Carmi's Art/Life World 
Carmi had a whole week of CHA posts starting with this one about Basic Grey! 

Craft Buds 
Are you interested in writing and selling your sewing, quilting, knitting, crochet, or other craft patterns? Check out our tips and let us know if you have any of your own. 

Crafty Princess Diaries 
The yarn shortage is over, and the Crafty Princess can show off a baby ghan she made for a donation drive she is running for Healthy Start.

Eileen - The Artful Crafter 
Eileen made a hybrid Valentine's Day card inspired by a book she just read, I Heart Stationery by Charlotte Rivers.

Lindsay Sews 

Have you ever wondered what goes into writing a quilting pattern?

Mixed Media Artist 
Learn how easy it is to create some great textured fabrics by adding simple hand-sewn tucks!

Heart Garland

I had a fun day yesterday getting together with my art peeps to createa heart garland.  We each created 7 hearts and then exchanged themwith each person, so that we ended up with 1 from each person most of them are made from felt and fabric.  The birdies are from a bird swap I just love the look of them with my hearts :-)

Valentine Card & Heart Shaped Cupcakes

Click the picture above, save & download 

this freebie Valentine Card

Heart Shaped Cupcakes

I gleamed this idea from where else, but Pinterest. 

You can find just about anything on there. I've 

been just waiting for a chance to try it out.  It said 

you could use marbles or foil and since I didn't have 

any marbles I opted for foil. 

 It seemed to work just fine rolling a small ball of foil

up to keep the liner indented to look like a heart. 

I probably could have filled them a little fuller, but I 

was afraid if they rose up too much they'd loose 

their heart shape.

Here's the Pièce de résistance

I also made some mini cupcakes with the remaining cake batter.

Exciting New Kits!

I'm really excited about 

OTM's new kits.  

Above is the Pocket Posey Kit 

Click HERE to check it out

A 30 Piece Kit to create 

the above finished piece.

Click HERE to see Outside The Margins' Banner kits.

Valentine Cards

Here's  a few Valentine's Day cards I made yesterday. It's

been awhile since I've made cards..actually a long while

I felt a bit out of practice.  I especially love the monkey

one I made for Mr. Kevin.  It doesn't really look 

Valentiney but I am happy with it :-)

Life is about Using The Whole Box of Crayons!

I came across this sign over at A Fine Farmhouse and totally agree with the sentiments in this sign.  In fact, I think its one for my kitchen wall. As far as creativity goes don't be afraid to reach outside your comfort zone and try color combinations that you wouldn't usually be drawn to you might be surprisedto find you like other colors.  For myself,  I just discovered that I love the combination of red and turquoise together.  So much sothat I created a  red & turquoise Pinterest board with this combination.   Who knew, I sure didn't, until I created something using those two color combinations for a friend.

Crafty Blogger Blurbs

Craft Buds 
Learn how to frost cupcakes like a pro and turn your favorite chewy candy into some fab cupcake toppers for the Superbowl!

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world 
This week at Craftside there is a recipe for Vegan Captain Crunch french toast, eye-candy in the form of a unique quilt canopy, drawings turned into coloring books, a fun book video and a crazy knitted scarf. 

Crafty Princess Diaries 
Tammy takes a look at one of The Crochet Dude's newest books written for those of use who donate our crochet goods to charity.

Eileen - The Artful Crafter 
You can transform plain glassware into unique home decor. Check out Eileen's first attempt with transparent glass paints. 

Mixed Media Artist 
How can you resist a resist? Especially when it's as much fun as gel-based school glue!

Highlights from CHA

I have a couple of pictures from my projects

that I did for Sakura's booth at CHA.

Here's  my torso necklace on display.

You can see how I created it using

Terri Sproul's new mixer line

HERE

And here is my grungy Torso Lamp on displayWhat a contradiction it is with all that pink around it!I also used Terrys Mixer's as the base color givingit a patinaed look.  You can click HERE to see my tutorial on it, in case you missed it.

Terry Sproul's New Mixer Line fromSakura Hobby and Craft.
Would you like to know what the "HOT 20 products will be for 2012, click HERE to find out.

Felt Love Banner Kit Giveaway!

Tipi over at 12 Month's of Christmas

is having a blog giveaway 

for a sweet Felt Love Banner Kit

Click HERE to read all the ways you can enter.