The Crafty Princess Diaries

Tammy Powley’s Crafty Weblog

January 11, 2012
by Tammy
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Create Your Style with Margot Potter In Tucson 2012

Swarovski lovers are heading to Tuscon soon for the “Create Your Style” event hosted by Margot Potter:

Join Swarovski Ambassador and Designing Diva Margot Potter on January 31st at the Create Your Style Design Challenge and Event. It’s an 8 hour intensive design challenge, class and contest with fabulous prizes, sensational swag, sparkling inspiration all leading to a champagne reception and award ceremony! Are you ready to roll up your sleeves and show us what you’ve got? Visit http://www.create-your-style.com/Content.Node/additional/Tucson-Show-Guide-20… to find out more about the show and the event!

January 9, 2012
by Tammy
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Crafty Link Time

Your Grandmother’s Crafts
These ARE your grandmother’s crafts. Ya gotta problem with that? I didn’t think so.

Aileen’s Musings
Aileen shows you how she created a patinaed copper steampunk necklace using paper!

Carmi’s Art/Life World
Carmi starts off her year by experimenting with nylon wire mesh…a medium really new to her!

Craft. You.
Meet the man behind TV host and mid-century modern lifestyle expert Brini Maxwell

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at our crafty world
This week at Craftside there is fun idea for using a pretty teacup as a doll dress from the new book Creative Pilgrimage, tutorials on how to embroider a backstitch chain and a cable chain, fitting info on different types of pants, and a recipe for raw ice box chocolate chip cookies.

Eileen – The Artful Crafter
Add beautiful kaleidoscope effects to your hand made cards with iris folded designs.

Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter
Make some Retrofabulous Pulp Fiction Thank You Cards!

Mixed Media Artist
The plans for Cyndi’s new marbled fabric quilt are coming together!

Stefanie Girard’s Sweater Surgery
How to make an old pair of shoes glitter-tastic!

January 8, 2012
by Tammy
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Still Working on the Knitting!

I am making progress on my knit scarf. At first I was planning on just using one skein of the two that I purchased while on my yarn shop visit, Lambs Pride Super Wash bulky from Brown Sheep Company, but after having a cold snap surprise is recently and wearing a few of the other scarves I have, I realized that longer scarves are better because you can double them up more easily.

I am still struggling a little with the knit stitch, but I am paying more attention to how many loops are on my knitting needle and thus not dropping stitches as much as I have in the past. After I get this finished, I plan to move onto purl. Hopefully by then I will feel a little more comfortable with the pointy sticks!

January 7, 2012
by Tammy
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Crocheting for Premie Babies

Though one of my New Year’s resolutions is to make more stuff for myself, I still plan to continue with the charity work. For the month of January, the Yahoo Crochet List has a donation drive for premie hats, booties, and afghans. So these are my first donations of the year.

I used the loom to make two tiny hats using Lion Brand Baby’s First yarn in a color called Sea Sprite. It is a chunky weight (5) yarn, so it seemed to work well with the loom.

For the two baby afghans, I pulled from my stash of Bernat Baby Softee yarn and doubled the yarn strands. The larger of the two is made with double crochet stitch and finished off with a shell stitch trim. The smaller that is purple and green is made with single crochet stitches and triple crochet stitches and also trimmed with shell stitch.

Whenever I make premie items, I am always struck by how tiny they are!

January 6, 2012
by Tammy
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Chunky Funky Asia Yarn Loom Hat

After getting some amazing yarn at a local yarn shop recently, I then had to figure out what to make with it. My new rule for myself now that I’m discover “the good stuff” as far as yarn goes is that I am not allowed to buy more fancy yarn until after I make something with the fancy yarns I just bought. At first I was thinking of making a scarf with the swirly yarn pictured (la lana Asia from Italy), but then I realized that it kind of looks good next to the purple wool I had bought. Plus, as a beginning knitter, I would not be able to knit very well with this stuff. So instead, I brought out the old knitting loom and made a hat.

I purchased two skeins of this yarn, so I’m making two hats, one for me and one for a friend. I love how knobby and bumpy this yarn is and the wonderful swirl of colors. Now I just need to finish the purple scarf to go with it, and I will be allowed to go back to the yarn shop again.

January 5, 2012
by Tammy
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Crochet Cup Cozy

Here is another little project that I crocheted as part of a holiday gift, a cup cozy. One of my sisters is getting into hot tea, so for her gift I purchased an assortment of teas from the Teaman (over at Etsy), bought her this funky cup from Pier 1, and then crocheted a cup cozy for it to help her keep her tea warm.

At the time, though I did look around for some patterns, I was in a hurry and could not find any that accommodated the handle, so I decided to just wing it with some left over cotton yarn and double crochet. To secure it around the cup, I made ties on both ends of the crocheted piece.

It turned out okay, but of course since then, I found a great cup cozy tutorial at All About Ami. Instead of a tie, it incorporates a big button, way cute!

My sister was very pleased with the gift, and this is something I plan to probably try again, only make a cozy with a button.

January 1, 2012
by Tammy
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New Year Crafting Links

Other than the usual exercise more and eat less, I don’t really have a huge list of New Year’s resolutions, but I do have a few. One is to be able by the end of the year to pick up this beautiful cat, Chanel. Of the four we adopted last spring, she is the last one who is not okay with either of us picking her up. In fact, while she is very affectionate, if you pet her too much, she gets a little crazy and will give you the right paw with claws extended. Ouch!

She was found living in a feral colony with her daughter, Coco. They estimated that Chanel is about 2 1/2 years old, and Coco was 5 months when they trapped them and brought them to the shelter. Thus Chanel’s feral background makes her a tough nut to crack when it comes to trusting humans. She has come a long way over the past 9 months. Even with the occasional swipe of the paw still, she is much more relaxed around us, even allowing us to give her a brief belly rub now and then. I just have to keep being patient and persistent, but it is totally worth it.

I wish all my blog readers a wonderful 2012, and here are just a few crafty links to start the new year off with.

Aileen’s Musings
Aileen shows you how to bring a bit of beach home with her faux stained glass ornaments that can be hung in a window year round.

Eileen – The Artful Crafter
Learn how to make cute little patterned rosettes to embellish your paper crafts, including where to download some pretty patterned papers which can also be used for tea bag tile folding.

Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter
Madge shows you how to whip up a New Year’s Retrofabulous Festive Fascinator in this fun filled video tutorial.

December 29, 2011
by Tammy
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Ankle Warmers

Here is another gift I can finally share since Christmas is over. My niece is a dance teacher, and so of course, I decided to go with a “dance” theme for her gifts. I made these ankle warmers using a free pattern called Heat Wave Ankle Warmers from Designs by KN and Vanna’s Choice yarn in black, and I also included a ballet calendar and a resin pendant that has ballet shoes on it. I wish I could say I made the pendant, but that was one of the presents I bought off Etsy. This was from the Crystal Bouquet, and at the time, there was a buy 2 get one free deal going on. So I bought the ballet shoes pendant for my niece, a light house one for my sister, and I treated myself to the “free” pendant, which was the princess and the pea.

The ankle warmers were super fast to make, and since you work in the back loop of the stitches, they have a lot of stretch to them when you are finished. Hopefully, she finds them useful as she teaches little girls their right foot from their left foot!

December 27, 2011
by Tammy
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Glittery Yarn Bag

Finally now that Christmas is behind us I can show off some of the presents I made. Above is one that I am particularly happy with. It is a little drawstring bag made using Vanna’s Glamour yarn in platinum. I made it for my sister, and then put a small calendar and necklace inside of it, so the bag worked as the wrapping of the gift. The pattern I used is from Lion Brand and is called the Shimmer Bag.

I loved working with this yarn, and the bag is very fast to make since most of the stitching is single crochet in the round. So I made a second Shimmer Bag for a friend, and this time I used the same brand of yarn but in ruby. I also made the strap longer. I thought it would be a little more functional if you could put it on your shoulder or at least hang it from your wrist, so I made the strap twice as long, and then I knotted the ends together.