My friend Rebecca’s daughter Abbie just turned three on Groundhog’s Day and celebrated the occasion with a fun birthday party. She was REALLY into playing with all her presents this year and enjoyed everything about her birthday cake, from the adorable Daniel Tiger design her Grammy made to the ice cream accompanying it, and us singing Happy Birthday to her. Unfortunately her birthday fell on a bright, cold day, so she saw her shadow and we’re in for six more weeks of winter! Abbie is the cutest little fairy princess so I wanted to make a card…
Today’s the day! I’m excited to announce the grand opening of the Gnome Décor online shop, featuring handcrafted goodies like greeting cards, tags, goody bags, and gifts. I’m opening the shop with a collection of Valentines and will be adding more Valentines soon, then introduce birthday cards and tags. I plan to add more items in a week, so let me know if there is anything in particular you’re looking for. You can email me at gnomedecor@gmail.com or leave a comment below. Check out a video of all the products on Facebook now…
Happy Handmade Holidays! Last Saturday’s cozy get together with crafty friends for a handmade Christmas ornament exchange was one of the highlights of this year’s Christmas season for me. I’ve hosted handmade ornament exchanges twice before in past years, but it had been four years since the last exchange. (Where does time go?) This year I organized the event; my mom and I provided snacks; and my friends Erin and Deanna graciously hosted the event at their art studio Caravan Classes in downtown Noblesville. This is the same awesome studio that had an Artist Halloween Party I…
I never realized making tags could be so much fun until I took tag classes at Archiver’s several years ago (R.I.P. to my favorite scrapbook store of all time). At Christmas time they had a workshop called 10 Little Tags which my mom and I took it each year they offered it. Every tag we made was completely different, and perfect for dressing up Christmas presents. In fact, I still have some Archiver’s originals stashed away somewhere because I couldn’t bear to give away my favorites all at once. Lately I’ve been obsessed…
This past weekend was warm and rainy, the kind of weather that fools you into thinking Christmas is much further away than it actually is. Some of my perennials are confused and are starting to show signs of Spring growth from the mild temperatures and rainy days. We’ve had frost but not a hard frost so my fall fairy gardens are still going strong too. But there are only – GET THIS – 50 days until Christmas. Gulp. So when my CFF (craft friend forever) Wendie invited me over for a Saturday crafternoon, I was determined to focus…
Happy Halloween! I hope you are enjoying a spooky sweet day that’s filled with terrifyingly tasty treats and creative fun! My favorite way to celebrate any holiday is with good friends, family, and crafts, so when I heard Caravan Classes was having an Artist Halloween Party, I made plans to attend this fun event with my mom. Caravan Classes is an amazing local business that offers art classes, parties, events and custom art projects for both kids and adults. They have a studio by the Noblesville, Indiana courthouse square and also a vintage camper which serves as a…
My mom has been making ghost suckers for Halloween since I was a little girl in the 1970s. She hands them out to trick-or-treaters in little goody bags with other fun candy and trinkets. These spooky-cute lollipops are a quick and frugal craft. You can fill a haunted house with them in no time at all! Use them for: Halloween party favors Candy for trick-or-treaters Halloween treats for kids, classrooms, neighbors Boo bags Supplies: Round lollipops (Tootsie Roll pops work best) Flat (rectangular) box of Kleenex Black rug yarn Black cardstock Craft glue Standard…
Washi you doing for the next five minutes? I have a quick, easy and inexpensive DIY project to share that uses washi tape to dress up boring office supplies. There’s something so satisfying about a super simple DIY to jumpstart your creativity when you’re short on time and inspiration! You can use any office supplies that have a plain, smooth surface. Plastic, metal, wood or paperboard surfaces work well. Washi tape can be found at any craft store in the paper crafting section or office supply store near the post-it notes. You can even get…
October 14 UPDATE! We have a winner! Barbara Shreve won the set of three cards! Thank you to everyone who entered! *** World Card Making Day is celebrated each year on the first Saturday in October. It started in 2006 as a way to encourage crafters to get a jump on crafting for the holiday season. What better way to celebrate than with Gnome Décor’s handmade card set giveaway? We’re celebrating the site’s launch with this freebie. You can enter to win this set of three cards three different ways. Choose one, two or all three methods…
Stamp-a-faire is a free annual online crafting event hosted by Papertrey Ink, my favorite manufacturer of clear stamps, dies, and other paper crafting accessories. I’m obsessed with their products and blog, where the challenge was hosted by members of their design team August 25-27. I had never participated before, but I actually had the weekend of the challenge free this year, so I had time to watch the instructional videos, follow the challenges as they were posted, gather supplies, be inspired and create my own projects. I managed to finish six of the challenges by…