Knit One Quilt Too

One down, one to go

Here's a little twist on the envelope style gift bag.  This time the gift bag is the gift.  I've used some more of this adorable hedgehog fabric to make a pencil and book pouch for one of my neices.  I'll be making another one for her sister too.

See that extra pocket in there?  Behind the pocket is a little selection of handmade books, just right for a little girl who loves to draw.

 

In front of the pocket I added a set of these lovely Lyra Ferby pencils and a pencil sharpener just the right size.

This little book is a special one called a star book.  I had lots of fun yesterday teaching kids in our homeschool group how to make these and then came home and spent the evening making more!  Isn't that button just the cutest!

Here's the star book in action.

A glimpse into the papercraft studio

Since I mentioned this in the Why do you craft? post, I thought I'd show a photo of one of my recent papercraft projects.  I joined a Yahoo group called Art for Cures because someone on Imagination Tribe suggested I might want to do it after my breast cancer diagnosis.  This group does swaps with a charity in mind.  That means that you send in your project and swap with others in the group, but then some are taken out to use in auction pieces to donate money to the charity for the theme. 

The first one was Musical Italy and the donations will go benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  These are "inchies" and just as you would imagine they are 1 inch square.  This is much smaller than I'm used to working, especially as we had to do 88 of them!  Luckily, Ria- the amazing coordinator of the swaps, has a tutorial for creating 88 inchies from one sheet of paper.  Then you can cut them up and embellish or not, as you please.  Mine are on the top, Chloe's are on the bottom.

The next swap is very personal for me because it will benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure.  The theme is Woman as Goddess.  When I started thinking about how my breasts have served me over the years I realized that the times I most felt like a goddess were when I was pregnant and when I was nursing (I nursed my two for a total of three years). I searched online for some inspiration for goddess images and found something similar to the ones I used. I hand carved three stamps, a Pregnant Goddess, a Nursing Goddess and a Survivor Goddess. I really like how these came out!

These are Chloe's  I think they are very sweet and though she won't say, they seem to me to represent the Young Goddess.

The Art for Cures group has plans for swaps to benefit children's charities, Lupus and the homeless.  It's been fun to do and the next one we are signed up for is a paper angel swap.  I can't wait to see what the plans are for that one!