Crafting with Courtney - NEWS!

Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve done a “Crafting with Courtney” post! Like ten years?!?! How can that be??? She was just a baby when I started this blog, and now she’s 18 and a high school senior, and that blows my mind!

Even though I haven’t posted about her crafts lately, she’s still been busy. She has been crocheting for several years. I’ve been the lucky recipient of some of the things she’s made, one for each of the last three Christmases. I got this adorable caterpillar first:

The next year I got a sea turtle:

This past Christmas I received a panda:

I love them all! They snuggle together on my bed every day.

The “NEWS” part of this post is that Courtney has opened an Etsy shop to sell her crocheted creations! 

It’s called ByCourtneyCrochets, and you can check it out here. I think her little animals are all so adorable - I’d like one of each! She’s working on more, building up her inventory; now she just needs buyers. They’d make awfully nice gifts, so if you know someone who’d love one (or like me would just like one for yourself), how about grabbing one of these handmade cuties? 

Courtney is a very talented entrepreneur, and I’m so proud of her! Please help spread the word about her little shop! You can also follow her on Instagram - @bycourtneycrochets.

And I am a great procrastinator (okay, you already knew that)! I’m rather behind on posting my latest sewing makes. They’re on Instagram, and I will probably eventually stop blogging and just stick with that, but for now… I’ll keep hangin’ in here and hopefully catch up. Soon. Hopefully. 

Crafting with Courtney, Christmas 2019

Backtracking a bit here, to the promised Christmas crafting project....

What would you make if you had a whole bag of corks to work with? Before coming here, Jess went around begging their neighbors for corks for a special craft project. She hit the jackpot and got all of these from generous friends who had been saving them for a very long time! Thanks, J & T!

I didn't even think to take photos during the actual making (which covered a couple of days), but here are the resulting creatures.

Courtney and Auntie Jess made them all.

Aren't they just the cutest? I did manage to get some individual pics, so I put them into a collage. If you click on it to enlarge it, you can get a better look.

Meanwhile, in another part of the kitchen, there was this going on.

This was one of the hardest puzzles I've ever worked on. It took years to complete! Ha - we started it maybe 4 years ago when Jess and Alex were home for Christmas and couldn't finish it, so we put it away and forgot about it till now. We were determined to finish it this time. So determined, in fact, that we didn't put it away for anything... even meals! LOL

We did it!! With the help of eyeglasses and some yummy coctails, we made it through, and here is the completed puzzle. There were soooo many little details in there, which you'd think would help, but they sure did not. Lots of time and patience was needed, as well as different pairs of eyes occasionally. It was great fun!

There. We're done with Christmas now. I have two completed sewing projects and another one under way, so I'll be back to show you soon. "Soon" is a relative term, you know. ;)

Crafting with Courtney - Guest Post

I have a guest poster this time. It's Miss Courtney herself! She's going to tell you about the other project she made with Auntie Jess last week. Take it away, Courtney!

Hi everyone, it's Courtney ( as you know )!

Two years ago I went to see Auntie Jess and of course you can't forget Uncle Alex. :) We had an idea for a project. First we made a little house. P.S I will talk about the name later in case if you are wondering.

We had fun decorating this cute little house!

Here is the inside, with three beds, a dresser, a window with a curtain, pics on the walls and you just can't lock the keys in your house. LOL!

We made these cute PomPom Puppies that live in the house and sleep in the beds.

Here's a better look at them. Their names are Frankie, Angel, and Princess.

When Auntie Jess was here last week we made another PomPom Puppy..... except this is a PomPom Kitty! We designed it to look like my kitty Zoey. In these pics I am cutting the yarn.

Now Zoey's head is getting a yarn cut. P.S Auntie Jess is doing the butt. LOL! :)

Here are pics of the finished PomPom Kitty (Zoey).

Thank You for reading my blog post! Make sure to leave a comment! Have a great day! BYE!

Crafting with Courtney

The ol' blog got neglected again... but for a good reason! Jess (a.k.a. How About Orange, a.k.a. Auntie Jess) was home for a few days - hurray! It was a busy time that went by WAY TOO FAST.

Of course Miss Courtney came over to spend some time with her auntie, and of course that meant 'projects'! Here's a photo of part of the process. Can you guess what they're looking at so intently in the oven?

If you guessed anything food-related, you're WRONG. But if your guess was Shrinky Dinks, then pat yourself on the back, because you're ever so right. They were watching their very first one shrink. It was a test to see how much it would actually shrink. Here it is, next to a couple of bigger objects for comparison.

Pretty little, huh?

With that in mind, they went to work drawing more. YouTube videos were very helpful. Toast and coffee helped, too. (Also notice - no cats on the table! Not that they didn't try. Ha.)

With a tray of tiny Shrinkies in the oven and men in the house, this became the scene.

Here is the result of three separate sessions of Shrinky Dink designing.

Can't forget the obligatory signature 'eye' photo!

But we did almost forget two of the tiniest Shrinkies. See them below? Look for strawberries. They're actually about ¼ inch high!

I uploaded the photo immediately above in a larger size, so if you want to see all the details better, just click on it. I think they're pretty awesome! Courtney's daddy was pretty proud of his work, too... he even drew his Big Red (that's its name) tractor all by himself, plus he crosshatched the ears of the puppy at the bottom right. Way to go, Daddy... and Courtney and Jess, too! (Grandma and Grandpa did not make any.)

You can also see the little jump rings on most of them. They will be charms for a bracelet, but we didn't have time to get them onto it before we left to go out for yummy supper. Hopefully Courtney will be wearing the bracelet with some of the charms on it when she comes here after her first day of school on Tuesday. (Where did the summer go?!!!)

Jess and I didn't really have time for any sewing projects while she was here, but we did pick out fabrics for three bags. So if I disappear again, that's what I'm working on. Hopefully I'll get the next installment of "For Women Only" written soon, though. So much to do... so pokey I am in my old age! ;-)

Oh, and there's one more Courtney-craft project that happened with Auntie Jess. It was fun, but the Shrinky Dinks were by far the biggest hit. Do you suppose I could get Miss C to write the post about the other project herself???

Crafting with Courtney - the Izzy sign

When Courtney was here on Tuesday, she decided she wanted to have a little more sewing practice. I'd bought a kit a long time ago with various craft projects in it, and the time seemed to be right for getting it out. Most of the sewing projects were hand sewing, but I thought they'd work just as well on the machine, so we picked one out and she went to work. 

She first did some designing, then she sewed on applique pieces. She did so well at the machine that I even left her alone with it for a bit to go upstairs and make myself a cup of tea. She remembered how to thread it from the few weeks ago that she'd made the Izzy purse, so she was able to change thread colors all by herself. And except for getting her started at the beginning, she did it all by herself!

After that, there was some hand sewing. Here she is, happily getting started at that.

She learned how to tie a nice neat knot in her thread, then she sewed on some buttons and tied them off on the back, with barely any help from me.

She had a furry "assistant" who just had to be near.....

..... even though she seemed rather bored with the whole process. At least she was content to let Courtney do all the work.

After the sewing, there came the decorating decisions.

Last was the gluing.

Voilà! The completed project! Izzy's her cat, but can you figure out her design theme?

Of course there had to be the signature 'eye' photo.

The glue was not dry yet under the clear butterflies, but we were hoping it would dry clear, and sure enough, it did. Here's a photo she took herself at home and sent me to show me how it looked when the glue had dried.

She also wanted you to have one more picture for size reference.

Pretty cool, huh? I am SO proud of her! She's well on her way to becoming a great sewer (seamstress? sewist?) someday! She's a fast learner, and she's so careful and does such a beautiful job. She also has some lovely design ideas (did you figure out that theme yet?) and is creative in many ways.

Next time (in 2 weeks, because she goes to Bible camp next week) she'll make a sign for her other cat, Zoey. A girl has to be fair, y'know. :)

The Izzy Purse

Courtney is in 4-H this year, and she asked me if I'd help her make a sewing project. Of course that's right up my alley, so I readily agreed. I kept my eye open online for simple sewing machine projects that she might like, and this one for a felt ladybug purse met with her approval.

We printed out the pattern, I dug out my felt, and she went to work. With a little guidance, she did all the pinning and cutting herself. 

Under the watchful eyes of her inspector, that is.

She's getting better at the sewing machine, having more control over the speed, particularly. So I don't have to hover quite so close (or hold my breath as much).

Had you noticed the ladybug colors weren't placed quite ladybug-like? Look below... this little purse has ears and whiskers!

Here it is, finished.

It was designed by Courtney to look like her cat, Izzy!

This is the back.

The face is the flap, and it fastens shut with velcro. This is what it looks like when opened.

Below is our happy little seamstress holding her Izzy purse and giving you some size reference.

She did a fantastic job! All those little colored bits were appliqued on, very slowly and carefully, a stitch at a time. Talk about a way to get practice sewing curves! A couple pieces were glued on (e.g. the whiskers) because they were too small for stitching. I did the harder part of sewing the head onto the back because those ears had to be caught in that seam and lined up just right. The pupils in the eyes were drawn on with a marker.

I know Courtney is hoping for a good score when her project is judged for 4-H. She'll be taking it to the fair, and she said if she gets a ribbon, we can take another photo to show you here. So be prepared (a few weeks down the road)!