Creating Me

Crochet Adult Beanies

Posted on November 17, 2017 by Anita

A few months ago my sister liked this beanie I made for a friend and said that maybe she would even wear one like it – she’s not much of hat person. 😊 I asked her what color she would like. She wasn’t sure and then promptly forgot she even mentioned it…

About a month or so ago, I decided to make her not one beanie but two! She is a die-hard Purdue fan and goes to all the home games – which can get downright cold at times in Indiana!! So the first one is made with Red Heart Super Saver yarn in black and gold. Boiler Up!

And because I knew she wouldn’t want to wear that one all the time, I made her another beanie with Caron Simply Soft yarn in grey heather and white.

You can find the pattern for the beanie here. The beanie pattern includes instructions for newborn through adult sizes. I changed the last 2 rows to give it more of a ribbed pattern. I crocheted 13 rows beginning with 2 rows of my starting color (gold or grey) and then alternating colors every row. After the 13 rows, I added 2 more rows of my starting color alternating the Front Post Double Crochet (fpdc) stitch with a regular Double Crochet stitch all the way around. The link to the pattern for the flower is in this Crochet Cloche Hat post – which is also a very cute hat!

You can change the flower out for a bow like I did on these baby beanies or leave it off completely for a boy’s hat. Or make them in a solid color instead of stripes.

These beanies work up very quickly. They would make great Christmas gifts! 🎄

Thanks for stopping by,

Anita

Posted in Crochet, Gifts | 2 Comments

Quick Fall Favor Box

Posted on November 14, 2017 by Anita

Today I’m sharing a Quick Fall Favor that you can add to your Thanksgiving table or any other gathering you have coming up. It’s a little box that perfectly holds 4 Hershey Nuggets.

Each little box is made from a 6 x 6 inch piece of double-sided card stock, including wrapping the 4 nuggets. I found the tutorial here at The Paper Pixie.

Here is the box filled with the sweet nuggets…

After filling each box, I tied it with orange twine. I added a tag I stamped on kraft card stock. I used brown ink and an older stamp from Amuse Studios, trimmed it into a banner shape, and punched a hole to thread the twine through. Any sentiment stamp you have will work…blessings, for you, happy thanksgiving…just use what you have.

We had some friends over for dinner a few weeks ago and I put one of these cute favors at each place setting. (If you are interested, you can find the link to the fun crochet pumpkin coasters in this post.)

These fun favor boxes are so quick and easy to make! Change the colors and sentiment and they would be great for any occasion…Christmas, birthday, Easter, baby or wedding showers…just about anything!

Thanks for stopping by,

Anita

Posted in Fall, Gifts, Stamping | Leave a comment

Caramel Apple Poke Cake

Posted on November 10, 2017 by Anita

Caramel Apple just shouts Fall to me!! The flavors go so well together and just seem, well…Fallish! 🍎🍁🍂 🙂

This is an easy, tasty cake full of Caramel Apple flavor for all of your Fall gatherings. You can find the recipe here at Frugal Coupon Living.

This is how it looks after the cake is baked and the apple pie filling is spread on top…oh, and it has sweetened condensed milk poured over the warm cake!! This is not for the faint of heart! 😉

The recipe calls for a tub of caramel frosting – I wasn’t able to find it anywhere!! So I used this recipe from Two Sisters to make my own from scratch. Super easy to make and so good!! Here is the cake after I frosted it.

And just look how yummy this is…

Just so you know, this cake needs time in the fridge so you’ll want to make it ahead. I made mine the day before I wanted to serve it so it would have plenty of chilling time.

Happy Fall Baking!

Anita

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Give Thanks

Posted on November 7, 2017 by Anita

Thanksgiving is just around the corner! 🦃 Here’s a card filled with Fall colors to say how thankful you are for all the wonderful people in your life.

The larger leaf stamps are from the Simply Stamped Leaves set by Taylored Expressions. (There is also a die set for the leaves you can find here.) The smaller leaf is one I’ve had in my collection for a long time and it didn’t have the company name on it. I stamped the leaves randomly on white card stock with brown, pumpkin, and gold ink. Then I lightly sponged the edges of the panel with brown ink. I layered the panel to brown card stock and attached the panel to a gold card.

I stamped the acorns from the Acorny Thank You set from Stampin’ Up with brown and pumpkin ink on white card stock and used the acorn builder punch to punch them out. They are attached to a circle of orange card stock – the top one is attached with foam tape. The entire circle is attached to the card with foam tape.

The sentiment is also from the Simply Stamped Leaves set. I stamped it with brown ink on white card stock, punched it out with an oval punch, and inked the edges with brown ink. It is attached to the card with foam tape.

Here’s a tip if you are stamping your own background paper like I did. Stamp an entire sheet of 8-1/2 by 11 card stock with your pattern. Then you can easily cut the card into panels the size you need for your cards. You’ll have enough for at least 4 cards – more if you’re using smaller strips of patterned paper.

I’m thankful for you! 💛

Thanks for stopping by,

Anita

Posted in Cards, Fall, Stamping, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The Big Island of Hawai’i

Posted on November 3, 2017 by Anita

We took a fantastic trip to Hawai’i late in the Summer! It was a 2 week adventure celebrating our 35th anniversary. We have been to Oahu before, but this time we planned time on 2 other islands. Our first stop was on the Big Island of Hawaii.

We landed in Kona, HI around 8 pm and basically just checked into our hotel after a long day of travel. But this is what we woke up to in the morning…

After breakfast on the balcony, we left to drive to Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park and see the Kilauea Volcano. These are just a few of the sights along the way.

We stopped at Punalu’u Beach, one of the amazing black sand beaches, on our way to Volcanoes National Park. Black sand and the Hawai’i sun means you keep your flip flops on!! ☀️😳 And wear sunglasses…and a hat! 😎🤠

It was an incredible sight to see this amazing volcano during the day from the Halema’uma’u crater overlook at Jaggar museum in the park. It’s an easy drive to get to the museum and overlook. And the view of the volcano is spectacular!

We went back to see the volcano at night. I took a couple of pictures, but they don’t even begin to give justice to this amazing sight!

The lava fields stretch for miles as you travel towards the ocean. Such an incredible sight to see! The island is ever-changing since the volcano is still active.

The next day we headed over to Hilo. We spent a little time relaxing under the Banyan trees before starting the drive back across the island to Kona.

We stopped by Rainbow Falls on the way. We didn’t see a rainbow because it was cloudy, but it was still so beautiful!

It didn’t take long as we were driving across the island to drive into the clouds and rain…but as soon as we started heading back down the mountain, the sun returned.

A drive to the tip of The Big Island gave us a great view of Maui under the clouds.

Our last evening on The Big Island included this little guy – he kept trying to get close enough to eat our dinner. And, yes, he made me jump every time! He was so fast!! 😳

Waiting for our flight to Kauai…

I’ll share some of the highlights from our time on Kauai soon…spoiler alert – it was amazing!!!

Thanks for stopping by,

Anita

Posted in Travel | 2 Comments

Mini Pumpkin Brownie Pies

Posted on October 31, 2017 by Anita

I shared these yummy Mini Pumpkin Brownie Pies a couple of years ago and thought today would be a great time to share them again! After all, the Halloween candy will be on clearance starting tomorrow – perfect time to get the little pumpkins. And there is still plenty of Fall left to enjoy them! 🙂

These sweet little Pumpkin Brownie Pies make the perfect Fall treat. They are great for the entire season from the beginning of October until Thanksgiving – and they fit nicely into tiny hands as an after school snack with a cold glass of milk!

They are fun and easy to make (except the part where you burn your wrist on the oven rack! 🙄) using refrigerated pie crust and your favorite brownie mix. You can find the recipe here. Crazy for Crust also included links to her recipes for homemade pie crust and brownies, but I opted to use store bought to save some time…and I had a little brownie mix leftover so I made a few plain brownie bites.

Grab a mug of your favorite hot tea or coffee and enjoy a little taste of Fall!

Thanks for stopping by,

Anita

Posted in Fall, Recipes | Leave a comment

Crochet White Farmhouse Pumpkin

Posted on October 27, 2017 by Anita

I love white pumpkins and I love this crochet one! They are so fun to make and because they are made with bulky yarn, they work up so quickly. You can whip up your own pumpkin patch in no time! 😊

You can find the free pattern for this pumpkin here by Megmade with Love. She also has several other free pumpkin patterns on her blog. I made a few others that I shared in this post.

For this pretty white pumpkin I used Bernat Blanket Yarn in Vintage White and an N crochet hook. I used hot glue to attach the stick for the stem and tied a bow with twine around the stick.

Make a few of these in different colors and group them together for a cute centerpiece on your Thanksgiving table. 🦃

Thanks for stopping by,

Anita

Posted in Crochet, Decor, Fall, Gifts | Leave a comment

Farmhouse Crochet Pumpkins

Posted on October 24, 2017 by Anita

As soon as I saw them, I fell in love with these Farmhouse Crochet Pumpkins!! The wonderful patterns are available free here on Megmade with Love – or you can get a pdf file in her Etsy shop for just $2! So worth it to have a nice printout to work from…

The pumpkins stitch up really quickly and are so fun to make! The plaid one takes a bit longer because of the color changes and it is bigger – but you can still whip it up in an evening.

For the plaid pumpkin, I used Red Heart Super Saver Yarn in black, white, and gray heather. The leaf is made with I Love This Yarn in Mid Green.

For the yellow pumpkin, I used Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick Yarn in Butterscotch. I didn’t read the pattern close enough to see that it called for crocheting in the back loop only on this one so I didn’t make it that way…and I didn’t want to start all over when I realized it.😳 But I really like the way it turned out!

For the orange ribbed pumpkin, I used Red Heart Super Saver Yarn in Carrot. This one is stitched using 2 strands of yarn together – I just used one skein, pulling from the center and the outside of the skein at the same time.

The stems are pieces of a stick cut to about 2-inches or so and hot glued to the pumpkins. I also hot glued the leaf to the plaid pumpkin. Then I tied some raffia and twine around the stems.

They look so cute grouped together and add such a warm touch to your Fall decor!

Thanks for stopping by,

Anita

Posted in Crochet, Decor, Fall, Gifts | 3 Comments

Hope I didn’t Scare You

Posted on October 20, 2017 by Anita

Boo! Hope I didn’t Scare You! 😉 Today I’m sharing another sweet little owl card. You can find him here at Unity Stamp Company. I love all the owl stamps they have!

I stamped the owl with black ink on white card stock and colored him with Copic markers. I rounded the corners and layered it to orange card stock. I stamped the sentiment with black ink on white card stock and trimmed it close.

To make the card, emboss a panel of purple card stock with your favorite embossing folder and attach to a green card. Attach a strip of patterned paper to the card. Attach owl image with foam tape over the patterned paper. Attach sentiment to the card. Finish the card by attaching a pumpkin and bat charm.

Happy Halloween! 🎃

Thanks for stopping by,

Anita

Posted in Cards, Fall, Stamping | Leave a comment

Happy Owl’oween

Posted on October 17, 2017 by Anita

It’s almost Halloween! 🎃 Do you still need to make cards to send? Here’s a cute little owl who would be happy to send your greetings! 🦉

You can find this fun stamp here at Unity stamp Company. The cute Happy Owl’oween sentiment is also from Unity and you can find it in this set. I’ve mentioned this before, but I absolutely love Unity Stamp Company!! They have the best stamps, the best sales, and the best people!! You really need to check them out – I think you will love them, too. 😊

I stamped the owl with black ink on white card stock, colored the image with Copic markers, and layered it to black card stock. I stamped the sentiment with black ink on white card stock and die cut it with a label die.

To make the card, attach a piece of patterned paper to a white card. Emboss a strip of orange card stock with your favorite embossing folder and attach to the card. Attach the sentiment over the embossed strip. Attach the owl image with foam tape. Add 2 green gems to the sentiment and 3 black pearls to the top of the owl panel. And he’s all ready to pop in the mail!🎃🦉

Happy Owl’oween!

Thanks for stopping by,

Anita

Posted in Cards, Fall, Stamping | 1 Comment