Mini Break Crafting! Day 12 of 11?

What's this? In all my frantic crafting preparation for you to see while I'm on vacation I somehow managed to miscalculate and make 12 crafts instead of 11...oh well! Bonus Kate vacation craft for you! Behold - French kitty brooch:



Ho ho! Isn't he a handsome devil? I really love my mustache cat buttons and thought it would be fun to make another kitty since the sophisticat one I made for brooch week sold really quickly! Take a closer look at him:


When I was at my last craft show a woman bought one of the French cat mirrors of mine because she claimed to would "help land her a man!" Not sure if I can put that on the description for this guy, but I'm sure you'd get some gorgeous hunks of male with this brooch! Happy bonus day of craftyness! Hopefully I'll be rested and ready to give you some trip highlights soon!

Oh - and I'm not totally sure what happened with day 9 of the crafts but it somehow went from "published" to "scheduled" in my posts so in case you missed it look back at the wee cactus too! Happy crafting!

Mini Break Crafting! Day 11 of 11

Day 11 of 11 has finally arrived and we'll finish off the week with another geometric triangle felt brooch! I loved the first one I came up with during brooch week and am just loving all the geometry and shapes in the crafting world right now. I went for a green scheme this time with some rainbow hints thrown in there for good measure. Check it out:


Hooray! I gem was super time consuming and was particularly stressful since I frantically whipped it up about an hour before we left for our cruise! Let's take another boo:


It certainly had a bit of a different feel than my firsts creation but it is nice to make some non cutesy pins once in a while. What do you think of it? What was your favourite craft from the last 11 days? Have you been enjoying the 100% original content marathon? Hope so! I'm arriving home tonight and can't wait to read about what everyone has been up to for the last while! Hooray!

Mini Break Crafting! Day 10 of 11

My mini break is almost over and we've just got two days left of crafts to show you. I reallly racked my brains in quick projects to whip up to show you so I brought on yet another felt brooch set! This time I'm reaching out to the colorful dog lovers out there with felt wiener pup:


I really enjoy the stitching on the dog's back and his little feet! I couldn't really decide on which colour to make so I made 3 to chose from! I really like the teal one myself:


Aha! What do you think? Which one to you like best?

Mini Break Crafting! Day 9 of 11

If you're a regular blogs reader of mine then I'm sure you know all about my love for plants and cacti! A while back when I visited my sister we had a great time making little sculpy charms and magnets and I made my mom a cute little cactus in a pot magnet! I liked him so much I thought i'd make a cactus brooch for the vacation crafts as well! Take a peek:


What a cutie! I really liked embroidering the little flower on there and I enjoy the colours of the pin. Of course, she's sporting some adorable wide set eye smile for added fun! What do you think?

Mini Break Crafting! Day 8 of 11

Holy crap this vacation of mine seems to be flying by! Today's craft is a felt take on my ever popular Albi the racist dragon magnets. Let me introduce you to the Albi and his friends the badly burned Albainian boy from the day before and the dragon tear turned rainbow jelly bean that put an end to racism:

Pretty fun hey? I've run out of my polymer clay magnets and am not sure when I'll get to making more. I do love sculpting but the painting is super time consuming..not that these felt guys were a quic k project (all that hand stitching takes time), but they were a blast to make. Take a looksie at the set with their friends from Flight of the Conchords:



What fun! And if you are't familiar with the characters I urge you to check out the short video where you meet them! What do you think?

Mini Break Crafting! Day 7 of 11

Day 7 of my vacation and yet another felt brooch for my mini break craft-a-thon! I'll be sure to post off my items in my shop when I get back from the US and hopefully everyone is enjoying my week of crafty blog posts! Today's project is an ode to Fraser's favourite animal, the fox:


Hello fox! I really like how this one turned out and that orange/red felt is just gorgeous! The pictures look a little saturated but the lighting wasn't ideal when I tried to take pictures of this guy. I really want to finish making that light box I've been putting off for a while and hopefully once we're back from vacation I'll be rested and ready to take on some big projects! In the meantime check out the close up of fox:


Oh I just love him! I really like how the colours pop on the background green too! What do you think? What's your favourite craft I've done for the mini break blog marathon?

Mini Break Crafting! Day 6 of 11

Well it looks like we're over halfway finished the cruise (and the mini break crafting marathon) so it's time to show you one of my favourite creations - squid brooch!


Hehe! Isn't he adorable? I do love me some wide set eye smiles and I am really fond of the nice rusty orange/red wool felt Fraser picked out in Victoria. I didn't have any embroidery cotton that was an exact match with the orange but because I was so pressed for time I decided to go with some thread that was a tinge lighter. I sort of like how it makes the handstitching stand out though. Take a closer look:


What do you think of him? Are you a fan of squid?

Mini Break Crafting! Day 5 of 11

The week continues with more felt brooches! I guess I'm a little predictable when it comes to "new exciting crafts I want to make". Alas. I've been dreaming about whales a lot lately and decided to make one to celebrate! Oh, except this little dude had a crown and mustache (so is a royal whale in disguise):


Not too bad for a pattern-less project if you ask me. The day before we left for vacation I was still frantically making projects to share with all of you and decided I'd wing a whale pin to throw in the batch. I definitely want to experiment with more whale designs in the future but for the time being I need your help! What do you think whale should be named?

Mini Break Crafting! Day 4 of 11

I'm mixing up my mostly vacation crafts with one not involving any felt! I know, shocker, but sometimes a girl needs a little variety. I made today's craft using some good old faithful Sculpy polymer clay and a little acrylic paint! Behold - the glory of the geometric stud earring:


I didn't fully develop the concept for this craft when I was trying to make all of my mini break crafts to share, but I am very pleased with how it turned out. Also due to the small size of the earring I decided to go with a neutral/green colour scheme so they aren't too overpoweringly bold. As I often seem to do, I ended up making a batch of the studs in a few different sizes:


What do you think? I'm really riding the trend train with the geometric triangles thing but it is so fun to experiment with! Now I just need to remember to wear these and show off my non-felt embroidery skills! Hooray for crafting versatility!

Mini Break Crafting! Day 3 of 11

While I am exploring the sites of LA today you can enjoy another one of my Studio Ghibili mini break crafts - soot sprite magnets! Check them out:


I'm still totally loving all the wool felt Fraser got for me last week and I thought I'd try to break away from my felt brooches with a more universal craft - felt magnets! These little guys were a ton of fun to whip up and although you can barely see them, I did include some little smiles on these dudes since I couldn't add them to my soot sprite pom poms:


Since I didn't get to altering all my images of my crafts before I left on vacation I'll have to wait until I return from my trip before listing them in my etsy shop - but be patient! They'll make it in there in a week and a half! Hope you're enjoying craft week! What do you think of the magents?

Mini Break Crafting! Day 2 of 11

Hooray! Mini break crafting continues with day two's project - a totoro felt brooch! I absolutely love the little soot sprite pom pom friends I made a few weeks ago and thought I'd stick with the adorable fun of Studio Ghibili and make one of my favourite characters - Totoro! Take a peek:


Hehe! Isn't he a charming little bunny/cat thing? I sure think so! Just check out this close up:


Woo hoo! What a cutie with widely spaced eyes and everything! Stay tuned for more crafting fun tomorrow!

Mini Break Crafting! Day 1 of 11

Welcome to a wonderful week and a half of crafting adventures while I am away on my mini break cruising up the coast of California (woo hoo for both of us!). We'll start off with day 1 of Kate crafts with an awesome felt avocado brooch:


Yum! I love avocados and my sister recommended me make an avocado craft when I was asking her for inspiring suggestions. Fraser picked me up some more wool felt squares when he was in Victoria last week and I just couldn't wait to use the bright colours be picked out! Just check out that bright green/yellow pop with this close up pic:


Hooray! I'll be listing this brooch up in my etsy shop at some point (but perhaps when we get back if I can't get a reliable internet source). I also really enjoy the fact that I tried to open my vacation crafts up to all items beyond felt brooches but ended up making a ton of felt brooches anyways...can't mess with success right? Something like that...what do you think of him?