Completing Projects

I'm celebrating a significant (for me) milestone of actually completing some smallish projects--all in one week. I am great at starting on new things but terrible at completing them, especially with the toddler underfoot (not a complaint, he's a sweet distraction).

The two orange Caroline bags from the previous post were completed last weekend, and just yesterday (well, technically early this morning) I finished off the handmade items for my first two contest winners. Maya at maya*made received a felted wool cupcake pincushion made from a pattern in Betz White's Warm Fuzzies book and a custom stationery set.

The stationery set was fun to make, and it was mostly from repurposed materials. I painted a tin CD case (orange, of course) that the lovely folks at AOL kept sending me a few years back and decoupaged one of Maya's elephants on the front and back. Inside were envelopes I made from the pages of the spring Pottery Barn catalog and note cards hand-stamped with maya*made. I attached a little pen with a magnet to the outside of the set. A narrow, green satin ribbon on the outside rim covered up some AOL advertising that I couldn't cover with paint.

My daughter and I made another one of these sets a few years back for a Secret Valentine, and we spray-painted the outside of the case silver. Then we hand stamped a Valentine's message on the outside in pink, which looked really nice on the silver. We included a small notepad with a magnet on it, a pencil with a magnet, and some small magnets in the case.

It's really a project with infinite possibilities, and you could even attach magnets to the front and back of the case itself to display each side. It could also be a great travel set for long car or plane trips, with custom-made magnets inside to make a particular scene, such as a construction site with tractors (yes, I'm thinking of a particular little someone for that scene!).

I also completed Stanley's handmade gift. He was the first person to comment on my blog, and I very much appreciate his interest and feedback--as I do all of you nice folks who have commented recently. Thank you!

Stanley, who is a globe-trotting psychologist and author, will be receiving a felted wool passport cover. The design is Scandinavian, which is appropriate for his heritage, and just looks like something that Stanley would appreciate. The pattern was adapted from Betz White's journal cover project in the Warm Fuzzies book.