Saint Patrick's Day Candy Bar Wrappers

How do you celebrate Saint Patrick's Day? It's one of my favorite holidays, outside of Christmas and Easter, so I love to decorate and give little gifts to my family and friends.

This year, I'm handing out candy bars. And they're wrapped in Saint Patrick's Day candy wrappers I designed. They really do look much better in person than in my photo. Get the free wrappers here on my scrapbooking and candy wrapper blog.

To add a touch of gold, I used a foil overwrap over the existing candy bar wrapper before I added my custom wrapper. While there are many places to get these, I get mine from Rich Fallon at http://foilman.com/.

You don't have to have a foil overwrap. Just print the candy bar wrappers and tape over the existing wrapper. If you use my designs, I'd love to see pictures of your finished products!


Erin Go Bragh!
Susan
aka That Crafty Redhead

January and February Hats For Charity

It's March 1 and time for me to post pictures of the hats I crocheted for the local soup kitchen in February. And as I forgot to post pictures of January's hats earlier, I'm adding them here as well.

All 4 hats are crocheted using Homespun yarn by Lion Brand Yarn Company for all 4 hats. It's a nice bulky yarn in gorgeous colors. I used the Windsor shade for January and Lagoon for February.

January Hats

February Hats

January's hats are both medium adult size. I made a large adult hat and a small adult hat for February. Most of the hats I've made in the past for the soup kitchen are medium adult sized hats, which fit most adults, and that's what my pattern makes. I add or subtract an increase row to change the size. Thankfully, these hats work up fairly quickly, so my goal of making two hats per month for the soup kitchen is good for me.

I also finished a prayer shawl in late January. I'll post pictures as soon as I'm through polishing the pattern instructions. I'm knitting away on the next prayer shawl, and this time I'm documenting the pattern as I go. So far, I have designed the shawl patterns as I knit. I can follow a pattern, but I prefer to design on the fly!

Happy crafting!
Susan

Grandmother's Crocheted Hat

An old family crocheted hat pattern handed down from my grandmother.

I use this pattern to crochet hats for my family and to donate to my prayer shawl ministry's hats for the local soup kitchen campaign. My prayer shawl ministry group donated over 160 hats, knitted and crocheted, to the soup kitchen in December.

Yarn: Bulky yarn (1 skein) or use two strands of worsted weight yarn (2 skeins)

Crochet Hook: Size J or size needed for gauge

Gauge: 6 rows x 10 sts (double crochet) = 4" x 4"

Rd 1: Ch 4. Join.

Rd 2: Ch 3. 5 dc in loop. Join. (16 sts)

Rd 3: Ch 3. DC in join stitch

. 2 dc each remaining dc. Join. (32 sts)

Rd 4: Ch 3. * 2 dc in next dc. 1 dc in next dc. Rep from * to end.

Join. (48 sts)

Rds 5 - 14: Ch 3. 1 dc in each st to end. Join.

(Optional rolled brim)

Rds 15 - 17: Ch 3. 1 dc in each st to end. Join. Weave in yarn ends.

Add pompom or decorative edging such as shell or picots, if desired.

I used Lion Brand's Homespun in Windsor for the sample hat, which I'll give to the prayer shawl ministry. I can usually get two hats from one skein of the homespun using this pattern.

If you're using worsted weight yarn, use two strands together to form a bulkier yarn.

Back on Track

So maybe starting a craft blog in the midst of trying to find a job wasn't my smartest idea. Months with no blog posts doesn't showcase my dedication to crafting, does it?

Since deciding to be my own boss got me off of job hunting mode, the crafting muse has been bugging me to get started with this craft blog again. So, I'm back!

The cards for my mother-in-law were a hit! I didn't realize how thrilled she would be to get them! I ended up making 24 cards for her, all created from a card kit I bought years ago at a book fair.

Birthdays, anniversaries and Halloween loom on the card sending horizon, so I need to get my crafty self in design mode and get to work!

For the next set of cards, I'm going to skip the card making kit and use my scrapbooking and graphics tools to create them. I'll share some completed designs and a Halloween card making digital mini-kit with you.

Introduction

I am a crafter. I have a lifelong love of crafting, from making jewelry to quilting to tatting to knitting to scrapbooking to making my own cards. My wonderful Mother taught me the love of crafting at an early age. We made ornaments, cards, paper chains, flower bouquets, and jewelry. She taught us to crochet, knit, sew, tat, embroider and many other crafts. She showed us how to look at an item and see the construction and design skills that went into making that item.

As an event and wedding planner, I know I can save my clients money by showing them how to make some of the things they will use at their event or wedding, or by making the items myself. And I'm going to share my crafts with you.

I'm working on my first craft blog: cards for my mother-in-law to send to friends. So bookmark my blog and come back next week to see the cards and get the instructions to make your own cards!

Until then, I hope you craft a little each day!

Susan