May's Challenge

Happy May Day!

Boy, time does get away from me somehow. Anyway, after informally polling members posting in the thread, it has been decided to continue April's hand embroidery challenge into May. Several Sweets had plans to embroider, but just not the time, or the health to get to it. Holly Anne's morning sickness is hopefully fading fast, and she can make an adorable bib for her little bean.

Michael's always has lots of cute little kits that come with everything you need, except maybe needle and scissors.

Happy Sewing,
Elle
Jenna Belle Designs

April Craft Challenge Poll

The April Fool's joke is on me this month, and April totally fooled me and is showing up tomorrow. The poll for the craft challenge is up now, and since it's late, I've shortened the time for voting. Voting ends Sunday at midnight, and as always choose up to 3.

How are you doing on the March challenge? I confess that I have not made any flowers, but I did take some arty photos yesterday, and will post them tonight in the Daily Sweets Pool (or at least one of them). Don't feel bad if you didn't get to the challenge because there are always more challenges around the corner. And we all know that sometimes it's a challenge just to get our own craft taken care of.

~Elle
Jenna Belle Designs

February Bonus Craft Challenge -- Drink Up

I wanted to post the results of the Bonus Craft Challenge For February... decorating porcelain mugs with special pens. Ten of us dedicated some time and resources tracking down Pebeo pens, and some appropriate mugs to discover an easy, and thoroughly addicting new craft. After experimenting with another kind of pen that says it is designed to write on ceramics, Kila found out that yes, indeed, the kind that require baking in the oven to achieve permanency are what you need. Any type of porcelain mug will do. Deb discovered that Pebeo pens are not food/beverage safe, so her mug, with a beautiful sun on the inside, has become a pen holder.

I think Sue made the most mugs, making one for everyone in her family for Valentine's Day. Take a look at some of our efforts:

Well done, Deb, Elle, Kila, Kim, Meagan, Melissa, Sarah, Sue, Wendy and Kylie! Click here to see the larger versions of the pictures, so you can see the great quotes, and to see some other views of these mugs.

 Have you started on your paper flowers yet or checked out what's blooming with some great spring photography? I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!

March Craft Challenge Poll Results

 photo from Our Fun Life

The results are in, and we can see that making paper flowers is the clear winner for our challenge this month. Ginny has graciously done some research for us, and found us lots of fun tutorials to choose from. These include tutorials from Dozi; Imagine, Create, Inspire; Folding Trees; Balzar Designs; Our Fun Life; It's in the Details; rebecca sower's weblog; Honestly Speaking; plants blog; another one from It's in the Details; A Fanciful Twist; and finally, one more from Folding Trees.

Thanks so much, Ginny, for doing some work for us, so we can just jump right in!

Finally, every month, as we chat, we come up with new things to add to our challenge list. So I made an executive decision to add a second bonus challenge like we had last month. This way, we can cover more crafts, and if one thing doesn't appeal, or is more cost prohibitive you can still participate. Of course, all participation is completely voluntary!

Anyway, two things came in second in the poll, decoupage and art photography. I made an executive decision to make the art photography our second challenge, because I know we all have cameras. The challenge here is to step away from your light boxes and items, and release your inner photographer. Kids, pets, sunsets, melting snow. I have a feeling that we'll all come up with some spectacular photos. Post as many as you want to your personal flickr accounts, but limit your challenge submission to one or two favorites.

You still have time to post your crocheting and mug challenge pictures. I'll do the round up of those at the end of this week.

March Craft Challenge Voting Open

Can you believe that February is almost over? That means that winter is almost over for most of us! Yay! Sorry, Kylie, because I guess that means your summer is almost over, and that always makes me sad.

Please vote for the craft challenge you want to participate in next month. You can choose up to 3. And, as always, participation is entirely voluntary. No prizes either, just the satisfaction of trying something new. I know several of us have really gotten into the crocheting challenge, and have a new appreciation for yarn. I can't wait to see the mugs either.

Only 6 days to vote with this poll, darn that short February, so don't delay, vote today!

The Bonus Mug Challenge

Here are some more details about the mug challenge.

You'll need some supplies.

1 Mug (the one in the picture is from Ikea). Click on the link. A white ceramic vase would be nice, too. Or even a pretty pastel.






1 Pebeo pen I believe that you can get these at Michaels, too.

 

An oven. You'll have to check to see if you have one in your kitchen. Then: write your quote on the mug, or decorate a vase, let your imagination run free! Let the ink dry for 24 hours and then bake it in your home oven for 35 minutes at 300 degrees F (you Celsius girls will have to get out a converter). This makes the ink permanent.

Please leave any Daily Sweets quotes in the comments for inspiration!

February Craft Challenge

What you've all been waiting for! Well, as you can see by the poll results, it looks like we'll be learning how to crochet this month. Unlike last month's challenge, where we could choose our medium, and thus possibly already had the skills even if we had never made an ACEO, this month, many of us will really be learning something entirely new.

If you know how to crochet, and would like to offer guidance, that would be great! A good place to start may be recommended links or books, and you can leave those right in the comments. Perhaps some awesome youtube videos. Last year, I dabbled in teaching myself to crochet, and purchased a book by Susan Bates called My Crochet Teacher that includes special left hand instructions. I think I bought it at Michaels.

And I know that February is a short month, but we're going to do a bonus craft as well. I need to gather some more information on supplies for it, but this will be a mug project. And it's simple and quick. Intrigued?

Tomorrow will be a wrap up of the January ACEO challenge complete with pictures!

February Craft Challenge Poll

Can you believe that it's almost February? I hope we're having lots of fun creating ACEOs this month! No pressure, though. If you run out of time, move on to the next craft. One thing to keep in mind for February... there are only 28 days.

The poll is over there in the right hand sidebar. Choose up to 3 things that you might like to try. It is completely anonymous, and ends at 11:59 p.m. on January 31. Sadly, I don't know what time zone the blog is on, so it would be a good idea to just vote before then! Feel free to contact me with any questions.

~Elle
Jenna Belle Designs