this is my favorite ornament this year,

you can download it free from :designs by cuties, thanks for sharing!!!
I'm wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New year,

ganz liebe Gruesse Sabine

scarfs.....

......I have been soooo busy, I did not even have the time to take pictures of many of he things I made,

one of my favorites this year are these fleece scarves, I made one for almost every little one I know. They are cut from polar fleece and I embroidered a snowflake and the name.

Ganz liebe Gruesse Sabine

Nikolaus 2011...

on December 6th, we cellebrate the german tradition of

St. Nikolaus, the boys love this tradition, because they can load up on candy even before

christmas. :)

Ganz liebe Gruesse Sabine

Happy 1. Advent

I can't believe it is time already for the 1. Advent it seems early this year and it does not feel like it at all, the kids are outside wearing t-shirts and it is 72*F outside.

for our table decoration I went simple this year, I used a wavy serving plate 4 candle holders from Target and small ornaments from last year. I love the simplicity of this decoration and it is cleaned up in no time.

Happy 1. Advent

Ganz liebe Gruesse Sabine

Lace ornaments

I love angels, this one will hang on our christmas tree, it needs a gold thread for hanging, but it looks beautiful like this too.

I'm planning to make a lot of these and send them out with our christmas cards.
this cross is a bible bookmark, there is a loop on top for adding ribbons. I do not know if this ornament is a snow flake or a christmas star, but it is beautiful anyway, I made some red and white ones to hang on the window with clear hooks.

Ganz liebe Gruesse Sabine

**candy cane ornaments**

... just finished are some more candy cane holder ornamentsthis pink little reindeer would be perfect for a little girl


or how about a lizzard climbing down a candy cane, my boys liked this one

this polar bear is great and can be very easily changed by using a different color for the scarf


I'm making lots of these for family and friends.



Ganz liebe Gruesse Sabine

Christmas ornaments

....when it get's really cold out there... like this morning...
it's time to make the first christmas ornaments for this year. this is the first christmas I have an embroidery machine and ....ohhh...
the possibilities

I love making these candy cane holers, they are cute and inexpensive to make , the perfect little treat to giv away or add to a present as decoration.

Ganz liebe Gruesse Sabine

... we just finished another jar of jam,

the jar is nice - to nice to just throw it in the recycling bin
with a ribbon, a tea candle and some paper
we turned it into a christmas candle decoration.

Ganz liebe Gruesse Sabine

... I was looking for ideas for ornaments to make this year and I found these very cute ormanemts on the internet, the best thing is that they are pop up ornaments, since I have to ship a lot of the presents and ormaments that's a great thing. This ormanent can also be used as a gift tag.
...it is made out of 6 shapes, that are glued together, each section needs a 3x3 inch piece of white cardstock, and is scored at 1.5 inches from 2 sides, then another score diagonally.

After stamping an image onto the middle of front and back the section is folded, the corners of the diagonal crease are folded in to make a section that is 1,5 inches square. These segments are glued together and the first and last section are covered with a 1,5x1,5 piece of cardstock, and on each end is a ribbon glued in between the last section and the cardstock, both ribbons are threaded through a bead and the ends are tied together, the ornament opens by raising the bead and releasing the sections, then lower the bead again and ready is the pop up ornament.

Ganz liebe Gruesse Sabine

....have you ever asked yourself -

What to do with all the scrapbooking paper you have collected over the years?

I sure have :)

some it I'll be using to make gift boxes,

this box uses one 12x12 sheet of sturdy paper

and a small sheet or some left over white paper.
I made this box to fit a small candle I want to give as a present. it is 3 inches square on top and 3 inches deep, I cut the paper
9x9 inches and scored each side 3 inches from the edge, then it looked somewhat
like a tic tac toe board. I cut every other line from the edge and overlaped them to make a
box. The middle of the top is 1/8 inch wider , to fit better over the box.

Ganz liebe Gruesse Sabine

Big sister gift

...to welcome her little baby sister I made this "big sister welcome coloring book"

for my little neighbor.
the front is made of cardstock I used a long piece and folded it up to make a pocket , punched the edge, glued the sides shut and reinforced the sides with an eyelet.
for the coloring pages I printed some baby coloring pages, that are available for free from the intetnet, sized them to about 4x 5 inches and printed them on white cardsrock.
I punched a hole in the top left corner of the coloring pages and added a book ring to attach them to the front of the coloring book, just add caryons and you are done,
this would also be a geat stocking stuffer for little kids or a party favor for birthday parties....
the possibilities are endless :)

Ganz liebe Gruesse Sabine

another kitchen towel... this one is for an inspiring young cupcake baker

she is only 13 and is the daughter of a friend.


every towel gets a special tag and a hanger in the coordinating fabric.


these would be great for christmas too.



have a great week

Ganz liebe Gruesse Sabine

...gift tags anyone?...

I have a bunch of paper scraps from my card projects and I just could not throw them away. For these tags you only need little bits of paper, so the scraps were perfect to use.

I used a stamping up rubber stamp from an old set I have and a round punch and scalloped edge punch, I layered pieces and punched a small hole for the string.

Ganz liebe Gruesse Sabine

........cozy and warm for little girls... is this scarf, made from polar fleece
I added an embroidery design and a
star border I have on my sewing machine. Superfast and easy to sew, this is a great last minute present for little girls on cold days.

Ganz liebe Gruesse Sabine

...All punched out

last week I found a great punch at the craft store, a 3 1/2 inch circle

with scalloped edges today I hosted a baby shower

and used it to make most of the decorations. for the gift bags I used the microsoft publisher to design the image and punched
the tags using the scalloped edge punch.for these decorations I punched 6 circles folded each
in half I glued them together in a star pattern and inserted

a ribbon for hanging.

Ganz liebe Gruesse Sabine

... anoter UFO (unfinished object) less in my stack.

the daughter of my friend sent me fabric and zippers and asked me to make her pencil cases,

I love the idea but did not find time for sewing, now they are finally finished and are on their way.

I had a little left over fabric and used it to make matching change purses

with credit card pocket. I hope she likes the results.

Have a great weekend.

Ganz liebe Gruesse Sabine

Fast gift idea

if you are meeting friens it is laways nice to bring a little something, here is the little something I just finished

This is a great gift idea and so easy to make, this is a simple white kitchen towel I bought at Target, I love using these, because they have visible lines in the fabric so it is a lot easier to center the embroidery design. I embroidred the chicken, added somd robbin for trim, added a hanger and a tag. If you do not have an embroidery machine, these towlels look great just by adding some fabric ad trim.

Hope you have a great weekend
Ganz liebe Gruesse Sabine

Kitchen red-white

I was browsing the net this weekend and came across some absolutely beautiful pictures of scandinavian kitchen designs most of them had kitchen decor in red and white. I just love these colors. I have a bunch of red and white fabric so I got busy doing my own. Here are the results.

I made a german style "Utensilo" it is a fabric basket made from sturdy linen fabric with another layer of white linen fabric and batting. The lining is red and white gingham. the towel was one I of my well worn and loved kitchen towels, I know it has seen better days, I gave it a little make over by embroidering a red and white chicken on front.

I hope you all have a great week and Happy crafting :)

Ganz liebe Gruesse Sabine

pillow case dress

after a long Summer break I'm sewing again

I finally got the chance to sew a Pillow case dress.

nach einer langen Sommerpause hab ich mich mal wieder an die Naehmaschine gesetzt. Endlich hab ich ein Pillow case dress genaeht. I used a very soft corduroy.
I cut it to an a-line form and added cutouts for the arms.
Dazu hab ich einen ganz weichen Cordstoff verwendet , ich habe die Seiten schraeg geschnitten und dazu noch Ausschnitte fuer die Arme. Dann wird das ganze oben umgenaeht und ein Band durchgezogen.

I also embelished this t-shirt with Hello Kitty, a must for a Hello Kitty Party.

ein Hello Kitty t-shirt fuer die Geburtstagsfeier darf natuerlich auch nicht fehlen, ich habe einen Sticky auf Filz gestickt und ihn dann aufgebuegelt und festgenaeht. There was enough left over fabric for a mimiature dress for the Baby

sister of my little neighbor that will be born soon.

Es war gerade noch genug Stoff uebrig fuer ein Minikleidchen fuer die kleine Schwester, die bald geboren wird.

This dress was super easy to sew I'm sure this one will not be the last one.

Ganz liebe Gruesse Sabine

Zipper pouch ...

...I got some more work done on the pouch, I'm starting to like it.

I will take this one on our summer vacation.

I added a pocket with snap closure to the back that fits credit cards or a drivers license it is perfect, when you are out and about and you do not want to take your purse. Ganz liebe Gruesse Sabine

....

Lots more bags were finished this weekend, this one is a prototype, I think I will add a pocket for credit cards on the back and use brighter colors.

This bag as you can tell is for a girl that is graduating from High school next week, I love these bags, the front zipper pocket is see -through so it is perfect for putting a gift card inside.

this picture shows some alterations I did on the coin purse, i added a strip of fabric to the back to close the back pocket so it is safe for putting credit cards....

and instead of the clear front I added fabric with a letter, i love this design this bag is very versatile
Ganz liebe Gruesse

Sabine

I have been very busy the last couple of weeks.

I sewed lots more bunny bags for friends and family. Otherwise it was school, sports and a broken arm we have to deal with. My oldest son broke his right arm playing basket ball. I can only tell you...bad timing.. he has lots of tests in the end of the year. Well we have about 3 more weeks to go.

I have started a new project, I bought this cute design for a ITH coin valet from http://www.picklepiedesigns.com

, it is adorable and very easy to make (once you understand the instructions).

I tried it a few times and I'm hooked.

I changed the original design a little, I added a little loop of gross grain ribbon to attach a key ring and I added a name on the back pocket and made a matching key strap. I'm trying to figure out a way to close the back pocket to make it safe to carry credit cards in this pocket perhaps with a snap button ... I'm still working to figure out the best way.



Ganz liebe Gruesse Sabine

... yesterday I saw these cute easter window cany bags at cute embroidery.com

and I could not resist, after some trial and error I added Names to the back of the bags and

I changed the sewing around the window, because the plactic would tear, because the stitching was too tight.

I love the result .

Also finished is the first embroidered T-shirt for my little neighbor and

a towel as part of a wedding present for a co-worker.

I had a busy weekend of stitching but now I'm going outside to enjoy a beautiful spring day.

Thanks everybody for sharing your designs.

Ganz liebe Gruesse Sabine