Seriously, I "can" craft too!

My little girl was crushed when I ever so gleefully yanked down all the Christmas decorations and packed them away.  Especially the advent calendar.

Candace and I loved making our advent calendar's and my daughter was wondering

why can't we have a New Year's one?

Well......

I have been busy purging everything and anything out of my house,

trying to get some bit of organization done.

The good thing about that is finding all the little bits of stuff you bought and stashed away for

that rainy day project.....

2 years ago.....

before your daughter was born....6 years ago.....

when you first bought your sewing machine.........

14 years ago....

You get the point.  I stumbled upon my stash of felt and feeling the love from my sister's projects

I got my felt groove on.

I spent no money (currently that is) on this project.  (applause)

We got into a habit of picking up a yard here and there whenever we saw felt for sale at Joann's for 99 cents.

So first I made my pattern using some of my ugly old wrapping paper,

laid it out, pinned it on, traced it and started cutting away.

After cutting the large scalloped edge (which I used my roll of packing tape as a stencil of sorts)

I cut the inside heart out and cut it out in the cream felt.

I then cut each coordinating fabric (left over from our heart ornies) into 4 inch squares.

I ironed the seam under and then machine stitched them to another 4 inch felt square.

(I am not a professional seamstress, lines are not meant to be straight.:))

Yes, it seems like alot of work.  Yes, it was.

But historically we've made the pockets out of only felt.

Those little hands really stretch them out if

Mommy isn't "reminding" them to be careful each time.

So I thought if I backed them and folded down and stitched again a lip on them

they'd be super tough!

I then laid them out, pinned them in place and very imperfectly stitched them to the cream heart.

Then with a fancy stitch on my sewing machine (no hand stitching here ladies.....) I stitched it to the red heart.

I printed off a cute font from my computer, laid it in place to make sure it was sized right and then I cut each one out by hand while I got caught up on my tv shows.

If you have a cute set of die cuts I strongly encourage you to use them,

because it's no fun cutting these out by hand.

Finally I got to the fun part!  I glitter glued this baby to the hilt!

I cut random hearts and shapes out to make the numbers pop.

Using my beloved tacky glue and glue gun

 I added a few buttons, ribbon, ric rac and of course some glitter glue!

I probably "spent" about $5 and several hours on this project.

End result: One happy little girl

with plenty of pockets for some

little pet shop goodies.....

linking to

Met Monday at Between Naps on the Porch