A Grinchy Christmas

      To all of those who celebrate Christmas, I hope your Christmas Day was happy and warm with family and friends.  In my house, we're still celebrating all 12 Days of Christmas, and doing our best to drive the Grinch crazy with all of our holiday cheer and singing and festive gatherings.

     In honor of that, I want to share a Grinch Gnome I made.  After hearing my daughter's assessment of it as "the most a'dork'able gnome" she'd ever seen, I gave it to her for Christmas!  I'll make another one to sell at the Christmas craft show next year.  :-D

     Enjoy your remaining 8 Days of Christmas and have a safe and sane Happy New Year.

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

The Graveyard and the Bat

      Well, it's been more than a month since I posted anything to my blog but it's been a busy one.  One more craft show is under our belts and we have one more coming up in less than 3 weeks.  I'd love to tell you that we're all ready for that one (our last one of the year) but alas, we have at least half a dozen projects waiting to be finished.  I have two sets of Christmas gnome ornaments, a rather tall, "Winter White" gnome (18 inches), and I still have to get our inventory list finished so that we can keep track of what we sell.

     But for today, I want to share the cutest (spookiest?) graveyard scene made by my sis-in-law and an adorable bat gnome I made.

The ghosts have flickering lights inside them and the cobwebbed trees

 have strings of mini lights on them.  When it's dark (as it couldn't be

 for a good photo), it's really quite spooky-cute.  :-D

And here's my bat gnome made from faux fur and craft foam.

    

     When we get the sets of Christmas ornaments done, maybe I'll find time to do another post.  In the meantime, thanks for visiting and Happy crafting.  NanaConnie

Halloween, Cave Man Carl, and Tom Turkey

      Once more, we're prepping for an upcoming craft show and I've been focused on Halloween gnomes and critters since it will be in October.  But yesterday and today, I decided it was time for a nod to Thanksgiving and a brief flight of fancy into the distant past of cave men and Neanderthals.  :-D

     Let's start with some Halloween costumed gnomes and then check out Cave Man Carl and Tom Turkey.  I didn't do all of these in 2 days; all the ones for Halloween were made over the last 4 or 5 weeks.

     Here are a mummy, a witch with pink hair, one inspired by Frankenstein, a ghost, and finally a gnome dressed as Dracula.  The mummy and Frankenstein are actually troll gnomes who are dressed and ready for the Troll Valley Village's annual Halloween party!  A big "Thank You" to Patti J. Good for her inspiration on many of these.

     

  One more that could fit the "costume" theme is this adorable Cave Man Carl, but he also stands alone without a Halloween costume connection.

 

I'm entering this one into the Anything Goes challenge at Craftlandia.  

And, last but not least, this one for Thanksgiving, Tom Turkey.

     That all I have for today and hopefully, it won't be another month before I can post on my blog again.  Thanks for visiting.  I appreciate that you continue to visit even when I'm not posting regularly any more.  :-D  

      Happy Crafting.   NanaConnie

Embroidered Gnome

      Gosh, it's been more than a month since I posted anything to my blog but I haven't been lazy, just busy.  More gnome work, of course, but I've also been pushing myself to renew old crafting skills as the hand coloring and card making crafts seem to be less and less possible.  

     It's been nearly 50 years since I did any amount of hand embroidery, though I loved it during those years when it was a regular activity.  A few weeks back, my granddaughter gave back to me a huge pile of embroidery flosses, needles, and other supplies which I had given to her when she wanted to try her hand at embroidery.  Seeing all those luscious thread colors whetted my appetite for trying it again, despite the eyesight problems.  (A large, desktop, magnifier helps tremendously!)  I ordered some white Aida cloth online, and as soon as it arrived I began practicing all the old stitches I once knew so well.  I found that I'm much slower (and more careful) with the stitches than I used to be but it's coming back.

     For those of you who don't know, Aida cloth is a stiff, woven fabric with evenly spaced threads which are a specific distance apart and that makes it so much easier when one can use the tiny "holes" between threads to keep your stitches even.  While I was working stitches on a practice piece of Aida cloth, I began to wonder if I could use Aida cloth to make clothes for gnomes, thereby being able to have lovely, even embroidery work on the clothing.  I was concerned that the stiffness might make it unsuitable for clothes but I knew of no way to find out other than to try it!  :-D

     I want to share with you the end result.  I must tell you that this particular gnome took hours and hours to complete and that the embroidery itself took me more than 6 hours to complete, simple as it looks once on the gnome.  All the white parts are the Aida cloth (both coat and top hat), but Aida cloth also comes in colors and, now that I know it works for gnome clothing, I'm going to get some of it in various colors.  Doesn't it give great visual texture?

     Here's the gnome:

     What do you think?  Of course, I love him but I'm the one who did all the work so I'm totally biased.  :-D

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Midsummer Night's Dream

      Well, our second vendor event looms over us; it starts at noon tomorrow.  The theme is "Midsummer Night's Dream" with an emphasis on woodland creatures, renaissance costuming, fairies, magical (?) critters, and other things found in Shakespeare's time, and specifically, his play of the same name.  

     Our first event on the 4th of July resulted in sales even better than our highest expectations!  We were so happy, and immediately came home and made a few additional wizard gnomes and critters better suited to this theme.  I want to share a few of those with you in this post.

     First, the wizard brothers who are also known for their haberdashery, including the weaving of marvelous and magical coat trims.  

 

     Then there's the sleeping gnome cat, napping until the fairies arrive.  Her fur is so incredibly soft and a smaller version of her inspired a bidding war at the earlier event so I had to make another one!

     Finally, there's the head wizard who's been traveling, having left home headed for the Midsummer Night Faire.  He travels with his apothecary of magical potions and is in charge of all things mystical at the Faire.

     

     That's it for this post.  Have a wonderful midsummer day and Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Craft Fair in 2 Days!

      We're so close to the first of our scheduled vendor events, this one on the 4th of July.  The event is somewhat "local" but not actually in our city.   Since our particular location in the Central Valley of California tends to be one of the hottest spots in the valley, we're happy to be traveling an hour away, up into the foothills of the Sierra Nevada where predicted temperatures will be about 85F when home town will be over 100F.  :-D

     We've been putting the finishing touches on our inventory of gnomes and critters, and I just wanted to take a moment to share with you two more cute gnomes and some of my sis-in-law's hedgie critters. 

     Critters first...  

Aren't those adorable?  They're about 5.5 inches high.

Here's the first one she made a few weeks back, about 4.5 inches tall.

     And here's my last gnomes for this event.  I'll probably make a few more between this event and the next one on July 13 (also up in a different part of the foothills where it's cooler - yay!!) but these two are the last ones before the event on July 4th. 

Done with purple felt and gray fleece.  About 7" high.

Made using all burlap, including burlap trim. 9" tall.

     I won't be posting again until after the event so let me wish all of you a wonderful 4th of July celebration and please be safe and sane.  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Lavender Fairy & Gnome with Mustache

      It's been almost 3 weeks since I last posted on my blog but I've been really busy getting thing ready for the craft fair & vendor events that my daughter convinced us to "enter."  Between her, my sis-in-law, and I, we decided we wanted to have a minimum of 100 hand crafted items in our inventory.  We have all made items and we're pretty close to that number, thank goodness!  But the crafting time has overwhelmed any posting time I might have had for the blog.

     In any case, I want to share my last two items (made today) in a brief post.  First is a lovely fairy, made from lavender tulle and craft foam with a white pom pom for her head.  She's 9" tall overall.

     Next is another sitting, sock gnome and what's different about him is that he's the first one I've made with only a mustache, no beard.  I think he's adorable!  I definitely want to make more mustache gnomes after looking at him for the last couple of hours.  He's about 6" tall.

     That's it for now.  Our first event is in exactly 10 days and I have another 3 items to complete.  My SIL is finishing another 3 herself, and I guess my daughter has to pick up the slack.  lol

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

The Tattered Wanderer

      Things have gotten hectic around here and it's all thanks to my daughter!  She has set up two additional events for us as vendors of the gnomes and critters I've been making and suddenly our first event is now exactly 1 month away.  Yikes!  So, I've been making more gnomes and angels and I'm sharing with you the most recent ones.

     This delightful guy is a wanderer, a fine gnome gent who loves all things found in the woodlands, including the occasional bramble bush.  Hence, his clothing is a bit tattered around the edges but the stories he can share with all the ladybugs and butterflies!

     This guy is wearing my first pair of small gnome boots.  I had made one other pair for my largest gnome a couple of months ago and I tried to make them the same way but with a significant reduction in size.  I took them down from about 4" long to 1.3" or so from heel to toe.  They were made from scratch using cardboard and corks.

     I also made an angel using nothing but bookmark tassels and glitter foam, plus a large bead for her head.  These go fairly quickly (now that I have the "how to" part figured out) and I have materials to make another dozen or so.  Overall, they are about 4.5", not including the hanger cord.

     That's it for now.  Hopefully, I'll find a bit of breathing room when I can do some additional posts here on the blog but I'm really under the gun to get lots of things created so that we'll have enough stock to make the craft show events worthwhile.

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Angels

      It seems like forever since I posted anything on my blog, and it has been nearly 3 weeks but I've been busy.  It seems my daughter has convinced me to do some craft fairs and other vendor events, focusing on my gnomes.  I've made so many and given away many of them, but it was a blogging/crafting friend who first gave us the idea of selling them.

     My daughter has several contacts for various events and one of them takes place as a fund raising event for a local Christian school.  They allow only hand made items to be sold; no mass manufacturing.  I have a few months to get enough stock made to make it worth while and since it takes place at the beginning of the Christmas season, I decided it might be good to branch out and make some angels, too.

     So, today I'm sharing a free-standing angel and several angel tree ornaments.  What do you think?

13" tall, burlap and lace

Wired ribbon, 4" tall

Glitter craft foam, 4.5" tall

Unwired ribbon, 3.5 " tall

and finally, the kind everybody has made for the last decade but it's my first one...

Deco Mesh, 8" tall

     That's it for today.  Hopefully, I'll have more to share and it won't take me another 3 weeks to get  post done.  :-D  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Winter Gnomes

      My screen time on electronics, including my cell phone, is very limited and that's a big part of the reason you aren't getting daily posts from me.  My crafting time is also somewhat limited so I don't have as many things to post as I had a couple of months ago.  But today, I want to share two gnomes I managed to complete, although the larger, white one took me more than 3 weeks to complete.  I'll share it first.

     This is my first gnome with boots and legs and I loved making them.  I must have watched boot making videos on YouTube 100 times (many of which were repeats, watched over and over again until I got the basics down pat.)  On the gnome itself, I used 3 different faux fur trims and 4 different fabrics (fleece, satin, faux leather, and felt.)  The little pocket bag at his waist is similar to one you might find on a man wearing a kilt.  The gold trim is metallic.  I added a glittery snowflake to the piece of gold trim on his hat and it sparkles madly IRL.  

     He's a good 24 inches tall from the bottom of his boots to the tip of his hat.  Next time, I think I'll consider a gray beard or at least a beard sprinkled with gray for a bit more contrast against all the white.

    

     I also finished a cute Santa-style gnome.  He's about 15 inches tall and made with a cone body, red and black plaid fleece, faux fur trim, and a burlap toy sack.

 

     Must run - Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

More Critters

      Over the last couple of weeks I've taken a break not only from cards but also from gnomes.  However, I haven't been idle.  I've been sidelined into a quest for critter gnomes, mostly puppies and kittens.  I want to share two or three of them with you today.

      Here's the first puppy I made and my sis-in-law claimed it right away.  The body is an empty Sunny D bottle, covered in faux fur, with a pompom nose, a felt tongue, and hand tied bow.

     Next, I attempted a kitten gnome (without any pattern or sample to follow), made along the line of the shaggy puppy above but with a muzzle, whiskers, pointy ears, and a tail.

     Finally, I wanted to try another puppy but this time with a top knot.  Again, an empty bottle but this time an old medicine bottle, faux fur, & hand-tied, yarn bow.

     That's all I have for today.  Maybe I'll have something else to share early next week.

     Happy crafting.  NanaConnie