Knifty Knitters

I thought I would create a place with links to patterns and instructions. If no one is interested then at least I have a reference if I need it.  
These are the looms:
The round Knifty Knitters
These are the long looms
They all come with a loom pick & yarn needle
Instructional videos:
loom knitting basics


How to Loom Knit
Links for patterns:
Knitting Pattern Central
Large Christmas Stocking
Gettin it Pegged- Freebies
Bev's Country Cottage *one of my faves*
Rostichery
Spring Knitting
Provo Craft
Loom Lady Lots of cute stuff!

PICS of things I have made with mine:

Not yet Party time

 My husband's birthday is coming up and we are having a mustache party. lol
He will be 24 years old this year. The party will be a lot of fun. I am going to make mustaches for everyone to wear and today I put together a mustache pinata.
It was very easy! I used cardboard boxes, crepe paper, tape and glue. (I ended up only using one roll of crepe paper).

 

Isaiah modeling the mustache

 Once two sides were cut out I took strips of cardboard that I made bendy and pliable by running it down the side of my table. I taped the sides on to the mustache cutouts (be sure to leave a gap at the top to insert the candy in!). Then I took the crepe paper and glue and covered the mustache! If I had black tissue paper on hand I would have covered the whole thing with it first.

The completed pinata. I still need to fill with candy and hook a wire to it so it can hang .

.

Holiday ready

Yesterday I made a new dessert that was very yummy and perfect fr the holidays. It was a ginger snap pumpkin dessert. It was quite good and pretty easy to make. The top crust wast crunchy and buttery while the center was soft and pumpkiny, almost like cheesecake. The bottom crust was cake-like and delicious. I love pumpkin and I love gingersnap, together it was awesome!
Here is the recipe from the website I got it from.

Gingersnap-Pumpkin Dessert Recipe

Photo by: Taste of Home

• Prep: 40 min. Bake: 70 min. + cooling

Ingredients

• 1 package (18-1/4 ounces) yellow cake mix, divided
• 1 cup crushed gingersnap cookies
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 
  FILLING:
• 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
• 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 can (29 ounces) solid-pack pumpkin
• 1/4 cup 2% milk
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons Spice Islands®, All Natural, No Corn Syrup Added, Pure Vanilla Extract
• 
  TOPPING:
• 1/2 cup crushed gingersnap cookies
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup cold butter, cubed
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• Additional gingersnap cookies, halved, optional

Directions

• Set aside 1 cup cake mix for topping. In a small bowl, combine gingersnap crumbs and remaining cake mix; stir in butter and egg. Press onto the bottom of a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish; set aside.
• For filling, in a large bowl, beat cream cheese and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs. Beat in the pumpkin, milk, cinnamon and vanilla and mix well. Pour over crust.
• For topping, in a small bowl, combine the gingersnap crumbs, sugar and reserved cake mix; cut in butter until crumbly. Stir in pecans. Sprinkle over filling.
• Bake at 325° for 70-75 minutes or until filling is set and a thermometer inserted near the center reads 160°. Cool on a wire rack for 1-1/2 hours. If desired, garnish each serving with a gingersnap half. Store in the refrigerator. Yield: 15-18 servings.

Then after all the baking, while the dessert was cooling I decided to knock out another Christmas gift. I put together another pillow pet, this one for my niece Evelyn.

Here is the tutorial for the pillow pets...
12 Crafts til Christmas

More home-made Christmas gifts

I finished a few Christmas gifts today. One I had been working on for a few days and the other only took an hour or so. First my scarf, I made it for my mom. It took more yarn and time then I thought to begin with but turned out thick, soft and very pretty.

 

Then I decided to try something new using my Knifty Knitter flower loom and I ended up with a doll for Grace for Christmas. I am pretty pleased with its outcome. :)

The Swag that saved Christmas

I am going to take a moment and promote for SwagBucks for this simple reason, without it our Christmas would undoubtedly be small and on the pathetic side.
I started at the end of August and have been participating pretty lazily and yet I have earned $125 in Amazon gift cards. We spent part of it a while back on my husband but the remainder is all going to Christmas.
If you are interested it is really easy. All you do is use their search engine for your searching. There are ways to earn extra bucks by doing the Daily Poll, checking the survey board and going through the NOSO. Plus if you follow Swagcodez on FaceBook they tell you when a code is out for bonus bucks.
It does not take long for things to add up and it pays off in the end. Check it out!

Felt like Christmas

Today I got the materials for the kids next Christmas gift. I don't know what to call them really, they are essentially felt paper dolls.  Here they are completed.

All the clothing are individual pieces and for my daughter's I made a blonde wig and a brown one.









Now as for how I made them. It is VERY simple and quick, not to mention inexpensive!


















The materials I used were 8x10 canvases that I got at Michael's a while back on sale (paid under $5 for a set of 3). Hot glue gun and glue and a bunch of sheets of felt. I only spent $2.50 total on the two gifts.

First step pick your background.
Hot glue it to the canvas. I only put the hot glue on the back and tried to make the corners look as nice as possible.




The next step was to create the people. I traced a template from here. I used it to curt out my felt bodies. The clothes and accessories I just got creative with! I hot glued the person to the back ground but not all the clothes so the kids could dress their person up however they want to.
I then hot glued fabric to the back of the canvas board to make a pocket to hold all the pieces!

I just used scrap fabric, you can use a sheet of felt if you wanted.  I really think the kids will like dressing their little people up. I know I am not done making felt clothes for these yet and that is okay by me, I still have tons of felt left!

I Spy

 So I am still working on Christmas under $100. That is my goal. Provide a good Christmas for all THREE of my kids and spend under $100. I can do it! This is the latest gift I have made for their Christmas.
It is an I Spy game.
I bought this plastic see-through paint can at Micheal's for $1.99, collected odds & ends to "spy", and a bag of rice at the grocery store.
It is an easy concept. Just fill the can part of the way with rice and add all the assorted odds & ends then more rice on top. Once it is full the lit its on tightly and can only be removed with a coin or flat head screwdriver. The kids take turns. You shake the can and say "I spy something [fill in the blank]"  Pass the can to the other player and they try to figure out what you spied. Shake the can and it is a completely new game! This gift only cost $3.00.  :D