Easter Basket Alternatives to Candy

It's been awhile since I posted here, but I've been busy crafting!

We are responsible for bringing 12 filled Easter eggs for the classroom egg hunt.

But no chocolate and no nuts, and oh my it's hard to find candy that is safe for the little ones.

So, I did a little sewing instead :).

These make great candy alternatives for filling those plastic Easter eggs.

Each is about 2.25 inches tall by 1.25 inches wide and fits perfectly into a standard egg.

I had so much fun, I made a few extra and tucked them into my shop.

Kid Coupons

I have some new, kid-friendly coupons in my Etsy shop!  These are really cute in person, and are perfect to tuck into lunchboxes, use for rewards, or have Santa leave in the holiday stockings this year.  

Lucky Duck Designs Giveaway!

We have a winner!

Jhbalvin

Email me at luckyduckdesigns at gmail.com with your contact info 

and I'll get these sent right out to you!

-------------------------------------------

It's time for YOU to be the lucky duck! 

Join my spam-free mailing list or 

like my Lucky Duck Designs page at facebook 

(links for both are on the right side of this page)

and you'll be entered  to win this set of 

two sweet greeting cards from my etsy shop.

I'll announce a winner here at the blog August 1.

Be sure to check back!

This little giveaway is open to US entries only.

Thanks for stopping by!

Easter Baskets for Teachers

We always struggle with teacher gifts around the holidays, wanting to balance both pretty and practical, without cluttering up their homes with unnecessary little 'treasures'.  I whipped up these cute little Easter baskets from some scrap fabric, loosely following this great fabric basket tutorial and filled them with goodies that hopefully our teachers will appreciate:

-- microwave popcorn

-- burt's bees lip balm

-- a package of flower seeds for planting

-- a spring-themed nail file

-- a little chocolate chick

and of course a sweet note of thanks for taking such good care of our little one.

EtsyGreetings Valentine Blog Hop

Our little Etsy team is hosting another great blog hop and I'm so happy to be able to participate again. This time around we're pairing a Valentine card from our shop with a gift item from Etsy. This one was easy for me. My valentine and I are both a little nerdy, quantitative methods folks (he: statistics in education, me: statistics in health). So this print from le petit elefant is a perfect gift for him. I just love it!



From my shop, I paired it with one of my "you are my favorite" valentines:

EtsyGreetings Blog Hop: Handmade Holiday Tradition

This post is part of the EtsyGreetings Team Holiday Blog Hop.
Our theme is Handmade Holiday.
Happy reading!

::::::::::

I've always had many handmade traditions around the holidays, I particularly enjoy making handmade gifts and wrapping them in creative ways.  But now that we have a toddler in the house, our traditions are expanding in many new directions.

As a Pinterest lover, I've found an enormous amount of great holiday do-it-yourself ideas for the little guy.  One that I'm especially excited about is the idea of making a felt tree for him to decorate (and hopefully it will be a terrific distraction from all the sparkly ornaments on our full-size Christmas tree!).  I'm hoping this will be a fun holiday tradition for at least a few more years.

The tree works on the principle that "felt sticks to felt" and is very similar to "story boards" you may have encountered in the children's library as a kid.  I cut a generous-sized Christmas tree from 36" wide green felt purchased at Joann Fabric.  I went for the highest wool content I could find, in this case, 35%, because really the guiding principle here is "wool felt sticks to wool felt".  And in fact the "stickiness" property is significantly higher the more wool content you have.  Because of this, the artificial craft felts are not great for this project.

As it turns out, felt with any wool content is hard to find locally in great colors.  So naturally I turned to etsy and of course, found an excellent seller with a superb collection at Felt on the Fly.  My felt choices arrived last week and I can't tell you how gorgeous they are.  I had no idea felt could be so beautiful.

Then it was time to cut and design ornaments!  I love a little in-front-of-the-tv project, so decided to sew the layers of my felt ornaments by hand.  I know there are probably some great alternate options out there using different adhesives if you're short on time.

And that was it!  Hang the tree on the wall, give the little guy the ornaments and encourage him to "decorate"!  Happy kid, happy parents ... and a happy holiday!

There are more than 20 great Etsy paper artists participating in this blog hop!  To visit the next blog in the hop, just click the right arrow below!  To see a list of everyone that's participating, click the round logo to be taken to the EtsyGreetings blog.

Holiday Knitting is Underway

So many stockings, so little time. Though small (2.5 inches wide by 6.5 inches tall), these little guys are knit on tiny needles - each one takes about 2 hours to complete. But they make such great little gift toppers, tree ornaments, silverware holders on the holiday table, and gift card containers ... I can't seem to keep them in my shop (admittedly, a good problem!). I've knit over 50 so far this season, and I'm still loving every stitch - a fun little project to have on my needles this fall.

My First Printable!

So I've been starting the holiday shopping and crafting, and was so thrilled to put some fresh tags, holiday cards and my first printable file in the shop!

I'm very excited about my first interactive card as well! When you pull the tab, the tree "lights up" with colored bulbs, and the sweet holiday message appears from it's hiding place. Very fun to design (though admittedly, quite time-consuming!).

I Heart Custom Orders

Much of my time these past few weeks has been devoted to filling custom orders. Though always a little complicated, I love these projects. They often give me an opportunity to try new techniques, or stretch my design ideas just a little bit. And my Etsy clients are always awesome. Here are a few of the custom projects I've been working on lately.

Pretty Paper Garland

I've been wanting to play with some paper garland for a little while now. The design I had in my mind was much more delicate than what my sewing machine could handle, so I ended up hand-stringing these .5 inch white flowers. The result was really pretty - light and airy. And it was a nice, short project to contrast that ever-present long one (my dissertation). Nothing like some paper art to make you feel like you've made an accomplishment for the day!

Butterflies

Our little one is fascinated by the butterflies in our backyard, so I made him a little butterfly mobile from "found things" around our house (unused knitting needles, thread, bits of ribbon, some beads) and some free clipart images from the web. The breeze from the air conditioning vent across the room gives it just enough motion to keep things interesting (and not too tangled).

Love Coupons are Back {again!}

I was fortunate to again find some time to make a limited run of my newly redesigned handmade love coupons. These little lovelies are completely customizable, and special text requests can be made in the notes at checkout. Stay tuned to the shop - I have some delightful new papers from Scotty Girl Design that I'm planning to use for additional sets.

The Always Lovely "Lovely Clusters"

I always enjoy the selections at Lovely Clusters. And it's a thrill to have a few of my knitted items there as well. Stop by to see the pretty spring catalog:

Bunting Fun

So I've been wanting to put together a little bunting for our holidays. I know it's only April, but it's always Christmas craft time around here - especially with all the custom stocking orders I'm still filling!

Today I had some time to pull out my fabric stash and play with some of the reds a bit. Though the photos aren't terrific, I think the little bunting turned out pretty well!

Holiday Gift Tags are Here!

A few sets have sold already! Here's a selection:

A New Twist

I have been salivating over the many bright vintage earrings on Etsy lately and decided to finally pull out my jewelry supplies and make some for myself. I found some great vintage beads from Etsy suppliers, as well as a terrific price on sterling silver wire and headpins (also at Etsy). After a few hours of practice on some old wire to loosen up those rusty skills, I was all ready to go. The results were very satisfying - a simple design, so totally my style.

But what to do with the extra beads? And how to incorporate this different direction into my existing shop. The earring tree card was born! I'd love to hear your thoughts on my creation - please leave a comment if you have a moment to spare.

Etsy Shop Feedback Giveaway!

On April 1, I will be doing a drawing for 2 free greeting cards from my shop! To enter, just provide me with some feedback about my Etsy shop at the form here!

Get Well Gerbers!

Gerber daisies have been my favorites for as long as I can remember, so it was especially sweet to receive them from my in-laws following a recent surgery. They brighten every room!

Enter to Win!

I'm always interested in feedback from those of you who visit my shop at Etsy, so I created this quick and easy little survey to invite your comments!

I'll do a drawing once each month among all of those who complete the survey. One lucky winner will get 2 lucky duck designs greeting cards sent to them free of charge!

Want to participate? Just stop by my shop and then stop by the survey to enter!

New! Birdie Birthday Cards

With the end of the holidays and the start of the new semester, there hasn't been much time to dream up, and implement, new card designs lately. But last weekend I stole a few hours and put together these little birdie cards. I wanted to have some bright and cheerful new designs for our big family birthday month of April, and these will certainly fit the bill!