Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

I wish all of you a Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Pattern for this little shamrock can be found over at Sarahndipities!

- Uta -

Things I like (in March 2012)

Here are a couple of things I thought might be worth sharing with you...


☛ Spencer Maggie's Puppy - I have a thing for anipals :) Isn't he cute?!

☛ CraftyPod by Diana Gilleland - a Podcast about everything crafty plus more

☛ Amazing Lanterns by Patricia Zapata (A little Hut) - Great inspiration, they are already on my list of to-do's

☛ 10 Health Problems Helped by Crochet by Kathryn Vercillo - Quite interesting read! And the perfect excuse to spend even more time crocheting :)

☛ OnePageBooks by TheOriginalOnePageBookCompany


Have a sunny weekend everyone :)

- Uta -

Let's get back to crocheting - finally!

My left hand is almost back to normal which means I can finally crochet again! Unfortunately, I got a cold a few days ago and am now sniffing and sneezing like crazy. But luckily, that doesn't keep me away from working on some crafting projects :)

I hocked a few granny squares for my new blanket:

Furthermore, I started to pretty up some Easter decoration. I'm still working on this one so no pictures at this point :)

And here's something for which I need some more inspiration aka your help. I'm an avid tea drinker, one of my colleagues at work as well. So for a few months now I've been collection those paper thingies that are wrapped around tea bags:

I'd like to make something out of it, I already have some vague ideas but nothing really knocked my socks off yet. So who's got an idea?

- Uta -

Self-Made Gift Tags: A Tutorial

A couple of days ago I blogged about some self-made gift tags, now I want to show you how to make them.

Step 1: Materials
Based on how I made these gift tags you're going to need the following materials*:
- Paper bag handles made of twisted paper
- Brown Paper bag
- Coloured paper

Step 2: Stencils
You will need two hourglass shaped stencils**. They look pretty much the same but they have a different size. Of course, you don't have to stick to the shape I used. Be fancy, be creative and choose something different! Or feel free to simply use my shapes:

Step 3: Draw and Cut
Arrange the bigger stencil on the outside of the brown paper bag and transfer it's shape onto it with a pencil.
Do the same with the small stencil and the coloured paper.

Afterwards, cut out the shapes and raze out all traces of pencil that are left on them.

Step 4: Cut and Staple
Cut the paper bag handles in two. Put both ends of every piece together and secure with a staple.

Now fold the shapes made of the brown paper bag as well as those made of the coloured paper like shown in the picture below:

Secure the shapes with two staples per gift tag:

And you're done :)

- Uta -

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* It's important to be kind to mother earth - recycling paper bags instead of throwing them away means being kind.
** Whenever you make stencils I highly recommend using scratch paper or a piece of newspaper, it's more eco-friendly.

It's already March

I woke up this morning and realized it's already March. Wow! The last two months went by so fast, it's almost scary. Unfortunately, March didn't start that smooth for me...

Last week started with a three-days project management training. I did a lot of seminars on that topic during my studies so there weren't that many new things for me but all in all it was really interesting. And the hotel we stayed in was so comfy, everything was definitely country style inspired.

After the seminar I drove to my parents' place. Wednesday was a lazy day. I spent a lot of time indoors crocheting a couple of granny squares for a new blanket.

On Thursday I went shopping with my parents - well, that was at least our intention. Unfortunately, I slipped when I got out of the car at the car park in front of the shopping center. Result: A huge bruise on my left knee, a bruised left wrist and a not really nice graze on the ball of my left hand. Thus I have to take a break from crocheting and crafting for a little while :/

I hope your March started better than mine ;)

- Uta -