Exciting news!!

A friend and I have recently opened up our own Etsy Shop!  You can find us at avaravendesigns.etsy.com

We have hand made cards to sell, and can customize cards too!  We also have hand made headbands for

sale, (over 25 colors, their not all displayed here.  Need a color, we do custom orders too, just leave a

message. ) felt hair bows, Christmas tags, and we are currently working every day to add new

and fun things to our Etsy shop!  We are working on making gift card holders, and other great

surprises for the upcoming holidays. (Christmas is on the brain.)

Come on by and take a look, and please let us know if theirs something you're not seeing, and we'll

gladly see what we can do for you!!

If you are in Utah County, and can pick up please contact us personally to avoid the shipping charge.

Halloween Decor

I've never been one to say that I just LOVE Halloween, or any holiday for that matter.  I am saying it this

year.  I LOVE Halloween and everything that comes with it.  I'm sure I'll be saying that about every holiday.

 Why?  Cause I'm loving making my own crafts for home.  I've made a garland, some spooky candles, and

a few cards.  I've got so many more things I'd like to make and hope I can get done before Halloween

arrives.  Here's some of what I've made so far.

This one I love how the back ground turned out.  I embossed the back with my embossing folder and the big shot and added versa mark onto the embossing folder.  Then while it was still wet I added black embossing powder and then heat set it.  I really think it added to this card.  Of course the googly eyes on the card don't look bad either.

This card I saw on Pinterest, and had to make my own.  I loved it.  You can see hers here.

This card my friend Brittany did.  I love the back ground on it!  My favorite by far is the candles!!  I did those using the tissue paper technique.  It's really easy once you get the hang of it.

Apothecary jars finally finished!!

I am so excited yet again with how my Pinterest project has turned out.  Here's what I found on Pinterest.

 (Actually a friend of mine in my craft group found it, thanks Tara!)

 And here's how mine turned out.  

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how mine look.  I've filled the middle one with ping pong balls, and as soon as I

find my googly eyes I intend on turning those balls into eye balls.  I love these too because they are so

versatile.  I plan on changing them for every holiday and just leave them out year round.  What do you think?

You can find the supply list here.  The only thing that I added was an extra base to each of my jars.  So the

candle stick is sitting on a base and then I glued one on the top of the candle stick so that there was more

room for my jars to sit.  I like the look better, but you can definatly leave it out and as you can see on the

other blog, (and her picture above,) they look dang cute that way too.

Here's where I've put them, and how it looks all together.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!!!

I'd love to know what you think.  Thanks as always for stopping by.

Jack Pot!!

I LOVE Stampin Up!  I miss being a demonstrator, teaching new techniques and miss buying all of the new

products.  With that being

said, I feel like I hit the jack pot!!  A friend of mine told me that Stampin up! was holding it's first ever

warehouse sale.  I was able to go and walked away with a box full of stuff for just under $100 dollars.

 Seriously!  4 different punches, 7 packs of paper, 3 12x12 DSP, 1 scrapbooking kit, 4 clear stamp sets, 3

wood stamps sets, 2 ink pads, 2 embossing powders, markers, and spools and spools of ribbon, and some

other embellishments.  I LOVE their product and am thrilled with the deal of a life time!!  I can't wait to start

playing with all of my new goodies.  So excited, I just had to share.  

So, anyone wanna play??

I bought this lamp some time ago at the DI with the intention of re-doing it.  I've finally done it!  I made matching couch cushions too.  I LOVE how it all turned out!!

The lamp shade I used the same fabric that I used to make my pillows.  It was so hard to get the shape of my lamp just right, so I added some of my Stampin Up! ribbon to the seams and I think it turned out just perfect!  I love how this project turned out.                                                                                              

Love it...

I have had this idea in my head for some time now.

It just feels like when it comes to crafting I have what I

call crafting ADHD.  The classic signs?

• Is easily distracted- Why yes I am.  I have so many ideas going around in my head that I am constantly distracted!
• Does not follow directions or finish tasks- I have a really hard time finishing a lot of the projects that I start.  I feel like I'm in a huge rush to get them all done and one project may be taking me too long to finish, so I've got to move on to the next one, and I WILL come back to this project someday.
• Does not appear to be listening when someone is speaking- Ask my husband, he will tell you this is me to a T when I get to crafting.  (I am listening, I just may not care to respond.)
• Is forgetful about daily activities- Yup, dishes, floor sweeping, vacuuming, etc.  FORGOTTEN!!
• Has problems organizing daily tasks- There's just not enough time in my day to get it all done.
• Often loses things, including personal items- I set down that glue stick, and I know it's around here somewhere!
• Has a tendency to daydream- I have to!  There's so many great projects to tweek and make my own that it's hard not to "daydream."

SO with that being stated, I finished one of my projects!!!  WOOHOOO me.  I am loving it!  

The idea for this project came about after my sweet husband brought me some roses and a beautiful red vase to 

put them in.  It wasn't your typical vase, and I LOVED it!  I'm completely and totally in love with red right now.  In 

fact, one of these days I'm going to be painting my front door RED.  Anyway...(easily distracted.)  I bought some 

red felt, (Hobby Lobby, .25c a piece)  and used one of my kids cheap plastic cups and traced the circle onto the 

felt with a black permanent marker.  I then cut out my circle and then cut a cat tail out of my felt.  Except for 

instead of just going straight around I weaved my scissors so that it made a ruffled edge on my rose.  You can 

see a tutorial here.  (I skipped her first step and only used the "Wiggle" of the scissors to make my curved rose 

petals.

Then I added pearls in the center of my roses and I LOVE how it all looks.  It was so simple.  What do you 

think? 

 It definitely added a lot to my shelf.  Don't you think?

July...

Not a moment too soon!  I finally finished my July wreath.  I've been working on this off and on for a few weeks, and finally finished it last night.  Today is July 4th, so not a moment to spare.  I didn't do to well taking pictures of the process, but it's so simple I don't think pictures are needed to make your own.  I cut a circle out of a piece of cardboard.  ( I traced a pan lid for the first circle.)  Then I traced a smaller circle, (a plate) inside my first circle and cut them out.  (It made a doughnut type circle, with a hole in the center.)  I then took my rosettes (made using my Stampin' Up! die and Big Shot) and hot glued them onto the card board wreath.

If your interested I will post a step by step on how I did this wreath.  It's simple, just time consuming.  I'm so excited it's done.  I love having a July decoration.