Cookie Cutters Aren’t Just For Cookies

I wrote this last year and just love the idea of using cookie cutters for crafts; I had to post it again.

 

Cookie cutters used to be for Christmas but now there are cutters for every holiday or occasion you can imagine.  But you know you can use cookie cutters for more than just cookies.  They are great shapes for kids crafts, appliqué, needle felting, punch needle and embroidery.

Pompom pumpkin


I use pumpkin, bell and stars for kid’s crafts at the market.  I trace the cookie cutter on to paper, scan them on my printer so I can enlarge them to the size I need (although I have pumpkin cutters in just the size I needed).   I print them out on cardstock, cut them out and punch a hole in the top then add yarn for a hanger.  Give them to the kids to glue whatever they want on it or just color them.  I was given pompoms of various colors so we have been using those. 

Cat Pumpkin

Witch Pumpkin

                                

I have also used them for appliqué.  Again just trace the cookie cutter; cut it out on fabric and sew it down.  I like the cat and witch cutters my mom had as we were growing up.  They were great appliqués for my Halloween quilt (which one of these years I will finish).

Punchneedle

I enjoy punchneedle embroidery.  Recently I found some tie-dyed embroidery floss and wanted to see how it would look stitched out.  So I took several sizes of my heart shaped cookie cutters and made myself a little heart ornament using the floss.

 

Needlefelted

Cookie cutters are also a great shape for needle felting.  As long as the cutter is open on both ends, you can place your roving in the cutter and needle felt until the roving takes the shape of the cutter.  Then once you have finished felting it, you can use it as an appliqué, stick a thread hanger through it for an ornament or glue a magnet on the back and put it on your refrigerator. 

Making sugar cookies are so much fun and decorating them with children creates memories but using your cutter with fabric and thread (or glue and pompoms) is a way to keep the cookies forever.  Cookie cutters aren’t just for cookies anymore.

 

© 2016, 2017 Cheryl Fillion

Love Many Things

I journal.  I usually have my journal with me everywhere.  Even sometimes to bed.  This way if I need to get down an idea or an emotion, it is right there for me to get it all out.  I try to find journals with interesting covers so I can always look at something inspiring.

My latest journal has inspirational quotes and phrases on the cover.  The one I like the best reads: “Fall in love with as many things as possible”. When I read that I immediately thought of my needlework.  I like doing so many different things and usually have one or two or twenty different projects going on at once.   

I usually get inspired to start a new pattern or design and am too impatient to finish the project I am working on before I start the new one.  I eventually finish my projects.  It might take years but they do get finished. 

 But sometimes the fact that I do so many different types of needle work bothers the people around me.  “Do you do everything?” they ask.  No.  I never got the hang of crocheting, knitting, or tatting.  But still they want me to concentrate on one thing.  Why when there are so many things out there to try?

I like doing different things.  It gives me variety.  I think I would be bored if I did just one thing all the time.  If I do my needle felting for a while and need a change of pace I try a little embroidery or appliqué.  Then after a while I can do the needle felting again.  It is like I have given myself a little vacation and now I am refreshed.

Often one form of needle work gives me a new idea for another needle work I do.  Recently the embroidery I have been doing has inspired me to try embroidery on my needle felting.  I am working on some felted hearts with little flowers embroidered on them.  (I’ll post a picture when I get them done.)

I have also noticed that if I keep switching needlework, my hands or arms don’t get sore.  With needle felting there is the repetitive motion of up and down of the needle into the wool roving or batting but if I do some hand quilting my hand is making a different motion.  So it helps flex different muscles.

And with some things I have to concentrate and with others I can just do it automatically.  So if I am with some friends or watching TV. I can spoolknit or needle felt but if I need to have some quiet, hand quilting or weaving is better for that.

It is OK to like to do different things.  And it is also OK if you like doing just one type of needlework or art.   As another quote on my journal cover says, “Do What You Love”.

 

©2017  Cheryl Fillion

 

What I Learned

Today’s blog might be a little off topic from my usual crafty, artsy blog but I wanted to share this.  This has been a difficult month both physically and emotionally for me. I was recently diagnosed with diabetes and along with that I had difficulties with a new doctor (who is no longer my doctor).. But here is what I have learned through it all:

1- Stick up for yourself because no one else will.

2- Don’t let anyone judge you because they do not know what you have been through in your life.

3- You have more friends than you realize.

4- When someone asks for your opinion, be honest even if it seems mean because the other person involved may have a lesson to learn; even if that other person is a doctor.

5- If you don’t get the answer you want, keep asking.

6- Be careful what you say because you may have to act on it (I always said I would give up my beloved coca-cola if I had to for my health and I had to.  No I haven’t tried the zero coke yet.  I might at some point).

7- Learn everything you can about what you need even if some the reading is conflicting information.

8- Don’t be afraid to tell others what you are going through.  You never know who will have helpful information or wonderful hugs.

9- God has a plan for you but sometimes it takes a while for the plan to start. (and sometimes you are the plan for others – see the above item 4).

10- Sometimes what seems like the worst thing to happen can often be the best thing to have happen.

And from me to you:  Stay Healthy, Everyone.

 

©2017 Cheryl Fillion