My very first finish for the Cozy Makers Hug Book Challenge is officially complete! It feels so good to have something wrapped up and ready to share—slow stitches, soft textures, and a whole lot of “hug” energy in one little project. If you’re participating (or curious!), I’ve posted all the challenge details, guidelines, and process videos for this book over in the Classroom so you can jump in at your own pace. Can’t wait to see your cozy hug books.

This was a shoulder bag I made some time ago using an Autumn color theme and upcycled curtains.

These are some past projects: Shoulder Bag, Gift tags, Eyeglass case and coaster. Enjoy and let this tickle your imagination.

If this isn't allowed let me know and I'll delete it. Another way I used some of my tiny scraps. Crunched up brown packing paper from Amazon shipping into a rough bird shape. Wrapped shape in masking tape to hold it together, glued on small fabric scraps. Cut out cardboard feather shapes, glued on fabric scrapes, glued them to bird body when dry. Made wire feet poked them into bird body after dipping them in glue. Ta Da a scrappy bird.

What to do? What to do? Have you ever needed a special gift or giveaway and didn't have a clue what to make? Sometime back I had that situation come up. I was having a group over for a junk journaling get together. And I wanted to have a little something for each of my guests to take home with them to remember our time together. So I created these project books. They are 6" x 9" with a 1.5" spine. Nothing fancy about the book--it just holds the supplies. I added several papers, ephemeral, laces, and bags of other trims and bits and bobs. It wasn't an expensive or elaborate gift, but you would have thought so by the reaction of the receivers. They loved them. This idea can be adapted for slow stitching, art journaling, embroidery, sewing, etc.