Free Cactus Themed Crochet Patterns

 So I am absolutely terrible about keeping plants alive, exact opposite of my mother who has a blooming garden. I have bought myself a few cactuses over the years thinking they would be more resilient to my neglect and yet I somehow over watered them and still managed to kill them! 

But alas the solution; adorable crocheted cactuses or I guess the plural is cacti. Here are more than 25 free cactus and amigurumi cactus patterns. 

Cactus Garden from Patterns by H

Crochet Cactus in a Cup, free pattern from Paper and Landscapes

Free Cactus Pattern from Stitch-Em

Free Prickly Pear Amigurumi Cactus Translated Pattern from Craft Patisserie

 

Round Barrel Cactus pattern from Zoe Creates

Camillia Cactus Free Crochet Pattern from Spin a Yarn Crochet

Blooming Cacti from Mary J Handmade - translated

Free Cuddly Cactus Crochet pattern from Winding Road Crochet

Crochet Cactus pattern from Yarn Plaza 

Amigurumi Bunny Cactus from Mis PequiCosas - translated 

Prickly Pear Cactus pattern from Zoe Creates

Blooming Cacti Free crochet pattern from Moroshky 

Free Neon Cactus pattern from Maria Larga

Free Cactus Pattern from the Craftzilla

Crochet cactus patterns from This Lovely Life

Free crochet cactus tutorial from Counting Crafty Sheep

Crochet cactus pattern from Joann

Kawaii Succulent Cuddler from 3am Grace

Crochet Cactus Coasters - free pattern from Sewrella 

Crochet Cactus Kitchen Scrubby pattern from Whistle & Joy

How to crochet a cactus pillow from a Crafty Concept

Plush Saguaro Cactus Key chain from Zoe Creates

Crochet Cactus pin cushion from Whistle and Ivy

Chunky Crochet Cactus Pillow pattern from Whistle & Joy

Crochet cactus pen and pencil cozy pattern from Minas Crafts

Paid Pattern - Crochet pattern-cactus in the facepot from bigbebez

Paid Pattern - Plant Pattern bundle from Cloud9Knots

Paid product - Cactus hat from 8 bit Nerdy

Free Printable Daily Schedules

So I was looking into creating some daily planners to help myself (and others) organize my day. I find it easy to get off task when you are working from home so I love to do lists, my Happy Planners and schedules. And well if I am going to make it, it has too look pretty or else what's the point?

I created two different versions. I have to say I was a little proud of myself for figuring out how to make the text boxes ombre. Don't you feel accomplished when you learn a new technique? Yup I gave myself a pat on the back as they looked a lot better than the boring first plain white version.  

Download Pink Ombre and Gold Hearts Daily Schedule Here

Download Blue Ombre and Gold and Black Dots Daily Schedule Here

And don't forget to follow me on Pinterest as I am always adding more free printables!

Free Unicorn Card Template and Cupcake Toppers

 I have been working on creating matching party supplies lately so I can offer free printables plus optional products like napkins, paper plates, balloons, wrapping paper, etc so you can get a cohesive themed party without breaking the bank!

Here is a blank unicorn invitation, I created you can download the free template edit it with an online photo editing software. 

Here is a tutorial on how to edit free templates with PicMonkey, which is what I use to create my free (and paid) printables. 

I also created two different versions which you can print out and simply fill in the information by hand. They will work better on a thicker stock paper - like cardstock. Both options are saved two on a page. 

Lined Version

Unlined Version

Here is one I created you can use as an example or you can edit this version on the Zazzle store

And here are matching circle labels I created which you can use as decorations, cupcake labels, stickers for party cups, or however you'd like. 

And you can find the matching Unicorn party supplies I designed here. 

A Journey of Making Money Online

Lately I feel like I have just been randomly throwing darts at a dartboard and nothing sticks! You ever feel like this? Well perhaps you need a bit of reference as that's a pretty vague statement. 

Back in June I was working from home, as I had been seen late March when co-vid started. I show up to my weekly scheduled Teams meeting (it's similar to Zoom but Microsoft branded) and BOOM! Just like that I am fired, no warning, no inclination, nothing just totally and completely caught off guard. My whole office of six people are all canned. Sinora. Bye - Bye! Pack up your things and go! But not literally as you are already working from home anyways..

Needless to say spiraled a bit, and went back to bed at 10:12 in the morning with cuddling my baby Yoda stuffie and bottle of vodka. Yeah I don't promote drowning your problems with liquor but hell I gave myself the day to cry, watch netflix and just ask what the F! am I going to do with my life now? 

I was just starting to feel comfortable at 36. Finally got a good job in my northern Ontario home town which is not an easy feat! as they seem to be few and far between even more so for those of us who can't handle stressful physical jobs, yeah I'l admit I love my cushy office jobs with a stable 71 degrees daily! How my boyfriend works asphalt in the dead of summer is beyond me, but I digress. 

I finally found a job - with benefits! with pension! Yeah how often does THAT happen now a days? So now here I am jobless with 5 kids, yeah 5 in our blended family. (Insert Swear here < about the job not the kids, where's your head at?) I'm not going to say I didn't literally swear but I try to keep this blog fairly on the G rated side. 

    So then I frantically start looking for jobs, trying to get in touch with the contacts I had before they forget how great I was at my job! When my friends told me to just - Chill. Breath. Something I obviously struggle with. I still had 4 weeks of pay with my severance, and I qualified for Employment Insurance so I wouldn't be left high and drive. Apologies I have no idea how that works in other countries but in Canada, you get a percentage of your salary unless you were fired for reasons out of your control. Like this mass pandemic called CO-VID that hit us nearly a year ago now! God, has it really been that long now?

    In addition I was making $500 a month blogging. By no means am I living the rich life but it definitely helps. Also for any trolls, yes I did claim it. I have terrible luck and have been audited like 4 times since college, think my name got picked in the world's worst lottery!

Okay so now I am thinking $500 a month what if I could make 5 times that amount? Not completely impossible? Then I could make enough to live on. I have been blogging for years as a hobby which I actually like so what if I made that my job? I actually have time to focus on now. 

    So I am thinking what if I expand my sources of income? I make the bulk of my money from Google AdSence and maybe 8% from affiliates sites. Here is my current September earnings from Amazon; 

Yup, you read that graph right, I made negative 67 cents this month. NEGATIVE! How does that even happen? Okay rhetroical question someone obviously returned something from the previous month but still. STILL. Sorry I'll calm down...

I usually create designs for free printables what if I offered those on physical products?  So I stumbled upon Zazzle! Awesome now I can focus completely on just the designs and not the fulfillment of orders. 

Fast forward to two months later and 810 products designed, I have two sales - two, and to be honest one is from my last attempt at Zazzle, and my only recent one to date for a whopping $2.61 is still pending. If one of my blog readers bought this a huge thank you but still Dang! 

Feeling a bit deflated, okay more than a bit I begin looking at other options. Maybe Etsy? I heard you can list 40 products for free before you have to start paying to upload them. Okay I like Etsy but don't have a desire to physically edit each invitation, or ship physical items. 

Then found a post for Amazon Merch, so applied to that as well because at this current point I'm thinking what the hell? So now I am waiting to see if I get approved although hear you can only upload a limited designs at a time until you get more sales? I don't know. (I'll update you about that later)

Maybe I can write an e-book. Although I think I have adult ADHD, and no I'm not trying to make light of something I have a difficult time focusing, I don't usually write a lot about myself personally but when I do you can see my mind jumps from thought to thought although they often seem unrelated my mind has made 6 connections in between. So the thought of writing an e-book is a little daunting. Perhaps that's why I like blog posts... there I did it again. 

And then there is what subject to write about? How you can be somewhat successful at blogging? How to make enough money to pay your inflated monthly cell phone bill while working so many hours that if you worked it out you'd be making less than minimum wage? Cleaning and Organizing? Not unless it's a how not to book - and really I can't seeing anyone paying $9.99 for that information. 

Maybe Pinterest? It's something I am mildy good at - 3 million views isn't too terrible. Yeah it's in the works with all the other great ideas I had, and never finished following through with. Like my 183 draft blog posts - yeah that's the actual number and not inflated. Face Palm. 

I once thought about adding one of those donation buttons to my page - you know the one where it says buy the author or designer a coffee? Maybe since I offer everything for free, people would donate? No that's an actual question not rhetorical. But then, it seemed like too many steps to figure out how to actually set it up I never even went through with it. 

Well maybe I will eventually see one of these ideas come to fruition until then throwing darts at a dart board blind folded, and if we are going to be honest with each other I can't hit it with both eyes open. Metaphorically and literally people stopped letting my play as I messed up their drywall. 

Pink Baby Milestones

So today I am sharing an amazingly thoughtful and inexpensive baby gift you can DIY for your expecting friends or you may just want to make it for yourself to capture all your precious babies first year milestones, as believe me, it goes by so dang quick! and its hard to sort out all the baby pics for you baby book. 

So I created newborn, the first four weeks and the first 12 months large circle labels. These can be printed on sticker paper or iron on transfers. I created two option one with the visible circle in case you're cutting by hand and another version that is blank if you are using pre-cut stickers. 

I tried to use a pre-existing sticker size of  3 1/3" Round Large Circle Labels - 6 Labels Per Sheet - for Inkjet & Laser Printers as my template, so you can buy the sticker paper for approximately $10.00 on Amazon or you can probably find it at your local office supplies store.  Or you can purchase heat transfer fabric paper and iron on the designs on onsies (body suits) or bibs. 

pink milestones pg 1

pink milestones - blank pg 1

pink milestones pg 2

pink milestones - blank pg 2

pink milestones pg 3

pink milestones - blank pg 3

You can get multi packs of white or light colored onsies on Amazon or in your local shops. 

Or you can add the milestone stickers/ iron ons to white bibs as well. 

I also created them in my Zazzle shop, you can see the Hello I'm new Here onsie

How to Edit free printables with Pic Monkey

There are tons of free invitation and printable templates online. I offer several on my site alone. You can find all my free Birthday Printables Here. So today I am going show you how to edit those free templates using PicMonkey - the site I personally use to create all my free printables and earn money blogging. 

You can choose from there wide variety of default templates PiCMonkey offers including Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, invitations and more or find one you like online.

I am going to use one of my own designs for this tutorial. A watermelon invitation.  

So download the invitation to your computer. Then go to File > Create New (in the top right corner)

> Computer > and choose where you saved it to your computer. (mine is usually under downloads) Then upload your template. Then you can add text to your template. 

PicMonkey has tons of default fonts but another nice feature is you can download your own fonts if your looking for something specific. I personally use daFont.com or FontSpace.com to find fonts. You download them to your computer and then you can easily upload them to PicMonkey. 

Text > Add Text > Upload your own fonts

Then choose the fonts you want to add from your computer. For the invitation below I used their defaults of Comfortaa bolded and Comfortta Light. 

Then add your text, resize and align. Then you can choose you color. Another feature I love is there is a color matching option. 

Click on the color, then choose the small eye drop symbol and then drag it to anywhere on your page to match the color. I color matched the text to the watermelon. You can also change the letter spacing and line height. 

A Quick Note: PicMonkey tried to assist you when aligning so that everything lines up straight however I sometimes find this unhelpful so to turn this feature on or off go to the settings or gear icon. in the bottom left and toggle the align and snap option.

Once you are finished adding the text and you are happy with your layout you can rename the file 

(if you want) click on file to the right of the monkey image and rename. Then you can Download it to your computer, or save it to the Hub if you want to use it as a template or continue editing. 

PicMonkey is now a paid subscription but costs less than $8.00 a month, or free if you don't mind their watermark. But you can try it for free for 7 days before you make your decision.