Monday, February 28, 2011

Sweater turned cardigan

Back in November & December Kathleen from Grosgrain did a whole bunch of sweater refashions. A couple included taking sweaters and making them into cardigans. I loved the idea and knew that that was something I could do. So I waited for sweaters to go on sale at Target and scored a couple at $5 a piece. They were both just plain pull over sweaters, very much like this one.

photo source
Just like Kathleen did, I cut right up the front of each sweater and covered the edges with ribbon (because I didn't feel like making bias tape). On this green one I added a tie to the middle and some bows with button centers.
I love the bows!
On this blue one I pleated ribbon and sewed it right along both sides of the front.
I have yet to wear the blue one out, but I get compliments on the green one every time I wear it.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Gingerbread apron & matching candy jar

This is LONG overdue...here are pictures of the apron and matching candy/cookie jar that I made for my brother and sister-in-law for Christmas. I took some of the left over fabric from the apron and Mod Podged them onto the jar. I thought it was cute that they matched. The apron is similar to the ones I made for my sister and her daughters last summer (post here). Maybe one of these days I'll make a tutorial for how I make the apron out of an old pair of jeans.


Friday, February 25, 2011

Friday Fun Feature - Crochet Headband

How cute is this crochet headband from You Seriously Made That!?


I love me some headbands, even though I don't wear them very often, so I decided to make my own. There was only one problem...I don't crochet. Not even a little (I'm one of those people who doesn't really know the difference between crocheting and knitting). In some of the close up pictures of Cami's headband I noticed that the strands of yarn almost look like braids. I can totally braid! I got out some narrow ribbon and braided away.
Now, Cami lists her measurements in crochet terms, so I did a quick little google search to find out how long 300 chains is (about 5 feet). So I measured three strands of ribbon about 5'6" and three strands about 3 feet long. If I were to do it again I would make my strands a little bit longer, you'll lose quite a bit of length when braiding. Once I had my two braids, which took just over half an hour, I followed Cami's instructions for assembly and I think it looks remarkably similar. I think the biggest difference is that mine is narrower, which I actually like.
So now whether or not you crochet you can make a super cute, easy and fast headband!

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Mod Podge Rooster Art

In case any of you missed my post over at Creativity Is..., here it is!

My inspiration came from this project. I contemplated making something very similar for my older brother and his wife for Christmas and asked my sisters what they thought. We decided that it wasn't a good fit for my brother, but Lori said that she liked the idea. I knew that if I was going to make some art for Lori that it needed to be a rooster. This is what I came up with.

I found an image I liked online, then had my hubby take the image and make an outline of each section as a vector image so that I could cut it out with my Silhouette. I can't really give a better description than that because I don't really know what/how he did it (I just sent him the image and asked him to make it work with my machine).
If you don't have a Silhouette (and hubby who is good with computer stuff) here is what you can do:
Print out your image.
Cut out each section. It will be kind of like a puzzle at this point.
Trace each section onto your paper of choice. I prefer to trace onto the backside of my scrapbook paper so that I don't have to worry about any lines showing on the finished product.
Cut out each traced section.
Mod Podge each "puzzle" piece onto a sheet of card stock. Add any wording you want at the bottom. Once it is dry give the whole thing a coat of Mod Podge, then frame it (after it dries).

I was pleased with the results and I think Lori was too!

Monday, February 21, 2011

Guest Posting

Hey everybody, I'm guest posting over at Creativity Is... today.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Blog Makeover

As you may or may not have noticed, my blog is getting a makeover! It's nothing professional like many other blogs out there, but I think it looks more put together. I also have buttons now. Yay! Feel free to grab yourself one ;)



And if you've been featured on here before there is also a "featured on" button under the tab at the top. I still need to go through and organize my labels on my posts, but hopefully I'll get that done in the next few days. I hope you enjoy the new look...I do!

Friday, February 18, 2011

Friday Fun Feature - Skirts I Want to Make Someday

I have this really bad habit of bookmarking websites or sending myself URL's in emails of projects I want to make someday but not saving the pictures anywhere. Which is all fine until the link no longer works (which I've had happen several times). So this is more for my sake than yours, but here are some pictures of skirts and dresses I would like to try and recreate someday!
The Chantilly Grace Skirt
Source: ModCloth
Wish Granted Skirt
Source: ModCloth

Source: Patternreview.com
Swiss Alps Skirt
Source: ModCloth
The Casserole Queens Dress
Source: ModCloth
About the Author Dress in Grey
Source: ModCloth

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Tonight - menu boards

I'm hosting a craft night for the ladies at my church tonight. We will be making these dry erase menu boards.
I'm excited and nervous (because people tend to not show up when I host things like this...I try to not take it personally and attribute it to the fact that I'm a terrible salesman). Wish me luck!

Monday, February 14, 2011

Farm animals on a stick

My cousin turns 1 on Saturday. I wasn't sure what to get for him but then I remembered this from Make It & Love It and decided to do something similar. I found a cute lift-the-flap book about farm animals in the dollar spot at Target. Instead of making the animals stuffed, I decided to put them on popsicle sticks (because apparently kids LOVE things on sticks!). Here is the line up...
Mr. Sheep
 Mr. Rooster
 Miss Pig
 Mrs. Duck
 Here they all are partying together.
 The sheep is my favorite. Here he is next to the sheep from the book.
Want to know how I got him to look so similar the the drawing? I traced the animals out of the book onto tissue paper and used it as a template for cutting out my felt! If I had tried to free-hand the animals they would have looked like blobs...or aliens...or some sort of giant mess.
Let me know if you are interested in a more in depth tutorial because I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to make more (even though Madie knows these are for baby Jack, I don't think she realizes that that means she no longer gets to play with them come Saturday).

Sumo Sweet Stuff
Photobucket
Keeping It Simple
Show and Tell Green
CreativeShareWednesdays

Friday, February 11, 2011

Friday Fun Feature - Valentine's Crossword Puzzle

How cute is this crossword puzzle valentine?! I want to make one for my hubby (but I am the one who is more into crossword puzzles and we don't do Valentine's day). I found it here at I'm a Mom not a Professional.
041

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Princess Silhouette Shirt

Here is another shirt I did for my niece for her upcoming birthday.

I originally saw this idea on the Honey Scrap blog. I had my hubby create an outline of Cinderella for me and opened it in my Silhouette. Then I cut the fabric...with my Silhouette! And I didn't even buy that ridiculously expensive fabric interfacing that Silhouette sells. I just used some plain ol' fusible web! I learned some things though when cutting the fabric. The settings I used were speed of 3 and thickness of 33 with the pink tip, put the fabric against the cutting mat so that the paper backing of the fusible web is facing up, and to double cut! I didn't double cut on one of the pieces and ended up having to cut it out with scissors (it cut through the paper and adhesive but not the fabric).
The black is a knit so no worries about fraying and the blue headband piece is satin. I was going to do a tight zig-zag stitch but totally forgot until after I had started, so I just treated the edges with some Fray Check. The jewel is totally hot glued on. I've yet to have anything that I hot glued onto clothing come out in the wash. E-6000 holds up great in the wash, but it also makes the finish on the back of the gems crackle. Weird.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Monogrammed Football Onesie

I made this onesie months ago for a friend of mine who was on bed rest. Isn't it so stinkin' cute!?! I make so many girly things that it was a nice change to make something for a boy. I cut the "T" shape out of fabric and the football out of felt and appliquéd them both onto the onesie. This was before my Silhouette owning days so I just freehanded the shapes/letter.




Photobucket



Monday, February 7, 2011

Purple and teal flower shirt

Purple and teal are my niece's school colors. She is almost 7 and is a skinny little thing, so none of the shirts that her school sells actually fit her, they are all baggy. My sister picked up a purple shirt for super cheap at Walmart and asked me to cute it up with some teal. Here is what I came up with.
And not that you really need it, but how about a close up?

I used my Silhouette (which I totally LOVE!) to create a flower shape and then had it cut some freezer paper to use as a stencil. I can't wait to see it on her! If you don't have a Silhouette (or other craft cutter) you can just send your freezer paper through the printer and then cut out your desired shape with scissors or a craft knife.

Linking to:
Creativity Is...

Friday, February 4, 2011

Friday Fun Feature

I thought I would start featuring other people's creations once a week. Today seems like as good a day as any to start (well actually better because 1. I don't have pics taken of any of the projects I've finished and 2. I really like alliterations). I'm always open to new things, so if you would like me to feature something you've made send me an email!

For my first Friday Fun Feature I give you this awesome binder wall organizer from Creativity Is.... Lori (hi sis!) uses it to keep her weekly grocery ads and coupons and such organized (and off her floor!). Head on over, take a look, and give her some love. Also, make sure you stop by there tomorrow for her first ever link party!

It is very much like the book organizer I showed you in this post, but using a three ring binder. I thought using a binder was such a great idea that I actually made one the other day, but instead of covering mine with cute paper, I slipped a calendar page into the front pocket so it doubles as a memo board (dry erase markers come off the plastic beautifully).
Happy Friday! Have a great weekend and I'll be back on Monday with something new to share. :)

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Coffee filter carnations

I was a little hesitant to post this, thinking that maybe these didn't really look like carnations. But then I was at the dollar store this weekend and saw some fake carnations that looked exactly like mine (only white and green), plus a few of you said that you would like a tute...so here goes!
How to make coffee filter carnations.

I don't have pics for each and every step, but I think I have enough to make it pretty clear.

To start, you are going to make an "O" shape with your fingers and thumb.

Then you are going to lay the coffee filter over the top of your "O" shaped hand and press down in the center. This will push the filter down in between your fingers and thumb.

Keep pushing until you have about 2" sticking up out of your hand. Then twist the part that is against your palm until you get something similar to this. Don't worry about it being perfectly circular, once you have a bunch of these together you won't even notice the shape of any one particular flower.
Now it's time to paint! I mixed a little bit of acrylic paint with water. You want it fairly runny so that the filter will absorb the paint, but not quite as thin as water color paint. Play around with it until you get it the way you want it. If I had to guess, I probably used about 2 parts paint to 1 part water. Dab your paint brush along the edges of the flowers, the paint will soak in a little bit. You don't want it super runny, just enough to soak in about 1/4" to 1/2" down from the edge.
Once these dry (which doesn't take very long) adhere them to your ball of choice. You could use a styrofoam ball, you would probably have to cut off most of the "tail" of the flower and then just hot glue them on. I used a ball that looked like this.
I found this at Dollar Tree. It was in the toys section. I think they were calling it a baseball practice ball. I would call it a wiffle ball, though. I thought it was perfect! I stuck the "tails" of the flowers into the holes (one per hole). If you are concerned about the flowers popping out, you could run a line of hot glue around the holes before putting the flowers in. Most of the flowers seemed secure enough to me to not even need gluing. Since I planning on putting my carnation balls into pots, I only covered half of each ball, which took about a dozen flowers.
Here it is all nice and finished.
If there is any part of this that is unclear please let me know! I'm still a bit of a novice at writing tutorials. If you make this, I would LOVE to see it! Either put a link in the comments on this post or send me a pic in an email (at the top of the blog click on Contact Me).

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

January Recap

Here is a recap of the things I created posted in January. I created a lot more than this...I just haven't posted about any of the other projects yet. Hopefully I'll do better at posting in February.

Click the picture to go to the original post.