We Luv 2 Craft

Bunched Up Skirt!!

2011-09-26T10:00:00.000-06:00

I am a big fan of the bunch look! I think it looks nice on me....which is why I chose the wedding dress I did!!

Well one day while I was looking through some patterns I found this one and knew I had to make it!! It even said easy-to-sew on it....and let me tell you....it WAS really easy to sew!!

The nice thing about this skirt is I can untie the insides and make it lay flat! Which means I get two skirts out of one!

Love it!!

Pleated Necklace

2011-09-23T10:00:00.000-06:00

I found this pleated necklace over at TaterTots and Jello from a guest poster found HERE. I loved it and just had to make one for myself!!

Items you need:

Ribbon (or material)

Beads

Needle and Thread

Lighter

1. Take your ribbon and pleat it twice and then thread a bead on (hint: I didn't cut my ribbon until I was done threading on all my beads, because I didn't know how much ribbon it was going to take and I didn't want to run out). Keep threading the beads on until you are at your desired length, then cut the ribbon from the spool.

2. To finish it up I did it a little fancier (you'll probably don't need to do it like this, but I was just excited that I thought of it!!) Fold the end of your ribbon hot dog ways, then snip a little from the middle.

Take a lighter and burn it just ever so slightly so it doesn't fray.

3. Take another kind of thread (skinner) and thread into the whole you just cut.

4. Sandwich the middle ribbon in between the thicker ribbons and stitch to hold in place. This way you don't have to cover up a knot and you don't have to have a knot in the back either!

So simple and I love it so much!! I have a white ruffled shirt that I'm going to wear with a bright yellow cardigan and I think this necklace will look perfect!! So excited!!

New Necklace Holder

2011-09-21T10:00:00.000-06:00

I've been making a lot of necklaces lately...and I keep finding more that I want to make (darn that Pinterest!). So the holder I have now is running out of room. So I decided to make another one.

I was at Savers and found this and thought it would work perfect.

I took off the bottom hearts, took out the wire on the top, and sanded it down.

Then I spray painted it brown (to match my Earring Holder found HERE)

I bought these bathroom hooks (I don't exactly know what they are called) from Home Depot. (I definitely spent a little more than I should have...so if you want to make one of these on a budget, I'm sure you could find the hooks somewhere else for less money). I screwed them in and then just glammed it up!

I used some scrap fabric I had and made some rosettes and hot glued them on. Then I reattached the wire from the top and added a little strip of fabric and BAM....you've got yourself a new necklace holder with 6 hooks!!

Love it!!

Fixing a Hoodie

2011-09-19T10:00:00.000-06:00

I have had this hoodie for over 10 years now and I absolutely love it! There is only one problem with it.....it's white. While in storage it some how got this wonderful stain on it.

I was so sad about it. I let it soak for a day in Oxy clean and washed it at least 3 times. But the stain just wanted to stay where it was. So I decided that since I couldn't get it out...I would just cover it.

And I've always wanted a pocket in the front anyways...so this worked perfect.

I bought 1/4 yard of white fleece (which is a little off from my hoodie, but I figure with wearing it and washing it...it will soon look the same)!

I have this other hoodie that I used to copy the dimensions of the pocket.

I cut out the fleece to the shape and size that I wanted.

Then I sewed in around all the edges.

Then I pinned and sewed it onto the hoodie it self.

I love how it turned out (it just needs to be washed to get rid of that line right down the middle from the fabric being on the bolt)!

Now I get to wear my favorite hoodie without looking super dirty! Yay!!

Fixing a Dress

2011-09-16T10:00:00.000-06:00

So I bought this dress at Rue 21 and I just absolutely love it!! The only problem with it is...when I wore it the first time I was so busy pulling it up that I didn't enjoy looking cute in it. So I decided to fix it.

It took me a while to figure out exactly what I wanted to do...but then the wheels finally started turning and I decided to make a braided strap for it. I had bought this knit t-shirt from savers a long time ago for a different project that was a flop...so I held onto it just in case I might need it for something else...which I did!!

I cut the shirt into 3 2" strips and braided them as tightly as I could (this way they are already stretched and when I wear the dress they won't stretch and fall).

Then I tried the dress on and pinned the straps on exactly where I wanted them. At first I was going to do two straps with them criss-crossing int he back, but then decided to do a halter instead. After I pinned them I simply sewed them on!

Since the back was falling down too, I decided it would look cute to add just one braid in the very middle of my back!

Front!

Back!!

It worked perfectly....and I didn't have to worry for a second about pulling it up....I just got to feel cute in it!

Braided Necklace

2011-09-14T10:00:00.000-06:00

I found this braided necklace tutorial over at UCreate and loved it. I'm not going to do the tutorial part but you can find it HERE.

Items you need:

Thin ribbon

Chain (I got mine from JoAnn's in the Jewelry making section)

then a flower of your choice

It was so simple to cut the ribbon and chain to the length I wanted and then braid them together! I love how it turned out too!

I really didn't want to buy a flower, and I didn't have any good material to make one....but I did have some scrap ribbon from our bracelets that we made HERE and I loved it...so I decided to come up with a little something with these!

And this is what I came up with! A Scrap flower!! I just put them all together in a way that I liked and then hot glued them to the end of the necklace (to cover it up). I really like how it turned out. Definitely doesn't look store bought, but it's totally my style!!

And there you have it!!

Burlap Wreath

2011-09-12T16:11:00.001-06:00

I found this idea on Pinterest (which by the way I LOVE!! I know every says it....but there is a reason!!) It was on Craftaholics Anonymous and her tutorial is found HERE.

What you need:

Wire hanger

1.25 (I would actually get about 1.5 yards) of burlap

1/8 yard of different colored burlap (or you could also you any scrap material you have)

Scissors

Hot Glue Gun

Wire cutters

1. Undo your hanger and mold it into a circle.

2. Cut 3" strips of your burlap. She had a simple way to cut the burlap on her blog...I actually just used a rotary cutter and mat to cut mine. It made it looked more frayed...which I liked, but if you'd prefer the other than I'd look at how she did it!

3. Then start poking one end of your now circle hanger through the burlap and start folding it like an accordion, back and forth until you've used all your fabric and the hanger is full.

4. Since I didn't use as much burlap I had some extra hanger...and I wanted the burlap to be pretty tight together...so I used my wire cutters to snip some of the hanger away.

5. Take your wire cutters (or pliers, mine was both) and fold the edges of the hanger together so they don't come apart. It doesn't look very pretty, but I covered this section up with other things!

6. Take your different colored burlap, or scraps and make rosettes.

7. Use your hot glue gun and glue the rosettes where you want them, and I added a little wooden "B" to spice things up :) It took be a little to finagle the material to it laid the way I wanted to....but with a little hot glue...it stayed where I wanted it to!

8. Take either a scrap of material, some ribbon, or I used a little extra burlap that I had and simply tied it around the top to hang it!

And you're done!! Perfect for all year round!

Hair Bow Extravaganza

2011-08-13T10:44:00.015-06:00

I've been going a little crazy making hair bows lately. I know my baby girl isn't here yet, but I'm just preparing. Plus, they are so much fun to make! I need to add more color variety to the bows, but for now these will match all her little newborn outfits.

Here is a sampling of the different hair bows I've been working on (all of the bows are relatively small from 1" to 2.25")...

TUTORIALS:

**Crushed fabric flower tutorial from make-it-and-love-it here.

**Felt flower tutorial from make-it-and-love-it here.

**Satin flower tutorial from my sisters-in-law here.

**Fold over elastic headband tutorial here. (I purchased the fold over elastic from that same store here.)

**Sweet Little Bow tutorial found here.

I attached clips (snap clips and/or alligator clips) to the backs of most of the hair bows (with the exception of the small felt flowers and sweet little bows, I'll just attach with some elmer's glue to my baby's head). This way I can either clip the bows straight into her hair or onto a headband.

baby legs (again)

2011-06-08T04:00:00.001-06:00

I'm in LOVE with making baby legs! I made some and posted them (with a link to a tutorial) another time on the blog over a year ago. With baby (no name yet) coming soon, I thought I would make some for her - I found some CUTE knee high socks for little kids at gymboree (very left in the picture) that will fit the baby's legs sooner than the adult knee highs I used for the rest. Abby - my 4 (almost 5) year old wanted to try these on and LOVES them. She calls them her leg warmers and wants to wear them all over the place. She has been asking to wear skirts just so she can wear the "leg warmers". She said she would share once the babies legs get bigger
My friend Brandy sent the striped socks and the pink polka dot socks so I could make these last two pairs. It's hard to find CUTE knee highs on island.

Baby bjorn cover

2011-06-06T04:00:00.001-06:00

I was in love with this tutorial that I saw a LONG time ago and finally gave it a go. These aren't the best pictures, but I can't fit the baby bjorn carrier over my stomach right now, so will have to get pictures AFTER I have the baby!

I bought the material for the covers when I was in Oregon. Figured if I have a puker, these are easy to take on/off and wash! This will hook to the piece that goes around my shoulders - I just don't have it out yet.
It was VERY easy to sew up. Not nearly as easy to put the carrier into the cover, but it fits!

Applique T-shirt

2011-05-23T18:00:00.000-06:00

In anticipation for my son's upcoming birthday, I made him his own personalized applique t-shirt.

Supplies:
Pattern for whatever you want to applique (I made mine out of cardstock)
Fabric
Felt
Heat-and-bond
Iron
Sewing machine

1) Create pattern out of cardstock for whatever you want to applique

2) Decide what material you want to use for your applique pieces - I chose fabric for the basketball and stripes, and felt for the number 2

3) Iron heat-and-bond to material pieces (don't pre-cut the pieces yet)

4) Trace pattern pieces on back of heat-and-bond paper

5) Cut out the traced pieces

6) Iron first piece onto t-shirt

7) Sew a zig-zag stitch around the edges of the ironed fabric piece to secure in place

8) Repeat steps 6 and 7 until all the pieces are ironed and sewn onto the t-shirt. (I found it easier to iron and then sew each piece separately rather than iron everything and try to stitch around it all)

Nursing Cover

2011-05-22T21:25:00.006-06:00

Nursing covers are all over the blogging world, so I decided to try making one. I used this tutorial here from Sew Much Ado. I used home decor fabric, which is heavy enough to require just one layer.

It was really fast and easy - took me about 2 hours to complete. It has 16" of boning on the top, which should make the cover breathable for baby and easy for Mom. I am excited to try it out!

FHE Board

2011-05-04T20:54:00.003-06:00

I finally got around to completing my FHE Board...and now I'm finally getting around to posting it!

I found a magnetic board at Hobby Lobby while visiting my mom in Kansas. It originally had a saying on it, but I snatched it up on clearance.

To decorate, I just used scrapbook paper, modge podge, and some wooden ovals and circles. The names I modge podged scrapbook paper and stickers onto a wooden circle, then put a magnet on the back.

For the finishing touches I glued magnets on the back of the board so it could hang on the fridge. I like that the finished project isn't too big (12" x 8") - leaves room on my fridge for other things!

Accuquilt Go! Giveaway over at Sew Dang Cute

2011-05-02T12:23:00.000-06:00

I Love fabric...and I love giveaways that involve making it easier to cut fabric!! Sew Dang Cute Crafts is hosting a giveaway over HERE at her blog. Head on over to check it out and all the other super fun things that she does!

Swim Tote Bags!!

2011-04-27T09:00:00.002-06:00

Here is another project that we made!! I got the pattern from I Am Momma-Hear Me Roar! It was so fun to make these and I love how the turned out!!

Yay for beautiful weather and Swimming!!

Ribbon Pearl Necklace

2011-04-25T09:00:00.002-06:00

My husband's younger siblings came down to visit for a week...which was SO much fun!!

I love when I get to hang out with Shelbi and Savannah because we always try and do some kind of craft!! This time we decided to make a necklace! We had been to Old Navy and saw something similar and decided that we'd be able to make it...so we did!

Items Needed:

~Scissors

~A Lighter

~Nylon Thread (we used a pretty thick one)

~Needle and Normal sewing thread

~Ribbon

~Pearls (We did 4 different sizes so it would be progressively smaller)

~The big "O" rings for making Jewelry (sorry...I don't know what they're called)

1. The first thing you'll do is take your nylon thread (you can find this in the Jewelry making area of JoAnn's or Hobby Lobby) and tie a square knot to one of the "O" rings.

2. Then start threading the beads through. To add a little bit of texture...after each bead we tied a few knots so that it would stay in place. This was a little challenging to make it so the knot was close enough to the bead...but once you get the hang of it it's pretty easy. :)

3. Once you've done your desired amount of beads tie another "O" ring to the end.

4. Use your light to burn the ends of the nylon thread. You just want to do this a little bit because the nylon will melt pretty fast.

5. Next measure out how long you want your ribbon to be and cut it (you want to make it long enough so the necklace will easily fit over your head). Burn the edges of the ribbon to stop the fraying.

6. Loop the ribbon through the "O" ring just once then use your needle and regular thread to sew the ribbon together.

And there you have it!!! A super easy...super cute...Old Navy knock off! And aren't the girls SO cute!! LOVE it!

Hippity Hoppity Part 2

2011-04-22T10:45:00.004-06:00

I had a friend ask me for the measurements of the blocks on the Hippity Hoppity Easter decoration. I traced the bunny for her, and thought I might as well post it on here if anyone else is interested!

The blocks are just a 2x4 cut into different pieces. The sizes are:
Hippity: 5"
Hoppity: 6 5/8"
Happity Easter: 8 7/8"

Here is the tracing of the bunny. (Right click to download.) Enjoy!

Hippity Hoppity

2011-04-20T19:06:00.000-06:00

This is the second craft I made at a church activity. I love everything about this one! The bunny is made of wood, painted, and accessorized with ribbon, twine, and a wood nose. The words are on wood blocks that are painted brown, covered with scrapbook paper, and the lettering is brown vinyl. I glued the blocks together so they would have a better hold, and tied them with ribbon!

Happy Birthday

2011-04-18T19:02:00.003-06:00

I went to a craft day at my mom's church. They had so many cute ideas! This is one of the two that I made. You put a picture of the birthday person in the wire on the cupcake. I was thinking of getting some more wire to put in some of the letters to have more pictures of the person on their special day! The letters are made of wood, painted, and covered in scrapbook paper. The birthday is on a block painted black with white vinyl lettering.

Double Headband with Flower

2011-04-02T13:09:00.003-06:00

I have been really into crocheting for the past few months. I found the pattern for this headband, whipped a few up, then somehow lost the pattern! Luckily, about a month ago a friend of mine found this pattern and e-mailed it to me! It is such a cute, fun, and easy pattern. I was able to whip up a headband in about 10-15 minutes. I have made them in yellow, turquoise, red, white, and gray! Such a fun way to dress up a boring ponytail!

Here is the yellow one I made (I made a 5 petal flower instead of 6, and I made the center smaller.)
Here is the headband from Creative Me. If you would like the pattern, check it out here.

Rosette Trio Hair Accessory

2011-04-01T09:00:00.002-06:00

I made these rosettes with a friend the other day and I wanted to put them on a headband. Two problems....I didn't have a headband (and I really didn't want to go out and buy one), and I've already made a ton of headbands and I wanted something a little different. So I hot glued the rosettes together like so...

...then I used some felt on the back and hot glued one of these clips on. This way I can just put it in my hair like the picture above...or I can always put it on a headband, or a hat, or anything else that might cross my mind! Enjoy!

FHE in a Jar!

2011-03-30T09:00:00.003-06:00

A little over a year ago we had a Family Home Evening where we made these Jars! I'm pretty sure Melissa found this idea! Thanks Melissa!

We just used Mason jars and fancied them up! A hot glue gun, some scrap fabric, and ribbon is all I used. I made a rosette, and yo-yo (Make it and Love it tutorials) and hot glued them on top of the ribbon I previously glued on! For the lid I just simply hot glued some fabric onto it. So simple....so cute!!

If you go HERE to Jennysmith.net it has the idea papers you would put in the jar. It's great because it gives you the Topic, Song, and Scripture. Just something simple you can pull out if you don't have time/or forgot/etc. I love this! Enjoy!

Fun Crayons and Coloring Book

2011-03-25T09:00:00.000-06:00

I have seen these fun crayons in a lot of different places and have really been wanting to do them myself! I found this silicone baking pan at JoAnn's. I used a 40% off coupon so it was a little less expensive.

I bought 2 boxes of crayons and tore off all the paper and then broke them up and put them in the pan.

I used a cookie sheet and covered it with wax paper in case anything fell off.

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees (I swear this took forever, but it could have just been my oven). Then once your pan is full of crayons put it in the oven for 5-10 minutes. I peaked in every 5 minutes to make sure things were going well. I didn't realize that when I did it the crayons would be very liquidy. So I'm glad that I put the cookie sheet under since the silicone pan is very flexible.

After the crayons were done melting I put them in the freezer for 15 minutes and they hardened up super fast. The pan is perfect because getting the crayons out was super easy!

I also made a little coloring book.

I simply took white computer paper and cut it into 4ths. Then I took a piece of cardstock and cut it to the same size. I used my Cricut to cut the letter of the child's name I was giving this to and glued it on!

To put it all together I used my sewing machine and sewed the top! It was awesome! This way I figured they could be as Creative as they wanted to be!!

I'm so excited about how easy, cheap, and fun these turned out!

Doggy Party!!

2011-03-22T12:46:00.000-06:00

So our cute little puppy Link is having his 1st birthday today! Last Saturday we decided that we would invite our friends over for dinner and cake and ice cream!

I love making cakes! So I decided to make a bone cake.

I made a chocolate cake the night before and then put it in the freezer for the night. I was a little worried about this, but it actually ended up working perfectly for what I needed.

The next morning I used my spiffy cake tool that cuts the top off and that cuts the cake in half (sorry I don't know what it's called).

I used a mug that was a good size and shaped the rounded part of the bone! Then just eyed down the side to make the bone shape.

I then filled the middle of the cake with Cool Whip and strawberries. The strawberries were yummy, but they oozed juice out which didn't make it look as nice as I would've liked, but it still worked great!

After I put the top back on I used chocolate frosting to frost the whole cake. The sides were a little hard to do because of the cool whip, but I was able to do it pretty good! Then I used Lemon frosting to write on the top and pipe stars on the bottom edge!

I love how it turned out! And it was very tasty too! We even made homemade Peanut Butter Oreo ice cream! Can I just say....Fabulous!

Here is the invitation I made using Creative Memories. It was super cheap as well because I simply emailed it to all our friends! Perfect!!

Don't worry the puppy didn't get any of the cake...but he did get his very own doggy treats!! He loved having all our friends there and he definitely got spoiled with love!!

Pom Pom Necklace

2011-03-17T09:00:00.000-06:00

I have loved finding new jewelry ideas and trying to make them. This is one that Melissa, Kimberly, and I made over Christmas (and yes...I'm just getting around to posting it). Melissa found the idea HERE at Little Miss Momma.

I think they turned out pretty good!

Yay!!

Earring Holder

2011-03-14T09:00:00.001-06:00

I made an earring holder quite a while ago. Well...I liked it...but it didn't work as well as I would've liked. So I've been trying to figure out something that would work the way that I wanted. Well last June I was up in Logan for Summer Days and at one of the booths they had this idea. I really liked it and almost bought it....but for a teeny tiny little one it was....well....let's just say a little out of my price range. So I've been thinking for 9 months how I could make this work.

And I finally did!! My dad has the tools needed to do woodworking...so I waited till I was up for a visit and asked my dad for some help.

We used pine detail molding for the middle and 2" oak for the sides. We used a table drill to drill holes into the oak just barely big enough for the molding to slide into. Then we used a scroll saw to cut into the molding....then....we used the table drill (with a smaller drill bit) and cut along the same line (just to make it a little bigger). We glued the molding into the oak....let it dry....sanded it down.....spray painted it brown...then covered the back with fabric. Then just to make it more finished I added ribbon to the outside edges.

To hang it I simply used 5 tacks (like you'd use on a cork board) at the top and 2 on the bottom by the edges. It's pretty light so it held up perfectly!!

If I were to do this again, I would do less space in between. But I'll be using this one for a while since it holds 55 pairs of earrings! And it also holds both kinds of backed earrings....even better!

I'm so incredibly excited about this!! I love how it turned out and was definitely worth the effort....and wait!!

Easy Chic Bracelet

2011-03-02T09:00:00.007-07:00

Melissa found this great tutorial over at Blue Cricket Design HERE. It was super simple, only cost us about $20 to make 12. It would've been cheaper....but we had issues at the store...oh well.

We got these ribbon bracelet clips (which are the most brilliant things ever made....in my humble opinion!). Picked out cute ribbon (all at JoAnns) and got it cut.This is really a simple project.

1. Cut the ribbon to the size of your wrist. If you like them tighter cut it about 1/2 inch under the measurement of your wrist, if you like them loose do it the exact size.

2. Make sure you burn the edges.

3. Put the clips teeth open, then use needle nose pliers (or jewelry pliers) to clamp down the teeth on the edges of the ribbon.

The final product!!

Yay!!!

Binky Clips

2011-02-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

Items you'll need:
~Clips (either mattress clips, or suspender clips work well too, really wherever you can find them really cheap)
~Ribbon (as wide as the clip)
~Velcro
~Sewing Machine and Thread
First cut the ribbon the size you want the clip to be, then burn the edges to make sure they don't fray.

Then pull the ribbon through, fold it under and sew.

On the other end fold over a little bit and place a small piece of the prickly part of Velcro on top...then sew around all the edges. Make sure to sew the Velcro on the back side that the clip is on.

Then on the same side sew the fuzzy Velcro just a little ways down. I didn't measure or anything...I just figured that I would be able to make a loop around a Binky.

These were super easy, and I think they turned out great!

Yo-Yo Bobby Pins

2011-02-25T09:00:00.001-07:00

I can't take the credit for this totally. I saw it at some store....but figured I could figure out how to make them pretty darn simple. First you make a fabric Yo-Yo using THIS tutorial. I normally don't iron down the edges before sewing the edges because I like the more tattered look.

Then you'll Need:

~Bobby Pins
~Felt
~Hot glue gunCut thin strips of felt and put through the bobby pin on one side....so you'll be able to fold the felt in half. Put a dab of glue on top of the bobby pin and on the side then fold felt in half!

Then put another dab of glue on top of that...then add your Yo-Yo!

It's as simple as that!! And look how cute and easy they are!

Chalkboard Message!

2011-02-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

I thought this would be a fun way to leave messages to each other. I took a wooden 12X12 piece I found at JoAnns and took scraps of paper and mod podged them onto the wood. I measured a square in the middle and made sure that I didn't put paper inside that square so that I could put the chalkboard paint on. It worked out pretty good, and so far it's been pretty fun!

Heart Attack

2011-02-15T09:00:00.000-07:00

Our front door got heart attacked! Well...just by us! I cut out a ton of hearts on my Cricut, then we wrote what we loved about each other on them! I love it!

Valentine Decor

2011-02-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

I found these frames in my craft room and used my Cricut to cut out hearts and Love. Then I just put them in how I liked it and put it up in my house!

I did the same with this frame. Plus I found this cute red pot at Savers and put these flowers in it and used vinyl to put the XOXO on it.

Burlap Valentine's Banner

2011-02-13T09:00:00.000-07:00

Here is another way fun way easy Valentine's project!

Items:
1/2 yard Burlap
Hemp rope
Glitter scrapbook paper
White spray paint
Hot glue gun
white paper
scissors

1. Cut out of white paper the size and shape you want your banner to be. This will be your template.

2. Cut out burlap.

3. Spray paint each triangle with the white spray paint.

4. Cut out glitter scrapbook paper heart.

5. Hot glue each heart to burlap after the paint has dried.

6. Hot glue each triangle to a long sting of hemp rope by folding the top over the rope. Then trim the edges.

Enjoy!

Valentine Subway Art

2011-02-12T09:00:00.001-07:00

We found this super fun Subway art idea HERE at Eighteen25. She has a printout you can just send to Costco, but we decided to make our own using her idea. My friend is awesome using Photoshop, so the 3 of us threw out cute sayings and helped to design it! It was a fun project. We found the frames at Savers and spray painted them white. That's when we decided what size we were going to make the print. We ended up doing an 8X20. I think this is one of my favorite projects that we did!

Conversation Heart Pillows

2011-02-11T09:00:00.001-07:00

I saw this idea HERE and thought it was so fun! I've been loving the whole Valentine day decor this year! Sweetie Pie Bakery has a great tutorial for these. I just printed out the letters using word and then cut those out to make the template. It took a while, but I think they turned out super fun!

Conversation Hearts Blocks

2011-02-10T11:00:00.000-07:00

I found this idea HERE at Brown Paper Packages. I love that Home Depot will cut 2X4's for you! I also love that they have the wood scrap bin! Cheap and easy!!

We first sanded the wood down, and then painted them the colors we liked. On the website they painted to different colors on each block to have a fun tint to it, but we just decided to do the one color. Then we cut out the letters using our Cricut and vinyl. Once the paint dried we sanded the edges down and then placed the vinyl on. It was a super easy and fun Valentine craft!

Enjoy!

Valentine Wreath

2011-02-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

I found this one at HERE at The Idea Room with the tutorial. I thought it was so fun and cute that I had to make it! Here is the final product!

Flower Necklace

2011-02-08T19:18:00.009-07:00

My New Laminator!!

2011-01-10T14:36:00.007-07:00

For Christmas my parents gave me this laminator! I really wanted one for my recipes, but in using it today I've decided this is my long lost craft best friend!! I not only laminated all the favorite recipes that I use all the time, but I. . .

made luggage tags for an upcoming trip!

Made a "Need" refrigerator thing for all those other things I need when we go to the grocery store! (This has been on my "to do" list for a while, but haven't come up with a way to make one. This made it 1000 times easier and way less expensive!!)

Laminated my recipes!

And laminated my pictures for teaching songs in Primary!

I have already loved this, and can't wait to come up with more this laminate! I'm going laminating crazy!!

Thanks Mom and Dad!!

Table Tent / Fort

2010-12-25T23:29:00.006-07:00

For Christmas, my SIL (Melissa - who is also an author on this blog) and I made table tents for our kiddos. We spent a week in August starting our projects together, and then motivated ourselves in the next few months to finish in time for Christmas.

The table tent for my little guy is made out of cotton, with some felt and velcro attachments. It fits easily over a standard card table.

Inspiration mainly came from Sew Much Ado and Homemade by Jill; but I made things up as I went.

Welcome to Tent #19! The door easily ties up and down.

Here's the view from the top. Everything is lined. After sewing all the sides together, I sewed them all to the top.

Here's a side vinyl window. I sewed biased tape to both the outside and inside panels. The window covering ties up just like the door.

On the other side is a vinyl peep hole - the cover is on the inside (keep scrolling to see a picture).

The back of the tent has a forest made of felt, equipped with velcro animals! The animals are a huge hit with my little guy.

On the inside is a felt campfire with velcro attachments for the inside flame, wood log, and marshmallow sticks. Next to the vinyl window are a few pockets for storing all of my little guy's important camping gear.

Here's the peep hole cover from the inside. To the side of the cover is a vinyl picture frame, ready for me to slip a family photo inside!

My little guy LOVED this fort...it was a huge hit on Christmas morning! Be sure to stay tuned to see how Melissa's table tent turned out - I can't wait to see the finished project!

Dog Room Flooring

2010-12-13T09:00:00.000-07:00

For Link for Christmas we bought him a new room. He's grown since we adopted him and he was in need of some bigger digs! We decided to get him a nice big crate (he jumps high so we couldn't get him a gate). I wanted to make a nice floor covering for him so it would fill more like home!So I bought a yard of fleece and cut a piece 3'x4'. Then I simply sewed up the sides and sewed a big piece of velcro on one the 3' sides. It was a super simple and I'm happy with how it looks!

And I think Link is happy with how much room he has now!

apron for a swap

2010-10-27T07:00:00.000-06:00

I finished up this apron a couple weeks ago for a swap I did with some friends. Loved the pattern and the girl wanted bright colors, so I used this cute fabric I found in town at the quilt shop. The ruffle was fun to do. Instead of using thread to pull the ruffle, the pattern said to sew over dental floss, then pull the floss - it was great, because it didn't break like thread does!

Halloween Decor-Spider

2010-10-26T09:00:00.000-06:00

This was actually not my idea. And I didn't even make it, but my cute friend Janie said that I could post it on here because I thought it was such a cute idea! She had a broken umbrella and decided to make a spider out of it. She bought some fleece in the remnants section and used some fiber fill.

For the body she cut a big circle, cut a scissor size cut where each of the legs were, then stuffed the top with fiber fill and hot glued it all into a ball.

For the head she cut a circle and stuffed it with fiber fill and then sewed the ball shut.

Here's her super cute cat!!

Then she hot glued the head to the body. With the fleece she had to use quite a bit of glue, but after holding it for a minute or two it held pretty good.

She bought some googly eyes from Hobby Lobby and hot glued them onto the head. It was a pretty simple project, but I think it turned out awesome! I hate spiders, but for a Halloween decoration I think it's such a great idea and just goes to show that you can make anything out of anything!

Thanks Janie for letting me share this!

Candy Corn Wreath

2010-10-24T09:44:00.002-06:00

When I received the October Woman's Day Magazine in the mail, it had a candy corn wreath on the front cover and I knew immediately that I HAD to make it!! This could also be titled the Patience Wreath! It took a lot of patience, 2 bags of candy corns, and a few blisters to make this! For those of you who have not seen the magazine, this is what I did:

First, you get a styrofoam wreath. The instructions said to cover it with black Duct Tape. I did not have black on hand, but I had silver and black spray paint. So I covered it first and then sprayed it.

After the paint dries, pop in your favorite movie (or two) and glue, and glue, and glue!

When that's all dry, wrap some black ribbon around it, hang it up and enjoy!

Candy Corn Decoration

2010-10-22T09:00:00.000-06:00

Items Needed:
Styrofoam Topiary
Clay pot
Black spray paint
candy corn
hot glue gun
cute ribbon

1. Spray paint pot and topiary

2. Hot glue the candy corn to the ball parts. (I was going to do the whole thing pointy, but it took me forever. So I did the lower one with the candy corn on the side. It was quite a bit faster.)

3. Hot glue the topiary sides to the pot.

4. Fill the pot to the top with candy corn.

5. Tie some cute ribbon on however you'd like!

I don't know how well it's going to last for next year. I might try spraying it with some kind of lacquer, but I guess we'll see. If it doesn't last. . .it was a lot of work and will kind of annoy me. . .but it is cute, so I'll enjoy it for as long as I can!!

The New Headboard

2010-10-20T09:00:00.000-06:00

The old Headboard. I wish i would've taken a picture of this with the bed made, oh well.The new Headboard. The full red squares have the fabric turned down on it to add a little dimension. You just can't see it in this picture.

Baby Shower Gift

2010-10-18T09:00:00.000-06:00

My friend is having a baby boy the beginning of November and I'm super excited for her! Here is the gifts that I made for her.

I love these self-binding blankets! They are so easy and so cute!Then I did some appliques. I found a few online tutorials, but I ended up just using light weight stitch witchery. Then I put a piece of computer behind it to help feed it through. It worked like a charm and didn't bunch up the onsie at all! I'm so happy!

Then I made her a few burp cloths using THIS tutorial. I love it by the way!

I've very excited with how it all turned out!

Linen Shelf Cover

2010-10-14T09:00:00.000-06:00

In my new apartment I have no linen closet. The only place I had to put my towels, sheets, and TP was a plastic shelving unit I got from Lowe's that I put in our guest bathroom. Well it looked terrible and I wanted to cover it up. I used Make it and Love it's tissue box cover Tutorial found HERE. I just made it to the dimensions of the shelf. Then I added ribbon on the top and had two pieces for the front and added two buttons with flowers so it would stay closed and look pretty!

So far it's worked great!

Picture Board

2010-10-12T14:09:00.007-06:00

My fridge is covered with baby announcements and other family/friend pictures. I was getting a little sick of the clutter on my fridge so I decided to make a picture board. I decided to only use items I already had to make this.

Items:
Cardboard Box
batting
Piece of fabric the size of one side of the box
thin ribbon
thick ribbon
staple gun & staples
embroidery thread
needle

I cut one side of the cardboard box and then placed a same size piece of batting on the box. Then I covered it with the piece of fabric and flipped it onto it's back. I took my staple gun and staples and placed one staple in the middle of each side, and then stapled the rest of the fabric to the box.
After that I took the skinny ribbon and cut it to the different sizes I wanted and then staples them to the back as well.
I tried stapling the ribbon down where they met in the middle but the staple wouldn't hold. So I decided to sew it in. I took a bigger needle and some embroidery thread and sewed each intersection of ribbon.
Then I took thicker ribbon and cut it in two pieces, staples to the back on opposite ends of one side and then tied it in a bow so I could hang it up on the wall.

And there you have it!

2010-09-27T09:00:00.000-06:00

I decided to try and make this dress which is the Simplicity 3823 pattern. I'm really happy with how it turned out! I had to alter it slightly for it to fit my shape in the midsection. I used scrap pieces of white fabric and made the top so I could change it to how I needed. I also changed the midsection. I made the front midsection the brown and then added ties in the back. But for the most part I followed the pattern to the "T"!Just being silly!

Dog Leash

2010-09-24T09:00:00.000-06:00

I decided to make Link a couple of leashes. We want to get him one of those retractable ones, but he's just a puppy and we decided to have these kinds first to teach him how to be on a leash. But I didn't want to spend too much money on them.

I went to JoAnn's and bought some belting found in the trim by the yard section. The blue and white one worked perfect by itself so I just took one of those clippy thingys, fed the belting through and folded it under and then sewed a square and an X to keep it in place. With the handle I did the same thing but left a loop big enough to put my hand through.

With the red one I decided to sew pieces of fabric on the sides to spruce it up. I took 2" pieces and ironed them in fourths then zig zaged the strips onto the belting. Then I made the clip and handle the same way as the first.

I got the idea from Anna Maria Horner's tutorial found HERE and just changed it to what worked better for me.

Another Camera Strap

2010-09-22T09:00:00.000-06:00

When Lisa posted her camera straps she really inspired me to make one of my own!This is another great project for scrap material! I made a dress out of this material (which I'll be posting soon!) and loved it so much I decided to use the scraps for this. Also I learned how to do ruffles (which I've been terrified to do but they are actually super easy!) Lisa posted some great links for this, I used Nursery Rhymes and Sweet Times tutorial found HERE. I didn't used the fusible fleece and it worked great for me.

I used decided to put the yo-yo on here because my strap is pretty thin and I wanted to put in a lens cover pocket so the flower covers the bulging of the cover when it's in the pocket like the picture below.

Doggie Toy

2010-09-20T09:00:00.000-06:00

My husband and I just adopted a cute little Chipin (Miniature Pincer Chihuahua mix). We didn't have many toys for him, so one day while I was making something else I decided to make a little tug toy for him out of some scraps.

He is a boy, but since I just used scraps I didn't care that I used pink and purple!

The scraps are about 12" X 28". I twisted all three pieces up and tied them together, then I braided them really tight. I only used thread to tie the ends up, but I used a ton. He's only a puppy so it holds, but once he's older I'll have to come up with something more durable.

Thus far he's loved playing with it. He loves playing tug of war with Brian. It's pretty darn cute!

Head Bands

2010-09-06T09:00:00.001-06:00

Here are a few headbands I made with a friend. I got some good practice making the rosettes. And I always love making the yo-yo's! But I burnt my finger quite a few times trying to hot glue the flowers to the headbands. Oh well, I think they turned out great!

Date Night Jar

2010-09-04T09:00:00.000-06:00

I have made other date night jars, but I just seem to find more and more that I like and that are cute! So I decided to make another one. I found a jar similar to the one above at Ikea for like 4 bucks. Well for how many "ideas" I had they all just didn't fit. So I went to Hobby Lobby and found a similar jar and used a 40% off coupon and got if for $3.50. So it wasn't a total loss. I'm sure I'll use that other jar for something fun! Anyways, so all I did was use scrapbook paper, cut it down to the size of a normal paper and print off all the ideas on the white side of the paper. Then I cut it up, folded it up, and stuffed it in this jar. I glued ribbons on as well just make it pretty! I got some of the ideas for dates HERE at My Creative Stirrings. The great thing is a lot of these ideas were either really cheap or free!

Hemming Workout Capris

2010-09-02T09:00:00.000-06:00

I am only 5' 3" and it's hard to find capris that are actually capris! I normally just roll them up, but these I'm using to workout and for running. So rolling them up wouldn't work because I'd be jumping up and down and they'd come unrolled and then I'd just get bugged. So I decided to hem them.

First I measured where I wanted them to fit, then I cut off that excess portion.Then I rolled them up and inch and pinned as much as possible so the material stayed as flat as possible.

I don't work anymore so I've really been learning more and more about my machine. I've already learned so much, and I know there is tons more to learn! Anyways, I have this niftly stitch just for hemming. (I'm sure everyone does, but I just found mine!) (Oh, by the way it's the bottom stitch on the left in the picture).

Instead of sewing on the back, like I normally do, you sew along the front of it so the stitch shows. I am so happy with how it looks!

After you sew it, you flip it inside out and trim the excess material off.

And you have nicely hemmed workout capris, or any pair of pants for that matter!

Flower Ring Tutorial

2010-08-31T14:49:00.007-06:00

I love making these rings! They are super easy, and super cute! I love them. Here's a step by step picture tutorial on how to make them.

Material needed:
Silky fabric
cord elastic
felt
small beads
a lighter
a hot glue gun
fabric scissors
needle and thread

The first thing you need to do is make a template for your circles and decide how many you want to do. I've made these with 3 circles and with 5. Both ways are really cute, but this tutorial I chose to do 5 different sizes of circles. I made my templates using Word and making circles with the Shapes option. This way you can make them as big or little as you'd like. I made a few extras just to make sure it wasn't too big or too little (just more options). Then cut out your paper circles.
Once those are cut out you place the paper circles on the silky material and cut them out. (You can pin these down, but I don't because the pins get in the way. Besides it doesn't have to be cut perfect, it almost looks better if it doesn't.)

Then you slightly burn the edges of each of the circles. Keep the flame of the lighter below the circle so the edges turn upward. Oh and make sure the shiny side is facing up.

Then just stack them on top of each other with the biggest on the bottom and the smallest on top (so it looks like a rose).

Take your thread and needle (I double threaded) and tie a knot. Then stick your needle from the bottom through all the layers and place one of the beads on. Pull your needle all the way through and then go back through the top of the material in the center so it will pull the bead tightly. Repeat this with 2 more beads. (Hopefully that makes a little bit of sense).

This is what it will look like.

Once all the beads are on, tie some knots through the bottom layer of fabric, then you're ready to clip the thread.

Take your felt and cut a small rectangular piece. You don't want it too big or else it will show. You just need it big enough to cover the elastic.

Take your elastic and wrap it around the finger you want your ring on and measure where to cut, then cut it.

Then take your felt and elastic and make a loop with the elastic and place the ends on top of the felt piece. Put a dab of glue on the other side of the felt then fold over the felt on top of the elastic and press together. Make sure to be careful cause it can be really easy to burn yourself with the glue (trust me, I've done it before).

This is what it should look like.

Put a dab of glue on top of the felt, then put the flower on top and press it down.

And Voila!! You have a very hip and beautiful add to your outfit!

Fixing the Curtains

2010-08-30T09:00:00.005-06:00

We bought some curtains for our front room, but they weren't quite long enough. If we would've bought the longer size they would've been way too big. So I decided to just add a little extra to them to make it work better.

I bought satin binding from JoAnn's. There weren't any that matched, so I found the one that would work best with all my room colors.I flipped the binding inside out and sewed the edges together.

Once that was done I turned it the right side out sewed along the edges to help it lay flat. This type of material frays real easy, so I took a lighter and burned the edges so I wouldn't have to worry about that.

I made them all into a loop so I wouldn't have to worry about the loops coming apart when I sewed them on to the curtains.

Then I sewed them on to my sheer curtains and hung them up! They work much better then what I had before, and now they don't look like they're preparing for a flood!

A little Something Extra

2010-08-28T09:00:00.002-06:00

When we hung our pictures up after we moved I decided to make them big collages. When I put this wall up I got it to look good on the floor, but on the wall it looked off balance to me. It has bugged me ever since (for about 7 weeks now).Finally I figured out a way to fix it. We don't have a ton of money so I used resources from my own home. I got my Cricut out, used my Home Essentials cartridge and made my own "fake vinyl" lettering! Unless you're looking really close you can't tell that it's scrapbook paper. I used white paper and cut out modern shapes using the same cartridge and first glued the lettering on that, then taped the whole thing onto the wall.

I really like how this turned out as well!

Front Door Decor

2010-08-26T09:00:00.005-06:00

I've been trying to find something for our front door for a while now. I like the letter thing, and the wreath thing but I didn't know how to combine them. So I decided to just do the letter thing.

I found one of these wood letters at Hobby Lobby. I painted the edges first, then ModPodged scrapbook paper to it. (The letter is still wet, that's why it's lumpy. I promise it looked better when it dried!) After it dried I hot glued ribbon where the different papers touched, and also a daisy on the side.After my letter was done I hung it up on my door and hated it. It was too plain. So I went back to Hobby Lobby and found one of these "sun" wreaths and tied my letter onto it with hemp rope.

I really like how it turned out! Perfect for me!

Camera strap covers - LOVE them!

2010-08-24T07:00:00.000-06:00

These are so easy to do! The first ones took me about 1 1/2 hours - to finish both. I had no idea what I was doing and had a 3 year old on my lap while sewing. I found some tutorials HERE and HERE for them and adjusted them to work with my camera.

While looking at tutorials, I was planning on just doing a slip-cover style, BUT I read that people had to constantly adjust the strap to stay in the middle, so I didn't do it that way - there is an opening on the seam about half way up to put the strap into. They each have fusible fleece interfacing to help them be softer - it is a lot nicer on the neck especially with my heavier lens
I finished this one for a photographer friend - it is REALLY soft! The minky material is awesome! I will definitely be making more for me with the minky fabric!

No Slip Dish Towel

2010-08-22T09:00:00.000-06:00

I bought a dish towel from Ikea for $2.99 (it's a huge hand towel, but I thought it'd work). It's a very simple project. You just take some velcro and sew the soft piece onto one side, and then you flip the towel around and at the opposite end you sew on the scratchy side.That way you can put it on your oven with the two ends flatly together! It's nice when I'm trying to dry my hands cause it doesn't come off. The only thing is we have a different towel hiding for drying dish towels.

Wall Decor

2010-08-20T09:00:00.000-06:00

Our apartment has really high walls (which I love), and I had an empty spot right above our TV that I didn't exactly want to hang pictures on. I saw something that Make it and Love it did and decide to copy her idea. I didn't follow exactly what she had done, I just made up something that I thought would work for me.

I went and bought 3 foam board's from Hobby Lobby. I used an exacto knife and cut the boards to 19". With the rest of the board I cut it into three strips (I didn't measure them very good at all cause I didn't think it would matter but it did when I went to hang them on the wall. So if you do something like this make sure to measure it and make it straight so it will hang evenly.) I super-glued the strips to the board. Oh and just to let you know the reason I did the strips of foam board on the back was because I was nailing the fabric on, and with just a single board the nails would go all the way through.

Then I cut the fabric to the size of the board with an added 2" on each side.

Then I took my staple gun (that my Dad gave me as a going away present!) and put one staple in the middle on all four sides. Then you go through and closely staple the fabric on pulling it as evenly as possible. You want to make sure the staples are close or else the fabric pulls unevenly and it looks dumb. (Trust me, I did that on my first project).

Here is my finished project! I really like how it turned out! The middle one I screwed up on (I cut the fabric the wrong size), but I had to make it work. Hopefully it looks alright.

A cheap Decoration

2010-08-18T09:00:00.001-06:00

I had a little date jar that I made for Brian a few Christmases ago. Well I am making a new one so I decided to use this jar for a bathroom decoration. I took some brown scrap material I had and ripped it up into strips and shoved it into the jar.Then I used some cute ribbon and tied it around the top of the jar. It's small, and I just might add something to that corner but I don't know what that might be. But this is a start! Oh, and I don't know how I did it, but I tied the nicest bow I've ever made in my life!

Scrapbook Paper Holder

2010-08-16T14:12:00.005-06:00

Melissa found this idea on Smart-Bottom Enterprises. I thought it'd be a great idea and wanted to make my own. I went to the post office and got 3 of the medium sized flat rate boxes. (To tell you the truth I kind of felt like I was stealing, but I was assured by many that it was OK. It must have been cause no one said anything to me, but you probably shouldn't go get 20!).

I did the project differently than Smart-Bottom Enterprises for two reasons. The first reason was because I didn't follow the directions and cut the lids off the boxes, and secondly I didn't have cute duct tape.

Anyways so I first cut off the lids on one side of the box, and the other side I put together to make the box.

Then I put the boxes on top of each other and duct taped the boxes together like the pictures below.

I used wrapping paper and wrapped my box up like a Christmas present, leaving a little hanging off the front opening.

And I didn't cover the bottom because I knew it wouldn't ever be shown.

Then I chose some scrapbook paper to cover the front with. I used clear tape on the edges of the paper so it didn't show. It was kind of a hit and miss for how it was going to work out. I just had to figure out how to make the pieces of paper work and tape them so they'd stay. I know, not much help, sorry.

But I think it turned out pretty good. The only thing I don't like about it is if you have packs of paper it bends in the middle cause it's not super sturdy. But it does the trick!

Thanks Melissa for telling me about this!

Not your ordinary bow holder-actual post!!!

2010-06-23T09:59:00.003-06:00

I saw this idea in California when I was pregnant with Lilly. It has always been on my crafting-to-do list. I FINALLY made it and I love it! Here is the picture without bows:

Here is the picture with bows! I overloaded it with all of the bows and flowers I have made for Lilly. There are even more that wouldn't fit on here!
I went to California this past month and the same store still sells these bow holders! I am going to tweak mine a little to look a little better. I'll post the pics with a tutorial when I do that.

Little Boy Neck Tie

2010-06-15T08:00:00.001-06:00

This project is so fun and extremely addicting! The entire tie can be made in just an hour - and it requires very little materials (fabric remnants are perfect for this project).

Here are the materials:
• 1/4 yard of Fabric (cotton works best) - depending on the print of your fabric, it could take even less
• Velcro (4.5 inches)
• Felt (1/2 a sheet)
• Double Sided Fusible Web

The tie velcros around the neck.

I purchased the pattern here from Make-It-and-Love-It. I have already made several ties for my little guy as well as several for gifts. Hope you love it as much as I do!

Wedding Place Cards

2010-06-12T08:00:00.000-06:00

My sister asked me to make some place cards for her upcoming wedding. In total there were just under 20 place cards, one for each member of the Wedding Party. I made each one a little different.

Here's a sampling of the place cards.

Wedding Guest Book

2010-06-09T16:31:00.002-06:00

My sister is getting married, so I made her a personalized guest book. This way people can personalize their messages to the bride and groom, and they will have a fun scrapbook at the end to take home!

Here are a few of the pages. I made sure to leave at least 1/2 the page available for signing.

**Sorry about the poor picture quality - I don't have a fancy camera so this will have to do!

Easy Drawstring Bag

2010-06-07T16:23:00.004-06:00

If you're like me, you can always use extra bags here or there. What about a bag to store up a few toys - one that you can just grab and go? I used the tutorial here to make one of my own.

One thing I changed was I finished the edges before starting to make sure there weren't any raw edges showing.

This one is quick and easy - and you could embellish it as much or as little as you want. Perfect nap time project!

Watch Bands

2010-05-17T14:17:00.001-06:00

Last Year when we first started crafting together, we made a few of the cute beaded watch bands. We haven't posted the pictures yet, so here they are. (Only a year later!!!)

Flowers for Headbands

2010-05-14T14:20:00.001-06:00

I had so much fun making the rings, that I made a bunch of flower clips for my daughter's headbands! I think they turned out really cute! I've made even more clips after I took this picture!

Flower Rings

2010-05-13T07:40:00.001-06:00

I have seen these rings on several different blogs. I wanted to try them out because they are so cute and they looked fairly simple to make! We went to Hobby Lobby and picked up some satin fabric in a few different colors. These were so fun to make! Shanna, Kimberly, and I made them together. I bought an 1/8 of a yard of each color and it goes a LONG way! It was on 37 cents a yard, so that was even better!!!

Mr. Potato Head

2010-05-10T10:30:00.001-06:00

This is a project that we made quite a while ago. I realized we had never posted pictures, so I thought I would. We found the tutorial from Make it and Love it. I took a picture of my Mrs. Potato Head. We made other parts, so I am hoping the other crafters on this blog will add their pics, too!

Quiet Book

2010-05-07T10:21:00.019-06:00

Last year I decided I wanted to make a Quiet Book. I had seen a few in the stores, and thought that I could make a book that was much cuter and much cheaper. Kimberly, Shanna, and my mother-in-law decided they wanted to make one as well. We made a list of our different ideas (which is over 30!!!), and got to work. There are 7 kids in the Foust family, and for Christmas I wanted to make a book for the Trent and Tiona family (since that is who we had for Christmas). We figured we were already making 4 books, so we might as well make 3 more! 7 books, what were we thinking?!?! We spent many hours working on this project. We got together almost every Tuesday from August to December. We haven't even made half of the pages that are on our list, but we got a pretty good start! We all worked together and I think the books turned out FANTASTIC! The true test is if the kids like it, and they LOVE it!!!

Linking up to these sites:

Jewlery Holder

2010-05-05T09:00:00.000-06:00

I found this idea HERE at the Crafty Clique Blog. I thought it was a great idea and wanted to do something similar. I forgot to take a picture of the original shelf. But I found it at the DI and spray painted it black. It also had a weird heart thing on it that I ripped off.

The shelf I bought didn't have a back on it, so I went to Home Depot to the clearance wood section (best section in the entire world!) and found a thin wood backing for $0.51. My dad cut the back to fit the shelf.

I covered each little shelf with a different scrapbook paper and mod podged the whole thing.

Then I bought small wooden knobs and circular wooden things (I know, my mind is drawing tons of blanks) and spray painted them black. Then I figured out where would work best to put the knobs on the back board.I used for of the circular wooden things and one knob and rummaged through my dad's screws and found 4 that would be a good fit for the knob and then I screwed it all in.

This is what the back looked like after screwing in the knobs. Then I nailed the back onto the shelf and respray painted the sides, so the back sides would be black as well. I took some of these teeth wall hangers and hammered them in, one on each side.
This is what the knobs looked like on the inside. The sides are really deep, and I wanted to be able to add more jewelry. That's why I added the circular wooden things. I think it turned out alright.
And this is the final product!! Once we move to Arizona this will have a much better place on my wall!!

Drill Bit Holder

2010-04-30T09:00:00.001-06:00

My dad asked me if I could make him a holder for his metal drill bit set. I was more than happy to try and make something that would work for him!

So the first thing I did was make a pattern for what I wanted and the measurements I needed. Then I cut those measurements out of denim material and sewed all the way around with right sides together, except for about 5 inches in one area, and on one of the sides lower about two inches. The 5 inches is so I can turn the denim the right side out, and the 2 inches is so I can add ribbon stuff that I can't remember the name of to save my life.

I then cut off each of the corners so it would lay flatter.

Then I turned it the right way, ironed the whole thing so the edges would be nice and straight, and sewed around the whole piece. Where I left the 2 inch gap I put this ribbon stuff in between the pieces of fabric and sewed along the edges too.

Then I cut another piece of material the size that I wanted to add all the drill bits. I sewed along the top only, and then the sides and bottom I sewed to the back piece. After that I measured and marked where needed to be sewn to make the little pockets.

Then for the final touches I sewed a straight line down the very middle so the pieces wouldn't come apart. Then with the pockets I left one of the pockets empty so that the pieces wouldn't be in too big of pockets and the heads wouldn't hit each other. So I sewed the top of each pocket I wanted closed. Then just to add something I did a zig zag stitch along the middle of the pocket.

With the ribbon stuff I bought a D ring and one of the sides I sewed two rings to the top.

And this is the final product!!

My Dad really liked it and said it worked perfectly for what he needed! Woohoo!

Pillows for my new Bed Set

2010-04-28T09:00:00.000-06:00

I decided to make these pillow slip covers for my new comforter that we bought. Make it and Love it has a great tutorial for slip covers HERE. I made most of the pillows with that tutorial. But I really wanted a cylinder pillow and so I kind of used the idea of that tutorial, but kind of changed it up.

The first thing I did was cut a piece of fabric the width of the pillow and then I measured all the way around the pillow and added about 5". Then I sewed about an inch down on both ends of the longest sides. For the rounded ends I found a bowl that was the size of the pillow and cut out a different fabric out.Then i just pinned the edges on and sewed all the way around and overlapped the end. (I hope that made sense.)

This shows the overlapped end.

This shows the finished edge.

And then the finished pillow!!

Here's the next pillow that I did. Make it and Love it also has THIS tutorial for making pleats. I loved how this turned out! I wasn't very happy that I did it with white cause it just didn't pop like I wanted it to. So I added the flowers and pieces of fabric to it. I also added buttons to the middle of each flower, but I did that after I took the picture.

This is the back of the pillow above. On each pillow I added button holes and buttons so they would fit more snug and lay more evenly. I liked how that turned out better.

The brown pillow in the middle I made with a regular slip cover tutorial and then I added THESE yo-yo's with buttons in the middle.

I really love how it turned out! I love my new bedding! Now I can't wait to make curtains and add other little things to made our room a little getaway!

Diaper Cake

2010-04-26T09:00:00.000-06:00

I threw one of my friends a baby shower, and decided as part of my gift to her and for decorations for the shindig I decided to make a diaper cake. I have made these in the past for my sister's showers and love doing it. So any chance I have to make one I take it!

1. The first thing you do is get all stuff you want to put on your cake. I have done it with toys, bottles, onesies, binkies, and other baby accessories. This time I decided to make it more like a decoration with ribbons and flowers. Items you need:
Diapers (obviously!)
cardboard
rubberbands
wooden dowels
ribbon
pins
stuff to decorate the cake with

2. Then you need to wrap the diapers.
To do that you open up the diaper like so.

Then you simply roll it up and put a rubber band around it. I rolled up enough diapers for the bottom that would fit the piece of cardboard I cut out.

3. Once you have the base you want you get a really stretchy rubber band and put it around the whole layer of diapers. I did a 3-layer cake so once finished all the layers the way that I wanted and put a rubber band around the whole thing, I cut the ribbon I liked the size of the cake and pinned it in place.
4. After that I put the layers on top of each other and took my wooden dowels and shoved it in between the diapers all the way down. I found a pack of wooden dowels that was the perfect size of the cake so I didn't have to cut any of it down. I've also bought a long wooden dowel and cut it to the size I need.

5. Once I finished that I put flowers in where I wanted them. I just cut the stem off and stuck it in the cake.

On the top of the cake I put a teething ring to help the flowers stay up. I just used a cardboard box that I cut off one of the sides and then covered it with wrapping paper. Then I added a few toys as well.

The cake was a hit at the party and my friend loved having some diapers for her baby!!

Little Book of Peeps

2010-04-20T17:59:00.005-06:00

** My sister-in-law, Melissa, (who is also an author on this blog) inspired me to create this **

Because we live far away from family, I thought a picture book of all my son's relatives (up through great-grandparents) would be fun to look at and remember all the peeps who love him! It's real simple and easy - exactly what I like! Here's a few things I did:

1 - After gathering the pictures I wanted, I mounted them on cardstock.
2 - I then printed out the names of each relative and adhered to the picture.
3 - I used mounting squares to attach the pages to each other (front and back).
4 - After laminating, I punched holes in the side and added 2 rings.

You could be as simple or fancy as you want. The best part is, I can keep adding as the family gets bigger.

Rose Shadow Box

2010-03-17T08:10:00.002-06:00

So I saw this idea on The Crafting Chicks blog. I loved it because Brian has given me roses that I've had for a long time and it has become too much having to move them. This is a great way to show them off and a way easier way to move them, since we'll be moving 700 miles in a couple months. Anyways, I bought a shadow box and some cute fabric. I took the shadow box apart and used some spray adhesive to glue the fabric onto the back of the box. This is my first time using spray adhesive and I loved it. It worked so great!

Then I cut the rose heads off the stems and set them aside. Once I finished cutting them I hot glued them in a heart shape onto the back.

This was a super easy project and it turned out great. Without all the stems and leaves it doesn't look like there are very many flowers. But I loved this project and can't wait to hang it up in my new house!!

Personalized Photo Puzzle

2010-02-03T10:00:00.001-07:00

For Valentine's day I decided to do something for my husband everyday leading up to the big day. Well for the second day I decided to make him something he loves. A Puzzle! He's loved puzzles since he was a little kid, so what better way to show him how I care!
I have the digital scrapbooking program Creative Memories. I took a ton of pictures of us through our years together and made a collage. I got a 12X12 print done at Costco. Then I turned the picture over and began to draw puzzle pieces. After I was done drawing the pieces I cut them out. This was a lot of work and it's pretty flimsy (which I wasn't about to glue the picture to a little piece of cardboard because then my hand would've hurt worse cutting it out).
Then I covered an ink cartridge box with scrapbooking paper, and cut out a few hearts with my Cricut, and viola! I was done! He loved it too!!

Chore Chart

2010-01-22T10:00:00.000-07:00

Here is yet another Christmas present I put together. I wanted to make a chore chart for the in laws cause they still have 5 kids at home and things can get a little hectic. So I thought this idea might make things a little easier on everyone! So I got a list of all the chores in the house then I contacted Scribble It to get some help with the vinyl. They have a FHE chart that was very similar to the idea I had. I wanted it to have a magnetic strip on the side so it was easy for the names to be moved around, but I wanted the chores to be big enough to see. For the most part it was great, but unfortunately, and I don't know if this was because of the holiday season or not, but Scribble It did not treat me very well. I had to wait a long time to get my order processed and to even figure out what was going on. I ordered it the end of November and didn't receive it until Christmas Eve, and then everything that was promised wasn't even in the package. So to say the least I was very disappointed with Scribble It and probably won't use them again. Anyways onto what I fixed. My dad helped me route the edges of the board to make it look better, I painted it black and then added a gloss to it. The magnetic strip wasn't included, so I had to go to Ben Franklin to get that, but they didn't have strips so I bought a sheet of the metal and my Dad was able to cut it down and make it look decent. I used E6000 glue to glue the metal strip down. Then I found the "Love At Home" thing at Ben Franklin too, which I thought made it look really good. The magnets I just printed squares of different colors with the names on them, and then mod podges them on these cute ceramic looking magnets. Even though this was the biggest pain in the butt, I think it turned out cute, and it's already being used!

GPS Case

2010-01-20T10:00:00.001-07:00

My Dad is a real estate agent and thus has to go to a lot of places that he probably doesn't know too well. So for Christmas Santa brought him a GPS to help him get from point A to point B. Well he needed something that would protect his GPS from getting too banged up. Since he helped my hubby and I sell our house (I would've made it for him anyways!) I decided to make him something. On Make it and Love it she has a great tutorial on how to make a cozy HERE. It was a really simple tutorial and worked out awesome!! The only thing was she only had something for the GPS itself. I needed something for the GPS and the cords. So I decided to just make two and then sew them together. As you can see from the two pictures I only sewed them together from the top and the bottom. I did this so the cords would still fit in the case and it wouldn't be too smooshed. And it made it even more fun cause my Dad has told me a bunch how much he loves it! That is what makes crafting totally worth it!

Hot/Cold Rice Bag

2010-01-18T10:00:00.000-07:00

I have also been wanting to make one of these for a while. I'm glad I made it when I did cause a few days after I hurt my back and used it! I found the idea at my favorite blog Make it and Love it HERE and used her tutorial. It was a great tutorial and I followed it exactly how she did it! It was pretty hard though to get the rice to stay and to get my machine to work good. So my seams aren't straight at all. Oh well it does what I need. The thing I liked about it as well was when we put it in the microwave for 2 1/2 min it stayed hot for a really long time. I love it!

Camera Strap

2010-01-15T10:00:00.000-07:00

So I see all these people making camera strap and I have been wanting to make one for a long time. Well I finally decided to do it. The only problem was I don't have one of those fancy SLR cameras and my little digital camera case has a tiny little strap. But I was determined to make it work. I first got the idea from Make it and Love it HERE. I used her tutorial and just changed what I needed to for my case. In fact I really did most of it the same. I just had to take my strap apart a little bit to get it through, and then I had to do a zig zag stitch across the seam so it wouldn't come apart. I didn't measure very well. But I think the zig zag stitch added a little extra to it!
Well I hope you enjoyed!

Lemonade Stand Award!

2010-01-13T12:15:00.004-07:00

Brandy over at Home Sweet Home nominated our little crafty blog for the Lemonade Stand award. We are super excited about this. We just love sharing our ideas with each other and with whoever might want to look at them. There are so many blogs out there that we love. Here are who we nominate!

1. Make it and Love it (one our favorite blogs! As you can tell we make a lot of things that she's come up with! Thanks Make it and Love it)
2. U Create (She is really motivating and has some great tutorials and great ideas)
3. Not So Idle Hands (She is super upbeat and has great craft and kids ideas)
4. Brown Paper Packages (She is super creative and has great tutorials)
5. Nannygoat (She has awesome craft and home decor ideas)
6. The Idea Room (Tons of great IDEAS. I borrowed a lot of her Halloween decor ideas this last Halloween!)
7. Homemade by Jill (Such great ideas for kids and other projects as well. Check out her quiet book! It's to die for!)
8. Small Fry & Co. (She has fantastic craft ideas, and throws in a little about her life and her precious girls!)
9. How Does She (A little bit of everything. Great craft ideas, Women of the Week, Ideas to keep the romance alive, etc.)
10. Create Studio (Great craft ideas. Check out her craft room remodel! LOVE it!)

Sewing Machine Cover

2010-01-13T10:00:00.000-07:00

I found this idea on Make it and Love it HERE. I thought it was a great idea since my machine is just left out since I don't have a case or cover for it. well I decided that this would be perfect. I got the material at Hobby Lobby, and then followed her tutorial. I did a couple things differently. First off I did it double sided because I used cotton instead of lightweight upholstrey fabric. Then I also cut a hole in the top so when I take my machine with me different places I can keep the cover on it. Anyways, I loved this idea.

Vitamin Bottle Rattles

2010-01-11T10:00:00.001-07:00

I have one nephew that is 18 months and I was trying really hard to think of something to make for him. One day when I had him over he was helping get something in our food storage room and found some vitamin bottles. He played for a long time with them just shaking them up and down, throwing them, and stacking them. I thought it would be really fun to make something similar for him. So I collected vitamin bottles and got some scrapbook paper and borrowed my SIL's cricut (I just bought one so now I can use my own!).

How to make them:

1. I took off the labels as best as I could.

2. Fill the bottle with anything you can find. I put beans, popcorn, jelly beans, rice, and nuts into my bottles.

3. Use some kind of permanent glue, I used E6000 (cause I'm a real crafter), and glue the lids on so they can't come off.

4. Then I cut strips of striped black scrapbook paper and mod podged it onto the bottle.

5. Then I cut the names of different colors, onto the same color scrapbook paper, using the Cricut.

6. Then I mod podged those on.

7. Then I cut circles of fabric and put it on top with mod podge and colored rubber bands.

The next time I do this I'm going to try to think of something different to do for the top cause I wasn't totally happy with the fabric, but I think my nephew liked it! And it was fun to make! Enjoy!

Cookies in a Jar

2010-01-08T09:00:00.000-07:00

These are the gifts the hubby and I made for both of our coworkers. This is a fairly cheap gift if you already have bottles. We nabbed half our bottles from my parents and half from his parents. Thanks parents! I got this idea, recipe, and download from Living Locurto. She had it for Halloween, but it was fairly easy to change it to Christmas! Everyone loved this idea, and some even used the cookies for Santa!

Cloth Blocks/Rings

2010-01-06T09:00:00.000-07:00

Here's another Christmas present I made for my nieces and nephew. They are all under a year and when I saw this idea I thought it would be so much fun for them! I found the idea at Make it and Love it. She has a great tutorial on how to do these. I'll definitley make these for my kids!

Canvas Board/Tissue Paper Frame

2010-01-04T12:28:00.002-07:00

For Christmas I made my Sister and Brother in Law this canvas picture. I got the idea from Brown Paper Packages. I took pictures of my niece and nephew after she was born. I just got an 11X14 canvas board, some black polka dot tissue paper, and printed the picture to be a 5X7. When you do this you just have to be really gentle with the tissue paper. If you're too rough with it, it can tear really easily. Also a side note for if you're giving these as gifts. Let them dry for like a week, or put wax paper in between whatever you've mod podged and the wrapping paper. I didn't do this and the wrapping paper stuck to the picture, so I had to redo it. But it still turned out great!!

Personalized Memory Game

2009-12-30T09:00:00.000-07:00

I have 2 nephews and 1 niece that are between 2-3 years old. I thought a cute memory game would be the best idea as a gift for them. I bought 2"X 2" wood squares off Etsy, I can't remember exactly who from, but they were perfect for this project. Then I made pages with each kids name on it. I printed those on card stock, cut them out then mod podged them on the front.On the back I got pictures of 10 different animals doubled and did the same as the front. The only thing to remember is if you do something that has to be a certain direction make sure you double check which direction you're putting them on. I screwed up on that one. But caught myself after doing a few. Sorry Abby.

This was a fun thing to do for my family! I hope they enjoy it even if they can't quite use it just yet, they soon will! I got this idea from here at Jamie's Digital Designs. She did this with photos, but I wanted to do animals. Both ways are great!

Tile Picture

2009-12-26T09:00:00.000-07:00

My Mother-in-law told all us kids that she wanted homemade gifts this year. When I heard that I actually got excited, but my SILs weren't too happy about that. I love to find new crafts to make and especially crafts that I can give away! Anyways, I found my inspiration for this idea HERE. I went through my in-laws wedding album and found a few pictures that I liked and scanned them into my computer. I have a program that I used to fix the image and make them sepia. I was just going to use the big picture, but because it was a scanned image the picture turned out fuzzy. So I decided to add the other two pictures and a saying. I really like how it turned out. I purchased a 12X12 tile from Home Depot, or Lowe's (I really can't remember which one) and printed off the picture. Then I cut the picture down so that it would fit the tile, then I put a layer of Mod Podge on the tile, put the tile on, then put another layer of Mod Podge on. I think I even added one more layer just to be safe. I let it dray, and voila, you have a beautiful picture that you can put anywhere in your house!

Christmas Coasters

2009-12-15T16:22:00.001-07:00

Shanna and I decided to join forces this year and make our neighbor gifts together. We had an idea in mind and spent an entire night going from store to store trying to find the necessary supplies. We could not find what we needed for the price we needed. So we had to come up with plan B. We decided to make Christmas coasters. Here is what we did:
-Bought tiles from Home Depot
-Bought cute Christmas paper from Michaels
-We used my Cricut to cut out the images and sayings we wanted
-We Mod Podged the images and sayings on the tiles
-We Mod Podged over the tiles, twice
-We spray painted an acrylic water-proof sealer over the tiles, THREE times
-We regretfully did this in my storage room and stunk up the ENTIRE house
-We tied the tiles together with pretty ribbon from Michael's and added a tag and candycanes
We hope our neighbors enjoy!

Here's the final product. We gave 4 coasters to each family.

Here's the 4 different coasters individually:

Framed Santa

2009-12-13T16:22:00.003-07:00

We also made this cute Santa frame at the Super Saturday. The lady in charge painted it, and the Santa came put together, so all we had to do was hook it on with wire, curl it, and add ribbon! So easy, but so cute!

Christmas Countdown

2009-12-13T16:21:00.002-07:00

I made this cute countdown at a Super Saturday in my mom's ward. The tree is wood, and I used scrapbook paper to cover it, inked the sides, added some hooks, ribbon, and vinyl, and ta-da! A Christmas countdown!

IPod Cover

2009-12-04T12:01:00.000-07:00

Once again I wanted to make my hubby something for him to remember me by while he was traveling! He has an ipod classic and I saw THIS tutorial to make a cover for it. It was a pretty easy thing to make

Luggage ID Tag

2009-12-03T12:01:00.001-07:00

Here's another present for the traveling hubby! It's an ID tag that I found HERE on Make it and Love it. I would've taken more pictures but my machine was being really dumb so the seams aren't very good. I need to get it serviced or something. Oh well, it's probably about time.

Neck Pillow

2009-12-02T22:02:00.003-07:00

The hubby has been and will be flying to a lot of interviews. I saw a Neck pillow tutorial HERE on Make it and Love it and figured I could do that. Well the one she made was for a child so I looked at the shape of the one she made and made a pattern with construction paper. I then cut it out of micro fleece and filled it will fiber fill. It looked great, but it was too small. So I remade it and cut it a ton bigger. I think it turned out great and the hubby said he loved having it during his flight today!!