U-Create’s November feature!!!

As far as crafty blogs go, there aren’t any I can think of that have more awesome projects han U-Create. Kari simply has some of the most creative crafts over there as well as other sister sites for parties and kids crafts, etc.


Soooo……. that’s why I’m super excited that Kari selected my Christmas Tree Skirt Tutorial from last year as one of her feature projects for November’s “Create with me”.

Basically, you make one or both of the featured projects and submit your pictures to Kari so she can put them in her gallery by the end of the month. Easy enough. Just be creative and get a project or two done that you probably needed to do anyway.

I look forward to seeing everyone’s take on my Tree Skirt at month end!

TP {toilet paper} pumpkin tutorial

These are the easiest fall decor you'll ever make....promise. I shared  these over at Posh Pieces the other day, but I thought I would go ahead and share it here too.

I first made these pumpkins years ago when I was in charge of crafts for our MOPS group at church. They were so popular, we did them more than once. There are several variations of these floating around, but I thought I would share what I have found to work the best.

 

This is what you will need for each pumpkin:

1 roll of toilet paper

1 fat quarter of fabric {approx 22"x18"}

1 sheet of newspaper or tissue paper 1 stick about 4-5" long

1 12" piece of ribbon

Find a hard surface to work on. Lay out your fabric, wrong side up and then lay your sheet of paper on top of that. Place your tp roll in the middle.

Next you will use the palm of your hand and push straight down to squish your tp roll. {This way it won't look like a roll of tp you wrapped in fabric when your done.}

Grab the corners of the paper and bring them to the middle and tuck into the center of the tp roll. Make sure to tuck the shorter sides in under the longer corners so it is all secure, but please don't worry about it being perfect. 

Next you will do the same thing with the fabric. Bring the shorter sides up first and work them into the middle and then bring up the corners to tuck in, gathering all the way around so that all ends get tucked in. It won't be perfect, but that is ok. Each one will look different in shape and fluff.   You can even use a half empty roll to make a smaller one like my orange one in the first picture.

See? not so perfect, but pretty cute. 

Last thing is to shove your stick right down in the middle and tie a bow around it. The stick should fit pretty snuggly, but you can hot glue it if you want.

I'm too lazy to heat up my glue gun if it isn't absolutely necessary so mine is not glued. {Plus, if I glue it then I can't unwrap it and use that roll of tp in an emergency....you can really never be too prepared}

These are super inexpensive so you can make lots and use them all over the house. One of my favorite ways to display them is to line them up the edge of my stairs on every other step. It won't even matter when your kids knock them over because they can't really be broken.  I don't know about you, but that's important around my house. 

Happy crafting and let fall begin!!

{yes, I know it doesn’t actually start for like 3 weeks, but in my mind it’s already here} 

 this post is linked to: DIY fall festival, Fall frenzy, Remodelaholic, A little knick knack, Simply designing, Chic on a shoestring, Frugal Friday,Pumpkin seed party, Weekend round-up, Tutorial Tuesday, Pumpkin Party, Fall Festival

Summertime fun with the kids

Summer can be such a fun time to get to experience some of things we don’t have time for during the school year. If you are in need of ideas to get your wheels turning, there is no better place to turn than mommy blogs.
Willette has compiled a nice little list of ideas for taking pics of your kids over the summer, 100 ideas to be exact. They aren’t just ideas for taking pictures of your kids, they are great ideas that will ensure you include a little fun in your summer. Just leave her your info and she will email you a copy of the file. It is WELL worth it.  Go get it here.

ok, well this picture really has nothing to do with this blog post, except maybe that I would like to sit on that there cute cushy little polka dotted bench while I do activities with my kids. Do you think The Nester would let me borrow it? She does have an excellent post on summerizing your home so that kinda fits this post, right?

I’d also like to sip one of these Italian Cream Sodas. Emily at Frilly Details shows you how to make one. {yum}

Eighteen 25 shows you how to make these beautiful paintings with Corn Syrup Paint.

Skip to my Lou is hosting a 30 day craft camp. 30 Days, 30 bloggers, 30 crafts. Here are some of my favorites so far.

Simple paper kites with Better in Bulk

 Glue Batik with That Artist Woman

An easy homemade bubble blower from How Does She?

Make your own homemade puffy paint with One Crafty Momma.

Last, but certainly not least {actually my most favorite} is Meg from Whatever is doing craft Thursday each week with her kids and I love seeing what she has done. I really love these Georgia O’Keefe inspired paintings and these Castle paintings.  Such great ideas.

Now go get busy with your kids!!

A few things I'm lovin'

*****If you are viewing this in Mozilla, sorry things look all wonky. Apparently Blogger and Mozilla are not playing nice this morning. Chrome and Explorer are doing just fine.*****

♥First off, this post about envy by Rachel over at No. 17 Cherry Tree Lane has had me thinking...a lot. It's like she spoke directly to me and you might just feel the same way. You won't regret reading it.

♥I've been having fun making up these journal covers. 

The first one I made was totally "fly by the seat of my pants" {the brown one...it's mine}. The pink one I love even more because I thought to put a little hidden elastic loop in the ruffle to put a pen or pencil in.  I don't know about you, but writing utensils seem to disappear around here, so it's nice to know you have one when you sit down to write.

I'm gonna make a few more of these over the next week and put them in my etsy shop. I'll let you know when they actually get there.

♥Let's face it, there is a ton of cute ideas for little girls out there in blog land. ummmm....not so much for boys. 

Well Made and Made by Rae are taking care of that this month with a Celebrate the Boy series. The entire month of February is dedicated to boys. Love it!  There have been lots of neat ideas so far, but here is one of my favorites.

I know my boys would LOVE these bags. Especially with the clone trooper stencil on them. I just need to get the fabric and the other parts and I am so making these. You can find the tutorial at Ambrosia Girl

♥I'm totally behind on my reading the Bible in 90 days, but I have only missed a couple days. I am finding it VERY difficult to read for an hour a day. I do have more of a desire to read the bible than I ever have before and that is a good thing. I'm consistent in my reading so I KNOW that I will finish, but it won't be in 90 days. Bummer, I know, but ok at the same time.  I'm reading...consistently....and enjoying it so I consider it a victory even though I'm going to come up a little short on my original goal. Better late than never....right?

♥This vanity. 

My dad is currently making me some new doors and drawer fronts for my bathroom vanity and it will look very similar {sans baskets}...can't wait.  

 Have a wonderful weekend!

Sweet Owl Pattern

A few of you had indicated interest in the pattern for this little owl shirt I made 

........so I finally got the pattern done and you can go here to download it. 

**Update** I think this would be equally as cute in boy colors. Josiah's letter of the week is "O" and they are doing owls on Wednesday so I might try and make a boyish one for him to wear.

I used the same method for applique as I used on this pillow.

It would be much appreciated if you will use this pattern for personal use only. Thanks so much!

This post is linked up to:
Motivate Me Monday
Make it for Monday  
Making the World Cuter
Kimba's DIY day  
Made it Mondays 
Today's Creative Blog 
Look what I made

Hoo! Hoo!

Is that how you write it?? Should it be Who? Doesn't look quite right.


Anyhoo, let's fly right past that little grammar check and get right to my cute little point {uh, get it?}.

A friend of my sister's put in an order for some appliqued onesies so I thought I would share this cute little owl I made today. 

Just say the word and I'll be happy to post the pattern. I plan on making a couple more and putting in My Etsy shop.

Thanks for looking!

An Old Sweater to a Valentine Pillow

I found a cute pink sweater at Savers the other day for $2 and thought surely I could make a little something Valentiney out of it.

I came up with this cute little "be mine" pillow which now resides in our master bedroom. 

Appropriate? I think so!

It was super easy if you have a sewing machine....here is how I did it.

This is the sweater I started out with {and still have quite a bit left....that will be another project}.  figure out the size you would like your pillow to be and cut 2 pieces of the sweater making extra room for your seams. Mine is about 15" long and 7" tall {finished size...not counting trim}.

Print out your lettering of choice {hopefully you won't run out of ink like I did}. I used Franklin Gothic {demi cond} at 250. Use whatever fits your pillow size.

Cut out your letters and flip them over so they are backwards. Trace each letter onto the papery side of some Wonder Under. Cut each letter out of the Wonder Under {just a approximate cutting is fine..a square or whatever....you'll cut out the letter in a minute}.

Select your fabric for you letters {I just used some scraps} and iron your letters onto the backside of your fabric. Once they are cooled {unless of course you have fingers of steel...go ahead, do it while it's still hot} Cut out each letter and peel off the back layer of the wonder under {I think this is the hardest part of the whole process...that stuff never wants to separate for me so I have to use a needle to poke between the layers to get it started}.

On the right side of one of your sweater pieces, lay out your lettering an iron it down.

I used a button hole stitch to sew around each letter and I used the same color thread for all the letters. I use the button hole stitch because it is skinnier than a regular zig zag stitch. This takes a little patience, but you can do it. Just stay on the edge of the fabric, not on the sweater. Try not to pull the sweater or you will get little puckers in your pillow {that actually sounds kinda cute...but it won't look cute}.

Mine is far from perfect, but I doubt anyone will be inspecting it. I've never sewn on a sweater before.

If you want a ribbon trim, just take a length of gross grain ribbon at least 1.5" wide and I ran one edge through my machine using the highest tension and a long stitch so as to give it a little ruffle. Not much, just a little. I then sewed it to the right side of the top {lettered} sweater piece, rounding it at the corners. Trim the excess sweater fabric off the corners.

Layer your two sweater pieces right sides together and sew all the way around leaving a 2" opening on one of the long edges. Turn right side out, stuff with batting and slip stitch your opening shut.

Sweet!

Just letting you know, this might not be the last time you see this sweater, I still have a lot of  it left.


this post is linked up to

Somewhat Simple's strut your stuff Valentine's edition

Frugalicious Friday 

Creative Cats 

Inspired Home

Show and Tell Friday

Funky Junk Interior's Saturday Night Special  
Metamorphosis Monday 

Make it for Monday 

Made it Monday 

Just Something I Whipped Up 

Market Yourself Monday

Motivate me Monday 
Making the World cuter Monday 
Kimba's DIY Day 
Beyond the Picket fence's under $100 party 
Valentine Link Party@ Craftaholics Anonymous

Sweatheart Pin

I know I just mentioned some things I added to my etsy shop, but here is one more. It just can't wait since it's a little time sensitive {valentines}.

Thanks for looking and putting up with me!

Homemade Baby Shower Decorations

I mentioned that I would show you all the decorations I made for my sister's baby shower we had this past weekend and so here they are. Nothing is difficult to make, just take a bit of time. If I can do it, so can you. 

Let me start off by saying that I thought taking pictures would be great with all the windows at my sister in law's house and the sun was shining.....uh, no! It was horrible because of all the snow so it all reflected into the house...not a beginning photographer's best lighting friend. 

I also have this new camera that makes me feel pretty stupid all the time sometimes. I'm still learning all the things it can do and I'm so not there yet. Please be patient with me and ignore the bad pictures...um, k? 

First off lets take a look at my sweet little sister, isn't she cute all pregnant and glowing?

Now let's look past her....to THAT WALL!! don't you just love that wall? I think it's just wonderful....my brother did that ladies....my brother. Let's don't tell him how fabulous it is...it might go to his head {and we cant have that, it's already big enough}.He used tissue paper {oh, the wonders of the tissue paper} and glaze. I can probably get more specific directions if anyone is interested.


On with the shower....

I made these pom pom balls that I see everywhere and I think are so much fun. You can find some great directions from Martha here. No need to reinvent the wheel so I'll just let her show you how. 

One thing I will say is that you do need tissue paper that is longer than it is wide in order for it to flugg out into an entire ball. You will also need it to be 20" x 30" to make the super big ones. I couldn't fine any that size so I used ones that were 20" x 20" and cut about 4-5" off to make them skinnier and then accordion fold them starting at the short end. This made mine kinda medium sized. 

The baby's room is pink and brown so my sister is going to hang a few from the ceiling in her room instead of a mobile. 

The Second thing I made was this simple diaper cake. Nothing too fussy. It took about 80 diapers. I just layered some ribbon and wrapped it around each layer and then I made some small {half} poms to embellish the cake. Pretty similar to this one I made last year. 

I also found these darling little satin ballerina slippers and had to stick them on top. Aren't they just the sweetest? 

I also made this little name banner using pre-cut chocolate brown scalloped circles I found at Archivers. I was going to cut them out by hand, but ran out of time so this worked out well. I then cut some circles from a pink pattered paper and adhered them on top with some glue dots. 

For her name {Madelyn Kay} I used some white chipboard stickers that I already had. They are kinda thick and have a glossy finish so they look nice. I punched 2 holes in the middle top of each scallop circle and strung a thin pink gross grain ribbon through to hang it. Very simple, but cute. Hopefully, if the pink isn't too off she will be able to use that in her room as well.

The last thing I did was make some applique onesies and bibs to fit the color scheme and hung them laundry line style on the mantle. 

My sister loves cupcakes so not only did we eat these scrumptious little beauties

 I made one for Madelyn to wear.

I also made a sweet little birdie...I really love the birdie.  

And a cute little flower one and one with a heart and an M for Madelyn.

I promise it didn't look like a pink and brown pinata threw up everywhere in real life. just in my pics :)


This post is linked up to Made by you Monday, Kimba's DIY day and Today's creative blog, Strut your stuff Thursday and Toot your Horn Tuesdays   and It's so very Cheri