Birthday Boy Ribbon (Tutorial)

This post has been a while in the making. I kept sitting down to do it but I’ve been so busy with VBS at our church. Now that things have settled down I’m excited to show this little craft that brought much joy to my little one.

This year we didn’t do much for his 4th but I wanted him to have something special to wear so I made this. It’s a very easy craft but he was extremely excited about it and was happy to tell everybody that I made it.

What you need:

• Button
• Fabric scraps for center
• Fabric scraps for  ruffle
• Embroidery floss, hoop, and needle
• Mod Podge
• Hot glue gun
• Sewing Machine (Optional)

First I Traced the button on my center fabric. I used a pencil but an disappearing ink pen may work better for this. Then I wrote own my letters so I would have a guide to stitch over.

I backstitched over the letters in blue, came out pretty nice as my first time embroidering. You may remembered my review of the book Doodle Stitching where I told you I was going to try it. Yes, I waited this long to try.

I painted my button with white paint because you could see the image through the white fabric, but you may not need to.

I used pinking sheers to cut out my circle just big enough to cover the button in the back. You can see where I tried to erase the lines, which is why I said disappearing ink would work better. Then I just Mod Podged it to the back of my button.

This is the part where you make the ruffle edging. I first want to give credit where credit is due. I learned to do ruffles from a “Make it and Love it” tute found here.
Using a strip of fabric that is 1.5 by 13 with the long size against the fold. Make the strip longer if your button is bigger or if you want a larger ruffle effect.

Use the Make it and Love it method of making a ruffle or you can even hand sew a running stitch since its such a small piece. But I use any excuse to use my machine. then sew the two ends together to form the medallion.






ignore the fabric scraps in the pic. I had some trial and error with the size.
To finish I hot glued the ruffle medallion to the back of my button opening it some to go around the pin part. Then to give it a finished look I hot glued a felt circle to the back, cutting a slot to fit the clasp and just sticking the pin through on the other side.

See, Told-ya it was easy! I just love last minute project ideas that come out nicely (that doesn’t always happen)


Linking Up:

Happy Birthday!

...to me!

Yesterday was my 23rd birthday. It was a good day despite the rain that comes every year. We went to church and after a friend cooked us dinner that was delish. Spent some wonderful time with the hubs. It was a good day. My favorite part was when I came home and ate my microwave birthday cake. I first found the idea on pinterest. You can find it here.

Instead of a mug I used a little 2 cup Pyrex dish so I changed the portions to 4 tablespoons of mix to 3 tablespoons of water. I also got the Pillsbury icing in a can so I can keep it on the shelf with the cake mix.

This came out perfect. In only a minute I had a nice single serve cake. I thought it would lack the strawberry flavor since its mixed with the angel food mix but it didn't. I let it cool done before adding icing but still ate it warm.

I have to say this will be my new guilty pleasure since it makes a lot of mix to have on hand. Perfect for late night cravings!

If you try it in any other flavor leave a comment telling me how it was, would love to hear it.

Picture Frame Pin Cushion

I first want to say I am posting this using my new blogger app for iPhone so I have no clue how this is going to look when published but I thought it would be fun to use. It's like sending a text to the blogging world lol. Now on to my project.

This was one of those spur of the moment projects that was done last minute so no tutorial. But it's so easy it really doesn't need one.

I usually keep my pins on a teeny little box that came with one of those starter sewing kits and always said to myself I need to make a pin cushion and never did. When I knocked over the little box on the floor when my daughter was playing across the room I saw it as a hazard and stopped what I was doing and made this little cutie.

All you need us a small frame, some scrap fabric, hot glue, and a little bit of stuffing. For my stuffing I dissected an old cheap stuffed animal of my sons that had a hole in it. Don't worry. It was a cheap one out of the claw machine from Walmart. Not much if a loss and he didn't even know.

Take out the glass of the frame because you don't need it.

Cut your fabric scrap a little bigger than the inside space in the back

Hot glue your corners down first. Then as even as possible glue in the rest

Add the stuffing in and replace back.

Yeah, it's that easy. I finished two in about 10 minutes. Now I don't have to worry about spilled pins on the floor AND I have some added color to my craft table.

Flossed Out Earbuds

For Valentine's day this year my hubby was the greatest and I got an iPhone. YAY! I Instantly wanted to try two things that I saw on pinterest. First being embroidery floss/yarn wrapped headphones. The second was scrapbook paper inserts for a clear iPhone case.

pic taken with my phone, sorry about quality

I used the tute found here, but used embroidery thread that I already had instead of sock weight yarn. I really liked how it turned out, and I love that there are no more tangles, I HATE reaching in my purse for headphones that are imposable to untangle.

When I got to the button part I knotted above, then one below, then one above it again to have floss on all sides. I suggest buying the craft floss that does not split for this because I have an issue with splitting here

When I got to the split I just went back up the other way, and then for the bottom half started a new floss. It took about two spools of floss and came out pretty good.

I think the only thing I would have done again would be to have some self patterning floss for a bit of color change.


I also did the scrapbook paper thing but I'll post later on that when I have a pic to show you.

Baby's 1st Birthday Party

This weekend we celebrated Nana's first birthday. Boy does time fly! It seems just like yesterday I was bringing this teeny little creature home from the hospital. Now she's into everything chasing around her big brother.

I had originally pinned tons of fun little ideas with a pink cupcake theme, but reality set in and we did something very simple but I think it turned out really beautiful and I was so happy with the results.

This banner was done with simple paper plates and letters cut out of card stock. So simple yet pretty. (I did not notice that this was crooked until looking at this picture, maybe no one else did either).
The tissue paper pom poms were made using a Martha Stewart tutorial found here. I strung them to the ceiling with yarn from my stash and command hooks. I had everything on hand so I thought it would save on balloons.

 Close up of pom pom

Cupcake tower was from Michael's (wrapped in pink tulle), amazingly cute with pink polka dot cupcake wrappers. That was her little party hat I made to go with the rest of her outfit. If you look in the back at her highchair that matches too. It originally was a brown and teal, which nice, was an eyesore with the decor, so  safety pinned some extra fabric to the front and it matched.

Look at her! Tutu was made by me using the satin wrap tutorial found here. On this page she also has a few links on how to make the tutu itself. I Made her onesie applique using some fabric and Heat N Bond ultra hold. Cupcake clip art is from here. The number one and flame was using a regular font and a shape in Microsoft word. Here are some close up shots

Hat was made using a cereal box and a template found here. I added an inch to the bottom to make it a little taller, covered in fabric, added ribbon trim to hide seam, hot glued a tulle pom pom to the top. After I hot glued it to the headband, I also hot glued a felt circle to secure it on.

 Here she is with the hat on her head. It was a rare picture. She liked it, but only for short periods at a time.

In the end, it was a great day and I think she had fun. She was wore out by the time everyone left and slept good that night.

Linked up at Made By You Monday

Printable Calender!

I told you guys in a previous post about my new half sized binder in an attempt to get organized. I love this thing. so easy to take with me and keep track of stuff and I am no longer looking a bunch of places for the notes that I took somewhere and I even keep my coupons in there.( I plan to get some business card holders to keep those organized better rather than just stuffing them in a pocket)

My only problem was that I wanted to add a monthly calender in there so I can keep track of all the important dates. Before I bought it I thought it would be easy to find a free printable online to use......its not.  There were all kinds, but to find exactly what I was looking for....something simple, includes basic holidays, and was a half sized sheet of paper....was hard. I found some nice ones but the problem was that I pre-cut and punched my paper and the printable were to print first, and then cut the paper after, and I couldn't print front to back. I know, I'm picky, but when I want something, I want it.

Today after another search, I sucked it up and made one myself. I couldn't figure out how to do the automatic formula thing so I typed each date in, no biggie. But since I spent all that time working on it I figured there has to be someone else who might need this so I wanted to offer it to you guys

download the half sized (5.5 x 8.5), 2-page per month, 2012 calender. here (PDF)

I wanted to save it as a word file for you guys to edit with your important dates. BUT every time I uploaded it to something it distorted my file. If you need to edit file leave your e-mail in a comment and I will get it to you as soon as I can.

If link does not work please let me know. I'm new to this whole making download able files thing. If you have any other question please feel free to ask and I will help.

My New Friend

I know, I did it again. I stopped blogging. BUT I have a good reason. I have been working on the logo and branding for my husbands photography business which has taken up all my internet time. I am so excited about it! I can't wait until the big reveal to show you guys.

Yesterday was the first day that I really sat down and brought all the ideas in my head to life. It was amazing and so much fun, and doing so I have made a new friend. Photoshop! I remember using it as a freshman in high school when taking a graphic imaging class, but because I never kept up with it I had never used it since, until yesterday.

I'm a learn as you go type of girl so YouTube an Google have been a big help. I'm excited to use my newly found skill in something crafty for myself that I can actually show you guys. Maybe after i finish all of this I'll think of something.

So until later,
happy crafting!

Sparkle Clutch

I follow some really awesome blogs but its nice that I have a couple from people I actually know. Stephanie is someone I went to high school with and is an amazing photographer. Seriously, I would really like to do a family / couple session with her, she has a good eye. She also has a blog called My Sketchbook where she features her wonderful work. Recently she posted about this adorable sparkle clutch that she made. Isn't it darling?

The best thing about it is, she offers a well illustrated tutorial so you can make your own! So what are you waiting for? You know you want to make one so get the tute here. Oh, and while you are there, check out the rest of her blog and follow it because I'm sure there are more great and creative things to come. You don't want to miss out.

Gettin' A Little Organized

I've been MIA for a little while, sorry. My 2012 promise to myself was to blog more and have more projects (I figure, if I don't call it a resolution it will get done haha). I have a couple of things to post a bout and I'm working on a crochet project I am very excited about that I hope to have done soon.

Going through my daily news feed everybody is getting organized for 2012, I'm hoping to hop on that bandwagon too. I have already started with a new way to get rid of my many notebooks of randomness where I write down creative ideas and such. I had a few spiral notebooks where I wrote down stuff, nothing was in order, there were notes on random pages and I had to flip through everything and each book if I needed to locate something. The sad thing is, I never realized it was a problem until I was looking for a sewing pattern that I had wrote down a few months back to make more flags for church.

The first idea I had to this problem was to go to staples and get the ARC system notebooks. I LOVE this system. The paper is nice and thick, you can remove it and place it back, there are lots of accessories such as dividers and folders and pockets. I liked that if I wrote something on the first available page (like I always do) I can move it to where it belongs and stay ORGANIZED. But alas, it was out of my budget. There was no actual blank paper (just graph paper) so I would need the 30 dollar punch to insert my own.

So what did I get instead? A simple binder! I know right, why didn't I think of that first. I got the half letter sized (5.5 x 8.5), some filler paper and folder dividers all from Staples. The binder was like 7 bucks and both the paper and the folders for a few dollars each. I've only had it for a few days and I love it. Everything has its own place. I have a section for my crochet and my sewing. I printed out some PDF patterns to size and rigged my regular 3 hole punch to size also. It fits in my bag with my yarn (and my new yarn holder I will tell you about later) and other purse stuff nicely. I really like this size, I think I want to buy binders in this size for everything.

It does look a little plain. I hate the "pretty paper" in the front look, so I'm thinking of sewing up a binder cover for it. Maybe a tute to come in the near future too?

Painted Wine Glasses

Finishing up with my Christmas posts, I wanted to show you guys the wine glass I painted for my cousin, BUT I forgot to take a pic. I know, blogger fail. Although I don't have a pic of hers I do have a pic of the one I painted for myself as a test run.

To make this I used a contact paper stencil that I cut with my x-acto knife an painted the stars with Folkart Enamels paint in a silver. For the one I made for my cousin I put a J on the front for her initial, and sponged the bottom of the glass for a fun detail.