End of School Year tradition

The school year is winding down and I wanted to come up with some traditions for my daughter who is graduating this year from Kindergarten. I plan on each year picking a significant item that my daughter has learned in school that year and making her a t-shirt to wear. This year she learned to read so it was only fitting to have a t-shirt that said "I learned to read in Mrs. Briles Class". She wore the t-shirt to school today since it's the last week of school. I can't wait to see what her teacher thought about it :).

This project costs me under $5.00 to make. T-shirt $2.00, Iron On Letters $2.00

XOXO Hope

Who lives in a pineapple under the Sea?

Spongebob Squarepants....

I participated in a swap at two peas called Go Fish. There was a spongebob Group and I did spongebob. I really like the way he turned out. I found a spongebob bandana and cut out the spongebob faces and zig zagged the edges. Added a white strip and a brown stip tie and collar and arms and legs and Spongebob was created. Overall pretty simple but took a while to make. I also added magnets and sewed circles around his head to make sponge looking areas and to hold the magnets in place.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries - Yummy

It's been a while since I have blogged but I assure you I have been very busy swapping, crafting, cleaning, painting, goingn to ballgames, etc....

Natalie was off on spring break so we decided to have a picnic. We made chocolate covered strawberries. They were delicious and so easy. It did take a little thinking to figure out how we would put them in the picnic basket without squishing them. Walleh! Egg Carton did the job perfectly. I even got another carton to take some to my mom and family. Wouldn't this be cute in a pink carton decorated with valentines paper for a valentine gift for someone. So CUTE!!! I would love to receive it :)

Valentines Day - Class Mailboxes

I created felt mailboxes for each student in Natalie's class for Valentine's Day. A basic box construction with a flap and a hole cut in the top for valentine's and the words MAIL in felt glued along the bottom. I made 23 of these in 2 nights after work. I hope they enjoy them on Tuesday at their Valentine's Party. Please excuse my mess :)

Felt Food Tutorial - Pie Slice

I hosted a felt food swap on 2peas. My contribution was a slice of cherry pie. I'm going to attempt through pictures to show you how I made this slice of pie. Here are the components:

I used a pair of pinking shears to cut the notches in the brown felt to make it look like fancy crust.



I topstiched the brown felt onto the top of the cherry fabric trying to get the cherries to show through some of the holes in the felt.

Take one of the long red pieces and put right sidestogether and sew along the outer edge.

Sew the other red strip on the opposite side.

Here's what it should look like after this step:

Now take the bottom piece right sides together and sew to one red strip. Then stretch it to the other red strip and sew it to the other side of the bottom piece.

This is what it should look like.

The end may have an opening at this point so sew straight across it to ensure it comes to a point.

After you sew across the edge,trim the excess so it doesn't bulk at the end after turning.

At this point turn the fabric and make sure you do not have any holes around the perimeter and at the end.

To make the crust take the long piece of felt and fold in half. Then take the smaller piece of felt that has been cut with the pinking shears and place on top. Sew across the top about 1/2 inch away from the pinking shear cut to hold together.

I will be back to post on how I stuffed and sewed the crust on.

Halloween Costume - Button

Lately I've been thinking about halloween and the costume ideas started moving around in my head. I want to think of something unique and exciting but also something that isn't uncomfortable for Natalie. I remember when my mom was little she would always make our costumes. My favorite of all time was when she dressed my twin brothers as a pack of doublemint gum. She got a big box and painted in to look like the gum and made aluminum foil hats for them. I can't find any pictures but they looked adorable. Of course I'm sure they weren't quite comfortable having to walk around together in a big box but they did win best costume that year at the school halloween fair. I created a costume for Natalie a couple years ago and it is still my favorite. I took green floral wreaths, fabric, yarn, cardboard and safety pins to create her Button. I think she looked "Cute as a Button". Now to start thinking of ideas for this year. Hopefully something will pop in my head when I'm trying to sleep, that's when I usually get my ideas.

Halloween Ornament Swap - Attempts

I've been playing around with halloween ornaments for a swap I'm participating in at 2peas. I don't know if I'm going to go with any of these but they are so much fun I can't stop making them. LOL. The theme is vintage so I made some pleated orange ribbon with silver ric rac to trim a few of the items. I think ric rac says vintage to me, especially silver ric rac. I went out and picked up some sticks out of the yard to make the little broom sticks, they were super easy-I picked up sticks cut a 6X2 inch square of felt, cut fringes on it, rolled around the stick and tied ric rac around it. I think they would be cute on a halloween tree but not so sure they would be vintage. I also made a witch finger complete with spider ring. I think they are cut but not quite sure if they would be considered vintage. But don't they sort of look like icicles you put on a Christmas Tree? I think so. The witch hat glue wasn't dry yet but they are a definite maybe. They are cuter in person than they look in the pic and I'm thinking a curly wire coming out of the top with beads and a spider hanging off would be cute. The round ornament looks vintage but it isn't doing it for me, KWIM? So if anyone's reading this...which one do you like best? Check back if you like ornaments because there will most likely be more because once I get started it's hard for me to stop. LOL.

Easy Patchwork Pillow

I found a quilt at a yard sale that had seen better days. It had holes in it and stains all over it. Therefore I got a good deal. I took the pieces that were good and made pillows from them. They look like they took a long time but they only took about 5 minutes each. The smaller pieces that aren't big enough for pillows I think I'm going to use to make patchwork birds for christmas ornaments. Or I may think of something else before then? Who knows.

Crayon Roll

Found this tutorial over on Skiptomylou. It's a great tutorial and it took about 30 minutes to complete. Great project! http://skiptomylou.wordpress.com/2007/04/25/on-a-roll/ I will probably make a lot of these for christmas presents. Would be cute to make it a little smaller for lip gloss too for teenagers on my gift list. Could also be used for make up brushes. Anything else anyone can think of?

July Banner

I made this banner to decorate for a 4th of July party. I cut the red and white striped fabric and star fabric into banner panels. Then I freehanded J-U-L-Y out of blue gingham pattern. Then use the zig zag stitch around the letters onto the panel and sew onto a length of ribbon to hang.

Pillowcase Envelope Pillow

I collect pillowcases. I just can't help myself when I see one with an interesting pattern I pick it up. It's already sewn so I usually just adjust it a little bit and make something else. I've made pillowcase dresses for my little girl, little skirts for her, and a few other things. Today I was playing around and made a 4th of july envelope case for some pillows I didn't like anymore. Here's how it turned out and it took about 5 minutes to make. Basically you stuff a pillow form into the bottom of a pillowcase. I had to add a little extra batting to make it fuller on one side. wrap the other end of the pillowcase like a present and sew around side that looks like an arrow before you fold it back and sew on a button. Then flip over onto the pillow form...Wallah you have a envelope pillow in less than 5 minutes.

Valentine's Day Advent Calendar

We have so much fun with the Christmas Advent I decided to make a Valentine's Advent calendar. I placed candy and little trinkets in the pockets for each day of the month leading up to Valentine's day for Natalie. I made this with felt, buttons, and ribbons. It was a lot of cutting but the end result made it worth it. I love the birds and the hearts and I used Red and turquoise one of my favorite color combos at the moment. I have an advent for Halloween, Valentines, and Christmas now. Hmm, What other holiday or event can I do a countdown calendar for? I can see one of these being made for a disney vacation countdown with stuff to use on the trip. How exciting would that be for kids? Wouldn't it make the anticipation so great!!! Too bad we aren't going to disney this year. Maybe next year!

What can you do with - OLD CD's?

I love to recycle so I had a lot of old cd's hanging around so my first installment of what can you do with...involves old cd's. I made a collage for my office at work. I just bought a canvas at Michaels, arranged the cd's and glued them on, punched out circular pictures and placed them in the center of the cd's. I think it turned out pretty cute. Very quick project and spices up those office walls.

Halloween Advent Calendar

Created this advent calendar after seeing it on the Pottery Barn website. Several girls at 2peas made a version. It took a while but I'm glad I did it.

Table Leg turned Flag Stand

My mom got me 2 Table Legs at a yard sale for FREE. She said you can come up with something for these can't you? So the challenge began... Well I've used half of one so far. I had DH cut the top part off the leg and drill holes for the flags and make a bottom piece to hold it up with. I saw a similar stand in the oriental trading magazine. I think it turned out pretty cute to be $1.25...the cost of the flags.

Altered Wooden Spools - Cookie Stand

Here is an old Wooden Spool I got at a yard sale. I took it and attached two wooden pieces on top and bottom with epoxy glue and painted it red. I found the glass hood at a store. It was supposed to be for a cheese ball. I stack cookies under the glass and they look cute.

Christmas Tin Ornament set

Here is a Christmas Ornament Set I made last year. I took the paper mache stars and covered them with scrapbook paper by decoupaging them. Then I took an AOL tin and painted it with acrylic paint and decorated with coordinated paper and tied a ribbon around it. Cute gift and great way to recycle those tins that come with the AOL CD's.