craftyness

Valentines Day is here, or just about and I need some festive decorations for our house, so since I have gobs and gobs of ribbon thought It would be fun to make a ribbon wreath out of all the pinks and purple ribbons I have, I think it turned out really nice.


I have always been imtimdated bu quilting so when I needed a project to keep my busy during the long month of January I turned to sewing, it's very relaxing and I get so excited just thinking about sewing! So with a tiny craft budget I though I would use what I already have, tee shirts, lots of tee shirts, this is just one of many I will be making, Gary has a ton of shirts I need to cut up. Although this isn't the finished product, you can see how the quilt is laid out. I put black fleece for the backing, and sewed the right sides together and then turned it right side out and then sewed the edge again to make it look finished and then the last step was to tie it with embroidery floss! it's supper cozy and was a ton of fun to make...


What's my next project you ask? well, after working on my scrap book for last year I am working on an Alphabet collage for Chloe's room, pictures of that will be coming soon and then making around 500 cards for mother's day, I am involved with a project called Cards for Soldiers, we make cards for the soldiers so they can send cards to their loved ones. currently we have three units deployed from our area, with about 600 soldiers in each unit. we have two women working on this project, and it's super fun!

Our 4th of july celebration

Fourth of July was on a Sunday, So how did I dress Chloe to Celebrate the 4th? Thats right, a tutu is the only thing that will do! Ok So that might be over the top but I couldn't resist finding some tulle for 25 cents at our local thrift store, that screamed to me make a tutu you know you want to when i picked up the red and blue tulle in a bag how could any one resist right? So under 10 min. I made a tutu for her to wear to church. A little much Maybe but come on, it's fourth of july you have to have some fun in the morning if your going to church right? I thought so!


your thinking OMG can she get any cuter? I don't know how?

Saturday was our town's big celebration and they had a small petting zoo, she enjoyed giving gentle and soft touches to the Llamas, I couldn't help saying is your Mamma a Llama?? you know the popular childrens book? We had fun, Chloe had lots of fun



After a great morning on Saturday Chloe was able to take a much needed nappy so I was able to make this adorable bald eagles, yes they are really that cute, they took some time but paid off, every one loved these little creatures. In case you might not know, I some what have a secret obsession with Bald Eagles, I love them, just look at my older post from Valentines day 2008
yes about 36 eagles later I was done! here is the link if you ever want to make them
http://www.delish.com/recipes/cooking-videos/how-to-make-bald-eagle-treats

I should note that instead of using frosting for the eyes, (aparently I wasn't good a making eyes with frosting) I used regular chocolate chips for the eyes I just stuck them on with left over almond bark.
Speaking of left over almond bark, I had plenty so I used it up pretzel style with cute stars from the Hy-Vee bakery. The genleman at the counter who helped me gave me three times the normal about of "sprinkles" they usually give some one (like 3-4 oz) for just $1, I still have stars sprinkles left over!



Last but not lest, So remember that Thrift store I told you about earlier with the tulle, yep I got this awesome table runner there too! 50 cents, and it was mine, actually it was 25 cents, since all 4th of July stuff was marked Half! can you believe it! I previously made the napkins and since I didn't have any napkin ring holders, I made them with my left over ribbon, I am so proud that all this stuff came together

I hope you all had a great 4th! our family did.

why

Althought I haven't gotten asked this one word (why) by Chloe yet, I can feel it coming I thought I would Answer the question I have been asking my self for this past year, Why do I do all this crafty stuff?

As simple as I can say, it's because it's a) It's Cheaper than Therapy. b) Cheaper than rx drugs, although dr. pharm d. Daddy says other wise. (most of the popular ones are on any $5 lists)

The real reason why I love to craft and create things is that I hardly make any rules for my self when I do craft. who cares if I make a mistake on something, it was meant to be. Opps a big paint, glue, ink, blob got on to my work, oh I'll well make it work. I seem to enjoy not worring about the small stuff that comes into my life, and when it comes to my "work". I also enjoy the feeling that wow I took this ____ materials and made that! I love it. I also seem to forget about the every day stuff that goes on, and channel that creativity to what really matters my family. So This post really should be a big huge thank you letter for Gar to let me stay home and keep our house a happy home. As Picasso said " Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. That is what I live for.

Some of the things I have been creating this past month, Post of what or how I did this to come, and more

A Hoddie towel, you can't seem to have enough of these...
yes that horrible wall is now covered in a fun shade of purple, and yes I made that curtian, it's made from Eyelet fabric and I love it. Thanks MS (Martha Stewart) for the pattern/advice, from her new encyclopedia of fabric crafts


Chloe Approved Taggie blinkies, (I made one for little miss but doesn't like it) so I went straight to her fav taggie blankie and copied it and sure enough she didn't want to let go, (these are not for her although she should have a back up one.. I am still holding on that she will use the one I made her.)

A Chalk board desk, Chloe loves it! So do all the other kiddos that come to visit




You can sorta see it, the Lilly flower that has finally surfaced. I know this is not my conventional crafty thing but since spring we have been getting the water right to grow these beauties!

And lastly my little herb garden/back yard oasis! I love having fresh herbs just the other night I cooked chicken breasts and snipped some fresh rosemary for the seasoning and wow, I tasted like something you ate at a nice snazzy restaurant! I love taking care of my little herb garden.

Summer time Flip Flops

I love the beach and I am not able to go this year, bummer huh. Oh well I brought it to my feet and I can't help but to smile every time i where these cuties!

To make them you need some beads and wire or cording, I tied the wire to the end/bottom of the side of the flip flop and then started stringing on the beads a couple at a time and then kept wrapping them around until I got to the other end and then tied them on a gain. it took me about maybe 1.5 hours to figure out how to make it work and to finish so next time it should only take me the time to do it and that would take about 3o min. if you have all the design elements in mind! Of course I would love comments on what you think about my "project mommy" projects

Hair accesories

I have been working on project mommy, since 1. I never seem to "buy" accessories for my self for countless reasons and 2. I can't really wear necklaces and bracelets around little munchkin (Chloe) and 3. there are no stores in Iowa Falls to buy cute accessories for my self I decided to do my own thing.
I have been making hair accessories this pass month and I love them I have been using left over fabric from other projects. it's supper easy to make and takes less than 5 min. per head wrap/head band!
If you want all the directions you can go to
http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2009/08/fabric-head-band.html

I also have a passion for um beads, lots of them! So when I forgot that I had some really fun butterfly swarvaski crystal findings they screamed out to me and said use me in a barret so that is what I had to do, so with some needle and tread and lots of time and patience i was able to make a cute barret. The blue one, was done with the same idea, they look great in my hair and I feel a bit more stylish!

my way of Scrapbooking

this weekend little miss thing got to spend the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa, what do I get to do with out our little miss thing while Daddy was at work..... (big smile)(this photo was when Chloe was at Grandma's house last weekend)

I got to go to a scrap booking get together by a friend that put this amazing thing for us gals in the area, she does it just because and it was totally an amazing thing that she calls: Camp Crop a lot (cropping as a word us scrappers use as a get together when we scrapbook together) It was at Pine Lake in Eldora and the camp site that we used was truly beautiful, if i wasn't running short on time I would have wanted to walk around the lake. The first two pictures were of Chloe when she was at the hospital the day after she was born, and then her 1 year pictures, I worked on her book when I was "cropping"

So as I finish Chloe's first year pictures I have learned a lot about my style of scrap booking. there is no thinking about it, if I like the picture and it works with the story I am trying to get across it goes in, if not then I don't include that picture.

so for my first step that I do is get all the pictures in order on how I want to scrap book them. then when I get a pile of them printed I have the pictures in a stack (group) of what I want on each page or event for examples I had a some pictures of chloe making a mess when she ate so all of those pictures go into a stack with a post it note attached to them explaining what I want to tell on the page. If it's a big event lets say Christmas day I then decide to do a two page layout.

After I have them all catogorized I go group by group. I pick out the paper for the page, then a secondary piece of paper that is usually a scrap piece that will work with the pictures and the pages. I then glue that down where I want that scrap piece at and then I put photo corners on the pictures and get it on to the page. So what you have is a lay out with just paper and pictures. the design part of knowing where you want your pictures should take less than 2 minutes, just do it and don't think about how it works... as long as your eye flows from picture to picture that is all that matters.

After I am done with my batch of group pictures for each page (usually I have about 20 groups of pictures to put on 20 pages, it saves time I then type and print my jornaling and past it on to the page

then I embellish the page with stickers, die cuts and stamps.

Then they finish pages go into the protectors and then into the album... supper easy right?

that is how I have been able to get her scrap book done from her first year, and have about 100 pages in her book! I know a little crazy but it works for me and then I don't have to use photo albums.

my rules to scrapbook are these
1. Dont spend more than 5 minutes on the lay out (sometimes that's the hardest) Lay out meaning how I want the pictures on the page with the paper.
2 Always use some sort of grid system to my lay out
3.if the pictures isn't helping tell the story then don't use it. (same goes if it's blury)
4. the pictures come first, every thing else is scondary including the paper and stickers don't fluff up the page to much and
5. make sure what you are putting in the book is photo safe and acid free and never glue pictures to anything, use photo corners!
6. If all else fails, I fall back to Keep it simple sweetie (kiss)

My next projects will be:
first one I will work on: 8.5x10 scrapbook of our family for this year, each year will be a book
Second one will be a heritage album to preserve the pictures of our ancestors.
Third project will be a series on a smaller album of the mommy, daddy, grandma grandpa book. where it's a book on just me, gar, and grandparents. what we love, what we do, who we are and so on... that one should be really fun!

Car Seat caddy

my third real sewing project was this car seat caddy, I love it! there is room for all the stuff that I put on the floor when we go places. So now there is a spot for books, toys, juice boxes, even a spot of cd's, which will come in handy for long trips when I can sit back there with her!

I made if from a Mc Calls pattern, the hardest part about it all was encasing all the sides with bias tape, and making some, as I ran out! opps, I guess when they call for their brand name bias tape you better make sure the "other" brand name bias tape is the same length, oh well you can't tell that I ran out of blue bias tape right?

next week I am making one for the car (it going to be more girly) pink and black!