Black Apple Doll Party... so much fun!!!

So, I wanted to post the pics of the girls and their dolls. This turned out to be so much fun.

They are so great because they each have their own characteristics. The girls picked their fabric, felt hair color and all of their embellishments. They even painted their own faces on. It took us almost 2.5 hours to complete the dolls. I did all of the sewing, but the girls did the rest. They cut out the fabric, stuffed, drew on faces, etc. They all loved their dolls and had tons of fun chatting while they worked!!! -Anisa

Sunshine Award

A big Thank You to Jennifer at Because I Can Crafts for awarding us the Sunshine Award!!! It's always nice to know there is someone out there that loves what we do!!! The Sunshine Award, is awarded to bloggers whose positivity and creativity inspires others in the blog world. The rules for accepting this award are:- Put the logo on your blog or within your post, Pass the award on to 12 bloggers, Link the nominees within your post, Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog, Share the love and link to the person from whom you have received this award.

So, here are my 6 favorite blogs...

1. Maggies Holmes Photography and Scrapbook Blog... She used to live across the street from me and I just LOVE her scrapbooking style! I also love her photography.

2. UCreate... I just have to go to her site whenever I am looking for a new creative idea.

3. Nanny Goat... Cute ideas that are my style.

4. Games for Family Night... easy, simple, ready to print FHE lessons.

5. Dear Lizzy... love her scrapbooking style.

6. Make it and Love it.... The blog has a totally new look and it's even better than before.

-Anisa

And six of my (Cami's) favorites:

1. A Beautiful Mess -Once a Creating Keepsakes darling, Elsie is an individual in a sea of crafters. She's adorable to boot and has a really fun personality. Lately, she's been adding mini-tutorials to her blog.

2. How About Orange-A fabric designer with a fantastic sense of humor and self. She has great ideas, finds great stuff at Etsy.com and occasionally has a great internet time-waster on there for fun (or inspiration). Tutorials and photo-fun as well.

3. Craftaholics Anonymous-This girl oozes clever creativity with the power of using-your-supply-stash

4. The Purl Bee- This is mainly a knitting site, but they have crochet as well, but truly, I like visiting because it is an absolutely lovely site.

5. My Mama Made It- So creative when it comes to sewing. I have little blips of sewing skills, but this woman oozes skill. I LOVE the kids' clothes.

6. Ric-Rac- Lots of fun here! Toys, dolls, felt, vintage charm, sewing...

-C

Chained Daisy Pin

It's Teacher Appreciation week at my son's school and we LOVE his teacher. When he told me that her favorite flower was a daisy, I wanted to do something crafty as a little gift for her. I came up with the Chained Daisy Pin. First of all, I crocheted this daisy (found in 100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet by Lesley Stanfield)Instructions: Chain 6 with yellow yarn and join with slip stitch into a ring. Chain 1 then 11 single crochet in ring (12 stitches). Using white yarn continue [11 chain, slip stitch in next single crochet] twelve times in each single crochet from the first round. Fasten off and weave in ends. Next, I lightly misted the flower with water and gently stretched and shaped the petals to how I want them to look and let that dry flat. I cut pieces of moss colored felt freehand: one petal and two circles for mounting the flower. I used embroidery floss (1 and 2 ply) to bring it all together.

Taking the larger circle, I sewed on the brooch mount.

You may be tempted to use hot glue.

Don't.

Hot glue doesn't like metal, long term. Sewing holds it closer and looks so much better.Sandwich the leaf (make sure it's where you want it in relation to the brooch mounting pin) in between the two circles and whipstitch around the smaller circle, joining all three felt pieces.When flower is dry, use tiny stitches with floss to attach petals to the felt. You want the petal tips to have free movement, so stitch around the edge of the larger circle and leave them free. Just make sure you stitch into each side of each petal to keep it lying flat.Here you have it!

I used a size G crochet hook and worsted weight yarn. Any variations with make the flower larger or smaller.

--C

Scrapbooking Again!!!

So, I had to get a job about 5 months ago. The job is dumb.... I answer phone calls for people who call in to buy stuff from infomercials. But, I get to work from home in my PJ's in my craft room. I can't complain too much. So, for the past couple of months I have been spending my time at work getting ready for the boutique. I have to admit I made everything for the boutique while I was at work. I can even sew on slow nights.

So, after the boutique was over, I found myself a little bored. I haven't quite come up with any projects for myself... yet. So, I decided to catch up on a little scrapbooking.

This layout is a 11x8.5 of my two boys and their "bling" necklaces my dad gave them.

This layout is a 6x6 of my baby at 16 months.

We do have a blog where we post our layouts occasionally. It's called Twiddle Scraps. I may be posting some of my other layouts there, so check it out!!!