A girl for a week

My baby nephew was born on Dec. 23rd with an infection. So, he's been in Primary Children's hospital. We got to baby sit my niece while his mom and dad were in the hospital with him. Aside from the emotions of a girl, I had fun having a girl for a week!

I love cute hair flowers, but I never get the chance to make them because I have 3 boys. So, I got the chance to make a few!

I tried a few different techniques. All of these flowers were made by simply taking a strip of fabric about 2" wide by 18" long. I started by tieing a knot at the end... the not becomes the center of the flower. Then, you kind of just fold and twist while you hot glue. I'm sure there is some awesome blog out there with a tutorial on these flowers... I was too lazy to try to figure out how to take pictures while my hands were making the flowers. This pink flower was made by taking the same strip of fabric. Instead of twisting and hot gluing, I folded it in half the long way. Then I simply took a needle and thread and sewed along the non-folded edge. I gathered as a sewed. Then I sewed a button in the middle. This flower was made by taking a piece of fabric about 1.5" wide x 18" long. I simply tore the fabric to give it the shappy chic look. I then used a needle and thread to do a gathering stitch along the edge. I repeated with a piece of fabric 1" x 18" and then sewed the smaller one on top of the larger one. And sewed a button in the middle. I think they turned out pretty cute and it was fun to make some flowers out of fabric.... Next up... singed flowers.

Some of these flowers were made specifically to take pictures of this cute little girl....

I had fun trying out some photo techniques and fun editing in Iphoto and Photoshop elements. Now, I can't wait to go meet my new little nephew!!!

My Best Idea for a Long Time

With a little of this...

a wooden dowel and drawer pulls some disassembled flowers

Then I layered them together

on this rather large shelf.The shelf began its life on my little sister's wall. It was painted a midnight blue. Next I painted it a lavender color for my daughter. After that it was painted an almost periwinkle blue for my new baby boy (now three).

I have now repainted it again for my daughter. It used to have those little pegs meant to have connected-wick candles (remember those for home decor?) and other such items, but I did NOT look forward to finding hanging objects for this round of decorating.

My simple solution was to buy a dowel to fill all those tiny holes with. I cut it into small pieces. I found the drawer pulls and when I knew I wanted them to be a different color, the idea of their being the center of a flower turned out to be perfect.

I hammered the dowels in, fitted the flowers over those and capped each off with the drawer pulls. Very inexpensive and my daughter loves it.

-C

March Snow Showers bring Fabric Flowers

It snowed this weekend. But I was in the mood for flowers. So, I used Cami's Sizzix and some super cool wool fabric that I got from my mom's stash and I made some fabric flowers. I met a girl in my neighborhood a few months ago that was wearing a fabric flower similar to these. I asked her how she made them and she kind of explained it to me. So, I thought I would do my version and see how it turned out.

For these flowers you will need 6 flowers. We cheated and cut the flowers out on the Sizzix with a flower die. You could trace and hand cut the flowers if you want. I am using different colors in my sample flower so that you can see the layering easier. Step 1: Take your first two flowers and off set them. Using a needle and thread, just pull the need through from the back. Step 2: Fold the other 4 flowers in half (I ironed mine for the picture, but don't do that. You want them to fluff up). Step 3: Layer the flowers like you would fold closed the top of a box... turning a quarter turn for every flower. Step 4: Put your layered flowers on top of your other two flowers and pull that needle through the flowers again. Sew a couple of stitches through to make sure you get every layer. Step 5: With that threaded needle still in your flower, sew a button in the middle.

Now, my multi-colored flower is a little wonky... but kind of cute. But let me show you some of my cuter flowers. Gotta love my mom's stash of fabric!!! -Anisa

Scripture Bag

My daughter was baptized into our Church on Saturday. My husband and I gave her her first set of scriptures and a scripture tote. I picked one up at Seagull Book (a Utah based store) for $5. Here it is:

Cute color. Definitely girly, but lacking in personality I think. Using the fabric flower I did here (tutorial found here) with fabric in my stash and some ric rac I had on hand, her bag no longer lacks personality.

I also did the ric rac on the back.

Everything is sewn directly to the bag by hand. I was able to get it completely finished in just a couple of hours. (Less if you don't have to stop to get kids from school and feed them ;)

Why Should Teachers Have All the Fun?

As reported earlier...it is back to school time for our kids due to a year-round school schedule. This time of year just happened to coincide with the over-due over haul of my crafting room. As any true crafter knows, the best way to clean up the craft room is to finish at least 5 of your unfinished projects.

I did that.

Up next on the old to-do?

Examine odd items I've been holding on to then use or toss in the trash.

The first thing I saw was a long rectangular frame that my mom picked up at a garage sale. The frame had a maple look and the picture was paper-pieced flowers and bees. Not uncute, but too outdated, too cute for me.

I took the frame, removed the glass and painted it black with acrylic craft paint.

Next I saw this large roll of cork paper (3 mm thickness) and I decided to make them into a bulletin board with unusual dimensions.

I took the glass from the frame and used it as a pattern to score the cork paper. Cork paper isn't very thick so I did this three times to create enough support for anything I wanted to stick in there.

The paper only needed a light scoring and then it was ready to break easily along the lines.

I layered the three pieces of cork paper and replace the backing on frame sans glass.

I finished off this cute project with a cork paper flower. This cork paper is 1 mm thick and slips easily into a paper punch (EK Success made this punch).

The red button finished it off nicely and then it inspired another idea! I needed pins for my cork board. I used a wire cutter to remove the pinhead off a regular sewing pin (seems I have an abundance right now (may be they multiplied on there own when they saw what great homes I had made for them). Next I found two identical buttons, stuck a glue dot (I use the Glue Dots brand) on each of them and sandwiched the pin in between. Here they are on the board. Simple practical and I didn't have to buy anything new for any of it!

Fabric Flowers

I have seen different versions of fabric flowers all over the blog-o-sphere and have tried some. This one from Pink Paper Peppermints , however, is my favorite so far. It was so easy to whip up and a fun addition to anything-bags, pins, magnets, clothes. Having little girls though, my favorite use is for hair accessories. Like these sweet little darlins' I made for a friends new baby girl. Get the how-to here. Instant craft gratification. My favorite! (One small note: My flowers here are half the size of the tutorial. For this particular friend, small and delicate was the better option.)

A Simple Gift

Today was my 1st graders last day of school and we wanted to do something special for her teacher. This teacher has fostered such a great love of general learning and specifically reading in my daughter. Normally I like small, simple, inexpensive things, but this year I opted for a nice gift card to Barnes and Noble. Being a crafter, I couldn't just let it go at having my daughter hand her beloved teach a gift card! So-with a little inspiration from my mom and Skip to My Lou, I came up with this cute little flower/sucker bouquet. I cut my flowers using the Cricuit and the George and Basic Shapes cartridge. The suckers are homemade, but you could easily use store bought suckers. Stick the suckers down the middle of the flowers and into a floral foam piece inside the pot. I didn't have any ribbon that coordinated with the flowers, but I did have a different piece of patterned scrap paper that would work. I trimmed it to fit the rim of the flower pot and adhered it with double sided tape. This in itself would make a cute little gift for a friend, teacher, coworker, etc. If you want to add a little gift card though, take a plastic fork, stick your card in, and push the fork handle into the foam as well. As you can see, it looks like the card from the florist.

Cute, easy, and fast. (How fast? I did it this morning as my daughter was getting ready for school. Can we say procrastinator??:) )

If you want to make your own suckers, here's the recipe:

Supplies you'll need:

-candy thermometer

-sucker molds

-sucker sticks

Suckers:

1 c. sugar

1/3 c. light corn syrup

1/2 c. water

1/2 tsp. food coloring (or as desired)

1/2 tsp. flavoring

For fruity flavors: 1/8 tsp. citric acid crystals dissolved in 1 tsp water

Set up sucker molds with sticks on marble slab or aluminum foil. Spray with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.

Boil water, sugar and corn syrup til about 290 (just before hard crack stage). Remove from heat; add food coloring and stir. Add citric acid if desired. Add flavoring. Stir and pour carefully into sucker molds and allow to cool. Remove gently from molds. Wrap individually or place in Ziploc bag. Enjoy!

This and That

I am a social and chronological srapbook. Basically, most of my scrapbooking gets done at crops or other craft gathering. Thus far, I've also been a straight chronological scrapbooker. I start with January and go through December. I get all the holidays, birthdays, camping trips, vacations, etc. but not so much of the little things like where we like to shop, silly habits and quirks of family members and the like. I also don't do a book for each of my kids (Shock! What a bad mom!!) I don't do any other sort of mini album either. Well, once I did a mini book of a vacation my husband and I took together but I swear-nothing else. It's always confused my simple mind to do anything different. Now that my kids (and me too) are getting older, I'm thinking of changing my ways a little, but more on that another day. For now here is my basic process. This is what I will probably never change.

I scrapbook the traditional way with printed pictures, paper and embellishments bought at a craft store, adhesives and trimmers. I love it. It's like putting a puzzle together. As soon as I pull out an envelop of pictures, I immediately separate them into smaller stacks like the first day of school, swimming lessons, etc. Next I take the top stack (remember-I'm obsessive about going in chronological order) and lay all the pictures out to narrow down my choices.

As soon as my pictures have been picked, I hit the books. I have three books I consistently use: Becky Higgins Sketch Book (the first one), Easier-than-Ever scrapbooking (Creating Keepsakes), and Imagine (Close to My Heart). I also have some templates I bought at a Making Memories warehouse sale that I love.

I always have to sketch out my layout, even if the book is there. I'm a guidelines kind of gal. I like the look of a page, but don't want to be influenced to much be someone else's designs and tastes. I've also found after using these things for a few years, there are a few layouts I use over and over like the one below. I finally had the courage to tweak my standard 6 (4 x 6) pictures to fit 4 vertical ones and one horizontal. And thanks to my "imagine" book, I've also been more courageous in learning to use patterned paper in different ways.

Which is my next step after sketching. I usually find my patterned paper and build my cardstock choices around that.

Then the fun part-making all that work come to life. I'm not huge on embellishments, but sometimes I'll issue myself a challenge like using my stash of stickers, flowers, etc or trying something new like chipboard or buttons. It keeps it fun and interesting.

(Sorry about this one-blogger kept turning the orientation on this photo. I'll keep working on it.)

(Same with this one. Sorry again.)

You'll notice something missing from both layouts. Journalling. Never been too good at getting it done. I'm working on it. :)

Everyday, from here to there, there are crafters everywhere!

We asked and a wonderful few of you responded with photos of some of your favorite or recent hand-made crafts:

First we have two from Shellie:

a door hanger and a pretty Spring wreath. Rachel made this paper-piecing picture after being inspired by this post by Anisa.

and Kristen writes: I have been dying to know how to make these, and you have a way of showing and explaining EVERYTHING that I just "get it" and I get excited!!!

She made these hair accessories after looking at this tutorial by Angie.

We're going to showcase more reader crafts in the future and look forward to seeing your work. Don't forget to take pictures of those hand-made gifts before giving them away!

Also, remember! This Saturday is National Scrapbook Day! Print up some pictures, pull out that gorgeous patterned paper you've been wanting to use and record some memories.

In honor of National Scrapbook Day we'll be doing a lot of scrapbooking posts, ideas, and show-casing! Send us scans or photos of your favorite pages and we'll do another reader post at the end of May (digital scrapbook pages wanted, too!)

Awesome Tutorials

So, the other day I was blog hopping through links on some of my favorite sites. I came across this insanely awesome post The Princess and the Monkey has put together and keeps updated. It's a ginormous collection of tutorials-everything from hand bags, things to put in your purse, clothes, toys, etc. Some things found here I'd like to try (and their links):

No-sew (love it already) fabric flower clips:

From: miffy's world

Gadget wallet:

From: Hoppo Bumpo

Little Clippies

I've had some requests for a little how-to on cute hair accessories. I am in no way a professional at this, but I do have lots of fun. I thought for today we'd start with the easiest-flowers and covered clips. Fun, easy and a great addition to your little (or big) girls spring wardrobe! Supplies: flowers (Petaloo-Flora Doodles) ribbon (3/8" wide American Crafts Everyday Ribbon "Wink") buttons (American Crafts Flair "Friends") alligator clips (can usually find by the beading supply section) hot glue or other strong adhesive ruler scissors music (duh!) All my cute flowers, ribbon and buttons were purchased in the scrapbooking department. To start (for 1 clip): Cut ribbon 4 1/4" long. Open alligator clip and run some hot glue along the underside of top clamp and stick your ribbon on. Continue gluing your ribbon all along the outside of the clip until you run out of ribbon. Set clip aside. For the flowers: I chose to layer different colors of flowers from a scrapbook kit. Hot glue layers together. (You could easily just use a cute flower from the floral department-just pull the backing off enough that the flower will lay flat on your clip.) Add a center-These flowers came with centers, but you could use whatever buttons you have or jewels or beads...The possibilities are endless. Glue flower piece to clip and voila! You're done!! Easy ribbon bows: Cover the clip same as the flower clip. Take another piece of ribbon (4 1/4" long) and fold the ends in (overlap them) to make a bow. Hot glue both ends down and glue seam side down to clip. Use a button, jewel, small flower, etc. for the center. Button Clip: Cover clip as before. Hot glue cute button on. How easy is that?! Now how do we care for our cute new clippies? You could make (or buy) one of those cute ribbon memo boards or you could swipe an old key ring from your hubby's key chain collection, glue some ribbon on it. Hang it on the wall and instant bow storage! Enjoy!!