Summer Crafts

I have a whole slew of crafts on my list right now, but always seem to get distracted! We were invited to a fancy party, so here is the gift I came up with. The hair clips: please note the awesome zebra brad!
The skirt: tulle, ribbon, and elastic. So simple, but I love how it turned out! The hair clip here has some tulle and a brad in the center. This skirt is about a 2T. I also made one that is 12m, and then a 5T for Sevy!
Close-up of bow detail. I put it on a pin so it can be removed. Love it!
And finally, some of my gathered fabric flower clips. I love these! So simple but really cute!

Shoes and Signs

With so many babies about to enter our family (both Jon's and mine), it's made me very crafty! I found this Simplicity pattern and I knew I had to make these shoes! I'm hoping these will be cuter on, but I love the fabric, and as long as my baby really is a girl, she will be sporting them!
So, I doubt these will actually stay on a baby, but I loving how cute they turned out! I skipped a lot of steps (fusible felt, and jiffy grip) because I figured babies aren't really going to be walking anywhere and baby shoes are all about the look anyway!
I was at a consignment shop one day and I found these awesome letters! I got a ton of them (at a whopping $.25 a pop), and have been trying to decide how I'm going to use them. This is my first finished project with them. The board is a cabinet door I got from IKEA's 'as is' department for $1. The letters were a total of $1 for Sevy's name. The clips were the most expensive costing me a total of $3.76+tax. And the screws we had at home. We are currently working on Sevy's room, so this will go up when we are done!

Starting May with a BANG!

My sister Brandi is pregnant with baby #7, and I sadly realized I have never made her anything for her babies! I've had the cutest fabric lying around and decided it was high time she got an "Aunt Kat" quilt! This pattern comes from this book which I LOVE. It has a lot of cute baby quilt and other fun craft ideas! I'm lovin' on the backing fabric too!
Here is a slightly better picture of the front. One day I'll take photo's of my quilts on something other than my unmade bed!
While looking for fun fabric flower ideas I came across this blog and instantly fell in love with these flowers! I made them into hair clips, but you can also stick them on headbands, pins, pillows, or really anything! Give me fabric and felt and I am a happy camper!
Here is the collection I made. I did have 2 green ones, but somehow they disappeared when my son thought my craft desk was a good place to play instead of going to bed!
I'm slightly obsessed with certain colors of felt! I honestly don't remember where I came up with this idea. I believe is was a picture my sister-in-law sent me and I played off that. Anyhoo-I've had this done for months, and finally this week stuck it on a headband!
I LOVE how it turned out. Perfect for my five year old!

Projects in queue: Mother's Day gifts for Primary, Hounds-tooth quilt (just quilting and binding left), baby shower favors (just need to picture and post), baby shoes, dress for Sevy, and comfy dress for me!

April Crafting!

Easter time means Easter dresses! I stole the inspiration for Sevy's dress here, but being unwilling to spend the money, I figured I could make it myself! With the help of a Butterick pattern that I've had for years, I had the basic muslin dress, then added 8" strips of tulle folded over and gathered spiraling around from the bottom up, using lighter shades of purple until we got to the white layers on top! I took long strips of tulle (3 colors) and braided it for the belt, just tying a knot at the end of the braids. The head bow, I just gathered a strip of tulle into a flower, added a rhinestone brad to the center, and hot-glued it to a clip. Easy breezy. I love the belt, I love the skirt, but not sold on the top. Oh well! Maybe I'll fix it, or leave it as is!
Here is my work in progress. This is the quilt for baby #3! I got the pattern here, and love her (V and Co.) work! I have the back done now also, I just need to iron, layer, quilt, then bind. I'll post the finished product soon!
Backing, front, and my self-quilting attempts!
My sister-in-law Torrie has got me addicted to Thimble Blossoms quilts. She has made a few and they turn out ridiculously cute! For this quilt, I used the pint-sized pattern #129. Granted, my fabric choice is slightly out of control, but I love the way it turned out! I made it for my best-friend Kalle. If she hates it, I'll forgive her!

Garden Helpers

I found these cute little crafts in a Family Fun magazine and have been wanting to make them for MONTHS! Finally, I got around to making them. I'll be honest, mine aren't the cutest, but they do a great job of reminding me what I planted where!

How does your garden grow . . .

When asked what I LOVE about Houston, I can honestly answer year-round gardening! Today was gorgeous, and it's suppose to cool down this weekend, so I figured it was high time I attacked my much neglected garden!
Here are my radishes that I've left a little too long in the dirt! They are now each the size of my fist!
For some odd reason, I have the greenest thumb when it comes to tomatoes! My two longstanding tomato plants looked dry and dead and still I pulled two good-sized bowls of eatable fruits off them (oh, and a couple of pea pods I didn't pick yesterday!)! Too bad I don't like tomatoes!
And for the crown jewel of my garden! I grew broccoli! Isn't it gorgeous?! We are going to cut it and eat it for dinner on Sunday and Sevy is stoked! She wants to do the honors! While I was weeding my sad neglected garden, I also found little bundles of spinach I planted with the broccoli! That was a fun surprise! It seems to be doing alright, if not a little small! Ahhhh, the joys of gardening!

Recent Crafts

I always get the urge to craft during the Christmas season! I was looking through the Downeast catalog and saw this skirt and thought I could totally make that! Here is my take on it:
I've been loving the glamorous hair thingies that are all the rage right now (and have been for a bit) so I finally added a hair clip to this broach I found at a consignment shop like 6+ months ago! I felt very dolled up wearing it!
I have my brother Shawn for Christmas, and my mom mentioned making these shoes for his daughter Aviel. The pattern was originally sold in the 50's I believe and they were super easy and fun to do! I really hope they fit her!
Now I have some fabulous black polka-dot lace that I need to decide what I'm doing with . . . any suggestions?!

And a little bit of pixie dust . . .

I love Halloween! This only happened after I had kids and found a love of making their costumes! Here is a little sneak peak of this year's:I can't even tell you how much Jon has made fun of me because of these shoes. They were an ugly pink number that I bought from Marshall's which I then made worse by spray-painting them green! Luckily, after snipping off a strap, and sewing some ribbon around the worse part of the ugly, and then a giant pom and the rest of the ugly, we have Tinkerbell's shoes! (Jon says we could have bought the Walmart version of Tink's shoes for cheaper, and where I agree with him on that point, it's the principle of the matter!)

More pictures to come!

Thanks for the Idea Pottery Barn!

I love Pottery Barn. They always have the cutest things, but frankly, as students, I just can't afford basically any of it! That when I love stealing their ideas! It's nothing new for me. If you recall this post on my family blog, you see I steal their ideas often! So when I saw these Halloween treat bags:
I knew I had my next project! Jon loves sharks, and I loved these shark bags and that was it!
Here's my version of the treat bags. I have a tendency to try once, figure out what I would like to do differently, then do it again! (that's why I have 4 bags and only 2 kids!)
This is the one I made for Sevy in honor of her Tinkerbell costume (that I still need to make). I loved the pink bag in the above picture, but Tink is all about the green, so this was my take on it.
I had to get red felt for Teik's costume and I had tons extra and was itchin' to make a strawberry bag! you can't really see the detail here, but there's buttons for the seeds and my favorite addition--the little strawberry attached! Sevy will probably end up using this bag because she likes it too!
These were my first attempts and I love them! I learned after these that I need to double up the handle to make it sturdier, but other than that, they crack me up! The kids naturally love to put them on their heads so that the sharks are eating them! If you haven't checked PB kids, they also have a shark costume that is awesome (check it out here), but I'm not that adventurous in sewing!

Felt bags are super easy and super cheap (as compared to buying them). I think I made all four of these for under $10 total--and that's with enough material to make probably 4 more. Not bad for a little crafty project!

easy homemade granola

i checked out a great recipe book from the library called "baked: new frontiers in baking" by matt lewis and renato pliafito (check their website here). i've tried quite a few of the recipes and some were great and some failed miserably. i've been looking for a great granola recipe because my mom used to make the best granola when we were little. this one really is easy, and i've included my variations.

Yield: 1 pound

2 C rolled oats

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

3 T plus 1 tsp vegetable oil

1/4 C honey

1/4 C firmly packed light brown sugar

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/3 C whole almonds

1/3 C whole hazelnuts

1/3 C golden raisins

1/3 C dried cherries

preheat the oven to 325*F. line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

in a large bowl, toss the oats with the cinnamon and salt.

in a medium bowl, stir together the oil, honey, brown sugar, and vanilla. whisk until completely combined.

pour the honey mixture over the oats mixture and use your hands to combine them: gather up some of the mixture in each hand, and make a fist. repeat until all of the oats are coated with the honey mixture.

pour the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet. spread it out evenly, but leave a few clumps for texture.

bake for 10 minutes, remove from oven and use a metal spatula to lift and flip the granola. sprinkle the almonds over the granola and return the baking sheet to the oven.

bake for 5 minutes, remove from oven and flip granola. sprinkle the hazelnuts over the granola and return baking sheet to the oven.

bake for 10 minutes, then remove from oven. let cool completely. sprinkle the raisins and cherries over the granola and use your hands to transfer it to an airtight container. the granola will keep for 1 week.

*my own variations: i would lesson the amount of salt to 1/2 tsp (seems salty to me). i would also substitute sunflower seeds with the hazelnuts, and cranberries for the cherries. i am also going to try to make it a little clumpier next time. i think it would be fantastic over yogurt or over ice cream!

the skirt

i helped my sis-in-law with her first sewing project found here. The pattern was so simple and hers turned out so cute (check it out here), that i was itchin' to make my own. when ashley and i made hers, we thickened the waistband to like 3-4 inches so that she could wear it with a thick belt. i did the same alteration on my own. for my fabric, i used some purple broadcloth, and then layed this great black polka-dot lace over it. i sewed it just like the instructions called for, but in the end, i added about a yard of elastic to the bottom of the skirt to make it a bubble/tulip skirt more that the full skirt it called for. i love it! i want to find some sweet black tights with the seam up the back to fully finish the look!

Wedding Books

Here are some examles of wedding books I have made. The yellow one is a paper case binding with stripes embossed on the cover, a cutout picture frame, and ribbons through the binding to close. The second one is japanese inspired, but uses scrapbook closers on the inside to create a seemless cover. A frame was made on the cover to display the picture of the couple on the first page. Both books have scrapbooked photos on the inside of the couples with quotes on love.

flat back case binding

if you want the basic, most well known style of book, then you have the flat back case binding. it's a very sharp looking style that you can still be very creative with. you can do a variety of things with the actual textblock with colors, and lining. you can also create beautiful headbands, or add ribbon bookmarkers. the cover can be done in a whole variety of ways ranging from you basic scrapbooking paper or bookbinding clothe, to specialized handmade papers and embossing. in the end you are always pleased with the final look and sturdiness of the book.

japanese binding

this is a great binding style. i've used it for a few wedding sign-in books, and it is also great for a cute little picture book. this book is fun because you can bind it almost anyway you like. you can add beads and buttons to the binding, or even nails and sticks. i like to use bookbinding clothe or wallpaper for the hinge on the cover to create a very strong surface. the rest can be covered with anything from a magazine paper, scrapbook paper, a music sheet, or wallpaper. this book with the pioneers was made with a magazine picture that i then covered with mod podge to seal. the looks you can do are endless.

coptic binding

coptic binding is unique because you can see the braided binding up the spine and connecting to the cover and the back. this technique is fun because you can play with the binding's placement along the spine and even on the cover. this cover can be personalized with paper, embellishments, and even embossing.

paper case binding

here are a couple of examples of books you can make using just the paper case binding method. they are fairly quick to make, and can easily be personalized and jazzed up with the color of the binding or the design of the cover. paper case binding is primarily used as the sewing method for the textblocks in hard back books, but as you can see, they can stand on their own if not covered.