Wrap Pants

So I saw these pants and thought I would like to try them. They are comfortable, adjustable to the waist and big at the bottom, which I liked.

http://laupre.wordpress.com/2008/06/29/easy-breezy-wrap-pants-tutorial/


They look so cool and trendy on her.


Well, I got out a sheet that I had in a box and tried them. This was the original, made to her instructions, except that I used buttons because I found that they were so big around the waist.





You can see that my pair is not near as cool and trendy - and look terrible on me! So I cut the front of the pants off to make them a little less huge and put a string on them instead, thinking this would make the legs less humongous. I don't think I'll be wearing these babies anywhere except to bed! They are quite comfortable, as promised, but my, they don't look good!

Congrats Lion

I made this for baby Sean today and plan to send it to his mom tomorrow. So thankful for a healthy baby boy! Maybe not the most baby-ish of colors, but I like the looks of the card, and just wasn't in a baby blue mood today!

I aged all the pieces of vanilla cardstock by patting an old toothbrush in my Chocolate Chip ink pad and then patting it on the paper. I thought the technique was really easy and fast and not near as messy as splattering the ink with the toothbrush (though that was the technique I was planning to use if this failed!). I plan to do it again.

Sympathy

I regret to say that I made two of these this week. Not that I dislike the card, but it is my least favorite kind of card to make. I put a few clear flowers stamps on my clear block and stamped them randomly in Cranberry ink on the Vanilla cardstock. I stamped the sentiment on barely patterned paper in the same ink, put a cut of ribbon behind it off to the side and matted it a few times to make it pop. Then set it all at an angle. I almost didn't angle it, but it seemed too boxy.

I just can't get stop myself from making monochromatic cards. I don't know why, but I seem to like them best....and they are so easy! No matching necessary.

Happy St. Patricks Day

I wanted to create a card for St. Patrick's Day, but only had one stamp for the holiday and that was this shamrock. I decided to go with swirls and dots since the shamrock was covered with swirls and this sentiment had dots following the butterfly. Since I do not believe in luck, I wanted to use this sentiment instead of the traditional "good luck" type ones. I simply stamped the shamrock three times, put it on the green strip, evenly spaced with a little extra on the right. Added a torn circle of coffee fliter and a green jewel brad on that empty space. Then I stamped the card and the light green with the same stamp and green ink. I simply stamped it closer together on the light green to give it some variety. I mounted the sentiment on an angle on the right.

I made two more cards with the die cuts that slide on ribbon, and the stickers I got from my mom. On all these cards, I tried to just match color scheme to the stickers.

This first one, I used a piece of paper to put through the holes on the die cut and stamped in Chocolate Chip and More Mustard on the Vanilla cardstock. I also pressed the die cut into a Mustard stamp pad before I put the sticker on so that it would have a little texture. Stamped the branches onto the Chocolate cardstock in VersaMark and put it all together.

On the second one, I used an over

sized Vanilla ribbon that I had to fold to fit it into the holes, and I put it all on some patterned cardstock. I stamped the bird in Cranberry and the flower in Mustard and put it all on Mustard cardstock to form the card. These are so easy!

I decided to make a cover for my Bible to match my new purse. Thanks Tracy for the idea and the link!

http://www.fiber-images.com/Free_Things/Projects_Patterns/free_patterns_sewing.html#BookCover

These instructions were pretty easy to follow and I made it in less than 2 hours. The next one will probably take a lot less time, but I had to take the handles out and put them on again because I incorrectly put them in when stacking the pieces for sewing.

I made the handles from strips of fabric that I sewed into a tube, turned inside out and pressed flat. I think the cover looks great, if I may say so myself!

New Die Cuts and Stickers

For Valentine's Day my mom gave me some fun new things that inspired me on these four cards. I decided to post them all together, since they're all kinda similar and I didn't think they needed a whole lot of explaination. She gave me some of those glossy, raised stickers in different shapes with different words on them, and she gave me a set of die cuts that cut these great little shapes for you to put a ribbon through. I put the two of them together and made these great cards! Aren't they fun?! The last two, I used a piece or two of cardstock instead of ribbon because I didn't have the right color ribbon.

Second Hobo and Skirt

This is the purse I ended up making. The fabric wasn't my favorite, but I wanted something that would work with brown or black - because I am not the type to be changing my purse with every outfit - but do think it's important not to wear black shoes with and a brown purse. I put a couple pockets into this one and added a middle layer of some black-out fabric I had left over from the sunroom curtains for stability (only because I didn't have interfacing, and refused to wait to go to the store another day). I made the straps a lot longer so I can wear it across my chest because my purses tend to fall off my shoulder when holding the toddler hands and walking across the parking lot! Now, I think it needs a snap in the center to hold all the stuff in that I'll be stuffing into this large bag!

I also have reconstructed a skirt - another result of playing "What Not To Wear" in my closet. I had this jumper/mini-dress from at least 10-15 years ago and have always loved the feel of the material. Since I was just not totally willing to give the thing up, I decided it might work as a skirt. So I cut off the top of the jumper and folded down and sewed a waistband. Easy as that.

Here I am wearing both!

Galloping Horse

I needed a fun and special card for my niece's 5th birthday, and also wanted to play with some of my new toys, so I got out my Big Shot and set to it. I stamped the purple cardstock (her fav color) with 5's in VersaMark ink. She is very into horses, so I decided to use this fun little kids sticker on the die cut and put it on a piece of ribbon. That way she can 'gallop' across the card with the little horse! I used the star shaped dies in a teal color to match the horse and placed them randomly on the front. The inside says something like "Happy Birthday - from our herd." I hope she has fun with it!

Practice Purse

I have been wanting to make a hobo purse for ages. Bought the pattern a year or two ago. Never have done it because I'm intimidated by the thought that I'll have to completely decipher the pattern myself! (My sister is the sew-er, not me!)
I decided to look for an easy and well explained pattern on craftster, and found a purse that I thought I could do. Then, since I was still not sure of myself, I decided to cut up a skirt that was in the trash heap in my room. (I played What Not To Wear last weekend with a friend and cleared out my closet!) This was the result:



I used an old bedsheet for the liner and the floral print is the old skirt fabric. Both were very flexible/flowing fabrics, so I ended up with a purse that is quite floppy. I decided to tie the handle, instead of sewing the top together, like the pattern suggests. Maybe it's not quite my style with the big florals, but I think I'll start to look for a different fabric and try this again. I will plan to make the strap longer though....

Jewelery Frame

I admit it. I am a ripper. I love to rip pages out of magazines to save for ideas. I have folders of garden ideas, folders of holiday ideas, folders of ideas for certain rooms of the house. I have been looking through the ideas for some fun projects to do, and this one caught my eye this week.

I took an old frame someone handed down to me (Yes, I admit to being a pack-rat too!) and spray painted it this hammered silver color. Then got some little screw eyes from my husband's shop and put 6 of them (3 on each side) on the inside of the frame at equal distances from the top. Then I strung a wire between the screw eyes and twisted the ends.

Then just put two nails in the wall over my jewelery box, and hung on some of my dangle earrings. I love it because it's functional, and it shows off the baubles that usually sit in a drawer. I also think it will inspire me to wear them more....and I definitely think I look better with earrings on!

RibbonBoards

My sister requested ribbon bulletin boards for her girl's rooms for Christmas. I am planning to make one for our daughter as well, but lost steam today after doing these two and will do it another day. I decided to take pictures of the process, in case anyone was interested in seeing how it was done. First, I got a piece of 1/4 inch particle board from Lowes, and had them cut it in thirds before leaving the store.

I placed the boards on batting and cut it a little larger. This gives a little padding under your fabric. I thought it was optional, but now that I have it made, I think it is necessary! You'd feel every particle in the board and it gives a little cushion to the ribbon later on.

Then I put the fabric around the board, on top of the batting, and stapled it all around the edges, making the corners crisp.

Then wrap the ribbon (I bought some cotton-ish white strip at the fabric store. Don't know what it was called, but it was 10 cents a yard, and I liked the look of it. )around the board on a diagonal. I placed mine 6 inches apart. Put all the ribbons on one direction first. When you add the ribbons the other direction, weave them over/under the first ribbons to give everything more stability and help hold the papers in. I would probably do less than 6 inches if I had it to do over....I didn't realize that the smaller papers will sometimes fall out.

This is the finished product. These are really big, and I think they will hold a lot of their artwork safely and easily. Fabric is their favorite colors - so I hope they match their rooms for years to come!

Christmas Card Ribbon

I have been wanting to do a little greenery in our house. For one, I love the look of live greenery. For two, we use an artificial tree, so I wanted a little green-smell. For three, the rosemary grows like a weed, and we have a bunch of it.

So I pulled out these ribbons that we used in the church when we got married, wired together a little trimmings and put them on either end of a ribbon that I'm using to fill an empty wall and to display the Christmas cards this year. I like it! The greenery really adds a lot to it.

You will see in the bottom of this photo that we have a fun recent purchase! Anyone want to come over for a game of shuffleboard!?

Recycled Ornament IV

Another envelope craft! This was red & white. I thought it was perfect for Christmas! I did every other scalloped circle red and added the ribbon. See two posts below for the other sample!

Quilled Invitation

Here's a wedding invitation I framed with my quilling for the gift at shower we're going to tonight! I hope they like it! The invitation was printed in the exact color of Elegant Eggplant, so I mounted the invitation on the cardstock, quilled flowers and vine and added them. I had a hard time finding the right frame, I didn't really want black. It is an 8x12. Not many of those around, but it grew on me.