Meadowsweet Mary Jane Slippers

More sewing happened this past week. These are a pair of super cute mary jane slippers I made for Tasha. I had planned to add an embellishment to them but after being excited about having a flower or butterfly on them all day while I made them, she then decided she liked them just as they were. :0)

They were a super quick sew (or would have been minus the interruptions! lol) I plan to make more and hopefully a pair for Kate. I think though bc K's are a size 5 I might have to hand sew them. These are 9s and I had trouble using my machine to make them.

What's been Keeping me Busy

So the blog has been a little bare lately, but it's not for lack of crafting. I put away my paper (for now) and have been on a huge sewing kick lately. I love to sew and paper craft and tend to go back and fourth between the two depending on whatever currently grabs hold of my attention. Lately it's been sewing. :0) This is what I've done over the last couple of weeks;

A Doll Diaper bag for one of N's friends for her Birthday;

A Doll Quilt for another one of N's friends for her Birthday;
A minky pocket diaper for my Etsy shop;

Diaper Covers/Swim Diapers for my Etsy Shop;
A cupcake pink Cushion for me;
Reusable Grocery Bag for one of N's Teachers as her End of School gift;
Doll Diapers, again for one of N's friends as a Birthday Gift;
A Skirt for my youngest Daughter:
Phew! I think that's everything! I also made a the same skirt for my oldest Daughter but she's not worn it yet so I've not had a chance to take any photos. :0) I'm not sure when I'll get back to making cards and scrapbooking. I definitely will be, I'm just in sewing mode right now. :0)

Bunny & Chickie Easter Favours

My Husband said I was crazy, but the end result is one happy little girl who gets to give "eggs" (aka willy wonka plastics ones with nerds etc in them) to all her little friends at JK. As usual, I put them off to the last minute and was finishing them up last night and early this morning (Kate is an early riser).

They are super easy to make and do not take that long, but I had to make 23 of them! I'm really hoping her Kindergarten class in the fall is a lot smaller!

Recipe:

Bazzill Paper - Yellow, Lily White, Black, Orange, Pink (sorry I have no clue their actual names!)

Ribbon - Stampin' Up Clearance Bin - forget the name? Chocolate Chip I think

Big Shot Dies - Fancy Favours Box, Build a Flower #2 (in the clearance bin of SU right now!)(ears of bunny), Top Note (bodies)

Punches - 1" & .5" Circle, 1.25" Square

Markers - Basic Black, White Gel Pen

Cricut - Create-a-Critter - Heart - 1" for the Bunny's Nose and then I made the same heart longer and thinner for the Chickie's wings. This would have been easier if I had SU's Trio Heart Punch.

Creative Idea: I got the idea from Stamp With Tami, but for some reason I can't seem to get her site to load anymore.

Online Stampede Calling Card

One down, 60 more to assemble. hah! When I signed up for this a couple of weeks ago, I had no idea that 45 others would sign up, I figured, *maybe* 20. Then, the Cdn girls decided to do one, so that bumped me up to 61! So I needed something super simple and super easy to assemble. This did the trick.

I got the idea from the Cricut Magazine, used some DSP from SU that I'd been hoarding and of course it was no surprise that my calling card would have butterflies on it. :0) I needed 100+ total, but with my cricut, it was only 8m of cutting them out from each pc of patterned paper. The long, boring part of all this is going to be sticking them to the card.

Recipe:

SU Paper: Whisper White, Parisian something DSP

Cricut/Provo Craft: Swiss Dots Embossing folder, Serenade Cricut Cartridge (butterfly)

SU Stamps: Tiny Greetings (Hello, stamp is Hello Baby, but I just inked up "hello")

Teacher Gift.

One of Natasha's JK Teaher's last day is tomorrow, so since she won't be there for easter, I had to scrabble this morning to make her the easter gift + a thank you for teaching N this past year. She's a wonderful teacher and I'm very sad that she is leaving. :0(

I can not take credit for this super cute Box, I saw it over at Stamp With Heather and knew as soon as I saw it I had to make it. I made him all out Big Shot dies, but if you own a cricut, I'm sure you could find all the shapes on various cartridges to make him and you could use any box cut. :0)

Recipe: (All SU)

• Whisper White - Large Scallop Big Shot, Large Clear Circle Big Shot, Ovals #2 Big Shot, 1 3/4 inch hand punch (2)
• Fancy Favours Big Shot Die - Pretty in Pink
• Sponge and Pretty in Pink Ink
• Dimensionals
• Basic Black - 3/4 inch circle (2)
• Pink Button
• Basic Black Marker
• White Gel Pen
• DSP - sorry I forget the name of it, it was scrap I had in my scrap bin

For the Chapters Gift Card I bought her, I made this cute little giftcard holder. I should have measured my fancy favours box though, as it almost did not fit. hah

Recipe:

SU Pretty in Pink Paper, Basic Grey, DSP (again from my scrap bin, not sure the name)

Window Punch

SU Buttons

The Twinery Twine - Cappuccino

Yellow Ribbon from M's Discount bin

So it's the first day of Spring (officially) and surprise surprise it's snowing. bleh. I've been participating in a challenge all weekend and this is set is part of that, the note card challenge. :0) Since it's snowing and dreary I decided to do a Summer themed set. Plus I got to use my Block Party Cartridge that I bought recently. :0)

Note Card Box - Excuse my poor Dude, I cut him a few times and he never seemed to line up right? The leaflets for the Lite Cartridges are horrible. Tiny tiny images and some of the images are not in the correct order for assembly. I think I went blind trying to piece some of them together. And as mentioned, my poor "Dad" just does not look right at all.




At an angle, the note card holder slides inside it, normally I'd add gromits and add ribbon to the end of the holder to easily slide out, but realized later that I had sold my crop-a-dile last yr and had no other tool that would do the job. oops?




Note card holder that slides into the box:

Note Cards:

I'm quite impressed with my Pitcher of Lemonade, I used Velum to make it look more realistic;

Recipe:

Cartridge: Cricut Lite Block Party

Paper: Stampin' Up - Real Red, Old Olive, Whisper White, Soft Suede, Rose Red, So Safron, Basic Black, Yo Yo Yellow, Certainly Celery, Creamy Caramel, Dusty Durango, Old Navy, Basic Grey, White Vellum, More Mustard, Garden Green, Rockability DSP

Ribbon: SU Very Vanilla

Hello

I made this really simple card for a colour challenge over on the Circle Cricut Boards. I just got my Disney Classics Cart this week in the mail and was dying to either cut Cheshire or Alice. Based on the colours, Cheshire won out. :0)

Carts:

Disney Classics (Cheshire Cat)

Mickey Mouse Font (hello)

Bloom (Tree Branch)

Paper:

Stampin' Up - Kraft, Pink Passion, Pretty in Pink, Pink Pirouette, So Safron, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, and I forget the name of the Purple..

Ink: Marigold Morning (Hello Edging)

New Arrival

Finally! After a couple of years hiatus from scrapbooking, I finally completed a double page layout for Miss K's album. I love these photos taken by Fresh Sugar Photography! I can't believe my now 1.5 yr old was soo wee. Some days I really miss her being so tiny.

I used a ton of carts for this layout, (which I scraplifted from the talented Faith Abigail!) but it was well worth the effort. I even went and a bought a couple of things to be able to complete the layout (Tiny Texture and MS Fence Punch Edger).

For some reason my house is a bit crooked, but I think it adds a bit to the charm. :0)

Recipe:

Cricut Cartridges:

- Kate's ABCs (butterflies)
- Create a Critter (grass)
- Bloom (Flowers, Trees - love those trees!)
- Mickey Mouse & Friends (Clouds/Sun)
- New Arrival (Title, carriage)
- Sugar and Spice (Stork, House)

Embossing Folders - Tiny Texture (House), Tiny Bubbles (carriage)

And the tiny fence is a Martha Stewart Punch called "Fence".

All Papers are Stampin' Up - Chocolate Chip, Lavender Lace, Elegant Eggplant, Pretty in Pink, Pink Pirouette, Garden Green, Old Olive, Whisper White, Bashful Blue, So Safron, Only Orange. The Blue DSP is SU but I forget the name of the set it came from and the other two DSPs (butterflies and brown) I forget as well sorry!

Birthday Wishes

Let the Birthday Season begin. It's that time of year again where it seems all of N's little friends have a Birthday. I'm not sure just how many are having parties this year, but she has received 2 invites so far. This card is for a little boy who is turning 2. I changed it about a bazillion times before I finally settled on this design.

You know how the Gypsy is suppose to help you design on it and save paper? Umm yeah not so much with this particular card. hah
Recipe:

Stampin' Up Paper: So Saffron (cupcake base), Chocolate Chip (cupcake icing, party hat), Real Red (cherry, party hat trim/pom pom), Old Olive (Sprinkle & Leaves), More Mustard (dinosaur), Crushed Curry (Dino belly, spikes, spots), Dusty Durango (Card Base), Soft Sky (Title, Sprinkles), Blue Bayou (Sprinkles)

Designer Paper: Imaginisce - Dino Roar

SU Markers: Close to Cocoa, Old Olive

Ink: SU Blue Bayou (Title)

Cricut Carts: Birthday Bash, Create a Critter

Elle

Look at me, all crafty lately. hah I made this card for a friend who is due in the next couple of weeks. She's having a little girl and has already picked her name, but I always worry people will change their minds once their baby is born, so instead of using her name I just put congrats on the card.

Recipe:

Stampin' Up Paper - Whisper White, Pretty in Pink, Pink Pirouette, Amethyst, Lavender and Lace

Designer paper - Enchanted (I forget by who!)

Inks: Pretty in Pink, Lavender and Lace

Ribbon: Pink Pirouette

Cricut Cartridges: Sugar and Spice (Lite), Birthday Bash (Font)

Embossing: Cuttlebug Swirls

Finished Page

Much to my duaghter's delight, I finished my Tinkerbell Page yesterday. :0)

Tinkerbell - my first project in a loonngg time.

It's been a really long time since I've done anything crafty. Well that's actually a partial lie. A few weeks ago I did a Valentine's day card for my daughter to hand out at JK. It was pretty simple though and not anything so big.

Today, after running around like crazy yesterday after a week away, I spent the afternoon creating Tinkerbell with my brand new Cricut Expression. :D She's for a little project I have decided to start and hopefully finish.

I can't say she was a breeze to make, she is a ton of layers, many small cuts (people were not kidding when they said to make the Disney ones big or you'd pull your hair out trying to assemble them due to teeny cuts!) that made my head want to explode, but I persevered and completed her as well as adding a mushroom for her to sit on. Hopefully tomorrow I'll find the time while my youngest naps to do the actual page layout.

Christmas Cards.

A couple of times now I've made cards for a friend. She owns an amazing business and once in a while will attend trade shows and request cards for her clippos. The last time I did Birthday cards for her and this time I did up 20 Christmas cards.

Since I have so much on the go (and did not want to turn down a great friend!) I chose a very simple layout/design. After digging through my craft "corner" and finding my tools, paper and stamps, I was able make up this card.

The stamp is from the set "Deer Friends" which was a hostess lvl 2 stamp set last yr. I loved it then and I still love the stamps in the set now. I will probably end up using a stamp from the set for my own Christmas cards. :0)

Ingredients:
Stamps: Deer Friends (hostess lvl 2)
Papers: Kiwi Kiss, Real Red, Ski Slope DSP, Whisper White
Tools: Scallop Punch, Circle Punches, 1/8" punch and random red ribbon from Michaels

Little Red Riding Hood Costume Complete!

I don't think I can even express how happy I am that this costume if finally completed! It went from a project that I thought was going to be fairly easy, to something that got fairly complicated fast.

I've posted about the dress and over-skirt and how the pattern was not as comprehensive (at least I felt so) to doing the cloak, which really did not have much of a pattern to it at all.

The cape part of it was pretty easy, measure the length of my kid from her shoulders to where I wanted the cloak to end, cut on the fold, repeat for the lining, then sew both together. The hood though, well that was a whole other matter.

The pattern I followed for the cloak was for an adult, so the hood measurements were wayyyy too big. I then found one on Marthastewart.com, however, it was too small and when I increased the measurements, it looked a bit too KKK with such a pointy hat.

So after a few adjustments, guessing the measurements and doing a trial 'hood' bc my daughter was not being very cooperative about trying it on, I followed the directions on MS's site, but then curved the top of the hood so it was not pointy but rounded. :0)

Looking back on this project, it really was not that hard. The satin is a pain to sew bc it moves and I do not have a walking foot for my machine, and figuring out measurements was a bit mind boggling, but I'm pretty proud of how it turned out.

Details:
Peasant Dress or Top - I purchased the pattern from a seller on Etsy and bought 2m of white cotton fabric for I think 7.99 at my local fabric store. I had a bit left over but not a lot. I used a crazy amount of it on the ruffle along the bottom of the dress. I've debated adding lace to the sleeves, but I think it's fine as is. :0)

Over-skirt - I bought this pattern from the same seller as the peasant dress from. I bought 1.5m of Red Gingham Cotton Fabric at the same Local Fabric store. I had some left over, but not a lot. I think it was 12.99/m?

Cloak - I used both this pattern and this pattern and then in the end basically designed my own hood to suit my needs and fit Tasha's head. hah For the cloak I used a 36" length and 1/4" in seam. I bought a deep cranberry red velvet (2 metres) for the outer part of the cloak and then lined it with a deep red Satin(3 metres). I had to get more of the satin then I really wanted because it was only a width of 27" and I needed 36" so I was not able to fold it and cut it out. :0( Sewing the two fabrics together was a huge PITA because the satin is so slippery. I can't remember the price on the Velvet, I think $20/m? or the Satin. I spent way more then I wanted, but I knew I wanted a nice lush cloak. She loves wearing it so I figure it will be used for dress up after halloween. Of course today she was flying around the house with it on saying she was a super hero. haha

I had a bit of trouble with the ties on the cloak, but this morning was able to figure it out. I sewed the hood on to the velvet first, then turned it inside out, and sewed it again, leaving an opening to turn it right side out again. That's when I realized the excess fabric on the hood would work for casing in the tie. :0) I knew I had to do some sort of casing, but could not wrap my head around how to do it hem the hood in. hah Thankfully baby brain eased up and I figured it out.

Anywho, it's done and I could not be happier with the end result. :0) Some pics of the doodlebug in it. I did not have the energy to get her in the complete outfit (dress/over-skirt/cloak), but will be sure to get some pics on Halloween. :0)

Little Red Riding Hood take 2

Last week I cut the fabric for the over-skirt for N's LRRH costume and then ignored it until Monday, when I finally forced myself to start working on it. Yes, forced. For some reason I was not really looking forward to making this part of her costume. I bought the pattern for it on Etsy, the same seller I bought the dress pattern from and as you may remember in a previous post, the instructions were not the most clear. The over-skirt was a bit better, but I was still worried.

Anyway, I finally started work on it Monday morning and finished it by mid afternoon. It was not as hard as I thought it would be, but I had an unwilling toddler when it came to trying it on for fits to check length and positioning of the straps.

In the end, I'm super happy with how it turned out and think that she could even wear the overall outfit w/o anyone thinking it was a costume. :0)

I'm still debating adding some lace to the sleeves and I may still, but I still have the Hood left to make as well as the pettiskirt. So if I can get those things done in time, I will go back and add some lace to the sleeves of the dress if I still have time.

The back:


The little darling in it. She was a bit upset to put it on for about 2 secs and then was fine with it. Much better then earlier "sizing" checks.

Halloween Costume - Part 1

To say how proud I am of myself would be an understatement when it comes to this dress. After seeing this listing on Etsy for a Little Red Riding Costume, I thought to myself, "How hard can that be really?" There was no way I was spending $170 on a costume for my child that would be worn once, so I went on the hunt for patterns for the cloak and dress. The apron seemed easy enough.

So I did some searching on Etsy and found a pattern for a peasant dress and over-skirt and thought perfect! It was not until I got the patterns that it was not so perfect or easy. As I mentioned, the design was great, the instructions though were not too clear and a bit more complicated then need be.

After some ripping, a little re-write of the directions and changing the measurements to fit my child, the end result is this simple white dress.

What I changed from the pattern was - length, width, added the ruffle along the bottom and I'm thinking about using elastic thread on the sleeves and adding some eyelet lace.

Next I'm going to start the over-skirt. Maybe tomorrow, I have to work a few hours in the morning so I'll see how I'm feeling.

I tried to take some pictures of N in it, but she was in a super goofy mood so they were mostly blurred. I did capture this one though. It looks like she has quite the stagger. hah

WIWOW

This week I've started to work on N's Halloween costume. On Tuesday when I showed up for my doctor appointment a day late, I decided since I was halfway there, I'd drive to the Fabric store and find the fabric for her costume. Last week I picked up the Velvet, a lovely deep cranberry red colour, so I just needed the White Cotton and some Red Gingham.

After I washed and dried the white cotton and red gingham I noticed the red gingham looked a lot like a table clothe. hah. However, while my faith might not be too high in my ability to sew a simple dress, over-skirt and cloak, I'm pretty sure that no matter how it turns out, once the red gingham is sewn into the over-skirt, it won't look like a table clothe.

Due to my fear of things not working out, I've only gotten as far as cutting the main dress part from the white cotton. I still need to cut armholes, the sleeves and the ruffle for along the bottom of the dress. The mock up of the dress I did was too short, so this time when I cut out the main body of it I added a few inches. I'll try it on her and then cut off the extra length if needed. :0)

A day of Trial and Error

Every Halloween (all two of them :P), it's a battle to get my daughter into her costume. Actually thinking about it a bit, her first Halloween when she was just 1 month shy of 1, she willingly put on her costume (a ladybug). Last year though, I spent a month (yes you read that right) gradually getting her use to her costume to the point that on the day of her Halloween party with her little friends, she actually wore it and the head piece.

About a month ago I started thinking about Halloween and what she'd dress up as. The store I used the previous 2 years is no longer around and I really did not want to go through the hassle of getting her to like the costume. Soooo I did some thinking and thought "Why not dress her up as a Fairy Tale Character?" She be in 'regular' clothes, not a costume, so **hopefully** she would put it on willingly.

I'm not sure how I came about choosing Little Red Riding Hood, I think it was along the lines of "she likes dresses, I doubt she'd mind a little apron added to it and I know she loves hoods, so the cloak/cape would be something I think she'll love".

This line of thought had me at first looking at the costumes available. Ever Google "Little Red Riding Hood costume"? Yeah, not the best results. So I did a quick search on Etsy and after looking at prices, I decided to make my own. This is where someone should have knocked some sense into me. :P

So I did some more searching, found a cute peasant dress and over-skirt pattern on etsy and found a LRRH costume that I wanted to use as inspiration. Should be easy enough right? Well, while the dress the seller posted in her store was super cute, her instructions on how to make said dress were confusing and complicated. I spent the whole afternoon today doing a 'mock up' dress. The first attempt was an abysmal failure.

Using her 'measurements' for my 3 yr old, the dress was way too short and way too narrow, plus her instruction for assembly left a lot to be desired. After a couple of hours of frustration and tearing out seams, I decided to start from scratch. This time however, I took one of N's pillowcase dresses, measured the width and length, re-cut my scrap fabric, and started assembly. From my trial and error earlier, I figured out how things were suppose to go. The one adjustment I made, was making the sleeves longer instead of short, since she'll be wearing it in October when it's going to be chilly.

Anyway, my mom, friends and others have said a pattern is just one big puzzle. In this case, the pattern itself was a puzzle that you start to put together and then realize you are missing important pieces.

The end result however, is that I completed my mock up dress tonight. I'm quite happy with it minus the fact that it's about 2" too short. :0( Unlike her pillowcase dress, this one has sleeves and the neckline is elastic, so that, and my seam allowance (which I accounted for) had me lose some in the length. This however, is an easy fix, I just made note to add an extra 5" to the length and then I can just cut off the extra after trying it on my daughter.

Next will be deciphering the Over-skirt pattern, which I bought from the same seller.

Olivia the Owl. err Fry.

For a few days now I've been working on this cute little Owl. I bought the pattern over on Etsy after seeing it featured on a blog I read. I thought "he" (she made an Oliver) was super cute and decided I had to make him.

I had some lovely Amy Butler fabric laying around that I thought would work perfect, I just had to make a quick run to Michaels and get some felt. Which I could start another whole entry on about their selection and quality, but I won't. heh

What I thought would be a quick project turned out not to be the case. The pattern was super easy to follow, the pattern pieces themselves matched up great, it was when it came down to the actual assembly that I had some problems.

Sewing in a straight line? Easy. Sewing around curves and in circles? Just a touch more difficult for a beginner like myself. My first obstacle came when it was time to sew on his/her beak. You can't tell from this angle, but it looks like poor Fry flew into a tree. hehe. It's just a touch crooked. But as my husband noted "It's handmade, it's not suppose to be perfect. Nature is not perfect either." It still kind of bothers me, but not too much, my 3 yr old did not notice it, so whatever right? Needless to say, it only intensified the fact that I do not like hand sewing. :P

My next difficult part was sewing the bottom piece on. Seems easy enough, but it was a pain in the butt.

But in the end, she's all sewn up and my daughter took her when I showed "Olivia", said thanks and immediately started calling her "Fry".

A Quickie

I've been busy cutting fabric for various projects and this afternoon decided to take a break and make some baby.legs for jellybean. I tried making them when N was little and the "official" baby.legs became all the rage, but for some reason I just could not grasp the concept. I'm not sure why, because after reading this tutorial, it made perfect sense and was so easy! The best part about this project though? I made 3 baby.legs for a mere $4.30/each! Crazy eh?

Instead of going to walmart and getting girls knee socks, I bought women's crew socks from GAP, where I get a 50% discount on all clothing, so it helped to make this project much more economical then paying $12-$15 a pair! Plus the last time I tried this, I checked out the socks at wal.mart & zell.ers for girls and none of the patterns or colours appealed to me. These ones are a bit on the pink/brown side but that's all GAP really has in right now There were some Orange ones, but I really do not have much that would go with Orange. I'm not sure why the pinstripe ones are so much shorter, I know I've bought socks for myself at GAP, all the same kind and they seem to vary in length.

I'm going to keep an eye out for other colours as winter starts to creep upon us. I remember when N was wee and we were hanging out at home, baby.legs and a onsie were perfect to stay cozy. They worked well under jeans too so that when her jeans rode up while putting her into the truck the baby.legs were there to keep her warm instead of a chill reaching her bare leg.

My almost 3 yr old trying them out:


Ignoring the fact she has no pants on. :p We started potty training over 2m ago and even though she's trained now, she pretty much runs around the house half naked. I've given up trying to keep pants on her unless we are going out. As long as she's wearing panties I'm cool with her being half naked. :p

I have a lot of projects on the go right now - curtains, fitted crib sheets (4), change pad cover, a quilt, a crochet hook holder, another tote, an owl stuffy, birth announcements...yes, I know the design I want and since we are sure jellybean is a girl, I want to get a jump start on them so that all I have do when she arrives is put her name, weight and a photo in the card. First though, I need to find my craft table. hah