Things I Made For Christmas

This year opened a whole new world for me...Crafting, who knew?

I "made" a few gifts this year, and wanted to share a few of them...
My Sister-In-law's Great Grandmother "nearly" finished a quilt, so for Christmas, I helped it along a little and finished it up..hopefully doing it justice.
It is entirely hand quilted and full of fun scrap fabrics.
I also made a scrap fabric journal for my sister-in-law and sister, these photo's are before I attached the buttons, but you get the picture...
You can see the tutorial here from Happy Together.
(She's a craft genius BTW)


This is coincidentally the fabric that I used to make
her a quilt last year for Christmas.
And then, my favorite little craft of the year....
a little piece of my heart.

When my grandmother died the week before Christmas,
I had to quickly fly out for the Memorial Service.

For the first time, I had to leave my
little Lily behind...sniffle sniffle.

That day, I quickly went to my sewing machine
and sewed her this little heart.
I then stitched it up with red embroidery thread.

Right before I left,
I gave it to her and told her to
hold onto my heart because
I'm coming back for it...

Thanks

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"The Pillow" is Finally done..along with some new ideas!

So I finally finished my version of THIS Tutorial

and here is the finished project... I'll let you look first, then I'll tell you my issues :)

I really enjoyed this project, in fact it allowed me to use my own imagination...and come up with some of my own ideas...I know, who knew I even had them!

Firstly, I would recommend using the pillow form like she does in the tutorial. I used pillow stuffing and the pillow came out very lumpy (see evidence above)

Secondly, all of my edges are fraying on my appliques. I am not sure if this is the way its supposed to look or not, can't decide. Next time I might try the zig-zag stitch to cover the edges.

Now for my ideas in which pictures are to come
when I get around to actually making them:

To coincide with the topic of Weather on my Other Blog,
I thought it would be great to make weather pillows for Lily's bed. One side would have a sun, and the other would have clouds with rain etc....what do you think? They would be really small pillows, probably about 8-12" or so.
I also did some pretty cool stuff with Lily this week for this topic
if you are interested in Kiddy Crafts!

I am also wanting to see where I can go with the tree thing...
I think I want to try palm trees since we are down here in Florida.
I was also thinking of just doing a long grass pillow for my long scrap pieces.
I also want to do a Christmas Tree Pillow that's in the shape of a Christmas tree.

So I'm going pillow crazy, but at least I can pass out on
my work if I pass out from Brain Exhaustion :)


I also found out that there really is life after 30...yup, I'm there.

Thanks!

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Cut the Scrap!

So I just found this project, and I REALLY want to do it with all of my scraps. I still have a ton of stuffing left over from my non-pumpkin blob project:)

Click on the pillow for the tutorial over at Cluck Cluck Sew... it looks pretty easy, but I did just screw up an easy pumpkin tutorial so you never know with me. I'll let you see the results after I go out and buy some Heat and Bond from JoAnn's with my 40% off coupon!


Also...
Have you been thinking about what you are going to make
for Halloween dinner?
Don't forget to Click Here at Razzle Dazzle Recipes
and pick something unique to make!

ITEMS ON MY "TO BUY LIST"
FOR CURRENT PROJECTS AT THE CRAFT STORE:


Heat and Bond-( for scrap pillow project above)

White Tempura Paint for Ghost Footprints
( I want to frame it and use it to show the girls each year how small their feet were!)

Nothing for THIS project! Too cute.

Butcher Paper or Roll Paper to make Ghost Garland...easy

Well, that's about it, my mother in law just got into town and she is VERY crafty..
so we'll see what she comes up with. I am still in the
"copy other peoples ideas stage" and am lacking in the personal creativity department..hopefully this will start flourishing soon!

Thanks

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Creative Blogs I've Found....

I posted a little about the creative blogs I found two weeks ago, but I wanted to share a little more with you. There are so many creative ideas out there that DON'T cost a lot of money..

Have fun Exploring!

Living With Lindsay- this is one of my favorite...she is amazing.

Obsessively Stitching- I love that she features an older quilt in many of her posts. If you like sewing, she is your gal!

This same gal features another blog called Dollar Store Crafts.
you can only imagine what that blog is about!

If you like clean cut great designs for stationary, or even crafts, Blond Designs Blog is for you!

More sewing and such...The Idea Room

Scrapbooking isn't totally my thing right now, but boy can this gal be inventive!
Ali Edwards

our best bites...one of my FAVORITE cooking blogs...that takes creativity!

Make It and Love It- a collection of Great Ideas... I put the link to one of my favorits crafts...it involves sewing

and of course you HAVE to love Heather Bailey....her fabrics, colors and tutorials are DIVINE!!!

Get Your Craft On! Such a creative mom...I wish she lived at my house.

Someday Crafts- Maybe I'll do some of them someday....

That's so cuegly...I think her name says it all :)

Well, I think that's enough for now... maybe I'll make this a regular post what do you think?

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Time to Get Crafty!!

So I have this new found desire to be more creative and crafty...now for me, being creative and crafty has a lot to do with someone "giving" me ideas that I find on the internet or in a magazine...BUT, I have heard that the more you do crafty things, the more your inner "creative craftiness" will come out. I am hoping for that since my creativity level is around a 2 on a scale of 1-10.

While searching the internet, I found a great blog that was FULL of inspirational links and ideas for creative and easy things to do.

U CREATE

This is one woman's blog who compiles a huge amount of contributing bloggers and crafty people all on one site. While I was looking around on her blog, I found a few others that really inspired me to get in gear and CREATE......

Raising Olives- She has a lot of tutorials for different easy projects...and wouldn't you know? I already completed one, well ok, I watched my husband complete it...but still, I was there cheering him on. That counts right? The cheerleaders are just as important as the team? Alright, enough about me...

Here is what we did the other night. Rain Gutter Bookshelves. I know, sounds wierd, but once they were up, they are just about the cutest thing you could ever imagine.... to come out of a rain gutter:)
You can get her tutorial here.
The idea behind the gutter book shevles is that your children can now see the entire front of the book which will encourage them to want to pull some down and read...I kid you not, my daughter and her friend went right in after we put it up and did this!

I am impressed, an invention that does what it is supposed to do!

Also this week, our internet was down.... after I had a small heart attack wondering what I would do with my life( I know pathetic), I decided to do my block of the month for my quilting group.
Not the greatest picture but hey, that's not the creative part here...

My next project that I found and am excited to pursue is this:

WindowSeat Dress UP

Not only did I find this project on this blog, but I also found a new inspiration for life at home. I think this mom has such a light in what she does. I encourage you to search around her blog and get to know her....I feel like I do.
You can find her main page here:
My Kids Eat Off the Floor- Anyone who has their blog named that is a friend of mine :)

Well, that's about it. I will share more with you later as I finish up the pumpkin craft. I have a few more ideas that I will share....but I encourage you to findy your

INNER CRAFTINESS.....or just search around for it..that's what I'm doing!

Share with me some easy craft ideas you have!

Thanks!

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Football Season is here!! Hubby get's crafty!!

This past summer, we went to a friends house in North Carolina, and they were playing the game "Corn Hole". I know, what a wierd name, but its really just bean bags thrown towards a wooden box that has a hole in it. The name originated from the midwest where the bags were made with corn inside.

So this year, to celebrate the football season, we decided to make our own "Football themed" cornhole game!

Here is how we did it:

My hubby made the board w/ our little helper Lily:


When the board was finished, it looked like this:



Can You Tell Who We Route For???? GOOOOOO GIANTS :)

I'll show you how I made the bean bags since that could be fun for children too....

1. I cut two pieces of fabric to 71/2 " squares.

2. I placed the right sides together, and sewed a 1/2" seam on all four sides, but leaving about 3" on one side to fill the bag.

3. Turn bag right sides out.
4. Fill the bags with exactly 1 lb...of Navy Beans:

5. Hand sew the final 3" of the bag, or just fake it like I did and run the filled bag through the sewing machine with the smallest seam you can make.

6. Results? One great bean bag...I mean corn bag :)

Thanks!



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How Was It? Wednesday

This weekend, while my husband was working, I decided to take on making a dress for the girls. I used this pattern which you can purchase from the designer on Etsy.
I had leftover fabric that my sister used to wrap our Christmas presents from a few years ago...thanks Meghan!!
Here is how it turned out. It actually fits both girls, but I am going to make one a little larger for Lily.
In total, this dress probably took me about an hour to do.... mind you it was my first article of clothing I have ever attempted, so it is definitely doable! The pattern that I purchased is very clear and easy to understand. Over all, I'd say the experience went well!

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