Anthro Inspired Necklace

So, did any of you guess that the Verveine Necklace for Crafting With the Stars was mine? Thank you to everyone that voted for it:) I have never made (wearable) jewelry before...so this was a new experience for me!

Unfortunately, I did not make it through to Round 2...but I was very humbled to be a part of the top 12 and I look forward to playing along (minus the pressure!) in the weeks to come:) Getting to meet all my fellow crafters and their "stars" was great! What a fun experience!

So you want to learn how to make your own necklace? Then here we go...

Materials:

beads of choice

ribbon or string for neck piece (mine is made of shoelaces)

needle and thread

1/8" ribbon

organza (for flower)

hot glue gun (or any other glue to secure your knots)

1. First, I decided what order I wanted my beads in. Then, I chose to string them with thin 1/8" ribbon. I wanted it to be sturdy (since I have a 2 year old that likes to pull!). Space your strands out to your desired length and leave about 3" of ribbon on each side.

**Make sure the center holes of your beads are large enough for whatever string/ribbon you are going to put through them. As you can see, my bottom strand of pearls are strung with black thread because my ribbon would not fit through.**

2. I took the bottom strand of beads and tied it to my middle strand of beads on either side, making it so the beads were nice and tight on the string.

Here is what it looks like after being tied together on both sides:

3. Next, I took both strings that I just tied together (bottom and middle) and tied them to the top strand of beads.

Again, here is what it looked like on either side:

4. Now for the neck strap piece, I found a six pack of black shoelaces at the dollar store. I braided three of the shoelaces together.

To decide how long you need your braid to be...hold your beads piece up to yourself at the length you want them to fall when the necklace is finished. I pinned my shirt where that measurement was...and then used a fabric tape measure to measure around my neck from that point around to the other side.

Make the braid 1" longer than that measurement on each side.

5. Next, I took the end of my braid and fed it through a ring, folded it over and sewed right across several times with a straight stitch. Repeat with the other side of the braid.

Sorry I don't have pictures of the final stages...but I took the ribbon ends of my beaded strands and tied them onto the same rings as my braid. I knotted the ribbon, cut off the excess, and then applied a layer of hot glue around the knot to make it more secure.

For the flower, I cut five 3" circles of black organza. I took each circle and folded it once in half (to make a half circle) and then again in half (to make a 1/4 circle). I repeated with all my circle pieces and then sewed the ends all together. I then sewed it directly onto one side of my braid (covering the ring)

And that's it! Pretty easy peasy:) Once I figured out my color scheme...the actual assembly of the necklace was very easy. There are SO many different things you could do with this too. Like ribbon for the neck piece or a large silk flower on the side? I wanted to put the flower on a pin so that it could be removed and put on a sweater or something:)

Price:

ribbon: $.50

beads: $3.00

shoelaces: $1.00

organza: $.50

Total: $5.00

Thanks again to Tam over at Sew Dang Cute for letting me participate and my craft star Shelley from How Does She? for giving me great input:) I am so grateful that I got to meet both of you!

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Baby Clothes Quilt

We are getting close to moving the Little Miss to a big girl bed! What? Where has my baby gone? Now, she is a little older than 2 and 1/2 and I know some kids her age are already in a big bed...but my daughter refuses to go with the pack:) I kept thinking that the longer we waited the more she would just ease into using a big bed...but no. She is going to be that child that gets up every 10 minutes:) My daughter is sweet, loving, but docile is something she is not!

With all that said, with a new bed comes new bedding right? Well, since I was about 15 and was embarking into the sewing world, I knew I would want to make a quilt for my children out of their old baby clothes. Yeah...I thought about weird stuff like that as a teenager. What can I say? I have always wanted to be a mom and now I am living my dream:)

SO...now that I am at that stage in my life...I don't know if I have the guts to cut up her baby clothes!! She doesn't have a ton left over since most had stains...but she has a few boxes that could make a twin size quilt. I am not really worried about clothes for the next baby (not that there is a next baby on the way) because with clothes being $.25 and $.50 at yard sales...I know our next kid won't go without.

Has anyone made a baby clothes quilt? I would LOVE to see pictures! Maybe it will ease my fear of taking scissors to my daughter's clothes:)

Crafting With the Stars Round 1...GO VOTE!!!

I got my Crafting With the Stars project done just in time...so now it's time for you to go vote!! The voting polls are open until Monday, October 25th 10PM MST.

So...what are you waiting for? Go! Go now!!

PS: I will be able to reveal which project was mine on Tuesday! I also made a tutorial:)

Crochet Dinosaur

My daughter has a new dinosaur obsession. It started on Sunday when we went to the state fair and there was a gigantic electronic dinosaur that moved and made noises. She loved it! She wouldn't go near any of the animals at the petting zoo...but the two story life-like dinosaur was no problem for her:)

So, she now looks everywhere for a "dino-horse" as she calls them. I looked all over online for a free crochet pattern and finally found an amazingly cute one here at Knotty's Amigurumi. She has amazing crochet patterns for free and also for sale.

Here is my version:

The tale on mine turned out to be more like a nubbin because I lost count of my rows. Finally I got smart and started marking them with a safety pin:)

As you can see I wanted to make it as historically accurate as possible. What?...you don't think there were hot pink dinosaurs with eyelashes and bows? Bummer.

My daughter LOVES it! I guess if she is going to enter a dinosaur phase...she can at least do it in style:)

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I Made It!!!

YIKES!! I made the top 12 in the Crafting with the Stars competition over at Sew Dang Cute!

I also get to work with Shelley from How Does She!

The competition was so tough! There were some amazing entries!

OK...I am so excited!! Now I have to be to work in 10 minutes...and I'm still in my jammies...

Ruffle Edged T-Shirt

I wanted a cute/edgy shirt for my daughter to wear for the motorcycle themed pictures we were taking today...so I picked up a leopard print bandanna at Walmart this week. I intended to make a full top out of the bandanna...but last night (at 10:30pm) I was feeling uninspired...so I found an old shirt that had a stain on the bottom and decided to embellish that instead:)

The way I cut this was a little weird just because I wanted the longest possible ruffles. If you want to make something like this out of regular material off the bolt...then you can just cut regular rectangles for your desired length...but if you only have a bandanna like me...then here we go!

1. Cut the bandanna in half diagonally.

2. Cut three more strips on each side of your center cut. I made mine about 3" wide. Save the end triangles for a cute applique or something for later:)

Now you should have six strips in three different sizes (2 in each size).

3. Take the two smaller strips, fold in the bottom hem 1/4", iron, and then fold in another 1/4" and sew with a straight stitch.

4. With right sides facing, sew up the sides of the strips so that it is a rectangle. You want the finished size to be the exact width of the t-shirt.

5. Repeat with the other strips.

6. Take your medium strip, and with it inside out, place the raw edge along where you want it to be on your shirt. Match up the side seams on your strip with the side seams on the shirt and pin.

7. Evenly pin the strip across the front of the shirt and sew into place.

Here is what it looks like when it is flipped down the right way.

8. Repeat on the backside.

9. Now take the longest strip and repeat the same process.

Here is what it looks like after both ruffles are attached.

10. Take your smallest strip and fold in the other raw edge 1/4" and sew in place.

11. Place that strip right side out over the top edge of your top ruffle. Sew into place along the top and bottom of the strip.

The shirt still looked a little too plain for me so I added some elastic to the top to make it look more like a little skirt shirt (remember those from the 80s?? Awesome!)

I cut some elastic the same size as my daughter's waist, sewed the two ends together, flipped it right side out and sewed it on over the top edge of my top strip. I sewed along the bottom and top of the elastic.

And that's it!

I paired it with her faux leather leggings and headband for our motorcycle pictures tonight. They brought out a large toy Harley for her to pose with. I think it was the first time she cried when pictures were over!

Afterwards we went to McDonald's since it was my cheat night (yay!) and I didn't feel like changing her in the car...so we got a few weird looks (like..."you really put your daughter in leather pants?!") but a lot of compliments too:)

Total price: $1.00

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Weekend Wanderer @ While He Was Napping

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Blue Cricket Design

Crafting with the Stars!

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Hey, I am participating in Crafting with the Stars over at Sew Dang Cute. I decided to enter my daughter's Minnie Mouse Costume and shoes that she wore to Disneyland. There are some awesome projects linked up...so go check it out!

Crochet Cupcake Purse

With our weekend plans to visit a cupcake convention, the Little Miss needed a cute handbag for the event:)

I was going to make this out of fabric...but I decided to crochet it after all. If you can crochet in a circle...then this is the project for you! There are a few patterns for something like this that you can purchase online...but I am cheap and impatient...so I just sat crocheting until I figured out a pattern that I liked:)

I must stress first that I am NOT an expert at crochet. I taught myself recently through You Tube videos...and my skills are very limited:) I am sure I will not use the right lingo when explaining what I did...so take it easy on me:)

Materials:

small tupperware (for base of cupcake)

yarn for cupcake base

yarn for cupcake top

crochet hook (mine is a J)

hot glue gun

I started by crocheting a chain that would fit around my plastic container. I made it a little bit smaller since I knew the yarn would stretch.

Once I got the length I wanted, I slip stitched into the beginning of my chain, and then chained 2 and continued around with a double crochet.

I continued with that pattern until I got the right length (a little longer than the plastic container.

For the "top" of the cupcake, I repeated the same pattern, just a little wider and taller so that it would fit around the top of the plastic container.

To get the ruffle edge, chain 5, then single crochet into the next stitch, and repeat all the way around.

I wanted to keep it simple and use felt for the lining of the purse. I was going to sew up a nice cloth lining...but I took the easy way out:)

I had some felt that matched the base of my cupcake...so I cut out a strip that was long enough for the outside and inside of the plastic container...and two circles the same size as the bottom of the container.

I glued one strip to the inside of the container and one to the outside:

Then I glued the bottom circle on:

Don't worry about getting it perfect...the crochet base will cover it all.

Then I glued the edged of the felt together all the way around.

Next, I glued the other circle into the inside bottom of the container...and trimmed the outside strips about 1/4" from the edge of the plastic cup.

Then I slipped the crochet cupcake base over my container and glued it into place.

Here is what it looks like on the bottom. See how all my felt imperfections were covered?

You really don't have to line the container with felt or fabric at all...I just wanted to fill in the little gaps between by crochet stitches.

For the top, I thread some ribbon through the top edge. You can also see in the picture that I had sewn on some beads for "sprinkles".

I stretched out the top as far as it would open, then tied the two ends together in a bow. I secured the bow with hot glue so it wouldn't come undone.

Finally, I took the easy way out and hot glued the top of the cupcake to the base (on the felt that was still exposed). I was going to sew it on...but hot glue bonds like cement to felt...so its a much stronger hold this way.

That's it! I am not wild about the color scheme going on...but I just wanted to use up some yarn I already had and I am sure Miss S will love it anyway:)

Price:

5pk of plastic containers: $1.00

beads: $1.00

I had everything else

Total: $2.00

Plus now I have 4 more storage containers, which I needed anyways...yay!

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