Saturday, February 26, 2011

Sick puppies



These 2 girls at Coffee @ 3 have been sick puppies this week.....stay tuned for more crafts while we get to feeling better.....wish Michele well she got it ten times worse than I did.......


We'll be back to posting soon!


Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Upcycle dress Take 2

Well here I am again, Upcycle dress #2.....my brother in laws niece liked the first one I made so I thought I would make one for her. This one kinda threw me for a loop because A.) I didn't know how tall she was or had a visual (she lives in another state) and B.) I'm used to short stuff and she's 10, so this was visually hard for me to see if it was looking cute or overly done with the tie-dye. 


The tie-dye I thought was a special element because this was made for my husband by his sister a couple years back, but the shirt doesn't fit him any longer, so I put it in the bin to upcycle...since this is her niece I felt that it would be a special contribution to the dress as well.



The rosettes hanging at the top are a headband, I got really into the t-shirt rosettes as you can tell! :)


This I made into a pin so she can move it around


Here's a close up of the tie-dye, isn't it awesome?! She did such a beautiful job, I'm so glad that I got to use it for part of this dress.

Hopefully the little gal likes it....she has triplet 5yr old sisters.....hmmmmm maybe they'll want some too!! My husband better hold on tight to his t-shirts!! I guess I better bust one out for my daughter, shes been wondering where hers is. :)

Happy Upcycling!





Thursday, February 17, 2011

Ruffle Fabric T-shirt Dress

I originally was not planning on making my daughter's dress for the Father/Daughter Dance, but when I saw this beauty over at make it and love it  I couldn't resist...it was PERFECT!  So perfect that I wanted to make it exactly like the one she made...I love the gray/turquoise/lime color combination she chose, plus gray is my new favorite color.




That dream was crushed the minute my daughter saw me shopping online for ruffle fabric...I knew it was coming...What is that?  What are you making?  I want to pick it out!  Do they have pink?  I want THAT one.  So I ordered the pink sherbert looking fabric she wanted AND the charcoal gray that I wanted.  I even tried convincing her to let me make the gray dress and I would make her a skirt out of the pink, but she wouldn't budge.  So here it is in PINK :).




I followed the make it and love it tutorial and it was very user friendly with great step by step instructions and pictures!  I have made t-shirt/tank top dresses before, but never anything with a belt/bow or a satin flower so the tutorial was very helpful.  There are a few things that I really like about this dress...  


1.) The top is a t-shirt so it is comfy, which is important if you have a child who doesn't like itchy tags, seams, fabric, or things that are too tight, too loose, etc.  Also, the shirt top means that you don't have to sew a top for the dress...huge bonus for me!  
2.) The fabric on the bottom is ALREADY RUFFLED!!!  This is what sealed the deal for me...I could make a dress using a t-shirt top and because the fabric is all frilly and fancy, it would be formal enough to wear to a dance.  You have to check out www.rufflefabric.com... great selection of ruffle fabric!  An added bonus about the fabric is that it does not have to be hemmed along the bottom...just cut in between the ruffles and go.  
3.) The flower has a snap so it is removable and will not get ruined in the wash...GENIUS.  Even with regular cotton fabric flower embellishments, the flowers never look as pretty after they get washed, so this is a nice design detail.
4.)  The belt is sewn on across the front of the dress so it stays perfectly in place.




And here is the little lady ready to go to the dance!  Luckily, I found a little shrug sweater at Children's Place that matched perfectly, and more importantly, didn't cover up the bow (in the back) and flower.




I guess somewhere down the line I will be posting a creation made out of charcoal gray ruffle fabric...probably something for me :).




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Tidy Mom

Monday, February 14, 2011

Pink Taffy Designs **We love Kate McRae Shopping Day**

Here in Arizona there is a little girl fighting a rare form of brain cancer....here is her Caringbridge link
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/mcraekate


Pink Taffy Designs will be giving 30% of todays purchases to Kate's family. TomKat Studio has created some Love Notes for $5 and 100% of those purchases will be donated to the McRae family as well. 


Also for any new facebook fan of Pink Taffy Designs that joins today, they will donate .25 cents for each new follower.


Please take a moment to read Kate's story and all it requires is shopping at Pink Taffy to help the family out. I know I'll be shopping.


XO

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Valentines Treats

What a rush this week.....yikes..thought I had the weekend to finish Valentine treats for the classes and found out a couple days ago that my sons class is actually celebrating on Friday because of Parent/Teacher Conferences next week....go figure! So in my mad dash to get everything done, I found a very cute tutorial online that I just HAD to try from 24-7-365. I literally fell in love with this idea so gave it a whirl for both my daughters preschool class and my sons kindergarten. Although with my son he demanded Transformer Valentines cards so I had to be creative and put those in a little bag attached to what I REALLY wanted to do.


So here's how they turned out 



Then I got the crazy idea to make treats for the Staff at my sons school who so graciously stand out in the heat of the summer and the cold of the winter getting my little guy to and from my car safely.....Well of course I couldn't make it easy and do the cards I already have done above...so back to the computer and found another cute digital freebie from My Computer Is My Canvas with the "2 Little Lovebirds" chapstick covers. Well fell in LOVE with this design and decided I was going to use these and make the lovely ladies their own little gift bags of chocolate lips and lip balm...then I made a tag to say they are some "Smooth Operators". Love those ladies....if you have the same situation at your childrens school don't forget to give them some love from time to time because if they weren't around we would have to be carting our pajama wearing booties out of the car each day to get our kid in safely!! :)

So here's my take on the "2 Little Lovebirds"


Here's all my items (digital download freebie, chocolate lip molds, and my tag)


Special thanks to the ladies who gave the wonderful ideas, go check out their blogs they are really great!

Oh yes, I also got informed just today that my sons teachers birthday is on Valentines Day too....sooooo back to the drawing board.....

Happy Valentines Day!!





Saturday, February 5, 2011

i {HEART} u Rosette Frame

With a little over a week left before Valentine's Day, I decided to give it another go and make one more decor item...besides, my little Ruffle Heart Burlap Pillow looked all lonely.  I had recently made a frame for a friend's birthday and it was really easy and turned out cute, so that's what I decided to make...and i {HEART} the way it turned out...please excuse my cheesy-ness.  Anyway, here's what I came up with and what I used...




12x12 unfinished frame (got mine at Michael's)
craft paint
scrapbook paper
Mod Podge (I prefer matte finish)
sand paper or block
fabric
felt
piece of cardboard (cereal or frozen pizza box works)
hot glue gun
adhesive vinyl




First, I put a base coat of black craft paint on the frame (no need to paint the front since it will be covered with paper).



Once the paint dries lay the frame face down on the scrapbook paper and trace the opening and any edges that need to be trimmed...doesn't have to be exact because the edges get sanded down later.  Trim the paper with scissors or blade..




Flip the frame so that the front faces up and apply a thin coat of Mod Podge.  Place your scrapbook paper on the front and smooth it out as much as you can to reduce bubbling.  I like to let mine dry for a bit before putting on the topcoat.




After it dries, do one topcoat all over, let dry, and then sand the edges to give it a distressed look and to get rid of any excess paper hanging over the edges.  I applied one more coat of Mod Podge after sanding in case any of the paper edges lifted while sanding. *Note* when you Mod Podge on top of paper it normally bubbles, but in my experience, the bubbling shrinks back down when it dries.




Okay, now onto the heart rosettes...my frame opening is 4" x 4" so I wanted the heart to be big enough so it doesn't block the frame.  My cardboard heart form measures 7.5" wide by 6.5" tall...with the heart being about 3/8" thick.  I basically just took my piece of pizza box, folded it in half, marked off 6.5" and then another mark at 3.75" (half of 7.5") and cut my heart the old school way within my lines.  




I forgot to take a picture of this step on the pizza box but here's it drawn out on paper.  OR you can cut a 6.5 inch heart on a die cutting machine.




I used my favorite rosette tutorial from Shanty2Chic and made a bunch of mini rosettes using 1" x 8" strips of fabric, felt and hot glue.  My heart took 18 rosettes.  (Excuse the bad lighting...for some reason Picasa wouldn't save my edits on these next few photos)



Arrange the rosettes onto the heart form and hot glue them down, and then hot glue the heart to the frame. 





Finally, I cut 'i' and 'u' out of vinyl using the Cricut and stuck them on the frame.  I don't think that the frame will endure a ton of wear and tear so I chose not to put Mod Podge over the vinyl.  And there you have it...i {HEART} u.




I think I'll put a picture of my perfectly behaved children in it :).



And here's the frame I made for a friend's birthday...



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Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Fabric Bulletin Board

Hi everyone...its been a while since our last post...we were regrouping on our projects, and in all honesty, both Michele and I got a little stumped on Valentines day. Neither one of us decorate too much for this holiday....but we both will have some Valentine "love" to share within the next week so stay tuned......


In the meantime, in Arizona we have this awesome store Scrapbooks Etc. If you ever get a chance to go in there, or maybe you already have...its the bomb! I could stay there all day and buy so much stuff, then of course be overwhelmed with my "to-do" list of projects. Forget my "to-do" list of household chores! Those can wait! :)


One fine day I was walking through there and they had this fabulous fabric bulletin board as an example in the store on what to do with fabric and cute up an office essential. So I decided to do it at home. It sits right above my computer and I absolutely love it!



Heres a pix showing the pocket for envelopes and of course my baby Murphy when he was a puppy


Lastly heres a close-up of the pocket for bills, important paperwork, take-out menus, etc, etc



When I made this I wasn't even thinking "tutorial" and after all was said and done, now I want to share. So basically heres what I did:

17 X 23 bulletin board...(bought mine at Hobby Lobby with my 40% off coupon!)
2 coordinating fabrics (1 enough for the whole board and the 2nd enough to double up for the pocket. I made my pocket pretty deep so mine was 16 inches folded in 1/2..then allot a couple of inches for the sides and bottom to be stapled around the back)
a strip of Tulle and then a coordinating ribbon
Staple gun

That's it! I fell in love with the idea at Scrapbooks Etc, their shop is so awesome, if you're in Arizona and haven't been yet, make sure to get out there!