Fabric flower bloom sash

I'm sure you've seen the flower belts and sashes all over the internet- JCrew and Ann Taylor Loft have their versions.

Some other crafty folks have their versions: I Am Momma- Hear me Roar, RufflesandStuff, and ohsohappytogether.

Here is my version:

I made it to go with my Easter skirt and you can see me wearing it here.

There are a total of eight flowers (one is the center of another.) I arranged them all on top of a piece of felt and then glued them down when I was happy with the arrangement. I cut the excess felt away. I made a sleeve from felt and glued the flowers on top of that.

It was getting late when I finished this and I completed this in a hurry so I could wear it Easter. I need to go back and let out the hem allowance on the sleeve so the ribbon will lay flatter. The ribbon wants to roll a bit as it is now. I'm also thinking of making a sash with a velcro closure like the one at ohsohappytogether because it's really hard for me to tie a ribbon into a bow on the back. Hubby tied it Sunday.  See-

I have options with the sleeve and I'm sure I'll be wearing it with other outfits and belts.

Don't forget Mother's Day is coming soon. Check out these gift ideas.

I'll be linking up to these parties and others listed on the side:

Think Pink Sundays*Keep It Simple Sunday*Under the Table and Dreaming* Sundae Scoop*Making the World Cuter*Just Something I Whipped Up at TGC* Motivate Me Monday*Market Yourself Mondays at Sumo’s Sweet Stuff* Pink Hippo Party*More The Merrier Monday*Tuesday Time Out* Tip Junkie*Get Your Craft On*Whatever Goes Wednesday*Hooking Up with HOH* Wow Us Wednesday*Blue Cricket Design*All Things Inspired*Whassup Wednesday*Fireflies and Jellybeans* Someswhat Simple Strut Your Stuff*It’s Sew Stinkin Cute Craft Thursday*Thrifty Thursday*Transformation Thursday* Tidy Mom*Simply Sweet Home*Simply Designing*Chic on a Shoestring Flaunt It Friday*Tatertots and Jello*Funky Junk’s Saturday Night Special*Be Different Act Normal

 

Playing with sketches

I created some gift card holders.  For design inspiration, I turned to some of  my favorite sketch sites.

The first card is created with this week's sketch from The Sweet Stop.

I turned the sketch sideways.

Image is from Heather Ellis- Pure Innocence and is colored with copic markers. Papers are from Cosmo Cricket.
Next is a card/gift card holder  using the sketch from CPS.

I put the sentiment tag on the opposite side. I thought it worked better on this card there.

This image is one of the Darling Sisters by The Greeting Farm. Image is colored with Copics. Papers are by K&Co.

Here's a little tip for making those corners. Punch a scalloped circle with a 1 1/4 inch scalloped circle punch. Cut in half and then in half again to make four corners.

Thanks for stopping by. I may be linking these to the parties on the side.

Easter skirt

I did not buy a new outfit for Easter this year. Instead, I made most of it. I took my first try at a skirt. I started to do this last summer, but the skirt pattern I have is too small - I bought it in high school and well, let's just say that 20 years later I am not the same size. I didn't quite have the courage to try it without a pattern, but last week I managed to summons the courage to make myself a pattern and  skirt using THIS tutorial.

I  was happy with the way it turned out until I took a good look at the photos. I'm not sure I like the way it hangs, but I still love the pattern in the fabric. The colors are perfect for spring. And it was comfortable so I will wear it again.

I'm not crazy about an elastic waistband so I made myself a belt to go with it. I also made a bracelet.

More details on the belt and bracelet later...

I'll be linking up to the parties on the side this week including

Get Your Craft On

Happy Easter

photo credit here

He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.
Matthew 28:6 (New International Version, ©2011)



Wishing you and your family a Happy and Joyful Easter and hoping you truly know God's love and salvation.

Happy Earth Day

It's Earth Day! The first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts. Read more about the history at earthday.org.

Image: Danilo Rizzuti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Taking care of our resources should be a priority for all of us. I believe we are biblically challenged to do so as well.

Psalm 115:16 (New International Version, ©2011)


16 The highest heavens belong to the LORD,


but the earth he has given to mankind.


The Lord has blessed us with the earth and our life here. We should take care of it.
As crafters, we do a great job of recyling and repurposing. We can take most anything that is headed for the trash pile or landfill and make it great!

Here's a list of common household garbage that can be used in crafting. Click each item for a link to a project.

bread tags
soda can tabs
aluminum soda cans
magazines
Pringles cans, nut cans, any metal or plastic container with lids
paper bags

FaveCrafts has a downloadable ebook with 42 Ways to Recycle into crafts. Check it out HERE.

photo from BHG

BHG has a slideshow of Creative Crafts that Recycle.

Here's one of my repurposing projects:

Rosette bib necklace

What's your best recycle or repurpose tip or project? Let's celebrate Earth Day with  a list. Leave me link to your ideas in the comments. 

He is Risen paper Easter banner

I've seen a lot of banners and handmade garland and such in blog land. I've been wanting to make my own since I started seeing them in the fall. I finally got around to this for Easter. My banner was the perfect finishing piece to my mantel decor.

You see that I used most of the things I created to decorate my mantel: the broken jewelry cross, glitter eggs, butterfly specimen art, and egg topiary tree.

Here's a closer look at the banner and a tutorial:

Materials used:

Cardstock
Making Memories foam stamps- dingbats
Paint
Spellbinders cross die
Making Memories Slice and basic cartridge for letters
Martha Stewart lattice border punch
flowers, punches, buttons, rhinestones, and other embellishments
jute string

*Cut cardstock into 4.25 x 5.5 inch pieces. I got four pennants from a piece of 8.5 x 11 inch cardstock.
* Stamp dingbats on pennants.
* While these dry, die cut crosses and letters. Prepare what ever other embellishments you need to.
* Adhere letters with foam dots or tapes.
* Cut cardstock into a coordinating color into squares or pennants. To see all of the border, on the MS lattice punch, I cut my yellow cardstock to 5.75 inches in width by 5.5 inches in length. Punch borders on longest sides.
*Adhere pennants to border punched pennants.
*Embellish at desired.
*Punch holes in the top left and right of pennants. Crosses already had a hole on each end.
*Alternately string pennants and crosses.
*Hang and enjoy!

A close up of one letter.

Here's the whole mantel and hearth, complete with easter baskets.

The baskets have eggs in them that my husband and I have collected over the years. When I initially put them out, I had a helper.

Bella found one vintage looking egg that she is quite fond of. I have to constantly watch her!

I'll be linking this up at





and House of Hepworths.

Please visit the other parties listed in the sidebar.

Glitter egg topiary centerpiece

Sometimes my ideas take on a direction of their own. I was inspired by Allison's post at House of Hepworths to get out my tray (purchased at Christmas) and create an Easter/spring centerpiece. I purchased some white birds at Michael's on clearance and envisioned adding eggs and bunnies with them. (Look close in some of the photos and you may see a glimpse of them in the background.) Meanwhile I also wanted to use the glitter egg picks that I purchased from the Dollar Tree and found this cute idea at Joann's. When I got the egg topiaries done, the birds just didn't go with them. Oh well, when Easter is over maybe I can bring them back to the table. For now they are on a side table with a flower arrangement.

On to the topiary: this is a really cheap inexpensive project to do. I purchased 3 inch clay pots from Michaels' for 89 cents each, a bag of easter grass for 69 cents, and the Dollar Tree egg picks for 1.00. Not counting paint, that's less that $5! You can even get paint for 50 cents or less on sale.  I used acrylic paint to paint my pots white.

I painted the whole thing and then went back and painted the rims in colors that coordinated with my eggs.  I plopped in a styrofoam ball ( I actually used these left over ornaments.) Then I trimmed about two inches off each stick and stuck them into the foam balls. I covered each with a little easter grass and that's it.

I put moss on my tray and set the pots on top. I added a few small glitter egg ornaments around in the moss. (Moss and eggs were leftover from the tree topiary.) The tray is setting on top of my new ruffled burlap runner.

What do you think? What projects have you done that started with one picture in mind and turned out another way?

I'll be linking up to the parties on the side. Have a great week.

Also sharing here

Get Your Craft On




and House of Hepworths.

A week long endeavor...ruffled table runner

Last year I bookmarked Jen's (Tatertots and Jello) ruffled burlap runner as a project to try. Last weekend I decided it was time and that I wanted one with Easter time pastel colors to go under a centerpiece. (I've still got to put the centerpiece together, it's still an idea in my head.) After fighting with my machine to make ruffles for a week, and running out of thread on day three, I have finished. Let me clarify a little- in addition to having issues with the machine and having to redo some stitching and work on the machine, I only had about thirty minutes each night to sew. Thus, a week long project.

Mine is not nearly as neatly done as Jen's. We'll just say mine is more "shabby".  I'm not going to post a tutorial either. No need to reinvent the wheel. Her tutorial is great and you can find another one at Oopsey Daisy.

I used materials from my stash which is really my grandmother's stash. (She passed away almost eight years ago, but I couldn't part with the material so I held onto it hoping for the inspiration to put it to use one day.)  I used a polyester type material for the backing in  yellow the same as the center yellow. I used ribbon for my binding. I love the turquoise against the burlap! My favorite material is the aqua one with a sweet little pink flower.

Here are a couple of things I did differently or that aren't mentioned in the tutorials. I did not have any quilt batting so I did not use it. Also, I laid out all my ruffles on the runner once they were done to get an idea of placement but I did not pin them all down at once. I pinned and sewed the middle one, then the two outer ones, and then one by one, filled in between. I thought this would be easier to manage at the machine than  having all the bulk of all the ruffles laid up there at once, and I could still get the spacing right.

I think that tomorrow I will steam those ruffles and straighten them out a little more.

So, what have you been up to lately? Make anything frustrating that you were still happy with once it was done? Please tell me I'm not the only one.

I'll be linking up to the parties on the side. Check them out.

Great sale at Joann's

I had to take a trip today for a doctor's appointment. No fun- I don't like doctors, even for checkups. But once I got that out of the way, I did have the opportunity to shop some stores we don't have in my town, one of them being JOANN's. They are having a great sale on fabric and related items. Notions are 50% off and remants are 50% off. I scored a couple of remnants. AND, McCalls patterns for 99 cent. Yes, 99 cent- patterns that are up to 18.95 for 99 cents!!! I picked up several. There's still a couple days left, so if you are near a Joann's, RUN! (A.C. Moore also has styrofoams balls and eggs for 50% off. Stocked up on a few of those there too. )

Here are a few of the patterns I picked up:

M6084

M5977

M5901

Has anyone used any of these patterns before? Have any tips?

I'll let you know what I make and how it works out. (Someday, be patient.)

I know that some of the things I bought patterns for, like the yo yo projects and some scarves, I could get for free off the internet. And while some of you write some great tutorials, I'm old school and like to have something in print in my hands. Like magazines for instance- I think there's something more satisfying about having it in my hands to look at again and again vs online. I do subscribe to a couple of online magazines, but it's just not the same. What about you? Do you like having printed instructions/ magazines or do you just haul a laptop over to your craft table and follow along from the net?

Letterpress giveaway

Head over to Positively Splendid for a chance to win an Epic Letterpress Combo Kit. Just think of all the crafty things you could do with that!

I've got your number

Etsy treasuries are fun to create. Here's one I curated featuring numbers. It's totally out of the realm of things I'd create, but still fun to look at and inspiring. Let me know if it inspires you to create something.

Easter vignette

Hope everyone's week got off to a good start yesterday. Today I'm sharing the Easter vignette I created on our sofa table with DIY projects, and dollar store and thrift store decor.

I've used my DIY Dollar tree hurricanes again. One is filled with book page eggs and the other is filled with foam eggs left over from my topiary.

I've got bunnies I picked up at the Salvation Army thrift store and a yard sale. I took a liking to vintage bunnies this year. Most of them were 25 cents to $1.00.

Here are some more:

I've also displayed a crochet egg filled with mini eggs that my mother-in-law made. She has made all sorts of fabulous ornaments and things with crochet and sugar water starch.

My best score at the thrift store was this wooden Easter sign. It was $1.00! At first I was going to alter it and cover it with scrapbook paper and embellishments, but when I cleaned it up, I decided to use it as is.

One last shot:

And about that blue Easter grass- it's left over from a couple of years ago, otherwise I'd have green.

I also created an etsy treasury of vintage Easter bunnies. Check it out HERE if you like. (Click on the listings too- that gives treasuries more rank.)



Have a great day. Visit the link parties on the side. I'll be linking up.

Happy Birthday Bella!

Today is Bella's birthday. She's 2. Bella is our Belgian malinois shephard. And our child! Since we don't have any kids, she gets all the lovin' and attention. And she's worth it. We drove all the way to Texas from Georgia to get her in 2009. She comes from a reputable breeder and was well trained even at 12 weeks. She's incredibly intelligent, curious, and so loving!

Here are her special treats that she got today. The sell these at Pet Supplies Plus.

They are iced cookies but there is no sugar in them or anything bad for dogs.

Bella really enjoys them:

 It got a little messy!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you got to enjoy something today.