Be Still and Create

Bridesmaid Shoe Favors

2012-05-08T10:56:00.003-04:00

A friend asked me to make some bridesmaids' favors for someone who is very dear to her, and this is what the girls will be receiving at the luncheon! Each little shoe holds a gift wrapped in tissue and tied with tulle.

These gift shoes are made the same way as the bridal shoe I posted earlier. The pieces are cut from cardstock and covered with thin wrapping paper. The inside of the shoe has strips of crepe paper covering the cardstock. They're a tad time-consuming, but the end result is worth the effort. I hope to get a pattern and tutorial up soon, so check back! In the mean time, here's the bridal shoe and some more pictures of the bridesmaids' shoes.

Happy Tuesday!!

Little Girl's Salvaged Blue Jean Skirt

2012-04-18T14:59:00.002-04:00

For all you seamstresses with little girls in your world that are growing up and out of their clothes right before your eyes, here's a project to stretch their wardrobes for at least one more season.

Don't be so quick to pass those little blue jeans on to your neighbor's children. Salvage them and turn them into a quick skirt! Simply cut off the legs of the jeans, attach a ruffle, applique a few goodies onto the front and back, and say Ta Da! Or let your little sweetie say Ta Da! when she models her new favorite skirt for you. Unfortunately, I don't have a little girl in my world. This project, as oh-so-many others, are for my imaginary granddaughter. I'll do a full tutorial on this skirt soon, as I have several more to make for her.

Here's a few more pics of my first one.

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HAPPY SEWING!

Dressed-Up Onesies

2012-03-30T12:44:00.001-04:00

All babies need onesies. Lots of onesies. And they're pretty boring little necessities, but it's easy to dress them up, and it takes no time at all.

The heart applique on the front of this one was made from a scrap of fabric leftover from another project. I used Wonder Under to attach it to the onesie and ran a zigzag stitch all the way around the heart. No Wonder Under lying around? Use a glue stick to hold your applique in place while you sew!

You may want to reinforce the applique with a piece of fabric underneath the onsie. Just pin a square of fabric in place and trim it to the stitch line when you're finished sewing.

You can create a ruffle-butt with scraps of pre-gathered lace.

Sew the bottom row on first. Layer the top row over the bottom row. I used a narrow zigzag stitch to attach the lace. If you don't have any scraps of lace in your scrap basket, use what you have on hand. You can gather strips of fabric and use those as ruffles. If you're lucky enough to have enough of the same fabric for the applique, great! Be sure to finish the edges of your fabric strips (if that's what your ruffles are made of) with a short hem or pinking shears to avoid fraying.

Got a baby in your world? Got one on the way? Got a friend with a baby or one on the way? Dress up a few onesies for your little peanut. Summertime is on the way, and onesies are the attire of choice for babies in hot weather!

Happy sewing!

Tee Shirt to Dress

2012-03-29T10:49:00.003-04:00

Another project for my imaginary granddaughter.... a dress with a tee shirt bodice! I don't know about you, but a bodice is not my favorite piece to construct. This little cheat takes all the work out of the bodice, and all you have to do is add the skirt. Yay.

You'll start with a sweet little tee to fit your little girl. The one I made is a 3T, so all measurements correspond with this size. You can adjust the length of your skirt section accordingly.

Lop off the bottom of the shirt wherever you want the waistline to fall. I chose an empire waist. Save the bottom pice for another project, like this braided headband.

You can find the tutorial for the headband here.

Your tee shirt is now in 2 pieces.

From the skirt fabric, cut 2 rectangles that measure 14x24 inches. The first measurement will be the length of the dress, so adjust the measurement if you will be adding a deep hem.

I know...the tee shirt is not yet cut in this picture, but yours should be cut by now.

Pin the two skirt pieces at the side seams with right sides facing. Sew with a 1/2 inch seam allowance. You can finish your seams with a serger (which I don't have), with pinking shears, or with a zigzag stitch. I use a zigzag stitch, and it has never failed me.

Along the top of the skirt section, run a gathering stitch. Two rows of gathers are better than one, but if you're in a hurry, one will suffice.

With right sides together, match the side seams of the skirt to the side seams of the tee. Pin in place. Match the center of the skirt front to the center of the shirt front, and pin in place. Do the same with the back pieces.

Now gather the skirt onto the tee, adjusting the gathers evenly around the shirt. Use LOTS of pins to secure your work.

Notice the tee shirt is not visible in the above photo. It is upside down inside the skirt for easy pinning.

Sew your skirt to your tee, removing pins as you go. If you haven't already pinked the skirt fabric, you can do that now, or finish the seam with whatever method you are using. Press the seam toward the bodice (tee shirt) of the dress. Notice that it's a dress now, not a bunch of skirt/shirt pieces. Yay!

Turn the dress right side out and marvel at how pretty it is already. Don't marvel too long. You still have work to do here. With the seam pressed toward the bodice, topstitch close to the edge of the bodice. This will allow the gathers to fall nicely, and it will reinforce the seam you just completed.

You're almost finished. Pretty quick project, huh? The hem is next. You may choose to short hem the dress with matching thread, deep hem the dress by hand, add decorative stitching, or a lace border. I chose a lace border. This lace was gifted to me by a dear friend. It is antique eyelet from a teester cover. The teester is long gone, but the lace survived beautifully. I'm proud to use it in my imaginary granddaughter's wardrobe.

Isn't it lovely?

Your dress is now completely wearable, but the bodice is a little plain for my taste. I decided to make a rosette to adorn it, using the same lace and fabric that I began with.

You will start with a strip of fabric 24 inches long and 2 inches wide, and a piece of lace 24 inches long.

Fold the fabric strip in half lengthwise, and press it in place.

Then place the fabric on top of the lace, with the raw edges matching.

Using a needle and thread, sew a loose running stitch the entire length of your strip, securing the thread with a good knot at the starting point.

You're not going for perfection here (good thing!)

When you have reached the other end of the strip with your thread, gather the strip onto the thread.

Don't cut your thread; keep it attached so that you can use it to secure the rosette 'petals' as you go. Begin rolling the strip from the end with the thread attached.

Secure the layers with the needle/thread as you roll.

When you reach the end of the fabric strip, secure the end under your rosette. Check to make sure all layers are secure before cutting your thread.

Bottom view of finished rosette.

Use a safety pin to secure the rosette to the bodice of the dress (from underneath).

Say Ta Da! and admire your work! Hopefully you have a real little girl in your world to enjoy the dress. Someday I may have one too. For now, I'll just keep sewing and praying.

Happy sewing, everyone!

Headbands

2012-03-28T20:18:00.003-04:00

If you have a baby girl in your world, she probably wants one of these. Badly. Really badly. They're easy to make, and you may as well make a bunch of them....one for each outfit? one for each day of the week? one for each day of the month? Seriously, they're that easy.

All you need is some elastic lace and some embellishments. You can get elastic lace here, or you can buy ready-made headbands and add the finishing touches yourself. Target has a nice selection of stretchy headbands and so does Kohl's. I was lucky enough to have some vintage lace on hand. Believe it or not, women used to make their own lingerie. Then along came Victoria's Secret, and there was no longer a need to make your own. Therefore it's kinda hard to find elastic lace in a fabric store today. If you find it anywhere, let me know where!

The fluffy stuff on my headbands is a couple of inches of a boa ($5 at Michaels). The flower rosettes are made from my scrap basket fabric.

Measure 12 inches of lace, sew on the embellishments, join the ends of the elastic by hand with a running stitch, and say Ta Da! Once you've gathered the supplies, you'll be hooked on this project. Don't be surprised if you find yourself searching for little girls in the mall to gift a headband to. Seriously.

This next one is a bit different, and more suitable for little girls that are a bit older. Older in the sense that their moms no longer have to tote a diaper bag around with them.

Cut 1 1/2 inch strips from a tee shirt and braid 3 of them into a 15 inch strand. Join the ends and cover the stitches with a loop of the tee shirt fabric stitched together. Glue or sew your embellishement to the braid, and say Ta Da! It's that easy. So don't throw away those old tee shirts. Your little girls need headbands! (The butterfly on mine was one of 8 in a pack for $2 with my 40% coupon at Michael's!)

Happy creating!

Pretty Paper Shoes

2012-03-26T17:05:00.001-04:00

Believe it or not, this shoe is made from card stock! Okay, there's some fabric and lace involved, but the foundation of the shoe (and the upper and heel panel) are white card stock.

They can be embellished any way you choose. I started by covering all areas that would be exposed with crepe paper. Then the sky's the limit, the sky being your scrap basket. I finished off the shoe with some silver seed beads and a tulle accent.

So what do you do with these pretties, you ask? This one is for a bride. She requested paper shoes for bridesmaids gifts. They make wonderful little gift pouches. The shoes for the bridesmaids will look very different than this one. I'll post pictures of them when they are finished. I have to make 15 of them....yep, 15! But I will have the help of a dear friend, and we'll cut and paste for hours over much coffee and laughter, so it won't be as taxing as it may sound.

I'll post a tutorial when we complete the big project. Until then, enjoy the photos of the bride's shoe!

Happy Creating!

Easter Egg Animals

2012-03-25T17:22:00.003-04:00

I found some cute little animal eggs on Pinterest, and I decided to pull out the plastic Easter eggs and give it a go. Here's a picture of the ones from babble.com:

Theirs look like real eggs. I'm not ready to color eggs yet, so plastic it is.

You will need:

Plastic eggs (I used the tiny variety, but you can use the standard size too.)

Felt in yellow, blue, pink, white (the cheap stuff, not your good wool felt)

Heavy white thread or embroidery floss (for whiskers)

Aleene's Tacky Glue (the only craft glue I use)

Black Sharpie fine-tip marker

Easy-Peasy instructions:

The feet for your creatures are heart shapes cut from felt.

The wings on the blue bird and the chick are heart shapes cut in half.

The ears for the bunny are elongated footballs with a sliver of pink felt in the middle.

The nose on the bunny is a tiny oval of felt.

The bunny's whiskers are embroidery floss, stiffened with glue. (yep, Aleene's)

The noses on the chick and blue bird are yellow felt triangles (reeeeeally tiny triangles)

Cut your shapes and glue them in place according to the picture.

Use your black marker to make tiny dots for eyes on your creatures.

Say Ta Da! You're done.

Really, these little guys are incredibly easy and quick to make. A super project for the whole family, and a pleasant change from the usual hard-boiled, dyed variety that I grew up with. (Did you actually eat those eggs you used to dye? We did! And I lived to tell it....go figure.)

Pull out your scrap basket, find some felt, and go create!! (I know you have some plastic eggs in the attic somewhere.)

Happy Easter!!

Infant Bib Tutorial

2012-03-23T20:35:00.001-04:00

This little rag bib goes together in a snap. You can make a whole batch of them in an afternoon. What a great gift for that BFF who's getting ready to have a baby!

Here's what you need:
1/4 yd. of lightweight cotton fabric (front of bib)
scraps of contrasting cotton fabric for embellishments
1/4 yd. solid cotton fabric (for middle layer -- I used white)
Hand towel or equivalent in terrycloth fabric (back of bib)
Bib pattern (I traced around a bib I already had)
All your sewing stuff

If you don't have a bib on hand to trace for your pattern, you can find a free pattern on line at any number of sites. The one at Creations by Kara is for infants, and it's in PDF format ready to print!

Once you have created your pattern, cut out the bib shape from the bib fabric (the pretty one that you are using for the front of the bib).

It's hard to tell in the photo, but the fabric is a soft yellow print.

You will pin this bib shape onto the fabric that you chose for the middle layer of the bib. DO NOT CUT IT OUT. Just pin the pretty fabric to a square (or something like a square) of your middle layer.
It'll look like this:

Just join the 2 pieces of fabric with a few pins to hold them in place while you embellish the bib front. Again: DO NOT CUT OUT THE MIDDLE LAYER! This layer serves as a stabilizer for all the curves in this project.

Time to embellish. I chose ruffles for this one, but you can decorate it any way you'd like. For the ruffles, start with a 1 1/2 strip of fabric approximately 24 inches long.

You only need one strip. I know the picture shows 2, but I made two identical bibs, so I needed 2 strips. You only need one.

Gather the strip into a ruffle. There are multiple ways to gather fabric. I let my machine do the work. Here's how:
Set the stitch length to the longest setting (4 or 5)
Set the thread tension to the highest setting (9 or 10)
Sew down the middle of your fabric and watch it gather all by itself!
(If it's not gathering tight enough, gently hold onto the spool on top of your sewing machine, allowing it to give only slightly as you sew. This will do the trick.)

Starting at one side of the bib (which is still pinned to the middle layer), pin the ruffle straight across to the other side. Trim off the remainder of the ruffled strip and place it just below the first ruffle. Pin in place.

Check the settings on your sewing machine. If you used your machine to ruffle, your stitch length and tension will need adjusted. Sew the 2 ruffles in place. I used a narrow zig-zag stitch and sewed down the middle, right over the gathering stitches.

Now you're ready for the third layer, the terrycloth back. Lay the embellished bib (which is attached to the middle layer at the embellishment) on the terrycloth/handtowel. Cut out a square (or something like a square) from the towel, using the middle layer as your guide.

You now have three layers, as shown in the above photo: top/pretty layer, middle solid layer, and towel back layer.

Pin all three layers together, following the outline of the bib. There are LOTS of curves in this project, so use LOTS of pins.

Sew all three layers together, leaving a 1/4 seam allowance. You can use the edge of your presser foot as your guide. Sew very slowly around your curves so that your seam allowance is consistent. (If you're like me, you hate sewing slowly. I'm always so anxious to see the finished project that I tend to rush through. I learned the hard way on this project!)

After you remove your pins, cut the middle and back layers away, using the bib front as your guide.

Now you should have what looks like a bib with an unfinished edge.

To "finish" the edges, you will snip into the seam allowance, straight toward the stitch line, every 1/4 to 1/2 inch.

When you have snipped the entire perimeter of the bib, your hand and wrist should be a little tired! Unless of course you're lucky enough to own some spring-action scissors. Apparently this tool makes the snipping process much easier. I wouldn't know. I'm pretty lucky, but not that lucky. I guess I'm lucky enough just to be able to create. But spring-action scissors.....

Anyway, your bib should look something like this by now:

Lots of little snips. LOTS. The rag edge will become fluffier after the bib is laundered, but you can fluff it by hand a little too.

Add a closure of your choice. I used velcro (sewn in), but snaps or buttons work nicely too.

Aren't they cute? And easy-peasy. No seam binding (Yay!)

Here's a few more I made for my imaginary granddaughter:

Happy Sewing!!

Stuffed Bunny

2012-03-12T17:52:00.005-04:00

With Easter right around the corner, it's about time to start creating some basket stuffers! These little stuffed shapes are the perfect addition to an Easter basket, and they make and nice gift all by themselves too.

The pattern can be found at u-create. The one there is constructed of faux chenille, and it's just darling.

I made mine from an ultra-soft, kinda furry fabric. I also made some from pink minky. I used a coupon for both fabrics, and each one cost me less than $3 to make, including the stuffing. Pretty good, huh?

Just print the pattern, cut out the shape, sew with right sides together (leaving a 3 inch opening to turn and stuff). Clip all curves. Don't skip this step. It makes all the difference in the appearance of your bunny. It makes it easier to turn right side out too!

After stuffing your shape, handsew the opening, embellish, and gift your creation to someone special!

A couple more shots of the batch I whipped up this afternoon:

Happy Monday!

Pillow Case Dresses

2012-03-11T07:11:00.004-04:00

You've seen pillow case dresses popping up all over blogland lately. They're cute as cute can be, and quite easy to put together. Here's some shots of the batch I recently made. I'll post a tutorial for these little gems later today.

Periwinkle Delight

Breezy Aqua

Gingham & Eyelet

Cheerful Brights

I'll get the tutorial up this afternoon, so stop back for the easy instructions!

AS PROMISED, HERE'S THE TUTORIAL FOR THE DRESS!

This little dress is one of the easiest projects to put together. It's definitely on the beginner level of sewing, so all you beginners out there, jump right in. It took me 30 minutes to put one together, so you can make one for each of the sweeties in your world in an afternoon.

There is no real "pillowcase" involved. You will need approximately 1/2 yard of fabric for the dress (size 2-3T). Adjust the amount of fabric according to the size of the child. I chose to use two cooridnating fabrics. Dig through your scraps to find treasures that you thought you'd never use. This project is perfect for scraps.

Start by measuring your little girl from shoulder to knee. Add 2 inches to this number. This will be the length of the dress. Next measure around her waist and add 4 inches. This will be the circumference. (You can make the dress fuller by adding additional inches to the circumference. One half of the circumference is the width of the pattern. (I know this does not follow geometric rules and formulae; it's okay. Trust me on this one.) Now you have the measurements you need to make your pattern.

Using a piece of craft paper or a brown paper bag, draw a rectangle using the length and width measurements you just took. Cut out your rectangle.

Armhole angles:

On the top of your rectangle, measure in from the side 2 inches and make a mark. From the top, measure down the side (length side) 3 inches and make a mark. Join the two marks with a straight line. Repeat this process on the other side of the pattern.

You will have something that looks like this:

Don't panic. Yours will be connected at this point. I had already cut the bottom away when I took this picture.

If you plan to use contrasting fabric on the bottom of the dress, cut a piece from the bottom. My bottom piece measures 6 inches.

Fold each of your pattern pieces in half and lay each one on the fold of the fabric. You will cut 2 top pieces and two bottom pieces/strips.

With right sides together, sew one to piece to one bottom strip with a 1/2 inch seam. Press your seam UP toward the top of the dress (don't skip the pressing).

Repeat with the other top and bottom pieces.

On the right side, topstitch close to the seam on the TOP piece of the dress. (You are sewing into the seam that you just pressed UP on the wrong side.) Complete this step on both sections.

Now it's time to short-hem the armholes. To short-hem, press the raw edges under 1/4 inch. Fold over that pressed edge another 1/4 inch, hiding the raw edge. Sew in place. Finish all 4 armhole edges in this way.

You now have two identical sections: one dress front and one dress back. There is no need to decide which is which, but I will refer to them as FRONT and BACK to save confusion.

With right sides together, pin front to back, matching up the seams that connect the top and bottom. Sew down each side using 1/4 inch seam. Press your seams open.

Short-hem the bottom of the dress. I used contrasting thread.

To finish the top edge of the dress, press the raw edge under 1/4 inch.

Then fold the pressed edge in, allowing enough room to accommodate the ribbon you are using. Sew in place to form the ribbon casing.

Cut two pieces of ribbon 30 inches long. Using a large safety pin, thread on piece of ribbon through each casing, leaving equal lengths exposed on each end.

Gather the dress to the center of the ribbons, tie in bows on each shoulder. Say Ta Da! You're finished! You have created your first pillowcase dress. Now go make a few more! Now that you know how to assemble it, the next few will go together in a snap.

I'd love to see your finished work!

Easy Embellished Clothespins

2012-02-13T17:33:00.001-05:00

Making these dressed up clothespins brought back some sweet memories. I grew up with a clothesline in my back yard. Everyone had a clothesline, and everyone's mom dried the family laundry, undies and all, on that line. My children had a clothesline in their backyard too, and their mom dried the family laundry the same way. Clotheslines are an element of the past for me, as they are for many. Our busy schedules just don't allow the time to hang our sheets to dry in the breeze.

source

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Can't you just smell them?

So wooden clothespins are dear to my heart. What better way to honor the memories than to repurpose those sweet pegs into something useful and beautiful?

There's really no lengthy tutorial necessary for little project. I simply washed the bare wood with acrylic paint that was thinned out with water, then chose my embellishments from what I had on hand. The group above is all seaside themed, with tiny beads and shells glued onto paper discs. Burlap strings echo the grasses in the dunes along the shore.

A simple button magnet attached to the back gives them a permanent display space on the fridge.

They're perfect for holding cards....

grocery lists...

or whatever it is that you normally keep on the fridge....photos, children's artwork, calendar reminders, business cards......

Here's a look at the rest of the collection.

Butterflies and tulle...

Bead flowers.....

Flowers and raffia....

Maybe you're among the lucky ones who still has a clothesline and time to fill it. Maybe you're fortunate enough to snuggle in sheets that smell of autumn. I envy you, if you are.

Pull out your wooden clothespins (or buy a small bag for old time's sake) and bring them inside as a reminder of days gone by.

All Dressed Up Initial Art

2012-02-04T13:21:00.006-05:00

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It's a dreary Saturday afternoon. Rain. Rain. Rain. I guess I shouldn't complain; it could be ice, which would be normal for this time of year. Or snow. I don't do snow. I know there are plenty of you out there that LOVE winter, snow and all. I'm not among you. I'm a flip-flop-weather gal. I spend the winter prayin' for spring.

Anyway, rain keeps us indoors, and I came up with this project after seeing this one at Design Sponge.

Design Sponge

Isn't it awesome? Ampersands are quite in vogue right now, and these girls came up with a couple different ampersand art ideas using cut-outs from items on hand. Head on over for their tutorial, or stay tuned here for mine!

All you need is some card stock, a few magazines, some scissors, and a glue stick. The magazines should be of the variety that typically has lots of pictures of flowers.

Flip through the magazines and clip pictures of flowers and greenery. The trick here, well actually there are two tricks: use tiny scissors for cutting tiny objects; and cut close to the edge of the image, creating curves and points where they happen in nature. Cut LOTS of pictures, especially the really small ones.

If you don't have a lot of magazines lying around, there is still a way to accomplish this look, and you don't have to change out of your sweat pants and ponytail to do it.

The Graphics Fairy is a wonderful blog with tons and tons of vintage botanical printables. You can copy and paste any of the images and size them to your liking. Print them out on light-weight cardstock for easy cutting. Here's a sampling of what I found:

Use Microsoft Word to make your initial. Play around with different fonts and font sizes until you get it exactly like you want it. Print it out and cut it out. Now lightly trace it onto a fresh sheet of cardstock and start gluing all your little cut-outs in place. Use the curvy flowers for the curvy parts of the initial. Use the smallest ones to fill in dead space. I recommend dealing with the largest pieces first.

When you've covered all the space in your outlined initial, say Ta Da! You've created rainy day art.
If you have a rainy day craft to share, send it along!

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Monogrammed Notepad

2012-02-03T14:53:00.004-05:00

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Everyone loves personalized gifts. They show that you took the time to do something extra special, with only one person in mind. There is a someone who is extra special in my life, and she will soon have a new monogram. Wedding bells will ring this summer, and she will become my son's wife. Yay! So I thought I'd come up with a small gift bearing her new initials.

These little notepads are a cinch to put together, but you have to have a little time. Just because they're easy, doesn't necessarily mean quick.

Here's what you'll need:
Computer (Microsoft Word used to make monogram)
Paper (color of your choice)
Light-weight cardboard (cereal boxes work well for this)
Hole Punch (to punch very small holes)
Old spiral bound notebook (you just need the spiral)
Needlenose Pliers
Scissors
Glue (or Mod Podge)

Start by creating your design in Microsoft Word. Your document should be in Landscape orientation (under Page Layout). I used text boxes for each letter in the monogram. I'll do a full tutorial on making monograms in Word in the near future. When you are happy with your design, copy and paste it until you have 6 images. Arrange them on the page. I divided my page into 3 columns and centered the images within the columns. You may have to run a test page or 2 before you get them exactly where they need to be. You will have to adjust your margins so that they are almost non-existent. Your page should look similar to this:

The bottom 3 images are right on the edge of the paper. That's because I dragged the margin bar all the way down.

Decide how many sheets of note paper you will have in your notepad (30 is a good number) and start printing. When you have all your sheets (shouldn't be more than 5 or 6) printed, use your paper trimmer to cut each sheet into 6 equal sections. Your monogram/image should be at the bottom center of each little sheet. I used yellow paper with a pink monogram.

Cut 2 pieces of lightweight cardboard slightly larger than your note sheets.

Glue cardstock to both sides of each piece of cardboard. One of these will be the front of your notepad; the other will be the back. You may choose to decorate the cardstock prior to assembling these two pieces. I put a larger monogram with a few butterflies on the front, and I simply signed the back to further personalize the project.

I also added a lacy paper border to the left side of the cover. You can use whatever you have on hand to embellish this little gem.

Now you need to bind all the elements together with a metal spiral. You can do this on the side or on the top. I chose the top. You'll have to remove the spiral from the old notebook you dug out of your stash of old stuff. To do this, simply start unwinding (rotating) the spiral from one end until it is completely free.

Now line up the top edge of your back cover (the cardboard piece you covered with cardstock) with the hole edge of the old notebook, and mark the holes lightly with a pencil.

Using a small punch, create holes over the pencil marks. (If you are using a standard sized hole punch, you will only punch every other pencil mark.)

Using this newly punched back cover as your guide, mark the front cover and all the little sheets of notepaper. Be as precise as possible so that everything will line up to receive the spiral. If you are punching the holes through multiple sheets at once, use large paper clips to secure the sheets so that they don't shift.

When you have punched all the holes in all the layers, it's time to bind them all together. Your spiral will be waaaaay too long for your tiny notepad, but that's okay for now. You can trim it when you've wound it all the way through. Starting on the back, feed the end of the spiral through the first hole of ALL layers and begin winding. It should slide neatly into the holes you created. (If you used a standard sized hole punch, you may have to urge the wire from hole to hole, but it will work!) When you reach the end, wind the spiral through the last hole and use your pliers to create a very small bend in the very end so that there is not an exposed sharp point. Trim the other end and do the same to the sharp end.

Say Ta Da! Your notepad is complete! You may want to make one for a bunch of people in your world, because when they find out you made this one, they'll all want one!

Don't forget to send me pictures of the ones you create.....Thanks!

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Favor Pockets

2012-02-01T17:23:00.001-05:00

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I'm addicted to tea-stained everything. Well, everything that has to do with crafts. The tea-stained bath robe....not so much. Tea staining is quick, cheap, easy; and it provides a vintage element to any craft. These little pockets are made from tea-stained coffee filters. I know the picture doesn't show the staining effect very well, but trust me on this one. They've seen tea.

To stain standard white coffee filters, simply soak them for 3-4 minutes in hot tea. I make the tea in a 2 quart pan and do dozens of filters at once. The longer you soak 'em, the darker they get. Then just dip them out, squeeze out as much of the tea as you can, and lay them flat on an old towel to dry. Iron them when they're dry. They'll still have that old, rumpled look. If it's not rumpled enough for you, wad them into a ball and iron them lightly again. (I always put an old towel on my ironing board so that I don't transfer any tea to my husband's shirts!)

So now you have a stack of stained paper circles.

Take one and fold in the sides until it resembles something like a triangle.

Now take another circle and place it under the triangle. Follow the same fold lines and wrap the bottom one around the top.

The double thickness adds body to the project, and it adds the strength it needs to hold the goodies.

Using Aleen's Tacky Glue (I love this stuff!), secure the folded flaps to each other. Be careful not to glue them to the back of your project. Do not use hot glue for this step. It is not at all forgiving.

Now you can embellish your pocket with whatever you have on hand. I started snipping away at a silk flower, removing some of the petals at the base. Using hot glue (yes, you can use it for this step) I adhered the petals at an angle right where the two flaps meet.

I finished it off with a raffia spray at the base of the petals.

You can add a handle to your pocket by hot gluing the ends of a ribbon, twine, raffia, or whatever you choose between the two layers on each side of the pocket.

The lighting in this picture casts a pinkish glow to the otherwise brown pockets. I kinda like it. Maybe the next batch will be pink. You can dye coffee filters any color you wish using warm water and food coloring. You can also borrow your son's watercolors and go crazy with those.

Don't forget to say Ta Da! when you're finished. If you're making these for Valentine's Day, send me some pictures. I'd love to see what you chose to use for embellishing your pockets!

Paper Pennie Pockets

2012-02-01T12:26:00.004-05:00

Pennie Pockets are showing up everywhere lately, especially on quilting and sewing blogs. They're adorable! Take a look at this one over at Material Girls Quilts.

She's got a link to the tutorial, if you're in the mood to pull out the sewing machine and the fabric scraps.

If you're more apt to pull out your paper craft supplies, make a bunch of these for Valentine's Day!
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Pennie Pockets have been around for years and years, and they were actually first made of paper. Scrap notions were used to embellish them, and they were traditionally stuffed with treats. So, in keeping with the tradition, you can whip up a pocket or two for the sweeties in your world and stuff them with anything from chocolates to jewelry.
Here's how they go together:

Start with a square of paper. Mine is decorative paper, but it does not have to be. It just has to be a square.

Flip the paper to the wrong side. If you are using two-sided decorative paper, the side that will be on the inside of the pocket should be facing up. Place your straight edge diagonally from corner to corner and draw a line half way up from the bottom corner.

Be careful not to go above the halfway point. That unmarked piece will be on the outside of your project when you're through.

Now take the right corner and fold it up and in so that the bottom right side is now touching the line you just drew.

Repeat this step with the left side, overlapping very slightly. (You will be gluing this seam, so you need enough overlap for a very thin line of glue.)

Run a very thin bead of glue down the seam and press it into place. It's important not to overdo it with the glue at this point. You only want the glue to secure the seam; you do NOT want it to stick to the layer underneath. I use good old Aleen's Tacky Glue. It adheres instantly, and it dries quickly.

You now have a contrasting triangle at the top of your project. Fold it down over the glued seam. Your fold line is the base of the triangle.

Now fold it to the other side and turn your project over.

Now comes the fun part: embellishing! The sky's the limit here. Okay, I exaggerate. Your notion box is the limit here. I chose a pink doily (simply dyed it in a dish of colored water) to dress up the plain white triangle. I also trimmed the edges of the triangle to scallop them.

You can add whatever you have on hand: bows, ribbons, beads, shells, flowers, more paper, monograms, ect. Think about the recipient of this little gem, and personalize it accordingly.

Use a punch (or a toothpick, or a sharp nail file, or whatever it is that you can find in that junk drawer you're standing next to) to make small holes in the side for the ribbon handle. Punch the holes directly into the fold about 1/2 inch down from the top edge.
Use ribbon, rick-rack, raffia, or whatever else you have on hand as a handle for your pocket. I used rag yarn. It has little pieces of "rag" fabric woven into the fibers of the yarn. You can string your handle through the holes from the inside (like I did), or you can string from the outside and knot it on the inside for a more streamlined look.

I added a couple beads to the bottom point with hot glue. You could also add pom-poms, tassels, paper hearts, etc.

Stuff your pocket full of your sweetie's favorite treat.

And you have a quick, easy gift! Say Ta Da! Make them for your kids. Make them for your grandkids. Make them for your kids' teachers. Just make 'em and send me pictures of your creations!

Super Bowl Activities for the Kids

2012-01-26T15:27:00.001-05:00

Kids and football don't always mix well. You with me on this one? The adults want to watch the game; the kids don't want to let the adults watch the game. I'm about to share some ideas for activities to keep the little ones occupied during the big game. So listen up.

Super Bowl will be here before we know it, and party planning is underway in many of your homes, I'm sure. We are lucky enough to be going elsewhere for the game, so no cleanup for me...yay!

I don't much care who wins this game. I'm a Carolina Panthers fan, and I'm also a Baltimore Ravens fan. So I don't have a dog in this fight. However, that does NOT mean I'm not going to enjoy the game.

The rest of y'all can stay in the kitchen!

Are you a fan? Or do you stay in the kitchen? I know, I know, real women are needed in the kitchen too. It's just that this real woman would rather be watching the big game.

The New England Patriots, with Tom Brady at the helm....

The New York Giants, with cutie pie Eli Manning?

Who will you be pulling for?

While some of us will be screaming and hollering at the flat screen with the men, there will be likely be some kids in the kitchen who need something to do. Face it: if you don't give them something to do, they'll come in to bug you while you're trying to figure out if that guy stepped out of bounds before he made it to the end zone. They're only going to show the replay 47 times while the review is underway, and you need to see all 47 of them so that you can decide whether or not the ref is doing his job. You certainly don't have time to turn on your nice mommy voice and cater to whatever whim your child may have at the moment. You spend your life doing that. Today is yours!

If you're smart, you'll hire a sitter for the kids. Even if the party is at your house. You can have a party for the kids in the kitchen while you grown-ups are having your own party in the family room! Then you can tell all your friends to bring their kids, and you can all chip in to pay the sitter!

Pay your sitter well. She's working her butt off to entertain your kids!!

Your sitter, whether it be the girl down the street that you use every Friday night or one of your girlfriends who can't stand football because of "all the violence," she's gonna need a plan to entertain the masses. The plan is up to YOU, and I'm here to help. There are all kinds of activities for kids, and none of them will break the bank. You probably have most of the supplies for these activities already, since I don't know many kids who go through life without a scissors, glue, and crayons. So here's a quick lineup of stuff to keep those little guys and gals busy so you can review all the plays you want.

DLTKids has tons of ideas for every theme imaginable, one of which is FOOTBALL.

Here's a few of there coloring pages. You can copy and paste them to print out, or you can visit their site and print from there.

There are other sites out there too. Just google "football coloring pages" for tons more options.

This site has coloring pages for all the NFL helmets.

And there's more than just coloring for the kiddos. Here's a wordsearch I made using Puzzlemaker.

You can copy and paste this one, or you can go to Puzzlemaker and create one of your own!

Here's a cute football wreath that gets all the kids involved:

Just have your sitter help them trace their handprints onto construction paper and cut them out. The handprints can be glued onto a cardboard form that the sitter has created while the kids were coloring. A football template can be made from the football coloring page earlier in this post.

Use this template (blow it up to whatever size you want) to cut out team pennants and decorate them.

If your sitter is feeling a bit more adventurous, purchase a plain white tee shirt (large enough to fit like a jersey) for each child. You could also ask the moms and dads to provide these for their kids. Get some fabric paint, spread some newspaper (a tarp may be more appropriate), and let the kids create a team jersey!

Here's a little cut 'n paste football player made from a TP roll. (I know you upcycle your empty rolls, so now you have a project for them!)

You can find the info for him at DLTKids too.

So there you have it, a brief roundup of ideas for the tykes and kiddos on football day. If the ages of the children vary widely, you may want to consider two sitters. Of course this may require two separate spaces in your home, so go clean the playroom!

Lyle's "Font"astic Adventures

2012-01-24T21:53:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I shared some pretty interesting fonts with you. We discovered that there are TONS of fonts out there, all free for the taking, and TONS of things you can do with them. I had a special request from a viewer for some kitty fonts. Okay, so she's not just any viewer; she's my daughter, and like her mama, she loves cats.

This is her sweet Ragdoll, my grandkitty, Lyle.

Anyway, all I had to do was google "kitty fonts" and instantly I had a HUGE list of sites advertising precisely what I wanted. I chose Fontspace, and I was not disappointed. There are three pages full of fonts that are all things feline.

So here's a sampling of what I found.

The purrfect monogram

Heartfelt purrs

Cat Nap (in heels, no less!)

all-occasion cat

Too cute!

Yoga Cats

Sunshine Felines

And my absolute favorite.....

Kitty Doodles

These are all perfect for embellishing. The doodles are so convincing, you could use them in margins, and no one would know that they were not your original artwork. I use the term "artwork" very loosely here.

A great tutorial for downloading new fonts can be found here.

So go create something feline, and clean the litter box!

"Font"astic Creations

2012-01-24T14:31:00.006-05:00

There are so many wonderful fonts out there, and they're freefreefree for the taking. It does take a bit of time to download a whole collection and add it to the fonts in Word, but it's well worth the time and effort.

I recently downloaded fonts from MissTiina and Fonts101, and I'm amazed at all the cool stuff I got! Not only can a good font serve to change the tone of your writing, it can become a project in itself.

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These little doodles are actually the letter "B" in MTFDoodlewhats from Fonts101. By simply pressing a single key on the keyboard, you get this little string of hearts! I just added Auto Shapes to frame the image. Prior to the edit, it looked like this:

You can make them any color you want, because they behave just like a letter.
Take a look at some of the other neat characters in Doodlewhats

Each of the words in this font is achieved with the single stroke of a letter on the keyboard. Wild. Love it.

The Sweet Nature font at MissTiina is filled with adorable little shapes.

Any of these shapes, when enlarged, makes a darling little picture all by itself.

Imagine the projects with this collection!

Here are a few more to whet your creative appetite....

Sweet Dings

Heart Sketches, just in time for Valentine creations!

And using the fonts above, a little creation from a combination of them:

It's amazing what you can do with fonts. The great thing about them is that there are so many FREE fonts available. There are also some good tutorials for adding them to your existing font collection. This one is especially easy to follow.

Click on image to go to tutorial. (opens in new window)

So start creating! Don't forget to send some pics of your creations. Thanks for stopping by!
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DIY Valentine Printables

2012-01-24T10:50:00.005-05:00

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Picnik is closing. Yep, it's true. My favorite photo editing site is coming to an end. So sad.

No more fluffing clouds. No more picking blackberries. No more buttering sandwiches.

The GOOD NEWS: They will be up and running until April 19th, and all the premium stuff is now FREE! So get it while it lasts. (For those who have been paying for the premium stuff, you're all getting a full refund!)

I used picnik to make the Valentine printable above, and it's soooooo easy to do. I know, I know. A lot of you have been creating things like this forEVER, but bear with me while I share the tutorial. (I ask your forgiveness ahead of time for the pictures. Apparently photographing my computer screen isn't within the capabilities of my camera.)

The first thing you have to do is create a blank Paint document. What is a Paint document, you ask? Paint is a program in your computer (yes, it's there) that allows you to create all sorts of neat stuff, but we'll talk more about the elements of Paint another time. You can find this program under Accessories in your list of All Programs. Simply open it and save it as a jpeg on your desktop. It is a blank white nothing at this point.

Open the Picnik home page and upload the file you just saved on your desktop. Again, it will look like a big, white, blank page; but trust me, it's there.

From the tabs at the top, choose Effects. Scroll down to Duo-Tone. Click on the Second Color box, and choose your background color. (The First Color box does not come into play in this project.)

Click Apply, and instantly you will see that your file is no longer blank!

Now go to the tab for Basic Edits. Click on Resize. This is where you will turn your rectangular image on its side to that it has a vertical orientation. Uncheck the Keep Proportions box. The first value is the width, and the second is the height. You can play with the numbers until you get the size rectangle that you want. Mine is 800x1200.

Click Apply to save the dimensions. (You can always come back and resize again later if you need to.)

Now click on the Frames tab. Choose what type of frame you would like. Play around with a few of them to see what best suits your project and your taste. You can always click Undo if you don't like what you've created. I chose a Museum Matte. I like that it has two different colors.

Again, sorry for the picture quality here.

Now you are ready to add your text. Click the Text tab. You will add your text in the box in the upper left corner of the screen.

You will have to create the line breaks, or it will come out in one loooooong line of text that won't fit your project. Once you have typed your text into the box, click Add. You may have to play with it for a while to get it exactly how you want it. You can drag the text box all over the screen to place it. Choose a Font. Choose a Font Color.

Now click on the Stickers tab. There are literally hundreds of options here, and since they're all FREE, you can choose to add whatever you'd like! I chose the tab for Hand-Drawn Hearts.

You can alter the sticker once it's added by right clicking on it for options. You can change the color of many of the stickers, and you can resize all of them. Drag them to the perfect spot on your creation.

Save your project to your computer by clicking on the Save and Share tab.

Say Ta Da! and sit back and admire your work! Print it out, frame it, gift it to someone special in your world. And don't forget to send me pics of your project!

Paper Rosettes

2012-01-24T07:07:00.001-05:00

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These little gems can be used to embellish anything from gift boxes and tags to picture frames and lampshades.

You will need:

Paper of your choice (plain paper is easier to work with than cardstock)

Scissors

Glue gun

Bead for center (optional)

All cutting is done without a pattern so that there are no lines on your finished flower. Don’t be intimidated. It’s super easy. You may want to practice on a couple to get the hang of it, but you’ll be a pro in no time.

Begin by cutting a wavy circle from your paper. I used ¼ of a standard sheet of paper for these little rosettes.

Then cut a wavy spiral into the circle, keeping the width of the spiral as constant as possible.

Now you are ready to form your flower. Starting at the outer point (the point where you began your spiral cutting), begin rolling the spiral strip into a snug coil.

Continue rolling around the spiral until you reach the center. You will have something that looks like this:

Now set the bottom of your rosette on your work surface and allow the flower to unfurl a bit, until you get the desired look.

Remember: roses in nature are not perfectly symmetrical, so it’s okay if yours isn’t.

At this point your rosette should be resting on the last bit of paper in the center of the original spiral. This is where you want to add some hot glue. Using a pea-sized glop of hot glue, press your flower from the top, forcing all the layers down into the glue. Hold it in place for a few seconds until the glue cools a bit, making sure that everything is attached at the base.

Now you have a creation similar to this:

If the center of your rose is exposed, as mine is, you can simply add a bead to hide the glue mess. If your coil remained nice and tight in the center and you can't see that mess, congratulations, no bead necessary.

Your rose is now complete.

Say Ta Da! And go embellish something. Send me pictures please!

The tutorial for this sweet pillow box is here.

Pillow Box With a View

2012-01-23T21:46:00.004-05:00

I’m of the mindset that the presentation of a gift, large or small, is just as important as the gift itself. I’m one who takes forever to wrap a gift, and I generally destroy my ~~kitchen~~ workroom in the process. Traditional boxes and wrapping paper are just not my style. I enjoy the creation process far too much to simply wrap some paper around a box and slap a bow on it. I know there are many of you out there who find great pleasure in the slapping on of a bow, sighing in gratitude that you have completed the job, and that’s what works for you. What works for me is making each gift more special by creating one-of-a-kind packaging.

This pillow box is just adorable, don’t you think?

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You will need:

Pillow box template (find it here)

One sheet of cardstock

*One small piece of transparent plastic, slightly larger than a playing card

Scissors

Tacky glue (I use Aileen’s)

Scoring tool (exacto knife, dull paring knife, pointed end of your tweezers, etc.)

Cutting mat

*I used part of a transparency sheet, the kind your teachers use with overhead projectors. You can also use a piece of the plastic container that your berries came in, a laminating sheet, or any other plastic that is similar in weight.

Instructions:

Print the pillow box pattern onto a piece of cardstock, but NOT the piece you’re planning on using for the project. You are simply making a pattern. You don’t want all those dotted lines all over your pretty box.

Cut out the pattern, and trace around it on your chosen cardstock.

Cut out your traced box, following the solid lines. The dotted lines are fold lines.

Now you have to score the dotted lines. Scoring is cutting a dent/trough into the cardstock, without actually going all the way through. This will allow the folds to be neat and crisp. Score on the outside of your box.

To score the curved lines, see the next photo.

To make a pattern for the curved lines, simply cut through the curved dotted lines on your pattern (with your scissors), removing the football shaped pieces. Line this new pattern up to your project, and use your scoring tool to follow the curve that you just cut. Ta Da! Scoring complete!

To make the window in your box, use an object of your choice. I wanted a rectangle, and a playing card fit nicely. And it was in a drawer within my reach at the precise moment I needed it. You can use whatever you want; the possibilities are endless. Trace around the playing card on the WRONG side of your project. Use your exacto knife to remove the rectangle from the project. (Yep, you can use your scissors for this if you’d rather.)

Now cut your plastic window slightly larger than the rectangle you just removed.

Spread tacky glue thinly around the opening of the rectangle, and install your window!

Allow this to dry thoroughly before you try to fold the box into a pillow. The window will pop out if it’s not completely, completely dry. Trust me on this one.

When your glue has dried, fold the two straight folds and apply a coat of tacky glue on the tab (Don’t overdo it on the glue. You don’t want glue seeping out and smearing on your pretty box.) Seal the seam with your fingers.

I know you’re just dying to fold the curvy edges in now, but give the glue a few minutes to set before you try to complete the pillow. Go fold the laundry. Stir the chili on the stove. Make the bed.

Okay. It’s time. Fold the end flaps in and say Ta Da! again. Your pillow box is complete. You can embellish it if you choose. I added 2 simple hearts.

Stuff your pillow with the candy of your choice, and present it to a sweetie in your world. Maybe he’ll share with you!

Pillow Boxes

2012-01-23T21:15:00.003-05:00

These little goodie boxes have me obsessed at the moment. They’re just so easy to make, and they’re cute and functional too. You can fill them with the treat of your choice, and they’re bound to please all the sweeties in your world.

Download the template for the boxes here, and print it on cardstock. Cut it out, cutting only the solid lines. Use this as your pattern. Trace around the pattern onto your project paper. Cut on the solid lines. Score on the dotted lines.

To score the curves, cut the curved lines of your pattern and remove the football-shaped pieces. Line up this new pattern with your project and follow the curved edges that you just cut. Use a straight-edge to score the two straight folds.

Important: All scoring is done on the outside of the project.

I used card stock for some of the boxes, construction paper, and calendar art pages for others. They all work well, but the cardstock is the sturdiest.

When all score lines are complete, apply Tacky Glue to the tab, fold the “pillow” in half on the score line, and seal. When the glue is dry (be patient!) simply fold the ends in on the curves to create the three-dimensional pillow.

Embellish with whatever you’d like. Here are a few ideas.

Red and white cotton ribbon with tiny silk flowers.

Paper doily with a bouquet of hearts wrapped in a bow. The heart stems are stirrer straws cut to length. The hearts were cut with a punch from colored paper plates.

Paper doily with paper rosette. The surprise inside is a simple love note.

A quote from Elizabeth Barrett Browning in a poem to her husband.

Add a window!! (tutorial here)

Calendar art comes in beautiful varieties. This particular calendar boasts gorgeous flowers on black backgrounds. I love how the dark background allows the flowers to show off.

The sky's the limit. You could make them from old maps for the gentlemen in your world, from bright cardstock for all occasion giving, from notebook paper (glued over a sheet of cardstock) for a teacher gift. The list is endless. Make a few and send me your pictures. I'd love to see what is unleashed in your imagination!

Fabric Covered Goodie Box

2012-01-23T20:15:00.004-05:00

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If you’re like me, every time you empty a box, you take a step toward the recycle bin, then stop dead in your tracks. The wheels turn. You ask yourself, “How can I upcycle this?” You tell yourself, “It’s got to have another use.” So you store it. With all the other boxes that have another use, even if that other use has yet to be discovered. Sometimes I actually use them. Most of the time they make their way to the recycle bin.

We use a lot of wax paper in this house. No, really, I mean a LOT.

I use it to wrap sandwiches for lunches. I use it to clean my iron. I use it to catch paint splatters when I’m working on small projects. I use it to line cookie sheets to make candy. Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

I’ve never really though about saving the boxes because of that metal cutting edge. But today I had a thought as I headed to the recycle bin with the blue box in my hand: I’ll take that cutting edge off and upcycle this baby!

So with needle-nosed pliers in hand (please be really, really careful doing this!), I gently pulled and twisted the nasty row of teeth into a mangled mess that was completely dislodged from it’s host.

Now to decide what to do with the box. (Yes, of course I saved the cardboard tube inside. It’s in the storage bin with the other 347 cardboard tubes that I need to upcycle.)

With Valentine’s Day coming up, I decided to cover the box and fill it with goodies. First I gave it a good coat of paint to mask the blue and the writing. Use the cheap paint for this. No one is going to see it. I stock up on the cheap stuff for just such occasions.

While the paint was drying, I rummaged through my baby quilt scraps and found the perfect piece to cover the box. Tiny roses on white cotton. Armed with Mod Podge and a good short-haired brush, I applied strips of fabric to the entire exterior of the box. I use a brush instead of a sponge applicator for fabric decoupage to secure the edges without disturbing the previous piece.

I started on the bottom and worked up the sides. After allowing these sections to dry, I was able to flip the box upright and work on the front, back, and lid. It was a process. LOTS of drying time.

Instead of wrapping the fabric strips under the lid, I chose to leave them loose and trim them off once dry. In the next photo, the box is laying on its back with the lid open. You can see the edges of the fabric forming an overhang around the lid.

With the edges trimmed away, I added some fringe to the box, starting in the back and working around the top and down the front of the lid.

I glued a strip of white paper under the lid to give it a clean finish.

The now-pretty box is just the perfect size for Lemon Crisp Cookies. You can get the recipe here.

Line the box with wax paper before lining the cookies up on their sides. Fold the wax paper over the cookies neatly, wrap the box in a bow, and gift it to a sweetie in your world.

I need to make these throughout the year and use them for holiday goodie gifts, teacher gifts, thank you gifts, whatever gifts!

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Hearts-a-Plenty

2012-01-23T19:55:00.004-05:00

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This quick little project is virtually FREE if you have an old frame lying around. I just happened to have a few of them on hand.

Lovely, huh? That’s why they were lying around! I have a lot of stuff lying around waiting for a project, as do many of you. Don’t lie. I know you do. You wouldn’t be reading this if you didn’t.

I had to do some minor repairs on the two lovelies with the gold-tone frames.

The corner joints were not aligned, and there were huge gaps that I knew a coat of paint wouldn’t fill. Enter: Wood filler.

Minwax makes a great product. Don’t skimp and buy the cheap stuff. This little yellow tube will last a long, long time, and it dries in minutes. If you wipe off the surrounding area with a damp cloth immediately, you don’t even have to sand it.

All ready for paint. I unified the three with a couple coats of matte black acrylic. I prefer to use spray paint for picture frames, but the weather today didn’t take my preferences into consideration. (Prayin’ for sunshine and warmer days ahead!)

(For photos of painted frames, scroll down.)

All you need for the rest of this project are a few magazines and a heart punch.

This particular punch is from Martha Stewart. It’s a 1 ½ inch heart, and it handles magazine-weight paper nicely. Michael’s has Martha’s products on sale regularly, but I used a 40% coupon for this one, beating the sale price from the week before! Gotta love a coupon.

Flip through the pages of your magazines at a leisurely pace while you enjoy your morning coffee, or your afternoon wine, or whatever it is that you’re enjoying while starting this project. You’re looking for interesting colors, so don’t get stuck reading the articles again. Just scan for color. Scan for color. Texture is good too. Color and texture. That’s your mission.

When you have a good many hearts from which to choose, punch a few more. Choices are a good thing.

Decide on a background color for your hearts. I used card stock, but any paper will work just as well.

Lay out your hearts in a pleasing pattern as you pour that next cuppa whatever it is you’re enjoying. For a 5x7, you’ll need 20 hearts for each frame.

When they are all in position, begin gluing them in place with good ol’ Aleene’s. You really want to stay away from the glue gun for this project. Tacky Glue will hold everything in place, but it will also allow you to move the hearts a hair or two if you find that your afternoon wine has interfered with the alignment.

While your hearts are drying, clean the glass for the frames. They’ve been lying around in the basement/attic/workroom/under the bed, for a long time. Face it: they’re dirty.

Assemble your art and say Ta Da! Stand back and admire your work, pat yourself on the back, and go do lunch with a girlfriend. You deserve it.

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Corner Bookmarks

2012-01-19T15:30:00.007-05:00

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If you’re like a lot of people I know, you grab whatever is handy to mark your page when you’re called away from your book. My usual bookmarks range from those pesky subscription cards that fall out of magazines, to business cards, to paper clips, to bobby pins, to…well, you get the idea. I do actually own real bookmarks, but they’re either being used as real bookmarks, or they have mysteriously disappeared into the depths of the sofa. My sofa eats stuff. Lots of stuff.

I saw a lady at the dentist office with this cute corner marker. I wasn’t being nosy. I just happened to look up when they called her name, and she marked her page with something that looks like one of these.

If I had noticed it before they called her name, I would have given it a thorough inspection, but I only caught a glimpse of her little treasure. So I did what any good crafter would do: I googled it.

I found these at TLC’s How Stuff Works page:

They’re made from envelope corners. Easy peasy. But not exactly what I had in mind. Of course you could glue an envelope corner onto a square of cardstock, but it really looks like you just glued an envelope corner onto a square of cardstock.

Keep looking.

Then I found these at Fireflies and Flutterbyes

Now we’re talkin’! This is perfect!

Her pattern is a little different than mine. I came up with a pattern that doesn’t require cutting away a square after cutting out the pattern. Either method works though.

You can find the template for my bookmarks below. Copy and paste the image into a document. Print it out on cardstock so that it’s durable enough to use over and over. You’re gonna want to make a bunch of these once you get started.

Cut out the pattern as directed on the template.

Trace it onto the paper of your choice, and cut it out. Use sturdy papers for this project. They need to hold up to some wear over time.

Fold the corner flaps as directed on the template and shown in the photos below.

If you want to add another layer of decorative paper to the base square, now is the time to do this. Cut a square slightly smaller than your base. I chose a piece of handmade paper with some stems and leaves embedded in it for this step.

Glue this decorative square to the base of your bookmark. I’m a Tacky Glue girl. Always have been. Always will be. And you really don’t want to break out the glue gun for this project. As we all know, hot glue is not very forgiving, and you may need to make some minor adjustments to align edges after the glue is applied. Just sayin’.

Now it’s time to glue the folded triangular flaps. You may want to see which triangle best covers the other before you go crazy with the glue. In other words, decide which triangle will be on top. Spread some Tacky Glue on the underside of your top flap only.

Hold the bottom flap down, and press the top flap firmly over it.

Make sure all seams and edges are aligned. Your project should now look something like this.

You may choose to say Ta Da! right here, or you may choose to embellish the plain triangle at the top of your little gem. I’m an embellisher. I cut a circle from the same handmade paper with a punch. You don’t need a punch for this. You can trace around any handy round object and use your scissors to get a similar effect.

Sorry. Working on a white surface doesn't always make for the best pictures.

Then I added a pink heart to the top of the circle.

The possibilities are limited only to your imagination when it comes to decorating these beauties.

This is a project that comes together lickety-split, so go ahead and get out your paper scraps and start creating! Send me some pictures of the ones you’ve made. I’d love to see your creations!