Welcome Fall ... with a necklace DIY

Well it has been awhile and I can't say why - except that I'm busy with the new house and all the decisions big and small that come along the way.  I am thinking that this fall I am going to share some of the trials and tribulations of house building and share some of my design inspirations and dilemmas encountered.  There is so much out there to cull from but that can also be a stumbling block.  We'll see...

In the meantime... thank goodness for Jennifer Carroll and her Celebrating Everyday Life magazine.  She has forced me to come out of my box and rev up those creative juices again.  Without her prodding I am not sure I would keep "making".  I find it hard to deal with all the everyday stuff, including most of my supplies packed up in our rental, and get out the stash to make something.

I recently did get out the stash to make this "craft-stash necklace".  I was please at how it came out and plan to use up some of the rest of my supplies to make a version of this in a few other colours.  You can find out all about how to make it as well as some other gorgeous fall projects and style tips here.  Thank you again Jennifer for including me in your beautiful publication.

At the beginning of the summer, Jennifer got me busy again and I  came up with a re-work of a dollar store beach mat.  You can find out how to make this and other great projects at this link.

I hope to be back much more often this fall as the kids go back to school and life begins to follow along more of a routine.

See you soon friends...

Mother's Day Prize Ribbon - DIY

Here is a quick gift for mom to wear to her Mother's Day Celebration...out of a coffee filter!

By dying the natural filter in red food coloring, I was able to layer up a prize ribbon, by adding a few embellishments.

STEPS TO CREATE THE "FLOWER"

First, flatten then soak the filters in red food coloring (some more than others)

I created the "flower" portion of my ribbon my layering one flat dark pink, one lighter pink with curled edges, one natural flower created with a running stitch and decorative running stitch border.

Next layer is a yo-yo with the folds outward and finally a centre button with the folds facing inward.

Sew all the layers together when you add the button.

Once I created the flower I added a special banner for mom.  To create the hanging ribbon portion I used strips of tissue and some hot pink fringe I had hanging around(lower left)

the tissue ribbon was cut in a dove tail (lower right)

 

I used a brooch backing in cardboard to the back of the assembly but you could just as easily use a safety pin.

I basically used the model of prize ribbons I have made for my etsy shop and the one I created in a detailed tutorial for amy power's inspired ideas birthday issue.

It's a fun last minute project to add a little something special to maybe a brunch or tea and you could customize it for a birthday or bridal shower.

I'll see if the girls let me wear it this Sunday ...  I'll probably embarrass them ... as usual

Felted Soap Stones

What is a person to do when it is cold outside? Play around on the computer.  Clearly a one handed gif is a little wobbly but you get the picture.

As promised weeks ago I am going to share a quick little project I squeezed in, in between cleanings and house viewings.  These soap stones are not new to the crafting world but they are alot of fun to make and I love trying to replicate the felt roving strands to look as much like a beach stone as possible.

I have many little soaps I have received as gifts that I could never use up.  My dad also brought me some lovely lavender soap from the south of France on one of his cycling trips.  I have tons of the stone coloured roving around that I bought when our local knitting shop closed down.  Helana used to make them for her pet pebbles.  Combine them all and you have a little stone of soap ready to use or gift to a friend.

The oval soaps make a really authentic beach stone.  The little eggs look so cute as little pebbles.

The centre image in each photo shows how you can just wrap up the stones loosely in the roving before their hot water treatment.

1 - supplies at hand including a small felting needle (optional) soaps and roving - grey, brown and    natural
2 - loosely wrap the soap with grey first, then a few strands of the light brown and finally strips of the natural to create the veining.
3 - I ran some very hot water over my creation just to get an idea of how the placement is working
4 - all that fluffy roving attaches itself to the soap with a few dunkings.
5 - to really pack it down I put them in nylon sockettes and rubbed them
6 - I let them drain at the bottom of the kitchen sink

They make a nice little hostess gift.  I'm thinking they might look good piled on in a bowl in our new powder room.  I have about a year to plan that so I'll have to tuck these away in the pile of boxes that are amassing themselves all over the house.  

Keep warm and toasty!

Felt Feather Topper

Wow.  It's been awhile.  I've realized that when I am under stress, I find it hard to be very creative.  Yes my knitting of leg warmers or socks actually helps to alleviate a bit of stress - or pass the time at coffee shops when we have house showing.  I even found the time to knit up a couple of monkeys for the shop.  But the creation of projects for the blog or anything else.  Forget about it.  And to make matters worse - I can't make a mess ... it's hard to be creative if you can't make a mess.  At least for me.

So... this project is my attempt at alleviating my creative frustration, and hopefully a little bit of stress as well.

I took a watercolour class in the spring and realized - You know what?... it's not as easy as you think.  That's why I love watercolour pencils.  They let you create a painterly effect, with some sketchy colours here and there, that is much more difficult to achieve with standard watercolours and brushes.

Ali had some watercolour pencils and during the house purge I came across one of my old pocket sketchbooks.

Just like I did for my spring project for Amy, I wrapped up a pencil, in this case a watercolour pencil, with yarn.  A dab of glue at the pencil tip and another at the base is all you need to hold it in place.  (1) With my pile of felt bits I decided a feather was a great shape to go with.  I just cut the feather shapes free hand and about 3/4 's of an inch wide and 2 inches high. (3)  Another dab of glue for each feather and you have a topper for your pencil. (2)   Two feathers each pencil seemed to work well.

Now, based on my feather theme, I continued with a label.  Just a watercolour pencil feather sketch ... add water to your scratches and it is pretty effective.  I actually really loved how my feathers turned out.  I think I will play around with this style of watercolour painting again.

This is an example of an inexpensive little gift you can put together for teachers, babysitters... friends of your kids.  I loved how I could use up my stash of little bits and pieces and create something new (I'm not allowed to bring anything new into the house when we are trying to sell it ... house rules :)   )

It all came together, wrapped up with a bit of yarn.  It doesn't scream holiday but sometimes that's good.

Stayed tuned later this week I will show a more fallish version of this gift topper.  But for now,  my gift giving is bright and cheery ... and quick and easy!

1 Year - Blog Anniversary

Well, it's hard to believe that one year has passed since I frantically put together my first blog post.  I had my very first how-to being published in Amy Power's Inspired Ideas Birthday Issue and because I was doing a give-away of my prize ribbon project, she thought I better have a blog.  Ugh!  Helana came to my rescue and in a few minutes had me all set up.  It wasn't much, but over the past year I have learned so much about photography, graphics, editing, promotion and this great community of supportive friends.  Okay, I still have so much to learn - but it's a start.

I wondered how I was going to celebrate the day and thought it would be fun to make some special cupcakes.  I wanted to highlight some of my how-to's but I didn't want to use fondant.  I have been wanting to try making marshmallow fondant and let me tell you it is so much fun!

Truth be told, my back was breaking as I created all these little guys but I had the Celebrity Apprentice on and that passed the time.  The girls pitched in as well.  It was fun. I wish I had known about this recipe ( Clockwork Lemon ) years ago.  I can't wait to try to decorate a cake for an upcoming special event of some kind.  It is really easy and next time I am going to try adding lemon extract for a little more flavor.

I knew that my linen prize ribbon was going to be my star cupcake but then I took a look at the past year and came up with some examples of other tutorials that I have put together.

The guest post on ms. glitter pie (top) was alot of fun.  I couldn't figure out how to make the chain out of the fondant (below) but you get the idea.

I didn't quite get the ikat bag down (top) perfectly but the color is pretty close to the bag I printed with a stamp made from a potato (bottom picture)

It is really easy to make shapes like the macarons (top) from marshmallow fondant but not so easy to capture the texture you get from felting knitted ones.

The quick and easy nest I made with yarn and felt balls was pinned by Ez of Creature Comforts to two of her boards.  She has alot of followers (over 1 million) and so that seems to be my most popular post for the past year.

I had a few misses to get the look of my felt flower rings (top picture)

This was probably the least effective of my how-tos as a cupcake topping. (picture left)  It is hard to keep the needles from flopping down and my yarn could use some work.  But - I still like to use the felted heart knitting needles (right) - they make me happy.

All in all, it was fun to look back at the past year and appreciate some of things I have done.  I've had a great time putting together posts and diy's and I think I have learned alot.  I am starting up a new blogging course next week so I look forward to a wave of inspiration in the coming year.

Thank you to all the vistors for stopping by, leaving comments, pinning pictures and generally making my day.  I wish I could make a cupcake for all of you but this cupcake love is going to have to do...for now anyway.

DIY Linen slipcovered lampshade

After a recent minor flood, I was left with a really ugly lamp shade.  The lamp sits in my craft area and also suffers from a tear in the paper shade.  Okay, it is really ugly.  A few years ago, I think based on something I had seen in a magazine, I fixed up an ugly lamp in our guest room and I wanted to do the same with this lamp.

I used some leftover linen and a cotton tape to act as a channel for the twine.  I sewed up the edges of the linen with a half inch rolled to a quarter inch, then pressed and sewed the seams.  I sewed the linen into a tube and pressed the seams where the sides met.  I added a channel one inch from the top of my shade cover, on the inside (wrong side) of the cover.

Once my tube was turned right side out, I created a small slit in the middle of the channel stitches.  This only goes through the linen layer of the fabric (not the cotton ribbon of the channel).  With a safety pin tied to the end of a strip of twine, I guided the twine through the channel created between the linen and the cotton ribbon.

Once the twine was pulled through the channel to come out the slit again, I was able to tighten up my top.  This creates pleating in the fabric and once I got the top to fit the top of my shade, I tied up the twine in a bow.

BEFORE

 AFTER

My Guestroom Lamp inspiration.

Ugly lamp,  with really ugly shade.                                             Now with blue and white ticking cover,

                                                                                                                                                    cute lamp

Shell details were added to the cloth tie, to add to the coastal theme of my guestroom.

Both of these lamps are only for atmosphere so I have a very low wattage bulb in the lamp.  

Other than spending less than a dollar on the cotton ribbon for the channel, I had all the supplies on hand.  This was a quick and easy way to cover up an eyesore.

If I finally find a great lamp to replace these, I can always used the shade for a hat :)

DIY - Photo Wreath for Mother's Day

I find it hard to celebrate Mother's Day without my mom.   I can remember the first Mother's Day after I had Helana, she was just a couple months old and I was so excited.  Not because it was my first Mother's Day but because I could celebrate my mom both as a mother and as a grandmother.  She was so excited to finally be a grandma, and I finally over that last year, learned to appreciate what it takes to be a mom.  So this year, my fifth mother's day without her, I decided to do a little project that included a little bit of my mom. 

She loved linen and burlap.  I thought about burlap for this but I had all this linen and frankly I figured strips of burlap were going to make a big mess I just didn't feel like cleaning up.  I had a wreath left over from my valentine love note wreath so I thought I would do a version of that for Mother's Day.  Like the love notes - you could customize this wreath each year by adding and replacing photographs.  I just grabbed a bunch of photos from my photoshop folders - but the trick was to easily resize them to make a banner.

I used picmonkey to play around with 10 photos and added artistic frames to some and sepia tones to others.  Then I loaded those pictures into Picassa and made a grid collage with a 5:3 widescreen photo frame.  Each picture measures 2 inches wide and 1 1/4 inches deep.

I started out with an 12 inch diameter styrofoam wreath.

I wrapped the wreath in linen strips that I made from a recycled linen slipcover.

I added a little bit of twine to approximately 1/8 of the wreath or about 5 inches.

A separate piece of paper twine is the basis of the photo banner (27 inches long including ties at each end)

Once I decided on the length, I was able to lay out the photo arrangement.

Details : twine/glue gun/flower corsage

A little dovetail in each photo seemed to fit the banner and once arranged, I glue gunned the pictures in place.

The flowers are made from strips of linen (cream one made from thick, cotton ribbon)

You can find many diy's of rolled fabric flower making on-line including here. (my sparkle)

 I think my mom would have loved this wreath.  She would be so proud of her granddaughters and just amazed how much they have grown up over the past 5 years.