Sarahndipities ~ fortunate handmade finds: 06/01/2011

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Sneak Peek!

Hope everyone is having a great week so far!
I've been having a good recovery so far...and our little addition is growing fast! In my spare time (hahahaha!!! I know. Funny, right?) I've been working on some projects that I hope to be able to finish before my 10-year-old is in college.
The first project on my list to get done is a crocheted blanket for our new baby!! I've made a special "blessing blanket" for each of our children, that we've wrapped them in when they had their blessings** in church. It's a tradition that I've really enjoyed (I learned to crochet so that I could make a special blanket for my first baby!), and I hope that my children will cherish them and use them for their own children someday!
I thought I'd share a couple of sneak peek pictures with you of the blanket in progress!

I'm almost done now...I just need to get all of the squares put together and finish off the edging!! I'll be posting pics of the finished blanket next week!!

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** I am a member of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. In the LDS church we have a special blessing that is given to new babies to officially name them and to give them special individual blessings. This is done in conformity to revelation recorded in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants:
“Every member of the church of Christ having children is to bring them unto the elders before the church, who are to lay their hands upon them in the name of Jesus Christ, and bless them in his name” (D&C 20:70).
We do not believe in baptizing babies - Baptism is reserved for those who are eight years old or older - as we believe that little children and babies who die before baptism are in no need of 'saving ordinances,' as they are already perfect. If you'd like more information about this please visit HERE.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Things to Make: Stenciled T-Shirts with Our Seven Dwarfs

This week's guest post is from Shannon and Jill from Our Seven Dwarfs!

They have a super fun blog where they share all sorts of great craft projects and recipes! Seriously...go check it out! You can also purchase some their fantastic creations by contacting them!

Hello to our friends at Sarahndipities!

We are Shannon & Jill of Our Seven Dwarfs!

Our blog started in November 2010, but we have been busy crafting and growing! Our crafting together started after an unusual beginning of friendship. We are breast friends. Yep, you read that right. Our firstborns connected us through a breast-feeding support group. There we met each other and a few more very close friends! We are thankful that our breast-feeding struggles and our kids brought us together!

Welcome to my Guest Posters, Our Seven Dwarfs, for todays Things to Make!

Our families keep us busy, therefore taking time to craft keeps us sane. Our crafty talents include decorating, crocheting, crafting with wood, using the Silhouette, sewing, sharing recipes, making wreaths, gift giving, and rocking the mod podge. We do all this to teach our readers how to do it easily and step by step!

We are incredibly excited to be here! Thank you to Sarah for giving us this opportunity! We are big fans of Sarah's blog and all her craftiness. We hope she is getting some much needed rest, recovery and enjoying her new bundle of joy!

Today, Jill will be sharing a tutorial for a Freezer Paper Stencil T-shirts.

Two of my children are having birthdays coming up. Since I learned how to do freezer paper stenciling, I love to make personalized shirts for my kids. They love showing off their age and/or their name and it is much cheaper than embroidery! Here is a picture of what I will be teaching you to make.

Needed Supplies:

A T-shirt
Fabric paint
Foam paint brushes
Freezer paper (found in the plastic wrap/foil aisle of any grocery store)
Exacto knife
Self-healing cutting mat
Iron
Pencil to trace number and circle
Printed number and circle in your choice of font (I made a circle with the draw feature in Word).

Shannon and I both have a Silhouette and we love it! Unfortunately, not everyone has a Silhouette, so I want to give you the tutorial for either way. You can easily cut your letters on freezer paper using the Silhouette as well. Shannon has done this many times and suggests selecting "Vellum" speed 3, thickness 25. Make sure to use a mat that has plenty of stickiness left to it. Rub the freezer paper down well to avoid any bubbles, which could cause the paper to tear.

If you don't have a Silhouette, here is the tutorial for you!

1. Print off your number and circle or any design that you want to use. Cut a piece of freezer paper larger than the size of your design. With the waxy side down, trace your number or design.

2. Here are all my designs ready to be cut out. If you make the freezer paper too small don't worry, you can add more freezer paper to the shirt so that you don't get paint where it shouldn't go. Also, don't stress if your tracing isn't perfect. You can fix that when you cut it out.

3. Now take your exacto knife and cut out the number and the circle. Notice that I will need to add more paper to the five as I didn't center my 5 appropriately.

Here are the two designs I was working on.

I won't need the interior of the circle. I am keeping this though as you never know what you might want to put a 5 on, right?

4. Heat up your iron to the cotton setting. Turn off any steam settings. Iron your t-shirt. Then cut out a large piece of freezer paper that will fit the inside of your t-shirt. You want this piece to cover the entire inside so that you don't have paint bleed through. Place the freezer paper waxy side up and iron your t-shirt again. This will help the freezer paper to adhere to the inside.

5. Grab your circle. Center the circle in the middle of the t-shirt. Iron it down making sure it is flat and without any bubbles. Then center the freezer paper with your number and iron it down too.

I cut another strip of freezer paper as my one side was thin and I didn't want paint to bleed off the edge.

Here is the shirt ready to add paint.

This is how your circle should look if you gave yourself plenty of space on both sides. I did it right for the #3 shirt.

6. Use a foam brush and fabric paint to paint your design. Make sure not to use too much paint as it might cause the freezer paper to bubble and paint to bleed underneath. Try to go with the lines of the shirt as well, not against the lines. White paint is takes more than one coat to show up properly. Most other colors can get away with one or two light coats. I did three coats for this design. You can use a hair dryer to speed up the process if you get impatient between coats. Just make sure that the first coat is completely dry before painting the second coat.

After first coat of paint.

After second coat of paint.

After third coat of paint. Notice the number has almost disappeared.

7. Again, allow the paint to fully dry. Learn from my mistake on a previous project and let the paint dry for at least 24 hours before you machine wash.

8. Peel off the freezer paper. If you have any difficulty, use your exacto knife to get under the freezer paper. You won't hurt the paint that is attached to the shirt. Here are the finished shirts.

My little man Ryan loved his shirt and wore it proudly the day of his birthday. He will wear it many more times throughout the year. You can machine wash and dry without any problems. Here is Ryan showing off his #5 shirt. I don't have Evan in his #3 shirt as he hasn't turned 3 yet so he has to be patient!

Shannon and I have made many gifts and other projects using freezer paper. If you would like to see more, click here. Freezer paper stencils are fantastic and let you make inexpensive personalized gifts. If you have any questions, please let me know!

Thank you again to Sarah for letting us share a craft tutorial with you today!

Happy Crafting!

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Things to Make: Butterfly Bracelets with Good Little Things

I'm excited to introduce you to my Guest Blogger this week! Her name is Susan from Good Little Things!

She has a beautiful blog where she features really lovely handmade items and creative projects!! It's so pretty!! She also sells some of her creations in her Etsy shop: Good Little Things!

She's sharing with us this fantastic tutorial today!

I want to thank Sarah so much for having me today and giving me a chance to share with you a fun little project I created this spring. A small plea before we start: This is my very first guest blog and only my second tutorial. So please, be gentle. And kind. I'm a little nervous. Thank you.

Now then, I shared this whimsical little bracelet when the weather was just starting to turn warm and lovely. I had requests at the time to do a tutorial, and helping Sarah during this happy (and crazy busy) time presented a perfect opportunity to make myself do it. Let's take a look at what we're going for.

Have you ever had a butterfly land on you? It's a magical moment when something so beautiful and fragile trusts you like that. Kinda like a newborn baby sleeping in your arms. (Congratulations, Sarah!) Shall we get started?

First, you'll want to take a measurement of your wrist and add one and a half inches to that measurement for overlap. Then you'll want to cut out a piece of vinyl that is a rectangle that long by however wide you want your cuff to be. So if your wrist measures 6 inches and you want a 2 inch cuff, your rectangle should be 7 1/2 inches long by 2 inches wide. As you will see I have done this bracelet in a few different widths and I think they all work. You'll also need to cut out a matching rectangle of pretty fabric if you want it lined with fabric, or you can double up the vinyl if that's your wish. I have done it both ways, and I find that the fabric backing makes your arm sweat less. Ha! Just a helpful little tip from me.

Cut away.

When you have your rectangles, you're going to want to cut out another swatch of vinyl in a contrasting color and another matching piece of pretty material to back it with. This will be for the butterfly. When you have all of that taken care of, it's time to adhere the two together. You could use glue, but I recommend a fusible web, like Wonder Under. That stuff is awesome. Just saying.

Prepping the fabric

When all is dry, what you want to do is get you butterfly all cut out and ready. I traced mine from photos, but you are more than welcome to free hand it, if you have that kind of talent. Trace your butterfly onto your extra fabric backed swatch as seen here:

Pretty...

and carefully cut it out.

That's a lot of butterflies. You may only need one. I tend to get carried away.

Now, let's find the butterfly's placement on the cuff...

Hold it closed so that you know where your butterfly should "land".

I like to set it at an angle as opposed to straight on the cuff, but then again, I've always considered myself a little off center, so... if you like it straight, go for it. Now, we sew!

Sew straight down the center of the body, making sure you sew one stitch past the ends on both sides, and reverse all the way up the body once or twice to make sure all is secure. When you're done give it a good pinch to get those wings fluttering a bit.

See?

We're getting there.

All that's left to do is attach your closures. This is totally up to you. I have used snaps, a large button, even velcro for the ones I made for the three year olds attending my daughter's birthday party. I will say, if you fabric backed your vinyl and you plan to use snaps, I recommend reinforcing the ends with small vinyl rectangles. Like so:

And you're done. Let's see how they came out, shall we?

Bold and graphic.

From the back.

And there you have it, whimsical elegance.

Because we really shouldn't take life or accessorizing too seriously.

Thank you again, Sarah, for letting me share today. And thank you readers, for being both gentle and kind. I don't know what I was so afraid of. Happy sewing!

Here's a little bit about me! I always knew as a kid that whatever I was going to do when I grew up, it was going to be something creative. It's the only thing I ever did that never felt like work. And the idea that something like artist or dancer could be your job just thrilled me. I graduated from college with a degree in fashion design, but so many professors had spent so much time talking about how the actual job of fashion designer was only 10 percent design and the rest of it was un-fun business type stuff. Didn't exactly make me want to rush right out and get a design job. So I worked as an assistant book buyer for a few years before becoming a stay at home mom. I've been doing that for seven years and it's creative and fun and the hardest job I have ever had to do in my life. I now have three children (after a three year struggle with God while trying for more and Him never answering until I finally understood that He was trying to teach me about himself and that very weekend I got pregnant with number two!), the youngest are two and one, so things are blissfully hectic. But, my youngest was my first daughter, and somehow having her birthed a creative drive in me I haven't had in almost a decade. I think I want her to grow up seeing her mom make things with her hands. I want her to understand her creative legacy. I dusted off my sewing machine determined to make her her first pair of baby shoes because I had made a pair for her brother before he was born, and pretty much from those first Mary Janes a business began. I made slippers for the women in my family as Christmas presents and from there people began placing orders. I love that I am designing again. I feel more like myself, feel like I am doing what God created me to do and my oldest is impressed that I "have a job now". Ha!