Guest Posting at The Saturday Evening Post!

Today I'm really excited to be sharing my Crochet Heart Garland Pattern over at The Saturday Evening Post!

CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO BE DIRECTED TO THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE!

Guest Posting at The Saturday Evening Post!

Guest Posting at BeccaWilhite.com!

I'm sharing this happy little heart pin tutorial over at BeccaWilhite.com this week!  Becca is my super talented Sister-in-law.  Not only is she beautiful, but she's also hilarious.  And she's an author.  Of REAL books!  So. Cool.

Go check out her site...she's doing LOTS of great stuff this month...and giving fun stuff away!!

I'll be giving away the cute little pin shown above...along with this fabulous set of six notecards during the giveaway she's having this week!!

Really!  The giveaway ends on Friday Night! Go check it out...

Things to Make: Simple Upcycled Teacher Gift

In case you missed it here is the guest post I did over at Two Girls Being Crafty a couple of weeks ago!

My husband is a teacher.  He teaches the 5th grade.  Over the years he's brought home a lot of interesting gifts from students during the holidays:  body wash...candy...coffee mugs...hair gel...cocoa...and even a stuffed animal or two!

But guess what?  The best gifts he's ever received are the ones he can actually use in his classroom.

I asked him once what the best thing to give a teacher was and he said, "A raise."

But after that he said, "Hand sanitizer...and tissues."

He knows all about germs.  He's surrounded by them all day long...especially at school.

So when I was trying to think of a teacher gift for kids to give their teachers this year that's what I immediately thought of.

But how to make it cute...and something that the kids could actually help with?

Well, here's what I came up with!  It's soooo simple, and the kids can help with most of it (unless you don't want them to come anywhere near a permanent marker...which I completely understand, believe me.)

Here's what you'll need:

-  A Smallish container of some kind...I used an empty French's Onions can, because it was already white and had a lid...plus I have three of them left over from Thanksgiving meal preparations!
-  a couple packages of pocket sized tissues
-  a couple of sample size hand sanitizers
-  a bit of Christmas-y ribbon
-  a sharpie marker

First, remove the label from the container, and wash it thoroughly...you don't want it to smell like french fried onions, after all.

 Next, use your sharpie marker to draw eyes and a smile on one side of the container...

 ...and to color the lid black (like a hat).

 Next, tie a piece of ribbon around the base of the container.  You might want to secure it with a dab of hot glue or a couple of glue dots if you feel so inclined.

 Lastly put the hand sanitizer and tissues into the container, and snap the lid back on!

I included a note on the back of this little guy that reads:  "We TISSUE a Merry Christmas, and a HANDY New Year!"

There are so many cute ways to dress up a simple gift like this, but my kids loved that this was an upcycled project that they could REALLY help with!

Thanks again to Tristin for inviting me to be a part of the fun!  Happy Holidays!! :)

Guest Posting at Two Girls Being Crafty!

Hey!  Head on over to Two Girls Being Crafty to see my quick little tutorial for their 12 Days of Christmas series, on how to make this little guy as a teacher gift!

Don't forget to tell her I sent ya'!

Things to Make: 5 Minute No Sew Fabric Pumpkins!

In case you missed it earlier this month, I guest posted over at Rhinestone Beagle with this quick and easy home decor project!  Thought I'd share it here for ya'll!

Materials Needed:
A large scrap of fabric...at least 12 inches An empty toilet paper tube A little batting Some jute Hot glue gun and glue Scissors A roll of toilet paper...yup, you read that right!

First off, Place a little batting around the toilet paper.  

Then center your roll of toilet paper on the square of fabric....and gather the fabric around the toilet paper...and tuck the ends of the fabric into the hole at the top of the roll.

Cut the empty roll in half, and squish it flat.  Then roll it up.

With a little dab of hot glue, attach the end of the jute to the empty roll.  

Continue winding jute around the empty roll until it is completely covered.  Look!  A stem!

Add a little hot glue to the end of the stem....and stick into the hole in the top of the pumpkin!
Lastly, squash the roll a little to round out the corners, and make it look more pumpkin shaped!
And there you go!!

After the fall holidays you can save on storage space by gently unwrapping the roll of toilet paper, and storing the folded up fabric in your holiday bin for next year!  As for the toilet paper, just put it in your kids' bathroom...they won't mind that it's kinda squashed...
Happy Halloween!!

Things to Make: No Sew Pumpkin Tutorial ~ Guest Posting at Rhinestone Beagle!

Hey! Today I'm guest posting over at Rhinestone Beagle with my No Sew Fabric Pumpkin Tutorial! Go check it out, and let them know I sent ya'!

Guest Posting At Maybe Matilda!

A {teensy tiny little bit} of my yarn stash!

Hey, everyone!
I'm doing a little guest post today over at my good friend Rachel's blog, Maybe Matilda!  Perhaps you've heard of it?  I thought so.  
She's AWESOME, huh?
Well...head on over to check out my post on YARN SELECTION TIPS - up today!!
And you won't want to miss out on her fun new CROCHET-ALONG!!!  So check out all the details while you're there!!
Have a fantastic weekend!!

Things to Make: Craft Fair Banner by Growing Up Wild!

Today's how-to is by Kelly from Growing Up Wild!  Kelly doesn't have a blog of her own, but she has a darling Etsy shop, where she sells the cutest onesies and baby shoes...seriously adorable!!

Whale One Piece!!!
Take it away, Kelly!
I was getting ready for my very first local event and felt so over-whlemed.  Creating a display for my organic baby clothes and shoes was a tough task.  I wanted to keep my table as eco friendly as possible while still catching people's attention.  I started with making a banner.  My goal was not to the printed store route as it didn't really fit with the handmade nature of my wares.  I decided to craft my own instead!

I started with two yards of eco felt (made from recycled plastic bottles) in green, purple, and gray.  They didn't have the shade of green that I wanted for the foreground, so I used fleece for that instead.  I was actually really happy with the texture that it added.  I drew my mountain forms in chalk first, and then cut.  Each layer was glued to the background starting with the purple.

I wanted my letters to stand out so I decided to use a font with a shadow.  

I printed my letters on the computer.  

I first cut the letter with the shadow form out of white felt.  

After trimming off the shadow, I cut the remaining letter with brown felt.  Glued together, this gave my letters an extra dimension.

Next I cut the sun out of fabric and glued it into place.  I arranged and rearranged the letters and footprints until I was satisfied, before gluing it all down. 

In order to hang my banner I created loops at the corners.  I took a 5 x 3 inch rectangle of blur felt and folded it in thirds.  This made a 5 x 1 inch rectangle that I then looped around the front and back side of each corner before stitching it into place.  (Be sure to reinforce these to hold up to the wind!)
I was so happy with my banner that I decided to use it for my Etsy avatar as well!  I am not very "techy", so I had been having the hardest time creating an avatar using programs.  Crafting with raw materials was much more my speed!  To create my avatar and shop banner, I simply took a picture in natural lighting.  I then cropped the image and used the dropper tool in each color section to read the color and then paint bucket to fill it.  It took about five minutes!  (This has also become the new label for my burp clothes!)  

While my banner may not have the professional look of some, it definitely stands out at markets and fairs!  I have had a number of fellow sellers come ask me where to find one!!

Thanks so much Kelly!!!  I know I'm inspired to make a banner for myself, now!!

Things to Make: Colorful Spider Web Playgroup Activity with Peace, Baby! Batiks

I'm excited to introduce you to my Guest Blogger this week!  Her name is Cori from Peace, Baby! Batiks!

She has a fantastic blog where she features really lovely handmade items and YUMMY recipes!! She's sharing with us this fantastic supplement to any mom's arsenal of summer boredom busters!!  Here's a little more about her:

I’m a stay-at-home mom with a three-year-old son, and when he’s awake, I play in the sandbox, drive Cars characters, and pretend I am a Mars rover. While he sleeps, I play with wax and brightly colored dyes to make batik clothing for babies and toddlers and sell them through my Etsy shop, Peace, Baby! Batiks. I love finding fun new designs for my shirts and dresses. I enjoy batik because of the vibrant colors and the web-like strands of color that run through each design as the wax cracks. I also like to scrapbook, cook, read, and watch movies with my husband.

Now that the weather’s nicer, we’re taking our weekly playgroup outside. It’s hard to get the boys’ attention away from the sandbox and bikes and stomp rockets for very long, so by necessity, our planned activities have gotten shorter.

The inspiration for this activity came from Eric Carle’s The Very Busy Spider and a board game based on the book. I was also inspired by Sarah’s thumbprint critter post from a while back. The kids need to do some color matching to create their web before stamping on a little spider with their thumb. (The boys in our group range from just turned three to just turned four.) Too cute!

Here’s what you need:

I created the worksheets and then copied them on my printer. Use four or five colors, and repeat each one three or four times around a circle. Any more than that seemed like it would be overwhelming and take too long. I didn’t want them to lose interest.

Read the book The Very Busy Spider. The spider and her web are raised on the pages, and the boys loved feeling the web as it grew throughout the book. There are animal noises in the book, so you could also quiz them on what each says.

Next, explain that they’re going to help the spider build her web by matching colors. They need to draw lines matching colored dots. They can draw across the circle, along the sides … as long as they’re matching colors, anything goes!

Stamp a spider on each child’s finished web using his thumb.

Draw legs and a face on the spider or let each kid do it himself.

Have fun!

Cori of Peace, Baby! Batiks!

Things to Make: Make a Crocheted Doily Bowl with CraftyDill

Hi everyone! I'm Michelle from craftydill and I am so excited to be guest posting here while Sarah is focusing on her family! 

I am the wife to a very kind, generous and patient man and the mother to two wonderful teenage boys. I love anything vintage and I love to thrift, craft and meet like-minded souls. On top of my day job, I also have a vintage Etsy shop called craftydill that I would love to turn into my full-time job someday.

And do I have a fun and easy project to share with you all... 

How to make a doily bowl

First, I gathered my materials:

a crocheted or knitted doily ~ I crocheted my own- granny style!

fabric stiffener

saran wrap

bowl to use as a mold ~ I used a Pyrex bowl... The size is dependent on the size of your doily and I always lay the doily on the bottom to make sure the bowl will give the doily the shape and depth I want

clean margarine bowl

water

plastic grocery sack

Next, I wrapped the bottom of the Pyrex bowl with saran wrap, placed it on a plastic grocery sack to capture drips and runs and then put stiffener into the butter bowl. I usually add a little water to the stiffener- I don't like my doilies to be crunchy! :) 

Then, I dunked my doily in the stiffener, making sure to fully saturate it and squeezed the excess out as I pulled the doily out of the butter bowl [don't wring- just squeeze]. Now I'm ready to mold my doily over the Pyrex bowl and let it dry.

I usually let the doily dry overnight, sometimes giving it a re-shape part way through. I have also been known to apply a second light coat of stiffener with a foam brush, but I always take care so as not to disturb the yarn fibers too much, which can make the bowl look hairy.

Once dried, I peel the saran wrap off the Pyrex bowl and then peel the wrap from the inside of the doily bowl. And voila! I now have a cute and preppy doily bowl!

Fill the bowl with just about anything... fruit, fabric scraps, balls of yarn or use as a general catch-all. I put vintage thread spools in mine...

Oh, and note to self...unless you want the colors to bleed causing a tie-dyed effect, don't stitch hot pink Sugar 'n Cream next to white and then get it wet. Not sure if it was just that the yarn isn't color fast or if it's the stiffener that caused the bleeding, but, it is what it is :)

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial as much as I've enjoyed being here! And feel free to visit me anytime!