A bag for the scooter...

The boys were so excited to get their scooters for Christmas, looking forward to riding them to school and about. After the first day of doing so, we realized the issue, no way to lock up said scooter at school. So, that meant either I had to ride/carry it home, leave it unlocked at the bike rack (no chance!) or stuff it into his backpack (it's too tall and sticks out). A bag was needed that he could hang by the classroom on his backpack hook. I dug through my fabric stash and found some good canvas left over from projects, all I needed was the strapping.

Here is the first one made, it's turned out great and I now have ideas to improve it slightly.

Here it is with the scooter inside. BSU colors for my little Bronco Fan.

Sharpee and pony beads = name tag. I'm going to find some clear vinyl I can sew onto the inside to slip a name tag into with basic info.

So there's my project for the week.

Birthday Card....

Using the Everyday Paper Dolls and scenes from Zooaballoo, here's the front.
(He's a Colorado Avalanche Fan)

Inside the Happy Birthday is from Celebrations and the names from Jasmine.

Ornaments from the boys...

One of the last projects on the list was for the boys to make ornaments for family. Keeping it simple, we busted out the popsicle sticks, paint, glue and embellishments.

Tyler painting his reindeer.

Cody painting his trees.

Ta-Da! Pretty quick, if you factor in the drying time for the paint and glue.

Marble Maze games

The homemade marble maze game. The idea for these was found in the Family Fun magazine, here's the link to it on their website, totally worth the time and effort. Started off with scrap wood from FIL's stash, a new box of nails, a ball of rubber bands, tempera paints and marbles. Depending on what you have available this is a relatively cheap project, just takes a bit of time for the painting.

The scrap wood was not smoothest and I worried about splinters.
Solution = felt and a glue gun.

Pouches for the marbles from my fabric and ribbon stash. The cord stops cost around $2.50 for a pair.

Super Hero Capes...

Yay, the last of the sewing for gifts finished with these! Super hero capes for the boys.

Here's the pattern: http://pukingpastilles.com/?p=57

Finished the boys' pillows over the weekend, but still need to stuff them. Then I just need to finish putting together their maze games and I'm done! (Well, still have some pretzels to dip)

The other two...

Here are the other two bottle holders, finished this morning...


List is getting shorter!

Over the shoulder, bottle holder...

One down, two to go....

These are for my brother/sister-in-laws here in CA. Made to fit the large Nalgene bottles, but with the drawstring, will accomidate most others as well. Nice for walks, or shopping, or just out and about, not wanting to hold your water bottle in your hand. The pattern came for the book "Sew & Stow" by Betty Oppenheimer.

More coffee cozies...

Finished the rest of the coffee cozies last night, glad to have the hand work finished!


To be finished list:
3 water bottle shoulder bags
2 big floor pillows
2 super hero capes
2 marble games
Bits of baking and details for goody baskets
Finish labeling Christmas cards, they buy the stamps to mail them.
Find a big jar of sanity!

Ponchos for two...

A friend asked if I could make a pair of ponchos for Christmas gifts, here they are. Love both the prints. (And Cody was a good sport!)

Bugs and flowers...

Space and rockets...

Yep, I really need to find some money and start selling these, so easy and so functional!

Totally finished floor pillows...

So I know I've posted this before, but these are two of the four totally finished and stuffed. Stuffing being the harder part I didn't bargain for. The final solution was two extra firm, queen size pillows, then a bit of stiff chair foam/batting to fill in the gaps. (This stuff was a bit more pricey than I was thinking, but had a coupon)

Now to find my big, bike bags to wrap them in.

Something to keep the coffee cozy...

In an effort to give some green gifts, reusable, personalized coffee cup cozy. This is one of five that I'm making.

For mom, love's the lighthouses.

Scrapbook Yearbooks

A tradition continued, a scrapbook for both sets of Grandparent's of our year, going from Nov-Oct.

Christmas 2009, getting the ball rolling...

Here we go!

Floor pillows

This is a hangover from last year, ran out of time. This year I'm making them for my boys and my niece and nephew. They are a pieced together top, simple rectangle sides, and a canvas back. There's a zipper along one side so you can remove the inside and wash the covers. As far as the insides, I'm still working on that. The current plan is to use two bed pillows, wrapped in batting to add some bulk and keep them from sliding around.

One of the boys' Malibu Monkeys print pack.

Nephew Cody's pieced together on the wall.

The back and zipper that will be on all four.

Ashlee's pink and purple volleyball set.
This is the basic idea of how they look finished. This is stuffed with pillows that are too small.

Lots of things in frames this year, mainly pictures of the boys. I found frames at JoAnn's that are for 2 4x6 photos, stacked, and I'm going to put two wallets of Cody and two of Tyler in each 4x6 spot, with a nice accent paper behind.

Here is a sign I made for my SIL Danna, cut out with Circut.

Throw blanket for my brother, will be tied on the way up to Boise.

My favorite find of the week came from Target for $6.?? a piece. Mugs for the boys that are customizable. These are a lot like the ones you can get at Starbucks, but are only 8oz, perfect for kids. You can log onto their website and they have templates you can add your own pictures to, then print it and cut it along the lines to fit into the cup. I've been searching for something for the boys and these are perfect! Here's their site.

The ball is rolling for the annual goody bags as well, applesauce is done and waiting, and the cookies are baked for Boise. While up there, my mom and I are going to bake poppy seed cakes to add to the mix.

More to come!

A couple of presents...

My good friend Jennifer celebrated her Birthday on Wed so this is what I put together for her.

They have a great summer garden, so I found nice baskets at Michael's and decorated them with some help from Cricut.

The top one says "Garden Fresh" the bottom says "Fresh Picked Delights"

Inside the top basket I arranged party plates and napkins to go along with some sugar cookies. These are one of her personal favorites.

Another friend asked me if I could make a poncho for a friend of theirs for her Birthday. Her daughter has been modeling it before/after swim practice and her friend thought it was neat. Fleece selections are a little scares right now, but polka dots are always in style.
Thanks to Cody for being my model, even if he was surrounded in pink.

Crafty, Where are you...

So I've been in a crafty slump. Haven't touched a scrapbook, Cricut, sewing machine or anything else, not for preschool, in a weeks. I'm working on that though.

Here's my busting out the crafty project for the week:Summer wardrobe for the boys. I did 7 shirts for each of the boys, including a Ty's preschool shirt that was nasty with paint stains and a green on green shirt for St Patty's for Cody.

Next on the list is Cody's party invitations, hopefully to get done this weekend.

Slow start for 2009

So here sits my crafty corner, a little barren at the moment. I'm going to start working on some scrapbook things this week, at least get my photos re-organized. You can see a stack of blocks by the wall, a hopefully soon finished project for an internet friend, just have to stuff and hand sew them closed. The boys' robes are back at the sewing table, needed to make the arms a little bigger, the were way too tight. After stitching around the ends by hand, they will be ready to go for PJ night at school tonight.

So it's not been real busy in the crafty corner, but it will be soon enough. I was good and started to search out some projects for the year, so that's made me feel a little productive.

Finished 12 days hanging.

Dad sent me pictures so I could post the finished product, have to do better about the pictures next time.

Tree Table runner...

Finished last night, a gift for my MIL.


That completes the last of the Christmas crafts for this year. Keep checking back, or follow me through Blogger, for more to come throughout next year.


Happy Christmas to everyone!

Stick Horses...

Tyler's

Cody's

The pattern for these came from the Mary Engelbreit Christmas Ideas book. I found this at the library a couple of years ago and had to buy it, so after some tracking, finally found it on the internet.

Under the felt hood that makes the horses head, is a 1 inch thick block of wood, cut into the pattern provided, and two different sized Styrofoam balls cut in half and glued to either side to shape the head.
A 1 x 36 inch dowel makes up the stick, then I covered the top portion with felt to cut down on splinters.
The felt is sewn together, inserting the ends of the cabling that makes up the main, then hand sew on the eyes, noses, ears and form the cable into loops and hand sew in place. Then the piece slipped over the wood form. (The hardest part of the whole project!) Once it's on and in places, sew the braided ribbon around the nose, then around the back to form the halter, finally adding the star buttons.
Insert the dowel into the wood, hot gluing in place and finish with a thin red ribbon.

Let me know if you want the patterns, I can probably scan and email them.

The stockings were hung.....

I'm getting things done!

Here are the stockings all finished, we've had some additions this year to the family, some are early, awaiting my brothers wedding in April.




Also getting closer to completion are the boys' stick horses. Here are the heads, sewn and almost finished.

Project list:
Finish horses
Cut and sew floor pillows for the boys
Quilt and finish tree table runner
Finish IL's scrapbook

Put together goody bags for family, friends and teachers.
Make ornaments with the boys.

Goals were met!

I don't have any pictures to post, but I finished my goal list for the week and am ready for my brother to arrive! YAY ME!

I finished the 12 days hanging, will have to get my mom to send a picture of it because I rushed and forgot before I wrapped it.

Finished my parent's scrapbook, journalling and all! The book for my IL's is in good shape as well, the remaining 5 layouts are all cut, just need to be assembled, and the journalling is finished as it's a copy of my parent's book.

All the Boise presents are wrapped, now my brother just needs to show up!

Oh so close...

The scrapbook for my parent's is almost done, just have to go back and do the journaling for each month, my least favorite part. Going to try doing it on the computer this year, should be interesting.

Aug - Oct & the cover page....

House remodel over the summer

More scrappiness....

Here's 3 more layouts for the scrapbooks, only did one of each, but cut the pictures and papers for the local G-parents. Tomorrow is a kid-free day, so hopefully I'll get the remaining 3 + cover page done. Then I have to go back and add journalling, hate that part!

A Snowman Kit

My brother text me this afternoon and asked if I had enough Christmas shopping done for them to maybe come for a visit next weekend. Ummm, well, maybe? I'm so close on my Boise stuff, so I said "Sure!" So we'll see if they are able to arrange it or not, not even sure who the "they" are, but family nonetheless!

So in a hurry to bust out some gifts needing to be finished, I whipped this up tonight for my brothers soon-to-be kids. I started on Thurs by painting the nose orange, then Friday I clear coated it, hopefully it will stand up to the winter wetness. This comes for a Mary Englebright craft book. Here's the finished kit:

The eyes, mouths and buttons are made out of craft foam, bought in single sheets per color. To attach them to the snowman, you punch a small hole into the center, then I took black pipe cleaners, twisted them (fold in half to make two sides) and put the rounded end through the hole. Secure with an adhesive meant to get wet, I used outdoor decoupage glue.

The nose is a Styrofoam cone, shaved a little to look like a carrot, paint it orange and clear coat depending on the paint used. Use a narrow screwdriver to punch a hole in the middle of the end, and feed and glue a pipe cleaner to secure it to the snowman.

The scarf was made from scrap felt, cut to a good length. For the ends, cut up about 1 inch every 1/2 inch or smaller. Then stretch them out one at a time and they will coil, giving a fun look.

I mail ordered the stovetop hat from Oriental Trading because I had a hard time finding anything not plastic. The book suggested to look at costume stores. To keep it on the snowman, I punched two holes close together on each side, then threaded a pipe cleaner through and twisted the two ends together.



I still have to finish one scrapbook (5 months & cover page), Mom's 12 days hanging and two stockings. EEEKK!

Charming St. Nick

Today's finished project: Charming St Nick Clay Ornaments.
From the Better Homes and Gardens Christmas Ornaments to Make book. They were not hard at all, just the kneading of the clay was the worst for me.
These are for the Grandparents & Great G-ma.

Holy Crap, did you see what my ticker says, only 1 month til' Christmas. Wish me luck!

12 Days Hanging continued...

Here is the 12 Days wall hanging all pieced together. Same as the other, still have to put the back on and quilt.
I was also able to cut out the pieces for stocking last night and did the first round of sewing on those. Won't have time to work on those again until tomorrow.

Then I've also added two more projects to the list! 2 more stockings for my brother's, fiance's kids, they are getting married in April. My mom just finished getting a set of stocking bought, then I made her 2 for the boys, so I'll make 2 more for the new kids!

Tree Table Runner

Today I was able to piece together the top for a quilted table runner for my MIL. Still have to put find backing and edge/binding fabric, put the large pieces together and quilt them.


On the agenda for tonight:
Cut out pieces for 2 stocking for SIL.
Cut out pieces for floor pillows for the boys.

Tomorrow:
Shop for backing for tree runner
Assemble top of 12 days wall hanging (embroidered pieces I posted before)

April Layout

Six more to go and our year books for Grandparents are complete!

A hit and a miss.....

Well, I worked hard over the last couple of days and finished the first of 4 fleece jackets. It went together well and turned out great, with one minor issue. It's too short. This was intended to be for my dad, so I had Keith try it on and it was just not right. So I tried it on and length wise it's great, but too big all around. Hmmmm.
Off to call my mom and asked her to measure a jacket of dad's and we are talking needing to add like 6" to the damn thing!

Solution: Cut out a panel from the back and sew a straight seam back together, shorten the sleeves and an extra gift for my mom.
Buy a couple more yard of fabric and start over for dad.
I will also have to re-cut the front & back pieces for the one I'm making for my brother as I'm sure it will be too short.
It went together without any real issue, the pattern is great, and meant for men, so I'm not sure where their models came from!
But here it is:
At least I'm not scared of the pattern and sewing process anymore. It's a new endeavor, clothing/wearables.

Crafty Victories for the week so far.....

So at this point, anything I accomplish is a small victory! The scrapbook pages got me rolling for the week. Since then I've spent time cutting out 2 of the 4 sets of pieces, including the pattern itself, for fleece jackets I'm making for my dad, brother and both BIL's. This is a major milestone because I hate the cutting part!

I also finished up the embroidery stitching on a wall hanging I'm making for my mom based on the 12 days of Christmas.

Next is to cut them into pear shapes, fuse and sew them onto backing fabric and finish the rest of the piece. Lots of cutting to do here still, so I'm headed there next!

Feb & Mar Scrapbook pages

Yay two more down and seven more to go!

February

March

Baby Snuggle Blanket...

So not a Christmas craft, but a quick one! Made for a friend at Keith's work, a 24" square snuggle blanket with ribbon tags. These are a quick project, as long as your sewing machine is cooperating!

They are fun to make and give, but don't try to sell them because they are patented by Taggies. Boo!

A robe for Cody....

Aarrr, a pirate's robe for me!

Yay, another project to mark off the list! I just have to hem the sleeves, on both robes.

Go Big Blue....

A scarf for my brother's Cody....

They are big BSU fans, so here's something fun for game day!

Robes and Neck warmers...

Here is Tyler's robe, again. (This is me having to have everything in one place)

Yesterday also produced neck warmers for my Mom (light blue), my brother's fiance' (pink), and here daughter Ashley (dark blue, BIG BSU fans). My favorite part are the buttons on my moms, love the flowers!
How they fit....

The book that both of these projects came from is called Sew What! Fleece by Carol Jessop & Chaila Sekora. These are very easy projects, great for learning with, especially when you are new to pattern work, like me!

Grandparent's Scrapbooks....

Two years ago I started giving Scrapbooks to both sets of Grandparents for Christmas, they start in Nov and run through Oct of the current year. The first one I did was through Snapfish and it turned out great. Last year I tried my hand at actual scrapbooking and I'm hooked!

So here are the first three 2-page layouts for this years books, they are the same for both sides:

Nov:

Dec:
Jan:
Nov was done free form, just putting some things together. Starting with Dec (and using this the rest of the year) I'm using the book Cherish by Jeanette R Lynton. It's fabulous! It maps the pages out for you, then tells you how to cut the different papers to minimize waste and little hints for embellishments. There are more books like it and I can't wait to get them!

Testing...

Testing... 1,2,3