Chips AColor

I am so excited to have these FINALLY finished!  I have wanted to make these for quite sometime now.  It is the same concept of the Chips ACount cookies but this time with color.  There are 10 colors, white, black, blue, purple, pink, red, brown, green, orange, and yellow.  On one side there is the chips with the corresponding color and on the other side is the color that I hand embroidered.

I had to hand embroider the words and I am still learning how to do it so it isn’t as clean as I would like it but I think they still turned out ok.  Maybe one day I will have an embroider machine to do it for me.  My sewing machine does do letters but they are so small that I just didn’t like how it looked on them.

I hope with time to tweak these a little bit differently but we will see.

I even created my own labels to go on my items.  These were intended to be temporary until I can afford to buy actual labels but I think they look great so I may keep them.  I had some iron on, printable fabric (another thing I bought when Joanne’s was going out of business) and I just shrunk the design and put my etsy shop address on them.  What do you think?  Keepers?  The cost was great too because I know the package cost under $1 when I bought it. I had an extremely difficult time trying to get images of it.

Chips AColor are now in my etsy shop as well, if interested just click on the link to the left.  They are currently priced at $12.50 but just a note I will be rising the price at the end of the month to $15.00 and shipping will stay the same.  So if you want one for a few dollars less now is the time to buy them.

Little teapot, Big teapot

I have wanted to make these for awhile they are my version of big sister, little sister shirts.  I planned on making these for a girl I went to school with so that I could convince her to be one of my test groups.  She agreed before I made these though, I mean who doesn’t like to receive free gifts?  I still had the shirts though and these are now in the mail.

I used my silhouette for this project but it can easily be done without one.  I found a teapot design that I liked and forked out the 99 cents for it.  I originally planned on having the phrases, “I’m a little teapot” and “I’m a big teapot” but I eventually settled on “little teapot” and “big teapot.”

I thought about doing the lettering in fabric but I really am enjoying using the heat transfer vinyl so I used that in place of the fabric which also meant I had less sewing.

I think these turned out cute and I’m thinking for a boy’s maybe “big truck” and “little truck”?

Stuffed Frog

As I mentioned yesterday I am in the process of testing out a new business venture, it will be several months if not a year before I launch it as I want to get all of the bugs out but here is a sneak peak of one of the gift sets I put together.

It includes a blanket, 2 burp rags, a 2 month onesie, a 3 month onesie, a frog onesie, a diaper clutch (designed my a lemon squeezy home), and the stuffed frog.

This gift basket is intended for the child for the ages of 2 and 3 months and my original intent for the frog was to make it a touch and feel type of stuffed toy.  I didn’t quite work out how I intended but I think it still came out rather cute.

Let me explain what I originally intended. His legs were to be a different type fabric then his arms.  I had a corduroy fabric but I made the legs too thin and was unable to stuff him, if I make him again I would make slight adjustments.  I was going to have them filled with different materials, and had a squeaker that I intended to put in the foot.  Even though it didn’t work out I still like how his hands and feet turned out.

I was surprised looking around cyber space that the stuffed frogs don’t have tongues. I mean to me that is what a frog is for to catch fly's with his long tongue.  I even made a little fly out of felt and hand stitched it to his tongue.

As I mentioned earlier he was supposed to have different textures, my original plan was to have the body be fleece, the eyes flannel, arms felt, and the the legs corduroy.  Had I known I wasn’t going to be pleased with the legs I would have made the eye fabric match the body but I had already hand stitched on the eye pieces so I kept them a different color.  I also filled them with some thin clear vinyl so that when you touch him his eyes will make a crinkling sound. I think his eyes are a little bit further apart than I like but I think overall they turned out ok.

I was going to feel the body with some Styrofoam beans but ended up just stuffing it with polyester fiberfill and I put the squeaker in his body.  My original plan also had the feet and arms coming from the bottom so I put an extra piece of fabric on the bottom of the body, which also makes it easier for him to sit up with.

He came together really quickly and from design to finish I would say it took about an hour to make.  Would anyone be interested in a tutorial?  I think I may try again but this time make it an actual touch frog, what do you think?  Anyway I can easily put a tutorial and pattern together if anyone is interested.

Now I just need to think of a name for him, hmm?

Back At Last

I was looking at my page and was surprised at how little I have posted this month, very sorry about that.  My friend and I have decided to do a craft show together and I have been trying to get things put together and made for it.  I have never done one before and I must say I am a bit nervous.  We are going to have a booth at the Welsh Festival that is on July 1 and 2 in Malad, Idaho.  I still have a month to prepare but I really want things to look great and sell well, everyone’s wish right?

The weather has been awful making it extremely difficult to take any decent pictures, however today the sun peaked out for a bit and I was able to take a few images and I was able to post some things in my etsy shop.  I was hoping to list one other item but unfortunately the images were horrific and I already packaged it ready to go off in the mail, o’well.  Here are a couple things that I have been making.

I had this apron fabric in my supplies I bought it when Joann’s went out of business and got if for virtually nothing.  The pot holders were intended to be coaster so I used some batting and patritoic fabric that I found and made hot pads.  I only used 3 of the 4 straps so the final strap I cut and sewed some pieces onto the apron and used Velcro so that the hot pads could hang from them.  I really like how they turned out.  I even used quilters batting for the apron itself so that it will even protect the chef from those hot splatters.

I think this would be a great gift for Father’s Day!

I ended up with an entire bolt of this Strawberry Shortcake fleece, again when Joann’s went out of business.  Kitty Kat gave these away for Christmas we had so much that we even cut out the head and made pillows to go with them.  I love that using 2 we were able to make an accessory to go with the blanket.

I have made more items, but a lot of them are duplicates of what you have already seen.  I’ve been making Chips ACount cookies for the craft show, I made 3 of the aprons, two of the blanket sets, I also have been working on gifts for my test group for my newest business venture and hope to share some of those items shortly.  Also I have almost finished my Chips AColor cookies I have wanted to make these for awhile now there has been some grief with them as they are not quite how I want them but I think that they are good enough to sell.  We will see though.

Violin Necklace

I recently found the blog My Girlish Whims and was drawn to her blog when I saw this beautiful Sheet Music necklace found HERE.

Princess was finishing up her year of violin and her friend will not be continuing the next year so to commemorate their time together I wanted to make something and this seemed fitting of course I used a different design, a violin.

I had never made any jewelry before except for maybe some made out of cereal so my knowledge was lacking and I admit I had always been a bit intimidated, but the tutorial and a list of tools needed was so great and easy to follow. The best part?  I was able to make four necklaces under $20 and that included the price for the tools!  I found a nice cheap toolset that had 5 different tools and they worked out great.  I still have lots of beads left over too.

When I made these I had promised not to blog or do any crafts because I was focusing on my studies but I totally cheated and they were so simple. Unlike the tutorial I did not dye my paper, I just didn’t have the time to wait for it to dry.  As you can imagine there are not any hole punches for a violin so I used my silhouette to cut it out.  Princess criticized that there were not any “f holes” but my blade was going dull and it wasn’t cutting them through all the way. 
Because I was using the silhouette I couldn’t use cardboard and instead used cardstock and stacked it twice using the mod podge. They turned out beautifully, Princess was actually able to help make them, and everyone who received a necklace thought that we had bought them.  They were such a huge hit that we even made on for my Sister-In-Law for Mother’s Day she plays piano so I cut a piano instead and despite me not taking a picture it was just as neat.  I love the idea of using the sheet music and so many different instruments can be used based on the instrument that you play.

I will be linking this to:

Lemon Squeezy Pillow Case

I was downloading some pictures for today’s post and was surprised to see that I had not shown/shared these pillow cases that I made.  I found the pattern and tutorial over at A Lemon Squeezy Home, you can find it HERE.  Like everything of hers I LOVE it and cannot express how easy it was to make.

The first one I made I used left over fabric that I had on hand.  It was meant for a Cheeta Girls quilt so it was difficult to cut to size and I had to make a few alterations but it turned out great!

Princess loved it so much that she requested I make one for her friends birthday present.

I still had to make one for Kitty Kat and she is a purple girl through and through.  I was going to make one like the Cheeta Girl one but I found some Jelly Fish fabric and for whatever reason I LOVED it.  She did say that it was a bit boyish but I assured her that the button that was a real seashell made it girly.  She loves it.

The best things about these pillow cases is that they can hold so much.  They are great for long car rides because they can but their books in them and have pillows when they want to rest.  They have worked great for overnight bags as well there is plenty of room to hold all the items they would need PJ’s, hairbrush, clothes for the next day, and even an animal or two.  I seriously recommend these pillow cases and they only take a couple of hours to make cut to finish. A great project for all those sleep overs that are sure to happen. Amazing!

On another note I wanted to say thank you to all who follow and read this blog, I truly appreciate it.  I have had some struggles and rather rude comments that have made me re-evaluate a lot of things and my new attitude is that I will take it as it is!  I can handle criticism but rudeness is not necessary and not welcome in my world.  Only love and kisses here!  Thanks for sticking with me and I hope to have an amazing summer creating new things and enjoying the outdoors.

Chips ACount Cookies

I have mentioned these cookies in passing and I sell them in my Etsy shop but recently my friend Len over at Crafty Homeschool did a little post on them and took some great pictures and I wanted to share.  I made two sets of these cookies for Christmas I made them for my nephew and for her daughter, and they were a hit.

 

I know that felt cookies are nothing new but I think that my batch puts a new twist on felt cookies.  These are numbered and can be played with for many different purposes.  Pretend play and as the child grows they can learn their numbers, and even as they get older they can learn basic math by adding and subtracting.

I designed them to slightly resemble a bag of Chips Ahoy cookies, and the bag velcro’s closed so that the cookies won’t fall out.  Be sure to check out Len’s post found HERE for additional images and how well they hold up.

I will be linking this to: