Family Beehive Art Knock off

I grew up in Utah and as you may or may not know Utah is the Beehive state.  Throughout Utah you will can see beehive symbols in odd places, even the Utah Highway Patrol’s logo feature the beehive.  I like beehives, perhaps Utah rubbed off on me but there is just something so amazing about bees and their homes.(source)

On a recent trip to Deseret Books I saw this framed personal art.

Sadly, I couldn’t afford the $229 price tag, and then I remember a post at I Am Momma Hear Me Roar found HERE about getting cheap prints at Staples, by using the blueprint option, and thought and I can replicate this, for cheap.
I went to work and searched for a beehive image that I liked.

(source)

I didn’t want all the hoopla around it so I used my paint program and erased everything but the beehive.  I then went to The Graphic Fairy’s and found a bee image I liked (hind sight say’s I should have just used the bee’s in the original image, I think they kind of came out as looking like fly’s).
After I placed my bees where I liked them I went to Picnik and using tips from I Am Momma Hear Me Roar found HERE placed the final touches.  This was a gift for my brother so I but on his last name, the year he was married, and the little decoration underneath, the five bees represent my brother, his wife, and three sons.

I went to the Staples website and placed my order, within 10 minutes they called me back telling me that my order was ready, it was so quick.  This is what it looked like when I picked it up.

I took out my colored pencils and colored the beehive and bees yellow, and my vision was beginning to take place.

I then took wet black tea bags and rubbed them all over the paper, to make the paper not so white.

I had an old frame that the glass had broken out and had cardboard backing I originally planned on using a piece of extra white board that I had on hand but it wasn’t quite big enough.  Instead of buying a sheet of wood I decided to just use the cardboard, because I was trying to replicate a canvas look I wanted bubbles so I Mod Podged the paper directly onto the cardboard.
I still didn’t think that my paper was dark enough so I took some black acrylic paint and mixed it with my Mod Podge brushing it on top of the art work.  Once it dried I brushed on a few more layers of regular Mod Podge and framed it.

I am so happy with how this project came out.  My biggest regret?  Leaving it on the floor to dry, my mom’s dog walked on it and ripped a piece of the paper, whoops.  One reason I don’t have dogs. 
A break down on the pricing:
Printing                              $3.17 (tax included)       
Colored Pencils                   FREE (already had)                
Tea Bags                           $2.00                                
Picture Frame                      FREE (already had)                 
Mod Podge                         FREE (already had)           
GRAND TOTAL                  $5.17
Original Image                   $229.00                               
SAVINGS OF                  $223.83 
I saved a huge amount and even managed to make my image larger, BONUS!  I am so excited to give this to my brother and his family.   I originally planned on doing it for a family Christmas gift but I really couldn’t wait to make it.  Happy Birthday big brother.
I am linking this post to

and the parties found at the bottom of my page.

A Dress For Princess

As mentioned a few post ago I also made a dress for Princess for the Mamma Mia Show.  We had the handbag first and on one of my many trips to Jo-Ann I saw this pattern and knew that it would be perfect.

I generally wouldn’t buy the material without her input first but I just knew she would love it because it matched the purse so perfectly.  The pattern is Simplicity 4070 and it is a woman’s size pattern.  My original intent was to not buy the pattern.  I am just to cheap to spend over $10 on a pattern so I took pictures and bought the fabric.  Then luckily a week later Jo-Ann’s had the patterns for .99 cents so I went ahead and bought it, still knowing that I would have to size it down for a 10 year old.

I ended up making the dress a size 6 petite and when it came time to closing the back I sized it down.  The top is a little big but it still seems to work okay and she loves it so that is all that matters.

When I originally pulled out the pattern pieces I was thinking it was going to take me F-O-R-E-V-E-R but had I not had to size it down I could have easily had this dress done in half a day.  One more reason I LOVE Simplicity patterns they are so easy and I think the end result is lovely as well.

I must admit I was nervous about sewing the lace as I have never really dealt with it and it was a piece of cake.  Also I have heard horror stories of tulle but I had absolutely no problems with it.  In fact I was actually talking on the phone to my friend while I sewed it on the bottom of the dress and until I was finished didn’t even realize I had sewn it, seriously it was one of the easiest fabrics I’ve sewn with.

I like how the dress turned out and am super excited for tonight when the girls will be all dressed up and ready to go to Mamma Mia, more pictures are sure to follow.

Party Dress For Two

My Princess turns 10 next week and the next few posts will have to do with her birthday.  Having a daughter who is turning 10 has been rather difficult to plan and give for.  She is out of the toy age and moving into the girly girl stage.  She now has an opinion to what I actually choose and generally she hates what I pick out.  Even at Claire's we had completely different styles on jewelry. 


For her birthday we have decided to go up to Boise, Idaho (a four hour drive away) and watch the touring Broadway show Mamma Mia.  She had the option of getting really good seat and just going with me and her sister or getting really bad (nose bleed) seats and bringing along two extra friends.  She chose bringing the friends along. 
It seemed simple enough except that one of her friends are quite the “tom boy” and has been rather difficult with the whole dress issue.  After becoming EXTREMEMLY frustrated I remembered this dress that I finished for Princess HERE. 

Both of her friends LOVED this dress, tried it on, and asked for me to make them one but with different colored fabric.  I pretty much laughed it off because let’s get real I was never going to make this dress again.  HA HA HA!
I made two more! 

The dress colors were chosen all because of these 2 purses.

These are to be their party favors and I have filled them up with lip gloss, hard candies, hand sanitizer, and nail clippers (they really don’t hold much).
To say these were easier to make is well…. I understand now why some of the instructions on the first dress didn’t make much sense. I made mistakes that were completely my own fault a few times which made them more difficult.  But overall much easier.  I love how we incorporated lace to match the purses.  Now Princess will have her own matching posse when we go to the musical.
I hope to have her dress finished for tomorrows post, however, for a sneak peek here is her dresses inspiration.

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.