I enjoy making this simple and inexpensive baby gift for the dozen showers I attend each year. I stole the idea from a costlier version in a local store. Inevitably, instead of enjoying his teddy bear’s cute face, my son turns the bear upside down and clings to the label. So I decided to indulge him with a small blankie of only labels.

1. I choose 2 fabrics of different texture, honestly with the mom’s taste in mind, since little one can’t say yet. I like flannel, corduroy, fleece, bright prints in fabrics that can take many washings. Or I like to pick a theme that would go with the family, like my son has a “Let’s Build It” taggie covered with tools in honor of my carpentry-skilled husband. Once you have stock-piled some fun fabrics and ribbon, the cost will feel next to nothing, literally like $1-2. The discount section of your fabric store is a great place to look.

2. Cut a 12 inch square out of your 2 fabrics. I made a cardboard template that I just lay down and draw the lines with a pencil for cutting.

3. Choose your ribbons and cut out in different lengths, usually 3-5″. Fold over to picture how long you want the ribbons to stick out. Line up right sides of fabric together. Fold the ribbon in half and tuck the folded end inside the 2 fabrics. I stagger the lengths a little and vary the width and texture of ribbon around the fabric.

4. I leave one corner unpinned where I sew a long, wide ribbon, for a handle, caddy-corner after the other sides are sewn. Sew the other 3 sides up to the handle corner, removing each pin as you get to it and making sure the ribbons are straight.

5. Turn the fabric inside out, tuck in the 4th corner, insert the final ribbon and sew on top of the fabric. You can also embroider the child’s name to personalize it, or I usually sew a large, colorful button on top -just something else for them to play with.
This is a great way to use up any scrap fabric and scrap ribbon from other projects!

OTHER EXAMPLES:

I love making something new from something old. We found this dress in Jen’s attic in her husbands costume collection. I loved the green and said it would make a great bag. Donnie (her husband) just mentioned joking that her birthday was coming up. So I decided to make her a bag.

I just love the detail in the top part of the dress. I decided to use the elastic section at the top of the dress and just detach the sleeves. The dress was so long i used the rest of it to line the bag and one of the sleeves for a pocket on the inside. It turned out pretty cool. I loved it. I’ve got some of the dress left over I might just make one for myself. It seems all i want to make from old clothes are bags. What have you made from old clothes?

My fabulously amazing husband and his parents got me an iPod this year for Christmas. However, what’s a fantastic piece of equipment like that without an equally fantastic cozy to keep it in? So I fashioned a felt (are you surprised?) iPod cozy that only cost about $.60 to make, and only took two hours from start to finish.

First, you’ll measure out how much felt you’ll need. Then you’ll cut a front and a back piece, making sure the back piece is longer than the front (so it will fold over and close).

Next, you’ll decide on whatever shape you want (a flower, an animal, or just shapes of any kind) and pick your embroidery floss.

Cut out your shape, and adhere it to the felt with a needle (to keep it in place while stitching) and then using the backstitch you’ll sew it to the felt. You could also use a blanket stitch if you like as well. You can place your shape anywhere you like, but make sure you don’t place it too close to the edge – you’ll need to allow some room there for the seam.

Next, add any other imbelishments you like, (buttons, more embroidery or other shapes) and then attach the snaps to the tops of the two pieces, making sure they line up correctly so it will close correctly.

To finish up the cozy, stich together the front and back pieces (using either a blanket stitch or a running stitch), and voila, a fabulous and functional iPod cozy.

From cricut.com:

The Cricut personal electronic cutter is the future of home crafting. Simply by touching a button. Cricut can cut beautiful designs and alphabets for card making, scrapbooking, and paper crafting. No computer is required, just plug it in. Place your favorite cartridge in your Cricut and choose from over 250 designs in 12 different sizes; ranging from 1″ to 5-1/2″! That’s thousands of possibilities! Cutting customized shapes and alphabets has never been easier.

I got my Cricut as an early Christmas present this year, at the end of October. The machine came with a cutting mat, cutting blade, and the George and Basic Shapes cartridge. It was very simple to set up – take it out of the box, plug it in, add a cartridge, and you are ready to use it. Paper is placed onto the cutting mat (it is sticky and holds the paper in place), you select the shapes, sayings or letters you want cut, the size you want and press cut. The Cricut then goes to work, cutting what you’ve selected into the paper. A press of a button, the paper is ejected and you remove your shape from the cutting mat.

There is a bit of a learning curve with the Cricut, as with most new things. The cutting blade depth, cutting speed and pressure all need to be adjusted based on the type of paper you are using, but because of that you can cut anything from vellum to heavy cardstock.

The cartridge that come with the machine is a basic one to get you started, providing all letters of the alphabet, sayings such as “Thanks” and “Birthday Blessings”, as well as shapes such as flowers and stars. There are many options on the cartridge, allowing you to cut letters out on tags and much more.

Advantages of the Cricut are you can always get the shapes and letters to match your layouts, since you can use any paper that matches your theme. You are also not limited to a certain size of paper, you can set the machine to accept smaller sizes as well. The Cricut is fast, and the options are endless. There are 20 cartridges to choose from, including font cartridges as well as themed cartridges such as Animal Kingdom and Christmas cheer. You are also not limited to scrapbook layouts with this machine, you can use the Cricut to make handcrafted cards, wall hangings, and so much more. The messageboard at Cricut.com provides some very unique ideas for projects to be completed with your bug!

As with any product, there are some disadvantages of the Cricut. A major one is cost, the machine itself retails around $299, with each of the cartridges around $90. The accessories needed are also expensive, and I found that the blades and mats wear out quite quickly. I’ve also found my bug has frozen a couple of times in the middle of a cut, which is frustrating but not really an issue to me. It really is a simple computer, and I suppose it can get overloaded if you do too much too fast (I’m impatient, which probably doesn’t help).

All in all, I would rate the Cricut at 4.5 stars out of five. Its definitely a great investment if you are an avid scrapbooker, card maker or crafter in general!

We had a planning meeting with the girls involved in our craft ministry at Grace Church. So many great ideas for this year. One of our big projects is a Craft fair, April 21st. We will be raising money for our missionaries in Mexico, the Donohues. They have a ministry called Cuirim Outreach. The use Celtic Monastic tradition there, focusing the day around work, study and prayer.

Every summer kids from our youth group go down there and help out with whatever they have going on. This past summer they built a childrens cafe. Many of the kids that live there are home all day by themselves while the parents are at work. Sometimes they don’t have food. Cuirim outreach wanted to provide for them in this way by giving them a free meal and a place to come and play. I just got an email from Brian Donohue on their current projects :

This month we are working on finishing the children’s cafe. We are currently serving 40 kids MWF from 11-2. We still need an oven and a frig. I was working with the Mexican importation officials yesterday trying to get permission to cross large quantities of food for the children. We have been receiving free food from Tucson but cannot drive it across with out special permission from the head honcho. We have a place we would like to purchase to start a second cafe. We may put a deposit down as early as next month. We had a small house built for our family just across the border in the Arizona desert. Kirsten is painting this week. We hope to move in at the end of the month. We have almost finalized our summer trips. We have seven groups lined up from June-Aug. We are wrapping up the shoe drive for the season. We received about 3,000 shoes.

We have had a full winter. We miss being in VA this time of year. God has blessed us with lots of visits from our families. The needs here are great and we are privileged to be the ones who get to be “bridges of blessing”.

Please send us pictures of the craft fair.

Brian

The money that we raise will be for these projects, but we also wanted to give the Youth a chance to raise some $$ for their trips too. So we are encouraging them to make things to sell at the fair. We will be having some classes to teach them skills to get them started on their projects. So far we thought we would do a card & beading class and stenciling class.

We are also encouraging them to have their services available for sale (like mowing or babysitting) for the silent auction. We are looking for more ideas of things we can teach them in a night or afternoon that we can complete that night or shortly there after. The boys are the hard ones. Some of them are into making hemp necklaces but, it’s hard to find a boyish craft. Any ideas?

Since I’ve really been bitten by the crafting bug, I thought I would show you around my crafting space and things I’m going to be working on.

What is this, you say? Just a beautiful piece of furniture?

Not just that – it’s my new sewing table!

(oooooooooooh……..ahhhhhhhhhh………)

I was so excited to pick this up and actually have a space to craft from now on. We can now resume using our dining room table to eat on (who knew?!).

And now, you can see my new sewing machine, out of the box and ready to be utilized.

Look at that big knob – what does it do? And where the needle is…it looks a little intimidating. But I’ve got two new sewing books with some great starter projects so hopefully that’ll get me going in the right direction.

And my first sewing project will be new curtains for the dining room.

Isn’t this fabric gorgeous? I bought it for $5 a yard and it’s a nice canvas material. Granted, I will have to paint the dining room to make them really work, but it’ll be worth it. Am I the only one who does this? Picks up an accent *something* for a room and then changes the paint color just to match that one *thing*? C’mon, fess up.

This is my felt addiction pile. I’m telling you, if there was a felt shortage in the continental US, I fear I may be to blame. I can’t stop buying this stuff. Fourty sheets I have, plus six different yards of the yummy, delightful fabric. Such fun colors and great projects for so cheap!

And finally, my next knitting project, a baby blanket.

I found this yarn for $4 a skein and it’s so yummy, so I thought I would double the strands and knit a blanket. I’ve never used circular needles before and I must admit, I’m a little scared. Anyone who knows me, knows I’m not that into knitting. Like, hardly at all. So if this doesn’t go well, I fear I may give up on knitting all together.

So that’s just a peek into my crafting space. My birthday wish is to have an actual craft studio by finishing part of our basement, so I’m hoping that can be made a reality. Because I really feel that would be the best gift ever!

Felting has been the perfect discovery for me as a knitter. It hides your mistakes and holds the element of surprise. I normally am afraid of patterns and love to knit mindlessly, so I don’t enjoy it if I have to concentrate too much. Now that I have gained a little confidence and the knowledge of a few techniques I am brave enough to try and make up my own patterns. Felting seems to be a great method when you are winging it, especially if you are like me and don’t really mind what size it turns out. The mystery is all part of the fun!

This pattern is loosely written because you can adjust to make it any size you want. One of the reasons I like felting and making up my own pattern, is that I love throwing it into the washing machine and waiting expectantly for the buzzer to sound! So knit this pattern as long and wide as you like, fold it over and picture what it will look like, keeping in mind that it may lose about 1/3 of its original size.

So here’s what I did: Cast On 40 stitches, double stranded, size 11 needles (straight or circular, but do not knit in the round). You will need wool, feltable yarn.

1. Stockinette stitch (knit row, purl row, repeat) about 88 rows, fold from the bottom up to decide what size you want the body of the bag to be.

2. When you get the body the size that you desire, tie a piece of scrap yarn in the end of your row to mark your place, and knit, purl a few more rows. This will allow more room to cover your contents when you fold the flap over.

3. To begin the triangular flap, start on a knit row, knit two onto the second needle and then bind off the first stitch as if you are finishing your knitting. Knit the rest of the row and bind off last stitch.

Purl the next row, without any decreasing. Repeat directions until the flap is as narrow as you desire. (I stopped when there was only 4 left.)

4. With a large needle, sew up the sides of the bag and tuck in any ends. Fold as if you are making your own envelope.

5. Knit an I-Cord for the strap. Using same size double pointed needles, knit 3, slide stitches to end and knit 3 until desired length. Do not turn over your knitting. I love this simple method and the results. Keep in mind when you throw the cord over you shoulder to preview how it will look, that the strap will be quite shorter after you felt it. Sew strap inside the bag along your side seams and tuck in ends.

6. Felting, finally! Wash in hot water with another sturdy item (I use jeans). Bite your nails and wait anxiously…then take out and lay flat to dry. If you are not happy with the size, you may repeat. My final product was 12″ wide, 6″ deep (with flap folded) so I thought it was a perfect small bag. You may also want to clip off the fuzz with scissors.

This only took a little more than a 3 1/2 oz. skein and a weekend (and I have a busy one year old!) Hope you are happy with your results!

*You could also make this bag with a straight flap instead of triangular. It would look just like knitting a wide scarf and sewing up the sides. Too easy!! Any other ideas on how to modify this? Also, I haven’t decided yet if I should add a button loop and button at the end of the flap to finish it off. Any suggestions?

We just moved into a new place, and my decorating is pretty much non-existent. I’ve always had the “poor-student- misc-junk-thrown-together” look but now that I’m an adult and we have a nice place, I want that to change. One of the things that I wanted to do was frame and hang up some professional photos that we got taken when Elizabeth was a newborn. However, I cannot find the perfect frames that would go with our color scheme and look unique at the same time. So why not make them?

I found unfinished wooden frames at Ikea for super cheap (3 frames for $1.99), the fact that they are unfinished allows someone to finish them as they want. I dug through my scrapbooking supplies and found some beautiful paper that was the style I was looking for, plus it was quite unique. I cut strips of the paper to match the width of the front of the frame, plus allowed extra to wrap around the sides of the frame. I then folded the bottoms of the strips to match the angles of the frame’s corners. My next step was to adhere the paper to the frame using Modge Podge.

I found the Modge Podge worked great for adhering the paper to the wood, and it adhered really fast. To make the picture frame unique, I found some coordinating embellishments and adhered them to the frame. I added some buttons and ribbon for a 3D additions, which looks very different but beautiful at the same time. One last thin coat of Modge Podge over the entire frame for protection, and I ended up with a beautiful frame that you’ll never find in stores, matches our decor and taste perfectly, and took only 45 minutes to complete from start to finish.

I have really been into using felt lately. It’s like the wonder material – you can make so much with it, it’s inexpensive and so easy to use. I had bought some little boys shirts for cheap ($3 at Walmart, and they are nice, too) and decided to use them to stitch some felt applique’s on. So I decided on a catepillar and a lion. Once I cut out the shapes I needed in the colors I wanted, I added any embellishments (like eyes, mouths, ears, etc) and then just secured them on the shirt using a blanket stitch.

I finished up with a few other accents and voila – cute (and boyish) felt applique shirts. Each one cost approx $4 and about an hour to make from start to finish.

I love to combine crafts when I can. This idea has worked best for me to create embroidery patterns using my rubber stamps. Here I made a travel pillow for my son’s first birthday with a cowboy theme.

1. Use washable ink and press the rubber stamp firmly to make sure it shows up dark on the fabric. It needs to be dark because through the process, and because your hoop and hands will rub it, your pattern may disappear before you can finish embroidering it. (hence why my cowboy’s gloves are a little unclear) Also, I wouldn’t choose a stamp that was really tiny or detailed. The good side of using washable ink is that it will fade by the time you are done or you can wipe it off with a damp cloth. I like using this method because I can also alter the pattern, like I chose not the stitch the cowboys’ mustache.

2. Cut the fabric in the shape/size that you want if making a pillowcase, center the design and stamp. Then embroider the pattern Before sewing the pillowcase together.

3. I left the ends of my pillow case open so it could be removed and washed. The cowboy print side is flannel and the brown side that I embroidered on was a light-weight, suede-like material. This is the first time that I used fringe trim but it will not be the last! I thought it was so easy and cute and I have been looking around the house for what else I can sew it on to with the extra I had leftover.

4. The actual pillow I made using cheap white fabric and good old poly-fil, since I could not find the shape I wanted at the store. In total the whole project cost me less than $4.

Using rubber stamps for your embroidery pattern is also great because you can make things to match. For his party, for example, I made the pillow, cowboy birthday thank you cards, and gift bags for the other children.

This method has opened up tons of options for me since I often want to embroider but don’t trust myself to draw the pattern and don’t often like what there is for iron-ons (and I have hundreds of stamps).