Hi! I'm Shelly - mother of 5 and wife to the best man in the world. We love to play games and watch movies together. I have a passion for crafting in all it's forms - sewing, scrapbooking, bow making, painting, mod podge, you name it and I'll try it. Hope you enjoy our family adventures and crafts!
How I Became Shared Jelly
When my husband and I first got married we used to get messages on our answering machine for "Shared" and "Jelly" instead of Jared and Shelly. The first time we chuckled a little over it and by the fourth or fifth time, we decided the name should stick somewhere. And so, I've been sharing jelly all over the internet since. Enjoy!
I've really enjoyed taking old clothes and remaking them into something into something new. Along that same line, I took a regular plain white onesie and turned it into something more fun for my baby girl.
I cut 6 blue circles with a 3 1/2 inch diameter, four pink circles 3 inches in diameter and found a button to match.
Start by folding your blue circles into sixths (in half, then in thirds-it's easier than it sounds). Pin them onto the onesie where you want. Then sew around the middle edges as so:
As you can see, it doesn't need to be straight or even match because you will not see the stitching.
Then you take the pink circles and fold them in quarters (in half twice). Pin and sew them on top.
Again, the sewing is no biggie since you are covering this with a button. Speaking of which, you sew your button on top and you are done. As time goes by and when you wash, the edges will fray a little, but it's still cute. Here is after the wash:
Still love it. Adds a little bit of sass. Great idea for a baby shower gift, too.
I saw this idea on my frriend Ambers' blog last year and I loved it. (I'd link her in but it's a prvate blog). So I've been working on it for the last month or so. It's based off of Pottery Barn's Thanksgiving calendar seen here.
It's a countdown calendar to Thanksgiving. Each little square is a pocket with a paper inside that reminds you of something you are thankful for. It also has a small activity to perform to show your thanks. We started it on Tuesday and so far we've had "I'm Thankful for my Brothers - do something nice for your brothers" and "I'm Thankful for my Legs - go outside run, jump and ride your bikes." The kids love it and I'm happy to have a new tradition to remind us to be thankful during the month of Thanksgiving. You can find the paper ideas on Sugardoodle here. Although I made mine a little different and added a few, I still used her ideas. It will be easy to change them out as the kids grow up, too. I also covered the front of the papers with packing tape - poor man's way of laminating. It helps them be more durable so that the kids can't ruin them too easily. All it needs now is for me to head to the craft store and get a dowel and ribbon so I can hang it properly. Hope you enjoy!
Hunter really wanted a skeleton costume this year, but I didn't have the 20-30 bucks for buying any new costumes this year. So I made one. I found a black shirt and black sweat pants for $4 each at Target. Then I got 1/4 yard of white felt and 1 yard of "Wonder Under" (if you have never used it, you need to try it) for under $5. I put the shirt and pants on Hunter and measured how big I needed all the bones. The wonder under is great because you iron onto your fabric and it has a papery side. I drew out my bones on the paper side and cut them out. Then you remove the paper and you can iron onto the shirt and pants. For extra good measure, you should sew around the edges (but I'm lazy and skipped that part - I'll probably go back and sew it later so it will last for had-me-downs). Here's how it came out:
I'm really happy with how it turned out and I'm much happier about the $10 I spent versus the $20-30 I would have spent for the costume. The shirt and pants will hold up much better than the thin material on most costumes anyways. They make those things so cheap. I can't wait for him to try it out for reals.
The first time I saw this flower, I knew I needed to have one -but they were selling for $5 a pop - YIKES!
Turns out that it was super easy to make on my own! All you have to do is cut out some circles. I took some white felt. I used about 7 circles (all the same size). I started in the middle and scrunched and folded until I had what I wanted. Here's a tutorial if anyone wants it
Start with 7 circles:
Thread a needle (with any color thread because it won't show). Start with the middle circle and fold it and scrunch it how you like. Here is what mine looked like:
Put one or two stitches in the bottom to keep the folds in place. Now add another folded circle and put a couple of stitches in the bottom as well. Keep adding your folded circles around the first - stitching as you go.
Keep adding until you have your desired fullness. As you near the bottom, just keep in mind that you want it to be flatter at the bottom so you can glue it on whatever you want. The last couple of fold should be simple or even just in half.
Tie off your thread. Then you can either leave it there or I like to take a pair of scissors and trim off any edges that seem too long or out of place. There is no exact science to this. Just fix it how you like it.
Then you will have your finished product. I like to hot glue mine to an alligator clip covered in ribbon.
These flowers wold make a cute addition to any craft. You could also make it out of knit or any other material that will not fray.
Saw this idea on blog and I knew it would be a perfect way to fill my big wall in my living room.
There is still room for more decorations (as you can well see) but I love the bats flying through my living room. And the kids helped, too. It was a super fun project and so easy and cheap. I just used some black construction paper and scotch tape. For the tutorial and pattern to make your own click here.
I think I can see a witch flying with them on her broomstick coming in the near future.
We found a new treat to make - MoNsTeR BrOwNiEs. They sure were a lot of fun. You can turn your brownies into monsters, too. It was super easy. I loved how they turned out and the kids had a blast creating them.
Note: there are only three of the four because little T ate his before we got the camera. He's no dummy, they were yummy.
I saw this cute idea online and couldn't resist. They are regular snickerdoodles rolled in orange sprinkles and cinnamon (instead of plain white sugar). I thought they were cute and it was a big hit for the kids. You can use any snickerdoodle recipe, but here's mine if you want:
1 c. softened butter (not melted, no substitutes)
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 c. flour
2 t. cream of tartar
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
Preheat oven at 400 degrees. Cream butter, sugar and eggs. Sift in dry ingredients. For thicker cookies, chill dough for at least 2 hours (also will be easier to work with). For thinner cookies, you don't need to chill. Form 1 inch balls and roll in cinnamon and sugar. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Make sure you don't overbake or leave on the pan too long, they taste better soft. If you want to add the candycorn pumpkins on top (like in my picture) place them on top after you get them out of the oven. If you bake them in the cookies, they are just a big sugary mess (not that I'd know from experience or anything ;)
What is it about a new haircut that makes you feel so good? Every couple of years I seem to "start over" with a short hair style. It's like having a new me. Just like every once in a while you feel like moving all your furniture around a room to make it feel "new" again. Your hair is such an easy change - like moving furniture - done in an hour or two and back to your day. Here is my before:
And here are my after pics:
I knew it was time to cut it off when I found myself wanting to put it back in a pony tail every single day. Love the new change.
Made a couple more Halloween crafts for the season. Thought I would share the ideas:
Spooky Banner
For this project, I used 3 Halloween designed 12x12 papers, 1 sheet of gray 12x12, 1 sheet of black 12x12 and some letter stamps, string or ribbon, paper cutter with scoring tool, and a hole punch. I cut the Halloween papers into 6x6 squares. Then I used my scoring tool to score lines on the paper every 1/2 inch. I folded it like a fan, then folded my fan in half. I used tape to secure. This makes one half of your circle. Do the same for the other side and staple or tape together. Continue this step until you have all 6 circles. Now take your black paper and cut 6 circles for the letters - I made 3 1/2 inch circles, but you can do any size you like. Then I cut 6 - 3 inch circles out of the gray. I glued the gray circles on the black and then stamped my letters on. Finally, take your letters and glue them onto your fanned circles (hot glue works well). I punched two holes in the top and threaded some string through to it. You can use ribbon to be more fancy, but I had this string on hand. Whatever works. If you want a bigger banner, you could certainly keep your paper in the 12x12 size and score every inch instead. I liked the little one so that I'd have more room to put more things up on my wall as we make more projects.
Halloween Can Decorations:
I love how these little cans bring a little variety to my mantle. And they are super easy to make! Look through your kitchen for any foods you have packaged in cylinders to make this easy craft. My cans were a pringle can, a soup can and a peanut jar (note: the peanut container had an indentation at the top, but you can't tell once you wrap it up anyways). You could also use a parmesan cheese container, soda cans, etc. Be creative and upcylce! Anyways, I took my cans and first wrapped them in white tissue paper. I secured the top with some cute ribbon and cut the tops to be straight. Then, I took some Halloween scrapbook paper (though you could easily use wrapping paper as well) and cut it to the height I wanted on the cans. I wrapped it around and taped it on. From here you can leave the cans as is, or decorate them in any way you want. I used a "Boo" sticker on the black one. On the candy corn one, I wrapped a ribbon around with a little tag that says "Spooky" (although its a little hard to see in the picture). On the last one I tore a pumpkin out of orange paper, inked the edges for contrast, and drew a face on. You can be as creative as you want with these little guys, though (buttons, ribbons, stickers, die cuts, vinyl, etc.) Enjoy!
