Shared Jelly

Crocheted Headband with Felt Flower Clips

2012-01-30T15:13:00.000-08:00

Super fun to have choices and different color combinations with your hair clips and head bands.

I love having the alligator clip backed bows for easy versatility Just change out the flowers to match what you're wearing.

(You can find this here in my Etsy shop)

Also I tried something a little new with these hand stitched felt flowers. Layered circles with button centers. Cute, right?

As seen here.

Baby Gift Sets

2012-01-23T15:07:00.000-08:00

I'd like to show you what I've been working on in my Etsy Shop lately.
Instead of trying to guess what people want in a baby gift set, I am trying something a little new. I posted up my baby items and am going to let the buyer choose which items they want. You can pick your favorite 5 items for $20.

Here is the boy set:

And the girl set:

Which items would you choose?

Big Pile of Leaves

2012-01-11T12:07:00.000-08:00

I finally got around to cleaning up the front yard. We have a huge tree that's been littering the lawn with leaves. It was about time. And so, we had a huge pile of leaves all gathered up. The kids had a blast jumping and throwing them around until I had to throw them all away.

New Flower Bobby Pins

2012-01-08T20:21:00.000-08:00

I had fun making some new bobby pins out of different colored circles the other day. Thought I'd share. They are super easy - just stack some fabric circles in the color of your choosing and sew together with beads. Attach to a bobby pin and Voila! You can find these beauties in my etsy shop.

Green Eyes

2012-01-04T13:23:00.000-08:00

I love Terrick's green eyes.

So pretty. Click on the picture to see a close up.

New Years Countdown Bags

2011-12-30T12:21:00.000-08:00

I've seen different versions of these for the past couple of years and have adopted this into our new traditions.
You can check out Hoosier Homemade to see the idea here. There is a cute free printable here at The Idea Room.

Inside mine, I will be putting cards telling what we are going to do.
At 6pm, we'll do a dinner of appetizers and finger foods (our tradition) and fill out a "Time Capsule" sheet.
At 7pm we'll play a board game together.
At 8pm we'll play rock band.
At 9pm, we'll enjoy rootbeer floats together and make some decorations & noise makers. I'm doing some rocket poppers (like on Martha Stewart's website) and paper plate tambourines.
Then at 10pm we'll watch the ball drop in New York on TV and turn on a movie to see how late they can all last.

It's going to be cheap and it's gonna be a fun one!

Balloons would also be fun! Maybe next year.

And the thing I'm most excited for is that I get to go see Wicked tomorrow! Finally! I'm probably the last one to see this of everyone I know and I'm excited.

Enjoy your new years celebrations!

Tiered Skirts for My Baby Girl

2011-12-27T18:00:00.000-08:00

Every day she grows a little more. Mommy has to keep up. Plus, I have the extra fabric laying around taking up space anyways.

The skirts are pretty easy. I started with her waist measurement which was 18 and multiplied by 1.5. That means my first tier needs to be 27 inches wide.

Then do 27 x 1.5 for the next tier, which was 40 inches wide.
One more time for the last tier 40 x 1.5 = 60 inches wide.

Then to decide the length of each tier, you would measure the length from waist to knee. My skirt needed to be 10 inches long. I had 5 inches of the black on top and 2 inches of it went into folding over the waistband - another 1/2 inch gets taken for the seams. Then 5 inches of each of the other two. If you wanted each tier equal, you need to add extra to the top tier. Anyways, I hope that makes sense. If not, there is a detailed tutorial at Make It and Love It.

For this one, I just added a 3 inch ruffle to the bottom. I took the width of the skirt and multiplied that same 1.5. If you want it more ruffly, you can also multiply by 2.

Plate For Santa

2011-12-24T20:45:00.000-08:00

We got this red plate for our wedding and we rarely use it, so I added some vinyl lettering on it for a Christmas plate. The outside edge has all the kids names on it, but I blurred them out of focus (for safety reasons?)

Gingerbread Houses?

2011-12-22T14:48:00.000-08:00

First of all, we make ours of graham crackers-we always have them on hand. Second of all, houses are hard to build out of graham crackers and frosting - we've had several collapses. Third, we have mostly little boys. So this year, we got a little creative with our building. We did one house, a train, a car and a tank this year.

Family Photo Shoot

2011-12-20T13:26:00.000-08:00

Giant Puzzle Poster

2011-12-19T20:08:00.000-08:00

My son, Hunter, actually had this idea. He is always thinking of something. He asked if we could make a big picture that we each colored a part of and pieced them back together. I found a coloring page online and blew it up onto four sheets of paper for the kids to color (using Adobe Illustrator). Then, we pieced them back together. The kids love it.

Kid Wreaths

2011-12-18T20:04:00.000-08:00

I cut out a circle out of a paper plate and let the kids paint it green and decorate it with construction paper. Here are how they turned out.

Ornaments

2011-12-18T19:58:00.000-08:00

I picked up these clear plastic ornaments at Michaels and we decorated them as a family activity this year. We put a little picture of each kid inside as well as a note telling a little message of their choosing. Then we colored them with permanent marker and glitter puff paint.

It was fun to do together. I think it would be fun to make ornaments together every year as a tradition.

Gingerbread Men

2011-12-13T08:13:00.000-08:00

I found a package of these for $1 at Target and couldn't resist. Add buttons, markers and bits of ribbon and the kids have a blast.

( I just couldn't find any of the others to take pictures of)

Snowman Sticks

2011-12-09T07:35:00.001-08:00

I'm trying to do some fun Christmas projects with the kids, so I've been hunting for ideas. Here is one I came across.

You'll need:
Popsicle sticks (the large ones)
Misc. Buttons
scrap of fabric (for the scarf)
black foam (or paper)
markers
whit paint

Put them all together and what do you get:

I like that each of the kids had their own spin on what they wanted their snowman to look like. It was a fun little project.

Holiday Card Collecting

2011-12-08T08:42:00.001-08:00

No matter how outdated it is to send mail, I still look forward to getting Christmas cards for the holidays. I found this cute idea online for showing off the cute cards. I started by gluing glitter on some wooden clothes pins.

Then I hung a string up on my wall to hang the cards from.

Now we can all enjoy them together as a family. Only 3 cards, but it's still early. I can't wait to fill up my string!

Christmas Dress Update

2011-12-08T08:31:00.001-08:00

Amazingly, I was given two identical red Christmas dresses by two different people in sizes 8 and 2T. This happens to be the exact sizes of my girls this year. To not have to buy two dresses is a miracle in and of itself, but to find matching dresses in those two sizes is even harder. The only problem is that they were a little too plain for my (and my daughter's) taste. So I decided to give them a little updating. Here is what it looked like before:

I removed the existing flowers, put a black ribbon around the center and replaced with some new pretty flowers like so:

Now I have 2 pretty matching dresses for the holidays.

New T Shirts for My Hubby

2011-12-08T08:22:00.001-08:00

Ever since I got my Silhouette (last Christmas), my hubby has wanted me to make him some new T-shirts with it. I finally got around to it. So sad it took so long. I got some of their heat transfer in black and white and created these two shirts:

This US Soccer shirt cost us about $7 to make instead of the $20 it would have cost to buy one from their store.

Then he wanted one with our logo. We are shared jelly after all (see top of my blog for the story)

Quiet Book #2

2011-11-29T08:31:00.000-08:00

I saw this idea on etsy here. It is a Spot the Dot quiet book. You use the red dot through the book as it transforms to new things on each page. The original is done in just black and white, but I made mine in lots of colors. I didn't have the printed sentences on the bottom, but I added a few pages, too. My pages are made from some sample swatches of curtain fabrics that my husband got when he was working for a company who does curtains/blinds. You could easily do it on felt instead. Anyways, you get the idea. I made this for my baby girl for Christmas. Hopefully it will keep her busy at church.

Christmas Gifts - On the Go Tin Buckets

2011-11-29T08:18:00.000-08:00

This idea has been growing over the last month or so and here is what it has become.

I made these cute tin buckets for each of the kids. They are a fun little kit of goodies to take with them on long car trips, or vacations, or for waiting rooms, etc.

I started with these tin buckets that I found at Michaels and added their names in black vinyl.

On the inside of each lid I had some adhesive white board so they can doodle. Each one (except the baby) will have white board markers to color with.

Then I made some fun magnet games for each of them to play on outside of the lid (or anywhere on the tin for that matter).

Next I made some pouches for a pad of paper and crayons so they can write or draw.

I finished off each tin with a special new small toy. Overall cost of each tin came out to about $15 each. Now when we are headed out, I can tell the kids to grab their tins and put a couple of small toys inside to bring along and we'll be all set to be entertained. The only downside - metal tin buckets are not necessarily very quiet, but they do make really good drums!

Reminder Pillows

2011-11-28T16:32:00.000-08:00

I made these fluffy soft pillows to go on my kids beds as a little reminder at the end of the day.

They will be stocking stuffers this year.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T22:09:00.000-08:00

Hope you all had a great Turkey Day. Here are some of our goodies we made for Thanksgiving.

Quiet Book #1 For my Baby

2011-11-23T14:55:00.000-08:00

I've really been wanting to make some good quiet books for my baby girl for Christmas. I have searched high and low on blogs and internet for ideas. Here is the first book I made. Another one will be finished soon.

#1 Button on flowers
#2 A little zipper purse with a cell phone and keys inside. ( I used ribbon to attach them so they don't get lost)
#3 Tie the bow on the ballet slipper
#4 Open the farm doors and play with the finger puppets.

#5 Apples and an owl to velcro on the tree
#6 A little mini abacus with beads for counting
#7 Ice cream scoops. Count them as you stack them
#8 Going fishing! Each fish is attached with a hook and eye. (the example I saw didn't have each fish on a string, but I hope this minimizes the chance of lost fishies)

Most all of the pages are hand stitched. It makes it a little easier to add such small details on each page. I machine sewed on the velcro because in my experience it needs to be really strong to last.

Peacock Feathers

2011-11-21T21:19:00.000-08:00

I've been nervous to bridge the gap into using feathers. I finally got some fun peacock feathers to play with, though. I made this (although the flash makes it hard to see the white beading in the center). I attached it to a headband. My husband said, "It's fine, if you like that sort of thing." I hope that means it looks okay.

Candy Dish

2011-11-17T09:02:00.000-08:00

I actually saw this idea on a craft blog and then we did it for a project at church. I was excited that I didn't have to go buy the stuff, I just got to put it together. To make this, you need a flower pot and dish (painted in the color of your choosing), a wooden knob (for the top handle) and a small glass dish. Embellish it however you like. Great for any holiday.

Paper Purse

2011-11-17T08:56:00.001-08:00

We made these cute little paper purses at a church craft day. I was so excited to get a pattern. I've seen these little guys before, but always wondered how to do it. Now I know!

Here is a diagram of where to put all your folds.

I made 4 of these to put goodies in for all my kid's teachers.

Make Your Own Bobby Pins

2011-11-16T18:24:00.000-08:00

I bought some bobby pins with glue pads on the end to try out some new ideas. Most of these are up on my etsy shop if you're interested.

Felt & Fabric Flower Hairbows

2011-11-15T18:54:00.000-08:00

I've been experimenting again and decided to freshen up our options.

The first one is made the same as the flowers I made for my Autumn Wreath.

These next two I sewed on my sewing machine and layered up. I saw some like this online and copied.

For this last one, I experimented a new way of folding fabric circles. You start by folding one side in to the center, then fold piece by piece round the edge until you have a hexagon. I layered it on some toole and put a felt flower and button in the center.

Any Resemblance?

2011-11-14T20:55:00.000-08:00

The top one is me and the bottom one is my little A. She reminds me of me when I was little.

How Do You Sleep?

2011-11-10T08:21:00.000-08:00

As a routine, we always peek in and check on the kiddos before we go to bed. This is how we found our oldest sleeping in his room.

Seriously, how is this even possible? Now you all believe me when I say that my kids can sleep anywhere, I literally mean ANYWHERE!

"Hand" Creations

2011-11-08T16:58:00.000-08:00

We've started our "I'm thankful" countdown. For our "I'm thankful for my hands" creations I let the kids choose between making a tree or a turkey. We traced and cut out our hands and came up with these beauties.

Chevron Quilt

2011-11-07T09:07:00.000-08:00

I finally got around to making a chevron quilt for my son's room. I knew that I wanted to do this - it was what inspired me to do the zig-zag stripe around his room.

I got the idea from The Crafty Cupboard:

I wish mine turned out as perfect as hers. I found out that finding orange fabric at Joann's is really hard. They have very little to choose from and I used mainly fat quarters and solid colors. Should have kept to lighter prints, too. Oh well, it still has the overall effect I wanted.

Just new curtains left for this room makeover to be complete!

New Hair Bow Holder

2011-11-06T07:27:00.000-08:00

There are a million hairbow holders out there. I went for this one based on it's clean lines. Plus, it's easy to make:

I made a new hairbow holder for my girls' bows based on my friend Kristin's holder. I started with some fabric, a canvas and some ribbon.

Pull the fabric over the front. Pull tight and staple in the back.

Then line up the ribbons how you want. You can criss cross, do straight lines, random, whatever. I chose straight lines, so I measured and marked how far apart I wanted them. Then I stapled them tightly to the back just like the fabric.

That's it!

Just hang it and you're done.

Now I need to update my bows. (Out with the old, in with the new)

Halloween Day Treats

2011-11-01T14:09:00.000-07:00

This year's Halloween dinner consisted of mummy dogs (hot dogs wrapped in crescent rolls), zombie smiles (honeydew melons with marshmallow teeth), eyeballs (deviled eggs with an olive in the middle), and monster fingers (carrot sticks).

And for dessert - Eyeball Pops (white chocolate covered oreos with gummy savers and chocolate chips)

Halloween Costumes

2011-10-29T21:03:00.000-07:00

Saturday's Halloween Treats

2011-10-29T20:59:00.000-07:00

We had our annual church Trunk-Or-Treat party today, so we had a Halloween treat filled day. We started with Pumpkin pancakes (I added some pumpkin pie filling in). I forgot to take pictures. Then for lunch we made slimy macaroni and cheese(homemade mac and cheese with some green food dye)

with ghoulish smile apple slices (apples, peanut butter, and candy corns).

Then we topped it off with some ghost and mummy cupcakes.

(I made my own fondant using a marshmallow fondant recipe. It tastes yummy and is fun to decorate with. For the recipe I used, click here.)

More fun treats to come for dinner on Monday night!

Candy Corn Pancakes

2011-10-27T08:02:00.000-07:00

I've seen these popping up all over. Clever! I used my round waffle maker and put regular batter in the middle. Then made a circle of yellow batter around that and orange batter around the edges. A big hit for the kiddos.

Flying Ghosts

2011-10-26T15:07:00.000-07:00

We actually made these ghosts at Cub Scouts. I have made similar ghosts out of face tissues before, but I thought it was clever to make them out of recycled plastic grocery bags. Plus, it makes them perfect for outdoors. I hung our outside over our entryway to greet our guests.

So simple the kids can easily do this craft. You cut some (imperfect) squares from white plastic grocery bags. You crumple 2 of the squares, place them in the middle of a 3rd square and tie a piece of yarn around it like a head. I love that they blow spookily in the wind by our tree.

Chocolate Cut Out Cookies

2011-10-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

I've never made chocolate cut-out cookies before, but it sounded good. I got the recipe from Our Best Bites. They were good - not a chewy moist chocolate cookie like I normally want from a chocolate cookie, but good for decorating. I rolled them in cocoa powder like she suggested which gives it more of a dark chocolate flavor. Regular sugar cookies are still my favorite, but these are fun for Halloween or Thanksgiving when you think of dark rich colors and flavors..

Yarn Spider Web

2011-10-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

Saw this post by Dana at Made. I knew I had to have one.

All I have to do now is stick a big spider in it.

Plaid Dress

2011-10-24T10:22:00.000-07:00

You know that I'm a sucker for the remnant bins at JoAnn's. My latest find was some cool green and brown plaid material. Here is what I did with it.

I added a flower embellishment for fun.

Perfect for the cool autumn season!

Dirt With Worms

2011-10-23T14:49:00.000-07:00

This is a fun easy dessert for the kids. It's chocolate pudding with crushed oreos (for dirt) and gummy worms.

You can tell its good by how much pudding is on their faces.

Can't Believe I Have a 9-Year-Old!

2011-10-23T14:41:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday, Buddy!

I asked for a silly face and I got an "eye roll." Now I know he's getting too old (below).

Carmel Apples

2011-10-21T13:44:00.000-07:00

Yummy Fall Treat from last Friday:

Carmel is my favorite!

Baby Size Referee

2011-10-16T20:13:00.000-07:00

A dear friend of mine contacted me because she wants to have her baby boy be a referee for Halloween. The only problem is that it's a really hard costume to come by in a size 9 months. Luckily she had an old referee shirt that could be transformed.

I started with this adult sized shirt. I pinned in the collar at the seam to shrink it down to baby size (using a 9 month shirt as a guide)

then I turned it inside out and sewed along the existing seam where I pinned.

I trimmed off the excess and grabbed my 9 month shirt again to use as a pattern.

I lined it up to the center of my collar and pinned it in place. Next I cut around the shirt (through both top and bottom layers) leaving about 1/2 inch around it to allow for seams. Here's where I am so far. Notice, I cut the bottom in a curve like the original shirt. To get it right I cut it out on paper first, then pinned it on. I also made the length of the shirt about 3 inches longer to allow for the curve.

Next, I used the existing sleeves to create smaller sleeves. Lining up with the top side of the sleeve. ( I used my 9 month shirt to cut out a little template of the sleeve)

Although I didn't take pictures of the next part, you basically just sew all the pieces together at this point. I opened up the shirt and pinned on the sleeves. You sew the top of the sleeve on first then sew up the bottom (like in a standard pattern). Once I had the sleeves on, I sewed up the sides of the shirt and hemmed the bottom.

The end product is a miniature referee shirt. It even looks store bought with the tag still in from the existing shirt.

Hope it works out well, Annette. Super quick and fun way to get a costume together. You could use this same method to turn just about any old shirt you have into a baby sized one.

Eek! The Bats Are Back!

2011-10-15T08:35:00.000-07:00

The kids have been waiting to get to put up our bats again. We found time and put them up today. So fun. For a tutorial and pattern see my post here.

Fall Clothes

2011-10-14T17:26:00.000-07:00

It's getting a little cooler (or at least it was last week) and my baby girl is moving up to a new size so I got my sewing on and made her some leggings.

I made the black pair shorter like capri pants. The nice thing about making them myself (other than saving a little $$) was that I could pick the color and length. I also gave her a little extra length in her caboose so they stay up over her diaper better.

I used a pair of her pants to make a pattern. You can see my tutorial here to find out how I made them.

Autumn Treats

2011-10-11T13:15:00.000-07:00

Holiday time starts in October for me. One of my favorite things about the holidays are the treats. Our family does dessert twice a week (one for family night on Monday and one for Friday night). That way my kids don't expect dessert every day after dinner. So I put together a little Holiday Goodies Chart to make sure we get in all the good stuff.

Each Monday and Friday, they get to pick one of the treat cards out of the chart to make together and eat.

This past Monday we made these Orange Kissed Cookies. It's a new recipe I got from Our Best Bites blog that I wanted to try out. I added some black sprinkles on top to make them a fun Halloween Treat. They were oh, so good that I wanted to share them with you.

More yummy treats to come. . . .

I finally did it!

2011-10-08T14:01:00.001-07:00

I started an etsy shop for some of my stuff. I've lagged on this for so long, but I finally decided to just go for it. Couldn't hurt to earn some money to feed my crafting habits. Check out the link on the right side to see my shop and what I'm selling now.

Halloween Lights

2011-10-07T17:40:00.000-07:00

I've been saving up my milk jugs just so that we could do this fun project on our porch. By Halloween time we hope to have many more jugs with silly faces.

My kids had fun helping me design the faces.

Headband Holder

2011-10-06T14:59:00.000-07:00

Instead of a free for all mess on my daughters dresser, I saw a perfect solution for keeping her headbands organized. ( I need to make myself one next). I used an empty Countrytime lemonade canister.

I covered it with some cute paper using mod podge

Then I hot glued some lace around the top for a little added frill and it's done.

The headbands fit snugly around the canister and stay put until you need them.

This is a much better feature on her dresser than a jumbled mess of headbands.

New Skirt For Me!

2011-10-05T14:53:00.000-07:00

I saw some cute fabric screaming to be sewn into something wonderful and I made myself a new skirt.

For this simple skirt, I darted the top all the way around to fit my waist and inserted a zipper.

Homemade Crayons

2011-10-04T12:29:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to try this out for a while and I finally got around to doing it. We made our own crayons!

I started by gathering up all of our crayon stubs and removing the paper. I sorted them by colors and broke them up a bit.

As you can see, the shades of the crayons vary a little even if they are the same color.

Next, I pulled out an ice cube tray that I got at Ikea years ago. It is one of those rubber ones as seen on their website here. Mine are puzzle shaped and sadly I've never found occasion to use it until now.

I let the kids fill the puzzle pieces with whatever colors they wanted. I even made a few of my own. Then we popped them in the oven at 250 degrees. The directions I had said to melt for 25 minutes. I took them out after 15 minutes (and 10 minutes would have been more than enough).

They make for a really fun way to color - especially making rubbings! We will definitely be making more of these fun crayons.

(You can also use a cupcake pan lined with foil for making these.)

Ice Cream Cake

2011-10-02T17:16:00.000-07:00

I had an idea for my hubby's birthday. I have always been a big fan of ice cream cake - the good ones with the cake and ice cream layers. So I came up with my own spin off using a similar recipe to cake balls.

I started by baking a regular chocolate cake according to the instructions on the package. Then I broke it up and put it in my mixer.

I added about 6 scoops of cookies and cream ice cream

Mix it together until it's well blended. You want a consistency about like cookie dough.

Next, I layered them into my dish. I used a glass 9x9 square dish and was able to fill it to the brim. For thinner layers, use a 9x13 pan. Start with a layer of your cake on the bottom. Use 1/2 of your mixture.

Layer some softened ice cream on top.

Repeat layers finishing with ice cream on top. Freeze overnight. Serve how you like.

Our pieces were huge and yummy. As you can see the layers are not perfect. It tastes really good though. The cake is cold and chewy. The ice cream is creamy. I'm totally going to do this again.

My Dad is So Awesome

2011-09-30T22:20:00.000-07:00

My Dad has the greenest thumb of anyone I know. While they were down visiting the other week, he gave me this fabulous gift:

He built me this wonderful box garden! My old garden ended at the tomato plants you see in the middle. Now it extend to the end of the old grassy area. I was excited to plant some new stuff for the fall/winter.

Halloween Subway Art

2011-09-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

My dad made me a new box garden and left me with some leftover boards from his project. When I saw this on Tatertots and Jello, I knew I wanted to make one with the board he left me.

I had black and white vinyl, so I did mine orange instead. I used my fabulous Silhouette to cut it all out and put this baby together. I think mine will have it's resting place somewhere on my porch, but for now, it is propped against my wall waiting for a permanent home.

It was my sweet daughter's idea to make it into a pumpkin (because it was orange) so I tied some green ric rac to the top.

Autumn Front Porch

2011-09-27T19:22:00.000-07:00

My in-laws gave me this old bench they had. I was excited to give it a home on my porch for my autumn decorations. I see paint in it's future, but I'm not sure which color? Hmm....... I'm excited for the holidays and decorations again, though. The next three months will be decoration filled for sure!

It's the new home for my cloth pumpkins I made last year.Yay!

Happy Birthday! The Big 5!

2011-09-27T09:20:00.000-07:00

Can't believe my baby boy is 5 and in kindergarten. He's my little guy that's supposed to stay little and snuggly forever. This little guy has more energy than any other little guy I know. Full of excitement and silliness. We sure love our "T" or "Lubby" as he is also known. (The cake is supposed to be a batman cake. I used a chocolate cookie for the bat. Not my best work)

Felt Flowers

2011-09-26T07:34:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to show you some ways to make cute felt flowers I used in my fall wreath. All you need are some long strips of felt. My smaller flowers were made from 13 inch strips, the larger ones were about 30 - 40 inches (left over from some felt yardage I had from my Thanksgiving Countdown Calender).

#1 Rolled Flowers
For this flower, you simply roll strips about 1/2 inch thick. You can do it with straight or wavy strips.

You simply start with one end and roll up the strips. Here is what the straight one will look like when it is rolled up:

Here is the wavy strip once it is rolled up. Just a little more texture.

I used a needle and thread to put some stitches trough the roll to secure it in place.

#2 Rolled Petal Flowers
Start with a strip cut about 1 1/2 to 2 inches wide.

First you are going to fold it in half lengthwise and cut notches in. Make sure you don't cut all the way through. It should look like this

Once you have cut notches in the entire length, you roll it like you rolled the others.

This time the notches you made will form petals. Stitch it as you go from the back to keep it secure.

When you are finished rolling, it should look like this

And from the back, you can see all my stitches in brown.

#3 Rolled Flower From Scraps
For this type of flower, I took my crazy leftover scraps from other projects. You can see that I had cut out circles from this red felt in the past.

I rolled up these scraps along their edges like this

When I was done, the back wasn't flat. It was all messy like this

So I just cut it straight and then stitched my flower together

#4 Circle or Scalloped Edge Flowers.
For the last kind of flower you can either cut out circle in varying shapes and stack them or look online for a free flower template and use it to cut out flowers. I'm sorry I didn't save the link from the one I found. Anyways, you cut them out, stack them and put a secure X stitch in the middle.

All in all the flowers are pretty easy to make and take very little sewing skill. You could easily make these and stick them to just about any project you wanted with a little hot glue.

Autumn Wreath

2011-09-24T20:29:00.000-07:00

I wanted to make a new wreath for Autumn. My inspiration came from these two ideas.

I had some brown burlap and a large embroidery hoop that I rarely use. I also really liked the felt flowers from Nest of Posies. So I melded the two ideas and came up with this.

I didn't glue the burlap into the hoop or anything, so I can easily take it out and use the hoop after I'm done with it.

I cut the word Autumn out on freezer paper using my Silhouette. And I painted on my own stencil. For more info on how to do freezer paper stencils visit this link for a tutorial. There are dozens of tutorials for freezer paper stencils if you need help.

Soon I will post up my tutorial of how to make all these fun felt flowers.

Picture Day

2011-09-22T10:14:00.000-07:00

So I will be the first to admit that I'm cheap (or poor - however you want to look at it). And. . . School pictures turn out so terrible. Let's face it, the kids need several shots to get a half-way decent smile. All things considered I hate buying school pictures. The last couple of years I have started just buying the class picture for the kids so they can remember friends and teachers (which this year is still costing me $60 big ones). I get them ready for picture day and take them out to the front yard to take pictures by our tree. It makes a cool backdrop and I can get my own prints from Costco for much cheaper. All in all, the result is better pictures for less money. Win win.

So Sleepy

2011-09-16T08:37:00.001-07:00

You know, after a long day of riding her horse, a cowgirl gets tired.

Bench Covers

2011-09-13T12:38:00.000-07:00

My husband and I were so excited when we purchased our first NEW furniture item two years ago when we bought our house. We have been married for 10 years but have always bought things from thrift stores or gotten hand-me-downs from other people. Well, we always have wanted a square dining table with bench seating and they are really hard to come so when we found it at a random furniture store in Orange, we knew it was meant to be ours.

2 short years later, it has been roughly loved by our 5 children.

Our two littlest boys learned how to "draw" in the table with their forks (big time trouble for that one) and the leather benches just aren't meant to be jumped on by little legs. After many months of this:

Trying to hold the seams together with duct tape and keep the kids from peeling the leather off with their little busy fingers, I finally made some black fabric covers to hide the wear and tear.

It's removable, washable and fits well -except for the corner piece that was very hard to figure out due to it's weird shape. I waited until the home decor fabrics went on 60% off at Joann's so it wouldn't hurt the wallet quite as bad. I'd say this was a much better solution than buying a new dining set. I think I will eventually do something in a print on the two remaining leather chairs, but for now I thought I'd share my project with you.

Stroller Bag

2011-09-01T18:39:00.000-07:00

I don't like to have to carry a bag over my shoulder while I'm pushing a stroller around. It just feels awkward. I also don't love trying to wrap my purse straps around the stroller so that it won't drag on the floor if I decide to put it on the stroller.
Solution! I saw this idea somewhere in the bloggosphere and I came up with my own version to fit my umbrella stroller. Now I can put my stuff in this purse when I'm strolling around and I can grab it and put it over my shoulder when I leave the stroller.It velcros right onto the handles and stays up out of the way of the wheels.

I also included a pocket and an elastic strap for putting a bottle or sippy cup inside.

I tried it out at the zoo the other day and it worked great. Yay for easy transition! Next I want to design one for my sit and stand stroller.

Trendy Girly Hat

2011-08-30T09:52:00.000-07:00

I've seen these kinds of hats and I thought I'd take a crack at making one for my 7 yr old who has been "dying to have one." It's pretty hard to get the fit right, but after several attempts I got it pretty close. It's just a little looser than I'd like, but it's a really quick sewing project, so I'm sure I'll make a couple more just for good measure. Without the flower on it, it is actually fully reversible too. So fun. Can't wait to try some more.

I also learned that my daughter has a bigger head than me already. Her head is not too big, mine really is just that small. So sad.

Beach Themed Mantle

2011-08-28T21:31:00.000-07:00

I've seen so many cute beachy mantles and I wanted to try it out. I'm finally getting around to taking down my Fourth of July summer decor and it's too early to put up my fall stuff, so I went for it. I was able to put this together with all stuff I had lying around - including a new "Relax" sign that Jared and I picked up in Catalina. I need to think of something to put in the glass at the back though. Might need to go looking for a pretty candle or something. hmmmm. . . .

I made this sign out of an old board in my garage. It was cut all crooked which gives it a little more character. I painted it white then used a dry brush technique with some brown to antique it. I cut the letters out of some scrapbook paper using my silhouette and mod podged them on. I would have rather done it with vinyl to be quicker, but the only colors I have are white, black and red. I wanted a beachier color. Anyways, I think it turned out pretty good. Jared said, "It's almost there, but not quite" Thanks for the support, honey.

Boys Shorts With Cargo Pocket

2011-08-26T22:11:00.000-07:00

Here is my second pair of boy shorts I made for my son. This time I made some nice big cargo pockets on the side. I definitely like these pockets better than my first ones.

Repurposing Clips

2011-08-25T08:04:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but I always have a random array of clips and bobby pins all over in my drawers in my bathroom. Mine are all boring and generic - I hardly ever use them. I decided to spruce them up instead of leaving the clutter. I attached them to wax paper so that when I hot glued stuff onto them they wouldn't get stuck together permanently.

Then I started making some fun stuff to attach. I stuck to colors I know I will wear (mostly neutrals) and tried to make them age appropriate. Here is what I came up with:

I like that these clips lay flatter than the alligator clips I use to make my girls bows. Every once in a while I ~~steal~~ borrow my little girls bows, so I figured it was about time I had some of my own.

No More Monkey Bars

2011-08-23T18:37:00.000-07:00

This little guy loves the monkey bars, but one week into school, we're paying dearly for it. Poor little guy. My hands hurt just looking at them.

Hopefully he gets some callouses when they heal.

More Bows and Headbands

2011-08-22T07:59:00.000-07:00

I have so much more time on my hands with all the kiddos at school. My baby has been teething and between all the fussiness, she's been napping a lot, so. . . I've been busy.

15 Months and Finally. . . .

2011-08-21T20:26:00.000-07:00

15 Months and Finally. . . I can do a little pony tail!

It's a tiny little thing and she hates it, but it's so cute. The other kids call it her little "Doink" Too cute!

Boy Shorts

2011-08-18T15:31:00.000-07:00

I tried my hand at some cool boy shorts. I used the instructions from Made. My little guy even wore them to school proudly. I count that as success.

Note to self - lower the pockets a little next time.

Antrhopologie Inspired Skirt

2011-08-18T12:44:00.000-07:00

I've seen these cute Anthroplogie skirts and I wanted to try making one in this style for myself. Here is what I came up with:

I obviously added a lot more color (and I'm not as skinny as those dress stands), but I think it turned out okay. Next time I'd like to make the skirt a little fuller. I tried out the skirt on Sunday at church. I got a couple of compliments so I'm happy with that.

Baby Gift Set

2011-08-16T15:17:00.001-07:00

Made this baby gift set, for my SIL. It's a blankie, burp cloth, bib, booties and a hat. Hope she likes it. I really enjoy this print because it's girly without being pink!

It's the first time I made a flannel blankie with the minky on the back. So soft, I love it. It will be good for her fall baby.

Purple Circle Skirt

2011-08-16T15:17:00.000-07:00

Made a new circle skirt out of the extra yardage I bought for the book bag lining. Also added a cute black trim to it, this time. Fun!

Boy Baby Booties

2011-08-15T10:34:00.000-07:00

I made some shoes for my nephew. I had to look for new ideas so that he wouldn't have girly shoes. Here is my little boy shoe. (although I think these would still be cute for girls, too)

I think for next time, I'll figure out how to get some elastic in the backs to help them stay on better. Hope he enjoys them.

School Book Bag

2011-08-09T15:13:00.000-07:00

My cute little girl wanted a new bookbag for this school year. So I went to work. I took a bunch of old jeans and cut them into strips. I knew she likes jean. Here's what I got.

I let her pick the fabric for the lining and we used it to make a butterfly for the front.

I also made a pocket on the front for pencils, etc.

Then for fun, I added to jean pockets on the back. I also created the strap using the waistband of the jeans.

It was a lot of fun to make.

My mistake: I made the bag too "deep."After I was finished, I ended up taking it in around the outside of it. I'm sad because it was so beautifully lined to begin with and now it's a little funky on the inside. One of these days, I may just take it apart and put it back together again the right way. She loves it, though and school is already starting so oh well. Not everything has to be perfect.

And a picture of the first day of school:

Indiana Jones T-Shirt

2011-08-07T13:30:00.000-07:00

I have a little guy who really digs Indiana Jones. He asked if I could make him a T-Shirt. I downloaded a font that looked like the logo (called Fedora). I cut it out twice with my Silhouette onto freezer paper. I ironed one on to the shirt and used brown for the shadow. After it dried, I removed it and ironed on my second paper slightly off-setting it from the first one. Like this:

Then I painted orange and yellow over the top. I had to use two coats so that you couldn't see the brown and I blended the paint in the middle to make it look like the logo.

I love how it turned out. I am a little bummed, though, that I smeared a little bit of brown paint underneath. My son told me that it was okay, people would just think he was eating some chocolate. Such a funny guy!

They Are Growing Up So Fast!

2011-08-02T16:08:00.000-07:00

Five short years ago I had four children under the age of four. Looking back, I just remember being very busy, doing lots of games and crafts to keep the kids busy, and lots of crying in the house. I look at this picture and I remember these little versions of my kids and wonder where they went. It is so strange for me to think that next week all four of those little ones will be in school. Just me and the baby home until 1 in the afternoon! It's strange to see the kids growing up so fast. Can't believe how time flies.

Little Girls

2011-07-26T20:47:00.000-07:00

When you grow up and think about having a little girl, you think about dress up and princesses and pink. You don't think about trips to the emergency room and broken teeth. Here we are, though, with just that. She's had staples in the back of her head, stitches in her forehead, scraped up her lip and nose, and now she's chipped her front teeth - her permanent teeth. It's a good thing we have a dentist appointment set for Thursday already.

I Just Can't Stop!

2011-07-26T18:39:00.000-07:00

I just keep making my baby new shoesies! This time I made cloth flowers with rosettes like this:

And I put them on some new white shoes like this:

The nice thing is that the shoes are washable. The hard thing is she gets them really dirty and I am finding that more pairs allows me to wash more frequently. I have a couple more pairs coming still. Some day I'll give it up and buy her some shoes, but for now. . .

Vegetables From Our Very Own Garden!

2011-07-24T16:39:00.000-07:00

These are my first vegetables from our garden this year. My peppers are bigger than I thought they'd be.

I know this is probably not as exciting for everyone else, but I've never had a garden actually grow this well before. We maybe get a yield of one or two vegetables in the past. This time my garden is not only not dead, but is flourishing and overgrowing the small area I put it in. There are dozens of vegetables getting ready to be picked.

My tomato plant is so big, it's falling over in its cage, full of tomatoes waiting to ripen. I've had to cut my zucchini plant back so that it doesn't overrun the peppers. I had no idea it could get so big.

Here are my peas that I thought were destined for failure and they are blooming and everything.

I either need more space or less plants next time. I'm so excited to keep planting.

Drive-Thru Dinner/Drive-In Movie

2011-07-13T08:29:00.000-07:00

I've been gathering up some big boxes so that the kids could make some cars out of them. It's always a lot of fun to make your own car, right? The kids played with them all afternoon. At dinnertime, I made them a little drive thru window where we don't have a screen anyways (gotta love old homes). My big girl helped me make the signs:

(She ran out of time halfway through the "menu" sign so we hurried and finished it so we could eat)
Then I had the kids pull up in their cars and "order" their food off the menu.

They balanced the food on the front ends of their cars and pulled around to park and eat it.

To finish the night off, we had a drive in movie afterwards.

It was a lot of fun and the kids really loved their cars. They loved them so much that most of them were broken by the next day, but they got plenty of good use anyhow.

My Garden is not Dead!

2011-07-08T21:13:00.000-07:00

It's actually growing.

This was a picture from about two weeks ago. It's even bigger than this now. My peas, however, may not get any veggies on them because I planted them in the wrong season (oops!), but the peppers, squash and tomatoes in the back are coming in nicely.

Giant Bubbles

2011-07-07T08:08:00.000-07:00

I saw this online (where I see everything these days) at Tatertots and Jello quite a while ago and was wondering how well it worked. She has instructions on how to make your own - with a detailed suppply list and all. So I went around the house looking for random supplies to see if we could throw these together. Let me just note, I used old wooden rods from the closet we took out last summer, yarn, I had some eye screws in a picture hanging kit I got a while back and I just used the cheap store bought bubble solution. Here is what mine looked like:

Also note, mine isn't as big as hers. This was as much bubble as we could manage with the little ones. Here are some pictures of our bubbles.

The kids had a blast and it's something we can use again and again.

New Shoesies!

2011-07-05T21:18:00.000-07:00

I bought my baby girl some "real" shoes from the store and the toes were torn through in less than a week. Evidently they do not account for babies to crawl in them at all (very short-sighted). Not wanting to fork out another $15 on shoes that wouldn't last, I raided my fabric collection and made her some bigger booties. These ones have suede on the bottom for a little extra durability. We'll see how they hold up. I love that they are washable, though. I just throw them in with my other laundry and they come out fine (the top ones have already been washed once.)

Happy Fourth of July - Rice Krispie Treats

2011-07-04T22:41:00.000-07:00

This is my last fourth of july fun for this year. Got this one from Random Thoughts of a Supermom. Hope you all had a great Fourth!

Firecrackers

2011-07-04T22:34:00.001-07:00

Martha Stewart, despite her faults, has some fabulous ideas. Check this one out:

These little firecrackers/rockets are filled with goodies so that when the kids pull out the tissue paper, out fall the goodies. I love this cute idea and can't wait to pass them out on the Fourth!
You can make printable ones by clicking here. The instructions are here. I used my own cardstock instead of printing hers out. My rectangles are 4x6 and the circles are 5 1/2 inch circles cut in half. Can't wait to pop them open on Monday!

Patriotic Pancakes

2011-07-04T22:34:00.000-07:00

I split my batter into three parts. I put red food dye in one, blue dye in another and left the third. I cooked up my pancakes, then Cut the red and "white" ones into strips. I made the blue ones silver dollar sized then assembled them like a little flag. SO fun!

The kids loved it!

Festive Jello

2011-07-02T12:44:00.000-07:00

I used this recipe at Christmas to make red green and white jello. It was a huge hit, so I figured, why not try red, white, and blue for the Fourth? You can get the recipe at Tatertots and Jello. It takes two days to set all the Jellos, but it's fun, yummy, and totally worth it. I love the creaminess that the condensed milk brings to the jello!

Fourth of July Tees

2011-07-01T09:41:00.000-07:00

Found this idea at Tatertots and Jello. Plus Tees were on sale for only $3 at Joanns. Perfect!

New Curtains

2011-06-30T12:44:00.002-07:00

While I was painting my oldest son's room, I realized that it is not the only room that needs a little more attention in the home decor department. The other two rooms could use a little love, too. Both the other kids' rooms are green (not avocado). My daughter started with a green/pink interior. I love the green and pink, but the curtains that I originally made for her room left a lot to be desired. I had this great idea of using sheer pink curtains, but the fabric was terrible to work with and they didn't come out very great. I've left them in the room, even though I hated them, while I've worked on tons of other things in the house. Now that my little girl is a little bigger, she doesn't really like pink anymore, either. So - new look needed! We are now going with a turquoise and green look and I'm starting with the curtains that are desperately in need of help. (Sorry about the daytime pictures. Didn't realize how hard taking pictures of curtains is. I need to try again at night)

These are the curtains before:

These are the new curtains:

Here is a little close up of the fabrics I used:

There will be new elements in the room eventually to reflect the change better, but this is a good start and a good inspiration to help the rest of the room. I can tell you, though, that I'm not really going to be happy with this room until we can take out the crib and get a bunk bed. This room has way too much furniture.

Patriotic Pinwheels

2011-06-29T15:42:00.000-07:00

I saw a really good tutorial for these on Funky Vintage Lovely.
The only thing that I was really bummed about is that I couldn't find any pretty double-sided paper like she did. I have really got to find a good scrapbook store in my area.

Anyways, I really like how they turned out. They are pretty and add some fun texture on my wall, too.

"X Marks The Spot" French Braids

2011-06-28T07:53:00.000-07:00

We were headed to the pool and I wanted a hairdo that would keep good in the water so I had a little fun with some french braids. Instead of just doing them straight down the back of her head, I made them criss cross.

It was perfect and it kept her hair out of her face the whole time we swam.

Last Room in My House

2011-06-26T07:42:00.000-07:00

Since we've moved in a couple of years ago, we have painted just about every room in the house - until now. I officially completed painting the very last room. Some of the rooms in this house were painted with only one coat and you could see every single brush stroke. Others were just painted with unattractive colors. Case in point:

They painted this lovely avocado green in the window sills, on the door frames, everything. Needless to say, not my favorite, not what I wanted to work with. (This was the same color that my bathroom was before I painted it, too. They painted it on the vanity, doors and ceiling in there. wow!)
Anyways, this is my oldest son's room slash my craft room. He's so nice to share his closet with me. We originally were thinking about doing an orange - we both love orange - but as I was searching for inspiration rooms online, I found another cool alternative.

The color is called shark gray. Then we finished with "Coffee Whip" orange for a cool zig zag stripe around the room. It was my first time taping off and trying to paint like this. It turned out well, though. I've been seeing so many projects with chevron stripes lately and I really like how the blueish gray and orange compliment each other. Next on the list for this room makeover are new curtains and matching bedspread to go with the orange accents.

Monster Book Mark

2011-06-24T13:43:00.000-07:00

My wonderful sister-in-law, Stephanie, sent me this idea. I adore these little monster book marks. They are simple and fun. I cut out the papers and let my kids each assemble one. Perfect for our summer reading!

Make your own by following the pattern at I Could Make That!

Scrapbooking Faves

2011-06-22T12:06:00.000-07:00

I've been catching up on my scrapbooking again. Here are a few of my favorites so far.

I noticed that the further behind I get, the more I use simpler designs. At the same time, the simple designs are sometimes the best! I can tell you one thing, though, I am totally loving the Silhouette for my scrapbooking.

Father's Day!

2011-06-21T08:33:00.000-07:00

We had a fabulous Father's Day this year. We had lots of fabulous little surprises for Dad (and they were all fairly inexpensive!)
The night before Father's Day, we cleaned up Dad's bedroom and left this on his pillow:

We found the printable at Seven Thirty Three. We filled it out with all of Daddy's favorite foods for breakfast and let him choose what he wanted.
The kids each made him a card (or 3 or 4) and we bought him his favorite candy bar. And used a printable label to put over the candy from The Idea Room. She has free printables for multiple sizes of candy like this:

Then we got his favorite kind of soda - Henry Wienhard's Root Beer and used this printable label from Oopsey Daisy.

Thank you Tatertots and Jello for posting all of these wonderful ideas!

He got all the special meals of the day that we knew he loved and also made him some of his favorite peanut butter cookies.

Our last kind act of the day was creating him a "WE LOVE DAD" masterpiece on the driveway. I knew he'd have to stay after church for at least a little while, so we took advantage of our time and filled the whole driveway with chalk.

He was really very grateful for all the little things we did to make his day great. We love our Daddy so much, I'm so glad we were able to make a special day for him. He is my love, my best friend and the best Daddy to my kids a girl could ever ask for. LOVE YOU, JARED!!!!

French Braid and Twist

2011-06-20T07:37:00.000-07:00

We got to have a girls night while the boys were at a fathers and sons campout. We painted our toenails, watched princess movies, had milkshakes and made beautiful hair. I actually really love doing hair, but my tender-headed daughter is very resistant to the pain of it all. Lately she's been a little more open to the idea, so we've tried a couple of fun hairdo's. I have always known how to braid, french braid, fish braid, german braid, but I found Shaunell's Hair Blog and she has opened my eyes to new fun ways to use my braiding skills. I used this one

the other day and forgot to take a picture. Then I used this one for our princess night.

Mine isn't as perfect as hers but now that I can practice more (hopefully) I will get better. Fine hair is so hard to get perfect.

Build a Castle

2011-06-11T18:58:00.000-07:00

Our Summer project for today was to build a castle. My Big H has been totally into castles lately. Asking me questions, like, "What are stronger - round turrets or square turrets?" " How far can a catapult throw a rock?" Of course, I have no idea what the answers to these questions are, so we went to the library and got a couple of books. One of them had really elaborate designs of cardboard castles. My building skills were not quite up to par for the ones in the book, but I promised him we'd make one this summer.

Here is what we got. We used the brown paper to cover pringles cans, lemonade cans, a caprisun box and a regular box. Everyone got to decorate their own side and their own turret.

I'm also proud of my little drawbridge. I got creative with some toothpicks, string and bottlecaps. It winds up and everything.

I used hot glue to hold it all together. Now its a guess to see how long our little creation lasts.