Ornaments

Debbie posted a pic on Pinterest that had six versions of felt animal ornaments. Lauren needed to craft one day and turned out the following three. She decided to go the easy route and not stitch around them but they are adorable and super easy!

Artsy

I have actually done quite a bit of sewing and other craftiness lately...but since most of the crap awesomeness is going to be Christmas presents, I can't really show any pictures for a few weeks.

Here's something I can show you:

Keira and I had a ton of fun doing backgrounds on canvas. Keira used different colors, but the principle is the same - choose two or three or four colors of paint and squirt some directly on the canvas, then spread with a dry paintbrush - blending a bit as you go.

I found these stencils at Michael's in the art aisle in the drafting supplies.  Using my 40% coupon they ended up only costing two or three bucks - which is an even better steal when you realize that there are TWO complete sets.  One set of 3/4 inch and one set of 1 inch both have complete upper and lower case and numbers!

Butterick 3762 - Pattern Review

I was looking for a simple dress pattern for my granddaughter for her birthday/Christmas dress.  I had already bought some very busy fabric, so I knew I didn't want a busy style - and since the Butterick patterns were only a dollar (JoAnn's, Black Friday), this was the one I went with.

I'm not really sure that I ought to call this a 'pattern review' since I changed several things about it, didn't follow the directions, and don't know yet whether the size is true or not, but here goes.

Oven Mitts Tutorial

If a picture says a 1,000 words, you're in for a feature length novel here....

I first saw some hot pads like this at Porter's (in Rexburg) back in August.  I thought they combined functional and cute pretty well.  Then I forgot about them.  I ran across them again a week ago and pinned them on Pinterest.  The gal that writes The Idea Room even included a download-able pattern.  Brilliant.  Being me, I couldn't leave well enough alone, so I'll show you what tweaks I made (and I do mean show you - I took twenty thousand pictures of the process...more or less).

I cut out all the pieces to make 2 different oven mitts, then shuffled the pieces a bit.

Wrist Clutch/Purse Organizer

I have this secret nagging fear that I will leave my wallet home someday, go to the store, open my purse and not be able to pay.  Oh, you do too?

Not only do I worry about not having it with me when I need it, I often end up having to carry my wallet and keys into the store without a purse at all - because I don't want to lug the big tote bag in.  I don't like just setting my keys and wallet in the shopping cart - for one thing, the keys always slip down through the gaps. What I really need is some sort of bag that would be small enough to fit in my purse or my tote bag - just big enough for my wallet, keys and cell phone - that could also be carried on its own.  When I saw this cute little bag on Happy Find, I knew I was onto something.




My first prototype.

 

Don't Hate Me Because I'm Fancy.

Happy Birthday to me!  In honor of the day, I took cupcakes to seminary and used my new Open Star Tip (Wilton 1M) to tart them up.  Fancy Schmancy?  Yes.  Easy Peasy? Even more so.

I saw some beautiful rosette cupcakes on Glorious Treats.  The talented lady who writes that blog included a tutorial. I liked what I saw so much that I bought the tip last week when I was at JoAnn's.  I didn't even bother to make the frosting (teenagers will eat anything that features sugar...) - I just opened up a can of cream cheese frosting and added a few drops of red and yellow food coloring.  If I was really trying to be fancy, I would used slightly thicker frosting so that the 'petals' stand up more.

And there you go...

"P" Bags

This is what a foley bag looks like...more or less. 
It's not really very attractive, and when it has urine in it, it's even less so.
Thus the need for "P" Bags.