Saving soap one bar at a time (a tutorial).

A bar of soap wasting away on the bottom of the tub in slimy, over soaped, scummy bath water. Did a part of your soul shrivel like mine? If you come in regular contact with kids and bar soap it’s a problem.

We’re going to fix that today. I’m going to show you how to make Monster Soap Savers!

You need a bath sized washcloth (makes enough for 2), 12” ric rac trim, and black fabric paint for eyes. You’ll also need a sewing machine and basic sewing supplies.

Here’s a picture of how to cut out your pieces.

Cut the side of the washcloth so it’s 4” across. Cut that piece again so it’s 10” tall, that’s the body. You’ll have a little 4” wide by however long little snippet of washcloth which you’ll use for ears.

The extra larger portion you can use for bigger rabbit ears, arms and legs, or another monster. Or you can save it and pretend you’ll use it but really you’ll toss it in a few months when you forget why you were saving it.

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Now take your Monster body piece and measure down 3” and cut again. Set them both aside for a second. Make that 60 seconds.

Grab your ear piece and cut it in half so you have 2 squares. Pinch your pieces so the finished edges meet and pin. Sew them down along the bottom of the pinch and trim. Ears!

Pin your ears to the top edge of the longer body piece. Cut a piece of ric rac about 8” long and make a loop. Pin that between the ears. Set aside for another 60 seconds.

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Grab the 4”x3” smaller body section and sew ric rac to the finished washcloth edge on the underside. I purposely (um yeah, on purpose) chose the rounded edge for the ric rac so he would have a crooked smile. If that bothers you use the cut edge and turn it under before you sew the ric rac on so it’s straight.

Take your monster body with the ears and loop pinned to it and lay your smaller body section on the top, sandwiching the ears and loop, making sure the ric rac is facing you and matching the top edges and pin in place. Fold up the bottom over lapping your ric rac edge by about 1” to 1 1/2” and pin in place.

Sew around the outside on the 3 open sides to close it all up. I would zig zag around the edges so it doesn’t come unraveled later.

Turn it right side out and you have a very handsome and very yellow cast eyeless soap beast. I tried shoving some white eyeballs into the ears for pop out eyes (instead of ears) and it was really cute until I smeared a pupil with my paint, gave up, and just added 2 dot eyes to the body instead. The possibilities are endless for making it look as unique as your own little monsters plus you can have several in different colors. Everyone can have their very own with no mix ups and it can be washed and used again and everyone loves that. I have an order for a bunny and dog next.

Here’s the necessity behind the invention- I used to buy the kids soap that comes in a green super sudsy plastic cover for several reasons but really, unless you have one kid it gets a little dicey when it comes to who’s soap is who’s and who used it where last. Nuff said.

Have a fantastic and squeaky clean Tuesday!

Making new friends

We’re so hard up for friends out here in the sticks that my kids have resorted to playing with rocks. Rocks make the best toys. If you lose it you can always get another in 2 seconds and it’s really really hard to break them, not to mention they’re cheap ;). I figure if the kids are going to collect them and try to bring them into the house I should at least make them presentable.

All you need are a handful of clean rocks spray painted white and temporary tattoo paper. Yep, I tattooed rocks! I really stink at painting so the tattoo paper served as a decal which is perfect for the painting challenged like me. It’s a great easy craft to do with the kids and you can make them into whatever you want.

From this-

To this-

Each rock only took a few seconds to do. You just print any image you want- I chose some from my silhouette software because they are stinking adorable but any image you want to print will work, follow the directions for adhering them, cut them out with scissors, and then apply your new friend. I’m not sure how long they’ll last but that’s kind of the fun of it. When the tattoo wears off we’ll add a different image! I’m sure you could try to seal them if you really wanted them to last longer.

I don’t know what’s more fun- tattooing the rocks or telling everyone “I’m tattooing rocks today, what are you doing?”.

If you want to find out more about the tattoo paper and even win some for yourself go here!

Have a fantastic Friday!

Fun with Gum tutorial

Before I forget to bring it over here and in case you missed it I thought I should throw up the tutorial I did for Mique’s Funner in the Summer guest post in July. I think it would be a fun idea to make for the holidays coming up. A spider bag or a fun Christmas stocking shape would be so cute. Enjoy!

I have a craft drawer filled with kids craft stuff that they know they can use whenever they’d like but when that doesn’t work I like to get them reading a book. One fun way to help encourage them to read is with this little poem bookmark, a bag full of gumballs, and a new book. It works like a charm and it’s a great way to keep them reading over the summer.

 

To make your own treat bags and bookmarks just save the bookmark image and print it out and gather a few supplies.

 

For the treat bags you’ll need-
6” x 7” piece of fabric
2 1/2” x 2” piece of clear vinyl (look for small rolls in the remnant bin).
16” piece of ribbon
Tape

 

 

 

 

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First fold and press the top edge of your fabric down 1/4” and then again 3/4”. If you don’t have a non-stick foot for your machine put a piece of tape on your presser foot and cut out any holes for the thread to go through. Tape your vinyl window to the wrong side of your fabric on the bottom left.

Sew around your vinyl trying not to catch your tape. Flip your fabric to the right side and snip out just the fabric square from inside your sewing lines being careful not to cut the vinyl underneath. You don’t need the tape anymore so you can take that off.

Fold your bag in half right sides together matching fold lines at the top and stitch along the bottom and side edge.

Turn your bag right side out. With the inside seam open fold the top edge towards the inside 1/4” and then 3/4” making a casing for your ribbon to go.

Sew around the edge of your casing on the inside of the bag as close to the edge as you can, completely closed.

Stretch the seam on the outside top open a little and clip 3 or 4 stitches.

Thread your ribbon through the hole with a safety pin and tie in a cute bow or knot the ends together and ta da! Now you have a cute little bag to fill with gumballs and tie on to your favorite book.

Have a fantastic Wednesday!

It's my Monday!

Today is my day for a feature on Tessa Ann’s Button Shop Blog and I decided to mix it up a bit and do a Jewelry holder. I’ve had one hanging in my room for months now and the girls have always loved it so I made one for Ashlyn’s birthday tomorrow and thought I’d do a how to while I was at it.

~Strawberry Fields jewelry holder tutorial~

You’ll need an inexpensive frame (mine is 5 x 12”), scrap wood cut to fit the inside of the frame, scrapbook paper or fabric, Mod Podge, a 7/16” dowel, a 5/16” dowel, two 7/8” cup hooks, wooden spools of thread, and Tessa Ann’s Buttons.

First cut your scrapbook paper or fabric the same size as your board and Mod Podge it down. You don’t have to have a fancy ridge cut into your board, my husband is just a rock star and cut it that way for me, a flat board works to.

Cut the 7/16” dowel down to a length that works for you, mine just happens to be 9 1/4” long and paint it. Cut your 5/16” dowel into three 1 1/2” long pieces. These are your pegs to keep your spools on. Drill holes in the bottom section of your board for the pegs. Screw your cup hooks into the top of your board so everything is spaced nice and evenly.

Then put your pegs in the bottom holes and push the thread spools on. Thread your painted dowel into the cup hooks. Now we get to the fun part! Glue those adorable buttons on the ends of the spools and then glue the back on. I used E 6000. You can add a picture hanger to the back if you want or use plate stands to prop it up.

Now stand back and admire your pretty new jewelry holder. The dowel is perfect for rings or earrings and the bottom pegs hold your bracelets and necklaces.

I really think the buttons and the colored spools make the project.

Have a fantastic Memorial Day and I’ll be back later this week with Ashlyn’s dress reveal, if I can get it finished by tomorrow night anyway. It’s still in 8 pieces…

Bathtized

Ashlyn is turning 8 in 2 weeks and she’s choosing to get baptized, or as my kids call it bathtized. It’s tradition in our house to get baptized on your birthday so I’m going to be really busy trying to birthday it up and plan a baptism. I’m super excited for her and she’s bouncing off the walls excited. I’m a freak and have had all her gifts for months now but I still have to make the dress. THE dress. She’s made a few requests so I’m trying to piece them all together into something I’m willing to make. Should be interesting. When will I learn to keep my mouth shut and just surprise them with what I want them to wear? White flour sack with a burlap tie, if it was good enough for the pioneers it’s good enough for me. Ash didn’t like that idea.

The yuck is still circulating through our house so I never got a chance to post about what we did as a Primary for Mother’s day. I baked a bunch of pendants from Sculpey clay and cut a ton of white pillow boxes with my silhouette. Using my trusty rusty ink pads we put their tiny little finger prints on the pendants with their name and date on the back and they decorated their boxes with big butterfly stickers and crayons. I think they turned out great, but I might be a bit biased.

* I was originally inspired by this necklace and couldn't for the life of me find the link until now. It's really cute but needs to be baked after which is fun but didn't work for the group project I was doing. You should check it out though.*

I know it’s too late for this year but I thought it could help someone out for next Mother’s day. Thinking ahead you know. Have a great Monday!

Birthday girl and chair couch pillows

My Kaci Weeds turned 4 yesterday. My 4th little one is 4! I love this little girl so much. I really can’t believe she went from that tiny little thing to such a big girl. She loved her “birsday” and even though we’ve been sick all weekend she had a great time. She’s princess all the way and had a mini pink cake with a princess on the top. I wish I could share pictures of her special day but we all looked like death (especially me), not that she cares but I do ;).

After I blow my nose for the 1,000th time and come out of my head cold coma I’m going to try to muster up the strength to finish my couch pillows. I hate being sick but I’m not one of those wussies that can’t craft during an illness. Bring on the thread! Okay, so that’s not totally true. I’ve been complaining and coughing and sleeping all weekend and now I’m on the downhill side of this bug so I think I can pull it off today.

I’m making chair pillows for my couch and a couch bolster pillow for my chair. I’m so clever, I think, unless they look like crud when I’m done. We’ll see after nap time.

Thanks for the well wishes with baby #6! I’m doing fantastic, other than this nasty cold. I don’t get sick when I’m pregnant usually (not fair I know) but I have been more nauseous this time. If I have one complaint it’s that my hormones have taken over and I’m completely insane. I cry at the drop of a hat and I’m pretty dang moody, but I don’t notice it until after the storm. It’s like an out of body experience where the sane me is looking down at the bawling mess of myself and going “what the heck?”. It’s hard to describe but I apologize in advance if I cry or make you cry. I’ll realize it later and feel really badly, unless you have it coming ;). I hope this isn’t an indication of what I have in store with this little one later!

Have a fantastic Monday!

Because I can

Ideas pop into my head all the time. Sometimes the good ones stick around and sometimes they pop back out. I had a shower epiphany I couldn’t shake and thought it was such a fantastic idea that I told my entire family- Fabric paper airplanes! I was met with silence and an “okay, you do that then”.

They didn’t get it. I’m not sure I get it, but do you really have to? They’re just cute.

I thought about keeping them to myself and have been making them since January, you can tell I made a few for Valentines day. I don’t want to be the only crazy making these so here’s how to make them, because you can to dang it.

Please do not copy or sell my tutorial or the template used in the tutorial. If you’d like to blog about this feel free, but please link back here and give proper credit. Please do not copy the entire tutorial to your blog, site, and so forth. Hate to be a pain but it’s become an issue (and a pet peeve).

*Fabric Airplanes*

Materials-

Two 5” squares of fabric per plane

Wonder under or another brand of double sided, paper backed, fusible adhesive

Iron and ironing board & glue gun.

A copy of the template below printed at 5”, cut out.

1. With your iron on the cotton setting iron the wonder under to the wrong side of one square of fabric. Peel off the backing and iron on your other square of fabric to the backside of your first fabric, making a fabric-fusible sandwich. This should all be one piece now.

2. Line up the bottom and side of your template with your fabric and cut out, making kind of a house shape. Save the triangles for later ;).

3. Fold your fabric in half vertically and iron, making a nice crease. The side facing you will be the inside so if you have a favorite print make sure it’s facing the ironing board before you continue.

4. Fold the side in until you line up with the middle crease. Press. Looking familiar huh. Do this with both sides.

5. Fold in half again and fold one side towards the outside. Do the same with the other side making your wings.

6. Viola`, It’s all folded and pretty. Now add a dab of hot glue in the middle or stitch closed.

If you’d like to add a message to yours, stamp on some twill tape or ribbon and tuck it in the back of your aircraft before you glue or stitch it closed.

They also make a really cute bunting. I did this on my sewing machine stitching through some clouds I cut out of embossed papers with white thread on top and blue thread in my bobbin. I didn’t stitch the planes though, I just glued those puppies on when the clouds were stitched. This is where your little saved triangles come in if you want to use them- awh!

Have a fantastic Tuesday and please send me some pictures if you make some!

On a similar note, how do you feel about flickr groups? I thought about adding one to the blog for all the projects that are made using my tutorials but I’m not sure anyone would upload to it. Would you? Do you like looking through them? Any thoughts, good or bad, would be appreciated!