Non-paper dolls

It's my niece's 9th birthday party today and I didn't even think about a gift until this morning. Of course I've known about it for a week but "procrastination" is my middle name. When I'm in a rush I can never remember all the cute ideas I have saved for gifts and usually end up making something up off the top of my head. Meet today's brain skimming birthday gift idea-

It's supposed to be a chain of paper dolls but they remind me of potty girls, you know the bathroom stick figure. My niece Kortney is one of a kind and this idea made me think of her. I may have to fill my shop up with non-paper doll shirts. Right after I come up with a cuter name ;).

I'm off like a dirty shirt, the party is at 5 and I'm still in my pajamas.

Apron Dress Revamp

I thought it was my blogiversary this week but turns out I'm a month ahead. That's a first! For my blogiversary I was going to revamp my apron dress tutorial and show you some different ways to do the straps and variations to the bodice and add an actual apron to the dress. Then the kids were sick with ear aches and a cold/cough thing so I just made one dress and took pictures. Then they threw up so I'm not going to explain them. I'll just give you a run down on how I made this Gypsy dress using my apron dress tutorial.

To get this look all you have to do is cut off the bottom edge of my bodice pattern and leave about 2" from the armpit. Lengthen the skirt portion on the size 6 to about 30-32" depending on how long you want it to be and how short your daughter is ;). Make the straps skinnier and add a few button holes to each strap. Sew two buttons to the inside of the skirt back. Viola`- Gypsy dress. I added raw edge roses to the bodice before sewing the skirt portion on so the lining would hide my stitches too. If anyone needs further help just leave me a comment and I'll work on making a tutorial.

I'm picking Cody up tomorrow!!! It's spring break and Cody's going to be home so I'll see you in a week from Tuesday. A national Holiday!

A few answers

Two posts in one day when I barely post once a week, shocking I know! I really, really don't want to go anywhere today so I'm putting off leaving my house for as long as I can and I thought I would answer a few questions I've gotten lately. How's that for procrastinating, here goes-

Chelsea said...
I love the apples. Did you just wing it with a pattern or did you use something (besides a real apple) as a guide? Also, if you ever run out of vinyl-needing surfaces, I'd be happy to help you out! ;) My glass jars need labeling still...
February 19, 2009 7:35 PM

Thanks Chelsea (and a few others!). I didn't make my own pattern, I used this tutorial from Wool Food Mama. Her tutorial is called patchy produce and you can make a tomato or an orange to. I didn't "patch" mine, I like my fabric too much to cut it up. I followed her tutorial to a T and it worked great!

Linda B said...
How do you make fake chenille?
March 14, 2009 4:49 AM

Fake chenille or faux chenille, although I'm sure there's a technical term out there, is really easy to do and makes really cute baby blankets as well as accents on clothes. For the girls pajamas I just cut 3 strips (the under fabric counts as the 1st layer) of fabric about a 2" wide and pinned them to my pants.

I marked the strips in 1/2" increments and sewed down the fabric layers following my marks on the two outside edges. I cut the fabric apart at the very middle marking making sure not to cut through the 1st layer and viola`. Wash and dry in the dryer and then mumble to yourself as you cut the strings off for the gazillionth time. It turns out very cute. Here's a cute tutorial for a hot pad that explains making faux chenille in depth at the Moda Bake shop.

If you have a question about something I've done and you want an answer just comment and let me know. The bank doesn't close until 5:00 so I still have a ton of time to waste. Not really, I have an entire house to clean after I pay my bills, but throw your questions at me and I'll do a Q&A post, if anyone has anything they are dying to know that is ;o). Hit me!

I haven't been completely random in a long time so I thought it was time to do a completely random post. No reason, just random. I'm also procrastinating leaving my house into the yucky weather to run silly errands so here goes...

1. You are walking down the road and you look down. There is a bug. Do you step on it?

I try not to but to be honest I'm so clumsy I keep my eyes straight ahead to keep my balance so I'm sure I've smashed a few in my day.

2. Someone knocks on your door. Do you look out the window to see who it is before you open it? Do you open it regardless of who it is?

Not only do I look, I speculate whether I feel like letting said person in or not. I'm pretty private so I like phone calls much better.

3. Have you ever eaten Play Doh?

Not that I can recall but that might explain a few things.

4. What was your favorite Saturday morning cartoon as a child?

Fraggle Rock, Rainbow Brite, Care Bears, and Looney Tunes.

5. Are you a "people watcher"?

I don't consider myself a people watcher but if I'm driving down a road at night and windows are open with lights on it's like a fish bowl and I can't help but glance over. That's probably too much information ;o).

6. I have a bowl of fruit. There are apples, oranges & pears. You help yourself to one - which one do you choose?

An apple, but I would be thinking about how I wished it was fresh pineapple or a peach.

7. What is your biggest pet peeve in the blogging world?

I'm pretty easy going about blogging, I fault no one for sharing with me either in comments or by their blog posts- I can leave or delete it if I don't like it ;o). One pet peeve I do have is when someone blogs about my blog in another language and I can't tell what they're saying or when I see I've been linked to a private forum, but again that's just because I can't see what they are saying about me. They're talking about my unusually long arms aren't they... I knew it!

8. What word do you use far too often?

Crap.

9. How long do you spend in the shower?

15 minutes on average. I can be as fast as 5 but that's pushing it or I can marinate for as long as 45 when it's snowy outside and I want to warm my toes up. I LOATHE baths-yuck!

10. Your favorite flavor of soup is....?

Chicken Noodle or Clam chowder (real not canned).

I suppose I should tame this wild animal on my head now so I can go pay some bills- yuck!

Happy Mint Day!

Happy Saint Patrick's day! I don't normally care about days like today but what's not to love about a day where I can wear green and eat my body weight in mint. I look good in green. I look good wearing a buck fifty in mint around my thighs too ;o). March is about the only month they have mint milkshakes, which is such a shame, so go out an enjoy a mint milkshake before they disappear for another year.

I had to add a picture so I nabbed the first green thing I saw in my files, this little guy was rescued from being squashed in November when I almost stepped on him (or her?) in my basement. Random but cute huh!

Our RS birthday dinner is tonight and Cody's gone again so wish me luck and pray my kids don't cause a mutiny in the nursery. I'll be back with some extremely cute stuff next time. No husband for a number of days= a ton of m&m's, non shaved legs, and staying in your pajamas craft time. YAY!

Just a random pop in.

I haven't updated on Kennedy in a while so here are some pictures from this morning. She's getting huge, at 6 months she was 18 lbs and 26 1/4" and she's almost 7 months now so I'm sure she's just a bit bigger than that. She's rolling in all directions and scooting backwards but not interested in sitting at all. Stay down baby!

I can't seem to shake the blahs so nothing much I want to report but I have spent the last week sewing pajama's. It's flipping freezing here so I pulled out my 5 year old stash of flannel and got to it. I made fake chenille and added it to the shirt and hem of the pants. It will look better after a few more washes.

Here are the girls from this morning wearing theirs. I'm mostly posting this picture because they're holding hands... that's very, very rare for these two! Gotta document it for when they are teenagers and don't believe me when I tell them that they used to play together- sometimes.

They look so cute when they're groggy.

I've been bitten.

I had to see what all the hype was about since the movie is going to be released in a couple of weeks and I think I want to rent it. I know I'm a bit behind and the fad is sort of over but that's the way I roll. Wait until the movie is just about to come out and read away so it's fresh! So far I'm hooked, I'm in the middle of the 3rd book so I should be finished with the series long before the movie comes out. Off to read...

*Perfect for Poofing*

Our resident princess Kaci was using a chop stick as a wand yesterday and being the crafter and frilly encourager that I am I couldn't let my daughter use a chopstick... no no no. What would the neighbors think? So I found myself cranking out a wand at 6 last night. Not just any wand, a sparkly poofy one. I made the older girls ribbon wands for swirling for Christmas but they were too long for Kaci so I made her a revamped version yesterday. I got the idea for shorter ribbons from Karen who I think is blog-less but I crafted next to her at Christmas time and loved her spin on the classic ribbon wand. Thanks for the inspiration Karen! I think every little girl needs one so I did up a poorly lit tutorial as I was making Kaci's. Enjoy!

-Supplies-

• 1/2" (white tip) dowel cut to 12" long. You can make 3 wands with one dowel.
• 9/16" screw eye
• Light weight scrapbook paper cut a little less than 1 3/4" wide x 12" long.
• Ribbons, trims, ric rac, tulle, sequin strands, fairy princess stuff in different widths.
• Paint to match paper
• Mod Podge
• Paint brush
• Sparkly paint (optional)
• Wax paper for painting and modge podging on.
• a push pin (helpful but not necessary)
  
  

Paint just the ends of the dowels with a coat or two of paint and let dry. This usually only takes a few minutes if you are impatient like I am and do two coats at once.

Using your paint brush, paint a coat of mod podge about halfway across the back side of the paper lengthwise.

Put your dowel on your patterned paper where you painted the glue, lining up the dowel ends to the paper edges and roll your dowel so the paper sticks. Smooth out any air bubbles as you roll your dowel.

Paint a coat of mod podge on the rest of the inside of the paper making sure to get up close to the dowel so the entire paper is covered inside with glue.

Roll the paper the rest of the way around the dowel until the paper overlaps onto itself. Smooth out any air bubbles.

Paint a thin coat of mod podge over the entire outside of the wand. This seals the paper and makes it somewhat kid proof. If you aren't adding sparkle paint, paint a second coat of mod podge after the first coat dries. This step is where the wax paper comes in handy. If you set your wand down on accident, ahem, then it just peals right back up ;o).

Using a push pin or other pointy thing start a hole for your screw eye to go into on one end of the dowel. If your screw eyes are sharp you don't have to do this but mine are super dull. You could drill a tiny hole too, I just use what I have lying around so a push pin it is!

Screw in the screw eye. I'm not even sure I needed to explain that part...

Paint on a coat of bling. Very important step for a Kaci wand! I think it's easier to paint on the sparkles after the screw eye is in, hey maybe I should have done that with the mod podge to, so you have a handle. The sparkle paint I used took forever to dry so I used the eye to hang it up for about an hour.

Cut your trims different lengths somewhere around 12"- 18" or so. I think it looks cuter when you use different lengths but you can also trim them after you're done. I used about 8-10 cuts of ribbon but you can add as many as will fit through your eye. Stack them and slide them through the eye at the same time. If you want it to look professional you can heat seal the ribbons as well.

Tie all the trims into a double knot.

Now your ketchup faced little princess can poof to her hearts content with a real wand.

You can use this tutorial to make the long ribbon wands you'll just need one cut of 1 1/2" ribbon that is 2 yards (6 feet) long per wand and tie that on instead. Kaci had so much fun pouffing that the older girls asked me to transform their old wands into wands like Kaci's. The possibilities are endless- very fun!

If you make some send me the pics, I'd love to see!!!

* I realize I spelled poof and mod podge wrong the first, oh I don't know, 4 times I edited this but I'm under the influence of cold medication and pouf really is a word. So all English teachers reading this post can now focus on my terrible use of the English language and not so much about how I spell it :o). Plus it made Cody feel so much better after I changed it.

Apples and socks

I still don't feel as talkative (typative?) as normal but I finished a few things that I thought I'd share. I do feel like showing off so that's a good sign that things will get back to normal very soon ;o). Last week or so, I'm not really sure what day it is today so I can't remember when, I got a great package in the mail brimming with Andalucia fat quarters from Lanie Jane. Thanks Lanie Jane!!

Here's a snippet of what I made with some of it. I try to stretch my fat quarters out as long as I can so I try to make at least 50 projects with each one. Okay not 50 but I can make a ton of stuff with one... like apples. I'm not sure why but I just had to make some fabric apples.

Let's see, what else? I've been having so much fun cutting vinyl but I'm really running out of things to put it on. I've changed the font on my glass jars in my kitchen twice already, sad I know. I picked up some iron on vinyl for fabric and I'm LOVING it! No space to run out of. I can put a bit of vinyl on everything I own now, even my children. Cody has been bugging me to make him a sock for his cell phone and I finally got around to it today and had to put something on it. I couldn't just leave it plain. I thought about putting a crown on it with some bling but I knew he wouldn't think that was the best idea so I cut out a buck and put it on instead. I'm not sure he'll appreciate that either but it's better than what I was going to put on :).

Well that was more than I was going to say (type)! See you in the next 11 days or sooner ;o).

Pluggin' along

I can't believe what a slacker I've been in the blog department. I don't even have a good excuse, I just didn't have anything to say. 11 days worth of nothing to say. I've been crafting, cleaning, doing laundry and the like, playing with lots of fun stuff, and I got my hair cut and it looks like a Q-tip top but I just haven't really felt like talking about any of it. So unlike me! I still don't really feel chatty so I'll leave you with my favorite picture from 11 days ago.

Before I cut Jeremy's hair so he's a little shaggier here than he appears now.

I think that squirrel stole my mojo when he jumped out the window...