From Trash to Ocean Treasure

This summer will be my first Music & Bible camp, a week-long camp run by our Church that combines group music activities (everything from strings, to drums, to choral) and VBS. And surprise surprise! I volunteered to help out with the craft station! I was also lucky enough to get paired up with Alli, the designer and owner of Quilled Creations. It’s like working with a craft celebrity. Pretty awesome (You can visit her blog here for tutorials and giveaways.)

I was tasked to create hanging CD-ROM fishes as decoration for our room, and after doing a quick google search, couldn’t find anything I really liked to model after. So I created my own. And since I’m at it, I’ll share my version of CD-ROM fishes:

From Trash to Ocean Treasure
A Photo Tutorial

I used beer bottle caps simply because I didn’t have enough wiggly eyes to go around. I didn’t realize that most of them had little messages printed on the underside, and this particular one was a perfect fit for a recycling craft:

Enjoy!

Ninja Assassin

I’m a guy when it comes to movies. I’ll take horror, brainless slasher, adventure, or action over drama or romantic comedy almost any day (also a big fan of fantasy and Tim Burton films). I haven’t found a “scary” movie buddy in Rochester yet so when Ninja Assassin arrived via Blockbuster (thanks Mazie for telling Jeremy about it :p ), I was all over it. I was expecting it to be one of those cheesy Asian kung-fu films (and yes, even when I know it’s going to be that bad, I’ll still watch it). It was surprisingly not bad. But maybe it’s because my expectations weren’t very high to begin with .

Anyway, I’m pretty sure the majority of those who read my blog don’t share the same taste in movies as I do (Can you imagine a group of women bringing over homemade apple pie with their cute Vera Bradley bags to watch “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and pop bonbons? Well, if this doesn’t sound like your ideal girl’s night out, don’t watch Ninja Assassin.) I may not be able to round up fellow-crafters-who-have-better-things-to-do to watch slasher films with me, or perform awesome ninja moves to protect my offspring, but I CAN ninja my way into slicing up an old shirt and making something out of it!

Quick N’ Dirty - The Drawstring Layered Skirt

You will need:

• an old knit shirt (preferably long sleeved)
• ball-point needle (not necessary but highly recommended)
• sewing machine, thread, rotary blade and mat or scissors.

1. Lay your shirt flat and smooth out wrinkles.

2. Starting from the bottom, slice your shirt width-wise (from side to side) into three bands, each a different height (the longest should be the length you want your skirt to be from waist to hem). You now have three tube strips.

3. Open up your tube strips and put them over and on top of each other so that the longest is on the bottom/inside and the shortest is on top/outside. Match up the top/waist.

4. Pin and stitch around the top, 1/4″ from the edge, securing together all three tube strips/layers. Set your stitch length and thread tension higher and sew along the top edge again, creating small gathers.

5. 6. Measure your child’s waist and cut two 2″ strips from the remaining t-shirt so that, when sewed together at the ends, equals that measurement.

7. Adjust your gathered/ruffled skirt piece so that it measures the same as your waist strip. With right sides together, sew the waist band to the top edge of the skirt, 3/8″ from the edge. Flip the waist band up…

8. and fold over to the wrong side. Stitch all the way around to form a casing.

9. Find the center front of your skirt and snip a tiny hole in the top layer of your waist band casing.

10. With the remaining part(s) of your t-shirt (I used the sleeves), cut a long 2″ strip (about twice the length of the waist measurement), fold it in half lengthwise and sew 1/4″ from the edge, and turn your tube right-side out to form the drawstring.

11. Use a safety pin to thread your drawstring through the waist band casing.

12. Tie into a bow and you are done!

Everything I know about drugs I learned from movies…

(To my children in the near future: Please don’t do drugs. Please don’t do drugs…) The relevant snippet to this title is further down in the post, in case you were wondering

I finally finished my wholesale order, so now I’m freeeeeee! (Except I still have laundry to fold. Have I mentioned that I hate doing laundry? There are weeks where we just live off the floor, clothing-wise…) Anyway, I’ve been working on this order for a month and can finally check it off my list!

Today’s post is a tablescrap creation (a term I use to describe stuff created from the really tiny scraps I like to hoard… you know, the scraps of scraps… things that we normally would throw away. A challenge to “think outside the [trash] bin” )

You know the line, “watching tv and eating bonbons all day”, often used (more in the past than now) to stereotype the wife who stays at home. Well, to THAT I say, “Don’t EAT the bonbons! MAKE the bonbons!” Out of scraps. And with rainforest-fresh baking soda to make it more than just eye candy . Make multiple candy bonbons and place in a glass jar, or make half a dozen of the truffle bonbons and place in an empty candy box to make a cute little gift set. Either way, here’s another crafty idea to help maximize your fabric usage!

Candy Bonbons

1. Grab a rectangular piece of scrap (approximately 2″ wide by 3″ long).
2. Fold it in half, RS together, and stitch down the length.
3. Pin a safety pin through one layer…
4. and thread it through to turn your tube right side out.
5. Center the seam.
6. With embroidery floss (or thread if you don’t have any), tie a tight knot at one end.
7. Drop in either a round magnet or vase pebble (um, the magnet for if you want to stick your final product to the fridge. I used the pebble.)
8. Now this is where the post title comes in… It seems popular to use small pieces of paper as sniffing devices and to transport tiny amounts of stuff to tiny bags. It makes sense seeing how it would look pretty ridiculous to shove a kitchen funnel in your nose unless you have huge nostrils, most people dump a little of whatever-white-powder-stuff onto a small piece of paper
9. and then bend the sides to funnel the stuff into whatever orifice, bag, or in our case, fabric candy wrapper-tube. (Note. I am in no way promoting or instructing drug use. I’m simple stating how I’ve seen it in movies.)
10. Use floss or thread to tie off the other (open) end and trim the sides to the desired length.

Truffle Bonbons

1. Cut two circles of equal size (mine measured about 2.5″ in diameter).
2. Set your sewing machine tension and stitch length to the max and sew around the perimeter of the candy circle (mine is white chocolate!)
3. Use the paper technique again…
4. and funnel in the baking soda, enough to round out your truffle.
5. hand stitch the opening shut (pull on the upper thread to gather the open edge close).
6. Repeat step 2 for the wrapper piece.
7. Turn your filled truffle upside down into the wrapper.
8. Hand stitch secure the truffle and wrapper, then pull out the thread from step 6.
9. Use a fabric marker (or any marker) and draw a chocolate swirly.

When Life Gives You Lemons…

This morning has been “one of those days” where I let myself mope around the house in self pity. Maybe due to the rain… or the long weekend spent prepping our townhouse in Baltimore for sale… or the lack of sleep… But what’s worse than allowing yourself a pity party is getting into bed at night and realizing that you let a whole day wallow by. So I made myself get off my lazy butt and filled out a rebate form (wahoo! Aren’t you impressed?! :), made a “Lemonade Stand” dress, a sort of tribute to a lemon-y kind of day:

reminded myself that the rain won’t last forever, and that my favorite part of the day is waking up in the morning and walking into a sun-bathed kitchen and family room:

flipped through the children’s journals that we started this summer and thought about how much Calvin has enjoyed doing math, spelling, and reading since school ended:

and rejoiced in the fact that if it were not for these “down” times, I would not appreciate the things I do have and give thanks because every good and perfect gift comes from above

7 Years!

Happy Anniversary! Um, technically 3 days ago. This post is a tad late… so goes the story of my [blog] life

Remember our wedding day? Yeah, they forgot to give us the tutorial on how to cut a semi-fake wedding cake and it almost toppled over. Thank goodness nobody was paying attention…

Thank you for being such a good sport and taking a decent picture of me before eating at our favorite restaurant in Rochester…

…and then proceeding to capture my unsuccessful attempt to jump up to sit on the ledge (need to get back on the treadmill, need to get…)

…and rescuing me from further embarrassment by hoisting me up and taking another decent picture…

… and for planning ahead 7 years ago for this day by purchasing and storing a bottle of wine from our wedding year:

Who knew that in such a short time, we’d have a happy family of 3 bubbly minis… and manage not to age a day… HA! I feel old… no really, I feel it in my hips when I try to pivot my legs over the tire swing at the park… I almost dislocated that joint yesterday…

(And for any J Crew fans out there… yes, I am Crew from head to toe. My closet and I are complete suckers for this store…)

Let the Festivities Begin!

A couple weeks ago, we took the kids to Disney World. For someone who’s never lived more than 30 miles south of the Mason Dixon line, it was insanely hot. But it was fun. The kids enjoyed it. And we’ve concluded that they are roller coaster junkies like me (they loved Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Test Track).

Can you believe this handful of flimsy cards is worth more than 3 iPads?

We cheaped out the first day and went with shoulder riding as the kids’ mode of transportation. The kids were fine. The same could not be said about the human transporters. But we were all still very happy!

Isn’t that photo great?! We were lucky enough to have Uncle Tim come along and take awesome photos for us:

The kids were surprisingly patient waiting forever to get 5 minutes of thrill:

And were thoroughly intrigued by the massive aquarium that was part of the Finding Nemo exhibit:

Now that we know they like roller coasters, I think we’ll start taking them to less expensive amusement parks that are nearby and return to the happiest place on Earth when they are a bit older.

In keeping with the “festive” spirit of things, Calvin and I worked on some mini free-floating pennant flags to hang in their playroom:

A fairly simple way of using up those tiny scraps that your husband can’t understand why you don’t just throw away:

You will need lots of tiny triangles (mine measured an inch at the base). It took me 30 minutes to cut roughly 120 of them. Then I just straight-stitched parallel to the base, letting the needle stitch “blanks” (no fabric underneath… I’m sure there’s a formal term for this) a few and then placing/feeding the next triangle under the presser foot. Calvin helped by picking out the order of the triangles. If I really wanted to make it an educational experience, I could have set a pattern for him to figure out… and even let him cut out the triangles… but I didn’t. So anyway

Hope this helps put a dent in your scrap bin!

Tablescrap Creations: Citrus Slice Stamps

So I have this “collection” of recycled/upcycled/re-purposed crafts that’s been sitting in my blog queue for a while now and decided to start sharing them with you, along with my usual updates on our family life, which is more for my own sake than anybody else’s

I’m not sure why, but ever since I started sewing nine months ago, I began collecting empty/used thread spools in hopes that someday, I would find a new use for them. And I finally have! I give you, the citrus slice stamp! I’m sure others have probably already thought of this, but no matter, here is my mini tutorial on how to make… er… use them.

1. Gather your items: an ink pad, a brown paper bag (or blank card, paper, fabric etc.), and an empty spool.
2. Stamp one end of it.
3. To get the “citrus” slice marks, you will need to press in on the other side (the slice marks are slightly recessed).
4. Stamp, color, and tada! You have a fresh slice of lemon, lime, or orange!
5. Stamp on the blank side of an old business card, cut it in half, color, make a slit in the middle, and freshen up some drink glasses for a summer party.
6. A random shot of… stuff

Enjoy!

Mini Basement Tour

For those of you who’ve asked to see where I work, this post is for you! And while I’m at it, I’ll show you the rest of our “newly” finished (in January of this year) basement. Here we go!

Introducing our basement!

Divided into three areas (unintentionally. It was a product of all the heating units and furnaces placed smack in the center): the kids cave, the man cave, and the woman cave (my area).

Coming down…

…is the kid cave, outfitted with a play kitchen, a little house of balloons, and an under-the-staircase hideout complete with cushions and a mattress:

Further in, is the man cave, an area where I have to exercise a lot of self-control to not touch or attempt to clean up:

Okay, I did “womanize” (as Jeremy likes to put it) some parts of it… but his desk is strictly off limits:

And alas, my very own cave where I run my sweatshop and attempt to keep my ever growing pile of fabric and notions at bay:

My quilting “rack” (which is just the rack part of those toy bin shelves you find at Target. I got mine on clearance for $13, which was a great deal considering they usually sell for $60.)

And that is the beginning of Charissa’s quilt… which I’ll get to someday…

And alas, my treadmill, which sadly, gets almost no attention from me…

And that’s it! Hope you enjoyed the mini tour!

Quick n’ Dirty

Our summer days are quickly filling up with activities and fun! A little late in coming, but here’s what we did during our memorial weekend-turned-week-long-vacation-at-my-parent’s-house:

Attended a wedding and spent time with some old friends:

Painted our nails for the first time ever!

Did some upcycling…

Made a new dress and took pictures of the kids…

And finally, finally succeeded in making a (matching) top for myself. You have no idea how many hours and fabric I sacrificed to reach this point… oh, and I also realized how difficult, awkward, and depressing it is to have to model something yourself. Almost as bad as shopping for a bathing suit… I must say, Charissa is much better at this than I am! (And thanks to my little sis for taking pictures!)

And now, for my quick n’ dirty tutorial of “The Boardwalk T-Dress” - an easy peasy way to upcycle a free career-fair t-shirt that your boyfriend or husband just can’t seem to let go, or any t-shirt for that matter! And the best part is, there’s no need to serge or zig-zag raw edges because jersey doesn’t fray! Yay!

You will need:

• a t-shirt
• a ball-point needle, not necessary for constructing the dress, but quite so for your sanity’s sake in working with knits!
• scissors or rotary cutter and mat
• paper, scissors, ruler, and a pen
• a tank top in your child’s size



1. Fold a piece of paper in half, and using the tank top as a reference, trace half of the tank along the fold, creating your pattern.

2. Get your t-shirt.

3. Turn your t-shirt inside out and place your pattern on top.

4. Trace your pattern onto the t-shirt.

5 and 6. Using a ruler, extend both sides to the desired length (for my 3 year old, I extended it 11″ down from the bottom of the armpit).

7. Cut the t-shirt along the lines. With right sides together (as it already is since the shirt was turned inside out!), sew together the sides. You now have a tank dress!

8. Take the bottom of the t-shirt and cut off a strip (mine measured 5 inches wide).

9. With your sewing machine stitch length set to the longest and tension set to the highest, sew around the length of the strip, 1/4″ to 1/2″ from the raw edge. You now have a ruffled band.

10. Adjust the ruffles so that the length of the band is the same as the bottom of your tank dress.

11. With right-sides out, place the ruffled band slightly over the bottom of your tank dress and pin in place (optional. I don’t do this, I place as I sew).

12. Straight-stitch the bottom band to the tank dress. Almost done! Cut two strips from what remains of your t-shirt and tie them to the shoulders to make bows (refer to the initial/finished product pictures). You can also cut another strip and tie the two tank straps together in the back if the straps lay too wide on your girl’s shoulders… or just to add a touch of cuteness

“My mama said to never play with matches…”

This post is dedicated to Lulu

Have you guys seen fabric floral necklaces? They seem to be becoming a very popular accessory, at least in the handmade world

Well, it’s the end of the school year and teacher appreciation gifts are in order! So I decided to make a poppy-flower necklace (in addition to the main gift) for one of the teachers, and in the process, took some pictures to post as a tutorial for you. It’s very easy… as long as you know how to cut a circle and like to play with matches you can do this!

The Poppy Flower Necklace (No sewing machine required!)

You will need:

- 1/2 yard polyester (I like apparel linings from Jo-Ann’s) [photo 1]
- some bling buttons or beads [photo 2]
- needle and thread
- scissors
- matches, lighter, and/or tea light
- satin ribbon

Directions

1. Cut out 6 to 7 circles in graduating sizes [photo 3].
2. Set up your tea light (if you don’t have one, you can just use and hold a lighter in one hand… but it’s much easier with a tea light or candle) [photo 4]
3. Burn/melt the circumference of each circle, passing the edge quickly through the “glow” of the flame (don’t pass it through the flame itself). Your edges should start turning black and curl a little. This step is neat as it serves two purposes: One, to curl the fabric and two, to prevent the edges from fraying [photos 5 and 6].
4. Layer your circle “petals” on top of each other so that the largest one is on the bottom. Make three, or however many you want [photo 7, 8, and 9].
5. Using the needle and thread, secure the layers of your petals through the center [photo 10]
6. Without pulling the thread and needle out, attach/sew your bling button or bead [photo 11].
7. Do this for all three [photo 12].
8. Sew your poppies onto the ribbon.

How I thread my needle

1. Cut a piece of thread and fold it in half so that one end is looped [photo 1] and the other is not [photo 2].
2. Thread the “un-looped” ends through the eye of the needle [photo 3] and pull until the looped end is longer than the un-looped ends [photo 4].

How I secure and make the first stitch

1. Pass your needle through, but not all the way. You want to preserve a small loop [photo 1].
2. Make a small stitch right next to where you just came out [photo 2] and thread back to where you first entered, passing the needle through the loop as you do so [photo 3]. Now you have a clean first stitch. No more messy knots!

Now go make some of these easy peasy poppies and use them on sash belts, hair clips, clothing…