I'm so proud!

Gavin has been working on getting his Wolf finished up for Scouts. One of the requirements was to make something useful. So with that as an excuse, I offered to teach him how to make a quilt...and I guess the summer boredom has gotten the best of him...cause he accepted!

Here he is with the finished quilt! It just right for a little lap quilt for him. I am so proud, he did everything on his own...including the quilting which can be quite daunting!

While he was working on that I made this little set for my niece's 4th birthday.

Its a tote bag (yea, I know, I am obsessed!)

Black apple doll

And a doll blanket.

I love that fabric! And I love it even more cause I found it in the remnants bin at Joann's so I got it for a great price!

Hope you all had a great 4th!

The Bella

Another one off the project Hug Them All list! Actually there are three done, but the other two are washing, so I will post them later in the weekend.

Before I introduce the Bella, I need some opinions. As I am creating and finishing all these quilts I am torn on what to do should I:
A. Give them to the recipient as soon as they are done?
B. Give them in sibling groups, so that all the kids in one family get them at once?
C. Save them all until Christmas?

I really am having a hard time deciding, and my hubby says I should wait until Christmas, while my mom says give them to them as I finish them. What do you all think?


Okay, this is the Bella...Bella is my first niece on my side of the family. She is Taya's honorary little sister, since Taya doesn't have one. Her and Taya are BFFs! Bella is actually short for Izabella. She is a sweet, patient 18 year old trapped in a 3 years old body! She is wise beyond her years! I sure hope she likes this quilt...my first rag quilt!

Love you Bells!

A first...

Hi all!
The tutorial for the fingerprint necklace is in the works and will be done this weekend. They are really simple to do!

In the meantime, I am very excited! I attempted my first remake on a dress....and it worked! It must admit, it was not a dramatic makeover, but I think its pretty good for a first timer!

Taya was in need of a Hawaiian outfit for her end of the school year dance festival...I must be a bad islander, cause I did not have anything for her! I figured I would make her something...but then I found this

cute dress at a garage sale. Taya was not with me, but it said it was a small, so I figured it would fit...NOT! It must be a size small in women's, cause it drowned her!

So I cut it apart, removed the zipper, the top and the straps


Then I turned the top upside down and attached the neckline to the new waist line. Then I sewed up the back, shortened the straps and reattached them. But then I though it needed just a little something more...
(Isn't my Next Top Model wanna be cute!)

So I made a chiffon flower with a little piece of the material from the dress in it and Ta Da...one cute Hawaiian dress!

Paper Doll magnet Tutorial

Supplies:

Metal Tin container w/a lid
A magnet sheet
Modge Podge
Sponge brush
Picture printouts
Assorted paper and cardstocks
Tulle
Buttons (optional)


Step 1:
You will need several pictures of your "doll" in different outfits. One picture should be of her in something fairly tight and neutral colored. I had Taya, my sweet model/doll and adorable daughter, put on a pair of bicycle shorts and a cami. You could also do a swimming suit for this part.


It is important that your doll has the basic same pose, with the feet the about the same distance apart and the arms/hands in the same position. To make the cutting part easier, I would suggest making sure her hair is pulled behind her sholders, tha her chin is up and that her hands are not directly against her clothes.



I took the pictures of Taya over several days, as she wore a paticular outfit. On the day I was ready to put the tin together, she only had to put on two outfits, which made her much more cooperative then if I would have had her doing all six outfits at once.

If you choose to take the pictures over several days, I would suggest that you make a note of were you are standing so that you are alwasy getting the same basic porportion to your picture

I made sure that I was always about even with the door opening when taking the pictures.

Some fun suggestions for outfits: School uniform, church clothes, work clothes, play clothes, dance uniform, sports uniform, PJ's, Snow suit, Halloween Costume, Tutu...there really are so many you could do.

Step 2:
Next you will want to edit the pictures. I just do this in Windows Photo Gallery, because I don't have Photoshop. But whatever works for you.
This is what the picture looks like right off my camera.


I crop it in closer, brighten it up and then print it. (And yes, she is rolling her eyes at me!)


To fit my tin I printed in 4x6 on regular printer paper. It is much easier to cut and stick to the magnet sheet if you do it on regular paper as opposed to cardstock or photo paper.

Step 3:



Once you have printed all your outfits, you will cut them out. There was a reason I choose to take her pics against a white door, it made it alot easier to tell where I was cutting. It is better to cut ever so slightly over the picture, to remove all the white.

On the above picture you can see that there is a little shadow of her shoes on the scraps.

Basically, you are removing anything skin and just leaving the clothes. The arms, head, feet and neck all come off. I used a pair of manicure scissors to get in really close.

Then use modge podge to glue the outfit to a sheet of magnet. Allow to try for a few minutes, cut out around the outfit again and apply a top coat of modge podge.

Repeat for all the outfits.

Decorate the tin with paper how you would like. Once done apply a top coat of of modge podge. Cut out the main doll, leaving the body intact. Then secure to the top of the tin with modge podge.

Attach pieces of magnets to the back of the buttons with hot glue. Place all the outfits inside the tin.

Enjoy and thanks for voting for me!

For my little dolly!

I have been in love with the Black Apple Dolls created by the #1 Etsy seller, Emily Martin. I found them in November and wanted to make one for Missy MayMay for Christmas. But I was so intimidated by them! I am not the best seamstress. But I recently got a new sewing machine...I love it! It is a Singer and all digital and "fancy". I feel like I really could do anything with it! So I decided to give these cute dolls a try. Missy MayMay totally hearts Tinkerbell and all things Tinkerbell! So I wanted to make one into a Tinkerbell for her. This is my first attempt.

Not to bad...but could use some improvement. This one I made with out enlarging the pattern like it says. So it is a mini Tinkerbell.
After a few more trys, including the cutest set of "Twinies" for my adorable 19 month old twin nieces, I made a larger size doll for Missy MayMay
Front

Back

So now she has a mama one and a baby one!


I must say I have become a bit obsessed with making them! This is what is waiting on my craft table right now....


but they take so little fabric and are so quick that at least I am taking on something small....well small times 10!

Here is a little preview of something else I have been working on this weekend.


This is for my adorable nephew, Arbor. He recently got a new puppy, Oscar, and this print reminded me of him! I am even making a matching doll to go with it....yea I am obsessed!

Lucky Girl!

I made a set of these cute corker bows Missy MayMay's hair.


I love all the colors of the rainbow. The shamrock is a button by the Favorite Findings brand....they have the cutest buttons!




I just wish she could wear them to school...but they have a pretty strict uniform policy. Ah well...she seems to like them!

Flower Clip Tips...

I got my flowers from Roberts. I found a great sale and got them for 34cents to 50cents each. I Picked colors that Taya wears often (pink, red, white and some blue to go with her school uniforms). I also got the clips at Roberts. They were 10 for $2.99 regularly, but happened to be on sale the day I got them for $1.99.

To begin pull the flower off the stem. Then pull the green piece off the back.


Then begin to seperate out the flower layers. Each flower will contain about 5 layers.


I seprated out all the flowers first, because I wanted to mix and match some of them.

Build back up your flower layer, by layer.

This is were the fun began! Yesterday I mentioned that I was looking for instructions because I didn't want to make a mistake. In the process of making them, I learned that there is really no way to make a mistake! I had so much fun doing them.
Here are a few of my varations. I made each in a set of two for when she wears piggies or sacagwea braids.
With this one

I used ribbon that I shapped into a flower

and then hot glued the ribbon layers.


This one is Taya's favorite

I dipped every other petal in hot glue and glitter

and then I added a layer that was ribbon pieces that were rounded.



For this one

I cut flower shapes out of netting. And used it for a couple of the layers.

As you can see, the flower shape is used losely to describe what this is!


This one

is for school. She wears a uniform and even the hair accessories has to be in school colors of red, blue and white. So I used three diffrent flowers to get those colors. To get the center all glitter I pealed off the fuzzy center and dipped it hot glue and then silver glitter. I think it would look better if I had powdery glitter, but I didn't have any so this works.


These

are quite a bit smaller than the others and I attached them to the little flip clips, mostly because I was still playing and had ran out of the clips I bought, so I found these in her hair things that she dosen't wear very often.

I used the same technice from the red ones using lace instead of ribbon. I think that they would be pretty for a baptism, but lets not pusher to that age any quicker than it is already going!

These

are my favs! Again, a bit smaller and attached to flip clips. I used the netting again, but I helded it above a lit candle to give it a slight wilted affect. I think they look rather retro.


For the one yesterday,

I used pieces of the material that I made her skirt out of for one of the layers. Again, I cut it into the shape of the flower and just glueded it in like another layer.

So as I was making these here are a few things I found out. If you hot glue each layer as you are building the flower and then hot glue the center on and the clip to the back they sit a lot flatter on the head, then if you layer them back on to the nub of the center and use one of the plastic backs to hold it all together.


The one on the left has a green plastic back on before I glued on the clip. The right one has just the clip.
Here is how it sits in her hair with the green back on


and how it looks in her hair with out the back on


I hope this is helpful. I want to do some later on that include feathers in them and more rhinestones. I would love to hear any suggestions you have and see anything that you make!

Three for one

Today you get three great ideas in one blog! This is Taya this morning before church.


She is wearing a brand new skirt I made her. Her hair is in "Nana curls" and she also has a new flower clip that I made her. Yea, she is spoiled!

Starting with the skirt. This was so easy! I actually used some material that I "found" in my moms craft closet (thanks mom!) Here is the directions for the skirt. I want to try a bigger version of this for myself, but it will have to go on the long list of things I want to do.

Here is a close up


It is perfect for twirling and very girly! I love what was done here and want to make these for Taya and my little nieces.

So on to her hair. Taya has been asking for curls, "like nanas" for days. It is hard to do on very fine, very thin little girl hair. I even got a small 1/2" curl iron hoping this would make her happy, but the curls just weren't bounce enough for her(her own words!) So last night I had the option of watching Nascar or browsing craft blogs (guess what I picked!) and came across this idea. So after her bath, I put her hair up in the little buns and held my breath. (I wish I would have snapped a picture, cause she did look cute, but I was to tired to care at that point.)
When I let it out, it was so curly and so BIG. But it was just what she was after. I spritzed it with some water to help calm it down a little and this is the result "Nana Curls"


The last piece to creating her look today was the flower clip. I, like everyone else, am in love with the flower clip look. My sister in law Lyndsy has made some in the past for Taya and they are ADORABLE, but I can't keep begging more out of her. So I decided to give it a try And when I was at Roberts yesterday they had a great sale on silk flowers so I got a few. I didn't want to make a mistake so I tried looking up tips and how to's on line, but was not really successful on finding instructions. So tomorrow I will be posting a how to and several of my variations. But for today here is the one I made to go with Taya's new skirt.


Make sure you check back in for the how to and tips on making a flower clip.