Share-A-Craft Link Party!

I can tell this is going to get harder and harder. Picking three from last week's party was tough. Almost as bad as trying to pick out baby names with my husband.

First up, I picked this amazing spa party from Autumn at The Fickle Hobbyist. I love my mom and all, but I'm tempted to ask Autumn to adopt me. I would have died and gone to heaven at this party at age seven. Or now. I would still have loved it at age 28. The details are amazing. Go check it out.

 

I adore these leg warmers from Patricia at If Life Was Like a Cupcake. They are fun and funky and made from adult socks! What a cool idea. I actually have a pair I should do this with, because it turned out that they wouldn't go up my calves. Bad sock design? We can only hope. Anyway, she has a great tutorial on this quick, fun project.

Last of all, I just couldn't resist this quilled jewelry from Ann at All Things Paper. Swoon. Swoon again. I love quilling and I think I need to do more of it. Especially if I can wear it. She has a bunch of examples on her blog, along with a tutorial. My favorite is the 2nd one, done on a magnifying glass, but I also quite like the thumbnail she chose (the one pictured below).

Link party rules:
Link to the actual post, and not your blog main page. I'd appreciate a link back to my blog, but it's not required.
Comment on one other link.
Please, link us to something you made, not something you are selling or an unrelated post on another topic.

Yep, that's it.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Share-A-Craft Link Party!

I cannot believe how much fun I had last week, looking at all your projects! I loved looking at your blogs and getting to know some of my readers a little bit more.

I got a little thrill each time there was a new link. There were disco moves involved. I really wanted to do some MJ Thriller moves, but, ya'll, I can't dance like that. I'm lucky if I don't trip. So disco moves sufficed.

Anyway, it was tough to pick three to feature today. So, this week, I'm going with the top viewed, a very practical idea I never would have thought of (and there were two of those, so I even had to narrow it down from there! this is difficult stuff, people!), and something my kids would love. But, it was tough to choose!

Top viewed project was these make up bags from Et at Judy Cat Crafts. That ruffle down the side and her fabric combos are to die for!

Next was this sewing machine pin cushion from Kathryn at I Can Find the Time. This is brilliant. I'm forever losing my pins while sewing, and worse, knocking the container onto the floor. Problem solved.

And lastly, there's this felt treasure map from Cheryl at Sew Can Do. Her link is packed full of idea for felt. David is building the kids a treehouse (better believe I'm going to be blogging about it), and there are going to be pirate/ship things in it, so a map similar to Cheryl's needs to wind up in our house soon!

As for me, I've so busy lately, I don't really have anything to share with you this week. I know, crazy, huh? I have projects I've been working on, but nothing really finished. Too many things started and not enough finished. So, I guess I really need your links this week to enjoy (finished) hand-made goodness!

Link party rules:
Link to the actual post, and not your blog main page. I'd appreciate a link back to my blog, but it's not required.
Comment on one other link.
Please, link us to something you made, not something you are selling or an unrelated post on another topic.

Yep, that's it.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Share-A-Craft: Bobble Crochet Dress

About 18 months ago, I started a crochet dress for Aubrey from this amazing pattern when we went up to Logan to visit some family. It took forever to finish. I think I took it out three times before being happy with it. Then, I ran out of yarn. It was just some cheapy cotton Peaches and Cream, but every store stopped carrying that color. I checked every last Joann's, Michael's, Walmart, etc, for it, and could not find the darn stuff.

Eventually, I decided to just finish it with white. Which turned out darling, I think.

The other morning, Maxton was helping Aubrey get dressed and he came up with two choices of leggings to go with this dress. Now that she's grown a bit, it's more like a tunic, so it needed the leggings. I absolutely loved it with the butterfly leggings and I'm not sure I would have ever put them together.

Isn't she getting so dang tall? She just turned three. What is she doing with those long limbs? At least, she still has the round baby tummy.

At some point, I'm going to have to make this again, but with nicer yarn.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Share-A-Craft: Target-Inspired Print

I did a lot of pretend shopping as I've thought about my kitchen re-do. One of the things I stumbled on was this artwork from Target. It really appealed to me, but it wasn't quite the right colors, not to mention 80 bucks and too big for my wall, so I whipped up my own digital art with a similar idea.

I really like how mine turned out:

And here it is, hanging on my wall. Fun, no?

For handy reference, here's the Target one:

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Share-A-Craft: Toddler Cap with Knit Fabric

If you haven't seen this awesome tutorial from Kathleen from At Second Street, you need to check it out. I sewed two hats for Aubrey using it, and I'm really happy with the way they turned out.

Isn't she so cute in it?

Love.

It was pretty simple, although the top is wobbly, and it doesn't stay on great. I think I might add a tiny bit of elastic to the back so she doesn't have such a hard time with it. In these pictures, she's in the car, headed for our Memorial Day activities. She wore the hat most of the day, and it was perfect for keeping the sun out of her eyes.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Share-A-Craft: Toddler Rag Tag T-shirt Skirt

I have an addiction to sewing skirts. They are just so simple, fast and fun, and Aubriana loves to wear them.

I didn't get a before picture, but this skirt is made out of an old t-shirt of mine. I've always loved the color and it's so soft, but it had gone the way of all cotton shirts in my house and shrunk. I hope it shrunk. I might have increased a tiny bit.

I love the flowers on the side and the easy draw-string (made out of the hem of the shirt). I basically followed this tutorial, with a few modifications. I plan on doing this pattern again, with a few more modifications to make it a tiny bit easier (like cutting two tiers, sort of like I did with my petal skirt).

Of the three skirts I made her for her birthday, I think this is my favorite, but only by a tiny margin.

Linking Up Here:

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Share-A-Craft: Toddler Butterfly Backpack

Aubrey is obsessed with backpacks. I believe it's the combination of her adoration of Dora the Explorer and jealousy that her older brothers go to school and she doesn't get to go. She had an ugly backpack she would tote around with her for hours. Of course, when I thought about sewing most of her birthday presents, a backpack was my first priority. She needed one that was cute and actually fit her.

I do believe that this is the most complicated thing I have ever sewn. I probably should have done a little research to figure out how most people sew lined backpacks, but you know me. I like to do things the hard way. I did mostly figure it out, although I'm certain hand-sewing the lining in could be avoided with a little more forethought.

I did end up sewing the straps and the handle on in reverse order, but I figured it didn't impede the function of the backpack, so that meant they were staying that way.

At least I had the foresight to avoid piping, which would have much things much harder.

There are two pockets on the front that velcro, then a zippered pocket, then the main bag.

The butterfly's wings flap and I sewed some beads on it to embellish it. I was really careful to pick a strong thread and really tacked them down, because experience has taught me that if small, round objects are around, Aubrey is sure to stick them in her nose. It also seems my friend Heidi is tangentially involved, as the first time Aubrey explored this particular form of personal expression, Heidi was watching my kids while we were on the cruise, and the second time, I was talking to her on the phone, and the third time, she was due at my house that day. It's a small price to pay for a friend as fabulous as Heidi and it gives me something to tease her about, because apart from inspiring nostril decoration in small children, Heidi is practically perfect in every way.

The fabric and zippers were all thing I had lying around. The flower fabric is a linen, which I actually made a maternity top from when pregnant with Griffin. It was huge on me and I never wore it. The solid purple was from the stash I inherited from my great-grandma Jensen, and the green is some canvas I got dirt cheap at Walmart about a year ago. The zippers are from thrift stores.



I put pulls on the zippers, using thick gauge wire and wrapped loops at both ends, thereby guaranteeing that none of these beads will end up stuck in any nasal cavities.

Sharing Here:

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Share-A-Craft: Crochet Butterfly Artwork

Because of my current Project Progress, I've been doing A LOT of art for my kitchen lately. One of my better ideas was to frame some threaded crochet work. I went to work finding a cute butterfly pattern I could use in one of my frames.

In my search, I found again the most excellent and righteous MyPicot.com. Seriously, she is freakin' amazing (or whoever writes their patterns, because their homepages says our). I love these patterns. They are all in chart format, which can be a little bit challenging, buuuuuuuuttt, they also provide a tutorial section with chart keys and I've mostly managed to figure things out after working on them for a bit.

I used this butterfly pattern, which is just stunning.

I would have loved to do more than just brown, but I had brown in my stash and I'm trying really hard to get rid of and use up my stash of craft stuff before buying new stuff. I ended up quite liking my brown butterfly, particularly after it was mounted (wow, that sounds like I shot and stuffed a butterfly, but I swear, I only used thread and a crochet hook and no butterflies were harmed in this project).

Once it was all done, I realized it was too big for the frame. Doh. So instead of undoing all my work, which took me two episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to finish, I decided just to hot glue it to the outside of my frame. Easy, simple and I sort of like the unexpected twist of it being outside the glass. And, if it ever gets too dirty, the hot glue will peel off the glass, then I can wash it and put it back up again. I think. If not, I can always crochet another one.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Share-A-Craft: My Kitchen Table

I've alluded to it before, but now I'm finally going to show my kitchen table.

I need to find some more verbs that are synonymous with adore, because I want to say I adore my table, but I know I say that about everything. Ok, so maybe I am crazy about, I'm nuts for, I'm smitten with, I'm sweet on, I delight in, I dote on, I flip over, I prize my kitchen table.


Not only is it pretty, with a beautiful dark bamboo top, but I love that David made it for us. I helped a little. This thing is the perfect size for our kitchen and our family, plus it is sturdy, which is a must with our children. Those kids can destroy anything.

Anyway, it's basically a frame, with an apron covering it. Then the top is a board with bamboo flooring over. The trim we made from some extra flooring. It's surprisingly light-weight as well, which was nice for moving it in.

You can see a lot of the structure in this picture:

And of course, if I get out the camera, Aubrey insists on getting her picture taken, so here she is under the table.

David put hours and hours into it, and it shows. I'm not sure these pictures really show off how glossy and beautiful the top is. I love the bamboo stained a dark walnut, as the grain really stands out. We spent just under $200 for it, which isn't too bad for a table as pretty as this one.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Share-A-Craft: More Spoons in a Shadow Box

Share-A-Craft is just as much fun as a tilt-a-whirl, but with less stomach upset and possible vomiting. Every Thursday, I post a project of any type that I've recently or not so recently done.

I thought about doing a tutorial with this, but it's so similar to my other shadow box tutorial, that I decided to share it here. I'm going to tell you basically how I did it, but it's a lot less detailed than my regular tutorials.

I had some more spoons leftover from the first shadowbox, so of course, I wanted to display them too.

I found this great frame at Savers for $1. It looks like it's supposed to be for an embroidery project, but it suits my purposes just fine. No glass, but for a $1, I'll avoid being my usual picky self.

I wanted a longer, thinner frame, so I took a rubber mallet to it and knocked off one of the 10" pieces. Then I used my husband's miter saw (that was a good present, go me for getting it for him!), and trimmed down the 8" pieces to about 6" on both sides, based on my spoon measurements. I glued it back together, and it looked like this:

Then I primed and painted. I made a back for it using a piece of chipboard, covered in two sheets of scrapbooking paper. The green is My Mind's Eye, from the Penny Lane collection and the overlay is KI Memories. I love the combination together. I attached it to the back with a little hot glue (I love this stuff!). Then I adhered the spoons with a little hot glue, added the hanging hook the frame came with, and that's it! So simple to make, but I really find it beautiful and so cheerful. Hopefully it will be hanging in my kitchen before too long.

In other kitchen utensil themed prettiness, aren't these stencils divine? My brain is going like crazy, wanting to work them into my design. We shall see. . .

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Share-A-Craft: Totally Free Prom Dress Makeover

Share-A-Craft is just as much fun as a tilt-a-whirl, but with less stomach upset and possible vomiting. Every Monday, I post a project of any type that I've recently or not so recently done. We'd love to see what you've been making too. Send me an email with your name and a link to your project at karah99 @ gmail.com and you might end up featured.  

A few weekends ago, my aunt Angie and her family came down to visit. You might remember her from my cruise post--she organized the whole cruise and is generally just a fun-loving, energetic person, the perfect person to have around for some fun. We had pretty much laughed the entire time, and we fixed fondue, played Guesstures, watched movies and generally had a great time.

My cousin, Sadie, is 15 and she got asked to the prom. On their way down to our house, they picked up a previously owned prom dress that was just stunning. The only thing was, Sadie is 5'10" (we grow them tall in our family, my little sister, Melissa, excluded) and the girl she bought the dress from was 5'2" (coincidentally, the same height as my sister). This left the dress way too short and at an awkward length.


This is the before shot:

They asked me to help them make over the dress. We thought about putting on a ruffle, and that probably would have cost money and might have ended up looking tacked on. After a little thinking and brainstorming, we decided to ruche up the sides.

After gathering the sides, the dress was still too poofy and it didn't really shorten the dress much at all. I've never tried ruching before, so this was a learning experience. We decided to do some more gathering and making scallops around the bottom. After a little fussing, a lot of hand sewing and a little machine sewing and hemming around the underskirt (petticoat-type stuff, whatever it's called), we had the hem done.

She also wanted to beef up the straps some more and the dress had come with a little scarf thing, so a little more gathering and some hand sewing, and we had this:

It's so beautiful on her, so current, yet a bit more princessy, and totally original.

The best part, the make over part was completely free!

Sharing Here:

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Share-A-Craft: Aubriana's Easter Dress

Share-A-Craft is just as much fun as a tilt-a-whirl, but with less stomach upset and possible vomiting. Every Monday, I post a project of any type that I've recently or not so recently done. We'd love to see what you've been making too. Send me an email with your name and a link to your project at karah99 @ gmail.com and you might end up featured.

She got blisters playing hide and seek with Grandpa while wearing her snowboots and no socks.

I was just the tiniest bit sad that General Conference (for those of you who don't know, that's an LDS meeting that is broadcast twice a year when the leaders of the church speak, there are two sessions on Saturday and two on Sunday, each two hours long and it always falls on the first weekends of April and October) fell on Easter this year. In one way, it's nice because there are such beautiful messages in General Conference, but we watch at home in our pajamas and there's not regular church meetings, so no "official" dress-wearing opportunities.

However, I decided that I was going to make Aubrey an Easter dress anyway, for her to wear around the house and to rotate into her dresses. When I looked through my fabric, I couldn't resist using the same combination I used in my reversible tunic, a combination of new and vintage fabrics from my great-grandma.

I also decided to do my own pattern, which worked out pretty well, except I wasn't great at getting the straps on just right, so they did a weird, gaping thing sometimes, but I put them in three times and I called it good enough after the third try. You can see it in this picture:

The flowers are all made from vintage fabric from my great-grandma, as is the green sash and the top. The cool thing is I didn't buy anything new for this project. Score! I really have too much stuff and any opportunity to use it up is welcome. I was the tiniest bit sad that I'm now out of that paisley bottom, which I bought new, but having made two dresses with it, I'm satisfied.

I put the flowers all on hair clips, so I can trade them out for other projects. That, and putting them on pin backs just seemed like inviting her to rip huge holes in her dress once they were pinned on.

I made two belt loops for the back to tie the sash. It zips up the back.

And after editing this photo, it was cracking me up and reminding me of something.

A cartoon character of some sort?

A morose girl with blonde pigtails?

A girl with a uni-brow? Yes, we are getting closer. A quick google search later and I figured it out.

Helga, from Hey Arnold!

Yep, that's it.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.