Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Crafty Tip : Organizing your Fabric Stash

~ Hello Crafty Friends ~
Today I'm doing something a bit different and sharing and organizing tip with you. Warning though! The video might be a bit frightening to you. LOL! I had just finished working out to my new Zumba DVD's -which BTW, I'm in love with- and I guess the adrenaline got the best of me! Can you say "bouncing off the walls"?
LOL! None the less, here is a FABO tip that I think all you

fabric lovers will enjoy! 

I have more tips and tricks up my sleeve for your sewing space 
so, Stay Tuned!
Did you get to join the PARTY last Monday?! There's still time to link up, up to 3 projects and EACH LINK UP will enter you in my latest GIVEAWAY!
 
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Monday, June 27, 2011

Week 6: Made It Myself Mondays

~ Happy Monday Everyone ~
Are you having a FUN summer so far? It's nice and warm here in Sunny So Cal, and the pool finally got up to my preferred 80 plus degrees! Lol! My hubby always laughs that I won't jump in unless it's that warm! But you know, a girl is allowed to have her spa moments, right ?! :) 
Summer also means wedding season for me. I usually get invited to at least 6 or 7 weddings between May and September. Not only do I attend family weddings but my congregation at church is very large. It's so joyous to see a new little family begin. With so many weddings and bridal showers, I always have to be at the ready with a nice gift, so this year, I think my theme will be ETCHED CASSAROLE DISHES. These can sometimes be a bit tricky to make, but there are plenty of youtube tuts that have awesome tips for success. With a bit of practice you will be a pro in no time. And these personalized and practical gift are always a hit with the happy couple. They'll think you're a crafting genius LOL! Oops, I thought about taking pictures after I had it all wrapped and pretty, buy hopefully you can get the gist. 

I got the casserole with my 30% off coupon at Kohl's - gotta love it! And the pretty sentiment is from
Speaking of CRAFTY GENIUS! It's time to PARTY and LINK UP your latest creations! 
BUT WAIT! Every LINK UP will enter you to win this...
 Never PARTIED with me before? CLICK HERE for the deets! 

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OKAY! GET YOUR LINK ON!
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Saturday, June 25, 2011

Chocolate Chocolate Oh My!

~ Happy Saturday Everyone ~
Here's another quick post featuring another great HUNGRY GIRL recipe I tried and YUM! Super success. I'll just let the pictures do the talking :) Also, I've lost 7 lbs on WEIGHT WATCHERS in 2 weeks so far and would highly recommend it! Thanks ROBYN aka MY PINK STAMPER for giving me the heads up on this wonderful program! If your looking for support, helpful strategies, delicious recipes and more, and ready to make a lifestyle change that you can REALLY SUSTAIN.  Learn how to stay healthy, enjoy ALL FOODS and keep those extra pounds in check. Go HERE. I've tried the quick fixes before, and alas, they just don't work long term. disclaimer : I am not an affiliate or paid employee of Hungry Girl or Weight Watchers. Just thought, I'd share with something good, that's helping me and might help some of you out there :)

Go AHEAD! Make them TONIGHT!

Have a wonderful weekend and don't forget to join me on MONDAY for another FUN LINKING PARTY! Haven't partied with me yet?  CLICK HERE to check out the deets!

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Tuesday, June 21, 2011

My Pink Stamper June Project

~ Hi Everyone ~
It's all about the BRIGHT and CHEERY for this month's, 
My Pink Stamper Design Team Post. Once I brought home my shiny new BABY STEPS CART, I knew I had to use it today! Plus, it seems something was in the water about 9 months ago, as I've been invited to a myriad of new baby showers, lately! 
Isn't this cut SO CUTE! I used colors that popped a bit more than the traditional baby pastel palette. Hopefully I can bring a BRIGHT and CHEERY smile to the new mommy when she sees it ! OH and I ventured out and made it an EASEL CARD. I'm currently enamored with fancy folds and such:) and the My Pink Stamper Fabulous Phrases Set is perfect for placing sentiments along the bottom part of a card like this! What do you think? I'd love to hear your comments:)

Want some My Pink Stamper Stamps of your very own? 
Click HERE!

 Deets:
Purple Easel Card Base 4.25 x 5.5
Dress and Booties and all layers cut @ 4" Baby Steps Cart
Pink Layer cut @ 4 x 5.25
Yellow Polka Dot Layer cut @ 3.75 x 5
Inside White Layer cut @ 4 x 5.25 
Pink Scallops using SU Punch
Purple Ink SU
Green Strip Frame Layer cut @ 1.25 x 4
Twine and White Sakura Gel Pen





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Monday, June 20, 2011

Week 5: Made It Myself Mondays and Winner!

Happy Monday Everyone! 
Who says Monday's have to be BLAH? Not HERE! I have a quick little TUT on how to make a LAYERED BOW embellishment. Then it's your turn to ROCK MY CRAFTY WORLD and link up your creations!
But first, let me announce last week's WINNER! 

CONGRATS!  Dr. Sonia SV !
You WON this....Thanks, OH MY CRAFTS for your 
generous sponsorship! 
Dr. Sonia, You've Got Mail! 


 Now, here's my TUT...


You like, no? :) Okay, time to LINKY...
1. Link any crafty project NEW or OLD.
2. Link UP to 3 projects.
3. Place the party BUTTON on your post.
4. VISIT and comment on 2 blogs.


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Sunday, June 19, 2011

Goodie Bags for Dads

~ Happy Sunday Everyone ~
YAY! Today is Father's Day! The day we celebrate all those great DADS out there, for all the WONDERFUL things they do for their family, friends and community!
I wanted to share this simple goodie bag that myself and a few other ladies at church put together for all the dad's, as well as all the men over 18. We will hand them out today after our services. They were very easy to make, however we needed 150 of them. 
That's a lot of NECK TIES, LOL!
Can't wait to see all the men gobble up their goodies :)
 Since we needed such a large number, 300 to be exact. We decided to let the professionals do the baking. The bakery at Sam's Club came thru beautifully for us. They had several varieties of gourmet type cookies in the extra large size. Very reasonably priced too :)
The NECK TIES were cut at 5 inches from the Everyday Paper Dolls Cart. I printed the sentiment using Publisher several times on one page ~ Word would work too. Then punched them out with a decorative Stampin Up Punch. We added labels to the back so they knew what type of cookies they were getting, I thought this gave a boutique-y bakery style look :) Simple cello bags from the Dollar Tree and twine were used to package them up. 
WHA-LA!
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Friday, June 17, 2011

Make A "Faux" Letterman Jacket

Hi again! 
Today I wanted to share one of the projects I was helping a friend with and why I've been so busy! She is one of our youth leaders at church and was in charge of organizing about 45 out of about 250 girls between the ages of 12 and 18 years of age get ready for their annual GIRL'S CAMP!  They had a collegiate theme this year and some genius person came up with the idea of making these out of sweat shirts ! 
the front features "School Letters and Strips"
the back features each "athletes" name on the back
 Here's how we made them...
1. Cut a sweat shirt down the front middle to look like a jacket opening. Around the collar cut a little more fabric away as shown here, so it fits a bit better around the collar....
2. Serge the edges or fold over the raw edges and apply a zigzag stitch for a nice clean edge.
3. Using an electronic cutting machine like the Cricut or Silhouette, cut out letters from STIFF FELT. These machines do a great job! WOW! Did it save us LOADS of time over cutting by hand! We choose to use the shadow feature for a more realistic look.
Note: use only stiff felt, regular felt has too much stretch and will not cut well, not even with wonder under!
4. Sew down the letters using your sewing machine.
5. Cut one sleeve open along the seam line going just past the arm pit so you can lay the sleeve as flat as possible.
6. Sew two wide ribbons down creating stripes with your sewing machine. You may want to mark guidelines with a marking tool to make sure you are sewing straight.
 7. Turn the sleeve right sides together and sew or serge the seam closed again using a very narrow seam allowance, so the sleeve does not differ too much it width compared to the other sleeve you are not altering.
8. Use your electronic cutting machine again and create stencils of the names you would like to place on the back. We just used regular paper to create the stencils since they would only be used once then tossed. However, later I realized we could have used FREEZER PAPER and ironed the stencils down for greater stability and less bleeding when stenciling. But they came out great non the less :)
We designed the letters in a curve for a more realistic look.

 It was a lot of work to make so many! But it was SO FUN and SO WORTH it to know the girls at camp will love them! They are always so tickled with cutesy stuff like this.
This would be a great summer kids activity too or even something fun you did with a group of friends or family reunion etc.

I'm partying up with this project and linking it to these shin-digs! 


Craft Junkie Too Friend







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Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Center Step Card Tut

~ Hi Everyone ~
YAY! I have a video for you today! It's been a while, I know. But I do keep my promises, so here's the tutorial I promised you on the CENTER STEP CARD I recently made. The original idea came from Split Coast Stampers, don't you just love that site? Try and make one yourself, it's easier than it looks!



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Monday, June 13, 2011

Week 4 : Made It Myself Monday's

~ Hello Everybody ~
Crazy how the weekend whizzes by, right?! Here we are at the beginning of what I hope to be a FABULOUS week! 
YOU all know what MONDAY means! Time to PARTY and LINK UP your CRAFTY PROJECTS! 
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I meant to have a project and tutorial for you today, but duty called and I had to help a friend cut a MILLION LETTERS out of stiff felt for our church's annual Young Woman's Camp! She was making several banners and signs, darn I wish I had taken a picture! I was so happy to have my CRICUT to help her out. Did you know you could cut stiff felt with your CRICUT? It works GREAT!

So instead of a project, 

I'll leave you with this TIP.... 

When cutting STIFF FELT, this will not work with regular felt!
Set your BLADE at 6, and your speed and pressure at MAX.
Have a nice sticky mat and set your multi-cut at 2.
Really small intricate cuts will not do well either, but large letters or shapes will work great!

OKAY! TIME TO SHOW OFF YOUR CRAFTINESS!
Here's a quick RECAP of the PARTY RULES :

1. Link any crafty project NEW or OLD.
2. Link UP to 3 projects.
3. Place the party BUTTON on your post.
4. VISIT and comment on 2 blogs.
5. Comment HERE with contact info in case you WIN the GIVEAWAY!


This week's SPONSOR GIVEAWAY is from Oh My Crafts!
All links will enter you to win this....





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Friday, June 10, 2011

June's Pink-a-licious Blog Hop

 ~ Hi Everyone ~
It's that time again! I'm so glad you are here checking out the ALL of the fun projects made using My Pink Stamper Stamps!  Make sure you begin at ROBYN'S BLOG so you don't miss a thing! You all know Robyn's stamps simply ROCK, but her latest release blew me out of the water and I am having so much FUN creating cards with them!
Let's get right to my project... I made a CENTER STEP CARD, sounds fancy, eh? It actually wasn't hard to make at all. I'll post a video tut here in the next day or two:)

This month's HOP THEME was "ALL ABOUT SUMMER" and for me, summer means the OCEAN! What says ocean better than a MERMAID! Is she not TOO CUTE?!
 Deets :
Mermaid and all layers cut @ 4" Life's A Beach Cart
2 Waves cut @ 5.5 length Life's A Beach Cart
Center Layers cut at 4.5 x 3.5 and 4.25 x 3.25
Strips on sides cut @ .75 and .5
MS and SU used Punches for Sentiment and Corner decor
Both Sentiments from MY PINK STAMPER BIRTHDAY CRAZY SET
 
It's time to HOP ON! Check out the LINE UP BELOW to see 
where you'll HOP TO NEXT!
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Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Name My Doggie

~ Hey Everyone ~
I recently posted on my FB page that 
WEEEE...I'm getting a NEW PUPPY!
 This is not THE puppy, just what I am hoping for in color.
He's still in vitro, mama due early July :) Hopefully she has a boy, of course :) But I wanted to get a head start and think of
a really COOL NAME.
SOOOO...I've decide to enlist YA'LL's help ~ No, I'm not from the south, but as I was typing a southern drawl came out, so I went with it :)
A few of you already gave me some really cute suggestions on FB, then I had the IDEA! Why not do A GIVEAWAY for whoever suggests a name that I whind up using! What if I gave away this...would you HELP ME think of a name?
 
YAY! This is going to be so much FUN! 
OKAY, this is how it will go...
1. USE MR LINKY to post your PUPPY NAME SUGGESTION, do not enter your name ONLY THE PUPPY name should be visible in your link ~If you made a suggestion on FB please LINK IT HERE :) So I have them all in one place :)
2. If two or more peeps suggest the same name, only the first person to link it will win.
3. Contest ENDS midnight on JUNE 22 PST.

I'm SO EXCITED to see all of your SUGGESTIONS!

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Monday, June 6, 2011

Week 3: Made It Myself Mondays

~ Hello Everyone ~
I'm back from my stay-cation ~ had a wonderful time with the fam! A few pictures will be forth coming. 
But now it's time to get back to some CRAFTY BUSINESS and get this LINKING PARTY started! 
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BUT GUESS WHAT?!  I'm SO EXCITED to have very a SPECIAL GUEST co-hosting our shin-dig today! She'll be sharing one of her AWESOME creations with you and I hope you'll take the time to visit her blog too!
WELCOME KATHY from kathyandkids.blogspot.com! 
Take It Away KATHY...
Hello Crafty Friends!
I am so excited to be a featured toady on Alex’s weekly linking party.
My name is Kathy and I have been crafting since I was a little girl. My Mom is a seamstress and a crafter and she passed on to me her love of creating beautiful things! I love to paper craft, sew, crochet, knit, and bead. Now that I am a Mom of 3 kids, I love to create for them and share my love of crafting.
Today I’d like to share with you a simple no-sew fabric flower. This flower can be added to a pin, hair clip, or head band.
 I made this one and attached it to a headband for my youngest daughter to wear on the 4th of July. It will go perfectly with her pretty dress for our Family picnic.They are easy to make and use only a few supplies. First you’ll need some fabric, scraps would work fine, (You can use all the same pattern or two coordinating ones like I did.), scissors, and a needle and thread. I like to but fat quarters from the fabric store when they are on sale.
  You will need to cut your fabric into 6 3x3 inch squares. Then you will fold each square diagonally and either iron or finger-press to make a crease.
Next, take a length of thread on your needle (I like to double the thread for extra stability) and use a
running stitch along the two sides of each square.
 Stitch each triangle one after the other and they will look like this.
 Gently pull the thread and gather all the triangles to form petals. Then stitch the last petal to the first
one. This forms your flower.
 I like to cut a piece of felt to add to the center to cover and hide all the raw edges. For this one I cut a
star shape and sewed a star button to the center.
 Finally you attach the felt to the top of the flower using some fabric glue or hot glue. This will finish the top of your flower.
 You will also want to add a piece of felt to the back of the flower to cover the raw edges and have a
surface to attach a pin, hair clip, or whatever you decide to use.

 For this flower, I hand-sewed it to a fabric covered head band and added some ribbon pieces under it.
Here is the finished fabric flower headband.

 These flowers are so much fun to make and you can embellish them with just about anything you’d like. I love making them for both of my daughters and my niece.
I have another tutorial on my blog for a different style of flower. This one is more involved and requires some machine sewing. Click Here for the link if you are interested.
I also have an Etsy store where I have some flowers for sale. Click Here if you’d like to take a look.
I’d like to give a huge THANK YOU to Alex for asking me to share with you on her blog! I hope you all get a chance to link up your latest creations, and visit some of our fellow crafters! There is a lot of
wonderful talent out there and a lot of wonderful crafters that are willing to share!

Happy Crafting!

Thanks so much KATHY for sharing your AWESOME talent and being my guest today! 

WINNER, WINNER CHICKEN DINNER! Congrats to...
Martha Galvez
YAY! You won last weeks GIVEAWAY! You've Got Mail :)


OK, it's time to GET LINKY! 
Here's a quick RECAP of the PARTY RULES :

1. Link any crafty project NEW or OLD.
2. Link UP to 3 projects.
3. Place the party BUTTON on your post.
4. VISIT and comment on 2 blogs.
5. Comment HERE with contact info in case you WIN the GIVEAWAY!


This week's SPONSOR GIVEAWAY is from Oh My Crafts!
All links will enter you to win this....

READY....SET....LINK!!!!







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