Ok the girls at Team Tayla are kicking butt in the blog/craft/business/happiness/creative world and they’re getting an early, early start at it all!
There’s waaaaay too many things I love about this – crafting, jammies, a blog, running with a cool idea, living a dream . . . the list goes on! Did I mention they make pjs!?!
There’s also a giveaway in honour of her 100th post!
How cool is it that she’s doing what she loves so early in life! Way to go!
Posted in uncategorized
Here’s my finished clock, sorry for the glare. However, there are some issues with it *sigh* I painted it with chalkboard paint that doesn’t seem to be acting very chalkboardy. In certain light you can see the erased writing, somehow it’s still marking the clock. Also, I used painters tape to cover the hands while I sprayed the clock, it didn’t seem wise to try and remove them and the clock wasn’t cooperating so I left them. In peeling off the tape the hands got unhappy. By unhappy I mean they actually popped off and I had to stick them back on. They seem wobbily now. I didn’t put a battery in yet but I doubt it will keep time properly. When I tried to move the hands to figure out the button positioning it seemed to be placing the hours a little uneven and wonky. I stuck the buttons on with large glue dots.
It’s still nice to look at though. Maybe I’ll just have it say ‘time to craft’ forever.
Posted in other crafts, repurposing
Tagged buttons, chalk, chalkboard, chalkboard paint, clock, style school
Strangely, I bought supplies to carve my own stamps ages ago and then it turned out to be a Style School assignment. I had planned to carve something that I could then stamp onto fabric and make labels for my sewing projects. But it started to get complicated finding an ink that would stay through washing. So my supplies sat there . . . until today!!
The glasses should look like those fun 50’s frames, I wasn’t brave enough to attempt carving out some little rhinestones, perhaps I’ll make a second try. The little fox is winking, so he should look like that. I had carved the word ‘crafty’ next to him but as I was cutting apart the stamps I realised I hadn’t mirror imaged the word. Don’t ask me how I sketched it out this afternoon, then sat and carved it during a movie and I didn’t notice until basically ready to stamp with it that I had made a mistake! I’m going to blame it on Tired Mommy Brain. Yes it’s a real ailment, it must be, it has capitals. The thread and spool are something I was thinking of for business cards/tags.
I can’t believe I haven’t tried this before! It was really easy and fun and addictive. I think I may have to pop back to the art store tomorrow.
I got mail today!! *insert happy dance here* It’s from my Style School buddy, Peptogirl. I shopped in her store. I’m a good Style School buddy.
I’m resisting packing it to take to work as I will probably spend my entire lunch hour stitching and not get any prep for my classes done.
I also found a clock to reface for Style School. I have my idea all planned out, but it involves spray painting the clock and I get in trouble to stinking up the house so I have to be strategic about when I do it. It’s a bit bigger than I was thinking but it was on clearance and has a flat front.
And in an entirely uncrafting related segment may I present my son Nate eating chocolate pudding on his own. Monday was Family Day here and *most* people had the day off to spend with their . . . families! All four of us stayed in our jammies all day and just puttered around the house doing what we wanted, with some olympic watching couch snuggles here and there. I invited my mom for dinner, because she’s family, and pudding was dessert. Needless to say Nate was the one who broke our jammie day and ended up needing a change of clothes, and a bath!
It’s a tad out of focus but I had to act quick as he was flailing that spoon about a little too much.
Posted in embroidery, other crafts
Tagged clock, embroidery, Etsy, peptogirl, style school
Ok, I got brave (and had some time) and tried my bag revamp project today. I had no idea how to sew through the layers, and it wasn’t easy. I had to abandon the plan to use yarn as Elsie suggested. I couldn’t get the needle through with the yarn in the eye as well. It took about 20 minutes to stitch one stitch and that was with a a paper piercer, a metal thimble and 2 plastic-y ones that would grip well, wrapped around the end of a set of pliers to try and pull the needle through! So, I gave up, pulled out the 1 1/2 measily stitches I had in it and went at it with embroidery floss instead. It was still a bit tricky, took me an entire movie to complete, but I’m really happy with it and can’t wait to use it! I’m hoping it’ll make someone smile, how could it not? A bright yellow bag with cute little hearts on it!
and it’s LA’s fault! Thanks to her tutorial, and such a cute little idea, not only have I made one to send to my swap buddy but I’ve also made these other 2.
I’m sure there will be more. I’m already compiling a list of family and friends who sew so I’ll have homes for all of them!
I also found a supper cute bag for my Style School vintage bag embroidery type project. I’m a little worried about how tough it’s going to be trying to sew through the bag. But I did buy some strong needles and a thimble to help me get through it. Hopefully a movie on the couch will help too.
Posted in embroidery, repurposing, sewing
Tagged embroidery, pin cushion, sewing, style school, vintage
Here’s my latest Style School accomplishment, a cupcake to hang from my mirror! Forget fuzzy dice. This is waaaay cooler.
I’m supposed to take an action shot, but once again it’s past my bedtime and here I am crafting and blogging. It’s too dark and cold to be out there. Perhaps tomorrow I can show it in action.
Finally I finished my Valentine inspired quote pillow! Once again putting me crafting late at night when I probably should be heading off to bed. Instead I will make the world a better place and tell you how I made it in case you’d like to brighten your space with this cute little throw pillow. Not only is it a pillow it’s a cute little message for my family since my husband or kids are welcome to follow the instructions anytime they like!
Sooooo first you need some hearts. I cut 4 hearts out of pink, red and brown felt. I just used the trick of folding the felt in half and cutting half a heart. You could get fancy and use Google images to find a heart template to trace if you’re afraid to free hand it. Then I embroidered the sayings onto the hearts with different colours, pink on red, fuchsia on pink, cream on brown. I was sort of basing the sayings on a little thing my dad and me used to say so I needed 4. You could have more of less hearts, bigger or smaller ones, just depends on what you want on your pillow. But you can still follow this horizontal stripe idea even if you change it up a bit.
Gather some heart/love themed fabric (part of why it’s taken me so long to complete this project) and fuss about which ones to use and how (another reason it took so long).
I decided to use the Timeless Treasures fabric again since this pillow will go on my bed with my “Sew in Love” and “Oh” pillows. Wow, I can’t believe I have 3 decorative pillows on my bed . . . and they have names . . . ok, back to the turorial . . .
Pin the conversation hearts onto the backing fabric you want and get a feel for the placement. I cut a piece for the back from brown fabric and decided on 20 x 13. Think about how big you want your pillow and cut backing for that size. Because I was going with a length of 20 inches I trimmed the swirly heart fabric to 20 inches and then just cut under the conversation hearts where I thought seemed nice and even with the top. Then I added a band of brown to the top, bottom and the red swirly Timeless Treasures.
Once again, I was very scientific – I just added fabric until it was the same size as the back, trimmed it down so they matched and carried on. The 2 pieces were basically 20 x 12. There was some loss in the trimming. So add horizontal stripes of fabric until your front is the same size as the back. I had 4 stripes in total, yours is up to you. I had gotten some piping for along the perimeter of the pillow to jazz it up a bit. I wanted it to be different from the other 2 on the bed so I went with the piping and rectangular shape.
I was going to hand sew the hearts onto the backing fabric using contrasting colours but in the end I decided to have the stitching be nearly invisible. So there I was changing my thread and bobbin a few times to get the right coloured thread, but it was worth it in the end.
I have never used piping before and the lady at the fabric store suggested sewing the piping to one side before putting the right sides together. I followed her advice but I’m not sure it made things any easier. It was finicky work and since you can’t really see how close to the piping the stitching is I found it annoying. I stitched it to the front piece first thinking that would make a nicer edge on that side.
Lay the backing on with right sides together and stitch around leaving an opening for turning and stuffing of course. Trim the corners so you’ll have a nice crisp edge when you turn it rightside out. I turned the pillow, pushed out the corners with my trusting stuffing tool (aka chopstick), use what you’ve got. Then stuff your pillow through the opening. Once it has reached it’s desired fluffiness you’re ready to sew it closed. I did this part by hand just to make sure the front was kept nice and clean looking. The backing only has to be stitched to the piping part, I was a bit picky about mine but I wanted to keep the stitches virtually invisible so I probably fussed more than I needed too.
Sometimes I don’t get to my RSS feed in time and miss a giveaway or some other timed event, which almost happened with Leigh-Ann’s Pin Cushion DIY and Swap. Luckily I got there just in time and now I get to be part of this super cool little craft making and gift giving extravaganza!
Today I had a few minutes, that’s really all it takes, to whip up a pin cushion using her tutorial. The awesome thing about it is you need very little fabric and it’s a great way to use up some scraps if you so choose.
I pulled together some squares of fabric I liked and started sewing. It was super easy and ironing between each step really helped flatten it out and make it look professional (sometimes I get lazy with that step).
It didn’t take long to have it big enough for the square, I put a black piece of fabric on the back and choose a but pink button for the front and a cute blue one for the back. I had to get a little creative with sewing the hole closed, I wasn’t happy with my first attempt. I think I’m going to go make another one and then decide which one I mail off to my partner!
Ok, shopping online is way to easy and fun. You can find things you wouldn’t be able to get otherwise and then one day you check the mail and SURPRISE! you’ve got a little present waiting for you! Too cool. This week I got some fabric in the mail (not the first time that’s happened) for this child’s activity bag project. I thought it would be nice to make a little tote bag for the boys with some fun activities in it that we can . . . tote around with us. So off to ebay I went to order what I needed, and a few days later it arrived!
I’m still dying to make this stripey table runner but I’m having a terrible time finding a 1 Figgy Pudding Honey Bun and a 1 Moda White Jelly Roll. But guess there’s lots of time before Christmas.
I finally got the fabric I needed for my Valentine themed craft. I’m hoping to get it finished over the weekend, but here’s a little glimpse of the felt embroidered pieces that I’ve already finished.
Posted in embroidery, kid fun, sewing
Tagged ebay, embroidery, moda, shopping, valentine
