Every Girl Likes Jewelry--How About a Trio of Bracelet Tutorials?

Another of the projects my mom motivated me to do during my month of crafting blahs was jewelry making.  My mom wanted another item to go in her Valentine's goody bags, and I suggested bracelets.  I got tired of making the same bracelet over and over again, so I came up with some variations.

Double-Stranded Sea Foam  (Feel free to mock the name--or suggest a better one.)

The World's Easiest Bracelet

And Looper-Tastic.  (That's what I get for asking my husband for name suggestions.)

I will be writing up tutorials for these soon--I hope you like them!

Valentine's Day Felt Bags

Happy February!  Time to get ready for Valentine's Day.  :)  

Thanks to my mom for showing me how to make these cute and easy bags.  And for helping me to actually be motivated to make something during my month of not wanting to do anything.

Mom showed me how to make these Valentine's Day Goody Bags she's going to give to the ladies in her book club.  (Lucky!  The bags are going to be filled with all kinds of Valentine's Day goodness.  They go all out for this book club.)

(I don't know how much felt you need--you'll have to estimate.  Sorry.)

First, cut out your felt as shown above.  So you know, the 24" x 2 1/2" strip will be about 1 1/4" long--I figure it's easier to have it a little long and then trim off the extra.  

We will start with the handles.  They're so easy.  Just fold the 1 1/2" x 12" felt strips in half as shown, and sew really close to the edge of the felt (1/8" or so).  That's it--since felt doesn't fray, we don't even have to turn them inside-out.  Sweet.  Do that for both handles.

Now get the front of your bag (one of the  7 1/2" x 8 1/2" pieces) and place one end of your first handle where you want it on your bag.  Pin in place.

Fold the bag front over and match the other side of the handle.  Pin it, too.

Like so.

Now take the back of your bag (the other  7 1/2" x 8 1/2" piece, of course) and pin the other handle on it, using the front as a guide.

Sew two lines to secure the handles onto the bag.  You'll want to go back and forth a few times for strength.

If you are going to add a decoration to the front of the bag, now's the time.  My mom used her embroidery machine to stitch a heart onto each bag, but you could also use appliqué, fabric paint, hand embroidery...

Next, we attach the side of the bag (the 24" x 2 1/2" piece) onto the front.  Match the edges, wrong sides together (so seams will be on the outside) and sew really close to the edge.  (Remember to backstitch at the beginning and end to lock in your stitches.)  Use the picture above to see how to do the corners.  {You could sew this right sides together, so the seams were on the inside, but then the corners would be rounded.  So it's just personal preference.}

See?  Some leftover felt.  But I'd rather have too much than too little.

 And here it is with the side attached and trimmed to size.

 Attach the back now.  (Okay, so we attached the back first, then the front.  The order doesn't matter.)  Notice how the finished corner looks.

 And now the bag is done!  It's a really fast project, and with different colors of felt, it could be adapted to any holiday or event.

Happy crafting!  And happy Month of Love!  I'm excited about all the Valentine's projects I'll be finding in blogland.  (Hopefully I can contribute a few fun ones; I have some ideas...)

One Last Day of Blog Vacation

Do you ever just not want to do anything?  I've been feeling like that for about three weeks.  It's getting better, though--I actually made a couple things with my mom in the past week or so.  You can expect a tutorial on Wednesday, and hopefully regular posting after that.  And in the mean time...

Boo is (in my humble opinion) the cutest little piggy-tail wearing little two year old there ever was!  But I wouldn't be biased or anything.  Maybe a little.  Or a lot.  But just look at those curls!  And those eyelashes!

Ahem.  Back on topic.

I have been working on one project all of my own motivation.  I've been taking/editing family pictures to put up on our wall.  (Our pictures of Boo are sadly outdated.  Why does she have to grow up so fast?  But she's so adorable at every stage, I guess I can't really complain.)  This project isn't quite done yet, but I'm excited to show it to you when it is.

Quick question--do you prefer your family portraits to be in color or black & white?  I usually like color, but there's just something classy about black & white...so I'm undecided...Your thoughts?

Some More Versatile Blogger Awards

For the sake of not having my Versatile Blogger Award features last until the end of time, I think I'll do several mini-features today.

Source: lovelylittlesnippets.blogspot.com via Jill on Pinterest

First up, Lovely Little Snippets.  She has lots of great tutorials {like this, this, this, and I really need to make this} and recipes, too.  I want to try out her Freezer Sloppy Joes.  I'm always up for fast and easy dinners.

Source: brownpaperpackagesep.blogspot.com via Jill on Pinterest

Next we have Brown Paper Packages.  (Don't you love that name?  I sure do.)  I discovered this blog back in October when I was making those fabric pumpkins--I love how her fabric pumpkins turned out!  I also like her cute ruffly pillow, and lolly pop decorations.  

Source: dipitinchocolate.blogspot.com via Jill on Pinterest

And then there's the blog Dipped It in Chocolate.  How could you not love a blog that's about delicious chocolate goodness?  And she's fun to read, too.  She has so many great (delicious-looking!) ideas, so just head on over to her blog and get ready to take a free day off any eating-better New Year's resolutions.

Source: daffodildesign.com via Jill on Pinterest

Next up is Daffodil Design.  First, her blog is just pretty, clean, and pleasant to look at.  I appreciate a well-designed blog.  Second, she has such cute printables and projects!  My favorite is this Father's Day Questionnaire--questions you ask your kid's about their dad.  The answers are sure to be hilarious.

I think that's good for today.  If you were featured, feel free to grab your award!

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Still Out Sick

Sorry, no tutorial today.  I am feeling better than last week, but I'm still spending pretty much all my free time recuperating.  I'm hopeful about next week, though!

Until then, have a great week!

Customize Goody Bags with the Help of the Silhouette SD

Anyone else feeling un-crafty?  I got all this great crafting stuff for Christmas, and I haven't hardly used it.  On the other hand, I was sick all last week.  (Hopefully this week is better.)

Anyways, I did get one thing done recently:  helping my mom decorate goody bags for the seniors of my brother's swim team.  (My baby brother is graduating from high school this year--how weird is that?  I know he's north of six feet tall, but how is he not still 13 years old?)

But I digress.

My mom was hoping we could use my Silhouette SD to decorate the goody bags, and it was a great incentive to really figure out how to use my new toy.  This is what we came up with:

I designed the text in Photoshop and then traced it in Silhouette's software, but I'm sure you could make it entirely in Silhouette's program.  (I just need to learn how.)

We cut it out of construction paper, and stuck it on the bags with spray adhesive.  For this, I used the red tip for the blade, speed of 3, and stuck it on the less-sticky mat.  A tip for working with construction paper--it tends to clog up the blade.  Have you ever noticed how construction paper is slightly...fuzzier than other kinds of paper?  If you don't pull out the blade and clean it out every page or two (take off the tip and just blow the fuzz off) then it stops working as well.  Easy fix.

So, do you think the swim team will like them?  What am I thinking, of course they will--the bags are filled with food.

(If you've ever known a swimmer, you know they can eat.)

Happy crafting, everyone.  And hopefully I'll be feeling up to making more stuff soon.

My Foray into Floral Design (Plus hints from someone who knows what she's talking about!)

So, I went to a Christmas party last month (obviously) and the centerpiece on the dessert table was gorgeous.  It was just calla lilies and some red berries in a tall vase--so easy, but so pretty!  Well, I was currently vase-less, so I asked for a tall vase for Christmas.

No tall vases, but I did get a Jo-Ann's gift card (hurray!) for Christmas, so I picked one out for myself.  :)

I had some silk flowers left over from my wedding--that's actually Mr. MadeIt's boutonniere sitting on the right of the vase--so all I had to buy was the vase and the little glass marbles to keep the vase stable.

Well, I don't know much about Floral Design, but my sister majored in just that department, so here she is to give you some tips!

Hi.

Well, this centerpiece is for a table where people will sit.  With that placement, there are two options:  tall and thin, like what Jill did, or short.  The point is to make sure it doesn't block people's view of each other--otherwise, someone will put it on the floor.  

When using a tall, thin vase, you can use long stemmed flowers like Jill, but you don't actually have to.  If you only have shorter flowers, you can do an arrangement that is completely inside the vase.  (I actually think live flowers submerged or floating in a tall vase are beautiful.)  

Just some basic things to consider: 

Scale:  Keep the centerpiece components in proportion to each other and to their surroundings.  A small arrangement on a big table will be underwhelming.  One large arrangement, or several small ones will look better.

Color:  The basic color schemes are monochromatic, analogous (using colors that are next to each other on the color wheel---red, orange and yellow, blue and purple, etc.),  and complementary (colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel---red and green, blue and orange, yellow and purple).  Using complementary colors will give you high color contrast, and using analogous colors will give a softer contrast.

For the purpose of flower arrangements, green is not a color unless you're using green flowers.  All plants have green, so it's ignored.  So, you don't have to worry about making the foliage fit your color scheme.

Feel/Mood: Consider the feeling you want to create or complement.  Big, bold flowers for a little girl's fairy princess birthday party might not be the best choice.  Light airy flower and leaves might fit better.  Also, do you want the arrangement to be dramatic or subtle/soft?  A show-stopper or an accent?

Balance: An arrangement needs to look stable.  If it has a big bloom stretching way over past the edge of the vase, unless it has something to visually balance it, it will make people uncomfortable because it will look like it's about to fall over.  Large things have more visual weight then small things (surprise!), and dark things have more visual weight than light colored things.  Sometimes you can even provide balance with a knickknack next to the arrangement.

Symmetry: You probably already know the two kinds of symmetry--symmetrical and asymmetrical.  Symmetrical things are probably easier for beginners.  For asymmetrical arrangements, just keep in mind that things need visual balance.  

Here's a rule that is helpful for any artistic endeaver: step back once in a while.  It will help you see what's working and what isn't.  

Finally, have fun and experiment!  Remember, unlike painting, drawing, sculpture or other art forms, your materials are beautiful to begin with.  Your job is to show them off.