Mommy's Addicted to Craft

Scrapbooking from Kits

2009-06-29T11:58:00.001-07:00

These kits that I have been contributing to through swaps have been so fun and have really been making my scrapbooking go so much quicker and the pages that are coming out are really cute. Here are three recent ones:

Scrappy Swapping

2009-06-23T15:21:00.000-07:00

Most of my craftyness has been for large swaps so I haven't been able to post pictures for fear of ruining the surprise for my partners.

Here are some scrapbook kit swaps that I have sent over the last few weeks. Basically everyone signs up for a different scrapbook page element like paper, tags, brads, diecuts, and other fun things. Then we all send in enough of that one thing for everyone and in return we end up with a kit that puts together a scrap book page (usually two or three pages even) really quickly.

These are tags for a School Days kit:

Journal Boxes for a Watermelon Kit:
Hello Kitty and Cookies and Milk journal boxes:

and embellished paperclips for a kit all about bugs:

I have done many more swaps the last few weeks, but always seem to forget to take pictures.

My next post will have some pages that I have made from these kits.

Saving the environment and my kid's sleeves

2009-06-13T23:09:00.000-07:00

I needed to make something for me. Well, something that stayed here anyway. I love swapping, but I do so much of it that I forget that things that my family wants and needs. Like cloth napkins. We have been getting by with about 16 or so for the last few months. Okay, since like Christmas time, but that had to change. I grabbed my huge tub of scraps and pulled out all the scraps I kept tossing in there saying "this will be a cloth napkin when I get around to making them.

I only made about 20, but that will last us for a little while longer. I used two 9"-10" cotton squares and got friendly with the serger. About an hour or so later I had these:

I must still be in serger mode because in between working on things for swaps, I have been sewing up some more cloth wipes for Bubba. I only have about a dozen or so and we end up using the disposable wipes which is actually more of a pain when you use cloth diapers. So I am making some more using either two layers of flannel or a layer of flannel and layer of terry and serging them together. I am working on curves with the serger by rounding the corners of these. One reason really is to practice with curves, the other is to keep the butt cloths rounded and the face cloths square. No need to mix those up.

Apologies...back to crafting.

2009-06-08T09:50:00.001-07:00

It has been almost a month since my last post and I apologize to anyone who was reading. With the move and everything, my life became hectic. I did do a few scrapbook swaps and some ATCs during this time, but mostly I just moved and packed and cleaned and moved and packed and cleaned. Bleh.

Now that we are moved in, and almost mostly out of boxes (my craft room is still a maze of boxes) I will be able to get more done.

Most of my crafting will be for two very large swaps that I am over at Craftster. So I won't be able to show pictures of those items until my partners receive.

Even More ATCs and Inchies

2009-05-12T23:17:00.000-07:00

I have been really stuck on the paper crafting lately. These small canvases are just too much fun and with packing up the entire house, I can leave the paper stuff out and not take up too much room. I also signed up for a ton of swaps and am running the Ongoing ATC swap over at Craftster.

These two are the Hawaiian Tiki God "Lono" and "Knitting Rainbows"

Fabric Bird

Cat and Kitten

The top ones are "striped heart" and the bottom ones are "Flight"

The "Flight" cards have an Amelia Earhart quote on them.

And last but not least, I have a set of Rainbow Summer Inchies to show off.

Explosion Boxes (Tutorial Link)

2009-05-11T13:09:00.000-07:00

Explosion Boxes have got to be one of the coolest gifts to give. On a message board I am on, there was a great tutorial for these boxes. I was unable to copy this person's instructions, but I did however find this great tutorial on a blog. The pictures and directions are super easy to follow and you end up with the world's coolest picture gift.

I made this box for my MIL's birthday. She likes a more simple style so I refrained from over embellishing this box. It wasn't that easy LOL I am going to let her pick out the pictures and other memorabilia she wants to put in it and then I will help her stick them down.

National Scrapbook Day in Review

2009-05-04T16:29:00.000-07:00

This weekend I participated in a few different National Scrapbooking Day events. I had so much fun playing games, scrapping, and posting pictures of the layouts and other things I made. These are some of the layouts I completed.

More ATCs and Inchies

2009-04-30T09:52:00.000-07:00

I have been on a papercrafting spree lately. Here are some of my recent pieces.

Flowers theme. The swap requested that 7 of them be the same. The other two are a different swap where it was requested they be the same. I know they are very similar, but I was really on this "stop and smell the roses" kick when I created them. The first two have the definition for "remember" and the others all say "stop and smell".

These are the summer inchies that I made. I used pictures from the 1950's of womenin bathing suits and one of them is diving. I plan to use that image for some Fairy ATCs as well.

UFO: lap quilt

2009-04-26T23:26:00.000-07:00

I joined a lap quilt swap on Craftster where I sent my fabrics to to the other quilters and they made really nice blocks for me. I then made the 1st block on the top for myself and when we had a flaker (boooooo!) I made the 3rd block in the top row as well.

I really need to finish this, but am unsure if I want to do a pieced sashing, a straight color sashing, or leave it like this. I also thought about adding more blocks to make it larger than lap quilt size.

I better decide soon, it needs to get done and will be on the May To Do List.

Knitted Kitchen Boringness and a pattern of sorts

2009-04-23T22:33:00.000-07:00

I made these for a swap and now I need to make more for me as my old ones are wearing out. I am just not sure I can bring myself to knit that much boring knitting right now LOL

For the knitted dishcloths, I used size 8 needles and CO 32 stitches. Then I just garter stitched my way up until the dishcloth looked about the right size.

For the scrubbies, I cut long strips of tulle and tied them together. Then, with size 15 needles I cast on 4 stitches. Knit one row and then increased one stitch the next row. After knitting another 3 rows or so, I decreased back to 4 stitches then did my BO.

Boring yes? Useful though.

Win two sandwhich bags from MamaMade

2009-04-20T20:19:00.000-07:00

MamaMade has the cutest stuff ever. Ever. I have two pair of pants from her and love everything in her etsy shop. The momma behind the scenes is way cool as I get to be cool enough to know her :D

Check out her blog Mama Made for the scoop. All she asks is that you leave her a comment, post on your blog, and post it on a forum for 3 entries!

While your over there check out her Etsy shop and other items she has for sale. Very talented momma. I am very inspired by her.

Scrapping to Catch Up

2009-04-20T10:48:00.000-07:00

My scrapbooks are so behind right now. I made a goal of 10 layouts a month and this April I have blown that out of the water and have already completed more than twice that many. I am hoping to catch up to the point where I have scrapped all the pictures I have printed out, which is about July of last year. Then I want to print out the pictures since then and hopefully have those all caught by Christmas. I would prefer to only be a few months behind on scrapping at the most.

Wish me luck!

Here are some of my favorites that I have done in my catching up madness:

More Chef Hats with a side of felt food

2009-04-18T20:17:00.000-07:00

I had to use the youcanmakethis.com pattern to make even more Chef Hats like the ones I did earlier this month. I made 3 more for the swap as well as replaced 2 of the previous ones because the wonkyness in the brim was just too much for me.

These hats come with a side of felt egg and pancake.

The pancakes are just two circles stuffed and sewn together. The egg has a yellow stuffed circle sewn to a freehand cut white felt egg white. Then another free hand cute egg white is sewn to the bottom and the egg is stuffed.

This hat comes with a side of yummy stuffed raviolis and marinara sauce.

Very simple, two 4" squares stuffed and sewn with a free hand cut piece of marinara on top.

This last hat has a cute Englebright "Home Sweet Home" theme with tea pots and everything so I made some stuffed tea bags to along with it.

I used two felt squares stuffed and sewn together to catch a piece of yarn and then added a small rectangle folded in half to the other end of the string. Then I used pink fabric pain to write "tea" and draw little flowers on the tag.

Inchies

2009-04-17T02:04:00.000-07:00

I was never really a fan of ATCs (artist trading cards) and I used to ask my swap partners not to send them to me. I just wasn't into them. Then I was introduced to inchies. I was curious so I did some research. Damn these things looked cool. Then I found chunky houses and chunky pages which looked pretty cool too.

Then the idea hit me. I want a neighborhood of chunky houses as a mural on my new craft room wall when we move. And I want the roads to be made out of inchies. And the intersections to be ATCs and/or chunky pages.

So I joined the Inchie swap on Craftster and started making my very own inchies. Here are the first 50 I have ever made. Most of them have been sent off to their new homes.

Here is a close up of my favorite one that will be staying here with me:

It's a little plain, but I really like it.

and this is the cat collection set:

I plan to make a lot more of the kitty inchies. And inchies in general. They are very addicting.

Spring Wardrobes

2009-04-13T17:04:00.000-07:00

I am still working on the kiddos Spring wardrobe.

It's the middle of April, but these long sleeved outfits will still be okay for a while. They are also made out of a light cotton so they are perfect for sunny days that aren't too warm. Each shirt also has a cute matching hat to keep the sun out of his eyes.

This long sleeve shirt was made for Bubba's night time wear. He refuses to use a blanket so this thin waffle knit will work great. The waffle knit was a bit of a pain to work with though. I plan to make the kids some more pajamas in the fall using a similar waffle knit (with really cute gators!) and I already went out and got some matching ribbing. I will be altering the pattern, or using a different one (Ottobre maybe?)so that I can add ribbing in hopes that the neck lines and hem lines will look much better.

This last shirt was a pain in the butt! After I FAILED the first attempt (good thing I was smartly using some $1 yard from Wal-Mart stuff) I looked online and saw that a lot of people had issues with this Hug T-Shirt from Otto 1/08. I found a few blogs with pictures that helped and the mention of a tutorial that I never found. I eventually came out with this shirt.

It doesn't fit great, but now that I can mess around with it, I may try it again and might even take some pictures along the way to help others.

One of the blogs I found used jersey instead of cotton for the trim and I may go ahead and try that as well.

I had a few more ideas for spring clothing, but I might just skip ahead to Summer wardrobes now that we are getting closer.

Reusable Sandwich Bag Tutorial

2009-04-09T17:45:00.000-07:00

I love the idea of reusable sandwich and snack bags. A while back I decided to try and make some. I took ideas from many different places, but I made these bags all on my own in a "start cutting and hope for the best" method. I think they came out pretty well.

Maybe not the most attractive, but they are super quick and easy to make and they work well.

Supplies:
*Serger (you can do this with a sewing machine, but it takes longer)
*sewing machine
*thread
*cotton fabric for outside
*waterproof material for inside (it is up to you if you want to use oilcloth, PUL, tablecloths, whatever. I do not suggest vinyl though)
* Velcro

Cut one 8"x7" square from both the cotton and the waterproof fabric. Then cut one 6"x7" square from each fabric.
Place the larger rectangles wrong sides together and serge the pieces together along one of the 7" edges. Repeat this with the smaller rectangles.

NOTE: Some people like to put the Velcro on now. I prefer not to as I never get it in just the right place, but if you prefer to add it now, by all means do so.

Then place the small and large rectangle right sides together. I used a pin to keep them together and from wrinkling under the serger. Serge the pieces together making sure that you serge the edges of the longer part all the way up.
This is what you will have after this step.
Fray check your edges and allow to dry before snipping the threads. Then flip the bag inside out and you will have this:

( I have not yet snipped those top threads...whoops)

Then it is time to add your Velcro. As I said above, I know a lot of people like to put the Velcro on before stitching the pieces together which makes a lot o sense. It is much easier to do on the sewing machine and if you prefer this method, by all means go for it.

The length of your Velcro is entirely up to you. Some people like the closure to go all the way across the top, but I prefer just a strip.

Place and pin the velcro where you want it, making sure that they meet when you close the fold. Use the soft side of the Velcro on the outside and the scratchier stuff on the inside flap.

That was easy right? And quick too. Here is your finished product open
and closed

You can also use two small squares to make a matching snack pouch using the same method as above. I add the Velcro on these before stitching them together as it is a little easier to calculate where they need to be.

Try making the sandwich bag smaller for snacks that might fall out of this kind of bag as well. I will be making some for Goldfish crackers.

I hope this tutorial makes sense and that someone somewhere gets good use out of it. I don't care if you want sell the items made from this tutorial, however I really doubt it would sell as they don't come out too professional looking.

Send me a message if you make some and I will post it here!

April's To Do List

2009-04-07T13:16:00.000-07:00

I usually make myself a list of crafty things that I want to get done in a particular month. I posted my March list in my signature on Craftster and completed everything on there. Granted, there were not that many things...but I completed the list and that is that.

A friend of mine blogs over at Stitches and Knits (very talented girl who has made me some WONDERFUL items) and she posts her list on her blog. I have been striving to revive this blog and keep it going so posting it here sounded like a GREAT idea!

April's Crafty Goodness

1. ~~9 Chef Hats~~
2. ~~9 dishcloths~~
3. ~~3 scrubbies~~
4. ~~50 inchies~~
5. Scrapbook layouts
6. ~~cupcake apron~~
7. chef hat, apron, and oven mitt set
8. ~~Hug T-shirt~~
9. ~~Sweet Pie's Easter dress~~
10. cabled bag
11. ~~sandwich bags with tutorial~~
12. ~~Felt food~~

Chef Hats from You Can Make This

2009-04-05T15:51:00.000-07:00

These chef hats from youcanmakethis.com are just too cute an the pattern is free. You just sign up for an account and download the free pattern. The pattern includes sizes from baby (which turned out really super small, too small for Bubba) all the way too adult. The directions are well laid out and even include diagrams to help you along the way.

I wanted to make 4 hats for different swaps I am currently in and of course my younger kiddos needed a hat each as well. Miss Turtle would not be caught dead in a homemade anything, let alone a cute chef hat. So I set out to produce 6 hats assembly line style. They did take me the better part of a day, but I like to chat online and fart around on Facebook and stuff while I craft. So really, they are very quick and easy to put together even an entire fleet of them. Sweet Pie helped me pick out the fabric and away we went.

I did have a few problems with the cutting of the pattern and the attachment of the brim to the hat crown and I modified it to my own liking. You can read about the modifications as well as my entire review of the pattern at Pattern Review.

I cut the fish fabric how the pattern told me and I had so many problems with the band being super wonky. The outside looks okay, but the inside not so much. I might have to use those ones as extra play hats and make two more for the swaps. I am entertaining the idea of making a bigger one for Bubba and one for myself as well, so there may very well be another batch production coming up soon.

All in all, I think these turned out super cute. Sweet Pie and Bubba sure seem to think so :D

European Patterns

2009-04-01T23:21:00.001-07:00

European patterns are adorable. I look at the glossy pages of my Ottobre Design mags and oooh and ahhhh over the adorable clothes. The directions assume that you have a good general knowledge of sewing technique and piecing together clothing. This isn't too bad for me. I can do this.

But did I mention you have to trace the pattern from this:

Fortunately the end result is so worth it. Even when they are very flawed like so:

These pants are the "Iguana Overalls" from the 1/07 issue. They were a case of "I should just go to bed before I screw them up even more", but I stayed up because I just HAD to finish them. I am glad I did finish them although I should have paid closer attention to what I was doing and maybe have been a little more alert.

Another Euro pattern company I have grown to love is Fabernmix. I have made the Olivia dress twice now and plan to make more. Here is example number one:

You can't really see the cute little knotted hood on the back. I finished another one up tonight and will try to get pictures of Sweet Pie wearing it so I can show off the hood.

Beginning Again

2009-03-29T03:35:00.000-07:00

For some reason I have not been able to stay on the Blogging Train very well. I have been super crafty and have participated in many crafty contests and games. I have sewn, knit, and played with resin and clays and produced beautiful things, and some not so beautiful things, that I have even gone so far as to photograph and upload to various websites.

So what not here?

I am not sure there is an answer to that question, only action to take.

Here are some recent sewing projects I have completed.