Bench

So most of you out there have probably heard of the fabulous blog Knock Off Wood. Well I finally tried out one of her plans and couldn’t be more pleased with the results! I thought I’d start with something simple and this is what I made (all by myself I might add!) I hope to make more things from her site (money and children allowing)

Up and Away

Finally posting something :)

I’ve done lots of creative things lately just been too lazy to take pictures and post them. But I have new posts coming….if anyone out there is still reading this little blog o’ mine.

I love the silly smile on Porter’s face, oh how I miss having a little toddler learning new things even if that includes things they shouldn’t do.

B.O.B.

B.O.B. is all I’ve done for the last 2 days and it’s a good thing it turned out as well as it did.  

The last picture is my littlest monster dressed as B.O.B.

Skirt from slacks (tutorial)

Before

After

These used to be one of my favorite pair of slacks on my hubby. When the seems around the waist and pockets started fraying I was sad until….. I saw a cute skirt in my head!!!!!

I have to add that my mom asked where I got the skirt. When I told her she had a look of astonishment as she looked the skirt up and down! I had already told her about making it just the day before but she didn’t realize that it was the one I was wearing. It was the best compliment I could have gotten!!!

I entered this at Kimba’s DIY day over at A soft place to Land

I’ve tried to write down how I did it, if you have any questions feel free to ask!!!

1. use your seem ripper to undo the outside side seems of each leg. (I did the outside of the legs because those seems were fraying a bit, and I wanted to use the inside seem as part of the skirt) Also undo the hem seam.
2. Measure how long you need your skirt to be and add about 4 inches to that number (mine was 25 inches). I measured 25 inches from the old hem seem (the bottom of the pants will become the top of the skirt) and put tick marks all along the pants and then cut it off. Now you have 2 panels that each have a front piece and back piece already sewn together. The back of the pants were naturally a little bit larger which works out perfect for the back of the skirt to fit over your bum =).
3. Next I sewed them all together to make the tube of the skirt. You can easily tell the back because it is slightly larger, at this point I marked the back middle seem just so I wouldn’t have to keep figuring it out.
4. Now I pulled it on and literally pinned the side seems to what I was wearing where the side seems should be. I then pulled the front middle seem out in front of me and measured how much excess there was, mine had 2 inches excess in the front and 3 inches in the back. I put in the darts and absolutely HATED the way it hung so I took them and out and simply took in the front and back seems starting with 1 1/2 inches and gradually meeting up with the existing seem. Then I did the same on the right side starting with 1 inch. ( I did the left side when I did the zipper) ( See how the seem is bigger at the top? I didn’t cut off the excess because the edges were already surged to prevent fraying.)(Here you can see that is is just a flat front with out any pleats in it.)
5. Now I needed to make an opening for the zipper. I chose the left side of the skirt and unpicked about 6-7 inches for the zipper opening. Remember that that is still one of the original seems of the pants so we are not undoing any sewing that we have done so far. I simply followed the instructions on my zipper package, To this day Zippers still scare me, I don’t know why, they aren’t that scary once you get started. Just remember to take in any remaining inches that you need to (I forgot to do this and had to do my zipper twice)
6. Once your zipper is in use the remaining pieces of the pants and make a facing. I’m sorry I don’t have a picture of what my cut out piece looked like before I sewed it on, but you can see it in the picture above. Then simply sew the facing to your skirt, iron the seem and hand stitch the facing to the zipper. Do what ever top stitching you want or even simply stitch the facing to your seem allowance on the inside of you don’t want any top stitching at all ( I hope that made sense.)
1. Remember to finish off the edges of your facing piece. I always hate doing stay stitching (I don’t have a surger) but always regret it when I don’t. I think the hem and facing are the only places I had to do it on this project because all the other seems were still done from the slacks.
7. Next I hemmed it up and added top stitching to the front and back seem and to the hem and the top of the skirt.

Okay now if anyone is still reading this please tell me which shoes you lie best. You know how men are…. ;-)

Welcome Little One!!! 2S4Y

My sister had a new little baby boy on Wednesday! So of course I needed to make a cute baby card! She didn’t know if it was a boy or a girl until he arrived so I whipped this card up and can’t wait to see the little man on Saturday!!! Although I’ve been informed that he needs bilirubin lights and I might not get to hold him =(. I was so hoping to snuggle and hog him since his cousin that was supposed to arrive next week is no longer coming.

I had already bought the cutest boy outfit for him (I just knew he was a boy) and when I made the card I realized that it matches his orange and blue striped outfit perfect!  

Title…. What’s in a Title?

EVERYTHING!!!! But for the life of my I couldn’t think of anything good to write for a title. Alas I am no writer. I wish I was but that is not one of my talents and I am okay with it.

I finally finished my friend’s Birthday present. It’s very simple, just an altered note book and a cute paper box with a bottle of Prima’s inside it. I also gave her some scrapbook paper. She recently moved here from across the world where supplies were outrageous!!!! So she is still collecting all the “fun stuff". (Of course who isn’t still collecting it?)

 

I found the notebook and Dollar Tree it came in a 2 pack. I made the box from a template found at Hemidemisemiquave. I created a lid for it.

2 Sketches 4 You

Yea I love it when I get time to play with the challenges out there in blogland! I also used some of my new Chatterbox that I won in a giveaway recently.

Have you ever had a card that was coming along just great….then somewhere in the middle you hated it….and then at the end you actually liked it again? This was just an interesting card in how it came together. I must say I’m glad it’s done and I’m glad I like it!

I finished something!

So nice to finally have something I can share with you! I have a lot of projects that I am working on but they are all in the “ing” department and now one has moved to the “ed” department!

Here it is!

 

I used this tutorial for using freezer paper as a stencil and went from there. I was in a rush and I used my heat embossing gun to dry the paint quickly and it worked awesome, I had this baby done in no time at all!!!!

Inside the bag is a little paper covered composition notebook and crayons. I had intended to include a little mini chalk board, chalk and eraser. Had them all done and then decided to have DH drill holes in it to add some ribbon…… should have left well enough alone! The drill split through the back, didn’t help that the bit wasn’t working well and so he pushed harder gurrrrrr. Oh well live and lean, but I had a lot of time in painting that thing today! My daughter was glad to inherit it even if it isn’t the cutest.

Here’s a peek at something I hope to finish Monday. Tomorrow we  are headed to a birthday party (that’s where the bag comes in) and then to the zoo with extended family. It will be a nice fun day and HOT!

Now that I see the one on the left on here it is pretty just the way it is, but I hope to make it even prettier with spray paint. This is a first for me but I’ve been watching all of you out there!

I got sick after all.....

I had a post all written up but who knows where it went out there in cyber space? Well I got sick after all....Spent the Monday going to the Dr. for my little one to see about getting him to grow, he's 4 and only in the 50 percentile for a 2 1/2 year old! Then that night I got sick and didn't get better until Wed morning.

I did do a cut out of freezer paper to do an iron-on transfer for my sister, but since she finished it at home I don't have a picture of it =( Ihope to do a shirt for my daughter soon!

I started working on a hair bow (one I've never done!) today and will post pics tomorrow when I finish it up. I have quite a few projects that just need to be finished so hopefully I can do that, but I do need to do something fun with my little guy too, he comes first and he misses having the big kids home.

So hopefully you will see something fun from me soon!!!

Hope everyone out there in blog land is well, sounds like we weren't the only house hit with the sick bug!

So much to craft so many sick….

I have sick people for most of the beginning of the week YUCK!!! I am almost done sterilizing the house in the aftermath. And now the kids are back in school so i hope to spend many great hours crafty in the weeks to come.

I’m just glad i didn’t get what everyone else had, but I really wanted to have something fun to post. I guess good things come to those who wait so just be patient and I hope to have something up soon!!!

Goodies

I got my goodies in the mail from Holly over at Charmed Life and I hope to play with them soon..... but today I have 1 sick child and 1 very MESSY house. Our Staycation was AWESOME but when you stay at home for a vacation and have 7 extra people over one night go wave running the next day and then leave to sleep at their house as soon as you get home from the lake you have 1 BIG mess. But it's okay cuz we had so much fun.

I hope to create something new soon, school starts on Thursday but I have plans of shopping with 1 kid instead of 3!!! Maybe after the shopping I'll get to PLAY in my craft room.

2 Sketches 4 You

Here’s my take on the sketch this week, it’s very simple but I really like how it turned out.

 

I won I won!!!

I can't believe I won a giveaway!!! YEAH go check out all the goodies I'll be getting here!

This really made my night!!! because it's been one of "THOSE" nights!

I was trying to hurry and shower after our swim with the family because DH's sister and family would be arriving to spend the night. So I started filling the sink to soak my swimsuit (can you see where this is leading?) well....I got in the shower enjoyed the warm water since the pool was cool tonight and when I got out I heard water running...glanced at the sink...which was still ON!!!! and water was spilling down the front the counter was cover in water and oozing down into the bathtub next to it. We have a really big counter and the whole thing was covered in water!!!

Then as I was cleaning it up I bumped a frame and as I was catching it it bumped a statue and crashed into the tub! SERIOUSLY I thought? So I got that all cleaned up and then as I was simply closing the bathroom drawer the clock fell off the wall and broke, even the hands and the gears just came off. Needless to say I left the bathroom and don't ever plan on returning to it!!!!

So.....now I'm sooo excited to have something to look forward to!!!

Raspberry Suite Challenge #14

I never seem to get time to do these before they are over and this time I did it the same day it was posted, WAHOOOOOOO!!!!!

This was hard for me, I usually don’t like to mix pinks with reds or purple with reds but this is just a beautiful combination. And I even scrapped something without kids!!!! I NEVER do that. I’ve also never done a page with so much white space, I have to keep reminding myself that it is DONE and to stop messing with it.

The little mirrors at the bottom were actually blue but I just used a makeup sponge and some purple ink and they turned purple so perfectly you wouldn’t know they didn’t come that way.

I hope I find time to do more of these in the future.

CPS sketch 128

This card sketch was a little outside the box and I LOVED it!!! I turned the sketch on it’s side.

I’m still not in love with my handwriting but I don’t hate it as much as I used to, I guess I just need more practice!!!