Still so busy.....

I haven't forgotten about my blog or all of you. I'm still just crazy busy and have several things almost finished. It's been so crazy that we didn't even decorate for Halloween! How pathetic is that?

Anyway, I'm trying to finish up several orders of these...

And then maybe I can get back into the swing of things.

Quick Skirt

I made a skirt out of some knit fabric that I've had for.ev.er.

No, seriously, I mean forever. And I had a ton of it. I made this swim suit cover out of the same fabric. So, yeah, a lot of it.

Anyway, I had seen a cute ruffled knit skirt and decided I should have on for myself.

I came across a couple of different life changing techniques for gathering fabric. And I do mean life changing. The thought of gathering for ruffles doesn't even make me want to scream anymore.

First I cut two pieces of fabric long and wide enough to make the skirt. Then I cut the remaining fabric that I had into strips that are five inches wide. I only decided on 5 inches wide because that's how wide my ruler is and that makes everything easier.

Note: It is important to make sure that the stretch of the fabric goes across the strips and not down the length of them.

To gather all of these strips you simply sew them as normal, but while they are going through pull the fabric away from the needle on both sides.

 I used both hands while doing this but couldn't take a picture that way too. lol So, does that make sense? With the right hand stretch the fabric to the right and with the left hand stretch it to the left. That's why it's important that the stretch of the fabric goes across the strip of fabric.

 Just doing that while you're stitching along the strip gives you a result like this.

Then, I attached them to my skirt. I simply folded over the top piece and stitched it down to cover the top of the top ruffle.

It was really quick and easy. (Please ignore that I didn't make sure all the ruffles were smoothed down in this picture. lol) I didn't even hem anything since it's a knit. It just wasn't necessary.

If you haven't tried gathering this way you simply must. It will change the way you feel about it completely.

Another bracelet....

OMGosh y'all!!! It has been so crazy busy around here that it's been impossible to find the time to take pictures and get them posted.

I've got all kinds of things either made or in the process of being made. It's just getting them from 'there' to here.

Anyway, here is a bracelet that I made.

I saw these roundels and just fell in love with them. I also like to wear several bracelets at a time so decided to make this one three rows so I could wear it all along.

I LOVE how it turned out. The picture doesn't do it justice because you can't see how shiny and sparkly it really is.

Okay, I promise I'll be back soon with more.

Besides being busy with my day job I've made several name shirts and have orders for several different felt foods waiting to be made. (Having the electricity off for 6 hours last night certainly isn't helping me to get things made, either.)

New bracelet from trash

The girls and I had some fun playing with some of the trash from the office. We have a candy dish at the office and I keep the good stuff in there--the fun size candy bars. I saved up several of the wrappers that didn't get all torn to pieces when they were opened.

I put them on parchment paper in the oven at 300F for just a few seconds (probably about 30-45) and shrunk them down.

Keep a close eye on them because once they start to shrink, it happens fast.

After it shrunk down (it was less than half it's starting size) and cooled, I punched holes with a small hole punch and put a black chain on it.

The daughter wearing it thinks it's the coolest thing ever....and I'm good with that.

I left some in too long and they got really small. I liked that but the stuck to the paper in weird spots and couldn't be read any longer, so I may try again and see if I can get them small enough to make charms.

Who knew trash could be so much fun? Besides, if clients don't come in and eat the candy, I'll just have to do it.....in the name of art, of course.

Totally unnecessary changes

I don't know if you're like me in this, but I just can't stand reusing the tubs for margarine, sour cream, etc. And it's not that I have anything against them, I just don't want to open five containers to find the one that really has the sour cream in it.

Well, there is an answer to the problem!! It is totally unnecessary but if you prefer to recycle AND save money it's a wonderful solution.

The printing on these containers can be removed.


For real!!

Here are my supplies.....

A bottle of acetone (nail polish remover), a bowl (I used glass), a clean white rag, and the container you want to de-print.

Soak the rag with the acetone and wrap it around your plastic tub making sure the rag touches it all the way around. Then put it in the glass bowl. I put mine into the glass bowl upside down and then poured a little more acetone on it just to make sure there was enough.

Then, I wrapped it all in a plastic grocery bag to contain the smell and to keep it from drying out while it sets.

I let it sit like this for about 15-20 minutes.

Note: If you use a grocery bag like this, be careful not to get the acetone on the bag. It will remove the print from it too. Maybe onto your counter. Not that I would know from experience or anything.....it's just a theory.

Once it's set for awhile, unwrap it and use the acetone soaked rag to wipe the tub clean.

I've been doing it to all kinds of containers: whipped topping, grated cheese, yogurt, etc. I might not have to buy plastic storage containers again. woohooo!!

Spider Challenge

This is my first month participating in a craft challenge. This month's theme was spiders.

Of course, my brain froze with the idea of having to come up with something.

I decided on a felt black widow spider.

My original intention was to make a pin with it. Then Kirsten told me that she wanted my to put it on a hair clip.

Both seem to be reasonable ideas, right? But my little spider didn't turn out so little. If I put it on a hair clip it would take up the whole side of Kirsten's head. LOL

So for now, this little lady just sits on the island in the kitchen waiting for Halloween.

Hoping for cooler weather

I saw a recipe forever ago on how to make your own lip gloss. I bought everything I needed and never got it done.

Then, as I often do, I put the stuff away and couldn't find it again to save my life. I was recently complaining about it and Abigail thought she remembered seeing the little containers, and went to find them. She found them in the basket with all the cookie cutters. Why on earth I put them there I'll never no.

So, this time I got it made before I lost the supplies again.

All you need are petroleum jelly and flavoring. The original recipe used Kool-Aid but I wanted something that would have a sweet taste, not a lot of color, but no sugar. So instead I used the generic version of Crystal Light.

I just put some of the petroleum jelly in a microwave safe dish and melted it using 30 second intervals. When it was all melted, I stirred in a package of the drink mix. Then poured it into my clean containers and let it cool and set up again. And that's it!!!

I got these containers at Target. They were in the section with the travel size stuff and were in packages of two for $1. Can't beat that deal!!!

I like the fact that it goes on smooth, only takes a little, and is lightly flavored. Hopefully there will be no chap lips when the weather changes.