Wood Blocks

I had a bit of fun with my Cricut for the holidays :) I bought this great program called Make The Cut that makes it so you don't have to buy and use cartridges. You can create whatever you want on your computer then cut it with your Cricut.


I mostly just used it to cut out letters using my favorite font but I did find this soccer ball image:


The other great thing about it is you can overlap the letters to cut a word as one piece instead of individual letters:


And I guess I forgot to take a picture of the gift I made for my mom using a block the same size as the "Believe" block; it said "Grandma" and underneath that word it said "Established 2007" since that's when my son, her first grandchild, was born.

Cute. Ness.

Oh and one little thing I found was to wrap the sets that have many blocks using cellophane (that clear wrapping paper) so they stay together the way you want them displayed and the person opening it won't have to unwrap it in order to see what it looks like. If you're mailing it though, do what my friend did for me when she gave me a set and take a picture of them set up then include that in the box.

BTW all of these were made with letters cut from paper, not vinyl. I'm still a little gun shy about cutting my precious vinyl for the first time! lol

EDITED TO ADD: In this original post I never explained how I made the blocks because when I gave these gifts to my cousins, one said to her 7-year-old niece "Did you see what Star made? I don't know how she did it!" and her reply was "It's pretty obvious." lol It was awesome.

But for those of who don't find it obvious ;) all you do is buy the wood (2x4s or whatever you like) at Home Depot, mark them to the size you want, saw them, sand them, paint them, cut paper, distress edges of paper with Distress Ink, Mod Podge paper to the block, let dry then Mod Podge over the paper and stick on the letter you cut with your Cricut, then after it dries Mod Podge once more. The end.

Rag Stockings

Forgive me but this is more of a shared idea than a full blown tutorial because I have too much stuff to do before Christmas to take the time to put a tute together! :)

It's so simple though.

I saw these cute stockings on Etsy last year and just kinda copied them the best I could. Wish I could remember who's shop it was.

Anyway I just traced an old stocking I had onto some newspaper and cut it out. Next I traced that piece adding a 1/2" seam allowance around the entire thing onto a more sturdy paper. Then I took the newspaper stocking, cut the heal, toe and top where I wanted, and took each cut piece and traced it onto the sturdy paper adding a 1/2" seam allowance all the way around each one. I used those as pattern pieces to cut my fabric. From there you just pin and sew the five pieces wrong sides together and cut slits in seam then wash!

I realize this is completely unclear so email me with any questions :D

Crocheted Star Ornaments

You can make these using yarn if you'd like, but I had a bunch of jute twine and liked the look of it for these ornaments. I used an "I" hook and my stars are 2&1/2" with a 3" tie.

First, make a magic ring (aka magic circle, disappearing circle, ajustable ring) and leave a 6" tail. All that is, is the circle you make when starting a slip knot but instead of tightening it like you would with a slip knot, you crochet into it. This way you don't have to make a circle out of chains and there's not a big hole left afterwards because when you're done you tighten it.

Next, make 5 single crochets in the circle, slip stitch to finish that row then chain 3x and single crochet in 2nd chain from hook. Now half-double-crochet in next and slip stitch in next then repeat until you have 5 points on your star. Take your tails from starting and finishing and weave them to one of your points then use them as your tie. I love when I can avoid weaving in the ends :)

Questions are always welcome!

Birthday Party Ideas

Note that parts of this are Spiderman themed and others are not... it wasn't intended to be themed but it came together that way more and more as we prepared it all.

First project made with my new $59 Cricut!! Thank you Black Friday! I even laminated them :)

The hubs gets credit for this awesome web made out of streamers:

How cool is this thing?!

I made him re-create it for the party that weekend - look in the back corner at the big one. Awesome!

Here's the little "practice cake" we gave him on his actual birthday:

Here's the big cake for his party. I ordered a plain white cake from Costco and decorated it myself.


I originally made these cool recycled envelope bags using this tutorial from What About Orange. Then I put a sticky hand in each once and the oil from it made it look like a greasy fast food bag :(

So when I saw these on It Is What It Is, I knew what I had to do. I used my circle cutter to cut out the "D" and I cut out a blue background with my scrapbook scissors. I glued them onto paper bags and tied with a cute ribbon. Ta-da.

Now that my gift bags were 10 times bigger they looked empty so I made these simple party favors. I used this Pinwheel tutorial from City Cradle Design for the paper part but I didn't have any dowels and every other tutorial said to use a push pin and a pencil. I wanted them more toddler-friendly so I used a bendy straw with a pom-pom hot-glued to the front. After playing with it post-party, I found they work better when you flatten the paper. Oh well.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Washer Ornaments

Last year I used Nannygoat's tutorial to make these cute ornaments for each of my cousins. I stamped the different family names on each one and tied it on the handle of their gift bag. I'd love to find some more uses for my steel stamping set if you can give me any more ideas :)

Birthday Banner

Hi! Remember me?!

It's been a while I know.

So here is another goodie from a while ago since I don't have anything new to share! Thanks to Darling Darleen for sharing this easy, free, personalized happy birthday banner that I've used twice already (btw you must check out her friggin sweet monster truck costumes she made for the party out of cardboard boxes). I had the first banner saved on my computer so the second time around I simply changed the font color, child's name and added "1st". I also tied on some leftover tulle that you can barely see in the pic. Here is my original document in case you don't want to bother choosing fonts and colors. Enjoy!

Arm Warmers

My boy loves to put gloves, mittens, his sister's leg warmers and everybody's socks on his hands and arms yet it never occurred to me to make him arm warmers until I saw this post by I Am Momma - Hear Me Roar.

So I bought a 3-pack of men's knee-high socks at Target for $5 and got to work.

They just look like a long-sleeved shirt underneath a t-shirt Sorry about the terrible lighting but you get the idea!

Fruit Bouquet

Totally. Awesome.

Here's a fun one for ya!

Check out Incredible Edible Crafts for the simple how-to.

This cost me about $10 for all the fruit and the cookie cutters.

I'll definately be making more in the future!!

Tutorial: How To Make A Cupcake Stand (CHEAP!)

I should change my blog name to "Cheap and Easy" LOL

Fabric Basket

Cute huh?! I made this last year for my then 2-year-old to use for trick-or-treating but didn't bother to check the finished size before starting because I was too excited. It's really, really small so if you're going to use it as a Halloween basket you should probably make it bigger.

I added the "BOO" by carefully cutting letters from my leathery fabric then stitching a different printed fabric behind each letter right around the letter's edge. I altered the handle as well using corset boning so it would stay out of the way and so that my little guy could easily hold it.
Here is the link to Pink Penguin's tutorial which is not a Halloween basket - hers is super duper cute, you have got to see it. This is where I learned to box corners!

I think I need to make another one more like hers to throw all my strings in as I sew. Enjoy!

Tutorial: How To Make Crocheted Beanie Ears

I know I've really been MIA lately, sorry. So once again I've found a project that I made a long time ago that I will now share with you since I haven't had time to make anything new lately!

These kitten ears are just triangles but you can add round ears, long ears whatever. I just decided where I wanted the ears and attached pink yarn at the right-most side of the first ear then crocheted a few rows decreasing as I moved up. I then crocheted around the edge of the ear with black and voila. I added a tulle bow for a little extra something.

Although she didn't have a full costume, my baby girl was a kitty for her very first Halloween because her big brother was a doggie :)

Tutorial: How To Make A Vinyl Catch-All Bib

You know those frigging awesome catch all bibs from Walmart that cost $5 and are only "wipeable" on one side? Well they're my favorite except the fact that I have to replace them constantly since you can't wash them (only wipe) and the back gets gross so fast.

SOOOO I decided to make my own with both sides being wipeable and boy oh boy I love them so much!

I made my daughter's with that vinyl that has the fuzzy stuff on the back. $2/yard at Walmart:

Then since they didn't have a cute boy patterned vinyl I just made my son's with the clear stuff and it's actually kind of cool how it's see through! And only $1 something per yard!!! This one is even easier since you don't have to sew at all... just cut and add snaps:

All I did was use my old bib as a pattern.

For my daughter's I had to cut 2 pieces (each a little bigger than the bib for seam allowance) and sew them right sides together leaving an opening at the bottom to turn then topstitch all the way around. If you want more details on sewing this see my other bib tutorial here, it's the same idea minus the batting.

For my son's I only had to trace and cut one piece.

Once the bib is made you add snaps (I like the hammer on kind) in the same place as the Walmart bib's snaps (except I excluded a couple that I felt were not necessary) and you're done.

They're so easy to clean and the only *true* catch-all bib, in my opinion, because the bottom actually sticks out instead of lying flat, because of the snap placement and shape of the bib.

I think I'll be adding these to my Etsy shop since I think everyone should have one!

Tutorial: How To Make A Fabric Covered Canvas

Do you ever look at something you have owned for a while and go, "What the crap"?

I do all the time.

Case in point:

So I got some fabric and found my husband's staple gun.

I know it's been done before. By everyone and their dog.

But I finally did it myself and took some pics to help explain how to do the corners.

Hopefully it's helpful to someone out there!

You can use a canvas like I did or make your own frame.

Here's how you do it...

Staple it all around the back except on the corners. Just leave those alone for now.
Then fold fabric so the back corner of the canvas is mitered leaving the rest loose.
Then you take what was left and pull it taught, placing another staple on the back of the canvas.
Repeat with each corner then add the hangy thingy and you're done.

Tutorial: How To Make A Rag Rug

This is a great little project that I plan to do again one day. It's a rag rug that I made using a big ol' crochet hook and some strips of fabric. You just cut long strips out of whatever fabric you want and connect them together by cutting a slit in each end so you can make a slipknot. Treat it like yarn and crochet whatever shape rug you want with the fattest hook you can find. I just made a chain and crocheted row after row of single crochet stitches til it was the size I wanted. I then worked around the edges to give it a finished look.

My hands KILLED as I did this... I think it was because my fabric was heavier AND I cut my strips too wide for the hook I had. Do what feels good to you. It shouldn't hurt your hands like it did for me :) I'd love to see yours!

Brim Beanie

This is what started it all. I made this brimmed beanie for my son a couple years ago and posted it on my family blog. It was a hit so I started making them for friends and family.

People encouraged me to sell them and one friend told me about selling handmade items on Etsy (something I'd never heard of before) so I set up a crochet shop there with this one item that was customizable.

It was such a thrill to sell to someone I'd never met before! I don't think I'll ever forget the name of my first buyer.

But of course I got tired of making hats and opened a new shop where I could make whatever I wanted whenever I got bored of something :)

But nevermind all that! Let's get to the how-to...

Most crocheters probably already know how to make a beanie (if not, check out The Happy Hooker) but I learned to do the brim from this video on YouTube by Teresa from The Art Of Crochet. I changed it up a little bit the more I practiced and got the hang of it. I increased a little more at the edges of the brim's 1st row and didn't make it as wide as hers but everything else was the same (oh and I didn't do the backwards single crochet at the end either).

Happy "Hooking" lol!

Tutorial: How To Make A Headscarf

If you haven't noticed... I'm finding LOADS of uses for my jersey fabric lol :)

I was making more Loop Scarves to sell in my shop when I noticed that the fabric store cut my jersey a little too long so I trimmed about 10" off the end and viola - my new favorite accessory was born!

I don't get to just pull my hair back when I'm having a bad hair day since it's so short so this has been a lifesaver for me. Plus I've seen it on long-haired ladies with their hair up and I love it.

SO here's another tutorial that's so easy I feel silly even calling it a tutorial :) My fabric was 60" wide to begin with so it was already the perfect length and you could do it however thick or thin you prefer.

Notice that my grey one is more curled at the edge because I've worn it over and over stretching it out, whereas the others are brand new.

What do you think? Is it time to move on to something new already? Geesh! Sorry.

I told you I get obsessed.

And you thought I was exaggerating didn't you? :/