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Trying to stay warm this winter? How about trying out the Fleece Ear Warmer Pattern by Hadley Grace Designs.
Its cheap and includes a TON of instructions to make your Ear Warmer unique. It also comes with sizes baby to adult so you can outfit the whole fam from one pattern. Pretty cool.
Happy Sewing!!
Why not give a Hadley Grace Designs Gift Certificate?? Available in any amount...just contact me to update the listing.
Or better yet....send the link to your special someone as a very subtle HINT HINT ;)
I will send you a nice certificate you can print off and even wrap up or use as a stocking stuffer.
Happy Shopping and Happy Holidays!!
Know a little girl that would love a pair of ruched leggings?
They are fun and easy to make!
All of these styles are included in the Hadley Grace Designs Pattern. Go check it out!!
I recently tested out a pattern for Baby Blvd. Have you heard of that shop? It is SO cute!! She offers some fun PDF Patterns like these:
But she also offers already made items too for those that can't sew or just don't feel like it!!
She asked me to review a few patterns for her. I reviewed the Regular Quad Scripture Cover Pattern.
I made two of them during one naptime. I think it might have taken just as long to cut them out as it did to sew them. I love projects that go fast!
The pattern was really easy to follow. 
She has great diagrams and pictures to help you along each step of the way. They seriously flew together! If you are looking for a unique gift for Christmas or a baptism, this is a great pattern to try out! Or just make one for yourself and doll up your scriptures!
I am also going to review her Scripture Tote Pattern so stay tuned!
Originally posted at It's So Very Cheri for a blog swap. Reposting this here in case any of you missed this project, and for blog keepsake purposes!
The project I am sharing for you today was SUPER easy. Onto the tutorial....
Start with a cute plate. I got mine from Walmart for a dollar or two.
Then design your phrase in Make the Cut.
This is one of the print preview modes so you can more easily see what will print.
Here is the machine doing the work for you and cutting out the vinyl.
Here is a sample after it has been cut.
After it is cut out, peel off the main background and toss it.
Use your transparency tape and adhere it to the whole word strip. I only wanted to do the top word first, so I cut mine in half lengthwise so I could adhere the first word by itself.
Once the word 'together' was in place, then I lined up the second word strip and stuck it to the plate once it was positioned correctly.
Wah-lah! It is a fun saying and an easy Mother's Day gift. I know it was last Sunday and all but I couldn't spoil the surprise. So this is also a fun gift for anyone that needs a quick pick me up! Change the saying to fit whatever the occasion! You could also include a plate hanger or plate stand to display...but since I am in the middle of the move, I don't really have one out to use for pics. So you will have to visualize that one on your own!
So I have been trying to come up with a way to make my hubby's 30th bday a BIG one! I am one of those people that love traditions. I love to make somewhat ordinary days even better. I think the best way to do this is to have some fun "special" traditions in place. I have found a ton of cute ideas on the web I want to incorporate plus some of my own. But this year for my man, I decided to ask everyone I possibly could to write a special birthday wish for him. I asked for a favorite memory or something they admired about him too. Just cuz a bunch of "Happy Birthday" messages alone, while nice, might not mean quite as much to him. I hacked his Facebook account and his email account and asked everyone to send me a quick note. I even created a special email account just for this purpose so he wouldn't see it on accident. I got a great response. I was SO pleased!! (I think the coolest thing about this project was that it will not only be cool for him to see what people like about him, but I also learned quite a bit about him too. Not bad for being married almost 7 years. I guess there is always something to learn about each other!)
My first idea was to use a deck of cards and make one of those fun "52 Things" books. I was going to put 52+ memories/wishes. But I figured it had been done before and wanted to create my own idea. Plus, once some of the memories rolled in, I realized a lot of them were too long to fit in such a small space.
I figured out how big I wanted my book to be, well at least the pages. I wanted to be able to get 8 memories on a page, 4 on each side. 
I set up the margins in Word and created 2 columns. I copied and pasted everyone's wishes from their emails and changed the font type and size so they would all match. I wanted to print the wishes on both sides of the paper so I could create an actual book, similar to the way they bind some books. 
Then I figured out this oh so high tech way of making sure they were printed correctly. See the crazy chicken scratch below.
I decided to do 2 sheets of paper stapled together. I will explain it, but I don't know if it really makes sense to anyone but me!! Basically what I did was take 2 sheets of scratch paper and fold them in half lengthwise and the short way too. Then I ripped them in half lengthwise since that is how I wanted mine to be. I put all 4 of the pieces on top of each other and numbered each side 1-16. Then I took them apart and matched up each of the halves so they were whole again. Now I could see which memories I needed to place where so when they were bound they would match up. Most of the time it didn't really matter where they were printed, but if they were really long and needed 2 pages to them, that is when I needed them to match up. Make sense?? I hope so. Then I had to do this a few more times because I had more than just 16 memories. I am sure there is an easier way but my mind was only working this way. (I was also trying to make cookies and brownies and keep my crazy kiddos happy. I was actually surprised that the whole thing lined up when I was done!!) 
Once I actually printed them all out, I cut them in half lengthwise and stapled them. 
I did this in groups of 4 just because I didn't want to have too much bulk. I cut a piece of 12x12 cardstock in half. Then later I ended up cutting it down so it wasn't too tall for my paper.
Then because I don't have a scorer. I just used my fancy ball point pen and my paper cutter's indents to score the edge of the book in two places. I did it about 6.25" in from each side.
Then it created a book with an edge.
I decided to round off my corners to give it a little more of a fun look, but not too girly.
Then I grabbed some E-6000 glue to use for the "binding." This stuff holds well but stinks pretty dang bad. So beware and use in a highly ventilated area.
Slather some on and put in your pages. You could use clips to keep this tight til it dries. 
I would give it enough time to dry too. It takes a little while.
Then I added paper that I had distressed on the front and back of the book. I decided to not put anything else on the front mainly because its for my hubby. I think simple and manly is better for him. I doubt he would appreciate much frill or girliness!
And like that, there is a book ready for the old man...well he is only 30 and since I will be there very soon too. I guess I won't crack any over the hill jokes on his behalf. I can't wait to see his reaction!!
I will admit. I am not really up on all of the texting and IM (instant messaging) terms. I don't have a tween and I do IM but I will confess that it was the "new" thing when I started college. But since I am an avid abbreviator at heart, I do like the "idk" or "hagtd" of the texting worlds. ("I don't know" and "Have a great day" if anyone was really wondering.)
When I started doing this blog, I definitely was not new to crafting. Just like many of you, my personal family blog was being taken over at times by my crafting world. Plus, I thought it would be fun to have a completely different blog where I didn't always focus on poop, napping and entertaining my crazy kiddos. So I have a TON of projects on my personal blog that I really would like to put out "there." I will tell you right up front, these are not necessarily my ideas. Usually they were craft inspired, but not always. If I have a link to help you out with a tutorial or further clarification, I will put that on there. But I did craft these and since this is a public "journal" so to speak of my crafts, I want these on here too. If it inspires someone, to go back to one of these, then that is awesome too! So I think I will refer to these types of posts as "Oldies but Goodies" (hence the OBG in the title).
We headed off to Arizona for Spring Break and while we were there, I spied a few past things I had given my Mother-in-Law. One of these I thought would be perfect for an OBG post. I gave t his to her a few years ago and this was actually my idea...although I am sure others have done it too!
I don't know if everyone has heard of this site or not, but most probably have. Wordle is a really cool site! We wrote down a bunch of words that we felt described my mother in law, including a few nicknames my hubby has for her. We typed them into wordle and adjusted the color to match the scrapbook paper and cardstock we had chosen for her. We adjusted the size and printed it out from the computer. Then we matted it onto cardstock and matted that onto the scrapbook paper. Then we used a simple black frame to frame it all. It turned out really nice and my MIL really enjoyed it. 
This could be a really fun thing for kids for their bedroom decor or even for a baby's room. You could even do words from nursery rhymes or favorite books. If you didn't want it framed, you could also do something similar with vinyl on the wall. You can also use all different colors, we just used different shades of purple to match the paper we had. I tend to try to come up with more thought provoking type gifts if I can be creative enough! I think this one was a great way to express the characteristics we recognize and attribute to my MIL. I would love to know if any of you have created anything fun from Wordle. Put a link to your post in a comment or email me pictures. I would love to feature them. Now, go create something new or something old-inspired.
I am a HUGE fan of felt flowers lately. I have made quite a few for my little girl and when I saw this idea on DIY Dish, I knew I was all about making it for me too! If you haven't seen their site, seriously, go check it out. They have some great episodes and they just barely started so you don't have too much great craftiness that you need to catch up on!
Print out their great pattern for the flowers. I have also seen a great one a long time ago that is a little simliar at Yoonie at Home's. Cut out two of the largest size flowers.
This is what it looks like just flat without sewing, which I think actually looks pretty gorgeous! I ended up doing my flower with only 5 of the layers too. I took off the smallest one because I just thought it looked great without it.
Fold the hearts in half. You are going to sew at the bottom of them. I did this one with a machine to see if it was easier. I don't really know if it is or not. You can also just sew it by hand using a needle and thread.
Stitch forward and back a few stitches on each "heart."
Then your flower starts to "pop" and look more realistic.
This is what the back looks like. Continue with the rest of the flowers in the same fashion.
Then just sew through all of the layers after you line them up so their petals are opposite the one below it.
Then I snipped two little parts in the back to put a clip in place. I used some hot glue to keep it there so it didn't fall out. Then I ripped a piece of satin into a little shred and rolled it into a ball with my fingers. I sewed that onto the smallest flower to create a center. It was SO easy. Seriously, anyone can do this. I helped my friend who has hardly sewn at all make one of these and I helped teach a group of 8-11 year old girls make these too. A great craft for anyone! Plus, you can use this in your hair alone, put it on a headband, beautify a bag or purse, clip it onto a belt or on a pillow or blanket or shower curtain...anything goes! You could also make a bunch of these and attach them to a "stem" to create a beautiful bouquet of flowers that won't wilt! So cute and I have one in pink and another in black that are TOO fun! Any color is beautiful! 
For those, I added 3 little pompoms (7mm in size) to create a flower center but you could also use jewels, beads, pearls or another fun embellishment.
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