Doll Clothes Overload

So now that Christmas is over and gifts have been opened, I can show you what has been occupying my time. All the little girls in my life were getting dolls for Christmas, so I decided that I would make doll clothes for them. I had grand plans to make several outfits for each of them. I will have to be honest. I was a little disappointed in the outcome. All of the cutting and sewing of the tiny pieces took WAY longer than I had anticipated. So I was not able to make as many outfits as I had planned. My stitching kept getting wonky. You get the idea. Let's just say there were many lessons learned.

Here is what I made my youngest niece.

1 outfit, a sleeping bag and pillow, and a mermaid (from the new Wee Wonderfuls book)

I also finished the apron that I cut out for her last Christmas. It matches the one I made her sister last year.

This is what I made her sister.
1 outfit, coat and boots, sleeping bag and pillow, pillowcase dress, and a mermaid

This is what I made my other niece, which is pretty much the same.

Here is what I made Harper.

I was able to use one of my old t-shirts and a pair of her old leggings for several outfits, which was nice.

Harper and her doll in their matching PJs on Christmas morning. This was by far the biggest hit. She loved that they were able to match.

At the moment I am a bit burnt out on sewing. I am sure it will pass, but for now I am giving my sewing machine a break.

Happy Crafty Tuesday everyone.

Almost there

My crafting has been in high gear this week. I am really, really close to being finished with all my sewing. I am looking forward to just relaxing this week.

Here's a preview of some my projects completed this week.

Some bibs and burp cloths

The bottle cap necklaces all packaged up.

some custom cozies

Homemade Irish Cream and Pomegranate Cosmo

Hopefully, I will remember to take photos of the rest of the goodies before I wrap them up.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas.

Last Minute Advent Calendar

I really wanted to make a special Advent Calendar for the kids this year, but like always time slipped away from me. I mean seriously where did November go? Wasn't it just Halloween? Anyway, in a mad scramble to get one up before today we put a calendar together yesterday afternoon. Originally I was going to use envelopes, but I knew I would have to do two sets to avoid sibling conflict. That means I would need 50 envelopes. I knew I could scrounge up maybe 25, but not 50. I wanted to use things that we had on hand. Then I saw this post and knew it was a great compromise. I already had tons of tags cut out that we could use. I also had Christmas scrapbook paper that I have had for about 6 years. So we went to work. Miller pooped out after writing all of his numbers and making a couple of presents. But Harper worked very diligently on her calendar.

So each night I will place a treat, reward, good deed to do, riddle etc. behind the corresponding number. I was not organized enough to have it all together at once. At least this way I have a little time to come up with some good ideas.

We ran out of clothes pins so we had to improvise.

Happy December 1st everyone!!

Back in Action

I am officially back into the swing of things, well mostly. I am still having some motivation issues, but I was able to get one wholesale order done this week plus a couple of custom owls and a penguin. Not too bad. I am also brainstorming about Valentine's Day, but I am not sure if I will have time to get much together. We will just have to see.

Happy Crafty Tuesday everyone.

A Recycled Holiday- Magazine Bows

I am not going to claim that I came up with this idea all by myself. I had the idea to make bows using scrap paper or magazine pages. So I googled it and sure enough I found this video. She uses a brad to hold the bow together. Since I didn't have any brads and did not want to buy any, I searched a little further and found this tutorial. She uses staples and glue dots. She also cuts the strips to different lengths. Here's another one that uses a brad. If you scroll down there is also another tutorial that shows a different type of bow.

In an effort to use as few materials as possible and keep it simple, I tried several different ways and this is what I came up with. I ended up using one staple and a little bit of double sticky tape. It is a little tricky so you can staple more if you like. If you are really good you may be able to get away with just one staple.

What you will need:
scissors
magazine or scrap paper
stapler
double sided tape

I put several sheets together so that I could make several bows. Cut the paper into strips.

I ended up with 9 strips per sheet.

Take one strip and make a loop at one end. It took me few tries to figure out which way to loop it, but it didn't take long to get the hang of it.

Loop the other side so that you have a figure eight shape.

Grab another strip and place it on the bottom.

Loop both sides. This is where it gets tricky. You have to make sure you are holding all the pieces together so that you don't lose a loop.

Do it again.

Make the loops.

My front was looking a little bare so I started adding strips to the front.

Make your loops.

Keeping adding loops until you are happy with it.

I think that looks pretty good.

Now staple it in the middle. Don't worry if it gets smooshed a little. You can fluff it back out.

Take one of your strips and cut it into 3 pieces. You will have two left over for the other bows you will make. Trust me you will make more than one.

Make a loop. I taped mine together leaving a bit of the tape exposed so that I could just stick it to the inside of the bow.

Stick that loop in the middle. Stand back and admire your handiwork.

So pretty.

Now you don't have an excuse to buy bows this year.

Another Round of Birthday Craftiness

My niece's birthday was last week and she turned 3. I sure do love birthdays!! It gives me an excuse to be extra crafty.

I was asked to help with the invitations for the Rock and Roll themed party. I changed the information on this one to protect the innocent.

They handed out CDs and I helped to design the CD album cover. I sure do love photoshop too.

For her present I decided to make her an art box filled with eco-friendly art supplies. I bought an unfinished wooden box at Hobby Lobby. I painted the top with chalk paint and the bottom with purple. Then I used a glittery clear varnish for the top coat. Harper helped me put the gems on top and wrote Josie's name. I thought it was cute.

I also made her a crown because every birthday girl needs a crown, right?

This birthday present is not for my niece. This one is for my best friend from college. Hopefully she is not reading this today because I am putting it in the mail to her today. I used the Lickety Split pattern from Made By Rae. It was really easy and came together as the name implies. I have material picked out to make myself one too.

It's reversible, but I decided to put a smaller pocket inside for a cell phone, etc. instead of the larger pockets on the side. I didn't like the polka dot fabric as much and thought she probably will use the flower side more often.

Happy Crafty Tuesday everyone!!