Hair Elastic Exposion

More bling for my daughter's hair and simple enough she can do it herself.  It's just basic elastics and material.  I cut the material into 8 inch by 1 inch strips.  Tie it on with a loop and pull the ends through.  Pull it tight and it will pop when you get it full. 

Put on as many ribbons as you want.  It is all dependent on how full you want it to be when its on.  This is what I did.  I used 15 ribbons of material tied on for 30 strands sticking out. 

This is what it looks like in her hair.  She loves the poof of color and the tiny sparkles on the material.  It was made of scraps I had around the house and basic hair elastics.  Total cost was under $1 per set.

XOXO Mist

Hair Flowers

I spent my morning shopping for a Birthday party my child was attending. As usual, I procrastinated to the last minute because I forgot. I'm good like that. I already had something in mind for the gift but when I got to the store I found out how much they cost and I was thoroughly miffed. Really? Six dollars for a headband? I don't think so. I'll make my own thank you. And so I went home to scrounge for some materials.

Nothing special as usual and all things that I had on hand. I have found that fabric scraps are really useful for small projects. For this project I used a scrap of t-shirt that I had on hand but you can use whatever you would like.

First, cut a strip of fabric about 1.5-2 inches wide and then cut them out into squares.

Depending on how large you want your flower will determine how many squares to cut. For mine I wanted a layered look that would not end up flat so I cut out 5 large squares and 4 smaller squares.

To assemble the petals, fold your square in half diagonally.

Put a dot of glue at the base of the triangle in the center and glue one side down. Repeat on the other side.

  

On the folded straight edge, place glue on one half of the base and then glue it to the other half of the base.

 Repeat this for all of your petals.

 Glue your petals together.

If you want your flower layered but not too thick then don't glue them too close together in the center. I wanted mine a little thicker so I glued mine close together on the bottom layer and the top layer. Glue the top layer petals to the bottom layer and then add embellishments to the center.

Glue the flower to your headband, elastic or clip.

 

That's it. If this inspires you to make your own, please link back to us and share the blog lovin.

Linking up at DebbieDoos

A Creative Princess

Hair flair.

My daughter was born as girly as it gets.  My house is naked Barbie heaven.  She wants to look the part too and so we find a lot of ways to create her girly style rather then buy it all.  Its pricey stuff but so simple and cheap to make. 

These are made from things we have in our house everyday.  Items to gather are alligator style hair clips, hot glue gun, scissors, material and a small piece of felt.  I buy the clips at Sallys Beauty Supply in a box of 500.  Its a ton of clips but we go through a ton here.  I think they are really meant to hold curlers in place but if it works it works. 

Cut the felt in to tiny rectangles.  This will be glued in the top part of the clip.  Its best to put the felt in then try to glue it.  Pop the felt in, open the clip and run a strip of glue.  Let the clip close and the glue cool.  This makes a nice surface to glue the pretty things to. 

Cut the material into circles the size you want to use.  I think random cuts look best.  I fold the material over itself and cut the circles in one cut.  Split the circles in two piles if you are making two flower clips.  I don't have a magic number of circles, it depends on the material used and the desired flower.   For this is used 7 circles for each. 

Glue in the center and add each piece of material on top of another.  Its that simple.  I like to add a button or a different piece of material in the center to pull the look together.  Some people like to add a smaller piece of material.  Its all up to what you have and what you want to use.  I wrinkle them up a bit and they are good to go.  Simple and easy, just my style.  

Linked up at DebbieDoos

XOXO Mist

Stash Cans.

The fun of living on a budget is finding all the wonderful things you can achieve while living on it.  I don't want to spend our money on storage when I could stash it for a vacation.  This is a simple project that makes my storage a bit easier on the eyes.  When we get food that comes in the pull top cans I wash them out and save them for projects.  These seem to have less sharp edges to deal with.
Round up glue, cans, and the paper you want to cover your cans with.  I love my glue gun for so may reasons but probably the biggest is my patience, I don't want to wait for glue to dry to play with my projects. 

I like to measure and cut with a mat and a rotary cutter but anything will do.  Measure the height you want covered and cut a strip.  For this can I cut a 4 inch strip from a 12 inch paper. 

Glue the end you don't want to see down first and line up the paper with the top ring of the can.  This will give you a nice line to follow.  Put down a strip of glue along the edge of the paper and get it on the can. 

Wrap the paper around and add a few drops of glue when you reach paper again.  You will have a little flap sticking out that you can make a nice edge with.  Put glue close to edge and smash down to make it lay nice. It just takes pressure and smearing if there are bumps. 

Now your done and have storage cans made from scraps around your home.  What are you going to use these for?  We use them for pencils, tools, organizing nuts and bolts and a chore system.  Yes I said chore system.  That's a teaser.  I will be posting on that one later. 

Slipped Stitch Scarf

It's March here, so it may be a little out of season for a scarf. But it's cold somewhere, right? If you are a knitter it doesn't matter where you live or what the season, there is always a reason to knit. My mom requested a scarf from me at least a year ago. She even gave me the yarn but a year later I still hadn't started it. I was pregnant for a good chunk of that time so she forgave my procrastination. Though it took me a while to knit, I finally finished it. This is not a difficult pattern by any means but there is something about knitting scarves that just seems foreign to me. I taught myself to knit probably 6 years ago and my first project happened to be a pair of baby slippers. I have been hooked ever since. Knitting a scarf is so simple even with a cable or lace pattern that anyone can do it. If you just learn how to knit, purl, and cast on you are set for most patterns. This scarf is a combination of only the knit stitch and a slipped stitch which will be explained later.

Here is what you need.

Yarn of your choice
Corresponding needle size (I like bamboo circulars.)
Yarn needle

Abbreviations

CO  Cast on
k      Knit
sl     Slip stitch purlwise
BO   Bind off
sts    Stitches


If you practice good technique than you always swatch but I am lazy and never do. Sometimes that is to my detriment but it is usually on fitted garments like a sweater. When it comes to a scarf I find that I can just estimate how wide I am going to want it and then I just stop there. I know, lazy. But it works for me.

My mom wanted a wide scarf, about 10" but you can easily adjust this pattern simply by stopping.

CO an even number of sts.
Row 1: k
Row 2: *k1, sl 1 repeat from * to end of row
Row 3:k
Row 4: k2, *sl 1, k1 repeat from * to last stitch, k1

That's it. Easy peasy. Just follow the pattern to your desired length then BO and weave in your ends. It may be necessary to block your scarf. This ensures that your scarf lays flat and doesn't curl. During the blocking process you can also adjust the garment to the proper dimensions. Eunny Jang has a tutorial on blocking (as do others,) that can be helpful to the beginner knitter.

Gift it to a friend, family member or to yourself. This is easy and depending on your yarn, cheap. My mom found her wool yarn at Tuesday Morning for about $3 a hank but I've gotten yarn even cheaper. One thing to consider when using yarn is to make sure that the dye lots are the same. What looks the same in hank, skein or ball form will not look the same in your finished garment. Trust me. At the end you will have a handmade, inexpensive garment.

                                  Eve

Giant Crayons

If you have kids that love to color, then you have tiny bits of crayons that most people just throw away.  I know my kids get new boxes at the beginning of the school year, for birthdays, Easter, Christmas, and at other random times throughout the year. Instead of tossing the crayons that "spontaneously broke by themselves while my child was holding it," I collect these little bits because my kids have a tendency not to want to use them because they are broken. I know my kids are not the only ones that have broken crayons so I contacted my local elementary school. What better place to find broken crayons, right? Turns out that the school was just going to throw these old, broken crayons away so I asked for them and they bagged them up and gave them to me. Now I have a stash of broken crayons that I can use to make more crayons.

The hardest part of this whole project is unwrapping the crayons. For that, I turned to my little helpers. I took a knife and scored the sides of the paper and let the kids sit and peel for a while. We also broke them into pieces that fit into the cups of my tin.  I had this nightmare thought that if the crayon pieces were larger, they might somehow escape to the floor of my oven. That sounds like a mess I would never be able to clean entirely.

We organized them by the colors we wanted them to melt with and put them in an old muffin tin.  I only use this tin for crayons.  If you actually bake with yours then you will want to line them with foil cups.  Ive never done it that way but It seems like paper wouldn't work since the crayons would stick.

When all the unwrapping fun is done and the cups are filled then it's time to pop them in the oven and turn it on.  200 degrees on the center rack. 

Melt them until they are flat on the top and completely blended. Resist the urge to touch the melted, gooey mess. I know, it just calls out to you but if you want pretty crayons, you'll thank me. I tried to poke one of the pieces down when it was almost done to make mine pretty and a few bumps were left on the top.  For my efforts I was rewarded with a dent in my crayon and some brightly colored wax on my finger. All in all it took me about 30 minutes but my kids peeked a few times.  Just start checking after 15 minutes so you don't burn them. 

Now it's time to let them cool and solidify. It's a cold day here so I stuck ours outside to cool.  When they are cool enough just pop them out like an ice cube tray and voila! You have some custom crayons that will be harder for your most ardent destroyer to break.

Just for kicks I put all the brown crayons into my chocolate bar silicone pan.  It almost looks edible.  I might try to feed it to my Hubby later. 

XOXO Mist

Fabric Baby Blocks

I have been slacking as of late and am behind on birthday cards and baby gifts. Cards are easy as Hallmark is my friend but baby gifts are another story. I find it difficult to estimate whether someone will like a handmade gift or if they would prefer store bought. There is nothing I hate more than exhausting my time and efforts on something handmade and gifting it to someone who then gives me "the look." The look that says, "oh, how nice." And not in an excited way, in a "you REALLY SHOULDN'T have" way. That un-approving, judgmental, "I have no idea what I am going to do with this thing" kind of way. For those kinds of instances I would much rather gift someone a little baby outfit or diapers or something to that effect. Every now and again I decide to go out on a limb and "hope." Hope that the recipient will actually be happy that I took the time to make something personal as opposed to buying something "somewhat" personal. It is here that I find myself. I am hoping that the recipient of this gift will like this. This little gem is great in that if the mom isn't appreciative of it, she can at least let the baby play with it. He won't care if there is no label indicating that it came from a brand name. But I think I might have hit the jackpot with this little gem.

Fabric baby blocks are a great gift for someone for whom it is hard to shop. It is so easy to customize this gift to what you like or what you think its intended would like. The fabric choices, prints, applique's, sizes, etc. all can be changed to your liking. I made mine for under $15 but it left me with excess fabric that I could make two more so the $15 was upfront cost and I suppose it actually cost around $5 to make depending upon the cost of your fabric and fill. I love inexpensive gifts and personalizing it only makes it better. This gift can be an heirloom gift for the child, a decoration for the baby's room, or a toy. Here's what you need to get started.

Supplies

Freezer Paper
Iron
Pressing Cloth
Inkjet Printer
Complimentary Fabric (I used five different prints and one plain white)
Plastic Fabric (optional--to be discussed later)
Embellishments (applique's, bells, lace, etc.)
Sewing Machine
Picture(s)

 Decide on the size of your blocks and edit your pictures to that size. I made a 5", 4", and 3" block all with a black and white photo. If you don't intend for the child to play with the block you don't have to use the plastic fabric but make sure you indicate that to the parents. As babies put tend to put things in their mouths I wanted to ensure that one, the ink didn't run and two, that it didn't run into the baby's mouth so I opted for plastic fabric instead of a chemical ink setter. You can encase the entire block in plastic or just the side that is printed. I only did the side that is printed leaving my options open for a textured/tactile block for the baby.  With the exception of the fabric on which you are going to print, cut out your fabric pieces with a 1/4" seam allowance. So for the 5" block cut your fabric out to be a 5.5" square. For the 4" block cut a 4.5" square, and for the 3" block cut a 3.5" square. Through my trial and error I used a 1/2" seam allowance and it left too much excess on the sides and encouraged me to improvise my sizing which is why my block isn't as evenly sized as I would prefer. If you are going to add embellishments this is the time to do it. Add lace or applique's to your liking.

Take the uncut fabric that you are printing on and cut it out to 8.5"x11". If it is for a picture it is best to use plain white fabric but you can also print quotes, songs, the baby's birthday or any kind of script on colored fabric. Just make sure that the fabric isn't too dark. Cut out an 8.5"x11" piece of freezer paper. Freezer paper is not the same as wax paper. Freezer paper has one side that is plain paper and one side that is plastic. Place the wrong side of the fabric to the plastic (shiny) side of the freezer paper. Using a pressing cloth to avoid scorch marks or transference from your iron, press the fabric onto the freezer paper making sure that the edges are well pressed together. This will stiffen the fabric allowing you to print directly onto your fabric using an inkjet printer. You could also use printer ready fabric instead of the freezer paper but I was trying to do this on the cheap. This project has the potential to ruin your printer so either be prepared or do this with a cheap printer. I don't recommend doing this with a really expensive printer. I got my HP Deskjet 1055 on clearance at Target for $14 so I don't feel to bad using it to do this project.

I didn't get any special ink or use any special settings on my printer. I used the regular settings but you may need to adjust for the thickness of your fabric. After trial and error I found it best to tape the forward edge of my fabric, meaning the edge that is going into the printer first, to reduce the chance that the printer would split the paper and fabric bond. My printer prints top side up so when the print job comes out I am looking directly at my finished product. Whichever it is for you, place the fabric side in that direction so for me I placed mine fabric side up. I copied and saved my pictures to a word document and then just printed from there.

 Because of the size of my pictures I couldn't put them all on the same piece of fabric with the appropriate amount of seam allowance so I reused the same freezer paper and ironed it to the next piece of fabric. Once I had all my pieces ready, it was time to sew. If you are using the plastic fabric, start with that side of the block. I found it helpful to trace the outside line of my picture on the back of the fabric. Place the plastic fabric (PF) on the right side of the picture sandwiched between the picture and one fabric panel right sides in. If you want all the blocks to be the same, work each panel at the same time for each of the three blocks to reduce the need to un-stitch. For example, work all the right side panels first for all three blocks before moving on to the next panel. If you are using the PF I don't recommend pinning because it will leave a hole so be careful. That is one of the reasons I only used the PF for the printed sides. I pinned the sides that were not covered in PF.

Assemble your cubes leaving a hole in one side (preferably not a corner) so that you can turn it right side out and stuff it.

If you want to add a bell or rattle inside the block do it while you are stuffing. Close up the block using a ladder stitch and Voila! An easy, personalized baby gift!

I linked up with Debbie at 

This was inspired by Colleen at the Magic bean. Happy Gifting!

                                            

                                                Eve