Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

Yes, today was my first day back to school!!!! :o{

I'm exhausted, but if I weren't I would be making one of these cute

Chalkboard Clipboards.

You can find the tutorial on

Little Birdie Secrets

Maybe next summer.

I did end my summer break with a big crafting bang.

It included, mod podge lettering, table skirts, classroom curtains,

hemming pants, shortening apron straps, a darling nursing cover,

and

the cutest chore chart

EVER MADE

ok, I may be a little biased on that one :0}

Only problem is, I didn't take pics of any of it.

It was a mad dash to get it done and out the door, pics were the last thing from my mind.

If I have a spare moment I might take a pic of my cute chore chart.

But then you would see how desperately insane I am.

Wish me luck for another fabulous year of

Angelic 8th graders :0)

Last Minute {Card Idea}

Little Birdie Secrets

Saves the day once again!!!

If you don't have a card for {Father's Day} yet,

Check out their tutorial.

Quick easy and done in five minutes,

with stuff you probably have lying around.

I made one, super easy and CUTE!

I Told You. . . {Projects Begetting Projects}

As you could surmise, cleaning the craft room left me frustrated with a few things, namely my ribbon. I have tried numerous things to enhance my organization sanity. Unfortunately I always had the same dissatisfied results-- ribbon everywhere and not where it should be. See the ribbon hanging on the wall in the picture above. I saw that at Michaels and fell in love. Dylan said what he always says, "I can build that for you." I love and hate that phrase. I love that he can, I hate that its on his schedule and not mine. Our schedules are years apart.

So, after being frustrated again with the ribbon, I scoured the Internet for ideas that {I could build}. I found this idea and of course made my own little adjustments. I am pleased with how it turned out.

1. An old frame sitting in my closet
2. Two cafe curtain rods via TARGET
3. A little screwing {he he} Dylan helped with that part {he he}
4. Two nails {come on now}
5. Slide your ribbon on!!!
6. Woo hoo!!

Another project I completed yesterday. Is a great {Father's Day Gift} I am also very pleased with how it turned out. It was Shandi's idea and my design. Those are indeed my four year old's footprints. She has quite large feet-- those come from me-- poor kid.

♥Thursday's Tutorial♥

Today I thought I would share with you a few tutorials I've been wanting to try out but haven't got around to.

1. Halloween Treat Bucket

2. Nursing Cover

3. Baby Booties

4. Applique Tutorial

I have been practicing #4-- I definitely need more practice. Thank goodness I have the BEST friend in the whole world who takes all my "practices" and at least pretends to cherish them :D

Next week be looking for my diaper/wipe tutorial

I ♥

I ♥ this

because you can make the cutest magnets for


this, or

Darling Ponytail holders

Hold on to your buttons. I might just cover them :D

Ribbon Ornament Tutortial

Last year I began looking for craft ideas for our Christmas Craft Night for enrichment. I walked into Pottery Barn one day and saw these ornaments. They were selling them for something like $8.00 a piece and of course my crafty brain went berserk. I splurged and bought one. I took it home and carefully examined it w/out tearing it apart. I figured out my version and figured you could make your own for under three dollars. They are not hard, but do take practice. The one on display today is definitely not the best, but my lazy bum just wasn't up to digging through my Christmas stuff just yet. So you get the, a year later and out of practice version :D

You will need:

3" foam balls

1 roll of 3/8" ribbon-- this will be the main color of the ball

10" of 3/8" ribbon that contrasts with your main color

18" of baby ric rac in a contrasting color

5 " of 5/8" ribbon for the hanger

hot glue gun/hot glue sticks

scissors

1. mark the top and the bottom of your ball-- use a marker-- i used what was in reach, a pair of scissors to poke it so i would know where the top and bottom was.

2. place a small dot of glue on the top of the ball and place the end of your main ribbon-- note do not cut your ribbon!!!! once you have wrapped your whole ball then you can cut it. then place a small dot of glue at the bottom of your ball and wrap the fabric around to this dot. Make sure that you don't use a lot of hot glue or you will end up with something other than a ball-- it will be kind of pointy at each end rather than round.

2. You will then begin wrapping your ball. Always crossing the same point at the top and bottom, but moving the ribbon over just slightly. Make sure as you wrap to keep the ribbon tight and to find just the right angle so your ribbon is not bulgy or gappy-- are those words??? you will see what i mean. this is also why you need to use the right width of ribbon-- anything bigger will not wrap tightly to your ball.

3. You do not need to glue every pass of the top or bottom. Remember too much glue will make your ball look weird. I just wrap tight and glue intermittently. Every two or three passes.

4. Once you've wrapped your whole ball you want to end at the top. Cut your ribbon closest to the middle and make sure its glued, make sure the last pass of the bottom is glued too. It will look like this. The left one is the top and the right one the bottom

5. You take your 5 inches of your 5/8" ribbon and place a small line of glue at one end. Then fold up the end over the glue, to make a finished edge.

6. Then on your finished edge place another small line of glue and fasten the other end of the ribbon to it, to make a circle.

7. Then place a small amount of glue at the top of your ball, where you finished up with your ribbon and attach the loop you just created. Make sure that your unfinished edge of ribbon is covered up by the ribbon you're attaching-- so it looks pretty :D Then hang your ball, so that you can visualize what the front and back of your ball will be-- you may not have to do this, but for some reason if i don't i always do it backward and have a seam showing when i hang it on my tree.

8. Once you've established where your front and back will be, take your ten inches of 3/8" fabric and find the center. You want to glue the center of your ribbon to the exact center of your ball in the front middle. Once again, small amounts of glue intermittently. And try very carefully to wrap your ribbon in a straight line around the center of the ball-- trust me it is very noticeable if its not straight, as you can tell. When you reach the back create a finished edge, just like you did when you made the loop in step six. Then glue it over the other unfinished edge to cover it up-- make sure this part is at the back of your ball.

9. You will then cut your 18 inches of ric rac into two 9" segments and repeat what you did in step 8 excluding finishing the edge. Let me emphasize again-- be careful and make sure that you keep straight lines-- if you look at the following pic you will see why its so important.

p.s. hot glue is really hot, for some reason i always forget this--

Altered Board BookTutorial

This post is something I've wanted to do for a while. At my auction two weeks ago, I had someone purchase my quote book. She emailed me after she received my book and said, "how do you do that?" I started writing a detailed email that made absolutely no sense. So, I erased the email and said, "check out my blog tomorrow, I'll make a tutorial just for you."

I started all this scrap booking nonsense making paper bag scrapbooks-- I will feature that another Thursday-- but this last January or February my chica Rochelle showed me one of these books, and I don't know if I've done a paper bag book since. I hope you all enjoy.

♥Altered Board Books♥

Turning,

ThisintoThis

1. Find a board book, or if you are planning on doing TONS, go to Bare Books and purchase empty ones. (much easier and cheaper if you are planning on doing lots-- for a beginner it wouldn't be too great because they require an order of at least $20.00 -- that's quite a few books :D)

2. Start peeling the layers of your book. You want to peel the pics off so your glue will adhere better. You don't just want to peel the first layer, but not too many either or it will leave you with no pages. It takes a few times of peeling and a good book to find your happy medium. This is a tedious task, the bare books do not require this step. (be careful what books you tear up. my little girl caught me peeling one of her books apart one day and i still haven't heard the end of it. Garage sales and dollar stores are the best place to find them)

3. Next, measure your book and find the dimensions. This helps you to know what dimensions to cut your paper.

4. Choose coordinating papers and cut them 1/4" in shy of the measurements of your book. Length and width wise.

5. Choose what paper you want for the cover, spine and back of your book.

6. Then choose a coordinating ribbon to use as a tie to keep your book closed. Wrap the ribbon around your book and I like to staple it on each side just to hold it in place.

7. Use a corner rounder to round the corners of your paper-- if you don't have a corner rounder you can trim it with a small pair of scissors, don't worry about uneven edges or the paper not fitting perfectly it will all work out in the end :D

8. Glue the paper you chose for your cover on. I like to tear the edges of the paper for my spine just to have a definite distinction between the two papers. For glue I swear by Elmer's rubber cement. (my mother thinks I'm crazy and I think the people at Walmart do to. I'm always buying rubber cement. My husband says I just use it for the smell :D)

9. This step is what makes your book look like a book. With a medium grit sandpaper sand all the edges of your cover. You will begin to notice that you will barely see a difference between your paper and the book -- you want them to become one. This step gets rid of any rough, uneven, or too long paper edges. Don't worry if its still not perfect. The next step will solve that problem.

10. This step is an important one too. Inking!!!! You need a good soft sponge (mine come in a circle and I cut them into wedges.) and I like a dark colored ink pad. The one in the pic is my favorite and I RARELY use any other colors. I just like the dirty, grungy look it gives my books. Be careful with some brown ink. It has a tendency to look purple next to other colors. That's why I like this Walnut color its a very dark brown color.

11. Now, organize your papers into pages, what papers you want on what page. What papers you want to use as a coordinating pocket. I usually do two pages with one pocket and two pages with no pockets and alternate. Sewing the pockets can be time consuming. It also depends on how many pages your book has too. Because I am anal retentive I like to actually put them in the book so I can see what looks good together from one page to the next.

12. Next trim down any pages that don't fit and round ONLY the corner on the outside edge. This also why I like to put my pages in my book first-- that way I know which edge needs rounded and I don't clip the wrong side. (lots of trial and error my dear friends)

13. This is one of my favorite touches to any book I make. I've had people ask if I sew the paper onto the book. The answer is NO WAY JOSE! Could you imagine--talk about industrial machine. I have a Singer $90.00 Walmart special-- it works beautifully. Paper does tend to dull the needle so if you sew a lot you might want to use a separate needle for paper. (I just use the same one). I only sew the pages with pockets and I only sew the three outer edges of the pocket page. I also only sew the top and bottom of the page opposite of the pocket. (If you don't want to sew your pockets, its not necessary, double sided tape also works great and is REALLY easy.) Notice I like to use a zig zag stitch because it just pops off the paper a little more and is a lot more forgiving of my inability to sew a straight line.

14. Once your pages are sewn start gluing them in!!!!

15. Repeat the sanding and the inking just like you did on the cover-- These two things make your book look like a book, instead of a book with scrapbook paper slapped in it. When your finished embellish till your hearts content!!!.

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