Quick and easy last minute costume- The Doughnut

If you have a pre-teen chances are you may be waking up on today... Halloween with a frantic scramble of trying to make some sort of costume quickly for them. Even as an adult I oftern struggle with the dilema of "To dress up or not to dress up" for Halloween.

This pre-teen age is a bridge between child and adult and can sometimes be tough for kids to be decisive in their desire to participate in Halloween. For our son, the results of massive amounts of candy always seem to steer him towards donning a costume and reaping the rewards.

Which this year resulted in...

The Doughnut

What you will need:

(2) 3x3 foot panels of brown fabric- I used Oly Fun by Fairfield Processing which is a lightweight non fraying (NO HEMS!!!) non-woven material. perfect for this project.

(1) 3x3 foot pink panel-to be cut slightly smaller and act as the frosting

(4) colors of the same fabric in 3x36 inch pieces (or rough cut around there)- This will be used as 1x3inch piece rectangle sprinkles.

An 8x12 inch black oval in the same fabric- The doughnut hole :)

Sewing machine or hot glue gun- (at this point... the hot glue gun may be your best bet but if you are looking to make this last, use a sewing machine... I used my Brother Innovis 950D machine for this, but you can use a simple machine as we are only using a straight stitch.)


Directions:

1) Cut the brown fabric into a 3x3 foot circle and your pink fabric just a bit smaller than your brown fabric.

3) Sew (or glue) your two brown panels together leaving a 1/4 inch seam allowance. Follow diagram below on where to sew and where not to sew. NOTE: If you are going to sew the entire costume, sew on all elements before binding the two brown panels together. Make sure to turn your costume inside out so that your seams are hidden inside.

3) Glue your pieces (If you did not sew them) onto your doughnut front. TIP... This is a great thing for your child to do, although I must warn you that the center of your doughnut may end up askew if a 12 year old boy puts it together (not that I would know by experience or anything ♥).

This costume is as easy as CUT SEW GLUE. You can pick up this or any other non-fray fabric at your local craft store today and have a costume within an hour (tops).

Until the next pre-teen moment we share ☺

~Liz Hicks ♥

*Please note that although this is NOT a sponsored post, some products have been provided for demonstration. Links provided are NOT affiliate links and in no way provide income or compensation to this blog. They are provided for educational purposes and to showcase what types of products were used for this tutorial.

Southwest Chic with ScanNCut

Supplies: Cream printed cotton fabric, bright pink, yellow and turquoise designed fabric, pillow fluff and white thread. ScanNCut cutting machine, Innov-is 950D sewing/embroidery machine by Brother International Corporation (tm).

South west décor is making its way back with a twist. I see so much fun colors with southwest this time around. I decided to use this inspiration to use the built in features of Scan N Cut to create my own custom southwest designs. I am new to appliqué designs, but decided to give it a try… I am happy I did!

I started by taking my white fabric and cutting it into two 10 ½ X 10 ½ squares. From here I found scrap fabrics that coordinated the largest being 9 inches long and the others a little smaller than that.

To build my designs I used the built in design shapes in Scan N Cut. You can combine shapes to create your own custom designs. Using rectangles, squares and triangles are the perfect match to create this southwest décor. When you combine shapes to create the larger design, make sure that your shapes overlap so that you can weld them together. I recommend starting with your largest shape first, arrange the shapes to create it and then weld it together. From here, multiple the shape times two and take one and minimize the size to fit inside the larger one.

  

Now that your designs are created they are ready to be cut! Take your fabric scraps for your design and iron on your appliqué sheet to the wrong side of your fabric. Make sure that your fabric is larger than your appliqué sheet as well that your iron is set to the right setting. You can use a cloth to protect your iron if you’d like.

Next take each color and cut one shape from each of the colors. Use the standard mat with the purple blade at a 7 setting (this is just a recommendation, make sure to test your cut first).

Once you have your shapes cut out, take the largest and iron it onto the right side of your white fabric, centering it to your liking. Once ironed on, continue to iron on each different shape to create your design.

For an added touch, I added a plain stitch to the inner area of each of the designs, this will allow the fabric to fray a bit giving it a nice texture. 

Once your designs are sewn on, take your designed part of your pillow and lay it right side with the other side of your pillow.

Pin the sides and continue to sew with a ¼ inch seam. Leave the end open to pull right side out and stuff.

 

Once your pillow is stuffed, take your machine and sew a thin seam around the entire pillow to finish it off. This will give your pillow a nice finished look without the fuss of hand stitching.

And to help share a little insight on welding with ScanNCut, here is a quick video I created showing you how to create this southwest motif.

Also, make sure to check out our this awesome giveaway that we are doing here on the blog. Click here on Creative DIY- Fall edition for more details.

Thanks for checking this out today! If you have any questions feel free to ask, Welding with ScanNCut is a lot of fun,  I would love to help if you need anything.

Thanks for stopping by!

~Liz Hicks

Introducing ScanNCut

I can't believe that it is finally here. Time to announce the amazing project that I have been working on since February...

I am so pleased to introduce to you...

 From Brother International

ScanNCut is the Worlds FIRST Home and Hobby Cutting Machine with a 300 DPI built in Scanner.

With the capability to scan you can easily make this...

Into this...

Within minutes. No computer, no software JUST ScanNCut.

Make sure to sign up HERE to be the FIRST to hear about this innovative new machine from Brother International.


~Liz ♥

Art Journal and Tablet Keeper projects

So today is my day to share my projects for the Nancy Zieman's Tablet Keeper Blog Tour! I ended up with two projects to share... not necessarily on purpose, lol.

I started out with (good) intentions to create a tablet keeper for my new E-Reader. I decided to use muslin  as my base for my project as I love how easy it is to paint. What I SHOULD have done was paint first, cut second.... But I went against my better judgement and painted my cut fabric. I should know better, but was so excited to get started and paint, lol. Anyways, to make a long story short... my initial fabric that I painted had shrank about 1/4 inch So, this lead me to creating a fun art journal out of this.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I wanted to marry different crafts into my project.

 I added hand drawn flowers to the cover and painted the cover with acrylic paint, water colors and a carbon pencil. The title was created with the stamp set I designed for Unity Stamp Company.

Here is a close up of the cover. In order to create a weather proof seal on my cover, I used a jewelers grade epoxy resin, Ice Resin to seal it. It gives my cover a beautiful slick effect that can easily be wiped off ( a must have with kids!).

 

 Here are some of the fun inside pages I created out of paper, muslin and stabilizer.

 

This page I created by using a firm stabilizer covered in muslin. This is wonderful for mixed media art journaling as it creates a firm, mostly water resistant barrier in between your pages.

For my Tablet Keeper, I actually started a new project from scratch (measuring twice, cutting once!). I first assembled my project and then painted to prevent any shrinkage :)

Supplies used: Nancy Zieman Tablet Keeper template, Tablet Keeper stabilizer, Create a Strap. Acrylic Paint, Water Color paint and Twinkling H2O's, Unknown items- Thread and Muslin.

 I am very happy with the way it came out. It is very organic looking which I love. I love that it has an irregular look to it, makes it totally hand made and ME!

 Here is an up close picture of the flowers. The detail and shading was created with acrylic paint, water colors and twinkling H2O's by Creative Imaginations.

Here is the inside of the cover. I painted sporadically with cream paint and  hand journaled a nice reminder for myself. From here, I covered the page with Ice Resin to create a transparent look to the page. I did all of this before I sewed the page down.

For an added little detail, I added a piece of vintage paper to the tablet insert so that the print could vaguely be seen through the resin muslin that I journaled on. I like how it adds a little depth to the project, makes you have to pay attention to the little details.

I am so happy to have been a part of this blog hop. It made me bring out some of my trusty craft supplies and explore different areas than I normally would. 

Here is a picture again of the wonderful Clover prize package that Nancy has up for grabs during the blog hop. Check out the blog link here for the details.

Thanks again for sharing this project with me. I had a lot of fun creating this on behalf of Brewer Sewing. If you have any questions you can email me or find me on facebook :)

~Liz ♥

JOY Tablet Keeper sneak peek- PLUS Giveaway!

I have been up late the last few nights enjoying some time in my studio. This has been such a breathe of fresh air for me. After the holidays and traveling, it has been so nice to just create for a bit. I have been working on my Tablet Keeper for Nancy Zieman's Tablet Keeper Blog Hop. I was asked by my friends over at Brewer Sewing to represent them in this fun blog hop. Being a crafter at heart I had to say that I was a little intimidated by the thought of being a part of a quilting/sewing blog hop (If you take a look at some of the other's participating, they are AMAZING!). I am not a quilter by trade, but in reality I am a sewer. I haven't posted much of my sewing projects on my blog since I have always been involved with the Scrapbook side of crafting, but I do have it in me. I first learned from my grandmother (one of those fond family memories I still remember vividly!) and then continued to take classes in high school and college.

Although I have taken sewing classes, I have so much more that I want to explore when it comes to fabric art. Quilting has been one of those things that seems so intimidating to me... This year I hope to squash that fear and explore quilting and make it my own. :)

What I have realized is that although I may not be a quilter by trade, I can still enjoy elements of quilting in other areas of crafting and I can even explore quilting on my own. Nothing is stopping me :)

There is such a freedom to crafting. I hope to explore this year into areas of crafting that I have started and stopped through out my years. I also hope to integrate these crafts together so that it can make more sense to me :) Multi-crafting I think is in all of us... I love the idea of fusing different crafts together to create something magical.

So with this idea of multi-crafting in mind I wanted to share a sneak peek of my Tablet cover for the Nancy Zieman Blog Hop.

This project is a combo of art, sewing with a tad bit of jewelry making elements in it as well. My day for the blog hop will be January the 12th. I will be sharing full details of the project them. There is an AMAZING giveaway over on Nancy's blog, Click here for the details.

Here is a picture of the giveaway. LOTS of fun stuff to explore with. Even if you are not a quilter/sewer this is a good start to discovering!

 If you have a chance to check out the other girls involved in the blog hop here is there blog addy's and the schedule:


January 3            Nancy Zieman                   http://www.nancyzieman.com/blog
January 4            Amy Ellis                            http://amyscreativeside.com/
January 5            Sharon Pernes                    http://craizeecorner.blogspot.com/
January 6            Vicki Christensen              http://www.sewinspiredblog.com/
January 9            Joan Hawley                       http://www.lazygirldesigns.com/blog/
January 10            Pat Sloan                           http://patsloan.typepad.com/
January 11            Eileen Roche                     http://dzgns.com/blog/
January 12            Liz Hicks                           http://blogerisms.blogspot.com/
January 13            Fran Ortmeyer                 http://cloverusa.wordpress.com/
January 16            Ilene Miller                       http://happyvalleyprimitives.blogspot.com/
January 17            Julie Herman                   http://www.jaybirdquilts.com/
January 19            Natalia Bonner                http://www.piecenquilt.blogspot.com/
January 20            Frieda Anderson             http://friestyle.blogspot.com/
January 23            Cindy Cloward                 http://www.rileyblakedesigns.com/blog/
January 24            Beckie Hansen                 http://www.nancyzieman.com/blog
January 25            Amy Webb                         http://www.amylouwhosews.com/
January 26            Allie Robertson                http://thinkcrafts.com/
January 27            Mary Mulari                       http://www.nancyzieman.com/blog
January 30            Laura Wasilowski            http://artfabrik.blogspot.com/
January 31            Carol Porter                        http://www.nancyzieman.com/blog

I have been checking these girls out. LOTS of inspiration that can easily adapt to paper crafting. You will enjoy hopping along and checking these ladies out. Their creations are amazing.

For now, I hope you enjoy this fun little sneak peek. I had so much fun drawing, painting and sewing. It truly is a reminder that at the heart of it all, we are all crafters. Multi-crafting just makes sense... bringing your favorite craft elements from various craft avenues together...that is where the fun is!

Thanks for sharing your day with me today. I would love to hear your thoughts on "Multi-Crafting" and how you use different crafts together.

~Liz ♥

Hello 2012... What a JOY it is to meet you.

 I don't think I have ever been so excited for a new year to start. Now don't get me wrong... 2011 was not a bad year at all... I guess I am just really excited for this next year and it's new adventures.


Each year I join the masses and choose a word for the year. As simple as it may sound, this is something that I pray about and truly seek wisdom and guidance for. At first when I started this, the word that I would choose would just be something that I felt heavy on my heart. This year, I didn't feel the heaviness... just peace.


2009- Reflect
This was such a profound word for our family. This was the year that we truly looked back on what we believed in and made a very tough decision to leave California (and our families) and begin our own adventure in Colorado (Aug. 2009). An adventure it has been. Reflecting on where we were in life and where we wanted our family to be lead us to the amazing move to Colorado. Reflect was the perfect word for us this year.

2010-Bold
 This year was a tough one for us, as to be expected with making a  life changing move just a few months earlier. This was the year that I learned to be Bold. I had no idea why this word would be so necessary when I picked it in January... but later in the year I realized just why God had put it in my heart. Bold is gathering all the strength necessary to make tough decisions for the betterment of yourself, well at least this is what it was for me. I had to make decisions that at the time seemed so difficult, yet now seem so vital. I am so much better for this boldness. Sometimes being bold isn't just standing up for good... sometimes it is reminding yourself truly what you are made of, and that you deserve good (even if it is hard to say to yourself!).

2011-Truth
I made a vow this year to seek truth in all I do. In work, art, relationships and family. Little did I know that I would enter this year and have to hold on to the truth with both hands clenched, especially with relationships. This was a tough lesson, but one I am better for. If you know you who you are, and what you hold true in your heart... the rest will follow... especially those who matter. I end 2011 with a few less friends, but am grateful for the strengthened relationships that I now hold. It is a tough lesson when you realize that you can't be friends with everyone... but it makes those who you hold close, oh so much more special.

2012- JOY
This year I will be going back to school. A change in my life that is very big. It has been 10 years since I last sat in a college class. After graduation with my Associates Degree, we found out that I was pregnant in which the best decision for our family would be to have my husband finish college and I would stay home and raise our children. Now that our children are in school, life has settled. It's time for me to finish, and this is exciting. I am not exactly sure why this years word is Joy, but I do now that it has prepared me to look at this new upcoming adventure with happiness. This year, joy will be a choice. It is a choice I can make and I will do everything necessary to maintain this outlook this year. I have seen what God has done the last few months preparing me for this next season. Freeing up my time, my heart and my spirit. I am happy, and am so grateful for this next season in mine and my family's life.

I can see now how each year's word has been just what we have needed. I am very grateful for the growth the past few years have brought to myself and my family. As I look back on these past few years I am reminded of the pain and trials we have had to endure. The wonderful thing is that we are a family. We endure things together. Always have, always will. Together we have grown and continue to grow. As our trials increase in difficulty, so does our strength. We are prepared or will learn along the way. I am excited to see what this year brings us, what every it is... I will work my best to see it increase our joy. There are so many things to be grateful for, maybe counting the blessings will help us remember the joy through out the year.


 In crafty news...

I have been working on a fun project for Brewer Sewing and will be participating in a fun blog hop throughout January featuring the Tablet Keeper by Nancy Zieman. The blog hop starts today! Click on the link below for a list of all participants.

Nancy Zieman Tablet Keeper Blog Hop.

Thanks again for your comments, friendship and encouragement... I am reminded always that I am not in this alone. We are all in this life together... and what a beautiful thing that is!

~Liz Hicks ♥

Super cute and EASY Wrist Warmers (Re-purposed)- tutorial

This season I made it a point to try and stretch myself creatively and give a handmade gift to some of my closest friends. While some of my friends are artsy... not all of them are. So in an attempt to find something I could make with my hands, yet still make my non-artsy friends (Ah-hem... PATTI) happy, I came up with this quick and easy solution.

My friend Patti asked me for wrist warmers for Christmas. Patti and I have worked together in the past, and she has seen me get crafty on more than one occasion... but in this circumstance...I think she thought I was a little more crafty than I actually am. When she was explaining to me what she wanted she kept talking about crocheting a tube...yada yada yada... The truth is I can crochet a chain, and well anything that can be made from a very simple chain. At this point she lost me. 

So instead of thoroughly handmaking her wrist warmers, I decided to experiment and re-purpose. 

I went to the local thrift store and bought a few old wool sweaters. From here I took them back and washed and dried them a few times to felt the wool really tight. After the sweaters were ready I proceeded to cut strategically to create her wrist warmers.

To Cut, First cut the entire sleeve off of your sweater. This will leave you with two sleeves to work with. 

From here, stack your sleeves so that they are lined up perfectly.

Cut your sleeves to about 14 inches long, so that both sleeves are the exact same length. 

If your sweaters have sleeves that are thin and balloon out wider, the final measurements of the cuffs are roughly 14inches long, and 3 inches wide (I measured a pair I already had for this).

To finish off, rip the seem of your sleeve to create a thumb hole. In the picture below you will see I left about two inches from the top. Depending on how long you want your overhanging cuff to lay over your fingers, you can go anywhere from 1-2.5 inches from the top of the overhanging cuff. To Finish off, I added a blanket stitch just for some added detail.

 You can see here that on the opposite end of the cuff that I did a tight zig zag stitch on my sewing machine. From here I simply trimmed off any excess fabric that stuck out of the zig zag stitch.

Here is how the final product looks while in use. This pair is for our friend Lisa who likes purple.

 To wrap these, I just used a small bit of tulle tied in a cute little bow.

 Of course once you find something really cool to make, the rest of your friends start to drop hints that they might like a pair. So here are a few other sweaters I have picked up along the way for our other friends. The purple pair above were not actually made of wool (you'd be surprised just how hard it is to find purple wool sweaters!) so if you are not a fan of wool, a cotton, acrylic, angora or cashmere substitute should work just fine. The main thing to consider is that your zig zag finish can keep the material from shredding.

Supplies used: Old Sweater, sewing thread, sewing machine (If you don't have one you can finish the edge off by hand just use a tight stitch) and embroidery thread (I used Bazzill Basics, In Stitches thread.)

This is also great if you have sweaters that either you or your husband (not mentioning any names ☺) "accidentally" shrink your cozy wool sweaters. This is a wonderful way of giving them a new purpose and also letting your husband off the hook.

I hope this finds you all well and that it is helpful to you. It is really a simple project, but if you have any questions... feel free to email me :)  I would love to help!

~Liz ♥

Quick and Easy altered Girls Shirt

If you haven't already figured it out, I am a fan of semi-homemade. Altogether this option works so much better for me than either trying to hunt down that perfect present, or hassling with trying to complete my idea from scratch. 

Anything from cooking, sewing, jewelry making... well anything crafty, has some sort of semi-homemade alternative. Although I still love to learn new crafts and adapt to my needs, around the holidays... Semi- Homemade is about all you can get out of me when time is so sacred.

I found this T-Shirt for our daughter on the clearance rack of Marshall's for about $4. It is a nice dark fushia (the coloring of the pics are a little off) With silver thread finishes. 

Since this shirt was already kind of sparkly, it made a really nice base to alter to my liking.

Here is the neckline which I hand stitched different elements to.

Here is a close up of the detail of the hand beading I did along the original stitched neckline. For this use a thin beading needle and some bugle beads and simply follow the outline of the original stitching to create this nice sparkly detail.If you are making this for a young child, you may want to double stitch or knot in between stitches just to make sure that the beading remains durable. If you knot in between, this will also insure that if a bead does come off, it will not effect the remaining beads, and you will only have to replace one.

Here is the floral cascade that I created with some Prima Marketing Inc. trim. This trim is pretty popular. If you don't find this trim at your local scrapbook store, you could possibly find it at your local fabric/trim/craft store sold by the yard. I hand stitched each rosette starting from the middle and worked by way to the outer edge by spiraling my stitch out towards the edge. This is a basic stitch, nothing fancy. The one recommendation I do have is that you use a like colored thread and also hide your stitches by stitching the netting backing rather than the rosette itself. This will allow the rosette to remain full as intended.

Here is the full shirt, again... not sure why the coloring is off, but since I wrapped the present already, I can't take new pics... (Note to self, check pics BEFORE wrapping next time!) But being that these pics were taken with my I Phone... I really can't complain :)

 

So if you are in need for a last minute gift idea, but don't want to break the budget (time and money!) this is a simple and easy solution. And it would be made by you which makes it extra special :)

So check your local clearance rack, pull out some thread and maybe pick up some beads and trim (5 rosettes) and create something beautiful! I think the retail value of this project is around or under $10 so it is handmade affordable, which is always a plus in my book :)

Enjoy!

~Liz ♥