A Birthday Wish....

I wish I could take credit for every great craft I've ever seen and re-created...

The wish letters are one of my favorite creations I've made.

Last year one of my great clients/friends told me about a cute idea she had seen and wondered

if I could duplicate something similar to it. 

The font used is a popular font I knew of right away!

  You see I have a thing for fonts....

When most of my little business is cutting out Custom Names for people,

you could say I stare at a lot of fonts.....all of the time......

The font used for wish is called storybook, and the cupcake was perfect for this!

Our friend Angela from Secrets of A Super Mommy

ordered some of these fun letters from me and decorated them up herself.  She added clips to hold very cute pictures of her kids and birthday memorabilia.  Love them!

She did a really cute spotlight over at her blog- so make sure to drop by and visit!
 She also did a fun highlight of the Birthday Banners we sisters prepped and sewed together for their craft group!  Angela made the banner oh so cute!

 She has great ideas and traditions to share!  Make sure to head over and check Angela's blog out!

Now that we Crafty Sisters are "out there" in blogland, sharing the fun stuff~ we are lucky to get to do together, it makes us all the more aware of giving credit to all the great people who have inspired us and hoping that we are shown the same courtesy.

So to give credit where it is due, thank you to this unknown wonderful person,

who's creativity inspired us and all of you!

Thanks to Angela's great post we've had a great response for these letters,

if you are interested in some you can contact us directly through our email

or visit Nicole's Sweet Pickle Design Shop on Etsy.

Seriously, I "can" craft too!

My little girl was crushed when I ever so gleefully yanked down all the Christmas decorations and packed them away.  Especially the advent calendar.

Candace and I loved making our advent calendar's and my daughter was wondering

why can't we have a New Year's one?

Well......

I have been busy purging everything and anything out of my house,

trying to get some bit of organization done.

The good thing about that is finding all the little bits of stuff you bought and stashed away for

that rainy day project.....

2 years ago.....

before your daughter was born....6 years ago.....

when you first bought your sewing machine.........

14 years ago....

You get the point.  I stumbled upon my stash of felt and feeling the love from my sister's projects

I got my felt groove on.

I spent no money (currently that is) on this project.  (applause)

We got into a habit of picking up a yard here and there whenever we saw felt for sale at Joann's for 99 cents.

So first I made my pattern using some of my ugly old wrapping paper,

laid it out, pinned it on, traced it and started cutting away.

After cutting the large scalloped edge (which I used my roll of packing tape as a stencil of sorts)

I cut the inside heart out and cut it out in the cream felt.

I then cut each coordinating fabric (left over from our heart ornies) into 4 inch squares.

I ironed the seam under and then machine stitched them to another 4 inch felt square.

(I am not a professional seamstress, lines are not meant to be straight.:))

Yes, it seems like alot of work.  Yes, it was.

But historically we've made the pockets out of only felt.

Those little hands really stretch them out if

Mommy isn't "reminding" them to be careful each time.

So I thought if I backed them and folded down and stitched again a lip on them

they'd be super tough!

I then laid them out, pinned them in place and very imperfectly stitched them to the cream heart.

Then with a fancy stitch on my sewing machine (no hand stitching here ladies.....) I stitched it to the red heart.

I printed off a cute font from my computer, laid it in place to make sure it was sized right and then I cut each one out by hand while I got caught up on my tv shows.

If you have a cute set of die cuts I strongly encourage you to use them,

because it's no fun cutting these out by hand.

Finally I got to the fun part!  I glitter glued this baby to the hilt!

I cut random hearts and shapes out to make the numbers pop.

Using my beloved tacky glue and glue gun

 I added a few buttons, ribbon, ric rac and of course some glitter glue!

I probably "spent" about $5 and several hours on this project.

End result: One happy little girl

with plenty of pockets for some

little pet shop goodies.....

linking to

Met Monday at Between Naps on the Porch

 

Felting Wool Hearts

When I was playing around in the felt the other day making the felt door hanger, I found my felting tool that I picked up a couple of years ago.  I had bought strands of real wool, and heard about a tip of dying it with Kool-aid.  Yes, I dyed in wonderful colors of cherry, watermelon, and black cherry.  It really worked with a little vinegar added.  I also found that real wool felt sold on the bolt works well with this tool. I had a pretty red wool felt on hand....not dyed with kool-aid :)

This is a wicked tool.  The needles are SO sharp! I have pricked my fingers several times.

Target had some placemats on clearance. So, I used them as my pillow forms to felt on. I cut a few heart shapes out of the felt.

I first stuffed them with fiberfill.  I'm not an expert on this, but I think there's a specific tool you use under the fabric to punch the needle into.  I have used a piece of upholstery foam before.  Since this is a pillow, the stuffing inside worked fine.

Then you punch away!

You punch until the fibers felt or pull into the fabric

I made a couple more felt flowers to sew on.  I actually doubled the circles, to make the flower fuller.

The texture is pretty cool on the felt after you punch it all in.

The pillow is nothing fancy, but it was fun trying out the felting.

Linking up to Somewhat Simple's Strut Your Stuff~Valentine's

& Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special

Red Felt Heart

Amy from the Idea Room made the cutest red felt heart wreath.  I used her felt flower technique to make mine.   I love her blog, she has the greatest ideas!

Martha Stewart

I have been wanting to make Martha Stewart's beautiful wreath since I saw it last Valentine's.  I was in Michaels trying to find a heart form and cheap flowers to match Martha's.  I found gorgeous flowers in the silk floral section but they were about five dollars a piece!  I couldn't justify purchasing them.  I make way too many crafts...so I have to keep it cheap!

Then I remembered seeing Amy's great idea with the felt yesterday. I made this for nothing because I used felt I had on hand, I have a large hoard of goodies in my house!

First I needed a wreath form.  I have a very cute heart plate from Target that made the perfect pattern.  I  traced it onto thin scrap wood, and cut it out with the jigsaw.  I wanted a little poof to the heart, so I cut some scrap fleece to match the heart, glued it on with a glue gun, left a space to stuff, then filled it with fiberfill.

I added a few tacks to keep the fleece and stuffing down. Then I traced the circles, and cut. I used pinking shears and like the result.  I then folded  the circles twice and dabbed with a little glue from the glue gun. (Amy used a foam wreath and used pins to adhere the felt flowers.) You need to hold the folded fabric until the glue sets.  I then put more glue on the bottom and attached the folded circle to the wreath, starting with the outer edge.

I finished the wreath off with a silver ribbon saved from Christmas packages and flecked it with some silver glitter spray.  I'm still thinking about those gorgeous flowers like Martha's in Michael's... but I really love this too!

Pink FLUFFY cupcake ornaments!

Is it because I only have boys in my house that I had a such an enjoyable time making these PINK.. fluffy...girly... cupcake ornaments?!  Maybe!

Nicole and I dreamed these up from a couple different ideas we saw.  Nicole cut the cutest wooden base for the cupcake that we spray painted and then cut another that we papered.   We topped them with layers of fleece and a button on top.  I later made them "fluffier" by pinking shearing the edges?  Turned out cute!   

"I NEED a Girl!!!"

Halloween Advent Calendar

I love Pottery Barn....I look forward to getting the magazines and combing over everything! I can't afford to pay for anything in there and I get some sick thrill out of being able to copy their stuff!

Two years ago Nicole and I found their Halloween Advent calendar and said...we could totally make that. We spent many, many, many, hours hand cutting, printing number patterns from the computer (thanks Stephanie!), and gluing! It was worth it because it turned out so stinkin cute! Nicole added her cute touch to all the scary faces by free-hand cutting each one.

The next year, we decided to make the PB Christmas Calendar and heard through the grapevine that you can use die-cute machines to cut felt! Awesome! I went to the local scrapbook store and quickly cut numbers, letters, snowflakes and more! Neat trick!

Today, if I were to do it again I would use the Cricut machine! I'm not experienced with it yet, but from what I understand you can heat and bond material and cut out all sorts of goodies! It's just brilliant what they have now for crafting.