Whooooo is having a birthday? Owl tell you!

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My daughter, Piper is eight-years-old this week!  She says she is now too old for princesses, fairies, and other past themes we have used for her birthday parties.  This year she wanted owls for her theme.  I will admit this came out of left field for me but I was perfectly happy because the owl image is on tons of Cricut cartridges that I own and I have seen lots of ideas on Pinterest for those little critters.  Pinterest is, in fact, where I started by pinning things onto an owl idea board.

I had a hoot making our party elements!  (pun intended of course!)  Read below for the crafty details and source info for our:

• invitations
• favor bags
• doll t-shirt favors
• clay owl party craft
• owl cupcakes
• birthday card

Invitations:
6"x6" cardstock with text from my computer and an owl from Give A Hoot, cut on the Cricut Expression at 1.75".  The owl is popped up with 1/4" popdots.

Favor Bags:
I needed quick and easy favor bags to hold an American Girl doll t-shirt I sewed and printed, M&Ms and a party blower we had for party favors.  There is nothing quicker and easier than using Imagine images!  (The doll t-shirts were wrapped in tissue paper keep them wrinkle-free-- the bright tissue paper is sharing a bit of its color through the thin white paper lunch bags I used!)

The owl was printed and cut on the Imagine from Better Together at 5".

Doll t-shirts:
I wanted to create something fun that the girls would actually want and use.  In the past, I have filled favor bags with trinkets, stickers, and cheap toys from the party favor aisle but I suspect (like we do when Piper gets those kinds of favors) that they end up in the trash in no time.  Since all of the girls have American Girl dolls, I thought doll t-shirts with our owl theme would be a good choice!

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I use thrift store knit shirts because I can find so many more options than available to me at the fabric store!  I found Gap shirts, Jones NY Jones Studio, and Ralph Lauren turtlenecks which all worked perfectly even though some were 100% cotton and some were blended with spandex.  I use the shirt body and the band:

The owl design is from Pam's Clip Art. I copied the image onto a transparency and burned the image into liquid emulsion using my Yudu.

I figured out that if I cut a tissue paper t-shirt pattern opened up, I could use a Sharpie to mark the center of the shirt and line it up with the owl's eyes in order to perfectly place the knit fabric in the Yudu Cardshop and again later when it was time to cut out the shirt.  It is definitely the desired method to screen the fabric then cut out and make the shirt!

Once the screen was prepared, I used my Yudu Cardshop to pull the ink onto the t-shirt fabric squares. 

I used Ryonet's Enviroline opaque ink in blue.  This ink is just fantastic to pull!  I did find that too much pressure pulling on spandex was a disaster, teaching me to adjust my pressure!  I also find with the fine details (like with the feathers on the owl's head) that I had to pull this image twice!  

Once the ink dried, I heat set the images and made them into t-shirts. The pattern for the doll t-shirt is a free one from Liberty Jane with an added neckband. 

I added little tags with tiny brass safety pins tied with bakers twine to clue in the girls that this little t-shirt was for their American Girl dolls, which also made them look finished and special.

Activities:
Clay owl magnets!  I wanted the girls to be able to make something in between playing and eating.... plus I am told by one of the moms that our house is known as "the project house". 

I printed out a great tutorial from the 4CrazyKings blog to show the kids how to make their own little owls to take home!  You can find it by clicking here.  We used Sculpey oven-bake clay.  I gave them white and they picked slivers of other colors to mix in to get a marbled effect.  (I thought this would be easier and less messy than painting!)

Cupcakes:
On the super easy "picky-eater" menu was pizza, fresh fruits and veggies, chips, juice boxes, cupcakes, and ice cream. The food is always the easiest part because of all that my daughter won't eat! 

I had every intention of buying cupcakes until I saw adorable owl cupcakes on Pinterest from 6Bittersweets.  I cheated and used a cake mix and canned frosting, but I used Xiaolu's decorating ideas to make owls from Oreos, Junior Mints, and MM Candies.  Click here for the original post!

Card for the Birthday Girl:
 I wanted Piper's birthday card from Dad and I to continue with an owl theme. 

I used a blank 5"x5" Studio G card as a base.  Next, I cut and printed a rounded square (built-in Imagine shape) at 4.6" and floodfilled it with the cloud print from Hopscotch. 

Then, on my PC, I created a table, setting it up with 30 rows and 30 columns.  I populated the grid with 8s and selectively chose a few to change the size and font.  I printed the table onto a white paper.  I taped the Imagine-printed shape onto the white paper and ran it through my PC printer again to get the 8s to print on top of my clouds.  I printed the text on my cardstock base the same way.

The owl is from Campin Critters, cut on the Expression at 3.5".  I popped it up 1/4" with pop dots.

Our party was last night and the girls seemed to have so much fun!  The some of the girls rode home with us from school and screamed and laughed and were crazy the whole way there.  They were so funny (and loud), squealing during their little fashion show, games, crafts, the meal, and gift opening.  They weren't ready to leave... and Piper wasn't ready for them to go!  They are such a great little group with never even one harsh word or bit of unpleasantness--- just nothing but fun and laughs!  We are so blessed to have sweet little friends in Piper's life with fantastic families who have raised them that way!

Thank you for reading my birthday post.  "Owl" be thinking of the next project soon!  

The gift I am most excited to give this year!

Do you usually have one or more Christmas gifts each year that you are so excited to give that you are about to bust?  I usually do and this year is no exception.  I have been sewing like crazy to make a whole fun and funky wardrobe for my daughter's beloved American Girl doll.  My daughter, Piper, is seven and recently she has gotten rid of ponies, princesses, and pale pink *gasp!* in favor of glitz, texture, bold colors--and black!  I am not exactly sure how this happened, but she suddenly has her own style and she is having so much fun with it.

So, she asked that I make her some doll clothes... and I let her go to the fabric store and just pick out fabrics she loves.  Wow-- we left with short cuts of sequins, faux fur, satin, metallics, lycra, animal prints, glitter tulle, and faux suede fabrics in her favorite colors.  I am so glad I had her pick out fabrics because I would never have gone in the directions she did! 

Even knowing that this gift will be doll clothes --and what the fabrics look like, she has told me every day that she cannot wait to open this gift.  She is dying to see what I did with the fabrics she picked. 

So...this is the wardrobe I sewed using Piper's fabric picks:

Skinny jeans and shimmery tank

• Liberty Jane Jeans pattern (see links below under My Sources).  I will say that I had to draft a new pattern piece for the front pocket in the jeans but this design was worth figuring out.  I have things I will change for the next pair of jeans I make, but I was really pleased with how these came out.  This was made from the legs of an old pair of jeans that I cut off ten years ago!
• Liberty Jane Trendy Tank pattern (free download) sewn in red metallic knit. 
• I made a necklace by using a Mouseketeer polymer clay bead and Stretch Magic .5mm jewelry cord.  I cut off 10" of cord and beaded until only 1-1/2" of cord remained on each end.  I tied a number of square knots and trimmed the ends, leaving 1/4" tails.

• I used iron-on jewels for the back pockets of the jeans.

Geometric dress with leggings

•  Liberty Jane Leggings pattern was sewn with two-way stretch lycra blend.  The leggings finish about 1" above the doll's ankle when unaltered.  My daughter loves leggings and wears them all the time so I knew any casual dress I made would have to include leggings!  I HIGHLY recommend the leggings pattern.  It is one pattern piece and goes together so fast!  They are designed with negative ease so they look like real leggings.
• Magic Number Dress pattern by Ardently Admire Doll Attire (pattern purchased through Liberty Jane site) sewn in knit.  The next time I sew this dress, I will alter the neckline so that it is tighter.

Green and black stripe outfit

• Liberty Jane Trendy T-shirt (free download) sewn from snake skin lycra.
• Liberty Jane Shiny Happy Dress (free download with purchase) made green and metallic stripe knit.  I wish I had lengthened the dress; more like a tunic at this length.
• Liberty Jane Leggings were sewn from sheer tricot.

Hot Pink and Feathers!  Two piece dress

• McCall's 3474 sewn up in nylon satin with hand-applied feather trim.
• I made a longer necklace with stretch cord, gold-tone beads, and a cupid charm.

Zebra skirt with hot pink T-shirt and Saturn necklace

• Liberty Jane Harajuku Station skirt pattern- this is an awesome pattern and sews together perfectly!  Skirt sewn with zebra two-way knit and glitter tulle.
• T-shirt sewn from Liberty Jane T-shirt Variation pack, creating my own sleeve length and opting for the higher neckline. 
• I added 1" to the Liberty Jane Leggings pattern and made these leggings from sheer tricot.  This was an experiment because the legging fabric was a one-way stretch, and not a 2-way stretch, but it worked just fine by taking advantage of the cross stretch. 
• I made the planet necklace with stretch cord, glass beads, and a metal charm.
• I used an old t-shirt for the doll's t-shirt, using the stitched hem for this little t-shirt's hem.

Turquoise and black ensemble

• Liberty Jane Harajuku skirt pattern sewn in houndstooth and glitter tulle.
• Liberty Jane Leggings pattern with 1" added to length.
• McCall's 3474 sewn with sequin for the tam.
• Liberty Jane T-shirt Variation Pack long-sleeve t-shirt in panne velvet
• McCall's 6480 low-pile faux fur vest with lapels that turn back to show faux leather.  The vest was made with a fabric I love but it is too thick to turn so I used leather sewing techniques and lapped the seams, leaving the edges raw and the vest unlined.  Not lining worked just fine; the vest looks like leather inside.

Christmas Baking Outfit

• McCall's 6451 for apron made with eyelet from my stash. 
• Liberty Jane Leggings pattern with 1" added to the length and sewn in a shiny lycra.
• Simplicity 2458 sewn with a cotton Christmas print from my stash for the top. 

Cheetah ensemble

• Liberty Jane Mini Skirt sewn in an animal print-stamped patent leather.
• Liberty Jane T-shirt Variety Pack pattern for the long-sleeve metallic knit t-shirt.
• McCall's 3474 pattern for matching cheetah print lined boxy vest and tam.

Lined Faux Fur Coat and Loom Knitted Scarf
As I was sewing, Piper would call from another room (as she was banned from my sewing area) to give a suggestion of what to make.  At one point, she told me she wanted a winter coat. 

• DollclothesPatterns.net Hoodie pattern.  I altered the pattern to line the coat in turquoise satin and I added a closure to the front-- I love how it went together so easily!  This pattern was just under $10 but also included a top, pants, and directions for making fringed lace-up boots.  I will definitely be trying those boots, but not before Christmas!
• I made the scarf on the shortest Knifty Knitter long loom.  I used 8 pegs and did a simple double knit stockinette with leftover homespun yarn until it was 27" long.  I finished the ends without fringe.

Metallic top and suede mini 
I made a simple outfit to go under the coat. 

• Liberty Jane Mini Skirt sewn in faux suede.  One point to mention:  sew the center fronts and backs at 1/8" at the fold, not 1/4" to make it easier to put on the doll!   
• Liberty Jane T-shirt Variation Pack used for the long-sleeve t-shirt with 3/4 sleeves.  This black and gold metallic knit was one of Piper's top picks and it sewed together like a dream!

Gold Swirl Tank Dress

• Liberty Jane Happy Shiny Dress that was lengthened by an additional 1-1/2".  I also altered the neck to lower it so more of the t-shirt would show.  This crazy printed lycra was another of Piper's absolute top picks--- is her alter ego a professional wrestler???!!!
• Liberty Jane Trendy T-shirt pattern for undershirt.

Party Dress
Tell me you are impressed that I figured out how to get her doll to hold the baby Jesus without visible mechanisms! 

• Heritage Doll Fashions (purchased on the Liberty Jane website) Party Skirt pattern. This pattern allowed me to use my rolled hem foot!  (Yay me!)
• Liberty Jane Trendy Tank pattern sewn from knit with added trim and a few beads. 
• The bracelet was made, just like the necklaces, from Stretch Cord.

Glittery Mary Poppins custom t-shirt and leggings
I wanted to make a custom t-shirt for her doll with my Yudu Cardshop!  Piper's ballet school just announced that they would be performing Mary Poppins this spring.  All of the students will have a part, including the girls from Piper's class, and talking about Mary Poppins will be THE topic of conversation among the girls.  I thought it would be fun to use this theme for the t-shirt! 

• Liberty Jane Trendy T-shirt.  I altered the shirt front to raise the neck at the center 1/4".
• Liberty Jane Leggings shortened by 1".

I searched "Mary Poppins silhouette" on Google Images and found the graphic.  I just received my new custom-made Yudu Cardshop screens from Ryonet (click here for info on a past post on this blog for ordering info.  It took about 6 weeks to get but soooo worth it).  I burned the image on an 86 mesh screen on my big Yudu so that I could pull adhesive!  For info and tips on using the Yudu Cardshop, click here.


I used a new, unloved, unworn, unwashed, adult t-shirt and cut off a section to screen.

I used Plaid Simply Screen Foil and Glitter Adhesive and Yudu brand Glitter.

Instead of placing on the fold, I traced the full front pattern piece onto tissue paper so I could center the screened and glittered shape onto the front easily.

Hanging:
I wanted to help my daughter keep these outfits together, so I found a great deal on hangers and sewed loops to any garment that couldn't hang on (like the pants and hats).

Are you sick of this post yet?  I had one more thing for this gift: 

New bedding for her new doll (that we expect Santa to bring) to go on one of the doll beds. 

• I loom knitted the blanket using Bernat Baby Blanket super chunky #6 yarn, using nearly a whole skein.  I used the blue Knifty Knitter long loom, casting on 30 pegs.  I made a flat panel with a slip stitch edge.  The knitting finished at 18" long by 14" wide.  I turned down the top (cast on) edge and hand-sewed on a piece of cotton lace from my stash. 
• I created a pillow that finished at 11" x 4-1/2" using leftover eyelet fabric and trimming with more cotton lace.

Thank you for letting me share my sewing project!  I am so excited for Piper to open this gift!  I have a few BIG surprises for her planned too, but this gift was such a labor of love!  I also think all of her little girl friends at school will be getting doll clothes for their American Girl Dolls for their birthdays this year!  This has been so much fun!

My sources (just in case you were wondering):

• If you have a girl in your life who would love some fun, creative doll clothes, check out Liberty Jane Patterns.   I love, love, love these!!  They have several free patterns that will give you an idea of how they go together -definitely download the FREE Trendy T-shirt and FREE Trendy Tank!  Finding the Liberty Jane designs allowed me to be able to make modern, fun styles easily!  Aside from the free ones, all of the patterns are $3.99, but that is actually more expensive than the patterns you can find at the fabric store because you are buying a pattern for only one item of apparel.  Even so, I liked that I can get the pattern instantly as a PDF and that I can print them as needed on my computer.  I use 10x13 catalog envelopes and simply tape the first page of the pattern on as a label and put the guidebooks and my tissue pattern tracings inside.  Another plus to Liberty Jane designs:  very few pattern pieces.  This makes alterations for variety super easy!  The designs are just so straightforward and simple!
• Also check out DollClothesPatterns.net - not too many patterns, but I loved the hoodie coat. 
• Check out Britlyn Madison for great shoes--- and clothes if you are not a seamstress!  Wow- stuff so much cuter than in the actual American Girl Doll catalog.  I am hoping the shoes and boots I ordered will arrive before Christmas, but I am not sure that they will based on the tracking info.  (The footwear might be a New Years gift!) 
• I bought lots of hangers from a vendor on Amazon. 
• Aside from a couple of older fabrics from my stash, the fabrics I used were purchased from our local Hancock Fabrics.  The yarns were purchased at Walmart.

As always, thank you for your interest in my projects.  To see all of my paper crafts, check My Project Gallery.  For info on how to Yudu, check my Yudu page. 

Happy crafting and Merry Christmas!

Autumn Gifties!

Autumn is a perfect time to make things for others with the natural inspiration from the colors all around and the spooky fun of Halloween.  I have been working on treat bags, gift bags, baking, and sewing so far this fall.

How much fun are the Halloween cartridges!  There are so many great ones available right now-- and some new ones this year too!  I used Chic and Scary to decorate gift bags for my mom and in-laws.



Corn that pops on the cob, fancy and funky Halloween glasses, sugar-free candies, and ghoulish crafty supplies are inside my mom's bag.  I avoid candy due to her diabetes and have so much fun shopping for her.  The kids in the family call my mom "Gaga".   My husband and I even call her that now.

The bird image on the left was cut at 4-1/2" from Chic and Scary.  The tag was made by stamping the outline and printing the text using FontSpace's 'Ink in the Meat' at 50 point.  The chandelier image was also cut from Chic and Scary, but at 7".  The tag was cut from Art Philosophy (page 68) at 4".  Again, the text was printed using the same font and size.  Don't you just love that font?  I used adhesive red rhinestones to add a little bling.

My daugher's school doesn't allow Halloween images or celebrations so we go all out for the ballet school students and teachers instead! 

These treat bags were filled with silly glasses, skeleton bracelets, spider rings, card games, fangs, spooky stampers, candy, and pretzels.  The tag was cut from Autumn Celebrations (page 60) at 4".  I sprayed the black cardstock with Glimmer Mist in Sun Sister and LOVED how it sparkled.  Just check out the difference below!

The 1" and 1-1/2" bats were cut from Chic and Scary.  They were inked and their wings were bent to give dimension.  They were attached with pop dots.

We get a pretty good crowd of trick-or-treaters with our neighborhood kids.  Families from outside of our neighborhood drop their kids off by the carload-- I have actually seen that!  So, just to share a bit of pettiness, I will tell you that one of my pet peeves is new parents who roll their infants around to trick-or-treat.  I wouldn't mind handing over candy if the parents were dressed up too---since they are the ones who will be eating it!!!  So, this year, I have Infantino rubber duckies for the babies!!!!  Bwahahahaha...

Don't worry-- I bought plenty of rubber duckies...

What can I say?  I got a deal.  OK - enough of my confession.  Let's move on to the next project:

I put together a few pumpkin bread gifts using my Simply Scarecrows cartridge to decorate mini loaves.  From this cartridge on the Expression, I cut the scarecrow at 4", the bird at 1-1/2", and the leaves at 1". 

Recently I discovered the most FANTASTIC, tender, flavorful pumpkin bread recipe.  I have been making and giving away mini loaves to everyone!  Click here to find the recipe on the wonderful Zabar's site.  (You can sign up to get their recipes emailed to you, which is how this one found its way to me.)

The original recipe calls for baking in a large loaf pan.  I make the recipe in my mini loaf pan, adjusting the baking time to 30 minutes.  I also changed the raisins to dried cranberries.  My very picky daughter loves pumpkin but not nuts.  Baking in a mini loaf pan, I can easily fill one or two mini loaves before folding in the nuts, then filling the remaining mini loaves so that she can have her own without walnuts.  The spices in this recipe are magical!

I can't get away with much of this gift-giving without my little helper expecting some fall gifties herself!  This is a dolly-and-me poncho set that I made. 

My daughter fell in love with the owl fabrics that we found at our local Hobby Lobby.  The fleece is a larger scale and was made into a poncho for my daughter using McCall's M6196; the broadcloth is the perfect scale for a doll and was altered from Simplicity 3936.  These were so fast to put together!

 I have been struggling with flocking and my Yudu.  I cannot seem to get an even coating, but this was the closest I could get... and I kinda like it for Halloween!

I used adhesive from Plaid Simply Screen after experimenting with that and Yudu brands.  I used Yudu-brand flocking paper.  The design is one that I cut with Chic and Scary.  I cut it from vinyl and applied it to acetate to burn the image into the emulsion on a 70 mesh screen.  I experimented with letting the glue dry before peeling the flocking papers away, weighing down the flocking papers into the glue using heavy books.  I seem to still have areas where the flocking is not as opaque and solid in some areas as in others.  If anyone has perfected this technique, please let me know so I can ask you questions!!! I have flocking in all colors and lots of ideas in mind once I get this perfected!

Thank you for looking at my projects!  I had so much fun with all of these!

Click here to see all of my projects in My Project Gallery.
Click here to see my Yudu instructions, tips, and projects.

Happy Halloween!