Monster Shaker + Tutorial

Shake, shake, shake your sillies out with this great Monster Shaker! It is a great way to use up those scraps of fabric (fleece, fuzzy, terry towel, etc) and have fun.

We are giving this monster to a one year old, so we kept the decorations simple so they aren't a choking hazard. For older kids, google eyes and other decorations would be fun!

I created a tutorial which you can download from here. It is super simple craft and doesn't take too much time to complete. And for older kids, they could decorate their own monster shakers.

This is my first tutorial, so if you find an errors or need clarification, please let me know.

Download Tutorial Here

Fluffy Stuffy Bunny

It's been a year since the Olympics. It is hard to believe! This means some of Shea's friends are having their first birthday parties! Yikes! I am noticing a trend that many of the people are requesting no gifts. The kids seem to have everything they need and so many toys.

That being said, I always feel badly not bringing a little something. So, I decided to use the stuff around my house to make some toys for the kids.

The first idea I had was to make a small stuffie. My first attempt was making sock monkeys, but that didn't pan out. I found them too boring. Then I found this cute little bunny pattern from Jenny over at All Sorts blog. It was so cute and looked simple to make I had to try to make one.

The bunny took me about 2 hours in total to make. Not too bad and I would definitely get faster at making these. Jenny's instructions are great and she had some really good tips. I loved how she used the freezer paper - it definitely made sewing the bunny easy and quick. I did add bells in the ears of the bunny - so they flop a little more (from the weight of the bells). I also made a mess at making the pom-pom because I bought fuzzy yarn rather than regular yarn. The fuzz went everywhere once it was cut. So, I had a pre-made pom-pom that I sewed on the bunny instead.

I am definitely going to be making more of these little bunnies and I plan on making a super hero cape for them. Once I figure out the pattern for the cape, I will post it on here.

Fun Halloween Craft

I LOVE halloween! I am so excited to dress Shea up and go celebrate this year. I want to put some decorations around the house and I found this easy peasy craft! I am going to go make some right now :)

For instructions how to make your own - visit Our Best Bites.

Back from Vacation... Ahhhh...

Well, we had 2 glorious weeks spent with friends and family in Radium, British Columbia. The food, weather and company was wonderful! I thought I would share a couple of my favourite pictures!

And I plan on making a memory book for my nephew Matthew (who turns 2 at the end of August) using this spectacular tutorial by guest blogger on V and Co. Too cute! Now I just have to pick my favourite photos from the trip... yikes!

The cousins!

Anna chatting with Shea

Shea at the beach

Back to Halloween Fun!

I found this awesome tutorial to make some fun Halloween decorations on Forty-two Roads blog. They look so fun! I want to make them!

I already bought my pumpkin and am excited to carve it!

I'm Thinking of X-Mas Already??!!

I know that Thanksgiving has just passed and Halloween isn't even here yet, but I can't help but thinking of things I want to make for X-Mas! So, I did some searching around and here are some great tutorials that I found:

1. Ribbon Wreath

Picture from The Long Thread

2. Advent Calendar

Picture from Sew Mama Sew

3. How to Make a Paper Finnish Star

Picture is from Craft Ideas

4. Quilled Snowflake Ornament

Picture is from Reese Dixon

Tuesday Tutorial - Smoothie Goodness!

This week's tutorial is going to be a little different. When I wasn't feeling well, I only could drink smoothies for breakfast and I thought I would share the recipe that I found that worked the best:

Strawberry-Banana Smoothie (Try other fruits too!)
1 cup of milk
8 ice cubes
1/4 cup of vanilla yogurt
1 - 2 bananas
1/4 - 1/2 cup strawberries

Put everything in a blender and mix! Makes about 2 pint sized glasses of smoothie.

Anybody else have a favourite smootie recipe?

Tuesday Tutorial - Cute Skirt

Hopefully I am on the mend - I have been sick for a couple weeks and I have had no energy to do anything. Today I am still feeling queesy, but am fighting it. I have been to the doctor and I think we have figured out what is wrong and she has prescribed some antibiotics which I pick up today. I am hoping that will make for a fast recovery!

Okay, now on to fun stuff! I have a couple of beautiful nieces birthday parties to go to in September and I wanted to make them something really special. I have been flipping slowly through blogs, when I found this amazing blog by this nice lady Dana called Made. She has tonnes of tutorials and links to fun kids clothing tutorials. I am digging this blog for sure!

The first tutorial I think I will try from her collection is this market skirt. It looks fairly simple to make, but has some funkiness to it. I have some cute fabric that should work perfectly. Hopefully if I am feeling better in the next couple days I can get to work!



This cute market skirt tutorial can be found by clicking here.

Bag for Kat

I have a little time in between ball games today, so I thought I would share a bag I recently made.

A good friend of mine asked me to make her a bag similar to the pink bag I made for the Book Lovers Craft Swap. We talked a little about what she wanted and I made a new pattern. This bag I made was bigger, had 2 different sized pockets, and a magnetic clasp. I used the MoMo Wonderland Twill fabric - which I LOVED! It was really nice! I wish I would have boughten more of it! Overall, I really liked how this bag turned out.

The inside of the bag - 2 different sized pockets.

This bag turned out to be 18" wide by 14" tall (finished). I used the same tutorials to create this bag as the previous one:
Mama's Pocket Book - Free Tote
Lazy Girl's Instructions on how to do boxed corners

If you are wanting to make yourself a nice bag this summer - I recommend starting with these tutorials. This bag probably took me 2 hours to make. Most of the time was spent on cutting out the material as I used interfacing on all the pieces to ensure the bag kept it shape. I also used fusible fleece to interface the handle - this will make it comfortable on the shoulders.

Tuesday Tutorial - Oven Mitts!

Picture taken from Savy Seams

Okay - let's roll with the apron tutorial and now figure out how to make oven mitts! I found this great tutorial by Savy Seams that has a downloadable pattern and everything. One thing I would add is a loop so the mitts could be hung, which wouldn't be difficult to add.

The one problem is that searching through my fabric, it is mostly pretty girly. Not that it is a bad thing, but I want some nice fabric that is gender neutral and would be a nice addition to someone's kitchen. Any suggestions?

New Baseball Babes + Tuesday Tutorial - Hooter Hiders

We have a new addition to our baseball team! One of the ladies on our team had a little girl last Saturday. She is so adorable! Mom and babe have been at our last 2 games. Here is a picture of our new little Chronic (our team name) at her second baseball game:

Second game for our newest team member!

Michele and baby hanging out at the baseball diamond.

Mom didn't receive a "hooter hider" at her shower - so I have been searching for tutorials how to make one for her. I found a couple tutorials, but I am pretty sure there are more out there:

Hooter HIder tutorial by Made By the Mama Monster

Hooter hider tutorial by Bliss Tree

Our friend that plays on a different baseball team had a baby shower for his little girl. I whipped up a baby towel for him on Saturday. His team all wears camouflage, so I made a towel in a pink camouflage fabric. It is pretty cute! Sorry for the bad pictures of the towel, I was in a rush to get to the shower! Dad did try the towel on too - so funny!

Auntie Mandy and newest team member of the Bratz crew!

Late! Tuesday/Wednesday Tutorial

Okay, I am a little disorganized this week. db is now working in Vancouver 3 days a week for the next couple of months. This means lots of organizing life and other stuff like ball without him. The one thing I have noticed is that I spend about 1/2 my day looking for items I have put down. Usually I would just ask him where I put something and he usually knows. Like my glasses and keys - I swear I am going to put a beeper on them!

One of the things that I have magically hidden somewhere in our abode is my camera charger. I can't seem to find it anywhere. I even called db in Vancouver tonight to ask if he knew where it was - but he didn't. So, that means no pictures of the wonderful crafting I have done lately. Sigh.

I also went fabric shopping today and spent way way way too much money. Yikes! I got some really cute fabric including some of my favourite Arcadia by Sanae! I have no plans for any of this fabric I bought today, but I love it all.

Onto this week's tutorial: APRONS! I found this great site that lists 52 free apron patterns. I haven't gotten through all of them yet, but there are some goodies in there! I am attending a couple of weddings in the fall, so I might make a kitchen basket with a apron, oven mitts, coasters, glass magnets, place mats and some pot holders in it. What do you think? Would you have liked/like to receive this sort a gift at your wedding? I can't decide if it is too old ladyish of a gift. Anyways, check out the 52 aprons and let me know which is your favourite and that you would like to receive as a gift!

Tutorial Tuesday - Baby Dress/Tunic + Catch UP!

First I want to congratulate my baseball team - we won the Union Bay tournament we went to this past weekend! It was a very fun tournament and we had amazing weather for camping. We walked away with $500, but donated $200 to one of the team's efforts to raise money for Breast Cancer. I tried to take some photos, but when I went to use my camera, the battery was dead. Opps - my fault!

Hope everybody checked out Sew Mama Sew blog's May giveaway. Unfortunately it looks like I didn't win anything - oh well! I figure that I am saving all my luck to win a huge lottery so I can retire. Hope some of you out there had better luck than me.

Now that summer has arrived, I found a perfect tutorial to make a little girl dress/tunic. Made by Petchy created a pattern which you can download for free and posted very well written instruction how to make this cute dress. What I really like about this dress is that it could be a shirt also. My plan is to download and print the pattern and try making it a little bigger so it fits a 24 month year old little girl. Of course that is after I finish all the other sewing I have to do.

photo taken by Made by Petchy

You can find the instructions and downloadable pattern by clicking here.

Tutorial Tuesday - Lil' Owls

I am coping Indie Fixx's Tutorial Tuesday from awhile back, but only because it is totally worth spreading it all around!

Alex from MOONSTICHES put together this really well done tutorial, which was inspired from a pattern she found in a book (info on the front page of the tutorial). Since Alex does not share the pattern from the book, you can buy the book (although it’s in Japanese) or come up with your own pattern and use Alex’s tutorial as an inspiration for your own owl. For more inspiration, visit the Owly Love Flickr Pool.

Click here to see the full tutorial that MOONSTITCHES put together to make these cute little owls. I am definitely adding these guys to my "must make" list!

Tutorial - Boxed Corner Bag

For the Book Lovers craft swap that I participated in, I made a reversible box bag. I started with using the instructions from Mamas Pocket Book Blog, but creating my own pattern. My pattern measured 18" (length) x 12" (height) with the small squares 2" x 2". I also used super duper heavy interfacing on BOTH the lining and the front of the bag. I really wanted this bag to keep it's shape. When I got to sewing the corners of this bag - I was confused by the instructions, so I found new instructions for the corners on Lazy Girl's Design Blog.

With these two tutorials, I created exactly the bag I wanted! I am currently creating a new bag using these two tutorials + one other... I will post links & pictures soon!

In other news, db and I are off to Calgary for the next wedding. This will be the second out of five we will be attending this year. db is not really wanting to go; he would rather stay and play baseball, but it is his dad that is getting married so he has no choice :)

I will be back from Calgary next Tuesday with a fun tutorial! Have a great long weekend everybody!

Tuesday Tutorial - Freezer Paper Fun!!

When I was in London, my sister gave me a large roll of freezer paper because I had read various techniques of printing onto fabric using a home computer and printer.



As, I looked into more things to create using freezer paper, I came across this tutorial, which uses bleach to make a white stencil. I always want cool t-shirt, but never find any fun ones. I think this is my next project for myself - but instead of bleaching, I think I will use fabric paints. I am very sure this is not a new idea, but it is new to me and looks fun and easy to do! Think of the fun tea towels you could make... or the baby onesies... oh so many gift options!

There are all sorts of stencil ideas out there - I found this flickr group dedicated to printing with freezer paper stencils onto fabric: http://www.flickr.com/groups/fpstencils/

Also, I wanted to follow up on the pin cushion tutorial I posted a few weeks ago... I finally made mine! It's so pretty! The instructions that Oh Fransson gives are amazing - so easy to follow. And if you do decide to make a pin cushion for yourself, listen to her advice about filling the bean bag - I filled mine too much and had to take it apart and take some of the rice out!

It took me about 2 hours to complete - probably longer than necessary because I was watching movies at the same time :)

Tutorial Tuesday - Twirl Skirt

Before I get to the featured tutorial for this week, I have to brag about my beautiful nieces and nephew. Anna is 3 and is so much fun! We play many games together like pirates, don't wake auntie, Mr. tickle, and princess Leona and Ariel. This week's tutorial is inspired by her - she loves to dance around and I wanted to make her a skirt so she can twirl. I have all the fabric and materials to make it, but with all the playing we have been doing, I didn't have time this week. Hopefully I can get it done this weekend and post pictures soon!

Anna watching Auntie Ariane and Uncle db play baseball on the weekend

Next is my niece Suds - she is 11 and is very cool. We went shopping for a dress for db dad's wedding that is coming up in May, but we didn't find anything that is just right. We did manage to find a cool hoodie at a local surf shop. I think she likes it. We also made the Polymer Clay octopus from my previous tutorial. They were more difficult to make, but we managed. Check out the girls painting their fun craft items!

Suds crafting away!

Suds and Anna painting our polymer clay octopus

And of course there is wonderful Matthew - who is such a happy baby. He loves to cuddle and crawl around. While we were crafting, he needed to sit at the table with us, so db sat with him so he didn't feel left out. It is amazing how much he has changed since I first met him. Soon I will be having to find fun boy things to do with him!

Lara and Matthew cheering the Flames on (before they got knocked out)

Now, the tutorial for the twirl skirt I found awhile back on House on Hill Road's blog, but never managed to get Anna's measurements. The skirt looks simple to make - so I am hopeful that all goes well when I start making it.


Tutorial Link: http://houseonhillroad.typepad.com/photos/twirly_skirt/

Hope everyone is having a good week! I should be back this weekend with more fun stuff!

Tutorial Tuesday - Pin Cushion and Organizer by Oh Fransson!

It's time to craft something for myself! When I sew, I can't seem to be organized and there is pins everywhere, I can't find my seem ripper or my scissors and there is little threads everywhere! Searching around the common blogs that I read, I noticed that Oh Fransson has a Pin Cushion and Organizer tutorial (the tutorial is actually on Sew Mama Sew's blog, but can be linked from Oh Fransson also). I am still debating on what fabric I want to use - I did pick up some nice fat quarters recently - I might have to dive into those! Once I am done - I will post pictures!

So, this is my next project! Hopefully this will keep me somewhat organized, so I don't have to spend so much time searching for my scissors and that db can actually enter the sewing/computer room without seeing my huge mess!

Link to Download Oh Fransson's PDF instructions is available at this link: http://www.sewmamasew.com/media/blog/SMSPincushionOrganizer.pdf

Tutorial - Polymer Octopus

I am mixing it up a little today and posting a non-sewing tutorial. I saw this thread on craftster which posted this cute little octopus key chain. There is a tutorial how to create the little octopus using polymer clay. I thought it was cute and looked simple enough to make!

I think I will try and make one with my niece who is coming for a visit next week. I have been searching for fun stuff for us to try and this I am definitely putting on the list.

The tutorial can be found at this link: http://oborochann.deviantart.com/art/Octopus-Charm-Tutorial-45828570

Have a great weekend everyone! I will be back on Monday with news how the trip to Seattle went!

Tutorial Tuesday - Passport Cover

Okay, I know I am posting this on Wednesday. Is it Wednesday today? I have been super busy getting ready to attend a wedding on Saturday and getting ready for my trip to London! Only a couple more days before I leave!



In spirit of my trip, I am going to make myself a passport holder. The original tutorial is from bunny bum, but I got the link and idea from scoping out Smiles of a Summer Night's blog.

So check out both those blogs! They are wonderful and have other tutorials! I may not have time to post pictures of my passport holder, but I promise I will when I get back from my trip.