The goings on of today...duct tape dress and heirloom onion seeds!

Today was an attempt to get back on track with things. Did our normal breakfast and chore routine and then when Benjamin took his nap we went to the art studio. Kayla wanted to make something cool out of duck tape to enter into our county fair duct tape contest! So, she decided to make a dress for her cabbage patch doll!! Here are a few pictures:
First she made a template for the top of the dress.

Then she made a rectangle out of duct tape to trace the template on.


Sammy didn't feel like making anything out of duct tape, so she drew what she calls, a chimney person:)

Time to cut out the top. I forgot to take a pictures, but for the skirt, she made a long skinny rectangle, sewed Big stitches with string across the top, gathered the top, and taped it to the top of the dress.

Tada. I think she did a great job...with a tiny bit of mommy help:) Will let you know how she does in the contest!!

ALSO, a wonderful friend of ours gave us so of the seed pods from her flowering Heirloom Onion plants. The girls and I sat down today to undo each tiny seed pod to reveal 2-5 tiny black seeds in each pod. We are gonna dry these out and use them next year!! Thank you SHELLEY!!!

Ok, some things don't always work out.... Vinyl Record Purse

Well, this project has a ton of potential!!! But, didn't work so much this time. First off.... I tend to hate zippers...just not very good at them, as you will soon see. SECOND, never use stretch fabric when first trying something...arg.... Third, always sew in your handle BEFORE you finish sewing your purse!! All that said, I still think this idea rocks and plan on trying again!! NEVER GIVE UP!! NEVER SURRENDER!!!

Use and exacto Knife and cut off one side, however tall or short you want your purse. Cut over the same line around 8 times. Then over the side of the table apply even pressure to snap it off. If it's not perfect, you can scissor cut the bumps. Do the same thing to another record.

Now take your second to smallest bit and use your drill carefully to drill hole all the way around both records. Hold it down near the hole your about to drill to help it not to snap. Smaller bits worked best for me.



Now take your measuring tape and measure around the record. Add about an inch to this for seam allowance. You can pick the with of your purse. I chose 4 inches, then added a in ch for seam allowance making the total with 5 inches.

I cut that long piece out and then comes.... the dreaded zipper. If ANYONE has help on this, I'm all ears!! This is just NOT my area. There is a tutorial I saw that I can't seem to find right now. But maybe some of you know of a good one?? I also don't have a zipper foot, so it's hard to keep my stitches steady and on the zipper itself! HELP


Now I hand sewed each side on. I am NOT a fan of hand sewing, nor do I probably know the proper way to do it. BUT, what I did do was use black thread folded many times to make it really sturdy. This took me quite a while and with the stretchy fabric it finished all catywompus....YES that is a word!! LOL


Next comes on of my favorite ideas. Now, the first craft challenge I left my first class with was to take toilet/paper towel rolls and do something creative with them. WELL, this is one of the way I came up with. These are rolled paper towel rolls that I hot glued together!! I would cut them in half and roll them that way next time cause they were a bit of a bear to roll there at the end. BUT, this is a very sturdy yet bendy way to make handles for a purse!! And there FREE!!! You can paint these, put large beads on them, cover them in fabric whatever you like!!

I covered these ones, very sloppily with black bias fabric. I SHOULD have sewn these in BEFORE the fabric. That would have been much easier. After mostly getting one side sewed, I kinda gave up on the other side because It was nearly 2am and it was WAY WAY beyond my bed time....

Well, like I said. I still love the idea, I just gotta brush up on my skills a bit and I know I can make this work!! If you give it a try let me know how yours goes!!

Crafting with Kelly

Well, finally after much prayer, I have decided to teach a crafting class at my home!! I really do love making cool things with things people normally throw away and I wanted to share my enthusiasm with anyone else who would join in! I have had two classes so far. We started off with a very easy craft; Making Milk Carton Coin purses! There are a few different ways to do this, but my favorite ( because of the larger size) is this version:

There is a great video tutorial for this wallet/purse HERE and it gives you a great printable template to use.

My twist on this wallet is this; This can be used almost like a tract! If you pull this out of your purse people are bound to ask what it is and how you did it! SO, I added a salvation appropriate verse on a sticker on the inside of mine, so when they look at it and open it, there's God's word!!

These were fun to make as well as a lot of great fellowship going on! Tune in next time for some fusing plastic fun!

oh ya, p.s., I am working on a fun way to make a actual wallet out of these cartons too! Soon to come template and tutorial!

Recycled wood to furniture craft tutorial PART 3

Well, I finally finished my box's! Here are a few pictures of how I am setting them up right now. I decoupaged three of the four sides of these box's so I can change the way there set up here and there. I left a few of the backs on , but the rest I just left off. And yes, I DID spray these with clear acrylic sealer....my hubby made me:)... and helped me actually! Next is the tall shelves that he made me...what to do with them....hmmmmm:)

Family 4th of July Celebration

Had a fun time with the family this 4th of July. Took ALOT of pics, here a few of the best ones:

Recycled jeans into a new craft apron!

This project is SO SO easy and really fun to personalize! Just cut out the backside of a pair of old jeans you don't want anymore. Keep the whole top "belt" part intact and use the button backwards to go around your waist. Sew ( or fabric glue) something fun around the ruff cut edges and then go to town on your own personalized craft apron!!
For a cute tutorial, go HERE.

4th of July Shirts!

Here are some fun shirts we made with freezer paper stencils, paint and puff paint.

Benjamin

Samantha

Kayla

Mommy

Daddy

These were a fun family project! We will probably doing something similar for other holidays as well now!!

Fun summer messes!

Here are just a few fun pics of my sons first frozen jello pudding pop!

What do plastic spoons and coke cans have in commen???

Well, they can both be made into pretty cool flowers!! No tutorials on my part yet, but there coming!




The plastic spoon rose was tricky and my first attempt. I was alittle to impatient with my melting skills and that is where are the ...um...black spots come from:) But will try again with a little more Patience and distance between plastic and flame. Still came out kinda cool though!



I got the pop can flower idea from Heidi Borchers here: http://www.heidiborchers.com/