Ribbon Headband

I saw a ribbon wrapped headband in a department store and wasn't about to pay what they were asking . . . so I made one of these for my niece - and it turned out great, so I made one for myself.
I bought a pack of the cheap-o plastic headbands at Wal-Mart for about $3 for a pack of 6. They were the kid's size, but they actually fit my head fine too.

I cut a couple inches of the ribbon to cover the ends nicely, then started wrapping it tight and glueing it along the back as I went.

When I was done, I made the double decker simple bow and wrapped ribbon around the loops and the headband and glued it in place. Since my ribbon was shiny, I turned the top layer of the bow upside down to add a bit of contrast with a matte finish.

I won a Giveaway!

Ashley at Lil Blue Boo held a giveaway last week to win the supplies needed to make an adorable cupcake skirt and to applique a cupcake on a t-shirt. . . . and I won!

I'm so excited to get this package in the mail and start on this skirt. My little girl won't fit into it for a while since she's not due till December :) but I'm so excited to be able to start making things for a little girl!

Thank you, Ashley!

PS - if you haven't visited her blog before - you should. I love every project on there! www.lilblueboo.blogspot.com

Crossing your fingers works

So I've come to find that crossing my fingers has worked at least once in my life now. We found out we're having a baby girl!! I had a dream that I was going to be a mom of all boys eventually and never get a girl.

I'm so excited that I will actually have a good reason to make all these girl clothes and accessories now. I don't have to make them, try them on my son for pictures or for fitting adjustments, and then give them so someone else as a gift. I get to make them for myself now!!

Jumbo paperclip magnets

I saw this idea on Create a Life you Love and thought it was perfect for what I wanted to do.

So I got these jumbo paperclips at Walmart for 97cents for a pack of 10. They are about 3 inches long - so they are not the normal "jumbo" that the stores usually sell.

I used magnets that I had on hand from Michael's when I used a 40% off coupon - love those coupons! And I have scrapbooking flowers that I used.

Process:

1. Superglue the clip to the magnet, then glue the flower on top to cover up the magnet.
2. I got on the computer and printed out the first letter of the girl's names I was making these for
3. Cut out the letters to go in the center of the flower
4. Using diamond glaze, cover the letter/paper to add dimension and shine ** the lady's blog I found this idea on used a laminator to laminate the letters - but I don't have a laminator - sad, I know. I couldn't find the diamond glaze anywhere, so I bought it online at Jo-Anns. They didn't have it in their stores by me, but they did online, weird.

5. Let the glaze dry overnight
6. Glue the letter on the flower
7. Voila - you're done

I made these for the YW in my ward (church) that went to Girl's Camp this week. They have "mailboxes" that the leaders put something in each day, and I didn't want to do the traditional candy/note combo. I know that when I went to Girl's Camp, I always came home so upbeat and ready to read scriptures more, so I made a Daily Scripture Chart for them to hang on the clip and put it on their fridge. Here's the link to the document I made for the check off sheet.

Yarn wrapped bracelet

After making a couple of these bracelets, I felt like Wilma Flinstone when I wore it. I made 2 of these for my mom for her birthday and they were pretty easy to make. I found the idea on Infarrantly Creative and loved it. She has a great tutorial there, so check out her site!

I did do a couple things differently. I used fancier yarn (Alpaca for the brown and a twisty one for the yellow bracelet) since I wanted a dressier look. And I found it tricky to wrap the yarn around the wood ball - maybe my fingers aren't nimble enough :)

So here's the trick I used to hold the ball in place so I could wrap the yarn around it easier . . . I slid the ball down the handle of a paint brush to keep it tight in place and that made things 100x easier. I almost gave up by the second ball until I searched for a solution.

I forgot to take a picture of the 2nd bracelet before I wrapped them up and gave them to my Mom, but here's a picture of the yarn I used to give you an idea. I used a brown ribbon to tie on it for embelishment.

Christmas in July

I made these plates last year for my mom, mother-in-law (and myself) for Christmas. But the day after I made mine, my husband bumped it and it shattered . . . so note to self - buy stronger plate holders!

I bought the plates at Target and the Dollar Store. And fiddled around with a few designs on my Cricut Expression and the adhered the vinyl to the plates. Voila! Instant Christmas present - I also covered them with saran wrap and put cookies and other goodies on them when I handed them over as gifts.

On "rockin' around the Christmas tree," I just had the completed triangle for the tree and used an exacto knife to cut out the diagonal lines once I put it on the plate - that was rather easy and kinda fun to do.

**After putting the vinyl on, you can't wash the plates in the sink or dishwasher, so it's good to cover them before putting food on them for a gift. Then they are just decoration.

Fabric Reversible Headband

I've seen headbands all over the internet and decided to make my own - including creating a pattern! I saw this idea on someone's blog a few months ago, but didn't see a pattern or tutorial there, so I decided to try this from "scratch."

This was the first time I've created my own pattern. I traced one of my plastic headbands that I liked the style of and added width for the seams and length to go all the way around my head instead of ending at the ears like it did. It took a few tweaks and changes, but I was successful. I made 2 different patterns that can be printed out. Here is the link to the patterns I made. One is a wide center (like the pictures below) and the other pattern is for a straight/square band.

I like headbands, but I always get tired of wearing them when the plastic ends start squishing my head. So I wanted one with elastic so that I didn't have to have anything squishing my head. I'm actually wearing the yellow one now and it has stayed in place all day and hasn't bothered my head at all!
Supplies needed:

• Pattern
• 2 scraps of fabric that are 20"x3"
• 1 piece of interfacing that is 20"x3"(optional, but makes the headband firmer)
• elastic at least 4" long
• optional (ribbon to go the length of the headband on a solid fabric)

Step 1
Cut out fabric and interfacing using the pattern

Step 2
If interfacing is fusible, Iron it to the wrong side of one of the pieces of fabric

Step 3
With right sides together, sew down the 2 long sides of the headband with 1/4" seam allowances (don't sew the small ends!!) The interfacing will be visible on one side too.

Step 4
Turn the headband right side out. This is kinda tricky! I started using the stick end of a paint brush to get going and then once I was far enough in, I put my finger inside the band (like the picture below) and used my thumb to slide the fabric through. It took awhile, but make sure you go slow so you don't rip out the seams on the side. (I did that on my first one - oops!) Once you get to the halfway mark, it goes really fast.

Step 5
Iron the headband flat to make sure the seams are flat before topstitching


Step 6
Sew down the long sides again - this time on the right sides of the headband to tack it in place. I didn't measure how far in I sewed the stitch, but just pick where you want the topstitch to be.


Step 7
Attach elastic to both ends by inserting it 1/4" to 1/2" in the headband end then stitch across the headband's end making sure to catch the elastic.


Step 8
I tried a couple different ways to finish off the ends so they looked prettier. On the brown headband, I did a tight zigzag stitch that covered the entire end so you wouldn't see the stitch.


But on the yellow headband, I cut a few inches of ribbon and wrapped the end, sewing it down across the middle of the ribbon and on both ends (if you use a thinner ribbon, you would be fine to just sew down the middle.



I liked the ribbon capped look on the ends the best.

Carseat belt covers

Ethan's carseat doesn't have strap covers, so they are constantly rubbing on his neck. Especially since he insists on leaning to one side all the time. His infant seat had them, but not the front facing carseat he uses now.

I looked for them at the stores, but only found very ugly ones at Babies R Us and wasn't about to pay $15 for them. So I was very excited to stumble across this tutorial from Make It and Love It. I just bought a fat quarter for 99 cents and a pack of bias tape and velcro using Jo-Ann's 40% off coupons, so all in all, this cost about $4 to make, and I didn't even use half the fabric or velcro. So technically it was less than $4. :)

Buttoned Flower Hair Clip

I made this last week, but my internet was down for almost a week, and I forgot I was waiting to post it :)

I found a bouquet of red flowers at Jo-Anns and used my trusty 40% off coupon (I wouldn't have half my craft stash without those now that we're living on a budget). I picked off 3 flowers from the stems and used a needle and thread to sew them together and attached a yellow button to the center.

Some fake flowers come with pretty centers you can use, but mine were ugly, so I opted for the button.

I then covered an alligator clip with 7 inches of 3/8" yellow ribbon and sewed the flower down to the ribbon-lined clip and then finished it off with some craft glue under the flower to add extra stability.

P.S. - I looked all over about 4 months ago for a handful of the alligator clips (or AKA Toddler Clips) and wound up at Sally's Beauty Supply. I got this box below of 100 clips for about $5. You can't find a better deal than that. These are the same clips I used when I made these Toddler Hair Clips last month. . .
This was my first attempt at attaching flowers to clips, but I hope to get better flowers next time (preferrably Daisies)!

Apple in a Frame

I saw an idea to put styrofoam fruit in a frame over at Just a Girl where she featured this craft idea from The Happy Homebody. The original was a pear in a frame, but I used an apple.


. . . and I added my own touch to match my decor. I cut vinyl letters out with my Cricut Expression to adhere to the front of the glass. And I used 2 types of paper with a ribbon at the line. I love, love, love this! I'm probably going to make an orange and maybe banana one too.
One side note - I've seen a few craft sites attempt this project, but no one ever mentioned this slight problem - there was cement in the middle of my apple. I was about an inch through and the knife wouldn't budge, so I put all my weight on it and still, nothing. So I got brave and pulled it apart a bit and found this chunk of cement! Just don't tell my husband I used his nice (and expensive) chef's knife on this project. :)

End of the school year - Teacher Gift

My sister has 2 girls that are in school (pre-school and 2nd grade). She asked me to help her come up with an idea for a crafty idea for them. I wasn't feeling too original that day, so I blog stalked . . . and wound up at Tip Junkie and found this Teacher Gift that was made by Dawn.

I just printed the name and the giant letter on cardstock and observed while my sister and niece cut and glued on the crayons. So I didn't make this craft myself . . . just participated a bit and found the idea. But I instantly fell in love with it.

I've always had an addiction to Crayola. I have a box full of Crayola stuff (books, crayons, umbrella, and other random things. I think when my kids are grown I'm going to have a hard time sharing my crayons. I like them to stay pretty, so I'll probably have to keep my set separate. OCD I guess :) I don't like using highlighters or those red pencils to mark my scriptures, so since I was a teenager, I've used crayons. My bible is colorful!