Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone has the happiest of Christmases!!

Christmas Crafting

I made these Christmas crafts:

Wreath made from inexpensive dollar store ornaments and a wire hanger (seen on Pinterest)

Trees made from styrofoam cones and felt (also seen on Pinterest)

Tree made from cardstock Christmas paper, wooden candle holder and wooden finial (seen here)

Burlap Snow Mama (seen here)

Let's Talk Turkey

I made this onesie for my new great-nephew Kaiden to wear on Thanksgiving Day:

If you want to make one, here is a great tutorial that includes a downloadable free pattern.

The only thing I did differently was to cut circles from white and black fabric for the eyes and added a waddle.

While I was doing this, I discovered something awesome that I must share with you. I don't know about you, but I always have a problem peeling away the Wonder Under once I iron it to the back of my fabric. It seems like it takes forever to try to find a spot where I could start peeling it back.

As I was struggling with it during this project, I had one of those lightbulb moments. I grabbed my seam ripper and scored lightly through the Wonder Under. It was like magic!! It made a nice little tear without damaging the fabric at all, and it made it soooooooo much easier to peel away the Wonder Under.

I will definitely be using this trick from now on.

Wishing you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving.

No Sew Fleece Blanket - Take Two

I made my second No Sew Fleece Blanket the other day. I forgot how easy and quick these are!

I absolutely love how this one came out with the brown and pink. It is for my nephew and his wife who are expecting a baby girl soon - she is decorating the nursery in pink and brown and ladybugs is her theme. I just so happens that I found some pink ladybug fleece fabric awhile back! So even though I am going to be making her a quilt, when I saw this fabric I knew I had to get it and make this too.

I did something different this time around to make my cuts and it worked out so great. My trick was this:

Peel and Stick Ruler Tape!! Rather than using my tape measure or yardstick, I just put this ruler tape down and I was able to keep my edge straight.

Another nice thing about it is that it is marked in 1 inch increments, so it's real easy to see where to make your cuts:

I am definitely using this from now on!

Here are the particulars for this project:

Fleece:  Hancock Fabrics (1 yard of each)
Peel and Stick Ruler Tape: Hobby Lobby (or try your LQS)
Pattern/Tutorial:  There is a really good one here

I hope you try this peel and stick ruler tape - you will love it!

Very Belated Halloween Project

I forgot to post about the cute Halloween pillow I made:

I followed the tutorial that Suzanne at Just Another Hang Up posted here.   I printed right onto my muslin fabric using freezer paper rather than using the spray adhesive and paper.

I got the image from The Graphics Fairy.   If you've never checked out this blog, you really should. She has tons of FREE graphics that you can download.

I think I might make Thanksgiving and Christmas pillows too, since there are so many cute holiday graphics to choose from.

Quick Giveaway

Somehow I ended up with two copies of American Patchwork & Quilting December 2011 issue:

In addition to the gorgeous star quilt on the cover, it has many other great patterns, like these cute holiday pillows:

This Harvest Table Topper:

and this neat Contrasting Cabins quilt:

I will give away my extra copy of this issue to the first person who posts a comment on this post and says they want it! 

Alphabet Magnets - A Tutorial

These make-it-yourself alphabet magnets are all over Pinterest (so addicted to that site BTW!) so I decided to make some for a friend of mine.

I pretty much followed the tutorial found here at Bubbly Nature Creations. I did mine just a little differently, so I'll show you what I did.

Here's what I used to make mine:

and

and

I used cardstock and some cute alphabet stickers I found at Wal-mart for $1.

I cut my cardstock into small squares that would fit the gems (make sure you get the gems that have a flat back to them, found mine at Dollar Tree). I then put a sticker in the middle of the square, stuck a gem on top of it and traced around it with a pencil. I cut out the shapes, then Mod-Podged them to the gems.

After they were dry, I trimmed around the edges (see how there is some paper showing around the edges of the "j" in the above picture? you don't want that!)

I then went back and turned them all over and added a layer of Mod Podge to the back of each one, just to make sure those puppies were on there good:

After that dried, I glued the magnets to the back of each one using the E-6000 glue. The Mod Podge on the back makes them sort of slippery, so I put a dot of glue in the middle and pressed the magnet down really good and held it there for a few seconds.

After they completely dried ... voila, cute magnets:

I decided to gift these to her on a cookie sheet. She can put them on her refrigerator, but I thought a cookie sheet would work good if she didn't want the magnets cluttering up her fridge, or if her daughter wanted to play with them in her room.

I am thinking about selling some items at a holiday craft show ... maybe I'll make up a few more of these. The cookie sheet would be a great way to display them there.

If you would like to follow me on Pinterest, just click the Pinterest button at the top right-hand side of my blog page.

Happy Crafting!