Mothers Day Apron

Mother's Day is just around the corner!!

Here is the cute apron I told you about last week.
It's made with a large Tea Towel (28x20).
I won the original that was made by my friend at Bernina.
She added ruffles to the top and bottom and large rickrack.

On this one, she used matching material for the neck, arm, and waist ties.
Others I have used double fold bias tape.

I think that the flower adds the final touch to the apron.
I've used fabric colors that match the material of the ruffles.
Then I use my ruffler and my Bernina 830 to make the flower.
My thanks to Maxine for showing me how to do these cute flowers!
The ruffler also made the ruffles on the top and bottom.
Saves so much time! To think I used to do it with basting stitches!

These flowers (and many other patterns) would be darling on headbands
or hats for old OR young people. So many possibilities!!!

This last one is the apron I am working on right now. It will be finished tonight.
It will maybe have a 'double diamond' band across the top and bottom.
Maxine showed me how to do that also! Oh what fun!!

It's darling and definitely relays my feeling for 'CHOCOLATE'!

Tomorrow I am making one for my sister that says:
My Sister - - - My Friend (on different lines).
Or: Sisters Make the Best Friends.
It is on a red and white towel and will have a red rose spray across the top
with green leaves and stems flowing through it.
It will also have pockets. Pockets are easy to add and add to
the overall effect.
If anyone would like to buy any of the things that I have put on the blog,
just send me a message to our email address:
ahenandherchicks@yahoo.com



linking to
Sisters Stuff

Epic Fail!!

Hello there!! Happy St Patricks Day!!!

Have you ever done a craft that just didn't turn out like you'd planned?

Maybe you had the best of intentions, but they went HORRIBLY wrong?!!

Although it might be a bit embarrassing, I'm going to share with you a project that I've been working on for the last couple weeks that turned out ALL WRONG!!

One of my goals for this year is to make a wreath for every holiday, so I had this great idea for a St Patricks Day wreath. Have you seen the rosette balls that are all over blogland? House of Smiths (yet another of my favorite blogs) has a great tutorial if you're interested! They're made with crepe paper, and they're adorable! So I was looking through my stash of crepe paper, and realized I had a roll of green. I had this great idea to make a St Patricks Day wreath with green rosettes. I even decided to cut my wreath out of cardboard so I could make the wreath for free!! What a great idea, right??....not so much!

So this is what I started with. (the bowl of ice cream is optional! :) ) I spent hours doing the rosettes, and finally got to this

This is when I ran out of crepe paper. So the next day I went and got some from the dollar store. The only problem was it was a totally different green! So I started thinking of other ways I could finish this wreath. I finally decided that I would make a rainbow on the top of the wreath. But I was doing this wreath 'on the cheap' and I didn't want to buy rolls of crepe paper in every color. So, being the genius that I am, I decided to do the rainbow in white, and paint them the colors of the rainbow. This is when the project went horribly wrong! I was already frustrated that I had spent so much time on the green rosettes, but I had no idea how long it would take me to do the white rosettes!! Ughhh.

So, hours and hours later, here's what I had. I didn't like it, but I'd spent so much time on it, that I was determined to make it work!

So while trying to figure out how to finish it, guess what I found?? Another roll of green that matched my green rosettes. Perfect timing. So I figured I'd go all out....
Are you ready for this awesomeness?? :)

Great, eh?? I know, you're stunned with it's beauty, right?? Ughhh. Definitely an epic fail!!
But that darn wreath will remain on my door until I make an Easter wreath, because I'm just that stubborn!! I spent so much time on the stinkin' wreath, and every time I walk through my door I'll remember never to do it again!! Oh well, lesson learned. Learn from my mistakes!

Did you see Jacki's awesome St Pattys Wreath?
You should stick with that one!

Thanks for reading!!
Juli

Play Make-up

If you have a little girl like me then they probably have gotten into your make-up. My 3 year old has been known to come out of the bathroom with BRIGHT rosy cheeks and HUGE black streaks by her eyes. It's really hard to get too mad when she comes and says "Look Mom I look like a princess!"

I solved this problem by making her her own make-up.


I read on craft blog a good long while ago about how they made play make-up for their little princesses. I can't remember where I saw it to give them the credit but I did remember how they did it.

It is way EASY.......

all you need is empty make-up containers (brand new or you could just use your empty make-up containers) and nail polish.

**I got a new empty eye shadow container at Target for only $1 and nail polish for $1.

So to do this all you have to do is pour your desired color of nail polish into the EMPTY slots and let dry (for at least 24 hours) and VOILA there you have it.....Princess Play Make-up. You could also put a princess sticker on the front of the container to make it more Princess-like!!

My little girl has had soooo much with her new make-up. She hasn't once tried to get into mine now that she has her own & now we all get to wear her Princess Make-up daily, even Daddy!!!

Shamrock Rag Wreath

I know it's getting close to St. Patrick's Day, but I saw a wreath over at The Magic of Ordinary Things and wanted to make it.

I started with a wreath from The Dollar Store. Can't beat the price.

I had picked up 1/4 yard of six different coordinating fabrics. Most of the fabric was on sale at JoAnn's, so I spent less than $5.00.
I took the fabric and ripped it into 1"-2" strips, than cut it into 10-12 strips. I like the varied in length and width. Here is all the strips of fabric.

Than you just start tying them around the wreath in what ever order you want.
I found that sometimes you need to push the material around so the wreath doesn't show.
I was going to hand the wreath on the door like that with a little bit of ribbon, but it wasn't screaming St. Patrick's Day. That's when I got the idea to have a shamrock in the middle. I had a stencil for a heart and used three of the hearts to make the shamrock. I painted it and than taped some ribbon on the back like this.

And yes that is a mess of glitter. I tried to make it a little more blingy, but it looked BAD!
I think the shamrock in the middle screams St. Patrick's Day (okay maybe not screams), but I think it makes it look cuter.
What are your plans for St. Patrick's Day?

Linking up to
http://sistersstuff.blogspot.com/

Birthday Calendars

Hello!!!  I am Jess (the cards sister).  I love cards, and cards, and cards.  So if Monday becomes card day be warned.   I needed a gift for my parents for Christmas so I made these...  They are calendars made of envelopes so that you can keep all your cards in there for the month.  It is a cute thing to hang on the wall and a great organizer too. 

Here you can see the back of the calendar/envelope, opens up to place the cards for each month.

They are folders I bought at Xpedex, they are about 12''x9''.  Then I had them bound at the local copy center for $2 a calendar.

With the frames I cut them to fit a cut down 4x6 or a 3 1/2x 5.  I had so much fun picking the paper out for each month.  But I made them so that you could change out the picture when the years go by.  So only glue on 3 sides.

The month names I stamped and then did color copies at the copy center (because I had to make 12 and I didn't think I could make 12 look that great.)  If you are just making your own, I would just stamp directly on the envelope.  Or if you have a cricut do it that way.

You can't print on envelopes very easy so I just made a paper of the dates and pasted them to the envelope.

So that is my project for keeping your birthday cards, ready and organized for each month.  I hope you enjoyed!

Just in time for Mother's Day!!

JUST IN TIME FOR MOTHER'S DAY!


Here's a great gift for mother, grandmothers, etc. from a woman or a man!
The poem reads:

Mom,
I feel so very fortunate
And I know that it is true
I would not be the woman (man) I am
If it were not for you.


So if upon this Mother's Day
You shed a happy tear
Just save it in this handkerchief
And know I hold you dear.
Mother's Day
2011

I got a 'Bernina 830' in December and LOVE IT!!!
I'll do custom embroidery & personalization.
This handkerchief can have the poem (in any color) or
an LDS Temple in white or a color.
We'll have a Paypal button soon so you can order merchandise.
The handkerchief will be $12 and includes a gift box & FREE shipping!
I love doing most crafts, but I'm so in love with my sewing machine
that my blogs for a while,
will be things I am sewing - most of them things you can buy!
Here are a couple of the LDS Temples I've done.
Some on handkerchiefs, some as quilt blocks, some as pictures,
and some as bookmarks.
I'd be glad to put Temples & Missions on most anything.
Ideas of what you would like would be very welcome.


I will make LDS Temple bookmarks

Angel Moroni bookmarks with name & mission
(This has a Satin Stitch border)

(This has a candlewicking border)

And finally, here are two of the LDS Temples I have done
for either pictures or quilt blocks.

Oquirrh Mountain LDS Temple

Mount Timpanogos LDS Temple

The bookmarks will be $5 each with whatever you want on it:
Name, Temple, Mission, Saying
The border around the bookmark can be Satin,
Candlewicking, Blackwork or Triple Stitch. I can also do a pattern run.
The picture or quilt block will be $15 each.
All I need for that is the name of the Temple and if there is a
specific color you want the Temple sewn in or color of background fabric.

Next week I will have a darling Mother's Day (or any occasion) apron.
I love it and hope you will too!
For now, this is Mother Hen (Barbara) saying:
Thanks for brightening our day - Have a great weekend!

Lucky Blocks

"Lucky" Block Decoration

I found this cute St Patrick's Day decoration over at Every Crafty Endeavor and wanted to make one of my own. I immediately sent a message and picture to my sister to see if she wanted to make one too. She replied with a "heck yes" and that got our wheels turning.

First, I went to Lowe's to look for wood. I didn't know how big the blocks were, so I picked up a board that was 3 1/2 inches high and 3/4 inches thick. I asked Lowe's to cut it for me, but I won't be doing that again. They now have a fee for every cut over 2. The board was $6.78 and gave me 20 3 inch blocks, which comes out to about $2.40 for the word lucky and two shamrocks. Not bad.

Second, I had to find paper. I went to JoAnns and found that they had no St Patty's paper. I found other green paper though that was on sale, I even found some with glitter which I used for my letters. My sister went to Micheal's and found green patterned paper as well.

Next, we sanded all of our blocks and painted them to match our paper.
We cut the paper into 3 1/4 by 2 3/4 blocks.
Than used the Cricut to cut our letters out. We used Mod Podge to glue paper and letters on to the blocks.



Lastly, I tied ribbon around each letter.
You can omit this last step and it still look adorable.

So the grand total is probably about $10, which I think is a great price for
such a cute St. Patrick's Day Decoration.
Here are the final pictures.

I think they turned out great!
What sort of St. Patrick's Day decorations do you have in your home?
Let us know.

Love Quilt

heather here (the one who married into this coop) and i LOVE to quilt
i love crafting too but right now my LOVE is quilting

over the few years that i have been quilting i have collected A LOT of scraps. a friend of mine made a quilt with all of her scraps and i stole her idea and scrounged through my scraps and found a lot of pinks, reds, & whites. so all those scraps got cut up and sewn together

then those lovely scraps became this

which then became this

which I absolutely LOVE!! (hence the "LOVE QUILT")

Jess' Mini Cards

These are my mini cards to add to a present. They are 3 1/4 x 2 1/4. They each have their own scalloped envelop that coordinates. I hope you like.

Teacher Gift

So for my first post, I thought I'd share a craft I made last month for my sons student teacher. She was only his teacher for a couple months while his teacher was on maternity leave, but she was amazing! My son is very quiet (at school, not at home :) ), and often times gets overlooked. She paid attention to him and made him feel so special. So I needed something amazing for her, and I found it on one of my all time favorite blogs! Eighteen25 has some of the best ideas for all things creative! You should definitely check out their site. So, here's my version of their awesome idea.

A box full of goodies that any teacher would love!!

And what could be better than a personalized message for his favorite teacher to see each time she opens it?

This project was so much fun, and his student teacher loved it! I think I might just have to make this again for his actual teacher at the end of the year.

Thanks for reading!!

Juli

Linking to
Funky Polkadot Giraffe 
Sisters Stuff 
Gluesticks