Dimensial Flowers

I wanted something fun and springy for my front door.  But it need to be somewhat flat because of the screen door.  The previous owners installed a nice hook on the door that just beckons to have something on it constantly.

I found this inspiration on Pinterest, and yet, somehow didn't actually pin it.  Well, now I have :)

Being that the instructions are from Fiskar, they use fancy punches for this project.  Amazingly, I don't have those punches.  But I have plenty of scissors, a ruler, and a pencil.  I   used two different shades of orange even though it is hard to tell in the picture.  Plus a fun bright green for leaves, the flower centers, and a background to hang them on.

Instead of using the "Banner Year" lever punch, I drew straight lines and made triangles.  I drew two lines 4 inches apart.  Then did dots every 3 inches on the lines, offsetting them by 1.5 inches.  And then cut out all those little triangles.  Does that make sense?  (I forgot to take a lot of pictures of this project.) I then followed their folding instructions.

It also helps to have a cute little helper to cut up all the scrap pieces of paper into even tinier pieces that you later get to sweep up off the floor.

So this is the final product.  I followed their instructions, just without the fancy punches.  I glued the same green from the leaves & center to a piece of cardboard to have a background.  The looped green ribbon to make a hanger.  From the top of the flower to the bottom of the flower is about 15".

t-shirt dresses

This is the post you have all been waiting for!  I get Family Fun magazine.  If you don't, you should.  You can find deals all the time for cheap, I mean really cheap subscriptions.  I don't remember which one it was in, but they had this idea.  And I thought it was perfect.  My daughter loves dresses.  I don't get it.  But she loves them.  Once in a while Target runs sales on men t-shirts.  I got these shirts for less than $5.  Sale plus Carthwheel coupon (if you shop at Target, use Cartwheel.  Thank me later.)

The week of Dr. Seuss's birthday the school had all these fun themes each day.  On Friday it was dress as your favorite book character. Thinking I knew my daughter I figured she'd go for Pinkalicious and it would be easy to dress her in pink head to toe and we'd be done.  She threw me a curve ball.  Maybe even a spit ball.  She said Belle.  Yes, like Beauty & the Beast, Belle.  Well, Friday is also PE day.  Can't really send her in a frilly yellow dress, which is what she wanted.  So we compromised and went for book reading Belle, which is more my daughter anyway.

So Family Fun's instructions will be better than mine, but here it goes.

Get your t-shirt and turn it inside out.  

You'll need a dress that fits now to get the arm and neck openings right.

This is one from this week.

I used my disappearing ink/mark-b-gone pen and traced the current dress to the arm pits.

 Then I drew a straight line from the end of the arm pits to the corners of the shirt bottom hem.

Before cutting out I put pins on the line and then in other places around what will be the dress to hold it together.

Now, on the blue one I also cut out the neck to be square to imitate Belle's dress.  On the two I did this week I left the original neck lines in tact.  Then cut out the dress from the bottom corners to the top of the straps.

Sew a straight line from the corner of the bottom hem to the end of the arm pit holes.  Turn right side out and you are done!  Ten minutes and you have a cute little jumper dress.

Now, I did try these on her.  The arm pits are a little big.  I may take up the straps a bit to make them were she would be able to wear them without a shirt under.  Or they may make good pool cover ups.

This is her Belle dress.  I used a Men's small shirt for the blue one.  The red & orange shirts were mediums and I made the body a bit wider.

Bonus of the blue one was I was able to cut a strip from one of the sleeves to make her a matching blue "ribbon" for her hair.

This is the red shirt.  You can tell the difference in the collar.  I left the original t-shirt collar intact. You can also see this one is a bit more loose fitting than the blue one.

camera bag

I needed, well wanted really, a bag that I could use as a quick camera bag and be able to have my normal purse stuff as well.  Not that I carry a lot in my purse, but I'd like a bag I can put my DSLR in, my wallet and my little bag where I keep Advil, bandaids, chapsticks, etc.

I really like this bag from Thirty-One, but couldn't stomach the price tag.  I was in my craft closet looking for thread for another project that you will see soon.  And I found this pattern, specifically the middle pattern, C.  Based on the picture I didn't think it was going to be big enough for what I was wanting.  Then I took the pattern out of the package.  I was wrong.  It was plenty big.  The pattern actually specifies to use gingham fabric.  Which as much as I love, I didn't have.  But what I did have was the fabric my mom used a few years ago to make me a baby carrier.  

I did this kinda in a hurry.  (Do you see the "Pin-the-tail-on-the-dalmatian" still on the wall from a little boy's party?)  And I tend to make a mess when I get into something quickly.

And then... ta da!

See!  My DSLR and my wallet plus room.  Success!

So I made modifications.  First, I didn't use gingham.  But I did use plaid! :)  Secondly, I left off the outside pocket.  Didn't really make sense for me.  Thirdly, because I did this in a hurry, I didn't have a zipper for the inside pocket.  And, honestly, I've never done a zipper.  So I winged it and just left it as an open pocket.  Forth modification was in the fabric.  The pattern called for the top inside piece where the clasps are to be the same fabric as the outside.  I didn't have enough.  I also put the fusible interfacing on the inside fabric instead of the outside since my outside fabric was pretty stiff already.  Last modification was that I made the straps long enough that I could use this bag as a cross-body style.  I got used to an awesome diaper bag that my "twin" gave me years and years ago that was cross-body that I can't go back to a normal purse.

And the best part, it was free!  I already had everything I needed.  I did have to apologize to my son for practically ignoring him for a few hours one afternoon.

building on fire

For my son's 4th birthday he requested a fire fighter theme.  I wasn't sure of this at first, but I think I had as much fun coming up with things as he did that day.  I found this picture on Pinterest and was my inspiration. I don't know where the original picture came from, it was just a picture.

And this didn't cost me anything!  I had everything already.  Just had to dig it out of my closet. I don't remember why I had a box this big, but it was perfect for this.  It had a few tears, but tape worked (and still works). (Please ignore the mess in the background.  I promise I cleaned up before his party.)

First I made a triangular box thing.  What is the name of this shape??

Cardinal Red paint.  After I started painting, I was wondering why I was painting the windows I was about to cut out.  So that's why there are two non-window panes.  

Shhh... don't tell my mom, but I had to use an Exacto knife to cut out the windows.  They aren't cut out straight.  Andrew didn't get out the tape measure and t-square, so I'm good.

This part was fun.  White paint makes bricks!  Yes, I know, don't bring up the scale.  My son loved it.  The "fire" in the windows was tissue paper.  I was originally going to use streamers, but thought the scrunched up and then straightened out tissue paper looked more fun.  I taped each piece about 1/2" above the top of the window so they hung down a bit more.

For the "water" I covered a few Wiffle balls with blue tissue paper.  I didn't have plain blue tissue paper.  The kids didn't mind.

I made this mid-February.  He still plays with it.  In fact, he tripped over it this evening.  Our basement floor has tile sections where he plays with this.  Once in a while I'll hear the bouncing Wiffle balls and have to stop and think about what he's doing down there.  For something that cost me nothing to make, and was made in a couple of hours one afternoon, I'd say it was well worth it!

puzzle snowflake art

The last post I actually told you about was a Fall picture for my entryway.  Well... Fall came & went.  Then in the spot I hang up my Jesse Tree for Christmas (I didn't make it, but my amazing Mom did!!  I'll get a picture up later).  Then Christmas was over.  I left the Jesse Tree up till Epiphany, but then I needed a Winter picture.  Because let's face it, Winter lasts forever in Iowa.

My amazing mother had given me a bag of a billion puzzle pieces from incomplete puzzles.  Okay, maybe not a billion.  But at least 100.  or 98.  This time I bought a 4 pack of canvases (sale plus coupon) for upcoming projects.

So here's the Winter picture.  I lightly painted the canvas blue.  Kinda like a dull, cloudy, snow is going to fall very soon blue.  But I didn't cover completely, letting some of the white show through.

Here are the puzzle pieces.  So mom just gave me the little ones.  The larger pieces were from a puzzle I bought at a garage sale.  It wasn't complete.  Into the project pile it went.

White paint and glitter.  Paint the picture side of the puzzle pieces.  The plain brown side will soak up the paint and they won't be flat any more.  Painted a pretty thick coat of white paint and then pinched sprinkled glitter on the wet paint.  This is one glitter project I did not let my daughter help.  Oh, should mention if you are going to do the glitter and are going to do it this way, a layer of wax paper will be your friend.

Once dried, I glued 3 to 5 small pieces on top of a large piece.  All depending on my layout.  

Just look at those beautiful one of a kind snowflakes!

I guess I've been unproductive

Hello. Wow.  I think I forgot I had a blog.  And I'm sure everyone is just waiting to see what I have been up to.  Right??  Anyone?  We'll assume that at least my mom reads this.  Right, Mom? 

Let's see what is to come... puzzle snowflakes, egg carton flowers, paper flowers, 15 minute little girl dresses... What else have I done that I haven't told you about?  I'm sure there is something.  I will update this week.  Maybe even sit down and write them all and schedule them to update incase I get forgetful again.  It may happen.