Craft Talk

This is just too funny! I had to share!

It's Finally Finished!!!

My King size quilt that is! It's finally complete! I started this huge project years ago with my grandmother when my oldest daughter (now almost 8 years old) was at the age where she thought it was perfectly fine to draw on this quilt with markers *gasp* while I wasn't looking! At first this quilt was hand quilted stitch by stitch..... I had made it half way through when I had a not so bright idea and decided to sew it with my machine. Well, it was too thick to fit through the machine but I tried anyways and the quilt ended up all bunched up in a mish mosh of stitches! It was a wreck! Marker all over the backing and crumpled, wrinkled and stitched up top!

We pulled it all apart again together, my grandmother and I and we, ummmm.... I mean SHE fixed it ALL for me! She bought a gigantic quilting table and machine, had it set up in her sun room (I helped a little setting it up), bought new backing for the quilt and then she sewed, sewed and sewed some more until it was all quilted and brought back to life again! Her craftsmanship is AMAZING! I just finished putting on the binding around the border and I plan on stitching on a "quilted by" label with our names. It is finally finished, all the love sweat and struggle you could ever want poured into my very first quilt, and only quilt so far... That was crazy hard stuff! I don't know if I have the strength or time to attempt that ever again! Thank you Mommom!

That would be my 20 month old daughter enjoying the comforts of handmade!


I thought it would be great to have a few pictures of it on my bed, but hubby is sleeping in it right now! He's a third shift worker. So I decided to hang it off the edge of my daughter's crib and guess what? I think it blends pretty well with her unique decor! Hmmm... a certain somebody is going to be getting her big girl Montessori bed soon! I would definitely have to fold it in at least half, maybe into quarters for it to be Sonya sized!

Origami Flower Pots

For a fun way to recycle old newspapers (trimmed to size) try this out! You can use them to plant bulbs or seeds in and give them as gifts or use them yourself! This is another fun idea from my 8 year old daughter's "green theme" birthday party. We are having all the kids plant crocus bulbs inside them and then they will be able to take their plants home with them to place in their own gardens! The paper will biodegrade so you can actually just plant the whole pot into the ground! They are so much better for the environment than those plastic pots that just get tossed into the trash! For mine I used scrapbook paper that was outdated, I knew I wouldn't be using them on a layout so this was a great way to use up those papers cluttering my space. Try it with old newspapers, junk mail, old notes to self, used coffee filters or pages from a paperback book that is ready to retire. How about drawings from your kids, you know, the ones that you toss, be honest we can't keep them all! Plus I bet your toddler or younger child would love to see that their pretty drawing turned into some pretty flowers! Have fun with it! Enjoy!

Signature!

Want a spiffy signature for the bottom of your posts? Create one and learn how to apply it here! It's super easy! Hint: I saved my signature data in a saved post, that way I will always have it at my fingertips for copying and pasting! Cool huh?!

Grab Button!

Want to make a grab button? I finally figured it out! Here's the instructions:

1. Make the button

Make a button, badge, banner or whatever. Make it eye-catching and inviting. The goal is to get people to click the button. I used Photobucket to create mine. Make sure that the image created is appropriately sized. You may have to play around with it to get it to the size you want. Mine is 160x120, but it could probably be a little bit larger.

2. Display the button and code in your sidebar

Login to your Blogger account.
Go to Layout>Page Elements.
Click Add A Gadget.
In Add A Gadget window, select HTML/Javascript .
Enter the title of your widget e.g. Link back to us or Grab this button.
Copy the code below and paste it inside the window.

Be sure to make the adjustments of "LinkToYourButton", "LinkToYourBlog" and "YourBlogName"
Click Save.

For Blogger, copy and paste this code into HTML/Javascript gadget

<center><a title="YourBlogName" href="LinkToYourBlog" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="LinkToYourButton" /></a></center>

Where:

"LinkToYourButton" is the direct link to the button.
"LinkToYourBlog" is of course the url of your blog.
"YourBlogName" is of course the name of your blog.
You can change the size of the text box by changing the width and height values.

Enjoy and start gaining followers in a more exciting and creative way!

T-Shirt Bag

After running across this cool tutorial at Instructables, I just had to try it out! Since I didn't have any t-shirts that were ready to be re-purposed I headed out to our local Salvation Army/ thrift store and found some perfect T's to transform! For just $6 I ended up with 8 awesome bags to use as goody bags at my 8 year old daughter's "green theme" birthday party! Her favorite one is the pinkish red one with the kitten dressed in ruby slippers and diamonds. This was seriously super easy to do! Check it out and have fun!

Snack Bags!

Yay for my first craft post! I first made these for my soon to be 8 year olds "green theme" birthday party as part of the favors. These super cool eco-friendly snack bags are made from empty potato chip bags! You use them just as you would a Ziploc bag, except you can't put anything super gooey or wet in them. Some suggestions would be cookies, chips, pretzels, carrot and celery sticks, crackers and maybe even apple slices. They are hand washable with soap and water and can be stood open and upside down to air dry. In the pictures the bags that I had made have tags on them with care instructions... sorry they block some of the view! They were really easy to do too! Want to make some for yourself? Go to French Sleep Deprivation Study for the tutorial!

Testing 123

This blog is exactly what it says it is, a testing spot for me to try out new free blog backgrounds, headers, buttons and all other things bloggy! I'll try to make it interesting and give credit where it is due so that all of you can find all these cool freebies too! I am new at all of this so any suggestions are always welcome! I will also be posting my crafts here, stuff that I do when I am not completely busy with my three children! Maybe I'll go as far as tutorials for all the fun stuff I make! We'll see!