bib necklace tutorial...

I made this bib necklace for a very special friend recently and she enjoyed it so much I thought I'd share a quick tutorial for yall to make your own!

So, I am ALL about finding great tutorials all around the web and SIMPLIFYING! And that is basically what this is! I have seen several varieties of this tutorial and I pared them all down to one EASY, no sewing machine required, 15 minute project.

Here's what you need:
* Several fabric flowers, bows, and embellishments. It's your world so choose whatever makes YOU feel happy! There are tutorials ALL OVER the web for these. And I'll include some of my faves below.
* Felt for the backing of the necklace (doesn't really matter what color)
* Ribbon measured to the length you want your necklace to hang.
* Hot glue gun


Step 1: Create your flowers and bows/Collect your embellishments

For the teal polka dotted and brown and white rolled flowers:
Go here.

For the orange flower with the button center:
Go here.
(On this one, skip the iron, and sewing machine and just pull some quick stitches thru the center and hot glue on a button! Trust me, it works and is much less time consuming!)

For the bow:
Go here.
(Just make a smaller version!)

For the teal felt rolled rose: Freya taught me this one but I don't see it on her awesome craft blog yet so its basically just cutting a straight long piece of felt and winding it up like a snail. Then pull a couple stitches thru the entire roll to hold it in place!



Step 2:
Cut a piece of felt in the shape of a smile... You choose the size, whatever your bold enough to wear...

Step 3: Try a few practice runs without the glue to make sure you have everything just like you want it and start gluing them onto the felt smile.

I ended up with a blank spot so I added some buttons. You could also use beads, jewels, pennies, whatever you're feeling!

Step 4: Flip it over and glue your ribbon across the back; following the smile of the felt.

Step 5: Cut another felt smile and glue on top so the back is nice and pretty and then tie it on your lovely neck!

And you are simply smashing in your hand made by YOU statement jewelry!

Tip, use a prettier/longer ribbon than the one pictured... I didn't actually glue this one on, but when I took these pics it was the only brown I had!

Have Fun!
M

the big bow tutorial.

Yesterday during nap time I made this simple bow in about 10 minutes...maybe less and all I used was felt, needle and thread and hot glue! Now, that's my kinda craft project! Here's the low down so you can make one too!

* Grab felt in your favorite color

* Pick a rectangular object about the size you want your bow to be... (I wanted a big bow so I used a

checkbook).

* Cut around the object.

* Pinch the middle of the rectangle so it looks like... a bow!

* Pull a few quick stitches thru the middle to hold it in place (or you could just use hot glue here too!)

* Then cut a small strip to wrap around the center of your bow.

* Hot glue that bad boy on. (Ends meeting in the back of course).

* Then add a clip/bobby pin/broach pin to the back and voila!

My inspiration for this bow came from here. It's pretty much the same just a nicer and sewing machine involved version! Is she not adorable!?!

Also, baby boy is much much better today! We are looking ahead to a weekend filled with Christmas adventures and family!

M

welcome welcome ba hoo doray.

Can you tell I've been watching A LOT of the grinch lately?

Here are some adorably random pictures of Miles and the Halloween lizard.

(Brad handing Miles the lizard)

Miles helping me try on my new lizard-ring.)

 (Very chic if you ask me.)

(Miles giving the lizard the stink eye. My favorite!)

Today is me and baby's 24 week appointment. I can not believe there are only 16 weeks until we meet this little guy. He is always moving around, kicking and saying hello to me these days. I LOVE knowing that there is an adorable little bundle of sweet baby boy living in my tummy. It is one of the greatest feelings in the world. Knowing what I do now about how much you really love your kids, this pregnancy has been so much more emotional.

The closer I get to holding my angel the more I feel like I know his name. For a few weeks now I have really felt like his name is Felix. I don't really talk about it a lot because in the end, other peoples opinions about what Drew and I decide to name our baby don't really count for much but I felt like sharing today for those who I know are interested. (In other words, if you hate it, keep it to your self...hee hee.)

 Now, before you start thinking about orange kitty cats that live in dumpsters and eat fish bones hear me out...

* Felix means happy, lucky, fortunate and successful. (All of which he will most certainly be.)
* Felix was the name of the chemist who discovered Asprin... (Your welcome.)
* Felix Hoffman was a renowned German Romantic composer. (And we can all be sure this baby will be musical.)
* Felix sounds great with Miles.
* Felix sounds really really cute when Miles says it. (Okay, okay, most things sound cute when Miles says them but still.)
* Felix is better than Linus. At least for this baby boy.

Maybe it won't end up being his name in the end, only time will tell but lately it's the one I like the most for our lil guy.

Also, any interest in learning how to make a bib necklace? Nothing says Merry Christmas like a nice piece of statement jewelry yes?

(Please disregard my stray bangs...I'm trying to grow them out. AGAIN. Bleh.)

Make Monday Awesome.
M

things i love...and a tutorial.

Today I am in love with...

This guy. Seriously, who isn't? Capture your little ones sweetness here.

 That one day I will both look like this and be able to do this again. (Fingers crossed)

 That I have people in my life that love me enough to do this with me. Especially that guy in the middle. Oh how he loves me so.

And that I have a fun (hopefully easy to understand) tutorial for you today...

 Would you like to make your very own felt/fabric flower broach/hair clip? Of course you would! This tutorial uses some of my own ideas and some of course inspired by others.

All you need is:

Three colors of felt and /or fabric

Fabric scissors

Hot glue gun

Beads or buttions to embellish

 Step 1

Cut around your felt piece, winding your scissors around until you end up with one long wavy looking snake piece.

Step two:

Cut a circular piece of felt about the size of the bottom of a regular drinking glass.

Step 3:

Tie a knot in one end of the felt strip

Step 4:

Hot glue the knot to the center of the felt circle

Step 5:

Wind the felt strip around the knot (adding dabs of hot glue along the way.) Twist the felt and curl it as you go making it look any way you want!

Keep winding

When the flower is the size you want, cut your felt and simply hot glue the end to the back of the flower (no one is going to see that part!)

Now, do the same thing with the two other colors, add some embellishments and voila! Easy and beautiful!

To make it into a hair clip, simply hot glue a clip on the back or hot glue the entire beast to a head band. If you want the broach look just hot glue a pin clasp to the back.

 I decided mine was a little too big for my hair so I went with the broach idea.

Now...honesty please... Did this make sense? It is only my second attempt at a tutorial so any questions you have I'll be happy to answer!

M

three months sober.

Thanks for voting! And while those of you who guessed gossiping and talking with my mouth full are correct in a way... I do have those horrible habits but I have yet to conquer them... As far as the swearing goes, eh I tried that for a couple months, just wasn't me. Swear words sound absolutely ridiculous coming outta my mouth! (not to mention they're not very lady-like ) So, without further adieu...

The correct answer is...

Thumb Sucker. I was a 26 year old thumb sucker! Ha! I can not even believe I just typed that! I'm just letting it all hang out for you guys! But hey, I conquered it over 3 months ago so YAY for me!

I tried so many times before to quit but like any bad habit the thumb called to me.
When I was stressed. Tired. Hungry. Just before bed. On long car rides. On short car rides. It was bad. And its not like cigarettes or alcohol. You can't just throw away your thumb. It's attached! Not that I'm justifying my childish behavior or down playing how extremely hard it is to quit smoking or drinking! But seriously, this was my Everest!

The worst was trying to go to sleep at night. Man I nearly went crazy with insomnia. It took about 6 weeks before I could go an entire day w/no "cravings."

Wow! I'm a mess. But hey, it's over now and I'm never going back. I really don't want Miles to be embarrassed of his thumb sucking mama. I'm sure he'll find plenty other reasons to be ashamed of me! (please god not mom jeans. never mom jeans.)

So there ya have it. My big secret. Well, one of them. ( A girl's gotta have a few secrets right?) I think that's quite enough for today.

M

Oh! Check back tomorrow and take a gander at what we turned this beat up old ladder into!!!

make your own fabric rose headband!

I saw a tutorial for these adorable fabric roses somewhere out in blog land but I stalk so very very many blogs that I can't remember where. Sad. So, if it was you please leave a comment and I'll be sure to edit in a plug to your blog!

Anyway...

Here's what you'll need


-Fabric Scissors
-Cute fabric cut into two 12x2 strips
-Felt (for gluing roses onto b/f attaching to headband)
-Headband (got mine from Walgreen's 4 for $3!)
-Fabric glue

Ok, here's what ya do

Put a dab of glue on the end of a strip of fabric


Fold in half and glue just the end together


Start winding the fabric up like a snail shell



Twist while you wind so the fabric gets all messy and thick (use two steips for BIG roses. just dab some glue on and keep twist/winding)




Glue the end down to the rose



Cut out a circle of felt big enough to fit your roses on and glue em on




Glue the felt to the headband (I used hot glue for this part.)



Rock out with your awesome handmade hair accessory!




PS

Enter the poll on the side bar and take a guess as to what my bad habit was. One week of voting and then I'll tell ya! Although I am ashamed to admit to this...

M

March Happiness Project Wrap up...

So, my Happiness Project theme for the month of March was "gettin crafty." Overall I didn't craft as much as I'd like this month but what I did was fun and just what I needed to express my creative side!

Flowers for a great couples wedding... Lots of work but so much fun! I love designing floral arrangements. Flowers are involved, how can it not be awesome? Thanks again MA for teaching me everything I know! And Maranda for helping out with the boutineers!



Complete with hair accessories for the bridesmaids (thanks to a FUN night crafting w/the girls!)



A couple more headbands you've already seen for the Give Away. Hurry and enter it ends tomorrow at midnight!




A tie for my sweet baby boy using this tutorial. (Actually made this in Feb. shh.)





And a No Sew curtain!




Not bad for a month... I've still got a couple projects in the works though. Very excited for them!

As far as April goes I think I'm going with item #10 on the list "Blogging up a storm!" I'm going to try to blog most days in April... or atleast as often as I can think of something remotely interesting to say! Get ready for ALOT of me! Ok, you can have some cute cute baby too.

Also, I just wanted to thank you all for the kindness and support offered after my last post. I think it's good to be real sometimes and it's nice to know you're ok with it.

Love you,
M