HAPPY HALLOWEEN...

...from our "treats".  Ladybug and Bumble Bee tutu costume tutorial found here.

 Sorry I can't get my photo editor to rotate these :P

but they are still so stinkin cute

Free Craft Friday -- Tea Dyed Onsie or Shirt

*I heard about tea dying through a Pinterest pin and loved the idea and decided a little interchangeable flower would be the perfect finishing touch*

Materials:

-new pre-washed onsie or shirt (used onsies or shirts will cause uneven dying; I tried this first and had darker stain around drool prone spots)

-Black Tea (I also tried Koolaid and Green Tea...Black seemed to work best)

-Lace or embellishments

-needle and thread or sewing machine

-bowl and boiling hot water

Step 1 : Boil water and place tea bags into water.  I used about 4 cups of water and 4 tea bags.  Let the tea soak and stir it to mix evenly.

Step 2 :  Soak your onsie in the tea-water.  I left my tea bags in.  It may work better for even color to take them out.

Step 3 :  Wring out minimally and air dry onsie.  Once it is air dried then wash and dry it in the laundry.

Step 4:  Lay out lace embellishment over the shirt.  Cut extra length on both sides.  For some reason my lace ran shorter as I sewed it on (I'm sure a pro sewer could tell you why)

Step 5:  Pin the lace loosely down on the garment to keep it in place.  Sew the lace down.  I used the thicker trim of my lace to hide the thread and only sewed the top edge.

*hopefully you should have a little excess lace on both edges of the garment like this*

Step 6:  Sew the hanging lace down into the seam of the onsie.  Make sure you don't catch under-layers of the onsie when doing this.

Step 7:  Trim off the excess lace.  Repeat steps 4 - 7 to add layers of lace if desired.

Step 8 (optional):  Sew on a loop to attach embellishments to.  I used an alligator hair clip that I use with flower headbands to gauge the width of the thread loop.  I then sewed over it 5 or 6 times to make a secure loop to attach embellishments to.  Tie this off on the inside of the garment.

 *finished shirt with lace and loop.  The thread loop somewhat blends in also so you don't have to attach anything if you chose*

Homemade Oreos

-I stole this recipe from a good friend of mine.  Best ones I have ever tried and amazingly easy too.

Homemade Oreos

Ingredients:
1 box Devils Food cake mix
1 stick of butter
1 egg
1 tub of Vanilla icing

Mix the cake mix, butter (melted) and egg together.  This will form a slightly crumble type batter.  Form small balls (approx 1 1/2" diameter) and place on a cookie sheet in even numbers.  Bake at 350* F for 8-10 minutes.  Allow to completely cool.  Pair up cookies and place icing in between each pair.

 the mix is kind of dry but mashes together to form balls

 I usually fit a dozen cookies or more on a cookie sheet...they don't spread to much with baking

Free Craft Friday -- Crochet Scarf

*I suppose I should stipulate now that Free Craft Friday is basically a free pattern...not completely free;  although I like to keep my crafts on the inexpensive side*

Late one night this past week as we were watching TV and I was sitting next to my craft pile (you know the mess on the couch with fabric, notions, glue sticks, yarn and such) I decided it was time to put my yarn to work. My friend who is a crochet master is going to teach me to crochet and read patterns.  But in the meantime I have colorful yarn tempting my hands.  So onto YouTube I search for the easiest tutorial out there.  Found one here, here and here.  And then this happened....

This one is small because it's for my girls but super easy to make  longer/wider

She's trying to be a good model

Nope it's nothing spectacular.  It's definitely a learning project.  But if you don't know how to crochet have no fear YouTube is here (this could be true of many crafts and projects).

Free Craft Friday -- Silk Flower Accessory

* can be used as embellishments on outfits, bags and hair clips...think of the possibilities*

Refabulous' tutorial found here.  These are so much easier than I pictured them being when I saw them in peoples hair and at the stores.  Definitely going to make more of these in the future.  Awesome and easy project.

Materials needed :
-satin or silky type materials (I used what they called "costume satin"...cheaper satin)
-scissors
-candle
-emergency water
-clothes pin
-beads, buttons or jewels (for the middle)
-hair clips
-adhesive glue or glue gun

1. Cut circles from your fabric.  Cut different sizes and colors if you want to mix it up.  They don't need to be perfect circles.  I think it looks just a good (maybe better) when they aren't.

2. Place fabric in clothes pin and skim the edges next to the flame (not too close so it doesn't catch fire).  I held mine so that they drooped in the way I wanted it to curl.

3. Stack your singed circles.  Start with bigger circles and go to smaller.  I like the idea of mixing colors found on the tutorials also.  

4. Sew a few stitches in the middle to hold it together.  I sewed my first bead on with this stitch to save some time.

4.  Apply to your hair clip or bobby pin or other attachment.  Enjoy.

*Be extra cautious as this project does involve an open flame.  Avoid children, pets and anything else dear to you in the process.  Always have water on hand and don't hold material into the flame*

Halloween Party

We had our Halloween party early this year.  We have what we call "Gatsby Night" among our close friends.  We get together once a month to have dinner (trading off houses) and hang out.  We were in charge of October so I bought some festive decoration at our dollar store (spider web, LED tea candles, a skeleton, some "caution" tape and toxic shot glasses).  Then it was off to the second-hand thrift store for a couple of interesting glass pitchers.  For the menu I considered small pumpkins with soup inside but the price of pumpkins was too high for my taste so I saw this stuffed pepper jack-o-lantern idea online and went with it.  It was a lot of fun preparing for that night and now we're all ready for Halloween too.  Yeah!  I wish I would have taken pictures but alas these "stock" photos will have to do.

Great Idea! We will be doing this for October in the future

We had "blood" to drink in wine glasses (orange juice with red food coloring and touch of blue Koolaid for color);  also had green Koolaid in the "toxic" shot glasses.

**Recipe for Stuffed Peppers found here (super delicious).  

Free Craft Friday -- Paper Tree

I took this idea from Everyday Mom Ideas that I found on Pinterest.com and then tweaked it a little for my own preference.  Their example is for a spring tree (bright colors) and since fall is upon us I decided that a fall tree would be more appropriate (warm colors).  Also I wasn't in love with the green florist wire showing up on a brown tree limb so I decided to paint the tree branches black first and then buy black crafting wire instead.  It turned out (or is turning out) to look pretty darn great if you ask me.

Materials / Cost
- tree branches / FREE
- paint / FREE
- scrapbook paper / $2.00
- wire / $3.00
- vase / $1.50 at my local thrift store (or free if you have one in storage)

it's a work in progress

- I found a branch someone had pruned off their maple tree during an evening walk and felt it was fate speaking to me about this project that I had bookmarked in my brain for the last couple of weeks.

- I peeled all of the leaves off and painted it black with some indoor/outdoor acrylic paint I had lying around.

- I cut my leaf patterns out of scrapbook paper using a leaf that was on the tree.  I folded my paper into pieces wide enough to fit the leaf and then after cutting one leaf out used this are my pattern.  I matched up the same paper for both sides of the leaf.

- Then I glued the paper onto the wire as instructed in the tutorial.  I also decided that the leaves look more natural with a little curve to them.

The end.  Super easy.  Super cheap.  Hoping to enjoy it for seasons to come.

Missing, Quilting and More

I am a horrible example of how not to blog craft I suppose (or is it craft blog).  By any power though I fell through on my second Free Craft Friday.  I didn't utterly fall through.  I had a craft I was working on.  One I found through Pinterest.com and absolutely love.  So guess what?  You get to see it (the work in progress it still is) in a couple days.  Goodness I've got Halloween costumes to finish and a party to host this weekend (which means prepping in the days leading up to).  This project may still not be done but you'll get the idea.

Also I am working on flannel rag quilts for my girls.  I am thinking Christmas presents.  Or birthday presents.  Or Christmas presents.  Their birthday is three days after Christmas so it's really not as big of a debate as I'm leading you to believe.

Then once those are at least pinned together I think it will be on to a holiday dress sew-a-thon.  I'm looking forward to these and also dreading them.  I've never made a dress...for myself or anyone else.  So this is going to be interesting.  Wish us luck...me, the girls and my sewing machine.