Tooth Fairy Pillow

Hi!  I think it's been a while since I shared something here.  I made this pillow case in the beginning of December and now it's almost Christmas.  Can not believe that Christmas is next week!

Here's the pillow case I sewed up using this fun fabric I bought from Stitch Stash Diva on Etsy.  I love the bright colors and the rainbows, so girly.  I followed the instructions from here on how to sew this envelope style pillow case.  I kind of just guessed on the pocket and used some heat bond adhesive for the n.  I don't think I'm ready to do that complicated looking zigzag stitching around the letters and appliques.  I will try to practice that next year.

The pocket is large enough for some money or a little gift or maybe even a small toy.  The pillow is 12 x 16 inches.

These past few weeks have been a bit busy with lots of crafting.  I think I have just a couple more things to make and then I'm done.  So today is finally a kind of rest day and I am contemplating a nap before picking up my kids.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

apples for teachers

Hi everyone!  Wow, tomorrow is the first day of school for my boys!  I can't believe how fast the summer went.  They are all packed and ready to go and boy, do they have a lot of supplies to take the first day.  I'm gonna have my daughter help me carry everything.

During one of my blog stalking days, I came across this cute tutorial on how to make an apple pin cushion.  I thought maybe I can't really make it cause I didn't think I could follow the curve of the apple nicely but it's really not too bad.  I thought they would also make cute gifts for the teachers.  So I spent most of yesterday making these apple pin cushions so my boys could take them on the first day of school.  I think they are cute even if the teachers might not sew or actually use them as pin cushions.  Maybe they could just sit nicely on the teachers' desks?

I'm giving the 2 larger ones to the teachers.  I made the smaller one first and didn't realize it would be so small but it's a cute size.  I think the larger ones are more real apple sized.  This is more of the Doodlebug Designs fabric from Riley Blake Designs.

Here's a close up.  The tutorial gives you the pattern so you can cut out each of the panels to sew up.  I used some felt for the stem and I had these fabric leaves in my stash for a while.  I trimmed the leaf for the smaller apple.

I added tags to the apples.  The tag, apple & Happy sentiment are from Lawn Fawn and the other sentiment is from PTI.  I think these turned out cute though my kids are thrown off by the purple color instead of the typical apple colors but purple is one of their school colors! 

I'm happy to have made yet another sewing project on my list.  I have one more project I'd like to try and think they would make nice gifts for teachers too.  Maybe for Christmas!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

upcycling Pokemon wrappers

Hello everyone!  I am back with my latest sewing creations.  I have been playing around with plastic wrappers!  I've seen those upcycled plastic wrap bags and purses (usually made from Capri Sun package juice) but never really paid attention to them or how they were made until I saw this tutorial using the wrappers from Pokemon cards.  My boys love Pokemon cards and were just throwing the wrappers away but I started saving them and collected enough from their recent birthdays to make a couple of items. 

Here is a little coin pouch (didn't want to call it a purse since it's for my youngest boy and he'd probably not like that).  This little pouch was made with 4 wrappers, 2 in front and 2 in back.  It is a bit tough to turn right side out because the wrappers and contact paper get stiff.  But it's possible and looks really neat!  I made it so he could hang it from the inside of his backpack and also carry around a little bit of emergency cash.  I always have my kids carry some cash just in case I can't pick them up for some reason or other.  A few years ago there was some really bad traffic from an accident or some police chase and parents were stuck on the road.  This was not during school hours or might have been right when school got out so a few children were literally stranded for a few hours.  I heard stories that some children walked across the street to McDonald's and didn't get picked up until dinner time.  In any case, it's good to have a plan, and maybe a phone and cash during emergencies.

Here is a larger pouch.  It took 16 wrappers total!  See, we have too many Pokemon cards!

I kind of messed up the handle on this one though and didn't put it the right way so ended up cutting it off.  Oh well, it still looks pretty good. 

Now, I have my kids saving all sorts of wrappers!  It's amazing how many things can be sewed together like this.  The humbug part is washing all the food wrappers really clean. 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

my first little tote bag!

Hi again!  I'm so excited to share my first tote bag!  I really love it and it's such a cute size, perfect for a little toddler.  After looking at so many sewing blogs on how to sew a tote bag, I finally sat down and made one.  I guess the tricky part for me is making sure everything comes out the right way and not inside out!

I started this bag last night and finished it this morning.  I thought I could finish the whole thing last night but I messed up on the first handle and then had to rip apart the seam and do it again.  Nowadays, it seems like the seam ripper is my best friend and not in a good way.  It's only about 5.5 inches tall, not including the handles.

I had to really pay attention to how I attached the handles so the fabrics matched.

Here is a side view.  It has a flat bottom.

I have another sewing project on my list to do.  Hoping it comes out cute too.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

baby jar pin cushion

Hello!  Wow, it is so hot again here.  We had some nice weather recently but now it is sticky and muggy again.  And it didn't help that I had some chores and cleaning to do.

Gosh, there are like a million ga-zillion things to look at online about sewing and projects and what not.  I don't know where to start sometimes.  It's fun to just sit and stalk everyone's cute creations but after about 2 hours I feel guilty that I haven't done anything productive!

Finally I decided to make a pin cushion since I have these cheap-y pins I bought years ago that are kind of small and can get lost so easily.  And I still have some left over baby food jars.  Yes, my youngest is now 6 so I've had these jars for quite a few years but I knew I'd use them one day.  Plus the little ones are so cute I didn't want to toss them out.

So here is my first pin cushion.  I added some cute hat pins I've had a while too just to look pretty.  And I was so happy when I discovered that some of my favorite papers are actually available as fabric!  What?  Isn't that amazing?  Well, maybe you guys already knew that.  This particular fabric is Doodlebug!  I love Doodlebug paper pads so to find the prints in fabric was just so exciting to me.  I bought this particular one from an Etsy store called Uberstitch.

Here's a different view.  I painted the jar cover white and then just added some stuffing to a piece of fabric and sewed it closed by hand.  It looks like a mushroom but I think it's cute.

Thanks so much for visiting!

kawaii fabric

Hi all!  Just wanted to share another coin purse and a smaller pencil case I sewed a while ago.  I actually haven't been too creative lately.  I've just been stalking some sewing blogs and looking up tutorials to see what else I can try to sew.  There are so many cute things!  One thing always leads me to another.  Anyway, I really love this fabric store on Etsy called Beautiful Work.  They have the cutest fabrics and they ship so quickly even though they are in Japan.

I got this fabric from the store I mentioned.  Super cute, right?  I love that it has so many different Sanrio characters.

I made this pencil case for my daughter for school.  It's an inch shorter in both directions than the previous one I made so I think it's a better size.  She added her little heart clip to it.  I made sure to have Tuxedo Sam showing some where since that is her favorite character.

Here is the case opened.  I think I should try sewing a little tote bag next.  I think that would be cute for little girls. 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

more sewing!

Hi everyone!  Thought I'd share some of the things I've been sewing.  I was totally frustrated the past couple days with sewing.  It was driving me crazy!  So many things were going wrong even though I was sewing the same coin purse I had shared here before.  The only difference was the fabric design.  And yesterday I took apart and actually scrapped another coin purse.  So today I took a break from it before I got more frustrated.  The only thing that I got irritated today with was trying to learn GIMP to edit my photos.  Ugh, what a headache too.

So here are the two same ol' coin purses.  But while I was sewing one of these, the needle on my machine actually popped out!  I think it couldn't handle the thickest part by the little tab.  Good thing I could just pop it back in and didn't break the machine.

This is a different pattern that I found HERE.  The only difference is that I chose not to sew the zipper the way she did.  I was too scared that it would be all crooked!  Maybe when I am a bit more experienced.  But I like the size of this.  The only thing that bothered me with this is that I used some iron on backing to make it stiffer and then when I tried to pull all the layers the right way it started to get so wrinkled.  I ironed it again after I was done but doesn't seem to be very smooth looking. 

This is the side view.  It has a boxy bottom.

It opens nice and wide but I don't like how thin the red material is.  I could see through it! 

This is a longer sized pencil case but I'm thinking this a bit too long though my daughter likes it.  You can definitely put a ton of pencils in here!  It was at this point that I started sewing crooked!  I'd start off really close to the zipper and then slowly I'd get farther and farther away.  I felt like banging my head on the table at this point.

Here's the case opened.  I just threw some stuff in there that I had on my desk.

I think I'll have to practice more before I can cut into my nicer fabrics.  It's a good thing I have coloring and stamping to fill my time when sewing isn't working out.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

I "sew" need a vacation ...

This is my card entry for TGF's Farm Fresh Friday challenge for the week.  It's my first FFF.  I don't know why I wait til almost the last minute to participate.  It's the pressure of the deadline, I suppose.  So the challenge was to incorporate some sewing or even faux sewing on 2 layers of DP or cardstock.  I have a sewing machine under my craft table and I haven't used it at all!  It's a few years old already and I bought it cause I wanted to learn to sew but never really got around to it.  I didn't use it for this challenge either.  I used my paper piercer that I just got and hand sewed the outline of the clouds in the sky and some of the "waves" in the ocean DP. 

So while I was cleaning out my storage room this past weekend I found all this felt!  Ahhhh!  So I made a little palm tree for Dress Me Ian to cool off under.  There's some hand stitching on the leaves and the tree trunk.

I used some yarn for the bottom scallop portion and just weaved it through.  Don't look too closely at my coloring on Ian.  I was running out of ink in my Copic pen.  But I'm happy I just got new ones from All That Scraps today!  It's always fun to get new crafty things. 

Anyway, hope you're having a good summer.  It's almost back to school for the kids.  Thanks for reading!

my adventures in sewing

Hello everyone!  Hope you were able to grab your own set of Sister Stamps June release today. 

Today I wanted to share about my newest hobby, sewing!  I was spending a lot of time learning how to sew and just trying to get used to my sewing machine that I think I forgot how to color with Copics and how to make cards.  Card making does require some practice!  But so does sewing.

Anyway, I've always wanted to sew but I guess I was a bit lazy and maybe a bit scared to try.  What it really took was making something that looked not so great that got my perfectionist side to learn to sew.  I bought those Papertrey Ink Coin Purse Dies because in theory it looked simple and cute too but in actuality I couldn't stand how the stitching looked around the zipper.  It drove me kind of crazy and I tried to figure out a way to hide the ugly stitching on the inside.

This is the coin purse I made using the PTI dies.  The fabric is cute right?  And the outside stitching I guess is okay but the zipper stitching bugs me.

Here's the inside and you can see all the ugly stitching from the zipper.  I guess someone had suggested adding fabric tape over it?  Anyway, my hubby saw it and he didn't think it looked too great either so he set up my sewing machine and read the directions!  So then I was off sewing.  I think these PTI dies are okay for making coin purses for children but definitely not for adults.  Plus it was hard to cut the fabric even with multiple passes through my Big Shot.  It would cut the holes on the long side but not the short side.  Kind of frustrating.

My first sewing attempt was making some keychains.  I made these for some teachers using fabric instead of ribbon. 

Here is my first coin purse I made with my sewing machine.  This was my practice one and my zipper is a little too short since I had bought all these short zippers to go with the PTI dies!

This is my second coin purse and matching material with the keychain.  I used a bit longer zipper and just trimmed it to fit the coin purse.  This is large enough to fit a gift card so I put one in there for one of the teachers.

And look, it's lined!  And the zipper part doesn't look too bad, does it?  I was pretty proud of this one.  Hehe.

So I made another matching set!  I put gift cards in here too. 

And again, it's lined!  I really love that the lining covers the zipper and looks pretty.  I followed a tutorial from The Crafty Gemini HERE.  I just followed the basic steps to make a smaller coin purse.

So now I don't know what I should do with the PTI dies.  I guess I could use them in making cards but seems like a waste of money.  At least I can sew a little now so that makes me happy.

I had a lot to say in this post!  Thanks for reading!

My First Sewing Project!

Hi everyone!  Wow, I can't believe I haven't blogged for the month of May yet!  Now that I have less DT commitments I have been trying other crafts, mostly sewing!  My hubby actually pulled my 10 year old sewing machine out from under my desk and cleaned it up and even learned how to thread it to teach me how to use it.  And then I was excited to make these ribbon key fobs that I've been seeing a lot.  I ordered some supplies through Etsy and decided to make a whole bunch for the kids in my 2 boys' classes.  But besides all these keychains I've also been planning parties for my boys' classes and helping with lei making for May Day.  It's been a busy month of May.  Just a few more days of school until summer.

Here's a photo of all the ones I've made so far.  In total, I've made 51 key fobs!  There is a mix of Hello Kitty, Frozen, Minions and Pokemon.  But even with my limited sewing experience, these were quick to make.  I know some tutorials don't even call for sewing to make these, just some heat bonding to adhere the ribbon to the webbing but sewing them together makes them a lot sturdier.

Here is a close up of them.  Hope the kids like these.  I thought it would be cute for them to hang on their backpacks.

I'm planning to make a few more for teachers so I'll share those in a few days.  I'll be back with some Sister Stamps projects later this month too so hopefully my blog won't be too neglected.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

personalized composition book cover

Hello!  I have another sewing project to share today.  I have been looking all over the internet for a good tutorial on how to make fabric composition book covers.  I found a good one HERE. 

I made this cover for my youngest one's teacher.  This fabric is called Hello Tokyo from Robert Kaufman and I purchased it from one my favorite Etsy stores, Stitch Stash Diva.  I added the personalization by using some Heat Bond ultrahold and PTI's alphabet dies.  Usually I would print the name out and cut it all by hand but the letters had to be smaller to fit on the cover so the dies were pretty handy.  I also added some fray block on the letters to keep them more secure.

Here is a side view.  There are a lot of different tutorials out there.  I made this one just a bit different from the tutorial as well.  I wanted to use up the fabric I had already cut into so I made the flaps using the same print.  You can see that in the photo below.  And I didn't quilt this cover but maybe the I'll give that a try on my next one.

This is the flap cover.  I like that you can just replace the composition book and reuse the cover.  Hopefully his teacher will be able to use something like this for notes or whatnot.

Oh, I also wanted to share this little pouch I made out of a LEGO magazine page!  It's kind of like that upcycling Pokemon pouch I made a while ago.  I really wanted to try to make more pouches using snack bags and candy bags but I can't really get the smell out even after washing them a number of times.  I don't have a dishwasher which I think would take out a lot of the food smell in the wrappers.  But then I got this light bulb moment after reading something and tried it out.  The page is covered on both sides with clear contact paper and just simply sewn together. 

There's a little velcro to hold the flap together.  I'm thinking about making a bunch of these to hold some treats for end of the school year gifts for the boys' classes.  Simple and functional, and not too costly since we get the magazines for free.  I still have a huge roll of contact paper too.  Just have to think about what to fill these with since they are a little skinny.  I think you could easily do these with some fun wrapping paper too! 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

travel size tissue covers

Hello!  Happy Valentine's Day!  It's a very windy day today.  Feels like a hurricane blowing outside.  Plus we got caught in the rain when we went out to run some errands this morning.

Anyway, I have a sewing project to share today.

I made 11 little tissue covers following this great tutorial I found HERE.  There are a lot of tutorials on how to sew these but I like that these have boxed corners and the opening is not centered but off a bit to accommodate the opening of the tissue packets.

This is the first one I sewed for myself.  You can see the tissue packet has its opening near the top and not centered.  

After I made this first one, the cover felt a bit roomy so I made the top opening overlap the bottom just a tiny bit but it still feels a bit loose around the packet.

This one shows the overlap of the opening.  I like that it stays a bit closed instead of opened.  

I think whenever I find a cute project to do, I always want to make a lot of them using all the different fabrics I have.  But I'm glad I'm using the stuff I have.  I'll be hoarding these little covers for a little while and maybe gift them throughout the year.

Thanks so much for stopping by!