Livin' Our Life at NE of Somewhere: Creativity

Lately I have been feeling rather crafty. I started to sew and absolutely love it! I never thought I would but I caught the bug and now I can't stop. This has also helped to inspire more of my creativity. There are a few things around the house that I have made already so I thought why not add a page to the blog?!! I hope to add more to this page as time goes on. There are a few items in the queue line already but we will start with something little. I hope you enjoy!!

APRON

A bit before Christmas I decided that I needed an apron. I of course wanted to try and make one with my new sewing machine. I had seen a tutorial that I wanted to try and it worked out perfect. So I made one for me and then by request I made one for our Christmas gift exchange with the family. These pictures don't really show the detail but if you follow the tutorial you can get the idea as to how cute it really is!

This one was the one I made for myself.

This is the one I made for the gift exchange. I added a pocket and made the strap with buttons so whoever became the proud owner could undo the button or slip it over the head to put on or take off. The tutorial for the apron is from one of my favourite bloggers Craftiness Is Not Optional

and the pocket was from this tutorial.

WALL HANGING

This was one of our Christmas gifts this year. I actually made a few of them to hand out. I had bought the canvas from Wal-Mart. It was flat but you could use ones that stand out from the wall if you like. Then all I did was use iron on transfers. I also did one painted grey with black lettering. Very plain and simple but yet beautiful. If you would like to know the story behind the song, use this link!

THE 'BAPRON'

Once again you will find that I have gone to Craftiness Is Not Optional for this one! I made four for Natalie and I love them. I changed the size a little bit not much. I found that they were not big enough around the arm and so I made that piece a little longer. You can find the tutorial here.

The one below I made as a gift

The one on the right was for Natalie's first birthday party.

The one on the left was the first one I made. Wasn't exactly the best job!

HAIR ACCESSORY BOARD AND ACCESSORIES

This was Natalie's big Christmas gift to her oldest cousin Carathy. She put a lot of work into it if you can tell!! I love how it turned out. I found the idea and then ran with it. It turned out to be the perfect gift for her. The best part is how she can use them all. I will explain that later! All of the fabric I used is from Walmart. You can buy fat quarters that work well for small projects.

First-- The board. I got the idea from a tutorial I found here. You will find I get a lot of my ideas from the blog, now website Craftiness Is Not Optional. I had an old frame from a mirror that had broken that I could use. It worked excellent I just had to cut a piece of diaper box for the back. If you are wanting to make one you can use the tutorial link above.

The only thing I did differently was to add clips at the bottom to hold the headbands. To attach them I hot glued them and taped them on. I covered the back with the same material as the front. That way everything was hidden.

Second -- The headbands. I got this tutorial from here. I knew I wanted to make them reversible so didn't want to use Velcro like the tutorial suggests. Instead I used elastic. On my experimental one I only used one piece but didn't like how it turned out because I found it would bulge at the top of the part closest to the back of the head. Also it was way to big. So I added two pieces of elastic and made it smaller. I can't remember which size I used from the tutorial sorry. This fit much better. I made them a little on the tight side because I figured that the elastic and fabric would stretch a little bit. I guess we will find out!

Third -- Bows. Ok so I can't find the tutorial I used for these. I altered them a lot from the example I had seen anyway. They were supposed to be made out of felt but I loved the idea of using ribbon instead. So I will give you my own tutorial for this. Sorry I don't have pictures or exact measurements but I wasn't expecting to make up my own tutorial. Here goes:

Step 1-I cut four pieces of each ribbon. One of each of the following

-the length you want it to be

-the length of your clip (this is optional but it makes it slide in better and hides glue)

-double the width of your ribbon

-double the length you want it to be.

Step 2 - Fold the longest piece so that it overlaps a little bit in the middle and hot glue just in the middle. This will give the actual bow part.

Step 3 - Take the first piece you cut, the length you want it to be and cut the edges so that it points in. Once you have done that, you may want to burn the edges so it doesn't fray or use something like that.

Step 4 - Glue those pieces together. I just glued mine in the middle but that is up to you.

Step 5 - Take the piece that is double the width, wrap it around the middle and glue that. If you don't want to add a clip you are done at this step.

Step 6 - Take the last piece and glue it in between the prong things on your clip. Just make sure you glue it to the right side. You want it to still open.

Step 7 - Then just glue that to the back of the bow and you are finished. You can skip the gluing to the clip and just glue it right onto the bow if you want but if you need a hand holding it then go ahead and glue it!

It's so cute don't you think?

Fourth -- The Bows. I got the tutorial from here. I made three of them and attached them to clips.

The best part is how she can use them. There are so many options with using the bows or flowers individually or attaching them to the head bands which can be reversed or she can just use the headbands. Very multi purpose which I love!! Thanks Jess @ Craftiness Is Not Optional for the inspiration! I have a few more things I have made from her tutorials that I want to post as well. Once again, Christmas gifts and a little something for me!

QUIET BOOK

I decided to make a quiet book for Natalie as a Christmas present. I knew it would be some hard work but I wanted to give it a try. I had thought about doing it a while ago (before I even knew how to sew) but then completely forgot until Dylan and I were discussing what to get her as a gift. So in that moment I had thought that was a good idea but I soon realized, maybe it wasn't. Well I just finished the book tonight. I started it about a week ago. I got the plans and some patterns here but than edited to make it my own. I started by making the base pages. From there I figured out what I wanted to be on the pages and then got everything cut out and sewn up to go on each page. Then I laid them out how I wanted them to be in the book and put them onto the page. My cover has cotton batting in between two layers of cotton. Then I added a little bit of color and girlishness to the front. I made ties from the same fabric as the decorative part on the front. My binding is simple but yet functional. Instead of just a single stitch down the middle, I did two. This really helped with the closing part. In fact, it worked so nicely I wouldn't have had to put ties on it but it added a nice touch!

So here are the pictures and a brief description. In total there are 12 pages.

The front cover

Page 1 - Snap On Traffic Light

The circles are snapped

Page 2 - Clock

The hands spin

Page 3 - Texture Squares

Fleece, Flannel, Jean and pattern felt

Page 4 - Mitten

Fleece inside is a nice surprise

Page 5 - Button on Flowers

Each of the petals are removable.

Page 6 - Zippered Tee Pee

Page 7 - Barn

Here is the inside on the last pages. I thought the fire was a nice touch. It looks more like tent though so I guess it can be whatever! The barn doors open and there is a pocket with these animal finger puppets inside. The puppets were easy to make so I may make a few more in the next few months.

Page 8 - Snapy Caterpillar

The five circles are snaps

Page 9 - Match My Shape

These shapes are attached with velcro. The same shape is underneath when you take it off.

Page 10 - Lace the Football

Just a shoelace and felt.

Page 11 - Phone

The dial in the middle spins. I thought numbers would be too much with the fabric so I just left them off. The handset is attached with velcro. I didn't have a curly shoelace for the string so I used ricrac. Works well I thought.

Page 12 - Purse

There is a snap on the top to keep all the contents in.

We had a few cards so I put them in there. I made a felt phone which kinda looks like a calculator and I also made keys. I cut out the shapes and hot glued them so they were stiff. The purse is made out of an old pair of pajama pants. I just cut a piece of the leg off so all I had to do was sew the one opening!

I am very happy with how it all turned out. If you want to make one and need help I will be glad to answer any questions!

I SPY BOTTLE

I wanted to make some toys for Natalie that would last and entertain. I was going to make an I Spy Bag but then found a picture of a bottle instead. It was very easy and very inexpensive to make. I went to the dollar store and purchased a clear water bottle, rice and some scrapbooking supplies. I added the rice to the bottle first and then took a few of the embellishments for scrapbooking and added them to the bottle. I had bought a sheet of the puffy stickers so I stuck them to cardstock and then cut them out. It works very well! I made two different sets so that I can exchange the items occasionally to keep it exciting! I also ended up making a case for the bottle with two pockets so I could keep the pictures, items and bottle all together. Here is how it turned out.

These are the two different sets that I made. The items in the bottom picture are larger so there aren't as many.

I love how it turned out and am excited to be able to use it. Ok, so I am not sure if Natalie will get as much use out of it as I will! :)

CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT

Last year Dylan and I had decided to give Natalie a Christmas Ornament every year. Just as a little keepsake for her. We got her a 'Baby's First Christmas' one last year but this year decided on something different. Every year we hope to continue this until she is 18. Around the top I wrote, in permanent marker, her name and the year. Then I took brown paint and used her thumbprint to make the face of the reindeer. With markers I drew on the antlers, nose and eyes. We hope that this is something she will be able to cherish!

BIRTHDAY CAKE AND SIMPLE DECORATIONS

I figured I would throw this one on here. The theme for Natalie's party was 'Cute As A Button'.

I tried to make everything around that theme. The cake was not supposed to look like this but I only had a 9" and a 8" cake pan so we used what I had. Again: Thanks Jen for helping with the cake! It was a simple chocolate cake with a caramel frosting and marshmallow fondant. The 'buttons' on top are made out of fondant as well. I just took small amounts and added food colouring to make different shades of pink and then used whatever I could find to make the circles. Then with a toothpick we made the holes and added lines on some of them for more decoration. Carathy helped me with that! Over all the cake turned out really well. This was my first try at making something like this so I really did not know what to expect. I was really bummed at first because it was not at all what I had envisioned and well lets admit it, I am a perfectionist!! In the end once it was all done, I was pretty proud of it!

Here are the recipes I used:

Cake

Frosting

Fondant

For some simple and yet cute centre pieces I made these flower bouquets. I had bought scrapbooking flowers from the dollar store previously so I took a few and glued them together. Then I added a button on the front centre. Then I took a stick, a skewer would work as well and taped it to the back. I had cut small blocks of green styrofoam and placed them in the bottom of cups. Then arranged the flowers in them so they looked good. Then on the table I put a handful of buttons around the base of the cup. Cute and easy right? If you can't tell from this picture the colours we used were pink and grey!