Shame on me.....

The winner for worst blogger (me)!



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Yes I have been missing in action.  I know, I know I have been a very bad bloggerista.  But I am happy to say I only have 3 more week till the end of my semester.  Thank goodness. 

Again, I have a lot of half finished projects just waiting to be finished. I've also kind of been in a crafting funk.  Too much studying is going on.  I even told theHubs that I was in a crafting funk.....his reply was "babe you deserve a break, you have too much going on right now." So that's exactly what I've been doing "breaking", lol!  Not breaking stuff just taking a break.  Don't worry the breaking is almost over.  I went to JoAnns last Friday to browse/shop.  Picked up some new thread, a couple of fat quarters for 99cents- woohoo, some fabric remnants and a new plastic box thingie to hold my bobbins.

I will try to post again soon.....I just wanted to catch you all up on what was going on.

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Elephant Softie - using a pattern

Okay, I wasn't going to post a project this week.  Buuuuuut I had to show off this cute little elephant that I sewed up.  It was included in the birthday tote that was for my for my niece.  

 There are tons of tutorials out on the net and there are too many cute ones to choose from as well.  Since I was short on time and needed to get this done quickly I decided on this one here.  Jess from Craftiness is not Optional has one of the cutest and easiest patterns available.  Go check out her page, she has some really awesome stuff and her blog is great.

Now on to the cuteness.....

Look who has the cutest tail ever.....

Big blue floppy ears to go with the cute tail!

There you have it.

This pattern only has two legs, but I will definitely have to try making one with 4 legs.

See, I told you it was going to be cute!

Thanks for stopping by, you have a fabulous week.

Linking up at the parties on my party page and here:
Its So Very Cheri

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I felt like I was sewing foreeeeeeeever!

Not really, it actually didn't take that long, it was the prep that took a while.
I must say you will be bombarded with a ton of pics.....sorry for that.  I'm a visual person, I like to see pictures and I feel that you will understand it better if you can see what I'm seeing.  I'm a weirdo like that, when people talk I have to see their mouth moving, if not all I hear is mumbles. LOL!!

Okay, now on to the project.  I have been wanting a mat for the entrance to my craft room.  Why you may ask....oh just because.  Well I went on a adventure looking for the right materials to make it.  I definitely didn't want to spend lots of money and I knew I wanted something handmade. By me, duh!! I went to Goodwill, sadly I couldn't find anything that I was totally in love with.  Now I realize I could have gone to Wally World to buy a cheapie for 5 bucks, but what would be the fun in that.  Then I went to $ tree and bought 200 feet of poly rope.  That cost me about 4 bucks. 

When I went to another Goodwill, I found this twin sheet for 3 bucks, it would have to do.  All the way home I thought about how I could snazz it up a bit.

I decided I would make some of the colors pop.  Boy, was I in over my head.   With 3 fine tip markers I went about my merry little way and outlined the green, pink and dark pink prints.  For this twin size sheet it took me 6 hours to finish!

Can you see the change?  It went from Dull to Cheery!

After the (6) hours, my fingers were cramping, my neck was aching from looking down and I had a headache from the permanent marker smell....but I was happy to be done with that.  Now I was ready to cut and tear.  What??  ←  that's what theHubs said....after all that you're going to cut it up.  Yup!  I took the pinking sheers and snipped about every 1 inch along the edge.  Then I just ripped it into what you see below.

Sorry, I didn't take a picture of the part where I tied the end of the rope and the end of the strip together.  Then I wrapped the rope a couple of times to cover it.  To start off the mat I folded the start of the wrapped rope down about 2 inches  (like this ║) then I sewed it together.  Then I just continued wrapping, turning, and sewing.

I used a zig-zag stitch for the whole mat.  I kept the center of the rope and the center of the foot aligned so I could get the zig-zag on both sides.  (╥)

Okay, I'm a lefty and I do most things backwards!! Lol!!  Well, this was totally my fault for not thinking this through.  I'm so impatient sometimes and I pay for it with mess ups like this.  When I was done with my first 50 feet of wrapped rope....I had a curving bowl mat......NOOOOOOOOOO!  Yeah, instead of running it through and turning left I was turning right.  So hence the almost bowl.  I had to start again and I did it correctly.  I took the seam ripper to the bowl and used this piece at the end.  So, it worked out.

See, I'm doing it the right way here!! 

Please ignore the Hobbit feet below!!  Geez, they look like stand in feet for the Lord Of the Rings movies, lol!!  There are shadows around, I don't have cankles okay! My feet are little and cute...so theHubs says, lol!! I love to stand on it barefoot because it's always cool. 

I really love the way it turned out!  Even though it did take the (6) hours to add the color I'm glad I did....it pops right?

I'm really tempted to make a bigger one...who knows maybe I will!  So in total it cost be less than $8.00 and my time. 

I'm glad you stopped by to check out the latest project.  Everyone have a great week.


Linking up at the fabulous parties in my party tab and also at these great places -
Craft-O-Maniac
Watch Out, Martha!

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Embroidery Art - Day of the Dead Pillow

 Where has the year gone?  Can you believe by the end of this week we're already half way through July.  I'm already counting down till we get to October.....I can start decorating for the Holiday's. Woo-Hoo!!!

This project that I'm going to share with you was for one of our great friends Birthday.  Her lovely parents were the lucky ones to receive the Patriotic Pillow.  I want to thank all of the lovely blogger's who featured it.  I tried to grab all of the feature buttons, if I'm missed one I'm sorry - please let me know if you don't see yours.

The theme of this pillow is a little early in the year to celebrate....that is if you do! It is usually celebrated November 1st.  I don't celebrate the day, but I do love the art work of everything.  Some of the art work is simply stunning. If you like that sort of thing. I went on-line to get some inspiration for this project.  If you look up Day of the Dead art, you'll see skulls with flowers, hearts, webs, crosses and swirls, in many different colors.  Well my friend LOOOOOVES this kind of stuff and I knew she would be extremely happy when she saw what I made for her.

Here is some information on Day of the Dead History

(Picture quality is not the best, but I'll try to explain as best as I can.)

1.) I folded a sheet of paper and drew a couple of half skull shapes.

2.) Then I cut them out and decided on the one I liked the best.

3.) I traced (2) skulls on a sheet of blank paper and made copies of that.

4.) Then with the inspiration from the net, I drew out the skulls.  You know it's not very easy to draw teeth.  I had such a hard time, I kept drawing and erasing. 

1.) I ended up drawing (8) different skulls, I chose the 4 I liked the best.

2.) I pinned the skulls onto foam board with tissue paper over it to trace.

3.) I then traced the skulls with black permanent marker.

4.)  I cut out the tissue traced skulls and set them aside.

5.)  Now I was ready to start.  I pinned it onto the fabric, then put it onto the hoop. 

       Embroidering on the tissue paper was easy, I was able to tear away and pick out the pieces.  I didn't really have a plan, I just picked different colors.  As I finished each skull I took it off the hoop to pin the next skull where I wanted it to be.  I really loved the way it all came out.

Drawing out the skulls, embroidery and sewing took me about 27 hours combined....it probably would have been less if I wasn't watching re-runs of Ugly Betty or The Office, lol.

For the back I chose a black with white polka dots.  I have to say my favorite skull has to be the last  one with the blue flower.

  I'm happy to say that she was really excited to receive this gift.  I'm glad!!

Thanks for stopping by to view this weeks project.

Everyone have a fabulous week.

Linking up Here and

It's so very Cheri

My Repurposed Life

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Floss much? Okay that was corny...lol! I made Embroidery Holders

I am soooo late with this post.  I guess I should have probably checked that I actually hit the publish button!  Oh well  it's up now.

Well this post is a half Friday find and a half DIY project.  It's a very easy peasy mac n cheesy kind of project.  The best thing about this project is how simple and practically free it was.

Here is the part that's a Friday find.  Ooooooo colors!!!  I found this colorful box of embroidery thread for less that 5 bucks!!  Yes, you read correctly less than 5 bucks.   There are 105 skeins of thread, 5 for each color, can you say score!  I will be going back to check if there are more in different colors.  This box was labeled "Bright Colors"  and it was to make bracelets.   I said nuh uh -  I'm making something else.  I could not pass it up. 

Don't they look lovely, all neat and in order?

Ok, now for the little DIY project....that was free and easy to make.  I used my pinking shears, some cardboard scraps and cut 2" x 3" little rectangles.

Then I made a little snip near the top.  Be sure to not cut too close to the top.

Then I took this hot mess and wrapped my little heart out.  I started at the center of the cardboard piece, then wrapped and wrapped, when I was close to the end I made my way to the top, near the little snip I made.  Then I tucked the tail in.  It took just as long as making a yarn wreath, which takes about a billion years to begin with.  LOL!  

I'm glad that's done!!  Look how nice and neat it looks now.  I also used a marker to label the top of the cardboard with the # for the embroidery floss.  I have like 6 different blues and they all look the same to me.  The # will help when I need to buy more.

I know that stores sell the holders for this, but I like it better this way.  If you look closely, I cut tall and short cardboard pieces and used some clothes pins.

1.  I was able to use cardboard that was destined to fill the garbage can.

2.  Free, free, free

3.  Hellooooooo it's cute! 

Aaaaaaannnnnnd, the little basket was a Goodwill find for

Dunnn, dunnn, dunnnn  .67 cents.

Okay, enough of my babbling I hope you have a fabulous day.

Thanks for stopping by.

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Pictures and Words - Wednesday 5/23

When I'm not busy doing work, work....I do things like this. 

I draw or sketch stuff in the hopes of making them into something someday.  

Annnnnddd I find inspiration in the oddest things.  For instance yesterday it was these teeny tiny little tangerines that I was about to gobble up.  I had a ah-ha moment and thought these would definitely work as "owl eyes".  See weird, lol!

Well I started drawing around the eyes and just went from there.

See...proof I was drawing this.  Who else has little chubby sausage fingers and would admit it?

I think I'm going to embroider this print.  

Plus who doesn't love Owls!

Everyone have a lovely day!!

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