DIY Bracelet - Using Shrinky Plastic

Hi everyone!!  I lay here in my bed writing this post all late because I took forever trying to get pics ready and doing laundry and watching some good ole football with theHubs, Go TEXANS 3-0!!! I'm super sleepy and tired but I will finish this post, lol!! Yes, I am the biggest procrastinator.... for one I've been on vacation with my honey this past week so this post should have been done and ready to go.  

I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend, it was the 1st day of Fall.  Here in Houston you couldn't tell we were still in the 90's, just a tad bit warm.  We were still able to enjoy the day though.

Okay, now that I have confessed here is what's going on in Casa Fifi and theHubs...

I am still working on some more of the thread-sketching but I wasn't finished with it, I can't decide what exactly I want to make it into yet.  It will probably end up being another pillow, who knows.  I really like this technique a lot.  It's so different and the more imperfect you sew the better it looks (totally my opinion).  

Well here is another project I finished.  It's something simple and sweet and very easy to do.  If you have an imagination you can pretty much create anything you want.  What am I talking about - Shrinky Dink Plastic!!  I totally love this stuff.  It is the coolest to use - with adult supervision if children are crafting with this.

I hope you like what I made!

 Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great week.  

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Its So Very Cheri
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Today's Creative Blog
Crafty Texas Girls
The Blackberry Vine
Sewing Barefoot
Nap-Time Creations
Momnivore's Dilemma
Fine Craft Guild

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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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Summer vacation is over....

Why do the weekends go by so quickly? Because time sure does fly when you're having fun that's why, lol.   This was the last free weekend for everyone here in Houston.  School starts Monday....so does the crazy traffic, the getting caught behind school buses, and the waking up super early to avoid all of this.  I myself will start my evening classes on Tuesday...yay!!  So, for everyone that starts school tomorrow good luck and have a fantastic semester.

Now for this weeks project.  My next project will probably be in two weeks, just till I get situated with my class schedule.

I'm showing off a new tote that I made for my niece Aubrey.  It was for her second birthday.  I really enjoy sewing and making thing for my loved ones and for myself.  

Red on the inside.

For this tote bag I sewed a double pocket on the outside for some extra storage.

If you make it, then tag it.  My tag "Fifi Made This"

Okay are you ready to be attacked with cuteness.....really how can you not love this.  I made this as the special little add-on for the tote.

After about 7 different variations, I really liked the way I drew this little elephant.  I then traced on felt and sewed on the extra little pieces.  Then I drew the letter "A"  for her name and made it too.  Cute huh!  Her birthday theme was "Circus".

This has to be my favorite tote that I have made so far.

Until next time!  Thanks for stopping by.  

Participating at all the fabulous parties on my party page and here:

Its So Very Cheri

Crafty Texas Girls

Coastal Charm

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Easy Lime Syrup!

This will probably be the last post for Summer....not the last post ever but the last post about anything to do with Summer.  Labor day is around corner and that usually means bye bye Summer.  The Fall season will start soon and I can not wait.

Okay back to the post.  

Last weekend while running errands with theHubs, he promised to take me to Sonic to get something cool and refreshing while we endure the "awesome" heat here in TX.  Well we totally forgot to stop.  I said don't worry, I'll see what we have at home.  While creeping over the Internet I found recipes for snow cone syrup.  They are all pretty much the same and so easy I decided to give it a try. 

Yes, Yes...I know I'm all late to this band wagon of cold, cool, fresh beverages, but this is the first time I ever tried this. I was super excited and theHubs totally loved it.

This has to be the easiest thing to make EEEEver!!  Well I wanted to to flavor it and all I had were limes.  One of theHubs employees has a lime tree and she gave us a bag full of limes.  I'm really thankful to all our friends who are always sharing their fruits or veggies with us.  I was in the middle of making frozen lime cubes, since I don't like to waste things, I used some fresh lime juice to flavor the syrup.

Okay here is what I used and what I did:

2 cups of sugar to every 1 cup of water.   

Fresh Limes

For this batch I used 2 cups of water and 4 cups of sugar.  Brought it to a boil, making sure the sugar was dissolved and the mixture was clear.  Took it off the burner and while letting it cool, I used 8 limes to flavor the syrup.  Then I added a couple of drops of green food coloring. There you have it, Lime Syrup......YUMMY!

Of course it was complete agony waiting for the syrup to cool down.  But when it finally did I just used my blender to choppy chop the ice!  Served it in styrofoam cups like the snow cone place does it then hand a cup over to theHubs with a spoon and a bendy straw.  

It was sooooooooooo good and I want to make them all the time now.  

 I just used a jar to store the rest of the syrup in and popped into the fridge.

*edit - You can flavor the syrup with kool-aid packets....I sooo totally didn't believe this.  But yesterday I made some more syrup and added a cherry flavored packet...oh my....it was yummy.  Two thumbs up from the hubby as well.

Everyone have a fabulous week! Thank you for stopping by.

Sharing at all the awesome parties on my party link page and here: 

It's 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 -
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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.

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My Repurposed Life

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Fishing line trellis

Hey every one...remember when I posted about allllll the fishing line that I received on one of my freecycle trips?  No, didn't think so!!  Well here is a pic to refresh your memory.  This is only one bag of it.

Since I am crafty and cheap ($ wise), I have been looking on-line for different ways to use up this stuff.  One of the ways to use it up was to make a trellis.  So I got to it.

I pulled out my little box of all the misc. screws and bolts that have been left over or recycled from stuff that has been put together in our home and 1 handy dandy screw driver.

I marked the fence where I wanted to put the screws...I didn't measure, I'm a big believer in eye-balling stuff, lol!!  

I found the strongest fishing line in my pile and got to wrapping and knotting.  If you look very closely I have (5) lines a that go from left to right and (2) lines that make a (X) in the center.

I bought flowering Jasmine to grow there.  I wish there was more to show you, but that's it, that's all that has grown.  It doesn't even have flowers  (*.*).  I really hope it works out the way I want it to.   It has been really hot and I've been trying to water, so we'll see.

Until next time!! Thanks for stopping by.

Linking up at these fabulous parties this week!

The Dedicated House

Savvy Southern Style

My Repurposed Life

 

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Spray Paint project!

I ♥ spray paint!!!  Why, because this stuff can pretty much change anything into something pretty to look at.  Frames, furniture, glass, even shoes!!!!  I'm still trying to convince theHubs why I have so many spray paint cans or why I keep buying more....lol!!

I spent one of these past Saturdays spray painting outdoor plant pots.  They were due for a upgrade.  When we first moved into our new home we had no plants what so ever, the front door looked sad and lonely.  My mother-in-law gave me this potted plant, it is a type of Ivy.  The pot was painted white, probably with house paint not sure and after 7 years the paint has chipped away.  I sanded down as much as I could as you can see from the picture below.

It's no secret, I love easy projects.  This was super easy too!  I didn't remove the plant, because I was lazy and I said I loved easy projects.  So I just covered the plant with a plastic bag, tucked in all the long Ivy arms and pushed wooden skewers in around the bag so I wouldn't get spray paint all up in there. 

Ta-da!!  Fresh and white! 

I picked up this salmon colored pot at a garage sale for $1.00, yay!!  I washed and dried this baby and it was ready to be painted.  I loved the shiny color it had, it just didn't go with the outdoor color of the house.  So I just chose another shiny color to make a statement in the entry way.   

LOVE IT! Who doesn't love a nice turquoise?

Now, they are ready to show off!

I just put them here to take the picture.  They have since been moved, the blue one is on the walkway now.  

Everyone have a fabulous day, stay cool if it's hot out or stay dry if you're getting the rain! 



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