January 27, 2010

I love my local library

For a while I have been wanting to purchase several of the craft books Amazon bombards me with every time I visit their site.  And then a new branch of the Omaha Public Library opened.  And then I remembered the wonderful interlibrary book transfer program.  So after some searching of the online book catalog and requesting several books, this is what was waiting for me at my library:


I love looking through craft books--the pictures, the ideas, the endless possibilities.  If only I had more time.  *sigh*  I would have been disappointed had I purchased some of these, but now I just return the ones I don't like.  The ones I really enjoy I'll look through until they're due back, and I may end up buying them anyway. :)  I've also enjoyed reading books to my son that I haven't read a hundred times before.  And the best part is it's all free.

January 23, 2010

happy birthday bunting card

There were a lot of great challenges over at 365 Cards this week, and I even had ideas for many of them.  Unfortunately, due to lack of time (as usual), only one idea resulted in a card.  For Day 328 - I'm a Frayed Knot, the challenge is to tie a knot and fray the ends.  The cord I used didn't fray as much as I'd hoped, but it's still frayed a little so it counts!


It's really late, so the picture isn't the best.  I absolutely love the way this card turned out.  I've been seeing these wonderful fabric buntings everywhere lately, and I wanted to incorporate bunting into a card.  I was most recently inspired by this bunting tutorial which I'll be making for my son's room (after I finish this quilt for his bed).  I've also been making a lot of applique t-shirts for my little boy lately.  I used some fabric scraps and iron-on adhesive to iron little fabric flags to the card.  I then zig-zag stitched cording to the top.  The sentiment is computer generated.  I'll be sending this cute little card to my niece next month, and I'll definitely be making more.  It was easy, fun, and I love the results.  Thanks for looking!

January 13, 2010

applique tie shirt for Valentine's Day

My new favorite crafty project is making applique t-shirts for my little guy. They are so easy, and the end result is pretty adorable. My only problem is trying to make "boyish" applique shirts which can be difficult--especially with a holiday like Valentine's Day. Pink, red, and hearts probably aren't the best thing for three-year-old boy to wear. I found this great appliqued tie tutorial at Crap I've Made. (I love that blog name, by the way.) So now I can use an awesome Valentine-themed fabric to make a tie to applique to a t-shirt. I've had this fabric forever. I bought a yard of it (when I used to buy a yard of everything regardless of how much I really needed) back when I was in high school (I've been out of high school for a LONG time) to make a fabric-covered photo album for a little girl I used to babysit (she starts college this fall). The awesome results:


I ended us using a green shirt because the fabric didn't look so good with the red shirt I initially purchased. I used a zig zag stitch around the edges instead of a straight stitch. Even my husband liked it, and he's always a little worried about dressing him in handmade stuff. So how long can I dress my little boy in cute appliqued t-shirts before I scar him for life?



January 2, 2010

glee-inspired card

Two cards in two weeks--I'm on a roll!  For 365 Cards Day 304 - Sounds Great, the challenge was to make a card inspired by this CD cover:


I had to participate in this challenge because I'm a huge fan of the show.  I also used Laura's Sketch 42 from 2 Sketches 4 You:


I used the colors from the CD cover and the "1" (which I traced right off my computer screen) as inspiration for this birthday card:


Thanks for looking!

applique birthday shirt

My son's third birthday is today, and I wanted to make him a special shirt to wear.  After looking around on the internet, I found this great tutorial for a raw edge applique shirt at The Quilted Turtle.  I used it to make this adorable shirt for my son:



After a bit of searching, I finally found plain long-sleeved shirts at WalMart.  This was a good project for a first-time applique-er.  I had enough trouble with the straight stitch that I can't imagine trying to satin stitch the whole thing!  I think making cute little applique shirts may be my new hobby.  The next tutorial I'm going to try is this initial and star applique shirt at A Pretty Cool Life.  My son loves his new birthday shirt, and I just hope we can keep it clean enough to wear the whole day.  Thanks for looking!