Creating with the Stars

So last month Katie from Sew Woodsy sent me a link for Creating with the Stars from East Coast Creative and suggested I enter. I read the gist:

"CWTS is the ultimate creative DIY competition that pairs 12 contestants with 12 of blogland's biggest stars to duke it out over 4 weeks. Only one team will make it to the end to claim the Grand Prize."  

You can win gift cards from cool places like Homegoods and Home Depot and Martha Stewart and work with some really successful and creative bloggers.  Sounds cool enough. And who wouldn't like a Homegoods gift card? After a couple days of procrastinating (and doubting I had a project that was good enough), I entered my DIY Herringbone Metallic Artwork... and then realized I was entry number 223.  Haha... I don't have a shot in the world at making this. I'm small peanuts and these people are professionals. Occasionally I'd venture back and see all of the stunning projects that were submitted. The total grew to 361 entries.

Fast forward to this morning.  March 1st.  Sitting at a light in front of my building for work (the longest light in the universe) I checked my facebook on my phone. Saw that the winners were announced and scrolled through their pictures ... not expecting to recognize anyone... when all of a sudden my face was staring back at me.  

Holy mother of crafting!  Never in a million billion years did I ever think I would ever be chosen for Creating with the Stars.  I've entered creative/craft/blog contests before, and was never chosen or even mentioned for that matter. The disappointment was expected. I think my heart jumped out of my chest and I may have screamed a little. (This is why I could never win the lotto... I think I might go into cardiac arrest at the news... though I'm willing to risk it).  

I am so nervous excited! I'm paired with another Sarah from Thrifty Decor Chick. Such a cool blog and right up my ally. I have no idea what to expect except that I am going to be really busy for the next few weeks. I can't wait to get my craft on. I think I'm going to celebrate with a Starbucks and something covered in chocolate. Things like this really never happen to me.... officially still freaking out.

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Quick Kid Valentine's Day Cards for School Friends

Quick! One day left to get all those valentines to school for your kid! I made my lolly pop kid Valentine's Day cards again this year.  Same cards I made last year.. but with older kids. :) Cool to see how much they've changed.... even cooler to see how much my photography has improved... yikes. Good thing all the kids are going to care about is the candy... I'm aware.

I just took some pics of the kids holding their fists up and uploaded those to a 1 hour photo place by our house.  I bought the lolly pops when I picked up the photos so it was pretty quick... there's still time!  Happy Valentine's Day!

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Spring Twirl Dress

Does the Spring Twirl Dress make you ready for spring? Living in Florida, we don't get much of a winter. Which is good since all my kid wants to wear are dresses all day, everyday, no matter the occasion. Please don't try to mention pants. This "phase" has been going on now for almost 2 years. And not just any dress... it has to twirl... a lot. She actually tests the twirl-ability each morning after getting dressed. I'm hopeful the Spring Twirl Dress will pass the test.

I also must confess that I finished this dress about a year and a half ago when my daughter was 3. She's 5 now and it finally fits! Yeahhh, I may have overestimated the size a bit when I made it. I've been waiting a really long time for her to fit in it so I could finally take some pictures and tell you what I did.

Let's give some credit. The main inspiration was the Patchwork Circle Skirt from Indietutes. Awesome, right?  I was intrigued by this skirt in all it's twirling splendor, but was deterred (I just spelled that "de-turd" and laughed to myself... haha, carry on) by the time and work required.  It's very quilt-like (and pretty), but I had just finished the Meandering Quilt around this time, and kind of in need of a piecing/patchwork break.


My solution was to make each "layer" of the skirt portion one long strip instead of a bunch of pieces sewn together to make a strip. I sewed 4 strips together.  Each strip 50% longer than the strip before it just like the Patchwork Circle Skirt tutorial says. Here's the inside.

Measure from your kid's waist to knee (or however long you want the skirt to be), then divide by 4. Remember to add 1/2" or so to each strip for seam allowance and even more to the last strip so you can hem. That's how wide to make your strips. My green paisley is from Walmart and the pink fabric is the same clearance curtain panel I've used on the Ballet Bag and the Men's Shirt Turned Toddler Dress. Still have some left!

The entire skirt portion of this dress was done before I even knew what I wanted to do for the bodice. In the past I used old tanks, but I really wanted to try to sew a true bodice this time. I tried a Simplicity pattern.

It was my first time buying a real pattern and holy crap, someone should have warned me!  Con-fu-sing.  I seriously had to read the first few directions 10 times and then Google a few words.  After 30 minutes of cursing and still not knowing what I was doing, (what the H are those little triangles for on the pieces?!?!) I decided to just cut out the pieces I thought I needed (minus the mystery triangles) and sew them together how I thought they should be sewed. It worked out ...sort of.


At one point it called for interfacing and all I had was maximum strength Heat-n-Bond. Not the same thing! I repeat, not the same thing.  Live and learn people. Sewing machines don't like the super duper Heat-n-Bond, just an FYI.

Next time, I'm just going to trace an existing shirt she has. Seems like it would work just as well.

Here are some of the details. 
This (above) is the back. The neckline is finished with facing. I did not take any pictures during the construction of the dress (sorry, my blog mojo was not quite up the par then). See Kate Sew has a great Tutorial on facings if you'd like to try it.  Keep in mind, this was the first time I ever did it and it turned out pretty well. Let's just all pretend that WTS label is in the center. :)

The arm holes are finished in double fold bias tape from Walmart.

After sewing the bodice to the skirt, I excitedly tried the Spring Twirl Dress on my kid and realized it was gigantic. Seriously, my kid was 3... this dress is probably a size 6. I guess I didn't pay close enough attention to the sizes/seam allowances in the pattern. : ) To try and combat some of the hugeness and get more life out of the dress, I added a tie to the middle so I could cinch in the waist. I also sewed a small piece of elastic into the back of the waist as well.  Last step was a decorative hand sewn yoyo and button on the front.  Done.

To date, this is my favorite piece of clothing I've made. It's been while since I've made clothing from scratch but I think I just inspired myself to try some more by writing this post.

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DIY Herringbone Metallic Artwork: Easy & Cheap

So I don't know if I've said this before, but my husband and I are currently building a house. Well, we're not building it (I'm not that crafty... hot glue has its limits), some nice young men we pay are building it. We are, however, among other things, funding it.  Let me translate: we're broke for the next year or so. Needless to say, that scenario leaves no budget for current rental-house decor. And I thought that was fine when we first moved into this dirty white box. 7 months later, the walls are now beige (because I couldn't stand the dirty white box) and the great expanses of nothing-ness on the walls are starting to make me antsy. This is how the "Herringbone" Metallic Artwork came about. (I know it's not technically herringbone, but it kind of looks similar).

Supplies:
• Metallic Paint (I used Rust-Oleum spray paint)
• Some other colors of paint (I used whatever I had leftover from other projects)
• Canvas or something to paint on
• ScotchBlue Painter's Tape (Mine is 2" wide)

This is what I started with.

I bought this in a parking lot 8 years ago when we were first decorating our old house.  It's been moved around quite a bit and now I've just outgrown it.  I wrestled a little with painting over a perfectly good painting. But since I no longer find it beautiful, and it does not serve a function, it was either time to make it beautiful or get rid of it.

Step1: Paint some of the canvas with the metallic paint.  I tried to keep all my paint going in an up and down motion.

Step 2: Blob on some color and spread it around again.  Leave unpainted areas. My 3 year old did most of this. I helped him keep it going up and down.

Step 3: Blob on some other colors and keep going.

Step 4: Pick up older child from Pre-K... wait, I mean let it dry once you're happy with the colors.

Step 5: Start taping (and put on some Phineas and Ferb to keep children in trance-like state).

I started with that piece in the corner and just lined up the tape based off of that one.  No real pattern, just tried to keep the spaces even between each piece. I didn't measure anything. This may require 2 episodes of Phineas and Ferb.

Step 6: Paint over the tape with the metallic paint.

Step 7: Peal off the tape (we did not wait for it to dry).

I like that you can actually see him saying "whoaaa!" in this one. They thought it was very cool how the color showed up when you pulled the tape off.

That's it, you're done.  Hang it up!  I put it over my dresser in our bedroom. We now have at least one thing on that giant beige wall for the cost of tape and a can of spray paint. :)

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Moroccan Wall Stencil FAQ

Well, turns out, lots of you want to jazz up your walls... cheaply.  Is there any other way?  haha Seriously, my DIY Moroccan-Style Wall Stencil Tutorial got lots of attention and as a result, I got lots of questions.  So, I figured I'd gather them all together and get the answers all in one place. Here we go. These are the steps that worked for me.
*Keep in mind, I work on a mac and I have Acrobat Professional.

• How did you get your shape to print out so big?


• Click here for the shape.
• Right click on it and Save Image As. Pick a place to save it on your computer.
• Go to the file you just saved, open it. Go to File, then Print.
• When the print menu pops up, it should look something like this.

• In the lower left corner, click PDF, Save as PDF. Again, pick a place to save it.
• Open the PDF you just saved and again, go to File, then Print. Still with me?

• In this print menu choose Tile All Pages from the Page Scaling drop down. Set your Overlap to at least .25" so some of your design doesn't get cut off in the margins.  And, if it still looks like the shape is printing out small, adjust your Tile Scale (mine is set to 150% here).  The preview on the right shows that the shape is going to print on 4 sheets of paper.
• Finally, click Print and tape your shape together!

• How did you get your lines so even?
• I used a small craft brush with short bristles.  If your bristles are short, no matter how heavy or light your hand is, the bristles won't spread out too much.  This will give you an even line.  If you can't find a brush with short bristles, cut one down to about 1/4". (PS. my lines aren't really that even... haha)

• What color paint is that?
• The background beige is "Bonjour Beige" by Glidden from Home Depot.  The lighter beige is the same paint with some white mixed in I think. :)

• Are your walls textured?
• Nope... just some light "orange peel". But, lots of you told me you were going to try this on a giant canvas.  Great idea if your walls are too textured.

• How did you do the corners?
• I used the paper I printed out and folded it into the corner.  It was easier than folding cardboard.

• Did you paint on the inside or outside of the pencil line and did it show through?
• I painted right over the middle of the pencil lines and they did show through a tiny bit. But, I don't think anyone would ever notice.  It's pretty light.

So I hope that helps if you were having trouble.  If I get more questions, I'll be sure to update. Remember, it does not have to be perfect.  The impact here comes from all of the lines meshed together... not each individual line. Let me know if you try it!

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