Crafted by Katie

Project Runway -- Pre-School Edition

2011-09-24T10:48:00.007+08:00

In Zoe's Pre-school class, they've been reading a book about a princess who was trying to find the perfect dress for her birthday party. (FYI, the book is all in Chinese, so this is my interpretation of the illustrations, lol). She is given different dresses in all the different colors of the rainbow, but none of them are quite right.

Finally, her family and friends show up with a big surprise, a rainbow dress!

She is incredibly happy, and they all live happily ever after....

So yesterday, Zoe came home with a bag full of materials and instructions to make her own "Princess Dress" (or some kind of clothing.) I felt like this was similar to the Project Runway challenge where they have to go into a hardware store or a pet store, and make a ball gown out of things they find there. Not that 4 year olds are expected to make a ball gown, but you know what I mean! :)

So, here is what we started with...

Maya was really keen to help, so she cut the blue garbage bag in half and planned to make a vest. Once it was cut in half, she wasn't quite sure what to do, so I stepped in and cut the arm holes and folded down the "collar." As I was working on that, I thought that it would be cute to add a little ruffle of sorts to the hem, so I also worked that in. (Thank you double-sided sticky tape!) Once that was on, Zoe tried on the vest, but it kept slipping off, so we fashioned a button to hold it in place.

I added a pocket on the side, and then let the girls go wild gluing and taping all of the decorations on.

What do you think? Is it worthy of the runway?

Zoe's new skirt

2011-09-22T17:19:00.002+08:00

After sewing the pillow covers, I wasn't ready to put my machine and everything away yet. It takes such an effort to get everything out that I wanted to make it worth my time. :) So I referred back to the Market Skirt tutorial and made a new little skirt for Zoe out of some scrap pieces I've been holding onto.

Zoe opted out of adding a little pocket this time, but I still think it turned out super cute. I wish I had more of that fabric!

Well, I'm glad that I took the leap and started sewing again. I have so many projects in mind that I want to do. The trick is finding the time, (and the motivation!), to track down all the supplies and get to it. :) Crafting in Hong Kong is a little different than in the USA. ;)

New pillow covers

2011-09-21T11:06:00.009+08:00

Well, since my last post about repentance, my world was kind of turned upside down. Not in a bad way, it just became suddenly very busy and I had a few things to deal with. But now that all seems to be under control, and I finally got out my sewing machine!

My first project was something that I've wanted to do for a long time. Remember when I made these awhile back?

I decided it was time for an update. Since it's been awhile since I've sewn anything, I followed the same simple tutorial that I used before. I made extra special sure to match up the stripes on both sides. :)

Zoe really likes the new covers!

I didn't stop there, though. I also had this third pillow that's just been sitting in my closet. I got it last year at a white elephant Christmas party. My hubby wanted me to just throw it out, but I knew I could just make a cover for it. It just took me nine months to get around to it. :)

One big happy family!

(Striped fabric from IKEA.)

Repenting

2011-09-04T13:32:00.003+08:00

I don't know if anyone reads this blog or if anyone has linked to me or whatnot, and I wouldn't blame you if you don't because how often do I actually post? Right?

Well, I'm repenting. This weekend I started feeling inspired to do some crafting. I've got a lot of ideas running around in this little brain of mine, and so hopefully, as we get into the swing of things in the new school year, I'll be able to get crafting again.

First up will be an update of the blue pillowcases I made HERE. I bought navy blue and white striped fabric from IKEA that I like much better and will add some interest to the room. :) That's my hope at least! It's an easy project, but I have to start easy since I haven't done any sewing for a long time.

Also, I've gotten a lot of new scrapbooking materials, and so my goal is to get completely caught up in the next year. I also plan to start on my Christmas cards very soon, so that I'm not scraping at the last minute to get them done. A lot of other things in between, too. :)

Happy Crafting!

Easter garland

2011-04-06T22:33:00.004+08:00

Last night I was feeling a little crafty, but I knew I wanted to do something that my kids could also help with. The other day, I saw this really cool idea on another blog:

(photo from Modern Parents Messy Kids)

Unfortunately, I don't have piles of paint chips lying around, but I do have tons of scrapbook paper scraps that I've been saving for just this sort of activity. I pulled out a bunch of "Eastery" colored papers, and traced egg shapes on the back. (I used the template available from the above link). Then we got to work. My almost-8-year-old, and my newly-4-year-old both had a fabulous time cutting them out. I thought about "fixing" the ones that my younger daughter cut, but then decided against it. I love that she was able to help!

(Sorry for not "staging" my photo better, lol. I was in a hurry!)

Can you guess which ones my 4-year-old cut?

It was a great activity for the 3 of us to do together, and I'm thinking about making a few more garlands to put up elsewhere in our home, too.

Silhouette Giveaway

2011-03-26T09:35:00.001+08:00

Hi friends,

I'm entering a Silhouette giveaway HERE! You can join too, but please don't because it lessens my chances, haha.

Have a crafty day!

Cinderella

2011-03-25T22:03:00.005+08:00

I have been really neglecting this blog lately. Sorry! I've had so much going on that I haven't dedicated much time to crafting. A month or two ago, I spent several days scrapbooking and got done with Zoe's 2nd year. (Now I'm only 2 years behind with her! lol). Today I spent the whole day sewing and finished this fun little project. I also posted this on my other blog.

I've had this little project in mind for MONTHS. First I was going to make it for Halloween, but that didn't happen. Then I planned to make it as a Christmas present, but that didn't happen. I finally dragged my sewing machine out again and got to work on it today. Next week is Zoe's birthday, and she's having a princess party with a few of her little friends from church. I figured it was time to add a new princess dress to the mix. :) I used THIS TUTORIAL. She did a great job showing step by step instructions with photos, and really made it a whole lot easier.

I had few issues with the bodice... I made the neck hole way too big, and also the back panels are a little too big. But I'm really happy with the way the rest of it turned out. :)

Zoe thinks it is just perfect for twirling...

And curtseying...

And while we were out at the fabric market in Sham Shui Po yesterday, we happened to find the perfect little pettiskirt to go with it so that it flounces out nice and big. :)

It took me ALL day to make it, (I could never win on Project Runway, lol), but I'd say it was a day well spent. Now Maya wants one, too. :)

Finished projects

2011-01-07T10:04:00.004+08:00

I forgot to post my finished advent calendar on here! I'm such a slacker. I did post about it with all of my Christmas decorations on my other blog, though.

I really, really like how my advent calendar turned out. It took a couple of redo's on the tree, and I ended up hand-stitching all the pockets, but I'm not very happy with all the ornaments. I didn't pack it away with all of our other Christmas decorations, though, because I want to try and redo them a little better for next year. I'm really inspired by some of the ones posted HERE, so maybe next year I'll show you the new and improved version of it. :)

I also made some felt ornaments to give as gifts to some of our family members, but I was in such a hurry to get them mailed that I forgot to take pictures first. I am planning to make them for my own family this year, and will for sure take pictures to show you. (And for some reason I can't find the link that gave me the idea, but if I do, I will post it here as well.)

One of my new year's resolutions is to start sending birthday cards to all of my family members again. I used to do this, but the last couple of years it has fallen by the wayside. I, personally, love receiving birthday cards. I love feeling like someone was thinking about me. And as the golden rule goes, treat others as you want to be treated. So, over the last couple of days, I have made about 30 of these. I think they have turned out really cute, and I want to find some inspiration to make a few other different styles as well. I just wanted to make a big batch at first so that I won't always be scrambling at the last minute to try and get something ready to send.

I have a lot of projects on my to-do list this year, including catching up on my scrapbooking; making the quilts for my girls that I had intended to have done by Christmas 2010 but I couldn't find all the fabric I needed; and princess dresses inspired by THIS tutorial, (fabric is bought, just need to DO it). I've got to organize my tutorial inspiration links a little better on my left column and prioritize the ones that I really want to do, and delete the ones I've moved on from.

Time to get started!

What are your crafty goals for 2011?

Advent Calendar

2010-11-12T20:27:00.005+08:00

Last week during one of my daily craft blog surf's, I saw this post from Homemade By Jill about a darling felt advent calendar. I went to the blog she had referenced, and instantly fell in love with THIS idea. I put it in my Tutorials to Try link list, hoping that I'd have time to do it before December.

Well, seems like this week I've had nothing BUT time! So I got busy on it. I'm not done yet, but here is a little sneak peak on what I've accomplished so far.

I am too impatient to do all of the intricate hand stitching that was done in the original, so I have just been using regular old craft glue to keep it together. It's not nearly as cute as hers, but it gets the job done. I may have to stitch the pockets on, though, because for some reason the glue is not doing it's job there.

Well, I'm still plugging away at it, so stay tuned for the big reveal!

Big project DONE

2010-10-26T10:40:00.002+08:00

This is a repost from my main blog, Adventures in Hong Kong. But now that it's done, I can get back to crafting! I've got a lot of things on my "to do" list, and can't wait to get started!!

Well, we've been pretty much done fixing up our place for about a week now, but I've been procrastinating taking pictures for a few reasons:

1) We haven't put up the curtains yet
2) We haven't put much on the walls yet
3) I didn't feel like cleaning.
4) I'm afraid it's going to be anticlimactic!

Despite all that, I decided to go ahead and just take pictures today because I finally cleaned, and who knows when it will look this nice again. Hey, I'm just keepin' it real!

So as a little reminder of what it looked like before: (What you can't see is all the cracks in the walls and ceiling, and a really bashed up corner from people repeatedly running into it and knocking things against it.)

(That's our old tv stand up on its side)

Please excuse the laundry hanging on the windows, haha. That's life in HK for you!

(shoe cabinet)

And a little reminder of all the work we put in:

And finally, the big reveal! Drumroll please......

The tall bookshelf on the right used it be in our girls' bedroom. We added the doors to make our new shoe cabinet, and put a different bookshelf in their bedroom.

The only peeve I have with our new 4x4 shelf in the living room is with the two drawer insert we bought for it. From the the outside, it looks like two nice big drawers, right?

Wrong! The drawers are only half as deep as they look. I don't know how I fell for that trap, but it's too late to return it. I'm thinking of lining it with cardboard to make the sides taller. Any other suggestions?

The one piece of furniture we may still get is a tv stand, (and a tv). We've been debating back and forth whether or not we need a tv, as we've been without one for about two months now and have been ok. The main thing is that we can't watch a lot of our dvd's on our computer because we have to "change the region," and there is only a limited number of times you can do that. What would you do? TV or no tv?

A pic of our view. We didn't do anything to change that, haha, but I love it enough to show it.

Our bedroom. We did pretty much the same process in there, scraping off the broken and cracked parts, re plastering and sanding and painting....

Had to put curtains up over our closet because the doors broke off... Much better than looking at the messy shelves. :)

But no curtains over the windows. A sheet will do for now, haha.

What do you think? Still a work in progress for finishing touches, but the bulk of it is done, and I am so thankful for that!!

In love....

2010-09-29T22:24:00.007+08:00

Tomorrow, we are embarking on an adventure! We are replastering some areas of our apartment, (walls and ceilings), that have started to crack and/or peel in the last year or so. And when that's done, we're going to paint, and change out some of our furniture. My hubby and I have completely different ideas when it comes to decorating, so needless to say it's been a bit of a trial deciding what to do. I'm starting to think that I'm just going to have to do it all on my own while he's at work, and then when he gets home, "Surprise!" Heh heh.

Today, during my daily blog surfing, I came across this image from Nannygoat:

I was intrigued, and wanted to know more! Lucky for me, Nannygoat linked to Jones Design Co., where I saw this photo:

I am so in love with this idea. I think it looks really classy, and it can add a lot of character to the room. I was already envisioning our home with walls like this, but when I showed the pic to dh, he did not agree. He hates it!! Ugh. I guess I'm back to square one.

(Though maybe he wouldn't mind it too much in our bedroom... less wall space!)

The Superhero Princess

2010-09-26T23:52:00.007+08:00

Last week, the girls and I headed out to Sham Shui Po (read about it HERE) to pick out some fabric for some quilts we have in mind, as well as some reversible superhero/princess capes. Unfortunately, most of the stalls/stores were closed because it was a holiday (doh!), so we didn't find everything we were hoping for. But we did find everything for the capes.

I got my inspiration from HERE and HERE.

I started with Maya's cape, and it took a lot longer than I had imagined. But then again, I still consider myself a novice and I'm kind of slow. :) I had to make a few corrections along the way, and it is FAR from perfect, but Maya loves it, and that's all that matters. I'm just hoping that Zoe's cape goes much quicker! :)

(You'll have to forgive the mess in the living room and lack of furniture. We are mid-fix/change/remodel... something. :) More details later... maybe... )

Maya picked out the colors and embellishments herself. To do the "M", I printed out a rather large one, cut it out, then traced it onto a piece of pink felt. I cut the felt out, then sewed it onto the blue felt with a contrasting color. The silver around the edges is ribbon.

The front is velcroed together.

The princess cape might look white in the picture, but it is a light pink. And that's supposed to be a crown, by the way, in case you couldn't tell. ;)

I hand stitched her name on there. I tried doing it with the sewing machine a couple of times, but for some reason the thread kept tangling on the bottom, and so I gave up. Not perfect, but it's ok. The "bling" is hot glued on. I hope it stays on!!

Maya loves it, and Zoe is now anxious for me to get going on hers! She chose a bright pink for her princess side, and a navy blue for the super hero side. We'll see how it goes!

Baby Book: DONE!

2010-09-13T11:57:00.003+08:00

Well, Zoe's Baby book is finally done. I only had a few more layouts to do and I finally got around to doing them. :)

Time at the swimming pool...

And Zoe's first birthday! Yay!

I'm glad to have the first year finally done, but now I've got two more years to catch up on. Now that both girls are in school (Zoe's gone for 4 hours a day), I plan to spend a lot of time catching up. :) Wish me luck!

Scrapbook pages

2010-08-04T09:58:00.003+08:00

Well, I'm not sure that I'll actually have time to finish those last few layouts of Zoe's first year before we leave on our trip, so I'll go ahead and just post the ones I finished last week. They aren't the best or most fancy, but I'm just glad to have them done! :)

Chinese New Year 2008

The left page is Chinese New Year fireworks, and the right page is Maya and Zoe playing in a cardboard box. :)

Zoe's first trip to HK Disneyland

When Zoe started walking, 1.5 weeks before her first birthday.

Thanks for looking!

I'm crafting!

2010-07-30T11:32:00.002+08:00

I know I haven't been particularly crafty lately, but I'm repenting! The other night I was able to get my scrapbook stuff out after being on a little scrapbooking hiatus, and I completed about 7 pages. A couple 2-page layouts, and a couple single page layouts. I've got just a few more layouts to complete and then I'll be done with Zoe's first year. Yay! As soon as I finish her first year book, (hopefully in the next few days - fingers crossed!) I'll post all the pages I've finished recently.

I've really been feeling the need to get all caught up in my scrapping, so that's going to be my crafty priority for now. I hope you don't get bored with all the pages I'll be posting. :)

Next Saturday (Aug 7th), I'm leaving on an 11-day vacation, so there will be a few weeks where I won't be able to post anything, but I promise that I will get back to it asap! :)

Happy crafting!

Matching skirts

2010-07-22T00:07:00.006+08:00

Most of the sewing I've done thus far has been for Zoe, and Maya has felt a little left out. She has been telling me for awhile that she wanted a blue skirt like the one I made for Zoe in THIS post. Obviously I haven't been in a sewing mood lately, so I've been putting it off. Today I finally decided to get to it, and Maya was super excited. She kept checking on my progress, "Is it done yet?" "Are you finished yet?" :) (For reference, I used the market skirt tutorial from MADE.)

Here is the finished project. It's mostly the same as Zoe's, but the pocket is a little different. For this skirt, the cutting part took longer because I had to calculate the right sizes and make sure I was cutting the pieces correctly. I don't have mad cutting skillz yet. ;) The sewing part, though, definitely went faster because I actually knew what I was doing. :) (No, Maya didn't get a hair cut, it's in a pony tail that's half falling out, lol). The skirt actually turned out longer than I thought it was going to be, but Maya loves it, and it's big enough that she'll be able to wear it for a long time.

My little twinnies. :)

Silk painting

2010-07-21T23:57:00.006+08:00

WOW... it has been way too long since I did anything crafty. I am definitely due to get some stuff done!! Well, today, I did get a couple things done. Yay!

For Maya's birthday back in May, one of her friends gave her this little craft activity for painting a silk scarf and bandana. She's been asking and asking to do it, but I was afraid of the mess. Today, we finally got it out, and it was surprisingly easy. I wish we would have done it a long time ago! Maya was very sweet and let Zoe do the bandana, while Maya did the scarf. They had a great time.

Zoe was napping when they were finished drying, so here is Maya modeling both the scarf and bandana.

Rainbow Birthday Cake

2010-05-16T23:52:00.005+08:00

Several months ago, I saw this cake online at The Idea Room

and knew I wanted to make it for my oldest daughter's birthday. Well, the day has come! Last night I stayed up until about 1am finishing it. :)

In the example picture, it's obvious that she took the time to bake each layer individually, but let's be honest. Who has that kind of time?? Well, I suppose I could have done it, but I really didn't want to. Instead, I divided the batter into six equal parts and colored them. Then in one cake pan I layered it (bottom to top) yellow, orange, red. In the other I layered it purple, blue, green. I knew the colors would mix somewhat, but I had hoped they would still look like layers when we cut into it.

The picture doesn't do it justice - the colors are much brighter in person. And even though it didn't turn out exactly as I had imagined, my daughter absolutely loved it! And that's all that really matters, right??

And as a side note, I used Dana's (from MADE) recipe to make the cake mix healthier. I thought it was pretty good, but seemed a little dry. Will have to play with it in the future. :)

Dress #2!!

2010-05-13T20:15:00.006+08:00

Well, after I finished editing Zoe's pink and purple dress, I wasn't ready to put my machine away. I decided to get out the yellow polo shirt and see what I could do with it. I had originally planned to do a tiered ruffle dress, but that didn't work out so well. I didn't measure my tiers correctly and it looked really weird. So after more seam unpicking, I decided to try something else, and this is what I came up with:

The white fabric is from an IKEA sheet that I found on sale a couple months ago and thought it would be great for things like this. :) After I added the ruffle, I was trying to decide what else to do, and remembered seeing a tutorial for adding a sash. I couldn't find the tutorial, but kind of played around and came up with this. I think it will be ok. The sash is sewn on to the dress so it won't get lost.

And I was really smart on the neckline this time, I just cut off the collar and left the neckline as is! :) I'm so smart, haha.

Well, dinner time, so I'm off. It feels really good to be productive and make cute things like this. Now I need to figure out something to make for Maya. She's feeling a little left out. ;)

Happy sewing!

Take two...

2010-05-13T10:54:00.004+08:00

Well, there were a few things that I wanted to fix on the dress that I just made for Zoe in my previous post, so last night I got out my sewing machine again and got to work. First of all, I unpicked the neckline, and let me tell you, that took FOR-EV-ER. I got through an episode of Glee and an episode of American Idol (minus commercials) before I was completely undone picking it. Maybe I need to use a slightly longer stitch length, lol.

So anyway, I reworked the neck line, and I like it much better now. Still not perfect, but better.

The old neckline:

The new neckline:

I decided to overlap the ends at the front to make it look like it could open, but actually the buttons are sewn through all the layers, so it stays closed. I didn't want to mess with button holes, lol.

I added a fabric flower to cover up the annoying logo from the original polo shirt. Not 100% happy with this either. I think it's too heavy for the fabric, so it sags a little. Plus, the logo isn't exactly centered like it would be if this were the full size shirt, so the flower doesn't look like it's in the right place. I'm going to have to think on that a little. Maybe add a few smaller flowers on the left side of it to balance?

And I added a pink ruffle to the bottom using scraps left from the pink shirt. (The purple flower is made from the original purple hem that I cut off to add the pink ruffle.)

What do you think? Better? I'm still debating whether to add two pink pockets to the skirt, but am wondering if that would be overdoing it a little.... Zoe loves it and says she looks like a princess. :)

I still have one XL yellow polo shirt left, so I may try to make a shorter, more summery little dress for her, or maybe just a skirt that she can wear with a shirt? Hmmm...

It's about darn time!

2010-05-06T17:28:00.001+08:00

I have taken an extended break from crafting, not because I wanted to, but because I'm too afraid of making mistakes! But making mistakes is the only way to learn sometimes. :) That, and sometimes it's just too darn much trouble taking everything out just to put it away again. I guess I've gotten kind of lazy, but I'm feeling the itch to be creative again.

As you all know, I'm still pretty new at sewing, but today I decided it was time to take out the machine again and put it to some good use. I've had these three XL men's polo shirts that somebody gave my husband months ago. Besides the fact that they are too big for him, they are in colors that he would never, ever in a million years wear. Bright pink, lavender, and bright yellow. So I put them with the rest of my fabric hoping that I could use them for something or refashion them somehow. (The colors in the photos are not true, just imagine bright pink and lavender).

Today I took the plunge and cut up the pink and lavender ones.

I took one of Zoe's dresses that fits her pretty well now, and laid it out on top of the giant polo shirt, then leaving about a 1/2 inch of space (for the seams), I cut around the shape. When I got to the sleeve area, I didn't cut around the sleeves but rather tried to eye where the seam between the shoulder and sleeve would be, and cut that.

I won't go through all the details, but I'm happy to report that figuring out which way to sew the sleeves on took much less time than in the past! lol. I did a gathered waist with the purple polo shirt, and I used the hem of the pink shirt to put around the neckline. You can see in the picture below that I have some issues with sewing in a straight line, lol. I wish I had pink thread so that all of my little imperfections would not show up so much. I took the two buttons off the polo shirt and re-sewed them on in the proper place (upside down so the brand wouldn't show).

Also, after I had the dress on Zoe, I could see that I probably didn't cut the neck hole evenly because the buttons seemed a bit off center. Hmmm. Oh well. Zoe's young enough that she doesn't care, and hopefully by the time she is old enough, I'll be a much better seamstress!

There are a couple more things I want to do with the dress. I thought about cutting the purple skirt a couple inches shorter and adding a pink ruffle to the bottom, but I'm not so sure I want to do that. Thoughts? I also for sure want to add a couple of pink pockets to the skirt, a la the market skirt. Also, the top of the polo shirt has an annoying brand image on it that I couldn't get off, so I was thinking of making some lavender cloth rosettes or flowers or something from the leftover fabric to cover it up.

Before I put my machine away, I decided to try and make a wrist pin cushion. I decided to use left over scraps from the Christmas jammies I made for my girls. I gathered a bunch of the long skinny scraps and rolled them into a ball, and then covered it with a larger scrap. I gathered the bottom and hand sewed it onto a little band that I made. I added velcro to the ends of the band so that I could strap it on. Very rudimentary, but for now, it works! This will be much handier, I think. (ha ha, no pun intended.)

Next on my list, I really want to try making this kind of gathered pillow cover. I think it adds just the right amount of something extra without being overdone! (photo courtesy of Make it and Love it) I would love to have some super cute fabric like this to do it with, but I'll have to look through my small stash and see what I have, or else make a trek out to the fabric market. Wish me luck!

Butterfly Hair Clips tutorial

2010-03-30T14:47:00.009+08:00

Well, this is my first tutorial, and I'm going to be upfront here... I did it in a hurry and the photos are not great, but hopefully you'll get the general idea!! :) You can see my original butterfly hair clip post HERE. Feel free to let me know if any parts of this are not clear.

First, preheat your oven to 250 degrees F (125 degrees C).

Gather your supplies:

Grosgrain ribbon in coordinating colors

hot glue gun/glue

alligator hair clip

thin wooden dowel

lighter

pencil

Step 1: Wrap the ribbon that you intend to use for the butterfly's body around the wooden dowel, secure the ends with either wooden clothes pins, or your metal hair clips. (This dowel was too big, but it was the only one I had.)

Step 2: Put your ribboned dowel on a cookie sheet and place in the oven for 25 minutes.

Step 3: Choose your ribbon for the butterfly wings. You need two coordinating colors. The outer color needs to be 2 inches longer than the inside. For this butterfly, I did 8 inches in the dark pink, and 6 inches in the white. (It also works well in a 10/8 measurements, but if you go bigger than that, you might need to play around with thicker ribbon to see how it looks.

Step 4: Fold your ribbon in half, and mark the center with a pencil.

Step 5: Fold the end of your ribbon to meet the center, and crease it, then mark the crease with a pencil.

You should now have marks on the 1/4 and 1/2 points of your ribbon.

Step 6: Using a lighter, (I used a candle since I needed to take a pic at the same time... and please excuse my messy desk, haha), lightly singe the ends of your ribbon so that they won't come unraveled.

Step 7: Put a dot of hot glue just to the right side of your 1/2 mark, then fold your ribbon over this way and secure it down. The 1/4 mark should be on the bottom edge of the horizontal piece of ribbon.

Step 8: Do the same with the other side of ribbon.

Step 9: Fold over the bottom parts of ribbon like this, making sure not to twist the ribbon backwards. The loop should be on the front, with the end gluing to the back.

Step 10: Do the same with your other ribbon.

Step 11: Put a dab of hot glue in the center of your bigger ribbon, and stick the smaller ribbon inside.

Step 12: Your dowel ribbon should be done in the oven by now and cooled down a bit. Remove the ribbon from the dowel, and it should be curled like this. Snip off an inch or so, (whatever is suitable for the size of your butterfly), and hot glue it to the middle of your butterfly.

Step 13: Cut two 1/2 inch pieces of really thin ribbon for the antennae. Put a dab of glue on the back of your butterfly and put the two antennae in place.

It should look something similar to this now:

Step 14: Next, take your alligator clip, and cut 4.5 inches of coordinating ribbon, and melt the edges. Starting underneath the top part of the clip, hot glue the ribbon on. Wrap around the top and into the hinge area, and halfway across the bottom.

Step 15: Put a dab of hot glue on the top of the clip, and attach your butterfly.

Enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

Jeans to shorts...

2010-03-28T23:37:00.006+08:00

I won't exactly call this a Fail, but I'll say it was a good attempt. I'm going to have to re work them just a bit, though.

Zoe is pretty skinny, so she is starting to have some jeans that are just too short, but still fit her in the waist. I didn't want to get rid of them, so being inspired by Wardrobe Refashion and THIS tutorial over at Make it and Love it, I decided to try to refashion the jeans into little shorts or capris. Doesn't sound too complicated, right?

Well, it's not complicated, but I'm still a beginner, and I don't have the right kind of thread and blah blah blah. Despite her enthusiasm in these photos, Zoe's not thrilled that I cut her jeans, lol. I need to rework the hems with thicker thread, preferably in a contrasting color so it stands out. I'm happy she has another pair of shorts, but they seem a little blah to me. I'm considering cutting them shorter, and maybe sewing lace or ribbon onto the hems? Hmmm.

I also have a pair of jeans that I want to convert to shorts for Maya, too. I'll definitely do an update post when it's finished.

And an FYI: something to look forward to: I finally have time to do a tutorial for the butterfly hair clips, so I plan to get that up tomorrow!

Creamy Lemon Crumb Squares

2010-03-28T23:31:00.004+08:00

(photo courtesy of The Pioneer Woman Cooks)

I saw this recipe on The Pioneer Woman last week, and I knew I had to try it sometime. Thankfully, we were invited to a little get together and were asked to bring a dessert. This dessert was super easy to make, and it was a hit! I definitely recommend chilling it before serving as it really helped to keep the shape! (Step by step photo instructions on her website.) Also, I don't know if it was because I didn't let my butter soften enough first, but I found it a bit dry and ended up adding a couple tablespoons of melted butter into the crumb mixture, and then fluffing it up with a fork to add a bit of moisture.

Ingredients

1-⅓ cup All-purpose Flour
½ teaspoons Salt
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 stick (1/2 Cup) Butter, Slightly Softened
1 cup Brown Sugar (lightly Packed)
1 cup Oats
1 can (14 Ounce) Sweetened Condensed Milk
½ cups Lemon Juice
Zest Of 1 Lemon

Preparation Instructions

PREHEAT OVEN TO 350 DEGREES.

Mix butter and brown sugar until well combined.

Sift together flour, salt, and baking powder.

Add oats and flour to butter/sugar mixture and mix to combine.

Press half of crumb mixture into the bottom of an 8 x 11 inch pan.

Mix together condensed milk, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Spread onto the bottom layer of the crumb mixture. Top with the other half of the crumb mixture, but don’t press.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown.

Allow pan to sit on counter for 30 minutes after baking. Cut into squares and refrigerate for a couple of hours or until cool.

Serve cool.

Sad day...

2010-03-20T12:52:00.003+08:00

Well, I've searched through my husbands closet and he doesn't have any silk ties he is willing to give up. He only has like 2 silk ones anyway. The others are all cheapo polyester-ish. (But still nice looking.) So this morning the girls and I checked out the Salvation Army store closest to us, and they didn't have any either. Sooo.... I guess I'll have to pass on the silk tie-dye egg craft this year. But when we travel back to the US this Summer, ties are definitely going on my shopping list. :)

I have a busy week coming up, so I don't know if I'll really get any crafty or sewing time, but I'm hoping to convert a few pairs of my daughters' jeans (fit around the waist, but length too short) into shorts or capris using THIS tutorial.

Also, a couple people have asked for a tutorial on the butterfly hair clips. I don't have all the supplies because my friend provided everything, but I can at least do a step by step of the butterfly wings. I'll try to get that done in the next few days, too.

Gearing up for Easter

2010-03-19T16:58:00.004+08:00

Here in HK, they don't sell Easter egg dye kits, and in years past I've been too lazy to look up instructions on how to do it on my own. That's why I nearly just jumped out my chair when I saw THIS post over at Our Best Bites. It's about how to dye eggs using old silk ties.

Intrigued? You should be! Just look at what you can do!! (Photos from Our Best Bites)

Now I just need to dig through Sam's closet and hope he has some old silk ties!. I'll definitely post photos after we do this!!

Butterfly Hair Clips

2010-03-18T09:02:00.004+08:00

Yesterday, I got together with a couple friends, Cheryl and Vanessa. Vanessa taught us how to make these super cute little butterfly hair clips. I only got 4 done before I had to leave to pick up my older daughter from the school bus, but I think 4 is enough.... for now. :) I have managed to hide them from my daughter's so far, and the plan is to put them in the girls' Easter baskets.

I've been looking online to try and find a tutorial for them, but haven't found any so far. I'll keep looking.

(Pardon the mess that is my hair... I was trying to hurry before Zoe came in the room, haha)

I've been busy!

2010-02-21T23:15:00.007+08:00

This last week was super busy (see my other blog for details), but I managed to find time to do a little sewing. A lot of it was late night after the girls were in bed and my hubby had to stay overnight at work.

First of all, we got a new camera! But it didn't come with a carrying case, so I told my hubby that I would try to make one. Of course I think I made it a lot more complicated than it really needed to be, and I'm not 100% happy with it, but it's ok for now. I used a stretch cottony remnant I bought on sale, and leftover batting from my Nativity advent calendar. It's a good start, but I hope to make a better one someday. (I also realized that I need to buy some different colors of thread! I pretty much only have white, lol).

Also, when the girls and I were out at the Victoria Park Flower Market prior to Chinese New year, we stopped at IKEA just across the street for a hot dog and a look around. I found a few things on sale, that I just couldn't pass up. I got two decorative pillows for our couch, and I made these two matching pillow covers for them. I followed THIS tutorial. Sooo incredibly easy. Our couch really needed some color, and now it does. But I'm afraid they look too plain. Maybe I should have added a ruffle around the edges? Or a fabric flower in the middle? Hmmmmmm.... Or perhaps a third pillow in a different color?? WWYD?

Finally, I made a cute little skirt for my Zoe using Dana from MADE's tutorial for the Market Skirt, and her tutorial for the gathered pocket. Again, easy! Although since I'm such a beginner it took me about 6 hours to complete the whole thing. And I wish I had added a bit more gather to the pocket and the ruffle. I'm planning to make something similar for Maya in the same fabric.

Zoe loves the skirt. She wore it to church today (not with the black leggings, haha) and she got a lot of compliments on it. :) Makes me feel like I'm doing something worthwhile!

Oh, also, one of my IKEA finds... I saw the discount bin and there was a white sheet in there for only about US $3. I thought it would make great fabric. :) So a double layer of the sheet is what I used for the waistband, the pocket and the bottom ruffle. And there is still a ton of sheet left. :)

Fortune Cookie FAIL!

2010-02-10T16:12:00.003+08:00

When I saw THIS post over at Our Best Bites, I knew I had to try making fortune cookies. I bought all the chocolate for melting and dipping, and the sprinkles for decorating, and I was really looking forward to giving them to a few friends that I was going to visit today.

The only problem? I suck.

I could not, for the life of me, get it right. Either I spread the batter too thin or too thick, cooked them for too long or too short, or didn't move fast enough so even if the first cookie off the tray worked, the rest of them didn't. I can't tell you how frustrated I was! This is all I ended up with at the end - a bunch of too brown, too broken, too chewy fortune cookies that wouldn't be fit for a dog. :(

Sad day.

If any of you have tips on making these, or have a better recipe than the one linked above, please let me know. I'd love to give them another try!!

Glitterati

2010-02-08T09:05:00.003+08:00

It's taken me a few days to be able to post this because my hubby had the camera at work with him.

I've never been huge on decorating for "minor" holidays, (ok, let's be honest, I only ever decorate for Christmas), but this year I wanted to dive in and start decorating other times of the year, too. First up, Valentine's Day.

You all saw this easy-peasy heart garland we made a few weeks ago, but it just wasn't doing it for me. (Whatever "it" is...). It's cute, but it just wasn't enough. So, a couple weeks ago while I was out and about, I stumbled across a styrofoam heart wreath, and some glitter. Had to get it because who knew when I would be out that way again.

I couldn't take any "during" pictures because, like I said, Sam had the camera at work with him. But here's a little sneak peak before the projects were completely finished:

Finished projects:

Hanging hearts inspired by THIS POST.

Hearts cut out of cereal boxes, used a paint brush to spread white school glue around in a thin layer, sprinkled glitter, (or rather, poured glitter) all over the heart (and all around the table and floor... eek!). Let dry, flipped over and did the same to the back side. We used different colors on both sides for a fun effect. Hung up on our light w/ white ribbon. Easy peasy and so fun for the kids. (I'm going to be cleaning up glitter for months!)

THIS blog post inspired the next craft:

I had some twine that I started wrapping around the heart, but it was too thin and wasn't giving me the look I was hoping for, so I scrapped that and went with red ribbon instead. Then using the same technique as the glitter hearts above, (i.e. using a paintbrush to lightly spread white craft glue all along the surface), I glitterized (haha) an old frame I had in my closet. I wish I had spray paint, but alas. I kind of like it. It's funky. And it could probably be used with several different holidays, I just have to change what's hanging inside. :)

(Funny story... when my hubby came home from work and saw the frame while it was drying, his eyes widened in horror and said, "You're not putting our family picture in that, are you?" Haha, I still laugh about it.)

I can't decide if I like the black in the background or not. If I was hanging the frame, I would not have the black there, but since I needed to use the frame stand, the black is there.

**Note** You can head over to my family blog to hear a special love song every day leading up to Valentine's Day. :)

eek!

2010-02-03T18:21:00.002+08:00

My "tutorials to try" list keep getting longer and longer by the day! There are so many things I want to try. My hubby is on-call at work again tonight, so I'm thinking about getting out my sewing machine and working on something. Or I might scrapbook. I don't know, but I need to do something! Will definitely let you know how it goes.

Baby Shower!

2010-02-01T09:57:00.010+08:00

This past Saturday, I hosted a baby shower for my good friend Audrey, who, sadly, is moving away in a couple days. :( One of our other friends brought pasta salad and prepared the games, (thanks, April!), and two other friends, (Thanks Danly and Vivien!), brought the beautiful roses and bowls of fruit. I prepared the other food, but everyone helped with setting up and cleaning up afterward. Usually in our social circle, these things become potlucks, but I didn't want to do that this time.

First of all, the spread...

Cake/mini cupcakes, heart-shaped brownies, veggies crudites with hummous dip, olives, tortilla roll-ups, pasta salad, Asian Wonton Salad, strawberries, grapes, and 7-layer Mexican bean dip w/ tortilla chips.

A close up... I made the Asian Wonton Salad for our book group meeting earlier in the week, and everyone loved it. So I decided to go ahead and make it for the baby shower, too. Again, everyone loved it. You should try it. So easy, and so yummy! Find the recipe HERE.

With the 7-layer dip, I didn't follow an exact recipe. I intended to use Pioneer Woman's recipe, and her recipe for guacamole and pico de gallo, but I ran out of time. So it ended up being a basic compliation of several recipes.

I started with a layer of refried beans (with a bit of taco seasoning mixed in), then a layer of sour cream, then a layer of guacamole (3 ripe, mashed avocados + finely chopped tomatoes w/ the seeds and "wet" part removed + finely chopped red onion + a little salt + juice of half a lime), then a layer of salsa, then a layer of sharp cheddar cheese, a layer of shredded lettuce, layer of chopped olives, tomatoes and topped with chopped green onions. It took me longer to put it all together than I had planned, but it turned out good and everyone seemed to like it.

I couldn't believe how easy the tortilla roll-ups were to make. I didn't follow one exact recipe, but looked at several and then came up with these on my own. I used "cilantro and garlic" flavored tortillas. The inside mixture is a combination of 1 pkg (8 oz.) cream cheese, about 1/3 cup sour cream, finely chopped red bell pepper, finely chopped red onion, finely chopped black olives. You spread a thin layer of the mixture on each tortilla, add a slice of ham or turkey (if you want), and roll it up. Tightly wrap with saran wrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. I made these the day before, so they refrigerated about 24 hours. When you're ready to serve them, you just cut off the "wonky" ends, and then slice them in 1/2 inch pieces. Yummy! I got a lot of good comments on these.

It took me a long time to decide what cake I wanted to make. I finely decided on this cake. I'm sorry, I can't remember where I got the idea from, but I probably googled "baby shower cakes" and a photo came up somewhere. So anyway, this is basically just a yellow cake mix with cream cheese frosting. I LOVE this recipe for cream cheese frosting, though because of the butter it turns the frosting a light yellow. I need to find one that will let the frosting be white so that it can be tinted a different color w/out looking funny. The flowers are just plain m&m's, but it tasted so yummy all together! :)

Cream cheese frosting:

1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened

2 tsp. vanilla

5 3/4 - 6 1/4 cups sifted powdered sugar

Beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla with mixer until light and fluffy. Gradually add 2 cups powdered sugar, beating well. Gradually beat in additional powdered sugar to reach spreading consistency. (This frosts tops & sides of two 8" or 9" layers. Half the recipe for a 9x13 cake.)

CAKE DECORATING TIP #1!

When trying to decide what cake to make, I looked up some websites about tips for frosting a layered cake. I learned a very good tip! When you frost the sides and top, do what is called a "crumb layer" of frosting. That is, just put on a very thin layer of frosting first, and yes it will pick up some of the crumbs. Then, put the cake in the freezer for about 15-20 minutes until the frosting hardens. Then do another, thicker layer of frosting on top. It's much easier to spread this way, and none of the crumbs get pulled to the top layer of frosting. It looks much nicer.

I brought a bunch of little silk flowers to scatter around the table for some extra color. I also made 2 candle holders (hard to see in the pic above), by using pretty-shaped jam jars, tying pretty ribbon around the mouth of them, and putting pink tea-candles inside. It was a nice added touch, I thought.

Lastly, I made this little "advice" book for Audrey, since it's her first baby. I bought a small hard backed notebook and covered it with fabric, and hot-glued on the embellishments. On the inside front/back flaps, I taped in coordinating paper, and throughout the book I taped in cute parenting quotes.

Audrey, you will be missed. Thanks for being such a great friend!

Baby Doll clothes!

2010-01-25T11:42:00.005+08:00

Last night after I put the girls to bed, I decided to try making some baby doll clothes for Zoe's little baby. I've been wanting to try making little diapers ever since I saw THIS tutorial. I finally got around to it last night. I'd actually made the pattern/template awhile ago, so at least I didn't have to do that. Here's how it turned out. Pretty cute if I do say so myself. I have to admit that I had to pick off the velcro and re-place it because I didn't measure quite right.

(Sorry if any pictures are sideways. We just changed to a mac computer, and I am still trying to figure it all out!)

Since I had all my fabric out, (my stash isn't huge, lol), I thought I'd give a few other things a try. I've seen tons of tutorials on gathering, but I've never tried it, so I decided to try making some little clothes for the baby doll. I first made this skirt. I wasn't following any tutorial for the skirt itself, but basically just making it up as I went along. I was too lazy to get out my ironing board and iron, so the seams don't lay flat exactly, lol.

First I started with the purple band. I sewed it into a tube. Then I did the gathering on the blue fabric, and sewed it onto the purple tube. I then sewed up the seam in the back of the blue fabric, but I didn't sew the purple, yet, because I added some thin elastic to make the waist band gathered. Once that was done, I sewed up the rest of the purple band. Then I hemmed the bottom.

By then, it was nearly 1am, and I needed to go to bed, lol, but I knew I wasn't done yet. The baby still needed a shirt.

So this morning, after I got Maya off to school, I found one of Zoe's old t-shirts that was too stained for her to wear anymore. I cut the sleeves off, and then tried to see how to cut the non-stained parts into a shirt. I ended up making a pattern for this, too, by holding a piece of paper up to the baby doll and tracing the areas I needed, lol. (I still have a LOT to learn!)

Anyway, this tiny shirt took me much longer than it should have, but considering it's the first time I've ever made a shirt (and technically this is my first refashion!), I am really pleased with the outcome. (I used the sleeves and hem from Zoe's shirt to save myself some work.) After I got the basic shirt on the baby, I realized that I cut the neck hole too big, so I played around a little and decided to do a little ruffle around the neckline. That didn't help much, so I decided to try making one of these fabric flowers. Again, something I've seen all over the blogs, but have never tried to make before. I am really, really happy with the outcome! (Though I still need a lot of practice.)

What do you think? I think they are cute, but I wish I had cut the strip for the gathered neckline, and also the fabric for the skirt longer so that it would gather up more.

Now, if I could only get Zoe to like them. So far she is REFUSING to let her baby wear them, lol. Change is hard, Zoe. Change is hard.

Simple Felt Heart Garland

2010-01-25T11:17:00.004+08:00

I am repenting! I have been daydreaming too much and getting so sucked into reading other people's craft blogs, that I haven't done any crafting myself! Well, last night, that all changed. My hubby was on-call at work again, which meant I could get out my sewing machine and all my stuff and having it laying around guilt-free! :)

I've been seeing a lot of Valentine's decor lately on the blogs, and I was wishing I could make something. But since our flat is so small, and HK isn't exactly the craft capitol of the world, it's hard to do much decorating. But when I saw THIS simple felt heart valentine garland, I knew it would be perfect.

First I cut out about a million little felt hearts, (thankfully I had felt left over from my Mr. Potato Head project), and then Maya and Zoe helped me arrange them into order. And we decided to jazz some of them up by adding stripes. Fun, right? (Please excuse the unmade bed and surrounding mess. It was a really laid back day, lol)

I first took the ones that were going to have stripes and just sewed all the stripes on, and then trimmed around the edges. When I finished that, I just sewed them all together through the middles. (The ones that have contrasting hearts layered on them don't have any additional stitching holding them on besides the stitches through the middle.)

Cute, right?

My very first Valentine's Day decoration!

(And how cute is this? Maya went to a birthday party on Saturday, and she got a little felt sewing kit project. Here she is trying to sew. I helped her a bit, but I think this project might be a little advanced for her. Any ideas for a simple sewing craft for kids?)

In love....

2010-01-18T16:01:00.009+08:00

My in-laws have been in town for about 5 days, and so I haven't had time to do any crafting this last week. But I did spend some time craft blog surfing. This new hobby is going to get me into real trouble because I find myself delving deeper and deeper into craft blogs that before I know it, 4 hours have passed! (That might be an exaggeration... or maybe not...)

Anyway, I just wanted to share a couple of the blogs that I have just discovered in the last several days and show pictures of a couple of their projects so you can see why I've added them to my "Inspire Me" blog roll. Seriously, get ready. :)

The first is All Things Thrifty. I am absolutely amazed at the talent some people have!! Here are a couple of my favorite projects they shared, but you're going to have to check out their site for the details. The thing I love most about this blog is that they show you how to do everything yourself, and at a fraction of the price if you bought something new or paid someone to do it.

Have you ever seen a wall like this?? Check out the details in THIS POST.

Or they can teach you how to make adorable pillows HERE:

And even have step by step instructions on how to refurbish furniture, such as these chairs HERE:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

The next is not a craft blog, but a food blog with a few crafts interspersed! I am IN LOVE with this site. I'm drooling just looking at it. I'm in the process of planning a baby shower, and there are so many recipes on this blog that I am tempted to try out. Narrowing the choices down is going to be hard! Go visit Our Best Bites and come back and tell me which recipe you're going to try this week!

Here are a couple that I'm considering for the baby shower:

Dessert Wontons

Asian Wonton Salad

White Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake with Pecan-Gingersnap Crust

And aren't these the cutest HALLOWEEN CUPCAKES ever???

Last up is one that I found linked from Our Best Bites. It's called Not So Idle Hands. She has some super cute craft ideas, and one in particular is really jumping out at me. I have never seen this before, and I am dying to try it. Maybe as door prizes at the baby shower??? Find the tutorial and pics HERE.

And how adorable are these photo block puzzles? Eek! I'm dying over the cuteness right now!! Tutorial HERE.

AND, if you really don't like pulling the guts out of pumpkins to make traditional jack-o-lanterns, then try some of these! So cute! Tutorial HERE!

Happy Crafting!!

(I'm really hoping to get some done this week!)

Fun Fun Fun for my WA pals!

2010-01-13T17:47:00.004+08:00

Today while craft blog surfing I was really happy to see that one of my favorite blogs, Little Birdie Secrets, is hosting a craft/blog party in Lynnwood, WA (my old stomping grounds) on February 4! So all my crafty and bloggy buddies in WA, check out THIS post for details!

And after you go and have a good time, blog about it so that I can live vicariously through YOU!

Scrapbook Catch-up

2010-01-13T12:05:00.004+08:00

I am trying really hard to catch up on my scrapbooking. The other night when my hubby had to stay at work all night, I decided to get out all my stuff and get some pages done. If any of you are new to me, we live in a VERY small apartment and my hubby isn't huge on my crafting tendencies, so I try to take advantage of the time when he's on-call at work. I get my crafting done, and he doesn't get annoyed at my stuff out all over the place. Win-Win! :)

So, like I was saying. The other night he was on-call (staying at the hospital all night), and so I got out all of my scrapbooking things, and I managed to get 10 pages done! (Five 2-page layouts.) This is for my baby, Zoe's, scrapbook. She's 2.5 now, and I'm still working on her first year. I am really behind! I was glad to get slightly more caught up, though. These are Halloween through Christmas, 2007.

These pages aren't fabulous, by any means, but they get the job done. And Zoe sure does like looking through her book. :)

Halloween. You can read about it in this old BLOG POST , and THIS old blog post.

Checking out the Hong Kong pink dolphins... and the BLOG POST to go with it:

No blog post for these pages, just some random pictures of my cutie pie. She's about 6-7 months old here, just learning to crawl.

And here is Zoe's first Christmas. (And the BLOG POST to go with it.) On the left hand page, I included our Christmas card and letter that I sent out that year. It covers up a lot of the cute polka dot paper, but oh well.

Thanks for looking!!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-05T09:58:00.002+08:00

I know there are probably about 2 people who look at this blog, and I want to wish both of you a Happy New Year!

I've been doing some crafty blog surfing this morning, and I am amazed at the creativity out there! I am inspired and intimidated all at the same time! And I wish we had a bigger place to live so that I could make things and display them all over the place. :)

Well, I haven't worked on anything since finishing the Christmas things. but I do have a couple things in mind. Before I can get to them, though, I have to pack up the Christmas stuff and organize my girls teeny room. Right now it's overflowing and there isn't enough room to put everything they have. (We're looking for a good, tall (inexpensive!) bookcase if any of you have recommendations!)

I have a goal to do one crafty thing a week to put on this blog. Whether it's working on a quilt, doing a few scrapbook pages, or reinventing something we already have, I hope to do something. One problem I am going to run into, though, is finding supplies. Now that Spotlight has closed, (boo hoo hoo!), I'm not exactly sure where I'll be able to find all things crafty. Will have to start exploring, I suppose!

What are you working on?

Last bits of Christmas crafting...

2009-12-26T09:50:00.003+08:00

I have two last little projects to share from Christmas. The first is a Christmas wreath. I found all the pieces at Spotlight, which sadly is going out of business and closing down in one week. :( Everything was 70% off, so I decided to go for it. We've just had a tiny little wreath for the last few years, and I really wanted a bigger one. When I got home, I just hot glued the baubles and small silver pinecones on. I guess you can't really see the pinecones very well, but they are there. Looking at it now, though, it doesn't seem complete. What is it missing? Should I have done 6 sets of baubles instead of 5? Probably. Hmmmm... Oh well. Maya said it was "perfect", so I'll just leave it as is. :)

The next project was the girls' Christmas jammies! I already made the jammie pants once before, so this time it was much easier. Except that I was in such a hurry to get them done that somehow my measurements were off again. Maya's fit well, although they were about an inch shorter than I had planned, and also the length from the waist to the crotch was too short. Definitely miscalculated that. She didn't mind it, though, and loved them. Zoe's on the other hand, were a tad too long, and the legs were a tad too narrow. Again, not a big deal and she loved them, too. I didn't make the shirts, (don't know how, yet), but I did cut out the candy canes and sew them on to the shirts just using a zig zag stitch around the edges. I think I sewed around them about 3 or 4 times to make sure they wouldn't come off, lol.

Christmas Toys

2009-12-14T00:20:00.006+08:00

Well, I finally have time to update my blog! This week has been busy busy with finishing these gifts, mailing packages, addressing Christmas cards, and our church Christmas party (of which I was on the planning committee). Among other things. :)

Here are the two gifts that I hand made. I made 3 of each, one set for my own girls, plus two sets to send to some family members. I'm trying to decide if I have enough energy to make one more set for some friends at church. We shall see!!

(And as always, please forgive my poor photography!!)

The first is an I-Spy bag! I got the idea from THIS POST on Make it and Love it.

I found some cute fleece at Spotlight (which, sadly, is closing in a couple of weeks. I better make another trip out there!), and found some bean bag refill (in a thankfully smaller quantity), and ended up using a double layer of zip lock bag for the plastic window. I think it will be strong enough to withstand children.... as long as they don't chew on it too much!!! The items inside the bag I just gathered from around the house and my craft drawers. In retrospect, I wish I had found a few more bulkier items to put in them... Will keep that in mind for next time. :) I also printed and laminated photos of all the objects so that the person knows exactly what they are looking for.

The second gift was a felt Mr. Potato Head! Perfect to use as a "quiet toy" at church, or to help with small motor skills etc. I also got the idea for it on THIS POST at the same Make it and Love it blog.

These took me a bit longer to make than I expected for a few reasons... 1) The pieces were small and sometimes hard to work with. 2) I would have to sew part way, then stuff with batting, then finish sewing. Sometimes the pieces shifted and I only sewed one piece of felt, so then I'd have to pick the seam and start over. 3) I ran out of white felt and it took awhile to find more. I tried to avoid making the 1.5 hour trip over to Spotlight. Thankfully I found another source closer to home! 4) Some of those shapes are hard to get right! YOU try cutting out the perfect luscious lips!!

I also made several different accessories/options to make it more fun.

Of course there has to be some Mrs. options to even it out a bit.

On the back is a handy dandy little pocket to store all the pieces.

But in case they don't all fit, I also made a little drawstring bag to keep it all together.

The Mr. Potato Head tutorial instructed me to sew all of the velcro bits on. Unfortunately, the only velcro I could find had adhesive on the back, which ruined one of my sewing machine needles. Oops! I ended up hot glueing all the velcro on, and earned myself a few burns and blisters in the process! But it was all worth it. I think the finished products turned out super cute, and my girls had fun trying them out. They don't know that I made extra for them. :)

More Christmas surprises to come shortly!

No Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

2009-12-06T22:22:00.004+08:00

I have been super busy making gifts for some nieces and nephews for Christmas. I'm nearly done, but not quite ready to post pics yet. Soon! I promise!

In the meantime, I'm here to share another yummy recipe with you.

My girls begged to make cookies after church today. Thankfully for them, (but not my hips, among other areas), I agreed. I reached deep into my aresenal of cookie recipes and pulled out my mom's No Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies. We made these ALL THE TIME when I was growing up, but sadly I think I've only made them once or twice since getting married! (For those keeping count, that's more than 8 years.)

Well, I'm here to tell you that they were a huge success. The girls LOVED them. Me too. I had more than my fair share. And it's tempting to keep getting more from the fridge while I'm working at my sewing machine, seeing as the fridge is litterally like two steps away from where I'm sitting! But that's another story for another day. :)

These cookies are so easy because you don't have to bake them. You just put them in the fridge to chill until they set and then you eat them. Soooo yummy and soooo easy! (But you'll have to excuse my poor, amateur pictures. I'm definitely no Pioneer Woman or Bakerella!!)

(And yes, I am aware that the cookies look like big piles of something-or-other. But you'll just have to trust me on this one.)

No Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup margarine or butter
1 square baking chocolate or 3 Tbsp. cocoa powder

1 tsp vanilla
3 to 3 1/2 cups oats
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
1/2 cup shredded coconut (opt.)

Mix sugar, milk, salt, margarine, chocolate/cocoa powder in large pan. Heat slowly until chocolate is melted. Bring to boil and boil for one minute. Stir to prevent scorching. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla and peanut butter until smooth. Stir in oats. Stir in coconut, if desired. Drop by spoonfuls on wax paper. Chill. Eat!

Pecan Topped Sweet Potatoes

2009-11-30T08:21:00.005+08:00

Long time, no see!

I haven't had any time to craft lately. :( Things have been pretty busy. And when I did have a few hours to myself (or just to hang out at home), I found myself catching up on shows online rather than setting up my sewing machine. I've barely even read anything for the last few weeks, and if you know me, you know that's highly unusual.

With that said, our Thanksgiving dinner was a smash! We got together with a large group of friends at church, and served it up potluck style. I was asked to bring some sweet potatoes. I wasn't quite sure what to think about that, since I've never made them before. (They weren't a staple in my family's holiday dinners growing up). But my friend Marj came to the rescue with a fabulous recipe.

I thought it turned out really yummy. I even loved the left overs. :) Unfortunately, I forgot to snap a pic of the finished product because we were in such a hurry getting out the door. But here's a little pic of the spread (half finished), and my sweet potatoes are the third from the right in the bottom corner of the table. Honestly, I think I might make these again for Christmas!

Pecan Topped Sweet Potatoes

3 c. cooked, mashed sweet potatoes
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. melted butter
2 eggs, well beaten
1 tsp. vanilla
1/3 c. evaporated milk

Mix all together and put into a 2 quart baking dish*.

Combine and sprinkle over top:

1/2 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. flour
2 1/2 T. melted butter
1/2 c. pecan pieces

Bake at 350 for 24-30 minutes.

note from Katie: I increased the amounts slightly and put them in a 9x13 baking dish.

the Shirt Dress... FAIL!

2009-11-16T10:05:00.000+08:00

Project #3, the shirt dress, was a big fat FAIL in my book. I had problems with it from the beginning. The biggest problem, though, was the fabric itself. It was very slippery, and every stitch made big holes in it. When I removed the pockets from the front, it left holes. When I tried to iron down the seams to make the casings for the elastic, they would not stay ironed down. It was one big mess. But I committed to going through the whole process so that I could at least learn how to do it, even though I knew it wouldn't turn out very well.

So, here's Sam's old shirt that I started with.

I didn't take step by step photos, (I'm just not that advanced yet, lol), but here is what it ended up looking like.

In the beginning, I think I cut too much off the top of the shirt, so the dress ended up being shorter than I had planned, although it still looks ok. I sewed the pockets back on the skirt part, which is just about the only thing about my finished product that I liked! I tried the shirring, and that was also a big fat FAIL. I don't know if it's just because the fabric was so hard to work with that it didn't pucker up as I wanted it to, or if it's just because my seamstress skills have much to be desired?!?! I would love it if someone could walk me through the shirring process, because I still want to try it again. Here, I only did about 5 rows because I could see it wasn't working and I didn't want to waste anymore elastic thread.

One last thing, was that there was not enough room in the armpits for Zoe. It is a really tight fit. So even though it looks semi-passable (from a distance), she can't even wear it because it's too uncomfortable.

I'm baring all here... an upclose of the front shirring madness... (I used THIS tutorial). One question... is it supposed to pucker up right away or stay pretty flat? As you do more rows does it start to pucker up more? I even put a steaming iron on it, as the tutorial suggested, but it still didn't work right. I'm so embarassed, it looks so terrible! But there you go. Maybe somebody can give me some tips on how to do it better in the future.

I still have a beautiful dark red dress shirt that I was hoping to turn into a Christmas dress for Zoe, but now I'm a little scared to touch it. I don't want another hot mess. (Does this even qualify as a hot mess???) On the other hand, I'd rather try again on free fabric than spending a lot to buy it until I know I can do it right.

In the beginning...

2009-11-15T19:04:00.000+08:00

(Portions of this post copied from my regular blog, Adventures in Hong Kong.)

Welcome to Crafted by Katie!

I have recently been really inspired to expand my crafty horizons by several people near and dear to my heart. I have been really impressed by their abilities to make beautiful things, and share their talents with those around them. I thought to myself, if they can do it, I can do it!

I started scrapbooking and making cards about 7 years ago, but now I am ready to start sewing and learning other crafty techniques. I've had so much fun browsing through several craft blogs, and can't wait to get started. I've just recently (last month) bought my very first sewing machine! I am "sew" excited. I learned the basics of sewing when I was a teenager, and I can't wait to learn more.

This blog is a place where I can showcase my creations, and keep a record log for myself. I hope to not be limited to just craft and sewing things, but also expand into cooking, baking, and possibly other areas.

Over the last couple of weeks I've been working on my first two projects. I figured they would be pretty easy to start with, as I get to know my sewing machine and refresh my memory of basic sewing technique.

Without further adieu...

Now, before you are too impressed by it, it's just one of those prints that you buy off a roll of fabric. But here's what I did... All of those squares are little pockets. I had to cut them out individually, iron the seams down and then sew them on. After that, I layered some batting and backing fabric, pinned it all together, and then started "quilting" the layers together by sewing around some of the pockets and outlining the picture.

While I was doing that, though, I ran out of thread! (Don't judge... I'm a beginner). Luckily, my friend Charisse came to my rescue. She invited me over to work on our calendars together (she happened to buy the same one), and she was a huge help! First of all, she gave me a huge spool of thread (like serger machine size spool), gave me the blue fabric for the binding since the fabric I had didn't match very well, and showed me how to sew it on. I would have been lost without her!

Over the next few days I worked on hand stitching the back of the binding on. Yesterday I finally finished it! Now I just have to figure out how to hang it up..... I think I'll need to attach something to the back, but am not sure what just yet.

The second item on my sewing project list was making pajamma pants for my girls. On Monday, I went over to my friend Lynelle's house to talk over some things for an upcoming activity. She had mentioned that she had a lot of leftover fabric that she wasn't planning to use, and let me take whatever I wanted! When I saw this fabric, I immediately thought they would be perfect for jammy pants.

I followed THIS tutorial on the Made blog (minus the knee pads, obviously). It seemed simple enough, but my inexperienced brain could not quite follow along. I won't tell you how many times I had to rip out the seams before I got it right!! :) Finally, eventually, I got both pairs done. I know what to do in the future, and how I can modify them to fit better. When I went to pick up my sewing machine from the store, I bought some really cute red and white striped fabric to make Christmas jammy pants for my girls. This was good practice for me so I can get it right next time!

The girls insisted on doing some funny pictures, and who am I to say no??? :)

Next on my 'to do' list is the shirt dress, also from Made. I'm debating whether or not I'm going to attempt the shirring, as shown in THIS post. I've already bought the elastic thread, I just need to gather the courage to actually go for it! Wish me luck!