Archive for March, 2010
Dressing up a T-Shirt
I borrowed this idea from my friend J. She sent Little S a Halloween shirt that was just adorable. It was green and had black ribbon and little Halloween buttons decorating it. I took the idea and made this Christmas shirt. I had plans to get Valentine’s and St. Patrick’s shirts done but at the rate I am going, I should probably skip Easter too and just head straight for summer and Fourth of July! I love that this shirt can be created for any holiday and it washes great!
To create this t-shirt:
- Find any type of shirt (tank top, long sleeved, short sleeved).
- Choose your matching ribbon and buttons. The ribbon can be any size you wish. For this shirt, I chose to make all of the ribbon the same size, 3/8, and I used plain round buttons. For Valentine’s Day, you might choose hearts. For Easter, you might use eggs or little chicks!
- Next, I sewed the ribbon. Instead of folding one big piece of ribbon, I found that it worked best for me if I cut three equal pieces, folded them over, and stitched them together separately.
- Place the bow where you would like on shirt. Sew the button to the middle of the bow while at the same time sewing the entire thing to the shirt.
- Repeat for each bow/button you will place!
Rag Quilt
If you are involved with or know someone who loves Stampin’ Up, you might have seen the rag bags which are currently all the rage. We made a few of these bags and love them. I will post directions on how we made them (there are so many ways out there) . My Stampin’ Up demonstrator buddy found the idea to make a rag quilt. I decided to start small for Little S’s dolls and am working on one that is going to be for the perfect new little guy in my life!
I didn’t take pictures as I created this quilt, so I will do a full direction write-up and pictures with the next quilt I make. Using the Stampin’ Up Big Shot and the Scallop Square Die, you cut out the fabric. This bad boy can cut up to 8 pieces of fabric (depending on your fabric type) at once. I cut six pieces at a time because the fleece is a little bit thicker. Once all of your pieces are cut, you piece them together how you wish. Sew your pieces together and walla-a gorgeous quilt! I spent about 4 hours total (with kids running under foot the whole time) on it and it looks like it took much more time. The Big Shot makes it easy for anyone to pretend to be a quilting pro! It takes the difficult part of cutting out the many pieces of fabric. This is the worst part of quilting for me. I waste so much fabric, mainly because I cannot cut a straight line! The Big Shot takes away all that waste and cuts a perfect scalloped square all the time!
The front of the quilt has the raggy, shabby chic look to it. Once you throw it in the wash, it will rag for you. I do need to clean the blanket up before the dolls use it to keep warm!
The back of the quilt is clean except for the raggy edges.
This post is part of Someday Crafts: Whatever Goes Wednesday and Me and My Bucket’s Show Us What You’re Working With Wednesday!
Last-Minute Garlic Bread
I don’t like bread. I LOVE bread. I love to mix up a batch in the morning, either using yeast or a starter, and spend the rest of the day letting it rise and creating my very own beautiful loaf of french, italian, and more. Now, if I have already lost you, don’t stop reading because this is NOT AN ALL DAY LABOR OF LOVE bread. For those of us who bake our own bread often, we all know there are those days where the bread just doesn’t want to cooperate. No matter how perfect we think the temperature is, the great ratio of flour sugar and yeast, no matter how much love and care we show it, or talk to it, it just won’t rise and we end up with a nice batch of crackers! Well, this happened to me yesterday, with a house full of guests and an awesome pasta dinner lying in wait. Of course! I started rummaging around to come up with a creative idea other than just popping some biscuits in the oven. You simply cannot eat homemade spaghetti sauce without bread. I always keep some Pillsbury buiscuits on hand for baking and came up with something a little different. Everyone was very pleased with the results and claimed they were going to steal the idea next time they needed bread for dinner. So here is the “recipe” for my:
Last-Minute Garlic Bread
- 2 packages of Pillsbury buttermilk biscuits uncooked
- 2 tbsp butter or margarine melted
- 1-2 tsp garlic powder (I probably used more but I REALLY like garlic)
- pinch of italian seasoning
Take two uncooked biscuits and overlap enough to pinch them together to create one longer biscuit. Place in greased pan (any will do – cookie sheet, 9×13, etc.). Continue with the remaining biscuits, placing each new pair in front of the next until a loaf is formed. Mix garlic powder into melted butter and brush onto loaf, being sure to get the butter between each section of biscuits. Sprinkle top with italian seasoning. Bake loaf at same temperature and time (may need an extra minute or two) as directed on biscuit packaging. Voila! A wonderful loaf of pull-apart garlic bread in less than 20 minutes!
Crayon Bag
My mother enrolled me in a sewing class with a friend when I was in fourth grade. My friend and I still laugh about how awful our jean dresses (hey…it was the late 80s!) turned out and how they were definitely never worn! If I remember correctly, mine was WAY too small. Since then, I would complete a sewing project every year or two and then my sewing machine would sit idle in the box. This past year I have been at home with my kiddies and I have had more time to explore the wonderful world of sewing and am finding it quite enjoyable. I have found a sewing buddy who is just as inexperienced as me and we are fighting our way through project after project in the hopes of several things: 1)enjoying the experience of expressing ourselves through arts and crafts; 2)finally making this the year of the Homemade Christmas; 3)attempting to save a little money by creating our own all while helping to build another wing onto our favorite craft stores!
For my first project post, I want to share my newest favorite creation. I plan on making half a dozen of these! The directions for this fabulous Coloring Caddy, or Crayon Bag as we have been calling it, can be found at one of my favorite sites, The Crafty Cupboard.
This is the first crayon bag that we made. It took about 5.5 hours from the first cut of fabric to the final stitch. I think that the next time around will probably take about 3 hours (don’t forget…we are novices with three kids under the age of 4 running under foot while we sew!).
Aren’t these adorable? There are little pockets to hold about 40 crayons and the tote can hold several thin coloring books, notebooks, or smaller activity books. For this bag, I used a fat quarter set that I found. I loved the way the fabrics were totally different but looked great together.
All of the artists in my life are going to get these for Christmas!
Grandma Johnson’s Scones
I have become addicted to allrecipes.com, a fantastic website where I do all of my hunting for recipes. You can search for them by recipe name, ingredients, category, cooking style and more. After I type in the recipe I am looking for – scones, for example – I then sort the recipes by their rating with the quick click of a button. This way, I can be pretty sure I am getting the best recipe out of the batch. I look for the ranking of one to five stars (I only cook 4 to 5 star recipes) and how many people have reviewed it and saved it in their own online “recipe box.” I love being able to return to my recipe box so quick and easily. It is much better than flipping through cookbooks at home!
Oh the wonder that is baked goods! This morning I made a delectable breakfast and everyone was quite pleased! Grandma Johnson’s Scones were a huge hit – so much so that I had to practically hide them from my husband so he would stop eating them! I followed the recipe as given on allrecipes.com. However, I made a few changes. I added 1 teaspoon of vanilla to the whole batch and then split the batch in half. To one half I added 1/2 cup of frozen rasberries. To the other half of the batch I added 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, and 2 – 3 tablespoons of brown sugar. I wish I had some raisins on hand because that would have topped it off perfectly! Both types came out AWESOME and I will be counting the days until I make these again! It was also a great recipe for my daughter to get involved and help with!
These scones were so quick and easy to make and should be no trouble for a beginning baker.
