mummy key chain tutorial

Here is the deal. I must be insane.

I am volunteered to bring goodie bags for Lauren's preschool Halloween Party and I am also signed up to do the craft for E-Bots Kindergarten "Harvest" Party.

I am still slightly amused that my daughter goes to preschool in a CHURCH, they are having a HALLOWEEN party and wearing costumes. My son goes to PUBLIC school. They are having a "HARVEST" Party with NO costumes.

Dont get me wrong. I am TOTALLY cool with it either way. Just seems funny to me.


For the kindergarten craft I decided to go with a mummy theme again. I went to Hobby Lobby and purchased some small (I think they are 1 1/2" or so) wooden peg doll thingies and some tiny eye screws. These are super easy to make. I love him!

Here is a quickie tutorial for a super fast last minute Halloween project.

You need:

Wooden peg doll thingies

Small strips of fabric

School Glue

Eye Screws

Drill

Marker

clip thingies

Use a teeny drill bit to predrill into the heads of the dolls

Use jewelry pliers to screw in the teeny eye screws

like this

I bought this bag of assorted findings and used the small hooks 

Draw on some eyes with a sharpie and add some glue to the doll. Then wrap the doll up with the small fabric strips

I really like him! I will take this clip with me and help the children each create their own at Elijah's party this week. I predrilled and added the eye screws and clips to all of the pegs, then I placed the peg with attachments and a few small strips of fabric into snack sized ziplock bags. It will be a fast project for all 20 kids and they can leave with a little mummy clipped to their book bags! I really hope they like the project.

sweet scallops tote

I have been singing the praises of the wonderfully amazing Kate from see kate sew the last few weeks. I cant help it! The girl is dripping with awesome!!

Kate just had her bloggy birthday and celebrated by offering a free pattern and tutorial for the most adorable tote bag EVER. THEN she announced a sew along and now has a linky for everyone to share their bags made with her super cute pattern.

Sooooo of course I signed up and yesterday I finished my bag. It was fast and simple. Just the reason I like Kate's fun patterns. Yep. this project rocks like fraggles. You can click here to view the tutorial and get the pattern or here to join the fun and link up!

Here is my creation!

These colors are very much my style. I love the bright fun girliness!

I added a scallop detail with my machine just to go with the theme

Other than that I made no real modifications to the pattern. I do sort of wish I would have put pockets inside. I was way to excited to get this finished though so I skipped that idea

What do you think? I am in love! AND I am slightly concerned that Kate lives in my head and fishes around in there to piece together stuff she knows I will love. THEN she is awesome enough to create the patterns which saves me tons of work hahaha!

Kate has even inspired me to start designing some of my own patterns and possibly open a shop. I am still thinking about it. I have some ideas though and with winter coming fast in Ohio I imagine when Christmas is over I will have plenty of winter nights to try to create some patterns of my own!

a big change for me

HAIR! I have never ever ever in my entire life had short hair. It has always been a MINIMUM 3 inches below my shoulder. Until I was 13 I had to pull my hair over my shoulder just to pee!

But today?

Today I turned 29.

Last year in my twenties begins today. An honestly? For a YEAR I have pretty much hated my hair.

So today...I had it allll chopped off! And I dont know what I was waiting for. This is awesome!

Hopefully tomorrow when I attempt to style it myslef I will still feel the same way. Since my stlyist refused to come and live in my bathroom. What is up with that?

In other news I finished my bag for this sew along at see kate sew! I cant WAIT TO SHOW YOU! But I need to wait for daylight to take some pretty pictures!

Please Vote!

Hello Friends!

Are you followers of the awesome blog Crafterhours? It is one of my all time FAVES! A few weeks ago Crafterhours announced a super fun contest to win some custom printed labels. I have a lot of fun creating a design for my labels. Crafterhours has posted all of the entries in their facebook album and 2 of the winners will be chosen by popular vote. So…..here is my shameless plea for your vote! Just click the image below and vote! Although I would love for you to vote for me I do hope you will vote for any of the designs you like. There are so many good ones! You can vote for as many as you want! All you have to do is click like under the graphic you want to vote for. Thanks for checking it out!

And don’t forget to check out and follow Crafterhours! You certainly wont be sorry!

make a mummy necklace!

Hi! It's Monday again! WHEW!! THis month is flying by!
Today I am hoping to give you a little inspiration to make a sweet little Halloween necklace!

Here are the top three reasons this project rocks like fraggles:

1. It is FAST. We are talking less than 15 minutes. yessss.

2. It is cheap. Mine was totally free since I had all of this stuff around. You probably have all or most of it laying around too

3. It is a great necklace for boys and girls alike

You will have to excuse this flash (GASP) photography. I have NO good lighting in the house at night and let's face it. Most craftin' 'round these parts takes place at night.

Well, you want to make one dont you?? 

Here is what you need:

Glue

A square or rectangle piece of wood from the craft wood section
(is that a real thing? craft wood section?)
A ball chain
(or ribbon, string, whatever)
google eyes
jump ring
jewelry pliars
(or thumbs)
A drill or dremel tool

and the secret ingredient???
THREAD TAPE
yep, I am talking about that stuff your husband puts around thread on a pipe before he puts the new shower head or faucet on

Start by drilling a small hole in the top of the wood. Or ask hubby to do it because he is super posessive of his stuff. Whatever.

add some glue to the wood

Start wrapping the thread tape around the square. This stuff is a little tricky to work with. It isnt sticky but it sticks to itself like really thin plastic wrap. Just go slow. After you get around the middle sto and glue on your google eyes

Then keep wrappin'

and wrappin...  this photo is where I started noticing during the editing process that the little dude has his eyes following me. HA!

Add some glue to the back and kinda sqish it down. I rubbed a little glue all over the back to help seal it up.

next use a tooth pick to find and poke through the hole you drilled

See him looking at me??

twist the jump ring open. You should never pull the ring open . twist it like this so the ring is easy to close and you dont weaken it. You could probably pull it apart with your thumbs. just be sure to twist like this

Add the ball chain and you have yourself a mummy necklace!

Please excuse the pictures of these little weirdos. If you met their dad you'd understand...

boy child seems to think wearing a mummy necklace means you MUST act like a mummy

yeah, he is so strange.

Happy Halloween!!!! I hope you like my little tutorial! :)

a butterfly costume - part 2 - the tutu skirt

Happy Wednesday Friends!! I am ready to show you part 2 of Lauren's butterfly Halloween Costume! If you missed part one check it out here.

Also to recap, according to Lauren a butterfly costume has:

1. butterfly wings
2. matching tutu skirt
3. antennas
4. "wings on my eyes"

here is the cuteness!

For the tutu style skirt here is what you need:

*fabrics, tulle, ribbon, etc. It is a scrappy style tutu

*scissors and sewing supplies, lighter

*a small chair

*no roll elastic

*cardboard

I know there are many tutorials out there for making this style tutu but here is another. That way you dont have to go searching for one

Measure your child's waist and cut your elastic. I have seen some tutorials say cut it 1" shorter than the waist some say longer. I just went with a little shorter because I tend to tie these too tight and so the elastic is stretched a bit

Anyhow, cut it and sew with a zig zag stitch. This is the only sewing so feel free to hand stitch or just tie it in a know to make it no sew

Decide how long you want the skirt to be. I decided 7"-9" would be good. I have this cardboard already cut to 18". cut the board about 2 times plus 2 inches longer than you want the tutu to be

I cut all of my fabrics (some knit, tulle and the ribbon) using this method. all tulle and knit 6" wide. TIP buy the tulle on the 6" rolls. Saves lots of cut time. Then just wrap it around the cardboard and secure it to the cardboard with elastic headbands. Then clip the ends. (sorry no picture of this step)

After I cut the ribbons I heat sealed all of the ends

Now you have a big pile of strips all 18" long. You will need way more than you think you need

place your elastic around the chair. For a smaller tutu I used to put the elastic around the top of my leg. I definitely prefer that method but she is too big now. 

now for the knots. make a loop in front of the elastic with the ends up

put your fingers through the loop and reach behind the elastic and pull the ends through

tighten - but not too tight

keep going. I didnt go in any real pattern

Use all of the fabrics all the way around

And then add the ribbons. I used a more secure knot for them because they kept coming loose.

Now you have a super cute tutu skirt!

It matches the mask nicely!

draw near to God printable

happy weekend!

click. print. enjoy!