Show-and-tell
Elle Belle Creative 18 Jan 2012, 10:43 pm CET
Mason Jar Pin Cushion Tutorial
Elle Belle Creative 16 Jan 2012, 6:15 pm CET
This was one of those projects that I
started out thinking I would whip it right up in no time flat, easy
peasy. I thought I would post a picture of the finished pin cushion
and link to any of the many tutorials there are for mason jar pin
cushions (they’re all pretty much the same). Alas after 2 attempts,
I kept ending up with too much bulk in the lid so it was too
difficult to screw on (although I probably could’ve lived with it
if it weren’t a Christmas gift for a friend). So I figured out my
own way of doing this little project and now you get a tutorial of
your own!
You’ll need:
A mason jar
A scrap of fabric
Hot glue
Batting
Fun stuff to fill the jar with
Just so I don’t loose you below, there are
two parts to the mason jar lid… I’m going to refer the piece
in the first picture below as the “disc” and the piece in the
second picture as the “screw top”.
Step 1 – Using the disc as a template, cut
a circle of fabric from your scrap piece that is half an inch
bigger all the way around.
Step 2 – Fold the fabric circle in half and
then in half again and make little marks at the 4 points of the
folds along the outside edge. Mark the same four “sections” with a
sharpie on the underside of the top lip of the screw top. When you
unfold the fabric, they’ll look like this:
Step 3 – Match up one of the marks on your
fabric with one of the marks on your screw top and start there hot
gluing the right side of the fabric to the underside of the top lip
of the screw top, pleating the fabric as you go so that the 4 marks
in the fabric match up with the 4 marks on the lid.
Step 4 – shape the batting into a ball and
stuff the fabric until it’s full and puffy
Step 5 – Press the disc part of the lid
into the screw top and make sure the fabric is as full and puffy as
possible but the disc still lays flat inside the screw top. Once
you’re satisfied with the amount of fluffiness, hot glue the disc
into the screw top.
Step 6 – Fill the jar with something fun! I
picked some fun notions from my stash – bits of ribbon, lace, a
jingle bell, a big pom-pom, but if the person you're making it for
doesn't already have them, you could include some sewing
basics like needles, pins, a seam ripper
etc.
If this isn’t 1 of 4,000 handmade Christmas
gifts you’re trying to finish up the week of Christmas, and have a
little more time, you should definitely make some really adorable
decorative pin toppers to go with your pin cushion! Check out this
great tutorial a friend of mine did for those on her blog- A girl
in Paradise.
http://agirlinparadise.blogspot.com/2011/05/decorative-pin-toppers.html
Artwork Mug
Elle Belle Creative 11 Jan 2012, 4:26 am CET
Ok this isn’t exactly “handmade” but it is a creative idea and one of my favorite Christmas gifts this year so I wanted to share. We make a concerted effort to focus more on giving at Christmas than getting, and part of that was to make sure our 6 year old thought of gifts she wanted to get for each of us. We talked about the things Daddy likes; among others, she listed coffee & her art work. She finally decided on a coffee mug for him and was beyond excited when I told her I was pretty sure we would be able to have some of her art work printed on a mug.
Ikea Doll Bed Re-do
Elle Belle Creative 6 Jan 2012, 4:34 am CET
$105.95 vs. $20 + a few
supplies
I considered… for about 1 minute…
whether to buy the American Girl doll bed for Elle’s “My American
Girl” ($105.95 not including the bedding) for Christmas or re-doing
the Ikea doll bed ($20) that she fits in. Me and my pocket book are
very happy with the outcome!
Before
After
Here’s what you’ll
need:
The Ikea doll
bed
Sand paper
Primer
spray paint
piece of MDF
Optional “stuff”:
12”x19” piece of 1” thick
foam
Half yard soft cuddly
fabric
Stuffing/batting/pollyfill (i.e.
whatever you want to stuff the pillow with)
Vinyl decal of the dolls
name
Scrap fabric for the sheet and
quilt
-
First things first… my 2 year old stepped through the flimsy piece of wood bottom that comes with the bed the first 2 minutes she played with it. So not in the “optional stuff” category for us, was a more substantial piece of wood to replace the bottom of the bed. I brought the broken piece into Home Depot and the helpful staff cut a piece of MDF the exact same size for me.
-
Next, I sanded all sides of the bed frame. You don’t have to get too crazy on this step, but it does need to be sanded to rough it up a bit so the primer and paint will stick
-
Paint a thin even coat of primer (I used an oil based primer in a spray can) on all sides of the frame and let dry
-
Lightly sand any rough or “globby” spots
-
Spray another thin even coat of primer if you got a little carried away with the step above. Let dry.
-
Spray paint the entire frame with a thin even coat of the color of your choice and let dry
-
Repeat the step above if you’re not in love with the results yet
You could call it a day there if you’d like, but I
was pretty sure Elle would think Kathryn (the doll) required much
more comfortable bed linens than come standard issue with the Ikea
bed. So I made a mattress, pillow, sheet, and the beginnings of a
quilt Elle and I will sew as her first official sewing project. So
here’s where all that “optional stuff” comes
in:
-
I picked up the piece of foam at Jo-Anns and just cut it to 12” x 19” with a pair of scissors.
-
From your cuddly fabric, sew a simple case for the foam mattress (I just left one short end open… like a pillowcase… and tucked it under the mattress)
-
Sew a matching pillow and stuff with your choice of filling
-
I hemmed a rectangle scrap of fabric and called it a sheet
-
I cut a bunch of 4” squares to make a matching quilt. Elle is very much looking forward to working on this project with me! I had hoped we would get to it over her Christmas break but didn’t… so that’ll be a post for another day!
-
For the finishing touch, I applied a vinyl decal Gifted Express made of the doll’s name to the headboard.
We had one happy 6 year old on Christmas
morning!
Happy New Year!
Elle Belle Creative 2 Jan 2012, 7:19 pm CET
So I was looking through my top posts for the year and my One Year Old in a Flash party is still by far my most popular post... maybe that should be my goal for 2012... to top that post. In the mean time, here are the other posts you all liked best in 2011:
Your comments and input make this
blog more than what I started it to be 4 years ago... just my
little diary of crafty endeavors. You've introduced me to
lots of talented people/blogs, inspired me with so many
creative projects, and motivated me to continue to find time for
the things I get so much fulfillment from. Thank you for being a
part of Elle Belle Creative in 2011! Lots more
tutorials and crafty/sewing/printable goodness to come in
2012!
Teacher Gifts
Elle Belle Creative 30 Dec 2011, 6:02 pm CET
I always have a hard time deciding what to give my
girls' teachers. I want it to be something personal and
related to being a teacher in some way, but I'm pretty sure they
don't need another
pair of apple shaped earrings.
I went to Elle's class to do snack time on her birthday
and noticed that her teacher had a coffee maker in her
office. I figured it was pretty safe to assume one may need a
cup of coffee or two to handle 18 five & six year olds on a
regular basis. So for Christmas I picked up a reusable clear
cup & filled it with a small pack of ground coffee, an instant
coffee mix (LOVE Starbucks via!), a flavored syrup, & a
Starbucks gift card. Gifted Express made
the water proof, dishwasher safe, vinyl decal to my specifications
and it was super simple to apply to the outside of the cup.
This would make a great gift for any ocassion for a teacher or a
co-worker or really anyone who loves coffee!
For Liv's teachers, I was really excited
when I found this Montessori necklace The
Jewelry Chicks make. The metal disc is handstamped with the
word Montessori and accented with the pink square beads reminiscent
of the pink tower, which is a classic Montessori classroom
material.
More handmade gift ideas to
come!
Season's Greetings!
Elle Belle Creative 26 Dec 2011, 2:45 am CET
I love getting Christmas cards in the mail!
It's so nice to see a hand written piece of mail in the box now and
again (not just that hand writing look font those tricky marketers
use to get you to open their junk mail!) and it feels good to make
the cut among your friends... after all, they did have to add yours
to the total number of cards purchased, hunt down a pen and your
address, and spend 44 cents on you.
Trinity St
Studio made these cards for us this year... I
hearted them on Etsy a couple years ago and didn't have the right
photo to use until Ashley
Yvonne did our family photos recently (at
Phillippe Park for those of you that are local... it was such a
great location and she was wonderful to work with if you're looking
for a photographer!).
To all my bloggy friends, you would make my
cut... I'd totally spend 44 cents on you if I had your address!
Thank you for reading my ramblings so that I'm not just out here
talking to myself. I hope you'll have a fabulous holiday and an
even better 2012!
Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Winner
Elle Belle Creative 22 Dec 2011, 1:01 am CET
drum roll please! The winner of the
felt chain Christmas countdown is.......
Jamie said...
My favorite tradition is eating cake for breakfast. One year, my
oldest daughter asked Santa for cake and he brings it every year
since!
Congratulations Jamie, and thanks so much to everyone who shared
their traditions with me, and to those of you who follow my blog as
well!
Stick around for all the after Christmas posts about the gifts I
made (I can't share them ahead of time for fear/hope that a few of
the people on my gift list read my blog :))
GIVEAWAY DAY!
Elle Belle Creative 12 Dec 2011, 2:43 pm CET
So I get that this giveaway is a little
late for what it is, but I really love the idea and wanted to share
it with you. It's a felt advent
chain countdown to Christmas. Time was a really hard
concept for my now 6 year old to grasp and having this visual
representation helped it make more sense to her. The links
are felt with velcro closures, "Merry Christmas" is embroidered on
the last solid red link, and I'll send it to you in this cute
storage box so you can keep it safe until next year.
Putting the chain together and removing a
link every morning has become a family tradition for us.
Want to start a tradition for your family too? Here's how
you can win it:
-
One entry for leaving a comment about one of your family's holiday traditions. It could be any holiday!
-
For a second entry, if you have a sec to look through my blog or if you like this chain idea well enough to want to see what else I'm up to, follow my blog and leave a second comment to let me know.
You have until midnight EST Dec. 16th to
enter. I'll pick a winner at random from the comments and email
them on Dec. 17th. (if your email address isn't
part of your profile, you'll need to leave it in your comment so I
can find you if you win). I'll ship the chain to you within a
day or receiving your mailing address. Contest open to
international residents as well.
Good Luck!
Advent Paper Chain Printable
Elle Belle Creative 6 Dec 2011, 3:02 pm CET
A couple years ago, for Thanksgiving,
I made paper chains to count down to Christmas... I'm a bit behind
this year but it's not too late to use
this printable I made. It's super easy to
print, cut, and tape/paste the links, decorate your kiddos room and
have fun counting down!
Applique Applique Applique
Elle Belle Creative 2 Dec 2011, 2:44 am CET
My poor poor embroidery machine! I feel a
little sad that I rarely break out the embroidery arm and hoops...
but why go through the hassel when applique can be so cute?!
Case in point:
With just a few inexpensive onesies you can
create so many fun options. I spent an afternoon with a
friend dreaming up designs and whipped all of these up in no
time. I think my favorite one is the M onesie,
espeically when paired with these adorable baby legs:
Although I also really love using a simple blanket
stitch to highlight a fun piece of fabric like I did here with this
Japanese scooter print:
It really couldn't be easier once you know a few simple
tricks... which I just looked through my blog for, assuming I've
told you what they are at some point in the past several years, but
I don't see them, so here you have it, an
impromptu tutorial
-
iron double sided fusible interfacing (like this one) to the back of whatever fabric you're using for the applique. Leave the paper on the back of the interfacing for now.
-
Cut your shape (ties, letters, a piece of the fabric... the possibilities are endless!) out of the fusible interfaced fabric
-
Iron one sided fusible interfacing to the inside of the onesie where you're going to sew the applique (this is the one I use for baby stuff... it's so soft against their skin)
-
Peel the paper off the back of the applique and iron it to the front of the onesie
-
Stitch around the applique. You can use a variety of stitches - satin, zig zag, blanket, or even straight. You'll just want to be sure to keep the majority of your stitch on the applique itself and know that if you don't completely cover the edges of the applique with the stitch (like if you just use a straight stitch) the edges of the design will likely fray a bit.
Easy right?! Do you like to applique?
I'd love to see what you've come up with if you'd care to share in
the comments.
DIY Cake Stand
Elle Belle Creative 17 Nov 2011, 2:23 am CET
At
Liv's last birthday I challenged myself to pull together a
party with some creative touches for under $100. The big hit
of the party was the ice cream sandwich "cake" and roll your own
toppings bar. I piled the ice cream sandwiches into a 2 tier
cake which of course needed a a cake stand! I was wandering
around Home Depot hoping inspiration would hit and found myself in
the tile aisle inspecting the fauxe marble tiles. A helpful
Home Depot guy came by and asked if he could help... I'm not afraid
of being the crazy lady with a wacky DIY idea so I told him what I
had in mind, he whipped out a sharpie, wrote "sample" on the back
of the tile I picked out, and I walked out with the top of my
cake stand for free! Some spray paint, a pillar candle stick
I had in my home decor stash, some industrial adhesive, and a
papaer and ribbon bunting later I had the perfect and
virtually free cake stand!
Camera Strap Cover Tutorial
Elle Belle Creative 11 Nov 2011, 4:00 am CET
A good friend of mine just celebrated a
birthday. I make her kiddos handmade gifts for all
their special days and I know she appreciates it (I can tell by the
mile long list she has for me of "future projects to make... you
know just in case you can't think of anything")
but it's harder to come up with something
for an adult. So I was really excited when I had the
idea to make a camera strap cover for her fancy shmancy
camera!
Here's what you'll need:
2 pieces of fusible fleece cut to 2 1/2" x
24"
2 fabrics cut to 3 1/4" x 25"
ribbon or trim... some sort of
embellishment
-
press all 4 short sides of the fabric 1/4", then fold over and press another 1/4" and sew
-
Fuse a fleece strip down the center of the wrong sides of each of the fabric strips
-
Press the long sides of the fabric around the fusible fleece
-
Make a ruffle with fabric or ribbon or sew some pre-made trim down the center of the right side of one of the strip
-
With wrong sides together, pin the strips together, tucking the raw edges in, and sew 1/4" from the edge down each long side, leaving the short ends open.
So now I'm thinking about whether anyone on
my Christmas list has a fancy shmancy camera... I may be out of
luck though, so I'll have to come up with more ideas
for handmade gifts for adults. Do you have any
suggestions?
Halloween Inspiration
Elle Belle Creative 24 Oct 2011, 10:53 pm CEST
I got to be a part of a really great
Halloween party last year! There were tons of fabulous
Halloweeny elements to the party (I posted about them
here) my favorite though was this make your own caramel
apple bar I designed. The cupcake stand and some little
funkins got a coat of black spray paint, some spooky spider webs,
and a sweet TomKat
Studios printables set were the perfect stage for the sweets.
Nothing draws a crowd at a kids party like a crock pot of
gooey caramel sauce & candy toppings to roll your apple
in!
Bloggy Booot Camp
Elle Belle Creative 22 Oct 2011, 2:48 pm CEST
After 4 years of blogging (i.e. writing a crafting/sewing/bento/party diary that just so happens to be shared with the world) I decided it was time to figure out exactly what I'm doing and/or should be doing with this whole blogging thing, so I'm in Atlanta today for Bloggy Boot Camp. Here's to a day of motivation, inspiration, and owning the title of "blogger"! Speaking of, Atlanta isn't owning up to its"hotlanta" title this morning... I parked 2 blocks away and am pretty sure one of my toes has frost bite. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Disney Outfits
Elle Belle Creative 12 Oct 2011, 12:25 am CEST
Despite my lack of recent blog posts, I've
been crafting and sewing away & have lots of stuff to show you!
Like, the sweetest princess inspired backpack ever, tons of
appliqued boy onesies (you'll see... boy stuff can be cute too!),
photo blocks, details about the cake stand I made for Liv's party,
and bentos bentos bentos. So much good stuff, I just need to find
the time to post it all!
But you'll have to wait for all of that
because today I'm posting about the outfits I made for my cuties to
wear to Disney. Elle's 6th birthday was last week, so we celebrated
by heading to Disney with our good friends whose 5 year old was
also celebrating a birthday that week.
sorry for the crappy picture! It's of
course the way it should be... you know... a trip to Disney where
your camera decides to mess up in a way that it never has and over
expose every picture.
I made both of the big girls birthday
outfits using this
skirt tutorial and simple number appliques I added to the Ts I
picked up at Target. Liv's pillowcase dress came together
quickly using
this tutorial.
Birthday outfits wouldn't be complete
without birthday hats though! I've made several birthday hats in
the past, but these turned out the best and were the easiest by
far. Definitely give this a try the next time you need a special
birthday hat. You'll need:
A plain ol' party store party
hat
a little bit of fabric
spray adhesive
hot glue
an exacto blade (not pictured)
If you're adding ears to your hat, pick up
some stiff glittery black felt
Here's what you do:
-
unhook the tab on the party hat so you can open it up and lay it flat.
-
rough cut the fabric about half an inch bigger all around the hat
-
spray adhesive over the outside of the hat
-
lay the hat onto the fabric and smooth it out
-
run a bead of hot glue along the inside edge of the hat, pull the fabric around the edge of the hat and press it into the glue.
-
repeat until all the raw edges of the fabric are glued down to the inside edge of the hat.
-
using the exacto blade, cut a slit in the fabric where the slit for the hat tab is
-
insert the tab into the slit to put the hat back together
-
Embellish your hat:
-
-
If you're making the ears, you'll cut the circle ear shapes out of the glitter felt, draw a generous amount of hot glue along the sides of the hat, and hold the ear in place until the glue dries
-
you could also glue rick rack around the bottom edge of the hat
-
make little crepe paper pom-poms or hot glue already made ones to the top
-
Disney is already the happiest place on
earth, but when everyone stops to say happy birthday and tell you
how adorable you look... it makes it magical!
Little House
Elle Belle Creative 30 Sep 2011, 6:01 am CEST
My Elle loves... I mean really reeeeeally
loves... to read! I've had so much fun introducing her to
some of my favorite childhood reads like Ramona Quimby,
Charolette's Web, and Little House on the Prairie. The latter
sparked lots of questions about pioneer life, like how they made
things without machines, what it was like to live without a car,
and on and on. We were all too happy to indulge her
curiousity with a trip to a pioneer festival. It also
happened to be the perfect excuse to make adorable pioneer outfits
for both my girls.
I made Elle's skirt from
some pioneer-ish fabric I picked up on the cheap at Jo-Anne's,
an easy white apron, and used this
tutorial for the bonnet. I couldn't resist the
ruffly cute white bonnet Grandma's
Girl made, and had to have it for Liv. Her super simple
white dress with little cap sleeves and drawstring neck completed
their pioneer transformation.
We had lots of fun at the festival!
Elle's favorite parts were selecting angora fur died just the
right shades of pink and watching as it was spun on an antique
wheel into a lovely yarn to be used for a future project and the
highschool xylophone band.
Winner winner chicken dinner
Elle Belle Creative 21 Sep 2011, 4:00 am CEST
Ok I don't have anything to post about a chicken dinner, but that would be great right?! I'm totally gonna do that next time... have a post for you with a chicken dinner recipe when I announce the winner of a blog giveaway. Ok ok enough silliness let's get to it. The winner of the My Memories digital scrapbooking software, by random drawing is: True Random Number Generator Min: 1 Max: 13 Result: 11 Powered by RANDOM.ORG Traci that's you! Thanks for entering, I'll contact you via email with the details.
Digital Scrapbooking Giveaway!
Elle Belle Creative 13 Sep 2011, 3:34 am CEST
I've mentioned before, ages ago, that in my
life before sewing & children & bentos & printables
& parties my creative outlet was scrapbooking. The
14 scrapbooks I've created cronical my highschool days, my
early relationship with my now husband, and our girls' first
years. They are among my most prized posessions; I wouldn't
trade them for the world. BUT truth be told, I don't get as
much enjoyment out of scrapbooking as I do my other creative
endevours. In fact, I had given it up all
together. I think scrapbooking didn't hold
my attention because I like structure, following
directions, and innovation, mixed in with just a bit of
creativity and a teeny tiny dose artistic
flair... scrapbooking requries a good healthy dose
of artistic flair... a little too much for
my liking.
My Memories has changed all
that. I am now free to rejoin the world of scrapbooking and
you are too... especially if you're like me and are creative but
not necessarily artistic (it's a fine line but it does
exist!). My
Memories Suite really couldn't be easier to use. This
digital scrapbooking software
comes with album designs already loaded into it, you just insert
your pictures, and waalaa:
Really! Ok, so that's the "I did
virtually no work on my own, I barely understand how the software
works, I just want it to be quick and done" way of using My
Memories Suite. But there is so much more to this software
if you want to take it to the next level! You can bring in
your own images that you've collected from the internet or clip art
or scan yourself to use as embellishments and backgrounds (which
means you don't have to buy expensive digital kits), there's photo
editing built right into the software, so you can make a picture
black & white, give it an effect, and remove red eye right
there as you build your album, and when you're done you can save
your album as a jpg, email it, and/or have it printed wherever
you'd like.
I'm really excited about using
My Memories Suite (more pages
are sure to pop up here on my blog as I make my way through our
family photos) but I'm equally as excited that I get to give
away My Memories Suite to
one of my readers! Yep, the $40 My Memories Suite digital scrapbooking
software AND $10 to use in the My Memories shop (you can buy digital
scrapbook elements and printing services) to one lucky
reader!
I'm going to give you lots of chances to
win. Do any (or all!) of the following and leave a separate
comment here on this post for each. 1 week from today I'll
pick the winning comment by random drawing. Here's how to
enter:
- Follow my blog via email or Google Reader (link in the margin to the right)
- Follow my blog via Facebook (link in the margin to the right)
- Check out the digital paper packs at My Memories and leave a comment here telling me which is your favorite
- Follow the My Memories blog
Zipper Pulls & Your Way Wednesday
Elle Belle Creative 31 Aug 2011, 5:17 am CEST
I should preface this with the fact that calling these "zipper pulls" is a little misleading. You really shouldn't be actually pulling zippers with these... They're more like zipper decorations. However, it wouldn't take much modification to make these durable enough to withstand kid abuse. Now that that's out of the way... check out the back-to-school project Elle and I made:
We started with cute "already ready for crafting with"
bottle cap tops in a fun pink that we picked up at Michael's (They
even had holes pre-drilled in them). You'll also need white glue,
jump rings & lobster clasps, clear casting epoxy, and an
assortment of papers and embellishments. A circle punch and some
play dough is also helpful, but optional.
Once your epoxy is completely dry, attach a jump ring and
lobster clasp so your favorite off to school kiddo can clip it to
their back pack or lunchbox or hoodie whatever strikes their
fancy.
One last bit of warning... The pull is only as strong as the jump
ring you used to attach it with, so you may want to try an
alternative to the jump ring... I considered a hair elastic,
ribbon, jelly bracelet, or key ring.
It's your turn!
Crafting is my way to relieve stress & stretch my creative
muscles.
Sewing is my way to have some uninterrupted time to myself.
Bentos are my way to show Elle I'm thinking about her.
Parties are my way to love on my girls & our friends
Tutorials show my way of making this or that.
Now I want to see your way!
First punch and glue circles of scrapbook paper into the
bottom of your caps. Next, paint a couple thin layers of glue on
the top of the paper to seal it and prevent the epoxy from soaking
the paper.
Follow the instructions that come with the epoxy and
pour it into the caps. This is where the play dough comes in... the
holes in the caps were pretty big which made for a huge mess when I
poured the epoxy. About half way through I decided to try smooshing
the caps down into a ball of play dough which kept them level while
the epoxy dried but also plugged the holes. I'll admit though that
idea didn't come to me until some epoxy had already seeped out of
the caps I was working on, so I have as yet to test my play dough
smooshing theory completely. If you don't have play dough, just
only fill the caps to the bottom of the holes.
Only two rules for you:
-
Add my lovely "Your Way Wednesday" button to your blog or blog post that you link up to
-
Please link directly to your blog post, not a giveaway, your link party, your Etsy shop, or even just the home page of your blog.
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