Happy Easter Fabric Banner

Here is my Happy Easter Fabric Banner.  We are going to make these at the upcoming Crafting with Kista party!

Happy Crafting!

Velcro hair pieces

I used to have these really cool hair pieces that stayed in my hair with Velcro.  I decided to make one recently and here is my finished result:

This was really easy.  I just cut out three flowers from fabric.  Each one smaller than the rest.  I grabbed some Velcro from my stash and cut it into a circle. (I am pretty sure that you can buy Velcro already shaped into a circle, but didn't go to the store to check)  I hot glued the Velcro to the back of the large flower and then hot glued the middle of each flower on top.  Only hot gluing the middle helps for the edges to stand up a little and get some dimension.
You can use both pieces of the Velcro to ensure it stays in place, but I found that just using the top prickly side of it stays in place well enough by itself for curly hair. 

Happy Crafting!

Paper Banner

So I was browsing one of my favorite blogs yesterday and came across this Easter paper banner:

http://go.tipjunkie.com/ea/129/www.alittletipsy.com/2010/03/no-bunny-loves-me-like-ewe-do-easter.html

I have been wanting to do something with my son's name in his room for a long time, but I wanted it to be simple and not so permanent as starching fabric to the wall.  So I decided to make this:

I found a font on Word that I really liked, Enlarged it and printed the letters out using a light gray (so it would be easy to see to cut, but not use up all of my printer ink)  Also, if you have scrap printer paper, use that.  I am going to start saving my "trash" so that I can use it for projects like this.

Then I cut out all the letters.  I went to my stash of colored card stock and then cut the letters out again using the templates I just made.  Then, I went into my stash of scrap booking paper and cut just inside the template so that when I glued to letters together, the card stock shows up a bit.  Then I got some ribbon out of my stash, and pinned it to the wall with straight pins.  I got large and small paper clips and unbent them.  I hooked the large side through the letter and the small side hangs off the ribbon.  Then I made a few loops in the ends of ribbon hanging and pinned them into place, like this:

Happy Crafting!

Easter Egg Basket T-shirt Tutorial

Okay, this is my first Tutorial, so please be patient with me... I decided that I wanted an Easter basket with eggs and some grass for my Easter t-shirt... so I looked through my fabric and found some scraps of fabric that could pass for a basket.  Then I found some tie-died scraps that would make some great eggs.  I looked through my ribbon for something to make my basket handle and then the fake Easter basket grass.  (no, I did not use plastic grass for my shirt)

What you will need:

t-shirt

fabric scraps for the basket and eggs.  (I took mine from some fat quarters that I had in my stash)

Satin ribbon to make your basket handle

Sheer ribbon for your grass

Erasing ink fabric pen or pencil

First step was to turn the t-shirt inside out and on the front side I pinned the fabric for my basket making sure to center it.

Pin the fabric onto the t-shirt making sure not to pin it to the backside of the t-shirt (you don't want to sew it closed)

Take your erasing ink pen or pencil and draw the shape of your basket.

 Here is a closer view of my basket

 Sew on the lines of your basket that you drew, then turn the shirt right side out and this is what you have:

 Take your scissors and snip the t-shirt fabric away about a 1/8 inch from your stitching.  Be careful when you start your first cut not to cut through all of the fabric, you just want to cut the t-shirt fabric away.

 Next, do the same steps for your eggs.  Pin the fabric to the wrong side, draw your oval shape and sew around your line.  It takes a lot of patience to do ovals with the sewing machine, go slowly to avoid mistakes and misshapen ovals.  Then cut the excess fabric away from the fabric of your basket and eggs. I left about 1/4 inch excess.

 Turn your shirt right side out and cut the t-shirt fabric away from your eggs.  Once again being careful when you start your cutting not to cut the egg fabric.

 It should look something like this:

 Next braid the ribbon for the handle:

 Pin the handle onto your t-shirt and then sew into place.  I think that using stabilizer on the back of the shirt would be ideal, but I didn't.  I also only sewed the handle in a few places because I didn't want to mash it with the sewing foot.  I sewed about six places in my handle.

 Notice that we left the ends of the ribbon hanging for some extra dimension

 Next you are going to make the ribbon grass.  I put my sewing machine on the largest stitch and loosed the tension and sewed a very long stretch of sheer ribbon. (I think I used half a spool)  Since my ribbon was so thin, the feet did not catch it and I had to pull it through the machine myself.  I suggest doing this slowly and making sure to keep your pulling equal to the pace of the sewing foot for the best results.  You might want to practice first on a scrap of fabric.

 Once that was done, I gave myself a good bit of slack of the sewing machine thread before snipping.  Take either the bobbin thread or the top stitch thread (after you have cut it from the sewing machine) and pull.  Start bunching up the ribbon along that thread.  I bunched it up first and then slowly moved it around until I was happy with my curl results.  Next lay it onto the basket and bunch it up.  Pin it into place until you are happy with your results.  Sew in a few places here and there until it is secure and you are happy with the look.  And you have your Easter Egg Basket T-shirt!

Happy Crafting!

Easter Egg T-shirts

At the last Crafting with Kista event, we also made Easter Egg t-shirts.  I happen to have some cool tie-died fabric that we used for the eggs.  And the last two pics I am going to blog my first tutorial for...

 Front and Back view

 These Easter egg baskets were my favorite. 

Happy Crafting!

Easter Egg Wreaths

At the last Crafting with Kista event we made easter egg wreaths.  We used small vine wreaths, some peet moss , ribbon and bought some decorated eggs at the craft store (oh and we assembled them with the hot glue gun).  You wouldn't believe how hard it was for me to track speckled eggs down!  The only places that I could find them was JoAnne's fabric store (they had hanging ribbon attached for decorating a tree) and I bought mine at Michael's.  I found the cute chocolate looking eggs at Hobby Lobby. 

Happy Crafting!