Fish Bowl Treat bags for a birthday party

In the name of "use what you have first" before you buy supplies, the girls and I came up with a treat bag we gave away for Lizzy's "sea themed" birthday party. The fish "swims" between 2 pieces of sheer fabric.

I had sheer fabric that I bought on clearance at Joanne's Fabric a few years ago. These are like the tucker bags I posted in June except we used foamy for the back. The sheer fabric is folded in half with the fold side up at the top of the bowl. We tucked a foamy animal inside the fold of sheer fabric, set (yarn) strap in place to be sewed over, pinned it all, then sewed.


Sewing with foamy on the bottom was very easy. We made the stitches very long, which gave the bag a nice look.
After sewing the bags were trimmed with pinking sheers to cut down on fraying.Bags were then decorated on the foamy side by the kids with smaller foamy stickers. While they were eating lunch, some of the older kids filled the bags with real sea shells, taffy, stickers, erasers, and a piece of chocolate :) Our frugal find was finding sea shells at the dollar store.

By the way, I thought I'd let my friends know I'm still alive. We have had alot projects to do this summer which has taken me away from blogging. I've felt a little overwhelmed with them all. I hope to post about them when things slow down, we have pictures :) I can't wait to check out what you all have been blogging about :)

Down Under Tucker Bag

Next week we will be boarding the Boomerang Express and going down under to Australia, (aka vacation bible school) . We are trying to use things that we have at home in order to keep costs down. Klazane and I will be helping with Pre-K and K for the week. We will be giving the kids lil cards with scriptures on them. The teacher's kit came with a brown tucker bag and we could buy them for $1.24 a bag. I say no worries Mate, this is cheaper! I have a good bit of felt and yarn. We made about 45 of them and didn't need to buy anything.

The front of the pouch is 5" wide and 3.5" high in the center. The back & flap is 5" wide and 6.25" high.

Materials:

1 piece of felt

33" of yarn

A lap afghan and a mini quilt for Fluffy

I started the white crocheted afghan back in October and hoped to finish it in 6 weeks. Now I know better... it took 6 months :) I can't wait to send it.... which will be very soon. The ity bitty quilt is for my daughter's stuffy, Fluffy. Lizzy is going to quilt it tomorrow after church so we can remove the safety pins. It'll be fun. :)

Here is an update on things: My diet is going well. It's a life change and I think things are going well. I was in a stall last time I blogged about the diet. That lasted about a week and a half. I needed to begin an exercise program and needed more fiber. Boy, those 2 make a big difference.

I began Phase II which is closer to normal eating. I am eating grains, but usually only whole wheat. I have weak moments where I indulge with the chocolate, but, I've gotten back on track each time.

I want to be more consistant with asking God for guidance in all I do (including eating and exercise) every morning.

There's no garden yet... I'll blog about that another time... I have about 3 weeks til I can plant those things that can't be planted til after the last possible frost... I have friends who are going to let me borrow their tiller, which is an amazing thing because they are expensive to rent. I am so thankful for this. I hope to get it soon. I'll let you know more when I get to start tilling :)

Hair Ribbons

Pom-pom bows can be made easily and will out-last the ponytail. I made these 6 years ago and they still look great. To start you will need ribbon. I used grosgrain and satin ribbon for most of the bows I made. You will also need pony-tails or clasps, and jewelery wire. For tools: you will need scissors, wire cutters, needle-nose pliers, and fray check.
1. Folding: These ribbons shown here were folded 4" wide to make 2 folds or loops on each side so that would be around 20" altogether.
2. Fold centers: Although this step is a pain, if you do not fold down centers and are using grosgrain or a heavy ribbon you will notice that the center is too chuncky when you secure it with the wire and it will not lay nicely.
I made 2" bobby pins, you can see one in the center under "Supplies". When you are holding your ribbon it goes easier if your wire is ready.
(It would have been great if I had 3 hands. If you have something like a clasp or clamp tool it may be very helpful in this step.)
3. Twist and trim wire to 5/8".
4. Turn sharp end downward toward bulk of ribbon to prevent someone from getting poked or scratched.
5a. When making more than 1 color you'll need to make each color a bit smaller than the bottom one. I didn't want the silver to stand out that much so I made it the same width as the blue layer.
5b.After you figure out how you want it to look, stack it and add a ponytail or barrette, and secure it with another piece of wire. Trim your ends and use fray check. I've noticed that some fray-checks leave a white residue so always test first.
6. Last step is to cover the wire with a scrap of ribbon and sew it where no one will notice.

Apron -- Gift for Sister

I am so thrilled with how this vintage apron came out! My girls modeled it for me b/c my sis is little :)

There is a huge pocket as you can see! You can fit alot in there if you need to :)

I love the high waist band! It give the apron a clean dressed up look! Even the back is cute!

Thanks for calling today sis! It was great to hear your voice, I miss you like crazy and I am glad you like your little gifts! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Christmas Chickadee

Christmas Chickadee

from Klazane's blog
Finished! This is the Black-Capped Chickadee I worked on last night and most of today. :) You can't see it in the picture, but he has a lovely notched tail and little brown french knot eyes. I found the basic pattern here, but I changed it to make it...well, a chickadee. I changed the head shape and the beak, added wings, and, of course, those beautiful chickadee markings! I love those little birds. :) It's a Christmas present for a friend, but I almost want to keep it. :P One down, many more to go. I think I'll do something a little simpler for the rest of my gifts...

Snowy Morning

We just love waking up to a snow-covered lawn. :)

(Unfortunately, it all melted...again!)

From Klazane: Here's a sneak peek at a work in progress that will hopefully be completed and posted in its entirety tomorrow on my blog. :D

Vintage Sewing Attachements

Vintage Sewing Attachments

Two months ago, we dug out an old box of attachments and, boy, did we find a treasure chest! We had gotten them with an old sewing machine at a yard sale a few years ago for only $3! contained many old contraptions that looked like they'd be as hard to figure out how to use as doing the work by hand. (Particularly the ruffler, which is the one farthest to the left in the above picture.)

We also had an old book that explained how to use each one, and dispite complex diagrams and long lists of parts and their functions, they were actually fairly simple to operate.

I am particularly excited about the four hemmers in the kit. I can't wait to easily sew hems with those handy little attachments. I did try out both the ruffler and the narrow hemmer, and was very pleased with the results.

The ruffler was especially fun to figure out, and I love how adjustable it is. It ruffle or plait, scantily or heavily, close together or far apart. And the Narrow Hemmer did a seam fabulously and easily.
Posted by Klazane--

Gifts for Sister

The girls and I have been working on gifts for my sister's 4oth birthday party.

My oldest daughter made her a pointy kitty. Thanks to WeeWonderfuls you can make your own too, she just asks that you do not sell them. I made her a quilted pot holder, and a few crocheted dishcloths.

For her party we made a few Sunflower decorations. To make the little sunflowers we used a Martha Stewart, Cosmos Craft Punch, punching out 4 from yellow tissue paper and 1 from yellow printer paper. (I found that this type of paper looks cleaner than construction paper.) When I stapled these 5 papers together I put the printer paper sandwiched in between the tissue paper. I then cut out green circles (printer paper) for the back of the sunflower where the ribbon is, and brown (craft foam) circles for the front. I found a cute leaf punch from Target a few years ago (for $1), that seemed perfect for the sunflower leaves which were glued with a hot glue gun. Be sure to have a bowl of water next to you when you work so that when you burn your fingers you can cool them immediately.

The big sunflower below the vase of sunflowers was made by my oldest daughter and she used brown craft foam and yellow tissue paper.

My youngest daughter wanted to make something for "Anty" as well. This would be a great summer project for kids. She cut out the letters by herself. This side says, "Sun," and the other side says "flower". We used a Popsicle stick to support the stem. We covered it with green paper afterwards. We also added a ribbon to hang it from.