Back to painting!

Hello readers!

I hope everyone has had a good week! I started a new project this week with my talented crafty friend! It seems that every time we get together we end up paintings and making crafts together and it's always really fun! I made a word-art project for my boss for father's day and I finally got around to making my own!

It had to be purple of coarse!

I took a couple pictures while making it, but it is pretty simple to make but here are the steps I took. :)

First I painted my base color on the canvas, which I chose gray.

Then, I added all of the words, which are stickers.

In the middle of putting on the words. That's my friends project in the background. She made hers in pink. :)

Then I added a coat of mod-podge. Make sure that when you put the mod-podge on that all of the corners of your letters are down. If some letters are having trouble sticking, then put mod-podge under the letter first.

Then, I started to add strokes of purple. The mod=podge makes the paint come on really thin so you can see underneath it.

In the middle of putting on the purple top color :)

Then, when you add as much color as you want (make sure if you use a canvas to paint the sides too), add a thick layer of mod-podge to make it extra shiny.

With the top coat of mod-podge.
Also, make sure to use even strokes all going the same way so that your top coat looks even.

And then add your embellishments and such and your done!

Whola! Extremely cute word-art that is VERY easy to make!

I hope everyone has a great week!

Thanks for reading!

My first invisible zipper!

Hello again!
This is my first attempt at sewing a zipper!
This project is probably my favorite skirt that I have made thus far! 

Here are the steps.

First I measured 13 inches of the yellow (main) fabric for the length. Then I cut 2 strips 13 inches long by the width of the fabric. Then I sewed both of the strips together, which made one big rectangle.

Sew the sides together with the front sides touching.

Then I measured out the second color, brown, to go on the bottom. Hem the bottom of the brown and then with the front sides of your fabric together, sew the brown (second) fabric to the yellow (main) fabric.

Then, do a straight stitch across the top. To make the ruffle effect pull one of the threads and move the fabric along the thread until you get the amount of ruffles you want. I ended up trimming a lot of my fabric off because it made my skirt a little too poofy for my taste.

Then you need to measure out your waistband. I was going to make my waistband brown (second) color but I did not have enough. The brown that I used was from a previous project. Measure around your waist and add about 1/2 an inch on each side because you are going to need a seam allowance for when you put on your invisible zipper. 

I wanted my waistband to be 3 inches wide so I cut it 7 inches wide. Then fold you waistband in half with the front side of the fabric on the outside. Then, with the front sides of your skirt and waistband together, sew your ruffled portion to your waistband.

THEN, for the moment you have all been waiting for, the invisible zipper! Drumroll please! 

Okay enough with the dramatics...

The first thing you need to do is look up in your sewing machine handbook which foot is your zipper foot. Then take your regular presser foot off, which is incredibly easy don't be intimidated yet, and put your zipper foot on. 

I believe that stores make special feet where the foot looks like a block with an opening for the zipper so that you can get a super close stitch but my sewing machine did not come with all that jazz. (If someone knows where to get one for cheap let me know! :))

That is what mine looks like.

So, the first time I did this I messed it up by not paying attention to what side of the zipper you sew to your skirt so I will put it in CAPS for you. (I know I am so thoughtful!)

Pin the FRONT side of your zipper to the FRONT side of your fabric. Seems weird I know but thats the right sides.

Then start sewing on your zipper getting as close as you can to the chain. If you roll the chain as you sew it you can get a closer stitch. The closer you get, the less likely it is that your zipper will show. When you get to the bottom, sew as close as you can to the slider. (I looked up zipper terminology.)

My second attempt at sewing the zipper; I sewed it to the wrong side the first time!

Then do the exact same thing to the other side.

Now that you have finished sewing on both sides of the zipper, zip it up and sew the rest of your skirt together where your zipper ends. Make sure that the bottom hem of your skirt lines up.

Now, I know that my zipper is not quite invisible! But my skirt is still super cute and fits great!

The zipper side of my skirt.

And the front!

And Whola!! You have a super cute fitting skirt!

I know that I will be making my skirts like this from now on. I can't wait until its not 106 outside to wear this with some cute fall boots and a cardigan! 

Also, I thought I would share a project that I did awhile ago for my wedding. 

I was bound and determine to wear converse in my wedding dress when I was growing up. So, when I actually got married, I decided that plain ol' converse were not going to cut it. So, I crafted them up a bit with lace shoe-laces and some rhinestones on the top.

And Whola! Fabulous!

Then after my love and I got married, it was only like 10 in the morning, so we made bride and groom shirts to wear as we spent the New Years Eve day at Disney World and I wore them around the park. Next time I wear them, I will definitely wear really thick socks though because they really hurt my feet! But pain is beauty they tell me.

Another thing I made was for my brothers homecoming. It was like a week before homecoming and he told me that he didn't have a garter! And that was unexceptional according to me so I went to Michael's and got some necessities and made this completely homemade! If anyone needs something for homecoming just let me know!

Well, thats it for today! No crazy nanny stories today, but the day is still young!

Thanks for stoping by and hope you enjoyed!

The lost shoe

Hello! I have been so busy watching the Olympics that I keep forgetting to update my blog!
And I haven't had too many successful projects to post on here either. But anyway I really wanted to make one of those easy maxi skirts that have been all over the internet.
So I picked up some really cute jersey knit fabric at Joann's and got to cutting. I measured my waist and cut the fabric about twice the width of my waist. Then I measured from my waist to the floor and added  2 inches for hemming and the elastic casing.
Them I hemmed the bottom.

Then I sewed both of the length sides together and made a casing for the elastic at the top of the skirt.

 Then I fed the elastic through the casing with a safety pin, sewed the ends of the elastic together, and closed the casing.
And Whola!

When I bought it, I didn't realize that it has letters all over it but I  still think its really cute :)

So cute and easy! And probably the most comfortable skirt I own!

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial! I promise I will start taking more pictures and I started to write down the measurements I use too!

If you guys didn't know I am a nanny to 2 wonderful boys, Cole (5 years old) and Jack (1 year old). One of our favorite places to go is this place in Dallas called Monster Yogurt because it has a play place  and frozen yogurt. Is there really a more perfect place for children? Well we were getting ready to leave today and I set Jacks shoes down for literally 2 seconds while I got the diaper bag ready to go. Well when I went to put them on him, one of them was absolutely no-where to be found. I looked for that shoe for 2 hours and nothing. After getting throughly angry and blaming myself, Cole, and Dude (the dog who loves shoes) we decided that Monster Yogurt was a no go today and it was lunch time. After making 2 peanut butter and nuetella sandwiches I put the knife in the sink only to find the missing shoe. Please tell me how a 1 year old can get a shoe into a sink that he can't even barely reach...I guess I will never know. The stories of being a nanny are endless.

Last week Cole and I made some Olympics crafts

Yes those are gold medals :)

Good Job Cole!

And his is Jack! 

His shirt says crabby but cute! :)

Hope you enjoyed my post!!

From pants to shorts!

It is definitely summer time in Texas! 

I had been seeing some extremely cute lace shorts tutorials online, and they looked really simple! At the fabric store I bought 1/4 of a yard of crafters lace (like $3) and went to work! I had some pants that were given to me that were just right in the waist but were too short to be worn as pants.

So I cut then off with plenty of material to roll up because I wanted my shorts to have a thick cuff. When I tried then on with the cuffs it made my shorts way too tight around my legs. 

So after brainstorming a bit, I decided to add more material to each side my shorts. So I took extra jeans that I had from the legs of my jeans and cut strips that were just as long as my shorts without the cuff. Then I added some lace on top of the jeans.

I sewed the lace on both sides of the strip. I also made the strips smaller at the top and gradually get bigger at the bottom. I figured I would need extra material for the cuff. I made two of these, one for each side of my jeans.

After I made 2 strips, I ripped the seams out of both sides of my jeans. When I got to the waistband I just cut right through it. Now your jeans will look somewhat like a diaper.

Then I sewed both of my strips to the sides of my shorts, wrong sides together so the seams are on the inside of the jeans.

I tried them on and, of course, the waist was a little too big. That was an easy fix, I just took in the top part of the lace strips on both sides and now they fit great! Then I added my cuffs and sewed them straight across and TADA! They are so cute!

My new favorite shorts :)

Then I really wanted to add lace to the back pockets, which was the whole intention of this project anyway. So I place the lace over the pockets and cut out the shape of the pocket. For the top part of the pocket, I had to hand-stitch the lace to the pocket so that I would not sew the pockets shut. For the sides I used to sewing machine. Super easy project and so cute!

Not perfect but I love them!

The only tip I have for this project is be really careful when you are sewing the strips onto the side because the material is so thick! I bent my first needle on this project. When I did it I got so discouraged that I put it away for the night. Maybe I was pouting just a smidge....Oh well...I got back on it the next day and finished. :) My favorite part about them is that I have never seen jeans like this anywhere and that they are original. :) Oh and they were practically free. 

I kept it as a keep sake :)

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial! Thanks for reading!

Sweet summer-time!

So I have a little story. So in my last post I told you that hubby and I got gym memberships. I have never been to a gym in my life but we decided together that we needed to go. So the very first day of working out we both do our thing (he does weights, while I do the treadmill and elliptical) and then we go into the sauna room. For those of you that don't know, the sauna is a small room that is 156 degrees and is supposed to get rid off the impurities in your body by basically sweating your tail off. We go in and we are the only ones in there until this extremely buff man come in wearing a full on sweat suit from head to toe. He looked like he was wrapped in aluminum foil! Anyway he sits by me and starts doing crunches.....I am literally barely making it just sitting in this room and he is doing crunches. Then he suddenly stops and takes his arm out of his suit and squeezes his sleeve to drain the sweat out into the drain in the middle of the room! Right in front of us squeezing the sweat out of his suit! I guess this is a normal thing that people do at the gym, I don't know but it was so gross!

Anyway my newest project is a super cute summer skirt. Knowing me I will definitely be wearing it in the winter too because I think it is just too cute to sit in a closet for 6 months. I made this skirt with pockets though! And let me tell you, nothing boosts your confidence like making a skirt with pockets! 

First I cut 2 rectangles of the desired length, which for me is about 20 inches because the gives me plenty of mess up room and if the skirt ends up too long, you can always just hem it up some more. 

Then, I zig-zag stick the edges so they don't fray.

Then I cut out my pockets with my left-over fabric. I made my pockets the same material of my skirt but I have seen many cute skirts with different colors in the pockets. When you make your pockets you trace your hand around the fabric and cut out 4 of that shape. You want to make sure that you make them bigger than your hand. My first pockets were way too small after I sewed then the my skirt and I ended up having to rip the seams and make new pockets. 

Then I sewed my pockets with the right sides facing onto my rectangles a little above the halfway point.   First, you just sew the straight end of the pocket to the rectangle. After you have done that for all 4 pockets, you then sew both rectangles together, going around the pocket shapes. This can be tricky if you try to go too fast file moving around the curves of the pockets. 

The pockets should look like this inside out.

After that I turned my dress inside out to check the pockets and then I made a casing for the elastic, fed the elastic through with a safety pin, and sewed the elastic together by hand, and then finished by sewing the casing shut.

My finished summer-time skirt!

And with the pockets out!

I wish I had taken more pictures but the bachelorette was on... 

Hope you enjoyed my tutorial, also I must say that my hubby and I have been married for 6 months :) Congrats to us!

Thanks for coming to my blog!

Another super hero skirt!

    Hello! I know it has been forever since I have posted but I have been so busy! My hubby and i got gym memberships last weekend which has taken up most of my free time. And after we get back from the gym I really just want to go to sleep! 

   So when I bought the fabric I made my first superhero skirt in, I also bought another material, also for only $5 off of ebay. 

I like this material the most because it has the comic books behind the characters! :)

     So I cut the material into 2 rectangles of the desired length because I did not have enough material to go all the way around my body. I used a zig-zag stick to make sure the ends did not fray and then I hemmed the bottom with a 1/4 stitch. For this skirt I was feeling a little risky and decided to just sew the material straight to the elastic waist band instead of making a casing for it. So I bought thick white elastic and dyed it red with rit fabric dye.

    It turned out great! Sadly I forgot to take a picture being so caught up in the excitement I felt from successfully dying something! When you are sewing straight onto the elastic you have to pull the elastic tight while sewing the fabric onto it. I was really intimidated by this but it was extremely easy if you just take your time. 

    I finished the skirt and put it on and realized that it was a little too short for my taste and for anyone who wants to bend down while wearing it. So I rummaged through my scraps and found some red material that would match perfectly if it added it to the bottom.  I cut it about about 4 inches long and the same width of the bottom of my skirt, did a zig-zag stitch to make sure it wouldn't fray, and then just sewed it onto the bottom of the skirt. It make the skirt just the right length.

Please excuse my lack of ironing!

   Then to ad some final touches I added some lace to the bottom.

Even superhero skirts can be girly!

 And Whala!

My favorite skirt so far is finished!

I LOVE this skirt so much! I think it is uber cute and so easy to make! I totally wore this to see the new amazing spider-man movie last week and I felt so in character!

 I am determined to make a bat-man one for the new dark knight rises movie coming soon!

I hope you all enjoyed my tutorial!

    

Everyone has artistic ability!

      Before I started sewing, I had been painting with acrylic paint on a canvas and I love to paint too, probably because growing up I had absolutely NO artistic ability. I have always been crafty but when it came to drawing or painting, I would just print whatever I needed from clip-art. My twin brother is an extremely talented artist along with my dad. I don't even like my handwriting! So when I started painting, it started as just a little project that I wanted to make for my boss for her birthday. I found online this neat idea where you trace your children's hand prints onto scrapbook paper and then mod-podged them onto a canvas.

Jack and Cole are the children I nanny. My boss loved her present!

       I made this project with a friend who convinced me that painting was easy and a great stress reliever. After I made this I was so curious if I could paint so I went out and bought some canvas and every color of the rainbow in paint and got busy! 

This is my sunset with the ocean waves. If you look really hard you can see a little black sailboat :)

This was my second painting for my husband. (can you tell yet that I like to make things for my husband??) 

This was my painting was watercolors. I think it turned out really great :)

Love this painting with the cross and the stormy sky. 

This painting I did for me because my absolute favorite color is purple. I am not finished with this painting yet, I still need to do some minor details but with my new sewing machine, it will just have to wait!

This canvas was really easy! I made this for my boss on father's day. These are their family rules and she wanted to make them into a modern artwork that they could hang up on the wall. I just put the words on the canvas with stickers and mod-podge.

I made this for my dad on fathers day. I painted the background and then mod-podged my dad's favorite song with stickers. The mod-podge also gives the canvas a shiny coat.

This one I also made for fathers day for my step-dad with his favorite Bible verse.

         Now I know that everyone has artistic ability! I had just never really seriously tried to paint anything too difficult. I love painting and giving them to the people I love.

Cross-stich gallery

       This is all of my counted cross-stitches that I have made in the past. I am currently not working on one, but there is only so much that can fit into one day! I love cross-stitching because it is simple enough to follow the pattern and you can sit and do it while you watch television. I love to make things for people as presents because I think they have so much more meaning. So without further a due, here are my cross-stitches. 

I made this for Jarred when we were dating. This was my favorite to make and I think it is very beautiful. :)

I made this one for me but Jarred wanted this one too.  

This makes me laugh every time I look at it because it is so my mother! She doesn't wear ridiculous clothes like that most of the time but  I can't count how many times my mother has said this exact quote!  I made it for her birthday last year. And I love the random chicken. 

This is the beginning of the cross-stitch that I made for my mother-in-law.

Almost done.

It turned out so beautiful and has such wonderful meaning. This one also has little purple beads on the vines around the outside. I LOVE this one and I was so happy to give it to my mother-in-law.

I was so proud of the finished project.