Memorial Craftastic Monday!

I hope everyone here in the US is having a great Memorial Day & is remembering the brave people who today is all about.  Tomorrow will be June 1st, which is the first day of CraftShare!!  We'll spend this week covering the ultra fun & useful fabric, Laminated Cotton.  I'll share some projects, tutorials & tips and I'd love for you to share anything you've made & any ideas for projects using this fabric.  So be sure to stop by for the launch of CraftShare & grab the button to help spread the word!

For today, it's Craftastic Monday, so come on & join in.  Last week had some awesome ideas.  

Like these adorable sewing pins by Miss Muffin of Muffins and More.  If you need any incentive to begin to sew, these have got to be it!

For any recyclers (or anyone with more plastic bags than needed), how about this planter made from "plarn" which is yarn you make from plastic bags.  Abigail at Abigail's Craft Show To has a fab tutorial on how to make it.  The possible uses for this stuff are endless and useful!

And how about this pretty wall art created bySuzanne & her daughter at Just Another Hang Up.  With a discounted frame & some damaged vinyl art, this unique piece was born.  Way to turn lemons into lemonade!

Ok, now it's your turn to show off your stuff.  If you've created something fun (sewing, baking, decorating, papercraft or anything else crafty), link on up! The rules are simple:

• As long as it's crafty and made by you it's Craftastic. Just add the link to your specific post (not the main page of your blog).
• Include the name of your Craftastic creation, your blog name & a pic of your project.
• Grab my party button & put it on your post or blog to share the party with everyone.
• Check out some of the other great links and share some crafty comment love.

This party is for sharing your own fun craft ideas & homemade projects (not promoting products), so please no giveaways, linking up another party, Etsy shops or online stores.

I leave the party open until 12pm EST Thursday. As usual, at the end of the week I'll be featuring some of my favorite links, so please remember to add the Craftastic party button to your post or blog so I can consider featuring your project.

Flirty Skirty Ends the Mommy Clothes Rut

Hey Craft Lovers!  Less than a week to go until CraftShare begins. I'm excited to share what I've been learning and see what good ideas you have to share too. There are some really great guest posters lined up as well, so there's loads of good fun coming!  Join in on the fun & spread the word by grabbing the CraftShare button.  Our first topic will be Laminated Cotton. Projects, tips, tutorials & more and remember to add any photos of things you've made with laminated cotton to the CraftShare Flickr group to show off your handiwork:)

Now on to my latest project.  Improvements to my summer wardrobe have been desperately needed.  Having been pregnant last summer means there's not a lot of properly fitting stuff in the ol' closet and I've fallen into the trap of the "Mommy Clothes Rut":  t-shirts, jeans, plain shorts and boring shoes.  Practical, but ugh in the style department.  With the warm weather finally here, I'm determined to break out of the blah with some flirty, girly clothes.  I finally tried out a book I got for Christmas called Sew What! Skirts that gives loads of techniques & design ideas for skirts.  Here's my first item:

Design-wise it's nothing fancy, just a full skirt with an elastic waist, but this fabric doesn't need an intricate shape to look pretty, so why gild the lily?  I do love making stuff, but sometimes I have to wonder when I see other blogs spend HOURS on lots of intricate assembling for everyday shirts or skirts.  I can appreciate the skills & effort put in, but when you've got several kids to chase after, is it worth it to spend several hours or even days on lots of pieces or tricky stitch work when it's just going to get ice cream, hose water or sand spilled on it?

My solution is to cut some time crunch corners: find a basic shape that looks good and let the cuteness of fabric do the work.  This took about $7 of fabric + $1 of elastic, an hour's worth of time and the result will work for a night out or a day at the beach.  And if it's introduced to some chocolate ice cream or some misplaced sunscreen, I won't mind;)

Sew Can Do Patterns Have Arrived!

There was so much great feedback on the little dress & bonnet set I made a couple of weeks ago, as well as several requests for patterns, so I'm happy to announce they have arrived!  Both the Reversible Serena Dress and Reversible Emmeline Bonnet are now available in my Etsy shop: The Green Hedgehog.  

I designed the Serena Dress to be fully reversible to give two-looks-in one and work well with a variety of fun fabrics. Use light cottons in spring/summer for a cool sundress. Use cords, knits or cuddly minky in fall/winter and pair with a shirt or onesie and tights for a great winter look. Shoulder snaps make for easy, fast dressing. My pattern provides dress sizes for 0-6mos and 6-12mos , but it can also be worn as a tunic top for older babies.

The Emmeline Bonnet looks sweet and keeps that soft baby skin shaded on sunny days. Pattern design provides options for a face-framing, brimmed bonnet and a stylish, angled cap. Both styles are designed to be lined so they are fully reversible for two bonnets in one. Choice of using coordinating fabric ties or bias tape for additional looks. Bonnet is one size fits most babies 3-12 months.  

Both patterns are designed to be easy for a beginner (with full supply list, directions & step-by-step color photos).  To make both only requires 1.5 yds of fabric, so it's easy AND economical for all the cute looks you can create! And if you like these fabrics, I've also got these & the rest of the Michelle Engel Bencsko's My Happy Garden organic prints available by the yard in my shop too!

Woo-hoo Craftastic Party Time!!

Welcome to the newest of Craftastic Monday!  Every week there are even more fabulous projects and this week was no exception, so thanks to everybody who joined in last week.

I also wanted to say thanks to Crafty Mummy from Mummy Crafts & Leslie from Night Owl Crafting for giving me these two awards last week:

I appreciate receiving them and the fab bloggers they came from.  Unfortunately, I'm going to be naughty on the "rules" of the awards (writing a post with info all about about me & passing this on to another 17 bloggers).  I love so many crafty blogs & would love to share the award love, but I'm feeling swamped for spare time right now to properly forward it on & do a write up.  Between wrapping up the homeschool year, the house/yard necessities, organizing our summer plans, setting up CraftShare, getting projects ready for the blog & trying not to ignore my family, I'm already on borrowed time just writing this post!  But I've got some project news & tutorials in the works, so I promise I'll be good from now on:) I do want to pass on some great projects that linked up last week, since there was no shortage of amazing projects:

   

Check out this creative and amazing idea from Patsy from HeARTworks!  She took some plastic banners that would normally end up in the trash, an iron & some paint and made this beautiful journal cover:

How about a little loveliness for the eyes?  Althea at Al McLeary-Diary of a Crafty Imsomniac made this gorgeous sampler using silk ribbon embroidery & a polymer clay vase.  The perfect way to make those spring flowers last all year long!

And then there is this is fabric doorstop by Crafty Mummy at Mummy Crafts that really caught my eye for being both unique & practical.  Who knew an open door could also be decorative?

If you've created something fun (sewing, baking, decorating, papercraft or anything else crafty), link on up! The rules are simple:

• As long as it's crafty and made by you it's Craftastic. Just add the link to your specific post (not the main page of your blog).
• Include the name of your Craftastic creation, your blog name & a pic of your project.
• Grab my party button & put it on your post or blog to share the party with everyone.
• Check out some of the other great links and share some crafty comment love.

This party is for sharing your own fun ideas & homemade projects (not promoting products), so please no giveaways, linking up another party, Etsy shops or online stores.

<a  href="http://sewcando.blogspot.com"><img  src=" http://i893.photobucket.com/albums/ac133/cerise422/sewcandoPARTYbuttonworking.jpg"/></a>

I leave the party open until 12pm EST Thursday. As usual, at the end of the week I'll be featuring some of my favorite links, so please remember to add the Craftastic party button to your post or blog so I can consider featuring your project.

Calling All Crafters!!

Ok everybody, CraftShare will start June 1st! So get ready to check out new crafting materials, fun projects & share your own great ideas. Here are the upcoming themes:

June 1-19th
Unusual Fabric Products (laminated cotton, InsulBright, recycled bottle fabric, Texture Magic)

June 20th-July 3nd
Cake & Cookie Decorating (modeling chocolate, cake carving, fondant)
Tasty Treats (hard candies, chocolates, misc. sweets)

July 5th-31st
Specialty Crafting (chalkboard, magnet, felt, liquid starch)
Die Cut Crafts (using tools like punches, Cricut, Cuttlebug, Sizzix, Slice, etc.)

Our first week will start off with the super versatile fabric: Laminated Cotton.  I've got a bunch of creations & tips for using this fab fabric and would love to know what projects & techniques others have tried.  The CraftShare photo pool is ready to start showcasing everyone's laminated cotton crafts as well.

I'm also still looking for anyone interested in guest posting or sharing a project on any of themes (especially Tasty Treats & Die Cut Crafts), so now's your chance to share your work with more craft lovers & expand your blog audience.  Drop me a line on what you'd like to include & get yourself added to the lineup!  

And even if you don't have a project to showcase, being a reader counts too!  You can help spread the word & show your participation by adding the CraftShare button:

<a href="http://sewcando.blogspot.com"><img src=" http://i893.photobucket.com/albums/ac133/cerise422/th_sewcandoCraftSharebutton.jpg"/></a>

Craftastic Monday Is Here!

Happy Monday!  Last week's party had more great ideas than ever before and a bunch of new blogs to discover, so a big high five to everyone who participated:)



On the CraftShare news front, I should have a schedule for the topics later this week, so everyone can start getting their ideas ready or know when to check out what's coming up.   If some of the themes are outside of your crafting comfort zone and you're a little hesitant to give them a go, don't worry!  Until now I've had little to zero experience with these materials myself, so I'm also learning as I go and sharing my findings.  Don't be afraid to just go for it!  I'm also adding the additional craft topics of Fun with Felt and Liquid Starch + Fabric.  Both are easy & fun to work with, so just about anyone can make something great using them.  The goal of CraftShare is to add new things to our collective crafting bag of tricks and be a great way to show off the crafty goodness you get up to.   

Now let's get back to the party.  Check out some of these great ideas that popped in last week:

In a word, AWESOME.  That's how I describe this floor cushion tutorial by Susan of Living with Punks.  Looks like a pricey catalog purchase, but is budget-friendly & easy to do yourself.  I already ran out & got the materials to make some, so be prepared to see a few on here soon;)

How about this clever moss "B" that Heather from Straight Stitches made with some foam, moss & a glue gun?  Unique and stylish!

And then there's this ultimate chore chart by Cami at Creating By Cami.  Cute ribbons accents, colorful stars, chore names and photos of the chores make cleaning up fun & easy for the kiddies AND easier on mom.  Boy, do I need to make one of these!

Now, let's see what you've got this week.  If you've created something fun (sewing, baking, decorating, papercraft or anything else crafty), link on up! The rules are simple:

• As long as it's crafty and made by you it's Craftastic. Just add the link to your specific post (not the main page of your blog).
• Include the name of your Craftastic creation, your blog name & a pic of your project.
• Grab my party button & put it on your post or blog to share the party with everyone.
• Check out some of the other great links and share some crafty comment love.

This party is for sharing your own fun ideas & homemade projects (not promoting products), so please no giveaways, linking up another party, Etsy shops or online stores.

<a  href="http://sewcando.blogspot.com"><img  src=" http://i893.photobucket.com/albums/ac133/cerise422/sewcandoPARTYbuttonworking.jpg"/></a>

I leave the party open until 12pm EST Thursday. As usual, at the end of the week I'll be featuring some of my favorite links, so please remember to add the Craftastic party button to your post or blog so I can consider featuring your project.

Baby Bonnets Abound!

Well this week was a total bust in a lot of ways. Tons of rain, cold, dreary days and me & baby both with a bad cold. Yuck. But the silver lining was being stuck in the house motivated me to work on my new baby bonnet & dress patterns. Miracle, upon miracle, I finished them, started feeling better and the sunny, warm weather returned (cue the sound of angels here)!  Just in time to take some pics of my newly finished stuff on Serena before her runny nose took over for the day.   So here's a look at my very own lined baby bonnet & reversible dress design using some fabrics from my stash:

I remember when I was a little girl it was easy to find baby bonnets.  These days......not so much.  It's almost impossible to find patterns too.  Sunny days seem to call out for cute bonnets on babies, so I was determined to find a solution.  So I gave a vintage bonnet (that was my own circa 1970s) a good once over and doctored up my own pattern & paired it with my reversible dress pattern.  I made the pink elephant one with a face-framing, floppy brim.

My dress was fast to make, fully reversibly, with easy on & off straps.  It looks cute with a shirt under it or by itself.

I made this gingham bonnet without a brim, but did a kind of 1930's angle on the front and used the trim to make the ties instead of using fabric like the elephant one.  This pretty fabric is vintage.  I found it in my grandma's stash a long time ago, so it's got to be a good 20-30yrs old, but looks brand new:

I love the embroidered daisies all over it:

I'm not sure which one I like more, but  I'm definitely going to make more of them.  I could not believe how quick the bonnets were and how much I love them - which makes me wonder why they are so hard to find?  I can't be the only one who thinks bonnets are way cuter than the other baby hats out there.  I would prefer that doesn't rain while I make the next ones though.  I've had my fill of rain & gloom this week.

Introducing....CraftShare!

I've been working on the themed weeks idea I mentioned last week.  My goal is for us to be able to share our crafting experiences, have posts that are more of a dialogue between blogger & readers and expand our crafting horizons together.  So without further ado, the name for this crafting extravaganza is....CraftShare!

Starting in June, the themes will begin.  I'll share projects I've made in each topic category and give tips & tricks I've learned while working on them.  I'll also have some special guest posters sharing their expertise and projects to keep the ideas rolling.

I'd like the comments section to be a place for you to share what info you know, experiences you've had with the themes and post any questions you have too.   This way the comments will be like a great extra info section for each post.  I've also created a Flickr group for CraftShare, so everyone can share pics & find ideas on the themes we cover. And even if you haven't made something or are shy about getting started, maybe you've got a great idea for something that could be made with the themes presented, so go ahead, share it in the comments and inspire the rest of us!

Some of the themed topics I'm planning to cover are:

Unusual Fabric Products (laminated cotton, InsulBright, recycled PET fabric, Texture Magic)

Die-cutting Crafts (anything creative using a die cutting machine/punches)

Cake & Cookie Decorating (modeling chocolate, fondant)

Tasty Treats (hard candies, chocolates, misc. sweets)

Specialty Craft Paints (chalkboard, magnet, etc.)

I'm really excited about trying out these new crafts, but I need your help to make this themed info exchange idea a success!  I'm still looking for some awesome crafters who would be interested in guest posting or being featured on the topics above. If you'd be willing to share what you know or make your blog a part of CraftShare, just shoot me an email and we'll work out the details.  Once everything is set, I'll announce the week schedule of themes so we can have CraftShare up & running soon.

Here's the official button to start spreading the word!

<a  href="http://sewcando.blogspot.com"><img  src=" http://i893.photobucket.com/albums/ac133/cerise422/th_sewcandoCraftSharebutton.jpg"/></a>

Craftastic Monday Strikes Again!

Hey there everyone!  Hope you all had a great Mother's Day weekend.  Mine could have gone better (being sick & a 30hr power outage made things more challenging than I liked), but my husband & kids tried their best to make it nice.

Last week had some great links - here are a few that really caught my eye:

Look at this gorgeous wallet that is part of a travel set made by Clara of The Home in Paradise.  She lives in the gorgeous Caribbean too (hence her blog's name).  I'm already dying to have a holiday break, so this set makes me want one even more!

How cute is this little crocheted airplane made by Miss Muffin of Muffins & More!?!  Definitely puts "learn to crochet" on my craft to-do list.

And this great idea is perfect for anyone who's short on time to make clothes (yes, that's most of us) or thinks being crafty has to be complicated. It's a no-sew t-shirt makeover by Rachel at Simply Designing.  She took a plain, shapeless t-shirt and gave it pizzazz with a few quick snips of the scissors and the best part is she shows us how.  Cute summer shirts, here I come!

I hope this week is full of great treasures too.  So let's start the party!  If you've created something fun (sewing, baking, decorating, papercraft or anything else crafty), link on up! The rules are simple:

• As long as it's crafty and made by you it's Craftastic. Just add the link to your specific post (not the main page of your blog).
• Include the name of your Craftastic creation, your blog name & a pic of your project.
• Grab my party button & put it on your post or blog to share the party with everyone.
• Check out some of the other great links and share some crafty comment love.

This party is for sharing your own fun ideas & homemade projects (not promoting products), so please no giveaways, linking up another party, Etsy shops or online stores.

<a  href="http://sewcando.blogspot.com"><img  src=" http://i893.photobucket.com/albums/ac133/cerise422/sewcandoPARTYbuttonworking.jpg"/></a>

I leave the party open until 12pm EST Thursday. As usual, at the end of the week I'll be featuring some of my favorite links, so please remember to add the Craftastic party button to your post or blog so I can consider featuring your project.

Creating Communion Cupcakes

This weekend is my oldest's first communion, which is kind of a big deal if you're Catholic.   Of course, I waited until the last minute to do most of the prep work.  Running around getting photos taken, cleaning my house, getting his first dress shirt & suit (yes, I may be crafty, but no I'm not crazy enough to try to make those) and last minute keepsake shopping has worn me out big time this week.  So has my ultra clingy 8 month old who refuses to do anything without being glued to her mother.  My husband is calling her Barney these days, since she's like a barnacle that won't let go.   It's a good thing she's cuter than real barnacles or we'd be at the shipyard stat.  Yet despite those challenges I wanted to at least make the dessert for my guy's special day.   So I'm pretty proud to have knocked these babies out in time considering the craziness around me.

I used plain old cake mix & canned frosting, but got a little fancy on the decorating.  I used a ziploc bag with a corner cut to make the swirly ones and dusted them with edible glitter:

For the blue ones I used modeling chocolate to make a smooth surface and edible pearls to make some crosses on some.  For the others I got a religious medallion molds at an awesome local baking supply store and made them with white chocolate melts and stuck them on top:

Tasty & finished during naptime, so we should be set on the treat front.  Now if only a cleaning lady & a dressy outfit and shoes for me would just show up at the door, I'd be 100% ready.