Tutorial : How to make a window in your origami box

Remember when I figured out how to cut a hole in the top of my origami boxes? Ever since then I have been wanting to make a video. Well I finally did!

I have a tripod now so the video isn't as wobbly as my other video so thats nice. I don't teach how to make the box itself in this video so to learn how to make the box go here. I made some as gift boxes for Christmas presents for my nieces. I put little recycled Rosette hair clips inside them. It was because of the window that they turned out so adorable I think! I am so excited to share this with you all! Lets get onto the video!

{I link up in these link parties}

Tutorial : Candy filled valentine doily

I have had this idea in my head for a long time now and I am so excited to share it with you!  Seriously, can you get any cuter than valentine doilies laced up and filled with candy? Adding a heart window flap just magnifies the cuteness!  Plus the lacing part is super easy and fun for kids to do.

 

Materials

• red card stock
• hole punch
• large scallop scissors
• yarn
• candy
• cellophane (or recycled plastic bag)
• x-acto knife
• tape

1.  The first thing you need to do is make two doilies. (See my doily tutorial here... Also, instead of punching two rows of holes I only did one).

2.  Next you need to cut a little heart window out of one of the doilies. I made a heart template and traced it in the middle. following the tracing lines, I cut only half the heart with an x-acto knife. (This part is not intended for kids.). Then I folded it over to make a cute little flap that finishes the other half of the heart shape. (Remember to erase any pencil marks when finished.)

 

3.  Now you need to put plastic in the window. (You can use cellophane but I just cut out a piece of plastic from an old bag I had on hand.) Tape the plastic to the back of the doily to cover the hole.

4.  Grab some yarn, lace it up three fourths of the way, and fill with candy. Finish lacing and tie a pretty bow at the top.

Ta-da you're done!
Enjoy your sweet little valentines!

{I am linking up at these link parties}

Crafting with Delia from Delia Creates : Valentine chocolate box

On Tuesday I got together with Delia from Delia Creates and did valentine crafts! We first met through blogging. I found her blog about a year ago and after recognizing a location in her photos I learned she lived in Logan too! We exchanged emails and I eventually invited her to my Halloween party. It was really fun finally meeting her in person. This is only the third time we have gotten together (If you count her coming over to pick up a dish she left at my house).  :)  I am sometimes intimidated by her complete and total awesomeness! Not because she herself is intimidating, quite the contrary, she is so nice, sweet, and sincere!  She is super creative and fun to be around! :) Thanks Delia for a really fun afternoon! :)

When I arrived at Delia's house she invited me in and on the table was a lovely collection of lace and fabric all ready for us to use.  The photo above is actually of some lace at my house because I was not thinking and forgot to bring my camera. :(  It was so fun looking around her house and seeing a few of her lovely creations in person.
Like her neat magnetic Family Home Evening board.   Such a fun way to organize family night.

....and her vintage book paper wreath!  It looks so pretty hanging in her living room. I want one too now!

For our craft Delia showed us how to re-cover chocolate boxes with fabric. We then embellished them with lace and other findings. I brought my youngest and oldest with me. My baby played blocks on the floor (sometimes) and my daughter decorated her own box, check it out here,  When she finished her own we finished mine together. We decided to give it to dad. He loved that.
Here's how ours turned out.
 
Delia's boxes turned out so lovely. One had red lace on top of pink fabric, another had purple fabric and ruffled lace. I wish I had brought my camera!
Delia, I'll have to have you over to my house soon, and maybe I could bake us a treat! Ooh ooh what if we have craft night every month, and maybe invite a few friends? Wouldn't that be fun?! Just an idea.
Thanks again Delia for having us! We had so much fun!

vintage crochet and knitting patterns

 A while back I bought some vintage craft books and have been swooning over all the knitting and crochet projects.  I love that even though these are dated they are still in style.

The yellow little boy sweater is my most favorite. I love that anchor! I love the boots too! :)  And don't you adore the little boy in blue with the gingham shirt collar? I love gingham right now!

Isn't this top so pretty? I love the lacy look and the belt too! This is a complicated pattern and I am not to this level but I still wanted to share it with you.

This red jacket is something I want to make for my husband. He would love this.  If i am secretive enough I can make it for him for Christmas. :)

I love this scarf it is so full and soft looking.  It's all garter stitch too, super easy!

Hope you enjoyed looking into the past for inspiration with me. :)

Gift: handmade nutcracker

My 4 year old son loves nutcrackers.  He became obsessed last Christmas when my daughter rented the ballet at the library.  He would ask us to paint a mustache on his face and red dots on his cheeks. Then he would put a stick in the back of his shirt and when he moved it up and down He would open and shut his mouth. He would buy cheap little nutcrackers but would eventually break them. When contemplating what to make him for Christmas I kept going back to a hand-painted wooden nutcracker, but that was quickly followed with the realization that he is still too young and it's just a matter of time before it too will get broken.  Then when I was at DI and found a plush nutcracker I knew that fabric was the way to go. I sewed and sewed into the wee hours of the morning working on this guy.

So with out further adieu here is the plush nutcracker I made.

I hand sewed most of his face except the teeth, which are hot glued. The X on his chest, and the feather on his hat are also hand stitched. He is machine sewed pretty much everywhere else. 

His arms are button jointed, and his hands, feet and bum are all weighted with rice.  The body is a cylinder and his legs are sewn into the seam so because of the rice he sits up on his own! :)

He is so cute and My son LOVES him! :)

skinny jeans or " jeggings "

New Years resolution #1

Make more clothes for myself . 

I was talking to a friend Sunday and found out we both had resolutions to spend less time looking at sewing blogs and more time actually sewing!

So I made some old jeans into skinny jeans the other day. The result is super tight jeans that, "make me lose about 20 lbs" -says my husband. Awesome right?! I love them!

To make them I did the same basic idea as this tutorial.

Valentine salt dough cookies

I thought it would be fun to re-share the salt dough cookies I made last year. They are so festive and pretty! These are really easy to make, just use the same recipe as the snowflake cookies, but omit the food coloring so they look like sugar cookies! I also didn't add glitter to some of them and I like how they turned out. What do you think?. I glued ribbon loops to the back of some and gave them as a gift to my friend to put on her valentine tree. She loved it. :)

I tried some new techniques when I made the cookie below.  First I painted a red heart with craft paint. Then I decorated on top of the red paint with white puff paint and glittered the wet puff paint. It ended up looking awesome!

 

 I have them hanging on my Valentines tree and they look really cute! 

(P.S. The glitter cupid cost me 25 cents at an after Christmas sale! I also got my pink ball ornaments after Christmas at Walmart. A box of 25 ornaments for $3, you can't beat that!)

These look so pretty all packaged up in a pink origami box made from 12x12 pieces of card stock.

If you haven't tried to make these yet go and try it. They are so fun and addictive!

If you don't have mountains of 12x12 scrapbook paper you can cut two 12x12 pieces out of any paper grocery bag. :)  Like the one pictured below. This is a very cost effective and earth friendly form of packaging. :)

You might have noticed that these boxes have shallow lids. I usually make lids that totally cover the bottom box. It was kind of hard to figure out.  Once I have it simplified I'll give a tutorial on that. :) 

My daughters craft blog { and a free blog background }

My 6 year old daughter has a craft blog now!
She had been asking me to take pictures of all her crafts and creations for a while now. She even asked me to take photos of her making things "so other kids can learn how to make them too".  She kept telling me not to put it on my blog but on her blog since they were her crafts. But her blogs name and URL had nothing to do with crafting. So I made her a new one! It's called One creative kid.

I designed the header, the background, and other icons myself. I played a lot with bright and vibrant colors, something I don't really do on my blog. It was so much fun!  My daughter asked me to put humming birds on the header so she gets credit for that. It would have been so boring without those. Here is the image to make your own gingham blog background. And who doesn't LOVE gingham right?
(Right click image to save)

 Here is how to put it onto a Blogger blog.
First you go to the Design tab in blogger and click "Template Designer".



Now click "Background"

Click the arrow or "remove image" to open the menu.

Next click "upload Image".

Click "Browse" and choose the image you want.

After loading your image, click "Tile" to view the menu.

Click "Tile" in the menu.

 

And last click "APPLY TO BLOG"

 You're done!
 Now go take a look at your awesome blog!
 Here are some more free blog backgrounds, they're smaller, and in different colors and angles. You can use these for desktop wallpaper too!  Happy gingham blogging everyone!

(Right click images to save.)

Tutorial: masking tape flag cupcake topper

Hi there! Today I am sharing a really great craft to do with kids, masking tape cupcake flags! We all had a blast making them; my daughter made a valentine flag & I made a striped one. I think hers is better. :) This has to be the easiest craft tutorial I have posted so far. These are super cheap too!  Keep reading for a step by step how to.

1.  Materials: masking tape, sucker sticks, permanent marker, and scissors.
2. Put tape onto the stick and cut a V shape.
3. Decorate with permanent marker.
4. Make more!

 & that's it!  You're done! Super easy!

 My 6 year old daughter has been asking about putting up Valentines stuff ever since Christmas afternoon. So we took down Christmas yesterday. :( This is early for us to put away our Christmas stuff. Usually we leave up our main tree and decorate the dining room tree with Valentines.  My husband and I sang and played Christmas songs on the stereo while we put everything away. I am still making Christmas crafts though. I am making a little glitter village.
I am excited about the future and happy to see my walls again even if they feel a bit naked.  I have a Valentine tree up in my living room and I'll have to post photos of that soon. :)  We're always celebrating something at our house. :)

Gift: "Harry Potter" doll and accessories

About a week before Christmas I finally got the light bulb over my head for the PERFECT gift for my daughter. A Harry Potter doll!  Not Harry himself but a girl who goes to Hogwarts and has little accessories. I love doll accessories, something about how tiny they are is just so irresistible. In fact I think I love the accessories more than dolls....maybe.

One of my favorite things I made is the feather quill pen. I took a chicken feather and cut it down to the size for a doll. So cute! I had my husband help me carve a twig into a wand and I used a bead for the sorcerers stone. Later, after Christmas, it was my daughters idea to cut out little HP fan posters for the doll from a magazine. The backpack and text books are a Christmas gift from my sister when we were younger. (Pictured with the doll, later in this post, is a broom I made from a stick and straw.)

 As a girl I loved looking through the America Girl doll catalogs, loving all the accessories they had.  I never did like the American Girl dolls themselves though, I don't really like their face sculpt to be specific. I looked all over on line and found some other lovely dolls but was worried they wouldn't ship in time for Christmas. Then I realized that up in the attic packed away were my Magic Attic dolls from when I was younger.

It was meant to be. I immediately went upstairs, got the doll that looked most like my daughter and went to work.

She turned out so perfect! I knitted the Gryffindor scarf, sewed the robes out of felt, and made her plaid skirt. (Her socks, shoes and shirt were doll clothes I already had.)  I sewed and sewed while watching an old season of Project Runway. Since I had a Christmas Eve deadline it kind of  felt like I was on the show too. I wonder what Tim Gunn would say? I ended up losing a knitting needle in the middle of working on the scarf and I guess Tim would have said "make it work" so I did and used a needle that was one size too small to finish the the rest of the scarf. :)

 
A tiny little felt shield adorns the lapel of the robe with an embroidered H for Hogwarts. (Any true HP fan will notice her costume is not exactly movie accurate but I was on a time limit and used no references. Plus my daughter has not yet pointed anything out that is incorrect and that is pretty awesome since she is always happy to correct me when it comes to HP. ) 

This gift was so rewarding to make, and it was so fun to watch it be received with joy and love.  She is fascinated and I am so excited to play dolls along with her. Hope you too had a great time creating the perfect gift this Christmas :)