fabic rosette necklace

this was probably one of the easiest crafts. but then again, you know me, i'm all about the E to the Z. fabric, felt, necklace chain and hot glue fun...and you're in necklace business! it's probably just me, but i needed 3 practice flowers before i actually was moderately happy with the flowers. after you get into a groove, it's super easy. the hardest part was getting hot glue burns. ugh.

when life gives you the stomach flu...

at the end of 2010 and beginning of this year, i felt like our family was having a lot of stomach issues. realizing it wasn't just OUR family made me feel better knowing that it wasn't my cooking. ;)
in any case, i started saving up empty toilet paper rolls in anticipation of making this. my homage to the stomach flu (my poor boys). but you know what they say, when life gives you the stomach flu...make....toilet paper roll wreaths!
gotta start saving up again, since i need to make 1 more. but seriously, i'm not wishing for another bout of stomach flu in this household. eeps.

ribbon flower headband

after mary sent me the video tutorial, i got the itch. and you know how that turns out. i found ribbon at the dollar tree and a 2 pack of girls headbands to match..$1!! it's so wrong it's right!

this is the finished product. although i realized i didn't follow the tutorial, it still turned out O-K. i'm not happy with it, but i'm also not going to do anything drastic...c'mon now, it's just a headband...

hopefully the mills girls will love it! if not, i won't blame them either. ;)

gripe

i do have one gripe...i wish that the boys' school allowed homemade goodies. they have plenty of parties, but due to a new schoolwide rule, we can no longer bring foods that are not sealed with ingredient list attached. there are so many goodies that i wish i could bring...guess i'll have to wait until they go to public school. *sigh*

earring holders for the girls

since i had extra materials left over (basically just mesh), i asked the girls if anyone wanted one too. 4 of the girls wanted one, including mayu who asked for a smaller version. no problem! these were easy to bang out, i just don't really like working with the screen. first of all, it's really sharp. another thing is, it's hard to pull it tight when i have to glue it down to the frame. i wonder if a regular staple will work. i would just hate for the staple to go through the frame yet again!
in any case, i got 2 new fabrics since v likes green, i thought i'd make her a green one.
in the case of embellishments, i actually really liked the red flowers that i added to mine, but because they were dug up from my remanants, i didn't have any more. and being the anxious person that i am, i couldn't wait. so i took the advice of my uber-crafty friend, mary, and made some fabric rosettes with bead centers. they turned out ...alright. shrug.

earring holder

anxiety strikes again...and as a result, my earring holder is done and hung! i couldn't wait to start this project!! i had some materials at home (glue gun, staple gun, ribbon) and the rest of it, i got at walmart (frame, remenant fabric & mesh). not too many materials necessary for this project, which was great cuz i got a chance to start AND finish while the boys were napping.

of course, every project of mine doesn't come out without some learnings...ie., mistakes...and war wounds. *sigh* first big mistake -- i used a staple gun on a $5 frame from walmart. the staples busted THRU the frame. to make matters worse, i tried to fix it by covering it up with some ugly fabric flowers i had hidden for years. now i know why they were never used, thus "hidden". blah. ohwell. what's done is done, next time, i'm just using the glue gun. and in regards to my war wound, i went to go hang it and found i had blood all over my hands. i had no idea i had even hurt myself so i didn't even know where the blood was coming from! doh! in the words of cooper, "i'm a tough guy!"

i'm not really a flowery kind of person, but like i said, i wanted to cover up the staples around the frame and ended up with a super flowery looking earring holder. eeks. oh well, i didn't want to start over again so i just pushed through it...i'm over it. now time to buy some more earrings!

DONE! rosette wreath gift

i started a rosette wreath for a dear friend of mine last month and i'm finally finished! with all that was going on with work, i had little to no time at all to run out and find felt and ribbon for the finishing touches. hallelujah for working from home and blocking off my calendar for some errands. who needs groceries...i used that time more wisely and went and got ribbon!

i learned a few things while i was making this wreath:
1). i should have wrapped the styrofoam wreath form BEFORE glueing down all the rosettes.
2). trace the wreath onto the felt BEFORE glueing down all the rosettes.

since i didn't think about wrapping the wreath first, until it was too late, i thought i should at least use a piece of felt to cover up the ugly styrofoam, for one...but also, in case the crepe paper rosettes, being burgandy, should rub off onto the door. she'll be hanging this on the inside of her front door and i would hate to stain it. so i just cut some white felt and then pinned it onto the wreath form.

i also pinned the ribbon to hang the wreath under the felt. since i pinned everything, this will make it much easier for her to either change out the ribbon if she wants or adjust the length of it.

i had a good time making it, but when you make one for someone else, the pressure is always greater to make everything perfect. hopefully she'll like it!


2 options for ribbon. i kept the 2nd one