Tied lampshade

This project is a great way to reuse something and be low impact on the environment. Scraps for the ties and you can even use the original fabric from the shade to make some flowers for something else! It may take a very long time for you to complete but the finished product is well worth it. Just pop in a movie or two and cut a LOT of strips and tie, tie, tie. Or you could order one from my etsy shop! I have one available and will gladly make custom orders to match your room.

Every Little Girl "Needs" Lipstick

 We've probably all heard it if we have a little girl. "Emma is in your purse. She dumped out your wallet." A minute later my son says, "She's also playing with your lipstick." That one got me up and running to see how much of her face she had painted. This has been going on for a couple of months so I thought to myself I will try to find her the toy lipstick I had as a kid. It rotated like real lipstick and was made by Fisher Price. No such luck. Next best thing was to make her one. I dug in my freebies from purchasing Clinique makeup and *gasp* took a brand new lipstick and threw the lipstick part out and did my best to clean out the rest. Next, I found a dowel rod that fit perfectly into the tube cut a piece at an angle to fit the tube. Then, I painted the dowel rod with some red fingernail polish I had laying around. Had the dowel rod been unfinished I might have colored it with blackberries so that it was less "toxic" should she chew it. Next time.... Final step is to E6000 the dowel into the tube and let it dry. Emma is so excited about her lipstick.

Food Face Plate Tutorial

 This is my first tutorial with photos! If I left out something feel free to send me a message. You'll need the following supplies:Edit HTML

1. plate (I chose white but you could do a color if you want to get funky!)
2. pebeo ink for glass (I purchased mine at Michael's)
3. paint brush
4. image to transfer
5. paper
6. tape
7. pencil
8. sharpie or marker

  First pick you image. I chose this one and stretched it to fit my plate. Then print it out. You can also you a photo of a family member if you want to personalize it.

 Then flip your image over and trace it with sharpie on the back side of the paper.

 Next, scribble over your sharpie lines with a pencil making sure to cover well. This does not have to be pretty.

 Trim around your image and tape it to your plate with the right side up. (Pencil scribbles touching the plate.)

 This is a boy and girl version. You are now going to trace the image with a pencil. This will transfer your scribbles to the plate leaving a template for you to paint over.

 Remove your taped on image and you'll have the following. Notice the plate on the right is darker. I did a better job with my scribbling here.

 Paint over your lines with Pebeo Vitrea 160. You could try the Pebeo pen, but I haven't had much luck with those. If you mess up a little bit you can use a toothpick to scratch away little imperfections. Allow paint to dry 24 hours and then bake at 325 degrees for 40 minutes. Ink is dishwasher safe. I wouldn't use a knife or heavy duty scouring pad on this plate just in case, but otherwise you should be fine.

It's time for the annual post, right?

Seriously...I am a good blog reader, but not a dedicated blogger. Perhaps if I took the time to document all of my creations I would feel that my posts would benefit other crafters. This next creation was a fluke. I had visions of this being a cute skirt and then making a fabric flower and attaching it to a pre-made shirt. What the skirt turned into is so cute! If only I had finished this hours ago, you would see pictures of a cute little girl wearing it. Maybe in days to come I'll add some! No promises. I am after all turning into an annual poster.

So if you're thinking...I could make that. You are right, you can! This was a skirt with an elastic waist that was entirely too long for my little monkey. I didn't want to cut the waistband and re-iron to make a new band. What I did took longer...lol, but the results are cute! I took the  too long skirt cut a black rectangle of knit turned the sides in and pressed, though if you look at the inside I did not measure before I turned and it isn't "pretty." It is just knit and it's just for my little monkey so I just went with it. I decided to ruffle the top of the black panel so that it wasn't too wide. You can do this by setting your stitch length as long as it will go and your tension as high as it will go. This is an amazing little trick my dear friend taught me. I use it to ruffle everything. I have a ruffler, but don't know how to use the thing. The straps of this dress have non-roll elastic underneath red strips of knit. I wanted to keep that ruffle theme going. The straps cross in the back. The flower is a scrap ruffle left over from the bottom of the skirt. I made the red ruffle with the same technique mentioned above. So while this isn't a clear cut tutorial, the project itself is not to complicated.  Enjoy!