Make your own tic tac toe board travel pack

Saw these cute little tic tac toe travel totes on Pinterest one day and decided to make some. I seem to always be looking for things to do with my grandchildren and just fell in love with these. All you need are:
4 squares of felt and a little ribbon. I cut 2 sheets of felt 8" x 8" square. Then I cut 4 strips in a different color 1/2" x 8". And cut 2" pieces of ribbon 12" long. I then pinned the strips of ribbon evenly to One piece of felt and the two ribbons as shown. You can check your placement by looking at the picture. Sew the strips and ribbon onto the 1 piece of felt.  I then made a pocket and sewed it to the other piece of felt, making sure to only sew the sides and bottom making a pocket. Then I put the 2 pieces together and simply sewed them together.  For the X's and O's I just cut the shapes out of 2 different colors of felt. Now I'm not a very good cutter without some sort of pattern but I think the letters turned out okay. You do not have to limit yourself Be creative... You can do any shapes you want. For example make stars and half moons or if you really want to make it special spend a little time and make doggies and kitties as you Xs and Os.
My granddaughter loved this tote so much. I made 1 for her to take home, 1 for my house and a couple of more just cause they were very cute.
Well until next time.
Happy crafting

Well the craft show is over and it was a bust. But I don't feel too bad because no one was selling anything. Everyone just barely cover the cost of their table. With economy so bad, I am sure most people are like me and really try to be a little frugal.
I wanted to show you the cute little key chains I made for that show. I took them to work a day or two later because someone wanted to see them and sold almost all of them.

These are so easy to make. All you need is a few scraps of fabric, a small piece of fusible interfacing and 2 -1 inch keyrings.
Measure your fabric 13" long by 3" wide.
Cut your interfacing 12" by 1" wide
Iron the interfacing to the inside of fabric centering it down the middle.
Fold the fabric twiced to get a strap that is 1 inch wide. Sew along the folded edge. I iron mine for a nice crisp edge.
Now slide the strap inside one of the keychain circles. Trim your raw end edges and sew the strap ends together. Then fold the strap inhalf making sure that end seam is as close as you can get to the keyring but still far enough away so you can sew another seam that will hold the ring in place.
And that's all there is to it.
You now have a cute keychain that you can match up with a cute little pouch you can make.
I sold all of the little puppy paw keychains. I also sold alot of the heart ones I guess because it was a few days until Valentine's Da.
Well until next time.
Happy crafting, Becky

Cute little Post It Note Holders

I'm back to crafting. My crafting block finally melted. So I've been trying to get ready for a small craft show in February. Now you know how I love Pinterest. I ran across these cute little Post It Note Holders a couple of months ago. The other day I ran across the acrylic picture frames at the Dollar Tree. I picked up 5 of them, a couple of generic post it note tablets each holding 4 packs of notes. I already had the scrap book papers and small pencils.
So here is how I made them....
I acrylic picture frame that measures 3.5 x 5.
scraps of thick scrap book paper
Elastic pony tail holders or ribbon
Paper punches
 a few buttons
and 1 small pencil

Cut the paper to fit the frame. Then just slide it in the back of frame. I then hot glued the post it note pack on the front of the frame. I glued the paper cut out to the pony tail holder and added a button. You can use ribbon if you prefer. You just glue the paper cutout to the ribbon if that's your choice.
Slide the pencil or pen behind the ribbon or ponytail holder and voila! Cute little gift or craft show item.
Total cost is $1.50 or under.
Now you can't get much cheaper for such a cute gift. Not sure how much I will charge. I'm thinking maybe 4.00
Well back to it. Until next time....
Happy Crafting1

New Year - New Craft

  Well, it's a new year and I wanted to try some new crafts or to learn more options with what crafts I  know how to do. I have been pretty lazy as far as creating and crafting over the past year. I really hadn't done much. But close to Christmas I got the itch again and made a bunch of small things for people. All my co workers got handmade hand warmers and lapel pins. You know I always have to make handcrafted gifts of some kind for Christmas. I then had a baby shower to go to and made the new baby bibs, burp cloths, a teddy bear and some cute felt booties.

  Since September of last year I have been ooing and aawing all the beautiful yarn work on Pinterest. But as much as I loved all the crochet, my crochet talents were very limited. Limited to the single and double crochets and the Granny Square. And knowing I have 2 more showers to attend by March and really wanting to learn how to do some of these beautiful little hats and booties, I decided to try my hand at them. Or at least the easiest of them. So last week I pulled out my yarn bag and went through it. Had some fancy yarns like fun fur yearns and half a skein of grey and half a skein of black, along with a G hook. So I ran up to Walmart for a couple of baby friendly colors of yarn and  a J hook.  Well I picked up a white skein of Red Heart yarn but they were sold out of most of the hook sizes. Well darn! So later I sat down with a YouTube video by Mikeyssmail on "how to do the easiest baby booty ever". I really suprised myself  when I actually did a booty. Well that was enough motivation for me! I did another one and they were the same size and shape.
  So I moved on and tried my hand at a pretty 3 layered crocheted flower by Epicabundance night before last. I did it! I was so proud of myself. Now that flower was not a beginner's project and I really made it and it looks really good.I made another one last night. I have not taken pictures yet but I will.
  My next challenge is to learn to read a crochet pattern. I found a pretty little baby booty pattern online. So I am going to attempt to make these by reading the pattern. There is not a video for this one so we will see how I do.
  So for my goals this year 2013, I will be the best I can be and that means learning new things and enhancing what I do know.
  Wish me luck! Until next time my little chicas....
  Happy crafting!

November already?

It's November already? Seems like summer was just yesterday.  I have been crafting and searching for new ideas for Christmas gifts. I found this idea on Pinterest.  All you need is a 4" clay pot with a clay saucer. A little glass craft bowl, ribbon, pain, E 6000 and a little wooden ball. I got the clay pot and saucer at Michael's for under 2.00. I bought the bowl and ribbon at The Dollar Tree for 2.00, added a bag of candy 1.00. I glued the wooden ball to the center of the bottom side of saucer.
So I painted the pot and saucer, let them dry and added some brown dots of paint. Let that dry and glued the bowl to the upside down clay pot. I let it dry for 2 days just to make sure it was really dry. Tied a ribbon around it, added the candy.
I think it turned out really cute and made a cute gift for under 5.00
Although Michael's was limited on clay pots and the matching saucers. I also added some brown dots to the lid after I took this photo.
Right now I am making a felt basket as a gift.
I'll post it when I'm finished with it.
So what are you working on? Do you make homemade gifts? I always make some gifts for Christmas. Last year I made a ton of handcrafted scarves, coasters and other things. I was disappointed afterwards. I worked really hard and long. I put a lot of thought and energy into those items I made. Only to see no one wearing the things or displaying what I had given them. I guess some people don't appreciate the effort. So this year I will not be killing myself to get it all done. I will make a few things to give to those who appreciates handcrafted gifts other than that I won't give the others anything. Does that sound mean or selfish?  The people I gave these things to wanted the more expensive gift items and because they don't do any crafting,, they do not realize the amount of effort that goes into it.. Now if I had bought the same gift and it came with a large price tag or brand name they would have been tickled pink. But I know from past experiences that people think because I craft , it was inexpensive. My daughter always comes to mind in these cases. Since I have crafted her whole life she showed little appreciation for these things. It has only been in the last couple of years that she is starting to show some love for the handcrafted item.
So is life I guess..... well until next time
Happy Crafting!

Summer Gone By

I know it's been awhile but time seems to be going so fast. I spent my summer sewing a few pieces of clothes for the youngest granddaughter and learning how to work with polymer clay. I saw a altered bottle on Flickr and fell in love. Isn't is just gorgeous! I figured that if you just wrap snakes of clay and add a few indents then bake. You would do a quick paint job and wipe that off. This is what you get. Right? Well not quite. Because mine keep flattening out and just doesn't look the same. But I'll keep working on it. Heaven knows I'm no quitter. Although I have a ton of UFOs, I eventually get back to them and finish.
Right now I am working a boutique style hair bows too. My youngest granddaughter started school a couple of weeks ago and will not go without a bow in her hair. I never realized just how young they become little divas. But at 4 she is definitely a diva with very strong opinions, likes and dislikes.

Tags

I have recently became enthralled with tags. Tags being gift tags that you use on presents. But to be honest with you I think are way to pretty to go on something that with be thrown away along with the gift wrapping. So after looking at many for a couple of weeks decided this morning to try my hand at making one. I use scrapbooking card stock, a few card making stick ons, a wee bit of pearl stems, snipped off a little bit of artifial flowers, added 2 different ribbons and a butterfly button.

I guess you are only limited by your imagination and you resources.

I really didn't have alot to work with but I think it turned out rather cute.

If I were going to get into it big I could probably spend a fortune. But I am a cheapskate at heart and so mine will never rival those tags that I am in love with. Oh well just as well. Just wanted to share.

Until next time peeps, Happy Crafting

I love Pinterest

Have you discovered Pinterest yet? Evidently they have been around for awhile but I have not seen it until 2 weeks ago. This site allows you to collect pictures and urls of things, places and styles that inspire you. You can collect pictures of what you like by surfing the web, going to sites you love or by joining and looking at what others have posted on their pin boards. You pin or repin pictures onto your pinterest board.

I have become addicted to Pinterest. In the last 2 weeks I have visited dozens of blogs where the blogger has tutorial and how tos of just about anything. Did you know you can make your own cleaning supplies for a fraction of retail cost? Well, I didn't know until Pinterest.

Did you know that you could make beautiful furntishings from old shipping pallets? Me either but there are dozens of people out there who make beds, couches, tables, shelves ect... from shipping pallets. You remember right before Christmas I was doing all the gifts handmade? I will be very prepared next Christmas. As a matter of fact I have become so inspired by the DIYs that I am so motivated to make some changes at my house.

Although I am not quite sure which room I will begin with. My kitchen does need a new coat of paint so I will probably begin there along with the hall way that is sort of attached to the kitchen.

Was thinking of maybe a light orange walls with accents in Dark orange with a touch of teal.

What do you think about repainting all the picture frames down the hall a dark orange and adding dark orange knobs to my white cabinets? I thought then maybe a few tall bottles spray painted teal to set on top of the frig?

I don't know the last time I had a vision for my kitchen it went horribly wrong and it took me 5 years to change it. HeHe

Buying the paint next week so we will see.

Well gotta run, if you want to follow me on Pinterest go to the right hand side and look at the "Places I visit" catagory. It's the first one.

until next time my lovelies, Happy Crafting

Welding Caps Instructions again

I told you last time I would get together instructions for you and I had an awful time trying to get the pattern where you can just print it out. The best I can do is direct you to 2010 posts where I gave you the directions as well as the pictures of the pattern.
I am sorry about it but I am not tech savvy enough to to it any other way.
If some time in the future I figure it out, I'll post it.

Until then here are the pattern pieces and I"ll try to walk you through this.

You will need 4 fat quarters or about 18" of two co ordinating fabrics. Cotton works best.

You will need to cut 2 fronts, 2 backs, 2 side panels, 2 bills and 1 bill piece from felt or fleece and 2 strips for the cap band measuring about 34 -36 inches.

Hopefully you have sewing experience. Sew the bill together using 3 pieces 1 for the outside,the felt or fleece for the padding and 1 for the inside of cap.

* I make mine so they are reversible, Using 1 design on the outside and another design for the inside. After you sew the bill together you then treat the rest of the sewing like you are working on just 1 cap (You will see why in a mionute)

I sew a front and a back to the side panel and do it again then sew the 2 sections together matching up edges. I pin the finished bill piece to the edge of the front pieces then I sew the band to the lower edge around the whole cap. You will need to do some adaptations when you get near the end so the band will need to be sized up and trimmed as you finish it.

Npw do this again for your inside cap.

You will then do the exact same steps for the inside of cap.

Second to the Last step: Place the inside and outside caps together right sides touching And sew around the whole thing leaving a couple inches open for turning.

Turn the cap outside right through the opening and do a stay stitch around the whole cap.

Done.

In the mean time if you can print it and work with it let me know how you did, I would love to see pictures.

Here's a tip, if you have an old baseball hat laying around try looking at it to see how it's put together. You could even tear it up and work with it as a pattern.

I hope this tut helps, I'm sorry it's the best I could give you for now.
Until next time happy crafting peoples.

Welding Caps Revisited

Over the last 2 months I have had 184 requests for a paper pattern for my welding cap tutorial. And that is just in the last 2 months. Unfortunately I donot have the means or time to send these out through the mail. That's alot of stamps and envelopes. I have a tut on my tutorial site that everyone is free to use. It is for a do rag. After Christmas I will get a tutorial together for the welding caps or at least try to. I am not real good with figuring out how to make a pattern that you can print off and not have to worry about the sizing. If you are interested my site is http://itsmybag.myeweb.net
I hope this helps and am truely sorry that I cannot send everyone a written pattern personally.
I will be updating soon. Until then Merry Christmas!

In Love With Felt

I know it has been months since I posted but you know how life gets in the way.

Recently I started crafting for the holidays. And money being in short supply this year I decided to make it a homemade Christmas. So I needed some little toys to add to the pound puppies I made. I started searching for ideas and found 2 really cute free instructions to make owls from felt. Downloaded the patterns and since I already had some felt, made the little owls.

I can say officially I have fallen in love with those little felt squares you can buy by the piece or in 12 packs at Michaels and Walmart.

Turned out cute or at least I think so. So off to Michaels I went. Picked up about 12 in different colors. And made 2 more in blue this time.

Then as I was browsing the web like I often do in search of more little felt friends I had an idea. Why not download coloring pages and use them as patterns. This has worked beautifully.

I have used more owls , an elephant, a chick, a bear and a few others to add to my pattern collection for little felt friends. I also came across a cute little primative pouch holding a stuffed heart with scrabble tiles used to make cute sayings like "love much". The web site wanted over 10.00 each. Since I had about a hundred scrabble tiles sitting in my glass tile jewelry making box. I knew I could make these. But when it came down to putting a stuffed heart in these I thought it could be of more use with maybe coasters in the pouch. Drew out 8 circles and made 4 coasters to go into each pouch. I have now made 7 of these. Trouble was after 3 I didn't have any usable letters left in my pile. I used 1/2 inch letters on the backside of the tiles and that was perfect. I also have made 15 scarfs from fleece and used felt stars, flowers or hearts to embellish the scarves. I"ll do a post on these later.

I will try to set up a tutorial if anyone is interested. Well until next time happy crafting.

Where does the time go?

Where does the time go? It has been almost 9 months since I posted. Is that possible? I bet you all forgot about me. I have been busy with work, making things for baby showers and just plain ol being lazy. Yes you can be busy being lazy. Here it is March and looking out the window to snow coming down. Darnit I had plans for the day that did not include snow.

Anyways, both my daughter and daughter in law have decided to do their livingrooms and kitchens in primative. I browsed the web and came across alot of wonderful prim designs. These little star wall hangings will fit the bill nicely. I traced out some stars like these and cut about 1 dozen in 2 diffenert sizes. Now if I can get my hubby to get his dremel and some sand paper out of his building... I plan on painting them, sanding them alittle and hang them with some old wire. Then I'll add a saying on each one. Hopefully I'll be able to post pictures when I get them done. I lost my camera cable and have no idea where it can be. Living in a very small house you tend to lose things in all the clutter. I know I should throw stuff away but I always think I might need it later. No I'm not a hoarder per say. But I have a really hard time throwing away craft supplies. I will eventually use them. I have things for years and not use them then one day I'll decide to do that particular craft again and I dont have to go buy that many supplies because I saved the bulk.