Craft Swap

I heard of someone doing this and decided that I wanted to host one. I sent an email out to a bunch of friends to see who wanted to participate. The was 7 of us which seemed like a good number. Each of us made 6 of something and then meet together and swapped so we went home with 6 different things. I made these bags full of goodies.

I took plan bags and decorated them using ribbon and material. Then I took two different size composition notebooks and made them pretty with some scrapbook paper and modge podge. I also made a matching pen by inserting matching paper into a clear pen.
I stole the following pictures from my friend. These are the things that I recieved.
A pack of very cute cards.
A christmas candle, fabric braclet, earrings, a hand drawn christmas card (very beautiful, and a puppet. In up coming days I will post how you can make some of these things yourself.

What has been going on

Did I really skip from halloween to thanksgiving with no post? Life has been crazy. We have been gone every weekend either visiting friends and family or for my husbands interview. I have been doing crafts just not posting. Many are for christmas presents and have to wait until after christmas to post. I did make a whole lot of magnets so for christmas presents for random people and some for my mom to sell in her boutique. Magnets make cheap and easy presents for a big group of people. My sisters are using them for gifts for their friends at school. They can use them in their lockers. You can personilize them for each friend or just do generic ones for everyone.

I also had my first craft swap and I think it was a sucess. I will post those pictures in its own post. I made Addi a cute thanksgiving outfit and got a great deal at joanns on fancy fabric to make her a christmas dress. I hope to be able to make that this week so she can where it to out church christmas party on friday. If any of you are looking for great ideas for homemade christmas gifts should check out sew mamma sew they had great tutorials everyday in November.

Nordic Bo Peep and Long Lost Sheep Costume GIVEAWAY!!!!

I really really want to win this. Addi would make the cutest litte lamb.
Nordic Bo Peep and Long Lost Sheep Costume GIVEAWAY!!!!

Happy Halloween and what I have been up to this week.

I made this fun little Halloween dress for my daughter. I got this material for $1 and I thought I would use it to test my dress making skills. It is a really simple dress. I didn't have a pattern I just made it up as I went. I drew a pattern for the top part and then just cut a big rectangular for the skirt. I lined the the top part and gathered the skirt before I sewed it on. I made button holes on the top front, but then I never went and got buttons for the dress so I just put the straps through holes and tied a knot. It worked great and added a little cuteness to the dress.
Also this week I had to make some scrapbook pages for my husband's grandma's 80th birthday (they are making her a book). These are the pages I did of our family. I think they turned out cute and I almost didn't want to send them off. Hope you enjoy grandma and happy 80th birthday wish we were there.

On a none crafty note someone ran into our car going 50 mph while my husband was stopped at a stop light. No one was really hurt but our car was totalled. We were planning on having that car for a long time. So intead of buying another small car we took the plunge and got a mini van. So I have been car shopping all we and when the insurance check gets here I get to go pick up our new (to us) mini van. Yeah!

GROSGRAIN MINI STORE OPENING NOVEMBER 6!!!! AND BIG PREVIEW GIVEAWAY!!!!

One of my favorite inspirational bloggers is opening a store to sell her stuff. I am so excited I love her stuff and she id the one who inspired me to try and sew my daughters cloths. Check out her blog she is awesome.
GROSGRAIN MINI STORE OPENING NOVEMBER 6!!!! AND BIG PREVIEW GIVEAWAY!!!!

Giveaway Winner

So I put everyone's name in a stocking (can you tell I have been working on Christmas stuff) and pulled out a name and the lucky winner was Tee (her name is Makenzie, but we call her Tee). But wait, that's my sister she can't win so I decided to do it over and the lucky winner was Tee. Wait not again. After the third time (I mixed the names up each time) of pulling Tee's name out I thought why am I putting her name back in each time. So After taking Tee's name out I did it again and the real winner is Rachel. So since Rachel already expressed what she wants in her comments she is getting a set of customized magnets. And do worry Tee I will make you some leg warmers too. Stay tune for more giveaways and thanks to everyone that posted a link to my blog.

Busy, Sick, and my first giveaway

So I know I haven't posted anything of my own lately, but I have been busy. I have been busy making Christmas presents which I can't really post yet, because some recipients of such presents check this blog, but I will post a Christmas present idea list soon and some of the things I am making for Addi since she is only 6 months old and won't even know. Another thing that has kept me from posting is that my sweet little baby got sick. At first I didn't know what was wrong she would just lay there so sad and then every once in a while would start crying and could not be calmed down. After a couple of days of that and getting peas thrown up all over me we took her to the ER (it was after office hours) and found that she had an ear infection. She is doing much better now, but she got me sick.
So since I have been such a post slacker and because I am curious if anyone even reads this blog I am doing my first giveaway.

If you would like your very own pair of baby leg warmers
or if you don't have babies your own set of customized magnets then enter my giveaway. I know not as exciting as some other people giveaways but it is Christmas making season and it is my first giveaway so they will get better with time.
So if you would like to be the recipient of these fabulous prizes leave me a flattering comment on this post. If you would like to enter twice than put a link to mommy creations on your blog (if you put a link let me know in your comment just in case technorati doesn't pick it up). That is easy enough right? Since I only know of a few of you that even look at my blog this could be the easiest giveaway you ever entered. I will randomly pick a winner one week from today.

Beautiful quilt

I love this quilt from pigtails and snails she made the pattern herself. You could win this beautiful quilt on her web site. Check it out.

Apple t-shirt dress

Before
After
I bought this apple t-shirt at Stuff (a consignment store) for $3. It was brand new it still had the gap tags on it and everything. I thought it was cute but it was way to big for Addi and to small for me so I decided I would use it as fabric to make Addi a dress to where to the apple orchard next week. I used the hems fom the bottom of the shirt and sleeves as the hems om=n the bottom of the dress and dress' sleeves. This made it really easy I just cut out the body of the dress and then the sleeves. Attached the sleeves to the body added edging around the neck and sewed up the sides. I love it and for my first attemt at sewing baby cloths it turned out really good.

Baby legwarmers

I finally made something of my to do list. I made these baby legwarmers. I used this 10 min tutorial on flickr. It took me about 10 min a piece but I am not the most experienced seamstress. I had these on my to do list for awhile and even had some socks that I got from the dollar store (I obviously love our dollar store)then I saw that homemade by jill made them and they were really cute so I decided to try it. I have 2 pieces of advice. One is to use a thread that matches. I just used my white thread that was in my sewing machine because I wasn't expecting my first pair to turn out and since the socks are dark you can see my stitches on the cuff. My other piece of advice it to pin it how the tutorial suggests. I pinned the first one and then thought I was to good to pin on the second one and I ended up picking out the stitches and redoing it.

Rag quilt

These quilts are so easy. You cut your front and backing into squares and then sew them together with the other squares to that the seams are on the top. This way your front and back are already sewn together and there is no need to quilt it. You also don't have to worry about a nice seam because once you are done you snip all your edges and wash the blanket. This makes the edges fray making a nice texture. The hardest thing about this quilt is lining up the corners of the squares. My corners are not all lined up right but if you want to make it easier you can make a strip rag quilt. then all you have to do is be able to sew a straight line.

Sarsaparilla Skirt & Vest GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Sarsaparilla Skirt & Vest GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!
This woman is awesome and makes the cutest stuff and gives something away every week. Her stuff is inspiring.

sprusing up a boring frame

I got these frames from the dollar store (another great dollar store find)and decided that I could spruce them up a little bit. It was a great project to do with my BBBS little sister DeDe. We did the same thing I did with the notebooks. We cute out a piece of cute paper to the shape of the frame and glued it down with decoupage then sanded all the edges until they became one with the frame then we covered it with more decoupage and DeDe covered it with some cute stickers. You can use this technique to match your frames to your decor or for a specific holiday an since the frame only cost $1 and I have tons of scrapbook supplies lying around it hardly cost a thing.

mini notebooks

I made this cute little notebooks for a couple of my friends. They are small enough to fit in their purses so they always have them around whenever they get inspired to write something down. I found these mini composition notebooks and a local dollar store 4 for $1 and thought these are cute I bet I could do something with them. (I love our dollar store they have all sorts of fun stuff). Just like I have done previously I decoupaged scrapbook paper on the notebooks to make them cuter and more personal. Then I punched a hole on the front and back and added a little twine to hold it closed. You can do the same thing to larger notebooks as well. I put the decoupage on the notebook then added the paper. I then sanded the edges so the paper became one with the notebook and then covered the whole thing with more decoupage.

photography blog

Mommy creations now has a photography blog so I have moved most of my photography stuff to that blog including my photoshop tips. Check it out mommycreationsphotography.blogspot.com

How to create a watermark on your photos

Click here to learn how to put a watermark on your photos. It is a good idea to mark your photos so you get credit if someone uses them.

crochet ruffle socks

I made these cute little socks today with my mom. There are really easy if you know how to crochet. I just single crochet around the edge of the sock with a small hook and string and then did different ruffle edges. You could do any type of crochet edge. If you want a specific pattern to use just email me and I can send you the ones that we used.

We also made some that we crocheted in beads. These are great for a little bit older babies that will play with their feet. They keep the feet warm and the baby entertained.

Grandma Brag Book

I made these cutie little grandma brag books for my mom and mother-in-law. All I did was buy a package of plastic card holders from walmart (< $1.50 for package of 12) and tied them together with scraps of ribbon that I had. They fit wallet size photos or i made mini scrap book pages using photoshop to put in it. Now Grandma has a whole book of photos small enough to carry around in her purse. There are 12 plastic card holders so I can send a new page every month with updated photos.

Chalk board rolls

So I was suppose to post yesterday I know but I didn't have a picture of what I wanted to post so I will just post something I do have a picture of Chalk board roll. These are way cute and I am sure kids will love them. They are made with chalk board material so you can draw on them with chalk. This one has a little pocket to hold chalk and eraser but I have also seen them where the chalk board material takes up the whole mat. These mats then roll up because the material is flexible and there are little ties to hold them together. These would be perfect for car rides or church. This picture is one I took of a mat that Ben Franklin (craft store) made but I was just going to make up my own pattern to make it what ever size I want. Both the chalk board material that you write on and the material that looks like a green chalk board my mother-in-law and I found at Ben Franklin so just look around at different craft/fabric stores in your area.

Great Resources

I have recently discovered the books for Dummies and I love them. they are so helpful and they have one for anything you can think of. I first got the digital photography for dummies and digital art photography for dummies. I am getting a new DSLR camera and was really excited to learn how to take more professional looking pictures. I just went to the library and checked out a bunch of books and the for dummies books were my favorite. I have since picked up Crocheting for dummies and knitting for dummies. My mom taught me how to crochet when I was younger, but I had never knitted before and I just taught myself how to do it last night using this book. I get the books from my local library, but is you are one of those people who would rather spent money half.com is a great place to buy books. They have lots of books for as low as 75 cents.
If you don't want to go to the library or buy books then just google what ever it is you want to learn and there are tons of sites out there. You can also get free patterns off the internet. I do this by googling free pattern and then what ever it is that I want a pattern of. When ever I find a site that I really like that has lots of free projects I add a link to my side bar so this website is also a good way to find things if you don't want to weed through all the websites yourself.

Fun, Fast and easy project

I am in big brothers big sisters and I meet with my little sister every week. DeDe (thats my little sister) wanted to make a stuff animal, but she has never sewn before so to teach her how to sew I helped her make a pillow case. This was very easy and a good first sewing project. I just used a pillow case I already had as a pattern. Since DeDe had never sewn before the hem line around the top of the pillow wasn't the straightest and we used white thread so it was very noticeable so we took matching ribbon and used iron on tape to attach it over the hem line. I think it looks really cute and no one can see that we didn't sew straight.

Breast Cancer Quilt

I finally finished the pink breast cancer quilt I was making for my grandma. this was the first quilt that I ever hand quilted. One tip I have for hand quilting is use a template. In each square I quilted either a flower or a breast cancer ribbon. The first square I did I just free handed the ribbon and it didn't turn out how I wanted so I got on the computer and found clipart pictures of a ribbon and two kinds of flowers blew them up to the size I wanted and printed them out and then used those to trace it with a quilting pen right on the quilt. It took me a year to finally finish this quilt. I started it last summer thinking that I could get it done before I saw my grandma in July, but it took me a couple of hours to quilt each square at first ( I got faster as I went) so I thought I would finish it before Christmas, but I came back from my grandma's pregnant and sick and the quilt got put away so after I had my baby I remembered I still hadn't finished the quilt so I got it out and finished it before I went to my grandma's this summer.

Cupcakes!

I started a new hobby. I decided that I wanted to learn cake decorating. I bought a cake decorating set from walmart and my first attempt were these cupcakes that I made for the SNDA bake sale at my husband's school. I thought they weren't bad for a first attempt. They sale all of their baked goods for $1 but one lady thought my cupcakes were with $2 so she paid $2 for one of my cupcakes. My favorite were the ones that I just used the star tip and covered the top of the cupcake. It is so easy but makes a cute cupcake. I added a little bit more detail by putting a different color poka dot in the middle of the stars.

Flood in Iowa

I have finished a lot of new projects but because of the flood in Iowa we left town and before that our internet was not working so check back in a few weeks and there should be an overload of new projects on here.

Dangly shell earrings

I made these earrings this week as a distraction while I was letting my baby cry herself to sleep. Both earrings were made by hanging 3 chains from an earing hook and then using jump rings connecting shell from the chain the green one also has other coordinating beads. The green earrings were made for my friend that moved away to Colorado today.

Framed wall letters

I saw these at a store for a lot of money and thought I could make them for a lot less. You could spell out anything you want. You will need floating frames purchased at a craft store or store that sells frames. They can be any size you want and you could do different sizes and shapes for the different letters. For the letters I printed them off in the font that I wanted and then cut them down to a little smaller than the frame. I wanted the white behind the letters but if you don't like that and want to spend a little more you could use vinyl letters.

Ribbon lamp shade

This is a good idea if you have an old ugly lamp shade like mine or a cheap boring one from the store. I got this idea from my mom. Pick out ribbon that you like that matches your lamp and just wrap the ribbon around the shade. Make sure that you over lap the ribbon.

Ribbon tab curtains

I made these curtains for my daughters room (well actually my mom did he sewing while I was asleep with the baby). The are probably the simplest curtains you can make. Just buy fabric the length you want the curtain and hem the edges. We did about a 1/4 in hem along the sides and 1 in hems on the top and bottom. In the top hem sew in 2 pieces of matching ribbon and then tie the ribbon in a cute little bow.

glass magnets

For craft night we made these cute little magnets. They are very simple. All you need is
clear glass rocks (I have seen them at the dollar store and craft stores)
glue that drys clear (you can use craft glue or elmers glue works too)
scrapbook paper
magnets

Trace the rock on the paper and cut it out. Then glue the paper to the bottom of the rock with the cute side of the paper showing through. Then attach the magnet to the back side of the paper. It is best to let the glue between the paper and rock dry a little before attaching the magnet. Some magnets come with sticky stuff on one side, but it yours don't just use glue. We used rubber cement but the regular glue seemed to work as well.
These make cheap easy gifts. I am making my husband's family all magnets for Christmas. I am printing out letters in cute fonts and spelling out their last name and then making magnets with everyones name in the family one magnet per name. I got that idea from my friend Chelsea.

Blog Headers

I created this blog header for my family blog. I used paper designed by mommyscraps (link in side bar). I used photoshop and as soon as I can figure out how to share files I will upload it so you can put your own photo and name on it if you would like.

Strip Quilt

Here is a quilt I made for my mother-in-law. It is a strip quilt and is one of the easier quilt patterns to start out with. Just get 1/2 yard 6 coordinating fabrics, cut the fabric into strip varying in size from 2 in to 6 in thick. Next sew the strips together in any order that you like. For the back I just got 2 yards (this depends on how long you make your quilt)of a matching fabric. I machine quilted this quilt with my sewing machine by sewing in the grooves between the strips.

New Blog

I started this blog so I can post all of the things I make and give others ideas for things that they can make. I have posted links to helpful websites for the different categories. Feel free to use any of the information and let me know if you like any of it or if it was useful.

Linky Parties

Feel Free to add your linky party to my list if you don't see it and I will come over and party with you.