Teacups and Wildflowers

by Kelly | Jun 16, 2010 | Uncategorized

I am totally blessed and happy with my life. Of course there are ups and downs, but there are too many wonderful things to let anything keep me sad.

Life lately has just shown me how truly grateful I need to be for the big things like my supportive husband, perfectly healthy happy baby boy, my humble house, my working legs & arms and the smaller things like the flowers I planted outside, chocolate milk, carpet and stickers.

There are few better ways to enjoy your life than to inspire others to a appreciate theirs, too.

Here are some recent pictures of the garden and life around here lately.

This is a red poppy. I love that its such an intense color, but its less than paper-thin and fragile.

a sprig of blueberries that are coming in nicely

The strawberry plant that is roommates with the raspberry bush.

Wildflowers from the garden. Also, this is a great holder for flower. I made it with a regular teacup. The teacup I got for Mother’s Day. (this would make such a cute gift!)

*Kelly*

New Watering Can and Flowers

by Kelly | Jun 13, 2010 | Uncategorized

Today, Shalisa and I went flower picking in my garden this afternoon. It was the perfect day to use the new watering can. This is what we came away with.

Enjoy your day!

*Kelly*

Wonderful Family

by Kelly | Jun 6, 2010 | Uncategorized

Today I woke up to find these three Katie Brown “cozy mugs”, as I call them. Nathan surprised me with them and this great ceramic square plate to house them. I wanted one for Mother’s Day, but when we got home, the mug we thought we got wasn’t in our bags 🙁 .

But today he got me two others, along with mine, so I can have two friends over for tea! Wanna join me? ? 🙂

Chamomile anyone? <3

Judah and Nathan

They are the best thing I could imagine. <3

*Kelly* – happy & blessed mommy

Printable Cupcake Wrappers & Template

by Kelly | Jun 5, 2010 | Uncategorized

I was thinking about cake decorating & cupcake decorating recently. I have a huge respect for cake decorators (professional or hobbyists). I want to decorate cakes for a hobby one day when I have more time. Until then, a quick and easy way to decorate cupcakes (essentially tiny cakes) is to use cupcake wrappers.

There are a few cupcake templates online. With these templates, you can use the template to cut out cupcake wrappers from decorative card stock or scrapbook paper or print them directly onto white card stock and use my designs.

The size is for the standard cupcake size.

Supplies :

*Cupcakes in their paper cups they were baked in
*Card stock and/or scrapbook paper
*scissors
*tape or hot glue

Step 1: Print the wrappers onto card stock

Step 2: Cut out the wrappers along the outside lines.

Step 3: Attach the two ends, slightly overlapped, with tape or hot glue.
( I prefer tape just because glue around food makes me nervous)

easy peasy!

ENJOY!

Cupcake Wrapper Flower Template

Cupcake Wrapper Swirls Template

Cupcake Wrapper Hearts Template

*Kelly*

Paper Flower Bookmark

by Kelly | Jun 4, 2010 | Uncategorized

I’ve gotten a few questions on how I made the flower top for the Journal Jar. I put together this quick tutorial for the flower and made a bookmark out of it. I also created a pattern for the petals & flower so you can download and print it! You can expand on this, making it as large as you want or as small as you need.

Template for Flower

Step 1: Gather Supplies

*card stock for the petals & leaves
*scissors
*E6000 glue
*popsicle stick
*the petal pattern

Step 2: Cut out all the pieces from the pattern

Step 3: Start assembling. Curl and bend the pieces to make them look more realistic (or not, and make a 2D flower). Glue the tail pieces to the stick.

Step 4: Make the 4 large petals look similar to this, then as you place the middle petals, off set them to make it add the the realism.

Step 5: Curl the center piece and glue it together with a dap of glue. Then add it to the center with glue.

Step 6: Add the leaves. Crinkle them and put the glue on the tail piece and slide it under the flower onto the popsicle stick.

Step 7: Enjoy your new bookmark!

*Kelly*

Late Night Cookie Cravings

by Kelly | May 22, 2010 | Uncategorized

Last night I made organic Dr. Oetker cookies and since they came out so well and we had Calder’s milk, I couldn’t resist taking a few pictures..

now go make some, too 🙂

Ten Minute Trellis

by Kelly | May 19, 2010 | Uncategorized

I am growing lots of pea plants, and I saw the little tendrils reaching and grabbing any twig they could find. I realized these little seedlings need something to climb on, and since they are too small from a big trellis, I decided to make tiny trellises. It only took me 30 minutes to make three different trellises, take the pictures & I squeezed in some Judah play time in there, too, so these don’t take long to make.

The ten minute trellis tutorial:

Step 1: gather supplies. You can use a variety of materials to lash the trellis together. I tried three different methods: clear tape, ribbon & glue, and electrical tape.

The first one I tried was the clear tape. The concept is the same, regardless of the materials.

Step 2: I put two of the skewers together so they made a small X at the top. I put the pointy ends down, so they go in the dirt better.

Step 3: Here’s the idea of lashing them together. Basically an “over, under & around” method.

Step 4: This one was made with only 3 skewers, the two on the sides & the other split into 3

Here is the variation with the ribbon, using E6000 & spare ribbon.

You should lash them together like step 2 & step 3 show.

You start the ribbon at the end by glueing it.

let the glue dry. Then wrap the ribbon around the skewers, glueing as you go.

and presto!

Here are the two other, really simple ones.

And a picture of the Phlox, for fun!

*Kelly*

Little Baseball boy

by Kelly | May 16, 2010 | Uncategorized

Simple is sometimes better. ..

Yesterday was the Relay for Life in Southgate, MI. My sister works for the American Cancer Society and I always go out to her events that she plans. This year there was a trick-or-treat lap for kids to walk around and get candy. I found out about it two days ago, so I didn’t have much time to plan.

Judah hasn’t had a Halloween yet, because he’s only 3 1/2 months old, so he didn’t have a costume. His great-aunt had bought us a little baseball outfit for him, so we went with that. I was going to make him a plush baseball to carry, but Nathan suggested a little ping pong ball. It was perfectly to his scale. So I just washed off the ball, drew lines of a baseball on it with a paint marker, and there he had a little baseball!

here it is:

and here Judah is holding the baseball, with me and the whole outfit outside our house:

He got so many compliments yesterday, I’m so glad he could bring joy.

I’m writing this to say that even some of the simplest crafts make something so much better. ;D ;D

*Kelly*

Ernie Harwell Patches

by Kelly | May 13, 2010 | Uncategorized

This week I did these commissioned patches for the American Cancer Society. They are in honor of Ernie Harwell, a man I didn’t know much about until this week, even though he was a very popular gentleman here in Michigan. “He was known for his long career calling play-by-play of Major League Baseball games. For 55 years, 42 of them with the Detroit Tigers, Harwell called the action on radio and/or television. In January 2009, the American Sportscasters Association ranked Harwell 16th on its list of Top 50 Sportscasters of All Time.” He recently passed away due to bile duct cancer at 92 years old.

To raise money for the American Cancer Society, I was asked to design & do these iron-ons.

“I think I owe thanks to the people who have listened to me over the years, who tuned in on the radio. They have given me a warmth and loyalty that I’ve never been able to repay. The way they have reached out to me has certainly been the highlight of my life.”- E. Harwell

*Kelly*

Simple Brooch & Medallion

by Kelly | May 8, 2010 | Uncategorized

I have lots of small bits around the craft space, and to utilize some that are under the category of “I’m going to need that some day..”, I made a simple brooch & medallion.

For the brooch

Step 1: gather supplies – pin backing, needle-nose pliers, scissors, E6000 glue, markers, miscellaneous bits of old jewelry, broken parts & mismatched earrings.

Step 2: DECONSTRUCT ! (needle-nose pliers used here)

Step 3: ReCONSTRUCT! (here’s where your imagination & glue come in)

For the medallion

All the steps are the same, but I used fabric that I drew a simple design on for the back of the medallion. That way light can shine through it .

Draw a picture

Assemble

Embellish & add backing

*Kelly*

Facebook Page !

by Kelly | May 8, 2010 | Uncategorized

Panties And Patches

Promote Your Page Too

Inspiration Jar

by Kelly | May 7, 2010 | Uncategorized

Since becoming a mom, and this year being my first Mother’s Day to celebrate, its become a different holiday to me. I realized that certainly takes a lot to be a parent, and I havn’t even been at it for 4 months yet. I also realized that it been the best experience. I have always been grateful for my parents, but I am especially grateful in a new way.

So this year I wanted to give my mom something I really thought was special. I saw the tutorial from Dana’s Amazing blog, MADE. I read her blog daily. Its an inspirational jumping-off point for journal writing. You pull out a prompt, and write about whatever comes to your mind.

*I found the jar for $1.00 at the Salvation Army

*I made the flower on top with scraps of card stock and E6000, which is the best glue!

*The scraps inside are a mix of suggestions from the tutorial and ideas I had.

*The notebook was $2.00

Total project cost varies : about $3 – $10 (if you don’t have any of the supplies)

I’m excited to see what she comes up with.

*Kelly*

Eye of the Tiger- Eyelet Tutorial

by Kelly | Apr 13, 2010 | Uncategorized

I put off doing some crafts because I was scared of doing eyelets ! WELL NO MORE!! I have finally did it and I have been successfully doing eyelets since 2008 😉 and now YOU can do the same :

*enter some very amped music*
ITS THE! EYE OF THE TIGER, it’s the cream of the fight
Risin’ up to the challenge of our rival
And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night
And he’s watchin’ us all in the eye of the tiger

Eyelet Tutorial

Materials :
Eyelet Kit
Hammer
Scissors
Fabric to be eyelet-ed

Step 1 : get an eyelet kit from the craft store (aka: mother ship) Make sure to get NOT the refill kit with just the eyelets. You want the one with the hammer accessories.

Step 2: Mark where you want your eyelet to go. Preferably inset enough from the seams that you wont risk ripping or tearing when pressure is added to the eyelet.

Step 3: fold the fabric area in half, then half again, to make that pointy triangle right where your mark is

Step 4: VERY IMPORTANT: DO NOT cut too big of a hole. Just Baaaaarely snip it. (remember, you can always subtract fabric) make a teeny tiny hole (trust me, it comes out bigger when you unfold it, plus you don’t want the hole to be too big so the eyelet can actually attach to the fabric)

Step 5: unfold. seeee? that’s a pretty big hole for a teeny tiny sniplet =)

There are two parts to the eyelet: let’s call them male & female 😉 (the male is the protruding one)

Step 6: Place the eyelet

Step 7: This is the order to assemble the eyelet sandwich -if you will- from TOP to BOTTOM
Hammer on top of the “hammer accessory”
the female eyelet on top of the fabric on top of the male eyelet
the that all sits on the holder on top of the table

Step 8: Hold the “hammer accessory” on the now-made eyelet sandwich and HAMMER HAMMER HAMMER (watch out for the fingers!)

and…

TADA!

Fear those eyelets no more!

*Kelly*