Shirt Replica

I go into Charlotte Russe and I fall in love. With this:

A cute navy blue tank with ruffled collar. Now over the course of the year I seriously packed on some unwanted pounds so finding a shirt that looked good on me is a serious plus now. The shirt cost $22.50. I know i know, thats nothing. You need to understand though, I am SERIOUSLY cheap. $20.00 is the most i EVER spend on a piece of clothing. I just cant fathom spending more. BUT I know I can't sew so I sucked up my pride and bought it. As I'm standing at the register I look at my shopping companion and said "This kills me because I know I can make it!" I then proceeded to show her how the ruffles were simple circles of material folded into fourths and sewed on. SEEEE...

When sewed all together you get a gorgeous ruffle. 

After getting home I decided to give it a go anyway, pretty much just to prove I could. So I gathered my supplies. A black wife beater that I already had:

And tulle circles I found in the wedding section of the dollar store. I got them in purple and white. Then i cut them up into like 3456789 tinier circles. Note my work surface is the arm of a chair. I'm so classy.

I then doubled the circles up (one lavender and one white), folded em into fourths and started sewing. 

Here is my finished product.

 Look a little circusy. BUT here is it on:

I think this would look so cute with a little jacket over top! Also take notice of the GORGEOUS key necklace my AMAZING boyfriend bought me. He's so sweet.

So, like I said, I SUCK a sewing. If this came undone tomorrow I would NOT be shocked, BUT I did it! Which is exactly what I wanted to prove to myself.   WHALA!

Alphabet Pictures

 I went to a fair by me called The Cranberry Festival in October and they had pictures of people's names and whatnot. Only the letters were made of things found randomly in life. I fell in LOVE with them, but they were ridiculously pricey. I knew I could do it myself and just have been procrastinating it ever since. So then I saw hers. Fell in love all over again and knew I had to get on the ball. So I spent all day going around the house finding letters. I finally finished. Now I adore her blog and I know she is selling hers in her Etsy shop. I'm not trying to be ANY competition. Heck, I don't even have an Etsy shop. I simply display what I do. So, if anyone sees this, and wants one, go HERE! She'll hook you up because she does AMAZING work!

Anyways, here is a sample of my letter photography. (it would look adorable black and white as well)

I mainly did it because like I said, I ADORE IT, and I also want to give one to a friend of mine as a wedding gift. You know, she'll have a new last name, and i though a photo collage of her and her hubby's family name would make a cute gift. 

Lemme know what you think!

IDEAS

Okay so I was floating around blog land and I got LOTS of ideas. In the near future you will see:

-Personalized, home made coasters
-a shirt remake (if I can do it!)
- Chocolate dipped marshmallow pops (for a baby shower)
-Personalized metal stamped jewelry
-baby's first year photo collage
-Pearl bracelet


STAY TUNED! Otherwise I'm looking for new blogs to follow and inspire me. Gimme some good ones!

Need ideas

I am having a total inspiration block. I need ideas. Im so sick of Christmas stuff (Yes, I'm a grinch). I need something to inspire me!!! HELPPPPP

Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO EVERYONE OUT THERE IN BLOG LAND! Hope you have a fabulous day tomorrow!

Melted Mashmallow

All over blogland I've seen the melted snowman cookies and totally fallen in love. Sugar cookies bore me though, SOOOO instead I made these, and thennn I gave em the melted snowman tough. Cute and delicious!!! (Sorry bout the picture it was done on the fly with my cell phone)

They were a huge hit! 

I also made these... which i HIGHLY recommend. They are deadly. Although my centers totally sank. Icing had to cover the evidence. They werent too gorgeous (hence why the lack oh photos) but the taste made up for it!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

 

Book Page Necklace

Mandipity posted a tutorial for this AMAZING necklace. So, I gave it a go, with my own twist. I'm obsessed with it! It came out awesome! Ive even had my friends say "You need to make me one!" haha. The only thing I did different was I used distressing inks instead of burning the edges. LOVE ITTTT!

Washer Jewelry Continued

I started experimenting with alcohol inks. I took a washer and dyed it. Then i used the "As Seen on TV E-Z engraver" and engraved my name into it. I still have to string it. 

Check out the awesome color blending. 

Then I did the same thing to the smaller washers and made a bracelet. I need to do another coat though. It seems to be wearing off. 

I also made another one of these bracelets in this pattern:

to match. It came out really awesome but I gave it away for Christmas before I could take a picture. 

Candy Jars

So I see all these posts making these adorable candy dishes. One day I was bored and decided to candy dish it up. Those little wooden balls had to be the most expensive part of this project. They were over $1.00 a piece which shocked me a tad. Anyway, the fish bowl is from Dollar Tree and the terra cotta pot is from Michaels. I already had the paint, ribbon, and glitter. Oh, and I used E-6000 glue. I love that stuff! Anyway, here's the way they turned out....
P.S. I wanted to paint them slightly different than those I've seen before, so I tried a zebra print. Let me know how I did.

Black with pink polka dots!

My co-worker actually asked me for this to give away as a gift. It never made it past her daughter's room. She claimed it as her own. LOL 

Glittery top.

Glittery top on the zebra print one

All filled with goodies

My candy dishes. 

Sorry

So sorry I've been M.I.A. lately. School has been hectic. I had my interview yesterday, and between crafting, and wrapping, and organizing, and all the other things that are included with Christmas and 1st grade I just havent had time to take pictures of what I've been working on. I swear I have been busy though, and I'll have some pics up soon!

Class Wreath

I made this wreath with the extended day class I work in. We had the kids write their names on construction paper lights and strung them. Then we glued them, Christmas balls, and a banner with our programs name onto a wreath. It ended up being a nice, personalized Christmas decoration!

Cork Board TOTALLY redone!

So  I was walking down the hallway at school and one of the teachers was throwing away a double sided cork board. I couldn't figure out why it was double sided because how could you possible used both sides at once?! Anyways, it was a little beat up but I knew I could get some use out of it. It ended up sitting in my basement until I decided what I wanted to make- a message/cork/picture holder. 

Materials Needed:

- 16 bottle caps

-16 pushpins

-1 old junky cork board

-ribbon in your choice of colors

- buttons in your choice of colors and styles

- fabric to cover bottle caps

-Fabric to cover board (size depends on the size of your board)

- Deco Art Americana Acrylic Paint (I used Lamp (Ebony) Black and Calypso Blue)

-Glue gun

1) I started by removing the frame and covering the board with pink fabric. I hot glued it only on the back because hot glue dries hard and I knew if it was on the front the push pins wouldn't go through.

2) Next I ran striped of different colored ribbon diagonally up and down the board. I didn't measure this, just eyed it until I thought they looked even. Again, I only glued the ribbon in the back.

This is what the back looks like after its fully glued. You can put a piece of cardboard over it to cover the mess but I just hung it on the wall, because then you can't see it anyway.

3) I secured the intersections with colorful buttons. Each button got a small dot of hot glue and then I placed them where the ribbon intersected. This way the ribbon was taught enough to hold things, even though it was not glued down in the front. 

The polka dotted things are actually the pushpins. Keep reading to learn how to do them!

4) I then painted the frame that I removed with the Deco Art Lamp (Ebony) Black paint and allowed it to dry. I only used one coat. 

5) While the frame dried I started the push pins. Who wants a fancy board with ugly old pins? I cut the polka dot fabric into squares. Placed a bottle cap on top and hot glued the corners into the cap. Then using another dot of glue I glued the pin into the cap. (see photo below)

See the pin?

Here's a side view. You can see the pin sticks up past the cap so it can go into the board. 

Finished pin.

6) Now that the board was done I had to finish the frame. I scooped up a big glob of Deco Art Calypso Blue paint and went to town flinging it onto the black painted frame.  This can get really messy, so you may want to do it outside. It does give the project a great pop of color!

 7) Once it all dried I slid the board back in and hot glued it shut (seeing a pattern here?! I love HOT GLUE!). 

8) Finally, I made a bow out of purple ribbon and hot glued it on the top for a decorative touch.

Here's the finished product. I'm obsessed!!!!!

I'm linking up to:

The DIY Club!