FREE HYBRID CLASS

If you have ever wanted to learn how to make hybrid (using digital scrapbook supples to make real-life projects)  projects from digital scrapbooking supplies now is your  chance.  And it is FREE!!!!

The very talented Catherine St. Clare, designer of the Paper Garden Projects line of digital supplies, will be teaching this class.  It begins January 3rd and will be located at THE HYBRID CHICK.

BATMAN SCARF

I showed you the robot I made my son for Christmas, now I will show what i made for my daughter. She loves all things super hero geek (go figure with a science geek mom) so I made her a batman themed scarf with built in pockets for keeping her hands warm.  This is probably the only way I will get her to wear a scarf and any semblance of a glove.



This was so super easy to make.  I printed out a pic of the batman symbol and used it to make a pattern to cut out the yellow background and bat symbol from black and yellow craft felt.  I used a blanket stitch to attach them to the scarf.  The scarf was made of black anti-pill fleece.  It was a strip 10 X 60 inches.  The pockets were 10 X 12 inches.







They were placed at the ends of the strip and sewed around the edges at about 5/8 ths of an inch.

So easy and so much fun to wear.

If you have been hit with snow like us stay warm and have a great day!

FELT ROBOT

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

About two years ago I started to make a crobot (crocheted robot) for my son. I started that thing over and over again, repeatedly pulling out my terrible work. I finally gave up but my son still kept asking when he was getting his robot. I finally made him one...but out of felt instead.  I had this idea rolling around in my head for about as long as the trial (and error) of the crobot and I finally decided to make it for him for Christmas.  With the exception of the neck band and the band for the ears, I used spellbinder dies as pattern pieces for the entire thing.

I used labels 2, nested squares, sprightly sprockets, nested rectangles. nested circles, scalloped hearts. The felt was from Joann's and was a 35% wool /rayon blend.

I cut 4 of the largest labels 2 die and 4 of the next size down. Four of the largest squares and four of the next size down.

I made the mistake of putting the head together before adding the eyes and other front pieces but these should be attached first on the flat piece.  It is much easier to sew them that way. I used a blanket embroidery stitch for just about all the sewing on this.   

The ears were made with the circle dies and strips of black felt about 1/2 inch wide.  I wrapped the strip around the circle to get the correct proportions for the length.  

Attach these before putting the head together too.  I obviously didn't and it was much more difficult to sew. To keep the proportions of the circle intact, I used the circle to draw on the inside of the side of the head and used it as a sewing guide. Otherwise the circle can become distorted with the stuffing inside moving it around.  

Once the eyes, etc., were on stitch the sides of the labels 2 die.

 Then added the square sides, tucking in some polyfill before completing the stitches. Both the head and the body were done the same way.

I next made arms and legs from the rectangle die as shown. The edges were doubled over length wise and whip stitched along the raw edge.

I put a couple stitches in the middle of the arms/legs to add a little joint to the limbs.

The hands and feet were put together like the head and body but with squares only.

The arms/legs were attached to the blocks and then attached to the body as shown.

The head was attached with a strip of wool about 3/4 inch wide by 3.5 inches long.  A little stuffing was added to prop up the head. This was a little tricky getting the stuffing to stay in the neck while sewing it to the body. I needed one more hand!

I added the mouth last because I didn't think it needed it till after I finished but as with the other face parts put it on  before assembling the head.  I cut it using the two labels 2 dies then trimmed off everything except the bottom.

Cute huh? My son loved it and hopefully he will forget about the stupid crobot.

I am entering my little bot into the DIY PROJECT PARTY monthly contest.

Linky Parties

GIFT CARD HOLDER

Just a quick last minute gift card holder I made for my Son's bus driver.

I used all digital products from THE DIGI CHICK for it. Can't beat printing stuff immediately without fighting the traffic and holiday crowds. I used the Advent Calendar Templates and Cutting Files for the little box that holds the gift card and the paper and elements are from Christmas::Revisited.

WAITING FOR FROSTY

I have a sweet little project tutorial posted at THE HYBRID CHICK today.  Even though I am an adult, I still find it sad to see Frosty melt in the greenhouse. My hat, button nose and corncob pipe are just waiting for that Christmas snow to blow in and.........

Happy Birthday!!!

VELLUM VOTIVE and SANTA BAG

We hybrid chickies were challenged to use a single template, BASIC BAG 3, in a creative way.  There are some awesome samples so pleeeease go to THE HYBRID CHICK and check them all out. I used the template pretty much "as is" but gave it two different looks.

This is a little velum bag with a votive (battery powered of course) inside.  I really wanted to make 4 to spell out noel but I didn't have time. Instead I wrote the remaining letters around the sides of the bag. The lovely design is from the CHRISTMAS MAGIC KIT.    The beautiful poinsettia is a cutting file called FESTIVE FOLIAGE.  I used my cricut to cut out the petals and leaves then added a bit of glitter glue.  This would make a pretty little gift bag too.

 Next up was a super easy santa bag.  Just some basic shapes taped to the template. It only took me about 10 minutes to make.

Stay tuned for a couple more holiday posts.  Thanks for stopping by!

WINTER TABLE RUNNER

Time to change my table runner from Fall to Winter. I probably won't get around to changing it again till Easter so I wanted something winter-ish but not necessarily holiday themed.


I used a fabric called osnaburg (bought at JoAnn's).  It has the rustic look of burlap but it has a tighter weave which allows for nice stenciling.  Sort of holiday looking but easily stays on through winter.








I used some stencil sheets from Martha Stewart. DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT buy these things.  I had a miserable time using this product.  I usually like her stuff but this is just trash.  Didn't anyone test this stuff out????? It comes rolled on a tube and curls mercilessly. It would not lay flat no matter what I did.  I curled it the opposite way, heated it, flattened it under a stack of books for three days and it still returned to the curled state. There are other stencil sheets out there so try one of those if you want to make your own.  The fun part was that I used a digital cutting file called FROSTED (SNOW) FLAKES from THE DIGI CHICK to make the stencil with my cricut.. I had to cut it twice but it worked perfectly.

The stenciling part was not so much fun because of the curling.  I had to hold part of it down with a book and use double sided tape all over the back to keep it down on the fabric. It was nearly impossible to clean because of the curling also.  I ended up running it under water after every application. Double ga-rrrrrr!  I used black all purpose MS paint and one of her round sponge brushes to apply the paint, both of which worked wonderfully well.

I wanted to put a few more snowflakes closer together but the bloody stencil was such a pain that it ended up here.... 

While the stenciling was drying, I printed out a little woodsy scene from COUNTRY CHEER (another digital kit from TDC) onto photo transfer fabric-also purchased at JoAnn's. Make sure you get the fabric and not the paper, it works much better for this project. I printed out the images then cut closely around the edges and ironed them on to the fabric.

  I next added some ribbon along the edge of the trees/bird. It  looked a little bare so I added some brads along the ribbon and in the center of the snowflakes.  I probably won't be washing this so no worries about the brads.

I cut two sides of the osnaburg and put them together with right sides together and stitched around the edges trimming the corners.   

Flipped it right side out, pressed the edges and that's it! 

Do you know how much these things cost ready made?  Love how this turned out and I am sure I will be doing another similar one for Easter since this one was so simple.  Of course I will be using a different type of stencil plastic!

CHRISTMAS CARD

I went pretty basic with this year's Christmas card.  I didn't want to spend a fortune in postage and I don't have the time or energy to do something more elaborate.  I swear I am going to start early for next year.....meh maybe not.  To make it easy I used digital stamps from THE DIGI CHICK by ARTY PANTS DIGITAL STAMPS for the background and the sentiment.

The ornament is from Stampin up's Ornament Keepsakes collection.  Simple, vintage-ey and quick!

STENCILED MONOGRAM WREATH

I haven't been keeping up with seasonal decorations on my front door wreath so I decided to give it permanent update by adding a monogram.









I started out with a black letter from either Joann's or Michael's and did some stenciling using a stencil from Martha Stewart and some Ranger distress crackle paint in vintage photo.

This is a close up of the crackle effect.  It isn't very pronounced but I thought it looked pretty cool.

I really liked how it looked and intended to leave it black.

But when I put it up to the wreath it was just too dark.  I decided to add a couple coats of Annie Sloan chalk paint in old white which, after it dried, I sanded off the layer over the stenciling.  I also did a little distressing on the edges to reveal some of the black.

Cool huh? I didn't want to glue the letter on so I added some twine to the back with some gorilla glue and tied it around the wreath. That way if I ever decide to change things up it won't be difficult to remove. Yes I know how ugly the back is and I don't care.  You can't see it.

 It looked so much better this way and now I don't have to think about decorating the wreath every time I walk in the door.

I have some Christmas projects coming up so stay tuned and thanks so much for taking a look!

GARBAGE CAN REDO

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We went from having two guests to thirteen so we were pretty busy over the holiday. On to Christmas I guess.

We have a very sweet "looking" beagle who loves to tear our garbage apart. Because of this we have had to put our garbage can on top of a table to keep her out of it. Although this doesn't always work as she has, on occasion, jumped up on the table to dig in.  Look at that face, hard to believe she would do anything thing that would get her in trouble..........

We have been looking for a good way to keep her out of the garbage and keep the can off the table and finally found a nice bin that we could put a child lock to prevent her pernicious pawing. Unfortunately the wood was unfinished so I had to do it myself.  I decided I wanted a dark top and light bottom similar to my TV stand but not quite as dark on top.  

I forgot to take a pic before I started but you can see the light color of the wood.  I had taped off the bottom so that I could stain the top first.

I chose a dark walnut stain and prepped the raw wood first with some pre stain. I am a complete novice at this stuff so I did the pre-stain because someone on a blog said to.  And we all know everything on the web is totally true right? It worked out pretty well though so I can't complain.

This is after one coat of stain.

And the finished top after two coats. I so love this color!

I didn't take any pics of the next part for some reason (though I thought I had) but I removed the paper and put on two coats of Annie Sloan chalk paint in old white. Though it is difficult to see in the pic,  I  added a coat of brown glaze over the paint. I finished up with three coats of rub on polyurethane. I had never used that type of polyurethane before and it was pretty easy to apply.   Not bad for someone who doesn't have a clue what they are doing!

So far the little devil hasn't figured out a way to get into it!
Thanks for stopping by, see ya soon!