IS•LY | I Still Love you

I’m pretty sure the Purl Bee’s free rose barrette pattern has taken the crafting scene by storm. I first saw it here (how cute, right?) and in the week since, I’ve seen little rosebuds popping up all over the place. I’ve made a few since seeing the tutorial, and last night I thought I would change things up a bit by attaching 3 of the rose buds to a headband. So easy.

I used darker felt and enlarged the pattern for the one in the middle, for contrast. I really like my new headband! I may just wear it through the whole weekend.

Like my new ‘do? My sister cut and colored my hair on Monday. I’m loving it! She always does such a great job! Well. . .  there was that one time when I was 12 and she was 16 . . . she gave me a mullet. But, that may have been intentional because I was an annoying 12 year old.

I hope you have a crafty weekend. If you make something, be sure to post it to the flickr group! You might win something if you do!

Cheers.

A little history:

When I was 12 or so, my mom found a pom pom kit that she used ages ago. I tried making pom poms out of it (there may have been Japanese instructions), failed miserably and gave up. Then just over a year ago, I saw an adorable post by Jenn over at Ambrosia Girl about kid friendly Christmas Decorating ideas by Martha. They were all pom poms. I died. I made a bunch of white poms for my Christmas tree. Then I made a bunch of poms for winter hats. Then I made more poms for my Christmas tree this year. Then ALT happened.

At ALT, I met so many cool people with fabulous style. Each person was trendier than the next, wearing unique handmade jewelery and accessories to make anyone swoon. One of the many stand out pieces that I remember was Erin’s necklace. I remember things like that. Erin had the raddest embroidered necklace on from etsy seller spinthread. I want one.

As soon as I got home to some internet, I googled spinthread and was delighted to find so many cool things! Mostly I was blown away by her pom pom headbands and her crazy curly hair. You need to check it out. AND buy one of her headbands. Too bad they’re not in my budget. Boo.

My sister modeling the elastic pom since my hair is far too short for that sort of thing. Isn’t she so pretty?

I had to make some sort of accessory right away with a pom pom. I’m such a copy cat. I used some of my yarn stash (very small) to make one, but I wasn’t getting the volume that I had hoped for. Then it struck me, I have 5 yards of white jersey fabric, why not cut strips and use those to make the poms? It was perfect. I’m going to make my pom poms out of jersey from now on. For sure. There are a few tricks to getting it just right, so I thought I’d include a little tutorial on how to make them, just in case anyone else is interested in making some outlandishly large poms for head ornaments.

• Materials: scissors, needle & sturdy thread, cardboard sheet ~ 3×5 inches, knit fabric cut into 1/2 inch strips
• When cutting fabric, cut strips parallel to the stretch so each strip. Run each strip through your fist, stretching the material slightly. Each strip will curl around itself, forming a hollow string.
• Wrap each string around the card. The longer the card, the larger the pom. Don’t worry that the string isn’t continuous, just keep layering each segment on top of the other.

• Once you get a nice pile of jersey wrapped around the card, you’re ready to tie it off.
• Before removing the pile of strings, tie one side of the loop off. This helps to keep the strings organized when you pull it off the cardboard.
• Carefully remove the pile of strings from the cardboard.

• Tie the entire bundle with string as TIGHTLY as possible. You may need some extra hands for this part.
• With your awesome sewing scissors, cut each loop in half. You’ll want to do this over a garbage can, it gets messy. After you’ve cut each loop, fluff the material out to make a ball. Trim the ball down to a round sphere, fluffing as you go.

Penelope loves this headband, even though the pom is nearly the size of her head. I can’t get enough of her wearing the headband, either. I think I’m going to be making more. LOADS more.

• Put them on headbands, elastic bands, teeshirts, newborns or in a basket for admiring. Enjoy.

To download this tutorial, Please click the download button above. This tutorial is free for personal use only. Thanks!

Ok, I sort of alluded to it last week, but it’s official now. I started a flickr group called ‘I Still Love Handmade’. Fitting, no? I’ve been thinking a lot about starting one; but mostly since the community building session at Alt. I think it might be a little fun for you to do some showing and telling. It may end up being a time suck for just me, because I just love to see what you’ve been up to.

{click on the image above to join the flickr group}

In celebration of the new flickr group, I’m hosting a little competition this month!

Whoever wins the best flickr group photo for the month of February will get all sorts of cool prizes. I haven’t picked out the prizes, but rest assured there will be a hand-bound book, some calligraphy and other goodies in there. You’re going to like it. PROMISE. So please, join my little group and show off what you’ve made! It can be anything! A drawing, a refashioned shirt, the awesome dinner you made last night, you get the idea! Please post a picture or 12, just as long as it’s made by you, photographed by you and very PG.

I really hope you’ll participate. I’ll keep you posted as I figure out what exactly will go to the winner.

This contest ends February 28 at 11:59pm MST. Winners will NOT be chosen randomly. 3 judges (me & two other guest judges) will vote on a winner. Judges’ entries are not considered part of the contest. Multiple entries are encouraged. You must have a flickr account and entries MUST be added to the flickr group pool to be entered. Am I forgetting anything? Sheesh. Comment or email if you have questions.

Good Luck!

Since returning to stay/work at home, I’ve got the nesting bug all over again. Sheesh! It’s like I’m 8 months along, but with out the swollen feet & belly. Since I didn’t have a nursery to decorate when Penlope was born (I only had a closet) so my brain is just swimming with ideas on how to make miss P’s room adorable.

While it feels like I’m swimming with ideas, it still seems that my ideas have to percolate for about a month before they happen. Naturally. This one incubated for a good few weeks, and I think my hesitation was mostly because the project seemed a little daunting. Hardly. 

I had this idea to make a scalloped border around the top of Penelope’s room with contact paper. Contact paper has served me well in the past, so I thought I’d give it a try. I only have a “during” photo, but I’m sure if you put on your imaginary hats you’d see that it was just incredibly plain before. 

Applying the contact paper was definitely a two person job and took us about an hour or two to apply. Honestly, that was the hardest part of the whole thing. It got pretty tricky pulling off the lining paper and smoothing to the walls without creating a few air bubbles. My new yudu squeegie came in handy for smoothing everything out. 

Once I made the template, cutting out the scallops was a cinch. I think it took me under an hour to cut them out. Contact paper is so easy to cut out! Seriously, all I had to do was score lightly along the template and I got perfect cuts every time. I’m really happy with how it turned out. 

Penelope’s room is starting to look better, but I’ve got a long way to go. Something needs to be done about her bare walls! I’ve got a few ideas up my sleeve. You’ll be seeing more of her room as I get them done. 

Isn’t Penelope a crack up? She seriously thinks she’s hiding. I love that girl.

Two or three months ago my friend was going on and on about this woman, Susan Petersen. I’m thinking What? A blogger in my area? A CRAFTY blogger in my area? No way. We need to make friends!

All it really took was a second or two on her blog before I realized how utterly cool she is. She made freaking gold Lamé leggings for her 3 year old. How cool is that?!?

Her blog is chock full of inspirational ideas, fabulous sewing and sweet thrifty finds. She has some great tutorials on her blog for skinny jeans, pillowcase dresses, nursing covers, and coin purses. You should check out her blog and her store, too! I suggest you snatch up the his & hers pillows and the sweetest, most darling ruffle skirts you’ve ever seen.

Seriously, aren’t these skirts to die for? While Susan’s blog is awesome and a time-sucking pit of inspiration, she’s even cooler in person. We had her and her sweet family over for dinner a while back and had the greatest time getting to know them. I’m really excited to have a new friend so close by!

I found the most lovely no-sew, no-glue wreath tutorial online last week thanks to twig & thistle’s lovely wreath tutorial round-up. Most tutorials I find these days end up collecting dust in my delicious account these days, but not this one. It uses felt + ruffles, the two most trendy things on the crafty interwebs these days, so there was no denying it.

I added my own little pom pom mistletoe to the mix.

Sadly, I didn’t find any felt colors that I was happy with, so I used some scraps from my favorite Fabmo. Making the wreath wasn’t hard at all, all it really took (besides the materials themselves) was a good hour+ of tv and a thimble. Not Bad, eh?

Giddy like a 12 year-old-girl is probably the best way to describe my post-project mood. After I hung up my festive little wreath I couldn’t help but point out it’s loveliness to Chris every 20 seconds. Thankfully I have a very indulgent husband who agreed with me. You can find the fabulous tutorial at domestifluf.