Where's Perry?

My son's newest interest is golf. My husband found the perfect junior starter golf set, which includes: a driver, two irons and a putter.

I could resist making a Perry the Playtpus putter cover. Now whenever we're looking for the golf club bag we say, "Hey, where's Perry?".

Knitting Guide

I thought I would attempt to knit a really cute sweater, Mariah, that I found on Knitty.com. I've successfully knitted a few items from this site and I thought I was ready to tackle this project, but I've never knitted from a cable chart before. My first couple of tries didn't go very well. I had a hard time keeping track of which line I was knitting on the chart.

I decided to make a guide by using two pieces of card stock. I cut a small slit in the top piece and taped the two pieces together. I use it to highlight the line I'm knitting, sliding up as I complete a line.

I also wrote pattern notes on top of the guide, so I wouldn't have to keep referring back to the original pattern.

Bookmarks!

Up until now, I've been using scrap pieces of paper as a bookmark. They serve their purpose and are free, but not very creative. Nikki, over at WhiMSy love, has tut on how to make fast, easy and cute bookmarks.

I even made one with an Angry Bird!

Mad About Angry Bird

I'll be the first to admit, I am obsessed with Angry Birds, a very challenging video puzzle game where a player uses a slingshot to hurl birds at pigs that have stolen their eggs.

Not only have I been playing Angry Birds, but I've been making them, too! I found an awesome tut on Obsessively Stitching . I used felt that I had on hand (rather than fleece), and they turned out great!

Of course, my son likes to play the real life version even better than the video game.

Thank You Cards

Thank you cards can be made more personal with a photo of the recipient with the gift and a hand written note.

Happy Day-After Halloween

More Halloween Decorations

Dollar Store Skeleton Lights

I got this decoration idea from the Dollar Store Craft Website. It was so amazingly easy to make out of straw decorations a string of Xmas lights. I used fishing line to attach the legs to the bodies.

Baby Food Jar Bats

My son and I made these cute bats out of baby food jars and templates from the Family Fun Website. We painted the bottles black and put a battery operated light inside to make it flicker.

Have a happy, and safe, Halloween!

Halloween Decorations - Tabletop Haunt

My son wanted to put up Halloween decorations this year, so we did a little research on DIY projects. We found this haunted house (from the Disney Family Fun website) made from cardboard boxes and craft paint. For the ghosts, I crumpled up a plastic grocery bag and wrapped it with Kleenex.

I put a single bulb light fixture, from the dollar store, inside the box to light up the windows.

Another project coming tomorrow...

More Bead Storage

I found a great spice rack at a nearby garage sale that I use to store seed beads. I love this repurpose. Glass make it easy to see color and quantity in each bottle and the tops have a sprinkle or pour feature.

Unmounted Rubber Stamps

Long ago, I used to collect rubber stamps. Typically, it was cheaper to purchase unmounted rubber images then permanently mount the rubber to a piece of wood on your own. Problem is, storing all the wood blocks take up a lot of space.

My auntie recently introduced me to a way to organize stamps by mounting them with a sticky back foam. Stamps can be kept on sheet protectors and transferred to an acrylic block when in use, then transferred back to the plastic sheet for storage. I use small drawer knobs to use for smaller stamps. Instead of two big boxes of mounted stamps, I have one 1/2 inch binder (stamps organized by size) and a little bag of knobs/blocks.

Stamp credit: Curtis Uyeda Collection

Bead Storage

I recently purchased a set of small beads. The case it came in was cute, but not very functional. Every time I opened it, beads would spill into neighboring compartments or flip out of the container. I was also afraid that I might knock it over and hundreds of beads would scatter madly across the tiled floor.

I filled floral water tubes (similar to this) with beads. Now I can easily choose from a rainbow of colors without having to break out the vacuum cleaner.

Photo Wall Collage

I love a house with hallways full of family photos; seeing where they've been, what they've done, how they've changed. I've been inspired to create my own photo collage and now finally going to get to the box of cheap wooden frames that we stored in the attic when we moved, nearly four years ago.

I sanded the frames and my husband strung them on a wire for a couple of coats of spray paint. Brilliant, right?

After drying, we hot glued a few together and hung them on the wall.

I love walking by this wall and remembering where we went, what we did and how we've changed.

Organize Scrap Paper

My auntie uses a lot of washi paper for beautiful handmade cards. I am the happy beneficiary of her scrap pieces. She wraps the scraps around an old wrapping paper tube with low tack tape to keep them neat and tidy, brilliant and beautiful.

Skein Holder

Sometimes knitting with a large skein of yarn can be challenging; it rolls all over the floor picking up dust or lint and gets tangled. This Costco-sized wipey container works perfectly to help contain the skein (and if you don't wash it thoroughly it will make your final project lemony fresh).

Wire Wraps

To keep wires from getting tangled I wind them up and tie them with just about anything I can get my hands on...

a fabric wrap (I made it out of scrap fabric and a snap),

a knitting accessory (I think they keep knitting needles together),

a twisty tie, and

a plastic tie from a kid's toy.

Organza Flower

I came across this tut to make pretty organza flowers. The instructions are easy to follow and the flower is relatively easy to make (be sure to craft in a well ventilated area). I made several different colored flowers and attached them to hair ties, hair clips and my sun hat.

Zipper Bracelet

I loved this bracelet made from a zipper the minute I saw it on www.cutoutandkeep.net. It was very easy to make. I added a bit of bling to mine.

Ballerina Cupcake Topper

I was inspired by an adorable paper dress cupcake topper I saw on Composing Hallelujah. I used the basic design to make a tutu by using tulle instead of tissue paper.

Fish Pillow

I found this unique preprinted fish fabric at JoAnn the other day. The instructions were easy to follow and the end product turned out very life-like. This guy was a gift for a fisherman (it was my husband's idea to wrap him in newspaper).

Thread in a Mug

I recently purchased thread cones for my Babylock serger machine. A thread cone (shown on the left) is taller and bulkier than All-purpose spools and is not normally used on regular sewing machines because it tends to fall off the top and/or skews the tension.

To prevent this, I place the cone in a coffee mug in back of my sewing machine and thread the machine as I normally would. This holds the cone in place and allows the thread to unravel without tugging on the tension.

I like to store the cone and the bobbin together in the mug, so I don't have to search for the matching bobbin.