Maken' and Baken'

With the boys away, the girls just play!!!

Me and my girls spent the whole day yesterday watching girly movies {aAwesOome!} and playing with clay.

I have a few miniatures I needed to make for an order, Madison worked on some food she plans to sell on her site for American Girl Dolls, and Emmalee made a little bit of everything!

Above I have an accordion I had needed 8 of, but the guy only had one.  I bought the one, made a mold, and then used the mold to make the 8 I needed.  Fun!  It was a bit tricky with how thin and tiny the little guy was, but once I let the clay rest in the mold for a while the accordions started coming out near perfectly.

These are some french bread loaves I need for some min grocery bags.  I still have to add some shading, but I think they turned out totally cute.

Corn on the cob, 

Heads of lettuce, 

Emmalee's batch.  She turned 6 last week.  She did an amazing job on her food!

Here are Madison's creations, a turkey leg dinner with mashed potatoes and gravy and a pile of peas.

Spaghetti and meatballs, with a nice strawberry salad and the garlic bread slices below.

Apple wedges anyone?

They will go great with a nice fresh sandwich.

How about a mega breakfast for one?  Pancakes with cinnamon syrup, fried egg, strawberry and two slices of sizzling bacon.

Mads also made this amazing little fruit salad.  She put a layer of fruit in attached to the bowl, and then did some nice fruit clusters that could be spooned out onto a dolly's plate... 

I love the kiwi!

But check out the blueberries, bananas and pineapple.  The breakfast and the fruit salad were finished off with a glossy glaze to make them even more life-like and to add to the longevity of the food.

It was such a fun day.  We may have to make the boys go away more often so we can have more days like that ;0}

Top Secret Project Revealed!!!

I was just given permission from Jessica @ Sweetie Pie Bakery to show off the new pattern I got to test!!!

All of the things above are included in the pattern as well as a cute set of measuring cups. 

There is this darling cookbook with actual recipes for Cherry Pie, Macaroons...

No-Bake Cheesecake, Cinnamon Rolls...

Peanut Butter Cookies, and Fudge Brownies.

The pages are printed onto printable fabric.  You can buy it at your local craft store, or do like I did and use THIS homemade recipe and your own fabric.  I had one piece of fabric munch up in the printer.  I saved it and ran it through the wash to test the photo-quality fabric.  The black came out GREAT, the color- barely visible.  Keep that in mind if you try the home recipe yourself and keep things black and white if you plan on throwing them in the washer.

This is the cookbook cover I made following the pattern...

This is the cover I changed a little to add my own style.  Either way they are soooo fun for the kids to play with.

The canister sets are absolutely adorable!  You sew flour, sugar, and brown sugar to put inside, then sew beads to the tops to make them look more realistic.  LOVE IT!!!  Jessica is SO smart!  And isn't that ric-rac adorable!  The canisters didn't actually have labels.  I added those, again my own preference.

I actually made three sets:  Blue and Red for Grandma Campbell's play kitchen, Teal and Hot Pink for Janet's play kitchen, and this Teal, Red and Black set for my own Emmalee's play kitchen.  She loved the brown sugar SO much I can't seem to find it however hard I look. 

If you are interested in this pattern you can find it for sale HERE for only $6.99!

Thanks again Jessica for letting me be a pattern tester!  You did a great job.

I Haven't Finished, But I Have Been Working!

I have been working like crazy coming up with projects for our big craft Saturday we do every year at church, Super Saturday.  A bunch of ladies get together and make stuff.  It is usually Christmas decorations or things you can give as gifts.  This year, we wanted to do things that were about families or things that would give families the opportunity to play together more.  I could not resist the opportunity to make felt food.  Most ladies, when I say the words "felt food" give me very strange looks and say, "what is that!?!"  You and I are much more up on things, right?  We know how totally fun the stuff is and how there is everything imaginable made out of felt.  I have thought and thought, so much so that the tiny stitches holding  my tiny brain in place have started to pop, as I have tried to think up easy felt food patterns that will still look like food if totally messed up by the un-crafter. This is what I came up with...

Easy enough, but I don't think I will include this in the plan.  It took too long to stitch together in the end.  Plus, who wants to cover a stick with felt, and who wants their 2yr old to pull that stick out of the sucker and stick it in some other "sucker"-you know, the sibling type of "sucker."  I made this by sewing a long strip of pink, 1 1/4" wide, and a long strip of yellow, 1 1/4" wide, together.  Then spent a very long time with a very long paintbrush jamming batting clear through the looooooong tube.  Not fun.  Then, very painfully, sat even longer stitching each seam between the twisted rope in place, twice.  I am thinking.....we can still do a sucker.  Actually, it just hit me.  I will do a circle, machine sewn, then they can just stitch the grooves...more to come...Moving along...

Sno Cone. 

Got the idea seeing these from American Felt and Craft.  However, their sno cones are made of wool roving and it can be pricy.  I was trying to make this project cheep affordable :0)  I made a cone, wider than the average ice cream cone, but just as tall.  I filled it with batting, made pompoms out of tule, then stitched them to the top.  Not bad.  I gave the handsome fella a hair cut.  I have to say, they look way better with two colors than just one.

Cotton Candy

I bought a pattern from Bugga Bugs.  I gave up trying to figure it out.  I didn't know if it would be a tube, or what.  It was basically a tube.  You can buy yours here.  For the handle she recommended using heavy weight...what is the stuff called...oh, I need to go to bed....interfacing!?!  Right?  The pellon stuff.  I didn't like it.  It was very hard to sew through.  I think I will just use felt.  Maybe iron on some heat-n-bond to the inside for added stiffness or something, but I really bent up that interfacing trying to stitch the stuff closed.

Double Scoop Chocolate Delight!

Made the cone-to make cones, trace a nice sized dinner plate.  Sew lines about 1/2" apart right down the middle of the plate-sized felt.  Keep sewing lines 1/2" from that first one until you have reached the edge on both sides of the circle.  Then, turn it and sew lines in the intersecting direction.  When you have a waffle-like grid sewn into your circle, cut that circle into fourths.  Take each fourth and sew the long, straight sides together.  Turn it inside out and you have a cone.  Stuff.  For the ice cream, take a small saucer, like you would use under a tea cup.  Trace that onto felt, cut out, run a running stitch around the whole thing.  Tighten a little bit, stuff, stuff some more, then tighten all the way.  Secure your thread.  Stitch the ice cream to the cone.  Yumm.  I added another scoop, one is simply not enough.  I thought it still needed more, so I added a 3/4" strip, about 18" long before ruffling, around the bottom of each scoop.  Now that is an ice cream!

Pretzel

One long tube- I cut mine about 28-30"long, 4" wide.  I doubled over the felt and sewed down the strip, turn inside out, stuff, blahh, blahh, blahh.  Twist to look like a pretzel, hand stitch in place.  Stitch on the "salt crystals"-I stitch each on twice 'cause I am paranoid and know how rough my own children are with things, and how much rougher other kids are when they come over and play with our things.  Last thing I need is someone eating beads :0)

I am actually finished with the felt food samples.  I am not adding any more.  Those couple will keep any beginner busy for days.  What else are we doing for our Super Saturday?

Here is a peek, finished product to come...

Birthday banner-cut out on my new sizzix die!!!  They are such super fast shippers!

Birthday Box

I am totally excited about this one!  One envelope for each month, will have a paper to write down names and birth dates of all celebraters for that month.  There will be a magnet on the back so you can hang it on the fridge if you want.  You can even store the cards for each month in the envelopes!  

Spunked-up note books (inspired by Sisters Stuff-Love Them- Here and Here !!!)

not finished yet-hoping they can keep a few kids quiet during church :0)

Also TOTALLY THRILLED with what I am going to do with this!!! I have driven across the valley TWICE this week to get this metal from my favorite metal supplier.  The first time for the 12x12, the second for the idea that hit me last night.  Just you wait and see......

Now, off to bed!

A Closer Look

I get to test a new pattern for Sweetie Pie Bakery.  I am totally stoked!!!  The only problem is that I don't think I am allowed to show you, and it is taking pretty much all of my time this week.  That is why I decided to give you a closer look at my 4th of July outfit for Emmers.  That and the fact that I am so totally proud of myself for creating it without a pattern or anything but a cute shirt we picked up at Goodwill.  I simply fell in love with it.

Here is the front view (up above), the back view down below.  I chose to put the buttons only 2/3 the way down the back cause I love the look of it open a little.  It reminds me of those little plastic baby dolls, cutie pie dolls or something, from when I was little.  You know, the ones with the little plastic mohawks.  Or maybe Holly Hobby, she had a dress like this.

This is the shirt I copied. 

I stared at it for a while.  Then measured, adding an inch here or there to make a pattern slightly bigger.  This shirt may have been meant as a dress.  It is size 24mo.  That is totally shocking since most cloths I have to get Emmalee are size 5T.  Anyway, I wanted the thing to fit longer than an hour, plus wanted to make others the same style-why change it if it works, right?

I am really intrigued by making patterns.  It is crazy the way things need to be planned one way to come out another in the end.  I have been dissecting clothing with my mind for some time.  It is really bad when I see a really beautiful shirt or something and get so lost in figuring out how it all came together that I miss the tiny fact that the person wearing it is staring right back at me wondering what my problem is.  Creepy you say?  I know.  More like embarrassing.    I am just fascinated with how they are put together.  I think I need to bite the bullet and buy some patterns for shirts with puckers and pleats, just to familiarize myself with how they are cut before and after.  One day I will also face my fear of sleeves head on, for now, I will stick with sleeveless

Here is the birthday petti skirt.  My original mental photo shoot consisted of a white skirt, then raspberry, lemon, and aqua ruffles on the bottom.  It would look something like this when covered with an over skirt... 

I actually had too much fluff to sew on the bottom ruffle.  I will have to order more fabric, but may just have to make an all new skirt.  It has worked out very well to have it white on the bottom.  I made these two over-skirts, and thinking I may have to make more.  I did come to the conclusion that the first one was gathered a little too tight and was a little long.  The second, sparkly red one, was shorter, less tightly gathered up, and only 5 sections instead of 6.  I liked it more, but still need to perfect the idea a bit.

You can see the yellow yolk inside, but when the outer-skirt is on, it is invisible!  Isn't it magical!

Here are the big birthday bows

And another shot of the even bigger 4th of July bows.  These turned out so fun I am dying to make some more.  Maybe next week.  Yeah right.  This felt food pattern is gonna take me all next week too.  I really can't wait to show you that!  That Sweetie Pie Bakery is so adorably creative!!!

Look at this:

Aren't all these patterns adorable!!!  You can find them all here. 

Have a happy WEEKEND!  It is FINALLY here!!!