Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

If you're wondering what my plans are....I'm going to get coffee and sit in the park with my husband...In normal clothes. (I know, I know....party people!!)

I hope everyone is having a safe, fun and candy-filled evening!

Yay for me!

Yesterday a lady contacted me through Etsy and said she saw my Dollar Store ruffle shirt that I made, and wanted to feature it in Altered Couture magazine! Cool! She also said that they were launching a new jewelry magazine soon and thought my jewelry would be a good fit for it! Ack! I'm so flattered!! I'm sure it will just be a tiny picture in some corner, but that just made my day. (OK, month. My life just isn't that exciting!)

These are a few of the new necklaces that I've finished lately. I just love making these, and the beauty is, if they don't sell, I get to keep them! A girl can always use more pretty jewelry.

Tutorial: Hat and Scarf From Sweater

Something for the boys! Yay!

I got this sweater vest at the Dollar Store several days ago (sweaters at the Dollar Store? How random is that??) and I just knew it was dying to be a little beanie and scarf set! I'm so excited to have a project for little boys!

This would actually work best with a sleeved sweater (then you could just use sleeves for a scarf!), but this is what I had, so...

1) Measure your child's head, and cut out a hat shape through both layers (I free-handed this, but if you had another beanie to trace around, that would be great!), then cut a large rectangle shape through both layers for the scarf.

2) Lay the two scarf pieces right side together and pin the non-banded end. Sew with a zig-zag stitch, being careful not to let it stretch too much.

3) Cut out your "face" shapes from felt or fleece. 4 ears, two big circles for eyes, and two slightly smaller circles for the pupils, and a little triangle nose.

4) Lay two of the ear shapes on top of the other two, and sew around the edges with your machine. (not pictured)
5) Pin the ears to the right side of the beanie, facing downward. Lay the other piece of the beanie on top of it(right sides together), with ears sandwiched in between, and pin.

6) Sew the two hat pieces together, leaving the banded side open.
7) Take your scarf piece and fold it over, right sides together, and pin. Sew all the way down the side.

8) Turn the scarf right side out, and sew the banded edges closed.
9) Pin the face shaped where you want them, and hand stitch them on.

Ta-da!

My model had already gone to bed for the night, but luckily she's a heavy sleeper!

My goodness, I love that child. :o)

Take care!

(Magazine)Paper Doll Magnets

Vintage magazine + clothing catalog + sticky-backed magnet sheets = these fun little paper dolls for me my daughter to play with!

I could just about spend all day doing this. It's so fun to cut out the little outfits and accessories!

Another fun thing to do with this magnet sheeting (mine came from a random craft store) would be to cut out words in pretty fonts from magazines, so you could leave little notes on the fridge that aren't quite as boring as the ones you'd buy at the store.

Or, you could put one big picture on it and make a puzzle! Fun! Hooray for easy projects :o)

Do You Want to be Featured on Ruffles and Stuff?

I once read that the worst thing you could do for your blog is link to other blogs.

The article advised that linking to other blogs would take traffic away from your own.

Well I say pooey to that!

Craft bloggers are sort of like a little virtual family (corny, I know), and I'm excited if I'm able to help out another blogger! And that's why I've been thinking that I would like to start featuring other blogs on mine. Especially smaller blogs who need more traffic.

But I would like to keep my blog mainly about my personal projects, so I came up with this idea!

I'm going to create a space to the right on my sidebar, and every day I will feature a different blogger's creation. I prefer that they be tutorial's, or at least be a project that you are able to figure out easily from the photos, but the occasional "look what I did!" post is welcome, too! :o)

So if you have any ideas/how-to's that you would like me to feature, please email me at: saltofthe_earth(at)hotmail(dot)com. (don't be shy!) And don't forget to get the code for my new "featured on" button!

*Just a little note: Due to my passionate desire to please the Lord, I am not in good conscience able to promote blogs who have immoral conduct on them. Profanity, pictures of you in your underwear....you know :o) I've never really seen that in a craft blog before, but I thought I would throw that out there, just in case!

(Tutorial) Tree Circles Pillow

I was inspired by this picture (Etsy), that I saw in a magazine, and I thought that I probably needed to make something like that. I actually saw this idea done as a coaster in Martha Stewart Living a year or two ago and I loved it!

Anyway, I made this felt pillow out of it!

(Sorry about the blurry photo, night time!)

I used a platter for a guide, cutting a little over two inches outside of the edge to make two 16" circles out of brown felt.

Then I cut one 13" circle of ivory felt....

I sewed the ivory circle to one of the brown circles, and used fabric glue to stick on rows of circles in brown yarn.

Once it was mostly dry, I hand stitched several spots here and there to help it stay better.
Then I laid the other brown circle on top of the first two (with the ivory sandwiched in between) and pinned it, and sewed almost all the way around, leaving a 5" opening for stuffing.

I stuffed the pillow with polyfill, and hand stitched the opening shut. Ta-da!

Hmm, almost done....

It looked kind of like a rose to me, so I added another circle around the outer edge. Perfect!

P.S. I have an idea for my blog that I'm really excited about!! But I'll save that for tomorrow's post....

Buttons, Thanks, and Lady Monsters!

**First of all, I just want to thank everyone so much for all the advice/encouragement that you left in response the my post about my daughter's allergies. I can't wait to try all the suggestions, I have new hope again! I will try to keep you all updated as to how she's doing.

Thank you all so much!!**

Well, it might be a little late, but I finally decorated some pumpkins! Well...one pumpkin, and some gourds! I searched high and low for more white pumpkins (you know about me and orange, don't you?), but there are literally none in my area! Isn't that crazy?

I'm not much of a ghost/monster person, to tell you the truth, but I thought some nice glam ladylike monster pumpkins could be fun! They look like they could be named something like "Gerty" or "Flo". I love them!

Hope you're having a great weekend!

-Dis

Tutorial: Cheaters Guide to a Fancy Dress!

Update:

Embarrassing!!

I just discovered (months after posting this) that Vanessa at V and Co. had posted almost the same exact tutorial an entire month earlier! I'm a copy cat, and I didn't even know it!

Anyway, go check out hers here, it's super cute!

My mom bought this girls' size 12 skirt home from Goodwill for $.99 the other day because she thought I might be able to make something out of it. Thanks, mom! Can you say...cute little jumper with pick-ups?? I just sort of made this up as I went along, so I'm sure there are lots of different variations you could do, but here's how I did this one....

The skirt before:

1) I measured it up to another similarly styled dress that my daughter had, and cut off the excess. If your skirt has elastic like this one, make sure you put a pin in the elastic first, so it stays put! If it has a zipper, be sure not to cut that side off.

2) Using the part that you cut off, cut two sections for straps, using another of your child's dress as a guide for length. Mine were 7"x12" unfolded.

3) Fold the strap pieces over, right sides together, and pin.

4) Do the same with your dress piece, and sew down the pinned sides of all three pieces. Hem the tops and bottom's of the straps.

5) Using your machine's gathering stitch, sew along the top, bottom, and middle of the straps. Pull top string to gather in all three places. Then sew a regular strait stitch across the middle gathered section on each strap, to hold in place.

6) Turn dress inside out, and pin straps to the dress, being sure they are not too close or far apart. Sew on.
7) To put in the pick-ups, gather the fabric (by machine, or just by hand-scrunching), then sew back and forth across the gathered part. Do this in however many places you'd like! I did 2 in back, and 2 in front.

8) Hand stitch on bows, or buttons, and whatever you want. Or just leave them plain, it's cute that way, too!

All done! Looks like you spent all day on it! (It'll be our secret) :o)

*You could do this for an older girl, too, using an adult sized skirt!

Food Allergies

*taking a 30 second craft pause here*

My daughter has allergies/sensitivities to dairy, wheat, processed sugars, soy, and possibly eggs and some citrus fruits.

Or as my mom likes to say "She can only eat two things, and one is water.".

Paige is very sensitive to these foods, but luckily her symptoms aren't really life-threatening. Mostly bad eczema, and digestive issues. But it basically means we can't eat anywhere except home, I have to sneak the tasty food while she's napping so she doesn't see it, and I haven't slept through the night once in about 2 1/2 years because she itches so badly.

It might be a long-shot, but I was just wondering if anyone has problems like this, and knows of some good recipes or websites? I'm not the greatest cook anyway, so throw all those restrictions in and....we're eating salad for dinner.

*I would also like to add that our food makers are nuts these days! Why do potato chips need sugar in them? And why does dairy-alternative cheese have milk proteins in it?? OK, I'm done.

Ugly Candles and the 1940's

My candles didn't match, and it made me sad.... :o(

So, ta-da! I wrapped them in pretty orange papers.

I normally don't care for orange, but these I do care for. Quite a bit :o)

On a completely different subject....who loves this 1940's thing that's been going on in the fashion world?? I'm raising both hands right now. I love it!! I wrote in my family blog last January that I was randomly falling in love with the 1940's, but I had been pretty out of the fashion loop, so I had no idea that everyone else was about to love it too! Perfect timing :o)

The 1940's trend of my choice has to be the cloche hat.

I want it, I want it, I want it.

Cutest hat ever in the whole wide world up there! I would change my name to Anthropologie if they gave me this hat. (And that's the only way I'm gonna get it, 'cause it almost $300!) :o)

This one (from an Etsy shop)is quite lovely as well!

I'm hoping to see one in a thrift store one day!

Have a great night all :o)

Tutorial: Easy No-Sew Flutter Cape With Armholes

I like to sew, but I'll be honest, I get excited when I see the words "No sew". And when I was trying to think of a design for this fleece and ribbon cape for my daughter, I thought it would be great if anyone could make it! So....

1) Cut out two pieces of fleece. One big enough to fit all the way around your child, with some flow-y room. And another piece that is about half the width, and 1 1/2 times the length of your first piece.

Mine were about 36x17", and 56x7", which makes about a 2T size.

2) Then lay your longer piece on top of the first piece, and make pleats until they are the same length.

3) At the top, cut slits every couple of inches that are about half the width of your ribbon, through all the layers, then weave your ribbon in and out of each hole.

4) Try the cape on your little one, and cut large slits at about elbow height for armholes.

5) Cut two tiny holes right next to each other for your ties. Do this for as many ties as you'd like, on both sides.

6) Cut a 7-8" length of ribbon for each set of holes. Thread them through each set of holes and tie, with knot facing inward.

And you're all done! Pretty easy!

Hope you're having a good day today!

-Dis