Monday Excursion!

I'm SO excited!! WOO HOO!!!! WHOOP WHOOP!!!! YEEEHAW!!!! OH....maybe I should tell you why? hehe

Here goes:

I'm going to HOBBY LOBBY tomorrow! AND....better than that...>BIG LOTS!!!! Do you have ANY idea the things you can get a Big lots for crafting? And...its WAY affordable!

You can get small skeins of funky yarn for a buck each. There are racks and racks of awesome scrapbooking supplies for cheap. Most items are between 1 and 5 dollars, including super cute scrapbooks! There are tons of jewelry making supplies for around 1 to 5 dollars each as well!  There are cute dishtowels for cheap if you like upcycling.  Adorable socks for upcycling.....TONS o FUN at Big lots!

 A lot of the fun of tomorrow is also that I am taking my two oldest daughters, my friend, and her daughter as well. It is destined to be a girl's DAY OF FUN! I promise to come back with a bunch of new crafty ideas to post!

Basic Easy Ribbon or Lace Hair Clips

These clips are SO much fun and SO easy too! (If I can do it.......ANYONE can! lol) 

Materials:

Ribbon or Lace (preferably two sided...if it has one white side and one patterned, it just doesn't turn out as nice)

Hot Glue Gun or Needle and thread(Some people prefer to hand stitch, but, I find the hot glue gun to be faster and just as nice)

Alligator clips or bobby pins

Felt

Optional...... a lapel pin finding (these rosettes make great pins too!)

DIRECTIONS:

To start, roll up one end of the ribbon tightly for about 3 rounds (or make a knot in the end first if you find it easier to wrap that way).

Next, begin flipping the ribbon AWAY from the direction you are rolling it.  Hot glue along the bottom as you fold to secure the ribbon.

This ribbon was white on one side, so I folded it in half as I went to keep the stripes on both sides.

Continue wrapping and flipping till you have your desired size, then clip, turn the end under the rosette and glue it to the bottom.

Next, cut a circle out of the felt to fit the bottom of the flour but not show from the top. Glue it to the bottom .Either glue on a lapel pin backing or Cut a rectangle of felt the same length as the diameter of the circle and glue just the ends to the circle of felt.

Then, add a bobby pin or an alligator clip and .......

                                                    

Stick it in your hair!



 Have you made these?  I would love it if you posted with a link to yours!



Frugal Finds for Future Fun!

I went to Family Dollar the other day and picked up a few things.....In all I spent about 8 dollars (tax included), and I think I found some real gems! Not sure exactly what I'll do with them yet, but they all have some real potential!

leftover lace and ribbons , rosettes , headbands , pins , and hair clippies...OH MY!

I fought the glue gun and the glue gun won!  A couple days ago, I got out my leftover/unused lace bag and a glue gun and went to town!  I had SO much fun!  I got to use the headbands from my "frugal finds for future fun " post too!   In all, I made one lapel pin, two headbands, and 5 hair clippies!

I thought I'd share some completed pics.  There will be some basic tutorial to follow in subsequent posts if your interested!


A hair clippie and a lapel pin....

3 Hair clippies

Two headbands made with leftover lace from a friends old pillowcases and some rosettes I made.

A little lace or ribbon and a hot glue gun and you've got a fun time waiting to happen!

Family Blog Travels

I love to travel.  I enjoy driving or riding down the road, exploring new places, touring points of interest, learning new things, taking home souvenirs.....you name it, I love it!
BUT.....I have 5 children, two dogs, and a cat. This, coupled with a limited budget,  makes travel a little difficult these days.  However, thanks to y'all, I can still travel! 

I just pack my laptop,  hop on the Blog-train and take off!  Maybe my first stop will be SCOTLAND where I can learn how to make a cute purse/bag from Julia D. Art, or maybe the kids and I will stay right here in the USA and learn from a girl who's ORIGINALLY from the UK, but moved to good ole' California ,and learn how to make her Lazy Crayon Roll.  Who knows where we'll go first, or after that!  It'll be a blast! 

Don't worry, I'll keep in touch as I travel, right here in my blog! The kids and I will have a ton of fun trying out all the tutorials you bloggers have posted!  We'll post what we've done, all of it!  The good, the bad, AND the ugly! 

Keep checking back...maybe you'll find a site that makes you feel like traveling there too! AND...by all means, if you have I "blogville" you want me to travel to , go ahead and post a comment with a link to my site!  If I like one of my points of interest.....I may just have to post it in "I SEW love these sites"!!!

I already went to RavenzTarot Mindless Sewing Rants and I get to bring home a souvenir....I WON  a GIVEAWAY!!!! Thanx Ravenz!

FIRST STOP:  We're visiting Valerie at The Frugal Family Fun blog!  She has a GREAT blogville and....She shares her name with my youngest daughter! Hmmm.....lots of stuff here....might have to stay a while..........

Stamping out boredom

The kids and I sat down together today and, as a team,we stamped out boredom....literally!  No, seriously! 

                                                          I got out my alphabet stampers
(which are usually paired with water and construction paper for some fun alphabet learning with my 5yr old)

Some acrylic paint and paint brushes,

AND...fabric from old jeans or khakis.

We poured some paint into old Tupperware lids, 

cut some more stamps out of potatoes

and started stamping!

We monogrammed:

We stamped nicknames:

We made pictures:

WE HAD A BLAST!

I even had my daughter stamp up a piece of t-shirt fabric that I had.

They didn't have to be perfect.  In fact, the imperfections were what made them cute!

Then I started attaching those monograms to things!

These are a couple of my different lunch bags:

and This is an apron (tutorial posted on this site!) I made for a friend.

We haven't used all of the stamped fabric pieces yet. There weren't really any projects planned for them. We just put them into a Ziploc for later use.  This way, we had fun as a family while saving future monogramming time as well as saving MONEY on paint by not having wasted, dried out paint by getting the stuff out every time we need something.  

In the future, if I realize we need another stamped item, we'll just "Stamp out Boredom" together AGAIN!

This was an project in my book!

 

Khaki-Whaky!

My latest trip to the resale shop sent GOOSE PIMPLES up my arms and SHIVERS up my spine!  I stepped into the epicenter of "Crossroads" operations and told the new volunteer why I was there.  She kindly ushered me to the tote I was to sort through.  As I neared the tote, my excitement grew....It wasn't full, it was OVERFLOWING with possibilities for my craft-overloaded mind.  The tingles began as she brought me a chair.  I sat down and smiled.   What to my wondering eyes should appear?  Not 1, not 2, or even 3, but SEVEN pairs of cargo/khaki shorts!

 OH JOY!  The things that began running through my craft brain!  I tried to control my excitement as I kept grabbing.  Next, I found some lovely sweaters with exciting upcycle prospects....but wait, whats that? NO WAY!  1 pair of daisy dukes WITH an adorable Belt! (Crafters....need I say more?).

 A few more sweaters, some jammy pants, and then the last thing I chose to adopt:  a jammy shirt with tweeties all over it.....reusable lunch napkins just WAITING to happen!  Yes, today was a GOOD day! 

Now, that said....back to reality and the reason for this post....SEVEN pairs of khaki shorts!  Oh JOY, oh RAPTURE!  Oh the possibilities.....I think I shall fill some precious moments finding new ways (and maybe some old ones too)to upcycle these puppies.  I will just have to post them so you can see more of my "craft-sanity!"

                                                  

Upcycle tips .... or..... Upcycle-o-MANIA!

Looks like a bunch of clothes freshly washed but not folded or put away yet, doesn't it?  All I can say is NOPITY- NOPE!  You are looking at a pile of clothing I received for FREE from the local resale shop!  A little known tip is this: Most resale shops have a ton of clothes that they have to get rid of.  They aren't anxious to waste money on dumpster fees every time they have to dump them.  The clothes could either be flawed in some way that makes them unsellable or they could have been for sale for some time and no one purchased them.  Either way.....their in the way! 

So, here's what you do:  Go into that store and let them know you are an upcycler/recycler and would love to sort through any sweaters, t-shirts,  jeans, etc(whatever item you like to upcycle) that they are planning on throwing away and take them off their hands.  They may or may not let you, but it can't hurt to ask!  My resale shop has 4 different totes that they keep for different people who use things and they allow us to go in anytime we want to sort through what we would or wouldn't like....and VOILA!  Instant UPCYCLE-O-MANIA!

Give it a shot! You wouldn't believe all the little goodies I have gotten!  Truth be told, there were 5 more sweaters and 3 pair of jammy pants that I got as well that the kiddos snatched up and are wearing....FOR FREE!!!! 

Go ahead, say it...."Your SEW cheap!!!!"