Zippered Lined Pouch

Tis' the season for teacher gifts!  Like most days, I have a quest to find something whether it be a recipe or a crafty project or a how-to sewing technique.  Like most instances, Pinterest is the place to remedy such quest.  A few years back before Pinterest existed, I had to figure out on my own how to make a zippered, lined pouch.  I had to make about 30 of them for a baby shower (Yay, Virgie!) and luckily developed a successful technique about 2 pouches into the process.  Had I known I could probably just googled the tutorial, I would have saved myself some grief. However, the technique was permanently imprinted in my brain, so that's a good thing.

My daughter's kindergarten teacher uses her ipad at school on occasion to teach (or so my daughter says). I think that's pretty cool as technology is a close second when it comes to ruling the world (behind money, of course).  For a teacher gift,  I simply refuse to do an apple craft or some sort of pencil/crayon collage and was really searching for something original and useful.  Hence, the ipad cover.  Even if she already has a cover for her ipad (likely), I thought it would still be a good gift and could even be used for a Kindle or similar e-reader.

I logged onto pinterest to find this tutorial via this pin so I could finally get Sarah off my back about holding my weight on this blog.  If I could find a tutorial, then I could review it.  Perfect!  For this craft I picked out a 45" width home decor weight at JoAnn's, lined it with a pretty flannel that was in my stash and in between them used a high quality, low loft, cotton quilt batting that I already had as well.

The pin from Skip to my Lou does a great job of explaining exactly how to make a zippered, lined pouch.  Luckily, it's the same way I devised long ago and is probably the only real way to do it. I really like how she explains the lining up of the fabrics and even shows how she didn't line them up correctly for us "real life" gals.  Here's mine:

Sewed the batting onto the outer fabric before starting

Pinning is really important. Keep those edges alligned!

Here's what it looks like before stitching on the zipper

After stitching on the zipper

Ready to stitch the outsides together

The zipper works!

Finished piece

I am proud to give this pin a "5 Pin" rating for several reasons.  I was able to complete this craft in under an hour, the instructions are very concise, clear and easy to follow with great pictures.  Also, you could potentially have all of the materials in your possession.  If ever you're at a thrift store or yard sale and you see zippers, buy them!  It's always nice to have something like that on hand.

Happy Pinning!

Magnet Paper Dolls

I have been thinking about this pin for a while and finally remembered to pick up some magnetic sheets!

                                                                                           Source: onepearlbutton.com via Sarah on Pinterest

The tutorial was easy to follow and I only made one small change, I used regular printer paper.

The best part of this craft was picking out the clothes. I really would like to make the whole set but might wait until my daughter is a little older. The tins were 99 cents and fit the dolls perfectly!

Below is my version.  The picture on the right was when I tried to use the non-adhesive sheets and glue them myself. That turned out to be thick and the clothes didn't stick to the doll... should have followed the directions!

 

Great craft for kids 5+ to help make. Lots of fun looking through the old magazine pages and picking out outfits. These would make perfect stocking stuffers or toys to play with while traveling.

Sock Bun Curls

Pinterest has made my hair styles better and more varied. I was getting tired of the ponytail and the bun and now I have a whole page dedicated to hairstyles I can try. My favorite is the sock bun curl.
Sexy curls that require nothing more than a sock and sleep - right up my alley.

Here is the inspiration pin.

 


 

                                                                                              Source: aspottedpony.com via Wendi on Pinterest

The original post is clear and complete and has both video and pictures. I have done the donut version with the sock and I have also just rolled my hair around a sock and tied the ends of the sock into a knot. The latter version stays in my hair better but the donut version creates better curls. I think if I played with the thickness of the sock I could get it perfect!

Imagine your Christmas morning pictures this year with sexy super model hair (assuming you get to be in the pictures and aren't taking all of them)!

This pin deserves all five pins for making my hair look awesome with very little effort!

Have you tried sock bun curls? Did they work for you?

Vase With Rubber Bands and Spray Paint

                                                                                        Source: rachelmahan.tumblr.com via Sarah on Pinterest

This Christmas my goal was to decorate using things I already own. I saw these awesome vases and just knew I could make these suckers. I didn't have vases but I did have random glass jars of green chili sauce, jelly and olives and figured these would do!

The original craft can be found here. He uses yarn and tape to get the effect but rubber bands definitely sounded easier. I was happy to see that the original also called for jars that were washed "sparkly clean." I couldn't get mine sparkly clean so I left some of the goo from the paper wrappers and hoped for the best.

My naked jars.

Wrapped in rubber bands... feeling good about this craft so far!

I balanced them on the handle of my plunger because it was handy and now I have a nice sparkly handle plunger.

After three coats of silver spray paint (what I had on hand after Halloween.)

With the rubber bands removed they are living up to my expectations! The paint wasn't totally dry because I am impatient and I left some random finger prints.

Add the tea lights and enjoy the glow.

 

The process was really easy to do and I would only change two things next time:

1. Use a different color spray paint. The silver looks too aluminum can-like to me.

2. Plan on a way to cover the threads of the jar... oh wait I did do that after the fact - here is the result. 

I added a ring of glitter but that still didn't cover the jar threads enough and I probably should have used a ribbon like the original post called for.

I gave this craft 5 pins because it is completely do-able and if you are patient and have clean jars/vases you will get something worth of display on your mantel.

Let us know if you tried this craft and how satisfied you were with the results!

Cheers,

Nailed It.

Ever have one of those ideas that kinda just takes off in your head?  I do all the time, but it usually ends up in the crapper because I google that idea and find that I'm the 313, 856th person to think of that idea.  That's how it usually ends up.  Not today, folks.

Not that this idea is original, but I think it's pretty darn cool.  So what was this idea, you ask?  

Have you ever seen something on Pinterest and you're like, "I can do that!". So you repin, read the tutorial or blog post with instructions, get all the stuff to make it and then are terribly let down by your creation?  I have and it sucks.  I'm what you might call an above average crafter.  I have skills and supplies and imagination. Mostly things turn out pretty great, sometimes they're good enough to hang on a wall and sometimes it stays in a bag in the corner of my sewing and craft room.

I'm getting to the idea....really, I am.

My friend Sarah told me about this pin about cupcakes that made her crack up.  So, of course I had to go look and it was freaking hilarious.  The picture says it all.

Cool huh?  I can imagine that this chick was making these cupcakes for her son's 1st or 2nd birthday and this is what she had to present to her guests with 10 minutes to spare.  Sucks, right?

As moms and crafter's galore, we don't have much time to sit around doing crafts, especially have time to do a trial run to make sure it will turn out just like Pinterest.  In our minds it's going to go perfect and look just like the picture on Pinterest.  After all, that's the goal right?  It has to look EXACTLY like the picture on Pinterest.  Enter, the idea. We will take a pin, do and review.  We will tell you if it's pretty easy or not worth your time.  Or, perhaps it's totally worth your time, but it's gonna take a little practice and you should be sober while making it.  Maybe it's easier using a nail instead hot glue.  Brilliant!  So I called my BFF Sarah and told her about my idea and of course she loved it.  She agreed that there's no real way to know before hand if the craft or project or major undertaking is going to bomb.

What's even better is that you can submit your own review of a pin that you've done!  Maybe you set your kitchen afire, perhaps you accidentally spray painted your car.  Whatever it is, we would love to hear about it.

Before I end this post, I have to give some major props to my BFF, Sarah.  She totally took this idea on as her own, made the logo, started up this blog and everything.  We're doing this venture as a team.  You get the best of both worlds, folks.  While we are similar in many ways, we are totally different crafters and have similar but different interests.  She gets to review, me too and sometimes you'll get us both.  I hope we can help save a marriage, a home or perhaps your sanity. After all, isn't that what crafting is all about?

Happy Pinning,