Wordless Wednesday: Bit O' Shopping

Playing around with a few ideas and did some shopping at Joann's (first image), Michael's (second one) and my wholesale outlet (third one). Yippee!  Details tomorrow!

Have a great day,
Carrie

DD's Mixed Media Project - Next Generation!

My youngest daughter is currently finishing her sophomore year in college (whoa... how did THAT happen?!?!) and is studying to be a teacher: 3rd generation. Oddly enough she's transferring (assuming acceptance) to the same college both my dad and I went to, but that's another story.

One of her classes, Arts Integration, required a project, which she had the concept for and started very early, but, like most of us, finished the night before, of course.

Her idea was to mix quilting and photography with help from my new Silhoutte machine. 

The quilt blocks were her very first try at quilting - they came out pretty good!  Luckily her mom has a pretty BIG stash of fabric, so no trips to the store for any of that.

To use my Silhouette, she found sayings about family and printed them on the pen setting, then trimmed and sewed each one by hand onto navy flannel.  They are a little hard to read here - the pen was light blue.

The photography piece is a collage of each person, as well as friends and where we live, sewed by machine onto scrapbook paper with a Silhouette vinyl of each name.

The toughest part was sewing the entire project together.  Everything had to be zigzag stitched so as not to make one big perforation AND done on the machine because, well, it was due the next day!  It would have been GREAT to have an image of THAT part of the process, but with my hands tied up getting it through the machine and hers holding it, that wasn't going to happen!  Let's just say I suggested that if she tried this again, perhaps a bit smaller would be in order...

Overall, it was a powerful piece and will make a great wall hanging... hey, I'd LOVE it!

Have you experimented in mixed media?  What sort of projects have you done?

Have a great day,
Carrie

Mining Monday: 10 Ideas for Organizing your world

After yesterday's fun video about recycled storage ideas, I thought I'd expand on the idea with a "Mining Monday" post as I am in great need, personally, for this.  My friend and I have determined our Chi is off and some organization would help... soooo.... Let's procrastinate / go hang out on Pinterest and get the ideas rolling!

We all know I have plenty of fabric AND lots of boxes, so this one seemed a natural start: fabric covered boxes!  The original idea came from a Belarussian site, so the author translated it: THANKS!

Image from Handimania.com

I'm very much into the fabric/box "thing" - here's another GREAT tutorial with wonderful directions you need to check out from over at Positively Splendid.

Image from Positively Splendid

This next idea I would like to do on my crafting table: a Craft Room Lazy Susan.  I love the colors she chose and the concept. Bit of recycling and voila!

Image from Craftsbyamanda.com

Have a few books laying around?  (That's a bit of an understatement here...) This project is fantastic!  A "book sling" - who'd of thought, right?  This would be perfect for my grandsons!

Image via Domesticimperfection.com

Any site who's tag line is : "Home of the Never Ending Honey-do-List" is a place I want to visit!
How about this idea: adding wheels to a wine box for under table storage?

Image: DIYVillage.com

I am a visual person - which means, I need to SEE my materials!  Sigh....makes for a bit of a mess, really.  I thought this idea from OneProjectCloser might fit the bill for me: a shoe bag organizer!  Take some time to check out their site: you can get LOST there!

Image from oneprojectcloser.com

Most of these ideas take a wee bit of time and materials.  Here's one that's so simple it's CRAZY!  You can pop over to Smart Savvy Living for even more ideas!!

Speaking of hangers: here's one for washi tape (or other tape, as well!)  My only thought is that it's a bit of a pain to get at a roll on the far side, but it would get them up off the table and in view, right?

Image from sillyoldsuitcase.blogspot.nl

Okay, this one isn't what one might think of as "storage" but... wait: how did they get both the fitted and flat sheets so... flat?  LOL!! Right, it's Martha!

Where was this idea when my kids were little?  I need to show my son this one for his boys!

Image from 100things2do.blogspot.ca

What sort of organizing ideas work for you?  We'd love to see!  I've added a Linky Tool you can use to share, if you'd like.

Have a great day!
Carrie

Organizing your craft room with Recycled Materials!

As I am in the midst of a HUGE overhaul of my crafting space (H.U.G.E. is an understatement....) I was cruising YouTube for fun ideas and this video popped up.

These sisters (identical twins?) have some great ideas and I'm definitely running out to get some chalkboard paint and a chalkboard paint pen!  Who knew?

I love the box idea, as well.  If you come to visit me at market starting two weeks from tomorrow you just might see some of these!

Enjoy!
Carrie


Carrie

Wordless Wednesday... a day late! :) --> Signs of spring

Things were a bit crazy yesterday with getting to work early for first fairy house workshop (Very successful!  Yay!) and then late night set of softball games.  Missed sharing Wordless Wednesday - so here's what I was planning on sharing!

Buckets are in... taps are pulled.

Peeking out through

Slightest signs of color

Hope it's coming around you, too!
Carrie

Fairy House Fun: Pennants on Sticks

Due to the fact we are doing some fairy house fun at work, I thought I'd share some of the mini projects I've been having creating as models to give our visitors ideas.

This week is a series of workshops including a day of making fairies, another of accessories and the last day creating a mini house. **COME BY THURSDAY AT The Monadnock Center for History and Culture AND YOU CAN MAKE THIS!!


Today I'd like to show you how to make a sweet little set of pennants, which could also be PERFECT on a cake!  HAHA!  Double duty! 

Here's what you need:

• Pair of sticks - they could be right off the ground outside OR coffee stirrers, like these.
• String
• Scrapbooking paper
• Glue Stick
• *ALSO - Accessories (like the butterfly) if you have them

Here's how they look on a plant in the office.  Cute, right?

First, you need some scrapbook paper.  I like to mix it up with solids and prints.  Oh... and some scissors and glue.  Cut out out some pennants.

Fold the pennant over the string and snip off the extra.  You can see where it is on the yellow and how I trimmed it on the print.

Take your handy dandy glue stick and glue them down.  Tie the two ends to the sticks.

I LOVE it out on the planter at work!  The butterfly is a velum scrapbooking goodie.

There you go!  Perfect for fairy decorations OR your latest birthday cake adventure!
Happy creating,
Carrie
PS.  Come visit us and make this and other goodies 4/23-25!!

Mining Monday: DIY Market Bag Bonanza

Amidst the massive cleaning/reorganizing of the weekend (okay, Saturday) I came upon a box of fabric I had pre-cut to make some bags, tote type, some time ago.  Rather than move them to the scrap bins, I thought I'd turn them into bags to sell at the up-coming farmer's market (just 3 weeks away!)  Just quick and easy ones you can fold up and tuck in a bag or your glove compartment.


So today's Mining Monday is a search for patterns and ideas to get me fired up!

The perfect place to start is the Green Bag Lady.  She and her peeps have produced and shared almost 27,000 tote bags for others, a project she created to replace plastic bags when shopping.  You can actually sign up to win some on her blog, HERE and follow her on Facebook, HERE.  Right on her home page you can find links to make your own bags - sweet!

Want something a bit ruggeder?  Perhaps you need to stop at the library on the way?  I found this one made from canvas over at Sutton Grace.

Perhaps you want something more "purse-like"?  According to the Moda Bake Shop, you can make this in 2 hours - though I am looking for quicker, BUT I like the use of fabrics, so I'm adding it in.  I really liked the tutorial, as well - some GREAT ideas there!

This is a bit more of what I am thinking (time-wise) and I like the way they constructed the handles.  This is pattern comes from JoAnn's and is actually called a Market Bag. They use heavier, upholstery material for this one.

A similar idea, called the Martha Market Bag has some good info about construction. 

I honed in on this one by Punkin Patterns for the fabric alone!  I also liked upping the strength of the bag (cotton) with interfacing.  But really?  It was about the purple fabric...just saying...

Hey, how about this one made from a pair of pillowcases designed by the Sewing Dork?  Sooo makes me want a serger...sigh...

Did you know they make the material you see the bags from the big box stores?  That light weight utility fabric?  According to She Wears Flowers, you can get it at JoAnn's! Who knew?  She has a great tutorial using said fabric ... oh, and it's purple too!  She has wonderful directions, too!

Oh boy.. oh boy!!  I just picked up some laminated fabric, so this pattern is PERFECT!!  She includes some VERY important ideas about how to work with it so that things like MELTING don't happen!  Yikes... that would be me!  Here's one of the ones I have available right now.

Whoa... looking for some bigger bags?  I ran across these by Michael Miller!  Not made to sling over your shoulder and I'm pretty sure you'd have to be rather rugged to lift them out of the cart, but maybe I'm just getting old!  LOL!

Oh my, then I found this little gem on Martha's website: easy peasy removable organizer to go INSIDE your tote!  How often have you been scrounging around inside a tote to find things like your wallet or a pen?

Want something "one shot" - almost no sewing?  How about this idea from Between the Lines for a bag made from a T-Shirt?  Unfortunately I just snipped up all my "stash" to start on T-Shirt quilts for hubby and DD.  Oh well...

I'd like to wrap up today with one last bag, you'll know why as soon as you see it!  I think it was MADE for me!  Hehe!

Do you have any other fun tote bag ideas?  Please share them or a link to them!
Have a great day!
Carrie

Happy Easter, however you celebrate: Ours is a scavenger hunt!

Adorable bunny from my friend Karen for the boys!

Sending best wishes for a happy Easter to you all, however you celebrate this holiday.  Whether it's time spent in church, with family, enjoying Easter fun with children, cooking or creating in your own way, I wish you the best.

We'll share a meal at lunch with part of our family (and a delicious ham cooked with a maple syrup/honey mustard glaze, of course!) hence crazy cleaning yesterday, then a super fun "first" with our grandsons - a plastic egg scavenger hunt I've devised to mix things up that will lead them to the books I bought.  Hehe!


Here's the set up:

1. There are two of them (ages 3 & 4) so it's important that are two eggs at each "find". 
2. We will start by giving each of them an egg with the first clue inside.  
3. We'll head out (perhaps in their safari hats their mom got at the Smithsonian!) in search of the next clues.
4. We will go from clue to clue (in the mailbox, on your slide, in the sap house, etc) till the final clue takes us to where the goodies are hidden!

Grandpa's Plow

By the big pine...

In your watering can...

On the blue tractor...

 I thought it would be OODLES more fun than just finding plastic eggs hidden in my living room and it's a gorgeous day outside!

Here's the final stop - Ryan's car seat!  :)

What Easter traditions do you have?
Best wishes to you all,
Carrie