Getting Some Green On

I realized last week that St. Patty's Day was coming up and that my sweet daughter has no green in her wardrobe. So, I determined to do something about it. I decided that despite her lack of green clothing, I could at least make her something to wear in her hair. So, I pulled out the materials and set to work.

I sketched out a simple cross-stitch pattern and started on the first set of clips:

Approximately 60 inches of floss (three strands) used for each clip pattern.

A little felt and some stitched on clips and those were completed.

I even made something for myself:

These didn't seem enough, so I broke out the felt again and got cutting:

I'm really in to the four-leaf clover.

I like having a cute little girl to wear my clips.

I think these were my favorites:

and if those three ideas don't do it for you, here are a couple more green inspired clips from when I was running my Etsy shop.

Top: Layered fabric and felt. Bottom: fabric yo-yo with brads.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Jewelry Travel Pouch Tutorial

When I was young, my grandmother made a small jewelry travel pouch for me. That little pouch has gone with me on all of my trips and has kept my jewelry safe and my necklaces from getting tangled. When I'm not traveling, I keep it on my dresser with my rings and watch in it.

Original Travel Pouch

I got looking at my little pouch the other day and decided that I'd like to re-create it. I thought it would make a fantastic gift for friends or family. So, that's exactly what I did.
It's a really simple concept and except for one bit of laziness on my part, I tried to make mine true to the original. It's such a sweet little pouch. So easy to wrap up and throw in your bag.

Jewelry Travel Pouch Tutorial

Materials:
Just over a quarter of a yard of printed fabric
Just over a quarter of a yard of plain fabric for lining
Coordinating thread
Measuring tape or protractor
Air-erasable pen
43 inches of thin, coordinating ribbon

Start with two sets of circles (place them right sides together):

Sew a .25" seam around each circle and make sure to leave an inch or so open for turning. (You'll notice in the original that she used a buttonholer to create the openings for the ribbon. I am not an expert seamstress. I *think* she must have measured and done the button holes before she sewed the large circle together. I'm not sure, but i was too lazy to figure it out.)

Iron and place finished circles on top of each other like so:

 Now, you'll actually need to pull out the tape measure. I pulled out my trusty protractor. Find the center of the small circle. Using a air-erasable pen, you'll want to mark out the 8 pockets. I started at 90 degrees and then worked around the circle making another mark at 45 degrees. Just like cutting up a pizza.

Sew straight lines along your markings out to the edge of the small circle. Then sew a small circle about an inch from the edge. After that, sew two circles (.25" apart) around the outside of the smaller circle (on the large circle) to create a channel for your ribbon.

Time to insert your ribbon. This is where my laziness came in. I used my craft knife to gently cut a slit on each side of the pouch for the ribbon. I was careful not to slit the liner fabric. Then I used some fray check on the slits. You could also get out some needle and thread and wrap the edges of the slits in thread (seemed like a lot of work at the moment, but would make the holes more finished). Using a safety pin, insert your ribbon into the channel and then knot the ends of the ribbon together.

As a final touch for gift giving, add the little poem that my grandmother added to mine:

"Not a necklace will you tangle, when you travel place to place. Eight separate little pockets are in this pretty case. Whatever is your pleasure, how smart this pouch will be. Traveling with your 'treasures,' you'll have this gift from me."

I've even made of a PDF you can print with the words:

Print Jewelry Pouch Gift Tags

If you are keeping it for yourself, all that is left to do is to load it up with your jewelry:

I love my little pouch so much, can't wait to make a bunch to give as gifts. That's right friends, you may have something to look forward to. :)

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

5 minutes: Clay and Felt Flower Clip

I decided to finally get around to using the extra roses I had laying around from when I put together my rose and lace necklace. I'm calling it a 5 minute craft, but of course, that asserts that you already have the clay roses laying around and ready for use. You do, right?

If you've got those roses, then gather the rest of your materials: A felt circle, felt leaves and a clip to mount them on.

A little hot glue later and you have a springy clip or brooch.  In my case, a clip that looks sweet in my daughter's hair.

I paid that girl 4 orange M&Ms (the only color she'll eat) to pose for pictures. Next time, she's going to want more...

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Rose and Lace Necklace

With the weather so frigid and the air so crummy lately, I've been really looking forward to Spring and finding myself drawn to both floral and feminine things. I saw this great tutorial on how to make polymer clay roses and thought I'd give it a shot. I decided to make mine more stylized and to use them as beads for a necklace.
I started out by practicing with Jellybean's play dough.  I made several green roses for her. She stuck each one on a toothpick and added it to her creation.

I love scented play dough. Mmm, smells like green apple.

After I'd practiced for a little while, I decided to break out the clay.

Then I carefully poked a hole at the base of each rose using a toothpick. If you need a hole for your project, definitely remember to do it before baking.
After the roses were baked and cooled, I decided to stitch them to a lace ribbon necklace I found at Hobby Lobby.

I love the way it turned out. The necklace might work better as a choker, but I fear that my neck is too short to wear it like that.

A rose beaded necklace strung on lace. What could be more feminine? I kind of love the blue rose the most. I made several more roses and plan to put together a hair clip for Jellybean. More on that soon.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Felt Circle Belt

My mid-section has been expanding on a daily basis. Therefore, I've been breaking out my most comfortable maternity clothes. I purchased a simple, black maternity dress online and discovered that instead of it looking cute and flattering (flattering maternity clothes, do those really exists?) it looked more like a black muu muu or...tent.  Just because you are pregnant doesn't mean that you would wear utterly shapeless clothing, right?
I ran across this cute tutorial for a diy belt on Kollabora.  I didn't have any vinyl on hand, so I decided to take a softer approach and use felt. That said, vinyl will give this project a more polished finish.

I needed approx. 1/4 yard of felt for this project as well as some coordinating grosgrain ribbon and thread. If you are cutting circles in fabric, I highly recommend the Olfa rotary circle cutter. Almost every circle I cut came out perfect. I don't think I could have cut 40 circles without it.

So after following the tutorial and some sewing later, I had a belt to cinch me in and give my dress a little shape. I like actually looking pregnant.

I'm not sure I'm in love with the bright red on black, so I might revisit and make it over again in another color. What do you think?

No more muu muu for me.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

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Lemons for Lulu

Needlecraft Bobby Pins

At almost 15 weeks along in my pregnancy, I haven't been feeling my best, so I decided to take a little break from the blog over the weekend. Because of that, I discovered that I really don't have anything new to share. I did get digging around in some of the hair clips that I've made over the last couple of years and decided that I'd share some of my needlecraft bobby pins.

I love to stay busy with my hands, but I've figured out that if I plan to actually complete a project it has to be relatively simple, quick to complete or something I can put down and then pick-up again without having to figure out where I left off. For those reasons, I like putting together small cross-stitch samples that I can use in various ways. I love, love the brooches I created a while back. I've also really enjoyed using my cross-stitch in hair accessories.

Creating a needlecraft bobby pin is really simple.  I don't have any how to pics, but I'll give a summary of the process. All you need is a set of bobby pins, felt, floss, hot glue and a small cross-stitch sample. You'll want to purchase bobby pins with glue pads.  You can generally find them at local craft stores. I found great deals on e-bay as well.

Hot gluing the cross-stitch to the felt, is kind-of the lazy way of doing things, but it also keeps the cross-stitching fabric from fraying beyond the design. I do like to purposely fray the fabric to give it a shabby-chic look.

To mount the cross-stitch and felt to the bobby-pin, just cut out a smaller circle for the back and using your floss, stitch the two circles together. You'll need to slit the smaller circle so that it fits over the back-side of the bobby pin. That's it! How's that for a simple, little project for during nap time?

I just visited Hobby Lobby today and came home with the materials for some new projects, so stay tuned.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Fall Hair Clips + New Blog Design

So, I used to run an Etsy shop. *Gasp* It was a fun project for a while and I really enjoyed designing and creating hair clips. I don't have any immediate plans to re-open the shop, but I thought I might start posting some of my creations here along with some tutorials as well.

Last year, I designed some fall hair clips for a friend. I thought they turned out sweet and they were very easy to create.

I used a mini sized Autumn cookie cutter set for the shapes (like this one).  Then, I cut out two layers of felt in each design, added some decorative stitching and then stitched them to some 1.25" snap clips. I like using two layers of felt, so that I can hide my non-pretty stitching. Also, I like the snap clips that have the hole in the tip, so that it's easier to stitch them to the felt.

Easy as pie.  I hope I sparked some inspiration for Fall. 

In other news, I'm pleased to present my new blog design courtesy of Tasha @ My Cute Lobster Designs. I found her through Etsy and have really enjoyed working with her. If you are in the market for a new look, definitely check out her work.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

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