Happy Easter

I have this wonderful friend in Ireland - Sabrina - who gifted me the perfect die to use on my last minute Easter cards.  The spring flowers in the grass under a budding spring tree was a great place to hide some Easter eggs and bunnies.

I spent a good deal of time this week preparing and sewing masks for the family.  I went through my fabric stash and found some fabrics that were 100% cotton.  Some of them had this info on the selvage.  Others I put to the fire test - outside of course - to check whether they were cotton.  I also found a flannel topsheet that we hadn't used that was perfect for the mask lining.   

The pattern I chose to use has an opening to add a filter if needed and there is an extra fabric channel to insert a wire to be able to pinch the nose.  These don't use elastic as I didn't have any.  Instead they have "channels" on either side to feed a shoelace or cording through to tie around the back of the neck.  (I even put HWNSNBP to work lining up the fabric for me.)

Stopped to take a walk and picked some wildflowers before starting to sew.

The pattern (click here) came in 3 sizes (man, woman/teenager, child older than 3).  I made 3 for each family member except the baby - he's only 11 months old and masks aren't recommended for that age, and really, I don't think they're planning on taking him anywhere that he would need a mask.  

This is him on one of their many walks this week.  He throws his hands up in the air like he's on a roller coaster and loves the wind in his face.  He is known by the whole neighborhood now.  We're sad we'll be missing his first Easter.  We mailed their masks and they were supposed to have them by Saturday, but as of 4:00 p.m. they had not arrived with their regular mail.  We were able to do a porch drop off to my son and his family (along with a kielbasy for their Easter breakfast).

Just a note to anyone out there making masks - DO NOT PUT THEM IN THE MICROWAVE TO DISINFECT.  I've read that there have been fires started this way, especially if they have a metal nose piece in them.  

It will be a peaceful Easter Sunday and a memorable one being on our own.  I hope you all find the joy in the day.  Blessings and be well.

Pets, Lavender and Repurposing Jeans

Our mail lady at work recently lost her cat and of course she was very upset about it.  This is the card that I put together for her.  The cat is stamped in VersaMark and clear embossed.  Both the cat and the sentiment come from C is for Cat.  The scrap paper banners were die cut and I added some ribbon and three little flowers with pearl centers.  It's never easy losing a beloved pet.  This I know.  They depend on us, but we depend on them too because the giving of love and the need to feel loved goes both ways.

This has nothing to do with pets, but the other day I got one of those Etsy notifications on my Facebook page.  There is a woman in Oregon, I think, who is selling lavender wands for $20 a piece.  She recommends using them as wedding/shower favors.  I had recently pulled out these lavender wands that I made from some plants we had several (or more) years ago.  They are easy to make if you have enough lavender and they last for years.   If you google lavender wands you're sure to find explicit directions.  I had pulled these out because I was investigating how to get rid of silver fish recently.  We seem to have stirred up a nest or something like that with all the closet cleaning and flooring that we've done recently.  It is said that silver fish do not like the fragrance of lavender.  I've stuck them in the linen closets and also purchased some loose dried lavender and made sachets for the bedrooms and closets.  Hopefully this will help turn those silver fish away.  

And another project - I have saved all the old jeans that the kids outgrew/no longer wanted.  We have them in all shades of blue and a few shades of black also.  I decided that I wanted to use them for a window treatment at the condo since our furniture there is denim covered.  I took apart several pairs of the jeans at the seams to get the most useable portion of the fabric and then made a pennant pattern out of newspaper.  I calculated how many pennants I would need to span the front window and used several different shades of denim.  I strung them on some nylon rope and used white nails in the trim to rest the rope on to keep it straight.  

I was aiming for a nautical look.  

I've got lot's more jeans to work with.  I always meant to make a quilt that I saw in a magazine a long time ago that alternated squares of denim and flannel.  What I liked about it was the seams were on the outside and frayed.  I believe I have a bag of flannel shirts somewhere.  Now that I have a working sewing machine again I should probably look for that bag and get that started.  Hopefully, it's not full of silver fish!

Fabric Anyone?

This seems to be the new "thing" - using fabric.  I've done a couple of posts repurposing some denim jeans (here and here) and some scrap fabric recently.  Today I'll show you another pin that I made using the Big Shot, Scallop Circle Dies, and cotton fabric. 

Like those colors?  This is made the same way as the scrap fabric pin highlighted above.  I took the scraps from these circles and made this embellishment...........

Then I took the embellishment that I made from the scraps and added it to this $1 frame I found at Mike's.  The sentiment is from All Holidays...........

Okay, where is the rest of my fabric stash? 

Thursday's Throw Aways - Denim Again

With all the flower shows that HWNSNBP and I have been attending recently I was inspired to use my Blossom Party Die for this week's throw away.

Here's the start of the first project.............

After die cutting the flower pieces, I used my paper piercer to make a hole big enough for the brad to go through.  I cut the ribbon to approx. 9" and tapered each end.  The flower was added to the ribbon using the brad.  You can't see the back and I forgot to take a picture, but the ribbon is folded over the brad in the back and glued down. 

The second project revolves around some clothing tags I recently saved.  I thought these tags from Kohl's could be made over to something useful.

I used a regular white brad to put the blossom together and adhered it to the front with a large sticky dot. 

On the back I stamped the floral image from Vintage Vogue in Bordering Blue.  Then I stamped the bird tag from Garden From the Heart also in Bordering Blue, colored the bird and highlighted the edges.

Now I have a cute little package tie-on ready. 

I know I've used the denim before but it just seemed to be perfect for today's projects.

What do you think? 

Thursday's Throw Aways

Ahhhh, Valentine's Day can provide some pretty nifty items to repurpose.  Of course there are candy boxes and such, but I was given something else and I knew exactly what I wanted to try with it.  One of the teachers I work with gave me this piece of fabric that was wrapped around the bouquet of flowers she got for Valentine's Day.  The hearts are metallic gold.

I used my Scallop Circle Die to punch out 10 large and 10 small scallop circles.

Then I cut eight scallops off the large ones and four scallops off the small ones.

Next I used a needle and thread to sew a running stitch along the straight edge of each scallop. 

First I stitched all 10 large ones and tied that off. And then I did the same for the smaller ones.

Then I gathered a corduroy brad, a circle of stiff felt (I punched this out with a 1 3/8" circle punch and made a whole in the center), and a pin backing.

I sewed the pin backing to the felt making sure to keep the center hole free.

Once that was done I took the brad and inserted it through the rings that were created with the scallops and then through the felt circle making sure the brad came out the center hole of the pin back. 

Turn it over and you have a cute pin or package topper. 

(This was not my creation.  I expanded on a ponytail holder designed by someone for Stampin' Up.)

For something that was going to end up in the garbage can I think I've managed to make it pretty one more time. 

I'll be trying this with cotton fabric very soon.  Stay tuned!

Thursday's Throw Aways

Whew, it's been a while since I posted one of these.  I hope to get back on schedule sometime soon. 

The Ways to Use Challenge today is to use textiles.  Well, I just so happen to have a pile of old denim jeans handy and although I do have a certain purpose in mind for them, I thought that I would try something for today's Throw Aways and Challenge combined.

One of our teachers at school has been chosen as a recipient of the Teachers Who Make Magic Award from a local radio station.  They will be making that announcement tomorrow and I thought that I would make her a congratulations card.  Then I got to thinking that she deserved flowers.  So I took a pair of jeans and went to work.

I used the Flower Folds die to cut out two sets of flowers.  The biggest ones I set aside.   I took the other three sizes and paired them up alternating the petals.  Then I used a needle and thread to take a running stitch in the centers of each pair to pucker them slightly.   I did this because I didn't want the flowers to lay flat - I wanted some bulk.  Then all the layers were stitched together.

I took a piece of the jeans hem and rolled it to form the center.  It is also stitched together and then stitched to the center of the petals.  Lastly I stitched a pin backing to the back of the flower.  I recommend you use a good needle and quilting thread for this.  It's much sturdier and less likely to snap. 

I cut the center out of one of the large petals that I had put aside and before I adhered it to the embossed cardstock I made a ribbon loop and attached it as you see below.....

The pin goes through the loop and then is fastened.  Not that it makes any difference, because the card doesn't look very good without it, but this way it doesn't have to be torn off. 

The card base is Night of Navy and there's a layer of Bordering Blue under the Barely Banana which is embossed with the Paisley Texture Plate.  I used a Night of Navy reinker to dye white satin ribbon.  (I'm anxious to see how many days it's going to take my fingers to return to normal because I forgot to wear gloves!)

Inside the card I added another Barely Banana panel and used the Congrats stamp set to add the word Congratulations. 

Now I'm off to find a box for this!