Pink-ing of You

Just wanted to make a post to link this on Pinterest.   Got a new shade of nail polish for my birthday and added a little fun to it!

It's called "Pink-ing of you" by OPI and the sparkles are "In the Spotlight" by Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear.

When I was looking online for the perfect light pink color I didn't really see many pics for this shade so I wanted to add one since I ended up loving it!  It was exactly what I was looking for and I just went to the store and bought it without seeing any pics first.  So here it is!!

I believe...

Browsing Pinterest again and I came across this Marilyn Monroe quote that I liked because it reminds me of my wedding plans and how everything went wrong just for everything to work out. SO, I decided to make some wall art out of it in Photoshop for my bathroom.  My bathroom theme is brown and teal flowers if you couldn't tell ;) I kind of like how it turned out! What do you think?

Easy Baby Blanket!

I just finished this cute blanket for a friend who is having a baby boy in April.  It was really easy to make, it really only took a couple of nights to finish...I just spread those nights out over a couple months, oops!

Anyway, the posts on this blanket are somewhat scattered. First I found pictures on this blog post (from Pinterest of course) which links to this blog post with the tutorial, which is in UK crochet terms! So I translated to US terms, basically our sc = their dc, and so on. Here is a translation chart.

I later found another blog post where someone tried making this with dc stitches. I think I like the sc look better though, and it really didn't take that long.

Here is my finished result!

 

Here is what I came up with for a pattern (so you don't have to find and decipher one!)

For this blanket I believe I bought a total of 8 skeins of yarn.  I used the Vanna's Choice "Dusty Green" color which I got on sale at Jo-Ann Fabric.

My foundation chain was 98, but it ended up being too long so I tapered off some in the rows after.  You can't tell at all so don't worry if your chain ends up being too long.  The ruffles do a great job of hiding it!

Towards the end of mine one of my bauble rows got off by a fews stitches.  This is the worst part about this pattern because you can kind of tell when you mess up.  I noticed much later though so I was not pulling it out!!  Can you tell from the pictures which row is off? Probably not! It's not that bad.

Here's my pattern:

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Size J or K hook
Approx. 8 skeins (3.5 oz.)

ch 98
Row 1: single crochet into the second chain from the hook and continue along the foundation chain.
Rows 2 and 3: Chain 1 and single crochet to end.
Row 4: sc in next 7 st.  then a bauble! (4dc in next st keeping the last loop on the end each time until you have 5 loops on your hook, then bring the yarn through all 5 at once) continue 7 sc and 1 bauble to end.
repeat 3 rows sc, 1 row baubles*

*For each bauble row alternate the starting position of the bauble between 7 st and 3 st 

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I love this blanket and I hear that babies really love playing with the baubles.  I definitely plan on making this one again!  I hope you enjoy it too!!

Valentine's Ribbon Wreath

I did a ribbon wreath!  Being my first one it didn't turn out as good as this one, which is where the directions for the ribbon wreath are.  But here's what I learned for next time!



As I was cutting and gluing the ribbons I started to try different sizes to see what it looked like.  Turns out the smaller ones are better, the bigger loops just look funny on the wreath.  By small vs. big I mean 2" vs 3".

The other thing I learned is the directions that you face your ribbons kind of matter.  You want the wreath to have some flow. So for instance on the sides of the hearts try to keep the ribbons mostly diagonal in the same direction, instead of in every which way. You can kind of see how there are different rows of ribbons.  You can try to make the "middle" row in a different direction than the outside rows  (which I didn't do...this time!). 

I got the ribbon on sale at Michael's for $1 each and the foam heart frame was from Joann's for $2, so the whole wreath was under $10! Gotta love cheap projects that become pretty decorations!

Happy Crafting!
Jessica

Holiday curtains!

I got back into sewing this year by making my first curtains for Christmas.  I've now decided that this is the year that I am going to make holiday curtains each month for my kitchen window. Last month was poinsettia fabric:

... and now we're on to Valentine's day! Pink hearts! <3

To make these I buy a yard of fabric and a spool of matching sewing thread if I don't already have the color I want. This usually runs between $5-$10, (and less than $5 with coupons/deals/sales)!

To make the curtain a foot tall I cut my fabric 17" in height to account for the hems.

I iron the hems about a half inch fold and sew those on all 4 sides. I then iron the top and bottom hems on a 2" fold and sew those.

On the top hem, to make a slot for the curtain rod (mine is a very small rod, make sure to account for the size) I sew 1" from the topside of the curtain. Slide the curtain rod through the middle opening and it's ready to hang!

I made this tonight in about 1 hour.  Very fast and easy project for beginner sewing!  I've already bought my St. Patrick's Day fabric for next month!! I'm excited for that one too!!

 It's always nice to be able to change the scenery and have new things to appreciate in your home, especially when it is things you have made!

Happy Crafting!
Jessica

A Valentine Sign

My inspiration was this Pinterest pin.  I went to Michael's and got the ribbon for $2, 2 red wooden hearts for 29 cents a piece, a white paint sharpie and some red glitter glue. Very inexpensive project! <3 I also saw the larger wooden hearts used in the original idea there too for $1, but these ones were much cheaper and already painted.


The first step I did was the names.  I played with fonts and found the one I liked the best was Minya Nouvelle.  So I printed out the names in size 36 and taped them on top of the hearts to use this method of name painting. With the names taped in position I used a ball point pen and traced the outline of the names, indenting the wood.  Remove the paper and use the paint sharpie to paint the names inside the indentation.  Mine required about 3 coats of paint.

Once the names dry you can use the red glitter around the edges of the hearts.  This is self-explanatory. :)

For the finishing touches I cut a 5" and 12" piece of ribbon and fired up the glue gun.  Hot glue the 5" ribbon between the 2 hearts in the middle.  Use this technique on the 12" ribbon to make the bow.  (Pretty much the bunny ears bow tie method)  Hot glue the 2 ends of the bow to the top heart and voila! Your Valentine Sign!

I love that you can add more hearts for the whole family and it is a cute personalized decoration for the home!

Happy Crafting!
~Jessica

Family Rules

Quick post!  I love all the "Family Rules" signs I keep seeing on Pinterest and had to have one for myself.  This one was my favorite so I fired up good ol' Photoshop and started making a copycat.  I interchanged a few sayings I liked from the other signs and just tried different fonts and text sizes, overall pretty easy.  Most of the time spent was picking the fonts I liked the best and spacing everything out right.  I then printed that out on 8"x10" photo paper and stuck it in a black frame I snagged from Michaels on clearance for $3.  There were a couple white dings in the frame that I just colored in with a black sharpie and voila! Good as new!  Here is the final product hanging in my kitchen!
 


















Aaaaand here is the JPG I created, for your very own sign!

 Happy Crafting!
Jessica