Cyber Monday Sale in the Etsy Store 25% Off

You read that right! Everything in ye ole Etsy shoppe is 25% off when you use the coupon code cybermonday28 Stock up on handmade jewelry, kitschy craft supplies to make your own holiday gifts, vintage purses and more.

I Love to Create - Christmas Cutie Stand Up Doll Decoration

Ya, ya, ya I know I did a project using my vintage pattern girls just a few weeks ago. So sue me. She was fall themed, had a fabric dress and was in a frame. This new and improved Christmas cutie has a fresh spin on the same illustrations and it is the perfect project to kick off all the Christmas crafting you have planned.


SUPPLIES
Vintage Sewing Pattern Image
Scissors
Aleene's Quick Dry Glue
Rick Rack
Scrapbooking Paper
Foam Board
Chip Board
Collage Pauge
Tracing Paper
Pencil
Red Pen
Jolee's Scrapbooking Elements
Crafty Chica Paint White
Craft Knife
Paint Brush

Let me start by saying just because you don't have a vintage pattern book does not mean you can not play along. Pick up a vintage sewing pattern at the thrift store to use for the graphic. Choose a full length picture of a model from a magazine. Better yet have a friend take a picture of you to print out and use!

Once you have your desired image to make into a wee little stand up cut her out. Place your image on a piece of foam board, cardboard or chipboard and decoupage. I used a combination.


At some point either before or after you cut out your image trace the dress. This will give you a pattern to work with. I suggest using a fairly simple design. Also, a lesson I learned the hard way is you should cut out the hands to glue on separate. I'll explain in a minute.


After you have your pattern made from tracing paper you can place it on scrapbook paper or thin fabric to make a new and improved dress. Use a craft knife to cut out the detailed spots like between the arms and body. This is where I should have cut out her hands completely before I decoupaged her to chipboard. No worries, I just stole hands from another image. This way you don't have to do all the tedious knife work around the hands you can just stick them on top of the new outfit.


The next step after getting your dress decoupaged in place is cutting out your stand up. Leave a wide base at the bottom. This picture lies a little bit. I did cut a slit in the center, but I used a small piece of foam board instead of chipboard as the second part of the base. The foam board is thicker and helps her stand better.



Now for the fun part! Using various vintage bits and pieces, scrapbooking elements, pens and sewing notions you can gussy up your stand up. I used Aleene's Fast Dry Tacky Glue to hold everything in place.


I finished things up by painting the backside and base white with Crafty Chica paint. I used a few wrapped gifts around the base to make things extra festive.


Set your Christmas Cutie anywhere to add an extra touch of kitschy cheer. I can't wait to make a whole slew of these lovely ladies. I also see a shelf sitter version in my future! Love to know if you make your own version.

We are Having a Feather Frenzy Tomorrow on Craft Lab

Feather Frenzy
DIY Network
November 21, 2011
8:00am e/p

Sonya Nimiri stops by and we have some fun with feathers. She will demonstrates various projects using feathers as decorative pieces.

Handmade Holidays - Etsy is Your One Stop Shop

If you are having a spot of difficulty deciding what to get everyone on your list, but know you want to go the handmade route (good girl/boy!) might I suggest my Etsy guide on BlogHer. All kinds of great suggestions including ornaments like this one by Midwest Maude.

I Love to Create - Fun Festive Fall Window Treatment

I'm kind of a nut about decorating for Halloween. Christmas is a close second. Easter and Valentines day even have their own decor around these parts. It was high time that I started showing fall and Thanksgiving the decorating respect they fully deserve. Today my daughter Tallulah and I whipped up a window to celebrate the season. Just don't tell her what I did with her crayons during nap time.


SUPPLIES
Tacky Dots
Scissors
Crayons in fall colors
Wax Paper
Iron
Pencil Sharpener
Tulip Soft Fabric Paint in Brown
Finger Paints
Construction Paper
Paint Brushes
Crafty Chica Fabric Marker


Using a Crafty Chica Fabric Marker (because it was what I had on hand) I drew a tree on one of the sliding glass doors in my house. Next Tallulah and I used Tulip Fabric Paint to fill in the tree. Yup, they both work on glass. You might check a small corner to test on your own windows.


To make the stained glass leaves you will need crayons, wax paper and an iron. I stole a few crayons in autumn shades and using my eyeliner sharpener whittled them down to nubs. I then sprinkled the shavings between two sheets of wax paper. Using a low heat iron melt the shavings between the paper. When everything is cool cut out a few fall leaves.


Tallulah helped make the second batch of leaves. I gave her some construction paper in fall colors and some red finger paint and let her have at it. When the paint was dry I cut out leaf shapes from the paper.


All that was left to do was to add my leaves to the tree using Tacky Dots. I put some in the branches and few falling to the ground. The crayon shaving leaves look great with the sun shining through them.


Fall has finally made it to Austin, TX. We may have had to help it along a bit, but it is here. Next week when I take all my Christmas stuff down from the attic I will just use a straight razor to scrape away most of the paint and a little Windex on the rest. Cute, festive and easy.

P.S. If you want to use window markers that would work too. I decorated for a birthday party with them once. Check out more I Love to Create posts here.

***This is a sponsored post by I Love to Create - I was compensated & given free supplies. Mama has gotta pay the bills somehow and really who in their right mind would say no to free craft supplies***

I Love to Create - Not Your Typical Bridesmaids Bouquet

I have a new brother-in-law named Noah. He makes the best pizza in all of Austin (might I suggest stopping by East Side Pies sometime). He is also a very patient man. Anyone who will let their new bride adorn their wedding with Vegas style showgirls, tiger masks and polka dotted giraffes is alright by me. He also did not bat an eye when she wanted to carry a brooch bouquet and her Matron of Honor (me!) wanted to carry one made of plastic flowers. We are just not live flowers kind of sisters I guess.


SUPPLIES
Bouquet Form
Foamtastic Glue
Ribbon
Head Pins
Small Beads
Plastic Flower Petals
Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky Glue


It takes a lot of flowers to fill a bouquet form. With each flower I used a dab of Aleene's Foamtastic to make sure the flowers stayed in place as I walked down the aisle herding two toddler flower girls.


After I covered the entire foam part in glorious plastic flowers I covered the base handle with zebra print ribbon using Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky Glue.


I wish them many years of happiness together. I hope their days are filled with rainbows, unicorns and plastic flower bouquets.

Check out more crafty posts here.

***This is a sponsored post by I Love to Create - I was compensated & given free supplies. Mama has gotta pay the bills somehow and really who in their right mind would say no to free craft supplies***

*Please note the very talented Cory Ryan took the photographs of my finished bouquet*

Meet the new DIY Section Editor at BlogHer - Me!

I have super duper exciting news to share! I got a brand spankin' new jobby job. Yours truly is the new DIY section editor at BlogHer. Pop over 5 days a week for crafty news, tips, tutorials and more. Some of my fave posts so far have been Mindful Pinning on Pinterest, a Very Crafty Christmas DIY Gift Guide and a Star Trek Quiet Book. Some of the posts I write myself and others I scour the crafty blogosphere to bring to you. I'd love it if you popped over to BlogHer DIY from time to time to check things out. Oh and you can follow me on Twitter @blogherdiy for all kinds of fun crafty tweety goodness.

More Bang for Your Decorating Buck - Using Halloween Decorations All Fall Long

I have so many Halloween decorations it seems a shame to just put it all away already. This year I am trying to look at everything orange with fall decorating in mind. First of all if you didn't carve your pumpkins there is no reason they can not stay around awhile longer. Last year all my pumpkins made a second appearance at a fall themed baby shower I threw. This year they are adorning my dining room a bit longer before I muster the will to drag Christmas down from the attic. An orange spooky tree has autumn appeal in the right setting. You might recognize my turtle planter that got a face lift a few weeks ago. I like to go through the house each holiday and look at things based on color and see if I can use them to decorate with seasonly. This spot in my dining room seems to get a seasonal make over more than anywhere else in my house. While we are on the topic do you want to see what it looks like the rest of the year? Sure you do.


For Halloween this year I went with a few small Christmas trees in fun colors. I will probably use the pink and orange tree again at Christmas. It was a sad day when this piece of fabric sold on Etsy. The day I realized I wanted to keep it was of course the day it sold, I had to take a picture of it in full decorating glory before I shipped it.


Even when there is not a holiday in sight I like to change up the theme atop these little lockers. We spend a lot of time in the dining room eating meals together. Seems to me it should be festive and fun. This picture is from a post I did on planters made out of oddball items like birdcages, bicycles and even a thermos or two.


This was my Valentines 2011 set up. You can see a piece of my thermos collection, an array of vintage Valentine cards and my weakness themed picture frames from Target. I just can't say no to them.


Easter is one of my favorites to decorate for because I love my vintage bunnies collection. Peter Cottontail and his friends stare at us through every meal in April.


When my daughter Tallulah Fawn turned 1 I threw her a deer themed birthday party. Did my favorite little dining room nook get the fawn treatment? You bet it did.

I can't believe I don't have a picture of the dining room from Christmas past. You can bet your bottom dollar that I will rectify that situation this year. How are you using your Halloween decorations into fall? More suggestions are always welcome.

Craft Lab - Walls That Wow

Craft Lab
Walls That Wow
Monday November 7
8:0 AM

Guest Jon Fong demonstrates how to create crafty wall decor using wrapping paper, handmade bows, placemats and decorative switch plates.

I Love to Create - Fall Themed Polka Dots and Patterns

A million and one years ago my friend Tina Sparkles made art out vintage patterns. A year or so ago I found a vintage Vogue pattern book at an antique mall and it has sat on a shelf in my studio until recently when I started thinking about Tina. I have one of her pieces of art hanging in my bathroom. The piece is a pattern from the 40's attached to a hand painted canvas and adorned with glitter. Looking at this piece and remembering my own book of patterns I had the sudden urge to create my own version in fall colors.


I gathered an assortment of collage supplies like wallpaper, Collage Pauge, fabric, picture frames, scissors and Tacky Glue. At this point I was not sure where my fall themed arty journey was going to take me.


After I chose a lovely lady to work with from the pattern book I cut her out. I then held her to a window and traced the outline of her dress onto a sheet of white paper. I cut out the paper dress and traced that onto a piece of vintage floral fabric. I cut the fabric dress out and attached it to my paper doll using Tacky Glue.


Also using Tacky Glue I attached a piece of white and orange polka dotted fabric to the backside of a picture frame. I then adhered my girl in her new dress and sealed up the frame.


I liked the idea of adding some dimension to the glass side of the picture frame as well. Using Tacky Glue and a bit of vintage plastic chain I gave this brunette beauty a smashing new necklace.


I'm thinking of making a whole series in fall themed dresses to adorn the house with this November. What do you think? I usually go straight from Halloween to Christmas, but for these collages I might make an exception.


***This is a sponsored post by I Love to Create - I was compensated & given free supplies. Mama has gotta pay the bills somehow and really who in their right mind would say no to free craft supplies***

Dia de los Muertos - A Few of my Favorite Dead Things

Well ok, nothing is actually dead in this blog post but nothing is alive either. Today is the Day of the Dead, Dia de los Muertos if yer sassy, so I thought I would share a few of my favorite themed finds.


Oh Debbie, your soapy pops never cease to amaze me. Sugar Skull soaps that look good enough to eat.


Rocket Buster with my love of over-the-top cowboy boots I kind of wish I had never found your website. They will make you custom boots and right after I win the lottery I am getting a pair.


Think I'll make Calavera sandwiches for lunch today. Who cares whats in them, they look so dang cute.


I keep teetering on the Blythe fence. When I see amazing custom dolls like this one by Melancholy Kitties it almost pushes me over the edge.

Do you have any favorite Day of the Dead trinkets, tattoos, crafts that you wanna share? Love to know.