J Crew Necklace

It is so hard to sleep with Christmas so near! I haven't had a chance to do anything! Monday was my birthday, and my finals! Lets just say I am happy that am done with school for now. So with Christmas drawing near I have been thinking about what I could use in my stash. and Last year my brother gave me these beautiful beads. Now I have never really made jewelry so I was excited at the chance to learn. Since this was a gift to me I thought that this would be perfect to make myself a necklace to wear for my birthday. I found this tutorial for a cute a J Crew necklace over at Samster Mommy. I just had to make it! Wouldn't you it is so cute. I love it, my daughter loves it....don't tell her but I am making a mini one for her for Christmas!





How is your Christmas list coming? I have a ton o things to work on....who knows if I will get done!





Love


Tiff

A couple of easy kid gifts!

Here are some fun ideas you can give the kids on your list !
My niece is a little princess and loves Snow White, so I made her a Snow White bag filled with coloring stuff. The Snow white is appliqued on with permanent applique so I did not have to sew it! The contents of the bag were princess crayons in a crayon roll that I made from my stash, a coloring book from the dollar store, a drawing pad also from the dollar store, and candy jewelry.

Here is the crayon roll, with an A appliqued on the front.





Skip to my Lou has an awesome tutorial for crayon rolls!

Then for the little man in your life (Which I have three nephews) these little applique shirts are super adorable!

Which Christmas gifts are your go to easy gifts to make?

love,

Tiff

I am linking this to:

Flash Back Tuesday: Jean Apron.

For today's flash back Tuesday I am sharing the first thing that I ever sewed and was {and still am} proud of.
Hey so today I whipped up something for my first craft- diet item! I took an old pair of cut off jeans and cut them in half then I took the smaller side and I made Monkey an apron with a dog on it Because if you know Monkey then you know how much she loves dogs! So I of course of pictures So the first one is of the side of the pants,




This one is of the apron itself:

And these are action shots!





With the other side of the jeans I am going to make myself an apron which I will of course post, but my next craft well have to be a surprise! {I don't even know what it is going to be yet!}

Blogs that inspire (Still true)
1. http://www.crafty-moms.com
This site has a lot of crafts to do with your children!
2. http://allsorts.typepad.com
This site would have to be my fav of the week it is very cute and has patterns and fun things to make and is also very inspiring!
3. http://www.jennybharris.com/funstuff/funstuff.htm
Monkey loved this site it has a virtual paper doll which was fun to dress and it also had build a robot plus it had very cute coloring pages you could print!
4. http://annamariahorner.blogspot.com/
This site truly inspires with all of it color. It is a designer Anna Maria Horner and she has the most beautiful things on her blog
5. http://mybyrdhouse.blogspot.com {I really want to try her emergency candle}
This site has some very beautiful quilts, aprons and other crafts!
6. http://www.cleanhomejournal.com
I think the title says it all , I thought that I would include this because one of my New year resolutions was to keep a clean house and although I am on my way this site inspire me to what I could become!

Birthday Pjs Tutorial!

So last Christmas when I was at Joannes with Monkey and she saw this Halloween material that she loved. So I went back and secretly bought saving it for her forth bday. So now since it is her 5th bday, I decided to make her pjs. I haven't written alot of tutorials so any tips or comments would really help me out thanks and enjoy!

*Sorry I meant to say this is the side you just sewed.

Sew up the black lines sides. ugh who knew writing basic directions could be so hard?*

I hope that this tutorial was clear, if you have any questions feel free to contact me.

Flash Back Tuesday: Is it time to start thinking about Christmas? ...Yes!

This is a post from my old blog the Crafty Homemaker. It is about this time every year that my attention turns to Christmas, this is one of the ways I organize my Christmas every year. Enjoy a good flash back! {I have included updates in red}

Ok I know what you are thinking its not even October yet, but there is a reason to my madness. I really like the idea of a homemade Christmas, and although it almost always equals sleepless nights, there is a since of pride that your creativity, produced joy. This is not just for creating gifts, but also organizing so that you (or I ) don’t get overwhelmed, this is really a big key to a joyous Christmas.

So yesterday I showed a picture of a notebook when I make this notebook my family knows it time to think about what we need to do for Christmas. On the side there are four tabs labeled; Black Friday, Family, Friends, Other. {On the inside cover there is a single piece of tape making it a memo pad that I can write on with dry erase maker or washable markers for fast little notes}



The Black Friday tab is for as you guest it all the non home-made things, and supplies you will need for the homemade things. I usually price match at Wal-Mart so I leave a section for things I can get there, but more on that another time.



The family and friends tabs are so you can keep track of ideas of things that would be perfect for that family member or friend. {This year I got fancy and put it on my computer, in my note book this year is just list that way if it gets in the wrong hands they will not know what they are getting}
The other tab is for anything you would like, I keep list of maybe ideas of things I would like to make, movies we do not own but would like to, things that I see that I would want ( my family asks for lists), Christmas card list ect… {This is also where I make my Christmas Party plans}

You can also add as many tabs as you would like, ( for example Christmas Parties, to do list, calendar ect…)
I am always trying to make Christmas less stress full so I would love to hear your tips, and crafts and so on.

Itty bitty baby booties!

So this weekend was crazy! I got to babysit my little munchkins {niece and nephew} which monkey just loved to play with. Then on Sunday L Tom Perry came to talk to our stake! So much fun. In my off time I was able to squeeze in some baby booties, I think they came out so cute! I am going to send them to my cousin who just had a baby along with the outfit I think that it is just adorable!

This is the book that I got the pattern out of and I totally recommend it for beginners. I taught myself to crochet 3 months ago and this book is the easiest to read. I found it at Micheal's but online I have seen it for as little as 4.oo

If your not interested in buying the book there are a ton of online patterns for free! The next pattern that I think that I am going to try out is at New thing crochet. She has the cutest little Mary Jane's. I will let you know how it goes.

One last thing, so me and the hubby where driving the other day when we came across this cloud. I saw a duck on it's back, the hubby saw goofy what do you see?

Flashback! Washer Necklace Tutorial

So this is from my old blog (before it became private) Enjoy!

I made necklaces for my friends and family this Christmas. I thought these would make great teacher gifts, Valentines for special friends or for bday parties. They were so easy that I can see myself making many more of these. All it takes is some washers, modge podge, and a hard coating…( I can not remember the name but will update later with it) and you have an instant gift! These took me 45min to make all of them.
I don’t think I have ever taken the time to realize how satisfying it is to make something to give. There is a certain pieces of pride that goes along with each gift along with appreciation for those who have gone before you. Know what I mean? Anyways if you would like to make them here is the tutorial I wrote for my other blog, and craftster; so I thought I would share it with you guys!

I found the washers at home depot from 13-38 cents, the ones with the larger holes work better.
Things you need

Paper of your choice Mod Podge Glossy Accents Washer Twine to put on it when it is done.
Step one:

Trace washer on the paper then cut it out.

Step Two:Mod Podge it by adding a layer of glue to both the washer and paper. Then put the two together and add a thin layer of mod podge on the paper.

Step Three: Put a thick layer of Glossy Accents on the washer.

Let it dry for 24 hours and then string it up and you have great gift.


I can not wait to see what everyone comes up with.!