Two More Totes!

I made two more totebags this morning. They are so much fun. The navy one I put a pocket on the outside to use up the last bit of fabric and to cover up a stain on the jeans.

Here are the "insides" but since they are reversible you can use them either way. I had a scrap of blue plaid fabric so I added a pocket to the liner.

Jean Tote Bags

Last week Josh ripped out two pairs of his jeans. They are pretty stained on the front but the back didn't look too bad. Of course I couldn't just throw them away like a normal person would. I washed them up and set them aside and pondered about what I could make out of them.

This past Sat. night when I went over to my cousin's house she showed me a couple of tote bags she had recently made. That got me thinking and I dug through my fabric but I could never decide on what to use. This morning it occured to me to try using the jeans. Luckily I had a bit of this blue & white plaid fabric that worked perfectly as a liner.

Here are the first two bags I made. The long jean strap is actually just the waistband. So easy since all you have to do is sew it onto the bag. No extra work involved. I ended up with a couple strips of the liner fabric so I used those for handles on the other one.

Love how the handles and liner match. Both of the bags are actually reversible.

I love how the label is still attached to the inside of the waistband and the tag is still on the top.

I'd never done a project like this before. It was a lot of fun. The would actually be perfect scripture tote bags.

TODAY

I received this quote a couple weeks ago in an email and really liked it. I decided to frame it up so I could read it everyday. It seems like I always have so many ideas in my head and never get around to doing all of them. I'm hoping that this reminder will help me be more productive in working towards my goals and taking the steps necessary to make them happen.
I just printed it off on regular printer paper using this awesome font from Creating Keepsakes. The ribbon is cream with pink & brown butterflies and flowers. It matches the master bedroom/bathroom so I hung it in there for now. I might add some additional embellishments later but for now I just wanted to do something fast and get it up.

ETSY Cards

I made these cards the other day. The letters are cut from the months from a Mary Englebreit page a day calendar. The cards are from Die Cuts with a View. They are really nice textured cards that are colored on the outside and white inside. The little flowers I glued on the envelope flaps are cut from a M.E. page a day calendar from a couple years ago. The paper borders are from scrapbook kits from Westrim I collected when I worked there eons ago.

Here's a closeup of one of the cards and envelopes. Trying to figure out what else I can spell so I can make some more cards!

A Trio of Dishcloths

Sometimes Goodwill is a great place to find crafting supplies. I stopped past there last week and found a skein and a half of cotton yarn for a mere $1.45. With it I was able to crochet up these 3 dishcloths over the weekend. Pretty good deal!

Curtains & Coasters

When I moved into our house there weren't any curtains on any of the windows. I had some fabric that I thought would be cute as a curtain in the kitchen so I gave it to my mom and she sewed it for me. (This was before I had a sewing machine.)

Yesterday I made these coasters out of the leftover material from the curtain. They look great with the green placemats we got for our wedding.

From Trash to Treasure

Before I throw anything away I try to think if there's a way I can repurpose it into something else. The other day I went to a baby shower and received a favor in this little box. When I got it home I thought that I could cut it apart and make it into a card. I ended up making it into 4 cards instead.

I made 4 cards. I'd picked up some ivory greeting card envelopes from Staples a while back since they were being clearanced out at an amazing price. I made the cards from two pieces of ivory cardstock I cut in half with my paper trimmer. The ivory, pink and green mattes are made from scraps of cardstock I made two pink cards for two friends who are expecting girls within the next few months and two green cards for two other friends who don't know what they are having yet.

Marble Magnets

Yet another project I did a while back but never got around to posting. Several years ago a friend sent me some magnets for Christmas. The images used in them were stamped but as you can see here you can use anything you have on hand to make cute magnets: stickers, cancelled stamps, scrapbook paper, ads, etc...

These images are from a booklet inside the last Pirates movie.

These planes are from a piece of scrapbook paper. They are all actually the same size. The angle of the photo makes them look different.

A cancelled Miss Piggy Stamp had to be preserved somehow.

They are pretty easy to make. The only drawback is the strong odor of the glue. This is a project best done outside.

"Scrabble" Tile Necklaces

A while back I came across Scrabble Tile necklaces and thought they would be really cool to make. Once I gathered up the supplies they were pretty easy. I've worn the one necklace several times and really like it.

I made 12 charms but have only worn the one so far.

The charms plus all the stuff I used to make them. Even though I've picked up a couple Scrabble games at the local Goodwill I actually used wood pieces that I got from Michaels for this project. They are square and a bit bigger than scrabble tiles so they worked better for the flowers. I have tons of patterned paper so I will make some with actual scrabble tiles too. One set I got was an original and the pieces are yellowed with age. They are really cool.

Yeah I've spent countless hours cutting out those flowers. I usually glue one each to the back of envelopes when I make cards.

U.F.O.s

As far as crafting goes U.F.O.s stands for "Unfinished Objects" and if you are anything like me you have a lot of them. When I dug out my box of cotton yarn a couple of weeks ago here are two that I found. The pink one is at a stand still. I cannot locate the pattern I was using and it's a very complicated stitch that I can't figure out so it's on hold for a while. The brightly colored one was only 2 rows but I was able to determine which pattern I was using so I've worked on it here or there while Mr. T. and I unwind by watching DVDs in the evening. If I'd been in my right mind I would've ripped the whole thing out and started over. The dishcloth is ending up to big much bigger than I'd like but maybe the recipient will like it. The pattern is pretty interesting. You make 8 shells stitches and then the next row you do a cluster in between the shells to fill in the open spaces. Quite different. I'll keep going until it's square and then tie it off and try something else. I'm going to make a notation in the pattern book to only crochet 5 shells across so if I ever make it again it will end up a better size. I've thought about writing the date in my pattern books when I make a project. Does anyone else do that?

By the way, I loaded this picture several times and it kept loading on it's side. Finally I decided to open it in GIMP and add some text and then maybe blogger would load it correctly. Even when I opened it in the photo editing software it said, "According to the EXIF data, this image is rotated. Would you like GIMP to rotate it to the standard orientation?" What does that mean and how do I avoid that happening????

Crocheting like Crazy!

The past couple of weeks I've been crocheting quite a bit. It all started with our trip at the beg. of the month. I wanted to take along a project to work on since I have to always be doing something and crocheting seemed like the perfect thing. I stuffed all my leftover cotton yarn in my carryon bag and worked on various items whenever I had a free moment.

Um. Well these I made when I got back home. They are actually two card cases I made from the leftover yarn from a sock project. The one on the left has a flap and is made with single crochet. The one on the right is open at the top and is single crocheted in the back loops only.

One of the greated bridal shower and wedding presents I received were handmade dishcloths. They are just so far superior to the ones you can buy at the store. I am constantly using them and am sure to do the laundry when I've gone through my supply so I don't have to use the regular ones. Here's a few I whipped up from some leftover yarn I had.

Here are some mini scrubbies. Supposedly you can use these as reusable cotton balls although I haven't tried that yet. I did use a blue one I made to scrub pototoes and that worked out great.

I ended up making several of these and gave them to Josh's mom and two sisters before we left town as Thank You gifts for everything they did for use during our visit. They can be used as face scrubbies or general household cleaning or scrubbing vegetables or whatever you can think of I guess.

This is the project I was most excited about but then I ran out of yarn for each one so I'll have to keep on the lookout for more. The problem is that most this yarn I bought quite a while ago so hopefully I'll be able to find some more. These are bath sponges. I'm curious to try them to see how well they work. Reading about them online some users complained that they were so thick that they never dried out. I'm sure that won't be a problem here though. When I hang up clothes to dry they are completely dry in an hour to two. I'll have to keep you posted.

So that's mostly everything. On our trip I ended up using up all the leftover bits and pieces I had but luckily back home I still had several large cones of thread so I still have a while to go before I completely run out. I'm sure most of these will end up as gifts. If you see something you like you may make a suggestion as to what you want. The funny thing is that I bought all this yarn ages ago to make dishcloths out of and yet I had never used any of them. A few I still had in the box and I know that I'd given several away. I could have been using them all these years and never did! I think what stopped me is that the pattern book I was using had you made 13" square cloths which take a long time and aren't very practical. When you are using a handmade dishcloth you can get away with a much smaller cloth and it works great because it is so thick that it really does make doing the dishes so much easier.

So now I know the trick is to make a smaller cloth in an easier pattern so they will be not only practical to make but to use as well.

Decorated Composition Notebooks

I had always wanted to try my hand at decorating composition notebooks but never had tried. When I made the plarn bags (shown below) that fit them perfectly I knew I had to decorate books to match the bags for the perfect presents. I actually just wrote an ehow article on it as well.

Plarn Tote Bags

The first time I saw items crocheted from plastic bags was probably 15 or 20 years ago at a booth at The Orange County Marketplace. It was such a novelty and everyone loved it. For some reason I never gave it a go until just under two weeks ago. My mom had seen some of her friends working on some and that reminded me about it. I searched high and low for instructions and figured out how to make the plastic bags into "plarn" and then I started crocheting away and ended up making one of these tote bags. I liked it so much that I made three more and then I gave them all away for birthday presents a few days ago. I'll work on instructions and post here when they are ready.