Baby Cowgirl

Tiny little hats are so fun to make!
Pink sparkly cowgirl hat made from a NellyBeanCo pattern. Very unique construction and the brim curls up by itself, you just have to “arrange” it a bit. Coming soon to the CrafterellaCupcake store!
Have a super crafty weekend!!!

Button Garland

Oh how I love buttons. I am launching a new idea at the beginning of June and it’s all about vintage sewing notions and especially buttons, so be prepared to see A LOT of new button projects (and some old ones too).
Today it’s a crocheted button garland. There are always plenty of white antique buttons in every lot I buy and this garland is the perfect way to showcase them.I used white crochet thread to make the chain and a teeny tiny hook to pull the thread through two holes in each button. I love how it turned out! I used a variety of sizes of buttons for this one. I think I’m going to make one that uses all the same sized buttons from that button rope in the center of the picture. The varying shade of white and cream should make it really interesting!
This would look great draped across a mantle, over a curtain rod, or on a Christmas tree.

Rock Doilies?

I guess that’s what I’ll call them…or rock cozies? rock nets? rock jackets? I’ve seen several versions of these, but always in white or cream (also more elaborate).I like black, not sure about the pattern I used (kind of plain), looks like I just shoved a rock into some fishnet stockings, so I’ll be trying something else on the other one.

Insanity

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.                    -Albert Einstein
I think that a lot of times we get stuck repeating the same actions over and over again because it’s comfortable and easy. When you realize this it can be a bit upsetting and disappointing. I will be doing different things this year!
In that spirit this is what I’m currently working on…baby hats! Samples of my knitting and crocheting skills. I have a plan for these hats and I’ll share that next week. I am also taking a class at the community college, it’s a self improvement class. I’m excited to learn something new (and different).
What new things will you be doing this year?

Crochet Chevron Cozy

I posted a teaser photo of the start of this cozy on the Facebook Page a week and a half ago and then vanished off the face of the Earth. Between Thanksgiving and the stomach flu (that the entire family had on different days) I have been offline a lot.
The crochet part of the bag is finished, I used the Moon Water Clutch pattern from Lion Brand yarn as a starting point. The pattern is free, but you will have to register with them to see it. I used Hobby Lobby’s I love this yarn and an I hook to get the perfect size to hold a notebook or organizer. I love this design, fun and easy! When I filled in the chevrons on the inside top I used black yarn only, I thought that if I made any mistakes that a solid color would help hide them.
I love how it turned out, but is still needs a lining with some stiff interfacing to give is some structure and to make it easier to slide my organizer out without snagging the yarn. That’s where you come in, I need help deciding what fabric to line it with.  I have narrowed it down to four choices: Chartreuse polka dots with fuchsia flowers, orange batik, sugar skulls on black, and that giant floral print that I have used numerous times before. What would look the best? I’m dying to hear what you think.

Vintage Pillowcase Edging

As I dug through my vintage sewing notion collection, looking for spools, I found this:Yes, that is rick rack embellished with crochet! It is very dainty. I have no idea where it came from, but there are two of them which makes me think that they are pillowcase edgings. They have definitely been cut off of something (and not as carefully as they should have been). I did some internet searching and found this tutorial for rick rack edging and lace insertion and it seems to be this exact pattern, how lucky is that? I am definitely going to give this a try! Imagine red rick rack with white and/or turquoise crochet. I’m thinking fun colors would really modernize this design.
No, I haven’t forgotten to post pictures from this weekends show, I forgot my camera and I HAD to have pictures, so I bought a disposable camera. I need to finish the roll before I get it developed (doesn’t that take you back? remember when it took a week to get your pictures?). I now realize how spoiled I am by my digital camera and the instant results!

Back to Pop Tab Crochet

If you “like” me on Facebook, you’ll know I had a wonderful idea Wednesday night. It was a new design for a pop tab purse. I dropped everything to work on it, I was so excited.Ahem, this is the fifth attempt, right before I frogged it. Attempts one through four were not photographed. I am getting ready to start again, this time I think I really have it figured out. I always like to share my frustrations and failures, so you know that not every project turns out perfectly the first time or even exactly how I planned it. Look for more updates this weekend.
Have a super crafty weekend!!!

More Cleaning, Less Crafting

Now I know how I was able to get so much crafting done with the mess, cleaning takes a looooooooonnnnnnnngggg time.  Keeping everything done eats up a lot of what used to be crafting time.  It is the cleanest it’s been in here…well, ever! It is not spotless, but if you called to say you were coming over in 30 minutes I could have it pretty tidy by the time you got here :)
I finally got all the furniture moved and have hung up some of our art.  Before I hung everything up I gave it all a good cleaning, wow, the frames and glass were filthy!!!  Now everything looks all shiny and new.This is my favorite corner so far.  On the left is a very large, limited edition print that we call Bird Girl(sorry, I can’t decipher the artists name) that belonged to my husbands mother and on the right are life sized, wearable wings that belonged to my Father in law, he got them when he worked at Macy’s in New York, they were part of a Christmas window display.
Anyway, no crafty time means I don’t have anything super fabulous to share.  All I have had time for was crocheting these little cork knights.  I need to add their shields and faces, but I wanting till I’ve finished making an army of them.  I have also made cork ninjas, I don’t think I’m in danger of running out of corks any time soon.
I think I might need to work on my time management skills, maybe it will get easier once I get everything the way I want in and am just maintaining instead of the major overhauls I’ve been doing.  Any advise you may have would be very welcome.

Crocheted Sugar Skulls

I was so excited when I found this skull pattern on Ravelry.  It was the perfect shape, I bought it immediately and started crocheting.These are FAST to make!  I’m going to make these into a bunting, but I need to make two more, maybe black and then embellished with dark turquoise sparkly and red (of course).  This set is for my kitchen and I’ll need two more sets for my porch to flank the granny bunting.
I need to get these blocked so I can do the embellishing.  I might have to make some felt sugars skull too, with sequins and glitter glue!!!

Tutorial: Braided Neckline

After seeing some braided neckline tops on Pinterest I started thinking about how I could make my own.  It really was easy once I figured out that it wasn’t braiding, but crochet. For this project you will need knit fabric(I used some t-shirts from dollar days at the Goodwill, but next time I’ll start with just knit fabric), scissors, and a large crochet hook.I started by cutting the neck band and sleeves off of my tie dyed shirt and making the navy blue shirt into two inch wide yarn (how to here).Next I cut 1/2” wide slits around the neckline of the shirt, about 1/2” from the edge.  I then cut another row of 1/2” wide slits about an inch from the edge, staggering my cuts.If you know how to crochet this will be super easy, but don’t worry if you don’t, I know you can do this.  In the middle of the back, starting with the row of slits that is 1” from the edge pull a loop of the t-shirt yarn from the wrong side through to the right side using the crochet hook. (I know there are two loops in this picture, I got carried away and forgot to take a photo of the one).Put the hook, from the outside of the shirt, into the next hole to the left and pull another loop of yarn to the right side.  You should now have two loops on your hook.Pull the second loop you made through the first loop, you have just made one chain stitch.  Continue pulling another loop through the next hole to the left and through the right hand loop on the hook.
Go all the way around.  When you get back to the hole where the first loop came through make one more chain stitch and then work the next row of slits by pulling a loop through the closest hole to the left of where you are.When you are finished tie working end to the beginning tail where you started. I know it sounds complicated, but it’s not and if you need help you can ask here or email me.
Things to remember:

• your slits don’t have to be perfect, they are going to stretch and you can’t tell if they are wonky
• This technique gathers the fabric, use a shirt that is larger than you normally wear
• crochet loosely, you want the neckline to remain stretchy
• you don’t have to used t-shirt yarn, you can just crochet the slits.  This makes a smaller, rigid braid and more gathered fabric
• after you finish the first round you can switch directions with your crochet so the rows look different (that’s what I did)
• knit fabric doesn’t fray, so you don’t have to finish the edges, but you can

I haven’t finished this top (hemmed the sleeves or adjusted the length because when I finished the edging I realized that there was a hole in the fabric right in the middle of the front, so I’m going to think on how to remedy that situation.  I might end up making this a bubble dress for Little Miss, we'll see.
Have a super crafty weekend!!!

Rainbow Striped Hats and a Lego Cake

Little Sir is turning seven this week and we celebrated yesterday so Grandma and Grandpa could join us.  I decided to make him a Lego cake.  I have never made a “fancy” (as in not just left in the pan and frosted it) cake.  It was quite the learning experience!  I had a hard time getting it out of the pan and, once it was out, frosting it was quite an ordeal (there may have been cussing).  I’m going to need some practice making kids cakes, but Little Sir thought it was great, and that is really all that matters. I was happy that it was at least identifiable and it was very tasty!
Also, unrelated, I crocheted Little Miss a hat.
A rainbow striped, brimmed tam, I found the pattern at Vallieskids, she always has the cutest kids hats!  It looks really cute on her, but she likes to pull it down to her nose, I imagine it’s because that really annoys me.
How was your weekend?

Rainbow Hello Kitty Hair Accessory Organizer

Wow, what a mouth full.  I have just finished making this awesome hair accessory organizer for Little Miss, it has rainbows AND Hello Kitty!  I was so excited when I saw these organizers from Crochet Garden (on ravelry I was able to buy just one, instead of the set).  I had an organizer when I was little, it was an embroidery hoop “head” with yarn braids and I loved rearranging my barrettes on that thing, this is the super deluxe version. This was a nice easy crochet pattern.  The most difficult part was making the double treble stitches, and they weren’t THAT hard.  I did make a few tiny changes, I only did two rows for the ribbons, instead of three, I was a little sleep deprived and didn’t realize I missed an entire repeat until I was almost finished with the edging and there was no way I was ripping that all the way back!  I have decided to not add the pockets for now, I want to display all of her cute accessories, the hair elastics are not cute and they can stay in the drawer.  I would also note that the braids take quite a bit of yarn, so beware if you’re using leftover yarn. Finding the perfectly sized Hello Kitty ribbon was a bonus, look closely she has rainbow butterfly wings!  Little Miss has just recently starting like rainbows, I have a lot of rainbow projects in the works for her, now I just need to get her hooked on unicorns and we’re set!

Granny Triangle Crochet Bunting

I am sooooooo addicted to Pinterest, I could spend hours and hours just looking at everything.  I happened across this granny triangle bunting and fell in love, how great would that be on my porch?!?  I found these instructions for making the granny triangle and started crocheting on Wednesday.  I didn’t do the final row of picot stitches.

I used acrylic yarn because it’s going to be outside in the elements and acrylic yarn is almost indestructible.  My triangles needed to be blocked, acrylic yarn is blocked with steam, um the steam doesn’t work on my iron.  I know I’ll just spray a press cloth and put it on top of the yarn and iron, sending steam through the triangles.  FYI, to get steam your iron is going to be hot enough to melt the yarn.Good news, they only melted a little and they look a lot better.  Really the only way to tell they’re melted is to look closely.  I chained all my triangles together and was kind of meh about the bunting.  I’ve been working on tassels this afternoon.  They really aren’t as time consuming as they sound, I was doing other things too, like entertaining a fussy baby. Sewing the tassels on really made a big difference for me.  I am really loving how this bunting came out, I might have to make some more.  It looks nice over the window, really dresses up the blinds and adds some fun color to a blah room (no, we still haven’t painted).  I want to make rainbow ones next.

Have a super crafty weekend!

Minion

What’s cuter than an Oompa Loompa (you know from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)?  The Minions in Despicable Me.  We borrowed it from Netflix and boy have I seen it about a dozen times, but those minions really make the movie.  How awesome would it be to have some crafting minions? and it looks like they’re great with kids!

Using this free pattern from WolfDreamer I made my own.  It is a great pattern and the results are fabulous.  I really like how she has captured the details.  The most difficult part is the gloves/hands, the black yarn makes it hard to see your stitches and it’s so small, but I managed.He doesn’t have his insignia yet, I’m trying to decide if I want to add it at all.  I am also trying to decide if his mouth needs some teeth.  I used wiggly eyes instead of crocheting my own, but otherwise I followed the pattern exactly.  Little Sir and Little Miss have both been asking to play with him. 

I have to confess that I have already started another one who is shorter, fatter, and is only going to have one eye, these little guys are addicting.

There is a link to make official minions from the official movie site, it’s great for researching all the different looks they have.  Little Miss thinks it’s a game and keeps asking to play it and really, it’s the perfect game for her, she always wins.

Greeting Card Ornaments

I know that I’m not the only one who saves every card that has ever been sent to me. Cards are expensive and really pretty, but hidden away in a box no one has the chance to enjoy them. Go get you box of cards, I’ll wait.

You’ll need:

a greeting card, something round (I used a glass, a fancy circle cutter would be awesome), glue, a small diameter hole punch, crochet thread, and a small crochet hook.

Decide what part of the picture on the card you want to use. I decided to use the tree and the Merry Christmas text. You can also use the words from the inside or other paper for the back. This particular card was from the place we bought our gutters and the inside text wasn’t ornament worthy. I used a glass for my template, but anything you can trace around will work, and don’t feel obligated to used something round, ovals and other shapes would be great too.Cut out your shapes and glue them together, wrong sides in. It isn’t essential, but it keeps the two pieces from sliding around while you’re working with them. This is also a great time to neaten you edges if they don’t match up.Use a small sized hole punch to evenly punch holes around the edge. I just eyeballed it and tried to make it fairly even.Start crocheting! I did three single crochet stitches (sc) into each hole in the first round, slip stitch into first stitch. The second round I sc into every stitch, slip stitch to join the begining of the round, and for the third round I chained 5, *skipped one stitch, double crochet in the next stitch, chain two*, repeat from * all the way around and slip stitch to forth chain. Then I chained about 25 and slip stitched into the first stitch again to make the hanging loop. If you have any questions about this pattern just ask, I’m still working on my pattern writing skills. I added a ribbon bow to finish it.Here’s mine with the ones my Mom made, she makes scallops around the edge of hers. This would be a great way to try out some new edging stitches.

I love how easy and inexpensive this project is! I really need to dig into my stash of cards. These are easy to mail and they also make great package decorations.

Hexagon Pillow

My Mom is redecorating her living room, she is using shades of turquoise, brown, and tan.  I wanted to make her something fun that included all of the new colors she was using and I had been dying to try making some of these crochet hexagons.

I have no experience with granny squares, in fact I have never been all that interested in making them at all.  I think that the idea of sewing together hundreds of little squares to make an afghan is really unappealing.  Lucy’s tutorial is awesome, it includes instructions on how to crochet them together as you make them!  I had no idea that you could do that, I’m sure you guys knew all about it, but I was shocked. Anyway, I started making hexagons last Wednesday and I just finished last night, I think that the sparkly yarn really makes this special (the darker turquoise has a hint silver, it’s hard to see in this photo).  I just kind of winged that pattern and I ended up having to fudge my way through two half hexagons.  There is a proper way to do it, but I couldn’t find any instructions online and I was ready to finish this pillow.

I think that my Mom will like it, now I kind of want to give these Christmas stockings a try and maybe some regular granny squares too.  What is your favorite granny square pattern?

Wishful Wednesday the Knit & Crochet Edition

Today I’m off to my second day of work, I’m really excited about my new job and I love it. Here are some on the projects at the top of my to craft list.Bowling game set

Luscious little pumpkin

Sideways knitted skirt with short rows

The Noggins

Sock Monkey 2.0

Helmet Liner

Cthulhu Dice Bag

Camisa del Sol

Mangyle Sweater

Call Me Dr. Frankendoll

I decided to make Little Miss a doll after seeing this pattern, dress and shoe pattern included. Plus it was a big girl doll, not a baby, she has tons of those. BTW, this is a Christmas present, yes, I’m actually planning ahead. I have been crocheting while I feed the baby so it only took me a few days. The hair took one whole day by itself, but it is nice and thick, so worth it.I stuffed her tight (perhaps too tight) and used plastic pellets to weight her body. I should also point out that I crocheted her in the round, unlike the pattern, I didn’t think the stripes jogging would bother me (it does bother me a tiny bit).Here she is all sewn together. Her feet/legs are definitely overstuffed, but that’s okay. She needs a hair cut and style and her face needs to be embroidered. I have her dress partially finished and I’ll need to do the shoes.

I’m thinking I might make another one and make a few changes. I didn’t make her thumbs from the pattern and so I think that her hands are a bit long and I think that I might like to follow the pattern and crochet her flat and stitch her up and maybe easy up on the stuffing a little bit.

I’m going to sleep on it and see what I think tomorrow. I could save the head and make her a new body, hmmm, anyone want to give me your opinion?

Stuffed Animal Storage

Before I tell you about the fabulous “pet nets” that I made I have to announce that obviously I found the drill! I spent all day trying to remember where I had used it last and finally I remembered that I had put a can crusher in the laundry room. Once I knew the area to search I quickly found it, it was behind the washing machine. I guess a rigorous spin cycle had vibrated it off the back. Crazy, right?

Okay, back to the stuffed animals. If you have kids you have stuffed animals, it’s like these things multiply overnight. I swear I don’t even know where these stuffies came from. I also threw out a large bag full when our basement flooded and we still have a ton of them. I needed storage for the most beloved of the animals and so I was super excited to find this crocheted toy net pattern.This was a great project for using up some super scratchy vintage acrylic yarn. The pattern was easy and turned out perfectly, all those dc’s (double crochets) got a bit monotonous, but it was worth it. I think that I will have to make at least one more for Little Miss, there are stuffies everywhere in her room. I’m excited to have emptied a tote full of animals and used up four skeins of crap yarn, yay success! Now I just need to figure out what to do with the super nice, giant dragon stuffies that Grandguy (that’s what the kids call my FIL) got for both of them, I’m taking suggestions :).

I now have a date with the drill, you know, for those holes I was daydreaming about drilling.

Aarg!!! Curse This Mess

In the process of cleaning up and organizing the house (the looooong process) we have misplaced the drill.  It sounds stupid when I say it, but I had plans to drill holes in at least four places this weekend.  Yes, I plan to drill holes, in fact I daydream about it when I’m feeding the baby.This is today's blog post, yeah it’s kind of unimpressive lying there in a heap, but without the drill this is what it is.  These will be a great way to store stuffed animals once the drill is found, if I haven’t found it by payday I’m buying a new one (I have been searching for it for 2 days), I am sooooo frustrated with myself and this mess!

I was going to hang a broom/mop organizer and a pot rack too.  I’m off to do some more cleaning and searching, wish me luck!