i'm totally doing this...

i saw this on pintresest and thought i have to make this!! i started trolling ebay and craigslist for an antique suitcase and guess what?!?!?!?

here it is...

already with legs and everything! i was totally excited and i only paid $15 for it! (well and $14.00 for shipping) totally can't wait to get it in and get started. now to be on the look out for the perfect material for the bedding!! oh you know i'll have more pics when i get started!

doggy contest!!

in the newsletter last week there was this announcement...

oh, it is so on!! i have to remind myself  that it's just a friendly contest, to have fun!! yeah right, i'm out to win. AND we have special arsenal in our corner... a new yorkie puppy. those things by themselves are cute, imagine with a little creativity what we could do! we chose most school spirited and our little bit is going to be head cheerleader!

we started her costume off with her skirt. what cheer puppy is complete without her tutu uniform?

here's my supplies. i originally got green material to make her shirt and then realized i needed it to stretch and ended up using a t shirt sleeve for the shirt instead. first i measured her little waist and cut my elastic strip 1 in less than her waist.

 

next i cut 1 & 1/2 in strips twice the length of how long i wanted the skirt to be. 

after i got miss thang's strips all cut i started putting them on the elastic. * now let me interject here. there are multiple ways and 5 million tutorials on how to do this. i looked at a couple different ways and decided to do a little unconventional method since it will be going on my little 3lb puppy. i doubled over a couple sections at a time and sewed them around the elastic. 

now again i chose to sew it instead of tying just because i thought with as little as it was going to be it would bunch too bad for her. i knew she wasn't going to be happy about it already so i was trying to make it as painless as possible for the both of us. be very careful when sewing the tule, for starters it is very delicate and will tear easy but also be careful that you are just sewing the tule to the tule and not the tule to the elastic. if it is sewn into the elastic, when the elastic stretches it will break what you have sewn. 

i kept adding until i ran out. at first i was bummed because it only went half way around but i've since realized that since this is going on a dog that is really for the better. 

i really wanted it to be comfortable for her so i sewed so material around the edge of the tule so that the waist wouldn't irritate her. 

now on to her shirt!

i used the sleeve from an old white shirt to make her shirt.

i trimmed up the edges of the shirt then hemmed around them to prevent raveling. i then turned inside out and put it on her to mark where her legs would be.

next i found a circle about the size i wanted for leg holes and drew on circles to cut out. 

after i got the holes for her legs i tried it one her and had to do a little more taking up. but then got it perfect. now for some school pride. i used MTC to pixel trace our new school logo and printed out on some HTV.

so now our uniform is done, but we are still not finished. no cheerleader can cheer without her pom poms! the only part i really hate about this is that i used all my green and blue. oh well. at least i still had some white left. 

i took about 6 strips of my white tule that i had left over and 2 rubber bands. i tied a strip of tule around the rubber band like so...

i tied about 4 more around in different directions...

now i wanted them to stick out in front like pom poms so i pulled my pieces of tule together and tied one last piece around them to keep them bunched together. 

and here's her outfit...

ok so now to get it on her. she is such the little model!

we got  her pics turned in and can't wait to see if she's won!

teacher chair cover tutorial

my aunt asked me to help her with some covers to place over the backs of the chairs in her classroom to show the student of the day. she had made some last year from reusable bags she got at the dollar store and wrote on them with sharpie. she wanted something different this year and asked if i could help her with it. of course i would! and miss a chance to play?!?!? she wanted one boy and one girl student each day and also a cover for birthdays. with the theme in her room being bees she asked for them to be king bee, queen bee, and birthday bee. i set to work. i got some canvas from joann's, she needed something thick and durable as well as washable. i got some bright cheerful pink and blue. i used her original one as my pattern since i knew that those fit the chairs. i cut out a piece for the front and back and about a 2 in strip the length for the sides.

i sewed one strip to each side and then repeated for the second panel so my "bag" now looked like this...

next i measured out about a 2 in strip the length of the bag for the top. i sewed the two ends together to what would be the sides of the bag then came back and sewed the top to the front and back panels.

to clean up the bottom edge i folded over and hemmed it up

AND because i'm a good little ocd girl that refuses she has any sort of problem i ironed out all the seams so that they would lay flat. : ) here's my bag...

so now for some HTV fun. after searching all thru google i found my king bee, queen bee, and birthday bee images that i wanted to use. i pixel traced them into MTC and layered out each color. i cut out the different pieces and ironed them onto my bags. of course, no king or queen would be complete without some jewels, so bling was added. here's my finished project with aunt candy's from last year...

i can't wait to see them on the kids chairs!! she is picking them up sun. can't wait to see them in use.

custom rhinestone designs

here's my own rhinestone designs i made with MTC. have i mentioned how much i love that program?? : ) mav was invited to a barbie birthday party for one of her friends. so here's her gifts...

they turned out so cute and was easy with MTC rhinestone feature. i went a little different route this time then from designs i made in the past. i made my design in make the cut and mirror imaged it. i then copied and pasted into photoshop cs5 and then printed from there. i used the hot fix applicator tape and tape it onto my printed out pattern and begin placing stones. i'll warn you it can become tedious, BUT i did all 3 of these designs totally about an hour and a half. i didn't do it all in one sitting just a little here and there while watching tv. such a cute unique gift!!

file update

i have changed the file format on all the angry birds files from mtc files to svgs so that they can be more diversely used. hope that helps!!

my laundry room curtains

in working on my laundry room redo, i needed some curtains for my window on door. since it's not a standard window i wanted something a little different and matching with my theme. that's when i thought of this idea...

 i wanted it to look like laundry hanging out to dry on my window. to do this i found some washcloths at walmart that were cute and went well with my colors AND was on the clearance aisle! to start my project i looked at my window and decided about how big i wanted each washcloth section to be.i figured about half the size of the washcloth would be perfect after considering seam allowance.

first step is to sew one end of the washcloth. make sure to back stitch at the beginning and at the end to prevent unraveling. i did not go all the way thru the blue trim at the end because i was using white thread and didn't want it showing up.

 next i found my half way point, made very easy by the fact that i just bought them and the creases from laying folded told me just where to fold. : ) and repeated my sewn edge.

after i completed both edges i cut the other half off so that the back looks like so...

 i then repeated these steps for 2 more washcloths. i wanted a total of 6. after my first one was completed i used it as my "official" size. i measured all my remaining ones with that first one to ensure they all were the same size. some i had to go back and trim up after being sewn.

almost done. when i hung it on my twine as a trial run i noticed that the ends where they were i sewed it together causing a bunch at that end.

i took and cut theses corners at an angle allowing it to lay much flatter.

now it's time to hang your clothes line! i bought the little 3m hooks since i my curtain was actually on my door. i cleaned my whole door really well before i hung them, with it being our back door and of course the one we use the much, it was VERY dirty. i cleaned the area where i was putting the hooks with rubbing alcohol as suggested on the package and allowed to dry. after it was good and dry and placed my hooks. the instructions recommending leaving up for 1 hr before hang anything on the hooks to allow good adhesion. so i did this step before i did all my sewing so i had plenty of time.

now you're ready to hand your twine. i just bought the twine in the hardware department for like $1 at walmart...







 i stretched the twine across the window leaving it pretty tight. i wanted it to stay tight because i knew the weight of the washcloths would pull it down.

all that is remaining now is to place your washcloths and you're done!!

* an after thought... these have held up extremely well. i just knew using this door so much the weight of the curtains would pull these down but they have with held great! they have been up a couple months now and i'm VERY pleased!

i'm baaaaccccckkkk....

ok finally after weeks of no time to blog i'm back! :) school started and i finally have settled into a routine and now i'm ready to get back to work. so with my first post back from the start of school our prep for school starting....

i found some water bottles at albertson's for $1 a piece and couldn't wait to personalize them!

since maverick's new fav color is blue i gave her the blue one, bayley loves green, and that leaves orange for riley. (sorry riley!) i cut out each kids names out of outdoor vinyl (oracal 651) with MTC and cricut.

after i cut each name out i applied it to the bottle with contact paper...

after taking the contact paper off and finishing the other two i'm done and the kids have their own personalized water bottles!!