$100.00 Craft Supplies Sweepstakes

CutRateCrafts.com is giving away $100.00 gift certificate. Enter to win by May 15th by liking them on facebook. Good luck to you all, but I am gonna win it,,,LOL

Much peace and love to you all,

Market Monday at Etsy Cottage Style

It's Market Monday once again at Etsy Cottage Style. A wonderful way to shop for Mother's Day! Check out all the great shops here:

Much peace and love to you,

Recycled Plastic Jars Make Pretty Storage Solutions

I am always trying to come up with new ways of storing all my bits and pieces in my sewing area. Here is a great way to recycle plastic (or glass) mayonnaise and peanut butter jars to give you that extra storage in a very pretty way.

Aren't they pretty? Here's what I did.

First off the lids were an ugly red. So, unless red goes with your decor, paint them! Now, being plastic, there is of course a specific paint to use to make it stick. I put on a good 3 coats of spray-on Kilz brand pigmented paint. This stuff sticks to ANYTHING!  If you want them white, no need to paint any more. If you want them another color, one or two coats of regular spray paint, after the Kilz drys, will do it.

Then I wanted to pretty them up a bit so I used my water slide decal roses I had on hand. They are also available from The Decal Cottage on Etsy. Or here is a tutorial on how to make your own and a source to buy the necessary materials.

After adding the decals I sprayed them with a couple coats of Krylon Clear Coat.

Lids done....check!

Now for the jars.... I made up a label graphic that I am making available for download here. Just click the link, right click the graphic that pops up and then click "save image as" and save it to your hard drive.

Here is what the graphic looks like:

You can either print it as is and write your title on it by hand, or add text with your graphic program before printing. Then, just print them out on a sticky 8 - 1/2 x 11 label sheet (available at any office supply store). After printing, just cut them out and stick on the front of your jar. This label is sized to print out to perfectly fit a quart size mayo jar. After adding the label, I tied an pretty ribbon around the top, just under the lid area.

Jar done....check!

Then just fill 'em up with trims, buttons, laces, ribbons, beads, whatever you need to store! So pretty!!!

Don't feel like messing with the lids? Use the jars with the label and ribbon as a pretty flower vase!

That's all there is to it....... and a great way to keep those jars out of the trash! 

This tutorial is featured in the following linky parties:

Frugal Friday at the Shabby Nest

Another Great Giveaway at Heaven's Walk

Heaven's Walk blog is hosting 2 great giveaways with really cool prizes!

This is the first one:



And this is the second one:



Click here to enter

Bloggers Pillow Party

Today I created a pillow just so I could be part of the Bloggers Pillow Party. There are so many cute pillows there, that I decided to jump in. I have been wanting to do something a little on the shabby Parisian side so I used lots of yummy tea stained and hand stamped fabrics along with vintage laces and one of my handmade flowers to create a shabby center and surrounded it by a paisley outer pillow cover.

So that's my entry into the Bloggers Pillow Party. You can check out all the entries by clicking on the button below!

I WON!!!!!!

Woohoo!!!! I Won this fabulous giveaway I posted about!

http://sewchristine.blogspot.com/2011/04/fabulous-exciting-giveaway.html


I am so jazzed!

Really Easy Fabric Flowers Tutorial

As promised here is a tutorial to make these really easy fabric flowers....

First you will need:

Fabric scraps

Some kind of circle template

Heavy duty thread (I use light weight fishing line)

Needle

Glue gun (or your glue of choice)

Some kind of button or jewelry piece for center

Lets get started:

The first thing to do is cut out 5 or 6 fabric circles (it works for a 5 petal or a 6 petal flower...your choice). There is no specific size so just keep in mind your finished flower will be approximately the same size as the circles you cut.  I used a ribbon spool for my circle template.

Next take one circle and fold in half with right side of fabric on the outside.

Then fold in half again.

Now thread up your needle. Make sure you use some really tough thread because you will need to tug on it really hard without breaking. That's why I use the fishing line.

Run a gathering stitch along the raw edge (the rounded part) making sure you catch all the layers.

Hint: Make sure that you start and stop your stitches with the fabric edges both the same way on the needle (does that make sense?) (maybe the pic will help...either both corners up or both corners down on the needle)

Slide it partway down on the thread. Repeat with all of your circles and you should have something that looks like this:

Now take the ends of your thread and tie them together and pull hard until the flower is really tightly closed. Then tie the thread 3 or 4 more times to make a really secure knot and trim threads off.

Now either glue or sew your center on and you are done. You can use a covered button in matching or contrasting fabric, use a regular button, use an earring or just about anything you have on hand to make the center.  That's it kids. Wasn't that about the easiest and great looking flower embellishment you have seen?

I used the same technique to make "leaves" for the fabric rose in the first picture too. Maybe try layering a smaller set made with lace on it before adding the center. The possibilities are endless.

If you have any questions on this tutorial just comment and I will try to answer.

If you don't want to make your own, you can buy some of these in my etsy shop