I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the arrival of spring! So pull out all your little scraps of cardboard or cardstock, a few paints, markers, stickers, and glue and you are ready to make your own “Tiny Treasures Collage” wall hanging.
For the complete instructions for making the "Tiny Treasures Collage" Wall Hanging, please visit the tutorial page.
Flutter Flower
Applique Pattern and Tutorial
by mamas*little*treasures
Here’s a sweet way to brighten up a spring day! Inspired by the gorgeous Ginger Blossom line of fabrics by Sandi Henderson, this appliqué pattern is just perfect with any of the Ginger Blossom fabrics. Or any fabrics at home in your stash! I’ve been working on creating little projects that you can do using scraps of fabric you already have on hand, and something that you could finish up in an afternoon while the kids are napping or off at school. So, if you are wanting to tackle a small project to get started sewing, or if you are just looking for a simple, fun, quick and easy project . . . . this is perfect for you!
You can find the complete tutorial, including directions and instructional photos, on the "Flutter Flower" Applique Tutorial page.
Even though it is rather cloudy this morning, I can just feel springtime in the air! It smells different, it feels different, and it even sounds different than it did just last week. When I went outside this morning, I could hear the birds singing and I could smell the damp earth just waiting for the sunshine to come out and play. We are looking forward to gardening this summer, which is something that we have not been able to do for the past couple of years. And when it is raining, we are going to be working on a few sewing projects and our scrapbooks. On Saturday we got all signed up for 4H and the girls are both going to be doing flowers, scrapbooking, and photography. We are going to get started early this year!
Today I wanted to share with you a fun project that I've posted before, but for those of you who haven't seen my Teacup Pincushions, I'm offering the ebook tutorial again, just in case you might want to make one of these sweet little things for a springtime gift, a gift for Grandma or Mom for Easter or for Mother's Day. A Teacup Pincushion would also be beautiful sitting on YOUR sewing cabinet! Whenever I go out on my thrift shopping expeditions, I am always looking for vintage teacups and saucers just so that I can make another pincushion. You just might already have a pretty teacup and saucer around your house, maybe one that came from Grandma or Aunt Edith, and now you can take that tiny treasure and make something that is not only beautiful but practical, too.
I'll be posting the entire eBook tutorial on the Ruby for Women blog and in the April issue of the Ruby for Women ezine, so you can either leave me a comment here and I'll email it to you, or you can come on over and visit me at Ruby for Women . . . . . and you might even want to join our community where we are creating and sharing more and more resources for women every day! I hope you will stop by and connect with some of the other women in the Ruby for Women community, and take a peek at our monthly online magazine. Are you a writer? We would like to invite you to submit an article, short story, poem, recipe, craft project, or photo for publication in an upcoming issue. For more information about submissions to Ruby for Women, please visit our submissions page on the Ruby for Women blog.
Let me know if you would like me to email you the ebook tutorial for the Teacup Pincushions, and then come on over and join the conversation at Ruby for Women!
Have a great week,
Nina
This was a custom order but I wanted to share it with you in case you are thinking of making something special for a Mother's Day gift. These crazy patch journals are fun, easy, and can be as elaborately embellished or as elegantly simple as you want to make them. I've already sent out lots of the eBooks for making these crazy patch journal covers, but if you want a copy of it just leave me a comment. I'll be working on several more in the next few weeks, so when they are finished I'll post pictures of them right here for you to see. They will also be available in my Etsy shop if you would like to purchase one, but really they are great fun to make. No two are exactly alike, so this is a unique gift that will be treasured by the recipient. You might even want to make one for yourself!
Don't forget that there is a FREE quilt project tutorial on the Ruby blog. It is an appliqued bookmarker and all the instructions and templates are right there for you to print off and make your very own Berry Berry Bookmarker, designed by Rochelle Martin of Cottage Quilt Designs.
And then, you will want to get the next issue of Ruby for Women because Rochelle will be starting the first block in the "Gardener's Delight" quilt project. It will consist of eight different blocks, with all instructions available in the next eight issues of Ruby for Women. When you finish this project, it will make a gorgeous throw or wall hanging for your home. Oh, and one more thing . . . we now have a Facebook Fan Page for Ruby for Women. Stop by and join our fan club and we'll keep you up-to-date on all of the exciting events going on at Ruby for Women!
Now that I have finally finished editing the spring issue of Ruby for Women, I can work on my next ebook. I had so much fun with the writing and editing project that I just couldn't quite let it go . . . . I just kept going back over it and over it, and of course every time I went through it again, I would find one more tiny, little thing that needed to be corrected. OK, so I admit I have perfectionistic tendencies!
That's the bad news, but it is also the good news, because once it is finally finished, whatever I am working on usually looks pretty good. But there comes a time when you have to let it go, decide that it is "finished," and not stress about whether there might be ONE more tiny flaw that was missed. But even after I felt the document was as close to "perfect' as I was going to make it, then I had a new problem to solve. Which is one of the things at the top of my TO DO list for today.
Apparently the PDF creator that I am using (it really is old, and I need to update it) causes the pages to load so slowly that it makes you crazy if you are trying actually to read what is in the magazine. That's not a good thing! After all, lots of people have worked very hard to write and edit all of these articles, photos, devotionals, tutorials, puzzles, and recipes . . . . now is NOT the time for a technological glitch to cancel out all of the fun stuff that is available. So, first thing I will be doing is checking out a few other alternatives, see if I can update my Adobe creator, and hope that helps. It did help to find a different PDF viewer, but I don't think that will work for everyone. I need to go right back to the original document and figure out a better way to convert to PDF.
The thing is, I really have other projects that I need to move on to this week. So I'll just say a little prayer that my brain will function efficiently, and that I will be able to solve THIS problem so that I can move on to the next event on my schedule. If I can get that problem solved, I wanted to finish up this ebook pattern this week: "Dolly Dresses Wall Hanging." I made this sweet little decoration for Annie's bedroom when we painted it last year, and then I also sold one in my Etsy shop. I really want to try to make up a similar version of this wall hanging in a variety of colors and styles.
It would be really cute made up as a baseball jersey, either for a boy or a girl, with the name and number of our budding athletes. It could also be made up as a ballerina tutu for a tiny ballerina, or it could even be created in bold colors with a few feathers and a little bling for our favorite teenage diva. Or your sister, cousin, aunt, mom, grandma . . . . all in fabrics and trims that would reflect each individual person in your life who deserves a bit of celebration. For now, however, I'll just finish up the ebook with this design, and then work on making a few different ones later this week. But whatever design you might want to use, the same technique will work!
So if you want to give this project a try, just leave me a comment and I'll send the ebook out to you by the end of the week. It shouldn't take me all week to figure out this silly Adobe program! Have a great Monday, and don't forget to check out Ruby for Women . . . . . . you can purchase a subscription here or you can buy a single issue here. Also, be sure to let me know if you want to join Team Ruby for Operation Pillowcase. We'll be sending at least 25 pillowcases to our troops in Afghanistan. This is just one small way we can say Thank You for all that they do to keep us safe. I'll be posting more about that project later this week, so let me know if you want to join the team! ~~ Nina
Now that I've had a couple of days to express myself a little bit ;o) (controversy is always good for generating traffic!) . . . . I'm ready to return to writing my eBooks. Several of them, in fact, are in the works. The first one I've committed to finishing up is the Crazy Patch Journal Cover. It's really simple, fun, and can be as creative as you want it to be. And the best part is that you can use up some of those scraps of fabric, ribbon, lace, braid, beads, and buttons that we all have stashed in a drawer somewhere in our house. Yes, I really do have a couple of "junk" drawers where I toss the stuff that I don't know what else to do with.
These journal covers can also be made any size you want. So, for instance, one of the things that I am planning to do (along with about 10 million other things!) is to make covers for my girls' scrapbooks. I have been scrapbooking for several years, and the books that I originally bought when I started are the kind that are really very nice but the covers are rather boring ;o) At first I thought I would just use the same color scrapbook for each kid, including my older kids. I ran out of colors. And then as I went along and added more books to each child's collection, I could no longer find exactly the same book. So they didn't match anyway. Why bother???
But if I make a cover for each of the scrapbooks, even though they won't be exactly the same, I can do a couple of things to easily identify them. I could just color coordinate them, which was my original plan, but this time I would be able to make sure that whatever color combination I choose can be duplicated. I wouldn't need to use all the same fabrics, but if I choose red, white, and blue for my youngest son's scrapbooks, then no matter how many books I eventually fill (you know, wedding, first baby, second baby, third baby . . . . . ), I can always choose a combination of fabrics that are red, white, and blue. The other thing that I might do is to applique each child's name on their books. Or perhaps kind of a combination: matching color combinations, with the child's initial on each book. We'll think about that.
The original reason these Crazy Patch Journal Covers were created was in response to a journal swap that I participated in a couple of years ago. The stated goal of this journal swap was to be as creative as you wanted to be, and incorporate a bit of "yourself" into the journal that you would be sending to your swap partner. As I thought about how I could do that, it occured to me that, since my particular artistic focus is typically fiber art / quilting, making a cover for a journal would allow me the opportunity to do what I love and share it with someone else.
This technique would work for covering any book that you love. It would work for a Bible cover, or an art journal, or a treasured childhood book that might be showing signs of dilapidation. If you are a very organized person and use a daytimer, when the original cover starts to wear out you could either spend another $30.00 on one of those fancy ones, or just re-cover the one you already have, and pop in a new package of paper, and there you are! Going green and being frugal all at the same time. Maybe I should make a cover for my ancient Betty Crocker Cookbook. . . I love to use that thing (when I get around to cooking), but it really is starting to fall apart after so many years.
So, here's the deal: if you are interested in this eBook, I will send it to you FREE during the month of February as a Valentine's gift from me to you ;o) All you have to do is leave me a comment and I will send it out to you as soon as it is finished (probably next week). Beginning on March 1, though, I will be listing it in my little Etsy shop and sending it out to other websites where it will be for sale. So if you want to get it for FREE you need to leave me a comment anytime until the end of this month. I've had several requests for this eBook so I'm doing my best to keep up with whatever you all are wanting to make! Email me your ideas, suggestions, and questions and I'll try to post them right here so we can share the fun of creative discovery! Have a great Thursday and be sure to take care of yourself . .. . we need you around here! ~~ Nina
How is it that a week can just fly right by and I didn't even see it? This past couple of weeks have been filled with so many other demands on my time that I barely remember the fleeting moments since last Monday. Oh well, it's Monday again ;o) and here I am, trying to catch my breath and get back to doing what I love. Here in my little Cyber Corner of the World I can share all of my creative projects and ideas, as well as tell you all about the fun things that are going on. For today, however, I'll just share a couple of things with you . . . . here are the sweet sachet pillows that I'm making for Valentine's Day. These are for the Eclectic Artisans Team Valentine's Challenge.
I've been wanting to make some of these ever since Grandma brought us a couple of these wonderful warming pillows that are filled with dry corn. On these bitterly cold, frosty nights, it really warms up your toes if you take one of these (very practical) little bags of corn, pop it into the microwave for about 3 - 4 minutes and then put it in your bed down by your frozen piggies ;o) Warms you right up!
Well, I thought how fun it would be to make something similar, but a bit more feminine (of course!) that could be used for those of us who sometimes experience migraine headaches. These pretty little sachet pillows are filled with rice, so they work the same way as the corn does, but the rice doesn't have that homey, cornbread smell. Which is not a BAD smell, it's just that I thought I could use rice and then add some sachet beads to make the pillows smell really nice. Kind of like aromatherapy in a bag!
So, I experimented with several different designs, and I have many more ideas in my head (as usual!), but here are the first three that I made. I wanted to make a simple pillow that could be used without the little pillow case, but also have the pretty covering so that these pretty pillows could be kept out on your bed or dresser.
The plan is to make one of these for each of my daughters with their initial on them to make it more personalized. These are great for warming up and placing on your forehead when you have a headache . . . . I especially use mine with a sinus headache. Just one more fun way to make the world a more beautiful place! I'll post the tutorial later this week, so please stop back soon because I have lots more news to share with you about new eBooks, tutorials, and even an eZine project that you could get involved with if you want to. Hopefully this week will slow down so that I can at least remember what happens ;o) Chat tomorrow, N
Artsy mama who sews, quilts, writes eBook patterns, and loves to go thrift shopping!
Recent Comments