Guest Blogging today at Meremade

I'm guest blogging over at Meremade today! When Jennifer asked me to participate I couldn't resist in not participating in "Back-to-School" month on Meremade. I instantly knew what I wanted to make and thus I've created a customized notebook with supplies I already had in my craft room. What's wonderful about this notebook is that you can customize it to your own supplies, color pallet, and taste! I made this notebook for my friend Chisty's daughter, Chloe! She loves making  paper crafting, and when she comes over our house I give her all my cricut cut-out scraps. Chloe, just started Kindergarten, and I know she will need to work on her handwriting. This customized notebook (primary journal), should help motivate her to work on her handwriting. 

Make sure you head over to Meremade where you'll find the tutorial on how I created this cute little notebook! 

Dual Heat-N-Bond {Cricut Cut} Onesie

One of my first post on Sew Woodsy was about cutting fabric with the cricut and using Heat-N-Bond to adhere the fabric to clothing. I got a new cartridge recently, and was working on some baby gifts and made my first ever layered heat-n-bond fabric project. I love how the additional color brings out the rest of the cut phrase and image. 

If your interested in doing a dual-layered cut out using heat-n-bond you'll want to adhere the first layer onto the clothing, and once the surface has cooled, carefully place the second layer of fabric on to the surface where you'd like to adhere it too. Follow the directions of the heat-n-bond, and voila! You'll have a dual-layer heat-n-bond cut out! 

Sewn Homemade Business Cards {& CFL Blog Con recap}

Last Saturday, I had the opportunity to attend the Central Florida Bloggers Conference at Park Maitland School, in Maitland, Florida. I was excited to see some of my blogger friends in real life, finally put a face to a name with those I chat with on Twitter, meet new bloggers, and of course learn new blogging techniques. The number one rule when going to any type of networking event is to have a business card. Let's face it you will be talking with many people and you aren't  going to remember each and every person you speak with. It's great to hand a business card to that person, so that they can check out your blog once they are away from the chaos and in the comforts of their own home. I'll be the first to admit I procrastinated and originally wanted to have professional cards printed; however, I know deep down inside my "West Elm taste on a WalMart budget" was kicking into full gear. I just didn't want to spend the money! Plus with our impending blog re-design right around the corner I knew I would just need to print new cards once again. I opted to make a homemade business card after doing some extensive research. Actually, this card, was part inspiration to the cards I created. 

I spent all of last Friday evening cutting paper, aligning paper with the printer, and in the end they were a huge success. My only regret is that I didn't make 20+ more! I gave away 48 cards in no time, and each time I handed my card to someone the receiver would get giddy, exclaiming "you're the one with the unique homemade business cards"! I thought it was pretty cool that people were talking about my business cards! I had multiple blogging professionals tell me to keep up with the homemade cards, since they match our niche so well. So I guess once the blog is redesigned we will not be getting professionally printed business cards. Instead, we will be making our own... card by card. 

Here is a quick tutorial on how I created my own sewn homemade business cards. 

I put my logo in a word document along with a text box that had my name, web address (in bold), telephone number, email address, and twitter handler. I moved around the logo and text box until I was happy with how it was printing out. I wanted the paper to wrap around the card, so that I could sew the ends. I think I got the positioning of the logo and text on the third try. After I printed out a few sheets of my logo and information I then started cutting scrap cardstock I had on hand. *The pink and beige metallic are actually leftover cardstock from our wedding invitations I made over three years ago! You will want to cut the card stock, 3.5 inches long by 2 inches wide (standard business card size).  

Next, I used a boning tool, to make a crease in the paper which makes it easier to fold a heavier card stock. Once the card stock is folded I then placed one glue zot near the side where the logo is to secure the logo/information to the business card. 

Next, you'll run the cards, individually, through your sewing machine. I choose to use some decorative stitches, along with basic straight stitches and zig zag stitches. As pictured above, this is how your cards will look prior to being trimmed. I ran the cards through the paper cutter, and then trimmed the loose thread from each card. 

Here is how the final product will look! 

You'll notice I used a variety of different cardstocks I had on hand, along with stitching styles. I absolutely LOVE how they came out. When I go to work on a new batch after the blog revamp is completed I plan to use all recycled paper (pictured on the left). 

They are relatively thick, so make sure if you have a carrying case you'll have enough room to store them in! 

----Central Florida Bloggers Conference Recap----

I love going to conferences, and highly suggest if you've never been to one and want to learn some new techniques and network to find the closest one to your house and go! It is the best motivator and if you want to ever turn your blog into more than a blog or if you just want to improve your blog they help. 

Upon checking in to the conference we were asked to sign up on the "blog" wall! Since there were not a lot of other craft blogs at the conference Sew Woodsy was placed under "other". 

Our conference started off with Keynote speaker, Marc Middleton from Growing Bolder. He was an amazing motivational speaker. Pretty much reminding each of us that if we put our minds to it that we can succeed. His show is in 171 markets and 550 stations. They began in 2009 with only 1 station! 

Here are a few of Marc's Tips:

- "Don't spend a penny you don't have to"

- "Future proof your work product"

-"The power of repurposing"

- "Simplify in every way possible"

Ben, from Adventures with Ben, spoke about taking your blog beyond the guest post. As Ben stated "Potential blog readers are everywhere... and that's exactly where I want to be."

Here are the points that Ben touched on during his presentation: 

-Find writing partnerships, repurpose your content, get featured in the paper, write for a paper, write for a business, participate in speaking engagements, engage in your niche community, and engage in your local community. 

The last session I'd like to share was with Rachelle of the Travel bite. Rachelle, spoke about building a media kit. Something I've been wanting to do for Sew Woodsy for a while now, and am currently working on! 


A few items you should including in your Media Kit? 
-Biography, who are you?
-Why do you write? 
-What experience do you have?
-Real life examples
-Photos of yourself, both candid and professional headshot
-Work, what other services do you provide? 


With all of Rachelle's examples I can't wait to start building my Media Kit! 

There were so many other great sessions throughout the day, and two tracks to follow along with, which meant 2 topics every 30-45 minutes to choose from. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to attend this conference. I gained so much more knowledge and by the end of the day my brain was on mental overload! I can't wait to start implementing a few of the new techniques and tips I learned in the coming weeks!

Pacifier Clip

Back in January I saw this blog post from Running with Scissors about making your own pacifier clip. Since I have a million friends (ok maybe I'm exaggerating on the number) that all seem to be having babies I figured this would be a perfect project to try and hopefully give as gifts! Right after my most recent cousin was born I decided I would give this project a try. I am not going to re-create the wheel here since Jessica did a great job on her tutorial. 

This project took me a little longer than 10 minutes {as stated on Jessica's tutorial}; however, most projects take me double if not triple the amount of time. I think it would have been easier if I would have chosen a non-satin ribbon. This was an easy and inexpensive gift to make. 

I can't wait to make more in the future! 

iPhone Sleeve {Mini Tutorial}

A few week's ago I wanted to make my mom a new iPhone sleeve for her birthday. Last year, upon request from her, I put together this pathetic looking sleeve. Last month,  when she pulled that pathetic looking sleeve out of her purse I desperately wanted her to put it back in her purse... actually, I wanted to throw it directly in the trash. Not only was it super dirty (*note to self never make a sleeve out of white fabric), it was to small for the phone, and poorly constructed. That's when I knew that I needed to make a new iPhone sleeve for her. Before I just slapped one together, I decided to search the internet to see if there were any tutorials that may be able to guide me a bit better than my first attempt. Sure enough, I stumbled upon Erin's Blog (Dog Under My Desk), who just so happens to be a fellow Yorkie lover. She has an awesome downloadable PDF that really lays everything out in detail! However, I did a few steps/techniques differently.

The basic supplies you will need are (2) pieces of fabric 10-3/4" x 4", Fusible interfacing (cut smaller than fabric), scrap of batting (I didn't have any of this--so I omitted), coordinating smaller piece of fabric (2-1/2" tall x 2"), split ring (didn't have this on hand, so I removed it off of the beer bottle opener), thread, chalk line, pins, scissors, ruler, iron, etc...  *I happened to have all the supplies on hand, so this project cost me very little; however, if I was to add it all up I would probably say it would cost the average person around $5 (rough estimate).

This was the first time I sewed with fusible interfacing. I read the directions, I used the damp cloth, and it didn't adhere. That's when I decided to take a risk and iron it right on... that seemed to do the trick; however, I had to be a bit careful that it wouldn't come undone. Anyone have tricks for using this finicky material? I also only had lightweight... and didn't understand why Erin had 3 pieces pictured (now after looking at her PDF and reading the directions AGAIN, I realize she was also using batting).

Like I wrote above, we didn't have a key ring on hand, so I just found one that wouldn't be (that much) missed to use for this project. I happened to have a piece of coordinating pink fabric to pair with the sleeve. 

I folded thie 2.5 x 2" piece in fourths and stitched around the edge. 

Once the edges were sewn, I folded this in half (placing the key ring in the middle), and pinned it to the fabric. I pinned the right sides of the fabric together, and placed the key ring facing down. 

I carefully sewed around the edges (leaving a 3 inch space on one side). 

This is what it looked like when it was sewed around the edges (you'll noticed I left a few inch gap in the middle to be able to flip the right sides of the fabric out). 

Turn it rightside out. Fold the sleeve in half, pin, and sew around the edge (leaving an opening for iPhone to slide in). After I did a basic straight-stitch around the edge I added the decorative stitch to each side. 

Here is a view of the decorative stitch I used. 

Here is a side view to show it's thickness. 

Headphones are plugged in and music is on! 

Here is an aerial view of the iPhone sleeve.

This is what the inside of it looks like! 

I realize that there are some imperfections to this sleeve; however, it's 100 times better than my first attempt. Plus, no one's perfect--that's what makes us all unique! 

Don't be intimidated to try this beginners sewing project out.

Cloth Snack Baggie

Last month, I featured a cloth snack baggie from Rhinestone Beagle. I was very intrigued by the use of fusible vinyl! I ran out to the store and bought a role, and used neutral "scraps" of fabric from my craft room to come up with an awesome reusable snack bag for myself! I followed Rhinestone Beagles tutorial. It is a well thought out and written tutorial. They did not miss a step, and I wasn't at all confused. 

I want to let you know that there were multiple instances when I thought I was going to break a needle, as I sewed around the perimeter of the bag (on the double sided portion). The fabric along with fusible vinyl was very thick and I had to go extremely slow. Like stitch-by-stitch, slow. 

Here is my finished product. 

The only tricky part to this project was making sure that my bag would fold correctly; so that the print would be facing the right side. If you choose a fabric pattern that is repetitive and can be viewed from any angle you won't have to worry about the way it folds. The best part is that I know of multiple people at my office who have these cloth baggies and spent $5-$8 on each baggie! I estimate that mine maybe came out to be $2 altogether.

If you've made a cloth snack baggie, I'd love to see it--let me know! 

{Guest Blogger} Toddler Tank Dress Upcycle

As most of you know, Mr. Woodsy and I have been very busy thus not too many crafts/DIY/home renovation projects going on at our house. I put out a call for some guest bloggers to share amazing projects, and I'm delighted to introduce you to a dear friend and coworker of mine, Sarah. Our first guest blogger.

She is a busy working momma of 2 wonderful children and is very crafty, but has no time to blog about her awesome projects! Sarah will guest blog on Sew Woodsy from time-to-time and share her creativity and talent with the blogging world!  *Sarah is modeling her ruffled tank top she made using the tutorial from Anngela's Pretty Little Things. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi, I’m Sarah.  Follower of Sew Woodsy and friend of Mrs. Woodsy. Graphic Designer by day and full-time mommy/crafter/sewer/maid/waitress/boo boo kisser... I’ve gotten off track.... Anyway.  I have a 3-year-old girl and 1-year-old boy at home who fuel my need to buy cute baby things. After the initial first-time-mommy, I-need-everything-new-for-my-baby, delusional world I was in wore off, I realized I was crazy for spending that kind of money on my kid’s clothes.  Now, I buy used or I sew!  I taught myself with the help of YouTube videos, craft blogs like this one, and I read the instructions on my sewing machine.

That’s it. Nothing fancy.

This dress came about when I took a stroll though the Walmart fabric section (dangerous lunch-break habit Mrs. Woodsy and I have) and saw this paisley.  Had no idea what I was going to do with it, but I loved it.  I had an old Target tank top remnant of mine (I cut the bottom off of it for another project) sitting in my fabric pile at home, put the two together, and came up with a dress for a sassy 3-year-old.

I started by measuring my kid (I got her to sit still with a combo of snacks and “Princess and the Frog”).  I put the tank on her inside out, pinned the straps at the shoulder to fit her, and marked how long I wanted the tank.  Then I measured (eyeballed) how long to make the skirt portion.  I cut a rectangle of fabric from the paisley and sewed it into a tube. I used “french seems” which I learned from here.
Then I cut a 3” wide strip twice as wide as my rectangle, hemmed it, and sewed it into a tube.  Then I pinned like crazy and sewed them together (I am still shocked this came out as well as it did).  

Next, sewed the skirt portion to the tank and added the satin ribbon on top leaving the ribbon free at the back.

All was well until 3-year-old put it on and kept pulling the front down to her bellybutton in a very non-lady-like fashion. I figured the tank was still too big, gathered up the front a smidge, and hand sewed--like so.

Done!  Total cost was about $3 and I recycled an old tank!

Hope you’re inspired to try your own!

Dimensional Magic Bracelet {Mini Tutorial}

Last summer I finally got my hands on Mod Podge's Dimensional Magic. I had read about it for months on end and I finally found it one day while at JoAnn Fabrics. I started using it to add an additional dimension to my cards. Then one day I saw you could use it to fill jewelry! My good friend, Anngela, beat me to it! As soon as our Hobby Lobby opened she found an awesome variety of jewelry to fill with Dimensional Magic. She did a tutorial on it here. She did a fabulous job on her tutorial that I didn't feel that I needed to recreate it in as much detail as she did! These bracelet's make for great gifts or you can spoil yourself and make yourself some jewelry too! 

Supplies: 

-Paper of choice (I found two prints I liked from one of my magazines I was throwing away)

-Paper Mod Podge

-Mod Podge Dimensional Magic

-Sponge brush

-Scissors

-Bracelet with bezels

-Round hole punch (to start the circle and then I used scissors to bring it down to the exact size I needed it)

Cut circles from your desired paper, dab a little bit of paper mod podge onto each circle, and place the paper circles into the metal circles. Once that dries fill in each circle with dimensional magic.

This is what it will look like once you've filled the bracelet with the Dimensional Magic. Let this dry for a good hour or two.

Here is the finished product! 

Halloween {Heat-N-Bond} Shirt

Ever since I first experimented with heat-n-bond and my cutting with my cricut I knew I wanted to make my nephew a shirt... since Halloween is quickly approaching I made him a Halloween shirt to wear to school!

I purchased a toddler shirt (size 2-4) from Hobby Lobby for $2.50, used some remnant Halloween fabric, heat-n-bond, my cricut, and both the Happy Hauntings Cartridge & the Pumpkin Carving Solutions Cartridge! 

I followed my directions that I wrote up here for the heat-n-bond.

Here is the finished project, and a happy baby to boot! 

Modeling his shirt from his crafty Aunt! 

He was loving the spiders... he couldn't stop laughing at them!