Simple Jean Purse

Cute little purse, right?  All those pockets for little trinkets.  Want a tutorial?  Head to Sumo's Sweet Stuff - I did a guest post today and you can find the step-by-step how-to over there!

Layered Fabric Flower

For my white slippers, I made a fabric flower different than my usual fabric flower method - instead of rolling a long piece of fabric like a cinnamon roll I layered pieces of fabric and then gathered the center back.  Here's a quick tutorial on How to Make a Layered Fabric Flower - -

First cut a couple of layers - I made mine in circles.  My mom made my girls some flowerclips using this method and she cut the layers in the shape of flowers - I should have had her take a picture, but they looked like a circle with big scalloped edges.  Then zig zag along the edge to prevent fraying (unless you want a shabby look, then you want fray).

Next fold the layer so you can find the middle.  Then hand sew about 1/4 inch above the tip - see picture.

When it open it back up the back should look like this:

I did this to my layers separately, then hand-tacked them together and on to my slipper.  I think my mom layered all her layers (she made 4, I made 2) and then folded it and gathered the middle, as a group.  Here is a picture of hers:

This was really easy and turned out cute.  Grab some scrap fabric and go make one!

Showing Off and Trying Fashion

As always, thanks for taking over my blog for me.  What was I doing yesterday?  Trying to be stylish!  I'm not very "hip" but I am very thrifty - one of my biggest coupon loves are those that are save $10 on $10 or more - you get these from JCPenney, Kohls, etc.  So I wander in, find something that costs $11 (socks, etc), and walk out only paying $1 - score. Well this weekend I found at $10 off $10 or more at Aerospstale - I'll have to admit I've never been in that store, but with that kind of coupon how could I not.  I took a coupon for me and one for my mom to use - she couldn't pick anything (so overwhelming!) so I had her buy me something with hers as well - so I got "boyfriend" jeans and a shirt for a total of $8.   Here I am in my jeans (picture from my 5 year old) - yes I'm wearing my glass tile pendant and slippers.  I don't think of myself as old, but as I was surrounded by tweens and loud store music and all these jeans with tons of rips, I began to think maybe I am... 

So enough from me - here's what you showed off yesterday - -

I have GOT to learn how to use elastic thread - love this dress by Brown Paper Packages:

Burlap is everywhere!  Need to get my hands on some - here's what RaggyGirlVintage did:

I can't get over this felt garden by Sew Can Do - there are even felt worms!

Cute BAby Shower idea on Rooming with Gail:

And I know my bathroom stool needs a revamp - how bout yours?  Not So Crafty makes it look easy:

If you were featured, feel free to grab a button:

<a border="0" href="http://www.craftedition.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i416.photobucket.com/albums/pp246/mandybeez/featuredonbutton.jpg" /></a> Check back this afternoon - I've got something EXCITING to let you in on!!

Take-A-Look Tuesday LinkUp

Usually on Take-A-Look Tuesday I feature a project that one of you has sent in - it's great for someone who doesn't have a blog to show off their stuff, or even if you do have a blog you can show it off to a whole different crowd.  Well I didn't get any submissions this week so I guess you'll just have to go back and gaze a little more at last week's Quiet Book.  Or you can go enter the Slipper Kit Giveaway - or go buy the slipper pattern so you can whip up some slippers for gifts on Mother's Day.  Feel free to email me a picture of something crafty you've done if you'd like to be considered for next week's Tuesday feature.

We'll just roll right in to the Link Party!  I truly LOVE seeing all that you link up.
So here are the basic rules to the link party if this is your first time here:

• 
  
  Link to a Specific Post, not your whole blog (to do this, click on the title of the post you want to link and it will open on it's own page, then copy that url)
• 
  
  Grab my button below - you can post it on your post, on your sidebar, on a page of a list of link-ups, wherever as long as it's somewhere
• 
  
  Try to visit a few other people on the list - it's fun to support and encourage fellow craftiness - and everyone LOVES comments
• 
  
  If you're new to link-ups and have questions let me know and I'll do my best to help

<a border="0" href="http://www.craftedition.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i416.photobucket.com/albums/pp246/mandybeez/takealookbutton.jpg" /></a>

Homemade Strawberry Jelly

Are your grocery stores having incredible sales on strawberries like mine are?  Buy a lot and whip up some freezer jam.  Before I moved my friend Renee invited me over every year to make freezer jam (you know how I love crafting in groups! so fun to get together and be productive!).  Well this year I had to go at it on my own.  It tastes yummy but I should have measured my strawberries because it didn't set up completely, only partly.  But I'm okay with it being a little runny because it's OH sO Good!!  You can see my homemade bread being baked in my bread machine - warm bread smeared in fresh strawberry jam - - yes, stop drooling and go make some - it's not hard to do (follow the recipe inside the SureJell Box).  And don't forget your helpers...

Polymer Clay Bracelet

I know there are polymer clay experts out there - I'm not one of them.  There's so much you can make with them that it's almost too daunting.  But I did a quick easy ornament several months ago and got over my fear of the stuff.  So now what?

I came up with the easiest thing to make with clay - balls.  Take a ball, squish it a little and poke a hole in it  - voila, beads.  It was so easy that I didn't take many tutorial pictures for my "how to make a polymer clay bead bracelet" - and the pictures I did take aren't good - oh well.  I'll talk you through it. 

For the swirl effect, take a couple colors of clay and layer them.  Tear them and layer them back together.  Do this several times.  Then roll into a ball and you should see swirls.

Roll whatever clay you're using (swirl or plain color) into a ball.  Flatten slightly.  Use a straw to poke a hole through it (remove straw).  Bake as directed.

I used a strip of fabric as my "string" and just threaded the beads on.  Occasionally I tied a knot inbetween beads for interest.  I also tied a knot at each end so the beads won't fall off.  That's it!  Don't be afraid of polymer clay - this was really easy and the clay is relatively cheap (like a $1.25 for a square of color).  And now I've got a fun chunky bracelet:

I'll be linking to several Link Parties - check out the fun!!

Showing Off

Once again, another great link-up!  I really hope you're clicking on the links everyone's putting out there because it's crafting well worth checking out.  While you were showing your stuff on my blog, I was busily working on my Cocoon from the pattern sent to me by Inner Hooker (want one of her patterns for free?  I'm giving away 5!  Scroll down to a post or two ago to enter).  It doesn't look the one in that picture - yet.  But I think I'm close - now, to just get a tiny little baby....

Here are a few link-ups that stood out to me - although I was mesmerized by many, many more of them:

This doll bed paint job - I think I was drawn to this because adding pizzaz to a doll bed is on my to-do short list - over at Going on at the Glenn's:

And what about whipping up some of these cute cupcakes for a special mother in your life - by BirdCrafts:

I can't get over this repurpose - I always repurpose things for my girls but now I'll have to branch out to myself - from Welcome to the Good Life:

Thanks again for sharing at the link party - feel free to grab a button:

<a border="0" href="http://www.craftedition.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i416.photobucket.com/albums/pp246/mandybeez/featuredonbutton.jpg" /></a> Hope to see everyone back next Tuesday - I really love seeing all your great crafting!!

Take-A-Look Tuesday: Quiet Book and Link-Up

What a great link-up again!  Thanks for all the great support last week.  I can't wait to see what comes in today's link-up.  But first I want you to take-a-look at this great quiet book from Michelle:

I've been avoiding making a quiet book - several people have asked if I wanted to make one as a group.  We all know how much I love to craft as a group yet I declined the offers - I thought it'd be a lot of work and that the kids wouldn't even play with it.  Well Michelle handed her book to my kids at church and they were entertained the WHOLE time - so I guess I've moved this project onto my to-do list.  Here are some of her cute pages:

See, my little boy likes it so much I couldn't even get him away so I could snap a few pictures.  Thanks for sharing, Michelle (she claims it's easier to make than you think - we'll see...)

Would you like me to show off something you've made?  Just email me!

Now on to your great stuff - let's see it!

So here are the basic rules to the link party if this is your first time here:

• 
  
  Link to a Specific Post, not your whole blog (to do this, click on the title of the post you want to link and it will open on it's own page, then copy that url)
• 
  
  Grab my button below - you can post it on your post, on your sidebar, on a page of a list of link-ups, wherever as long as it's somewhere
• 
  
  Try to visit a few other people on the list - it's fun to support and encourage fellow craftiness - and everyone LOVES comments

If you're new to link-ups and have questions let me know and I'll do my best to help

<a border="0" href="http://www.craftedition.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i416.photobucket.com/albums/pp246/mandybeez/takealookbutton.jpg" /></a>

Fruit Pizza

Need to take a treat somewhere this weekend - whip up a fruit pizza!  Yum!  This was the best I've ever had (maybe I was just in the mood for one, but it was de-li-cious!)

I got the recipe from Taste of Home TestKitchen on AllRecipes - HERE it is.  Since I don't have a pizza pan (gotta get one of those!) I made it in a 9x13 which meant the crust was a little thicker.  So I doubled the amount of cream cheese and added about 1/2 a tub of cool whip to the white layer.  I didn't used mandrin oranges - just strawberries, kiwi, banana, and rasperries.  Did you notice that there's a pineapple glaze over this whole thing - seriously you need to make this recipe!

Shrink a Picture for a Pendant

I mentioned that my favorite glass tile pendant is the photo one of my kids. 

This was not hard at all to do.  So here's a quick tutorial on how to shrink a picture using Photoshop Elements - this is for the Elements newbie, so if you know your way around the program you know that you don't need this post.

First a quick shout-out to Photoshop Elements - I recently bought version 7 on Ebay for $30 - that's a minimal price to pay for great editing software.  I love "actions" which are things you can download to automatically give your pictures a certain look (let me know and I can do a post on what they are more specifically) and I don't feel at all that I need the full-version grown-up Photoshop - Elements is meeting all my needs and I'm sure it can do lots more that I don't even know about.

So open up Elements and the picture you want to use.  Tweak your colors to how you want them.  Then crop your picture to a square - to do this click the crop tool and then there will be a drop-down box where you can choose 5x5 - that's a square (equal sides, equal angles - you know).  Then drag the box over your picture to how you want it.

After you have you have a square picture click on "Image" and you'll get a drop-down box where you can click "Resize" and you'll get another drop-down box to click "Image Size"

Where it says "Document Size" change width and height to 1 and make sure it says "inches" (if not there's a drop-down menu where you can choose inches).

Voila, a 1x1inch image.  I opened a Word Document and copy and pasted a bunch of 1 inch pictures all on to one sheet and just printed them off on regular paper.  It worked great.

Glass Tile Pendant - Design Ideas

So you've decided to make the glass tile pendants from the how-to - you ordered your supplies and are wondering, "now what!"  I am so glad I did this craft with a group - it was so fun to pool all the ideas from everyone.  I'll share a few.

I have a friend who has an art degree, so I see her as an expert at all things art/crafty.  She said that asymmetrical designs are more appealing to the eye - that means off-centered, like this:

But sometime dead-on centered looks best.  You'll just have to play with it.  We would take a tile and hold it all over a piece of paper trying to find just the right spot to cut out a square.

Initials make the pendants personalized and everyone loves that.  I made a design using photoshop with an initial printed directly on it, but others used stamps or stickers (just make sure the stickers aren't poofy).  One friend printed letters using Word and then used the exacto knife to cut them out - sounded tricky but she said it went pretty fast.

For my girls I let them draw on their own letter - they LOVED this (they are 3 and 5 years old).  They also "decorated" around the letter - not quite what I would have done but it's for them, not me.

I made a couple of fabric ones - probably my favorite, just because I love fabric.  Something about the visable texture calls to me.

You can use clip art.  For teacher gifts I did pictures of the school mascot.  For a friend who is a shoe-a-holic I found a fun shoe pictures.  (She gets a pendant because she shared JoAnn's coupons with me - thanks Brianne!  Bonus Tip: did you know if you forget your coupon you can buy a JoAnn's magazine that has tons of coupons on the back - she paid $3 for the mag but saved like $15 using the coupons - and had extra coupons so I could save another $10)

Of course my all-time favorite is the picture of my kids (it's much crisper in person - this was a hard thing to take a picture of!).  Easy to do and it's just printed on regular paper, not photo paper.  I'll post tomorrow on how to resize an image so you can do this.

One friend used book paper with an initial on it - I LOVED that one (look for it in the big group with the letter "T") and book wreaths and book page craft things are all the rage lately.  Another friend glued her bail on the corner so it hung diagonal - looked great.  Here's more samples from our fun craft-a-long (remember we made over 200 as a group, so here are just a few)