Next Project to Try: Homemade throw pillows

Last weekend online I came across a fun and easy set of pillows for Valentines Day. I cannot, for the life of me, find them again. I need to get better about bookmarking stuff. Anyway, once I finish my gift for my almost 3 year old Rosalie, I will get started on Valentine's felt pillows. Here's some ideas for me to think about before starting.

I also want to add homemade tags to the pillows. GwennyPenny.com has an amazing tutorial on how to make them. The directions are so simple that I'm sure that even my non-sewing self could get it figured out.

Happy Face Oreo Crunch Pops

I saw these cake pops on Bakerella's site and had to try them. The oreo chocolate crunch ball recipe (Thank you to Nichole's mom Theresa) tasted head over heels better than the cake filled pops though. Plus they were a bit more forgiving when it came time to dip. The cake balls were falling off the sticks like crazy. I used mint oreo cookies instead of the called for regular oreos. They tasted like Thin Mints! 

‎1 pkg mint oreo cookies

1 can cream cheese frosting (original recipe calls for 8oz pkg of cream cheese which tastes even better but you can’t safely keep them at room temp.)
1 pkg yellow melting candy chocolate
Crush oreos and mix with frosting. Form into balls. Dip lollipop stick into melted chocolate and insert into each oreo ball. Refrigerate for a few min to firm up. Dip each ball in yellow melted chocolate and let harden at room temp. Shove the sticks in a block of Styrofoam to keep upright. After dried either pipe faces on with melted dark chocolate or draw on with edible ink. If you refrigerate or freeze these, they will dew when they come back to room temp. Yum!My favorite creative technique today is spacing the eyes way farther than you would expect, and a small mouth placed close underneath. Very Japanese-ish :)

Scrap Fabric Dog Toys

Introducing my afternoon nanny family: Pinky(age 7) and Jimmy(age almost 9). Fake names of course. Jimmy and Pinky recently got a puppy, so for our craft we made dog toys out of some the scrap fabric laying around.

Use 3 strips of fabric, tie a knot, and braid.

OR Use 2 or more strips of fabric and keep tieing knots

OR Do you remember using flat plastic string in a weaving pattern to make key chains? Use 2 or 4 strips of very long fabric and weave to make a beautiful durable dog toy.

This last one reminds me of Mary Engelbreit

 

I got a pack of bells from Hobby Lobby, and we tied a bell on one end of a couple of the dog toys. The bell toys should be given under supervision in case your puppy gets the urge to take apart and eat the bell. The bells in the Christmas craft section were cheaper than those in the regular craft section. SAVINGS ALERT: just after Christmas stock up on "Christmas" bells for really cheap to use throughout the year. great for sewing into dog toys and baby toys.

Guitar Pick Wine Charms

After making the wine box for a friend’s birthday, I decided it was time to try my hand at wine charms. At Hobby Lobby I found a package of 10 guitar picks, with holes, in the charm section. I also found a package of 8 leaves, that looked just like grape leaves. Every few weeks, all of the charms are 50% off at hobby lobby, so keep your eyes open for deals on this craft.

Materials:
20 gauge wire

Wire cutters

Needle-nose pliers

Seed Beads

Charms (1 charm per wine charm)

Jump rings

Directions:

Attach a jump ring to your charm if it does not already have something to dangle from. Cut a 7inch piece of wire. Create a swirl on one end of your wire, using needle nose pliers, big enough that the beads and charm will not fall off. Bead your wire with your charm in the middle leaving about an inch and a half of wire. Create a swirl on the other end of your wire big enough that the beads and charm will not fall off. Bend your creation in to a circle. Repeat these steps for as many wine charms as you wish to make. Voila!

If the charms you are using in a set are all the same, you should use a different color of bead on each charm. Example: One charm with all green beads, another charm with all blue beads. The color of bead will be the distinguishing factor between glasses of wine. If the charms are all different within a set (such as the guitar picks each being different) you could choose to make all of the beads the same color, or even choose to not use beads at all.

Don’t forget pretty packaging. I used candy wrapping plastic bags that I found at Michaels. Cut short, folded over, and stapled on some scrapbooking paper as a sort of label. These small labels were a great way to use up some of my pretty scrap paper. My favorite technique for embellishing today is chalking with ink and a cosmetic sponge, which I used on my labels.