Chritmas Craft Idea

Paper covered ornament:

source

paper ideas: poetry, sheet music, vintage childrens books illustrations

Christmas Crafts...

I want to make these felt ornaments!

Autumnal Inspiration

Inspiration for Autumnal Crafts:


Amenity


Terrain

Sure, you could buy these but I think they would be more fun to make! Instead of costly Alpaca wool for the pillows I'll probably use felt for a similar look and I might hit up the Met costume shop for some srap velvet to make an assortment of stuffed pumkins.

Sneaky peaky...

...of a new little project Im working on!

Sneak Peak

Shoo, our computer caught a nasty virus that it just couldn't kick! It took a few days of some intense treatment from Dr. E.W. Peck, but now its up and running just fine.

Here's a sneak peak at a little something I've been working on this week. You'll get the final view in a few days.



Also, tomorrow is the last day of the Met season with ABT. I've had so much fun there and I cant wait to write a whole post on that subject. Now, I must dash and take a cold shower to beat the heat!

Old ass wrinkles!

So I've hit a snag in my niece's flower girl dress adventure. Oh, the fun of working with vintage fabric. You really never know what is going to happen until you're in the trenches. Turns out that 30 year old synthetic fabric is pretty stubborn! The over lay fabric just will not let go of its wrinkles. I've tried everything: first just ironing and steaming. Then I took it to my friends at Timberlake and steamed and ironed with the heavy duty industrial. Still wrinkled. I even dredged the fabric in boiling water, then ironed it while wet. Nope. Still marbled with tiny, set in , old ass wrinkles. Darn it. I was dreading telling my MIL that I probably wasnt going to be able to use it. Its exactly what I was afraid of happening when I didnt want dismember it! As a last resort Im taking it to a dry cleaners on Thursday to get one more opinion. I did purchase back up fabric to use just in case and it looks exactly the same but its still so frustrating! I just hate to dissapoint, even though I know whatever happens, it will be beautiful in the end.

In other news... look how adorable tiny Alayna is in the "Sweet P" onsie I painted just for her. She made my day!

Color Me Katie

My new favorite blog: Color Me Katie

Flora and Fauna

I've been keeping myself busy this week working on a few items to restock my Etsy store Clairebelle's ClosetIt will probably be another few weeks until I have a nice collection of goodies for sale, but these are some of the fabrics I'm working with.






They are from Michael Miller's Flora and Fauna collection. Like them? They are so bright and cheery and are definitely getting my creativity flowing again!

Showered with Love

I had such a fabulous time at Tricia's baby shower this weekend! It was so fun meeting all of her family and friends. I was made to feel very welcome. Oh boy, did this girl clean up! She got so many amazing gifts for little "Sweet P".



I was so pleased that my special gift was well received. I wanted to give something personal so I hand painted these four little onesies.


My favorite is the green sweet pea pod with pink bow. You can check out individual pic's on my Flickr feed.



Oh, by the way, they're calling her "Sweet P" for now because they are keeping her real name a secret until she is born. Cant wait to meet the little lady in just a few weeks!

Blog Overload!

I know that reading blogs is supposed to be inspiring, but sometimes it makes me feel defeated! I think things like... "Im not sewing enough, Im not crafting enough! All my Christmas presets and decor should be completely hand made! Why am I not knitting socks for everyone I know! You guys think you're so crafty? I CAN KNIT! I CAN SEW! I COULD DO ALL THAT STUFF IF I WANTED TOOOOOO!!!!" Seesh. I am working on a handmade project but I can't tell you about it yet because it happens to be a present for one of you! Hehehe!


Fabric Trees from last year.

Wooden Sign

Love these recycled wooden signs by William Dohman.



These words are all $32 and he'll do a custom sign with up to 7 letters for $42. Hmmm... for my sewing room... Create maybe?

Quick and Easy Autumnal Garland

A few days a go I had a hankerin' for some craftiness, so I whipped up this quick and easy Autumnal Garland from some fabric scraps.



First I stepped outside and found two fallen leaves that had a nice shape to them. Then I traced the leaves onto some sturdy card stock and cut them out to use as a pattern. Next I found five red/ orange/ yellow hued fabric scraps.



I traced and cut out the leaf shapes with my pinking shears. Then, I used an Exacto knife to cut tiny slices in each leaf to weave the Jute twine through. Finally I just strung them on the twine in a random pattern and draped it between our bookshelves!



There you have it! A totally quick and easy, no - cost, no- sew project for a chilly afternoon.

Cupcake Banners

Here is a little DIY project I've been working on for our rehearsal dinner: Cupcake banners! The dinner is being held at a brewery, so the atmosphere will be very laid back. Still, I wanted to add some special details to dress up our dessert!



First, since E and I live here in NYC, I used an MTA map as paper! It comes in a very large fold out size, so I cut out four 8.5 x 11 sections and just fed them through the printer. Easy peasy. Then I designed some personalized banners on Illustrator. I chose colors to compliment the map, and also cute phrases to feature. For example: "E & M", "10-10-09", "Amore" and my personal favorite "Sweet Love." I cut them all out, hot glued a crystal bead on the top of the tooth pick, glued and folded! So easy, and since I already had all the supplies and MTA maps are free, this project cost me NADA!

Vintage Beer Wall

I've never been one for beer, but this is pretty cool.


Studio on Fire

Vintage Flower Hairclips on Etsy

Check out the new goodies I added to my Etsy shop Clairebelle's Closet! These hair-clips are made from 6 layers of delicate vintage handkerchiefs and are so dainty and feminine!

My Fiesta Bridal Shower!

SPOILER ALERT!!! IF YOU ARE AN NC LADY COMING TO MY BRIDAL SHOWER AND DO NOT WANT TO KNOW WHAT THE FAVORS WILL BE- DO NOT READ ON!!!







So I dont know, maybe you're not supposed to be involved in planning your own shower- but it's just too much darn fun! My girls Allie, Carrie, my Sis and Mom are throwing me a Mexican Fiesta Shower in honor of our Cancun honeymoon and my LUST for Mexican food. The invitations were perfect!


(thats not mine, just the example from the web)

But they are all doing so much to make sure it will be a fabulous party- that I wanted to contribute, too! I thought, what is a Fiesta without a fancy flower to wear in your hair? So I set out to make a little flower clip favor for each lady attending.



They are made of three layers of silk dupioni scraps I had- and the center is a little bunch of three pearl and crystal beads. Then I hot glued them each onto a prong clip.



I printed the tags on regular hang tags using the Rosewood STD Regular font. Then I cut two 1/2" slits with an exacto-knife near the bottom to weave the clip through.




I think they are super cute and I hope everyone will feel a little snazzy wearing them!

Scrappy Happy 2

Another "Scrappy Happy" necklace! These are so fun and easy to make!



Picture me ripping fabric into tiny strips on the couch while E watches the Yanks game. Then imagine me securing the pieces to braid between my toes while E gives me the stink eye.

A checkbook friendly copy!

So there is a dress from Modcloth that I've been coveting for a while, but at $130.00 its way out of my price range. So I thought Id take the opportunity to explain how you can take an inspiration dress and make it yourself!

Here is the original cutie- pie:



I did some searching and found that
Simplicity pattern #4070 was the best match.




Style E has the same general shape and identical princes seams on the bodice. However, the pattern has a "sweat heart" neckline, which you could certainly keep if you like, or you could extend the line from the highest point to the other side and make it straight across like the inspiration dress.

The skirt is also a bit fuller, which again, you could keep- or you could take a little of the flair out by narrowing the angle of the skirt's side seams.

Now for fabric. I found these swatches ( from Fabric.com ) to be the best color matches:

Moda $8.38 per yard

White Broadcloth $5.98 per yard

Amy Butler $8.38 per yard

The total cost of your home made copy would be less than $50 total for the pattern, fabric and notions! Thats almost 1/3 the cost if you factor in shipping! Okay, okay- it will take some time and patience. Its not as easy a mere point and click! But with our pocketbooks getting leaner by the day- the time spent is well worth it!

Scrappy Happy!

Inspired by this post, I made myself a new necklace from the scraps of my recent dress! I think its super cute!




I tore nine strips at about 1/4" wide and made three small braids with them. Then I braided those braids, hot glued the ends so they wont fray, and added a hook/ eye. Voila! Easy as pie- well easier, actually.

Fabric Stash and Storage

I was poking around one of my favorite blogs Sew, Mama, Sew! and I came across their Flickr group Fabric Stash and Storage.







Arent they so creative and beautifuly organized? Mine would stay like that for about a day, then right back to the chaos. Truthfully- I think us crafters and sewers work best amidst chaos.