Official Footwear.

Besides barbecues and fireworks, I think that flip-flops should also be an official requirement for the 4th of July holiday.  I whipped up these two pairs before my vacation using a really easy tutorial from Alisa Burke.  I changed it a little for the green ones because I can't just follow directions.

These poor guys ended up getting a bit thrashed with all of the ashy soil up in the Sierras.  You can see it starting in the picture, thankfully I remember to get a shot of them in fairly new condition.

Based on the condition of the green ones after one day I had the good sense not to break out the orange ones for the rest of the trip.  These ones are beyond comfortable.  I used flannel on these ones....sooooo soft.

Everything I used came from my stash.  So besides the $5 I spent for both pairs of flip flops, I've got some custom footwear for mere pennies.  Yeah for being thrifty!  Go make yourself some, you'll smile every time you look down at your feet.

I hope that everyone has a creative and productive day.  For those of you enjoying the holiday weekend, be safe in you celebration.

Join The Toy Society!

Okay, so that sounded a bit like an order.  Sorry about that, I'm just really excited!  

Have you ever heard of The Toy Society?  Well, it's all about handmade toys and smiles.  People make toys and then leave them public places so they can find a good home with a kid.  Isn't that fun?  It started in Australia but has spread around the world.  In fact, it's come right here to good ol' Santa Rosa, California!  I made some toys and dropped them off.  I had a lot of fun doing this and will participate again.

These are the toys I made-

This is the back of the little girl bunnies.

I used a freebie pattern from Wee Wonderfuls, I just embellished their outfits a bit so that each one was unique.  Another de-stashing project, I had everything on hand.  Including the vintage fabric I used for them.  I loved that the patterns were so tiny because I was able to salvage the front, blue fabric.  A large portion of it was discolored from sun damage. ( Of course that was conveniently hidden when I bought it...shady people, lol.) Because of the way it had been folded the ruined part was a very odd shape so I thought I would never be able to use it.  Thankfully these worked out perfect.  The color is so gorgeous it would have been a shame not to get any projects out of it.

I dropped them off on April 1st.  I put them out early enough that they could have been found that very day.

My 1st Drop!

My 2nd Drop!

I hope they went into happy little hands!

So, now that you've seen how much fun it is don't you want to join in?

Thanks so much for looking!  Have a craftastic day!

Needle Book Madness! aka Felt Up. Part 3.

After the recent cookie incident I went on a sudden needle book binge.  I'm not sure why because I already have a million and one projects on my plate but I just couldn't fight the urges.  Besides, it feels good to be de-stashing and actually using all of the awesome stuff I have.  I already had everything on hand for this project.

I whipped up these-

This will give you an idea of the sizing-

(All of the stuff fits neatly in there, I just liked all of the bright pretties sticking out!)

I used Eco-Spun felt, it's made from recycled plastic bottles.  There are two pockets and two pages in each book.

I was really happy with the end result.  So was Mother Earth, because of the felt.  Due to the way they are constructed, with multiple layers on the cover and the felt, they have a soft, quilted feel to them.

In a moment of craft-happy induced delirium I decided to make a whole bunch more.  I'm also going to blame my man for this.  If it wasn't for the handy-dandy rotary cutter he got me at Christmas, I never would have had the patience to cut all of this stuff.

Want a sneak peak of the designs I'm using?

I was even brave enough to cut some vintage fabric I've been saving!  I was shocked and proud of myself all at the same time.  It's the lovely light green, blue and orange one with the psychedelic flower. 

I spent yesterday ironing all of the cut pieces of fabric and piecing together the 29 (!!!!) other books I had cut out.  I was surprised I was able to operate an iron for that long with out (seriously) burning myself.  The covers are all pinned up.  Now I just need to stitch in the pockets and pages.  I hope to swap and gift some of them but I hope to sell most of them in my etsy.

 By the way, have I mentioned that I love the blanket stitch?

Any projects you taken into the realm of over-kill lately?

Besides a ton of needle books, I'm excited to have a lot of other stuff to share with you.  I've been a busy gal lately.  So, see you soon!  Thanks for looking.