Mr. Freeze Please

Once upon a time, a long summer ago, my friend over at Paper Wings (click on her button!) mentioned this wonderful thing called freezer paper.  Well one thing lead to another and I went freezer paper crazy. But like most things, it was only for a week. Then I was onto my next crafting endeavor. Well, I am here to show you some of the little lovelies that I made in the past and one that I have been promising to deliver on for quite awhile now!

 Let's talk tutorial first...

Here is what you need:

• Freezer Paper
• Tote (or other item you want to add your design on)
• Fabric paint and sponge brush
• Iron
• Craft knife

Next, decide what design you want and print it from your computer.  I just used Google images for the paw print and typed the C.U.B.S.

Lay your feezer paper, shiny side down on the image and trace the image.

Use your craft knife to cut the image out. Of course, where ever you cut is where your paint will show up. For images like this one that seems pretty easy. However, if you check out my Audrey Hepburn tee or bicycle onsie, that was very tricky.

Iron on the freezer paper with a low setting to set the paper in place. 

 I mixed up some black and blue paint to get the navy color I wanted.  Paint on your fabric paint and let dry.

Carefully, peel your freezer paper off.

Sometimes, you'll have to use the craft knife to remove smaller pieces. 

Ta-dah!

Here are some of my other freezer paper creations...

Mrs. G's Busy Bees

 
I am so excited to get these little "busy bees" up in the hallway. I got these for free at the Teacher Depot towards the end of last school year.  It is an old elementary school full of school supplies and what some people might refer to as old business supply "junk."  Well in all that junk, I found these little beauties. There were probably thousands of them and on first glance I thought, "what the heck can I do with these?"  The lady next to me told me they are made to hold a piece of paper and could be used to display student work in the hallway. Well... six months later I decided a plain white snail wasn't good enough, so here is what I did....

I started with yellow and black acrylic paints since these are made of plastic. I experimented with a few different techniques and settled on painting three yellow stripes first. Once that was dried, I filled in with black.

I added black puff paint for a little more dimension.

The wings are pipe cleaners. Start by folding it in half, take the ends and fold back up to the top. Twist it together at the top and spread out the wings.  Hot glue the netting to the back. Cut around the edges.

Add the wings and googly- eyes and there you go, plain white snail transformed into a busy bee!

Button Your Ears!

I stumbled upon the most wonderful bag of buttons yesterday while strolling through Hobby Lobby.  It was actually called, "Grandma's Grab-Bag" and it was like finding tiny treasures with every handful I removed from the bag.

The first tiny treasure I found, confirmed that this bag of buttons was suppose to be mine. 

(The new logo for Pocketful of Poise in literal button form!)

Of course there were so many unique and beautiful buttons, but there was one in particular that I fell in love with.  To top it all off, there were three of this very same button. I knew right away I had to have these buttons as earrings.

I was able to snip off the back where you would typically sew the button onto something. Next, I just used basic jewelry making items, dabs of hot glue and presto!

Now go button your ears!

Just a couple more...

I whipped up a couple more lanyards for some special ladies in my life!  If you didn't catch the tutorial on how to make these just click here.  I am also willing to make them for you for a very reasonable price just shoot me an email! 

Headband Weaving...

Good evening readers! Tonight I bring to you headband weaving...  I feel I must give you a "Crafter's Warning" before you begin this project. It is not to scare you off, I know you can do this, but there are some things you might want to know before beginning. First, you will get confused at some or multiple points of weaving your yarn and second, your foot may cramp as it plays an integral part in the production of this headband.  So, there's your warning. Attempt at your own risk. (Also, my Nikon wasn't charged so I had to resort to the "other" camera and therefore the pictures are not that great.)

Here is what you need:

• One elastic hair rubber band
• Yarn
• Felt

 I started by measuring around my head and doubling it. As you'll see later that was way too much, but I would rather have too much than not enough.  Use that piece to measure out nine more equal pieces of yarn for a total of ten. Lay them flat and next to one another on the small square inch of felt. Add your rubber band and fold your felt in half.

 Use the sewing machine to stitch and back stitch all way across the felt.

 Carefully trim down the felt so it is the width of the yarn.

 (Here is where you need your foot... I had to crop out my toes because I desperately need a pedicure!)

Separate the ten pieces of yarn into five groups of two.

 I hope you know how to weave otherwise this may not make sense.  I will give it my best shot.  Your basic rule of thumb is over, under, over, under, etc.  It helps if you keep four pieces pulled towards the left and one hanging off to the right. Take the farthest left strand and always start over, then under, and over. At this point it should look like the picture above.  Take the strand all the way out on the right and pull it over the one you just weaved.  Repeat this process.

Hint: Don't pull it tight and keep the yarn as flat as possible.

 See I told you I measured way too much!

 Cut off the remaining ends. Use the other piece of felt, lay the yarn in it with the rubber band and sew in place; back stitching all the way across.

 Again, trim down the excess felt to match the width of the yarn.

And there you go!! I can't wait to try this with other materials. 

Let me know if you try it so I can post some pictures.

Guest Post for Back to School Bash!!

TEACHERS stay tuned!! Pocketful of Poise will be featured in the Back to School Bash on Fostering a Creative Life coming this Tuesday. I am so excited I can barely stand it. Don't forget to check out the bash all week long for fun crafts and ideas to make this school year even better.

Just in case you missed it here...

I should totally be in bed right now; but I can never sleep before the first day of school!  So, I decided to try out some more "linky parties."

Which means you can find the Back to School Lanyards in other places, but it would also be fun to check out other posts while you're hanging out in some of the parties found below:










Now go Party!

Lanyards

Hello wonderful readers!  I hope you enjoy the fresh new look of Pocketful of Poise.  I can't be more excited about this perfect design by one.little.m. She took my ideas and came up with this beautiful concept.

So, for those of you who do not know... school starts tomorrow!! I feel somewhat prepared, but I guess you never feel fully ready for the first day.  I am kicking off the school year with some pretty cute lanyards.  Yes, you guessed it... I am making them for my kindergarten team. Maybe it's part of being kindergarten teachers, but we seem to get so excited over the smallest things. So, if a cute ribbon lanyard with our school's little cub paw print gets them excited then I have to make them!

Here's what you need:

• ribbon
• lighter
• key ring
• felt flowers

Start with a spool of ribbon. I used a whole spool of ribbon to make six lanyards.  I cut each ribbon at 30 inches.

 Burn the edges so they will not frey.

Place the ribbon around your neck and overlap the ends. Holding the two ends in place, fold the edges back and pin in place.

You can hand stitch or run it through your sewing machine; don't forget to back stitch reinforcing the ribbon.

You now have a loop to run the key ring through. 

Decorate with felt flowers, buttons or just leave it as is.  Add your teacher I.D. and maybe you'll actually remember to wear it now that it's on that cute lanyard!

I hope all my teacher friends have an awesome first day!

~Happy Teaching~

Porch Pillows

I hope everyone is having a great week!  I am sorry this is not a tutorial; however, I do hope it inspires you to pull out that sewing machine and spruce up your porches. Pillows can be one of the easiest and inexpensive ways to add a punch of color to any space. My advice is to shop the remnant bins of left over fabric. You can find great deals there and they will even have outdoor fabrics for a great price.  Once you've got your fabric, I'm sure you can find an old pillow or two at your house you can pull the stuffing out of.  One more tip: try to keep the stuffing together and insert it into your pillow in one large piece; just like you would put an actual pillow in a pillowcase. You would then have three sides sewn and only one left to sew once you've stuffed your pillow.  You can leave a small hole and fill it with smaller pieces, but this is very time consuming and makes your pillow bumpy. I hope to have some more fun projects this week! 

~Happy Stitching~