Halloween Costume

This month Allison helped her friend, Nicole make this great costume of Melanie Daniels from "The Birds."  They found the dress at goodwill, purchased the birds at a craft store and hot glued them to the dress.  The "peck marks" are red lipstick.  Nice job!  Great pose too:)

Rag Rug

This month Kelly was inspired by this post.  She decided to maker her own rag rug for her basement to give it a nice pop of color.  Turned out great and her dog is enjoying it too:)

Superhero Capes

This month, I made superhero capes for family photos!  I made 3 for my boys, and 2 for my niece and nephew (for Christmas).  My mom was here to help me out, but I did all of the actual sewing.  We mostly followed this tutorial using broadcloth for the outside, and matching superhero flannel on the inside.  We did modify the length's of the capes for the different children.  For my oldest two (4.5 and 6), I made them as long as I could and used almost the whole yard of material.  For the other three, I had to make them smaller (2/3 of a yard would probably be plenty of fabric for theirs.)

I also wasn't a fan of ties for capes (as it isn't the safest and let's face it, I'm too lazy to tie them every time they want to put them on) and Velcro (it gets dirty or strings in it and then it just isn't the nicest anymore...perhaps I'm too picky...)  Anyway, while looking at my options at the fabric store, I stumbled across some magnetic closures.  They are quite stronger than I need, but the boys are perfectly 'cape'able to put them on anytime they desire and no one will be strangled while playing with them!  Yea!

So here is one side of my neck part.  I cut two small slits for the clasps to go through.  I used some liquid nails glue, (aren't I crafty) and put it around the wholes to make sure it won't fray and to also give the fabric a little extra strength.

 

Then I added an extra piece of flannel to give it just a little more strength. (Did I mention that these are some strong magnets??)  The metal was also a tad sharp, so I thought this would help make these capes last forever.  Once they were sewed and turned inside out, you can't tell that the flannel is even in there.

Oh...and to add the jagged edges on the bottom of Batman's cape, I started with the cape folded in half.  Then, I cut out a triangle template.  I started at center, and just cut the jags in all the way to the edge.  It seemed a lot easier to do that then all of the measuring and marking that the instructions did.  I'm very pleased with how they turned out.

I also used HTV for the logos on the back along with my heat press.  It was SO much easier than trying to cut it out in fabric and sew it on! 

I think the pictures turned out great!  I am so happy that I made these and didn't pawn these off to Grandma to make!  Thanks to It Happened On Mulberry Street Photography for the wonderful photos!  Click the link if you want to see more of my boys!

Vinyled Pan

I made pumpkin bars for teacher appreciation at school and needed to have the pan I was sending them to school labeled.  I decided to decorate this lid very similar to what I did to a container last year for school.  I only decorated the lid and used Oracal 651 vinyl that will last through washings.  Last year's container is still going strong.

Crafty Cards

Card

A wonderful couple we know had their house warming party this last weekend and we were at a loss of what we could get them - so we decided to make something!  Mike gets most all of the credit for this project... We printed out the map, he pre drilled the holes and hammered in all the nails, then started lacing through the twine.  We finished it off by putting their name on it and a cute saying in vinyl.  We had seen this idea all over pinterest lately.... Also I looked around on piniterest and found lots of cute ideas like this for their housewarming card!!  Thanks pinterest-ers!!

State String Art

 

This past weekend I got a jump start on my Nutcracker gifts... Gail and my mom helped me make twenty some Nutcracker glitter ornaments for all the different dancers - putting vinyl on all of them and finishing them up will most likely be my November craft : )  I also made all of their cards -- Gail helped me cut out all the half circles and then I added stickers, snowflakes and stickles to make them more fun!  Thank you guys for all your help! 

Fronts

Backs

Jump Start on Christmas

This month we had a crafting weekend with some aunts and cousins. We made a lot of things and I decided to get a jump start on some Christmas Decor items.  I made the snowflake wreath from a OTC kit that I had.  I also finally cut out all my boxes and put them together for my Silhouette Advent Calendar. Now I just need to add my numbers to the boxes.  I also made some glitter ornaments (like Karen has shown) and a countdown flip chart for December. Hopefully pictures of those to follow.