Lou's Naughty Notion Entry

 

Lou from Kansas doesn't have a blog, so I'm making this little post to allow you all to see some better/bigger photos of her challenge entry.  Lou has this to say about herself and her entry:

"I'm a craft hobbyist in my free time.
With no time to spare. We took a week and a half off to remodel our bathroom, I mistakenly thought that I would have time to work on my clutch...unfortunately I am last minute...but I love it and the bathroom looks great! See pic below, thanks for organizing!!"

Thanks for pushing yourself to "git 'er done!"  

Keren and I are so pleased to have you accept and meet and our challenge!

Happy crafting and big hugs from Montana,

Julie's Naughty Notion Entry

One of the kinda cool things about our sewing challenges is that anyone can participate, even folks without websites.  

Julie is one such participant.  She hails from Indiana and has this to say about herself:

"I'm a 37 yr.old Home Executive ( housewife! ) I love all types of crafts!
Here's the bag I made from a couple of fat quarters I got in an old swap, a little yarn, a cheap chain I found on clearence at Wal-mart, an old scarf, and some Gemmagic gems from Christmas 3 years ago! The bag is closed by velcro. Here's a couple of pictures I took. The inside is actually sparkly purple but the camera makes it look blue. Hope you like it! Thanks for the challenge it was fun!"

You can find Julie's purse on our voting page which will be up soon.

Happy crafting and big hugs from Montana,

Naughty Notions Clutch is done!

This button will take you to the challenge homepage here you can read the rules and meet the participants.

In case you're new to my blog, I've been co-hosting sewing challenges with my blogging friend Keren from sew la vie.  Our first challenge was the Retro Pillow Challenge, then we did the Solids-Only Tote Challenge, and our current challenge is called Naughty Notions.  The guidelines for this challenge are simple, create a clutch or small purse showcasing sewing notions as your embellishments.

Are you curious about how I made this clutch?  I hope so because I made a little tutorial just for you:

My supplies: Vinyl, wide lace assorted buttons leather studs craft wire, bias tape lining fabric, zipper magnetic snap Mod Podge, velvet ribbon

My tools: ruler, paper clips rotary cutter scissors paint brush sewing machine needle nose pliers big needle

• The first thing I did was cut a perfect rectangle from vinyl.  Then, I took some wide black lace and tacked it on to the right side of the vinyl with a stripe of Mod Podge.  I started with a thin line of 'podge so I could tweak the positioning of my lace until I was sure it was exactly where I wanted it.  
• Next, I saturated the lace with 'podge, avoiding the vinyl, and allowed it to dry.  
• Last, after the 'podge was completely dry, I stitched down the edges of the lace.  

• I trimmed two corners off to form the edge of the flap.  
• I needed to know where the folds would take place so I made some creases with paper clips because you can't iron vinyl.  That gave me some guidelines so I could plan my embellishments and where my magnetic clasp would go.
• I started with attaching a row of buttons to the  space between the laces.  I used my big needle to pierce holes in the vinyl and a fine gauged craft wire to secure the buttons.  I found the wire to be much easier than thread for this project.  I had some petal/leaf-shaped pieces of black suede left over from a previous project, and I attached them to the vinyl with round leather studs.  
• I don't have an in-process photo of it, but I added the female side of my magnetic clasp to the vinyl.  I also ended up putting an additional stud in between each of the buttons.  Ouch!  My fingers were so sore!

I found this pretty turquoise cotton to use for the lining.  I cut it to size and added the male side of the magnetic clasp.  Just like I did in my envelope wristlet tutorial, I got out the Mod Podge and adhered the lining directly to the the wrong side of the vinyl.  As you can imagine, the reverse side of the vinyl was very bumpy and pokey with all the leather studs and twisted wire.  The decoupaging secured and contained all the sharp metal, but the finished surface is far from smooth.  Next time I try this, I'm going to attempt to quilt my lining fabric to a thinner piece of peltx or timtex and nix the Mod Podge.

• While the 'podge was drying, I made a zippered pouch for the interior of my clutch.  I sewed together two lengths of lace as well.
• The lace was sewn onto the back of the zippered pouch to form a mesh-like pocket.
• The pouch and lace pocket were pretty long, so I sewed up the center to create some side-by-side pocket action.

• I clipped the zippered pouch to the sides of the vinyl because you can't pin vinyl.
• I stitched the pouch and trimmed it even even with the vinyl.
• I finished all the edges with a black double folded bias tape.

• Normally I would just stitch up the sides and call it done, but that wasn't going to work with this clutch.  The sweet side-by-side pocket action would have been too cramped to utilize properly.  I needed to add some depth to the clutch for the pockets to be fully appreciated.  And so entered the wide velvet ribbon.
• I stitched in a length of ribbon on each side of the clutch to open up the interior.  
• Then, I was d.o.n.e!!!!!!

The resulting clutch is a mixture of sexy, edgy, and pretty.  I love it!  

I hope you'll visit the challenge homepage and spend some time getting to know the participants.  We have a big group of very crafty and creative people who I'm sure are going to blow us all away with their cool clutches.  Thanks for all your comments!  Double thanks for becoming a follower!

Happy crafting and big hugs from Montana,

Linking up here:

http://pinkapotamus.blogspot.com/2012/01/pink-hippo-party-64.html
http://www.creationsbykara.com/2012/01/look-what-i-made-link-party-1-25-2011.html
http://somedaycrafts.blogspot.com/2012/01/whatever-goes-wednesday-101.html
http://733blog.blogspot.com/2012/01/sugar-spice-95.html
http://mygirlishwhims.blogspot.com/2012/01/your-whims-wednesday-43-and-features.html
http://www.gingersnapcrafts.com/2012/01/wow-me-wednesday-35.html
http://www.thestuffofsuccess.com/2012/01/success-u-wednesday-linkup-party-22.html
http://carolynshomework.blogspot.com/2012/01/inspiration-board-link-party-34.html
http://funkypolkadotgiraffe.blogspot.com/2012/01/too-cute-tuesday-linky-par-tay-67.html
http://www.vwbblog.com/2012/01/talent-tuesday-way-cool-linky-party_23.html
http://momommamoney.blogspot.com/2012/01/momomma-monday-link-up.html
http://mommybydaycrafterbynight.blogspot.com/2012/01/ta-da-tuesday-link-party-22.html
http://www.thekurtzcorner.com/2012/01/tuesday-tutorials-link-party-no-21.html
http://linda-coastalcharm.blogspot.com/2012/01/nifty-thrifty-tuesday-no98.html
http://singingthreelittlebirds.blogspot.com/2012/01/inspire-me-monday-good-morning_23.html

http://www.thegunnysack.com/2012/01/whats-in-gunny-sack-link-party-22.html

picnik, puppy, and purse...

Have you heard of the free online photo editing program called picnik?  I started using it when I switched over to google Chrome from Windows Explorer.

Why I think picnik is so cool:

My rather expensive photo editing program either doesn't have these features or if it does, the ones on picnik are just easier to use.

Picnik has always offered "premium" features for a small monthly fee.  Now, because picnik is closing soon, it is handing out refunds and allowing EVERYONE to use all the premium features for FREE!

Picnik closes for good on April 19th, so get over there and check it out!  I urge all of you, my sweet blogging friends, to please take advantage of this opportunity.  I know that I am eager to make some wicked cool collages for future posts.  I am also going to make some neato-torpedo graphics for the final Naughty Notions voting page.

We just got a new dog so that's been eating up my blogging time.  She's a 8 month old cockapoo that we rescued from the local animal shelter.  Our whole family is totally in love with her!  We named her Pippa.  Just look how cute she is:

  

Here's a sneak peak of my nearly finished Naughty Notions clutch.  I made the collage using the premium feature on picnik.

Happy crafting and big hugs from Montana,

My Naughty Notion Challenge clutch is underway!

It's time for me to stop planning and actually get started with my Naughty Notions project.  The project is due at the end of the month, and here we are nearly halfway there!  I had a mini panic attack when I realized that and immediately went to work. 

 Here's what I've done so far:

First, I chose a taupe (grayish brown) piece of vinyl.  I got this and
much more vinyl for free at a local auto-upholstery shop.  I just walked
in and asked if they had any scraps of vinyl that they would normally
throw away.  I walked away with a huge bundle of scraps.
It seriously never hurts to ask, right?

Second, I went through all my notions and narrowed them down to
just those in the black-white-silver family of colors.  I most likely won't
use all of these, but I'm determined to include as many as I can.

Third, I got out my Mod Podge and decoupaged a wide black lace
to my vinyl.  I've never tried this before, so I'm not sure how it'll work.
Looking at it today, after it's dried and cured, it looks great.  I'm
cautiously optimistic.  Still, I think I'll stitch around the edges to make
it all extra secure.  If this turns out like I hope it will, I'll give it away
on my facebook page.  Fingers crossed!

It is definitely not too late to enter the Naughty Notions Challenge.  If you think you can make a small purse or clutch by the end of the month, then go for it!  Signing up is easy as filling out a brief questionnaire at the challenge homepage.  Please scroll down the challenge homepage and check out all our fabulous participants! We are up to 21, that's a new record!

this button will take you to the
challenge homepage.

Happy crafting and big hugs from Montana,

From Ricochet's Tool Box

I'm not quite sure sometimes if I'm more clever or cheap or lazy.  Most likely it's a combination of these qualities that make me the crafter that I am.  Allow me to elaborate, please.  There is always a home improvement project going on at my house.  Hence, we always have an abundance of blue painter's tape lying around.  As you probably already know, the main use of painter's tape is to tape off areas that you don't want to get paint on.  Also, the main quality of the blue tape is that it is low tack, and therefore easy to remove and doesn't leave a sticky residue behind.  Because we have a lot of it lying around our home, I have been utitlizing it in various crafty projects.  Here are some examples:

I used lots of blue tape in my Paper Weaving Tutorial.  It really
helped to secure the weave and keep it nice and tight.  When
it was time to remove the tape, it left the paper undamaged.

I used blue tape in my Tudor Rose Tutorial to secure the leaves to
the petals.  When I tried it with stick pins, the pins caught up on parts
of my sewing machine and fell out when I was rotating the flower.

This is a photo of wallet I was working on a while back.
I used tape to mark where I wanted to place the inside pockets.
I also wrote the measurements on the tape.

When I buy a pattern, I unfold all the tissue and tape around the
edges of all the pattern pieces.  Then, I cut out the pieces.  This
reinforces each piece and makes it really easy to trace onto fabric.
The blue-taped pattern pieces don't fit neatly in their original envelope,
but usually I paperclip them all together an lay them on a shelf.
I only take the time to do this with a pattern that I know I will use over
and over again.  

As you can see, blue tape is used all throughout my craft room.

The masking tape doesn't have to be blue, of course.  When I was making
 The Envelope Wristlet Tutorial, I used some regular masking tape
to help me mark where to place the magnetic clasp on the flap.

Because it has a higher tack than the blue tape, I used regular masking tape
to keep the edge of the flap clean and decoupage free.  You can see
the finished project here: Another Modge Podge Upcycle.

Stay tuned for more unconventional crafting supplies from Ricochet's tool box.  Also, please check out our current sewing challenge, The Naughty Notions Challenge.

Happy crafting and big hugs from Montana,

Photos from the road. . .

We drove to Texas over the holidays and I held the camera on my lap during much of the drive.  Here are some of the pics I took from the passenger seat:

On our way back home, we came across a fantastic sunset:

On the last leg of our journey home we ran into some icy roads.  These photos are from Wyoming:

Hope you enjoyed seeing some things from my perspective!

Please check out our January sewing challenge, The Naughty Notion Challenge.

Happy crafting and big hugs from Montana,

Solids-Only Tote Challenge Winners!!!!

The Solids-Only Tote Challenge has come to an end and before I announce the winners (don't scroll down!) I'd like to review all the lovely totes that were submitted.  Let's give a big round of applause to all the Tote Challenge participants!!!!!  Woo-hoo!!!

Pam of Threading My Way: Gwen of The Bold Abode Tori of One Eleven: Gray of Gray in Berlin: Tanya of Wee Little Birds Tanya of Craft Couture by T.C.: June of Creations By June: Adrianne of Happy Hour Projects: Jennifer of Finding My Way In Texas:

Kristin of pritty tings: Gia of One Perfect Day: Christie of Describe Happy Jill of Creating My Way To Success: Eddie of The Arkansas Man Quilter: Stephanie of Toastie Studio: Juanita of Beyond Island Hopping: Rikka of Ricochet and Away! Keren of sew la vie!

So cool and gorgeous and different, aren't they?  It's crazy cool how we all tackled the exact same problem in so many differents ways.  Great job ladies and gentleman!

And now, without further ado, the winners of the poll are as follows (insert drum roll):

<center><a href=" http://ricochetandaway.blogspot.com/2012/01/solids-only-tote-challenge-winners.html "><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPGjan1oOOStaxB0mcrOr-cQUhSHjM2uQVikFImzAjmY82R51kzeHuQE02pHv3KiohrWOYMja6wVHV76vBS2Y5mE4DRe3KKsAWJmobLeelfSztZofCS_QSTiWXy_sSh8hN2HygsTEBubs/s1600/gold+star.jpg"/></a></center>	Adrianne of Happy Hour Projects
<center><a href=" http://ricochetandaway.blogspot.com/2012/01/solids-only-tote-challenge-winners.html "><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjGtyw6XiMyhrwEIQGnEon-aVr7sA0zw11EqPM3GwVnmF7j6gU3T9H0nh_96kKtt-BhBcuwmcsSJOjx9MR5wuoGF-nj-cMMMID8yIZnZ0ILJJIqCqujKd3QJwDVCLtz3P9NET3r6wZwss/s1600/silver+star.jpg"/></a></center>	Tori of One Eleven
<center><a href=" http://ricochetandaway.blogspot.com/2012/01/solids-only-tote-challenge-winners.html "><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF2DrM04u15uE45YraOxsk-MTJTNPkehC8AjrDEpvdSX59A76ur8n3uW887TDFikmy30P17a85snmR9DUwjFVlQvjUGU_ASZRQhMhPTj61pdKKJO_u9LHrr7aZc2_wjRLksBz8RU8Bzzc/s1600/Bronze+star.jpg"/></a></center>	Gwen of The Bold Abode

Congrats to all the winners!  Wear your badges proudly!
Our January challenge:Happy crafting and big hugs from Montana,