Sweat Shirt Shopping Bag

I'm a self admitted Bag Lady!! On a recent visit to my favorite store, Wal-Mart, I found this Halloween-ish sweat shirt for only $1.00!! WOW, of course I thought "What can I make with this?!!??". Of course, ANOTHER reusable shopping bag! My daughter asked, "Why do you keep making more, you have so many already?!! " Sadly I had no good response for her!

But as you can see it was only $1.00! Couldn't pass it up! I thought it was kinda cute too.

To keep with the red striped socks I thought it would be cute to have red handles. Found an old pair of my son's red sweat pants that would be perfect. Could cut them up in strips and braid to create handles.

A close up of the handles.

After cutting off the sleeves, had to trim the neckline to make it an even edge. That was the easy part! Next I sewed up the bottom edge of the "bag". So far so good.

I looked throuh my stash of remnents from JoAnn Fabrics to find a good color for the lining. Black was an easy choice.

Also added red buttons on the bottom corners so the lining would stay in place and add another small detail.

Taaa-Daaaaaa the completed project!! I have yet another reusable shopping bag!!!

Thanks so much for looking!

Have a great day.

Cathy

2011 Teacher Appreciation Gifts

This year's teacher appreciation gifts were a "plan B"!! In the last couple of years I created etched plates that THANK the teachers for all their hard work. However, when this year rolled around I couldn't get my Cricut working correctly and had to resort to my stamp collection. After ruining one plate because I tried to use a stamp with words. Didn't make the connection that the words needed to be reversed and I couldn't figure out a quick way to stamp in reverse! Had to go with stamps with just pictures on them. This is the stack of 20 completed plates for my kids' teachers. Total there are 5 teachers - 4 plates for each.

I used the Stampin Up Cheers to You set to make these. First the martini plate - shaken not stirred!

A yummy strawberry daquari! Careful of a brain freeze! OOoooohhh!

Cheers with champagne!

Finally an ice cold beer! My favorite!

Thanks for looking, and have a great day,

Cathy

Quote for the Day

Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting.

-- Elizabeth Bibesco

Quote for the Day

It's better to be an optimist who is sometimes wrong than a pessimist who is always right.

-- Unknown

Too Cute Umbrella Wreath

How adorable is this wreath!! Makes me think of a Jimmy Buffet concert - "cheeseburger in paradise... salt, salt, salt..."
Wish I would have thought of this beauty, thanks to Camilla at Family Chic for sharing this one. Check out her stuff there, so cute.
Thanks for looking,
Have a great day
Cathy

"Springy" Teacher Frames

I've had this itching feeling for the past couple of weeks that I should do something for my kids' teachers for Easter. I know that I can't assume (everyone knows what happens when you assume something!) that everyone celebrates Easter so we decided that it will be a "Springy" gift! My idea was to use some Easter-y stuff that I had on hand and create something they could use. Of course my hot glue gun would be involved! Love that thing! I used my idea from a previous post, from Valentines Day. And, another frame here. The project started with a couple bags of $.50 bags of jelly beans,

a couple packages of peeps,

and a raw $1.00 frame.

My kids painted the frames for their teachers and I chose yellow (my favorite color) for my frame. Then just hot glued the accessories on. Easy peasy! They turned out pretty nice, if I do say so myself!

Total cost for each frame - less than $1.50!!

Thanks for looking.

Have a great day,

Cathy

One Pair of $3 Pants - 3 Projects

OMG!, I can't believe it is April already!!! I've been so lazy in posting to my blog. Unfortunately life has become extremely busy for me here and the first thing to go is my creative outlet! I miss it so much! Sorry for letting this go by the wayside. Recently, I found a pair of $3.00 courdoray boys pants that had a hole in them....immediately I knew there were going to be some craft projects for these poor tattered pants. Unfortunately I didn't think ahead when creating these projects. From the 2 pant legs I made these cup holders. It was pretty easy, just had to cut off the legs and sew up the bottoms. Buttons were added on the sides to make the bottoms flat. Finally I used old belts as the straps. Too cute. I love them because I added quilting inside of each to help keep beverages hot or cold. There is enough room in each one to use a blue "feezey thing" to help keep drinks cold. a>

This is a quick shot of the inside of each cup holder. The sunflower has quilting under the cotton material. This was the first one I completed. There isn't any additional material to cover the quilting - BORING!! :-) After visiting JoAnn Fabrics and fishing through their remnits bin I found the cute sunflower material. Thought that would look a little "happier" than just the blue quilting (which was also from the remnits bin at Joann's!).

My second project was to take the top part of the pants and make a reusable shopping bag. This was pretty easy to do also. I wish I had taken pictures of each step, but I'm not that good at recording each step - I promise to work on that! I started by cutting off the legs and sewing up the bottom of the bag. Used a hot glue gun to prevent the zipper from coming down, and to flatten down the flap of material in front of it.

Finally, I found some old belts to use as straps! That is my favorite part! Had to use bottons to help keep straps sewn on the bag. This was harder than I thought! Turned out pretty cute though.

This is an upclose view of the buttons holding the straps on, had to use one on the inside and one on the outside of each strap. A quick view of inside of the bag, used striped material to go along with the stripes from the courdory. I thought is was kinda cute! You can see the "security" buttons on the inside here. Overall it is pretty cute, and I love using it at a store! When checking out the cashier always comments on the bag. Thanks for looking! Have a good day. Cathy

Quote for the Day

It's hard to detect good luck - it looks so much like something you've earned.

~ Frank Howard Clark

Baby laughing at Torn Paper.

How cute is this little baby giggling at his Dad tearing a rejection letter!?!? Check out this QT pie having a great time.
Made my day watching him giggle.




Enjoy!

Final Creation

I finally finished a project that was started a while ago. Check out the beginning of my project here and this is what it turned out to be. The flowers started off at the Dollar Tree, it was a little girl's cheerleading outfit.

The bag is from Michaels or AC Moore or Joann Fabrics (can't remember!) clearance section. Don't remember how much I paid for it, but I'm sure it wasn't much. I love the clearance section. It was a pack of 3 bags, one with green handles, one with pink handles and one with blue handles. They measure about 10 by 14 inches.

Taaa Daaaa!!!!! The final product.

Not sure if I LOVE it, but it is kinda cute. I thought the green bag handles would match the green flowers (yes, there are green and blue flowers!) but can't really tell which is which.

This will work for shopping anyway.

Thanks for looking.
Cathy

Quote for the Day

I would love to change the world, but they won't give me the source code.

~ Unknown

VERY Early Christmas Ornament Idea

Sorry that I keep sharing everyone else's ideas, but I can't help it!!! They are so darn cute! I love this idea for a Christmas ornament. How stinkin' cute is this idea?!?!?

It seems very easy to make too. Check out the easy step by step directions here, Muffin Tin Mom. Thanks to Michelle for sharing this awesome idea.

My idea is to make a bunch of these ornaments, but mail them out FLAT. In the Christmas card send directions on how to make them and add to a Christmas tree! I'll keep you updated on that idea!
Thanks for looking.
Cathy

Another YUMMY Valentine Snack

Saw this idea and my mouth watered!! Thanks to Kim at It's a Crafty Life for sharing this idea for easy Valentine's Day Smores!! She has the ingredients and directions (along with some great pictures to go along with it) on the link.


I know my kids and husband would love to dive into this snack. I might be creating this over the weekend!!!

I think I have too much time on my hands because of all the blog surfing I do! Love finding new ideas to tryout and share with others. Hope you try this out, and Thanks for looking.

Cathy

Valentines Day Cupcakes

While out looking for some cute Valentine's Day ideas I came across this SUPER cute idea for cupcakes. Thanks to Alison at Alison's Wonder Scraporium for sharing this, I love it! She has a great recipe for strawberry Laffy Taffy bttercream icing there too.


The recipe looks pretty easy, I might try it with just a box cake mix first then see how that works before trying a cake mix from scratch. I'm NOT a baker, just like to try new ideas.

This is such a great idea that it could be used for any Holiday - St Patrick's day shamrock, Halloween pumpkin, or for a birthday - any thing that has a little cookie cutter!

Thanks for looking and good luck trying this out.

Cathy

Chocolate Roses

Saw this great idea from a Mom of 6!!! She shows how to make some very creative chocolate roses. Check out this video with some awesome directions for flowers for cakes. She makes it seem so easy! I haven't tried it, but maybe for my next cake! Thanks Dawn for sharing your ideas with everyone!