From Scrap to Fab!

I am no longer greeted with recognition at Bebe or Zara, and I am happy to say that the sales assistants at Buy Buy Baby have also forgotten the twin mom in despair; I lost the friendship of those temporary faces. On the other hand, being a stay at home mom in search of self expression beyond the world of Toddlerville, Kat at Fiber Notion craft store knows exactly who I am. She also knows that I like making "stuff" from "stuff" (now this sounds eloquent :), so she handed me a bag of scrap on my last visit to get my creative juices flowing.

I came home and as if a secret Santa gift, I excitedly opened the bag ... (Don't worry if you don't understand the excitement part over a bag of scrappy fabric - only crafters do! :)

    

I looked through the pile of rejects, leftovers and pieces that went out of fashion a long long time ago. I always root for the underdog in anything (you know the heavy kid without friends on American Idol ... etc.)  ... I did the same with these fabrics ... 

So far I've made three projects from this one bag ... here is the first one ... 

Look at this beautiful sheer fabric with flowers in the foreground! I'll make something pretty out of you!

What you need: 

Scraps

Hot glue gun

Felt

Beads (only if you want to be fancy)

Satin ribbon 

A neck

Let's cut the fabric to pieces - no matter what length, 2 inches wide ... 

Or cut them all the same length for same size florets

Now follow .... 

1. Make a knot (or two)

2. Twist and turn, go around and around until you can't hold the circle any longer

3. Grab a piece of felt (preferably color coordinating with the fabric) and glue with my favorite tool - hot glue gun! (Everyone should own one of these gadgets! I've glue gunned shoes, hems, flowers .. you name it!)

4. Keep turning and twisting until there is no fabric left. Work the end to the side of the flower. Apply the glue as close to the edge as possible, so it's not visible. 

5. Once all flowers are done, take a pair of scissors and cut them out of the felt. Now glue them side-to-side to each other - again, you don't want the glue to show!  Find your old fake pearls or whatever other beads you may have and glue them to the flowers. I don't like symmetry (unless I am at the beauty parlor getting my eyebrows done) so I just glued the beads all over. 

6. Cut two pieces of satin ribbon and glue them to the end of the back of the florets. Here is a trick! You need to burn the ends of the ribbon so it doesn't fray!

7. Felt scratches and I like my pieces looking nice and neat front to back, so I grabbed a piece of satin and glued the back of the piece to it. I used Fabric Mod Podge, but any fabric glue will surely work! Let it dry, let it dry, let it dry! 

8. Almost ready! Cut out the necklace from the satin the same way as you cut out the florets from the felt. 

Aaaaaand VOILA!!!! Here it is .. From Scrap to Fab! No sewing, total time 1 hour

(And that is only if you glue your fingers a few times to the felt also!)

        

Coming up: Scrappy design for the house! 

P.S. If you make this necklace, please let me know; 

"Like" me on Facebook or Follow me or leave a comment or all of the above.

Do you have a scrappy idea? I would LOLOVE to hear about it!  

LO(lo)V(i)E 

LV  

For the love of polka dots

Did you notice my button? The little circle on the side of the page that I worked on so hard, putting to test my non-existing graphic design skills - it's red and white polka dot. Whenever I enter a clothing store, I am immediately drawn to these white circles on red background (and pink)! Uhum ... now you know where Lola gets her girlie girlieshness from at 22 months. It's from momma! (Daddy just took a deep breath of relief ). Here are my favorite red and white polka dot things from the internet .... 

And the "Be Mine" heart goes to a dress, what else?? I've ordered from Pin Up Girl clothing before (most famously my LoLo birthday cupcake dress) and have gotten so many compliments from complete strangers. I may just have to own this one also ....    

1. Red & White Polka Dot chairs from Cozy Little House
2. Cutlery and Silverware Caddy from RosyandPosy
3. Polka Dot Sneakers  from Zazzle

4. Thumbtacks from Shop Indie

5. LiLy Dress from Pin Up Girl Clothing 

6. Decor Pad  from Girl's Room

7. Recycled Tin Minidress Necklace  from Shixie on Etsy
8. Red Wool felted Mushrooms from Stemellina Supplies 

9. Polka Dot Apron from Tomatotots on Etsy

I am the biggest fan of my friend's Bird's printables and wish I could throw a cherry party right now looking at these images ...

What's your favorite?

Gotta Lo(Lo)V(i)E the polka dots! 

LV 

Knitted mini ZOO and daddy isn't allergic to any of them!

I didn't mean to take up knitting again - I gave away all my leftover wool and needles years ago, but then I made the leg warmers this winter; then realized there weren't any hats out there that could accommodate Lola's two pigtails and theeeeenn, I discovered Fuzzy Mitten's patterns and fell in love. At the same time I also found the Mochimochiland blog with all sorts of crazy knitted stuff - like the confused moose or the sofa, which is my current project in making. (I wish I could knit one in real life size, as ours is covered with milk, chocolate and playdough. Life with toddler twins ... )

I can honestly say, that this is the most satisfying craft I've ever done. (Have I mentioned I work on instant gratification?) These little guys can be made in an hour! LoLo loves carrying them in their pockets, pushing them around in their baby stroller, sticking them to most unexpected places and subsequently loosing them. Ideally, I wanted to take photos of the nature turning into Spring as my studio - flower buds and greens and snowdrops, but of course it snowed instead...

If you saw a butt sticking up in the air from the ground today and a woman in a big red puffy jacket kneeling by what seemed like a pile of nothing with a camera around her neck, constantly blowing hot air on her frozen fingers ... well, that was me ... enjoy the pics ...

LO(lo)V(i)E

Elvi

Once upon a time

During a lazy morning, LoLo pointed out a book covered in dust on the shelf and insisted we read it. So, I traded Elmo and the Five Monkeys Jumping on the Bed for our wedding album and spent an hour turning pages, pointing out aunts and uncles, finding noses and glasses, telling the difference between yellow and green, smelling sunflowers and sneezing haaachoooooooo while giggling about nothing at all, but some crispy pages. What a strange feeling walking down memory lane, reliving moments that passed and realizing how clueless we were about what's to come in our future - London and Lola! (They would make the cutest ring bearer and flower girl :) The photos depict such an amazing day in our lives, but as I look page by page I realize how many couples have broken up and reminisce of those that passed away in these short 3 years.

Come smell the sunflowers! Haaachoooooo ....

Valentine's Day Surprise

In case you didn't know, it will be Valentine's Day next Monday, February! The holiday of love, loved once; everything chocolate; long stem roses; prix fix overpriced restaurant menus; men walking around cluelessly at Victoria's Secret measuring up the chest size of the closest shop assistant against their girlfriend's/wife's/lover's; ugly bears hanging on to hearts at your local CVS and red hearts on the acrylic nails of the lady behind the window at your local post office. Even our local butcher has cupid shooting his arrow from behind the prosciutto hanging in the window, so unless you are walking around with your eyes and ears closed, you know it's V-day! What's more, there is a huge likelihood that your other half (including the most non-chalant kind) will want some sort of mention of the holiday.

Some defend against celebrating saying "but we love each other every day". Not the same! While getting some TLC any day of the year is heart-warming, pretending to celebrate Valentine's Day every day is like having a birthday cake after every meal. Every year, I try to do something cute for my Geoffrey (the lucky husband :).
This year the idea came to me when I saw Peptogirl's Valentine's Day printables ...
I love the cute sayings, I love surprises and this was just such an easy task ... All you need is a printer and a pair of scissors and a bit of cheesyness (the mac takes care of that) ... and download the printables, of course!

Good Morning!

Ready to go to work? 

(I know I "said" you don't need to spend a penny on this, 

but how could I resist buying this chocolate and stuffing it into G's jacket?)

Let's make dinner together! Something as sophisticated as Mac'n Cheese?! 

Would you get the box of pasta, please?

What's for dessert?

Ok, just because it's Valentine's Day I won't stay up late crafting ... let's go to bed ;)  

Or would you rather read a book instead?

So much fun, little effort and I am sure any partner will appreciate a little love note or chocolate! 

I am not sure what LoLo is getting yet - maybe heart shaped pancakes for breakfast? If you have older children in your life, my friend Bird (a.k.a. Printable Fairy) designed the cutest Valentine Bingo that you can download directly from her website and her blog:  

Want more hearts? I may just do one more post on the topic so come back! 

Lo(Lo)V(i)E, Elvi

Quick Knit: Leg warmers for toddlers

I love leg warmers! Ever since they went out of fashion (was it the 80's??) I've been wishing they came back and yes, they are - or maybe they are not completely, fashionably, "Sex and the City-ishly" in, but I just don't care, because they are so cute. I wear them, my little girl wears them, her friends wear them.  


If you can knit a simple "knit and purl" you can make these in one night in front of the TV! (Now don't you watch anything scary; those needles can be dangerous and I am taking responsibility only for cuteness and design ok? :)  Speaking of needles, you can make these on round needles, but I am a queen of instant gratification and so I decided to make them both at the same time on straight needles. 


What you'll need: 
1 skein of cream color medium weight wool (size 4 US) I like using wool, or at least 80% wool, but be careful when washing. (Hot water is a NO NO!)
size 9 needles
a tiny bit of red wool and a crochet hook or an embroidery needle


CO (cast on) 36 (for a single leg) or 36x2 for two legs at the same time; you will need to divide the skein into two separate balls for the "both at the same time" option
This pattern is for the pair on the left with two hearts dangling from it .. 

* 1 knit, 1 purl for 8 rows 
* row 9: knit 2, purl 2
* row 10: purl 2, knit 2
* row 11: (the pattern swaps - where it was knit, it's now purl and vice versa) purl 2, knit 2
* row 12:   knit 2, purl 2
* row 13: purl 2, knit 2
* REPEAT PATTERN rows 14 - 44
* 1 knit, 1 purl for 8 rows
Cast OFF both leg warmers, saw or crochet together

For the ties measure 6 pieces of approximately 17 inches long wool pieces and weave them together. You may mix different colors of wool for a different look. On the red once, I added felt hearts to the end of the ties (just cut 4 pieces out of felt and glue together with fabric glue to the end of the ties), but you can also make pom-poms or knit hearts and felt them.

Make sure to thread the ties through the "knit" stitches (every second one) before you attach the hearts or pom-poms. Just to keep the fairness, I am going to make a pair for my little boy also with a soccer sock design - black with white stripes, I just hope daddy doesn't request a pair also :)))

Wear them to run around or lie around:

Now the exciting part: GIVEAWAY!!! Yes, I am giving away these red and white adorable leg warmers for your little Valentine! (Size 1 to 2.5/3 years old).

To enter:

* Become a fan of LoLoVie on Facebook - Come back here and leave a message in comments
* Share this post on your Facebook page: Leave you link here in a separate comment
* Share this post on your Twitter page: Leave your link here in a separate comment
* Share this giveaway and link in a Blog Post

The winner will be chosen via www.random.org on Valentine's Day!


COMING UP: Last minute Valentine's Day ideas (suitable even for Valentine Grinches) for ZERO $$$ and a lot of TLC.

Shopping bag to a toddler apron

My first tutorial and craft post YAY! 
After many attempts and html blogger fights with the computer screen the blog is ready (please bear with me during hiccups here and there). 
It all started with my crafty friend Virve (who will be soon introduced here) bringing me a bright pink shopping bag saying "Here, this is so you!  You can surely make something out of this!" 
(Or something like that ... )  

Weeks passed without inspiration but trying to persuade hubby to go food shopping with it (wink wink). He wouldn't ...
Then Karlie's second birthday came up, who loves painting and the idea was born! I don't have the photo of the birthday girl wearing it, so for now the model below is Lolinda. 

 

What do you think?

I just realized I said it was my tutorial, but in fact I followed the instructions HERE from 

Sew 4 Home.  Same easy steps, but skipped the entire paragraph on iron-on-vinyl: the convenience of the shopping bag! Hooray for upcycling! 

What have you upcycled? Please share your idea with me and the world in the comments and stay tuned for a post full of hearts coming SOON! 

Oh yes, and follow/share if you like :)

LO(lo)V(i)E