Keepsake Crafts - Sharing the Love of Creativity

Quick Custom Cases

Jun 232011

Today is time for a few quick projects. After spending the last several weeks working on machine quilting a queen size quilt, as well as making Roman shades for my living room, I was quite ready for something far less epic, ya know?

Cases for my new sunglasses and camcorder seemed to fit the bill. You’re gonna love this tutorial, all it takes is one piece of fabric and two seams. These took about 10 minutes each, and much of that was time spent choosing fabric. 🙂

First off, you need to measure the item you want to make a case for. Use a flexible tape measure to decide how wide around the case needs to be. Add 1″ to this measurement.

I want this to be 7″ around, so my first dimension is 8″.

Next measure how tall your case should be. Take this measurement, double it and add 1″. Since I want my case to be 6″ tall, my other dimension is 13″. (6×2) +1=13

Now cut a rectangle of fabric with those dimensions, in this case 8″x13″. (Add fusible interfacing to the back if you wish.)

Sew the longer edges together, making a tube.

Press this seam open.

Now meet the remaining raw edges. You have to pull the tube up over itself to do this. Make sure the right side of the fabric is on the outside.

Here I’ve started pulling the tube up.

Here the raw edges are meeting. At this point you’ll want to meet the seams together as well, this will make sure your tube isn’t twisted.

Now flatten out your tube and stitch together the raw edges. Finish the seam by pinking, zigzagging or serging.

Now turn this inside out, using a point turner to poke out the bottom points. You’re done!

And here it is completed, the sunglasses fit perfectly.

Of course I couldn’t stop there, but went digging through my stash of orphan quilt blocks to make this fancier case for my sunglasses:

And this for my camcorder:

To use the heart block, I first pieced on extra fabric, then cut it to the needed size. Keep in mind that half of the fabric will be on the inside for the lining. (I recommend you first make a case with just a rectangle of fabric, then you’ll see how it goes together.)

For the camcorder case I made little pockets on the back for spare batteries.

This was done by folding pieces of mesh in half (the fold is the top edge of the pocket.)

Zigzag or straight stitch to make the bottom of the pocket.

Add the second pocket and baste along sides and bottom. This was then stitched to my star block. After that I added more black fabric to the top and bottom of the star to make it 8″x13″.

When sewing the final seam (bottom edges) make sure to position your block where you want it. This part is a little fiddly. Like I said, if you sew one first with just plain fabric, you’ll see how it all goes together.

Have fun. 🙂

If you make your own custom cases, make sure to upload your pics to the gallery!

WOYWW-Roman Shades

Jun 222011

Welcome to another edition of What’s on Your Workdesk Wednesday. What the heck is that, you ask? It’s just a chance for a bunch of us to see what’s happening on the desks of other creative people around the world. For more info and lots of links to workdesks, go here.

My desk today shows two sets of Roman shade hardware, ready for the shades to be mounted. Off on the bottom left you can see a corner of one of the shades. I just have to press them, defur them (my cat thinks they are the perfect place for a nap) and insert the ribs and weight rods. The final steps will be to string the cords and mount them in the window.

I’m really excited to get these done, as my living room faces the south and the blinds I made many moons ago are quite a mess from the sun. This time around I used a lining with UV protection, so they should last quite a bit longer.

I could post a tutorial on how to make Roman shades, but honestly, I don’t think I could do a better job than they do over at make-roman-shades You can get a pattern made up in minutes, save it on their site for a year, be able to print it for $2.99 or get it free with a $25 purchase.

The pattern really is a set of step-by-step directions with all the measurements personalized to your requirements. Follow all her tips to the letter, she’s truly got all the kinks worked out!

Once you enter your dimensions (there are tips for how to take all the measurements correctly) you’ll get a customized supply list, with explanations of what everything is used for. I’ve shopped at this site several times for my own personal shades and for clients and can’t recommend them highly enough.

So happy Woyww, ya’ll! I’m off to get those shades finished.

*********Update June 23, 2011**********

Several of you asked to see the completed shades. These are not the most exciting photos, as I made them out of a solid fabric. But, it’s the clean, crisp look I was going for.

The color on the walls is one of those I call “chameleon paints.” It looks completely different at different times, depending on the light. In these pics it looks brown, but in other light it looks like a lighter shade of the green I used in the shades.

Btw, there is one itty bitty change I would make regarding to the make-roman-shades website. Don’t bother to order the screws for mounting the boards. The ones they send are slotted, not phillips, and they nearly drove me out of my mind.

My woodworking hubby recommends you buy your own 3″ phillips head wood screws and drill a pilot hole first. This was at least a million and one times easier, in my opinion. 🙂

Adding Memorabilia to a Scrapbook Page-Marine Corps Boot Camp

Jun 202011

Here’s a scrapbook page that incorporates a large piece of memorabilia. Sometimes these kinds of things are tucked away in pockets and hidden, and sometimes they’re embraced as part of the design of the page.

I wanted the program from Josh’s boot camp graduation to not only be visible, but accessible. This was accomplished by stapling the green and blue paper strips near the bottom of the page, leaving a little space to accommodate the thickness of the program.

What isn’t pictured here is a slit in the page protector across the width of the program, near the top (centered on the top button.) The slit and the strip of paper are just enough to hold the program in place, but you can easily pull it out.

This is a trick I use often to be able to access items within scrapbook pages. You make the cuts by putting the page into the protector, then inserting a clear glass mat between the page and the plastic protector. Because the glass is clear you can see exactly where to make the cuts using a craft knife and a ruler.

Whenever you cut your page protector, make sure to add a small round punch to each end of the cut. This keeps it from continuing to split along the same line.

The date was done using my favorite date Clear Stamp – Messy Dates (Autumn Leaves by Rhonna Farrer). It was stamped on twill tape with Black StazOn Permanent Ink, then the tape was inked with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

The background paper began its life as a solid Bazzil Basics cardstock, which I rubbed, dabbed and spritzed with Vintage Photo, Peeled Paint, Faded jeans and Walnut Stain Distress inks. I LOVE how you can completely change the look of papers with a few swipes of an ink pad!

Well, I’m nearly done showing you Marine Corps boot camp pics. This is good, as he’s nearly done with the Marine Corps, lol. It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly five years since we saw him off to boot camp.

Happy crafting!

Summery Sarong Shorts – Free Pattern

Jun 172011

Every so often Fabric.com sends out a free pattern from HotPatterns. This cute little number came along a couple months ago and I finally got it made last weekend.

(I promise I did blow dry my hair this morning. In this humidity this is the best one can expect, lol.)

You can find the free pattern here.

Here’s my review on Pattern Review:

Pattern Description: The sweetest little sporty-femme shorts, designed for medium-to-lightweight fluid or drapey fabrics like crinkled gauze, hammered satin, washed linen or voile, crepe, or rayon. Pull-on, slightly flared shorts have a narrow elastic waistband, and a flared, tie-front sarong-style skirt attached through the back waist seam. Shorts and sarong overlay finish at mid-thigh with a narrow hem. This is the perfect piece for all your summer sports and pastimes…jogging, biking, sailing, tennis, hiking or yoga. You’ll also love these worn with a simple tank or T-shirt as an easy beach or pool-side cover-up.

Pattern Sizing: Sizes 6-26 included

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it? Yes, adorable!

Were the instructions easy to follow? They were easy to follow, but make sure to pay close attention when attaching the back of the sarong to the back of the shorts and when attaching the elastic band. You don’t want to catch the front of the sarong in the band.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? I like that it was free! I didn’t care for having to print out all the pages and assemble them. But, hey, that’s the price for free! 🙂 What I suggest is that after you get your pattern all assembled, trace your size in the pattern pieces you need onto pattern tissue or tracing paper. This makes handling while cutting out and sewing much easier, rather than trying to deal with the computer paper.

Fabric Used: I used a nice drapey rayon challis. You definitely want whatever fabric you use to be drapey, not stiff.

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made: I serged the edges of the sarong. Also, I left an opening in the waistband casing seam to insert the elastic. Then you only have this little bit to sew up by hand.

Another thing I like to do with an elastic waistband is to stitch through the casing and elastic at the sides to keep the elastic from twisting.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others? I would sew it again, in fact, I plan to make several! It’s so comfortable and cute.

Conclusion: This project works up quickly and it great to wear. It does take a fair amount of fabric, about 2.75 yards of 60″ wide. You might be able to reduce that if you piece the sarong tie to the front.

By the way, this pattern uses ready-to-wear sizing. Here’s HotPattern’s measurement chart.

Oh, and the necklace and bracelet? I’d made those to sell on Etsy, but when I saw how well that went with this outfit I decided to keep them.

Actually, I’ve decided to keep, um, five of the six necklaces I made to sell. Gonna need some new jewelry storage…

Father’s Day Album In A Tin

Jun 162011

This is an album I made a while back, but I’m taking another look because I’m thinking of updating it and adding more photos.

Back in 2004 our boys were 14 and 16. There was lots of teenage angst flyin’ around and my husband was feeling like a really terrible father. So I put together this little album for him as a Father’s Day gift, hoping it would be an encouragement.

Remember way back when AOL was sending out all those cds in tins? Well, that’s where this started.

I used Mod Podge to decoupage scraps of papers on the outside of the tin. The center of the twine with beads was glued to the back of the tin. I honestly don’t remember what I used to antique it, as this was before I was aware of all the distress inks. It’s probably thinned down brown acrylic paint.

Then I cut papers from a 4″x6″ paper pad to fit the inside, leaving an extra 1/4″ on the width of each page to make an overlap to glue them together.

Here’s how the album opens out. This one has 10 pages, plus the ones inside the covers, for a total of 12.

And here you can see how the pages overlap on the back:

Here’s a close up of the inside cover and the first page:

When collecting the photos I realized there were so many different colors, I couldn’t possibly make them all work together, so everything got printed in sepia.

The printing on the twill tape is one of my favorite parts. All you have to do is print your wording onto regular computer paper in the appropriate size with plenty of space around each line. Then just use repositionable adhesive to glue your twill tape over the printed lines and run it through the printer again.

Happy crafting!

WOYWW – Making Jewelry, Sewing Summer Clothes

Jun 152011

Today I’ve been working on making a necklace inspired by one I found in a catalog. I love to collect fashion catalogs and use the colors, styles and details as jumping off points for my own projects.

Although I set out to just copy to necklace, I think you’ll agree that not being able to find all the exact same components forces us to use what we’ve got, be creative and really make it our own.

Also on the desk, in the upper middle-leftish, is the label for the wedding quilt, it’s nearly done, yay!

The pattern in the lower right corner is one I made and wore this weekend. I’ll be reviewing it soon; it’s a really cute sarong shorts by Hot Patterns and got loads of compliments. 🙂

And that big purple thing? That’s just my chocolate for the week – Trader Joe’s dark chocolate with peanuts, mmmmm…

To travel the desks of the world and see what other people are up on this Wednesday, go here. Have fun!

Beautiful Gifts From Abroad

Jun 132011

I receive an amazing package over the weekend. I was so excited when I saw it on my doorstep, but I was utterly stunned when I opened it.

You see, Julia over at Stamping Ground has been hosting What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday for the past two years. To celebrate the second anniversary, since nobody appreciates handcrafts like another handcrafter, many of us participated in a PIF.

My package came from Sam over at hettiecraftcz.blogspot.com. Oh my, she just went above and beyond. Everything is so lovely!

I was thrilled and amazed at all the work she’d went to when I opened the package and found the album. It is gorgeous and as I’m a scrapbooker, you can be assured it will be put to good use.

But then I opened it and, wait, there’s more! Inside the album was another wrapped package, this time a canvas with flowers, a sparkle-arkily fairy dress and a butterfly. It. Is. Beautiful. I LOVE it! It’s already hanging right next to my computer monitor so I will be sure to often think of my new friend from Wales.

And then I peeked into the envelope and there was still a card waiting to open. It’s terrific, love those flowers and the scalloped edges.

I just hope the gal who gets the package I sent along will be just as happy as I am!

Happy, happy crafting, all.

Jewelry Design – Making Matching Sets

Jun 092011

Have you ever bought or made a matching jewelry set only to find that everything matched all TOO well, and you’d never wear all the pieces together at one time?

Of course we want our look to be put together, and we want our accessories to go with and compliment each other. But what we don’t want is the matchy-matchiness we often find.

Here are a few rules that I generally follow when either purchasing or making sets of jewelry.

1. Don’t have any one major element in more than two of the pieces.

The set below works together nicely. It would definitely look like way too much, however, if I’d used the blue ceramic beads in the earrings as well.

2. Have something different from all the others in each piece.

In the above photo the brass lattice and wooden beads are only in the necklace, the green rounds and chips are only in the bracelet and the little turquoise beads are only in the earrings. This helps each piece of jewelry stand on its own, yet they all are related.

3. If using the same shape as in another piece, make it a different color in another piece.

Red chunks are primary in the bracelet, so in the necklace they’re mostly blue. Also, I didn’t use the rounds from the bracelet in the necklace, but chose to use turquoise chunks and barrels only.

4. If using the same color as in another piece, make it a different shape in another piece.

In the below photo you’ll find antiqued brass in all three pieces, but they are a very different shape in the earrings.

5. Don’t be afraid to use different tones and shades of your colors; it will only make the look richer.

Look again at the blue ceramic bead set and you’ll see many different shades of blue, from the very light to rather dark. You’ll also notice many variations of browns, from the wooden beads to the brass lattice and elephant beads.

Keep these simple rules in mind whether making or buying jewelry and you’ll be more satisfied with the way your pieces blend together, rather than match perfectly.

Happy crafting!

WOYWW – MY Blankie

Jun 082011

Well, so it’s What’s on Your Workdesk Wednesday and you want to see what’s on my desk? (Go here to learn more about WOYWW and travel the desks of the world, it’s fun!)

Last week I showed you my sewing machine table, this week the scene has changed a little. My trusty machine needs some work, but at least I was able to finish machine quilting this wedding quilt before I brought it in to the shop.

Today, THIS is what’s on my workdesk:

Naturally, the black cat who likes to roll in the dirt seems to have quite an affinity for this mostly white quilt.

Here’s the scene a few days ago, while I was in the midst of quilting it:

And today, she seems supremely unconcerned that I will have to give this thing a serious wash before giving it away.

What’s funny, though, is that right beneath her is a a pile of binding strips, all thoroughly pinned together in preparation for sewing.

Miss Molly doesn’t seem to care one bit.

Hope I can find my lint brush when she gets up.

Knotted Bead Necklace – Video Tutorial

Jun 072011

Today I have a video tutorial for you showing how to make necklaces to match the Knotty Bead Bracelets I shared few weeks back.

These are so easy and fun, I can’t stop making them!

Here’s the necklace we make in the video:

And here’s one I just finished today, love those chunky squares.

As I mention in the video, this one is a favorite, I wear it all the time. Love those blue ceramic beads.

I finished this one over the weekend, just in time to wear to a picnic on Sunday. Those tiger eye stones got HOT in the sun. So hot, in fact, that I had to take it off. Who woulda thunk it?

Love these colors! (I didn’t make this one, but purchased it. After I got it home and took a more careful look I realized just how simple it would be to make similar styles.)

And here’s your tutorial. Have fun!

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