♥ Wolf Ruffles

Yep you read that right Wolf Ruffles!  See I have this young woman who is such a sweet friend of mine.  Where she attends school the mascot is a wolf.  Well, not being one to let something go unruffled, I ruffled her a Wolves shirt.  See what ya think of wolf ruffles...

I combined ruffles and freezer paper stenciling to create this shirt for a darling girl.

Here are the supplies:

Naturally, you will want to choose your own colors,

but where my sweet friend attends

the colors are purple and gold. 

Thus our color combo.

First things first, I took the yellow t-shirt and cut it into strips.

Why would I cut up a perfectly good shirt you may ask? 

Because there were a bin of shirts in great condition

at Dollar Tree.  I could not buy my yardage for that!

I cut 1 inch strips and then sewed them all together.

I then set the tension high and the stitch length as high as it would go

and created my ruffles!

I then took a length of freezer paper and ironed it on

the inside front of the purple t-shirt.

I then took a piece of chalk, spelled out WOLVES and

began sewing on my ruffles following the letters.

After this was complete, I decided on a wolf silhouette from the Internet.

I printed it out.  I then laid it down on some freezer paper,

took an X acto knife and cut out the dark areas.

Then I ironed the wolf in place on the outside of the shirt.

Yep, I have a Yudu.  No, I did not feel like burning a screen.

I did however use my Yudu paint.

I painted to wolf stencil yellow and waited for it to dry.

Once dry I heat set the paint with the iron and

waahh  laaahh... Wolf Ruffles!

My precious friend has yet to see her shirt.

I need your opinion before I give it to her....

Do you think she will like it???

Oh me oh my, I hope she does like it!

blessings to you from the barbwired bunch!!

amber

Partying on @

http://www.yesterdayontuesday.com/

Because I Said So

"Because I said so."  That is one phrase I used to promise myself I would never use when I had kids of my own.  I am not quite sure I could count the times I have exacted the phrase on my poor children.  Oh there are plenty of other things I am sure I vowed never to do as my Mother was saying them to me.  Some I haven't done, most I have repeated.  I am so very certain that my own children have sworn to never reiterate some of my 'momisms'.   If you have or had a great Mom be so thankful.  I had a Mom to emulate, naturally I was not aware of that until I had my own babies.  I recall as the birth of my first approached,  the dawning of the depth of love my Mom must have had for me became so clear.  I even wrote her a letter, thanking her and apologizing for all the times I did not appreciate her. 

So as Mom's Day creeps up on us so close to Easter, let's look at different gifts to give Mom on her special day!  One thing I have on my idea list, is a brunch for Mom.  We have to set a pretty table for this right?  So I created place mats and napkin rings.

I started with these place mats from the Dollar Tree.

I applied a light coat of matte white spray paint.

I then used my Cricut to cut out various shapes.

I applied them to the place mats.

I have chosen the colors yellow and white for the table scape.

So I painted the mats yellow now.

This is not a good pic of the yellow color, it is much more

muted than it appears here.

Next I used the sander an roughed up the

place mats some.

I then used some white dotted material to

edge the pink.  Pink was not part of the plan, ya know?

I used Heat and Bond to apply this to the mats. 

Here you can see the sanding effect and a better look

at the actual yellow color. 

Next I cut strips of plain white material and ruffled them on

the sewing machine.  Next, I used hot glue to adhere the

ruffle on to the white dotted border.

This finished the place mats but we have to have coordinating

napkin rings, don't we?

For the actual ring, I just cut a two inch ring from a

paper towel roll and covered it with white contact paper.

I then found some pretty lace in my stash and wrapped it on the rings.

Then I used the fabric I had decided upon and made some

fabric flowers to top the rings.  I also glued a small golden

bling in the middle of the flower. 

I am thinking that after the brunch, I can bundle these up

for Mom to take home with her. 

Do you think she will like them?

Stay tuned for the table cloth, napkins and runner. 

The table would not be complete unless it was all

matchy, matchy right???

barbwired blessings!

Amber

Partying at:

http://mygirlishwhims.blogspot.com/

http://www.houseofhepworths.com/

http://alliemakes.blogspot.com/

http://paisleypassions.blogspot.com/

http://www.momnivores-dilemma.com/
http://733blog.blogspot.com/

http://somedaycrafts.blogspot.com/

http://www.creationsbykara.com/

http://firefliesandjellybeans.blogspot.com/

http://nightowlcrafting.blogspot.com/

http://www.ellebelleblog.blogspot.com/

http://nightowlcrafting.blogspot.com/

http://www.bluecricketdesign.net/

Water, Water, Everywhere

Whew, Hello barbwired besties!  We are so very covered with rain here in SE Oklahoma!  We just went through another tornado watch with more on the way.  We have been blessed however, many in our area have lost homes and lives.  We pray for those struggling and the safety of everyone under a watch or warning. 


Sunday we celebrated Easter.  I hope everyone had a fantastic Easter!  We had a very calm, quiet, family oriented Easter.  We awoke to the visit from the Bunny.  The barbwired kiddos seemed please with the loot.  Then on to services, to thank our Lord for his many sacrifices for us and continued blessings on us.  After church, we went to eat with the barbwired grandparents.


As is tradition for us, I made the barbwired beauty a dress.  I can recall so many beautiful dress my Mom made for me each Easter.  One in particular was my favorite, a white shift with a rainbow of flowers all down the front.  Mom had spent so many late nights, embroidering the flowers and vines from neck to hem.  It was gorgeous!  After Easter, she washed it and all of the flowers faded on to the white dress, phooey! The dress was ruined. 


Anyway, we have continued the tradition, even after disaster, LOL!  Here is the latest in the long line of dresses. 

My Mom was gracious and allowed us to shoot pictures in her garden. 

She definitely has the green thumb in the family.  

To start the dress process, the barbwired beauty

and I went to Hancock's with our 40% coupon in hand. 

She decided on this pattern:

Just in case you can not make it out it is a Simplicity pattern no: 2362. 

The barbwired beauty is smaller than a size 6,

but that is as small as the patterns go,

so I knew we would have some altering to do. 

Once I opened the pattern and we began cutting out the pieces,

 I noticed that we did not have all of the instructions. 

If this ever happens to you, you can go on the Simplicity website,

email customer service and they will email the rest of the instructions.

They were sweet and helpful. 

This was not one of their 'easy' patterns, but it was not difficult.

From the cutting to the final fitting was about 4 hours. 

Here is the side of the dress...

and the back of the dress...

I was thankful the barbwired beauty liked it.

The tradition continues!

Now we are looking at patterns for dresses to wear at church camp. 

We need to plan ahead more, this dress was completed the

night before Easter! LOL   However, it DID get done! 

She looked pretty didn't she?

Well she always does!! 

barbwired blessings to you all!!!

Amber



Loving to link up @

http://thecreativeitchboutique.blogspot.com/

http://www.sugarbeecrafts.com/

http://www.sillylittlesparrow.com/

http://www.tipjunkie.com/

http://www.rookno17.com/

http://www.notjustahousewife.net/

http://ladybug-blessings.com/

http://bellabeforeandafter.blogspot.com/p/amaze-me-august.html

http://www.sofreemecrafts.blogspot.com/

http://adiamondinthestuff.blogspot.com/

http://vintagewannabee.blogspot.com/

http://funkypolkadotgiraffe.blogspot.com//

http://www.bluecricketdesign.net/
 http://www.elements-interiors.net/
http://www.thetraintocrazy.com/

http://mygirlishwhims.blogspot.com/

http://www.houseofhepworths.com/

http://alliemakes.blogspot.com/

http://paisleypassions.blogspot.com/

http://www.momnivores-dilemma.com/
http://733blog.blogspot.com/

http://somedaycrafts.blogspot.com/

http://www.creationsbykara.com/

http://firefliesandjellybeans.blogspot.com/

http://nightowlcrafting.blogspot.com/

http://www.ellebelleblog.blogspot.com/

http://nightowlcrafting.blogspot.com/

Rachel Annie Photography: To Write Love.

I would love it if you would take a second and look at this blog post by the barbwired beauty herself, my daughter...Rachel Annie Photography: To Write Love.: "Hello there! I'd like to show you all a website that deserves an audience. Maybe you've heard of it, maybe not. Maybe it means something ..."

Egg Cups

It is always so fun to decorate eggs with the kids.  I remember being so excited after my daughter was born, to be able to look forward to decorating eggs with her.  Her very first Easter was so fun.  She was born in May, so she was almost a year old for her first Easter.   We hid eggs for her in plain sight on the ground.  She wondered the yard confused as to what she needed to do and tripped over eggs along the way! LOL  Even though she is 16 now, we look forward to decorating eggs each year. 

Well, since we spend so much time on those beautiful eggs, we need pretty displays for them.  This year I decided to make flower egg cups from polymer clay.

To begin our project, I conditioned polymer clay in all the colors I wanted. 

I used my pasta machine and rolled the clay to a thin sheet. 

I have a leaf clay cutter and a small circle cutter,

I used these to cut 8 petals and two centers per egg cup. 

At the base of each petal,

I cut a small slit and then over lapped these. 

I began assembling the cups with

a base of four and then four in between those. 

Once the flowers were assembled,

I place a center in the interior and base of the flower. 

 I did this to cover all the connections but also to provide a flat base.

I rolled a thin snake of the green,

wrapped it around the flowers and made a little bow.  

Just prior to baking, I make the petals droop over a bit. 

I then simply baked and they were ready to go!

We haven't yet dyed our eggs.

I used Pier 1 eggs to show you how they will look. 

Pretty stinking cute huh?

Even if we decorate some less than attractive eggs, these cups will pretty them up!

I hope everyone has a good week preparing for your Easter fun!  Let's all remember what Easter is really about.

barbwired blessings to you all!

amber



Linky loving @

http://www.skiptomylou.org/

http://www.betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/

http://makingtheworldcuter.blogspot.com/

http://sumossweetstuff.blogspot.com/

http://madincrafts.blogspot.com/

http://www.craftskeepmesane.blogspot.com/

http://www.thegirlcreative.com/

http://craftomaniac.blogspot.com/

http://singingthreelittlebirds.blogspot.com/

http://embellishinglifeeveryday.blogspot.com/

http://www.creatingreallyawesomefreethings.com/

Childhood Wishes

When I was small, I was allowed to spend the night with a friend one Saturday night, the next morning was Easter.  We awoke the next morning and the Easter Bunny had arrived.  The Mom of the family had attempted to raid the other baskets and scrap me together a sweet little basket.  Even though I was not very old, I appreciated the effort.  However, I couldn't help but be a little jealous of a precious egg nestled among the children's baskets.  It seemed to shimmer as the light touched upon it that Easter morning.  When you looked closer there was a small scene inside.  I had never before seen a sugar egg and I was mesmerized.  I even had the nerve to be horrified when the youngest family member bit right into his egg.  Well, how could he destroy such a treasure??  LOL.  I thought they were the most beautiful things I had ever seen.  I returned home that afternoon and explained the lovely item to my Mother, who quickly asked, "Why on earth would you want that much sugar?" 


Needless to say, I never had a sugar egg in my Easter basket.  Not one to ever give up...I decided to create my own version.  Mom was right, I did not need, do not need that much sugar.  So I have created a faux sugar egg.

No calories or dental visits need bother you on this beauty.

To begin I bought a paper mache egg from Hobby Lobby.

I cut a hole in it, leaving the opening for the future scene.

I then painted the egg with acrylic paints. 

I then painted our little egg with white glue

and sprinkled clear glitter on her as a nod to the sugar.

I then took some joint compound,

added my choice of acrylic paint to color it.

I placed it in a Wilton's bag with a tip

and began to decorate the glittered egg.

I then hot glued some green excelsior in the bottom of the egg.

I looked to the Graphic Fairy again for inspiration for the inside scene.

I found this cute picture that I thought would look

precious inside my faux sugar egg.

I had originally thought I would just cut this out and place

it inside the egg.  It looked a bit flat.  So I decided that

I would just recreate the pic. 

I found similar flowers and hot glued them inside.

I then hollowed out a small styrofoam egg,

painted it and hot glued it inside.

I could never find a chick that I liked. 

So I created one from polymer clay.

After baking, the chick was ready for the egg.

I simply hot glued the little guy in the scene.

The faux sugar egg was done.

Nope, it doesn't taste as good as I am sure a real

sugar egg would taste, but I think it is just as pretty!

You should really try to make one for yourself.  It was

super easy and it fulfilled a childhood wish for me.  :)

I hope your Sunday has been blessed!  Let's make this week a great one, getting ready for all the fun and beauty of Easter.  Take some time to thank God for His blessings!

barbwired blessings to all of you!

Amber



Linking up to:

http://www.iheartnaptime.net/
http://tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com/
http://www.bystephanielynn.com/

http://heathernow.blogspot.com/

http://alliemakes.blogspot.com/
http://funkyjunkinteriors.blogspot.com/

http://www.iamalongfortheride.blogspot.com/

http://blog.kuzakscloset.com/

http://youngancrafty.blogspot.com/

http://lambaround.blogspot.com/

http://childmade.com/

http://thetatteredtag.blogspot.com/
 http://www.skiptomylou.org/

http://www.betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/

http://makingtheworldcuter.blogspot.com/

http://sumossweetstuff.blogspot.com/

http://madincrafts.blogspot.com/

http://www.craftskeepmesane.blogspot.com/

http://www.thegirlcreative.com/

http://craftomaniac.blogspot.com/

http://singingthreelittlebirds.blogspot.com/

http://embellishinglifeeveryday.blogspot.com/

http://www.creatingreallyawesomefreethings.com/