Ashley - DIY Santa Bag

So with this Christmas party for my husband's battery is tomorrow, and no matter where my poor friend searched she could not find a bag for Santa to use at the party so I got on my ipad, looked on pinterest and found a blog where a woman did this really adoarble Santa bag. Here is her site and full tutorial so you can make your own. http://www.crafterhoursblog.com/2011/11/make-santa-bag-tutorial.html

 

I put my husband's unit flash and crest on it to put a little extra special somethign to it and there you have it! Tomorrow I will take better pictures I promise but for now this mama is hitting the hay :) Enjoy!

Ashley - Mini Stockings tutorial

Ok I am back on the straight and narrow writing posts for all you lovely people out there :) This last week I had a meeting with some of the other wives and my husbands command to start planning their annual christmas party. I was asked to make little miniature stockings for all the children attending. The original number was 35 so I made a few extras and I started out making my 44 stockings, but then there was a phone call and I was asked to make a few more lol so I ended up making 51 total. So if your wondering why it looks like there are more finished ones then what we started with that's why.

What you will need:

1yd of red felt
1/2yd of white felt
I ended up using 4 spools of the striped ribbon (3m spools)
And I only went through 1 spool of the red ribbon I used for the hangers.
Thread
Scissors
Felt tipped pen

 

So the first thing I did was I made a pattern out of a piece of cardboard. I made a 6in x 4in rectangle and then cut the shape from that to makesure I didn't make the stockings too big. Look for an update and I will scan in the pattern I used and you can always jsut use that if you don't feel like you can good a good shape on your own.

 

After I had my pattern I grabbed my yard stick and my red felt. I folded felt in half width wise (72in wide piece of felt) and then trimmed the edge so that I could have a nice straight line to start using my pattern on. Then I took my yard stick and my felt tipped pen and started drawing lines on my felt the height of my stockings. When that was taken care I place my pattern down on the felt and started tracing out my stockings.

 

 

 

 

 

Now the easiest way I found to cut all those out was with scissors. I have not yet completely mastered the art of the rotary cutter lol so it may be eaiser for you that way but with the tight spaces I preferred the scirssors. Once you have thsoe all cut out I laid my white felt out and 1 1/2in by width of the stocking to add the white up top.

 

 





Now it's time to bust out the sewing machine. I started with a normal running stitch but I notice in my test stocking that it made it really bulky right there and the stocking didn't look right and I hated it so my solution to that was I used a zigzag stitch to connect the red and whiteand that got out of that problem made the stockings sit so nicely. I had the tension on my machine at 4 just as an FYI and it shouldn't take you too long :).

 Your next step will be to add the ribbon to hide your seam. I turned the machine's tension down to 2 so the ribbon would sit nicely for me and I used a normal old running stitch and I just lined the needle up in the middle of the foot like so. I sewed along both edges of the ribbon to make it look nice and finished.

 

This was the part that took me the longest....

 

 

 

But as you can tell it really adds a nice touch to the stockings :)

 

 

 

 

The final step is to sew it all together! I used a serger type stitch it was number 6 on my machine.

 

 







Take it slow if it's your first time using this stitch and if you aren't comfy using this stitch you can always go back to the zig zag it will do about the same thing I just like the finished look of the stitch I used. Make sure you turn your tesnion back up to 4, and get to work :) I added my little ribbon for the hanger into the final seam so be sure to remember that as well so you dont have to run another seam.

 

Now just turn them right side in ( remember felt does stretch easily so don't yank on it too much or it may sit a little funny ) and your all done!!!

 

 

 

 

My stockings are all ready for the kiddos at the Christmas party :) Happy Holidays everyone and enjoy! 



Ashley - Minnie Mouse Christmas Ornaments :)

I know that I have been gone forever and Alisha and I apologize, life has been hectic. But enough about me I want to show you something sweet.

 

 I made these darling little ornaments from these awesome cookie cutters I found on Ebay. They have this cool little stamp that stamps the faces on there :) So I found a really awesome clay ornament recipe and got to work.

When I did this recipe I used wheat flour so that the color of the Minnie faces would be the right color so I wouldn't have to paint that flesh color on the faces. So I made my dough and rolled it out and got to cutting. Then I stamped them and I decided that I was going to put them in the oven to dry them out.

 

I left mine in a little longer then a 1/2 hour like the blog said because some were a little thicker then others. But while these were baking I set out work station and got ready to paint these puppies. Once they were out of the oven I got the acryllic paint out and my brushes and started the process of getting them all painted.

 

 

 



It may take you a little while. I had alittle help from my loving man :) (I have such a good man) and we made short work of the painting.

Next I took out my gloss and sprayed them out back on the back deck and let them dry.

Then to add my own little personal touch I glued a little rhinestone into the center of the flower on Minnie's hat. Girls have to have their little bit of glitz ;) And the final step after that is put the ribbon on there and I was all done!

I have more to put on my tree but here it is so far!

I love how it's looking!!!! And I love these little ornaments!

Now get to work ladies! Have fun and enjoy!!! :)