Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Art Supply Carrier (Christmas 2011)


I’m a little late posting this, but…..For Christmas I made art supply carriers for my younger sisters. They all really like to draw and like to take their art supplies everywhere they go. So I thought it would be neat for them to have an organized way to travel with their pencils and papers.
Supplies I used:
½ yard of cotton fabric for the cover and pocket
½ yard of a contrasting cotton fabric for the lining
Matching thread
½ yard interfacing
2 pieces of ribbon (12 in long) for the ties

First I made myself a pattern, using some measurements I had taken of a drawing board I wanted to be able to fit in the carrier. Pattern making 101, make sure you leave room for seam allowance and space (if necessary for what you're making) for your project to lay right. For instance, I needed room for the carrier to fold over. One more note on pattern making, make sure you cut square! I didn’t and my whole project ended out crooked.

Next I cut out my fabrics and interfacing.
While I was cutting I realized that I didn’t have enough fabric to cut the pocket out in one piece. So I cut two pieces, sewed them together, pressed the seam allowance and did a teeny tiny hem on the top edge.
I attached the interfacing to the cover piece of fabric.

Then I made a “fabric sandwich”. First I laid out the inner lining piece, I placed the pocket piece on the bottom edge, and set the ribbons on, as shown in the picture below.
  
Then I set the cover piece on top.

I pinned it and sewed it with a ¼" seam allowance, leaving an opening big enough for me to stick my arm in.
I turned it in-side-out.

I top stitched the opening.

Next I marked the places for the pencils and the fold line. I marked the fold line right down the middle and I marked the pencil lines starting ¾” from the left edge and continued until there were 12 slots. There just happened to be enough space left over to keep a pair of scissors in.




I sewed down the lines I made.

And I was
finished!










Mikayla :)
  

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Butterfly Cupcakes

Hi! Mikayla here.

For her last birthday Alexa had a butterfly birthday party, and I volunteered to do the cupcakes.


This being my first cupcake decorating experience, I looked on online for some ideas and found one here I thought was really cute. My dad, sisters and I went to the store to get the supplies I needed, but I couldn’t find the type of candies that w
ere suggested in the directions. I had to get a little creative (Like I am all the rest of the time!)

I made the frosting from scratch (for the recipe click here), something I had never attempted to do before, and it actually worked and tasted like frosting (YAY)!

I frosted the cupcakes.



For the decorating
I cut the different candies to the size I wanted them to be. And l arranged them on the cupcakes so it looked like butterfly. And, drum roll please……..



TADA!

Candies I used:
Orange segment candies cut in half (length wise) - wings
Gummy worms – body
Shoestring licorice – antenna.




I’m very pleased with the way they turned out! But I look forward to seeing how much better my next cupcakes will look!