tutorials

12 Days of Handmade Christmas Preview|Rosette Tutorial

October 30, 2010 by Edie Wadsworth 21 Comments

It’s almost that time!

I can hardly wait til Monday. We’ve had a few glitches but I don’t function well unless there’s a healthy amount of controlled chaos.

Thank you for your prayers. We’re enjoying time with our family after the passing of Steve’s 95 year old grandpa—who lived a long, wonderful life and died with faith in Christ as his Savior.

This ‘preview’ tutorial is brought to you by Emme, our energetic and crafty ten year old. She’s our official rosette maker and loved making this tutorial for you.

I helped a little but I’m thinking pretty soon those little girls will be able to run this blog for me.

Maybe that’s how Pioneer Woman does those 12 posts a day!

Materials:

long strips of 1 inch fabric (it doesn’t really matter how long they are because the longer they are, the larger the rosettes)

hot glue gun

willing and able 8 and 10 year olds

We lucked up and found huge bolts of premade bias tape at our fabric store. I think this store custom-makes their won bias tape to use on quilts.

Just keep wrapping and wrapping until it’s the size you like. You can turn the fabric with every 1/2 twist around the rosette or fold it in 1/2 as you twist it. Folding it in 1/2 (which is how emme makes them) results in thin rosettes.

I turn the fabric first one way and then the other as I twist, which makes them ‘poof-ier’ and less perfect (which is what I like).

(i just realized I don’t have the last 2-3 pics with me at present so I’ll just explain it and upload them later—and we made a very long video but i don’t have it with me either 🙁 i’ll have to upload it later this week)

Then cut our felt circles that are slightly smaller than your rosettes and glue them to the back of the rosette.

Add a pin or a hairclip with a dab of hot glue and you’re done!

or you could make a smiley face pumpkin

P.S. You could be fussy and take the time to remove all the glue that shows through. Or you could be fussy and glue mostly to one side so that it doesn’t show through. But we’re not fussy crafters. We’re a little chic and a whole lot of shabby.

12 Days Handmade Christmas Giveaway

October 20, 2010 by Edie Wadsworth 66 Comments

My favorite project from last years’ 12 Days was Darby’s dishmat.
I’ve made one or twelve.

And despite the fact that my sewing machine is currently demon-possessed, I made one for you today.

All you have to do to be in the running to win it is help me spread the word about the upcoming 12 Days of Handmade Christmas Tutorials.

Just post the large button into a blog post….
or post the small button somewhere on your blog
and you may then leave a comment on this post telling me that you obeyed the instructions like a good little girl and I will enter you into the giveaway for the dishmat.

Handmade for you with love (and occasional curses).

Here’s the large button.

Here’s the code for large one (400×369)

And the wee one.

here’s the code for the small one (240×221)

Oh and if you don’t have a blog, just friend me on Facebook and post a link to this post there. Then you can enter the giveaway too.

Speaking of Facebook, I decided to start a Facebook Fan Page. It seemed like a fun thing to try. An easier place to chat it up. And a place to put all the things that don’t make it onto this here blog like links and recipes and cute boots and such. So check it out, become a friend or ‘fan’ as they call it. And let’s chat it up.

FYI, if my sewing machine gets ill right before the 12 Days, I will NOT be a happy crafter.

One more thing!

My friend Julie is giving away a free custom canvas to everyone who sends her a pic by tonight. Hurry!

Thanksgiving Tabletop Tips

November 24, 2009 by Edie Wadsworth 31 Comments

Every year I swoon at the Pottery Barn catalogue and their many varied and luscious Thanksgiving tabletops. Have you ever calculated how much money it would cost to do a table exactly like theirs? A lot of money. An obscene amount of money. So, every year I set out to make my tables comfortable, fresh, and inviting. I took Darby’s tutorial on making Christmas stickers and made Thanksgiving ‘cards’ that I tied to pumpkins.

Then, I printed out the names of my guests {in elephant font at 36pt}, taped them to these cute Martha Stewart tags—that I found in the scrapbook section of Walmart—and tied them with twine to the pumpkins stalks.

Then, I took all my mismatched gold goblets and white dishes and set my table.

I lined the center of the table with 10 votive candles {I bought the votive holders on clearance at Pier One for $1 and then put ’ember’ votive candles in the holders–also from Pier One. ‘Ember’ is a most wonderful combination of orange, cinnamon, and cloves.

I used different colors and words at everyones’ place setting and you can download the words in sets of two in the form of pdf files. For the words joyful and thankful, click here. For the words lovely and wishful click here. For the words merry and cheer, click here. For the words grateful and cherish, click here.

Voila! A fresh Thanksgiving table for under $30 (unless you count the printer ink)!

And because I don’t know when to stop with a good thing, I printed my Thanksgiving menu and my current ‘to-do’ in the same way. I’m pretty certain that I’m more motivated to finish my ‘to-do’ list when it looks like this.

Then, I officially declared this ‘Home-Economics’ week at Logos School and rallied the troops to help me

1)Bake the sweet potatoes {I’ll add the brown sugar, cream, and butter and then bake them again before Thursday}

2) Peel the russet potatoes—all ten pounds of them—-for the chive mashed potatoes. We’ll doctor these up later too but at least the peeling and cooking are done!

3) Bake faux-made bread. I use this Rhodes brand all the time when I need homeade bread in a pinch. You just spray a muffin tin with Pam and put two of these frozen dough balls in each tin. Let them rise for 5-6 hours and then bake them. I’ll be making my standard Parker House Rolls for Thursday too but this way, we’ll have plenty for my family to take home with their leftovers.

And then we sat down and spent a couple hours reading about the Pilgrims and their amazing journey across the Atlantic—and how they landed in a foreign country—tired, sick, hungry with no ready available food or shelter.

We are so blessed. With so many brave people for whom to be thankful.

Check over at Kimba’s DIY day for more creative solutions that are easy to do yourself.

12 Days of Handmade Christmas Tutorials Day 12 {Christmas Tags}

November 12, 2009 by Edie Wadsworth 149 Comments

Whew!!! I don’t know about you but I’m kinda sad it’s day 12! I’ve had so much fun with this series and am most grateful for the wonderful contributors who have given of their time and ideas to make it all happen! Let’s recap:

On the 12th day of Christmas, my blog friend gave to me

12 Christmas tags

11 pounds of fudge

10 coffee cozies

9 Christmas pillows

8 monogrammed candles

7 skirt aprons

6 luscious tassels

5 burlap buntings

4 fabric birdies

3 tile coaster

2 ragamuffin garlands

and a dishmat made by Dar-by!

And today, Darby’s back to show us how to create beautiful sticker tags from Microsoft Word so that our packages will be just perfect! I first saw this on her blog a couple months ago and made it right away. Her directions are flawless and even my sometimes technically-challenged self could follow right along. You must give it a try!

The following is a pic-tutorial of how to create your own labels in Microsoft Word.
A few words to the wise:
1. Print on plain paper first
2. Use solid sheets of “label paper” {so they will be stickers–that you can cut out in your desired shape}. Be sure you get ink jet paper for an ink jet printer or laser paper for a laser printer.
3. Make your margins smaller so you can squeeze more on a page

Start by inserting a shape/object onto your document and then size it according to your preference.

And just to prove to you that you can do it, look what I made yesterday! Thanks so much Darby for your endless inspiration!

Note: For all you who are considering bifocals {like me} here’s the link to the post on Darby’s blog. You can click on her pictures to enlarge them! You’re welcome.

Enter a comment on this post to win this beautiful hand-hammered brass necklace with a daily reminder to live life in grace, made exclusively for us by Susan from SusanEllenDesigns. She has just opened her Etsy shop so if you aren’t making any handmade gifts yourself, you can buy some of her wonderful creations, while helping to support the cause for mom artists. She also happens to be wonderful language teacher and is currently teaching my girls Spanish and Latin. You should hear them conjugate!

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12 Days of Handmade Christmas Tutorials Day 11 {Fudge, Peppernuts, and Baskets}

November 11, 2009 by Edie Wadsworth 30 Comments

The 12 Days of Handmade Christmas ends tomorrow with another great tutorial and a giveaway, so hang in there one more day! I’m excited about todays’ goodies but make sure to visit the other 10 days beginning here. Hasn’t this been fun? I’m so thankful that you’ve joined us and for your kind and often helpful comments! Today, we’re doing some food gifts and then giving you some inspiration for making your own baskets in which to put them! Welcome Richella and Nancy!

Hello to all fellow fans of Life in Grace! I’m Richella from Imparting Grace, and I’m so glad to be part of Edie’s 12 Days of Handmade Christmas! Wife to my college sweetheart and mother to three wonderful boys, I’m a woman who is blessed beyond measure. I am passionate about making a home for my family and living a life with God, learning to receive and impart grace as I go.

I’m excited today to be able to share with you one of my favorite Christmas projects. Each year, I like to give a little something to many people: neighbors, teachers, service providers. That list can grow long, but it’s important to me to be able to share a bit of the joy of the season in some small way. Like many of you, I bake cakes, make cookies, and roast nuts. But one thing I do every year is to make fudge. Lots and lots of fudge: at least 12 pounds every year.

My fudge recipe is special, I think. My mother’s family has lived in Kansas for many generations, and I inherited a few old Kansas cookbooks. My fudge recipe comes from one of those cookbooks. The body of the cookbook is long since lost, so I don’t know the name of the book; all I have is one yellowed and tattered page. The name of the recipe is Mamie’s Fudge, and under the recipe name is this note: “She made this to woo Ike.” Yes, indeed, this recipe originated with Mamie Eisenhower. President Eisenhower was from Abilene, Kansas, and Kansans proudly claim this family as their own. Just imagine sweet young Mamie Doud making this fudge for the handsome young lieutenant.

::Mamie’s Fudge::

4 1/2 cups sugar

pinch of salt

2 Tablespoons butter

12 ounce can evaporated milk

12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

12 ounces German sweet chocolate, broken into pieces

2 7-ounce jars marshmallow creme

2 cups chopped nuts

Butter a pan for the fudge. A 9 x 13 pan works well for thick fudge; a small sheet pan is good for slightly thinner fudge.

Place semi-sweet chocolate, German sweet chocolate, marshmallow creme, and chopped nuts into bowl. Set aside.

Combine sugar, salt, butter, and milk in heavy saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil. Boil, continuing to stir, for six minutes. Remove from heat and pour immediately over chocolate mixture; stir until all the chocolate bits are dissolved.

The mixture will look pretty goopy for a moment, but you’ll soon be rewarded with the delectable aroma of those chocolates and the look of smooth, satiny fudge.

Pour into buttered pan. Let stand one hour before cutting.

The fudge costs me about $13 per batch, which seems like a lot, but it makes more than six pounds. Mamie’s original recipe actually says that it makes seven pounds. Six or seven, the per-pound price is pretty low.

I keep a eye out for containers for my fudge, such as pretty gift boxes, tins, or ceramics. Just last week I found this cute mitten plate at my thrift store for $1.

My favorite presentation of all is simply to put some fudge on a plate, cover it in plastic wrap, tie a bow with some pretty ribbon, and attach an ornament.

::Peppernuts::

This yummy little treat is of German origin and they are so wonderfully addictive! This makes a huge batch but they ‘keep’ forever—like months! Steve’s mom made these with the girls when she was here and then we made them again on Reformation Day.

2 1/2 c. butter (marg or shortening also work)
1 1/2 c. molasses
2 c. sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. milk
1/2 t. nutmeg
1/2 t. black pepper
2 t. baking powder
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. cloves
1 t. allspice
1 t. salt
9 c. all purpose flour
1 qt ground walnuts

The dough should be stiff but not overly dry so add the last 1/2 c. of flour slowly to make sure the dough isn’t too dry.

Roll the dough into thin ropes, using a little flour to keep them from sticking to your surface. {the ropes should be about the size of your first finger—unless you have unusually large fingers} Apparently little Elea is unsure of this process—but I can tell you from experience that she loves these little cookies.

Then freeze the ‘ropes’ so that they cut easily. It takes less than an hour for them to harden.

We took one tray out of the freezer at a time and cooked those—then proceeded to the next tray.

Then slice them into little coin size pieces and bake at 350 until they no longer ‘give’ when you press them (in my oven–about 12-15 min). The longer you cook them, the crunchier they’ll be and my family likes them crunchy. I prefer them on the less crunchy side but you’ll have to experiment.

Then, wrap them up neat and pretty and Merry Christmas! Or Happy Reformation Day!

And Nancy from Basketmaster’s Weavings has a great tutorial on her blog for how to make a Christmas basket, along with many YouTube tutorials on the different steps of weaving. She lists directions for where to buy the stakes and what kind you’ll need. This would be so much fun to learn how to do with my girls—-and we love a good YouTube video. That cute little basket would be a great handmade gift all by itelf—or you could fill it with fudge and peppernuts.

12 Days of Handmade Christmas Tutorials Day 10 {Coffee Cozy}

November 10, 2009 by Edie Wadsworth 24 Comments

I regret to inform you that the person scheduled for Day 10 could not make it due to unforeseen family circumstances. Guess you’re stuck with me today. But don’t forget to visit the first 9 days, starting here. Love my new sign? I think Todd Wilken may need it for the studio.

Even before I purchased my espresso machine, I had an impasssioned love affair with coffee. There are currently no words to describe how this torrid love affair has evolved. So, naturally when I saw this coffee cozy tutorial, I was compelled to try it. Kinda like making a quilt for someone you love. And well, I had to show off my new embroidery/sewing machine—-which is NOT a piece of cake to figure out.

Gather your supplies:

1 coffee mug cozy template {I used Starbucks}–make sure to use the kind that overlap

2 pieces of fabric ~ 5 x 12 inches

Insul-Bright or batting {I used warm and natural quilt batting}

1.75 inches of 3/4 inch velcro

I followed the tutorial pretty closely but found out too late that not all coffee mugs are made alike—so make sure that the template you use {I used a Starbucks coffee cozy} fits your mug–making sure to allow for the seams. For my travel mug, I should have made mine 1 1/4 inches longer than this Starbucks template. Just put your template around your mug and make sure it fits and if not, adjust—making sure to make allowances for both end seams.

Trace the template onto the wrong side of the fabric {right sides of fabric together} allowing for the seams. {I left about 1/4 inch for the seams on all sides—and as you’ll see later, I should have lengthened my cozy by 1 1/4 inch—-so make sure it’s long enough by wrapping the template around your mug}

Cut a piece of batting the same size as well.

Now, sew the velcro onto the fabric. To figure out where to put the velcro, it’s best the pick the fabric up {pretending like its’ sewn together} and wrap it around a mug so that you can see where the velcro needs to be. It’s easy to see if you lay the Starbucks template out and see where the adhesive has been. I read the directions here {which are good} but I’m a visual learner—so I just had to pretend like the cozy was sewn together and then wrap it around the mug. It’s easy then to see where the velcro must go—then sew it onto the right side of the fabric about 1/4 inch from the seam. Sew the other velcro piece onto the bottom fabric in a similar fashion.

With right sides of the fabric together and the batting on the bottom, sew all three pieces together using a 1/4 inch seam allowance—leaving a 2 -3 inch opening at the bottom center—so you can turn it to the right side. After turning it to the right side, fold in the raw edges and then topstitch at 1/8th of an inch all the way around to give it a nice finish and closure.

And after all that, here’s what happened to me! So beware: make sure the Starbucks template fits your mug and if not—adjust.

So what do you do with your cute little cozy if it doesn’t fit your coffee mug?

I guess you’ll have to decide for yourself.

Note to the domestically challenged: I’m no seamstress and definitely not gifted in writing tutorials so I highly suggest you check out the one I followed, making adjustments for the size of your mug. I also took these pics before I topstitched my cozy. I’m overanxious like that.