Another Mario Pattern

Well I finished another mario pattern. I love the little mario mushrooms so it was only fitting to remake this and do my own pattern for it. This little mushroom was very easy to make. My family has asked me to continue and make the rest of the mario characters for them. So in between all my other projects I will sneak in some time to work on the rest of the characters.

 My mom fell in love with this little guy and has asked me to make her one so that she can travel with it on her vacations and she is going to take pictures of the mini mushroom on her ventures. I will share her photos from her traveling mini mushroom adventures as they go. I think its a nifty little idea that I might just have to do with my lil guy on our adventures.

Well anyway the pattern for this guy will go into testing this week and as soon as I get it back the pattern will be available in my ETSY Shop. If you are a follower and saw the bomb-omb post last week. That guy is supposed to be out of testing this week and the pattern will be posted in my shop following a good review from the testers.

On another note I am looking for more crochet testers for patterns that I will have coming up if you are interested please email me or contact me on my Facebook page for more information.



Happy Crafting!!

Sewing a crochet hook holder

 Sewing a crochet hook holder....

So recently I have been trying out making some smaller items with the sewing machine. I decided that I needed a holder for all my crochet hooks. I started looking through my small little stash of fabric and realized I just loved this black and white butterfly print.

 I played around with a few test pieces until I figured out how I wanted to design it. I made a couple as gifts for a few of my crochet friends as well. This was a great way to practice my strait lines, which proved to be alot harder than anticipated.

I also attempted at using the monogramming stitching on the sewing machine. That is pretty interesting but I think there are so many more possibilities when you hand stitch the lettering onto something.

I think it would be nice to make a couple more and put them up for sale in my ETSY shop. I had another friend that said they would make a great makeup brush carrier. So that is on my next todo list. I am going to make her one since she like the idea. She is coming up for a visit with her brand new baby and I have to say I am super excited to get me some baby and much needed quality friend time in.

Anyway I also did this one in a cute lady bug fabric. I can only show you part of it as I have decided to gift this one. lol.

Happy Crafting

PS just a reminder that we will be collecting blankets untill Nov 15 for the Blanket drive for the Children at Children's Hospital for more information click on the link here. Thank you to everyone who have supported us through this.

Homemade Book Cover

Ok so I am sure we all have one a big book full of our favorite patterns, craft ideas, or just a few of your favorite things. Well I wanted to make a nice book cover for my big book of crafting ideas. This is a great project for any beginner sewer.

So the first thing I did was take my measurements of the book/binder then measured out my fabric. I measured the length and width about 1/3 inch longer on each end so that you have enough room to work with. 

After I finished sewing both the top and the bottom in length I did the same for my inside pocket cover. I had changed fabric for the inside cover. 

 After my length edges were sewn up. I attached the inside pocket cover to the outside cover on the width edges and along the length edge. to make a pocket

 I slipped it over my binder to make sure everything fit ok.

 Last but not least I added a small decoration piece on the outside to give it a little contrast.

This was a very quick and easy project.

Happy Sewing

Smalltown Mama

Remember we have a free fabric giveaway going on right now. Just click on the link found on our side panal. 

Dressing up a Container

First I would like to say how sorry I am about the lateness of my posts these past few weeks. I was sick for a while there and then the hubby surprised me with a mini vaca to just get away for a couple days and relax. Wouldn't you know I left my laptop on the counter when we left and didn't realize it till 200 miles later. So I will be posting my projects the remainder of the week. I hope you enjoy.

My first project I dressed up a nestle quick container that stores my pens. This is a very fast and easy no sew project. I love containers, and I have containers to hold just about everything. Just recently I have started dressing up my containers so that they have a little more style.

I am also a big fan of pens and markers and have just about every color of sharpie and gel pen. Anyway so what I did for my pen container was take some plain white fabric, some brown ribbon, and some teal glitter. Ohh and some glue!

First I layed a line of glue down and placed the fabric right over the line.


Each time I rounded a side on the short sides I would lay a line of glue down to secure the fabric to the container

 Then I wrapped the fabric around the container enough times so that you don't see any writing. If you are using a clear container you won't need as much fabric.

After I layed my fabric down then I glued down the brown ribbon.












Next I glued the rim of the container then layed some glitter over it to just give it a little bling..

Last I labeled the container. I will eventually add some extra details as I come across them.

What do you do with your empty containers?

Happy Crafting!

P.S.  REMEMBER we have a Giveaway going on right now for a free fabric charm pack. Make sure you click on the link below to get the details on how to enter.

Fabric Week

I know that I am about a week late on posting fabric week and to our fans I am so sorry. Both PhotoJewels's house and my own have been dealing with some nasty cold and flu viruses. So Now that we are cleared up for the most part I know have some extra time to get things back in order.

So now on to the important things.........

FABRIC WEEK!!!

This one is my favorite. So their for I will be personally sponsoring this one. This week we will be giving away some of my favorite fabrics in a charm pack. I love quilting and its always good to have an extra stash here and there.

I can't wait to show you some of the neat projects I have in store for you this week.

Here are the details on how to enter

1. Follow us on our blog page and then leave a comment below that you are now following us or that you already are a follower of Smalltown Dreamz.

2. Tell us what is your favorite fabric craft is. It doesn't always have to be sewing or quilting.  

****Bonus Entry**** As we have recently found out is not allowed to make LIKING our Facebook page a requirement we do feel it would benefit you to do so. This way you can get exclusive updates and join in our private games and giveaways that we do on Facebook. 

If you do become a Facebook Follower comeback and leave us a comment that you are now one of our friends and this will get you a bonus entry into the giveaway. 


The winner will be chosen by our Mr. Random and we will announce the winner Saturday Afternoon 3/31/12.
 I look forward to another great week. 






          P.S. Happy St. Patties Day

Yarn Dream Catcher

Its yarn week!!! And my favorite week since crochet is my favorite craft-type hobby!! Crochet is my way to relax! Almost every night before bed, I work on at least two rows of whatever project I'm working on. If your like me and LOVE to work with yarn, please check out the post below or click here to find out how to win a great yarn-related mystery package!

Unfortunately, since I LOVE to crochet, I don't do much with yarn besides crocheting. I did a search to find more yarn projects and came across a great site and found one that I thought adults and kids alike would like to do!

Its a Yarn Dream Catcher can the instructions can be found here.

Hope all of you enjoy yarn week as much as I will! And don't forget to check out the giveaway!!!

Until next craft...

Shaving Cream Stamping!

This has to be one of my favorite techniques when stamping! When I was gathering supplies for this project though, I realized I use glossy paper a lot when stamping. If you're like me and enjoy the glossy paper, I encourage you to check out how to do 'Polished Stone.' Its another one of my favorite and somewhat similar to this one!

What you need

• Glossy paper/photo paper
• shaving cream (not the gel)
• reinkers/ink refills of 2 or more colors
• stamps
• paper towel/cotton ball/tissue
• tooth pick/popsicle stick/flat knife

1. First, find something disposable to work with. It makes clean up a lot easier. I used a plain sheet of printer paper. Put a generous amount of shaving cream on your surface and spread somewhat flat.
2. Put a variety of drops on top of the spread shaving cream. You will find different amounts will give different results. 

     3.  Take your toothpick/popsicle stick/flat knife and spread the drops in various ways. There are so          many possibilities with this, and no two will be the same..

     4. Place your glossy paper (glossy side down) over your shaving cream and press down slightly.
     5. Remove the glossy paper. There will be shaving cream on your paper. Slowly wipe away shaving cream.

     6. When you are done, your paper should look like some variation of the picture below.

You can either leave it as is, use it as a background or stamp over it like I did in the picture to the left.

Hope you find yourself playing with shaving cream when stamping!



 Until next craft....

Local Shout-Out!!

In light of Stamp Week I was tooling around on Facebook and came across a great Facebook Shop Page for Homemade Cards, Bookmarks and other great items. Seeing how this is about as far as I have dipped my toes into the stamping world. I was truly amazed with this young girls talent. Kayla is just starting out into the blogging world and I wanted to give her a shout out. She is one of our local crafters and I always try to give our local community some much needed love.

If you get a chance go on and check out everything that Kayla has to offer. You can find her stuff for sale on Facebook and you can get there by clicking on her logo or by clicking here. You can also check out her blog page here at http://kaylas-kreations.blogspot.com/.

 Here are some other cool items she has in her shop. You all know I have a soft spot for owls. Ha Ha!




Remember we have a Mystery Stamp Giveaway (Valued at $25.00) going on here this week. Click here or on the Giveaway Button found on the sidebar to get the details on how to enter.

As always Happy Crafting!!

Homemade Wooden Acrylic Stamp Pad

As I have said before I am new to stamping but I know that the acrylic stamps or as I call them "Clear Stamps" are fairly new to the stamping community. The stores are flooded with these more over the traditional rubber stamps. I like these because for a fairly cheap price you can get several different stamps off of one sheet.

I have to admit when I bought my first pack of clear stamps I was a little puzzled at how to stamp with all the stamps on one, however after one test run it didn't take me long to figure out that you are supposed to cut them to separate them. HA HA.

So now I have a baggie full of clear stamps. I do have a few traditional rubber stamps and after trying both I prefer the traditional wood block rubber stamp. I know they have those press blocks for the clear stamps, however I like to see things visually and somehow I feel more organized being able to lay out my stamps to see them.

So as I'm looking at a bag of my sons old wood blocks that he doesn't play with anymore it dawned on me to make my own Wood Stamps.

This is actually very easy.

The first thing you want to do is take your clear stamp and fit it to the size block . this is very important so that your stamp is not larger then your wood block. However it can be the other way around. Your wood block most likely will be larger than your stamp.

Second you take your wood block and trace an outline of the block onto Card stock with a thin pen.











Next you will want to glue your card stock on to your wood block.

Then take the stamp that you are going to glue on to the wood block and stamp the piece of Card stock.
 This way you will know what block is what.

Then wipe off the ink off your stamp to try and keep your hands and area clean.

Then take your glue and cover the flat side of your stamp and adhere it to the wood block.

Set a side to dry.

That's it!! You  can color them in to make them stick out a little more. But really its very easy to make these wooden homemade stamps.










Make sure you click on our giveaway page to enter into our Stamp Week Giveaway Valued at $25.00.

Tissue Paper Your Candles

This was a similar project to what Photo Jewels had done at the beginning of the week. I enjoy doing this with plain candles because then I can personalize them to my own liking. All I did for this was take a cheap plain white candle that I picked up at Wal-Mart took some plain red tissue paper that I had left over from Christmas and used my heat gun from my old painting days.

This was actually a candle that I had done for Valentines Day but with candle week coming up I waited to post till now. So this was really easy to do and pretty quick. I cut out a couple hearts from the red tissue paper. I cut them free-handed so there would be a slight difference between the candle.

 After I cut out my hearts I took a couple drops of water and slightly dampened the back of the tissue paper so it would stick on to the candle until i could get the heat on it. After I positioned the heart on the candle I took my heat gun and on the lowest setting possible. I have a heavy duty heat gun which is a little more intense then the one i should have for this project. I learned that you should just quickly fan over over it slightly then pull away for a min so that the candle doesn't bubble up. Do this a few times until your tissue paper is fully covered by wax.

I think this makes for a great effect on decorating candles. You can use spice leaves for your kitchen candles. This is something I will do for Husband once his fresh spices grow in.

 Another thing you can do to decorate your candles if you don't plan on burning them is to use glitter. If you are like me and love alot of sparkly and things that are a little on the blingy side this is a cute idea.

Just recently I found a candle that had a really long wick on it and thought it was kinda nifty. This candle with out burning it has a strong aroma and so decided for the time being to keep it the way it is. I had found one of these bead pieces and tied it on their as to add just a touch of decoration. I think it looks nice.



 Remember tomorrow is the last day you can sign up for the Mystery Candle Giveaway. Click on the link below will take you to the giveaway page to get the details on how to enter.

candle giveaway