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

Late Night Indulgence

YUMMY!!!

I had to share!! Today my husband made these delicious red velvet cupcakes with chocolate frosting and little heart sprinkles for me and our son for Valentine’s Day. These are the most moist cupcakes I think I have ever eaten. He made these early this morning and it is now nearly 24 hours later and they are still so moist and yummy. Are you like me sneaking into the kitchen in the middle of the night looking for something to snack on. What leftover Valentine’s day treats are you eating? Well Like I said I just wanted to share because they looked so cute and they just tasted so wonderful. Just if you are wondering this was made with the Betty Crocker red velvet cake mix and chocolate frosting is also Betty Crocker and just added and extra teaspoon of oil.

Well have a good night and remember to check in this week for a major announcement. I am really excited about this and its just the begining of great things to come.

Delighted!

 
Hi everyone! I am completely delighted to have this opportunity to reach out to so many people and share crafts, as well as working with Stephanie in brainstorming and giving you great projects ideas! Because I am so delighted to be here, I thought it would be fitting to give you one of my favorite delights...
Oreo Torte Delight

1 pkg Oreos crushed (save 1 cup for topping)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
8 oz cream cheese
1 cup powder sugar
16 oz cool whip
5.9 oz box instant chocolate pudding
Make crust by mixing all but one cup crushed Oreos and 1 stick of melted butter and pressing into a 9x13 pan. Combine softened cream cheese, 8 oz cool whip, powder sugar and blend well. Smooth over crust. Make instant chocolate pudding according to directions on package. Smooth over cream cheese mixture. Take remaining 8 oz cool whip and spread over top of pudding. Garnish with crushed Oreos. Refrigerate several hours or overnight before serving.
YUMMY!! A bit messy and very sinful, next time I'll have a healthier recipe!

By the way, February is 'Bake for Family Fun Month'  and even though this recipe isn't baked, I hope you enjoy this as much as I do!!

Until next craft…

Getting Sidetracked

So yesterday with our sudden small blizzard I had the full intention of going in strong with trying to get as much done on my baby owl quilt as possible and actually I think I did get pretty far. That will be updated in a post next week when I share it for the WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

Anyway just as I seemed to be cruising along on the quilt I stopped to get something out of the drawer when I looked up and saw my brand new shipment of pom poms staring me in the face and they started calling to me. Wouldnt you know with in 5 min I had my sewing machine and fabric moved and out-of-the-way and 1000 pom poms staring me in the face. There were so many colors and sizes, Honestly I was a little overwhelmed for about 2 min trying to figure out what I was going to do with all these poms. Seeing how I won these in an auction for free on Listia and free shipping to boot this was definitely one of my better so-called “Savings” when it comes to keeping the budget down. After sorting through all the colors and of course separating them into their own colored bags I took my favorite color and then the obvious contrasting colors of black and white, pulled out the hot glue gun grabbed an old throw pillow that needed some restoration and got to work.

I used some of my purple fleece fabric to finish it off in the back. I think its cute. If I would have known then what I know now then I would have covered the whole pillow in the fleece before glueing on the Poms. There are a couple of spots that I am going to go back and fill in where the old ugly green fabric is showing through. Also I probably would not use the bigger ones on the edge. The picture in my head didn’t exactly turn out in real life.

I measured the Fleece to the size of the pillow knowing that it had a bit of stretch in it so that it could be pulled tight. I took the edge of the fleece and hot glued it to the edge of the last row of Poms securing it just underneath so the poms would stick over a bit hiding the fleece edge as much as possible.

So this is what happens when I get sidetracked. I finish other projects and not the one intended. Has this happened to you? I am sure it happens to everyone. I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s always a bad thing. I say as you are not getting sidetracked when it comes to the important things then its ok in my book. Well I look forward to sharing what I did get finished with the Owl Quilt, maybe I can sneak a few more hours in and get the baby almost done by Wednesday.

Happy Crafting from my home to yours

Upcycled Bottle

Yarn Art as I like to call it.

This was a piece that I did a while back that I would like to share with everyone. This was an old bottle we had lying around and it was just something that really did not look very attractive. I am not saying that this made it look anymore attractive, but I like to think that it’s at least an improvement. I used a bunch of left over yarn shrivels to decorate this and used hot glue to secure it on to the bottle. This project was pretty fun but I suggest some sort of finger guard to protect from the not glue. My poor finger tips were pretty tore up after completion.
I really love to upcycle old stuff, or reuse something. As a mom on a budget I like to save money where ever I can. Here is another Upcycled idea I did with my little boys old baby bottles.
I am a color fanatic so almost everything I own is color coded. All my sewing thread is color coded by hue.


Well I am glad that I shared some of these ideas with you. I know I am not the first to think of either of these ideas but never the less I always like to share. Soon I will be decorating the covers to all my containers. I will update these and share how they look after their sweet little makeover.

Make sure you take a look below to see some of the upcoming projects that I will be finishing or working on in the near future.


Happy Crafting






Up coming projects…….

My First Quilt Square

Thats right, its official I have a new love. QUILTING!!!!!! I had picked up a Fat Quarter Bundle at Wal-Mart the day after Christmas. Seeing how I just LOVE Owl Print, I knew exactly what I wanted it for. I just had to learn how to cut fabric and sew. After weeks of practicing on some old shirts I had cut up, I decided to try out my new skills and attempt to make my first quilting square.

I just love this fabric and I found an online store that was selling it, however I believe that they stopped carrying it. Here is the site link if you wanted to see more fabric of hers.

The site is called Diaper Fabric Fanatic

One more thing….. I’m going to be linking to Quilt Story, see the sidebar for their Fabric Tuesday Button!!! Take a peek. There are other fabulous projects to see too. You will also be able find this on Red Pepper Quilts the Patchwork and Quilting Blog List.
Happy Quilting!!

Homemade "Baby Bottle" Pin Cushion

I am big on upcycling so it was only right that when we were done having our child and knew that we couldn’t have more I decided to use the left over bottles for storage. These are great for storing , buttons, beads, pins, small embellishments, the list can go on and on. The other night I was looking at all the left over bottles and started filling them with all my odds and ends. I wanted to share this one because last week I had posted about upscaling your tomatoes and wanted to share that you don’t have to have a tomato to store your unused sewing pins.

I really like the way this one turned out.

The supplies I used were:

• Hot Glue
• 1 Large Chenille pom poms
• 1 Baby Bottle
• 1 4×4 in square fabric
• 1 6 in piece of ribbon

First I glued the Pom Pom onto the bottle cover.

Then I took the fabric and glued it over the pom-pom to the bottom edge of the bottle cover.
Next cut off your access fabric so that its flush with the bottom of the cover.
Then take your ribbon and glue it around the bottom for a little decoration and to hide anything from the fabric after being cut.

What do you use to store your odds and ends?


Happy Sewing!!

Beaded Flower

Recently I acquired a bunch of seed beads. For a couple of days I sat there sorting out the colors and just couldn’t decided what to do with them. After searching through some of my books I came across a beaded flower and tried it out for myself. I just wanted to show you the results. I thought it turned out pretty nicely. The little flowers are easy to make and they probably only take about 5-10 min a piece. They are small and can be used for many different types of crafting projects.
If you are interested in learning how to make these cute little embellishments leave a comment with your email address and I will send you a tutorial.


Happy Crafting

Valentines Day Charms

Week 1 of the 5 Weeks of Love Challenge

I have recently started working with beads again. It really started by me going through all my stuff after christmas this year and organizing it. I came across this huge bag of glass beads that I have collected over the years. I sat down and organized them by color and realized that I had some really cool looking beads. So as the ideas started rushing into my head the next thing I knew I had 5 Charms/Keychains done. After finishing them I sat back and realized they would make great gift topper or just a great side gift if you are giving a a lot of small items for valentine’s day. These would also make great valentine’s for your kids to give to their friends as they make great charms for backpacks and other accessories.
Small little trinkets like these are things that your loved ones can carry around all the time, to remind them that you were thinking about them and that you loved them. These are quick to make and they don’t cost a lot to make either. These are great projects for you and your children to work on together. There are plenty of pretty plastic beads for the younger children to be able to string together and wear.
The only supplies I used were a handful of glass and Tibetan silver beads, embroidery floss, clear bead string, and a plastic circle of some kind. I use the plastic reminder pieces for knitting/crocheting. I look forward to making some more of these in the future. I would like to make one for myself using Swarovski Crystal Elements. I think that would really sparkle.
Beading can be a very expensive hobby so its best to look on Craigslist, Garage sales, or even your auction sites like Ebay and Listia can have some great deals on bead lots. You don’t need a lot of beads to make something small and beautiful like this. Just enough to give it some color and class.
Valentine’s day doesn’t just have to be about the celebration of love between a couple. This can be a holiday about celebrating the love of everyone around you. Here are some other great charms or key chain ideas that you can make for your loved ones that celebrate the love of a life. As much as we know that Valentine’s Day is just one of those made up Hallmark type of Holidays why not take the time to tell all the people who you care about that you love and appreciate them. It never hurts to take the time to show someone you care or that you were thinking about them.

I hope you enjoy these as much as I enjoyed making them. I look forward to another great week. I am still looking into finding a blog for our Featured Friday spot. I do have a couple of blogs in mind I am just not sure on how to contact them to ask them permission to feature them on this site. Untill next time…..
Happy Crafting!

This was the bead project I worked on with my little guy and an idea for the younger kids to give as gifts or to make for themselves.