The Great Pumpkin Contest

Hello I hope you are all having a great week. I have some things to share with you today.

I am currently having a contest on my facebook page.

I LOVE decorating for the different seasons throughout the year and fall is one of my favorites. All the warm rich colors. The idea of this contest is to make the Elegant Pumpkin and then use it around your house as fall decoration. We are looking for the best use of the elegant pumpkin as fall décor. 

The contest will start Oct 4th and run through Oct 25th at midnight. All photo submissions must be messaged to me or emailed to me by midnight Oct 25th. After you have decorated with your Elegant Pumpkin take a photo and either message them to me or email them to me at smalltowndreamz@gmail.com Along with your photo submission please include your First and Last name along with your shop name( if you have one) and the name of the 1 free pattern that you would like for participating. (The 1 free pattern will be sent out the first week of Nov)

I will upload your submission with your first name and shop name into this album. The album will close at midnight on the 25th. Then my family (not me) will look through all the submissions and they will pick out the winners. The winners will be announced on Oct 31st.

The 1st place winner will receive a $25.00 gift certificate to any Mad Mad Makers Shop of your choice.
The 2nd place winner will receive 6 patterns of choice from my pattern shops or a $10.00 gift certificate towards my Etsy Shop. 
The 3rd place winner will receive 3 free patterns of choice from my pattern shop. 
EVERYONE that participates in the contest will receive 1 free pattern of their choice. 

If you have not picked up your pattern it can be picked up at any time as long as yours submission is in by the 25th at midnight.

All photo submissions must be messaged to me or emailed to me by midnight Oct 25th. After you have decorated with your Elegant Pumpkin take a photo and either message them to me or email them to me at smalltowndreamz@gmail.com Along with your photo submission please include your First and Last name along with your shop name( if you have one) and the name of the 1 free pattern that you would like for participating.

More details about the contest are posted on our Facebook page in the album called The Great Pumpkin Contest.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.583504081713403.1073741838.249530925110722&type=3


If you have not picked up your pattern it can be picked up at any time as long as yours submission is in by the 25th at midnight.

http://www.craftsy.com/user/669481/pattern-store

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/elegant-pumpkin-pattern

https://www.etsy.com/listing/113441535/the-elegant-pumpkin-patterns


Thank you to everyone that participates. I am so excited to see all your amazing pumpkins and how you decorate with them. 

A big Thank you to Kelly Smith Images LLC for taking the beautiful picture of the Elegant Pumpkin.




Happy Crafting

Stephanie

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. 

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

Bead Bling!

Hi everyone! I wanted to share this craft with you. I did it a while ago and made a set for myself as well as each of my children's grandparents for their frig and everyone loved them!!
This is a quick fun craft that is great for a gift. Pictures can be used but also paper, designs, drawings.... there are so many possibilities!!

Items you need

What you need...

• 1 1/4 inch flat clear circular beads (I bought mine from Hobby Lobby in the wedding section.)
• any clear all purpose glue (Crystal Effects from Stampin' Up works great. The glue will make the picture more visible when it actually adheres to the gem.)
• 1 1/4 inch circular punch
• magnets (I used magnet 6 strength~ it was strong enough to hold paper on the a frig but is on the thicker side. You can also use cut sheets of magnetic paper but it won't be able to hold anything.)
• Pictures/paper/design or anything you want to show threw the bead

First, use your circular punch to punch out the image you want to add to the bead. (A great tip I learned in stamping class is to always punch backwards so you can see your image as you punch it! It sure helps people like me that can't keep things straight!)
Second, put a SMALL amount of Crystal Effects on FRONT of picture (or any other clear glue that you may find to work.)
Third, firmly press image on back side of clear bead and hold for several seconds. It's best to let it dry completely before next step.
Fourth, put a small amount of Crystal Effect on BACK side of picture.
Next, press magnet where you just placed glue and hold firmly for several second. Let dry overnight. (Keep checking bead as they may start to slip before glue is dry completely, you may have to recenter.)

The picture below is what I made for myself and the kids' grandparents...

The picture below is what I made in a stamping class the first time ever doing this craft and it was actually just a small part of bigger project... maybe one day I'll post the entire thing! The background is just paper punched out!

 Hope you enjoyed this!

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…….

Pom-Pom Tree for Valentine’s Day

Tree of Love

Fun Valentine’s Project for you and the kids

Week 4 of the 5 Weeks of Love Challenge

I saw an idea like this as I was searching for a something else and can not find where I saved the website name. So if by chance anyone knows who just recently did a tutorial for something like this let me know and I will be sure to put their name on here as an inspiration to how this project came to light. This was a lot of fun to work on with my little one. We played a counting game while we were holding the pom- poms on to set.
I wasn’t really sure how this was going to turn out but I wanted to give it a try anyway. I added the feathers for some extra flair and texture.
Honestly I think the hardest part was getting the support at the bottom just right to support the top.
The materials I used were

• Pom-Poms
• Chinelle Fuzzy Sticks
• Glue
• Feathers

These look really cute in the window cill or the table as Valentine’s Day Decorations. I made a purple one for myself. I thought it was one of those things that would look nice on a shelf in my crafting area.
Happy February!!!

Valentine Magnets

Week 2 of the 5 Weeks of Love Challenge

As we enter week 2 of the 5 Weeks of Love Challenge I wanted to add something that not only has to be used during Valentine’s day but they are cute enough to be left up for however long you like. I love magnets because I like to hang things for reminders, to hand our little ones art work, or just little love notes to the hubby. What better way to hang those cute little notes then with a magnet of love.

So there is an ever abundance of these bottle cap images going around and I never have those type of caps lying around here, I decided to try something with some of these images. This was actually a really fun paper project that can be easily made on your pc and printed on your printer. Once again I acquired some of these bottle cap images from Listia, I didn’t want to take the time of designing my own just yet, however I did just recently finish my first set. I was able to pick up these cute Valentines Day images for very few points and seeing how they were already made to size all I had to do was print them out.

The supplies I used were those 1 inch decorative clear stones (which I picked up at my local wal-mart for a little over $3.00 for a 3 lb bag), hot glue, your 1 inch images cut out, and a magnet strip. Make sure when picking out your magnets that you use a heavier duty magnet, seeing how the stones are a bit heavy. You don’t want them to drop every time you shut your refrigerator door. The process is actually quit easy, however because of the hot glue this isn’t a project I would let the kids work on by themselves.

The first thing you do is take your 1 inch circular image and place it on your workspace. Apply a decent amount of hot glue on top of the face of the image.

 Then take your stone and press it down over the image, making sure the hot glue has covered the entire image between the stone and the image. This will make for a clearer image.

The next step is to take your stone and flip it over and apply a decent amount of hot glue to the back, then securing the magnet onto the back of the image. Make sure when doing this last process that you make sure there are no big lumps that make the magnet stick out far on one side otherwise you will have an unstable stone that will most likely fall on one of your toes.

Really that is all there is to it. I decided to take some of my silver glitter nail polish and painted the backs of them just for a little extra bling.

Below are some other magnets that I did that are great gifts birthdays, holidays, or just because.

Happy Crafting!

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