Handbag Giveaway

I've been on a purse making kick and thought I'd share the love by doing a little giveaway. I'm putting one purse and one wristlet into the pool, so there are two chances to win. All you have to do it to enter is post a comment (one per person please). The winners will be randomly chosen by a computer generated random number picker thingie. It's very high tech... don't ask me how it works. If it gets too complicated for me, I'll just close my eyes and plop my finger on my computer monitor to pick a name. Either way, I only have two blog followers so your chances of winning are pretty dang good.

*US residents only please. Ok fine... and Canada, Europe, Australia and other countries with semi- reliable postal services :)

**Contest ends Friday, July 10, 2009 at 10:00pm CDT (way past my bedtime).

First up is this adorable, Pleated Purse with Alexander Henry Kleo Print fabric. Fully lined, magnetic closure, and satin poppy accent:



Next up is this Pleated Wristlet. Fully lined, zip closure, and satin poppy accent:



The following is NOT in the giveaway, just the motivation behind it. I have been meaning to make my sister a new handbag to replace the old one I made her, so I sewed three and let her have dibs. This is the one she picked. The Pintuck Purse:

After Janell picked her purse, I called second dibs on the Ruffle Purse. Mine. (Yes, so really this giveaway is all about the leftovers... cute high quality leftovers, but leftovers none the less.)


These are 30 zipper change purses and key fobs my friend and I made for girls youth camp this summer. It's a surprise, so if you have any little sisters going to girls camp, DON'T spoil the surprise or I'll send out the leg breakers. No really... I've got mafia blood in me :)

This is a cute wristlet I made for my friend.

And this is another mine, mine, MINE one.

GOOD LUCK!

Reusable Bags

Here's a simple gift idea for your eco-friendly friends. Reusable bags are super fast and easy to sew. I used nylon fabric for the bulk foods bags because it's lightweight and will hold finer grains.
For the drawstring produce bags I used mesh fabric (polyester), which allows the produce to breath. The lady at the cutting table at Joann's was so excited when I told her what I was making. She's planning on making one as well to hang up her onions.

I've been on a purse making kick lately, so I'll post some pics in the next few days. Stay tuned... there may be a giveaway ;)

Family Silhouettes

Many of you know that I'm not much of a decorator, but I really, really wanted to display some cool silhouette portraits in our home. These are super easy to make... truly, the most difficult part was getting the kids to NOT look at the camera so I could get a good profile picture of them.

I had a hard time finding oval frames that I liked, so I used just plain old oval wood cutouts found in the wood craft section of Hobby Lobby ($2.99 each). I slapped a couple of coats of black acrylic paint on them and let them dry. After taking the silhouette pictures, I sized and printed them off in black and white, taped it to a black piece of cardstock and cut them out. I'm sure there are a lot of different application options, but I used Perfect Paper Adhesive because it acts as a glue, sealant and offers UV protection.

Cut out an oval from printed scrapbook cardstock and have it and your silhouette cutout handy. Quickly apply a thin, even coat of the adhesive all over the top of the wooden oval. Center and press the oval paper onto the wood. Repeat, applying more adhesive over the entire oval paper and center and press on your silhouette cutout. If you apply your adhesive too thick, it will wrinkle and pucker your silhouette, so keep it thin! Allow to dry and apply another coat all over the frame, including the wooden sides. Allow to dry and apply more coats of adhesive as desired (I only did one because I'm lazy like that). For hanging, I just hammered in some frame "teeth" on the back.

I decided to hang them in the stairway. This concludes my decorating project for the year.

This is how Denny and Ashlyn entertain themselves while I'm crafting.

Ashlyn loves her big brother so much. I'm so grateful that they play so well together.