Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas!  I hope you are feeling blessed this holiday and can spend time with your family and friends :)

Enjoy these shots from my times at Disney this season :)

Thanks as always for reading and stick around to explore!

http://pinterest.com/kraftiekatie/

Much Love <3

Time Flies!

Merry Christmas! I can not believe it is only a day away! How did that happen?

So I waited and waited and dreamed about and hoped for the fall semester to end so that I could craft my days away over winter break.  But alas, it is already half over and I feel like I am not using my time wisely!  So in order to defeat the ever ticking clock I decided to make an official to-do list!  When school is in session, to-do lists are my life!  They are what get me through and keep me on task.  I can only guess that I must be sick of to-do lists by the time I finally get a break but it really makes sense to use them for my free time too.  Why did it take me so long to think of that?

My goal is to finish most everything on this list before I head back to school for what looks like a very scary semester (can you say 17 credits?!?).  But lets keep that out of mind until the time comes...

Don't get me wrong, I have done quite a bit of crafting thus far.  It is just that I want to do SO much that I know I need to get on with it, break is already half over!!

So there it is in all its daunting glory!  But I can not wait to put little check marks along it and smile at all my beautiful (hopefully) creations!  And look at it this way, the first thing on the list will benefit more than just me!  Even more reason to get started!  Since tomorrow is Christmas Eve, then Christmas, and then 3 days of work, this week isn't looking too promising as far as the to-do list goes... but I'll do what I can :)

For a few sneak peaks, click on these links to the bag and dress tutorials!

Please comment and let me know what gets you motivated!  Maybe share your to-do list with me too :)

Happy Holidays and with any luck I'll be on again before the new year!

Please follow me on Pinterest

http://pinterest.com/kraftiekatie/

Craft Shopping Is the Best!

I love to shop! But I really love to shop for crafting supplies! It is just so much fun to look around Michael's, Jo-Ann's and the like! They really have it all at those stores! Another gem I have found in my college town is Walmart... that's right Walmart! The Walmart here has a mini craft store in the back! They have a fabric section, scrap booking supplies, paint, patterns, everything! And all at amazing prices! I have to admit that their fabric is not up to par with the quality of that at Jo-Ann's, but for $2 a yard I really can't complain! So after visiting not one, not two, but ALL three of the stores mentioned above, here is what I came home with:

:D

My latest obsession hobby is card making. When I was just a little pre-teen crafter wanna-be I made tons of cards... they were adorable (at least according to my mom) but very simple. Now that I am a more mature crafter I am getting in to stamping, embossing, layers, etc.

So you are not going to believe this but everything above was $1 or less each! Ahhh! Amazing! Buy everything! (at least that is what was going through MY mind). If you look at the 1st picture you can also see the clear stamps that I bought too. Believe it or not Walmart had the best ink selection, I wanted more colors but had to stop myself.

Check out some of the aforementioned, more mature, cards check out my Etsy shop :)

 The best deals of the day were in the adhesive family. At Target I got this pack of mounting squares for 70% off! Just $0.94! They are going to make some nice 3D effects on my cards! The next deal was actually at my campus bookstore. You never know what you might find if you look around for a while! These are like those white-out rollers except with double sided tape :O I know pretty awesome! But it gets better! They were normally $5.99 each and on clearance for $0.99! Thats 83% off! The only thing better than buying crafting supplies is buying them at highly discounted rates!

The next deals were my fabrics. Jo-Ann's had all their red-tag fabrics 50% off this weekend which means these were (starting from the left) $2, $3.50, $3.50 a yard! Gotta love great quality at a great price!

And last but not least a little chocolate treat :)

<3 Kraftie Katie

Check out PreciousPrep

Crafter's Calendar

My oh my how time does fly!

Sorry for the long break in posts but I have been so busy I have hardly had time to blink!  I have lacked in my crafting lately but hopefully with the upcoming holiday break some new creations will arrive :)

Although I haven't had tons of time to actually craft I do still think about it all the time!  New ideas are crowding my brain because none of them can get out yet!

I realized today that as a crafter the time before a holiday is definitely the best because that is the time to prepare all the amazing crafts for the special days!

I came up with this idea of a "Crafter's Calendar" and I like it :) Just sort of a funny little thought that is actually true, the excitement for holidays comes months in advance for crafters who have to have time to prepare!

As you can see we crafters like to start preparing well in advance!  And of course during the down times there is just general craftiness going on!

I hope you enjoyed this post!  Have a look around and maybe find some inspiration :)

Precious Prep

Hi again!

Sorry for not posting in so long!  I have been so busy I've had almost no time at all to craft! :(

Anyways, I have just today opened shop on Etsy.com and I wanted you all to be the first to know!

I only have a few items so far but I am hoping to add more this weekend!  Check it out!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/PreciousPrep

Hope you are having a great day!

Monogramed Chevron Poster

**Please follow me on Pinterest :) http://pinterest.com/kraftiekatie/
Hi again!

If you have seen my earlier post, How to Chevron, you know how much I love Chevron!

This craft is just another little poster for my dorm room, similar in size to the one in Dorm Décor.  I am still making a bunch of cute things to decorate these bare walls!

So here it is:

Like it? Love it? I do!

So follow my tutorial here to learn how to make the chevron pattern.  I drew it on a white and navy blue sheet of card stock, then cut out the blue stripes and glued them into place on the white.  If you don't draw the chevron on the white sheet you should be ok but for more precision go ahead and take the extra 5 minutes.

So after I had the chevron I was thrilled!  But then I came up with the idea to add a pretty K to the mix. So off I went to Pinterest in search of free font downloads!  And what do you know... Pinterest never fails!

I found exactly what I was looking for at this website:
http://www.fontspace.com/måns-grebäck/respective

I am on a Mac so these instructions may not work for everyone, sorry :( But if you don't know how to install a font (on a Mac) you just download it, double click on the download to open font book, hit the install font button on the version of the font you like (bottom right corner), then drag the font to 'computer' on the collection list (right next to the list of fonts you downloaded).  Then when you open Word or Pages you should be able to select your font as you would any other!

I created my letter in PowerPoint, here's how:

1.Open PowerPoint and type your initial in your desired font style
2.Change the page orientation to Portrait
3.Increase the font size to around 250, depending on your letter you may have to go up or down, just make it fit on the page with a little room around the edges.
4.Make the letter bold
5.Select your color, I chose "Banana"
6.Using the text effects, select 'glow' to define your letter, I didn't want too much glow but some is good.  I made mine navy
7.Print it!  Then carefully cut around the edges and glue to the center of your page :)

Really simple with really great results! Good luck and show me how yours turns out! :)

Please follow me on Pinterest 

http://pinterest.com/kraftiekatie/

How to Chevron

Check out my new blog: Sugar Spice and Sparkle!

My latest obsession (and it seems like everyone else's too) is the Chevron pattern!  I absolutely adore it! I love it in all colors and sizes and I want to cover everything with it!  Check out my Monogramed Chevron Poster!

So I am going to teach you how to draw using the computer :) I love computers!  So here we go:

First you need to decide how thick you want your stripes to be.  I like 2 inches so it is a nice, bold pattern, but depending on the size of your object you may want to go smaller or larger, if you do, just follow the steps with your number instead of 2 inches.

Next you need to cover whatever you are making (in this case we will say an 8.5" x 11" sheet of printer paper) with a grid of 2" squares, like so:

As you can see if you only want entire squares there will be excess on the edges when using a 2" square.  

Now we start the pattern.  I like to draw all of the lines in any one direction first, that way I don't have to keep shifting my ruler back and forth (the ruler is when I draw this, not do it on the computer lol)

So here are the first lines you draw: 

Then fill in the blank squares with lines going from the opposite corners:

Your final result before color:

A bunch of triangles!
How did it go? Please leave me any comments you have! You're almost done :)

Finally, add your color!  Do so as seen here:

Now the only step left is to erase the extra lines (assuming you want white as your 2nd color) and you are done!  Here is my virtual navy and white Chevron:

What do you think?  Easy enough right?! Now you too can fall in love with this great, easy DIY pattern!  The possibilities are endless!

Orange and Blue

Black and White

Lavender and Mint

Rainbow

Ombré

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial! Comments always welcome :)
Follow me on Pinterest http://pinterest.com/kraftiekatie/

Gift for Mom

If you are like me then your mom is the most important person in your life and your best friend!  One of  the greatest things about crafting is making things for others.  And who better to make something for than your favorite person?

So with my inspiration from Deal Wise Mommy and a few minutes of free time I was ready!  The gift would be a Post-It note holder, made from an inexpensive frame, some scrapbook paper and embellishments, and a pad of sticky notes!  So simple yet actually useful and all moms love anything you make for them :)

So here is my result:

 What do you think?

All I did was:

1. Select coordinating sticky note pad and scrapbook paper
2. Cut scrapbook paper down to size
3. Add 'mom' sticker embellishment to the top of the scrapbook sheet
4. Put paper behind glass
5. Glue sticky note pad to the glass
6. Tie a pretty ribbon on and tape into place on the back

Voila! A really simple gift that made my mom so happy!  I'm sure she will display it proudly on her desk at work (I hope!)

Why not take a few minutes to do your favorite thing, craft, for your favorite person?  It is the little things in life that make it worth living so make someones day, it is as simple as that :)

Have a great and safe Labor Day!

Dorm Décor

So this weekend I was trying to come up with some ways to liven up my dorm room - white cinder block walls aren't really my thing.  So I have a few posters and a multi-picture frame but there is still a lot of blank wall.  So I turned to crafting!  The best solution for any situation :)  Considering I am in my dorm room with limited crafting supplies, I could not fully create my ideal decoration, seen here (last picture).  However, this is what I came up with:

Although it is small, I really like it! Plus I still have plenty of room left for more art!  You can so easily make this yourself, it would make a great card for someone too.  All I did was:

On an 8.5" x 11" sheet of cardstock, draw lines 1" apart all the way down the page, then alternate shading in stripes with a black crayon (thats all I had!).

Next cut out a heart from red construction paper or card stock and glue in the center.

Finally write something, love, in the bottom right corner and you are finished!  Your art work is ready for display!

If you are wondering about the hearts on the top corners, those are what is holding it to the wall:

I used pink but the orange version is pictured above.  These are really great for dorms because they look nicer than tape and are really strong!

Happy Crafting and Dorm Beautification :)

Just a few thoughts

Hello again!

So it's been a little while since my last post but with school starting back up I've been a bit busy! I don't have a tutorial for you today, just a few thoughts I wanted to share.

Tips for Pinterest: 

Every time I'm on Pinterest I wish people would do two things:

First, make sure when you pin something from a blog you actually click on the post and then pin, otherwise it can be hard for other pinners to find what you thought you pinned, later on.

Second is to change the comment when you re-pin something. I hate wondering if my friends actually wrote the comment to go with their pins or if they just re-pinned without adding their own comment.

So if you like Pinterest and want to make it even better you can follow these simple tips :)

Have a great weekend!

I love funny ecards!

Update(3/21/13)
After a long day I spent too long on Pinterest resulting in too short of a night...

Update(12/10/12)
First of all, Happy Birthday to my mom! The best of the best, I am so blessed to have her <3
Second of all,

A great rule to live by :)

Update(9/17/12):
This has happened to me a lot so I decided to make an ecard of it and see who else agrees with me! :)
Hope you're smiling!

Original Post:
I don't know how often you go on Pinterest, but I do almost every day.  One of my favorite things is going to the humor page.  Trust me, something will make you crack up, probably a lot actually.  This weekend my family took a trip to the beach, it was wonderful!  On the way to dinner one night I was saying how tired I was despite the fact that all we had done was relax on the beach all day!  My dad knows about all those funny ecards out there (mostly because I tell him about most of the ones I find oh so humorous) so he said that that would make a good one... and I agreed!  So here it is, my first ecard:

Hope this made you laugh, or at least smile :)

Hope you enjoy what is left of the weekend!  

Follow me on Pinterest: KraftieKatie

Quick Tip about your Sewing Machine Needle

Hey bloggers,

So I spent the day with my grandmother today shopping for fabric and other sewing supplies.  It was really fun!  I had been having problems with my sewing machine needle coming unthreaded every time I start to sew, so I asked her about it since she is a sewing expert.  She said to make sure the thing you loop the thread around is always up when you begin.  Like this:

Problem solved!  For you sewing newbies out there I just thought I would share this helpful hint!

Happy Sewing :)

Boyfriends need crafts too!!

So today I decided to make my boyfriend a case for his sunglasses!  He is always losing those things or complaining if they get scratched so I hope this will make him happy.  I actually made this all up from my own mind and even took pictures during the process of making it!  You will love this craft because it can be made for anyone and took me maybe 20 minutes from start to finish... not bad for a thoughtful gift!

So here we go!

First I decided on some fabric with flames and dragons (this was the most... ok only, manly fabric I currently have) and for the lining just a reddish fabric with some small design on it.  I also used a dark red thread for my needle thread.

Next I cut two pieces from both the lining and the fabric that were approximately 8" by 5".  For the dragon fabric I made sure to center a dragon on each piece so I didn't end up with a bunch of dragon parts on the sides :)

I then sewed one piece of lining to one piece of the outer fabric, wrong sides together.  I sewed close to the edges because this step is just to make it easier to manage your fabric later, in the end this stitching was actually cut off.  So don't worry if it isn't straight or if it goes off the edge a little.  Here were my pieces:

The next step is to fold over your top edge so that it will be on the inside in the end.  My top edge was the side with the selvage (the white strip).  I folded each piece over the width of the selvage and then again.  Then I sewed across it, I didn't have to backstitch at the beginning and end because I knew that I would be sewing over the edge again later.  Be careful at this step!  If your needle and bobbin thread are different colors, be sure the color you want is on the right side.  Since I put the dark red thread in the needle, I had to sew with my dragon fabric face up.  Here is what it should look like with the top edge sewn:

Now you can line up your two pieces with right sides together, making sure the top is aligned correctly.  Then sew around the long sides and the bottom.  This is where your stitching needs to be more precise. But since you will be turning the project inside out in the end it doesn't have to be exact, so no worries! Make sure that you sew to the inside of the stitching which is holding the lining and the outer material together.

Once you are happy with that, trim off the excess material leaving about 1/8" edge, this means you may cut off what you sewed in the beginning (I told you it didn't have to be perfect!).  I ended up cutting off all of mine!  You can also trim the bottom corners so that you will have more precise points when you turn it, up to you.  Just make sure that you don't cut off any stitching when you trim the corners, other wise you will have holes in the corners.  Here is my trimmed project, you can see how much I cut off:

Finally, turn it right sides out and you are done!  Easy right?  And it will make a great surprise for boyfriend, I think he will love it and be happy to know that I still think about him when I am in one of my crafting frenzies :)

Making something for someone else is so much fun!  I love giving things to people and seeing how touched they are by even the simplest of things.  I hope your sunglass case turns out well for you and your recipient loves it, even if the recipient happens to be you! 

Happy Crafting! :)

Update! Here is another gift idea for your guy: Personalized accessory pouch to clip to his golf bag! Great for dads too! Order one here.

Cell Phone Case

Hello again!

I am here with my latest sewing project! It is another simple one that turns out super cute... and useful too! It is a cell phone case and can be done several ways.

The original tutorial, here, uses all of the "official" sewing supplies and tools. For those of us who haven't quite built up our collection of supplies, you have my two variations:

1) use this plastic grid material, I am not exactly sure of its name so here is a picture:

2) use felt!
Both of these materials were used in place of the interfacing and batting, which are materials used in sewing to make bags and such more sturdy.

For my phone case I added 1/4 inch more length because I have an HTC EVO 4G, not an iPhone and it is a bit taller. I used a different fabric for the inner and outer material and I used the same fabric as the inside for the tab.

My first phone case used bright fabrics with pink as the main color... Perfect! I followed the instructions (leaving off the parts for the interfacing and batting) except when it says to leave a hole for turning on the side, I left one of the short ends open instead. This allowed me to then fold the fabric in half with the inside fabric out and sew up one side, insert my plastic grid in the opening, sew that shut, then turn right side out and sew the final side stitch. Unfortunatly this final stitch is visible but since I used pink thread and sewed so close to the edge you can hardly notice!
**note: I used a peice of plastic grid that was the same size as just one of the finished sides(half as big as the batting or interface measurements).

I was so pleased with my result I have been using my case ever since! Here is a pic:

Isn't it cute?

This pattern was so fun and simple I decided to make another! This time I experimented with felt to replace the interfacing and batting. In this case I used more primary colors, reds and blues with fun patterns!

I again used the slightly bigger measurements and cut the felt the same size as suggested for the batting (plus 1/4 inch). Then I pretty much just followed the instructions and I was done! Here is the result:

Another cutie! You can get this one in my store on smashion.com, ChicBoutique! Check it out!

Let me know how you like this blog and this craft :)