Kelli Jones Diary

Cupcake Challenge Anyone?

2009-06-21T10:17:00.025-05:00

I love the carousel horse at the top and the color palette used to decorate this cupcake stand from glue art & paper studio. The gals at Pink Persimmon are amazingly talented. Check out their cupcake challenge.

Also, they have some of the cutest stamps I have ever seen. I loooove the vintage cupcake set.

Contest ends Friday, June 26th at midnight.

Cushy, Comfy, Family Room Pillows

2009-05-12T16:16:00.040-05:00

Inspiration for these family room pillows came from some pillows at Macy's that were $70 each. Yes, $70 for average-sized, simple quilted pillows. I know that you can easily spend even more than $70 on pillows, and I find that shocking! If you need two pillows.. that's $140 and three is $210! And I think you can never have too many cushy, comfy pillows.

So... I just thought I would try to make some myself.

I started with two pieces of 100% cotton unbleached muslin fabric and sandwiched fusible cotton batting between the two pieces.

I then loaded my sewing machine with lots of pretty khaki-colored thread, switched to a walking foot, and machine stitched straight lines. In my usual style, I did not start out with a plan and just used the sewing machine guides to space the lines.

I did use a disappearing ink pen to mark lines that I stitched in blue thread. It is difficult to tell from the picture, but after I did the machine, stitching, I handstitched tiny beads at the intersections of the blue threads.

For the second pillow, I used the same colors but varied the stitches a bit. This time, I did not start with diagonal stitches, and made stitches that were parallel with the sides of the pillow. For the blue stitches, I did three blue stitches very close together.

After curling up with the pillows a on several occasions to watch a movie or take a nap, my husband and I have discovered that tiny glass beads may have not been the best idea for comfy pillows... very pretty... just not very comfy.
To make the quilted pillow tops into pillow covers, you just sew the right side of the quilted top to two overlapping-in-the-middle hemmed pieces of fabric. Sew all the way around the pillow and when you turn the right sides out, you have your finished pillow cover. I love this easy method for making pillow covers -- the inside pillow slips inside the cover. The cover can easily be washed by pulling out the inside filling-- that is contained in a slightly smaller muslin pillow. I love freshly washed pillows as much as I love freshly washed sheets so being able to wash these pillows so easily is a big plus. I have seen some department store pillows that look like they would be impossible to wash. I don't get that; it's a germophobe's nightmare. I think that the pillows I have made have improved with washing - getting softer each time.

To make the actual pillows that go inside the covers, you just sew a slightly smaller pillow to slip inside the cover. There are so many possibilities for stuffing the pillows now - memory foam stuffing, down-like stuffing and the poly-foam type stuffing. I just used the basic stuffing for these and I can safely say that I spent less than $5 each. Lots of time, sure... but very little cash.

Time becomes meaningless in the face of creativity. Albert Einstein

100% Cotton Therapy

2009-04-30T21:59:00.016-05:00

I learned to crochet a few years ago and have made a few scarfs and a few cotton dishcloths and even a huge afghan for my sister. I have never been able to make the edges straight and uniform. While I have been going for rectangular or square for these simple projects, I usually get trapezoids.

I am so happy to say, I think I have finally mastered the turning around at the end of each row so my edges are now straight. With practice, has also come the ability to make multiples of the same size so an actual color coordinated set of dishcloths is now within my reach. The dishclothes are fun to crochet and they make thoughtful and practical gifts... especially if you add some cool dishwashing liquid as part of the gift. You can never have too many cloths for handwashing dishes or cleaning the counter.

I also think a gift set of hand crocheted clothes would be nice for the bath, too... with some body wash. I love Zum Body Lemongrass Body Wash. I have just learned that they now have aromatherapy laundry soap, which I would love to try at some point... $19 for 32 loads is pricey but the Sweet Orange or Eucalyptus-Citrus fragrances sound fabulous.

Because I am so excited about my new skills -- the straight edges and the ability to make multiples of the same size, everyone I know will be getting hand crocheted cloths from me. In fact, I gave away three tonight. How can something so simple be so relaxing and restorative? I love the repetition, the colors, the soft 100% cotton thread... very therapeutic.

Sharing the love of stitching

2009-04-29T23:03:00.035-05:00

I made this pillow as part of a housewarming gift for some friends of ours and really like the way it turned out. It is a small pillow - about 10 inches by 10 inches and filled with dried rosemary and mint. It smells great!

The back of the pillow is bright and cheery and coordinates with the thread colors - magenta and green - that are on the front of the pillow.

I love giving personalized gifts so it was especially fun to present it to the new homeowners.
The other night my sister and my 11-year old niece, Maddie, were visiting. We were getting ready to watch a movie and since I cannot really watch a movie without a project in my hands, I was stitching. My niece said it looked like fun and said she would like to learn how to do it. You can imagine how thrilled I was to be able to expose her to the joy of stitching. So.... we halted the start of the movie to run up stairs and get a design on fabric for her to work on.

For my last few projects, I have just been tracing the design directly on the fabric (rather than using an iron-on pen) by placing the sheet from my printer on my light table with the fabric on top. The best pencil, I have found, is a Ticonderoga Beginner's pencil. It writes so smoothly on most fabrics. For darker fabrics, I probably will continue to use the iron-on method with a white ink iron on pencil.

Microsoft Word will let you outline almost any font on your computer so it is easy to create designs to embroider. My niece and I opened up MS Word and I asked her what she wanted to embroider. At first she said, "Welcome Home Jessica" because her sister was due home the next day from a band trip. I suggested "Jessica" and told her that it was probably not something she was going to be able to complete before Jessica got home the next night. I told her that it usually takes me daaaaaaaaays (weeks? months? years?) to finish a project.

Well... I was wrong! She sent me a text message: "I KNEW IT! I FINISHED IN TWO DAYS" with a picture. She did such a great job and even put it in a frame.

I later learned that she stayed up until 3:30 am stitching... until my sister made her go to sleep. A girl after my own heart (stitching at 3:30 am)!

She said she enjoyed it and wants to do another project. Yeah! I will not attempt to estimate her completion time on future projects.

Here is a picture of her today received via text message after she got her braces. I love that girl.

Decoupage Your Ceiling- Mr. Peacock Style

2009-04-28T23:41:00.005-05:00

Vicki came across a blog with a cool decoupage how-to... . I am amazed at how he decoupaged his ceiling... it looks fabulous. It would not work for my ceiling as the builders decoupaged it with popcorn texture. He has some fabulous directions and methods for decoupage that you could apply to your ceiling, or other items... maybe a Card File? Huh? Got ya thinkin'? Or a Vertical Album? And there's always the fabulous Cupcake Stand.

Speaking of decoupage, we are working on something new... an idea that Vicki came up with and it is sure to be a decoupager's dream item. We are hoping to have it ready for The Great American Scrapbook Convention in Arlington... about a month away. The countdown is on. Can't wait.

Today's Strawberry Harvest

2009-04-27T20:55:00.031-05:00

It looks like it is going to be a great year for strawberries... this is what we picked from our strawberry patch today.

We planted several plants a few years ago and they send out runners to start new little plants each year. Some years are better than others -- it seems like every other year is especially fruitful. Not only do the strawberry plants make practical and beautiful ground cover, they, of course, are healthy and delicious.

The strawberries we gathered tonight are intensely red and have a great texture. While I love strawberries from the store, it is a very special treat to have ones from your own garden.

While no calories were spared on the fresh whipped cream, would you ever be able to tell that there is spinach puree in the brownie underneath?

There are lots of spinach brownie recipes out there and tonight I tried a new one from recipezaar.com. This one calls for frozen spinach but I used fresh spinach... just steam it for a few minutes first.

Brownies (with spinach & carrot)
3 eggs
21 ounces brownie mix
10 ounces frozen chopped spinach, thawed
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup carrot juice
1 tablespoon milk

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9"x13" pan with parchment paper or spray with cooking spray. Squeeze out the liquid from the spinach. Place spinach, vegetable oil, milk and carrot juice in a blender and puree until smooth. In a large bowl, combine the brownie mix, 3 eggs, and the spinach mixture until well blended. Spread batter into pan and bake 40 minutes.

New Storage Cabinet for clam hinge (Stampin' Up-type) boxes

2009-03-25T23:47:00.008-05:00

While at The Stamp Scrap Art Tour in Mesquite (January), a woman saw our new Storage Cabinet and suggested that we make one for the clam hinge boxes that Stampin' Up stamps and stamp sets come in. Thank you, Shelly Dolanski! Great idea! Now there is truly a place for everything. We appreciate your idea so much that you will soon (approximately April 25th) receive a thank you package in the mail.

We (shophowdoyouglue.com) have the storage boxes in four sizes and they are beee-you-tiful. They each hold ten boxes so you can just slide out the box that you need. You can stack them or, as Shelley suggested, add a handle to the top. If you do add a handle for easy transporating, you might also want to add a strap to hold the boxes in place during transporation. Of course, I'm sure you could go all out making a really pretty handle and strap.

We expect to ship out orders received for these cabinets on or around April 18th. If you order by April 3rd, you will get $5 off of each cabinet.

This month has been a little crazy so far - - lots of projects going on!

We are trying to get our house ready to sell, so we have been busy trying to apply everything we have learned from all the HGTV that we watch. With each improvement we make, I begin to rethink moving. Our house, which we have lived in for almost 9.5 years was a very basic house when we moved in -- even to the point that none of the windows have window sills or trim. We have made improvements over the years --mostly flooring, lighting, and landscaping. This week we are working on window sills and window trim for our windows. We have started with four windows downstairs that are along one wall that encompass the kitchen, a breakfast area, and a family room. Now that I am a blogger, I actually remembered to take a "before" picture (after one of the windows was mostly complete so I didn't get a "before" of that one) and will also take "after" pictures to show you the result. While I do not really enjoy painting all of that trim, I think I am going to love the result.

And then there's the yardwork... lots of weeding and planting going on.

So, thank you again for reading my blog (all four of you). I can't tell you how happy and excited I was to get comments on my last post. Happy Spring!

A cute gift for a cute kid

2009-02-23T16:31:00.013-06:00

Several weeks ago we made plans with friends to meet for dinner this weekend. Since we first made plans, I have had something brewing in my mind as a gift for their adorable 2.5 year old daughter, Katie, who would also be coming.

I wanted to do some sort of quiet activity or kit, possibly some sort of felt book with a pocket full of the letters in her name. I also had in mind that I wanted it to be small and help to entertain her while we all visited. The weeks and the days have slipped by and I never got it together.

About two hours before we were going to meet, I pulled out a big box that holds my felt supply and a quick AND cute gift came together in about 20 minutes... a portable felt "board" and shapes.

For this project, I used 35% and 40% wool felt. I think it would work great with other wool blends or acrylic felt. I used Sizzix dies to cut the letters of her name - first and last, as well as a cute little shamrock in green. I cut out other shapes with scissors -- flowers, stems, leaves, lines to make a tic-tac-toe grid and small circles in various colors to be used as playing pieces or polka dots. A yellow circle can be a happy face when a mouth and eyes are added, or a shining sun when little rays are added.

The felt pieces cling to the background felt, so there are lots of possibilities for play and for learning. All of the pieces fit nicely in a slightly oversized gift card tin I had on hand. Two pieces of felt wrapped around the tin and tied with a ribbon completed the kit.

Oh How I Love to Stitch!

2009-02-17T23:34:00.013-06:00

I made this little pillow for my dear sweet friend Linda. I started it months ago with the intention of giving it to her for Christmas. That did not happen. Several weeks ago I learned that she was coming to town (from California) and we made plans to have breakfast on Monday, so I was motivated to finish it before we got together.

After finding a font I liked, I printed out her name with the mirror image option selected on my printer. I then used a light table and traced her name with an iron on transfer marker. After ironing the design onto muslin, I thoroughly enjoyed hand stitching an outline in orange and then an outline of that in green. When stitching something for someone, I can't help but think of the recipient while embroidering - especially when their name is the focus of the project! Because she is such a special person and friend, this project brought me a lot of joy.

For the back, I used several fabrics that coordinated with the orange and green threads. When I bought these fabrics at The Old Craft Store in Carrollton, I had no idea what I was going to do with them. I didn't even decide that I would use them for this project until way after I had selected the orange and green thread for the stitching on the front. I machine pieced the back and then machine quilted it on my sewing machine. I sewed the two pieces together and stuffed with dried rosemary and peppermint.

When I put the pillow together (by putting right sides together and then turning it out) I made a couple of mistakes by getting the sewing machine stitches too close to the edge. Trying to cover up the mistakes, I sewed all the way around the edge of the pillow with green embroidery thread. Because of the thickness of the quilted back, it was difficult to stitch around the edge. My finger was quite sore! But, of course, I am ready to start working on another one.

Dryer Repair 101

2009-02-09T14:52:00.010-06:00

A few days ago our dryer stopped working and my husband reluctantly took it apart to see if we could figure out what was wrong. We had already purchased a belt hoping it was something simple like that. While at Lowe's to get the belt, we looked at new dryers. Of course, the one that my husband "selected" was over $1000. I saw one for less that $500 that looked good to me but it still did not have a much capacity as the current commercial capacity dryer that I have. I didn't see anything that I wanted more than the dryer that I have.

At one point a year or so ago, my husband was able to fix our dryer by removing a sock that somehow made it's way outside the drum. This time, however there was no sock and the belt looked okay.

I was surprised that the inside of our dryer (Amana Speed Queen Commerical Capacity Dryer) was really simple -- there is a drum, and a motor, several wheels, and a belt.

Once we took the drum out, we discovered a wheel that was broken. Not only did the wheel look like it would be easy to replace, we found out that we could order it online for $4.32 plus shipping. Even better, we found a place in Dallas (Appliance Part Depot) that had the part. When I went to the parts place, I decided to buy other parts that might need to be replaced on the dryer. Tim, the rep that waited on me, gave me good information, and was so helpful. We spent $80 on parts and were able to not only fix our dryer ourselves and save some money, we are feeling sooo green. While the dryer was taken apart, we cleaned it thoroughly. There was a lot of dust and grime and I can't imagine that anyone who we would have called out to repair it, would have taken the time to clean it so well.

My nine year-old dryer is now running so quietly and even has a light inside! I guess the light had been burned out for so long, I forgot that it even had one. There was a squeak I had gotten used to and now I understand where the squeak was coming from. It took us (75% of it was done by my husband) about three hours to do the repair and $80 in parts (9 separate parts were replaced) and even though I would have rather been doing something crafty, it was so gratifying to be able to fix it, learn something, and to be able to save so much money... not to mention the earth.

New Desktop Storage Cabinet

2009-02-02T14:13:00.060-06:00

Last month, at the Stamp Scrap Art Tour show in Mesquite, TX, we introduced our new Desktop Storage Cabinet. I have been using a couple of them to do a bit of organizing and love the clear shallow drawers. The cabinet provides easy access to materials and is a great solution for tucking away a project in progress until it is needed again.

The clear shallow drawers are the 8x10 box frames that many stampers already use for organizing wood mounted stamps. You can also purchase the cabinet without the drawers.

Sometimes, when I need a tag, an embellishment or a charm, I don't know exactly what I want, so having the ability to sort through like-items will be great.

To kick off this exciting new storage solution, we are offering the cabinet with 8 clear shallow trays for $29.00. Get it here. You can see more pictures here.

Crafter's Card File: Unlimited Possibilities

2009-01-30T16:42:00.001-06:00

If you love paper AND organization, there is not a project more fun than the Crafter's Card File. Not just for contacts anymore, this handmade wooden card file has a variety of practical and fun uses. I created a card file with photos of my nieces, and they always enjoy flipping through it. It makes for great conversation when displayed on a coffee table.
Using a card file for photos does not require as much planning or commitment as traditional scrapbooking can, because you can easily rearrange the cards and it is a small canvas with which to experiment. It is also great because it is a terrific solution for those photos that you love but don't make it to the big scrapbook page. If you already have a lot of small photos or photos with a small subject, the 3x5 card works great.

If the 3x5 card is not quite enough space, you can cut your own cards 3 inches wide and up to 4 or 5 inches tall and cut the notches out with a 3x5 card punch. For the coffee table card file pictured here, I used printed and solid cardstock that I had on hand. I like the look of the varying heights of cards, so I cut out cards 5 inches wide anywhere from 3 inches to almost 5 inches tall. I then punched the card file notches with the punch. In this file there is no chronological order, but they could easily be rearranged by date. To add some whimsy, add tabs from A-Z and file pictures. For example, the headline "ice cream" would be filed under the "I" tab. The headline "waaaahhhh!" would be filed under the "W" tab.

Use the back side of the card for journaling.

More ideas...

Address Card File
While using the card file for your contacts is one of the most obvious uses, the design can hold an element of originality. When giving as a gift, customize it for the recipient. The possibilities are endless... a Harley Davidson themed card file, a cupcake themed card file, a superhero themed card file, a UT Longhorn theme for a Longhorns fan... you get the idea. I have even been thinking about making a file for my friend who is a recycling hero/guru by using packaging (such as cereal boxes, inkjet printer boxes) to make the cards. I love the one that Jen del Muro made for addresses.

Important Dates
Make a tab for each month - January - December. Use one card for each important date and file chronologically. My friend, Diane, made this one to keep track of birthdays and anniversaries. I love the way she also made a tab for the date. The month cards are larger than the individual date cards which adds interest. She included photos and hand stamped the cards throughout.

Treasured Moments
Take a minute to jot down the cute thing your little one said or did. Include the date and slip it in your card file. You can add tabs to categorize the events by date or by child. This makes a great gift for parents or grandparents and is an easy way to create a lifetime keepsake. It also makes a great reference for scrapbooking. Refer back to it for inspiration when you are putting your photos into albums.

Recipes
Check out Susan Lile's fabulous recipe card file.

Travel Photo File
Create a file with vacation photos -- your tabs can be places you've been or the year of the vacation.

Recycled Christmas Card File
If you hate the thought of discarding or even recycling the Christmas cards you receive, turn them into card file cards. You can use the file to organize your Christmas card list or for Christmas recipes, projects and ideas. It would also be interesting to make a tab for friends and family and keep their Christmas photos in the file under their family name - "The Johnson's". Another variation of this would be to make a tab for each year.

Scripture Card File
Keep a catalog of your favorite scriptures -- organize by topic (love, faith, prayer, salvation...) or by book of the bible (Genesis, Ephesians...) You could even make a special tab for scriptures you know by heart.

Favorite Quotes
Make a card file to hold your favorite quotes. Use a-z tabs or organize by topic.

Guest File
For use in a Guest Room, create a card file that has local information for your guests. Incorporate interesting facts and photos about your town and have a section of blank cards for guests to sign and date.

New Words Card File
My husband, a fourth grade teacher, often gets asked about the meaning of a word. His response to his students is almost always to look it up. A card file with newly learned words could be a great tool for the classroom or for the homeschooled child.

Perpetual Calendar
While at the Great American Scrapbook Convention in Arlington, Texas last year, a couple of sisters were planning a perpetual card file for their mom. They were going to divide 365 cards among 5 sisters and were going to create a card for everyday of the year. Besides including information on important dates (anniversaries, birthdays, etc.) they were also going to include special memories throughout the file. I would love to see how that turned out. It sounds beautiful.

I could go on all day... the possibilities are endless.

Thanks for stopping by my blog for my first post. Special thanks to Susan for helping me figure out how to format the photos. I now have an even greater appreciation for those blogs that give me so much inspiration. I imagined that it must take some time for each post but I had no idea how much time would be spent trying to get the text and pictures to look somewhat like you want them to look! I have a long way to go, baby! A lot to learn!

For my first "confession" I will tell you that blogging is something I never thought I would do. I admit it; I am scared. There is so much great stuff out there that the thought of me blogging about my creative adventures is terrifying... I really want to contribute something worthwhile and while I am excited and hopeful, fear and doubt are present. Is there room for another creative blogger?

However, I am looking forward to moving past the fear and learning more about this whole creative blogging world. I am looking forward to sharing ideas, hopes, dreams... and stay tuned... confessions of a crafty girl.

Fear is that little darkroom where negatives are developed.
Michael Pritchard