T-shirt Transformed into Jazzy Ruffled Purse

I've been seeing a lot of ruffles around lately.... ruffles on blouses.... ruffles on headbands.... even ruffles on greeting cards! While making a ton of upcycled t-shirt totes for the Farmer's Market and upcoming craft shows I found myself with a pile of strips left over. So what's a girl to do with all that great t-shirt fabric? Why.... ruffle it of course! Here's what I came up with:

It has been quite a struggle NOT to just pile all my stuff in it and carry it around, but I convinced myself that there was a future owner out there somewhere who just couldn't live without this fun purse. Maybe I'll have to make another one soon! This project is also linked at the Passionately Artistic linking party
where you can find a ton of really awesome projects from yummy recipes, to colored glass jars, hand-sewn quilts and well, you name it it's there!

I'm featured this month in Scrapbook News and Reviews!

I'm soooooo excited to finally be able to share with you the tutorial just published on the Scrapbook News and Reviews web site! It was such an honor to be asked by Dana Tatar to be a featured artist in July. I chose to write a tutorial for making grunge flowers out of upcycled book pages. Please go take a look around their site and leave me some loving in the comments so I know you were there! Here's a sneak peek at one of the flowers:

This project is also linked at http://www.passionatelyartistic.com/2011/07/hgtvs-cash-cari-with-linking-party.html

Birthday surprise from Emily!

We celebrated my birthday today even though it was on July 6th and I was surprised by these awesome necklaces made by my daughter, Emily. She has sold quite a few of these at the Farmer's Market and in our Etsy shop and I've always admired them. NOW I am the proud owner of two handmade upcycled washer necklaces! These lovelies are 2 inches wide and will surely receive loads of compliments every time I wear them!



Oh and my wonderful husband gave me a Michael's gift card. He sure knows what I like! My present to myself was a 24 hour slumber party called Crop for Hope that was a fundraiser for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. It was hosted by a long-time friend of mine who sells Stampin Up products. Please go take a look at her blog Stamp Crazy Girl. It was held at the Circle S Ranch bed and breakfast and let me tell ya, the place is out of this world awesome! You can go see it online at http://www.circlesranch.com/ and even take a tour of the rooms. Mine was the Kansas room here and was just steps away from the table I used for scrapping. I made an entire scrapbook for my dog, Tucker, who died last October from cancer. I'll post some pics of that later, but for now I'm ready to go play with some of my new toys!

Mom's Memory Album

For my mom's over 80 Birthday I made her a memory album and want to share it with you here. The front and back covers are chipboard covered with quilt batting and fabric. The rest of the pages are made out of cereal or other food product boxes. I made copies of a bunch of old pictures and tried to cover the span of years from the time her and Dad got married up through their 60th anniversary this past year. Here's a peek inside some of the pages:

 The layers below are made out of an upcycled junk mail envelope.

 The tags are upcycled manilla folders.

 That's me in the Army uniform with my mom, grandma and grandpa (her parents).

Isn't this the cutest picture below of my daughter at my college graduation in the WSU Shocker outfit I sewed and then there she is as a graduate. How time flies!

Slide show of Dad's 80th

Come Help Me Pay It Forward

 I found the this post over at Yolie's blog, Just Yolie, Just Create and decided to join her in  the Pay It Forward.  Here's how it works:

"Pay It Forward" is the idea of blessing someone with a random act of kindness without expecting anything in return. It’s passing on a kindness, hoping that your recipients will do the same, and forming a never-ending chain of goodwill. But it isn’t only kindness, it is also a means to connect and share.

"I promise to send an original creation to the (1st) 5 people who leave a comment here. They must, in turn, post this on their blog, and send something they make to the 1st 5 people who comment."

Here's what you need to do:

1. Leave a comment on this post. I will send a handmade gift to the first 5 commenters.

2. Create a post on your blog offering the same.

3. Send a handmade item to your first 5 commenters.

4. It must be sent to your 5 people by end of the year.

Please do not sign up unless you are fully committed to making your 5 items!

Upcycled bowling shirts lap blanket for my Dad

For years my dad has been asking me when I was going to make the blanket out of his old bowling shirts. Well my sewing room is in as bad a shape or worse than my craft room and I just simply had NO idea where those shirts were! I've recently started making tote bags out of upcycled t-shirts and noticed two of my boxes marked, "old t-shirts". Hmmm, wonder what THAT means? well duh! Yup, you guessed it! Amongst all those old t-shirts waiting to be recycled was a clear plastic upcycled bag containing squares cut off some of my dad's old bowling shirts! PHEW!!! Since he has his 80th birthday AND Father's Day this month I decided it was high time I dusted off my sewing machine and make that blanket. He uses a wheelchair to get around so I made this lap-size. All I did was iron on some paper-backed interfacing, peel off the paper and iron the squares on to a big piece of blue terrycloth that I got from my mom's fabric stash when she quit sewing years ago. The terrycloth is pretty thick and soft, so I didn't add any other layers. I think he'll like it even though he can't see much anymore. Oh, then I zigzagged around all the squares. There's even some pockets he can stick things in! You've GOT to zoom in on the picture of the single square and read all those sayings. It's SOOOOOooo my Dad!!!