Girl Scout Daisy Courageous and Strong Patch: Tula the Tulip

At our Girl Scout meetings, we have become accustomed to recreating whichever flower we are learning about during our craft. The girls really look forward to the craft. Sometimes it's hard to recreate the flower and as you get further into the flowers, you'll find that Gloria the Morning Glory looks an awful like Gerri the Geranium who looks an awful like Vi the Violet. So creating a unique craft sometimes becomes the bane of my existence for an hour or two.

Thankfully, Tula the Tulip, who represents the courageous and strong part of the Girl Scout Law, turned out to be easy an one.

I found a tulip pattern here. I printed out enough patterns for all of the girls and had each of them cut them out using scissors.

We then traced them onto red construction paper and cut them out again.

We also cut out rectangles from green construction paper and glued it to the bottom of the tulip. Then, simply fold on the lines (or where the lines are on the pattern), add some glue and close.

The only problem we encountered was getting the right vertical orientation with the tulip pattern. I get holding it upside down for some reason and that confused everyone.

We ended up cutting out some little additional petals from our scraps of red construction paper and added them to the stem.

Within no time, each girl had their very own Tula to add to their growing Girl Scout flower friend collection!

Till next time,

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Under the Sea Party Five-Part Series: Part Five -- Thank You Notes

This is the last installment in our Under the Sea Party Five-Part Series: Thank You Notes! To view the previous installments, visit:

Part One: Invitations
Part Two: Decorations
Part Three: Cake and Desserts
Part Four: Party Hats, Skirt, Apron and Table Runner

The Thank You Notes are usually the part that I dread. After all of the planning and hoopla, there's one more project sort of hanging over me. And at that point, I am usually tapped out on ideas. This one, however, came together quite easily.

Supplies:

Envelope
Blue textured card stock
White smooth card stock
Burnt orange card paper for photo frame
Photo
Sea embellishments
Wide ribbon
Double-sided tape
Craft glue
Paper clip

I created a base and sub-base using my usual method with the blue and white card stock and based on the size envelope I was using. Then I trimmed the photo I was going to use from the party and created bases using the orange paper.

I added the photo to the orange base and placed it in the corner of the card using double-sided tape.

Then I tied a bow from the ribbon and glued it using craft glue. I kept it in place to dry with a paper clip.

I added a sea embellishment to the lower left-hand corner.

And that was it! I wrote my message on the white part, had my little girl sign it and we were finished. As I was cutting the ribbon, I ran out, but luckily I had wide satin ribbon that matched.

Thanks for following my Under the Sea Party Five-Part Series! It was fun!

Till next time,

Completed: Easter Dresses, Purses and Bows

This Easter marked the first time I ever made anything for my kids to wear. I was praying they wouldn't end up naked by the end of the weekend!

The ruffle skirt is a pattern from MADE. The dress is a pattern from The Lily Bird Studio. The purses are from a pattern by Made By Rae. The purse is slightly too small for a woman, but a tad too big for little girls, so I just decreased the pattern size when I printed it to made two smaller purses. The hair bows are from this tutorial.

For first *real* projects, these were very straightforward and easy. And I'm happy to announce that no one's clothes fell off all weekend.

Our Easter table turned out really cute with egg cups I scored at Target for $1.

I added wire, name cards and ribbon for a quick table setting. The eggs in the middle are the eggs the girls and I colored. I didn't *believe* the directions on the back of the dye kit and added more water, hence the very pastel eggs, which somehow ended up working great.

Our Easter food baskets were blessed with complete success.

And we celebrated in the same clothes on Easter Sunday at the in-laws!

Sneak peek at the orange polka-dot skirt I made for myself in the background coming soon to a blog near you!

Now I am being forced to go outside and do yard work by Mike. I have zero interest in it this year for some reason. Wish me luck on convincing him we should be doing something else...

Till next time!

Completed: Knitted and Lined iPad Case

It's been about two years since I first started this project and guess what? I'm finally done. I used this Ravelry pattern as a guide (it's for an e-reader), adjusting the dimensions to fit our iPad. I throw the iPad in my bag almost everyday for the kids, so I wanted a nice case for it to go in. Fast forward two years: I got one. I lined my case with coordinating fabric because it seemed too flimsy without it. I also changed the direction of the case, choosing a landscape case versus a portrait layout.

I finished the knitting quite a while ago, but stalled on the assembly. I bought all of the supplies to line it when I finished the knitting and then it got lost in the abyss of unfinished things. When I was cleaning out my craft/sewing room a few months ago, I stumbled across it and was like: Oh yeah. I totally forgot about this.

It was a breeze to finish. I'm not sure why I waited so long.

I measured my lining out and finished the raw edges on the sewing machine. Then I hand-sewed it all of the way around the perimeter. At that point, it was one long rectangle, so to finish, I simply joined the sides. And added buttons.

I have no idea what the name of this yarn was other than it was sock yarn and I think I got it from JoAnn's. This case is perfect for our lifestyle. The seed stitch is a bit tedious, but it's worth it in the end!

Till next time,

Under the Sea Party Five-Part Series: Part Four -- Party Hats, Skirt, Apron and Table Runner

Welcome to Part Four of my Five-Part Under the Sea Party Series -- Party Hats, Skirt, Apron and Table Runner. If you missed the first three parts of my series, you can find them here:

Part One: Invitations
Part Two: Decorations
Part Three: Cake and Desserts

It all started with this fabric. I was perusing the aisles of JoAnn Fabrics, when I stumbled across this mermaid fabric and the wheels started turning. You know exactly what I'm talking about. 

I purchased 3 yards of fabric for about $18 and from it, I was able to make a skirt and headband for the birthday girl:

A table runner:

An apron for myself:

And party hats for the girls:

Now, I'd say that's economical. But more importantly, it's way too cute.

Skirt and Headband

I'm a very beginning sewer. But I will tell you that my mom always said that once you get bitten by the sewing bug, it's hard to ever recover. And I've been bit. Since I am just starting out sewing, I sought out a pattern that involved minimum techniques and one that was overall very easy to put together. This very easy pattern can be found HERE. It was a very straightforward tutorial, except I did have a little trouble with the sizing. The bloggers says to lay out 1/2-yard of fabric for a 3-year old, but I needed much closer to a yard. Other than that it was great and very easy to follow.

I found the headband pattern HERE. I added the flower because I felt it needed something else. I cut the petals from ribbon and added a button for the middle. The hardest part of the headband was turning it right-side out.

Apron

It was an afterthought to make an apron. I woke up early Sunday morning and found a very easy pattern for an apron. The apron pattern can be found HERE. Luckily, I had this coordinating fabric to make the ties from. This too was a very easy pattern to follow for a newbie.

I also made a matching headband by simply wrapping strips of fabric around an old headband. I'm clearly into headbands.

Table Runner

I measured the length of table runner I wanted, which happened to miraculously correspond with the amount of fabric I had left. I did a quick hem around the perimeter and voila! There's my very easy table runner.

I also ran some leftover tulle from my ceiling decorations and wrapped a white bow around it on both ends.

Party Hats

For the hats, I followed the tutorial HERE. They were fairly easy. I created a hat template from an existing party hat.

I used that template to create a hat form out of card stock. Then I traced around the fabric, leaving a few inches on the edge to pull over and hot glue to the paper. I sprayed one side of the paper hat with adhesive and smoothed the fabric on top of it. Then I flipped it over and started hot gluing the edges over.

I did that all of the way around and then rolled the hat together to form a cone. I applied hot glue to the seam.

I started to apply ribbon to the bottom with hot glue as well.

And I just sort of made little loops on the bottom, gluing at every loop.

The hot glue strings easily come off the final product.

For the strap, I used some plastic stretchy string used for bracelet-making.

I tied knots in each end.

And I ran a needle threaded with the cord through the fabric on the inside of each hat.

For the top, I followed the tutorial and cut out tulle 2.5" in width for the full length of the tulle. I ran a needle and thread through the middle to create gather the tulle.

Then I pushed the tulle down the length of the thread to create a ruffle.

 And I ran the  needle through the other end of the tulle to connect both ends and create a tulle ball.

I hot glued it to the top of hat.

Then we tried it on for good measure.

And lined them up like soldiers waiting for the party.

All in all, I'd say all of the pieces were a hit!

Don't forget to check back for the final installment -- Thank You Notes!

Till next time,