Just a quick note to say – HOORAY! I have joined Twitter. All you tweeters out there send me a note @SherriSylvester. I’ll be posting links to fun tutorials, notes about life and links to the most fantastic blog ever (this one of course!). All kidding aside, I think this will be fun. Come join in. ~Sherri
Ok, so I’m super excited to say that my tutorial was posted in “Today’s Top Patterns” (ie: the FRONT PAGE – YaEEEeeeey!) on the SewSet website today! Okay, I’m more than super excited, I’m ecstatic! Just ask my husband, he can confirm that I am grinning like a crazy person and am having trouble standing still!
Sometimes things around here get a bit dull. Don’t get me wrong, I love what I do (of course!), but I don’t get a lot of comments on my posts (as yet, crossing my fingers!) and so the feedback is pretty slim. It’s super motivating when I find something I’ve put online has helped someone, or at least made them excited about sewing! As far as my Google Analytics tell me, there were 6 whole (new) people on my site today because of the link on SewSet, and that’s a big deal for my blog!
If you are still awake and it is still Monday where you live, you can visit them (click on the button below) and see the front page for yourself. If you are reading this on Tuesday, visit them anyhow! This website is a great resource for finding and searching for sewing patterns and tutorials online. If you want more information I also talk about SewSet on this post.
And, just to confirm, here’s a screenshot of their front page today. I’m in the bottom left corner.
For those of you who are on pins and needles waiting for the Mini Art Kit Printable Topper – you are in luck! Here it is. I posted the instructions for the mini birthday goodie bag kit last week and here is the finishing touch.
Instructions:
1) Use the Mini Art Kit (mini) Tutorial to make the kits.
2) Download and print out the topper on cardstock – Download: Mini Art Kit Topper
3) Cut out the toppers (assuming you are making more than one). Now, use a craft knife to cut the outside edge of the handle – see red line in the photo. Do not cut the bottom flat edge of the handle!
4) Fold the topper on the fold lines – see the red dotted lines below. When you are folding, do not fold the handle, it should stay flat and stick up above the fold when you are finished (see the photos of the finished product for reference.)
5) Place the topper over the zip-edge of the bags you used and staple it twice, once on each side. Voila – you are done!
For those of you excited for Christmas I’m going to post a few Christmas sewing projects over the next few weeks. Get ready to sew something!
On the topic of my daughter’s birthday – we needed to send something small for each of the 20 kids in her class. Since they don’t allow food to be sent to the school anymore we have gotten an abundance of pencils, erasers and cheap party toys. While my daughter likes them (for a few minutes), I am left to throw them out or kick them around the floor for a month. The other problem is that they cost a fortune! Some of the bags that were coming home must have set the parents back $2-$4 per kid and that was not in my budget – especially when I needed to also fund a party with it’s own goodie bags!
So, I made it my goal to find something I could put together that would be approximately $1 per kid and would be fun and somewhat useful, and this is what I came up with.
The cute factor on this is fantastic! The play factor? I gave it to my daughters and it kept them both busy for an hour – so that’s saying something! The cost factor? I think I came in at about $1.25 per kid, for a class of 20 students.
I have written up a quick tutorial below – use your imagination! There are so many more simple inexpensive things you could add to this.
Here’s what you need:
Here’s how you do it:
1) Count out 20 of your bookmarks and fold them in half. Insert 3 crayons in each semi-circle cutout (see the photo) and staple the bookmark on either side of the crayons.
2) Cut each stick of modeling clay in half. Arrange them on small squares of cardstock that fit inside the mini bags you bought. Make some labels for the outside. I added one on the back that said they were not for kids under 3, non-toxic and gluten free – because this was the only thing in the bag that didn’t have a brand label on it. Stick on the labels, insert the modeling clay (the square of card stock makes this step a lot easier) and zip them shut.
3) Take your 40 pipe cleaners and cut them in half. DO NOT under any circumstance use your sewing scissors to cut these! Even if you are not near other scissors and are feeling super lazy (I know I do that too!) Don’t even use your paper cutting scissors for that matter. Use wire cutters or an old pair of scissors, the wire will wreck your blades in no time. Make some labels and wrap them around the pipe cleaners.
4) Count out 20 play dough containers, 20 cookie cutters and 20 sticker pages. (This step is super easy!)
5) Go online and find your child’s favorite tv character, or a few cute colouring pages. I made 4 pages per child for my kits. I included 2 “unisex” colouring pages, 1 princess page and 1 superhero page. Print them out 4 per page on letter size paper (8.5″ x 11″). Cut the pages in half each way to get 4 mini colouring pages per kid. This is where a paper cutter comes in super handy.
6) Put 1 set of everything into each of your zip-able bags. You’re almost done!
7) You could at this point print out a few more labels saying “mini Art Kit” or something similar, OR you could download the printable for the topper and make these look like a tiny suitcase. I will be posting it very soon! – Update: The free printable art kit topper is here – Mini Art Kit (mini) Tutorial – Printable
If you do use this tutorial I would love to hear from you, leave me a comment and let me know how it goes!
You’ll have to forgive me for not posting something I’ve sewn. The projects have been few and far between in the last few weeks because I have been working on my daughter’s birthday party. This week I am posting an easy way to make cupcake toppers.
You will need:
1) Design your labels and set them up using the template provided with your paper. Usually the supplier provides directions for this online and you can make them in a word processing program. My labels are 2 5/8″ wide x 1″ high. I used the generic label paper from my local office supply store.
2) Print them! (This is pretty self explanatory!) Make sure the paper is the right way up or you will print on the back of it instead of on your labels. I added a gray line that indicates where to cut if you want to remove the rounded corners.
3) Peel a label off and line up the rounded end of the sticker – see photo below.
4) Put the toothpick in the space between the stickers and push the label together from the rounded edge side to the toothpick. This avoids any unevenness and wrinkles in the label. Here is a photo before I pushed the label together.
5) Cut off the edge of the label on the gray line (if desired). I wanted a square cornered flag – and the cutting also helps to remove any uneven edges if it is not perfectly lined up.
6) Top your cupcakes and enjoy!
I think it took me about 20 minutes to make 12 of these from start to finish – so it’s pretty quick. Who’s your favorite princess?!
I have been thinking, for a few months, that it would be fun to sew with someone, or many some-ones. There is a post on no big dill that I cannot find right now. In it there are photos of people sewing and knitting, drinking tea and eating delicious snacks. Now that sewing is becoming a big deal again, I think that it would be possible to start some kind of “every-once-in-a-while” meeting group. I know a few sewists that read this blog that are in my area (you know who you are!). And some in this area that are not reading this blog (shame on them! kidding….). Let me know if you’d be interested (comments are good), collect your sewist friends. I am free mid-end of November to have everyone over to my place. If not, we could start early and plan for January, after the holiday rush. Who’s in?!