A Denim Skirt From Cutoff Jeans

Denim math: 1 Pair of Jeans = 1 Pair of Shorts + 1 Skirt

Iron Craft time again! This challenge was "Denim" and I'm sure you can guess what that means. I had to sew. Well, really it means that we had to make something from denim, but to me it meant sewing. And, yes, I poked myself repeatedly with the needle. And, yes, I'm still terrified of my sewing machine, so this was done by hand.

My daughter has hit a growth spurt, so several pairs of her jeans still fit her around the waist, but are way too short. I decided to cut off a pair, naturally. I was left with the two legs and being the craft hoarder that I am, I kept them. When this challenge was issued, I was prepared (for once).

No making fun of my sewing skills!

The denim is stretchy, which I think is probably pretty important in this project. All I did was cut the seams as close as I could get, which left me with two squares and only two seams to sew. I left a bit of a vent area at the bottom of the back. I then sewed a seam at then top and then sewed a piece of elastic at the back and two darts at the front.

She thinks she's a supermodel.

Always posing for the camera.

I really, really need to learn how to use my sewing machine.

A pillow case and a table to match

An envelope pillow case with a felt flower embellishment.

It's Iron Craft time again! This challenge was In Stitches and, just as the title suggests, we had to sew something. Not my favorite thing, but I'm very proud of how this project turned out. It's completely hand-sewn with not a drop of glue used. Weird, I know.

Close-up of the flower.

My husband and I ordered a new chair that has shades of green and grey and it's all stripey. I love it to bits and can't wait until it gets here. In honor of our new chair to be, I whipped up this pillow case. The pillow is a cinnabar red that just won't go in my new color scheme.   This pillow case is so easy to do, I'm not going to bother with a tutorial. If you need step-by-step directions, try this envelope pillow case tutorial. And if you have any questions, just ask me.

The back.

 I had just enough fabric left over to change out my candlestick table. Yay! It needed an update.

And a matching table.

I love it when a project comes together exactly how I envisioned it. It's so rare when that happens.

From Cutlery Box to Ring Box

My new ring box

 It's been a while, but I'm still here. And still burning my fingers with my glue gun. Whatever. Iron Craft's Think Inside the Box challenge got me crafting again. Yay! This is a project I've been wanting to do for a while. I had a couple of wooden cutlery boxes laying around and since I saw the ring display case from Tea Rose Home, I knew I had to do it. I did a few things differently. I used a box instead of a frame and I didn't make individual rolls (sort of...more on that later). I think it turned out pretty well.

Original box

I lightly sanded the box top and quickly (not very neatly) slapped on a coat of white acrylic craft paint. I then attached a piece of scrapbook paper to the top with a couple of coats of Mod Podge. Love that stuff!

Pretty top!

Original insides

After that dried, I cut a piece of fleece to fit the inside of the box top and attached it with a glue gun around the edges, which is perfect for storing brooches. I then cut squares of batting, rolled them up and glued them to the insides of the compartments. I cut strips of the same fleece, glued one side down, and then tucked it in around the rolls. I used a flat screwdriver to tuck in the edges. I glued the other edge. And then did it all over again twice more.

Batting rolls

I left the last compartment free of batting rolls for chain rings and stretchy rings. I lined the bottom with more fleece. I then loaded the whole thing up and admired it on my shelf. 

Finished!

I want to find something to use as edging around the inside of the lid and the flat compartment just to finish them up a bit. I need a trip to the craft store for that. Can you believe that I didn't have anything appropriate in my overgrown stash? Seriously.

Peeps! (a headband and a craft fail)

Peeps bunny headband slide

When the Iron Craft Peeps Challenge was issued, I knew just what I'd do. Peeps Pops! They were adorable...in my mind. In reality? Er...more on that later. So I had to come up with a back up project. I whipped up this Super Simple headband using felt, a brown fabric marker, card stock, and a super strong glue stick.  I also used a pair of scissors, Made's Peeps Bunny template, and a plastic gold headband.

A Melty Cuff

Yeah...so I couldn't think of something else to call it.

Iron Craft's fourth challenge was Catalogue Creation and I knew immediately what I wanted to do. I just didn't know how I wanted to do it. You see, I've had a page ripped out of October's Marie Claire tacked up to my bulletin board since, well, October. I fell head over heels in love with this melty cuff by Delfina Delettrez, but I just didn't have an extra $1,660 laying around.

Gorgeous, right?

After mulling it over for a few days, I scaled back the design to something more practical for me, and figured out the construction, and surprise, surprise, it didn't involve metalsmithing. I cut a piece of felt and some thick elastic, sewed them together, layered a ton of hot glue, painted it, dripped some more paint, and then sealed it with Mod Podge. I'd still rather have the original, but sadly, I still don't have the cash and it's apparently sold out. The picture is still tacked to my bulletin board.

Infinity Scarves...Forever!

Zara's ecstatic over her new pink scarf.

I've developed an obsession with infinity scarves. Luckily, they're so easy to make they're Super Simple. Iron Craft's challenge is Warm Up, which, hello, is perfect for my new fixation.

Valentine's Pop-Up Card

Of course there's someone I love more than cupcakes!

Pop-up cards are a lot of fun. For me, anyway. Iron Craft's first challenge of the year, Paper, is because this is also Iron Craft's first anniversary. (By the way, happy anniversary!!!) For the first challenge of the year, I decided to step out of my comfort zone a little. For the first time ever, I embossed. With embossing powder. And a heat tool. Yeah...I'm a bit behind of the crafting curve...by a good fifteen years or so.

Holiday Treats (recipes)

Yummy treats for friends and family.

This week's Iron Craft challenge was Mulligan, meaning that we could do any of the previous challenges that we wanted. I did challenge #46 Handmade Holiday. This is just a small portion of things I've made for gifts this year, but since it's not Christmas yet, I didn't want to spoil any surprises.

Holiday Hair Clip

A hair clip that's perfect for the Christmas parade.

Iron Craft's For the Kids challenge was easy. My kid told me exactly what she wanted and I was able to make it in just a few minutes. When Zara saw the presents clip on The Ribbon Retreat's site, she had a Veruca Salt moment. She wanted it and she wanted it NOW!

Super Simple Wreath Napkin Rings

These wreath napkin rings would make great favors for your holiday party.

So now that you have a stack of No-Sew Napkins just in time for the holidays, you need a bunch of Super Simple Wreath Napkin Rings to go along with them. Well, that was my thought process for this week's Iron Craft Wreath challenge.

No-Sew Napkins

The start to my napkin collection.

My favorite part of participating in Iron Craft? The fact that it makes me get somethings done. I'm great at planning projects, but tend to lack in the follow-through department. I've had these no-sew napkins planned for a while, but it took Iron Craft's For the Table challenge to get me to do them.

A Hard Candy (& Cupcake) Christmas

Cupcakes everywhere!

Zara and I made these for Iron Craft's Handmade Holiday Challenge. They were so easy and we had so much fun making them. I'm doing a candy and cupcake theme on our Christmas tree this year. These are made out of scrapbook paper, a glue stick, and a marker for the wrapper details. The icing is glitter card stock.

The two in the lower left corner were done by Zara. I drew the shapes on card stock and let her color them in with markers and glitter glue. Everything was free-handed (as if you couldn't tell).

For extra stability, I cut two pieces at the same time and glued them back to back. When the tree goes up, I'll hang them with decorative hooks. They could also be hung with some pretty ribbon and would make super-cute gift tags.

Boo! (A Jane O'Lantern)

This is Jack's sister Jane.

Iron Craft's Boo! Challenge was a no-brainer for me. I had some pie pumpkins that needed to be decorated. Zara and I used washable markers instead of carving so that the pie pumpkins can be turned into, ummm, I dunno...pie after Halloween.

Butterfly Jar

So girly I heart it!

Raise your hand if you tend to save interesting-looking bottles and jars? Mmmkay...looks like I'm in the minority with my jar hoarding. That's alright. When Iron Craft's Bottles and Jars challenge came up, I had the perfect project in mind. And the perfect jar.

Tricked Out Trick-or-Treat Bucket

Trick or treat! Preferably treat.

I was so unbelievably relieved to see this week's Iron Craft challenge, which is called Hold It. You may (or may not) have noticed that I haven't been posting much lately. It's not because of any tragedy or anything like that, so don't worry. I've just been so busy. So. Very. Busy. I have also been feeling much better lately. So much better, in fact, that I haven't been able to find time to veg in front of my laptop or at my craft desk. Yay (sorta)!

Wow! That was a serious digression. Sorry about that. Anyway. I was relieved because I had jazzed up Zara's trick-or-treat bucket on Sunday, which worked perfectly for this week's Iron Craft.

Zara's planning on going as Cinderella this year thanks to the generosity of my cousin Kristy Tolley's awesome daughters. They passed along some great dress-up clothes and Zara fell head over heels in love with the Cinderella costume. So, of course she needed a trick-or-treat bucket to match her pretty blue dress.

I Heart Books Recycled Bookmark

I heart books!

Done reading? That's the question asked by Iron Craft's challenge. The instructions were to do something with a book. To be honest, my stomach was in knots over this one. Books have always been sacred to me. I've always felt that they should be handled with care and given respect. Yeah, even those biographies from reality television stars. Okay...maybe not so much those books, but you get what I'm saying. The idea of cutting up a book is horrifying to me. I really thought about skipping this one and then I remembered something...

Caught! (A W.I.P.)

Needs more work...a lot more work.

I love, love, love Iron Craft's challenge for this week...U.F.O. (UnFinished Object)! I have so many projects that I've started and not finished, or bought supplies for and have not even started (that learn-to-knit kit is gathering so much dust) that it's sad. This challenge gave me the incentive to start a painting I've been meaning to do for a while and just hadn't found the time. And do you know what I realized? I really miss painting. I used to paint on a regular basis, but haven't done anything real in years. The idea for this painting that I'm calling Caught came directly from my friend Travis of Orfanhed. It's still an U.F.O., but it's a lot closer to being finished than it was before...which was still in the shrink wrap.