Tolentreasures

Watercolor pencils!  I just love working with them!  These are the colors I used. Start with a light circle of green. Add some color and shape here and there. Hint at some leaves and ferns. Then get out the brush and water and wet it all down. Stay loose and don't worry about any lines and then refer to the top picture and get out that Sharpie Pen and line away.   That is great television work!   

These little dresses. Found at yard sales and in boxes of aprons are adorable. But how to display them.    On a really cold winter day, what better place to hole up than this sunny, cheery sewing room.   I really don't spend enough time here.   Decorative hangers.   I have been told that they don't sell without cute hangers.   So, I raid the four year old grandson's closet, a quick peruse of Pinterest for ideas and away I go. This could easily be adapted to adult hangers though. Find a piece of material to fit the hanger, doubled. I have this awesome stash of drapery and upholstery sample books! Cut the fabric about an inch bigger than the hanger. Might as well make more than one. Press under the bottom edge and hem. Add some type of decoration on the fronts. Speaking of stashes.  There happens to be an awesome stash of lace, trims and ric rac in my sewing room. Sew the...

Ok, so the disclaimer on this would be: This is coming from a person (me) that is truly not a quilter! So, that can go two ways as I see it. If you are a quilter, look for a better tutorial. If you are not a quilter, you will see that even a non quilter can do this! My mom has been making these for awhile. Most of these directions are hers.   She is a quilter, an awesome quilter!   The parts that probably are not right, are my shortcuts.   I am all about fast and instant gratification. I didn't get that from her. (or my dad, which leads me to believe it was some long lost grandparent that was as impatient as I am) But enough of those genetics.   These are fantastic stash buster and quite fun and fast. There's that f word again....fast!         I am going to set mine together in squares like this with a dark color border on every square. And honestly, in my crafter ADD personality, who ...

It might need a little tweaking, but really,   now I want to make about 15 more! The fun that it provided for four children, was really worth it all.   Disclaimer: I did not want the sequins, they happened to be in the container with the stones and now I will be cleaning sequins out of my yard for the next 10 years or so.    I really should know better.   So here's MY tutorial.   I am sure that there are more precise ones somewhere.   But honestly, do those real tutorials ever fit YOUR lifestyle?   This is what you start with. The table happened to be on my deck still from Jenn, the non-sewer, Pinterest addict that wanted to make a dress for herself outside on the deck.   More on that another day.   The wire basket was just a thought, it didn't work. So, we have a large plastic planter. (not a big fan of plastic planters, but it was all I could find...

These are the EASIEST things to make. Honestly! This is all you need. Round the edges of the rectangle. But really, if you have a circle, that will work also. This is not a project for those with OCD tendencies. If you try to cut this too even, your rose will have no dimension. Make sure that you leave that circle in the middle, you will need that later. Starting at the end, put about 1 inch of glue on the edge and start rolling. Glue and roll. Glue and roll to this far. Glue on the leaves. Glue that flap down over the leaves... And you are done, almost. I didn't like that big flap, so I just trimmed it and added a little bead to the center. Now really, who could not make these? The bad news, after yesterday's manic wool moment of all those flowers... By 5:00 last night, I had two hives on my face. Big sad face here! The eczema is back. So, I suffered through this tutorial for all of you, and put the wool away again. Then I made these. Simple, inexpensive ACRYLIC...