I’m trying something new on the blog. I get a lot of questions from readers that I answer privately, but they are often very similar to each other. I’m going to start answering questions that are not private in nature publicly on the blog so that everyone can learn from the answers. Let’s share the wealth! Have a question? Come ask me over on my contact page. Today’s question comes from DJ: HELP!!!! how much fabric would I need for 20 squares that measure 15″ x 16 1/2″? THANK YOU How Much Fabric Do I Need to Buy to Cut These Rectangles? The way I calculate this is very similar to the…
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How to Sew a Heart Mug Rug Quilting Tutorial
In this tutorial, I’m going to teach you how to make this super cute heart mug rug. I’ve made mine in red, white and pinks, giving off a major Valentine’s Day vibe, but you could easily swap up the colours for a totally different look all year round. You can watch my video tutorial or read the transcript below. I’ve included a few photos for reference but the main tutorial is on the video portion of this posting. How to Sew a Heart Mug Rug – Video Tutorial: This is a great project to use up fabric scraps. You’ll need three fabric prints in total: one dark for the background and…
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VIDEO: How to Make a 3D Folded Frame Embellishment Greeting Card Tutorial
Today I’m going to show you how to make this really simple embellishment frame out of folded card stock. It looks great on the front of a card, but you could apply this to other scrapbook projects for a three dimensional element. It really makes your focal sticker POP with minimal effort! This video features a Christmas card as an example, but you could do something similar for any holiday or event. Are you ready to get started?
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Valentine’s Day Cookie Decorating Ideas
Valentine’s Day is next week, so in preparation, I’ve been decorating some Valentine’s Day cookies with various types of icing. I’m no expert cookie decorator, but I enjoy trying. I watch people who are amazingly talented on YouTube ice cookies, but my experience attempting to recreate those is limited. Here are the results of my baking for Valentine’s Day this year. I think when you look at them with a sweeping glance they look quite cute! If you look closely, you’ll see my shaky piping (LOL). So ignore that! Here are the iced Valentine’s Day cookies: Now my intention when sharing this blog post is not to portray myself as…
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Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookie Bites Recipe
I had some leftover shortening left over from another recipe that I needed to use up, so I changed up some ingredients in another recipe to create these yummy cookie bites. The cinnamon flavour mixes so well with the apples and oats. These ingredients combine to form a collection of crumbly but delicious cookie bites! I hope that you enjoy these as much as my husband and I do. Yields: approximately 4 dozen cookies. Ingredients 1/2 cup vegetable shortening 1 1/3 cup packed brown sugar 1 egg 2 cups whole wheat flour 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg 1 cup quick…
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Use an Existing Bib to Sew a New Bib Sewing Tutorial
My son just turned four months old and he is definitely starting the teething stage. With teething, bibs definitely save a lot of laundry with all that gooey baby drool dripping everywhere. I’m slowly increasing my bib stash by sewing up my own bibs using existing bibs as a pattern. This sewing tutorial will teach you how to make a pattern from an existing baby bib to sew a new one. Two trim options are outlined: contrasting bias binding or self-facing. All you need for this tutorial is an existing bib that you love, some fabric, and some kind of fastener (snaps, velcro, etc). Before You Start the Bib, Decide the…
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VIDEO: How to Make an Origami Box Out of Scrapbook Paper
These boxes are awesome! I’ve been making them for years to organize my craft room and to store gifts for friends. They are cost-effective too, only using two sheets of 12″ by 12″ scrapbook paper to make. You can, of course, use smaller or larger paper, just note that you’ll want to cut the same 1/4″ strips off the sides of your paper regardless of what size sheets you start with. Would you prefer step-by-step written instructions? You can find those instructions in my original post: How to Make an Origami Box Out of Scrapbook Paper. With the wide variety of scrapbook papers available on the market, the sky is…
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Candy Cane Cookies and Chocolate Snow-Top Cookies
One of my favourite aspects of Christmas time is partaking in holiday cookies. I love to bake cookies for my friends and coworkers. This year I’m participating in a virtual cookie exchange with a few other craft bloggers, and for the exchange, I’ll be sharing not one, but two cookie recipes! These cookies are both delicious and pretty to present on a plate to your cookie exchange recipients. One recipe is for Candy Cane Cookies, and the other is for Chocolate Snow-Top Cookies. The candy cane cookies are more labour intensive but are very fun to make. The snowy cookies require some resting time for your dough, the perfect amount of…
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VIDEO: How to Make a Repeating Pattern for Spoonflower
This video tutorial will teach you how to create a seamless repeating pattern with Photoshop, using a scanned doodle as a base for your creation. You can then use this repeating pattern to create custom fabric using a fabric site like Spoonflower. Other ideas of how you could use your repeating pattern include using it as desktop wallpaper or printing it out on card stock as custom scrapbooking paper. So many possibilities! If you’d prefer to read written instructions rather than watch a video, view the original article How to Make a Repeating Pattern for Spoonflower. This is the first of many videos I’ll be creating for my new YouTube channel for my…
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What Tools Do You Need to Start Quilting?
Quilting is one of my all time favourite crafty activities. I’m always trying to get my friends started on quilting (with a few successful recruits, hooray!). What do you need to get started quilting? You don’t really need much to get started. People have been quilting long before fancy sewing machines have existed. You can cut patches out of fabric with a standard pair of scissors, and sew together by hand with a needle and thread. So the bare-bones list would be: fabric, scissors, needle, thread, and batting. But I’ll be honest: I hate hand sewing, and cutting out fabric patches with scissors would drive me crazy because it is…
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How to Save Money on Craft Supplies
A popular crafting myth is that you can always save money by making your own home decor items. While this can be true in some cases, I know that most quilts I make are going to be more expensive than any mass-produced quilt I can find at a store. Not only do some crafters not take their own time into consideration (we are all valuable and skilled!), but in some cases, the supplies themselves can be more than the cost of buying a ready-made item. The key is to keep your craft supply cost down to a reasonable level. If you follow my blog, you’ll know that I love to…
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Cinnamon Toast Crunch French Toast
My husband often makes me French Toast on Saturday mornings. The recipe I’m sharing today is my husband’s idea and was inspired by one of our favourite restaurants that dips their French Toast in panko bread crumbs. Instead of panko, he dialed up the sweetness factor by using crumbled Cinnamon Toast Crunch as the breading. You could modify this recipe by switching it out for any other sugary cereal. There’s nothing healthy about this recipe, but it’s a lovely treat! Yields: 6 slices of toast Ingredients: 3 eggs 1/4 cup milk 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 6 slices of bread 2-1/2 cups of Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal 4 tablespoons of butter maple syrup, as desired for…
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How to Sew a Colour Block Tank Dress
At seven months pregnant, my belly is getting larger and my wardrobe is getting smaller. Time to sew some new clothes! I picked up a few scraps of two different solid knit fabrics (one grey, one blue) from the thrift store on the cheap – not enough to make a full dress, but enough to make a shirt and a skirt. I prefer dresses to separates, so I decided to combine these two textiles together into a simple colour blocked tank dress that’s easy to wear. This tutorial will teach you how to make a stretchy tank dress with an empire waist, using a tank top as a template…
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Silhouette Cut Out Canvas – Vintage Sewing Machine
This project was inspired by Ashley (of Joyfully Jenson)’s cut canvas project. When I saw her project, I decided to add it to my 30 Crafty Projects to Complete Before I’m 30 list, with a small twist: a silhouette instead of an all-over pattern. I decided to do a silhouette of a vintage sewing machine. I looked online for some silhouettes, but I didn’t find anything that I liked (too complex, too simple, not a model that I liked, etc). I decided to use a photograph of my Singer 66 sewing machine and turn it into a silhouette myself. Want to make a cut out canvas like mine? Here are the step by…
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Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars
What tastes better than peanut butter and chocolate? I was in the mood for some Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, but I was also in the mood to make something peanut buttery in the kitchen. I followed Nicko’s Kitchen’s recipe to make these, and they turned out great. Below the picture, you can watch the video that shows just how easy this is. No baking is required, but patience is needed to wait for all the layers to set. Is anyone else addicted to watching those short and sweet recipe videos? This is the video below that inspired me to try Nicko’s recipe: Recipe Video My Attempts at the Peanut Butter…
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Sewn Knitting Needle Roll Up Case Tutorial
I’m getting really excited about knitting. I mentioned in my previous post about cat themed knitted dish cloths that I purchased a set of bamboo knitting needles in various sizes so that I would be good to go for a variety of knitting projects in my future knitting life. I ended up buying an inexpensive set from AliExpress with 18 different sizes. How could I store all of these knitting needles so that I wouldn’t lose them, and also in a way that I could add more knitting needles to my collection with ease? Behold: the knitting needle case! This project is very quick to sew up and holds at…
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Diagonal Slice Diamond Block Baby Quilt in Grey and Mint
Last year, I traveled to the fashion district in downtown Toronto with my mom to check out the various fabric shops. We didn’t go with a specific project in mind, instead, just enjoying the experience of touching all the different fabrics. I picked up two quilting cottons on my trip that I fell in love with, knowing I would come up with an idea for them later. I discovered two other fabrics in my stash that coordinated well, two prints that I had ordered from Connecting Threads a few years back. I wanted to make a quilt that had big blocks so that the fabric prints could shine. I decided to make the…
