Easy & Cute Clutch!

It's been a bit since I've blogged here! Things have been busy on our end. We've done some trips/weekends away and then I came down with a bad cold...so crafting took a back seat to life for a bit. But I'm back!

My latest project is actually a second of something I made awhile back.  They're very simple clutch purses.

You need:

2 fat quarters ($1.00 a piece at Walmart)
Fusible interfacing (Ranges depending on what type you get)
A button or clasp
Thread
 Any additional decor you'd like to add

You first just measure the fat quarter to the size of clutch you want to make. A full fat quarter would make an over-sized clutch. I cut out two rectangles. I cut the interfacing to the same size and shape. Ironed a piece of interfacing onto each fat quarter. Then I sewed the fabric right sides facing each other. I left a small opening. Turned the piece out. Ironed it flat, sewed the opening close.

On one of the clutches I sewed ric-rac into the seam of the top of the clutch so that it just hardly sticks out.

One clutch I used a button and the button function on my sewing machine. On the other I used a small clutch. And sewed a bead on the outside.

And ta-dah!

Here's the first:

And the inside:

And the second:

And the inside (I will go back and clean up the threading that is visible.)

I love how easy and inexpensive this project is. You can go as simple or as elaborate as you want. And again, with this being so cheap, I can make as many as I want!

Princessfied.

So I know I mentioned earlier that I was running a half marathon. The Disney Princess Half Marathon to be precise. Well...I did it! Sunday, February 24th my two friends from grad school (and about 25,997 other runners) took to the road.

We woke up at about 2:30 AM (it still makes me tired thinking about that...) and threw on our costumes and headed to the bus.

We got to the run site and had music to listen to and lots of other princesses and princes to look at for a few hours. We then walked towards our corral. (We were all in corral C). After count downs and entertainment it was finally our chance to start (around 5:40 something).

The race started off really well. The first 9 miles one of my friends and I stayed together...after we hit mile 9 though she was able to maintain our speed...and I had to slow down a bit.

Throughout the entire race there were water/powerade stops (Thank you Disney!). There were characters that if you chose to you could stop and take pictures with, I was concentrating on the "I want to actually finish this" piece so I didn't stop (except once in front of the castle). There was some entertainment with bands, a choir, and all sorts of things. The best part was running through magic kingdom.

First, the crowd was really into it...everyone was screaming and cheering for every single runner. And let me tell you...I placed 9,097...so there were a LOT of other runners in front of me. We got to loop around the park and ran through Cinderella's castle. It was awesome...and definitely gave me a boost at the point where I was getting a little tired.

I definitely struggled the last 4 miles of the race. My feet and legs started to cramp, my ankle started to tighten up. I had to walk a few times throughout those 4. The volunteers (who were awesome throughout the entire race) definitely helped with cheering runners on, providing water, biofreeze, and Gu. But those last 4 they seemed extra loud and extra encouraging...which is definitely what I needed. Though...they kept saying, "You're almost there." and it felt like that was a lie. Haha. But, when I finally turned that last corner and saw the finish line...that was one of the most amazing feelings in the world. I was about to complete a half marathon. I was about to have just finished 13.1 miles. I definitely choked back some tears (which is extra difficult when you're running). 

I couldn't believe I finished...even when the volunteer handed me my medal, even after I had been sprinkled with fairy dust, even after I waited in line, not really knowing what it was for to get my picture taken. I just couldn't believe it. It goes to show you, if you think you can do something and you work for it...you can. I mean, I ran cross country in high school but normally couldn't finish/run all of those 3.2 mile races. And here I was, having just done a 1/2 marathon. I've been a diabetic since I was 16 months old, but here I was holding a medal saying I'd just completed a 1/2 marathon. Was it fast? No. It took me 2 hours 49 minutes and 19 seconds. The winner did it in about 1 hour 17 minutes. But I didn't even care. I'd just finished.

I really do want to thank my friends who were there with me. My friends and family who cheered me on from afar and all of those people cheering, whether it was friends/family of other runners, volunteers, Disney employees or the other runners. That's what I've loved about running, it doesn't matter how fast you are, it doesn't matter what your final time is...if you're trying, they're cheering you on. I love that. I absolutely love that about running. People appreciate your attempt, your effort. And it's everyone...crowds and fellow runners alike. That's amazing to me.

So, in this long detailed race story you're probably wondering...I thought this was a crafting blog? No fears! I did do a craft. Very, very simple. It's a shadow box for my race bib and medal. I figured since I got such a huge sense of accomplishment, I want to be able to display the medal for those days when I'm feeling a little down. And remember..."hey, you ran 13.1 miles...you've got this."

Michael's is typically having sales on their frames which is awesome. I got my shadow box for about $13. And here it is:

Again, nothing super fancy...but I love it. I may add some tulle or something from my tutu, change things up a bit (which is another reason why shadow boxes are awesome...very easy to make addition/changes), but for now it makes me so happy to catch this as I pass by it in my apartment.

Friends, Dragons and Sangria: Weekends Don't Get Much Better

I had another wonderful weekend of a friend visiting. One of my closest friends from undergrad came down for the weekend. We decided to do some crafty projects after searching around on Pinterest for awhile. We found an adorable Dragon...but the pattern and directions were in another language. So we decided we'd fake it until we made it.

We didn't use the pattern and free handed a lot of the cuts. I do love our dragons, but the person who created the pattern definitely did an adorable job.

Here are our projects.

 Meet Earl (blue) and Denver (red)!

Earl is mine and Denver is Sarah's. It was a lot of fun but it took a LONG time. We spent about 6 hours on these little guys.

But I think they were worth it...don't you?

 So cute!

It was so good to get to see Sarah again! It doesn't happen nearly enough. We also had lots of delicious food, skyped with another friend, went shopping (great sales at Michael's) and window shopping...oh and made a delicious Sangria.

The recipe is easy enough to make:

1 bottle Moscato
1 Orange
1 Lime
1 Lemon
1 bag frozen berries
Raspberry Blackberry Sparkling Water

Cut orange, lime, and lemon in slices. Put into pitcher. Pour moscato over sliced fruit. Add a small handful of berries. Let sit (refrigerated) for a few hours (we waited about 3 hours, you can definitely wait more if you'd like!). Add more frozen berries and about 1/2 a bottle (33 oz) of sparkling water. And enjoy. So simple...and SO delicious.

I'm ready for another weekend just like it!

Valentine's Gift for a Gamer

Every year for Valentine's Day, my boyfriend and I exchange gifts. Our second year together we actually decided to make gifts for each other, both of us were short on money so this seemed like a nice way to celebrate and not stress out about the cash. It's a tradition that we've kept up since that time.

Since I have a friend coming on the 15th we celebrated Valentine's Day early. This year he got me a little Valentine mailbox and put a little something in it each day. He was struggling to come up with something but I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed this. He "made" a little collection of gifts from some of my favorite things.

Day 1: A Paint Your Own Sun-Catcher in the shape of an elephant. Elephants are one of my favorite animals.
Day 2: A Luigi K'Nex Mariokart Bike.
Day 3: Cake Pop Sticks (I got a cake pop maker for Christmas, so this was an awesome gift!)
Day 4: A drawing of Sulley and I (when I'm dressed in my 1/2 marathon costume) as if it were done by Boo
Day 5:A Luigi's Mansion Valentine's Card and a Michael's gift card!
Day 6: Chocolates and multiple Valentine Cards, including a few more Luigi cards with some drawings by Terence in them. :-)

For him, I made him something practical but fun. He LOVES practical gifts, which makes my job of giving gifts pretty easy. He's a gamer. He LOVES video games. He's got tons of games and lots of controllers. We used to just put the controllers on the shelf on the bottom half of our coffee table, but they'd fall off pretty often. He'd been saying for awhile he should get a basket or something to keep all the controllers in. Luckily, he hadn't picked one up yet. So that's when I knew what the perfect gift would be.

I went shopping to grab the supplies as I didn't really know how I wanted to go about doing this gift. My first stop was Walmart. After digging around the store for almost an hour, I finally settled on picking up some foam sticker sheets ($5) and a small organizational bin ($5) which I wasn't crazy about. I wasn't exactly sure what I'd do with it. I knew I wanted to make some small controllers but wasn't really sure how I'd do it or how they'd be attached to the basket.

I then scooted on over to Michael's. After searching around I found a basket that I really liked. It was originally $14.95, but they were having a 40% off all baskets sale so it came out to $8.97. Woo! I also picked up some larger foam sheets that fit in the bottom perfectly ($0.89) and some star brads to hold the sheet in place ($2.99). And some foam sticker letters ($2.99).

I came home and started working away. I cut out the different controller shapes and used the foam stickers, pens and markers to build them. These foam sticker sheets were awesome. They made the project really easy. The only thing that I suggest is that you have SHARP scissors. Mine were a little dull so I didn't get as precise cuts as I wanted. If you're trying to do bigger shapes you shouldn't have a problem though. It was more the fact that I had a lot of TINY shapes to focus on.

Here's the front of the basket:

His name and a Game Cube controller.

One side of the basket:

 A Wii controller.

Another side:

A Wii Classic Controller.

And the back:

A NES Classic Controller and a Game Cube Wavebird.

I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out...and how few supplies that were actually needed. But mostly how excited he got when he opened it.

Mike Wazowski's doing 13.1 miles!

In my last post (Tutus and Training) I had mentioned I was getting a fanny pack for my upcoming 1/2 marathon. Being diabetic it'll be important to have some emergency supplies on me during the race. I didn't want just an average boring fanny pack. (Because they're ever so fashionable, right?). I decided to make my pack tie in with my costume in general. So since my costume is inspired by Sulley by Monster's Inc, the pack is inspired by Mike! Because they're such an awesome pair I didn't want them to be separated for 13.1 miles!

I bought green, white, and black felt. They were $0.20 each. I already had a blue felt sheet at home so I didn't need to worry about that. And then I bought a $7 fanny pack.

I put the green felt in my embroidery. Then cut out a white circle and sewed that on.

 I then did the same with the blue and the black. I just made each color progressively smaller.

Next I made half moons for both the eyelids and the mouth.

Then I of course had to add the teeth.

 Finally I attached it to the fanny pack. The pack is empty right now but will definitely round out when I put my camera and such in it. I'm excited about this one!

He looks in shock that he'll be going on this 13.1 mile journey...."Sulley...what were you thinking?!?"

Tutus and Training

So in a couple weeks (16 days to be exact) I'm going to be running a half-marathon. (Eeek!) First of all, I'm really excited. Second of all, "What the heck was I thinking?". This post is FAR more about the tutu and way less (as in really not at all about the training).

The excitement part comes from a couple of different things. One being that I get to run it with two friends from grad school. One I haven't seen since the beginning of football season, the other I haven't seen since the day we graduated from grad school (which was close to 3 years ago). Another reason to be excited? It's in Disney! It's the Disney Princess Half Marathon.

So where does the crafting come in? Well, it's a fairly common practice to dress up for the Disney Princess 1/2. Most of the ladies running in it dress as Belle, Mulan, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Tiana, Aurora, Snow White or any of the other Disney Princesses (sorry if I missed your favorite!).

While I've always loved Disney movies, I've never had a true favorite princess. I liked dolls and Barbies growing up but was kinda a tom-boy too. And my favorite dolls were American Girl Dolls...so I was kinda this geeky, sometimes girly, sometimes no where close to girly kid who liked Disney movies but didn't imagine myself as any of the Princesses. So I kept trying to decide which Princess do I want to be? Then I decided none. I was going to be my own princess. So I went to buy some tulle ($3 per spool) and elastic ($1). And realized which character my princess would be based off of from my color choice.

One of my favorite movies of all time is Disney Pixar's Monster's Inc. I ADORE Sulley and him and Mike make an awesome pair. So, my tutu is based off of Sulley.

I took the elastic band and wrapped it around my waist...if you do this I suggest measuring it so it's uncomfortably tight. All the tulle will stretch it out.

I then cut the tulle to (fairly) equal lengths. And then just looped it around the elastic. It is somewhat time consuming but really easy. I used 6 spools of tulle all together.

I also created a headband with a teal headband, purple fur and some grey card stock to make the horns. I'm going to using a fanny pack for emergency supplies, a camera and my phone. I plan to try to make the fanny pack look like Mike.

This is my friend Stefani (from my last post) and I together. We really wanted to have Stef join us on our running adventure (she's a grad school friend too) but she has a huge commitment with work every year during the same weekend as the race so she couldn't come...but to make up for that we made a tutu for her while she was here too!

Oh and the "What the heck was I thinking part?" comes every time I do a long run. :-p

Love in Frames

My friend Stefani came to visit this weekend! YAY!

 And we decided to do some crafting. We had browsed through Pinterest to get some ideas, but didn't have anything set in mind. So we took a trip to Michael's to start brainstorming. That's when Stef had a great idea about doing a combination of things we saw. We found some small wooden frames for about $1 a piece and bought 4 of them. We then bought acrylic paint for $0.68 a bottle. I bought purple, Stef bought blue and we bought a white. We each bought a thing of ribbon, we found some great ribbon for $1 a piece. And then a piece of scrapbook paper for about $0.69. We looked for small wooden letters, but this store was low on supply so we went to Walmart and found a big tub of small wooden letters for about $6.

We came home and started working!

First, we painted the frames. We did ours in varying shades of our respective colors. We just kept adding white for each new frame color.

We also painted the letters white...

Next we cut out card stock and the scrapbook paper  so that they'd fit just slightly larger then the inside of the frame.

We glued the paper to the card stock then glued the card stock onto the least pretty side of the frame.

 The scrapbook paper was facing out, so when you flipped it over, it looked like this...

Next we glued the letters to the center of the paper. We just used Elmer's glue for this..nothing to fancy.

After the glue finished drying, we got out my glue gun and started to attach the ribbon. All we did was cut a LONG piece of ribbon. (You need enough to attach the frames and leave some space in between each of them.) We just glued the frames to the back. Then cut a small piece of ribbon to make a loop at the top so we could hang our signs.

And ta-dah!

 

I "love" it. :-) 

 

We did another crafting project but I'll leave that for my next post!