Pattern Test for Sweet Potato 3 Patterns – 07

The latest Pattern Test that I did for Sweet Potato 3 Patterns was the Plum Perfect Footed Leggings. These cute little things come in 11 different sizes! That’s right, I said 11! This means that everyone in your family can have a pair!
Infant/Toddler Sizes: 0-3 Month / 3-6 Month / 6-12 Month / 12-24 Month
Child Sizes: 3T-4T / 5-8 Years / 9-12 Years
Teen & Adult Sizes: Small / Medium / Large / X-Large

They also have the option of doing either a plain legging.

leggings01_wm_zps8onkejdm

Or, you can add the attached foot part on it!

leggings02_wm_zps2r9btzvu

Wouldn’t this be perfect for dance class or just lounging around?!
Another fun thing about this project is made with a fun new stitch! I LOVED doing this stitch and it was totally faster then doing a straight up single crochet stitch.

You can get this pattern here: RavelryEtsy | Craftsy
Make sure you head over to her Fan page too! Sweet Potato 3 Patterns

Melody’s Makings has announced her Fall 2015 Mystery Create-a-long!

Photo Credit: From Melody’s Makings

My friend Melody over at Melody’s Makings has announce that she is doing another Mystery Create-a-Long and I could not be more excited!! I have done a couple of the Create-a-Longs that she has offered and they have all been super fun!

Your probably wondering why it’s a Create-a-Long instead of a Crochet or Knit a-Long. Well, that is because her Mystery projects are offered in BOTH Crochet and Knit! Isn’t that awesome?!

I feel that this allows the participants to really learn from the project while they have fun with it. You can ask for help if you are not sure on how to work up one of the sections that she posted. If she isn’t available at the exact moment that the question is asked, you still have plenty of help from all of the people that are also working it up with you! How awesome is that? So, why not take advantage of this time and try to expand your skills as either a crocheter or a knitter.

She breaks down the project into very easy sections to complete in the time frame that she assigns to each section. But it’s okay if you fall behind, because it’s easy to catch up… just try not to peek at what everyone else is posting… Or you might find out what you are working up before you want to. It is a Mystery, so you wont know what the project is until you are finished!

She was nice enough to post some sneak peaks so, you can start your guessing right away!

Melody’s Makings – Crochet Mystery Create-A-Long Fall 2015

To go to the Crochet version of this Mystery Create-a-Long click here.

Melody’s Makings – Knit Mystery Create-A-Long Fall 2015

To go to the Knit version of this Mystery Create-a-Long click here.

You can find all of the information for this awesome event hosted by Melody’s Makings below!

Melody’s Makings
Facebook / Blog / Ravelry / Etsy / Craftsy

Happy Fourth of July: Project Ideas!

Happy Fourth of July everyone! I hope that you are all having fun with family and friends, while BBQing some yummy food and waiting for the fireworks to start!

What a better way to celebrate our wonderful Countries Birthday then with a pattern round up! I didn’t personally get to work on any Red, White and Blue items this year, but that doesn’t mean I can enjoy looking at some! I have scoped out the internet and found some of my favorite Fourth of July projects that I want to share with you!

Fourth of JulyWhile making this list, I wanted to find stuff that you could do, the kids could do/wear and stuff for the house. That is why I decided to share the projects that I have in the above picture with you.

1. Pin Wheel Hairclips – by Cutesy Crafts – Aren’t this little clips so cute! I can see them being used in my girls hair as well as for embellishments for other projects!
2. Patriotic Crocheted Stars – Repeat Crafter Me – These have to be the cutest stars that I have come across! They have some awesome detail and are so versatile! I could see these used as an embellishment, a hair clip or maybe even attach some rings to them for jewelry or wine glass charms!

Repeat Crafter Me

3. Patriotic String Lights – Jonathan Fong – I used to make these with my Mom was I was much younger. But instead of circular light decorations we made ours in the shape of eggs for Easter and hung them from the trees outside. They were always super fun to make! So, I think this would be an easy project for you to make with the kiddos!
Jonathan Fong

4. Fourth of July Firework Hand Prints – A Little’ Pinch of Perfect – Yes, I have kids. As I am sure you all know by now. So, I am a sucker for anything made with their hand or foot prints! I remember the first year after Miss S was born, I made hand print stuff with the girls for every holiday. And made four of each on so that I could send them to their Grandparents too! Because come on… what Grandparent doesn’t love seeing homemade gifts from their Grandbabies?!?

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Aren’t these little projects make you inspired to make some Red, White & Blue stuff? I know I will be making some of these but on a later date since I have run out of time to do them for this year.
Now you all have to share your Fourth of July projects with me! What is your favorite thing to make for this glorious holiday?!

BOGO Sale over at Sweet Potato 3 Patterns!

Christine will be heading home tomorrow from an awesome trip and wants to celebrate her return with an awesome BOGO Sale! All you have to do is head over to her Ravelry shop and start shopping! There is no coupon needed for this sale and all items in her ravelry shop are included!!

This sale is only good until July 5th so you better hurry up and take advantage of this one before time runs out!!!

5 Easy Kid Wall Art Projects – Guest Post by Modernize

5 Easy Kid Wall Art Projects
By Jane Blanchard

Summer is around the corner and that means parents will likely hear the words, “I’m bored,” from their children. Do you want to keep them entertained, but also use their playtime for something practical? You can engage their imagination by letting them create artistic masterpieces and hang these projects on their bedroom walls. This will not only make your child’s room look unique, but also let you decorate on a budget.

Here are 5 easy kid wall art projects that you and your kids will definitely love.

Via Pinterest

 

Glittered Animal Canvases

Do your kids love animals and also like to paint? You can go to your local Michaels or Target and let your kids pick out plastic animal figures that they adore. You will also need glitter, glue, paint, hairspray and small canvases to mount their animals to the wall.

First, let the kids paint the canvases in the color of their choosing. While their canvas is drying, the kids can paint their animals and then shower glitter on their updated figurines. Once they are dry, sprinkle glitter on the animals and add hairspray so that the sparkles will stick. For the last step, glue the plastic figures on the canvas, allow it to dry and then mount them to the wall.

Via Papery and Cakery

 

Use clothes hangers to decorate your kid’s wall

You can use wooden hangers to spruce up your child’s wall. They can paint, draw or color on different pieces of paper – abstract art, butterflies or self-portraits. They can stick with a theme of princesses or racecars or you can offer to print pictures from the computer; this project is whatever you want to make it! Once the kids have decided on what they want to put on their wall, all you need to do is clip it to the hangers and mount it to the wall. They beauty of this wall art is your kids can change out their pictures whenever they please, without very little fuss.

Via Home Designing

 

Use crayons and a sturdy board/canvas to showcase their talents

If you have children, chances are there are crayons in your house. Your kids can reuse these old crayons and glue them together in a shape of their liking. Anything goes – a circle, heart or square. Grab a white board or canvas and have your child trace a their design of choice on the board. Once the tracing is finished, he or she can glue the crayons to form the shape. Afterwards, they can channel their inner Picasso and paint around the edges.

Via Architecture Art Designs

 

Use 3D Wall Art

If you are kids are too young to paint or color, but want to decorate the walls of their room, there are still options that are available. A new decorating trend to accessorize walls focuses on 3D art. You can buy origami birds, butterflies or flowers so the white wall can pop and also provide the right touch for your child’s room.

Via A Slice of Life

 

Personalize walls with letters

By using wooden letters and paint, children can decorate their room with the entire alphabet, use their initials or spell out their first name. These wooden letters and paint are available at craft stores everywhere. The kids can make designs on these letters, use a solid paint or stencil on some polka dots. Once the letters are dry, they are ready to mount on the wall.

Via Architecture Designs

 

For more DIY ideas, head to Modernize.com.

 

Pattern Test for Sweet Potato 3 Patterns – 05

This pattern test will certainly make you go “awe”! I have a couple of friends with little girls so I just had to make a pair of these little Bloomers for one of them! I mean they are totally cute right?! Who wouldn’t make a little one in their life a couple of pairs of these?!

As always Christine’s patterns are super easy to follow along and understand. Don’t fret if you do come across something that makes you go hmmm, because she has really good customer service when it comes to her patterns!

I usually stick to hats when I crochet/knit things. But I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to work on this one! Plus, I just knew there would be someone that could be a little model for it for me!

As always, the pattern was very easy to follow. You construct it one leg at a time before joining them together to do the main part of the bloomer. The pattern includes sizes from 0-3 months all the way up to 3t! How awesome is that?! They were so easy and fast to make that I can easily see myself making them in different sizes and colors so that my girls can wear them for a long time!

She suggested that we used either Hobby Lobby’s I Love This Cotton or Caron Simply Soft, which is what I used. I just love how soft this yarn is and the sheen is to die for! Super cute! Here are a couple pictures of my little model wearing the Bloomer Shorts that I made using Sweet Potato 3’s pattern.

Don’t they look so cute?! Just imagine all of the possibilities that you can have with different yarn and ribbon colors!

You can get this pattern on Ravelry here: Bloomer Shorts
Make sure you head over to her Fan page too! Sweet Potato 3 Patterns

Pattern Test for Melody’s Makings – 02

I just recently finished one of the cutest little animal projects that I have ever done! Melody’s Makings – Rustic Raccoon Hooded Cowl! This is her first hooded cowl pattern and you can clearly see that she hit the ball out of the park with this one! Can’t you just imagine a whole family of Rustic Raccoon Hooded children (and adults) walking around?! If I lived in a colder climate I would definitely make one for each of my kids and myself since the pattern is sized to fit a newborn all the way to an adult.

I love how Melody used bulky yarn for this pattern because I had the perfect Bernat Alpaca yarn to use for one of the projects colors! I also feel that using a thicker yarn means the projects go faster. So, I can easily see making more then one of these at a time (which is good since I want one for each of us)!

Another thing that I love about this pattern, is that Melody offers it in both knit and crochet! As I am sure you can tell, I did the crochet version… I have only done one knitting project so I wouldn’t feel to confident to try the knit pattern right now. But I really hope to be able to feel more comfortable with knitting so that I can take advantage of both versions of her patterns. Most of her patterns are available in both versions too!

Want the info on where to get this pattern? I am sure you do!

Knit Version: Website / Ravelry

Crochet Version: Website / Ravelry

Don’t forget to head over to her Facebook page and show her some love! She puts up a lot of great content and giveaways!

Happy Crochet Month!! Spring Free Crochet Pattern Round-up and More!

This morning I woke up and had to make some phone calls to Miss M’s doctor and dentist to get her paperwork for school! Yes, I said school! On Friday I will be signing her up for Transitional Kindergarten (It would have been Kindergarten but she will have to wait another year for that due to the cut off changes). She is very excited… I am not so much. I can’t believe she will be 5 in about 6 months. That means her sister, Miss S, will be be turning 3 in one month! Eeek!!

Enough of the crazy Mom talk about how fast her kids are growing up… lets talk about what else is going on. Happy Crochet Month!

What a great time to be a crocheter! The weather is starting to get a little more on the Spring side with some elevated temps (although it been kind of cold here… mid to high 60’s here in SoCal). This is the time when we should start making all of our spring projects! And what a great way to celebrate crochet month then with Sweet Potatoe 3 Patterns!

Image from: Sweet Potato 3 Patterns

She will be posting a bunch of different things all month long! Today she posted a chance to get her 3-in-1 Summer Wrap for free! Make sure you click the image above and follow her facebook fan page! You don’t want to miss out on all of her updates!

To celebrate Crochet month and to get you pumped for Spring I decided to put together a list of 5 Free Crochet Patterns for Spring!

1. Love the Blue Bird’s Crochet Spring Bunnies – These little bunnies are so cute! I just love their little tails! These bunnies can be used for all kinds of things like embelishments on hats and garland! They can be made in any color combination so the possibilities are endless!

2. Cre8tion Crochet’s Lightweight Garden Hat – I just love how airy this hat is perfect for a day in the garden, dressing up for Easter or celebrating Mother’s Day! The flowers on the side are perfect embellishments that finish it off!

3. Light & Airy Poncho Designed by Eleanor Shnier – Can’t you just see yourself wrapped up in this on a spring day? I would totally rock this at the beach over my bathing suit too!

4. Jo’s Crochet Flower Garland – This pattern comes all the way from Germany! When I saw this pattern I wanted to make a bunch of it and hang it in my girls room! Their room is in pinks, purples and greens. I can also see this done up in different colors and used as a spring garland in my living room!

5. My Merry Messy Lifes’ Crochet Seed Stitch Purse – How cute would a little girl look carrying one of these for Easter Sunday?! Or maybe even while hunting for eggs?! Oh my gosh it’s so cute and can be made in any color combo!

Teacher & Class Christmas Gifts

This is my first year of ever having to do Christmas gifts for teachers and classmates. I didn’t want to just do the blah thing of buying all the teachers an ornament. So, I searched Pinterest and the internet until I found something like I liked. I ended up finding a blog that was written by a teacher and that said that one of the best things to give a teacher was something that they could actually use. So, I figured why not something in a jar or bottle that they could reuse. Hot Chocolate! Isn’t that something that always reminds us of the holidays? I know it does here for sure!

I ended up going to Michael’s to find something to put the hot chocolate in. I ended up finding these super cute Ashland glass bottles with cork tops! They were perfectly sized for some hot chocolate and some mini marshmallows! I grabbed four and away we went (I had Miss S with me since Miss M was in school)!

Click the image to go directly to the listing on Michael’s website!

When I got home I took out four packets of hot chocolate mix from our cabinet. I used Swiss Miss Milk Chocolate since that is all we drink in my house… and who could go wrong with that stuff! It’s the best (in my opinion of course)! Once I poured a packet in each of the glasses (and remember to wash/dry the glasses before adding any food to them), I got out the Kraft Jet-Puffed Mallow Bites and put in a layer of those. MMmmm so good right!? They fit perfectly into the bottles without having to worry about them not coming back out when her teachers went to make their hot cocoa.

I found a cute little poem on the internet for the labels… so I did a quick on up in Photoshop and printed out four of them. I used elastic string to attach them to the bottles. Then added a ribbon to the neck of the bottle.

Teacher gifts… Done!

 

 

For the kids gifts I got cellophane bags and put little treats and goodies in there before I added our special little surprise. My girls love putting out their little bags of Reindeer Food on the lawn on Christmas Eve… so we decided to make some for all of Miss M’s friends. These are super simple and easy to make. All you need is little zip-lock bags (got ours at Michael’s), Oats and big Glitter (color is totally up to you).

 

Once you have all of those things gathered together you can start putting them together. What I like doing is putting a little bit of the oats in the bag first.

Then you add enough glitter to be able to see it mix well in the bag.

After that you fill it up the rest of the way with oats and give it a little shake after you zip it up tight.

Now, you just need to attach the little Reindeer Food poem and you are done!

If anyone makes any of these cute Christmas crafts please feel free to share!

Nightmare Before Christmas inspired man eating plant wreath

Everyone in this house just LOVES Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas. Everything from it’s stop-motion to it’s characters and story are just amazing! Even Miss M and Miss S fell in love with the book, movie and ride at Disneyland. I will be honest I was a little worried how a 4 year old and a 2.5 year old were going to handle the movie due to it’s darker tones. But I think that the way that my husband and I slowly introduced the story to them, they were able to handle it very well.

I have been wanting to make one of these wreaths for awhile but kept it on the back burner until I felt that they wouldn’t be scared of it. So, with their new found love of the movie I decided to put my creation to work this year!

So, lets get on with my Nightmare Before Christmas wreath, shall we?!

Supplies:

  • Wreath
  • Red ribbon for the bow (I used a wired ribbon so you can shape it how you want)
  • Sprigs of red berries
  • White foam sheet for the teeth
  • White modeling clay for the eyes (I used Crayola’s Model Magic)
  • Black Marker or Paint (to put the dots on the eyes)
  • Hot glue gun
  • Scissors

Step 1: The first thing I did was fluff my wreath. They always come a little matted and blah.

Step 2: Put white paper behind the wreath and draw out the teeth.

Step 3: Cut the paper teeth out and trace them onto the white foam.

Step 4: Cut the foam teeth out carefully. Don’t worry about the straight edges too much because you will probably shape them a little bit more while you are putting them on the wreath.

Step 5: Make ribbon bow to the size that you want it and tie it onto the lower part of the wreath. I used a red pipe cleaner to attach the bow to the wreath. This will allow you to reposition the bow once you get all the rest of the stuff on it (I ended up moving it lower once I put the teeth on).

Step 6: Flip wreath over and glue teeth onto the underside of the wreath. I had to cut pieces of foam off in order to fit them onto the wreath nicely due to the framing.

Step 7: Turn the wreath back over the correct way and re-fluff the branches and bow if needed.

Step 8: Form the eyes using the modeling clay and dry using the required method. The modeling clay that I used just had to be left out over night to be hardened enough to the touch. This allowed it to be glued onto the wreath perfectly. It will continue to harden for the next 72 hours.

Step 9: Pull berries off of sprigs to glue randomly on wreath. Glue eyes (when dry) to the wreath. Make sure you position them so that they look angry so, slightly downward in the inside.

Step 10: Draw/paint the dots for the eyes very carefully so that they are even.

Then wallah you are done! Go and hang that bad boy on your door! I am sure it will be a conversation starter when someone comes to your door. Plus, in the story Jack Skellington finds Christmas Town the day after Halloween (my favorite holiday) and starts planning his take over of Christmas shortly after. So, I take that as I can have this wreath up from November 1st until the end of December! One wreath for two months, hells yeah!