It's day 2 of Flower Week, and we've got one of our quickest projects ever for you! Ribbon flowers are super simple to make, and they can be used for so much! I've been using them mostly for cards lately, but they are perfect for little girls' hair clips, headbands, purses, onesies or girls' t-shirts, well you get the idea. You can do a LOT with them.

Ribbon Flower Tutorial


What you'll need:

*Piece of ribbon, 4-6" long (depending on your desired finish size)
*Needle and matching thread
*Button or brad for the center (optional)
*Scissors

1. Thread your needle and tie a knot at the end of the thread. Starting at one end, do a running stitch along length of ribbon.




2. When you get near the end, pull on the thread to bunch up your ribbon.


3. Back stitch with your needle a few stitches to secure.


4. Fold ribbon around to make a complete circle. Hold ends together with tails pointing down.


5. From the back side, stitch up the tails to close your circle. Stitch back down and secure with knots.



6. Cut off tails close to stitching.


7. Insert a brad, or sew on a button to create the flower's center.


8. You have a ribbon flower! Make your gathers as tight or loose as you want. It all depends on the look you want.


Then you can attach it to a card like I did here. Inspiration for this card came from the fabulous Kristina Werner and today's MACM.



Here are some other examples of ribbon flowers on cards. These have button centers.



And this one has a rhinestone brad center. The ribbon flower actually makes up the center of one of our little crocheted flowers from this tutorial.



Sorry Summer, you're not going anywhere. These little cuties are going to be around all winter!

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Can you believe summer is almost over? I should be posting fun back-to-school ideas, but I just can't get excited about it yet! I'm hanging on to summer as long as possible. So this week we'll be featuring craft ideas with flowers--that's right, it's another theme week. Flower week. You know, so you can keep enjoying the flowers of summer all year long!

We've been ogling over all the wonderful refashioned t-shirts on Etsy and the tutorials found all over the Web, like the one we found here. It looked so easy that we thought it was time to try our hands at t-shirt refashioning. A quick trip to Old Navy to look through their clearance section and we scored t-shirts for $4.99.

To refashion a t-shirt, you'll need one plain shirt, and another spare one that matches. That's the one you'll cut up into pieces, which is why it needs to match. The girls at Enchantresses 3 paired up and shared t-shirts. So it's a fun group project, because if you like the same color, you can get an XL shirt and split it, which makes your finished shirt even less expensive.

To add flowers to your t-shirt, you basically just cut out small hearts (ours were about 2.5" long) and sew them in bunches to the neckline of the shirt. These simple refashions took only 30 minutes to do.


And my shirt looked even better after being washed/dried. I was worried about it looking funny, but the dryer fluffed up the flowers nicely. If you didn't want the fluffy look, we suggest hand washing and line drying your shirt. I love this shirt so much that I picked up another couple of shirts at Target last week for only $3.50 a piece!

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We've posted about these yummy treats before, but we love them so much we can't help but talk about them again. It's summer in Seattle and crabbing season is open. We went out on the Sound to catch us a feast. We threw the crab pots in and baited the poles. In the meantime we took in the gorgeous sites--which included gray whales splashing and blowing. Amazing!


Then it was home to whip up our favorite crab cakes. We are fans of Tom Douglas (another great Pacific Northwesterner), so it is only fitting that we go straight to his cookbook I Love Crab Cakes! when we need a good recipe. We used 4 large Dungeness crabs to make these. We cooked the crabs in a pot and then removed all the crab meat. We then added chives, dill, lemon zest, mayo, and Japanese Panko. We patted them into little patties and them rolled them in more panko. We tweaked the recipe a bit and just browned them in a skillet using butter. Definitely our favorite recipe. Of course, we think the Coconut Crusted Crab Cakes is our favorite recipe, too. That and the Herbs de Provence one...there are so many "favorite" recipes, we suggest you try them all!

Crab Cakes before we browned them in a hot skillet full of butter.


Can't you just smell their crabby goodness?


Going, going.....


GONE!!

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In honor of our fun guest blogger yesterday, Amy from Mod Podge Rocks, we've got a Mod Podge giveaway! Just leave us a comment telling us what you'd do with a little Mod Podge and you could be our winner of a surprise gift pack from Mod Podge!

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I’m Amy, and am pleased to be here guest posting today. I love polka dots, the color blue, and Mod Podge. In fact, I run a Mod Podge appreciation blog called Mod Podge Rocks! If you’ve never tried to decoupage before, you really, really should. It’s pretty easy, and immediately satisfactory. You’re going to be pleased with the results. I promise.



We are going to turn this simple brown frame into something quite fantastical. It’s hot where I live, and so I’m trying to summon autumn with my choices here. Maybe you like what I did, but you might also have your own tastes and color palette which is completely fine and actually encouraged. I always want people to choose what works for them! Let’s get started. You’ll first need to gather these supplies and tools:

FolkArt® Acrylic Paint
--Glazed Carrots
--Dark Brown
Mod Podge® Gloss
Darice wood frame – holds a 5” x 7” photo
AdornIt Scrapbook Paper – Fern Collection, Owl Hoot A
Celebrate It! Basic Ribbon – Owl, 14 inches
Brown Ribbon, 14 inches
Orange Ribbon, 28 inches 1” & 1/2"Flat Paint Brushes
Buttons from my stash, about 15 – 20
Bo Bunny scrapbooking flowers in orange and brown
Alphabet letter stickers
Craft Glue
Craft Knife and Mat
Ruler
Scalloped Scissors
Mini Screwdriver

1. Before starting, use the mini screwdriver to remove all of the hardware from the frame. Separate the stand from the frame. I always paint the frame and the stand separate colors. That’s just how I roll! Using the paint brush, basecoat the entire front and back of the frame with Glazed Carrots. Paint three coats for complete coverage. Set aside to dry.

2. Paint the stand Dark Brown. Paint three coats, just like the front. Set aside to dry.

3. Now you need to cut the paper. Grab your craft knife, cutting mat and ruler. Choose a width that you want your paper to go across your frame. Since I wanted to put my paper vertically in the large area to the left, I chose to cut my paper approximately 3” wide. There’s no science to this for me – I eyeball it, folks. Cut the strip of paper with the craft knife. You’ll notice I just used the polka dot part of the paper and not the design. I’m gonna save that design for another project!

4. Take your strip of paper and trim it down each side with the scalloped scissors. To make the scallops match, cut the right side up like you see me doing in the photo below. Then FLIP over the paper and cut up the other side, starting at the same point on the scissors.

5. This is my favorite part, really it is. Grab your (now) orange frame and spread Mod Podge where you are going to lay down the paper. Spread a relatively even coat, medium thickness.

6. Lay the paper down and smooth with your fingers or a brayer (like I did). Allow this to dry for about 15 – 20 minutes.

7. After this has dried, spread the Mod Podge over the paper and the entire frame, front and back. Do the brown stand you painted too. Give everything at least two coats of Mod Podge and allow to dry for about an hour. You can do it under a fan if you like.

8. Now I will demonstrate see a very scientific part of the process – the embellishments. By scientific I mean this process has little explanation and is totally at random, but I will try my best. Here’s what I do. I lay everything out and then shift it around until it looks good. A little ribbon here, a little ribbon there . . . kind of like the picture below. When I’m happy, I take a picture since I’m going to have to remove the embellishments to glue them down.

9. Use the craft glue to secure stuff down (note my cute green pants). I started with the big ribbon, placed the owl ribbon on top, and then glued the orange ribbon on either side. I used Aleene’s glue. Oh, and did I mention that I love owls? Yes. I do.

10. Wrap the ribbon around the back and press down. My frame is going to hang so I don’t care if the ribbon goes around the back. If you like, you can trim the ribbon at the top. You are done!

11. Allow everything to dry for at least 24 hours before using your frame. I’d like you to notice that after I glued everything down on the left, I added a piece of paper on the right with some buttons. It just needed something! I added “Who’s That?” with adhesive sticker letters, and then I put a picture of a cute little kid in the frame. Who’s that, you ask? Me, of course!!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, and I hope you are inspired to try decoupage. Come see me at Mod Podge Rocks! when you have a chance. I have a new project nearly every day, and I love to answer questions about projects. See you soon!

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We're blogging over at Make & Takes again today, but it was a post some of our long-time readers may have already seen. So we decided to give you a bonus!

I've turned into a list maker. I wasn't always that type, but I find I tend to forget just about anything I don't write down. That's why I collect notepads. I can never have enough. Did you know you could make your own notepads? I mean the kind that you can tear a sheet off of? There's a cool product called notepad adhesive that gives you the ability to turn any stack of paper into a notepad. As soon as we saw it, we knew the Little Birdies would have to try it. It was calling to us.




Make Your Own Notepads Tutorial



What you'll need:
*Stack of paper, cut to your desired size
*Something for your cover (think cute patterned paper or card stock, or pictures), cut to the same size
*Something for the back (like thin chipboard, a piece of card stock, or a piece cut out of a cereal box), cut to the same size
* Notepad adhesive (you can find it online at The Crafty PC, but we also found it in a bigger bottle at Paper Zone and Ben Franklin)
*Foam brush
*Clamps or binding clips
*Two pieces of wood, or two rulers, to hold the paper in the clamps

1. To make this notepad, we started by cutting plain white copy paper with a die cut from the scrapbooking store where I work (Lasting Memories in Lynnwood, WA--the best scrapbooking store in Washington!). We used the 4" x 5.25" rectangular die because it would make all of our pages completely uniform. We cut the front and back covers with the same die. But you could also cut up pages with a paper trimmer. You might have some uneven edges, but that never hurt anyone (unless one gives you a paper cut--ouch!).

2. Stack up your paper and put your covers on either side. Make sure it is all even. Then place the end you wish to be the top between two pieces of wood. We used some scraps from the garage, but rulers or small books may be just as useful here. The goal is to make sure that there is even pressure on your notepad.


3. Next attach your clamps or binder clips.


4. Using your foam brush, apply the padding compound to the straight edge of your pad. You may need to put a couple of layers on. We did about three.


5. Wait 10 minutes or so until the compound is completely dry and then remove the clamps and wood. Voila! Your notepad is ready for embellishing.


One of these would make a cute teacher gift.


But you don't just have to make blank notebooks. Beyond plain white paper there are so many options! How about printing games like tic-tac-toe and the dot game on paper, and creating a little game notebook to keep little ones quiet in the car? Or make your own tear-off grocery lists or babysitter checklists. You could also create a play checkbook for the kids to play "house" with, or a collection of fun notes you can tear off and put in your child's lunch bag each day. I have a great idea for gifts to papercrafting friends: buy some cute 12x12 paper you'll both love, cut it up into 6x6 or 4x6 pieces, and turn it into a custom paper pad, perfect for card making! Then you each get a few samples of the paper, and it's stored in a handy little notepad. I know, pretty brilliant.

See, now the notepad adhesive is calling to you. You're welcome.

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I have to apologize for the little hiatus last week. In addition to a busy summer schedule, I had last minute preparations for a friend's wedding, and the blog just went out the window. But I'm back in the swing of things this week, and Stacy and Jessica have been working on lots of new material that's just waiting to be posted!

But let's start the week off right with a giveaway! Jessica Feely, a local Seattle photographer, is giving away a great photography package to one of our local readers. We love the way Jessica uses urban settings. Check out her Web site gallery to see what we mean!


She also has a blog where she's posting new proofs all the time. Keep an eye on it for her most recent work, updates, contests, and more. Her recent senior portraits are some of my favorites!

Jessica is kind enough to offer our readers a great giveaway. Our winner will receive a free session plus $50 print credit ($175 value). Sweet!

So if you want to win a session with Feely Photography, please visit the Feely Photography blog or Web site and leave us a comment before Saturday, August 15th at 11:59pm PDT telling us who you would want Jessica to photograph for you. Don't forget, she's in the Seattle area, so you should be local or willing to travel! Can't wait to hear from you all-- we know you're going to love Jessica's work!

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I was catching up on Facebook today and couldn't help but laugh at my neighbor's status update. A week ago, they came home from the hospital with the most darling boy. He really is sweet and it has been fun to see how they are tackling all the "firsts"--the good, the bad, and the ugly. Those of us with little boys know it is just a matter of time before one parent has the "baby peed on me" experience. Not fun.

Remember this tutorial? I just had to whip up another baby boy diaper changing cover cone using some alien fabric I had left over. Hopefully with this little thing this "first" will also be the "last".

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