The Escape.. (or es-cop-eh as my daughter would say)

iPhone photo, not too shabby

I'm back from Creative Escape.  Totally jet lagged, (3 hour time changes are killer!), buried under loads of laundry and grateful that my family was safe while I was gone.

I must say it is definitely not as much fun going by yourself... I missed my "crafty peeps".  I'm not sure if it was because I went by myself or because changes that they made to the event, but it was not as great as last year. (see posts about it here, & here & here)

Even though I went to the classes by myself, my husband tagged along on the trip with me. We were able to visit old friends, and enjoy some time together.

I came back with LOADS of ideas for projects to share with you here. I'll take photos of the actual projects in the coming days to share with you.  I'm most excited because I also was able to think of my own "spin" on a lot of the things we made.  They will make some fun Tuesday Tutorials this fall!

The photo is from my favorite class. I snapped it with my phone during class.  It was taught by Margie Romney-Aslett. Not only was the project clever and cute, she is a fabulous teacher!   I'm not delving into jewelry making anytime soon, but her class was a fun spinoff on a traditional scrapbook.  I'm going to finish it up and share it with you soon.

now off to go tackle that laundry.

WIP Wednesday

I thought I'd share a little WIP Wednesday today.  I've got quite a few projects that are done or almost done, but I'm not ready to share 100% yet.

I just thought I'd tease you all a little bit :)

I'm headed to Creative Escape this weekend. I'm nervous and excited at the same time. I went last year and ABSOLUTELY loved it, but this year my "peeps" aren't able to go with me so I'm going solo.  I'm pretty nervous about it, if you think you see me say "hi"!!!!  Hopefully I'll come back feeling creatively inspired and refreshed.  It's been a loooong month, I need a little inspiration :)

I needed a little "something" to take with me so I sewed up the above project today, but I can't share the whole thing quite yet :)...   Oh, you should gasp that I actually sewed something for MYSELF! I can't think of the last time I've done that :)

This one I got done over the weekend. I can't wait to share it!! Traci (can you say Halloween charms?) and I are planning a MAJOR shop update for after Labor Day, you'll see more of it then! Along with a fun update to one of existing patterns.

and this is a "middle of the night" idea I had... I've got a good start, it will be an upcoming Tuesday Tutorial... just a little Tula to share with y'all today!!

Peace, Love & Field Hockey

sorry for the block out, but I'm not tellin' ya where my kids go to school :)

I got a few questions (okay a lot)  last week about the tie dyed t-shirts, so I thought I'd do a little follow up today.

I FINALLY got 25 t-shirts printed today, I used my Yudu... many of you asked what a Yudu is, and I'm gonna tell you. But first I wanted to make sure you knew that this is not a paid review post... I bought this product last year and have been using it for a while... no "promotional consideration" is happening here :)

This is a Yudu, I got it last year online for a killer deal so thought I'd give it a try... It pretty much allows you to screen print things at home yourself.  You print out your design from your computer on a transparency then go through a number of steps to create a silk screen.  It's pretty straight forward.

However there is an "aggravation factor".  I use the term "aggravation factor" quite a bit... For example,  a 10 on the aggravation factor scale would be "totally not worth the time & energy, want to throw it out the window!" and a 1 would be "totally worth it! I'd do it over and over again!"... Photoshop and Illustrator are "5"'s on my scale. Aggravating at first but sooo worth it after you get the hang of it.

I'd give the Yudu a 6... it's not as easy as they make it look on t.v. (is anything?) BUT this is made up for by the fact that  you are able to produce great looking items for not a lot of money. After my initial investment, it probably only cost me $10 to screen print 25 shirts.  Which is perfect for school groups, church groups, family reunions etc.. Anything that you don't want to pay a professional screen printer for.

This is my 2nd batch of shirts for the Field Hockey girls, I'd say I've done 50 shirts on it so far.  If you have one or ever get one here are some things I've noticed while working with it.

1.  When you first adhere the emulsion to the screen, make sure it's perfect! That every little bit of the emulsion is wet and adhered properly. The first time I got too excited and didn't do this step well, and didn't get a good screen print from it.

2.  Let the emulsion dry COMPLETELY before you expose it.  

3.  When doing the exposure (to create the design in the screen) put a bunch of coke cans on top to weight it down. They give even pressure without being too heavy.

4. If there is a hole or a bad spot after you do your exposure, and it's close to your design, just start over. You'll spend to much time trying to fix it.. thus increasing your aggravation factor :).

5.  Keep baby wipes close by when screen printing.

6.  After about 10 shirts your ink will start to dry a bit and get goopy, you may have to wash it off and start over again. (I think today I got a batch of bad ink, it was much thicker and hard to work with than usual, you might not have this same problem). 

7. When making your design, the bolder the words/images the better.  It's hard to get small details to show up and the bolder letters just look better on t-shirts.

8. It will probably take 2-3 passes with the ink to get a full image.

9. By extra t-shirts, the ink is messy and odds are you will mess up a few.  

10. Practice!!! It took me about 10 shirts today before I really got the hang of it... 

11. Start the day before.  There are a lot of steps that require "drying" time. If you prepare your screen the night before you need to use them it will save you a lot of waiting around time.

After you make the screens you can keep them indefinitely, so if you want to keep making more of the same thing you've already got it set up. However the box only comes with ONE silk screen, extra ones are about $20... so if you want to keep your first design and make something else you will have to buy another screen. You can reuse screens when you are done with them.

Overall, I'm glad I have it for this kind of project, but I don't use it as much as I thought I would.  I love having it for making team projects & stuff but when I just need 1 or 2 things printed I still think I would use freezer paper stencils. 

I think the t-shirts came out soo cute!! The girls really did all the tie dye themselves... I didn't even watch.  We just bought a tie dye kit at the craft store and followed the directions on the box.  It came with instructions for how to roll & tie the shirt for different effects.   The only other tip I can give for doing it is to leave the ink on the t-shirts over night & use 100% cotton shirts. The 100% cotton t-shirts that soaked the longest had the best and brightest colors.

Blog Swap Tutorial: Dressed up Magnet Board!

I'm so excited to be participating in a blog swap today!! One of my favorite things about blogging is getting to know new people!!  

So please... meet Jamielyn of I heart nap time with chocolate Sundaes!!

Hi! I'm Jamielyn from I♥naptime w/ chocolate Sundaes! I'm so excited to be guest blogging on the polka dot chair! I LOVE anything with polka dots...so of course I loved her blog from the get go! So many fun projects that I've added to my ever growing to-do list!

Today I'm going to share a tutorial with you on how to make a "Dressed Up" Magnet board!

I had a lot of bead board laying around from when we remodeled our kitchen, so I decided to put it to some good use. I took some of the scraps to Lowe's and had them cut me a 12x14 piece. Lowe's is always so nice!

Then I sanded around the edges to give it more of a vintage look. I LOVE this mini 3M sander I just got! Perfect for small projects like this!

Next I took some ralph lauren smoke glaze and went around the edges. Make sure to dab your sponge before putting it on so it's not to thick. You can use a distressing ink for this as well.

The next step is to put on the metal. I bought a galvanized sheet of metal from Home Depot for .99 cents. I put liquid nails in the middle of the sheet (a big X) and then hot glued the corners. This way it grabbed fast, but will still have a strong hold.

Next comes the fun part! Making it looks pretty! :)  Pick out some fun paper to match your house (this will be going in my girls nursery) and cut it to overlap the metal just a little bit. Then Mod podge it on with a sponge brush! I didn't do a layer of mod podge on top of the paper, but you always could!

I used two different papers and separated them with a ribbon. Again use your mod podge for the ribbon... love that stuff!

For the magnets I hot glued them to some flowers I already had. Two of them are rolled flowers and one is a small silk flower.

Now hang it on the wall or put it in a pretty stand....that's it! Pretty simple and only ended up costing around $3! Let me know if you have any questions.

Oh and of course it's not complete with out a few pictures of my cute family! :)

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial! Thanks for having me today! I'd love for you to stop by I♥naptime and see what else I've been up to! Make sure to come to our party tomorrow night to link up all your fun projects!

Thanks for the awesome tutorial Jamielyn!! That board would match my daughters bedroom perfectly! Gonna have to add it to my "to make" list!!  

Snuggly Bricks Quilt: Tuesday Tutorial..

For Christmas last year my kids all were asking for lots of electronic toys. Fearing a Christmas morning full of noise and beeping, I decided they needed something soft and snuggly to balance out all of the technology.

I made each of my 3 kids a quilt, you can see the one I made for my oldest here... I shared it on Moda Bake Shop in the Spring.  This is the one I made for one of my twins, you'll see the one I made for her brother in the coming weeks.

These have been the best quilts. The kids drag them all over the house, take them in the car and otherwise use and abuse them and they have held up great.  I just throw them in the wash and they come out clean and even more snuggly than before!

All 3 quilts were quick and easy, which was good since I only had 2 days to finish all 3...
This quilt uses fat quarters, and I've said before that I really really LOVE fat quarters! You get just a taste of alot of different fabrics, kinda like a quilt made of only appetizers :)

It's backed in Moda Snuggles, and bound in satin binding. I would not use the satin binding if I did it again... but live and learn...

For this quilt you will need:

- 10 Fat Quarters
- 2 yards Snuggles
- 100% cotton batting
- Binding

To begin, you will want to cut your fat quarters into 6.5" x 9.5" blocks. You can get 4 blocks per fat quarter. Use the cutting guide below...

You will end up with 40 blocks.

Next start sewing your blocks together.

The rows are staggered...
All of the odd rows are 5 blocks sewn together.
For the even rows, sew 4 blocks together, then cut your 5th block in half and sew 1/2 to each end as shown in the diagram above.

Then  just sew your rows together.  The blocks should be staggered like a brick wall.

Trim edges even if necessary. Make your quilt sandwich and machine quilt. If you'd like to see how I make my "quilt sandwich" click here, it's explained on my table runner tutorial.

For the quilting I used a walking foot and did a stitch in the ditch over each seam.

Bind & Enjoy!!!

Fabric is Cosmo Cricket, Girl Friday collection.


linking up:




href="http://somewhatsimple.blogspot.com">

It's hurry up and wait season...

The photos not blurry, it was so HOT and humid on the first day of school that my camera kept fogging up!

The kiddos started school last week.  I have mixed emotions about it.  Part of me loved the "crazy mixed up"  part of the summer, and part of me was just ready for this summer to be over with.

I realized this summer that the days of  "laying around the house" and "just go chill" somewhere are over for us for a while.  My kids are just getting to old to have a completely commitment free summer.

The reading lists and chore charts got thrown out the window after a few weeks. We just never had 2 days in a row that were the same so we could have a schedule.  Always trying to run someone here, or pick up someone there... Girls camp, field hockey, scouts, a working teenager, extended family and a whole lot of fun,  occupied our entire summer. Which is not a bad thing at ALL.  Just different that I am used to in the past.

So now we begin what I call hurry up and wait season... Hurry up to get a kid to practice, then sit around and wait for them to finish before you hurry up and take them to the next thing.  Any time I get overwhelmed or frustrated by the craziness I think of how much my kids have learned and grown from being involved in church, sports and their schools.  It's a good thing...

With school does come a bit of familiarity.  There is comfort in routine.  Ironically I am more productive when I have more things to do (go figure).   I've already got lots of fun ideas so share with you this Fall! My sketch book is full of doodles, drawings, photos & torn out pages just waiting to be made into reality. Sewing, scrapbooking, decorating and a few curve balls too!  Any little "bloggy break" I took over the summer is over and now it's time to get back to business.

Tie Dyed...

It's good to know that there has been some crafting going on at my house this month, since I have been sorely lacking in that department as of late.  I blame it on too much summer... cause really what else am I going to blame it on?  *wink*

My oldest had her Field Hockey team over last week for a little team bonding to make tie dyed team shirts... 25 teenage girls in my back yard and lots and lots of dye... I think my concrete will never be the same again.

They left the shirts over night to dry and we rinsed them out and hung them to dry on the fence.

We had such a good time unrolling them and seeing what pattern revealed itself.  This is one of my a favorite ones. There is definitely a technique to it.  I think we'll do it again sometime for Family night, it was pretty fun.

I loved looking at them all hanging on my fence, so colorful & festive!! I had to get out my camera and snap a photo.


The next step is to print "peace, love, field hockey" and the team name on all of them with my Yudu... I'll have to share when they are done!


and in other news... I sewed last week for the first time since June!! So glad the mojo is starting to come back :)

Quilt Inspiration...

Remember when I told you I was going to Shaker Village for the antique fair?

Well I went, and there was MUCH inspiration to be had (unfortunately not much shopping done)

oh man I wanted that thread box... but it was a bit too pricey for me.

I was going to keep these photos to myself, then decided that would be no fun :) Here are some of the quilts and other things that caught my eye.

Hexies, thought of you Amy  :)

I think they took an old quilt and cut it up and pieced it into a new quilt, genius!

red, white & blue, perfect summer quilt.

love the colors, and the blocks.. so pretty

 a very cool and very old Erector set.

would make a great wall hanging, beautiful graphic quilt.

Emily, do you remember this book? I still have the first line memorized... "the gingham dog and the calico cat, side by side on the table sat"... 

and this, it's not a quilt but HOW COOL!!! It was about 4 ft wide, you don't even want to know the price :)... trust me.

Tuesday Tutorial: Mini Flip Book Vacation Album

For this weeks Tuesday Tutorial, we are switching gears a bit. I seemed to have lost a bit of my sewing "mojo" this month, so whilst I wait for it to come back,  I thought I'd share this fun and easy project for a vacation "flip" album with you!

I like to make "mini" albums of our vacations. I find it feels less overwhelming to finish than 12x12 pages and I like that I can put them out around the house so they get looked at more.

I have 2 methods for doing these, one is to "scrap as you go" while ON vacation and this one, which is to make it after you get home. I'll share my "scrap as you go" method in a future tuesday tutorial.

I saw a package of tabbed indexed cards at the office supply store and thought they would make a fun base for a mini album.

So for this project you will need:

1 package 5x8 alphabetical tabbed index cards

2 pieces 5x8 chipboard

scrapbook paper

4x6 photos

2- 2" binder rings

chipboard alphabets

glue

ribbon and other embellishments

First thing you want to do is chop your scrapbook paper down to 5x8 pieces. You want 1 piece of scrapbook paper for each photo you are using.  I liked this Basic Grey paper I had in my stash but I think it would be cute to find some double sided paper to use for this project too (since the backs of the paper shows).

Next decide on your "tabs". I divided my book up into sections... B for Beach, L for La Jolla, Z for Zoo... you get the idea. 

Make one "title page" for each section.  When I cut my 12x12 paper down to 5x8 I had 4x12 strips left over, so I used them to decorate my title pages.

Then just start adhering your photos to your papers.  

Decorate or embellish as you like.  

Line up all of your papers and punch 2 holes in the top. I love my 7 gypsies binderie punch for this. It punches though multiple papers and chipboard with NO problems!

back cover

After you have made your covers (just cover the chipboard with scrapbook paper, easy peasy), assemble your book.

Here are a few shots of my finished book.  I still need to print out and some journaling pages to throw in there too...

For the vertical photos, I used some flip flaps from Close to My Heart, I just adhered them behind my title pages, so you can flip through them as you look through the book.

One of the reasons I like this method so much is it provides a great place for all the memorabilia from your trip, you can staple in ticket stubs, receipts, etc..

Zoo title page

inner page

La Jolla title page

of course there is a food section! the best part of any vacation :)

I think I ended up using 60-70 photos in my book and it's about 2" thick.. not too bad, 60 photos scrapbooked all in about 1 afternoon!

If you'd like another mini book idea, you can the one I made from our trip to Savannah Georgia here:

**oh yeah, that quilt tutorial from last week, it's coming next week.. every time it rained last week (and it rained ALOT) my internet went out... after about 3 days with spotty service I gave up... (I had started writing the post and lost it way TOO many times!!!)... I just needed to "walk away" before I threw my laptop out the window *wink**