Fleece Loopy Scarf for St. Patty's Day

I made a St. Patrick's Day Loopy Scarf as per the direction on Jo-Ann's site - see here.  

Let me tell you that was hard on my sewing machine in that there were 6 layers of fleece it had to stitch through.  Ouch! I felt so bad for my machine.  Anyway, after cutting up the loops, even at 1/2", the loops were still too big for me (see picture above), so I went back and cut each loop in half again.

I love the skinnier loops.  Now they are more frilly and fun.  The fatter loops just was too "blah" for me.  What do you think?

Can you see the difference?

Have fun trying this out.  Personally, although it is cute, I don't think I will make this again.  It was just too hard on my machine.

~Peechee

Easy St. Patrick's Day Wreath Tutorial

Yes, I took a small detour from fleece today because I wanted to make a St Patty's Day wreath.  I probably could have used fleece to make this but I saw glitter and a cute ribbon and had to go that way.

Isn't it cute?  I just love it! I did have a little problem with not having enough ribbon but you'll see how I fixed that later.

Here's what you need:

Felt in greens
wreath form
foam clovers
green glitter ribbon
glue gun
scissors

Wrap the ribbon around the wreath form. I glued the down the beginning part so it won't unravel as I wrap.

Keep wrapping all the way around.  And as you can see, this is where my problem started.  I didn't have enough ribbon.  Well, I wasn't about to run out and drive 20 minutes out to get the same ribbon when all I needed was a small amount.  So I improvised.

I took one of my dark green felts and cut a strip the same size as the ribbon.

Glued it to the end of the ribbon.

Started wrapping again but it still wasn't long enough, so cut another strip.

Much better.  It wrapped all the way around.  Doesn't look too fancy but it will do. 

So I just covered it up with the foam clovers.

Here's the back.

Time to make the flowers.  Cut another strip of green felt.

Fold in half at one end and glue together.

Fold the glued end again, making a triangle shape (matching the top end to the bottom) and glue.

Now you are going to start rolling that glued end piece into the felt.

The beginning is a little tricky as it wants to unroll, so hold on to it tight.  Now start twisting the loose edge and roll it around the part you are holding.

Keep twisting and rolling.  Apply glue as between the rolls to hold it in place.  The tighter the twist the tighter the flower.  Loosen up a little on the twist and see how it has a fuller look to the flower. 

 

 

Finish off the edge by gluing the end to the back and now glue the flower onto the middle of one of the clovers.

Repeat the flowers using other green felt colors and glue onto the other 2 clovers.

 Ta-dah! What do you think?

But the back was still kind of ugly with that felt so I took some left over glitter foam and glued that over the exposed felt in the back. And hooray!  Prettier!

Better, right?

 Although it was already cute, I wanted to give it a little more "oomph" so I added some feathers randomly.  I totally love it even more!

 Hope you enjoyed it!  If you make one, please share it with me!  I'd gladly post it up here with a link back to you!

Peechee

I received my prize n it's awesome!

Sorry I've been MIA but I've had some sick children to tend to but not to worry, I was still trying to work on some crafty projects. 

Anyway, my first prize finally came in the mail.  Woo-hoo!  I am so happy!!  It's absolutely beautiful and it's green - perfect for St. Patty's Day.    Here's a closer look at the bracelet...

My camera doesn't do it justice but just trust me...it's gorgeous.  Cheryl from Cafe Mom's "Crafters in need of a 12 Step Program" group created this piece of jewelry for me.  She was my prize fairy.  She did a great job - Thanks Cheryl!!!

Hope everyone's feeling healthy!

Peechee

Perler Bead Crafts with Lil' Man

So today I busted out my perler beads collection.  I was cleaning yesterday and found them stashed in the back in my craft room.  So today, lil' man and I play.

Here's what we made...

This is the finished product FRONT

This is the BACK.

 If you have never played with perler beads, they are so much fun. They are plastic beads that you put on a peg board and create all sorts of designs. Once you're done designing, you cover it with baking paper and iron it for a few seconds. Just enough for the beads to melt into each other. And that's it!

Today I wanted to try and make some St. Patty decorations using the beads but lil' man had other design ideas.

He just wanted to make color patterns.

Deciding if he likes what he made.

He does and keeps going. Looking good!!!

 Now I wanted to get into the bead designing action.  I had 2 types of perler beads. The typical small ones that are sold in stores, and the biggie size - great for smaller hands who are still mastering their motor skills.  Lil' man used the biggie size.

Here's the biggie size.

Here's the regular size - which I used.

Here's my attempt at designing a perler bead

shamrock.

I had to make the 3rd leaf separate because of the

pegs.  It just looked funky so I'll fuse them

in 3 steps.  Iron the bottom, iron the top leaf,

then iron them together.

And here's what I have. 

Not the best shamrock but it was fun.

Lil' man wanted to give the regular beads a try and

these are what he created.  The snake was made on

a square peg board.  The heart was done on a

heart board that he filled-in.

Hope you enjoyed!

Peechee