How A Busy Little Bee Picks a Project - 4KCBWDAY2

Today's task for the 4th Annual Knit and Crochet Blog Week is to explain the process of deciding upon a project to make.

Yesterday, I shared with all of you that I am a bee! How exactly does a busy little bee decide on her next project?

For the most part, most of my projects are commissioned. A customer will contact me with an idea and ask if I can do it. My absolute favorite is when someone comes to me with a general theme and says, "What can you do that involves this?"

In true bee form, my mind starts buzzing immediately when I receive a special request. I scour Pinterest, Ravelry and my great big brain of useless information until I stumble upon or remember the perfect project.

Here are just a few examples. I will explain the thought behind my favorite ones below.

Can you make some sort of fish hat with natural fibers or keep it organic?

Hey! It's the year of the dragon and my friend is really into that. I am having trouble finding decorations for a dragon-themed baby shower. Do you think you could make something that is cute and babyish?

My friend's husband is a tennis pro and their house revolves around tennis. Could you make something? Maybe a rattle with a tennis ball on the end?

And this is my all-time favorite!! This message came from a first-time aunt:

My sister is decorating the baby's room in a pale blue with a bird theme. Could you make some things with a bird theme for her baby shower that will match the baby room?

This one was a lot of fun! I immediately created a pinterest board and scoured the net for ideas. I sent the link to my friend and her mom. They replied back and told me which things they liked and which things they didn't. 

I think I had suggested creating a bunting with the bluebird appliques (upper left in photo collage). But, they immediately thought of giving them to guests as party favors. I made 30 of them and attached a magnet to the back. Each guest received one along with a poem written by Caleb's grandmother.

Next, they chose this sweet little birdie designed by LuvlyGurumi. She does not normally allow her finished items to be sold. I asked permission for this one time and she said it was ok. 

Sidenote: I know that designers do not legally have any way of enforcing their "do not sell finished product" policy. I do not want to be despised for disobeying their request. So while I disagree with their policy, I adhere to it.

There were three cupcake tiers at the baby shower. There was a bluebird perched on top of each one with a bluebird sitting on the table between them.

And, last but not least, I made a very special bluebird just for the baby's room. At the baby shower, my friend used him to decorate the gift table. 

Baby Caleb has such a beautifully decorated shower! I love how my little yarn art tied so wonderfully with the place settings, cupcakes and birdhouses decorating the tables.

Hey! Eskimimi asked if I could find a project that represents my Mascot? 

Of course! I treated this just like I would any other request. I created a Pinterest board and searched high and low for bees! Bees knees, bee shoes, honeycomb, etc. Even just some signs that I thought were cute that had to do with bees! Here is a peek at the board. Click on it and you'll be taken to my Busy Bee board.

I pinned several amigurumi pieces, photography props, pillows, inspiring signs and even a sweet little bee created from polymer clay.

You Don't Have to be a Peacock to Rock a Project! 

I admire the peacocks who can totally bedazzle a project. Like my friend Rachel from Silly Stitches who created these adorable bunny bottoms and this amazing underwater themed cape. These are two projects that I will never forget!

I think that all of us have a little bit of each animal as part of who we are. While I may not give you a glammed out (house of peacock) project, I will give you something that meets (and hopefully exceeds) your expectations. The reason I can do this is because I am a busy bee! Always buzzing around the internet pinning to my heart's desire. I know what patterns are available, where to find them and whether I am skilled enough to pull it off.  And, if I can't think of anything, then you can be sure I will find something that will more than please you. 

How to Make Your Own Stitch Markers on the Cheap

Stretching my Craft Skills

Welcome back to another edition of Pintastic Tuesday where I pick a thing or two from Pinterest and try it, then tell you if it was a success (pinTastic) or failure (pinDrastic).

Today's Pinspiration (Pin + Inspiration)

Sewing Baby Shoes

Source: Pinterest | Original Source: Pamela Susan Fine Jewelry & Gifts

Crafting One-of-a-Kind Button Art

Source: Pinterest | Original Source: Busted Button

Source: Pinterest | Original Source: Busted Button

Simple Headband Flowers - Pintastic Tuesday 07

I have so much fun browsing Pinterest and drawing inspiration from what others have done. Seriously, is there anything better than Pinterest to actually make me want to clean my house and have fun doing it?

This week's crafty inspiration was originally pinned on my Hair Clips / Headbands board.

The Project:

Source: Pinterest | Original Source: iCandy Handmade

I love, love, love to make photography props and all things baby! I don't have a baby girl of my very own. As much as I would love to have another baby, my love says we are done. So, I have two boys at home and I'm the only lady in the house. So, if I can't have any more babies of my own, then I can at least make beautiful things for babies and live vicariously through my little prop shop, right?

Kitchen-Aid Mixer Subway Art - Pintastic Tuesday 06

The Story...

The Kitchen-Aid mixer is the jewelry of the kitchen. I have wanted one for the entire 11+ years I have been married. But, life happens and the mixer just never happened. Then, my lovely little 2 year old lost one of the beaters to my beloved stand mixer. May the Lord bless those who decided that every single mixer needed to  have precisely its own beaters. Humbug! I called GE only to find out that they stopped producing my mixer years ago and they suggested searching online for replacement parts. My search came up empty. Bah-Humbug.

So, it's time to buy a new mixer.

And now that it's time, that means I need to commit...to a color. But there are a gazillion shades of green, gray and blue..how's a girl to choose? And can I really justify spending a few extra bucks for a colored mixer when the less expensive white one will function just the same?

The Pintastic Inspiration:

Then today happened. I was doing my normal thing and browsing pinterest. Look what popped up:

Source: Pinterest

A Kitchen-Aid mixer with Subway Art!!! Wow! What a genius idea?! I can finally picture a plain-Jane white Kitchen-Aid mixer sitting on my counter looking all cool with this Subway art.

A few Recipes - Pintastic Tuesday 05

It's my favorite blogging day of the week!!! Pintastic Tuesday is here again.

Last week, we celebrated Independence Day in the US and this is the one time out of the year that all the family descended from Grandma/Grandpa Cupp get together. There are 37 of us who wouldn't be here without Grandma and Grandpa Cupp. This is the last picture taken of all of us together before Grandpa Cupp died. I have had another little one of my own and I think a total of eight grandkids have been added since this picture (one is with Jesus).

It was a great time to catch up with each other. One thing you will learn quickly is that we love people and we love God. We have a few pastors in our family and many who serve in their local church. I am going to venture a guess and say that half the adults in the Cupp family have been on mission trips to a foreign country. We found out for certain this weekend that our cousins, Todd and Wendy, are moving to Kampala, Uganda in October to live and minister to the people there. You can read more about their journey at The Kissing Well blog.

Now, onto the Pintastic Tuesday stuff...

It was a weekend filled with family fun. So, this weeks post is all about food!

Sour Patch Grapes (Supposed to taste a bit like Sour Patch Kids)

Source: Pinterest | Original Source: Pure Sugar

My favorite candy is sour-patch kids. Yes, I probably would crochet for payment in Sour Patch Kids. That being said, these grapes were a disappointment. I started out using Lime Jell-O to coat the grapes and it looked like boogers all over the grapes. I know, gross! So, I rinsed them off and worked with Lemon Jell-O. It worked much better. However, these do not taste like Sour Patch kids. Another thing to note...They actually were good as long as they were cold, but we were in the blazing heat and the taste of warm grapes with gunk on the outside is not the same as cold grapes with gunk on the outside. There were tons leftover, which definitely signals to me that the general consensus is that these were a bit nasty. I took the leftover grapes home and rinsed the gunk from the outside and I am now enjoying frozen grapes.

Oven-Baked Bacon and the Perfect Scrambled Eggs

Source: Pinterest | Original Source: about.com

Source: Pinterest | Original Source: Mr. Breakfast

Oh my gosh! This bacon and eggs combo was amazing! Sunday night, my brother-in-law and my sister-in-laws spent the night at our house. We sent the men out to buy breakfast stuff and they came home with bacon and eggs. I felt obligated to make the best bacon and eggs that anyone ever tasted. I consulted with Google and found the two things above. The bacon is baked! Line a shallow cookie sheet with aluminum foil, add bacon (my bacon slices were touching each other) and place in non-preheated oven. Turn over to 400 degrees and set a timer for 17 minutes. Check on bacon at 17 minutes, but it may take an additional 3 minutes for it to finish cooking. This bacon was amazing! It barely shrunk and it was perfectly crispy. 

The eggs were so light and airy! I cooked two dozen eggs and eyeballed the milk, salt & pepper. They said the key is to whip air into the eggs so the mixture is a unified color and a bit frothy. Preheat a skillet while beating the eggs. When ready, add butter to the skillet and when it is almost melted, pour in the eggs. Then, act like Martha Stewart while you cook the eggs. I am not the best egg maker and I'm not the biggest fan of eggs, but I loved these eggs! I will definitely be making them again on breakfast night at home.

So...What about you? Did you try anything from pinterest this week? It doesn't have to be a success to blog it! Join in with this fun linky party below and Happy pinning!!!

Pintastic Tuesday 04

Welcome back for another Pintastic Tuesday! I hope this inspires you to try out some of the things you find on pinterest. This week I want to introduce you to an almost pin-drastic experiment.

The Project: Post-it Present

Source: Pinterest | Original Source: Paper Wings

The Story:

I bought all of the supplies to make this 6 months ago. I had the scrapbooking supplies on hand and purchased a really cute package of post-it notes that were butterfly shaped along with the plastic frame. I intended to make this as a gift numerous times for my son's 3rd grade teacher. The school year ended and the supplies were still sitting on my desk. So, when I needed just one extra thing in my handmade gift for the Craftaholics Anonymous Handmade Gift Exchange, this seemed like the perfect thing!

I made on of my favorite hats as the main part of the gift:

Beanie Brim Cap by Hannah Levine

The Results:

Honestly, this one started out being a little pinDrastic. I couldn't even get the post-it notes to stay attached long enough to snap the picture. If anyone does this craft as a gift, I think the standard square Post-Its would work better because the adhesive is at the top. The adhesive on mine is down the center of the butterfly shape. 

When I was about to give up and scrap this gift, I had the idea to attach a smaller quanity of Post-It notes. Maybe the weight of the whole package was too much. The smaller quantity of Post-It notes worked much better!

Just for good measure, I tied some leftover yarn from the hat around the post-it notes so they should at least arrive in tact. 

Have you made anything fun from Pinterest this week? Join in and spread the fun by leaving your link below! NOTE: The text you type in "Your Name" will display representing your link. It says a comment is required. You aren't required to comment on this post, but please comment on at least one blog post you visit.

Pintastic Tuesday 03

Welcome back for Pintastic Tuesday #3! I hope to inspire you to try a few of the things you find on pinterest and share with the rest of the world how it worked for you! Did that soap scum remover work? Were the instructions clear, etc? Was it pintastic or pindrastic? Trust me! I have had a pin-drastic failures.

The Project: The Backrub Shirt for Father's Day

Here is how this works. Dad lays on the floor wearing this shirt. The kid(s) drive their little cars around on the back of the shirt. Dad gets a massage. The kids think he is playing with them. It's a win-win!

Source: Pinterest | Original Source: The Blue Basket

The Story:

My eight year old was talking one day about how he always hand-makes gifts for me for Mother's Day. Mother's Day happens near the end of the school year, so they always do something special for moms. But, he's on his own when it comes to Father's Day. When I found this pin, I knew my son would love to make this!

Here are just a few other random reasons for doing it:

1. It looked like tons of fun!
2. Dad can "play" with the kids
3. It involves Hot Wheels
4. The car massages as the kids drive around
5. I thought it would be a fun project for my Sunday School kids to make for their dads

 

The Results:

The kids loved the shirts! We were away on vacation last week and have been so swamped last week. We haven't had a chance to try them out yet, but I was very happy with how they turned out and my Sunday School kids had fun making them.

 

 On a side note...The two pictures above are of one of my kids who has only his mom. He made his shirt for her and wrote, "Happy Mother's Day...Even though it isn't Mother's Day".

The two shirts above were designed with roads wide enough for a Hot Wheel to drive on. 

And my sweet little niece went wild with the glitter for her dad's shirt. 

Have you made anything fun from Pinterest this week? Join in and spread the fun by leaving your link below! NOTE: The text you type in "Your Name" will display representing your link. It says a comment is required. You aren't required to comment on this post, but please comment on at least one blog post you visit.

Pintastic Tuesday 02

Welcome back for Pintastic Tuesday #2! Here's the plan for Tuesdays! We (yes, you can do it, too) find ideas on pinterest, make it, cook it, try it, etc. and share the results. Was it easy/difficult? Was it pintastic or pindrastic? Trust me! I have had a pin-drastic failures.

The Project: Thing 1 & Thing 2 Hats

Source: Pinterest | Original Source: Micah Makes "Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss"

The Story:

I have wanted to make Thing 1 & Thing 2 hats forever! I kept telling photographer friends to let me know if they ever get a newborn session for twins. Photographers: if you have a newborn twin session coming up, message me with details (expected delivery date and gender) at niccupp [at] gmail [dot] com.

Last week, the idea finally struck me...my best friend has 3-year old twins. Duh! I can make the hats for them! How many of us have older kids that feel left out when a new baby is born and all the attention is on the precious baby as the older kid slips to the background?

I set to work right away and stayed up past midnight working my fingers to the wire and got up the next day and finished the hats. Their baby cousin was born while I was working on the hats. I wanted to make something special for the older cousins. I didn't want to leave anyone out, so I made a long-tail hat for baby cousin in Seussical inspired colors.

I messaged my friend with the idea and she loved it. Plus, I've got to say, she has some gorgeous kids and she is a talented photographer! The photos below are used with permission from Massa Photography (no link, sorry).

Pintastic Results:

And...drum roll please....meet their new baby cousin. Everyone is smiling.

Have you made anything fun from Pinterest this week? Join in and spread the fun by leaving your link below! NOTE: The text you type in "Your Name" will display representing your link. It says a comment is required. You aren't required to comment on this post, but please comment on at least one blog post you visit.

Pintastic Tuesday 01

We all find awesome ideas on pinterest, right? How many have you actually tried? Some things I pin, I fully intend to make it right away. Other things are just good ideas for later. I thought it would be fun to create a fun new them for Tuesdays.

Introducing....

For my first pinterest success story, I wanted to show you this awesome tutorial for Charmed Pencil Pouches. There is an amazing (!!!) tutorial from Sweet Verbena that helped me conquer my fear of zippers. The tutorial is perfect if you have that same fear. I assure you that this simple project will help you conquer zippers.

The Project:

Source: Sweet Verbena

Pinterest Success:

I ended up putting my entire button collection in the brown flowery pouch and it is completely full!!! You know what that means? The next time I see a basket full of buttons for $.25 each, I can easily have the self-control to pass on by, because I do not have room for them in my little pouch.

The gray pouch with the geometric pattern is the new home of all of my crochet hooks. It fit all of my hooks including the massively huge size "Q" hook.

Have you made anything fun from Pinterest this week? Join in and spread the fun by leaving your link below! NOTE: The text you type in "Your Name" will display representing your link. It says a comment is required. You aren't required to comment on this post, but please comment on at least one blog post you visit.

Mister Linky's Magical Widgets

Simply Linked

InLinkz

Pacifier Clip - Tutorial

I wanted to create a version of a pacifier clip that is cute, doesn't have buttons (choking hazard) and one that can have cute little interchangeable designs. I have a few baby gifts to make and I plan on gifting these.

Disclaimer: I give you full permission to use my method in any way you choose (personal or for selling). 

Please read the designer's release regarding the appliques that you use. They may or may not grant permission to sell items using their product. Please keep this in mind and be respectful of the designer!

Supplies:

1. Small amount of Cotton yarn for the base of the clip. I used I Love This Cotton in White and Lily's Cotton in Natural.
2. An applique (or two or three)
3. Crochet Hook (use size suggested on yarn label)
4. Suspender Clip (As of 6/5/2012, these are $1.99 for a package of 2 clips at Hobby Lobby)

Instructions:

The ribbon is created in sections rather than rows.

Section 1: Ch 15 and join with slip stitch to first chain.

Section 2: Chain 40

Section 3: Slip Stitch to 15th chain from hook.

Section 4: Single Crochet* in the next 25 stitches to get back to the beginning loop. Slip stitch to base stitch of the beginning loop and bind off. Weave in loose ends.

*Single Crochet in section 4 can be replaced by hdc or dc.  Here are examples of what the base of the pacifier clip will look like using different basic stitches:

Next, grab your applique!

• Bluebird byWhat I Should Have Done
• Butterfly by Curtsay Designs
• Balloon by Calleigh's Clips

I added a few chain stitches across the back of the applique to give the clip something to hold on to. I did not sew the applique onto the main section of the pacifier clip. There are loops of equal size on both ends of base ribbon.

1. Insert one of the loops through back of applique
2. Pull loop over the tail
3. Tuck the loop under the post of ch stitches on the applique and tighten so that it looks like Picture 3.
4. Place the applique and suspender clip face down. Slip the loop through the clip from bottom to top. The loop will come up on the backside of the clip.
5. Slip the loop over the suspender clip to the front of the clip.
6. Tighten the loop. (Between picture 6 & 7, I slid the loop down to the 2nd bar.)
7. Take the other end of the loop and insert through the ring on the pacifier.
8. Work the loop over the applique and length of the ribbon.
9. Tighten and wear. 

Here is a close-up of the completed Butterfly Pacifier Clip.

And whip up a pair of barefoot sandals with matching appliques for sweet little set.

Barefoot Sandals Designed by The Misadventures of Handmade

For more applique ideas, check out my Crochet-Applique board at Pinterest!

Appliques Featured in this Post were designed by: