We know 2 posts in 1 day might overwhelm you but...

....this was such an awesome tutorial, we just had to show it to you!

Super cute right?

Perched atop the sewing machine

Meet Oopsie the Octopus.

You can find her tutorial here.

She is super easy to make and would be an awesome gift for anyone young or old.

As always, if you make Oopsie send us a pic at thosecraftychicks@yahoo.com

Top 10 Posts of 2010!

Well, as most of you know, 2010 is coming to an end.  So we thought we'd share with you the Top 10 posts that you guys liked the most!  Here we go!

1.Elastic Band Skirt

2.Floppy Bow

3.Duct Tape Rose














4.Minion Magnets

5.Felt Flower

6.Welcome!
This was our first post ever!


7.Who Are You?
This was a post about getting to know our followers (and we still don't have 10 followers yet..!)


8.Cakes and Clay

9.Sheet Music Decoupage

10.The Artsy Clutch

And that's it! Hope you all have a Happy New Year!

Christmas Crafts Part 2 - Cinnamon Tortilla Crisps

Well actually, this is a recipe. But it's really easy and pretty fun too! 

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp of melted butter
Flour tortillas ( 4-5 depending on how many you want)
Cinnamon
Sugar

Other stuff:
Pan
Knife (or cookie cutters if you want to be festive :)
Powdered sugar shaker
Butter brush

*Preheat your oven to 350 degrees*
1.  Brush some of your melted butter over 1 tortilla.

2. Use your cookie cutters or knife to cut shapes or symbols out of the tortilla.



2.  Mix 1 Tbsp. of cinnamon and 1 Tbsp. of sugar together.

3. Put the mix in your powdered sugar shaker and sprinkle it over your cut tortilla pieces, as heavy or light as you want.  Lay them on the pan and bake for 5 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 

FIVE MINUTES LATER...

This is what you get! (Minus the Christmas lights of course- Thanks Picnik!)

Happy Holidays, and enjoy your Cinnamon Tortilla Crisps!

Christmas Crafts Part 1- Sheet Music

It's that time of year!  This is our first Christmas Craft, but there will be more to come!

BTW, this was our first Mod Podging experience (I know, shocking!) and I think it went pretty well, but let us know how you think it turned out!

Materials:

Mod Podge ( we used Gloss)

Sheet music- about 6 or 7 pages

Sponge Brush

Empty box or jar

Scissors

1.  Cut your sheet music into strips, the short way.

2.  Brush a little Mod Podge on to a small spot on your box/jar.

3.  Cover that spot with a sheet music strip and Mod Podge over that.  Do this until the box is covered and you should have something like...

This!  If you're wondering, the holiday subway art in the background is from Eighteen25 and the candy cane reindeer?  Another project for another time! (Soon!)  See ya!
P.S.  Who likes our new background?

Duct Tape Rose

Hi! It's Jillian!  As you can see from the title and the picture, you can probably guess what we're making.  I've been meaning to make this post for a while now, so I hope you enjoy it!  Let's get started.

Materials:
Duct tape
Floral wire or a thick plastic straw
Scissors (optional)
1.  Rip (or cut, which I like to do because it's neater) a piece of duct tape about 2 inches long.

2.  Fold the top left hand corner over on itself, leaving a strip of adhesive on the bottom and right side.

3.  Now fold the right corner over, still leaving a sticky part on the bottom.

4.  Take what you now have and position it on the straw (or wire) as shown below.

5.  Wrap it tightly around it, and you should have this.  It's (supposed to be) the  rosebud!

6.  For the petals, repeat steps 1-3 and wrap it around the bud at angle.  Do this again and again and again to make the petals.
When you're all done, you should have something like this!  Give it as a gift, tape it to a pen, use to decorate almost anything.  See ya! 

P.S.  We should have some Christmas/holiday crafts coming soon, so stay tuned!

Felt Flower

Dear Readers,
  Hey guys! So, today we will be sharing our tutorial for making a felt flower. All you need is:
- 2 colors of felt (we used pink and grey)
-a hot glue gun
-fabric scissors
- your imagination!

 The last one is the most important. Here's what you do:

1. Cut a strip of felt about 2 inches thick and 6 inches long out of each color of felt (sorry, no picture)

2. Cut triangles from the top of each piece of felt so that they look something like this:

3. Glue the 2 strips together

4. Start rolling up the strips, hot gluing on the way

5. Continue rolling until you run out of fabric. Then, hot glue the edge down.

6. Now you're finished and you should have something like this:

You can do many things with your beautiful felt flower. I did a couple of things. First, I glued a bunch of them on a box for decoration:

Or you could glue it on the top of a pencil (But that could make it hard to erase. You might want to use a pen instead)

Love,
Jillian and Claire

ps. Sorry about the bad pictures. There's only so much 2 crafters can do and make an awesome craft, and take good pictures at the same time is not one of them!

Floppy Bow Tutorial

Tutorial time!  We'll be making that bow up there.  All you need is some fabric, a sewing machine, and 10 minutes. 

1.  Cut two fabric ovals about the size of your palm.  I don't have an exact measurement, but you can see the measurements I used below.

2.  Sew the 2 ovals together, right sides facing each other and leave a small 1-2 inch opening.  It works best if the opening is on the long side of the ovals in the center.

3.  Turn it right side out and pinch the center.  You can hold it like this with a safety pin.

4.  Now cut a piece of fabric 5 inches by 2 inches, fold it in half the long way, and sew up one long side and one short side.  Turn it right side out.

5.  Wrap the band you just made around the pinched center of the bow.  Sew the band on as shown. 



6.  Trim the extra fabric on the band, and turn it right side out so the seam faces the inside. 

And that's it!  Use your bow as a headband,

 or use it to decorate a bag.



If you make a bow, send us pictures at thosecraftychicks@yahoo.com or leave a comment telling us what else we could do with the bow!  Bye!

The Artsy Clutch

A while ago, we mentioned we were going to feature a crafty book, movie, or something of that sort every Friday.  Well, we didn't really stick to that but we'll give it try today!  This book is so great we just couldn't wait 'till Friday to share so here goes.

The book is called Bend the Rules Sewing by Amy Karol.

You probably have heard of her blog, angry chicken.  The book is filled with tutorials, tips, and great projects.  I like this book because it frequently mentions using a seamripper:).  We actually made a project from the book called The Artsy Clutch.  It's the bag on the front cover.  We can't exactly give you how to do it because it's not ours but you can get the book at your library.  Here are the clutches we made, enjoy!

  

Elastic Band Skirt Tutorial

Ok, so I'm sure you've seen these skirts everywhere.  Old Navy, Forever 21, Hollister, you name it.  But what would be a lot cheaper than buying one, is making one! This skirt has 2 layers- a main layer and a liner like fabric that peeks out from underneath. Let's get started.

Materials:
Top layer fabric (this one shows the most)
Liner like fabric
2 1/2" - 3" elastic, any color, we used black.
Scissors
Measuring Tape
Sewing stuff (pins, thread, sewing machine, etc.)
Seam Ripper

*seam allowance 1/4" unless otherwise noted*
1.  Time for measuring! First, measure your natural waist or wherever you want the skirt to rest.  I got 27 inches, for a 10 year old girl.  I added 3 inches.  If you want a flowy skirt, add about 5 or 6 inches.  If you want more of a straight skirt add 2-4 inches.  This is measurement A.
2.   Now measure from the top of your waist to wherever you want the skirt to rest.  Add 2 inches to this for seam allowance and your hem.  This is measurement B.
3.  Now cut your linining fabric and top layer fabric using these measurements.  In this picture the top layer is on top (zebra print) and the liner like fabric is on the bottom (black)

4.  For the elastic take your original waist measurement and subtract 1 inch. 

5.  Now it's time to sew!  Place your top layer on top of your liner like fabric and sew a seam using the largest stitch about 2 inches away from the top of the material.  This seam is optional because it's just to hold the fabric together while you sew the elastic on.  You can also pin it.

   

6.  This part is a little tricky but if you do it right, the skirt comes out great.  Strech the elastic until it reaches the fabrics (liner and toplayer) full length.  Pin it in place.  You may need a partner for this.  

7.  Face the skirt as in the picture and sew along the right side,  stretching as you go. 

 Now you have this.



Flip up the waistband and you have this.

8.  Remember the seam I talked about in step 5? If you made it rip it out!

  

9.  Time for the hem!  Lift up the top layer and focus on the liner like layer.  Pin it and hem it 1/4".

10.  For the final step, fold the top layer over right where the liner like hem ends and sew in place.  Put the top layers facing each other, sew the 2 ends together, turn it inside out and voila! You've got an elastic waistband skirt.

 I know there must be an easier way of doing this, so comment if you know how! If you have any questions, post a comment! And if you just want to say hi, post a comment!