Hans Solo and Chewbacca Shoes

Last year, for Christmas, I made my brother-in-law a pair of Darth Vader Shoes.  (See the post here) To say he loved them and wore them until they fell off his feet would be an understatement.  

This year, I went with Hans and Chewy.  

 It took me awhile to figure out what I wanted to do, but a quick search of etsy and you can find several sellers with the design I went with.

I think he likes having something that is not commercialized where someone else can go out and get the same thing!

I like very crisp lines (for the belt buckles, shirt, vest etc).  So I cut the design out of paper, and used spray adhesive to stick it to the shoe.  

Then I just painted around the paper.  Not only does the paper let you see the proportions on your shoe, it acts like painters tape!

Just in case you forget where the characters are from, Star Wars is on the back of the shoe.  Along with my tiny initials (which I'm sure have worn off since Christmas 4 months ago!)

I'm thinking next year, I'll do R2D2 and C3PO.  Hope Hans and Chewy can make it that long :)

Ribbon Sculpture Hair Accessories: Disney Princesses

These took WAAY more time than I thought they would.  From the planning stages (do i have all the right color ribbon) to mastering how to melt the edges properly (straight or curved).

When I did the Ariel, the mermaid, and Country Ariel in the last post, I mentioned the tutorial that I "followed".  I'll admit that I wasn't crazy about a lot of her princesses...so I went to etsy and find a princess that I liked and went from there!

Once you get the hang of the lengths for the body, head, arms etc. it's not that hard!

I made all of these princesses so they could be hair clips (as seen in previous post) or clipped to a head band.  

I thought it would be nice to have some variety.

Here is Rapunzel.  

And Snow White.   One of the tutorials had some pretty fancy sleeves, but, it seemed like more work than it was worth, so I opted for these simpler ones.

and Tinker Bell

Pocahontas, don't you just love the fringe?!

Here's Cinderella...took me a couple minutes to figure out how to make her dress pouf.  (you glue the ends together in a circle so it looks a bit like a bracelet instead of folding them in half.)

Here's Beauty again.  I didn't have skinny green for the rose, so I used black.  Ha.

And my favorite, but the most difficult to figure out her tail and hair (and that's after having made one already!):  Ariel.

btw:  if i were doing this project again, i would totally get the wood burning tool.

I cut two slices in the background print and threaded ribbon through so that each princess could be clipped to the poster.  I laminated it (using clear magic cover - clear contact paper found near shelf liners at stores like walmart and target).

I found the background here.

Ribbon Sculpture Hair Accessories: Ariel, the Little Mermaid

I guess the thing to do when you have a little girl, is to put lots of bows and ribbons in her hair?  I'm not a girl-y girl, and honestly, my munchkin has never really let me put that kind of stuff in her hair, until recently.  

do you like my model?!

For a friends bday party, I decided to try my hand at Ribbon Sculpture.  Every holiday, animal, cartoon character - it seems someone out there has made it out of ribbons.  Just look on Pinterest!

A few months back, I found a tutorial for many of the Disney Princesses.  So in addition to an Arial coloring book and some Princess temp tattoos, I made a hair clip and a headband.

I had all the ribbon on hand, and all I had to purchase was some headbands and alligator clips.

Once I figured out what I was doing, the whole process was pretty easy.  I think I got country Ariel done in 30 minutes or so :)

I'm definitely going to try making the other princesses and some Christmas ones, too!  Update:  Check out the other princess here!

Happy Crafting!

Handmade Halloween: M&M costumes for the whole family!

That's right.  For Halloween this year, I dressed up our family of three as M&Ms.  The little one, who's initials are MM, was a green M&M.  

Momma was a bag of plain M&M's.

And the Dadda was a bag of peanut M&Ms.

Now, if we had a second child, especially if it was a boy, he would have been a red M&M.  Not sure if I would have made him a peanut M&M, since oval is a little harder to accomplish than a circle.

Costumes were simple to make.  The bags are basically pillowcases with arm holes and pocket holes (yes, these are very important to get to your camera and wallet!)  The candy costume is a simple circle with stabilizer sandwiched between two layers.  If i were to do it again, i would make the parts around her side elastic for easier off and on.

The above is the font I used for the lettering.  For the bags, I blew the M up to the max I could fit on a 8.5x11 sheet of paper.  The & s I blew up the same %.  The M on the candy was smaller, I just eye-balled it based on the circle.

Word to the wise:  use iron on transfer for the letters.  Both the letters and the white that goes on behind it...it will make your life SO much easier.  I ironed on random pieces to hold them in place while sewing them on, and it's not worth it.  The iron on stuff will hold long enough for you to get several uses out of the costumes :)  and save you the hassle of sewing!

I'd say it took me a total of 4 hours to sew the three costumes, and another hour or so to get all the letters cut out.  I bought waay too much fabric for these (i'm an over-estimator, for sure!) and spent less than $20 for the three.

Hopefully, I can convince my family to put their costumes back on for a photo op of all three of us together :)

Happy Creating!

See the whole family here.

My Little Pony Playmat and Take-a-long Barn

I made a playmat for a 3 year old's birthday.  It can be used with My Little Pony or those toob animals or whatever kind of animals you want!

Here is a green pasture surrounded by a fence.  The fence is made from felt and pipe cleaners (or as some call them, chenille stems).  They took FOREVER to sew and to get to stand upright.  

The fence gates swing open.  And they move around, so the play mat still rolls up and fits in the take-a-long barn.  Like the spoon?  haha. 

I left a spot at the back of the fence for the barn to fit.  The barn opens up in the green pasture for the ponies to play in the paddock.

They can leave the paddock through the gates and walk along the stone path to cross the bridge over the "raging" river.  The river is 3 layers of wired ribbon sewn with a meandering stitch down the middle.

On the river banks, the ponies can explore and find some hidden gems.  (yes, i know star fish aren't in rivers, but....)

They can also hang out in the field with the wild flowers.

The barn closes up and Velcros closed, in case there is a storm, or it gets cold at night.

Side door for the farm to get in a muck out the stalls if needed...

A lovely little sunflower

Yes, the ponies prefer to be outside in the sunshine, so sometimes the cobwebs build up and spring cleaning is required.  But don't fear, there is a shovel and a rake to help reach the high cobwebs...

This project kept growing and growing.  It started out pretty simple, but I couldn't leave well enough alone.  

Check out these two tutorials for "building" details:

Smashed Peas and Carrots: Fold n Go Pony Farm

UK Lass in the US:  Fabric Dollhouse Tutorial