Handmade Christmas

With only 10 days until Christmas, it's crunch time!! That doesn't mean you can't find a few moments for some handmade gifts. We have more than a few Modkid ideas for your gift giving.

Why not add a simple yet sweet applique to a tshirt or make one into a stuffie? The Acorn Valley applique set have several options to choose from.

Speaking of stuffie, the Mod Owl is perfect for little ones. The front pouch pocket is a nice spot to tuck a special treat. 

The Jewelry Roll makes a great gift for any traveler. 

Who doesn't love accessories?!? The Metro Clutch is super chic, and the Scarf Trio pattern is completely free!!

The Travel Art folio allows any artist to create on the go. 

Include Patty's coloring book for extra delight. 

If you are looking for a gift for a fellow maker, Patty's latest book, Patternless Sewing, might be just the thing. No sewing required!!

Last-Minute Gift Ideas

The Holidays are fast approaching (only 7 days 'til Christmas! Eeeek!) and at this time of the year I always find myself scrambling for last-minute gift ideas. If your friend, family member, teacher or student is the crafty type, we have some great ideas for gifts or stocking stuffers. Did you know we always ship within 24 hours (business days only)? So, if you buy in the next day or two, there is still time to get these goodies in by Christmas!!

Cutest Stocking Stuffers EVER! only $6.95

Our best-selling products on our website are these adorable designer pin tins! They come in two styles, Splendid Spears and Spade Parade, and each tin has 100 colorful, glass-headed pins designed by yours truly...

http://modkidboutique.com/SplendidSpear.html

http://modkidboutique.com/SpadeParade.html

Our Designer Pin Tins are available on our website now, so stock up for the Holidays... these are perfect for stocking stuffers, teacher gifts or for your sewing group gift exchange! :)

For your Scrappy Friend - $10.00

Do you have a friend who loves to make scrappy quilts or applique tees? These oversized bags are filled to the brim with sizable studio scraps from all my fabric collections! You will receive an assortment of bits & pieces of fabric inside a clear bag that measures approximately 6"w x 12"h x 4"d... perfect for appliqué projects, covering buttons or small crafts.

There are two types of scrap bags... Woven Bag (quilting cottons!)

http://modkidboutique.com/ScrapBag.html

And Knit Bags, including an assortment of cotton interlock and cotton/poly/spandex jerseys.

http://modkidboutique.com/KnitScrapBag.html

Ribbons, ribbons, ribbons! $14.95

These ribbon sampler packs include 2 yard cuts of assorted jacquard ribbons from my Lush or Grand Bazaar collections. These are great for embellishing skirts, purses or jeans. We also use them for belts, lanyards, keyfobs and purse handles! 

http://modkidboutique.com/kits.html

For the bookworm in your life. $24.95

What do you give the one who loves books and sewing? A copy of my book, Sewing MODKID Style, of course! It comes chock full of information on sewing with knits in addition to 20 projects to make for girls ages 2 to 10. It is hard-cover and spiral bound so it'll lie flat on the table and all patterns come full-sized inside an envelope on the inside front cover.

http://modkidboutique.com/SewMK.html

And patterns, of course! $4.95 - $14.95

Our Micro-mini patterns make great stocking stuffers at only $4.95!

We have 60+ paper sewing patterns on our website:

http://modkidboutique.com/patterns.html

And 17 PDF pattern on our Etsy store. Our PDF patterns come as a downloadable files, which can be opened with Adobe Reader and will print on standard letter-size paper (8.5" x 11").

https://www.etsy.com/shop/modkid?ref=l2-shop-info-name

 So, hurry, don't delay, cause Christmas is just a few days away!! Do you need a cute and MOD stocking to put all these stocking stuffers into? How about using our FREE pattern for this adorable Elf Stocking, found HERE.

http://babylock.com/holiday-projects/

HAPPY MAMAS DAY!

Hope every mama out there is enjoying their day. I am spending it quietly at home with my sweet girls and hubby. It's a bit chilly outside (yes, I know it's mid-May) and I have still so much work to do in preparation for Quilt Market.

I received some amazing handmade gifts from my girlies this morning... lots of lovely cards and things made in school. Sophie made one of those "MOM" books where they have to fill in the blanks on questions about mom and draw pictures to go along with their answers. I wanted to share what page 3 looks like because it literally made me spit out my coffee this morning (which my sweetie made me using his Mother's Day gift for me)



Do you guys remember that?!?! I guess it made quite an impression on her. If you need a refresher, check out my post about the grasshopper and the owl. For the record, I don't remember smiling like that when I felt something...

In the spirit of Mother's Day, I also wanted to share this little miracle of life that we've been witnessing in our backyard... yes, in our grill again... and yes, we do have a grill cover... and yes, we always for get to put it on (apparently, LOL!)

First there was 1 egg, then there were 3, then there were 4...



And then there were sweet babies... awwww....



Yes, we had them around this time last year too.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all of you!! tweet tweet

Mommy & Me Giveaway

This is the one you've all been waiting for! With Mother's Day fast approaching I thought this would be a great chance to win some lovelies for yourself, your mother, your daughter, your sister, your best friend or any woman that makes your life special.

*****

We'll start with none other than The Vintage Pearl. Erin and I go waaay back to my old eBay children's custom boutique days. Seems we always ended up in the same launch groups and cooperating on projects. I always loved her jewelry (and bought plenty of it for myself back in the day) so you can imagine my surprise when I received an email from Erin offering to make me one of her precious stamped necklaces and participate in this giveaway! I was so happy to learn that her company has grown exponentially in the past couple of years and browsing through her store was an absolute pleasure... pure eye candy if I shall say so myself. Just look at the necklace she made me! *gasp* I am in love with that dainty ampersand... aren't you?



Erin has so graciously donated 2... yes, TWO $50.00 Gift Certificates to be used for any purchase in her online store, and if you've ever browsed her store, you know that you can easily pick something for $50.00... the only problem is what to pick! I know it took me like 2 days to decide on mine (I wanted one of each! heehee). So, leave a comment below and enter to win one of these 2 amazing certificates. And in the meantime, check out Erin's blog, where she is currently running a Mother's Day promotion.

*****

My second giveaway is sponsored by the lovely Linda Edson of Lily and Ebony (a.k.a. Allegro Fabrics). Linda and I also go way back to the custom boutique days and it makes me smile when I see how far her business has grown. Allegro Fabrics has been a supporter of all my endeavors since the very beginning. They carry my fabric collections and my sewing patterns and a little birdie told me they have recently ordered the new knits and patterns. :) Stop by Allegro Fabrics... it is a lovely place to browse around if you are a sewing aficionado like myself!



Now, about the giveaway... in Linda's own words:

Flora and Fauna daisies are the perfect flower for Mother's Day! When this group came through the door at AllegroFabrics, I knew a dress would be in the making. I love how it turned out; had it modeled and photographed and asked Patty if she would like me to make a custom one for a giveaway on her blog. She agreed! I am so honored.......This will be a custom dress, made in sizes 2-6, sent in time for Mother's Day, sewn by LilyandEbony.
To enter the giveaway, just sign the guest book at AllegroFabrics with Flora and Fauna Dress Giveaway in the message box. That's it! A random drawing will take place in one week. Here is the link to the AllegroFabrics Guest Book.
http://allegrofabrics.com./guestbook.htm
Linda
AllegroFabrics
LilyandEbony Clothing Design

So, there ya have it... what a great giveaway item! How sweet is this outfit?!? It just makes my heart melt! Here's a couple more pictures, because a blog can never have too much eye candy. ;)

*****

And finally, I couldn't let these two ladies have all the fun. Since I love my mom and I know you all must have a crafty lady who inspires you everyday, I am giving away a bundle of crafty goodness. My shipment of WHERE WOMEN CREATE magazines just arrived on our doorstep yesterday and I have set one of them aside for a lucky winner. This lucky winner will also receive 5 full yards from my Flora & Fauna collection. Yes, that is 1 yard each of 5 assorted coordinating designs! (and, if you prefer a different colorway, I can do that instead... I'm easy that way!) ;)



Leave a comment below to win this crafty bundle. Four lucky winners will be chosen one week from today, Friday, April 30th 2010, one for each prize detailed above. Please don't forget to leave an email addy where we can contact you if you win.



**I know a lot of you are waiting patiently to get your signed copy of the magazine. We will be adding them to the website shortly and will announce as soon as they're up there.**

Three handcrafted gift ideas

As promised, here are a few ideas you can do quickly at home without a lot of effort or skill needed. And if, like me, you are feeling like you're cheating on your Handmade Pledge, these ideas oughta get you back on track...

1. Peppermint Bark
(Oh, lovely, delicious, tempting peppermint bark)



All you need is:

• 1 package of white or dark chocolate morsels
• About 6 - 8 candy canes or a handful of those cute round peppermint candies (I know you are all in deep admiration of my technical lingo here, but try to contain the applause until the end)
• Peppermint Extract

Here's how you make it:

• Cover a cookie sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper.
• Put all your candy canes or peppermint rounds inside a heavy duty zip-lock bag (the freezer bags are great for this). Then take it to the garage and pound on it lightly with a hammer until all candy pieces are smashed down to dime size or smaller.
• Melt your chocolate morsels according to the directions on the package. Since I don't own a double boiler, I opted for the microwave method and it worked just fine. Just remember that the white chocolate is a bit more stubborn than the dark. It starts to harden a lot quicker than the dark chocolate, so you have to work twice as fast!
  NOTE: It just occurred to me today that not all packages of morsels have melting instructions on the back (I usually buy Ghirardelli, which does, but the Hershey brand doesn't) so if you need to know how to melt them in the microwave, a good rule of thumb would be to start slowly... like 30 seconds on medium power, then take it out and stir it . If the chocolate is not melted completely then microwave again in 15 second increments until it's completely melted. :)
• After your chocolate morsels are melted, add 1 teaspoon of peppermint extract and stir quickly. Immediately, pour mixture down on your cookie sheet making sure it is spread evenly.
• Drop peppermint candy pieces down on your chocolate mixture until it is covered evenly. You can even push some down with a spatula or a fork.
• Cool in fridge for at least 10 minutes (I always cool mine for about 1/2 hr.) Break into odd sized pieces and enjoy!

P.S. You can do the double layer kind too, with dark and white chocolate. I opted against it because my family members are pretty divided on what kind of chocolate they like. Jon won't touch white chocolate with a 10-foot pole, and I prefer it to the dark!

This is an excellent gift idea! Just prepare colored tins with a layer of parchment paper and fill with your homemade bark. Tie the whole thing with a bow and add a handmade gift tag... just like the ones below.

2. Handmade Gift Tags



If you're like me and have kept all your old Christmas cards from years past, this is an excellent craft to do quickly one afternoon and even get the kids involved.

• Just buy a round paper punch at any craft supply store, 1.5" - 2" diameter works great!
• Punch out your old cards. No need to center the design... the wackier the better. I used some of my ModGreetings overages for this project.
• Then using a hole punch, punch out a hole near one end of your circle (about 1/8" from edge),tie a piece of ribbon or jute through it and VOILA!

By the way, I am loving the look of brown craft paper with natural jute for my presents this year. It has such an earthy, organic feel, dontcha think? Add to this my recycled gift tags and I'm feeling pretty good about my pledge. ;)



3. Framed photos



I must say that a framed photo is about the easiest, cheapest gift you could ever make that will be received well by all. Well, that is, if you follow these simple rules:

1. Grandparents LOVE pictures of the grandkids, so knock yourself out.
2. If the framed photo happens to be a gift for a more distant relative or a friend, you'd better make it a picture of themselves or their kids (chances are they won't be putting a picture of you on their wall... just saying!)

Photos don't have to be professionally shot to make a good impression. A candid photo or fun snapshot can make a great gift if presented creatively! You could even use a cool picture shot at a park or playground. Get yourself some premium quality photo paper and print them at home, or take your photos to your local photo lab for an enlargement. Most of them will do these in 1 hour!

The frames can be thrift store or garage sale finds. Nothing too fancy needed! Spray paint is your friend. And you can even embellish your painted frames using buttons, shells or found objects and a little hot glue. Let your creativity roll...



Hope everyone is having a fantastic Holiday season! I've been sewing up a storm, how 'bout you? I promise to share my handmade gifts with you all after Christmas (since my family and friends all read my blog it would kinda spoil the surprise!) ;)

Busy with Craftiness...

Our dear friends, Todd and Paula, from Florida, had a baby boy in December and I knew immediately that I wanted to make something for them, a special gift that could be a keepsake of sorts. But since I don't do boy clothes -- and wouldn't even know where to begin -- I figured a baby blankie would be the best route to go in. As soon as I saw pictures of Everett's nursery, I knew right away what kind of blankie I would make. Well, fast forward a few weeks and VOILA! I was so pleased with the result that I just had to share...





Ooooh... and yes, my little appliqued animals have all sorts of stitching running through their ears, feet and what not to give them a puffy, quilted look. :)





I enjoyed making this so much that I wanted to keep it .. hee hee... but since I don't have an Everett around here, that would be kinda silly ... so I think I might make a few more to keep. :)

Secondly, I wanted to share a couple of "prizes" I recently completed for some MODKID contest winners. Last month I did a podcast interview with the lovely Daria from Boutique Café. Well, Daria ran a contest on her site and gave away one of my appliqued tees, and I ran one consecutively here on my blog. Cassi, of Tiger Lily Boutique, was the winner of the Boutique Cafe contest and Amber, of Emma Cakes, was the winner here on my blog.

I made this sweet tee using Oilily fabric in "decoupage" style and embellished with colorful decorative buttons for Cassie.



She has received it already and blogged about it. :) Check out the picture of her beautiful daughter, wearing her MODKID:

Then, I made this one for Amber's adorable baby daughter, Emma. She has decided to add a few extra pieces to the set, so I will be shipping it all together when it's all complete, but I wanted to share her tee which I finished a couple of days ago...



If you like the look of these funky-deco-Oilily tees, keep your eye out for a couple of new MODKID auctions going up this week on eBay. ;)

Handmade Goodness

So, I told you guys I took a partial Handmade Pledge the other day. Well, I wanted to share with you a few of the handmade goodies that I have gotten for the girlies in my family before they're all wrapped up.

First and foremost, I cannot say enough great stuff about GiftsDefine on Etsy. OMG! Irma was super sweet over several email conversations and so accommodating too! I had specific needs that she was able to meet and deliver within days. From the moment I opened her meticulously wrapped box, beauty just spilled out! Everything has gorgeous ribbons and sweet hang tags and little extra surprises here & there...


I ordered these adorable fairy angels for Sophie, Sydney and my niece, Asja. The angels come in your choice of hair color and dress/wing colors. Just look how awesome! And each came with a personalized dangle.... the girls are gonna freak out! I just know it. hee hee. I already know what I'm gonna do: when they leave the milk & cookies for Santa, these little angels will appear in its place the morning after.... kinda like a "Thank You Gift" from Santa himself. Ooooh... I can't wait! :)

Then, for my little Sydney, I ordered this super cute pink suitcase full of zoo critters. Again, the suitcase came all decked out with ribbons, hangtags and a personalized charm...

Inside, the most adorable stuffies I have ever seen. She even got a little "adoption card" with them. :)

Check out the detail on these wool stuffies:

I think the giraffe is my favorite, but I really do love them all. AHHHH! I want some for ME! LOL!


Then for the "big girls," Sophie and her cousin, Asja, I ordered something completely different and a lot more "grown up," LOL! I followed a link from Lisa's blog to this site. You upload a high-resolution photo of your child and they make a totally personalized book for them. The book is hardcover and high quality. I just had to get them. It just looked like the kind of thing Sophie & Asja would totally dig. This particular book I chose is a "fairy" theme and the story is advanced enough that they should be able to enjoy it for a few years... at least well into their teens.


When the books arrived, they far exceeded my expectations. The image quality and printing was excellent... definitely an A+. I give them a B+ on the Photoshop work -- but you gotta understand that I am a Photoshop maniac. I was actually Adobe-certified at one point (back in 1996, I think) and went to a ton of training to be able to teach, so I will most likely be a lot tougher of a judge than the average person. I know the girls will LOVE them and that's all that matters. And at the risk of sounding snooty, I expected it to look at lot worse, LOL!, so I was pleasantly surprised. :)


The story is really cute, and their names appear all throughout it, so it will be a very special book for them. I highly recommend it! PLUS, their website is extremely user-friendly. Photos are easy to upload and they take you step-by-step through the ordering process, which only takes a few minutes. Visit the FlattenMe website to check these books out. They also have other themes... even for boys and for infant/toddlers. :)


OK... I wanted to end this posting by saying that I will be taking a much-needed 2-week break from designing, sewing, ebay and maybe even blogging. I might pop in here a couple of times if I start feeling withdrawal pains but I can't promise anything. I have family coming to stay with me starting tomorrow, Friday the 21st and ending on Sunday, January 6th. Not all of them all at once (thank goodness! LOL!) but nevertheless, every day starting tomorrow until 1/6 will have me playing the hostess with the mostest, so wish me luck!

Also, don't forget to leave a comment on my last post regarding my Boutique Cafe interview. I will be drawing the winner of the custom appliqued tee on January 1st! Good luck, all! And HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!!