Hair Bows I made Last Night

ALTHOUGH I had an what felt like an extremely LONG day with my daughter yesterday, she was being super fussy all day, I was eager to use my new ribbons lots that came in from Ebay to make new hairbows! I hope to sell them along with baked goods at the Hargill Cookoff in the booth we rented. 

I ordered a lot of ribbons that had disney princesses and Hello Kitty because I felt like those would be some that would be more likely to sell. As soon as my daughter fell asleep I took out ALL of my bow making supplies, and got to work.

These aren't the first hair bows that I've made, it has taken lots of time and patience, and I still feel like they're far from perfect. I just cant get them to look like the photos I see of other bows. haha but, bows can be imperfect, they look cute regardless. Its a fun hobby! Its also less expensive to make your own hairbows as opposed to purchasing them from boutiques, where they can be close to $20! (gasp!) You can even make a little money making these for friends or people you know, and u don't have to charge $20 for them. I have used this website a lot to start making bows it has many great tutorials and I definitely recommend it, along with Youtube :) http://www.girlythingsbows.com/

I had been looking online for ideas of bows that I could make, and I really wanted to incorporate some craft flower petals that I purchased before and never really got use out of, except for bows for my baby. I made a total of 4 bows before I was totally tired and went to bed. Here are some of the bows I came up with...

This is a 4 layer "boutique" bow stacked consisting of two regular bows and the pink dotted one is a loopy bow, and a purple rhinestone. Lavender grosgrain, pink dotted grosgrain, purple hello kitty grosgrain, and hot pink satin. I always use a mixture of both satin ribbon and grosgrain in my bows, depending on the colors I have on hand :)

this is a more simple bow its just a 2 layered "tails down" bow accented with a green rhinestone. I used a light pink satin and (super cute!) tractor printed white grosgrain

craft flower petals I wanted to try incorporating into my ribbon bows, wasn't sure if it was going to work or not! 

this is how I created that bow, 2 stacked boutique bows, black hello kitty grosgrain and black and pink flower grosgrain, and 2 layers of petals, pink, and black behind. I also accented with clear rhinestones.

 

This is the last bow I made. Again, its a 3 layer boutique stacked bow and a loopy bow. White grosgrain, brown satin, pink hello kitty grosgrain, and cheetah grosgrain for the loopy bow. I also accented with coordinating corker ribbon and a pink rhinestone. :)

Hope to post more of my bow creations SOON, whenever I have free time. If you are starting to make your own bows for your daughters at home, don't be overwhelmed. Start small learning the basics, then from there its just putting things together :) make it your own! 

Keep it crafty, keep it cute, keep it couture! 

xoxo- Kim <3

No-Sew Cupcake Apron Pocket Pt. 2

 5. Cut the shape of the "frosting" out of felt. I used white felt but any coordinating color would work as well. Here I held the template over the felt and used scissors to cut the shape as opposed to the rotary cutters because, for me, it was easier to cut around the tight corners using the scissors.

6. Using your felt shape you just created, trace the outline of the cupcake frosting onto your sheet of Heat N Bond. Do the same using your pocket shape (bottom of cupcake) template, so you have both shapes' outlines on your sheet of Heat N Bond. Then cut both shapes out of the Heat N Bond.

Remember: You do want your pocket to be able to function and remain open, unglued from the apron! So, on the Heat N Bond, only cut the frosting shape up to the top edge of the apron pocket, where you want it to remain open and unglued. 

7. You can then iron out your fabric just to make sure that there aren't any folds, creases, or wrinkles in the fabric before applying the Heat N Bond.

8.On the reverse of the fabric, or the back side, iron on the Heat N Bond, with the glue side face down. You can tell which is the glue side because it appears as a clear shiny layer. Do the same to the felt (frosting).

 9. CAREFULLY peel off the Heat N Bond backing off of your cupcake shapes, making sure that the layer of glue remains adhered to the fabric, and not to the paper backing.

After peeling off paper backing, check around edges of your shapes to make sure there is no overhang of the clear glue bond from your Heat N Bond, if there is any trim off the glue, this will prevent glue melting onto your iron and ruining it/ making a mess :)

10. Place your apron on top of your ironing board, then place your cupcake bottom piece of fabric (my pink gingham fabric) over the pocket of the apron. Iron on the fabric to the apron pocket, GLUE SIDE DOWN. 

 

11. After your bottom of the cupcake is glued down and secure to the apron pocket, peel off the Heat N Bond backing from the "frosting" felt piece of the cupcake. CAREFULLY place the "frosting" shape over the pocket shaped fabric and iron it on. I tried to make my "frosting" shape thick enough so that it would hide the top corners of the apron pocket. Be careful that you place your "frosting" shape low enough so that you wont glue the pocket closed, but also high enough to hide the top pocket corners.

If when you place your "frosting" shape high enough to cover the top pocket corners and there is glue remaining above the pocket opening that might glue the pocket shut, trim a small strip of felt to place behind the frosting where the glue is before you iron the "frosting" down. This will prevent gluing your pocket shut. (I had to do this to mine.)

YOU NOW HAVE YOUR NO-SEW CUPCAKE APRON POCKET DECORATION!! 

SUPER CUTE, AND SUPER EASY, NO SEWING REQUIRED.

THIS IS JUST A BASIC CUPCAKE SHAPE, TO DECORATE IT EVEN FURTHER, LET YOUR IMAGINATION TAKE OVER :)

This is my final product :) I decided to add rhinestones, OF COURSE, and since I did use the wrong Heat N Bond, not the one you are supposed to use in a no-sew project such as this, I also added a zig-zag accent to the outside edge of the bottom of the cupcake, on the outline of the apron pocket using fluorescent pink fabric paint. I thought this might help adhering the edges of the cupcake so that it would last longer. 

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial. Keep Crafting,  Keep it Cute, Keep it Couture! ;)

xoxo -Kim. 

Mom's Birthday Brunch

This past weekend we celebrated my moms 51st birthday. Ever since I can remember, she has always mentioned to me how nice it would be to have a brunch party for some special occasion. We always talked about it but never really had one. This year I thought it would be a great idea to cook for her and do something just to make her feel loved, appreciated, and special. My older sister Jenny and I woke up at 7am and started cooking the menu. I always thought brunch was supposed to be around 12 in the afternoon-ish but my mom insisted that we had to wake up super early so my aunt could go have breakfast. Anyway I had planned a brunch menu as opposed to a breakfast menu. We decided to have pecan and cinnamon bread pudding, fruit and yogurt parfaits, sausage mushroom and cheese quiche, pigs in a blanket, a vegetable and mashed potato strata, shrimp bruschetta, and lastly maple bacon chocolate ganache CUPCAKES! & not to forget the mimosas :)

All the recipes were new to me, I had never cooked any of them! but luckily, everything turned out DELICIOUS! I was extremely happy that my cupcakes came out soft and fluffy. Lately I have been having trouble with them, sometimes they are fluffy & soft, and other times the taste is great but the cake itself ends up coming out really dense. Overall I think my mom really enjoyed what we did for her. I'm so glad that I did this for her. 

Here are some photos of the food and decorations for my mothers birthday brunch :)

Last but NOT least...THE CUPCAKES! :)

No-Sew Cupcake Apron Pocket

For the annual Hargill "Pan De Campo" cookoff, my best friend and I will be selling baked goods at a booth this year. Of course we wanted to wear something cute maybe matching T-Shirts, but then we thought, How cute would it be to wear matching aprons?!

I thought of actually making our own aprons, but when I went to Hobby Lobby to check out fabrics and patterns, I realized that it would be wayyy less expensive to buy the plain aprons (Me & My Apron) and make them special by decorating them. Using my favorite coupon from Hobby Lobby, 40% off any regular price item, I was able to purchase the aprons for about $6.99 (regularly priced $10.99). While the pattern for making our own aprons was around $20, not including other materials needed. :) yayy for saving money!

Here are the materials I used to make my no-sew cupcake apron decoration:

1. One "Me & My Apron" aprons in black & pink
2. White Felt (to create fluffy frosting top of cupcake)
3. Pink Gingham Fabric (for bottom of cupcake)
4. "Heat N Bond Lite" Double sided bonder (This is what I had on hand, when reading back of package directions, I realized that for a project like this where you won't be sewing the fabric together, it is better to use Heat & Bond in the red package)
5. Cutting Tools (scissors, rotary cutter)
6. "Trace It" Gray Transfer Paper
7. Self Healing Cutting Mat (if you want to protect your work surfaces while using rotary cutter)

 Step-By-Step Instructions:

1. First, I layered the tracing paper on top of regular white computer paper, and placed it behind the apron pocket. Then using the back end of a pen, trace the inside shape of the apron pocket where you want your fabric to cover. This will become the bottom half of the cupcake.

 Now you will have your template shape for the bottom half of the cupcake :)

2. Next, Cut out your paper template that you created using the tracing paper.

 3. Now, Using your paper template cut out the shape on your chosen fabric. Here I used the rotary cutter & self-healing mat.

 4. To create the cupcake topper or frosting, Layer original template over another sheet of white paper, place that above your sheet of tracing paper, and place that above another sheet of white paper. The order will be (from top to bottom) original template, white paper, tracing paper, white paper. Then, Draw the shape you want your "frosting" on top of the "cupcake" to be.

 Here is a photo of the template created with the tracing paper making the top of the cupcake.

Directions continued on No-Sew Cupcake Apron pt. 2 Post :)

My First Post :)

So I have decided to start a blog for myself...in it I hope to document my baking ventures as well as some arts and crafts that I create. I feel like people are tired of seeing photos of things I make on Facebook lol...she made cupcakes, again?

I have been baking ALOT lately, trying out different recipes, as well as trying to create my own. My best friend, Celena and I, decided it was a good idea to rent a booth out at our hometowns annual "Pan De Campo" cookoff this year in November. We are going to sell baked goods (cupcakes, sweet breads, cornbread, pies). We don't really have much baking experience other than what we do bake at home or for special occasions, so for me this is a learning experience. Though, recently, I have become obsessed with baking everything "from scratch". Sometimes it works out, and sometimes it doesn't. So far I have successfully baked awesome Reese's Cups cupcakes, mini apple pies baked in a jumbo muffin tin, and delicious soft sugar cookies with lime glaze. I still have yet to bake pumpkin bread, cornbread, and banana nut muffins. Hopefully that turns out well for us, maybe it can become something we do every year.

As for arts and crafts, I get ideas to make things, mostly for my 10 month old daughter Kali. I look for tutorials online, or just look at photos to get ideas and then make them. I have made ribbon hairbows in the past for her, and you will probably see future blogs about that also. I hope to make a tutu for Kali for Halloween this year as well. Anyway, I'm just looking for a creative outlet for a young housewife and mother. Hope you enjoy my Blog! <3 xoxo -Kim