Home on the Range apron

Here it is! What I have been working on in my very small amount of spare time for the last month! It is my submission for the first Tie One On monthly themed apron show and tell. The theme for June was home on the range. I decided to gear it more towards food since it is an apron! The pockets are dinner triangles being 'ringed' and on the bib is an embroidered kettle cooking over an open fire with the classic meal call to cowboys "come n' get it!"
Part of the apron (the bib and ties) is from the vintage pattern that I used for the cigar purse I showed in the last post, the rest I made up for the size I wanted. The pattern called for a fuller and longer skirted part. This is the first apron I have ever made and the first real embroidery I have done. I still have alot to learn!

where i got the kettle cooking image (since I figure I should give some credit) This website has some cute stuff, but too rich for my "i can do it myself" blood.

All in all, though, I am pretty happy with it.

crafty

This a cigar box purse that I made about 3 months ago. The front is a copy of a vintage apron pattern my mom gave me and not shown but on the back of the purse is a copy of the back of the pattern. I decoupauged pattern tissue from a thrifted 80's big shoulder padded jumpsuit on the sides. It didn't hurt my feelings to use the tissue of an ugly outfit and you can't tell that it is not from this pattern unless you are a pattern expert and would know that this pattern doesn't have print on it. It's just for the effect. The trim and the handle are actually grosgrain ribbon meant for scrapbooking. I bought it because I loved that it was black and white and had a stitching down the middle. I didn't even know what i was going to use it for. But here it is! I think it works well with the theme of the purse also! This was made during one of the Dixie Doll's meetings.
I decided to put this up due to the "Tie one on" apron deadline is Thursday. I have my apron finished and will post it soon!

Helpful Handy Tips

I have a hard time throwing stuff away. That's probably why I like scrap craft ideas so much. To give me excuses to buy more junk at thrift stores and hold on to more crap than I really don't need I have compiled a list to repurpose and reuse stuff. Here are some hints revolving around children that I came across:

*Use a softly lit fish tank as a night light in a child's room.

*Make a Hawaiian 'grass' skirt from cutting narrow strips up the side of a large, green plastic lawn bag. Tape to fit.

*Add food coloring to milk or pancake batter to mark special days-red for valentines day and green for St. Patrick day for example.

*Turn an old necktie into a snake toy or sea serpent by making a face on the large end and stuffing it with soft odds and ends. Sew shut.

*Make an embroidery kit for a child by drawing a simple design on a foam or paper plate. Punch holes and let the child sew with yarn along the line with a blunt needle. Keep all the supplies together in a large ziplock.

*Protect your Christmas tree from a toddlers inquisitive hands by setting the tree inside an unused playpen.

*Use several layers of transparent tape to make fake finger nails for Halloween.

*Use toothpicks to construct foods such as marshmallows, cheese cubes or grapes into silly creatures for fun.

I am definitely contemplating doing the Christmas tree in the playpen thing. I was thinking about hanging some child safe ornaments around the outer parts of the pen for my son to pull off and play with. Another tip was to use those lemon and lime juice containers that are shaped like the fruit for Christmas ornaments. My idea would be to make the Christmas tree themed after baby stuff since it's in a playpen. The whole thing sounds so white trash though so I will have to see how desperate I get. Maybe I could just hang the tree from the ceiling upside down and call it done.

These hints where adapted from "Don't throw that Out!" a penny-wise parent's guide to creative uses for over 200 household items by Vicki Lansky.

wedding cake ~ Rockabilly style!

This is a wedding cake that I did for a friend~Josh. I based the design after Sailor Jerry tattoo flash. It is the first cake I v'e ever really decorated using tips and such. The banner and the swallows are made out of marshmallow foundant.

recipe for the marshmallow fondant:

1 cup mini marshmallows ~ 1 tBSP water~ ass load of powdered sugar

put marshmallows and water together in a microwavable dish . microwave a few seconds at a time , stiring in between every few seconds. When mixture is smooth start stiring small amounts of powdered suger until becomes a dough. Roll out on a powder sugar surface. Experiment with what you want to do with it. This foundant is not recomended to be used to cover an entire cake. It really only works for cut outs for cupcakes. I was taking it to an extreme by using it for the banner here. I also put a coat of white glaze over the top of it to hide all the creases and wrinkles.

Why yes! Those are little flowers made of marshmallows!

Here is an example of one of my favorite pastimes... reproducing old recipes and taking photos of them...Oh, don't worry I have more!

HiYa!

I hope i can figure out how to use this thing. If all goes well i will be adding all sorts of neat and crafty type PHOTOS! along with other cuteness that inspires me. i tried to do somthing like this on myspace but that site is a pain in the ass so we will see. If I can't get this to work out then i'll get rid of it and move on to something else.