"D.I.Y.Day" Goodies!

My very, very favorite thing to do is make things! Whether it's scrapbooking, cardmaking, any other kind of paper crafting, jewelry making, cooking or basically anything artsy! I just love to alwayss have something that I'm in the process of working on. I'm pretty sure I inherited the feeling of always needing to have a project in the works from my mom, because I honestly can't really remember a time growing up when she didn't have a couple of projects in the works and still today she's always working on several neat things at any given time.

My mother in-law is also pretty darn crafty. She makes really beautiful floral arrangements and she is also a very talented seamstress with I think, the same kind of love and affectionfor fabric that I have for patterned papers!! My husband's sister and niece also enjoy scrapbooking, cardmaking and crafting. So... about a month ago I decided that we needed to get together for a "D.I.Y. Day". I ran the idea by each of them and they were all up for it so we set the date and started to plan projects! In case you think you might want to try to put together a D.I.Y. Day of your own with family or friends I'll tell you how we did ours and maybe you'll get fun ideas!

Each of us were to plan at least two projects to share and bring what ever supplies/kits would be needed for each person to complete the projects. If there was anything in particular that we wanted eachother to bring in order to complete the projects we were planning we just let everyone know ahead of time what that was. Since I came up with the idea I also brought lunch for everyone. I made my Ritzy Chicken casserole and pasta for us. (the recipe is here on my blog) I make this recipe in a 9" x 13" baking dish so we had enough left for dinner that night as well. :o)
Mother in-law planned for us to each make our own Apron, so she asked us each to bring our own sewing machine to DIY Day and if we had a small portable table to bring we could bring that as well. She provided a choice of Apron patterns with several different fabrics for us to choose from if we didn't bring our own. She also provided the *how to do it* tips and lessons for those needing help (like ME!) Her family room looked like a little sweat shop for a day, with sewing stuff everywhere but it was so fun!

Now while I openly admit I knew next to nothing about sewing before D.I.Y Day (I had only made a few pillows and some holiday vests years and years ago!) I DID have my own Apron pattern and three different fabrics that I had purchased about two years ago just for making an apron! Luckily two years later I still loved the pattern and the fabrics, so I took them with me!

I've always LOVED aprons! I love the whole idea behind aprons. They just remind me of the old days and of my Grandma Shepley who lived just across the road from us when I was little and we still lived on the farm. She was the sweetest lady who was always wearing an apron and she was always baking and doing all kinds of things in them. I hadn't made my apron yet because my sewing machine intimidated the bajeepers out of me! I've just never learned how to sew. It had been maybe 10 years since I'd used it to make pillows and even then I had no clue what I was doing and I hate to read instructions!

While I was sewing my apron my wheels were turning like crazy with ideas of how I wanted to embellish mine when I got home...which is exactly what I did with ribbon trim, yo-yo's and buttons! I'm still not sure it's done yet. LOL! ;o)

I planned for us to each make a recipe book for one of my projects. I put together recipe book kits, like I would for a class I was teaching and supplied everything they needed to complete the book. I had a sample book with me that was finished...for them to see and work off of. We shared recipes, put page protectors in the books with cute little recipe cards. I pre-cut just about everything so they didn't need to bring trimmers. (doing this gave us more time that day to complete other projects!)

Another project I planned was for each of them to make a glass beaded bracelet. For that one I asked each of them ahead of time to let me know what two of their favorite colors to wear were. I wanted to make sure I had beads with me that day in those colors for them. For this project I didn't put kits together ahead of time, but I took all of my beads, tools and jewelry findings with me to make sure they would have everything they needed to make their bracelets. I just had them choose their own beads, one by one! After all...that's the best part!
Another project I had planned was a Punched Butterfly Birthday card. Just quick, easy & fun. I first designed the sample card then cut papers and pre-punched a bunch of butterflies in double sided papers. The plan here was to create a card kit where they only had to choose their butterflies and put the card together. We ran out of time, so the card kits and butterflies went home with them.
My sister in-law planned a couple of cards for us to make as well. She came with everything pre-cut or punched and ready for us to make color choices from those items. She brought several rubberstamps and a great choice of ink colors as well. Cards are a great, quick and easy project for a D.I.Y Day. You don't want all of your projects to be complicated or have a lot of steps involved, unless you are ok with not completing several different projects that day.

My husbands neice brought us the cutest button bracelet project for us to make! I'd seen these before and absolutely loved them, but I hadn't learned how to make them yet... they were already on my *to-do list* so I was REALLY excited when I found out she had brought them as one of her projects! I was not a natural at this one though, that's for sure...I've gotta tell ya. I had a bit of a time making mine. Maybe a little more thinking and remembering what you just did involved than I'm used to or good at??? I don't know, but she had to help me fix mine a couple of times after I had somehow jumbled it up! She came to D.I.Y. Day with maybe a half dozen mason jars full of buttons sorted by colors for us to dump out and dig through to make our button selections. FUN! I just have a thing for buttons. Can't explain it, don't care why...just do! ;o) I'm going to have to practice making this style of button bracelet a few more times I think before I truly *get it*. I love mine and really want to make more!! This is mine...

And here are the others made that day!


Another project she brought for us to do was an image transfer project. Before D.I.Y. day she asked us to e-mail her some photos we liked. I sent several. Two I went with were one of Kyler and one I had taken of some of my buttons in an old muffin pan I had spray painted that I have on my scrap table. She printed these off on copy paper before hand and then we applied about 6 layers of medium to the front of them, allowing them to dry a little in between each coat. Next we placed the images in water and rubbed the paper off the back leaving only the image transparency. Because of the number of steps and drying time involved this project didn't get finished that day. But now we are ready to start off with it at our next D.I.Y. Day by coloring our images with oils pastels and colored pencils etc. She brought some she had done ahead of time and they turn out so neat! I can't wait to finish mine!!

Well when it was over it was unanimous...this D.I.Y. Day was just the first of many D.I.Y. Days to come for us! We all had soooo much fun!

Ok, now for a total change of subject here. I just added a "Google Follower" gadget to my blog's side panel. I'd LOVE to see you! I'd love to see your blog! I'd love to have you sign up as a follower of my blog...so I can!! C'mon, don't be shy!