#MichaelsMakers - The Incredible Mounted Cat-Moose Costume DIY

So you all know me... you know I'm a cat lady.  Not quite crazy yet, but steadily approaching, I think. When the #MichaelsMakers challenges are posted, most of the time I immediately think of something insane I can make for my cats.  Well, this month's costume challenge was no exception!  I decided to turn my cat, Skilo, into a whimsical jackelope type creature... hence, I present to you Cat-Moose.

As you can see, Skilo loves me.  You can see it all over his face.  See...  That look says, "Mom, I love you, my life is better because of you and these antlers you've crafted with love for my adorable head." I know you're all dying to know how to make your own Cat-Moose or, dare I say, DOG-Moose... so let's get to the tutorial!

This is no sew - of course!  You will need:

Felt

Card Stock

Faux Wood Grain Paper

Glue Gun

Scissors

Paint Pen/Chalk

First and foremost, you have to sketch out your moose antlers.  Cut them out of cardstock, then use that as your stencil for the felt.  Make sure to leave about 1/8 inch between your chalk line and stencil because the card stock is going in between the two pieces of felt to give it some structure.  You want 2 sides for each antler (obviously).

Next, cut strips of felt about 3 inches long an as wide as the base of your antlers... you want 4 strips.  Glue one strip to each antler piece (about 1 inch overlapping).  Once that is done, glue the card stock and the 2 antler pieces together.  

Now you want to cut the band that will go around your pet's head.  Mine is about 1.5 in wide.  Find the center of it and cut 2 slits the width of the base of your antlers, about 1/2 inch apart.  Fit the flaps at the end of your antlers through the cut.  You will then fold it out and glue to the under side of the strap, then fold it up over the top and do the same.  Where the strip meets the antler, reinforce it with hot glue to make sure the antlers stand upright.

Next, make your plaque!  I cut mine out of card stock first then layered the faux wood grain paper over top.  Once that was done, I attached the antlers with a strip of felt and hot glue.

There you have it.  Now all you need to do is stick your pets head through the hole and you have a whimsical creature as a pet!

Can we give props to my Mum for modeling with my kitten??  

When I'm having a bad day, I put the antlers on my cats and just laugh hysterically at their expense.  Does that make me a bad person?  I think they secretly like it.

Make sure you check out all the other awesome costume ideas from the #MichaelsMakers!

An InLinkz Link-up

Faux Cross Stitched "Love" Shirt

I love the look of cross stitching on clothes. It can really add a lot of personality to a dull, plain shirt. With Valentine's Day coming up, I thought it'd be fun to try out a little faux cross stitching on my daughter's shirt by using my CAMEO to make the stitches rather than hand sewing - and I gotta say, I love the result!!

The "stitches" are actually little X's made of transfer material that spell out "love." This shirt couldn't have been easier to make! And while I used my CAMEO, you could also achieve the same result with fabric paint and freezer paper stenciling if you're willing to take the time to cut out lots of little X's.

This shirt is the perfect project to make for your little Valentine :) Let's make one!

SUPPLIES: white shirt, Silhouette or Silhouette CAMEO, red heat transfer material , Silhouette cut file HERE, iron and ironing board.

Download my free Silhouette cut file HERE, or to make your own I opened up Silhouette Studio and typed out "love" in a bold font. Then, I filled in the blank space inside the letters with X's using the grid as a guide. After you've filled your wording with X's, click and move the wording off of the design area so that only the X's will be cut.

Before cutting, be sure to click and group all of your X's, then mirror your image so that your wording won't be backwards. Cut.

Follow the instructions on the heat transfer material to iron onto your shirt (I personally ignore the instructions and instead set my iron to "satin" and iron directly on the shiny plastic material on the back of the heat transfer. Then I peel off the shiny part and swipe a few times directly on my heat transfer material to make sure it's set.)

The result is an adorable faux cross stitched shirt that my daughter can wear for V-Day and beyond!

Love her little furry boots that I got from Target! They've been sooo handy during these snowy days we've had lately. When we get up the motivation to leave the house on these snowy days, that is ;)

Also, leggings are made by me using this gorgeous buffalo plaid from Girl Charlee.

Love is in the air!

DIY Skeleton Gloves + Silhouette Portrait GIVEAWAY!

I've got the perfect, quick addition for your Halloween costumes today (and make sure to read below for a chance to win a (Silhouette Portrait)!

My son, Connor, is obsessed with skeleton everything. It all started with the shirt he's wearing in the picture below, which happens to be an old shirt from last year that he refuses to give up. He now owns several skeleton shirts and a zip-up jacket in skeleton print that I made him this year.

The wonderful folks over at Silhouette sent us a Silhouette Portrait recently to try out, so I thought it'd be fun to make Connor a pair of skeleton gloves using their flocked heat transfer material to add to his wardrobe - and they were a huge hit!

With the addition of a skeleton shirt, these gloves make the perfect skeleton Halloween costume. Or just wear the gloves by themselves for fun! Who says skeleton gloves are only for Halloween? Not this guy.

Who wants to make a pair??

SUPPLIES: a pair of knit gloves (do not use leather or anything other than traditional knit or fabric gloves!), Silhouette flocked heat transfer in white, Silhouette Portrait or CAMEO, scanner, iron and ironing board, skeleton gloves template (available only in Silhouette Studio format.)

Note: If you'd like to use the skeleton glove template that I created for your own personal use, you can find it here. It is only available in Silhouette Studio format, but if you'd like to make this project without a Silhouette, feel free to trace your glove and draw the bones freehand onto the back of Silhouette transfer material, then cut out by hand.

ONE: to create your own skeleton gloves from scratch, first place one glove on a piece of paper and trace carefully around it. Scan your picture and open in Silhouette Studio.

TWO: next, choose the "draw smooth freehand" option and begin drawing finger bones.

THREE: continue drawing bones with the draw smooth freehand tool.
FOUR: after you've finished drawing all your hand bones, you can use the arrow to click individually on each bone and adjust them as necessary.
FIVE: add wrist bones, the use your arrow to select all of the bones. Right click and choose "group" to group all the bones in your hand together.
SIX: you can now move your scanned picture off of your work board.

SEVEN: to make a second hand, simply right click on your hand and select "duplicate." Once you've duplicated your hand, make sure to right click on it again and choose "flip horizontally."

EIGHT: now you're ready to cut! Load your flocked heat transfer material into your Silhouette Portrait and cut according to the recommended settings.

NINE: Weed out your design by removing the extra transfer material.
TEN: place your design sticky side down onto your glove.
ELEVEN: I know the directions say otherwise, but I've found that my heat transfer designs adhere best when I turn my iron heat between the "silk" and "wool" setting, and iron directly on top of the plastic (on an ironing board of course.)

Remove the plastic carefully, and now you have the perfect set of spooky skeleton gloves for Halloween, or just for fun!

Connor loves his new gloves! I'm sure this won't be the last year you'll be seeing these babies :)

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Now for the best part! We get to give away a Silhouette Portrait!

If that doesn't excite you, then there's something wrong with you! Between the two of us, Shannon and I own both the Silhouette Portrait and the CAMEO, and they have been essential to our daily crafting. You can make everything from personalized clothing, decorations, and gifts for friends and family. The possibilities are really endless! Need some ideas?

1. Monster Teeth Treat Bags  2. Trick-or-Treat Bags 

3. Skeleton Bones Treat Bags 4. Faux Stamped Jewelry

5. Library Tote with Library Card Pocket  6. "You Blow Me Away" Valentine  

What's great about The Silhouette Portrait is that it's compact in size (only 3.5 pounds), but has a cutting size of 8" wide, and can be used to cut fabric, chipboard, vinyl, you name it. You can read more about the awesomeness that is The Silhouette Portrait here.   

So, do you want to win one? Of course you do. Enter using the widget below. Good Luck! The lucky winner will be announced here Monday October 27th.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Guidelines: Open to US/Canada Residents 18 years old or older. Void where prohibited. Giveaway is not associated with Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest. Prizes will be fulfilled by Silhouette America. Winner cannot have won another Silhouette America giveaway in the past 90 days. Winners should expect to receive their prize within 4-6 weeks after the giveaway has ended. The giveaway winner will be emailed within 24 hours after giveaway has ended, and will have 72 hours to claim their prize. If the prize is not claimed, a new winner will be selected. 

CRAFT: Fabric Covered Bead Necklaces

I made these necklaces during the winter because I was desperate for spring. Now it's April, and I'm even more desperate! We had some random snow last week and then it was in the 60's yesterday, so I'm afraid to trust the weather and break out the shorts just yet.

I don't know who's getting more impatient, me or my kids. To them, spring and summer has become this magical time when all wonderful things happen: going to the pool, playing at the park, going to the beach, walks outdoors, going to the zoo, grilling, etc. Last Monday the weather was in the mid 40's, so I gave into my kids' pleas to go to a local park. We packed up and got the the park and within 20 minutes, the temperature dropped 15 degrees and it began to snow. The trip ended up with a visit to Starbucks for hot chocolate (which is always a good idea anyway, but not exactly as I had planned it.) I keep reminding myself that once summer comes, I'm going to be glad that I'm here in the 70 degree weather rather than back in Memphis with the 107 degree heat.

These fabric and bead necklaces are a way to bring a little spring into your wardrobe without having to sew a stitch.

SUPPLIES: 38 inch long fabric strips (choose fun florals for springy necklaces), wooden beads, 14 inches chain, 2 jump rings. rotary cutter and mat, round nose pliers.

ONE: measure and cut out your strips of fabric to a length of 38 inches long and 3 inches wide. If your strips aren't long enough, you can sew several strips of fabric together end to end if needed, or just leave them raw and overlap them as you go (which is what I did.)
TWO: tie an overhand knot at one end, concealing the raw edge of the fabric.
THREE: open up your fabric "tube" and insert a wooden bead.
FOUR: tuck the fabric around the bead to enclose and tie a knot.
FIVE: continue inserting beads and knotting. If you need to add more fabric, simply overlap the ends of your fabric strips and continue knotting as usual. Once you have 6 inches of fabric left, tie another overhand knot and cut any extra.
SIX: using your round nose pliers, attach a jump ring at each end of your necklace and add your chain. I made my necklace long enough to go over my head, but you can add a clasp too if you prefer.

Enjoy your new springy necklaces!

P.S. I guess we were channeling similar crafty brain waves because Kate at See Kate Sew also made cute fabric and bead necklaces! Check hers out HERE.

Check out our link party page to see where we link up each week!

PARTY: Tangled Birthday Invites {Tangled Birthday Party}

--Click HERE to see all Tangled-related posts and DIY's--

Yet again, I couldn't keep myself away from making birthday invites, even after the torture I went through to make Connor's Knight Party invites. I had SO much fun planning Haley's Tangled birthday party that I didn't need to force myself to be creative (which happens a lot more than you might think :) With all my crazy DIY-ing, I initially considered buying invites; but then a thought came to me: "Why not make themed invites that require the recipients to "untangle" Rapunzel's hair to get all the party details?"

You know I couldn't buy invites from a store with inspiration like that.

I designed the cards in Photoshop and made them in such a way that the card reads "Untangle for more details" while the ribbon "hair" is wrapped around it so the reader understands that they have to unwrap the ribbon for all the party details. Fun, right? I did it this way to work in the party theme and to make it interactive.

I won't be sharing the file for this one (sorry, I hope to possibly sell it eventually!) But I will share how I made it in case you want to do something similar.

Use double sided tape to tape the end of some ribbon to the back of the card. Proceed to wrap the ribbon around the card, hiding the details of the party so that only the wording "Untangle for more details" is visible. Tape the other end of the ribbon down with more double sided tape and tie with skinny purple ribbon.

That's it! Pretty simple really, but so fun and whimsical. You may have noticed that the colors of ribbon in the main picture and tutorial are different shades. Initially, I wasn't able to find the perfect shade of golden yellow that I was looking for. Then (after I had already made and distributed all of the cards!) I found the perfect golden grosgrain ribbon at Hobby Lobby. Sigh. Oh well, I still think they turned out great and I think I'm the only one that cared about the ribbon color.

    Check out our link party page to see where we link up each week!

CRAFT: Rose Trim Valentine Shirt

Due to an endless string of sickness around our house (come on already spring!) there have been a severe lack of Valentine's projects. It's kind of hard to get into the romantic mood when you're busy wiping runny noses ;)

Recently when the munchkins were feeling better,  I took a stroll through Joann's and came upon this adorable rose trim that I had to make something out of! Have you ever walked through the trim section? They have stuff I never even KNEW existed! My mind is spinning with the possibilities. Anyway, when I found the trim, I ran up to the counter and had some cut for me, and then went home and whipped up this really cute shirt for Haley that's no-sew and really fast (minus dry time.) She's requested it several times since I made it, so I'd call that a win!

SUPPLIES: 1 1/4 yard rose trim, shirt, disappearing ink marker, paper and scissors, fabric glue, cardboard or something else to place inside your shirt to prevent the glue from leaking.

ONE: make a heart template and cut out of paper. Place your template on top of your shirt and trace around with disappearing ink marker.
TWO: place the cardboard inside your shirt and begin to glue the trim to your shirt following the heart outline you drew.
THREE: continue gluing your trim to your shirt in a clockwise fashion to fill in the entire heart.
FOUR: let dry according to the directions on the bottle.

This was one of the simplest and cutest shirts I've made for Haley. And it was no-sew - and you know I love that. You could use this same method and substitute different trims. The trim aisle was full of cute options! I've had no problem with the trim coming off but if you'd rather sew it, I'd suggest using a zipper foot so you can sew close to the edge. And set aside some time because sewing it will take awhile ;)

Haley loved this shirt, as you can tell from the pictures above. She kept spinning around, which made it hard to get pictures, but it made me happy to know she likes it! I've washed the shirt several times without incident. I just tossed it in with my other clothes on a cold cycle. You may want to lay it flat to dry though so the roses don't get crushed.

Check out our link party page to see where we link up each week!