Delightfully Vintage

I wanted to share my new staple gun I bought from an Etsy seller; Seatown Vintage!! I am in love with this stapler. I found this beautiful green vintage staple gun from the new Fossil catalog, but it is $65!  I knew we needed a staple gun, but a pretty vintage one sounded so much more useful! Hehe! ...for me at least, my husband would be fine with any staple gun as long as it got the job done. Since I will be using it more; for projects; I wanted something nice to look at while I was working.  I searched eBay and Etsy and came across this one.  It is in such good condition and works perfect!! I am finding that Etsy is a great place to find more than just handmade items!

SALE SALE SALE!!

Also Starting Thursday August 1st I am having a sale on my Etsy shop for back to school time.  Take 30% off all orders of $10 or more at my shop, The Serenity Shoppe.  I sell hair accessories for little girls to adults!  To get your Code go to my facebook page and 'like' to access you code.  Have fun shopping!!

Pretty Things: Crackle Bracelets

There aren't many little girls I know that don't like a little pretty sparkle with their outfit. I know one little girl here who loves a little bling and even more excited if it matches her outfit. I had gone to AC Moore and bought a few packs(about 16 in each) of these crackle beads for $3.  I didn't know what to do with them, but they reminded me of the little girl jewelry that J.Crew had a few years back.  So fun, colorful, chunky, and pretty! I also bought some elastic cord for other projects I was doing, not the really thin elastic but the next one up I believe it was the .8mm size.  So finally I just strung them onto a piece of elastic cord for dress-up jewelry for my daughter, with a little silver bead in the middle. She loves them and they are smooth on her arm, not pinchy, as she'd say. I would not sell these because the beads are some sort of crackled plastic, not glass, and when one of my kids dropped one of the bracelets one of the beads cracked.  So they are a bit fragile, but they are fun for a little girl who's style from day to day. She loved these so I had to share them!  They are very inexpensive to make, you should be able to make about 3 for $8! Also I want to point out that this is a perfect craft for your child to do! You just need an adult to tie the cord and add the glue on.

Materials:
Beadalon Elastic Cord (measure your child's' wrist and double the length; this is for easy tying)
Super Glue (dab on the knot when finished)
10-12 beads same or different colors
silver bead (whatever you have in your craft box)
1 or more cute little children or grandchildren who love to dress up ;)

Have fun making some dress up Jewelry! 

Everything Is Better In A Fort

From ARMOMMY.COM

A birthday is a big deal in this household, at least for one little boy turning 7! This year I finally made him the fort he's been asking for forever.  I first found the idea on Jones Design Blog, that a friend had given one of her boys for their birthday.  She thankfully had a link to the tutorial on making your own fort kit and printables that came with it!  What a great idea! (Click here for the tutorial and printables.)  So this past year I happened to find this pirate fabric that I just fell in love with.  If I am going to fall in love with fabric it is definitely going to be Michael Miller's line of children's fabric; Out to Sea!!  Instead of using sheets; which is much easier; for this project I used 2- 2 & 1/2 yds x 44 inch wide pieces of my favorite fabric.  

This was quite simple, just taking a bit more time.  I used everything armommy.com calls for, I just switched up the twin sheet for 5 yards of fabric; 2- 2 1/2 yd pcs.  Here's how I did the "sheet" step. (I apologize for the lack of pictures, hopefully you get what I explain on the center)

Sewing Up the Fabric: 

1. I washed and dried the fabrics in cold water

2. Ironed each piece (while listening to Give them Grace)

3. Laid them out on the floor right sides together and pinned along one side lengthwise   

4. Sew in 1 inch, up the pinned side, this leaves room to make a nice finish in the middle

5. Iron the center seam (on the wrong sides) opening and folding each piece of the middle showing the right side of the fabrics;then fold under 1/4 inch; so each side is showing the right side fabric and then fold again so the raw edges are tucked under, pinning as you iron.  (see image, it should look like this) 

6. Making a nice hem in the middle on each side, sew each side of the middle up so the middle looks like this: 

The center where the 2 fabrics meet should look like this. 

 

 7. Once the middle is finished you can tackle folding the outer edges folding over 1/2 inch ; iron and again fold that over 3/4 inch; iron and pin. 

8. Sew each side up then pin your ribbon in place for ties ( I used 8 ties; 12 inches long; each at a corner and middle) sewing at the center of the ribbon. reinforce by back stitching a few times.  

Then enjoy your fort! 

My favorite part was the hand painted craft bag with the cool pirate map my husband hand painted from a clip art he found; then he added beautiful color! LOVE!! 

Family fort night! Such fun, baby and all! 

Here is what I used to make the kit: 

* Fort kit tutorial and Tag printables here; she also has a video how-to on her site

* 2 1/2 yds each print of Michael Miller, Out to Sea Pirate and Map fabric 

* 3 yds Blue Ribbon from local shop, similar

* Craft Cotton Tote Bag from local shop(about 15" x 16" x 6", find similar at local craft shop or Amazon

* Hand Crank Flashlight, Amazon

* Walkie Talkies found at Target or online 

* 16ft (Air Force color camo) Paracord found at my local shop, similar

* Reinforcements aka clothes pins ;)

Have Fun!