December 31, 2013

Your Favorites from 2013

What a year we've had here at I Get My Crafty From My Mama! We crafted our way through new jobs, new homes, and many holidays. Here are your top five favorite posts from this year:

 

December 24, 2013

Christmas Muff

Santa's elf (aka, me) was working late into the night on this one final Christmas gift, a muff to perfectly accessorize a Christmas Eve outfit! I found a wonderful tutorial from Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom here.

Once all of my pieces were cut out (I used two pieces batting) I lined them up and "quilted" them. Unlike the instructions I was following, I had one inch hanging over on each end and decided to only make three seams in the middle.



I had a bit of difficulty interpreting the pattern and accidently sewed the lining to the top and bottom of the outer material before pulling out those seams and sewing them to the sides correctly.


After getting the side seams sewn correctly I turned it right side out. At this point I stopped following the instructions because I wanted all finished seams inside the muff. I pinned the top fabric, the handle, and part of the lining together and sewed it from the inside, leaving only a small opening to be hand whipped or top stitched closed.






The muff was a huge success and looked great with a cream and gold Christmas dress!

December 23, 2013

Tacky Christmas Party

Paul and I were invited to a last minute "tacky Christmas" party and needed to find outfits quickly. Thankfully I found this beautiful little number at Goodwill and was inspired by a pin I had seen.

SO many hunting dogs!

Once I got the tree skirt home I found some green ribbon and decided to sew it to the top of the skirt to make a faux waistband and closure.


Sadly, I'm not as small around as a Christmas tree, so I had to measure down about 7" on each side, tuck in the corner, and sew the ribbon on top to enlarge the "waist" area.



 


This made the side of the skirt with the opening slightly higher. I decided to make the shorter part of the skirt the front, like a high-low Christmas skirt. Due to time restraints I quickly slipped on the skirt, tied a bow on top, and safety pinned it closed. Next time I wear it I will sew the sides together about 3/4 of the way up. Merry tacky Christmas!

December 20, 2013

December Side-by-Side Challenge

Today I'm participating in another Side-by-Side challenge with the ladies from 2 Girls in 2 Cities! Earlier in the week you saw by Christmas party refashion and here I am at the party. (Notice the world's largest Christmas "tree" behind me!)

 
Check out these girls for other fun holiday outfit ideas!
 

December 17, 2013

Christmas Party Refashion

This fun royal blue silk number was sent to me by a family member for re-hab. It had a number of stains on the lower half of the skirt, but I LOVED the color and knew just what I wanted to do with it.
Before

and I loved this detailing along the waist!

The first step was to cut off the stains at the bottom of the dress. However, that length was a little awkward (not really a dress, not really a shirt...) so I cut it a few more inches. Then you could tell it was supposed to be a top. I had to be careful of the back zipper though, because the garment was originally a dress, the zipper is quite long.

Step number two, remove those 90s shoulder pads!


The third step was to hem the lining and outer layer, making sure to hem the lining higher than the outer layer so it wouldn't hang out. After a quick press I was really to go to my Christmas party!


December 16, 2013

Sew Help Me by Marissa Giveaway


Head over there right now to learn how to enter to win a chunky knit infinity scarf made by yours truly!

December 8, 2013

Christmas Wreath

Over the Thanksgiving holiday my mom and I made a Christmas wreath out of an evergreen base, poinsettias, and gold swirlies that she had found at garage sales. We thought the poinsettias looked a little plain so we decided to spruce them up with faux snow and glitter!




(We used mod podge to make the glitter stick.) After the "snow" had dried I added the gold swirls in randomly and added a green bow to the bottom of the wreath.


I made the bow by looping ribbon together and fastening the loops with a bread tie. And I used the bread tie to fasten the bow to the wreath. So simple!


A festive Christmas wreath brought to you by my mama's thriftiness and good company!

December 1, 2013

Cookie Day

One of my favorite family traditions is Cookie Day. Me, my mom, her sisters, my sister, and our cousins all get together around Thanksgiving for a cookie exchange. And the men usually find there way to the family farm for a little hunting leaving us to our vices.

My mom makes sugar cookies ahead of time, which the cousins frost, while my aunts bake up the cookie dough they brought. The cousins get really crafty when it comes to decorating the sugar cookies and turn out some pretty realistic gingerbread men!


This snowman is SO COLD he literally turned blue!



One of the newer and easier cookies we have been making are Thin Mints (a favorite of mine!) In a double boiler we melted chocolate and shortening and added some peppermint oil. Then we dipped a Ritz cracker into the chocolate mixture, spooned it out, and let it dry. We even used the fun snowflake shape for kicks, and because they are the same price as circles. You'll never spend $39.99 on a box of Thin Mints again. You're welcome!





November 26, 2013

Happy Second Blogiversary - Pumpkin Muffins

Today marks the second anniversary of our first blog post! It's hard to believe that we have been blogging for two whole years. To celebrate I decided to make a special treat to share with Mom and Krista over the holiday weekend, two ingredient pumpkin muffins. This is honestly the EASIEST recipe I have in my recipe box and I pull it out for any number of occasion that I'm asked to bring food to.

All you need to make these muffins is one 15.25 oz. box of cake mix (I like classic yellow because of its buttery flavor, but carrot and chocolate are nice too) and one 15 oz. can of pumpkin puree (or the same amount of old bananas or apple sauce.)


Mix the two ingredients together and place equal amounts in a 12 hole muffin tin.



After baking the recommended amount of time on the back of the box, about 20 minutes, the muffins are finished! What is your favorite easy recipe?

November 24, 2013

Pallet Wall Sconce

My friend Stephanie recently decided to make pallet wall sconces to match her pallet wall art and it was SUPER EASY! Plus her husband has access to pallets at work (jealous!)

She began by flipping the pallet over and measuring 16.5" up on what used to be the front of the pallet and will be the back of the sconce. Then she measured up 5.5" on what will be the front of the sconce.




Once Stephanie had made all the measurements her husband cut the pallets. Wa-la, the are pre-assembled, no nailing! Then she used the same process to paint the sconces as she had the wall art. I love how they turned out!