My Favorite Things

My heart swells to happy every year the holidays approach.  There is an

electric feel to the air and I feel content amongst the chaos. 

Christmas has already been ushered in among the stores and windows and

although some find it a bit extreme, I love it.  Every time I venture to

Target I can guarantee my four year old will ask to walk among the

decor and lights with his eyes all aglow.  I suppose I am just a big kid

when it comes to the holidays.  I decided to peruse pinterest and

gather up an armful of cheery inspiration to help you readers get into

the holiday spirit too :)

xo.

Molly from MFT (my favorite things)

whimsical christmas decor | Walther & Co. | via tabitha emma

berry branch | via

shimmer & shine nutcrackers | via birdie to be

reindeer wall art | re-nest


table with tree branch | photo credit : Victor Schrager | via Country Living

felted ball wreath | Pickles

modern wall christmas tree | via

pinecone table | real simple

Crafty Sisters- BEWARE!

Hi! We are Candace and Nicole from Crafty Sisters.

We are excited to be here at My Yellow Sandbox while Abby is away!

We love making Halloween crafts, it's our favorite!

Today we want to show you how we made our latest project, a "BEWARE" banner.

I don't know about you, but we have TONS of scrapbook paper leftover from our many projects.

  We put them to good use!

So here's how we made our banner:

We downloaded and printed off this spooky font, Beyond Wonderland.

(shared at Eighteen 25)

It's a wickedly pretty font, with a "splattery" look.

We used MS Publisher to size the letters to about 3 inches, and then we added circles for easy cutting.

See, you don't have to have all the fancy machines to create a banner, although they are very nice! :)

This is how we made a  4 inch paper yo...in a hurry!

Cut 4 (4x6) pieces of paper, then fold each at about 1/4".

Fold over and glue each gap together to create a circle.

We absolutely love Beacon Adhesive Glue...it is wonderful!

It has a quick and durable bond, like a glue gun without all the burns.

To give the paper extra thickness, we used spray adhesive to bond the decorative paper to card stock.

We cut each large banner at 6 x 8 inches, and notched a triangle out of the bottom.

Cut your circles, and accent circles and glue them all together.

We added some of the black furry yarn in between the circles,

and also added some fur to the ribbon to hang the banner.

 Love that stuff!

It adds the perfect amount of spookiness to any Halloween project. 

There you go, a fun and easy project anyone can do!

Plus, you get to use all those old paper scraps you have hanging around your house!

Thanks Abby for having us!

Family Ever After

Hi! I'm Rachel blogging over at Family Ever After, and I'm so excited to be guest posting here!
I just bought Abby's ebook. I can't wait to check it out!

Since Abby is widely known for her beautiful hair and tutorials, I thought it'd be fun to show you how I make hair bows for my little girls. Bow tutorials are all over the internet, but here's the version on how I was taught. This technique is pretty much fool proof and is great for beginners.

(pssst... read to the end... there's a little giveaway)!

Here are the supplies you'll need:

--needle and thread (preferably upholstery thread)

--rubber thimble (optional)

--rulers (i use varying widths... 2 inches, 2.5 inches, 3 inches, etc. you can buy these plastic rulers at the craft store, or make your own by cutting cardboard and winding clear packing tape around it)

--tape

--glue gun

--candle and matches

--ribbon

--embellishments

--hardware (clips and carpet tape)

Instructions

Step 1: Tape end of ribbon to your ruler.

Step 2: Wrap it around the ruler 3 times, and tape the edges to ruler. (You'll see 3 rows of ribbon on top and 2 rows of ribbon on the bottom).

Step 3: Find the center of the ruler, and start hand sewing through each ribbon. Point in the direction of the edge of the ruler. Double your thread, but you don't need to tie a knot at the end.

Step 4: After you've sewn through all 3 rows of ribbon, pull your thread, leave a bout 2 inches of a thread tail.

Step 5: Flip the ruler over, and sew up the back. There are only 2 rows of ribbon to get through. Make sure your needle is pointing in the direction away from the ruler's edge.

Step 6: Sewing is done. Leave a tail of thread about 2 inches.

Another view.

Step 7: Remove the tape.

Step 8: Slide the ribbon off the ruler.

Step 9: Grab both ends of the thread.

Step 10: Cinch the ribbon down.

Step 11: Cool huh?! Tie a double knot.

Step 12: Repeat process with accent ribbon if desired, in a smaller size.

Step 13: Place smaller bow on top and glue the bows together.

Step 14: Glue an embellishment to the center of your bow.

You could also tie a boutique knot (a simple loose knot) and glue it to the center of your bow.

 Step 15: Choose the type of clip that you'll be hotglueing to the back of the bow. You basically have 2 choices, a french barrette or an alligator clip. If you use an alligator clip, you'll want to glue a piece of carpet tape the the top side (not the side that is straight). Cut a small piece from a roll of carpet tape.

I bought this at Target for a few dollars, and I'm sure its more than enough to last a lifetime, plus share with my friends! This prevents the clip from slipping out of your daughter's hair.

The side where I glue the tape is the TOP. This picture makes it look like the bottom, whoops.

Step 16: Now glue the clip to the bow!

Voila!!!

Step 17: For the finishing touch,you're going to melt the raw edges of the ribbon so they won't fray in the future. This is the key to making a professional looking bow.

Note: I've found that most ribbon is made of synthetic fiber (polyester, for example), which melts very well. But once or twice, I had ribbon made from cotton, which totally burned and smoked, and doesn't melt. So, if its a natural fiber, don't attempt to melt it. Read the spool of ribbon to see it's content.

Done! I have 4 of these to give away. 

To enter...

1. Make sure you're following My Yellow Sandbox.

2. Then come on over and follow Family Ever After.

3. Then leave a comment on my blog with your contact info. 

Easy!

 

ps- Did you hear about my huge blog bash? Abby is giving away one of her Ultimate Hairstyle Ebooks. There are over 20 giveaways, and you can enter until Halloween. Click here!