So over the last year or so, my collection of jewelry grew quite a bit. I quickly discovered I needed a better storage system than what I was currently using. I have two beautiful jewelry boxes, but neither work for big, clunky necklaces or bracelets.

This weekend, I picked up supplies while we were getting plumbing parts for the leaking toilet. First I thought I would use a peg board to hold my stuff, but decided to just get a piece of plywood. They have 2-foot cut square sheets that are perfect for what I needed. I also grabbed a pack of cup hooks.

Later that day, I used some white spray paint from the garage to put a light coat on the wood. I decided that even though I planned to just hang it on the back of our bedroom door, I wanted it to look cute. I thought about putting my monogram on it or my initial, but settled on drawing a picture.

So I sketched in pencil (getting the idea from the cutest doodle book I picked up at TJMaxx one day) and used paint pens to draw on the board. I screwed in the cup hooks and hung up my jewelry.

I love how it turned out. If I need more hooks for the future, I have plenty of room to hang more.

Now I just need to get it hung on the back of the door. I’m thinking of adding some eye hooks to the top and hanging it that way. Any other suggestions?

I made the birthday pendant and I ran a ribbon through it for her to wear.

This started more ideas in my head so this morning, I played around with them some more.

I have this cute dog fabric sitting in my stash waiting for me to make Madison a new dress. I decided to use it to make a necklace for her. Maybe it will inspire me to get more sewing projects finished.

This is a great way to coordinate jewelry and other accessories with clothing. Just trace the pattern or object. You can string the object on a pendant or leave off the hole and glue it on something, like a hair bow. These would be a cute way to make personalized wine charms. Then I thought buttons would be fun to make too!

So I’m going a bit nutty with this Shrinky Dink stuff. Here’s the process I used to make the dog.

I placed the Shrinky Dink paper over the dog I wanted to trace and colored it with colored pencils. The Shrinky Dink papers have a smooth side and a rough side. You have to be sure to color on the rough side.

Then I cut around the dog shape, leaving a small area at the top for punching the hole.

Next, it is ready for baking. I use the toaster oven because it’s easy to heat and keep a good eye on it while it’s baking. It only takes a few minutes.

I line the toaster oven tray with foil and then sprinkle it with cornstarch so the plastic does not stick. Almost immediately, the Shrinky Dinks start to curl up in the heat. Then they spread out flat again. Once they are flat, they are ready to come out. Don’t walk away from the toaster because it’s a fast process and it’s fun to watch.

I took pictures in the toaster, they aren’t the best, but you get the idea.

After it comes out of the toaster, I just rinse it off and add the jump ring and it’s ready to go. Here you can see the comparison of how much it shrinks since it was the same size as the dog in the fabric before I baked it.

After the dog, I made these two.

First, I made three pendants with the name of each of my daughters then I tried out a monogram.

Katelyn requested a mermaid and Emily is still thinking about what she wants. I am also going to make holiday ones for them.

]]> http://mymagicmom.com/shrinky-dink-necklace-pendants-tutorial/feed/ 2 http://mymagicmom.com/pants-bag-tutorial/ http://mymagicmom.com/pants-bag-tutorial/#comments Fri, 13 Aug 2010 04:12:55 +0000 admin http://mymagicmom.com/?p=524 I had this cute pair of capri pants the girls used to wear. Apparently, they wore them out. There was a stain on the rump and I couldn’t hand them down to my nieces and I couldn’t sell them.

So I kept them. That’s the logical thing to do with stained pants, right? See, now you are understanding more why these random pants on the street are calling to me. Anyway, I couldn’t part with this little pair of pants. I loved the retro feel to the fabric and the colors.

The other day I was thinking I needed a fancier bag to carry around the story dice and figured I would make a simple drawstring bag for them. I decided to use these pants to make a bag. This was really easy to make and works great for a small bag. I’m thinking about making more to carry crayons for waiting with the kids at the doctor’s office or when we are out to eat. The crayons are great to have when waiting at the doctor because they can draw all over the white paper covering the exam table.
The size of the bag will vary depending on the size of the pants. These were a size 2T, maybe 18-24 months.

Since this pair had a straight leg and didn’t taper, they worked great for the bag. I cut one leg off.

I then cut from the top, down one of the side seams about 1.5 inches. I didn’t measure. Then I folded the fabric back into the leg of the pants to finish off the edge. Using an iron will help make a nice crease to hold the fabric in place for stitching.

After folding the raw seam towards the inside of the leg, I stitched along the sides where I folded.

The to make the casing for the drawstring, I folded in the top about 1/4 inch and pressed. I then folded the top down until the fold I made reached the top of the side opening. Then I stitched along the bottom to form the casing. Then I turned the whole thing inside out and stitched the bottom closed along the original hem line.

I ran some ribbon through the casing at the top and tied a knot in each end. I filled it with goodies and now we have a handy little bag. As a bonus, it’s fun that it reminds me of when my girls wore these pants.

Now, since it’s Friday, I’m hoping you will share with me something that made your day or week magical for My Magic Friday! Either link up something from your blog or leave me a comment!

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I link to these parties.

During the school year, I shop while they are in school or when I just have one with me at a time, maybe two, but I avoid taking all three with me to the grocery store. My kids seem to lose their minds when they get in there. I’m guessing by the looks of the other moms in the store and after talking with my friends, my kids are not abnormal with this behavior. Normal or not, it drives me insane!

Now here we are in the middle of summer and no school days anywhere around us for me to shop alone. I will usually go in the evening when my husband is at home with them or I make my mom go with me.

My husband was about to leave for a two week trip and I needed to do some serious grocery shopping before he left because I didn’t want to have to take the girls to the store with me. Two nights before he left, I planned to go by myself. Turns out, I ended up with an ear infection and missed my opportunity to shop kidless.

So I had to take all three to the store. I was shopping for two weeks and I needed a plan to get in and out with my sanity intact. I put on my thinking cap and came up with this plan. I’m pleased to say it worked like a charm and I left with all three kids, my entire list complete and all my hair in place. That’s quite a feat!

Here’s how you can do it too:

1. Grab a sale flyer from the store. This makes it easy to see what is on sale at a glance and you will need it for step 3.

2. Make an organized list by aisle in the store. There can be no wandering around thinking about what you may need to pick up. This will also help you avoid the unnecessary backtracking for something you forgot in the store. That way once you get past the cookie aisle, you won’t have to go back! I also got my coupons ready and in an envelope. I will normally just have a few ready and get out the rest as I’m shopping along.

3. Make a list for your children. I used the sale flyer from the store and cut out pictures of items we were buying that day. This helps you kids visually see what items they are looking for and it becomes a game of i-spy. I stapled the images on an index card. I made one for each child, organized by sections of the store. One had this card, another one had produce and some groceries and the last one had frozen and cold items.

4. Bribe your children to behave. Mine will do anything for fruit snacks, so I promised them fruit snacks when we got finished, if they behaved. You are free to skip this step if you don’t agree with bribing kids!

5. Take a kid sized shopping cart to the store. We tossed the Little Tikes shopping cart into the van and off we went to go shop.

6. Allow one child to shop at a time with their list and shopping cart. I placed the other two into the two kid sized shopping cart and entertained them with the free cookie from the store and sample foods. Next time I will take some coloring books and crayons or something else to entertain them while they are not shopping. The child shopping took their time searching for the items on their list and when they found them, they placed it in the little shopping cart. I picked up the other things on my list as we went along. Once their list was complete, we put the food into the big cart and switched out kids.

This plan worked like a charm! I got comments from people all over the store and one mom stopped me to say she thought about taking a little cart with her, but was too nervous about. Once she saw us, she said she was going to try next time.

To shop this way took much more time since I had to plan stuff out before we left and kids searching for stuff can be a bit slow, but in the end everyone had fun. I no longer fear grocery shopping with three little girls! I’m passing along our experience in case anyone else needs some tips.

If you have more than 3 kids or your kids are too old to sit in the cart, you need more help that I’m qualified to give! Good luck…and share some tips with me.

I’m assuming that most children are like mine. When you give them an ice pop, they immediately look for something to wrap around it while holding the cold stick. Our girls constantly got out dish towels or napkins, etc to hold their icy snacks. As summer approaches, I had visions of more laundry due to using extra kitchen towels and of lots of wasted napkins and paper towels, especially when I loaded up on fruit chillers at the store for $0.11 a box! After a bit of trial and error, I developed these icy pop holders. Lining them makes it so much easier to slip the ice pop into the holder because it doesn’t catch on the fibers like it does for felt. The double layer protects the hands better and the layer of felt also helps absorb the sticky drips. They work great and look much cuter than a clunky kitchen towel.

These holders work well with frozen Gogurts too!

This is a quick and easy project.

You can make 3 ice pop holders with this tutorial.

Gather your supplies:

• One piece of craft felt measuring 9×12 inches
• Coordinating scrap fabric
• Scissors
• Thread and sewing machine
• Pinking shears

1. Take the piece of felt and cut it lengthwise into 3 equal pieces measuring 3×12 inches each (as indicated by my dotted lines on the photo).

2. Cut 3 strips of scrap fabric the same size.

3. Place the fabric on top of the felt with the right side of the fabric facing up.

4. Stitch the fabric to the felt using a 1/4 inch seam allowance.Go all the way around the rectangle.

5. Fold the holder in half so it measures 3 x 6 inches and stitch along the side seams. I stitched right on top of the lines I made with the lining. Do not stitch along the fold or across the top, just along the two sides.

6. Trim the top and sides with the pinking shears to prevent raveling.

7. Slip the ice pop into the holder and enjoy!

I toss these in the washer and lay them flat to dry.

Please let me know if you have any questions about my instructions!

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