My Latest Obsession

I don't have a craft today. I know, I know. It's crafty Wednesday, but we will have to play crafts later. I have something to show and tell you about that has me more excited about creativity than anything has in a long while!

Creative Types had better brace themselves.

I found a site called Spoonflower. Spoonflower is a fabric printing shop. A real fabric printing shop. I'm talking yards and bolts and fat quarters, oh my! The price of the fabric is not cheap, but it's less expensive than designer fabric (read: Lily Pulitzer) and the cool thing is that it IS designer fabric - YOUR DESIGNS!

You can sign up for a free account and start uploading your images. You can have fabric of a drawing, painting, photographs, graphic design… anything! Imagine an apron made with your child's drawings! Imagine that painting of a sunflower that would make the cutest pattern on a dress! Don't even get me started on Christmas gift possibilities!

Your image must be 150 dpi (dots per inch) whether your scanning or creating digitally and all uploads must be less than 30 MB. Prices start at $5 for an 8 x 8 swatch, so if you want some unique one of a kind quilt squares, just upload an 8 x 8 image at 150 dpi and, Ta-da! (sigh) It's so exciting!

And others can order your fabric too, and you will get a 10% designer comission. Your designs always remain your personal property and you may remove your "fabric" from the site at anytime and they will not reprint it unless you re-post the image.

I already have 5 fabrics posted and am eagerly awaiting their arrival in the mail! (eek!)

Here's what has kept me from my regular crafting - plus, it is easier for me to create digital graphics while nursing my baby than attempt other creative endeavors. Each week they have a contest for $100 store credit, and YOU KNOW I've been working on entries since I found this site!

This week's theme is puppet patterns. The deadline was Tuesday so you can't enter it, but you can vote! (this past week's contest , some very cool cocktail fabrics, may still be accepting votes but the puppet patterns should be up soon!)

Here's my entry for this week's contest!

Grab a vine and swing by www.spoonflower.com to learn more and to vote!

Finding Lilly

It is a well established fact that I love Lilly Pulitzer and Lilly-esque items. Today I'm going to show you the "Lilly Look" for less. I mean, come on, Lilly is great and all, but you don't HAVE to spend top dollar to look like a million bucks!

Lilly Pulitzer

Shayna Dress Lace

$368.00

_______________

Forever 21

Crochet Dress

$39.80

_______________

Lilly Pulitzer

Heidi Ruffle tank

$58.00

_______________

Forever 21

Ruffled Cap Sleeve Slub Tee

Was: $17.80

Now: $14.24

_______________

Lilly Pulitzer

Worth Shift Bouquet

$178.00

_______________

Chadwick's

Soutache Sheath

$49.99

_______________

Lilly Pulitzer

Del Mar Dress

$188.00

_______________

Chadwicks

Border Print dress

$39.99

_______________

Lilly Pulitzer

Resort Bermuda Solid

$78.00

_______________

Chadwicks

Bermuda Short

$14.99

_______________

Lilly Pulitzer

Colorful Life Sandal

$148.00

_______________

Newport News

Thong Sandal

$19.99

_______________

Times are tough and finances are tight, but that doesn't mean you can't look Lilly! In some cases, I liked the Lilly-Look item better than the Lilly-Brand item! Especially that ruffled sleeve shirt! How cute is that!

Try this with your favourite designers and let me know what you find!

Lucky Ribbon Shamrock Pin

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Today’s craft is a quick and easy ribbon pin.

You may even have all the materials you need laying around the house or in your craft area.

Supplies Needed:

Green ribbons (1 yard per color)

Scissors

Thread

Sewing Needles

Spare Buttons

Pin Backs

Fray Check

Chose your ribbons. I’ve chosen 3 ribbons of varying shades of green. Cut your ribbons to 1 yard (36 inches) in length.

Align your ribbons and hold them in the exact middle (18 inches)

Take the right tail of your ribbon set and flip it in a loop as shown. Do the same with the left tail.

Both tails should now be pointing down.

Repeat step 3, so that both ribbon tails are pointing up.

Secure the loops with a straight pin.

Using your needle and thread, secure all the layers of ribbon. Your stitches don’t have to be neat, they just need to hold all the loops and layers in place.

Without cutting your thread, sew your decorative button to the middle of your ribbon shamrock, covering your previous stitches.

Again, without cutting your thread, sew your pin back to the back of your shamrock.

Tie off your thread and add a dab of Fray Check to add strength to your knot.

Trim the ribbon tails at an angle and dab ends with Fray Check to keep ribbon from unravelling.

Viola! You have a beautiful Ribbon Shamrock pin!

Don't forget to put it on - you don't want to get pinched!