For the Clone Wars section of the birthday party, (for the Phineas and Ferb themed cake, go here!) the hubby and I came up with the idea for upside down clone trooper helmet cupcakes.  These cupcakes were the hit of the party with the five-year-old boy set, though I will warn you, they are a bit time consuming to assemble. But well worth it! So here’s how to do them.

Cupcakes: You’ll need good firm cake, similar to pound cake. Here’s the recipe I used. I don’t know if it was luck, or overfilling the cupcake cups, but this cupcake came…

Joanne, at Ready, Set, Craft!, asked me to do a guest post on her blog today (and she’s done a great one for Dabbled previously–the flower pinata!), so I figured I’d return the favor! So pop on over there and see how to make a business card holder (or mini-wallet) from recycled sweater material!

I had a scrap piece of sweater fabric, which had a lovely beading design, that was left over from the original Ele-purse from way back in 2007… and it was just waiting to have something done with it.  As per usual with my sewing related tutorials, this…

One of The Boy’s bestest buds had a medieval themed birthday party on Sunday, and somehow we decided 3 hours before party time that he needed a knight costume.  I blame the husband!

So, what follows is not exactly the most well crafted costume I’ve ever done, but it was easy to make, and looked great, and the boy was absolutely loving it!  By following these general instructions, and actually taking some time and care, you can have an even better costume!

Also note:  This is a summer costume, so he just wore shorts and a t-shirt under it to avoid heat…

My lovely neighbor Katie has made a ton of these slings, for both herself and for friends, and she’s graciously shared this tutorial. This makes a great baby gift for a friend, and even if you’re not overly sewing proficient, you can make one for yourself while the baby is napping! These work for small babies, up to toddlers…

Katie has given us a great step by step with pictures, but if you have any additional questions, just ask!

Making a Baby Sling

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Here is a fun little idea I came up with last year, a cute valentines (or anytime) gift for a little girl. A stacked felt heart or flower pin.

This was inspired by the fact that kids grow out of clothes so fast, and while I was going to make a shirt or dress with a heart applique, instead I decided to make this pin (and a few others) so they could be used for a longer time. This looks adorable pinned on a dress or jacket, and would even work pinned to a hair elastic for a cute hair accessory.

You…

I use Photoshop all the time, but I hadn’t ever made any brushes.  I figured there are a ton of good brushes out there, why make my own? And I figured it was complicated.  But then I realized how easy they were to make, and that they could be really useful web work, using them basically as ’stamps’ to create graphics that you use over and over. I used this technique to make the swirl for the Foodwhirl logo into a brush I could use whenever I needed it — easy peasy!

Here’s a quick 2 Step tutorial on how…

A lot of people liked the super easy sewing of the Treeskirt project, so here’s another quick and easy project!

My son has a favorite t-shirt that was getting a tad small… he wore it layered with a long sleeve shirt to a party the other day, which gave me the idea to make a long sleeved, slightly larger shirt out of it for him to wear this winter and spring.*

I forgot to take a “before” pic, but you’ve seen t-shirts and long sleeve shirts before, so just imagine them, hehe.

So, Here’s how I did it.

Materials:
1 long sleeve (LS) shirt (can…

Happy Christmas Eve!
I’ve been in baking mode for the last few days, so I thought I’d share one of the things I made…
My first attempt ever at making my grandmother’s recipe for Sour Cream Poundcake. I have always loved this stuff, and it’s my own little holiday tradition that I eat this for breakfast on Christmas morning! It needs no icing or other adornment, it’s positively fabulous as is, and if you’re lucky, you get the incredibly tasty crunchy crumbly bits on the top!

(excuse the photo – taken by my phone!)

Want to make it yourself?  Here’s the recipe!

Nanny’s Sour Cream…

First off, we had a fun, if hectic trip to Disney last week, and some lovely guest posters while I was away, so if you missed them, be sure to check these out!

Tutorial: Make a Bracelet from an old Record

Kelly from Tresijas shows us how to make a fun and easy bracelet! A great present that you can do yourself…

Christmas Tag Downloadable

Fanie from Art vs Craft.net made a cute cat Christmas gift tag for you!

A cute stocking stuffer: The Little Game Box

And my own holiday gift to you, Download everything you need to make this little game… with bunches of cards with illustrations by…

Here’s a great little stocking stuffer you can make yourself. My 4 year old played a game similar to this* at grandma’s over Thanksgiving, and loved it, so I thought a pocket version would be a great little ‘handmade’ Christmas gift. I’ve included (almost) everything you need to make one for yourself as free downloads! Just grab the file, print, and add your own Altoids tin for a cute little gift that fits perfectly in a stocking! This freebie is a present for you, my readers, because if I didn’t have you, there wouldn’t be much point to this.

You…