Bandana Skirt

After a long hiatus... yes, I was able to use my neglected sewing machine again. And I used it to make these:

I have this inspiration pinned on Pinterest for more than a year now. 

Hankerchief Skirt by Cami (tidbits)

Cami has a tutorial over at her blog so do check it out. I don't know why it took me so long to make it since it really is so easy to make. So easy that I decided to use the parts I cut off to embellish a top for Izzie (one of Andrea's dolly friends).

They like matching you know (see Matching Dresses).

I only had 3 bandanas of different designs, and they were a little small. Since I wanted Andrea's skirt a bit long so she can use it for a few years (wishful thinking here) I only divided my bandana into 2 equal triangular parts and Andrea's skirt is only made up of 6 panels. I folded each triangle into half, and cut off one side to give me the pentagon-shaped pieces like the one on Cami's photo here.

Since I only had a few pieces, I had to change how I sewed each piece together. Instead of layering them like this, I took 2 pieces, right sides facing together, wrong side out, and sewed parallel to one side of the pentagon. See diagram below.

I sewed along that side of the pentagon until all 6 pieces form a sort of circle. So I had something like a "circle" skirt. And then I sewed a black elastic for the waistband.

Happy campers (ignore the dirty feet... she was playing barefoot before I dragged her here for the photoshoot)

I still had a few small scrap pieces of the bandanas that I cut off when I made Izzie's dress and I made them into a little accessory to match the skirt. I will be sharing that project maybe tomorrow. Let me just say that only very few small pieces of those bandanas were thrown away.

Felt-Covered Headband Refashion

Just when I thought inspiration will never come again... it did. 

I stayed home from work yesterday because I wasn't feeling well and was still too tired from the trip my family took last weekend (more on that later). I decided to start looking over Andrea's clothes, shoes and other stuff to see what she will need when she starts pre-school this June. I still haven't repaired her bow holder since some of the glue holding the ribbons gave out so her clips and ribbons are being stored in a box. I opened that box and was surprised to see that she doesn't have a lot of clips anymore. Most of the stuff in the box looks old and worn already. And I realized it has been a while since I last made her anything new.

I remembered some clips and headbands we saw at the mall a couple of months ago which I thought were really cute but didn't buy, even though they were really cheap, because I knew it was so easy to make them. I already have all the materials needed. The headbands were just covered with felt with some very simple felt flowers attached. So yesterday, I sat down to finally work on it.

Instead of using a new headband, I decided to get some more use out of an old favorite headband of Andrea's that was already falling apart.

For the rest of the materials:

• A plastic headband, old or new, width will depend on how wide you want your headbands.
• Felt, in different colors
• Sewing machine
• thread
• scissors
• Glue gun and glue stick
• Velcro
• Embellishments: fabric flowers, ribbons, beads, etc
• OPTIONAL: pinking shears

STEP 1: If you are using an old headband, strip down all embellishments until all you have is the plastic headband. This is how mine looked like after I removed all that pink:

STEP 2: Measure the length of your headband and cut 2 strips of felt of the same length. The width of the felt strips must be at least 1 inch wider than the widest part of your headband.

Optional: You can taper both ends of the felt strips like I did since most headbands are shaped that way.

STEP 3: Hold the 2 strips together and sew along both sides to create a casing for the headband. Make sure that your headband will fit inside this casing.

STEP 4: Insert the headband inside the felt casing and trim the sides of the felt to make it look even after sewing. OPTIONAL: You can use pinking shears when you trim the sides if you want a zigzag edge.

STEP 5: Cut 2 small pieces of dark-colored felt. The pieces should be the same width as both ends of the headband. Wrap each piece on both ends of the headband, from inner side to outer side, to close the opening and apply hot glue to secure.

STEP 6: I want to be able to change the embellishments on the headband so I glued one the rough side of the Velcro on one side of the headband.

STEP 7: Make the embellishments, and apply the softer side of Velcro on all embellishments (using softer side of the Velcro on all embellishments will make them easier to store since they won't snag).

The possibilities are endless... here are some I made yesterday:

Fabric flower made with some scrapbooking flowers and brad :)

Felt flower that looks like the one attached to the headband I saw at the mall that inspired this project

A felt owl like the one I made here.

And I have this crocheted flower from last year where instead of gluing it directly to a clip, I also used Velco to attach it to a clip. Thanks to that, I can also use this on Andrea's headband.

Andrea was at my mom's and was not available for pictures so I had to  model her headband :P

The felt owl, attached to the headband.

I have several embellishments for different projects where I used Velcro... like these pearl bows for my shoes:

I don't have the shoes anymore but I kept the pearl bows since they can be used on some clips. The bows are attached to the shoes using Velcro too, so they can also be used on the headband :)

Hope this gives you some inspiration for your kids for this coming school year (be it June, like here, or another month)!

I am linking to the following parties:

Craftastic Monday at Sew Can Do |  CraftOManiac Monday at CraftOManiac | Made by You Monday at Skip to My Lou | Market Yourself Monday at Sumo's Sweet Stuff | A Round Tuit at Creating My Way to Success | Making Monday Marvelous at C.R.A.F.T | Take-a-look Tuesday at Sugarbee Crafts | Handmade Tuesday at Ladybug Blessings | Sew Cute Tuesday at Creative Itch | Show Me What Ya Got at Not JUST a Housewife | Tuesday Confessional at Confessions of a Stay at Home Mommy |

Photo Blending Tutorial using Photoshop

I use photo blending on a lot of of my digital scrapbook layouts.

I admit that when I started doing this... I didn't know at the time that it was a common technique used in digital scrapbooking. For me then, I was just having a lazy day and didn't want to take the time to extract *wink*. 

I'm sure there are a lot of other techniques and tutorials out there on how to blend or merge 2 photos together. I like mine because it's faster... like done-in-a-minute faster.

-oo0oo-

What you need for this project:

• Photoshop CS3 or higher (I'm using Photoshop CS3)
• A good computer, one that can handle working with graphics (slower machines will die when working with large hi resolution files, which digital scrapbooking elements usually are)
• Basic knowledge of Photoshop
• A good, clear photo of the object or person you want to extract. 

-oo0oo-

Step 1: Open the photos you want to merge in Photoshop. For this tutorial, I will use 2 photos. When blending, one of the photos will be the background (the photo at the back), and the foreground (photo in front.

Step 2: Select the Polygonal Lasso Tool. You can check out my previous tutorial if you are not yet familiar with this tool on Photoshop.

Using the Polygonal Lasso Tool, draw a random shape around your subject on your foreground photo. 

Step 3: Refine edges. Click the Refine Edge button. When the settings window appears, set a high value for Feather.

Feather refers to how wide the blur or fading will be at the edge of your selection. A higher value will give you a wider area of fading at the edges. For my work, I usually use a value between 90 to 100. As you adjust the value, you can see how it will look on the image so you can adjust the value to make sure that the faded area will not include the main subject of your photo. 

 When you're happy with the settings, click Ok.

Step 4. Copy your selection. You can do this by clicking Edit and then choosing Copy, OR using keyboard shortcut CTRL + C.

Step 5: Select your background photo and paste your copied selection. You can do this by clicking Edit and then choosing Paste, OR using keyboard shortcut CTRL + V.

 Step 6: (OPTIONAL) Erase more area from the foreground. If you are already happy with how your foreground photo blends with your background, there is no need for this step. However, if you still need to erase some parts of the foreground, this might help you.

Select the Erase tool. 

On the tool bar on top, look for the Brush button, and then click the small arrow beside the Brush button (see where red arrow is pointing on the image below). This will display the Eraser tool's Brush settings.

On the Brush settings, here are a few things to note to select the settings you need.

• Master Diameter - refers to how big your Eraser's brush size will be. Higher value means a wider area can be erased.
• Hardness - refers to how blurred/faded the edges of the erased area will be. A higher value means crisp edges of the remaining area after applying the Erase tool. For blending, I usually use a value of 0% or sometimes, a value between 0% - 40%.
• Opacity - refers to how much of the erased area will still be visible. 100% means the erased area will not be visible. A lower value means that the erased area is still visible, but faded.

I usually play around with the settings using trial and error. But if I need to remove a wide area, I will apply this settings to the Eraser brush:

• Master Diameter - 400 pixels (if my image is big like 3600 x 3600... smaller value if my image is smaller)
• Hardness - 0%
• Opacity 80%

Using these settings, I will erase the very edge of the portion of the foreground photo I want to remove. For example, see area highlighted in red.

 

The area highlighted in blue shows the entire area I wish to delete. After applying the erase tool to this area, adjust the settings to:

• Master Diameter - 400 pixels (if my image is big like 3600 x 3600... smaller value if my image is smaller)
• Hardness - 0%
• Opacity - 50 % (the deleted portion will look transluscent... therefore achieving a fading effect on the edges)

Apply the Erase tool on the entire area highlighted in blue.

See the difference? The highlighted area on the second photo is a little more faded.

And there you have it. When you are already used to the Photoshop tools I  mentioned, this will not take you more than a couple of minutes to do. 

I hope this is helpful to you, especially those who are only beginning to use Photoshop. If you have any questions, please feel free to send me an email and I will try to answer you to the best of my limited Photoshop knowledge :)

Photo Extraction Tutorial using Photoshop

Most of my digital scrapbooking layouts features made-up scenes using photos I extracted and other elements from digital scrapbooking kits. Though there are several ways to extract photos, let me share with you how I usually do it. 

Those who have been following me for a while might not have realized it but I already provided a tutorial on this before: Creating a Silhouette Image Using Photoshop.

I have tweaked the instructions a bit to make it easier (I hope... at least I now find it easier... I hope you do too). 

-oo0oo-

What you need for this project:

• Photoshop CS3 or higher (I'm using Photoshop CS3)
• A good computer, one that can handle working with graphics (slower machines will die when working with large hi resolution files, which digital scrapbooking elements usually are)
• Basic knowledge of Photoshop
• A good, clear photo of the object or person you want to extract.

 -oo0oo-

STEP 1: Open your photo in Photoshop.

For this tutorial, I am using the photo of a flower that we saw at Burnham Park on our recent trip to Baguio.

Step 2: Zoom in and enlarge your photo. This makes seeing the edges of your photo that you need to trace later easier. 

I sometimes go as high as 200% photo enlargement, depending on the size of the photo I need to extract.

Step 3: Select the Polygonal Lasso Tool

To make sure you are using the correct Lasso tool, right click on the Lasso Tool icon. When the different types of available Lasso tools appear, select Polygonal Lasso Tool.

Step 4: Using the Polygonal Lasso Tool, click along the edges of your subject. Click first on one point along the edge of your subject. And then move a little along the edge of your subject and click again. This will give you smoother curved lines.

Keep doing this until you reach a point close to where you started. Double click near that point to close your shape.

Don't worry if your tracing is not perfect. On my example above, I purposefully traced inside my object and then outside my object. I will show you how to correct this on the next step.

Step 5: To add more areas of the photo, in case you made a mistake or closed your shape by double clicking too soon, select the Polygonal Lasso Tool, and then on the tool's settings on the bar above, select the option that says "Add to selection" (see where the arrow is pointing below).

After selecting "Add to selection", you can then trace along the edges of the area that you wish to add to your selection. To correct the mistake I made in Step 4, I traced along the lines I highlighted in red. Double click when you reach the point near where you started to close your shape. After you close your shape, you will see that the area I initially missed is not included in the selected area of my object (see area encircled in the image below).

Now for that other area where I included a lot of space outside the flower, on the tools settings on the bar above, click the icon that says "Remove from selection" when you hover over it (see where arrow is pointing on the image above). After choosing this setting, I traced along the edges of the area that needs to be removed from my selection. I highlighted the path I traced in the image above.

Double click when you reach the point close to where you started to close your shape. After closing your shape, you will see that the extra area has been removed from your selection.

Step 6: (Optional) Refine your edge. I say this is optional because depending on the quality of your image and the smoothness of the lines you traced along the edges of the object you wish to extract, you might not need this. One way to check is to click Refine Edge (will only appear if your Lasso Tool is still selected). On the photo above, Refine Edge is on the right-most side of the icons for removing and adding to selection. 

Clicking Refine Edge will give you a closer look at what your extracted image now looks like. Check the edges. If they seem a little rough, increase the Feather value. Feather refers to the amount of blur on the edges of your image. I like my edges looking crisp so I try to use a lower value for Feather most of the time.

I usually only play with the Radius, Smooth and Feather values until I'm happy with how the edges of my object looks.

If you are already happy with how the edges of your object looks, click Ok.

Step 7: Copy your selected area. You can do this by going to Edit, and then choosing Copy, OR using keyboard shortcut CTRL + C.

Step 8: Open a new blank file. Go to File, then click New. After copying a selection, when you open a new file, the size will always be the exact same size of the area you just copied. On the Background Contents field, choose "Transparent".

Step 9: Paste your selected area. You can do this by either going to File, and then choosing Paste, OR using keyboard shortcut CTRL + V.

Step 10: Save your extracted image as a .PNG file.

And you have your extracted image which you can use for your digital projects. As an added bonus for checking out my tutorial, I will be giving away the image I extracted for this tutorial as commercial use items :)

Download here.

I am including the extracted flower, and I'm throwing in a greyed out version which you can recolor and use for your projects.

Thank you for visiting today and I hope you have fun trying this out!

Embellishing a Craft Jar with Washi Tape

Are you excited about the Washi Tapes giveaway? I've been reading the comments and you gals have a lot of great ideas!

When I first saw Washi Tapes, I immediately thougt about my jars and bottles. I love working with empty jars and bottles (remember these projects?) because, well... you can get them for free, and they are like a blank canvas you can work your magic on.

Today's tutorial involves an empty jar and Washi Tapes.

For this project, you will need:

 - an empty jar with a cover. I used my last empty Gerber jar.

 - A piece of fabric cut into a circle that is around 3 to 4 inches wider than the cover of the jar

 - Washi Tape

 - polyester fiber sheet (or batting, like the one used on quilts or comforter) cut into a circle the same size as the jar's cover.

 - trim (lace, ribbon, beads, etc... not shown on the photo)

 - glue gun and glue stick (not shown on the photo)

STEP 1: Take your circular piece of polyester fiber sheet and glue to the top of the cover. You can use more than one sheet if you want the cover to be really puffy. I used 2 layers for mine.

STEP 2: Lay out your circular piece of fabric right side down. Put glue on top of the polyester fiber sheet and glue to the center of the fabric.



This will make it easier to center the cover on the fabric.

 STEP 3: Apply glue to the sides of the cover and press the excess fabric to the side of the cover. You should have something like this after you go all around the cover.

STEP 4: Glue the trim around the side of the cover. I used my favorite cream lace for this. It's the same lace I used for my Easter Egg holders here and my Flower Pot pin cushion here. Your finished cover should look like this.

I added a charm to hide the part where both sides of the lace come together.

STEP 5: Now let's take the jar and Washi Tape. Apply Washi Tape around the jar. My Washi Tape (from Posh Tykes) has the text "Made with Love" written on it. Cute huh?

STEP 6: Put the cover on the jar and admire your work :)

Now what to put in it? Something "made with love" of course! I think this bracelet fits the description.

I'm loving the yellow and the small kitty charm.

And here it is, all packaged and pretty and ready to be received by someone special.

This is my first tutorial for 2012... yey! Working on more stuff to share with you!

I am linking to the following parties:

We Did It Wednesday at Sew Much Ado | Show and Tell at Blue Cricket Designs | Your Whims Wednesday at My Girlish Whims |  Show Me What Ya Got at Not JUST a Housewife | Shine on Fridays at One Artsy Mama | Commercial Break Thursday at Suzy's Artsy Craftsy Sitcom | Catch a Glimpse at A Glimpse Inside | A Crafty Soiree at Katie's Nesting Spot | Craft-O-Maniac Monday at Craft-O-Maniac | Just Something I Whipped Up at The Girl Creative | Making Mondays Marvelous at C.R.A.F.T | Craftastic Monday at Sew Can Do | Made with Love Monday at Sew Chatty | Motivate Me Monday at Keeping it Simple | A Round Tuit at Creating My Way to Success | Market Yourself Monday at Sumo's Sweet Stuff | Ta-Da Tuesday at Mommy by Day... Crafter by Night | Take a Look Tuesday at Sugarbee Crafts | Show Me What Ya Got at Not JUST a Housewife | Get your Craft On at Today's Creative Blog |

Babushka Cloth Doll

I'm making toys! They're for a little 'project' I'm still cooking up. I don't want to give away details until the plans are a little more concrete. But for now, I am showing you some Babushka cloth dolls I made last night. And I prepared templates and a little tutorial so you can try this too!

I was able to finish 2 dolls last night. These are around 6 inches tall and the sewing part only took a few minutes. And it only requires small pieces of fabric so I was able to use some from my scrap pile. The hardest part for me was trying to design the faces.

To make these, you will need:

• A template, available for download below.
• Some scrap fabric (soft fabric, like the one I used for the pink doll, works better)
• Small piece of felt for the face
• Something to use for stuffing (I used polyester)
• Small pieces of felt, fabric or other items to decorate the faces
• Fabric glue or glue gun
• Sewing machine

Step 1: Download the template and resize according to your preference. Print and cut out.

To download: Click on the image to load full size. Once full size image is displayed, right click and select Save As to save the template to your computer.

Step 2: Cut out the fabric pieces using the template as guide. Please remember to add seam allowances since I didn't add the seam allowance to the template.

Cut fabric, with seam allowances.

Step 3: Put the hood part over one piece of the main body. Both right sides facing outward. And then put the second piece of the main body over the hood, right sides facing inside. Wrong sides must be facing out. Sew around the sides leaving the bottom open.

Step 4: Turn right side out.

Step 5: You can choose to iron to set the seams... or if you are lazy like me and if the cloth you are using is soft, you can proceed with stuffing your doll with your choice of stuffing.

Step 6: Sew the opening shut.

Step 7: Decorate the face. I didn't include templates for the face because I didn't use any. I used felt to cut shapes for the hair and mouth, beads for the eyes and black thread for the eyelashes for the pink doll, googly eyes for the black and yellow doll (which I don't like so much).

Step 8. Use fabric glue or glue gun to attach the face to the doll.

I gave them to Andrea this morning to see if she will like them (though they aren't really for her) and she does. I'll see if she still likes them by the end of the day. If she, does then I guess she can keep them. I can make more. She calls them 'babies' and that gave me an idea for another doll *wink*. 

Looking at them after I was done, they remind me a little of the characters from Higglytown Heroes because they are nesting dolls as well. I'll check out the characters in detail for inspiration when I make more. Because I might need more for my 'project'. 

Have you checked out my interview with PC for Creating Success Around the World yet? You should check it out. PC is really a talented lady. And if you haven't linked up to the blog hop yet, you have 5 more days to meet other creative bloggers. Hope to see you there!

I am linking up to the following parties:

Link Party at Tea Rose Home | Sugar & Spice at Seven Thirty Three | Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts | Hoo's Got Talent at Night Owl Crafting | Wicked Awesome Wednesday at Handy Man, Crafty Woman | Strut Your Stuff at Somewhat Simple | Creative Juice Thursday at Momnivore's Dilemma | Get Your Brag On at Gluesticks | Thrilling Thursday at Paisley Passions | Free for All at Young and Crafty | Think Pink Sundays at Flamingo Toes | K.I.S.S. at The Tattered Tag | Sundae Scoop at I heart Naptime | Sunday Showcase at Under the Table and Dreaming | Not Baaad Sundays at Lamb Around | Craft-O-Maniac Monday at Craft-O-Maniac | Making Monday Marvelous at C.R.A.F.T. | Just Something I Whipped Up at The Girl Creative | Craftastic Monday at Sew Can Do | Motivate Me Monday at Keeping it Simple | A Round Tuit at Creating My Way to Success  | Amaze Me Monday at Dittle Dattle | A Marvelous Mess at Marvelously Messy | Made By You Monday at Skip to My Lou | Market Yourself Monday at Sumo's Sweet Stuff | Handmade Tuesdays at Ladybug Blessings | Take-a-Look Tuesday at Sugar Bee Crafts | Tutorial Tuesday at Hope Studios | Sew Cute Tuesday at Creative Itch | Show Me What Ya Got at Not JUST a Housewife | Tuesday To-do Party at The Blackberry Vine | Tip Me Tuesday at Tip Junkie | Tuesday Party at Running With Glitter | Confessional Link Party at Confessions of a Stay at Home Mommy |