i recently participated in the Anything Goes Tiny House swap, and my partner adrienne_bowers said she collected glitter houses.  i had never heard of them before, but after a quick googling, realized they are the tiny houses you see in christmas villages and train sets.  who knew they could be made from cereal boxes?!



i followed the tutorial and used the template from the site www.bigindoortrains .com.  great site with very clear and easy to follow instructions!  this photo shows all the pieces after they were cut out (from a Chex box!)and coated with gesso. 



after i got to this stage, i got to thinking i should have cut out more in the beginning so that i could work on more than one house at once.  i tend to be impatient when it comes to letting things dry!  on the positive side, you can work on other things while waiting between stages



adding in some snowy touches...



traditionally, you are supposed to use colored cello on the windows, but i didn't have any on hand, and forgot to look for it on my trip to the craft store.  instead, i used a semi-transparent scrapbook paper that i picked up somewhere along the way (might even be partially plastic, i have no idea!)



this photo shows it after intense glittering and putting a little battery operated tea candle inside to light it up.  i love how it looks so cozy with the light in it!



this project was SO fun!  i can't wait to make more glitter houses this fall and winter!

stitched this handsome gentleman on to a canvas bag for hgddm for the latest round of IYP.



i had a hard time deciding how to do his eyes, but finally settled on satin stitching.  the rest is back stitch except for his little cuff links, which are french knots.  the pattern is from Urban Threads, isn't he cute?



here's a terrible photo of the whole bag for size reference


thanks for looking!   

i made this dress up set for mink_bikini's little guys' 3rd birthday



i used plain tshirts from hobby lobby and then cut out felt shapes for the emblem (which initially was going to be an N, but i couldn't seem to get it to look right!) hand sewing the lightening bolts and then machine sewing the circle directly on to the tshirt.



for the cape, i used my sons old cape made by auntie lanikins as a template, since i knew it was a good size for a toddler.  i sewed a strip of velcro to the back of the tshirt and the inside of the cape to attach them.



ended up having to use ribbon around the edges when i discovered i only had single fold bias tape (devil!).  i'm happy with the result though, since the ribbon gave it nice shiny detail!

i made two shirts, just in case he just has to be super while one of the shirts are in the wash!



whatcha think?  thanks for looking!   

i made this hoop for the lovely sewphie in a recent swap.  the pattern is an aunt martha's iron-on transfer    pattern.

i'm showing the close up of the mermaid first,  because she is my absolute favorite part!  her hair took forever but i love the way it turned out  



i'm not sure why she's about to beat the person in the boat with a fish, but it cracked me up the whole time i was working on it!



thanks for lookin! 

i'm learning to machine sew since my awesome sister lanikins handed down her old machine to me!

my momma loves to play in the dirt, so every year for mother's day i get her something garden-like (plants, tools, seeds, etc)
this year i tackled the gardening apron from the book One Yard Wonders!




this was a great project for a beginner, not to tricky but i got to do a few things i haven't done before, like pleats, loops and working with bias tape! 



i'm pretty proud of the way it came out, as its only about the fourth thing i've machine sewed!

thanks for looking!

i recently did a Pinterest inspired personal swap with the lovely jexxican.  loved the idea of a fabric postcard for a new friend, so i decided to give it a shot.



i started by searching for a postcard template as a guideline and hand stitched the address lines, and decided it needed a "stamp" too.  flower was done freehand and i used a lot of my new favorite stitch, french knots <3




i backed the embroidered part with heavy weight interfacing just to give it some stiffness, and machine sewed them together.  pinked the edges just cuz i like the look! 



finished off the front with a personal message and jexx's adress in sharpie. 

thanks for looking!

i just had the pleasure of swapping with the fabulous LimeRiot in the second round of the cushion cover swap.  i was so excited when i read in her questionnaire that she liked chevron patterns and bright colors, as i had this crazy fabric remnant in my stash from ages ago!



the bee and honeycomb were hand embroidered.  had a bit of a failed attempt at applique which allowed me to play with the decorative stitches on my newly acquired sewing machine to stitch the piece on.

close up of the bee, as i was very happy with how it came out!



c/c welcome and thanks for looking! 

hello!  made this for my partner in the recent Cushion Cover Swap (check out the gallery!)  it is yet another gorgeous design from my favorite embroidery book, Doodle Stitching by Aimee Ray.

i stitched the tree trunk entirely in back stitch, using a variegated pearl cotton floss.  if i were to do it over again, i would definitely use orange floss for the fall portion of the tree, here i used one strand of light green and one strand of yellow held together, loved the look of it up close, but it didn't seem to show up too well on the linen!



for the blossoms, i decided to do french knot centers instead of satin stitching out of pure laziness...now i'm so glad i did because i love the way it turned out!



thanks for looking!   

made this for my partner jexxican for Hoopla Round 7!  the theme was negative space or silhouette so i couldn't resist stitching up this cameo.  the pattern is from the lovely book A Rainbow of Stitches, ecru dmc on forest green aida.  lesson here?  flex hoops look great but they are really a pain in the butt 



apologies for the crappy cell pic, my camera was MIA when i was getting ready to ship!

thanks for looking

this delicious smelling candle holder was made for my mom for her recent birthday.  whipped this baby up for right around $3 yeah!  making another one for myself today!



if you're interested, details and how to's on my blog http://friendlyneighborhoodspidermom.blogspot.com/

thanks for looking!  happy holidays!