No-Sew T-Shirt Tote Bags

Crafting to Disney Series, Part 2 

  I learned to whip these up after being inspired by a demo at my store.  You can find the instructions and photos for the inspiration project here:   http://www.michaels.com/T-Shirt-Tote-Bag/e10050,default,pd.html .  Yay for recycling!  I hopped on pinterest and searched for no sew tote bags and found about a zillion versions of essentially this bag.  It only requires three items:

 

 

       ·         The T-Shirt you are gonna cut up to make the tote bag.
      ·         Scissors
      ·         A single safety pin

That’s it.  Basically, it’s the shortest supply list ever.  This is going to read more complicated than it really is.  They literally take 10 minutes to make.  First lay the T-Shirt flat on your work surface.  Cut the sleeves completely off, cutting at a right angle on the inside of the hem. 

 

 

Save the sleeves!!  Cut a large rectangular area around the collar, matching the length of the cuts of the sleeves, removing it completely.  It will look like this when you are done. 

 

Yes, I know I cut Mickey’s head off.  I have other plans for that in an upcoming Mod Podge shadow box project.  Stay tuned. 

 

Take the fabric that is now the straps and gently pull on it, curling the edges of the t-shirt fabric slightly under.  I also gently pull around the cut areas at the top of the bag, so the edges look a little nicer.  Remember, it’s supposed to be “shabby chic.” 

The most ingenious part of this project is tying the bottom of the bag up with t-shirt yarn made out of the sleeve.  T-Shirt yarn has a ton of uses.  It can be crocheted or knitted just like any other yarn.  It can be looped to make funky necklaces and bracelets.  To make it, simply take the sleeve and cut a strip about a half inch wide. 

 

Turn the sleeve spirally as you cut to make one long string.  Now take the ends of the string and pull!  The edges fold up and you have a length of t-shirt yarn. 

 

 

Use it to close up the bottom of the bag.  Make a two slits opposite each other in the hem of the bag, but don’t cut all the way through the hem. 

 

 

Now, using a safety pin as a guide, feed two lengths of the t-shirt yarn through the tubes in the fabric created by the hem. 

 

 

Tie them off in double (triple!) knots and trim the edge.  Voila.  Saving the environment, one mickey pants bag at a time.

I’ve also made an Eeyore one, cause he’s my fave. 

 

 

Here are two small Tinker Bells ones made from my daughter’s old tees, size 2T, pretty darn cute. 

 

I’m a reusable tote junkie.  (Who really wants to be contributing to that crazy plastic bag island in the Pacific?  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch )  I love them.  I use them all the time.  My primary grocery ones are store bought, but these are great for a trip to the farmer’s market.  Need another tote to haul a few craft supplies while you are on your Disney vacation?  Bingo.  J     

Back in Blog Action

When my digital camera took a turn for the worse I simply couldn’t get inspired to blog with no photos to show you my creations.   But, I turned another year older recently.  It didn’t feel like a big deal, but boy I got some amazing presents this year.  One of which is a cute new little Nikon camera.  So I’m back in the Blog Business.  You may have noticed the updated layout and class calendar.  I’ve been busy.  A big reason I needed a new camera was for my family’s upcoming Disney World trip, so I thought I’d kick off my return to crafting with a mini-series I’m calling Crafting to Disney.  Stay tuned for Disney themed how –to posts on T-Shirt tote bags, homemade hair bows, and my trip smash book.      

 

Crafting to Disney Series, Part 1

 

I’m really not joking when I say that this is one of, if not THE, best thing I’ve ever made.  It’s my daughter’s homemade Disney Autograph book.  What started off as a stack of paper bags was brought to life with the personalities of the films portrayed.  Each page reflects my interpretation of the character’s style, with unifying colors, themes, and embellishments throughout.  The cards slide in the ends of the bag pages, and can singly be presented to the character for signatures.  I even consulted a former Disney World character cast member who helped me with sizing the blank areas large enough for signatures and what type of pens I should bring.  Characters included range from Mickey to Agent P.  I’ve left plenty of open space for photos to be added, and included eight blank cards for those special extra characters.  Some of my favorite details include Aurora’s card being inked pink AND blue to show the famous fairy fight over her dress color and Jasmine’s card back chosen to look like a magic carpet.  I can’t wait to show this off at character dinners during our trip, and I love knowing my daughter has an amazing pre-made keepsake, practically done before we even leave the house.  You cannot buy this for fifteen bucks in a gift shop.

This is a very interactive piece, but here are card layout photos and flip through photos from BEFORE the trip.  I’ll try to remember to re post when it’s full of photos and signatures.

Signature Cards:

 

 

 

Photo Flip-Through

 

Getting character autographs was a favorite Disney park pastime during my childhood trips.  I don’t think I saved any of my generic park bought half-filled autograph books.  Now I wish I had.  Planning a trip yourself?  Help yourself get in the magical mood by making crafts for your trip with your kids.  It doesn’t have to be this fancy.  A blank sketch notebook decorated with Disney stickers could make a cute basic version.  The memories are going to last forever, so you might as well make a cute book to put them in! 

April Crafty Round-Up

You know how some people go M.I.A. around Christmas?  Not that they mean to, but somehow, they just get so busy and caught up in the season that they fall of the face of the planet and awaken around MLK day stunned, wondering where the time went.  Somehow I usually manage to stay in tune during Christmas, but spring time is always like that for me.  Easter was always one of my favorite Holidays growing up, and I love the thought of summer around the corner.  Then, my daughter’s birthday is mid-April, and I have an annual state sorority meeting that falls around this time also.  Did I mention that my wedding anniversary is April also?  So basically, here is my excuse, between two weekends out of town, getting ready for house guests, party prep, and Easter, birthday, and anniversary festivities, I have neglected you, dear readers.
 

This does NOT mean I have been too busy for crafting.  On the contrary, I have been too busy WITH crafting!  Yeeee-haw!  So here is a round-up of the crafty happenin’s from my neck of the woods. 

 
New Jewel in the Crown Card
 

This is a card I made to be attached to a gift basket for the newest collegiate chapter in my sorority.  The focal point of the card is a large chipboard crown that I inked turquoise and used pearl bling embellishments on.  The chapter name is just alpha stickers, the lambda is an upside down letter “V.” The background is some gorgeous magenta glitter cardstock I found in the clearance aisle for only seven cents a sheet!  I really love the contrasting color combo used in this card.  Here is the coordinated inside of the card:

The writing was done in a word file and printed in turquoise to match.  It was printed on white card stock, trimmed, and inked turquoise also.
 

Bunny Cake

 

This is a special Easter cake that my mother used to make when my sister and I were kids.  I know she got the recipe out of a magazine years and years ago, but I do not remember which one.  She would sprinkle flake coconut on hers as well to make the bunny fuzzier, but none of my crew much likes it, so it was skipped.  This cake is NOT done with a special pan.  It is two 9” circle cakes.  One is left whole.  The other has two concave semicircular cuts made in it to make the three pieces that form the ears and bow tie.  They are arranged closely on the board together, and iced to look like a solid cake.  After he was iced in white buttercream, I went back over the surface and tapped with a fork to form peaks in the icing to give him a fluffy look.  The border and piping detail are simply pink buttercream.  The simply Hello Kitty-esque face and bow tie polka dots are Brach’s jelly beans.  It’s always a hit with little kids and big kids both! 

Birthday Treat Bags

 

If you saw my daughter’s birthday party invitations in this post: http://phenomenallycrafty.blogspot.com/2012/03/berry-nice-party-invitations.html  you know she picked Strawberry Shortcake as her theme.  Here are the treat bags that I whipped up for her class:

These are plain red paper bad that I dressed up with a sweet printed "thank you" message tucked behind a simple strip of a coordinating decorative paper (strawberry print of course!).  I’m not the biggest fan of those little plastic junk toys that most party bags come filled with.  Our classmates left with a pencil and strawberry shaped erasers, small bag of homemade strawberry shaped candy, and a homemade cake pop dipped in red with green piping.  This was not my first attempt at cake pops, and one day I do want to share my tips and method for them with you all, but first I need to FIND the tips and PERFECT the method.  At least they were so darn tasty, it really made up for the sheer ugliness of the little red lumps on a stick.  Cake pops usually leave me frustrated, being a perfectionist and all.  I think I am going to stick to cupcakes in the future.    
 

The other new trick I tried was make homemade shaped candies using Wilton melts and a strawberry shaped plastic candy mold sheet.  This was my first go at these as well, but was very pleased with the results.  You simply melt the melts, (wonder how they got that name?), and then pipe them in the mold using a plastic piping bag with the end snipped off.  Tap them on the counter to release any air bubbles, and then pop them in the freezer for a few seconds.  Once they are cooled and hardened you turn the mold over and they fall right out!  Next time I make a run of these I will make a full post with recipes, instructions, and detail photos.  Easy on time and skill and big on wow factor.  Just how I like it!

All of this birthday kitchen crafting led up to the pièce de résistance, a strawberry shortcake themed birthday sheet cake.  I have to admit I had cake anxiety with this cake.  It was exactly a year ago, during a botched attempt a Mickey Mouse cupcake tower for birthday number two that I decided I needed professional cake help and haven’t looked back.  Taking the Wilton basics class at my local Michael’s was one of the best crafting moves I ever made!

 This cake is a Duncan Hines Strawberry Supreme mix using my same old recipe seen in my other cake posts (http://phenomenallycrafty.blogspot.com/2012/01/beer-cake.html) and vanilla pudding.  My daughter loves strawberry cake because it’s pink!  This cake was baked in my basic half sheet pan, the same one used for the beer cake.  It was base iced in light green butter cream. 

The strawberry patch is made using fat piped lines of brown butter cream with crushed chocolate graham crackers on top for dirt. Real strawberries nestle in to give a whimsical touch.   A darker green was used with the grass tip along the edge of the patch.  In addition to the floral and vine corner detail, it also has side piping in yellow and a dark green dot border.  Do the hot pink lettering and flowers look familiar?  They should, this color was left over from the bunny cake.  It truly was a perfect sized patch for her Strawberry Shortcake dolls to pick and play!  I even found coordinating candles in my super market baked good aisle.      

 Just when I thought I was all baked out, a there was a note in my church bulletin requesting cookies for the local chapter of Kairos Prison Ministry.  It may not surprise any of you, but I like to do my giving back with baked goods.  Down at my local Sam’s club I found this bad boy:

Yes, a 4 1/2 POUND bag of chocolate chips.  I already buy sugar and lots of other dry goods in bulk so why not?  I set out on a mission to wave my wand and turn that bag into a bazillion cookies.  It only took about 6 hours of baking with one three year old "helper", and a few “broken” ones were saved for us, but I pumped out over a 12 dozen cookies (yes, a full gross!), out of that bag.  And with that great feat, my kitchen is closed for a while. 
 
I think we've hearded all of the craft dogies into the blog corral for now!!

I promise I will try not to desert you all for so long again!  Of course, if you have questions about these projects, or would like additional details, don’t ever hesitate to contact me!          

Another Drink of Punch

Punch Around the Page – Corner Card Technique

Here’s a sneak preview of an upcoming demo for April 21st, and a special one day class on May 12th!  It’s Martha Stewarts Punch Techniques class featuring the oh-so-cool punch around the page technique.  It will really make people ask, “How did you do that to your paper?”  It’s complicated looking, but with a little practice yields great results easily, with just a few punches.  Here is a card featuring the full technique:

 
But sorry folks, I am not going to spill the beans on that card today.  To learn the full border technique and lots more, come see me at the store for the demo and sign up for class!  The card I am writing about today features a nifty corner punch detail.  This one’s all in the angle. 

What is punch around the page?  It’s a set of two coordinating punches, a corner punch and a border punch.  They have special markings on them that help in aligning them together.  They are designed to give a continuous punched look around a border.  Here is the class kit I am working out of. 

This kit does NOT include the punch around the page punches!  It simply has the materials to produce a total of six cards in four designs, as well as detail instructions.  Any Martha Stewart punch around the page set could be used.  I am using the “Loops” set.  Here are the materials to complete the card:

 

• A blank green cardstock pre-folded card
• Coordinating decorative paper and pink cardstocks pre-cut to fit
• A pink “Thinking of you” phrase embellishment sticker

NOT included in the kit:

• A glue stick (always, always, ALWAYS acid free)
• The corner punch part of the punch around the page set  

The first step is the trick that makes the look of this card unique.  Open the pre folded card and punch the top corners on the front of the card first.  Do this by holding the punch at an angle and aligning the fold of the card with the silver mark on the side of the punch.  Align the other side of the corner with the edge of the wing of the punch.  The alignment looks like this:

Whenever you punch, do it upside down.  This really allows you to see the positioning of the paper in the punch.  This will prevent any “oops, I thought I was punching right there” moments.  Repeat this step on the other top corner.

For the bottom corners simply punch just like a regular corner punch, aligning the paper corners with the popped out “wings” on the side that help guide the punch.

Next layer and adhere the light pink cardstock underneath the green card front.  This lets the contrasting color peak through the punched pieces on the card front corners.

Now the easy part, layer and adhere the darker pink cardstock strip to the center of the card front.  Then add the decorative paper to the center of your dark pink stripe. 

Now you’re ready to add the finishing touch!  Place the journaled embellishment in the center of the decorative paper.  You could use foam dots for this if you’d like to give it some extra dimension.

    

Easy, easy, easy, EASY!  Now reward yourself and go have a drink of punch, rum if you please.  ;)