Valentine's Day for Boys

Hi there. I'm always being asked why I don't do craft classes for boys and I usually respond by saying that I have a toddler/boy and a teenage stepson and from experience I know that they are not as able to maintain the level of focus that girls do when it comes to crafting. My other reason is that girls crafts are soooo cute and abundant. ❤️❤️❤️❤️ Well this Valentine's week I was given the challenge of creating a card box for a kindergarten boy to bring to school. He also had to bring invitations for the 18 students in his class. At first I was thinking "Why is this a big deal? Can't we just throw something together?" But then I had a chat with a super crafty friend of mine who was making a Thomas the Train inspired card box for her son. It was beautiful!!! Multiple boxes put together to look like a train. The boxes were wrapped in blue wrapping paper to have the right look, printouts of the eyes... You get the idea. So I thought about what my client would like and remembered that he likes cars. I enlisted the help of one of my favorite assistants (my husband) who cut and shaped a cardboard box into a car shape with a sunroof opening for the cards to be inserted. The clients mom and I then hot glued different pieces of both card stock and heavy duty scrapbook paper and some stickers, and this is what we came up with.

We then used my favorite Martha Stewart Amazon cutter for the entire project and even used it to cut our post card shaped pieces which we used as the Valentine's Cards. My little client was so excited that he couldn't wait to write on his Valentine's cards and bring his card box to school.

Now that I've completed this project and really enjoyed it, I'm becoming more open to introducing a boys craft class...or I can just craft for boys. Lol

Let me know what you think.

Darley~

Barbie Blankets sew adorable...........

Hi there. I've been super busy coming up with my upcoming class. Barbie Bedding. Honestly I was having so much fun combining colors and patterns. This would also be a great class for mothers and daughters to do together. I can't wait to see the pattern combinations that my students come up with. So here are a few of the sets that I have created.



I hope this inspires you to pull out your machine and make something lovely or if you love what I've made but would just rather look and enjoy and maybe purchase one, visit my Etsy store. https://www.etsy.com/shop/HartfordCraft

Thanks for stopping by.

Darley~

Welcome to 2015

Hello friends. Happy New Year!!! I am so excited to start this new year with you. I started my year by having some friends over for Brunch (a new Annual Tradition)and have been extremely motivated ever since.

Here's a pic of some of the fun.

Let's see what I've been up to since the Brunch
1. Created a new format for the blog
2. Began writing a childrens book
3. Started prepping doll bedding for my Etsy store (Barbie and the larger 18 inch Dolls)
And most importantly
4. Began the painful process of getting my son to sleep in his own bed so that I can have more time to do all of these things. We are on day 5 with about 4 hour's worth of sleep each night but we are optimistic.

#Mission Organization~ To Do List
The #1 thing I am focusing on in order to really make this year a success is to get my To Do Lists in order. I always feel like I have a million lists all over the place and when I get spare moment to work on something I feel totally lost and don't know where to start. I actually just printed out a couple lists from some sites and will see if any of them can help me feel more together. When it comes to documents and stuff overall, I consider myself to be an organization junkie! I purchase all of the magazines, love to organize and love to help people organize.

I would love to hear about what you are planning on tackling in 2015. If you need help, let me know. Once I get myself more organized I'll be able to help you a little more. LOL

~Darley

December 2014 Sew Awesome Felt Stocking

Felt Christmas Stocking

Ages 7 & Older

Fun class for those who are new to sewing as well as experienced hand sewers. In this class we will use felt to make a mini stocking as well as using beads to add embellishments.
Also a great way for moms to get some extra time to complete their Holiday Shopping.
 

Dates & Times

Saturday, December 13th 4:00 pm-6:30 pm

Saturday, December 20th 12:30 pm-3:00 pm

Cost: $15.00 Location: East Hartford, CT
**All materials included. Payment due at time of class.


Click here to Register .


Darley~

Zippered Pouch Tutorial

Hello there. I have been working on this for a couple of weeks and am very happy that I can now present this tutorial to you. Before we start, I will tell you that I scheduled 3 hours for this class with a 15 minute snack break in between. I also precut the two pieces of fabric, folded the top edge over about 1/4 of an inch and ironed it down to maintain the position before the 2 pattern options were presented to my students.  Since I had 6 girls with varying sewing skills and a helper the time I allotted was sufficient. If you are sewing with your child or by yourself 1 1/2 hours should be enough.

The great thing about this project is that it is not only super fun but it is varying enough that you can keep the attention of tweens. There is also minimal supplies needed and only very basic sewing skills if any at all. 

Here's what you will need:

Fabric - Two 8 1/2" by 5 1/2"

Zipper - 7 Inch

Sewing Needle

Thread

Pins

Sewing Machine

1. Fold over the fabric 1/4 inch and iron as shown below.

2. Using two pins, pin down the fabric face up on the zipper. You will be sewing from the right side.

3. Thread the needle with a long piece of thread. You will be sewing with double thread. Tie the end and start sewing from the wrong side (so that the knot is on the inside)

4. After you have completed the initial insert of the needle, begin sewing slanted straight stitches like below with the fabric right side up. The stitches should start at the end of the zipper metal part. Once you stitch all the way down one end then go up the other end in an opposite direction from the original stitch. This will create the X pattern that you see in the 4th photo. Once you are done with this side then continue to the other side. (Face up).

5. Keep up the good work. Once you are done with both sides open the zipper half way and pin both sides together inside out. This is to keep the zipper in place when you sew the sides.

6. Ok time to sew. Using a straight stitch sew down one side be sure to reverse stitch at the beginning, sew down one side, turn and continue until you have sewn all sides. This should be around a quarter inch from the edge.

7. Use a pair of scissors to cut off the extra thread and turn your pouch right side out. Use something with a slightly pointy edge and push out the corners.

8. Great Job!!! 

9. Keep Smiling!!

10. Here are some pictures of my students' work. Ages 7-10.

Thank you very much for joining me. I hope you go out right now and find a tween or teen to do this project with. Ok you can just do it by yourself. LOL

Darley ~

Thanksgiving FunCakes- Make your own

Cupcakes are definitely the most fun cakes. Of course it was a lot of fun making Turkey and Owl Cupcakes. SIMPLE AND TASTY INGREDIENTS = A FUN TIME

Here's what you need to do this yourself:

Cupcakes- I baked some vanilla cupcakes from scratch.

Frosting- Most of the pics of these cupcakes that I saw online use chocolate frosting but since most of my students aren't partial to chocolate I used Betty Crocker vanilla frosting. My students were able to change the vanilla frosting into whatever color they wanted by using 4 basic colors. The frosting was used to top the cupcakes as well as "gluing" down the eyes.

Oreos- 2 to make the eyes use one of the tops to make the eyebrows and eat the other top of course. You will notice that we also used them for hats on some of the turkeys. I think it made them look like they should be on Kung Fu Panda but hey. It made us smile. LOL

KitKats- the wings of the turkey. I used 3 sticks. Just be sure to push them all the way down and not too close to the edge of the cupcake.

Marshmallows- the head of the turkey. Place more towards the front. Not in the middle.

Chocolate Chips- eyes on the owl and the nose on the turkey.

Brown Sprinkles- to create the eyes on the turkey. I just poked them into the marshmallow.

Honestly by the time we were done decorating the cupcakes we weren't hungry any more. The girls ate some of the frosting they mixed, some of the extra marshmallows, KitKats, and Oreos... I may have indulged as well. LOL

Alright now, head into your kitchen, assemble the ingredients and start decorating some cupcakes, or just sit here and think about doing the craft and search for pics on Pinterest. Mine are the cutest though. So much cuter when they are created by little hands.

Thanks for stopping by. Don't forget to tell a friend to tell a friend about my classes.

Darley~ 

November 2014 Cupcake Funcake

Thanksgiving Cupcake Decorating (No Baking)



Ages 6 & Older
Skills Learned/Used:
Students will use food items to decorate cupcakes. Chocolate & Vanilla Cupcakes will be provided.
      

Dates & Times

Saturday, November 22nd 12:30 pm-2:00 pm

Cost: $15.00 Location: East Hartford, CT

**All materials included. Payment due at time of class.




Click here to Register .

November 2014 Sew Awesome Class

Hand Sewn Zippered Pouch

Ages 7 & Older

Skills Learned/Used:
Students use a template, use a X stitch to attach a zipper and use a sewing machine to complete the pouch.
      

Dates & Times

Saturday, November 15th 2:00 pm-5:00 pm

Cost: $15.00 Location: East Hartford, CT
**All materials included. Payment due at time of class.

Click here to Register .

ReOrganized Toddler Closet

Toddler Life....

The thing about having a small child is that they outgrow their clothing so quickly which is how I ended up with the mess that is the left before pic. Due to the "cozy" size of our home, my husband uses the closet in my sons room therefore I purchased this customizable closet/armorie solution from Ikea. It works well for his hanging clothes, blankets, wipes, towels etc. He has a dresser which holds his folded clothing t/shirts, sweatpants, shirts, pajamas, socks, and everything else.

                     Before                                                             After

Now lets talk about what was in there.

1) Receiving Blankets Now that he is 2 we do not need them anymore. I donated some to Goodwill, put some in a bin for a friend who is having a baby in a couple months, and kept a couple

2) Pampers Splashers I used one or two of them but I didn't think they worked as well as Huggies Little Swimmers, so I kept the Huggies and gave the Pampers to Goodwill, not sure if they would be able to resell them but its worth a shot

3) Baby Towels/Washcloths I actually use standard towels and washcloths for my son since they dry him a lot quicker so I threw some away and donated the rest

4) Newborn Hats/Mitts I donated some and put the rest in a bin for my friend

5) Clothes that were too small I kept my favorites, donated some, threw away the ones that were damaged, and put some in the bin for my friend

6) Too small Shoes I donated some and kept a couple

There are definitely more items in there that could find a new home (outside of my house lol) since I do not plan on having more kids. But I think I did some good work thus far. Organizing is a continuous process.

Hope this motivates you to spend a little time Reorganizing. One space at a time of course.

Darley~

Halloween Headband

Hi there.

Just completed my final October class. We had two Cupcake Funcake Classes and one Sew Awesome Class. My students were excited about both classes and were even looking for Cupcakes in their sewing Classes lol. Many of them are planning on incorporating their new headbands into their Halloween costumes which makes me very excited. A few of them do not participate in Halloween however they are still very excited to see what they can make with their very own hands and how cute they look with their fun new accessorie.

I hope you all have already gotten Halloween costume's for your little ones so that they can enjoy playing pretend. Don't let them have too much candy thought..........

I will be working on my November Class ideas, which I need to squeeze in between my moms' group (Fun Stuff). Definitely planning on trying my hand at cake pops but unsure of what else. I will share with you as soon as I figure it out.

Have a great week!

Darley-