Bow Holder

The 3 ribbons I had hanging on the back of Juliana's door were overflowing with her 70ish bows, so I decided to make a bow holder. At first I was going to use a wooden letter J, but it just wouldn't hold enough ribbons for the number of bows she has. (she wears bows all the time... always has). So this is what I came up with. I'm not really pleased with how the letters turned out, but I wasn't displeased enough to paint over them and start again.

For what it's worth, there are 13 bows doubled (to 26) for pigtails.
And I didn't go broke on them... 26 were hand made and most of the rest of them were purchased using gift money for birthdays and whatnot (and several were purchased on clearance). I just wanted to clarify that before anyone started doing the math and assumed I spent hundreds of dollars on bows. No way :) If I could afford to spend that much on bows I would have just purchased a bow holder rather than making my own for about $3 :)

Juliana's thank you card

It's Taggy Madness

Once I got started, I just couldn't stop!! I really should make one for my own child....1

Head Band How to

I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to get these instructions posted. I wrote them months ago, but decided they needed pictures. That's what's taken so long. But better late than never, I hope.

First of all, I'd like to state that this takes minimal sewing skills. If you can sew a straight line, you can make one. Fear not! It also doesn't take much fabric, so it's a good way to use up scraps.

The best way I've found to do this is to make a pattern with freezer paper first instead of trying to measure & cut out on the fabric its self.

You need one strip of fabric measuring 7 inches wide by 16 inches long (well call this one A), a second 3 inches wide & 12 inches long (and this one B), and a 6 inch strip of elastic between 2/3 of an inch and an inch wide.

On strip A fold the long sides of the fabric in 1/4 inch, then 1/4 inch again on the wrong side of the fabric so the raw edges are completely hidden. On the short ends, you only need to fold them in once as this end will be hidden. Press down & stitch down all the way around the strip. You can either use a straight stitch in a color thread that will blend in, or a contrasting thread with a zig-zag stitch. I used the zig-zag contrasting stitch for the more casual head bands.

Next, fold the short ends of Strip B down to the wrong side of the fabric, press, and stitch. Then fold the band lengthwise with right sides together, and seam along the length only (5/8 inch seam allowance). This will be the casing for the elastic. Turn right side out & press.

Take Strip A & pleat the ends together (it doesn't have to be a perfect pleat) until the end is small enough to fit into the casing for the elastic. I whip stitch the pleats closed by hand. Then secure one side of the elastic band to one end of Strip A. Thread the elastic through the casing & sew the opposite end of the elastic to the opposite end of Strip A.

Pull the casing up over the ends of Strip A & sew down each end down. Ta-da! Instant (well, not really) head band!

Juliana's Easter card

Taggy Blanket

A few weeks ago BabyGirl & I went to a baby shower where the mother was given a small fleece blanket with tabs of ribbons running around the edges. I loved the idea since tags are the first thing that really hold a baby's attention.

I used one piece each of two contrasting fabrics (actually left overs from a swaddling blanket I made a few weeks ago, one pink cotton, one patterned baby flannel), and 5 different spools of ribbon in different colors & textures. I'm not 100% sure, but I think the two rectangles measured 17" x 20". The ribbons were cut in 5" lengths with pinking shears to prevent fraying (although next time I think I'll make the ribbons 3 1/2" to 4" long for slightly shorter tags). On the semi-solid fabric I stitched "Sweet Baby Girl" in yellow using tear away cross stitch fabric.

Then I folded the ribbons in half, and pinned them to the right side of the flannel with the loops facing the center of the fabric & the raw edges matching up with the raw edge of the fabric. Make sure you keep the ribbons at least an inch away from the corners.

Using the side of the presser foot as a guide I ran a seam as close to the raw edge of the fabric as possible. I set the needle position on my machine to sew along the far right position. On the second seam, I moved the needle to the center position but continued to use the edge of the presser foot as my guide.

I pinned the right sides of the fabrics together and seamed around the edges with a 5/8" seam leaving a hand width opening to turn the fabric. Clip the corners & turn the fabric right side out.

After whip stitching the opening shut, I pressed the edges of the blanket down flat. Finally I ran a zig-zag stitch around the outside edge of the blanket to prevent it from rolling up when washed & totally secure the ribbon tabs.

Here's the end results. As I said before, the tabs turned out a tad longer than I'd like, but I'm still very happy with the finished product. And I've found the gross grain ribbon is the easiest to work with. The satin finish snags too easily.

BabyGirl is giving it to her teacher's first grandbaby. She's very happy with it (she helped lay out the ribbon pattern).

Bunny in an egg

While wandering around Wal-Mart yesterday looking for a super simple craft for BabyGirl's Spring Party at school, I thought of this.

It's ears are made of white craft foam that I cut in a petal shape. The teeth are also craft foam. I used the sticky tabs you put on the back of photos for scrapbooking to stick the craft foam to the egg since the glue wasn't drying. Two googly eyes & half a cotton ball complete the bunny.

I cut out all the foam, put the stickies on the back of the foam, and put it all inside the eggs so all I have to do is pass out the eggs.

Very easy. Very cheap. Very cute (at least I think so). Now I only hope the kids like them.

Snow time, show time

When I got up this morning and saw the snow, I knew I finally had my chance to photograph two of my latest knitting projects. Details here.

Zann will so appreciate these!!!

Stealthy sweetgum Ninjas!!!

My buddy, Run Mike and I were having an IM conversation about running (what else?!) and he mentioned that he turned an ankle stepping on a sweetgum ball last week. He said, “they sneak up on you like a ninja.” So, during Saturday’s run (that 6 miler!!!) my muse spoke and I came up with these!!! Sweetgum ball NINJAs!!! Heee!!!

Gel Transfer Tutorial

(For Cate and anyone else who may be interested : .)

First of all, I used this link for instructions. They're quite good. If my directions are not clear, just click on the link and scroll around until you find their xfer tutorial : .)

You'll need:

1) Golden Gel Medium, my container is Soft Gel (Gloss). Any polymer acrylic medium should work.
2) A picture (color or B&W) freshly ink jet printed on regular text weight paper, or a photocopy. (Text will transfer backwards, so you probably don't want to use a picture with text that you want to read. I think text would look good as just a background tho'.)
3) The surface you are transferring to. I used cardstock, onto which I printed text and painted over the area where I wanted to transfer.
3) Paintbrush or fingers.
4) Something to burnish with, I used a bone folder and my fingers.
5) Small container of water.


Get your supplies ready.

Goop some gel medium onto the picture you want to transfer. I like to feel what I'm working with.


Make sure you have a good layer of the medium on your picture, too thin, it'll dry and not transfer; too wet and it will take forever for the transfer to dry for backing paper removal.


Burnish until it appears that the entire image has adhered to the base paper. I ended up using my fingers, its that tactile thing again. Some of the medium will probably ooze out from under the picture. Wipe it off, or leave it there...your choice. Let the piece dry to touch. If you are tempted to peel the backing layer off too early, you might be disappointed with the outcome, but sometimes that's the beauty of the transfer, the imperfectness of it all.

Start lifting a corner to see if the picture transferred. If it appears that your image has transferred, you can continue to peel off the backing paper. If some of the backing paper remains get like a half a drop of water on your finger and gently rub where the backing paper is still sticking and gently remove the extra paper. Sometimes it looks cool if you leave some on, again, your choice. Artistic license and all that! (I didn't take a photo of this step, it is in the tutorial.)

The finished product. The top picture of the three is the original, I just glued it onto the cardstock, the bottom two pictures are the gel transfers. Click on the picture to see the detail and the imperfectness of it all. (I made this at the request of the cute boy at the gym his favorite band is Sublime, however, he doesn't seem to keen to get it from me. I guess I learned a lesson here! Some people just don't appreciate the effort!) I like it, so I'm not opposed to keeping it for me.

There are other transfer methods, using clear packing tape, Dove blenders, acetone transfers, and there are the fab-o polaroid transfers. I've only tried the tape transfer. I'm kinda not interested in using toxic products, so I definitely haven't tried the acetone transfer method.

baby card

I found the chipboard embellishments at the new dollar store by my house! And i finally used my crop-o-dile tool that hubby got me for Christmas.

A little cold weather knitting

Cold weather means lots of television at Chez Ragged. Lots of television means lots of knitting. For more information, stop by here.

I must admit, I am in love with the socks and the hat primarily because of the yarns involved. The socks are using a yarn enhanced with jojoba and aloe, so nice to knit with. The hat is out of the softest wool ever. . . Malabrigo. I'm in love, love, love.

Santa Bebe

Irresistible photo, I just had to scrap it.

This is Bebe J-J. B/4 he was Bebe J-J, he was the subject of this photo shoot and subsequently this album.

Of course creating the layout, I did not think ahead. I used all black glitter letters, which were lost as they got stuck over the photo. Luckily b/c I am such a hoarder of scrapbook supplies, I had red and black glitter letters . Removing the black stickers would tear the picture, so, I just stuck the others over. I actually consider this a quick and dirty fix to the problem, I usually tear down the entire layout, wasting untold amounts of scrap supplies. Here I only used up a few extra alpha stickers. I'm quite proud of myself!

Anywhoo, if you're interested in the supplies used, let me know and I'll list 'em!

A little January knitting

A little knitting, in effort to use up my growing stash of yarns. Details can be found here.

Starbucks Card Mini Album

Had to do something with all the Starbucks cards I've collected. Simple scrapbooking, just photos and some titles. The photos are monthly highlights of 2007.

Red Velvet Art Ornament Swap

I forgot that MadRetz asked if I would post the ornaments I received from the Red Velvet Art ornament swap. As I always say, better late than never!!!

So, here they are! Very cool!!!

We should do this next year...A Nudge-Nudge Ornament Exchange...Draw names maybe??? I'll try to remember to bring it up in October or November. Or sooner, yeah! A Nudge-Nudge Valentine Swap???

ChAiN sTitcH

Sitting here with my Dad, watching Kill Bill Vol. 2 and teaching myself how to crochet flowers. (Okay, if that isn't incongruous!) Definitely addictive, this crochet thing. I'm all ready to rush out and buy some more hooks and colorful thread. If you're interested in trying these easy flowers, here are the two patterns I used...

FlowerPower and Flower Brooch

smash cakes

My friends' twins turn 1 today! I made their smash cakes for them (a.k.a.-the cake just for the birthday boy/girl to smash into). They are just the small 6" cakes. They aren't that great seeing as I had JUST enough frosting, so I had no leftover frosting to correct goofs. But they aren't completely horrible either. The twins' invitation reads, "All the kings horses and all the kings men invite you to celebrate Prince Andrew and Princess Annabella's birthdays with them!" The invitation had a picture of humpty dumpty on the wall on it. So on Andrew's cake I made a brick wall around the edges. And I tried to make Annabella's sort of look like a castle. The dark blue areas on Andrew's cake are where I accidentally dropped too much shimmer dust. (something I would have corrected if I had more frosting. oops.) You can't really tell in these pictures, but the tops of the cakes are shimmery.

What I've been up to

Hey there...so I figured since I outed myself in the comments of the roll call post, I would out myself even further in the name of shameless bragging.

Some of you know that I lost my job at 8:30 in the morning the day my husband and I returned from our honeymoon this past September. It is a long, frustrating story that could be titled, "101 Reasons Not To Blog at or About Work". But we have moved past it and are getting on with our lives.

Losing my job was a huge blow, but I was able to turn lemons into lemonade...or limoncello if you will...by starting a new business all on my own, aptly titled: LimoncelloSTYLE. LimoncelloSTYLE is a company specializing in Custom Cards, Custom Invitation Suites and DIY Rescue, which I have defined here.

I have been developing my website for the past month or so and I finally went live on December 7, the day I walked into the Boston City Clerk's office and filed my Doing-Business-As certificate.
I hope you will come by to my site and check it out. My website is http://www.limoncellostyle.com/ and my blog is http://limoncello-style.blogspot.com/. It truly is a labor of love and I am really glad to have this chance to make a dream a reality.

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!!

--Miriam aka Girl

quickie x-mas tags!

How many days until X-mas?! I'm so ready to rip open presents!!!

Some quickie gift tags. I didn't measure or anything, just cut the colored cardstock and lil ornaments out of old dictionary pages.

Click on the photo to see it up close and personal! : .)