Top Ten F&J posts of the Year 2011

Wanna know what our top ten viewed projects of the year 2011 are???
Here they are according to Google Analytics!

#10 Name Blocks

I made these name blocks for my SIL for a house warming gift.  It was before I had my silhouette so no special Die-cutting tools are needed for this project! 

#9 Funky Rings with Denominational Magic

This is one of my favorite crafts because I used plate joining biscuits to make jewelry!  It is so fun to use items from the hardware store to make pretty things! 

#8 Chalk Board Mugs

Another one of my favorites!  I love that you can personalize these mugs!

#7 Ruffle-Butt Onesie

This was made from my cousin's baby girl who is now 2!  WOW time flies!

#6 Reuseable Lunch Bag

One of my first sewing projects!   I loved it so much I made three of them!

#5 Photo Ornaments from Christmas Cards

These are easy to make and they are beautiful to look at!

#4 Vintage Photo Gift Tags

Probably my favorite project to date!  They turned out soooooooo cute!  I printed them on paper bags... I love a good recycling craft! 

#3 Reuseable Snack Bags

My kids love these!  They used them all the time!  They are more stable then the plastic bags so they are easier on little hands!

#2 Crinkle Tag Blanket

Such a fun an easy craft to wipe up for a baby shower!

AND THE #1 Viewed F&J Tutorial of the year is...

Leg Warmers from a Sweater!

These are awesome! They look great poking out the top of boot too!

A special thanks to all of our readers!   We love you and are so thankful for you! 
We are excited for 2012!!

 

Wine Tote Carrier {Free Pattern for a limited time!}

I have created my second pattern for my shop Funky Joy! 

I am excited about this new pattern! 

It is a Double Wine Tote!

The double wine tote is the perfect way to carry your wine safely anywhere you want to go. Whether you are going to a party or a evening with close friends and family, you are sure to look stylish with this chic wine tote carrier!

It would make a great hostess gift or wedding present!

The patten comes with step-by-step instructions and pictures for each step of the way.

It also gives some ideas for alternative fabric choices and embellishment ideas! 

The pattern in made for beginning sewing level. 

I am offering this pattern for FREE to F&J readers in exchange for your honest critique of the pattern plus a picture of your finish product.  Before I put the pattern on the market I would like some patten-testers to give it a run through.

If you are interested in testing this pattern out leave a comment below {with e-mail address attached to profile or comment} and I will e-mail you a copy of the pattern {in PDF form}.  

EDITED!!!  Thanks for all of your interest in being a pattern tester!  We now have enough people!  Look for the pattern coming soon to my Funky Joy Etsy Shop!

Show Off Your Stuff Party # 107

Hello and welcome to the Show Off Your Stuff Party!  I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and are looking forward to the new year!  Come and share you favorite projects with us!

This week I am showing off:

My Kitchen Towel Calendar

Wanna make some money blogging?

  One site that I have found helpful in finding sponsors is Social Spark

They match bloggers with advertisers. You get to choose who you promote and how you promote it! It really is a win-win! 

Here is the run down:

1. Pay attention! There are 3 categories to link up:

Crafts and Sewing

DIY and Home Decor

Recipes

pick one and go with it!

{If you pick the wrong one... you can delete your own and add it to the right one! :) }

2. Add a link to your specific post, not the main page of your blog.

3. Please do not link up to something that you are just trying to sell.

4. Link to this party from your post so everyone can get in on the fun. You can just grab my button!

<a href="http://firefliesandjellybeans.blogspot.com/search/label/Show%20Off%20Your%20Stuff%20Party" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="blank"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fvxHkFmRuww/TjYS_3oztzI/AAAAAAAAAjA/H6n_MRE4xhs/s200/Show+off+your+Stuff+party+button.JPG" width="125" /></a>

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A Different Kind of Kitchen Calendar {Tutorial}!

I love Spoonflower! It is so cool to be able to design your own fabric! I also love calendars.... combine the two and you have a winner of a project!

A Calendar Kitchen Towel

Spoonflower has a bunch of really fun tea towel calendar designs to choose from.  You pick one out, order a fat Quarter of material {I got the linen-cotton canvas} and you can make a cute calendar kitchen towel!  Here is the design I picked out for my Mother-in-law

Here are some other cute ones that I liked:

I ordered my fabric and waited for it to arrive.  Once it a arrived I cut off the selvage edges.  then I serged and hem-ed it... if you don't have a serger you can always double fold the edges to get the finished hem. 

I added Velcro to the sides so that I could hang it from my oven door.
I just hung it on the oven door to measure and sewed on the velcro. 

It looks adorable hanging up!

I also ordered a personalize fabric to make a hand towel to add to the calendar to complete the gift. {you can use Picnik to create your own patterns or you can upload a picture from your computer}
This was one of the Christmas gifts for my mother-in-law... but, I also think it would make a GREAT wedding gift! 

Here is another project I did using Spoonflower!
Baby Play Mat:

***I am in no way affiliated with Spoonflower.  I simply love the company and love to use them to make unique and fun gifts!***

 

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas! 

May you have the gift of faith, the blessing of hope and the peace of His love at Christmas and always!

 

Post Of Christmas Past: Vintage Photo Gift tags

As you are wrapping your last minute gifts you may need some cute gift tags! Last year I made these cute gift tags and everyone LOVED them.... I am making this this year too! 

Here is a cute photo tag that you can make for FREE!! 

Vintage photo tags made from a paper bag.  Yep!  I printed these tags off on to a paper bag that I had.  Cute and recycled!

You can make you own too!  I am going to show you how I made these by using Picnik.  Picnik is an online photo editing site.  It helps make your photos look like professionals!  If you have not used Picnik it is really easy! 

1. Open picnik and upload your picture.  Open your picture to start editing it. 

{feel free to play around with it a bit if it is your first time on the site.  There is an "UNDO" button that you can use to get back to your orignal picture.}.

Under the EDIT tab you want to select the COLOR button.  Once you have selected the COLOR button pull the SATURATION bar all the way to the left to make your photo black and white.  Press OK.

2.  Now press the EXPOSURE button.  Pull the CONTRAST bar to the right.  You can decide how far you want to go, depending on your picture. Press OK.

  I pulled mine pretty far over but not all the way to the end.

 3. Now we are going to work under the CREATE tab.

First we want to add a border.  Go to frames... and there is a boarder option about 2/3rd down the page.  You have some decisions to make about your boarder.  Play around with it and decide what you like. 

 I  made the outside boarder WHITE (that way you can write on it) and the inside boarder Black.  I also made the caption height as big as it would go to give room for the text. 

Next we are going to add the text.  Press on the TEXT button. You can choose your font and the color.

  I just wrote TO: and FROM:

4. Now you are going to save it back to your computer.  Go to the SAVE AND SHARE tab. Decide what you want to name your file and save it to your computer.  Make sure to remember where you save it to so you can find it later.   

5. Open your picture in a word doc.  Click on INSERT - down to PICTURE - to FROM FILE.  Now find your picture that you just saved and open that.

6. Crop your picture to the size you want.  Then cut and paste to fill the page. 

7. Cut up your paper bag into 8.5X11 rectangles.  Use a piece of paper as a template.   

8. Put the paper bag paper into your printer and print your tags on to it.  

10. Cut them out and put them on your gifts!  

Totally CUTE, totally GREEN and totally FREE! 

Show Off Your Stuff Party # 106

Welcome to the Show off Your Stuff Party!

This week I am showing off:
My Tree Wall art

My Magnet Picture Frame

Need Homemade gift inspiration or have a homemade gift to share!
Link up your ideas HERE!

Wanna make some money blogging?

  One site that I have found helpful in finding sponsors is Social Spark

They match bloggers with advertisers. You get to choose who you promote and how you promote it! It really is a win-win! 

Here is the run down:

1. Pay attention! There are 3 categories to link up:

Crafts and Sewing

DIY and Home Decor

Recipes

pick one and go with it!

{If you pick the wrong one... you can delete your own and add it to the right one! :) }

2. Add a link to your specific post, not the main page of your blog.

3. Please do not link up to something that you are just trying to sell.

4. Link to this party from your post so everyone can get in on the fun. You can just grab my button!

<a href="http://firefliesandjellybeans.blogspot.com/search/label/Show%20Off%20Your%20Stuff%20Party" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="blank"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fvxHkFmRuww/TjYS_3oztzI/AAAAAAAAAjA/H6n_MRE4xhs/s200/Show+off+your+Stuff+party+button.JPG" width="125" /></a>

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