Monday, October 31, 2011

It's a wrap!


I hope you've all enjoyed the party. I sure did:) There were quite a number of amazing guest posts and it's making me enjoy this beautiful season more than ever. Thank you all for joining in with posts and comments and for making this such a lovely party.

Below you'll find all the posts categorized for your convenience, be sure to check out the ones you haven't seen yet!

Giveaways!


Well that's all of them. Hope you've enjoyed!

Now let's give these wonderful ladies a round of applause, shall we?

Chouettes Giveaway!

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As announced earlier, my friend Lily has offered up something beautiful for one of you. Aren't you just in total awe of these gorgeous earrings?!


Her shop Chouettes has always been a favorite of mine, sadly it closed down, but....


So very soon, you'll have a second chance at buying her amazing handmade jewelry made from the prettiest vintage materials.

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But now... the giveaway! It is, yet again, international:)

Mandatory:
Leave a comment saying what outfit you'd wear these earrings with.

Extra entries(please leave a seperate comment for each):
-Favorite Lily's shop, that way you can keep track of her Etsy!
-Follow this blog.
-Blog about the Autumn Party or put the button on your website.

Winner will be announced on November 6th. Keep your fingers crossed!

5x5 Best of Autumn

I really wanted to do a post that was "head to toe" Autumn, and as much Autumn as possible, so I chose 5 of my favorite things for 5 different categories, but all about Autumn. I hope you'll enjoy them all!

-Best things about Autumn-
{1,2,3,4,5}
Marshmallows
Hot Beverages
Leaves Crunching
Fingerless Gloves
Sound of Rain

-Favorite Autumn Movies-
{1,2,3,4,5}
Reign Over Me
Sweet November
Good Will Hunting
Dan in Real Life
Autumn in New York

-Colors for your Autumn wardrobe-
Mustard Yellow
Grey Brown
Dark Magenta
Pumkin Orange
Olive Green

-Hobbies best enjoyed in the Fall-
{1,2,3,4,5}
Browsing Secondhand Bookshops
Baking
Doing Puzzles
Knitting
Windy Walks on the Beach

-Favorite Autumn CDs-
{1,2,3,4,5}
Mariee Sioux - Faces in the Rocks
Jason Webley - the Cost of Living
Ben Harper - Welcome to the Cruel World
Ray LaMontagne - Till the Sun Turns Black
Emily Loizeau - Pays Sauvage

Feel free to leave your favorite Autumn things in the comments;)

Lily's Favorite Autumn Recipes

My dear friend Lily, who will be back with a giveaway later on(yay!), has sent me her top 3 of autumn recipes. All delicious ideas of things to bake with pumpkin. Enjoy!










Sunday, October 30, 2011

Andrea's Owl Brooch DIY

Surprisingly there's only own guest post on owls, but maybe that's good because I don't see how any other owl could've topped Andrea's tutorial!


You're probably tired of people saying that Autumn is their favorite time of year, so I'll get it out quick--I love the cripsy yellow leaves, the blustery wind, a warm bowl of soup and a cup of tea in the afternoon, a warm scarf, and all the fall colours. In fact, since we've already had a forecast for snow in NY, it's all come and gone a bit too quickly. Anyway, I was really excited to make something for Laura's Autumn Party so here are some Blue Eyed Owl Brooches! -0v0-


Owl brooch diy

I always buy up craft supplies when they're on sale and couldn't resist the Fimo section this time. You only need a few simple supplies for this easy Owl Brooch DIY.


Owl brooch supplies

I molded the clay into an owl shape with my fingers and thumbs until it looked like this.


Owl brooch 2

Then paint a few layers of paint and add a nose, eyes and some feather details.


Owl brooch

Wear these with your favorite Autumn colors and you can even add an owl mask.

Owl mask

Sarah from One Owl Please has a wonderful free printable owl mask available. So if you still need a Halloween costume or you like to dress up all year round, this is perfect for you!


Owl mask 2

Outfit: Mask: One Owl Please Dress: Self-Made Autumn Dress Belt & Shoes: Vintage Tights: We Love Colors


Thanks so much, Laura, for having me on your wonderful blog!! xoxo


Now you're probably already familiar with the PaperSparrow blog and shop. If not, head on over there because you are in for a real treat! Andrea also happens to be the Queen of Blog Parties and there will be a Amelie themed party on November 9th, don't miss it!

Hannah's Spiderweb Cookie Tutorial

Hannah from Made By My Rabbit made you all a cute, easy and delicious tutorial. And it's perfect for Halloween too.


Hi there, Here is my biscuit recipe for scary spiderweb cakes!!!



It is not a fancy thing. Basically whisk up a batch of sugar cookies or buy them!


A quick recipe is:

240g butter +180g sugar mix them together until fluffy. Then mix in a beaten egg. Add a couple of drops of vanilla essence. Mix in 280g plain flour until dough like. Then roll and cut out into cookies!!!



Then make some glaze icing. Take a cocktail stick and dip it into some food colouring. Dip it into the icing on the biscuit and draw a little spiders leg. Be careful not to use too much colouring as it will run.


And there you have it! Spider web biscuits!



Also, don't forget to check out Hannah's blog. She always has amazing tips and recipes, knows the most amazing illustrators and has a passion for adorable toy cameras.

Carrie's Glow Jars Tutorial

Carrie has made an incredibly easy yet extremely magical tutorial. Enjoy!


Hey I am Carrie from Carrie's Little World and I am so happy be part of this great Halloween party!!!


Today I have a great and cheap Halloween idea: Glow jars!



You need glow sticks (I got mine from the dollar tree) and empty clear jar with lid.



Cut open the glow stick and empty them into the jar put your lid on the jar and shake.


Cool right? I plan making a bunch of these to put out on Halloween


Hugs,

Carrie



Click here to go to Carrie's lovely lifestyle blog where she shares all of her joys and inspirations with you.

Giveaway: Cute Notebook!

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Ready for another giveaway? Yeah, thought you might be;)


Well, I spotted this adorable notebook and just had to get in for the Autumn Party! It even has little hearts at the top of each page, isn't that sweet?


How can you win ?
Just leave a comment below saying what you'd use this notebook for.

Yes, it's international.

Extra entries? Always! Leave a seperate comment for each entry!
Follow this blog.
Blog about the Autumn Party or but the button on your blog.

Winner will be announced on November 6th. Good luck!

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Dog Costumes

I always have mixed feelings about dressing up pets, but I found some Halloween dog costumes that really cracked me up.


Because both Yoda AND pugs are amazing, I'm giving you two!


Scuba dog:)

This probably beats "Elf Yourself".


Spider Pug, Spider Pug, does whatever a Spider Pug does.


This one is amazing!


This gladiator costume is probably the prettiest one I've ever seen.

This might not be a dressed up dog, but it's technically a dog costume, right?

Are you dressing up your pets this year?

Suki's Applique Tutorial

Suki is always busy with wonderful projects and I'm so pleased she came in today to teach us how to make an amazing Autumn themed embroidered appliqué!

First of all, thanks so much Laura for hosting this glorious Autumnal blog party!




Did you ever think that all those plain onesies in your little one's wardrobe (or all those plain t-shirts in your own!) were just a little bit boring? Well, here's a simple way to liven them up and make them look altogether more personal and delightful. And it's easy too: I'm no sewing expert so you can be sure that if I can do it, it's pretty simple!


My Autumnal inspiration came on a walk in the park with my toddler. He found an acorn on the ground and held it up to me. I realised it was the first one he'd ever seen. The leaves on the oak trees are just starting to turn golden yellow, while some rusty ones lie on the ground.


You'll also need some card (I use old cereal boxes) or paper for the template. You can probably manage without the embroidery hoop, but I am new to embroidery and find it makes it much easier. They are very cheap and can be used over and over.


I drew my own templates as you can probably tell! You can find lots of inspiration on the web and there are even free templates to be found and printed out if you prefer.


All those glowing leaf colours made me think of the bright colours in my collection of Japanese fabric scraps. I found these in Paris on a trip last year. I use a mixture of vintage/recycled and new fabrics in my projects. I cannot resist buying new fabrics but I try to buy scraps and off-cuts that need using up! Appliqué is great for using up small scraps of material.


There are various different types of "no-sew" backing to create iron-on appliqués. At the moment I'm using bondaweb. The instructions on the packet are really easy to follow. Just remember to iron it onto the "wrong side" (i.e. back) of the fabric.


After cutting out your appliqué shape, you peel of the backing paper to reveal a nice sticky coating ready to attach to your onesie or t-shirt. Do this with all your shapes.



Yay, this is the fun bit! You can see it all coming together! If you're adorning a onesie, make sure the design is on the top half so that it can be seen if the little angel happens to be wearing trousers (pants) or a skirt. Now you just need to...


...iron down those shapes under a damp tea-towel. Isn't this a lovely old tea towel by the way? It's been in the family for many years. Remember it because at some point I'll be sharing a project using some of my old worn-out owl tea towels!


This is where the image takes on definition and shape. You can use embroidery to "draw" lines that bring the leaf and acorn shapes to life. I used brown thread and a small backstitch and 3 threads (embroidery thread is usually 6 twisted together), to give a well-defined, quite solid line. I used very short stitches to help me go round the curves more easily.

I think that it was important to have a well-defined line to make the shapes "pop" over the printed fabrics. If you used plain fabrics, I think a big, gappy running stitch could look good too.

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If, like me, you're an embroidery newbie or novice, I highly recommend this post on the Ais for Ampersand blog, by Mel from Thrifted. It's a brilliantly clear and helpful introduction to embroidery! It was quite slow doing all the stitching but I found it a relaxing thing to do in the evening.


(A final note: since there will be a fair bit of thread and knots at the back, you might want to consider stitching on some scrap fabric or backing behind the appliqué on the inside of the garment, to help it withstand washes/wear & tear etc. and also to make it nice and comfy. I haven't done this yet - I was too eager for the trying on session!)

And there you have it: an Autumnal upcycle to give new life to plain clothes! All you have to do now is find a cute model to show it off ;)

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p.s. many thanks to Josella of Tack-O-Rama for the 1950s-style Pacifico font (by code.newtypography) I used in the images for this tutorial. You can download it for free, here, along with lots of others.

If you're a fellow owl lover, you'll really enjoy Suki's blog The Owl Club. Though it's not just about owls. You'll get spoiled with all sorts of great posts about cute things, amazing collections, movies, books and crafting projects. So head on over there!

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