Clothespin Butterfly Tutorial

Here's a great craft-- perfect to do with kids --to celebrate the upcoming arrival of SPRING!!! Here's the supplies you'll need: scissors, glitter, mod podge (or tacky glue), clothespins, fabric, beads, wire, wire cutters, paintbrush, iron-on adhesive, pinking shears (optional) & fishing line for hanging (not pictured).
The first thing you'll do is slap some glue all over your clothespin. Use the peg-style clothespin. And I shoved a chopstick between the "prongs" so I wouldn't get all goopy & I could do this step all in one crafty swoop. (I'm holding the chopstick/clothespin with one hand, using my teeth to hold the messy paintbrush & taking a photo with my other hand. HAHA!)
Sprinkle with your choice of glitter.

{I heart glitter.}
Now, while THAT is drying, you can move on to the next step...
The only reason I use the iron-on adhesive is to fuse two pieces of fabric together & to give my fabric more stiffness. (So the wings won't be floppy.) If the fabric you're using is a thick, heavyweight material, don't bother using the iron-on stuff. However, another reason I like using the iron-on adhesive is because BOTH sides of my butterfly will look sassy. If your material is too thick, it won't fit correctly onto the clothespin, so keep that in mind as well.

You'll need a butterfly pattern. If I knew how to do all that fancy schmancy "click-here-for the PDF-of-my-template" I'd do that. But I don't know how. So, to get a symmetrical design, fold a piece of cardboard in half & draw one side of the butterfly wings with an inch of space between the sets of wings. (I know mine is more than an inch in the picture, but I altered later on because I found my measurement to be tooooooo long.)

Next, cut out a piece of iron-on adhesive that will fit your pattern. Iron this onto the WRONG side of a piece of fabric that is slightly bigger on all sides than the adhesive piece. Then, iron ANOTHER piece of fabric on TOP of the adhesive. You'll have a fabric sandwich with the sticky adhesive holding it all together.

You could also use coordinating pieces of fabric so that you'd have a lovely reversible butterfly!

Trace your pattern onto the fabric...

...& cut it out. You could use your pinking shears to do this part too, for a different look.

When your glittery butterfly body is dry, you'll want to make the antennae. I used 24 gauge wire 'cause that's what I had on hand.

Twist the wire onto the "head". You could just curl the ends of each wire & leave it like that, or add a big bead to each end...

...but I used seed beads for mine.

Stack the beads almost to the tippy-top of the wires & loop the ends so the beads won't fall off.

Then twist the beaded wires into the shape you like.

Slide your fabric onto the clothespin. That extra bit in the middle of the fabric is to give it some bunchy staying power. The back end of your fabric might start wiggling out. You can just dab it with some hot glue & tuck it back in to keep a permanent hold on it.

Tie some fishing line onto your butterfly & hang it up!

Other ideas for your clothespin butterfly:

*Make 'em from oilcloth! (To hang outside!) (With oilcloth you'd probably want to omit the extra bit in the middle of the butterfly pattern.)

*Hang a whole flock of butterflies for a sweet spring celebration! (Above a bed would be sweet!)

*Make a garland of butterflies!
*Let the little ones get involved: Use felt!! It's stiff enough, so no need for iron-on adhesive. Let the kids glue on gems & doo-dads & crafty bits for their own unique butterfly creation!

Crafty Bits

I've been working on screeprinting my cupcake design onto fabric for a pillow & this was my first attempt. I don't like it. It's too busy with the patterned fabric. I also don't like that little "cupcake nipple" at the top. Do you see it? When I sew it next time I'll adjust that. SO, I'm thinking for round two I'll try the design on some plain felt & use a coordinating vintage print for the backside. Here's two that I'm working on now:

I'm LOVING this vintage print. It has bright pink, light pink, orange & tan bubbles all over it---perfect to go with this tan felt piece!!

BUT, I did do something right: I attached a fabric tag, complete with my shop name to the wee pillow. It's kinda big, but I like it. I also discovered they make pretty cute oversized pincushions!

And look at this book I thrifted last week! (From 1958.) It's pink! And it's awaiting its destiny as a piece of book art. The title is a bit gloomy though. But I think all the pink makes up for that.
Look what keeps teasing me these last few days:
The sunshine! Where have you been all my gloomy, gloomy winter days?! It keeps hiding behind clouds, peeking out at random moments in my day. Please stay! Oh, please. I am so anxious for spring & crafting OUTDOORS!!

Luggage Tag Tutorial

I learned of the idea of this project from one of my MOPS buddies Julie. (**Hi Jules!!**) This luggage tag would make a GREAT quick holiday gift for the traveler in your family. You can even take this basic concept & make awesome fabric gift tags.

Supplies: The supply list seems long for such a small crafty project, but don't let that intimidate you. You know I only do simple, easy & fabulous tutes! First on the list is to gather different fabrics &/or felts. You'll also need a plain light-colored fabric for the "I.D." part of the tag. I've just recycled an old flour sack for that part.

You'll also need scissors, (optional: decorative zig-zag scissors), iron-on adhesive, an iron, embroidery threads, needles, grommets & a grommet setting tool

Another optional item is some transfer paper.

The first thing you'll do is cut the front piece of fabric for your tag AND a piece of iron-on adhesive a hair-bit smaller. Iron these together following the directions on the package.

The next step I didn't photograph very well. You'll want to decorate the front of your tag now. I cut out some pieces of felt in the shape of hearts & sewed the green & yellow heart together. Then, I stitched them onto the front piece of fabric with a simple running stitch using orange thread.

Once that is done, you'll want to lay this piece aside & work on your back fabric piece. I took a piece of green felt to use as my back piece. Take a piece of your plain light-colored fabric, cut just a little bit smaller than the back fabric piece & stitch it on in a haphazard way to the felt.

Now you'll want to sandwich your front & back pieces together & iron them -once again following the directions that came with your iron-on adhesive. I laid a piece of fabric over my design before ironing so I wouldn't scorch or ruin the felt heart design.

Use your decorative scissors to trim the tag to desired size.

Now for the grommets! Once you learn how to use a grommet you're going to want to do this technique on EVERYTHING! Make a small hole at the top of your tag. There are two parts of the grommets: One part is just a flat disc--kinda shaped like a flattened donut---sometimes referred to as the "female" piece, & the other grommet has a part stickin' out--sometimes referred to as the "male" piece. Put the "male" part of the eyelet/grommet into the hole you just made, through the top of the fabric.

Turn the tag over & slide the donut shaped piece onto the part sticking up. (Rounded part up.)

The grommet kit also comes with a little heavy circular piece. Rest the front part of the grommet (the "male" piece) into the grooves of this heavy circular piece. Gosh, I hope this doesn't sound too confusing.


On a hard surface, position the grommet tool into the back of the hole...

...& hold it with one hand while hammering with the other.

This is what it looks like on the back.

This is what it looks like on the front. A nice tight squeeze!

In the blank area where the light-colored fabric was sewn, you can use a permanent marker, like a Sharpie, to enter your name, address & other info. OR, you can print out the same information on some transfer paper through your computer. Remember to print it backwards (mirror image).

Iron it on.

And you're done!!
I used some plastic cording stuff that I recycled from an older luggage tag---but you can also use those rubber/plastic bracelets that are really bendable & flexible that look exactly like my cording piece.

Give a personalized gift this holiday season! A set for a family would be super sweet! (You can leave them blank for everyone to fill out themselves if you want.)

You can also make this project without sewing. And you can decorate your luggage tag in a bajillion different ways. Have fun gettin' all creative-like! Rock on with yer crafty self!