Easiest Way to Fancy Up a Shirt

Congrats ANNE, you're the giveaway winner! Please send us your mailing address.

And to anyone who's ever wanted to dress up a boring tee without having any skills or exerting any effort whatsoever, here's a solution. Go to a fabric or craft store (we love SAS in Tempe or Phoenix) and look at the fancypants old lady casino appliqués and find that one that speaks to you. Purchase it, hot glue it to a t-shirt, and boom. 

Mines looking a little ratty after several washes and a 9-month-old that likes sparkly things, but if you let it air dry, it should be no problem. Heck, you could even appliqué it on the way you're supposed to. 

Sorry for the boob shot. 

Valentine Giveaway

NOW CLOSED

Readers, we LOVE you- like, A LOT!!!  Valentine's Day is about a month away- and what better way to celebrate our love for you than a little DIY giveaway?

One follower of the Sisterhood of the Crafty Pants blog will win a diy valentine kit.

The kit includes:

12- 6" squares of adorable scrapbook paper (6 varieties)

6 different ribbons

8 white, scalloped cards

8 white envelopes

A handful of felt heart stickers

All followers of the blog are welcome to enter! Not a follower yet? Sign up on the side bar, and leave us a comment.

Extra entries:

• Post about the giveaway on Facebook
• Pin one of our Logos

• Pin a photo from one of our posts (some favorites here, here, here & here).
• Link our blog on your blog.
• Tweet about the blog.

For each entry, write a separate comment with a link to where you posted.
The winner will be chosen January 18th... just in time to make cards for all your valentines!

Remember- we love you!

Goodly Parents Poster

I really liked the talk "Becoming Goodly Parents" by L. Tom Perry since I'm new to the whole parenting thing and being bombarded with advice--some helpful, some not so much. His advice is some I actually want to follow, but knew I wouldn't remember it unless I had a visual reminder, so I put together this little poster (inspired by this design):

Feel free to download and print your own!

More colors HERE

Headboard

He's so annoyed with me!

This isn't really a tutorial- as I didn't document the process.  I DO hope it inspires you to tackle that headboard project that you have pinned, but are to scared to try.  Making a headboard can be easy and REALLY fun!  I decided to make a headboard over Christmas break...and it actually worked.  The best part is that I only spent $25.  So cool.

 The artist Kiki Smith was my inspiration:

I bought cheap muslin, batting, fabric dye, and embroidery thread.  First, I did a series of dip dying in different colors of rit dye.  My hands were stained and looked a little troll-ish because I didn't wear gloves.  I intended the fabric to be a quite a bit darker- like a deep black/purple, but I am pleasantly surprised with the lighter color. 

 I used my mom's gigantic embroidery hoop to stitch the stars (I did this while watching Anne of Green Gables with my sisters and mom- this is highly recommended).  I loved stitching the stars free-hand, it was exciting and interesting to see how each one developed.

Then I slapped the batting and fabric to a big piece of wood and stapled it to the back (with a staple gun- duh).  That is it.  Simple.  It is not a fancy headboard, but it is perfect for me!

Now, go make a headboard and send us a link so we can see it!

Cute Christmas Cookies (recipes and tutorial)

     

 I spent a day in my pajamas making these Christmas cookies, and I love how they turned out!  A while back, I tried making flow icing cookies and they looked o.k., but tasted not so great.  I used a different recipe this time , and they were delicious!  The flow icing technique is time consuming, but really fun!

 First, make the cookies using this recipe: http://www.kitchengifts.com/nofailsugarcookies.html

You don't need to refrigerate the dough for hours like it says, because you can use this cool trick...

 Roll out a circle of dough 1/4 in. thick between two sheets of wax paper and refrigerate for about 10-15 min.  Cut out cookies and bake.  I kept rotating new discs of dough to and from the fridge, and it went swimmingly.  This recipe is great because the cookies turn out smooth and flat for decorating.

Now the fun part!  I modified a recipe I found online to work a little better than the original.  Here it is...

Royal Icing

4 TBSP meringue powder

1 cup water (not quite filled to the top)

1 lb. powdered sugar

2 tsp. light corn syrup

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Combine meringue powder and water.  Sift in powdered sugar and mix until combined.  Add extract and corn syrup and mix on high for about 5 min.  It is ready when a stiff peak forms when lifting the beater out of the icing.  Color with gel food coloring if desired.  Put in squeeze bottle or pastry bag and use for outlining cookies.  The outline acts as a dam for the thinner icing you will use to "flood" the cookie. For filling in or flooding cookies, thin the icing with water a TBSP. at a time until it's the consistency of syrup.  A good test is to drizzle some from a spoon into the bowl of icing and it should  disappear in about 3 seconds.  Flood cookies and use a toothpick to help spread the icing. 

You can add decoration with another color of thinned flood icing.  If you decorate while the base color is still wet, you will get a smooth, flat finish like these.  If you prefer raised pattern, wait a few hours for the base to dry, then apply the details with the second color.  

Let the iced cookies dry overnight, or for several hours.  Once dry, they can be stacked without messing up the design.  This makes them easy to transport to parties, etc.  

Now EAT one or some because they are sooooooooooooooooooo yummy!

Shopping Tip

Just thought I'd share this fun little shopping tip I saw on a friend's blog since I can totally picture all of us doing this.  She says:

JCP's Christmas Buttons. Here's what you do: Go to every JCP cash register possible and ask for Christmas buttons. It's basically as awesome as trick-or-treating because at each register they give you 2 to a handful of adorable Christmas pins with a code on the back where you go online to enter for a chance win gift cards and other prizes. You can enter 2 per person a day and it's kind of fun and addicting because we've already won $70 dollars in gift cards in just two days!

I will say that I tried this and found that people here in California are far more stingy--no handfuls for me. But so far I've got $15 so it's worth a shot (plus now I have a bunch of cute pins that I don't know what to do with)! Also try to go at a time that's not very busy, because it's pretty awkward to stand in a line of people making actual purchases just to ask for some free buttons. Let me know how it goes!

Easiest Skirt EVER

One time I found this awkward-fitting, stretchy dress at a thrift store.

Then I chopped off the top 4 inches and had a new skirt.

Then I remembered that tight, horizontal stripes are not for the pear-shaped (hence the long sweater). But for those of you narrow-hipped ladies who probably have not yet given birth, go for it! 

P.s. If you don't happen to have a stretchy dress lying around, you could easily make this by tracing a pencil skirt you already have onto 2 layers of stretchy fabric and sewing up the sides.