Shabby Apple Giveaway WINNER!!

Thanks everyone for entering!

  We loved hearing all of your responses to Shabby Apple's dresses.

And the WINNER of the "Spanish Steps" dress is...

Nancy!

"I just found your website/blog and it is great! I was searching for Spring craft ideas and now I have a ton! I am a follower now and would love to win the Shabby Apple dress...it is lovely."

Congratulations Nancy!  Contact us right away, we didn't catch your email!
(craftysisters)

We need to hear from you by the end of the week so Shabby Apple can award you your prize!

If you missed your chance to win,
 Shabby Apple has offered a 10% discount to all of our readers!

Just enter craftysisters10off  at checkout!

Meanwhile......it is Spring Break here!
We have been working on a few projects to share with all of you
but it's going a bit slower with the kiddos home.
So while we head to the movies this afternoon
with all the cousins in tow-
we thought we would refresh you on a couple
of our favorite Easter projects from last year you might have missed!

 Jelly Bean Topiary


Egg Wreathes
1, 2, and 3

5 Days of Martha's Eggs
beaded eggs, cabbage dyed eggs, pop bottle daisy eggs, lady bug eggs, and jeweled eggs.

Egg Crates

We certainly were "resourceful" with the plastic egg last year! :)

Blossoms

I have been wanting to make faux spring blossom branches ever since I saw Susie Harris make some a few weeks ago. You take cheap blossoms and hot glue them onto real branches. Super cheap and easy!

It was time consuming, but I love the look of the real branches. 

The tree will be perfect to hang my Easter Eggs from. 

I found my flower bunches at Hobby Lobby for 50% off.

 I have a friend that made a blossom tree with me and she found her flowers at the dollar store.

The budding branches were perfect to glue each petal onto.

If you are looking for something a little easier, Martha has a great idea.

Martha Stewart Tissue Cherry Blossom Tree

A few years ago, when I was art (crazy!) mom for my son's first grade class, we made Martha's Stewart's Tissue Cherry Blossom Trees.  The trees in our area were in full bloom and so beautiful. I pruned an insane amount of branches off my fast growing (budding) tree, and lugged them into his class.  I pre-cut the pink tissue into squares so the kids could then glue the folded blossoms onto the branches.

Even though it was a lot of work, the project was fun for the kids and perfect for spring!

*There's still time to enter the Shabby Apple Giveaway!*

The dress is so pretty and would be perfect for spring! :)

Shabby Apple Giveaway!!

Have you heard of

Shabby Apple?

Well if you haven't, here's your chance!
Shabby Apple
 has offered to give away the beautiful dress "Spanish Steps"
 to one of our readers! 

"We decided to pair two things we love—the soft, cotton jersey of our favorite t-shirt, and the gorgeous sateen of the dresses of yesteryear—to create the Spanish Steps, an indispensably comfortable-yet-elegant summer frock. A luxe jersey cap sleeve top is gathered at the waist with a wide satin sash, and a veritable bouquet of appliquéd, ruched flowers and leaves adorns the full sateen skirt that swirls just below your knee. A truly inspired combination,the Spanish Steps has star potential."

Can you believe how cute the dress is?

We love the appliqued sateen skirt! It's a perfect addition to your spring wardrobe!

 Don't miss out on winning this beauty!

Here's how you enter:

(you must be a Crafty Sisters follower to enter and a US resident)

One entry when you leave us a comment.

Another entry when you

..."LIKE" shabby apple on facebook.

(come back here and leave another comment letting us know.)

Want to see more?

Head over to Shabby Apple to see more of their dresses.

Be sure to stop by and look at their little girls dresses, they are really cute!

Shabby Apple is giving our readers 10% off anything on their website until April 21st!

Just enter craftysisters10off at checkout.
(The giveaway will end in one week, March 28th.)

Good Luck!

Fabric is here!

The bed skirt fabric for the Master Bedroom Makeover arrived in the mail and I couldn't be happier.  Autumn sure has an eye for picking and coordinating fabrics. The fabric choices are Robert Allen Pontoise ( Mimosa), and Moda Maisonde Garance (Silky Stripe Brown). The room is going to be all in earth tones...lots of green, blues, and browns.

 Autumn has opened my eyes about purchasing fabric online.  It beats a stressful trip to the local fabric stores with my kids. They know when I'm about to enter a fabric or craft store, because the spazzing out immediately starts!  I was able to order all the fabric for the room while sitting in the comfort of my own home. Yes!

I was hesitant about purchasing fabric online because I couldn't see and feel the fabric. Thanks goodness I have total trust in Autumn's talent and  for only a dollar a swatch, most stores will send a sample in the mail.  Surprisingly, the shipping is pretty cheap. The shipping was free on one of my orders because I spent over thirty dollars.  You can't beat that!  An added bonus, the sites Autumn referred to me are mostly discounted.  She did try and keep all fabric around ten dollars and under-yes, she's catering to my "frugalness".

If you are interested, here are a few of the sites Autumn gave me for the fabric and trim-

Fabric Guru

Fabric.com

Trim Fabric.com

Beacon Fabric.com

And now it's off to the seamstress!

Oh crud...that's me.

Wish me luck!

:)

E-Design Services available by Autumn Clemons

Pinch Me!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Today I totally gave into my little girl

and all the cool Irish things she has been learning at school.

Hey, I'm not Irish so I was truly dependent

upon all the great ideas out on so many great blogs!

Not like I did a ton but hey if you are clueless like I am

make sure you bookmark these fun spots for next year....

Our day started with some top o' the morning fun

with Lucky Charms for breakfast!

Yup, I went alllllllll out!

(photo courtesy of Allrecipes.com)

Next I tried to make cabbage rolls, that's sorta Irish right?

I've never made them before but tasted one

way back in college and thought I'd give them a try.

I got a great recipe over at All Recipes.

Next was where I had fun,

cuz really what says St. Patrick's Day more than rainbows?

Amy over at The Idea Room

made the coolest rainbow cake for her daughter's birthday.

Candace made it for her son's birthday and

I couldn't resist, especially since the last few weeks

all my daughter has been drawing are Leprechaun's and rainbows.

Mine is a bit more pastel but let me tell ya, it was SaWeEEeeeT!

It was huge and so pretty

and when I cut it open and saw all the pretty colors it just made me happy!

My little girl was so excited putting it together and so was I.

Another great site to check out that I just found is

Holiday Snob

She has so many great holiday ideas that I'm already making my list for next year!

I have to admit, I loved today.

And hey, I didn't even get pinched!:)



Come Craft With Us!!!

We are so excited about our Online Craft Group

Wood You Like To Craft?

I think many of you might be hesitant to come and join or

even to see what this is about.

So today we are trying to not only Invite,

but to Entice and Encourage.

(those are some of our Mom's best advice tips, useful to just about any situation!)

So today we are INVITING you, yes YOU to come join us!

We are going to ENTICE you with a quick tutorial of our project

and each month there is a Prize for the top project!

and then ENCOURAGE you

to be inspired and show off all the crazy talent you have!

We enjoyed seeing what Melinda, Krystal and Wendy did
and how different each project was!

Pretty fun right?

So here's what we came up with!

We love bead board so we both started with a 15" x 15" square of heavy duty (1/4") board. 

Well, actually it was a little bit bigger until the squirrel got her little teeth on it so it was shrunk a bit.....

Home Depot is so great to make cuts for those of you too nervous to use a table saw.

We then took some metal roof flashing, cut it into a square

with metal snips, to fit the frame dimensions. 

Remember how we raved about those metal snips last year?

We couldn't find a frame size we wanted so we cut out some pretty trim work with the miter saw at 45 degree angles to make a square and then glued them directly to the board and inlaid the metal flashing.

Nicole used the fun tile font but a slightly different shape of what Melinda used, instead of trim work. 

Then attached the metal with spray painted upholstery tacks.

We liked the idea of the metal so that we could use magnets

to attach anything we wanted.

We are really into seasonal crafts and loved the idea of being able

to switch it out every month.

Nicole made up little shapes for each month

that she cut out of wood and covered with all her paper scraps,

attaching little magnets on the backs.

 

Candace made up some more 3-D pieces like this adorable bird nest

with it's "welcome spring" sign!

She covered her metal with scrapbook paper using glue dots on the corners

so that she could switch them out with fun papers throughout the different seasons.

Candace also then using 1" x 2" pine, framed out her bead board

using those 45 degree miter cuts again.

She then hung it from a beautiful oil rubbed bronze chain and knob.
The knob really dresses the whole thing up hanging by her front door.

Her fun butterfly magnets were a perfect touch!

So Please come join us!

We can't wait to see what you can do!

The linky party will be going strong until next Saturday night

for your Wood Crafts!

Wood You Like To Craft Over At Under My Umbrella!

Our project is up!

Go check it out over at Under My Umbrella!

Melinda is hosting this month.

We made two, for each of us....and they both turned out very different!

Here's a (very small) sneak peek of Nicole's plaque...to see more, go visit Melinda! :)

And for those of you that want to join in, the linky party starts FRIDAY!

For more info and the schedule please visit,

Wood You Like To Craft?

A Cork Map

I have to admit I was really nervous about this project....

I have a pretty fabulous SIL with really incredible taste!

I was really hesitant to even take this on

because I didn't want to destroy the great idea she had for this project.

Autumn probably thought I would never get it done.

There were moments I felt like I was the dad from A Christmas Story

chatting with his furnace.....

(Yup, I'm not perfect, lots of dagnabbits and darnits used.)

But it looks so pretty in her den she is remodeling.

Go over and check it out at

 Design Dump.

I blew up the pattern of the USA map that

Julie from Less-Than-Perfect Life of Bliss

was so kind to share on her blog.

Candace has used this great pattern for another project

so I knew it would be perfect.
I first cut the map out of MDF and
then using a topographical map to see the different

elevations, I cut each elevation out of cork,

layering them for a cool 3-D look.

Cork is not the easiest medium to work with for sure.

Phew, glad it's done!

Thanks Autumn for entrusting this with me,

I can't wait to see what you think up next!

Also on another note we've had lots of emails

from you wondering why Candace does all the posting.:)

We got a good chuckle out of this because seriously we do

just about everything together.

We talk on the phone at least 2-3 times a day.

We write each post together, giggling over the phone

on the correct way to say it....

Candace saved up all her boutique money, Christmas money, birthday money

to get her new camera which is pretty fantastic and makes me

want to toss mine in the garbage.

So of course she starts every post because
she does take all the great pictures.

I am totally flattered that anyone would even notice

and thanks, it makes me feel special! (insert blush, insert wink!)

Ryah Sofia Giveaway Winner!

Winner of the Ryah Sofia Jeanette Applique,

Comment # 10

Melayne Marchese said...

I love the multi-colors and how it could be worn with SO many different things.

We'll be contacting you soon! :)

Easter Baskets

Today Candace and I were busy working on our projects for

our new online craft group

Wood You Like To Craft!

We are so excited and we hope you guys are too!

We think it's going to be soooo much fun

to not only do together but to see the twists

that everyone will do to personalize their projects!

The crafting begins March 7th~~~that's Monday folks!!!

So I've been a little busy making Easter baskets this week.

I teach classes here locally, so I'm always looking for a fun

project to make that is usually seasonal.

Well I've always wanted to make a sturdy

basket that would last throughout the years for my little girl.

A couple of years ago I made some of these up for a client

who wanted to follow the tradition her Mom had created

with wooden baskets she had hand painted for each of her kids.

I love traditions like that, keepsakes to hand down.

Here's my egg basket I created.

I thought it turned out pretty fun!

I had originally started with the bunny here,

 I rubbed off the edges a bit and I totally loved it but I wanted a bit more color

even though the little cotton bunny tail just about had me....

I love modge podging paper onto stuff,

it makes everything seem so much brighter and fun!

Do you guys have "heirloom" baskets or other fun Easter traditions?

Master Bedroom Makeover

 Since we moved in seven years ago, this has been my Master/Nursery.

Over run with cribs, porta-cribs, diaper changing tables, and buckets of baby clothes.

The wall has been smeared with diaper ointment and had been decorated

with baby toys, burp clothes, binkies, and blankies.

Yeah, I cleared it out for photos. ;)

It's time for my hubby and I to reclaim our space,
which hasn't felt like it has ever been ours to begin with.

We are moving the last baby out and into a room of his own,
and we are ready to have a pretty room that we both enjoy being in.

To pull it all together, I have recruited some help. If I'm going to invest in such an important room,
I really want to do it right! Plus, if I have someone to help and motivate me, I'll probably get it done.:)
  Example, my son's room.  Yeah, still working on that one. 

I knew I wanted the best help I could find and there was no question who that was!

Autumn over at Design Dump is FAB-U-LOUS!

Did you know she is Nicole's Sister-In-Law?

 I remember meeting her about 15 years ago when Nicole was newly married. 

She took me over to Autumn's apartment and my jaw dropped! 

This was no ordinary student apartment. 

Well actually it was but Autumn had claimed her space with such style!

She had just finished sewing the most gorgeous velvet curtains 

that hung on her large living room window and was putting the finishing touches in the room. 

It was then that I became her #1 Fan......

(hee hee hee, I couldn't resist!)

Ever since then Nicole would always give me the latest on the current home
Autumn and her husband were building. 

She was so inspiring that when it came time to build our own homes in our family,  

or to choose paint colors or really to do any design style it was Autumn we went to consult with.

  To say the least....I am extremely excited to have her helping me!

We hope you all want to follow along with this mega adventure

 because I have requested that we have lots of fun DIY projects

since I have a limited budget (or should I say no budget).

 First up we'll have a couple of side tables and a headboard to tackle!
If you haven't yet, head over and take a look at her wonderful site!

Design Dump

Who's The FAVORITE Aunt Now?

I hope my boys know how much Aunt Nicole loves them!

 Take a look at what she makes for them each birthday.  Nicole cuts out of wood,

 their current favorite sports team. This year my son's favorite, the Philadelphia Eagles. 

This is no ordinary wood plaque.  She inlays the wood on the team logo.

Yeah, I'm pretty proud of her and so are my boys! :)

The Ryah Sofia giveaway is still going on! 

 Go take a peek and enter to win!