Notebook & zipper pouch gift set

After the success of the Spring Felt Notebook Cover and the DIY Felt Zipper Pouch, of course I decided to make a new set. This one went to another of my daughter's friends who celebrated her 9th birthday last week.

 This time I used a smaller notebook (just because it was what I already had at home).

10-minutes DIY felt zipper pouch

A couple of weeks ago, when I shared the DIY Spring Felt Notebook, I promised a tutorial for the matching zippered pouch - well, here it is!

These zippered pouches seriously don't take more than 10 minutes to make - the beauty of working with felt is that you don't need to line the pouches and still can have pretty seams that won't fray.

Here's the how to.

DIY Spring tote bag - 2 ways

It's spring, so it's the perfect time of the year to sew a new tote bag. The one I'm showing you today was actually a custom request from the mother of a friend. She game me the measures she needed and her only additional request was to have a button to keep the bag closed. Other than that, I was free to sew it the way I wanted - just my kind of project!

As I needed to get it done over the weekend and my time to sew is always limited, I didn't make a tutorial specifically for this bag, but as it's actually a mix between my 20 minutes lined tote bag and the reversible bag with pocket, you should be able to replicate it by looking a those two tutorials.

The Happy House Keychain

Hello, and welcome. Today I'm here sharing a quick and fun project: the happy house keychain. Actually, this key chain was a sort of test drive for a new listing I wanted to add to my Etsy shop. You can find the actual listing here.

The "test drive" version didn't turn out exactly as I expected and because of it's imperfections it cannot be sold, so I'm saving it to add to a purse or to my daughter's backpack one of these days.

The keychain is made of felt and formed by two simple house shapes.

The hearts are hand stitched in place but the I used the sewing machine to sew all around the houses:

As you can see below, the stitching turned out a bit wonky, so I had to adjust a few things before making the sale-able version you can now find in Etsy.

The key ring is attached with a pink ribbon and secured in between the two layers of felt: 

I had a lot of fun making this happy house key chain. The one that I added to Etsy was made in a slightly darker shade of brown felt, and I'm thinking of adding more colors in the future. In the meantime, feel free to visit my Etsy shop and browse around!

Happy Wednesday!

DIY Spring Felt Notebook Cover

Hello, and welcome. Today I'm showing off a gift set I made for one of my daughter's friends. We couldn't attend her birthday party because we were out of town, but I still wanted to send a gift. And as I needed something that I could make on the go, I resorted to my themed notebook cover ideas - because you can never go wrong with those. And I used a spring theme, of course!

The only difference is that instead of actually printing pages and assembling a notebook, I used a store bought one I already had and just created the cover.

St. Patrick's heart brooches

Remember the St. Patrick's Scented Ornament I shared here a couple of day ago? Back them I told you I had made some heart brooches to go with it too.

They are totally different, one with a more classical look and the other glittery all the way, but in the end they kind of make a great pair.

St. Patrick's Day scented ornament

I made this for the only friend I have with Irish ancestors. Even though in Portugal St. Patrick's Day always falls a bit flat, she always like to celebrate in style.

This year I wanted to make her something different for St. Patrick's and I thought - why not an ornament? And then, while I was at it, I decided to add a scented sachet instead of just polyester filling, and so I turned it into a scented ornament.

Which kind of makes sense, because now she can hang it in her closet all year long instead of using and discarding it on just one day.

Scroll down to find out how I made it. 

DIY self-adjusting fabric bookmarks

When you love books and you love sewing, you can combine both and make these self-adjusting bookmarks. They are a great stash buster and because they are equipped with an elastic, they will easily fit books or notebooks of different sizes.

Find out how I make them below: 

DIY embellished candles set

I made this set as a birthday gift for a friend. It was a really easy and quick project - because homemade gifts don't have to be difficult or complicated. And they are always made with love. 

The embellished candles looked so pretty in the end that I may decide to make a couple for my home too - I rarely actually use candles, but I like having them as decor pieces. 

Scroll down to find out how I made these. 

Gift tags with felt hearts

Because today is Valentine's Day (happy Valentine's everyone!) I'm sharing here some Valentine's Day gift tags. I made them with red hearts, so yes, they are perfect for Valentine's, but these gift tags can also be used in a number of other occasions.

Embellished felt pouches

These two felt pouches are the result of two of my favorite things - creating something new and working with felt.

When I started out I had a square of plain gray felt. I cut it in half, folded each piece in order to create an envelope pouch, and then everything else unfolded.

 

DIY clip on pouch - the easy way

Hello, and welcome. Last week my son came home from school and proudly announced his maths teacher had told the class they could already use a calculator for some of the work they've been doing. So, we got him a small, simple calculator - green, of course, because it's his favorite color (luckily for me, it was actually the only color the store had when I stopped by...). The next step was to create a small pouch for the calculator, because the small solar panel wouldn't last that much mixed in with the pens and pencils in his pencil case (and also because mom loves making this kind of things...).

I let him go through my fabric stash and pick the fabric he wanted for the pouch, same with the button. And as an afterthought I decided to make the pouch a clip on, hoping it will be harder for it to get lost that way.

I didn't create a pattern for the pouch because size really depends on what you want to use it for, but there's a small tutorial below in case you want to make one of these pouches too.

Geometrical corner bookmarks - tutorial and pattern

Hello, and welcome. At the beginning of this new week I'm going to show you how to make corner bookmarks - the easy way, of course.

These bookmarks are very useful for book lovers (especially if they're like me and have more than one book going at the same time), but they also make a cute small gift. And if you need original party favors on the go, these are great too. 

And they are really, really easy to make. 

Felt coasters

Remember the handmade felt coasters I made a while ago? Those were a Christmas gift for my cousin and since then I made a few more batches, mostly for friends wanting coasters coordinating with the rest of a party decor - I made a few in two shades of pink for a baby shower, a couple in bold colors for a summer barbecue and others in shades of green and brown for a birthday party. And now I made these for my Etsy shop too!

Making these coasters is a time consuming process because the alignment of the cut out scalloped flower on the top part of the coaster has to be just right, otherwise they look wonky. But I love making them, and I always have a lot of fun trying new color combinations for the top and the bottom.

So... of course I decided to make more.

Valentine's Day gift tags with 3D hearts

Valentine's Day is coming exactly a month from now. This was never a date we celebrated that much at our house, and over the years, even when I decided I could do something for Valentine's, I always left things to the last minute and then ended up not having time.

But now the kids are older and they enjoy exchanging little Valentine's gifts at school so I braced myself and started early.

DIY Reusable Christmas Gift Bags

Every year I make at least a couple of reusable gift bags to store and transport Christmas gifts to our friends and extended family.

This year I was a bit late in getting these ready, but then I went back to my 20-minutes lined tote bag tutorial and I managed to sew two large bags fairy quickly.

DIY custom name banners

Hello, and welcome. Christmas is fast approaching, so I've been busy trying to finish a few homemade gifts ahead of time. This weekend I finally managed to complete two name banners that the recipients (three year old and nine year old girls, in this case) can hang in their rooms. 

Both the letters and the owls were cut using my Sizzix. To be honest, I could have used different themes, but I kind of liked the owl idea after I made the first banner, so I just changed the colors for the second one.

DIY Felt Lined Clutch

Although I desperately need to start working on Christmas gifts, first I had to make a gift for a friend's birthday. I wanted to make her a clutch, and decided to use a striped fabric in colors I knew she would like.

Then I just couldn't find in my stash a lining that matched, so I switched to felt instead. And loved the idea.

DIY Bunny Softies - with pattern

Hello, and welcome. Today I'm sharing two sweet bunny softies. I made them a couple of months ago as a gift for my cousin's baby girl and now I have finally finished drafting the pattern and putting together a tutorial.

They are really very easy to make. All you need is some cute fabric and a little bit of time, and you can create a lovely homemade gift. 

DIY Baptism Memories Box

Sometimes ideas come to us when you least expect. When were invited to attend the baptism of a sweet baby girl, as usual, I was left with the task of getting an appropriate gift. Now, we know there will be lots of guests attending, and I expect most people to lean towards more traditional baby gifts - and I wanted something different and original. 

So I remembered the fabric covered wooden box I made a while ago, and decided I could make something similar for the parents to save all the memories of baptism day.