Make It Easy - pillowcase dress

Maggy is the 4th contributor in our Make It Easy series and she is going to share with you her Pillow Case Dress for beginners: She has a detailed step by step guide and added lots of photos to help you. You are simply cutting out a basic shape dress and hemming it! She has also included a basic pattern. The pillow case dress is VERY forgiving and this is a great project for the beginner or novice sewer.

Maggy Woodley is a Mum of Two living in the UK. She launched her craft blog Red Ted Art in order to share her craft ideas for both children and adults – hoping to inspire others to “have a go” and “have fun” with their children or to discover new crafts and ideas for themselves. Crafting is something for all age groups and everyone can have a go! Her weekly How To s are aimed to be “easy to follow” and inspirational for both adults and teens, whilst her kids craft aim to please toddlers – 10yrs olds!

When Maggy joined our team of bloggers for this collaborative series, we got seriously lucky. She is a lovely lady with an incredible blog of her own, but she also, almost single handedly, took on the creation of our ebook (which will be available at the end of this series). Having already made ebooks in the past (click here to see her fantastic paper roll craft book) we virtually had a real professional in our ranks and it shows. Our ebook is looking amazing and I am so grateful to her for all the time and energy she has spent on this. I wish we lived in the same country so that I could take her out for a well-deserved glass of wine. Thank you Maggy ~ I couldn't have done this without you.

Make It Easy - paper banner

Today Lisa will publish the 3rd tutorial in our Make It Easy blog series. Hop over to her blog and she will have an easy-to-follow guide on how to create a Happy Birthday banner using scrapbook paper, ribbon and an ink pad. She created this because of her love for the shabby chic style and wanted to find a way to incorporate this into her love of bunting.

Lisa has been hugely instrumental in helping me get this blog series up and running and I'd like to say a big thank you to her for always managing to steer me in the right direction throughout the planning of this project. Thank you Lisa!!

"Hollybobbs is a blog originally inspired by my five month old daughter, and the trials and tribulations being a first time parent brings. Since I started the blog in March 2011 it has grown into a fascinating hobby for me and I now often feature interviews with great crafters, easy-to-follow tutorials as well as blogging on day-to-day life of a stay-at-home mum!"

Lisette Market skirt and Blouse

When I read that Liesl, the lady who makes the gorgeous Oliver + S patterns for children has made patterns for women for Simplicity, I rushed immediately to Joanns and managed to get my hands on 3 of the 4 published patterns.

I was excited to start sewing this set and I chose to use the Lisette fabric from Joanns. I must admit I felt a little unimaginative buying the fabric that was made for these patterns but I have to say I am glad I did. I especially love the Spiral Gold Flower print I used for the blouse and it is a great quality poplin.

I made the blouse first. The instructions were simple and straight forward with some nice little tips and explanations that would be useful for beginners. I am tall (5 ft 10) and so I ended up having to add a band along the bottom to make the blouse longer as I knew I’d be unlikely to wear it tucked in, like the model on the cover of the packet. Probably the tunic length would have been good for me to start with, so I shall remember that for next time. I also brought the sides in by several inches on each side because I like a more fitted look. I made it just small enough that I can still comfortably pull it on over my head.

The skirt was also straightforward. I used the Lisette Blue Chambray. I liked the use of the twill tape around the waistline though I wish I’d put it an invisible zipper and not a regular zipper like the pattern calls for.

All in all, I really love the blouse and will make more of these as it looks nice with jeans, skirts AND shorts. Honestly the skirt isn’t my favorite but I will wear it for sure. I prefer skirts that are a bit more billowy rather than straight, but I purchased the pattern based on my enthusiasm for the blouse rather than the skirt anyway.

(Special thanks to my 7 year old for taking the photos for me. He was about as enthusiastic as his dad is to take photos of me wearing the clothes I make and some of the 'out takes' were pretty funny).

DIY sun prints

It's summer, the sun is finally here and school is long gone, which means that the kids and I have time to make things like these sun print books. You just need a few sheets of construction paper, some objects to take prints of, and a bit of sun.

Tape the paper down (to stop it blowing away and shifting. If it moves, you'll get a blurry image). Place objects on top of the construction paper. Whilst my 7 yr old chose whatever interesting objects he wanted, I encouraged my 4 yr old to hunt out different shapes around the house such as circle, square, semi-circle and well, dinosaur...) We left ours outside for one sunny afternoon. It doesn't take long for the sun to fade the exposed parts of the construction paper, leaving a block of color where the object once was.

We made ours into little books and I used the opportunity to make it into a little writing activity for my 4 yr old because she finds that fun right now.

With a bit of planning and preparation, this technique could be used to make some cool framed artwork for the walls.

Make It Easy - watercolor birds

Carla Sonheim is a painter, illustrator, and creativity workshop instructor known for her fun and innovative projects and techniques designed to help adult students recover a more spontaneous, playful approach to creating. She is the author of Drawing Lab for Mixed Media Artists: 52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun and creator of "The Art of Silliness," a popular online drawing course. She lives in Seattle, where she shares space with her photographer husband, a game-playing teenager, and her blog.

Feeling intimidated? Carla will give you the confidence to create a masterpiece in four easy steps! All you need is some paper, a set of watercolors, and a pencil. What are you waiting for? Head on over to her blog right now and learn something new!

Make It Easy - paper quilling

Today the first Make It Easy tutorial will be posted to Honey's blog and before you head over to learn how to make beautiful gift tags using this special technique, please read about Honey and what inspires her.

"I grew up out in the country in Wisconsin as the second oldest of 7 children. With not much money we often had to fall upon our creativity to create things such as Barbie cars (seatbelts included), doll clothing, etc. I learned crochet from my grandmother when I was 9 years old and that is still one of my favorite crafts. Paper quilling, however, is my top favorite. I learned from a library book when I was 10 years old and haven't stopped since! My current favorite is to create jewelry out of paper quilling. I love the creativity involved, and cannot stop thinking of new ideas for designs! I currently live in Malaysia with my husband and four year old daughter. I enjoy instilling the joy of creativity in her with many art projects. She even joins me in paper quilling with her little box of "mistake pieces" and her own stash of strips of paper".

When I read that Honey learned crochet from her grandmother it made me think about my own grandmothers (now deceased) and what I skills I learned from them. Although I didn't learn crafting from them, one of my grandmothers was a fantastic storyteller and I try to engage others with my storytelling as she did (that she was prone to over exaggeration made her stories all the better). My other grandmother made a fantastic cup of tea (which is important to we English) and she used to make up her own special blend. I think of her every time I settle down to a calming, refreshing brew, though mine do not taste as good as hers. Maybe one day....

If you have fond memories of something you learned from your grandparents, please share. I'd love to read your stories.