Boni, my first Lens Scrunchie

My photographer friend (who by the way takes great photos, visit her blog: http://www.artsybelleimages.com/) asked me to do a Lady Bug Lens Scrunchies. I told her I had been wanting to do one too. I wanted something to help my baby focus to the camera. She also wants it for her kids clients, as she find it difficult for getting little kids to look at the camera. Sometimes she becomes a clown just to catch their attention, hehehe.

I have been searching about how to do one and I found these tutorial blogs:

http://threeyearsofdeath.blogspot.com/2011/11/birdie-lens-scrunchie.html

http://livelaughrowe.blogspot.com/2011/08/lens-bling-tutorial-do-it-yourself.html

http://mimiandtheboy.blogspot.com/2011/10/tutorial-tuesday_18.html

And I also found some inspiration in these sites (they are really good at these!):

Lens Friends

Happy Acres Farm

Shutter Buddies

Creative Creatures

Mandeefranee

Camera Creatures

So here's my own version and I will be trying this on our Family Portraits this holiday. I hope this would work, hehehe.

Meet BONI, the ibon (Tagalog term for Bird)....

 

And yes, my next Lens Scrunchies would be a Lady Bug for my friend.

Christmas Stockings

It's December , It's this time of the year again...Christmas time.

Oh how I love Christmas time!

- beautiful decors, bright lights, Christmas jingles, gift giving, yummy food, reunion and merry making -

What warms my heart every Christmas time is I see that everybody is so happy, kids and kids alike too, hehehe.  When we were still young, it was even more fun. Aside from the fact that what we all do during the holidays was just play, eat and open gifts, we do have some traditions that we do believe & practiced, even until we were almost in high school.  We believe in Santa Claus! And if we will be good boys and girls , we will receive the gift we are wishing for.

We hang our our normal socks in our balcony every Christmas eve. Then in the Christmas morning, we rushed to our socks and delighted to see our candy filled socks and underneath it is our gift from Santa Claus. What such joy that fills our hearts every Christmas morning.

How does Santa Clause knows what are we wishing for? Well, We write to him, hehehe. We tell him what we have been doing and what we want for Christmas.  

Sadly, it all ended (the hanging of the socks)  when we figured out it was not Santa Claus who was giving us gifts. It was our Papa, Mama and Aunties. How did we figure it out? We did not peek, hehehe. We just found one of our letters to Santa Claus, which they forgot to keep.

But it did not break our hearts and it did not stop us in believing that there is Santa Claus. It even made us realize that Santa Claus is within each of us. It is when we SHARE THE JOY to everyone we love during this season as we celebrate  the Birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

So when we had our first baby in the family, I made a special stocking for him to hang (not his socks, hehehe) and continue on with the tradition, and this time it will be us who will pretend to be Santa. 

I also made stockings for my friends's kids and the last I did was for my Zee, a very special Santa Stocking.

I got my pattern from McCall's. Step by step instructions is also include in the file. You just have to sign up for their e-newsletter, to download all their free patterns. Visit McCall's site HERE.

Why not make one for your kid too. You still have time.

Credit:
For Paper and Elements - Holiday Mini Kit Freebie
by: Simply Scraps by Laura Banasiak

Happy Holiday Sewing!!!

Shirt Applique: How I do it?

I love Appliques!

I have been sewing appliqued shirts for kids to give as gifts because I always wanted to give something  with a personal touch. I have read lots of tutorials in the net, but my resources are limited (e.g. haven't found  Heat and Bond or Freezer paper in any stores I have visited in Cebu -- these are used to bond the applique to the shirt, so it's easy for you to sew), so I did it the traditional way (no bonding). I just have to be careful during the stitching process, stop and adjust once in a while.

So here's my first ever tutorial (and hopefully not the last, hehehe!) --- Shirt Applique : How I do it?

01. Prepare the pattern for your applique using any sheet of paper or board.

02. Trace the applique at the wrong side of your fabric. Pattern should also be facing on the wrong side.

03. Prepare the coordinating embroidery threads.

Prepare the interfacing -- the thicker the better. This will prevent your shirt from moving and  stretching during the sewing process. Size it according to the applique.

04. Under the shirt, put a card board or anything that is stiff. This will help in aligning the applique to the shirt.

05. & 06. Put the interfacing under the shirt, making sure the applique and the interfacing is aligned.

07. Pin it.

08. Set the sewing machine. In my case: Stitch Length - 5 (longest); Stitch Width -  F (almost the nearest) and  Stitch type - 3 (zigzag stitch)

09. Position the needle on the outer edge of the applique, put down the presser foot and sew.

10.  Sew. Stop, raise the presser foot and adjust the shirt, when changing directions or sewing in a curve path.

11. After sewing, turn inside out and cut out the interfacing at the back of the shirt.

12. This is how it looks like when done with the cutting. 

 - Done -

Happy Sewing!!!