Finding Pins and Needles

If you missed it, click here for Part I Succulent Garden Gifts See my tutorial here  to create the garden. The glass vases came from the Dollar Store and the adorable chalkboard buckets came from my house....they were left there and hidden in a cabinet by the previous owner. So thanks to her! Please comment below if you know where to find these! My first attempt at a cupcake. There is room for improvement! The puggy is my favorite. Who doesn't love the face of a  pug ?? His friend is a Cardigan Welsh Corgi. No surprise, this gift is going to someone with both types of dogs... and if you're reading this, you know who you are... forget you ever saw it! It's a surprise! This  stop sign  is perfect for bus drivers or crossing guards! Here is a  free stop sign printable card  from another bus driver gift of mine. Teacher Gifts The following gardens in the red buckets with chalk boards are teachers gifts. The apples and crayon and I ...

Today's post very much falls under the category of "other crafty things." I've never touched clay a day in my life until this project. I have been increasingly enjoying working with fondant on my cakes and was curious to see how this measured up. Clay is AWESOME! Sorry to my Pinterest  followers, I've been bombarding them with clay pins ! My first application with clay are these mini clay garden figurines. For Christmas I'm giving a slew of people succulent gardens , and I wanted to make them personalized, so I ventured into clay. It is simple enough that I can show you how I did it! I'm a novice, so by all means, take my advice with a grain of salt! Tools and Supplies    Sculpey Polymer Clay Polyform Sculpey Glaze Acrylic Paints Greening Pins Paint Brushes Oven or Toaster Oven Fine Sand Paper Pottery Tools  & I also used Duff Fondant Tools, similar to  Wilton's  (optional but highly recommended) Smooth Foam  (optional) Paint Tray ...

Have a wooden palette lying around? I've been seeing succulent gardens everywhere and I love the succulents outside in my yard, so it was time to bring the outside in. It is super easy to propagate most succulents. I have ground cover outside my house and if a piece gets broken off, it will root anywhere it lands. I was ordering succulents to make gifts and knew I'd have extra, so lucky hubby, I came up with a project. Our project dimensions were 7 "wide x 20" long x 3" high. This was purely based on our table size. Make sure there is plenty of room for plates and drinks, so you won't have to move your planter if you don't want to. Hubby constructed the box for me. He took the palette and pried off the boards, which happened to be roughly 3" wide. He used nails to assemble it (to give it a more rustic look) and calked the inside seams to keep the box from leaking. Once I got my hands on it, I sealed the inside using Plasti-Dip . Hubby picked ...

Because you asked for it... here is the FREE vest pattern & tutorial from my Sew Cool for School post. Click here or on the image below to download the PDF. And a thanks to  CraftGossip.com  for showcasing this post! Please join our flick r group and upload pictures of your preppy girl vest or any other Finding Pins and Needles projects. I'd love to see them! For info on the other clothes pictured, visit my  Sew Cool for School  post.

I have a niece turning one and every little girl needs a dolly. I found the  "Jean"  pattern at  Bit of Whimsy Dolls  and fell in love. The pattern has simple directions and she's a super sweet doll. I found the pink flower fabric, "Flight of Fancy" at  Joann's .  It has the perfect scale for doll clothes.  

It's Time to Come Clean... here's my dirty clean little secret.... I've deviated from sewing and made Body Scrub and Body Wash. Get it? Come clean? Oh boy, I'm losing it. It's a perfect time to whipped up these bad boys as Mother's Day gifts, teacher's gifts, or even bachelorette gifts. They aren't my recipes, the Body Scrub recipe is from  PaulaDeen.com . And the Body Wash recipe is from  LiveStrong.com . You can visit those sites for full instructions.  But I thought I'd share with everyone the labels I designed, feel free to use. Plus bonus gift tags! Click for pdf. For personal use only, do not redistribute. If you use them and share pictures, please give credit back to FindingPinsAndNeedles.com. Thanks and enjoy! The labels fit on regular mouth half pint Ball jars . I laminated  the labels since they will be in wet areas. When you cut them out from the lamination sheet, leave a 1/4" edge and it should stay wat...

The embroidered Christmas pillow, a gift for my mom. Click to see a larger version. From the moment I pinned   this , I knew I wanted to embroider it! Pin It

I was in need of small handmade gifts to give my kid's bus drivers. I figured I'd make hand warmers and dress them up with a novelty bag. SEW SIMPLE! Credit , but I've added my own twist. Materials & Tools Flannel (2) 3.5in x 7in Scrap flannel and felt Muslin or other solid fabric for bag 11in x 7.5in White rice Essential oils (I used cinnamon vanilla), you can find this by the candles in Walmart Brown paper bag (optional) Thread Fabric glue Sewing machine Scissors Bowl Spoon or popscile stick Small funnel (optional but really nice) Hand Warmers  Cut the fabric for the hand warmers from a soft flannel. Take your 3.5in x 7in piece and fold it in half creating a 3.5in x 3.5 in square. Pin front sides together and top stitch all around the edge, leaving a small opening. Turn your square right side out. Do this again for the second bag. Take your rice and mix in a bowl with a few drops of your chosen essential oil. You'll want to use ...

I got this idea from this site , a knock off of a Pottery Barn pillow . I wanted to change a few things, so I created my own tutorial. I wasn't so keen on the idea of gluing the pieces on (my kids would pluck those suckers off in no time), nor using buttons for the berries. So here's my version... Materials & Tools: 2 cuts of fabric (back and front) for your pillow (I used tan for the front and a red stripe on back) stuffing thin cardboard or card stock for leaf template green felt (varying green colors optional) an 8x10 sheet is sufficient red pom pom fringe (I used 3/4) a circle template (I used an embroidery hoop, a plate or bowl will work also) green and red thread sewing machine scissors pins pen (preferable disappearing ink or water soluble pen ) Freehand a simple leaf for a template. I drew it on thin cardboard. Using a disappearing ink pen, I traced leaves on my green felt. I would also recommend using varying colo...