St. Patrick's Day Craftastic Link Party

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!  I'm a little behind getting the party going - I spent the entire day working on taxes and of course nothing else got done.  Come on and link up some great new projects so there's something much nicer to see than the receipts, spreadsheets and numbers I've been staring at for hours and hours!

Last week I shared the FREE download pattern for my Appliqué Cuddle Garden Rug:

~~~ GIVEAWAY GOODIES ~~~

There's still time to enter my giveaway for this LED Magnifier Lamp from Brightech.  
Click HERE to enter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now let's see the latest Craftastic Picks!

Virginia Sweet Pea created this fun boxwood clover wreath:

Winding Road Crochet made this sunny Easter egg crochet plush pattern:

Pillar Box Blues created these up cycled denim and fabric placemats:

Try It - Like It shared this cool how-to for making oil slick paper:

If you're one of this week's features, be sure to grab my Featured On button over on my Buttons Page to share the good news. 

 Want a Chance to 
Be Featured Next Week?  

Link back to the party somewhere on your blog.
I can't feature your post if you don't share the party.  
  

I also feature these projects on Sew Can Do's Craftastic Picks Pinterest board 

AND share each of them on Twitter too for even MORE exposure for YOUR blog!

Follow me there to see more great projects (and see if yours is one of them)!   

On Twitter: Follow @sewcandoblog

On Pinterest: Sew Can Do

Ready to link up your crafty creations?

 

Party rules are simple: 

• As long as it's crafty, and made by you, it's Craftastic (no links to shops, link parties or other people's work).  Add the link to your specific post. Product reviews, plagiarized or sponsored posts for random items will be immediately deleted.  
• Grab my party button & put it on your post, party page or blog somewhere.  If you want the chance to be featured, this is key.  The button code can be found HERE.
• Check out some of the other fabulous links and share some crafty comment love.  We all love getting comments!!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

FREE Pattern: Applique Cuddle Garden Rug

Spring is nearly here!  I'm getting ready for the upcoming sunshine, flowers and greenery, by starting some "blooms" inside with my DIY Appliqué Cuddle Garden Rug!

This sweet plush rug has lots of cheery flowers growing up from some ribbed minky fabric "soil". 

Like my Little Narwhal rug, this rug is made from a cuddly minky (aka cuddle) fabric on the outside.  The interior is upholstery foam to make it cushioned & supportive. 

All the appliqués are cozy, cuddly minky fabric too so the rug is heavenly underfoot.  It also makes a pretty wall hanging!

It has an envelope opening on the back so it's easy to remove and wash when needed, unlike most rugs.  

There's a little stuffing inside the flower centers and bluebird to give it a bit of extra dimension too:

I've made it easy for you to make too by creating some free download files for all the appliqués!

Materials:
- 1 1/2yds blue minky fabric for the main rug
- 1/2yd cut of green minky fabric 
- 1/4yd cut of brown minky fabric
- Minky fabric scraps in yellow, blue, pink
- 1yd 24 inch wide, 1 inch thick craft foam
- My Cuddle Garden Applique PDF Patterns
- High loft batting, handful of polyfil
- Fabric adhesive spray
- Walking foot, heavy duty needle, disappearing marker 

Download, print & cut out my Applique PDF Pattern pieces, at 100% (no scaling), HERE

                 

Here's how to put it together:

I cut my one inch thick foam to the final rug size: 36in wide by 24in high.   

I then cut the front & back pieces, with the nap going in the same direction.  

- Main front piece: 38in wide by 26.5in high 
- Back pieces: (1) 14in wide by 26.5in high + (1) 31in wide by 26.5in high.  

I folded the narrow & wide back pieces two inches toward the wrong side, used spray adhesive to hold them in place, then stitched them down.

I traced the various appliqué pieces on their corresponding color fabrics, using a disappearing marker on the wrong sides of the fabric, and cut them all out.  I also freehand cut out: 

- (2) flower stems 1.5in wide by 18in high
- (1) flower steam 1.5in wide by 16in high
- (2) pairs of tall curving leaves about 1.5in wide by 12 in high that end in a point

I centered my three flower stem appliqués along the main rug fabric and used fabric adhesive spray to attach my appliqué fabric on the wrong side so I could be sure to have the right placement & no shifting while sewing.  

Next, I topstitched the appliqués in place, starting with the flower stems, then adding the leaves to overlap them and finally the flower petals, centers and bird.  I left a one inch gap in the circular centers and bird to stuff them with some polyfil using a chopstick and stitched the gap closed.  A dot of puff paint creates a little eye for the bird.

The last appliqué piece added was the brown soil strip at the bottom so that it covered the bottom ends of the flower stems.

To finish the rug I laid the smaller end of the back face down over the front, pinned the matching 3 sides and stitched them together.  Then I placed the wider back piece on, lining up its top, bottom and side with the front's, pinned & stitched.  This created the envelope overlap of a few inches for the back opening:

I turned it right side out and stuffed in my foam piece:

This rug is the perfect addition to my daughter's room and has got us all set for spring to appear outside too!

Craftastic Monday Link Party

In less than a week it will be St. Patrick's Day and the first day of spring isn't far behind it.  Let's see all those festive & fun seasonal and holiday projects.

Last week I shared how I made some easy St. Patrick's Day Celebration Candles:

~~~ GIVEAWAY GOODIES ~~~

I kicked off a brand new giveaway for one of these fabulous LED Magnifier Lamps from Brightech.  
Click HERE to enter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now let's see the latest Craftastic Picks!

Tea Cottage Pretties did a beautiful makeover on this shabby chic coffee table:

eSheep Designs created these elegant Pride & Prejudice themed fingerless writing gloves:

Hobby e Creativita shared this handy faux leather key wallet tutorial:

Designed to the Nines showed how to this gorgeous designer knockoff damask Easter bunny plate:

The Organized Dream shared these decorative cute rustic DIY twine carrots:

Sum of Their Stories had this embroidered hexie needle book tutorial:

If you're one of this week's features, be sure to grab my Featured On button over on my Buttons Page to share the good news. 

 Want a Chance to 
Be Featured Next Week?  

Link back to the party somewhere on your blog.
I can't feature your post if you don't share the party.  
  

I also feature these projects on Sew Can Do's Craftastic Picks Pinterest board 

AND share each of them on Twitter too for even MORE exposure for YOUR blog!

Follow me there to see more great projects (and see if yours is one of them)!   

On Twitter: Follow @sewcandoblog

On Pinterest: Sew Can Do

Ready to link up your crafty creations?

 

Party rules are simple: 

• As long as it's crafty, and made by you, it's Craftastic (no links to shops, link parties or other people's work).  Add the link to your specific post. Product reviews, plagiarized or sponsored posts for random items will be immediately deleted.  
• Grab my party button & put it on your post, party page or blog somewhere.  If you want the chance to be featured, this is key.  The button code can be found HERE.
• Check out some of the other fabulous links and share some crafty comment love.  We all love getting comments!!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Brightech LED Magnifier Lamp Giveaway!

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you,
I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Last year I tried out an LED magnifier lamp to see if it was something helpful in the craft room.  The answer was a resounding HECK YES, how did I live without this thing!?!  

Today, I'm happy to be partnering with Brightech to give away one of these awesome lamps to a Sew Can Do reader!

What's so great about the Brightech LightView Flex LED lamp?  I've created a rundown of all the features:

✔️ Brightness: It kicks out some serious brightness even though it's pretty small.  I've literally used it all over my house - the craft room, the basement, dining room table, it works everywhere I need it.

✔️ Convertible: You can use it anywhere.  It's got a nice weighted base that makes it desktop ready, but you can easily swap that out and attach the included clamp option to clip it onto other surfaces like this:

✔️ Perfect magnification:  It gets 1.75x magnification so you can see the details, but not make you cross-eyed when you look up or when wearing regular glasses.  

✔️Bendable neck.  This is SO fantastic.  You can adjust it like crazy to get it exactly where you need a little more light or a closer view.  The base is also a handy place to put a pincushion or a hot drink without worrying about knocking it over:

✔️ Doesn't heat up: no accidental burns when you get to close (or when the kids are running around).

So what are you waiting for?  Here's a chance to win one of these fantastic Brightech LightView Flex LED lamp 
for your craft space:

Sew Can Do + Brightech Giveaway

Easy St. Patrick's Day Decorative Celebration Candles

Saint Patrick's Day is coming up and we wanted to create a fun decorative item for our house that was festive & functional.  What better project than some St. Patrick's Day Celebration Candles?!?

This quick & simple craft is inexpensive, but practical too.  It also makes a great project to do with a group of kids. 

This was easy to do and ends up being so much more useful that cheap paper & plastic decorations that will just get tossed out the next week.  Put them on a shelf, as a centerpiece or wherever you want to add a little Irish flair.  I used some themed embellishments from my shop that are just perfect for gluing onto things.


These candles still feature all the quintessential Irish holiday symbols like shamrocks and four leaf clovers:

Celtic crosses and knots:



And of course the reason for the holiday itself, Saint Patrick:

The pillar style makes a great devotional candle for those that love St. Patrick the rest of the year too:

☘️ Now let's get to the making!☘️ 

Materials:
- Pillar and votive candles (dollar store)
- Celtic Buttons (Erin Go Bragh set)
- St. Patrick glass dome cabochons
- Grosgrain or satin ribbon 
- Glue (I prefer E6000)
- Lighter 

Start by cleaning the glass of the candles with rubbing alcohol for best adhesion.

Cut a length of ribbon that will wrap around each candle with one inch of overlap.  Heat seal the cut ends with a lighter to prevent fraying:

Add small dabs of glue along each end and the center of the ribbon.

Apply ribbon to the center of each candle.




If using shank buttons like, my solid shamrocks, you can snip the shank off with a sharp pair of scissors, craft knife or pliers to get a nice flat back.

Add some glue to the backs of the buttons, cabochons and flat backs.

For the open shapes like these shamrocks, we use a toothpick to spread the glue:

We glued a Saint Patrick to the center of our pillar candle...

and  surrounded him with shamrock and Celtic cross flat backs:

For our votives we used some Celtic knots and shamrock buttons:

Allow glue to dry for 24hrs with candles on their sides to prevent slippage.  Enjoy your new Saint Patrick's Day Candles!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! ☘️