Blog Swapping with Ready Set Create!

I am so excited to be blog swapping with Aleesha from Ready Set Create today! Please make her feel at home. She has really cute projects on her blog that you should check out. Thanks Aleesha for swapping today!


 Hi there Night Owl Crafters!
I'm such a fan of Leslie and all her fun ideas!  I'm super excited to be swapping blogs with her today!

I'm Aleesha and I'm the blogger behind
Ready Set Create!


I love craftin and all things creative!  Blogging about it is a great way to get feedback about my projects and spare the Hubby from having to listen to all the girly details. :)  Thank goodness for all of you that I can share my love of crafting with!

Here is my first craft of this beautiful Fall season.
Cute, festive, stuffed pumpkins!

Cute right?!  I whipped up two of these babies during an episode of What Not To Wear.

Want to make some of your own?  Here we go!

Start with whatever fabric you're going to use.  Make the width twice as long as as the height.

I made mine 11 inches by 22 inches. 

Next we're gonna ruffle the top and the bottom (the two long sides.)

On the sewing machine use the longest stitches and the highest tension.  Start sewing without pulling the fabric tight and the machine should do the ruffling  for you.  

(if it doesn't then just pull on one of the strings when you're done sewing to make it ruffle up.)

What we're going to do next is sew the two shorter sides together (11 inch sides) right sides together.

Now you'll have a tube with a ruffly top and bottom.  

Gather the bottom together and hand stitch it closed.

Next fill it full of stuffing. . .

Then gather the top and stitch it closed.

This is what it looks like at this point. . . a big round lumpy {almost} pumpkin.

The next step is whats gonna give it that pumpkiny look.

I just used some regular thread and a long needle. . . start at the bottom, and bring your needle up through the middle and then down around to the bottom and up through the middle again as many times as you want - I did it 5 times.
(does that all make sense???)

Now for the stem.  Super easy.
Cut two stem shaped pieces.  They don't have to be perfect. . . what stem is perfect???

Sew them right sides together, flip right sides out and stuff.  Now sew the bottom closed.  It doesn't matter what it looks like, the bottom wont show.

Last step, pull out the hot glue gun and glue on the stem and if you want to a couple fake leaves.
And Voila!  There you have your cute stuffed pumpkin!

Now all you have to decide where to put them!
On the kitchen table. . .

Maybe on the entryway table?

No matter where you put them they will look fab and make a great fall decoration!

Come stop by my blog and see if you find anything you like!
Thanks again Leslie for having me today, and thanks for sharing all your wonderful readers!

Blog Swapping with Mommas kinda crafty!

Today I am so honored to be swapping with Joy from Mommas kinda crafty! She always has the cutest posts and ideas. Get ready to be inspired!


I am so excited to be Blog Swapping with Leslie today! Leslie is truly one of my blogging heroes!  She is super talented and I love her cute blog. 

I am Joy from Mommaskindacrafty! 

I love all things crafty! 

I love things that are quick and easy in the kitchen, like these yummy

Chocolate Waffles

Or my Yummy Creamy Crock Pot Chicken

 I also LOVE Mod Podge!

Here is a Color Matching game I made for Mister C

And an Altered Clipboard for a  teacher Gift

I Love to Sew and Craft, especially for my Princess!


 Little Legging from socks!

Bandanna Skirt

TuTu Bow Holder

Here is my latest project.  I just finished these as birthday presents for 2 sweet little girls that are soon to be my nieces.   Not quite as Fancy as the Tutu Bow holder I made for my daughter, but while I was making them, she kept telling me she wanted one like this.  Here's how I did it.

Simple Monogram Bow Holder

 Supply List:

Unfinished wood letter

Paint and brush
Clear Acrylic Sealer

1 12/" gossgrain ribbon

staple gun
 Flowers or other embelllishments
Glue gun

Sand your letters so there aren't any rough edges.  Then paint.  I gave mine 3 coats then decided to add some polka dots.  I did that with the end of a small paintbrush.

Let Dry, then spray with a Clear acrylic sealer

Then I measured 2 pieces of 1 12/" ribbon for each letter, 18" long.  I heat sealed the ends and stapled them in place.



 Added a little flower and button for embellishment and another ribbon for hanging.




I borrowed some of my daughters bows for the picture, but plan to make each of them  a few of their own.  Simple, easy, and I love how well the hair clips stay on the ribbon!

I would love to have you all pop over to visit ME!  I  have a Crafty link up every Friday and Saturday.   So please come join the fun.  Hope to see you all soon!

And a HUGE THANK YOU to Leslie for swapping with me!

Blog swap with Scrap N Strings!

I am so excited to be blog swapping with Scraps N Strings! Ruth and Sammy are amazing! Please visit their blog and show them some LOVE!

Hello to Night Owl Crafting readers! This is Ruth and Sammy from Scraps N' Strings and we are so excited to be doing our blog swap with Leslie! We figure we had better introduce ourselves a bit before we start.

I'm Ruth and I am a stay at home mommy of 2 (3 and 1) and a part-time photographer, you can see my work here. I enjoy making "stuff" and taking pictures of them! I especially love to sew and like to break out the Modge Podge. I love anything that is quick and simple! After I got married, I started crafting with my sister-in-law Sammy as a way to make our homes cute without spending a lot of money.

My name is Sammy and I have 2 darling little boys, 2 1/2 and 1 year. I'm a stay at home mom and I like to spend my zero amount of free time trying to be crafty and beautifying my home. One of the first things my husband said to me when we bought our home was, "You want to put crafts up, don't you?" So that's what I've done. And now we've decided to share some of our ideas with you! We've got a little bit of everything on our blog, from baby and home tutorials to recipes!

So on to the tutorial...

My oldest boy, Finn, loves lions. Well he's obsessed with lions, really. If he sees a lion and he can't have it then he gets so depressed that he will sit in front of the TV watching soap operas and finish off an entire quart of double fudge cookie dough ice cream and, wait, that's someone else that I'm thinking of. Anyway, he really loves lions. The other day he had an encounter with a lion that he couldn't have and after I bribed had a clear discussion with him about how a snow cone is so much better than crying, I told him that I would make him his own lion, so I did. My inspiration came from the lion that I put on my magnetic busy boards.

To start I bought a yard of lion colored fleece. Ok that wasn't the actual name of it, but it should have been. I used a large sized Tupperware bowl to trace and cut out 2 circles from the fleece. You can really use any size you want.

I then cut out shapes of the pieces for the face from felt and ironed on some Heat n Bond.

I placed them how I wanted them on one of the fleece circles and then ironed them on.

I then used my sewing machine and did a zig-zag stitch around each piece on the face to make sure they held down tight, and because it looked so much dang-cuter that way. (Is dang-cuter a word?)

I then took the second circle and sewed it around the edge to the first, right sides together, leaving the neck space open.

And flipped it right side out.

For the body I used a smaller bowl, traced most of the way around it and then at the top of the circle I drew two lines going up. (Look at the pic below, you'll understand.) Cut this piece out of 2 layers of fleece and sew around the edges, right sides together, leaving the neck open. Flip right-side out.

Now sew the front of the body and the front of the head together at the opening, making sure the seam goes into the inside.

Stuff him full of Fiber Fill and hand sew the back of the neck closed.

Now for the hair. If you have ever tied a quilt, that is basically how I did the hair. If you haven't, here's how.

Take your needle and yarn and poke it in and then out of the fleece in a small spot.

On your first make sure you leave about 3 inches of yarn sticking out the end. If you're on to the next piece make a loop 3 inches on each side.

Then take your needle and go back through the same holes that you did the first time and pull all of the way through creating a knot. Start the next piece right where you ended the last one.

I left all of the loops until I was done and then cut each loop right at the top to make the hair.

I did 2 rows of hair to give it some thickness.

Next step is to cut 2 ear shapes out of some felt. Cut a tiny slit in the middle of the bottom. This will make the ears curve forward when sewn on.

Hand stitch onto the head between the two rows of hair. Cross the slit over itself and sew it down like that.

And once the 2 ears are on your lion is done!

I added a little scrap bow tie (it's basically just a knot) to hide the seam around the neck.

And then go hide him in the bushes for your little lamb to come find, cuz that's how lions roll.

And he will love him, and possibly name him Phil, like my little guy did :D

Make sure to check out our blog for a ton more fun projects including baby gifts...

and more...

 You won't be disappointed!

Thanks again Leslie for letting us visit! We had a blast!

Thanks girls for taking over my blog today! Also thanks for the sweet tutorial! You two are so cute and have a FABULOUS blog!