Knifty Knitter Hat

     Last year I got a couple of Knifty Knitter loom kits (round looms and long looms) and quickly learned how to knit scarves and even tried my hand at a hat. Not bad for a brand new knitter!  But then the weather started to warm and the looms went into a drawer.  

     Well, it's a year later and I haven't touched the looms . . . until today! I made the mistake of watching a YouTube video with Jinger from Provocraft showing how to make cute little flowers with the flower loom  . . . anyway, my immediate reaction was "I must have that". So off to walmart I went and wouldn't you know, they were out. :( BUT they did have the Jumbo Spool knitter which has one side that is just a little smaller than the flower loom, so why wouldn't that work, right? 

     So while relaxing watching TV last night I decided to see what I could make with it.  First I made a cute little flower and then decided to try the other end that makes a tube which you can make into a flower.  I put the two bits together and this is what I ended up with.  Pretty nice for my first attempt, don't ya' think?

     The flower in the center is the flower from the big end.  The big flower on the bottom is from the little end (kinda backwards isn't it!)  Pretty cute huh!

     So here I was looking at this super cute flower and I'm thinking of all the awesome stuff I can make with it/them . . . hair clips, headbands, pins, etc...

     That's when it hit me.  I need to knit a hat and put this flower on it.  I have just the person for the hat.  yet again, my creative projects are for someone I work with.  A co-workers wife is battling breast cancer and has been getting chemo, so she has no hair (or minimal hair) right now.  With it being winter I figure her head must be getting cold, so she needs a super cute hat, right?! 

     So I decided to dig out my round Knifty Knitter looms and whip up a hat.  I used the Green loom which is for a large (adult size) hat.  I knitted away until I was happy with the length (about 7-8 inches).  Looking back I think I should have gone another few rows -but this will work just fine.  I decided not to add a brim, because I kinda like the rolled up bottom that naturally happens without a brim. 

 

     Here's a look at the hat.  It probably took me about 1-1 1/2 hours to make.  Even though the loom may seem bigger than your head (or bigger than you think it should be) the yarn shrinks a bit as you can see in the picture below.    

Then I decided to take that super cute flower I made and attach it to the hat.

     Of course I needed to make sure the hat would fit, so this is what it looks like on me (except I cut out my ugly mug, so that you could actually see the hat)!  :)

What do you think?  Not too bad is it?  I think I might have to make one for myself now. :)  But first I want to make a cute headband to cover my ears when I go out walking . . . or maybe I just need a cute hat like this to go walking in. :)  

Candy Bar Bouquet

I have seen and been wanting to make a Candy Bar Bouquet.  And a co-worker is having a birthday this week so I thought I might make her one, but then I realized that some stores (like Winn-Dixie) already make them and have them ready to buy . . . so I stopped by my local W/D and checked them out.  WHAT!?  The price is $29.99!!  Well sure it's nice, and sure it's already made, but come on!  I can make that for less!

 Plus the ladies at work (and I) have an agreement that our budget for birthday's is $10 so there is no way I could get a $30 candy bar bouquet.  So this is what I did... I went next door to the Dollar Tree (luckily it's right next door) and bought a coffee mug (because the birthday girl likes her coffee!) that was pretty heavy duty (heavy enough to hold the weight of the candy bouquet).  I also purchased a brick of floral foam and some purple (birthday girl's favorite color) basket filler. 

Then I went to Wal-mart (because I was already going there anyway) and picked up a Giant Hershey bar (the birthday girl's favorite candy), a pack of 6 regular size Hershey bars and a pack of 8 mini Hershey bars.

So for $10 in supplies (because I already had the skewers) this is what I had to work with: 

Note- you'll also need a hot glue gun, hot glue sticks and regular glue (not pictured).

Step #1:  Using a hot glue gun, hot glue the skewers to the back of the candy bars. 

When I put the skewer into the hot glue I rolled it around a bit to ensure it was complete covered. 

Here's a close up of the back of the candy bars, to give you and idea how much glue I used.

Note- on the giant bar, the wrapper was loose so I made sure to put glue below the wrapper to 'glue' it in place so the candy wouldn't slide out. :)  While the glue dries move onto the next step.

Step #2:  Cut/trim the floral foam to fit inside your base 

Step #3:  Get out your glue and basket filler.  Using a small amount of glue, glue the basket filler over the floral foam so that you can't see the foam.  You'll add more later so no need to be perfect here. 

 

Step #4:  Start sticking your candy into the floral foam.  If you don't like the placement they can be rearranged.  I start with my largest pieces first, then move to the smallest to fill in any holes/gaps.

While sticking candy bars in, fill in more basket filler to hide some of the empty space between the mug and the candy. 
You can snip off the ends of the skewers to make shorter pieces (like 4 small bars in center of bouquet).

I'd say that the finish product is pretty dang cute (and yummy)!  Not bad for $10 and about 30 minutes!


Just in case you wanted to see what the back of the bouquet looks like. :)

What do you think?  I'd love to hear what you think, or see what you've done!  Send me pictures and I'll post them!

Thanks for looking!!



Butterfinger Cupcakes

Did you see the Butterfinger Cake Pops I did for Christmas?  They were a HIT! 
Recently after helping me by moving some seriously heavy stuff at work, one of my co-workers asked me to make more Butterfinger cake pops.  I like to take treats in to work to thank my co-workers for helping me all the time, so this wasn't a huge request . . . But I was thinking "what a pain in the bum cake pops are to make, not something I can just whip up in an hour or so . . . how can I convert them into cupcakes?"  That's right cupcakes - my go to treat! 

Well, I decided to Experiment!
I made a batch of regular Butter Yellow (from the box) Cupcakes but before I put them in the oven I crushed up a pack of the 8 mini Butterfinger candy bars and sprinkled a spoon full on top of the batter, then baked as directed (with my fingers crossed!)
This is what they look like when they came out of the oven

I then frosted them with Milk Chocolate frosting (from the tub) and once they were all frosted I decided they needed more Butterfinger, so I crushed up another pack of the mini Butterfingers and rolled the cupcakes in the Butterfinger crumbs like this . . .

 

This is what the final product looked like...

The Butterfinger bits kind of 'melt' into the frosting and look wet, it's weird, but DELICIOUS!

Give them a try! 

P.S.  The guys at work tell me that they will happily be my guinea pigs if I want to experiment more while baking.  They are willing to taste test anything I bring in . . . isn't that sweet!?  :) 

-NOTE-  Once before I expreimented with putting snickers bites into the cupcake batter before it baked.  It turned out pretty good, but this was much better. 

Sophie Name Frame

At work, our office manager (actually his wife) just had a little baby girl.  I wanted to make them a name frame for her room, so I needed to know what the nursery looked like.  They sent me this picture of the bedding ensemble they got for the baby's room.    

So how to match this theme? 

This is what I came up with . . . 

The name, birds and leaves are popped up on foam to give it some depth and dimension.  

Isn't it cute?  

I got a wonderful thank you card from the family telling me what a great job I did matching the bedding/theme of the room, and how much they love it.  That makes me happy! :)

What do you think??   

Custom Monograms

I had a wonderful Christmas! I got to spend lots of time with my family, and I even got a few new toys! Lucky me, I got an Ipad and a Kindle this year. While I like the pink covers I got for both of them, they were missing something.
While talking about Ipad covers with my boss's wife today, she mentioned her grandson had made her a custom monogram cover for her Kindle . . . which made me realzie 'hey you can customize your own!"

So I came home and this is what I did!

Ipad cover

 Kindle Cover

I used SCAL (Curlz font), black vinyl and my Cricut to cut my initials for my Ipad and Kindle covers.

I don't know how long the vinyl will stick, but since it is only vinyl, I'm willing to give it a good test!  :)

If it doesn't last long, I can always screen print the monogram with my Yudu - but I don't think I want to commit to anything long term like that. 

I'm pretty happy with the results!

What do you think??