Today I won a giveaway. It was a gift card to the Ribbon Retreat over at Tatertots and Jello. I was OVERLY happy that I won!!! I have now become a giveaway fiend, finding all the giveaways on my favorite craft sites. I'd like to share my favorite sites:

See Kate Sew
This is one of my favorite blogs. Here are some of her projects!

DIY big-to-small Hoodie

Chevron Clutch Tutorial

Evie S

Another one of my favorite blogs - she is so creative and makes great art!

Ruffle Lace Bracelet

Supplies:

a Strip of Lace

String

Glue

 I had all this lace to work with, so I decided to make a bracelet. Here's the 'ribbon' lace:

How To Remove Dried Hot Glue

 This is a problem with me often. Sometimes I hot glue something, then decide to remove it or change it. So today I'd like to share with you how I do that! =]

This is what the glue looks like all dried. I had a bow on there, but I pulled it off. This glue has been there for about 3-5 hours.

 Problem solved! Plug that hot glue gun right back in and use it's heated metal part to melt the glue back into liquid. (If your glue gun is like mine, some glue will leak out of it. Ignore it. It's okay to get more glue on the already dry glue)

Now repeat the last step over and over again until most of the glue is off. The picture above is the part where the glue was pulled off. 

I hope this helped you!

Inspire. Create.

Linking to:

http://todayscreativeblog.net

Tie Snake Toy

Isn't he cute??? I created him for someone else, but I think I'll have to make another one for them because they're so cute!

 Sssss......

Ok. Let's get started!

Supplies:

An old tie (A striped one looks best, feel free to experiment)

Red felt (just a bit for the tongue)

Two black beads

A needle and thread

Half a bag (or less) of rice

a funnel

A hot glue gun and LOTS of extra glue sticks

Scissors (fabric scissors are good)

(Also, before we begin, I'd like to apologize for the lighting/clarity in the photos.

That's what you get when you have one tiny lamp that you can't even get to stretch all the way to your table)

 Okay, start with the tie.

I forgot to take a 'before' picture of the tie, so here it is before with some of the supplies

Cut off the tag.

 Cut the tie about two or three inches longer than you actually want the snake to be

 The tie started falling apart so I glued where the seam was because I don't trust my sewing

 Now place the funnel inside the open end and pour rice inside. Do it slowly with only a little bit at a time to allow the rice to sink to the bottom. (I had to stuff the rice down with a wooden stick)

 Here's the snake all stuffed

 Glue on a 'Y' shaped piece of felt (when I finished, I touched it up with a few more layers to make it sturdier)

 See the tail, all glued? It looks pretty boring.

I just snipped it, and glued the edges

I had to glue all the holes that the tie had because ties are not meant to hold rice ;). The seam in the back was only closed every centimeter or so, so I glued inside each of those.

Now simply stitch on the beads for the eyes and you're done!

xo. Kate