Amandalee's Treasures

Please Visit me at my New Blog! Re Use It Arts and Crafts

2011-12-09T16:59:00.000-08:00

Hello, Thanks for reading! I hope to see everyone at my new blog, Re Use It Arts and Crafts as I will no longer be updating this blog. Thanks for following, please come and follow me there!

http://reuseitartsandcrafts.blogspot.com/

Hugs, Amanda

Miniature Monday

2010-10-04T19:04:00.001-07:00

Hello!

I should be showing you something I have made & will be listing in my Etsy Shop, but I haven't made anything new this week - I have been busy working on some things that aren't quite finished yet. I do hope to have a couple items finished tonight though, so I may be able to share some goodies later on.

I can tell you I found another cool item while out second hand shopping today - I am so excited to show you on Thursday! I also have some updates of my dollhouse from last week to show you; the hole that was in the wall is repaired, I have filled in all the holes and repaired the damage to the walls. I had mentioned thinking this was a kit, and I was correct, as I found the actual kit online for sale. It was pretty exciting to find it, but a little disappointing at the same time because I realized what parts were missing :( The shop that sells the full kits online is called Wood Workers Wood Shop and the houses name is The Arthur. I have also begun cutting wood for the shingles - it is going to be a lot of handmade shingles, that's for sure!

I listed my Print Gocco B6 in my Etsy shop. Unfortunately I have never had the chance to use it. This is a discontinued product - very hard to find!

Off to try & finish an item for you to see :)

Amanda

Fantasy Friday

2010-10-02T13:07:00.001-07:00

A day late....

I am a day late, but better late than never, right? For this post, I am going to talk about going on a cruise.

Have you ever gone on, or wanted to go on a cruise? I really never have, that was until I saw a show about a cruise ship named the Oasis of the Seas. It is run by Royal Caribbean International and it is the largest cruise ship built to date.

Some fun ship facts (copied from a pdf):

* 150 miles (241 km) of piping
• 3,300 miles (5310 km) of electrical cables
• 158,503 gallons (600,000 litres) of paint
• 7,000 works of specially commissioned art
• 5,070,632 lbs. (2,300 tonnes) of water in the 21 swimming pools and Jacuzzis
• 110,231 lbs. (50 tonnes) of ice cubes made every day
• 4,700,000 lbs. (2,350 metric tons) of fresh water consumption per 24 hours
• 181 grand blocks were used to construct Oasis of the Seas, each block weighed appx. 1,200,00 lbs.
(600 metric tons)
• Oasis was constructed out of 500,000 steel individual parts
• The AquaTheater pool is 17.9 feet (5.4 meters) deep and is the largest pool at sea
• Oasis of the Seas is 75 feet (23 meters) longer than the cruise line’s Freedom-class of ships
• The Central Park Neighborhood will be the first ever living park at sea, with 12,175 plants, 62
vine plants, 56 trees and bamboo, some over 24 feet (7.3 meters) in length
• It took 8,000 people work years to build Oasis of the Seas
• There were more than 3,200 workers at any given time helping build Oasis of the Seas
• Diameters of the propellers are 20 feet (6.1. meters)
• Oasis has a deck 4.5 giving AquaTheater entertainers and divers access to the depths of
AquaTheater during performances

The ship is gorgeous and I would love the chance to spend some time on there!

Amanda

Thrifty Thursday - Part One

2010-09-30T07:23:00.000-07:00

Today's post is going to be in 2 parts :)

Yesterday I told you how I had gotten the perfect item to talk about today. My mom and I visited a second hand store in a town called Parksville and she bought me this (cool huh?):

A close up of the roof's peak. I have already dug out the cracked plaster that you can see.

This is a side of the dollhouse. Look at the damage here. Not sure why the hole is there at the bottom either.

A view of the inside. Great spaces to repair. It is a little more obvious in this post, but I am fairly certain this was built from a dollhouse kit. Looks like someone else had tried to repair it at one point - the middle floor has a nail through it from the left wall. This however didn't work very well and the nail split the wood. There is a set of stairs missing (I think - doesn't that hole in the floor look like one goes there?) You can see all the holes from where the wood meets up too - yuck.

Here is a close up of one of the small windows. It is Plexiglas I think. Both windows have the same pattern on them, but as you can see, someone didn't take care when painting, so there is a lot of paint on them!

This is a shot of the doorway - I love the curves!

Here is a close up of the wall damage and the hole I was talking about earlier.

This is going to be a fun project! Rescued Dollhouse! I will post more photo's again tonight of the progress so far.

Amanda

Wacky Wednesday

2010-09-29T18:54:00.000-07:00

Not much for today, I was pretty busy. I went out with my Mom and visited a local Vancouver Island coffee roaster. It was a gorgeous day here and I love driving the old Island Highway!

While we were driving back I saw that the Coke Museum was gone. It was this cool house literally filled with Coke memorabilia and I can even remember having food there. There was also a little museum set up - I think you had to pay to go in, but I can't recall how much. If you do a Google search for Colaland Vancouver Island you can see a tonne of photo's.

We also stopped at a second hand store I love in Parksville (it's huge!) and I scored a SUPER cool item for tomorrow's Thrifty Thursday...

Till tomorrow!

Amanda

Try Out Tuesday

2010-09-28T10:43:00.000-07:00

I am already thinking about Christmas and our decor for this year. (I know, I know, Halloween isn't even here yet, but if you are a crafty giver at Christmas, you need to get started early!)

We've already decided how we will be decorating our tree this year (watch for posts in December..it's going to be so fun!) , but I want a few different things for decorating around the home. I was thinking of hanging different balls in my Kitchen window at staggered heights.

I came across a blog called Zakka Life and her Felt Christmas Ornament Tutorial and the ornaments will fit perfectly into my decorating plan. You will have to go to the link provided above for full instructions, but I wanted to show you my progress.

Here are my supplies, all ready to go! A very affordable craft, that's for sure!

Here are my layers all sewn together...Though you don't need a sewing machine, I would use one for the center stitch next time, I found it touch to keep the line straight while sewing through 6 layers of felt. I also cut my ribbon to 4 inches long (rather than 3) it just gave me a little more length to work.

Half way done! A super quick project too - it has only taken about 10 minutes so far.

And here we go! I used her smallest suggested size for circles (4 inches). She uses 4.5 inch circles and I think I like those a bit better. I will also be adding some beads or pearls to the sewing points as suggested in the tutorial.

Thanks for reading,

Amanda

MIniature Monday

2010-09-27T12:31:00.001-07:00

Today I am going to show you the supplies I use to make a miniature dollhouse rug or carpet.

I found my Punch needle at a second hand store & it actually came with some of the original threads to punch with. I use Aida needlepoint fabric as a base and I have that mounted on a hoop. The size of the hoop determines the size of the carpet or rug; you don't want to have punched threads getting locked into the hoop - it wrecks the whole carpet (I learned from experience!!)

Here is a view of a carpet that's going to be in my Etsy Shop today (rug measures apx. 5 inches by 5 inches):

Here is a view of the edge - See how I am wrapping the edge so it looks so nicely finished?

Amanda

Shopping Sunday

2010-09-26T11:10:00.000-07:00

For our first Shopping Sunday, I am going to highlight some sellers that I have purchased items from and let you know how wonderful my experience was!

I have a little addiction to collecting polymer clay figures & things. I ended up meeting the gal behind My Claying Heart by Craftaddict02 and I was instantly addicted to her polymer clay figures & shapes. I own a few of her Halloween Scenes, a beautiful Christmas ornament and many of her charms. She is an absolute doll to deal with, I recommend her & her shop to everyone!

I have recently gotten new graphics for my Etsy shop, business cards etc. and of course I went to the Etsy Alchemy to see what everyone came up with. I ended up meeting a wonderful seller! Her shop is called Kaiyo and she was an amazingly fast & attentive seller. She was so creative with my Banner and graphics etc. I was so happy I had picked her offer among all those that I received. Another person I would recommend to anyone needing some graphics prepared.

If you like to write letters or postcards you need to check out the shop TangleCrafts. Some of the most beautiful sets of note papers, zines and D.I.Y. kits. Another nice seller who responds in a timely manner.

I would love to hear if you have any sellers that you love!

Amanda

New Blog Schedule

2010-09-25T18:14:00.000-07:00

I have been getting the final items together in order to prepare myself to treat my Etsy shop like it is a real job, hopefully to create some kind of consistent income. Isn't that what we'd all like?

Starting tomorrow, I will be updating the blog everyday with fun themes for each day. I will also be hosting some fun contests!

New Daily Themes:

Sunday - Shopping Sunday. Fun, useful or interesting items available for sale online.

Monday - Miniature Monday. I will highlight a few new items that I have put into my Etsy shop and will show you some of the in progress photo's.

Tuesday - Try Out Tuesday. I will try an online tutorial, recipe, tip/trick & will share my experience with you.

Wednesday - Wacky Wednesday. Anything that comes up!

Thursday - Thrifty Thursday. Photo's and talk about my thrift store finds for the week.

Friday - Fantasy Friday. Things I would love to do or places I would love to visit.

Saturday - Sweet Read Saturday. Articles on other blogs that I think you may like to read too!

I hope you will enjoy the new themes, I know I will enjoy writing them for you.

Amanda

Mario Birthday Party Invitations

2010-04-06T12:22:00.000-07:00

Cole's party date is coming quickly (May 16) and I am starting to think we may have bitten off a bit more than we could chew!

Party & Room at the same time? What were we thinking?

Well, today I started the invitations. I was given 6 square blank cards in a swap and am finally going to use them :) What do you think of these so far?

I found an image online, printed it twice and used both images to cut pattern pieces from eco felt. They still need to be sewn to the blue background, then I will have to attach that to the card, but I think they look great already.

I think I will glue and sew the finished piece to the card. A little glue in the middle and a machine sewing stitch through the felt.

Hugs, Amanda

Nikki is giving away the latest copy of Handmade Magazine!

2010-03-28T16:44:00.000-07:00

A gal I know from www.swap-bot.com is giving away the latest copy of Handmade Magazine - from Australia!

She has a cute blog, with lots of eye appeal - please go check it out and enter her little contest: http://nikkis-attic.blogspot.com/2010/03/giveaway.html

Hugs, Amanda

Totally Awesome Blog Candy at My Huckleberry Finn

2010-03-28T12:49:00.000-07:00

You need to go and check out what Louise is giving away as blog candy this week! Check out her blog: http://myhuckleberryfinn.blogspot.com/.

She's giving away a Top Score Multiboard and The Enveloper board! She's also posted a wicked little video describing what the boards are for. This is great, because I for one had not heard of them before - something that I would definitely use & love!

Wish me luck & head on over to Louise's blog!

Hugs, Amanda

I saw a Squirrel in Nanaimo, BC!

2010-03-28T12:14:00.000-07:00

I have lived in Nanaimo for most of my life and I have never seen a squirrel here. (I have seen many squirrels when I lived in Vancouver though.)

Well, I was outside this morning and what did I see? Look at this little cutie in the neighbors backyard:

I love how this photo turned out:

I had to share, because this really is a rare occurrence here.

Thanks for reading!

Amanda

Super Mario Bedroom Project List Update

2010-03-27T09:26:00.000-07:00

Here are some updates & additions!

Walls

Wash
Fill holes
Sand
Wash again
Prime wood panel wall
Prime wood panel closet
Prime cream walls? (Going to ask whether I need to or not. I am worried that the paint will seem darker behind a wall that has been primed with a tinted primer.)
Paint walls blue
Paint ceiling white
Paint trim white
Paint door white
Paint Light switch Covers
Paint Plug Covers
Reinstall Light & Plug covers

Linens
(I will be making most of these.)

Curtains
Quilt cover or entirely new quilt. I haven't decided yet.
Accent Pillows
Twin sheet set & body pillow cover. I plan on purchasing these, but will applique and/or screen print designs on them.
Cover for closet. Not sure whether this will be cloth or not.

Other
(We will also be making as much of this as possible.)

An area rug. I saw an area rug once many years ago, that was small rectangle carpets with bound edges sewn together. It was really cool, I think it would be great in bright colors. My only concern with this idea is how difficult it would be for us to find carpets in red, yellow, green etc.. We may end up purchasing this. Especially if we find something nice and bright.
Side Tables - We saw some online that were shaped like the Super Mario Pipes - way cool!
Paint Dresser & Replace handles. The dresser has long handles, with 2 screw holes. I am not sure how easy that will be to replace either. I wonder if I can fill the screw holes and paint over them? ~ This was easy! Wood filler dries super tough. It is harder to sand though. Takes paint well. Dresser looks great now! I am not in love with our handles, but they will do for now.

Closet Cover. Probably curtain style. And we will be replacing the curtain rod. I was to paint the closet too. It's white, but not really if you know what I mean, lol.
Replace light fixture. We need something brighter. I have seen some neat lights out there and can't wait to look for this.

Thanks again for reading!

Super Mario Bedroom Update

2010-03-27T09:15:00.000-07:00

We have just about finished the base coats and trim/ceiling in my son's room. I just love the colors we picked!

We still have to do some touch-ups, put back light switch covers etc.. but check out the wood panel wall! It looks so awesome. I love how painting out the wood made his room look so much bigger.

This door looks so much better now.

This is the textured wall. There were some old patch jobs that were done very horribly. They obviously used a putty knife, and made huge "flat" spots on the walls. We fixed those with spackle and our fingers.

The closet is one of my favorite parts of the room. I honestly didn't realize how bad it was until I was in there cutting in with white paint. It was disgusting!

I am in the middle of putting everything back into the room. It is taking me a while, I have spent 1 1/2 days sorting Lego into a tall plastic tower of drawers :)

I am going to post an updated project list next!

Super Mario Bedroom Project List

2010-03-23T07:30:00.000-07:00

This is our dream list of projects to be completed before our sons birthday. I will keep updating the list as projects are completed, by making finished tasks bold. I am sure new projects will be added to the list during this time as well :)

Walls

Wash
Fill holes
Sand
Wash again
Prime wood panel wall
Prime wood panel closet
Prime cream walls? (Going to ask whether I need to or not. I am worried that the paint will seem darker behind a wall that has been primed with a tinted primer.)
Paint walls blue
Paint ceiling white
Paint trim white
Paint door white

Linens
(I will be making most of these.)

Curtains
Quilt cover or entirely new quilt. I haven't decided yet.
Accent Pillows
Twin sheet set & body pillow cover. I plan on purchasing these, but will applique and/or screen print designs on them.

Other
(We will also be making as much of this as possible.)

An area rug. I saw an area rug once many years ago, that was small rectangle carpets with bound edges sewn together. It was really cool, I think it would be great in bright colors. My only concern with this idea is how difficult it would be for us to find carpets in red, yellow, green etc.. We may end up purchasing this. Especially if we find something nice and bright.
Side Tables - We saw some online that were shaped like the Super Mario Pipes - way cool!
Paint Dresser & Replace handles. The dresser has long handles, with 2 screw holes. I am not sure how easy that will be to replace either. I wonder if I can fill the screw holes and paint over them?
Closet Cover. Probably curtain style. And we will be replacing the curtain rod. I was to paint the closet too. It's white, but not really if you know what I mean, lol.
Replace light fixture. We need something brighter. I have seen some neat lights out there and can't wait to look for this.
1 light switch and 2 plug covers need to be the same blue as the wall. I would like them to blend in. I just thought of something though - the switch & plugs are cream. If I paint the covers blue - those are totally going to stand out.

So there are a few issues to work out still, but it really is so much fun so far.

Thanks for reading, Amanda

At the beginning, there was a room...

2010-03-22T20:59:00.000-07:00

My oldest son is a self proclaimed "Super Mario Freak." He will be 7 years old near the end of May.

We started our most ambitious project yet: The Mario Bedroom!
Here are a few before pics:

The dreaded wood panel wall! Not as difficult as you would think. The gentleman who helped me at my local Home Hardware was very knowledgeable and sold me on a product by Beauti-Tone. It's their signature series line and is a Latex/acrylic primer.

Please excuse the mess in the photo's. We had to move a bookshelf, a handmade shelf, and a dresser, along with a few bins of toys. (Everything is everywhere in there right now)

Just another angle looking into the room.

Yuck! More wood panels! When we moved into this house, 90% of it was freshly painted. They didn't paint this room - I told them it was going to be my son's room. They had also removed the cupboard doors in order to paint them, and I asked them not to reinstall them. They were bi-fold doors and I have horrid memories of pinching my hands in those as a child.

Another wall. I don't know what I will do with this wall, but it is badly textured. It will be difficult to paint on I am sure. (Not so bad for rolling the main wall color on, but tough for painting on characters and things.)

I love the headboard! My Dad made it for me in 1994.

The back of the door has looked like this since we moved in. You can see the screws and knobs that used to hold a mirror there.

Sorry about the glare in this one. This is the wood panel wall after filling and sanding numerous holes (some 3 times!!)

Primer base is on and dry - looking good :) Might need another coat though.

Thanks for reading,

Amanda

MST - February 4, 2010

2010-02-06T09:57:00.000-08:00

My first Mug Shot photo for the Mug Shot Thursdays Group on Flickr!

Not my best pic, but I love the mug! I sent a similar mug to Rachel on Swap-bot.

E's Baby Shower

2010-01-31T08:40:00.000-08:00

I am having so much fun planning a baby shower for a friend at work! I have a large list of things that need to be completed, but I have finished one project and almost finished another - have a look!

This is the sign I plan on hanging on the wall behind the baby gift table. This is not quite finished yet - I still need to attach the back circle of white felt.

I got the idea for this project from a blog titled Everyday Celebrations (http://everydaycelebrate.blogspot.com/2009/10/tutorial-felt-banner.html). She taught us how to make a BOO banner from Fabric and felt. I used her idea, but changed it slightly:

Instead of fabric and felt, I used just felt. I didn't want an 8" base, so I used her 7" circle as my white background, cut my own center circle from blue felt, created my letters in a word editing program and hand stitched them all together. Then I used her pattern for the hanging tabs and attached those by hand. My last step will be to cut 3 more 7" circles from felt and hand sew to the front, giving the back a really finished look :)

Finished so far are the Washcloth Lollipops. I made these to decorate the Diaper Cake with. (I know the blue of the cloth is not Tiffany, but its as close as I could get.)

I got the idea for the Lollipops from Google, when I search for homemade Baby Shower ideas. You just roll 2 cloths together, tape the spoon to the back, wrap and ribbon & voila!

Lots more projects are on the go...I will show you more pics and things soon!

Thanks for reading, Amanda

2010 has arrived!

2010-01-08T11:03:00.000-08:00

No resolutions for me this year - I always end up bailing on them anyways. This year is going to be different - setting up some little projects that I intend on finishing in a timely manner :)

My main goal is to get my Etsy shop back up and running. It is a lot of fun & an honor that people will use their hard earned money on my items. I have a lot of items ready to go - but I need to prefect my photography first. I am never happy with my photo's and photo's make the ad.

Hubby and I are planning to build me a dollhouse out of 1/4 inch plywood. I got a book (from 1976, but I love it..) about how to build a dollhouse from 1 sheet of plywood. We are going to use many of the ideas in the book, but not going to build it the same. I want the house to hang on a wall, but I still want it with space for the following rooms; living room, craft room (of course), bathroom, kitchen, dining room, 2 bedrooms and a games room (I want a pool table, darts, mini bar, etc..)

Thanks for reading, please feel free to comment :)

"Pick Your Color" Christmas Ornament

2009-09-06T19:35:00.000-07:00

I am really happy with this project! This was for a swap on http://www.swap-bot.com/.

We were to pick from a list of 3 colors that our partner had posted in the comments area of the swap. My partner listed purple, white & red. I decided to use all 3 colors, but with purple as the main color. You can't see the back, but it is purple too. It measures about 4" by 4".

The main body is machine quilted. The trim & hanger are bias tape, which is hand sewn onto the back.

I really hope she will like it!

Baby Bottle Cozies from Felted Sweaters

2008-09-13T11:35:00.000-07:00

Hello! This is a tutorial for Felted Sweater Baby Bottle Cozies (or covers). You need to have some pre felted sweaters, if you are not sure how to felt sweaters you can view my tutorial here: http://amandaleestreasures.blogspot.com/2008/09/how-to-felt-wool-sweater.html

Supplies

* Felted Sweater(s)

* Scissors

* Embroidery Floss

* Pattern from here. (Link to be updated - you don't really need one, this is fairly simple to make.)

Step 1. Cut out your pattern pieces. If you aren't using a pattern, but your baby uses Evenflow 8oz glass bottles you can use these dimensions:

1 pieces @ 6.5" tall by 8.25" long

1 x 2.5" square which has been trimmed into a circle.

Step 2. Pin the main felted piece around the bottle.

Step 3. Turn the bottle upside down and place the circle of felt on the bottom & attach with blanket stitch.

Step 4. Use the blanket stitch to work your way up the seam on the main body of the bottle.

Step 5. You are done! You can add applique shapes, or leave as is. I have left this one since I love the sweater pattern, but I have made bottles with hearts, diamonds, and many other shapes on them.

Thanks for reading, visit again soon!

How to Felt a Wool Sweater

2008-09-08T23:16:00.000-07:00

My first tutorial will be on felting wool sweaters. I plan on writing a tutorial for felted sweater Baby Bottle Cozies, so you will need to have this step completed first. (Of course these instructions are good for making felted sweaters for any project.)

This can get a bit "fluffy", so make sure you read through the instructions so you will know where to keep an eye on it.

Supplies

* Sweaters (at least 90% wool - this will make a better felt, therefor better end product.)
You can get sweaters from friends, family, thrift stores, Freecycle etc.
* Washing Machine & Detergent
* Dryer
* Scissors

Step 1. Cut the sleeves off the sweater and cut up the sleeve to open it up. (This prevents heavy lines in your felted sweater material.)

Step 2. Cut the front from the back & remove all buttons (if applicable).

Step 3. You can wash all sorts of colors and patterns together, so get to your machine & throw in a load on hot wash / cold rinse. Don't forget the detergent!

Step 4. Clean your poor washing machine, as you will have covered it in little pieces of fluff!

Step 5. Throw your sweaters into the dryer on medium heat. Come back to your dryer every 5 - 10 minutes (use a timer if you can) because there will be a lot more fluff in the lint catcher and the dryer drum - you need to keep those clear to avoid potential issues (i.e. fire).

**TIP**

Shake the sweaters out really well before you put them into the dryer, this decreases the amount of lint a lot! Makes a bit of a mess though, you may want to do it outside.

Step 6. When they are dry, they will be felted. You may need to wash & dry some sweaters twice to get the texture you wish for.

Thanks for reading, please visit again soon!