NOW, This Is Christmas Crafty Goodness!

Hi Everyone,
This is the stuff my crafty dreams are made of.  I found this little tote bag at Walgreen's for $5.99 and had a $2.00 coupon. I just loved this little tote but I knew I had some fun stuff in the craftspace that would bump it up a bit.  I had a left over feather boa from a Halloween costume and some jingle bells as well as a white plastic buckle. Also hanging around in the fabric stash is an old black velvet dress that had seen better days.  In my sewing basket was a magnetic purse closure. Wow I had a bunch of cool stuff to add to this tote bag.    I started by cutting off the not so nice black buttons.  I saved them of course!! I hot glued the feather boa right over the white fur so it looks nice and full. I added the magnetic closure so that it was not just an open tote bag. (I was really impressed that this little bag for $5.99 came with a zipper pocket!)  I used gold embossing powder on the white plastic buckle.  I used the bells to cinch the bag up a bit.  I spent about 1-1/2 hours on this tote bag and only took about 20 stitches to sew down the bottom insert that came with the bag but was not secured.  Everything else was glued.  I just love it and I bet I will be carrying it on Christmas eve.  I hope you like it too.  Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by.
Lysa

Another Miche

Ok so here is the thing, I tell the hubby, Dude I should just stay home and sew for a living, then I go to work and I tell the Bosslady, You should fire me so that I can stay home and sew for a living. Well both of them think I am just crazy. Ok so I really don't want to stay home and sew for a living but if I did....I would make things like this Miche cover. Here is how I did it. I took my all time fav Dead album and scanned the front and then the back of the covers. I fit it into a template that I made from measuring my Miche bag pattern (which I made from a brown supermarket bag). Then I went to A C Moore and bought a roll of printable cotton fabric. (oh so coooooool!!!)printed it and then sewed the bad boy up. It's my favorite Miche cover EVER!. The pictures don't do it justice. Ya know its got my signature skull on it so you know I think its a winner. But really get yourself some of this printable cotton, it is color fast and only needs heat setting with an iron. I have printed photos on it and they look great. I think I paid about $14.99 for 8.5 inches by 3 yds. I probably had a coupon. Hope you grab some when you can. Thanks for visiting.
Lysa

Well if we are talking purses - Let's talk Miche

OK so I go to Atlantic City for the Antique Road Show ... NO I didn't get on the show! Oh well, But while hanging in the hotel room at the Borgata I see this infomercial for this this purse called a Miche Bag. It's like the coolest thing. It is this simple purse that you change the covers of the purse to match your outfit. I fell in love with it the minute I saw it. They sell these magnetic covers so you just change the outside of the bag and leave all your inside stuff. Ahhhh, This is one of those ...GEEE I should have thought of that moments. So when I got home I told the ole BFF Nadine about it and sure enough we were hooked. Alright let's get real .. I am by no means a fashion statement but on the other hand, Nay is. You had to see us with this bag. If there was yellow in the outfit, there was yellow in the bag. The set up of this Utah based company was like Tupperware. They have home parties. Their product line is beautiful. And of course they have the heart warming story of how a career woman blah blah doesn't have time to change her purse from day to night blah, blah so she invents this cool system to save time, stay in fashion, you know how it goes ... and now she is a multi million $ company. Well OK she deserves it. I admit shame, on us crafty people for not coming up with the idea. But I saw this purse ... spent 100.00 on my first order, fell in love with the magnets. I had to try to make a cover. I had to! like people I had to ... It's ok that I called the state of California to order the credit card safe neo magnets! It's ok that I called Pennsylvania to get the purse feet for the bottom of the purse cover. I was on a mission. Money for supplies became second to creating 1 simple Miche cover for my bag. It did not matter my simple $3.59 worth of cheap cotton fabric would become a Miche cover if it was the last thing I ever was to do. Ahh the obsession, the driving force behind the true crafter. But the effort was worth it. Here are just 3 pictures of my covers and I have made so many others. The best part of the whole Miche story was that I took out my sewing machine that had been gather dust in the corner for probably 10 years. I just love when I make something! Thanks for visiting and as always if your looking for tips on how I did the covers just give me a shout out.
Lysa

Let's Talk Purses

Hey All,
I know I wanted to focus this blog on papercrafts but I am just not there yet. A few years back I got caught up in this reuse, reduce, recycle, & repurpose mode. I was down in LBI (favorite Jersey beach area) and I came across a purse made from an old record album. Gotta tell you it was love at first sight and after a quick study and a large $$$ purchase I knew I could make these with a bit of effort. So true to form and true to Lysa, instead of a slow approach the first thing I tried was to tape a record to one of my cutting mats and run it through my KnK cutter. yeah like I put 150 lines into the software and thought it would cut through a circa 1972 vinyl record album. OK OK so it didn't work. But admit it you would try it too. Need I say I tried with my cricut expression as well. So I went back to the drawing board and used my fisker paper timer to cut the record. All it needed was a bit of elbow grease and masking tape to keep it steady. I punched the holes and set the eyelets with my crop-a-dile. I stopped using regular old records and started buying new picture disc records to make them as gifts. Here are some pictures of my favorites and if anyone wants instructions or wants to make one, feel free to post a comment and I will help any way I can. Bare with me as I try to learn to post pictures in a orderly fashion. Thanks again for visiting and enjoy the day!
Lysa