Little Bo Peep Has Left the Building

Don't be sad Little Bo, it isn't your fault I am not Made for Competition.

Your silly little sheep knows its not his fault either.

Hold your cute little head high...you can't win them all.

Just in case my attempt at humor leaves some of your scratching your heads...

this was my little post letting you know I officially bowed out of Made by Heidi's

Made for Competition contest.

I consistently came in third to the two ladies left (by a small landslide each week), so I decided to 

let them battle it out to the end and so I can go on to craft ulcer free. Good Luck to each of them.

I also am in the process of putting together a tutorial for the sheep costume.

THANK YOU to everyone who loved my projects and voted for me! You made it all worth it.

E-I-E-I-OH So Cute Puppets

FIRST: It is a new week of competition over at Made by Heidi. It is down to only three ladies. The voting has been INTENSE. I APPRECIATE and am so grateful for those of you who went and voted...even if you think this whole thing is silly...but did it just cause you love me. ONLY 3 more weeks of it...I promise. 

So head on over this week for our Nursery Rhyme themed projects and vote for your favorite.

Last week for I'm Made for Competition (which the thinning in the lining of my stomach and the thickening of my rump is telling me I am NOT made for competition...oh and the fact that I am getting BLOWN away in the voting...) I made some pretty stinking cute felt hand puppets.

The theme was On the Farm...so Old MacDonald had to make an appearance..

Old MacDonald (aka Santa in the off season...haha...) 

had a whole farm full of THE cutest animals

E-I-E-I-OH SO CUTE.

My favorite part was the back of these puppets. LOVED each little tail, spot and feather. I also LOVED that my boys begged to play with each one as I finished them. 

The fam favorite was this guy...

with a Quack, Quack here and a Quack, Quack there.

Since this was a pretty time consuming project I wanted to see exactly how much interest there would be in a tutorial with pattern. I have a simple photo instruction of how to assemble the horse puppet, which would give the basic instructions for all of them.  The labor intensive part...for me that is...would be to make my pattern ready to scan and download since I would have every teeny tiny detail of each puppet available to you.

SO are you interested??? Would you like to have this loverly projects on your to-do list? Let me know. If there is enough interest I will bust that out this week.

Linking up here-

Made by You Mondays- Skip to my Lou
Just Something I Whipped up Mondays- The Girl Creative
Making the World Cuter Mondays- Making the World Cuter
Weekend Wrap Up- Tatertots and Jello

The Smartigan: Making a Pattern

Before I start my oh-so-insightful "how to make a pattern" tutorial, I just want to vent...just one teensie weensie sec...

So the first week of competition is done. It did NOT go well. Not because I didn't win...I mean I am sure that wouldn't of hurt, but you can't always win everything...and if you do then well I wish I was you.

So it didn't go well, because there were some people who forgot their manners. It is never good to forget your manners.

In comments on the polling system, I (along with some of the other FABULOUS ladies) was accused of not being creative, being a "theme pretender", and the real kick to the gut...I was accused of not bringing my A game and doing something that didn't require any effort. 

I am not making this stuff up...yes there are people out there who actually said those things. I know right, who died and made them the blogging equivalent of Simon Cowell??

So I just want to say, yup it hurt. Yup I cried. AND you know what...YUP they were wrong.

I loved my Smartigan while I was making it (which took me the whole week...no effort my rump). I loved it when I put it on my handsome little man. I loved it during my super sweet photo sessions (yup I bought those fake glasses just for this...hehehe). I loved it when others didn't. I still LOVE it!

THANK YOU to all those who let me know you loved it. Thanks for all the votes. Thank you to Heidi at Made by Heidi (a seriously cute blog) she has been so encouraging about all of our projects.

Oh and I also promise that even if I have a repeat week of project under-appreciation, I will not go all letter to the editor again. 

Whew I feel better, thank you for being my therapists...check is in the mail.

OKAY on with it already--

HOW TO MAKE A PATTERN

Before I could actually make my Smartigan...okay I will just call it a cardigan from now on...I had to make a pattern. The easiest way to make a pattern is to use an item of your child's clothing you already have.

For this I used a long sleeve t-shirt.

You will also need some super ugly fabric or an ugly curtain to make draw your pattern onto.

Cut the shirt apart. Starting with the sleeves.

Trace the t-shirt, one section at a time onto pattern fabric.

I started first with the back piece. Fold shirt in half so back of the t-shirt is facing out.

Trace on to fabric.

Make sure to label each piece. In this instance, I also indicated where the fold would be.

Next I did the front. Fold in half again, with front facing out.

For the cardigan front, you need that angled edge. Decide how angled, how long you want your angle, etc.

Cut that section away from the t-shirt.

Trace right front piece.

Flip over and trace left front piece

Cut open sleeve. Trace sleeve onto fabric.

Cut out all of your pieces.

Now you have a nice pile of pattern pieces all excited and ready to...

make one of these for the handsome little smartypants in your life.

Oh hey so you know that little contest I just barely mentioned above...

Pepto is in reach for my project is posted and ready to hopefully be voted for.

I know for some of you it was obvious which project was mine last week. I am not sure it will be as obvious this week. I will be excited to see what your guess is. Have fun voting.

TOMORROW- the rest of The Smartigan tutorial.

Also linking up these fabulous sites:

Something I whipped up Mondays- The Girl Creative

I am Made For Competition

Thanks to everyone who voted for me and my fishy!

It's official, I made it through. It's officially time to go over and vote. It's officially time for me to wait and see if I made something people like. It's official, I should be buying stock in Pepto.

So stop on by Heidi's and cast a vote for your favorite project...ooh fingers crossed it is mine, but I know it will be a hard decision.

If you are feeling so inclined you can vote once each day.

Love ya all.