Jayne Cobb Hat

Jayne Cobb Hat, free pattern ☺

Now, this is the first time I have ever written down a pattern.. so hopefully you guys don't get super confused and hate me.

Materials you will need:

• yellow yarn (I use red heart from Walmart)
• orange yarn
• red yarn
• 5.5 mm crochet hook (if you want the hat to be smaller use a smaller hook)
• yarn needle

These are the stitches you will need to know:

• ch (chain)
• st (stitch)
• ss (slip stitch)
• sc (single crochet)
• dc (double crochet)
• hdc (half double crochet)

with your yellow yarn first

row 1: ch 60 ss in first st.

row 2: ch 1 and then sc all the way around, sl in first st on this row

row 3: same as row 2. 

Do this for a total of 15 rows before you switch to your orange yarn. Once you fasten off your yellow yarn do 15 more rows with the orange exactly the same. Once you are done it will look like you have a tube. take some of your yellow yarn and weave it in and out of each stitch of the first  yellow row with a yarn needle. Pull it together and knot it to create the top of the hat. At this point I flipped it inside out because I liked the way the other side looked more.

Now to make a pom pom all you need to do is grab your yellow, orange, and red yarn and wrap it around your hand about 10 times. Once you have done that take some more yarn and use it to tie all the yarn together in the middle. Once you have done that then cut the yarn where it loops on each end. Then fluff it and sew it onto the top of your hat using a yarn needle.

For the ear flaps:

Switching to red yarn (make sure to leave long ends on the yarn)

row 1: ch 20
row 2: turn and dc into 3rd chain from hook, 1 hdc, 1 hdc, sc until you get back to the 1st stitch.
row 3: turn and ch 1, sc until you reach 3rd stitch from the end of the row. Now do 3 hdc to finish off the row.
row 4: turn and ch 1 sc until end of row turn and repeat for 4 more rows
row 9: turn and ch 1 sc until you get to 3rd ch from end of row. 3 hdc
row 10: turn and ch 2 dc in 3rd ch from hook, 1 hdc, 1 hdc, sc until you reach the end of the row.

now weave both ends of your yarn in towards the middle so that you can pull them slightly causing the ear flap to curl a tini bit. tie yarn off so it doesn't come loose. 

Once both of your ear flaps are done, lay your hat flat so you can figure out where a good center point is. Attach each ear flap to the middle of each side of the hat. Sew or sc on the inside of the hat on the second row up, using your orange yarn so it doesn't show through.

I hope this made sense! Thanks for reading! ☺

Kissy Photo Shoot

Today I am going to show you how to make an average photo look a little brighter.

Before and After photo

Today I was going for a brighter kind of washed out girlie look.

Ok, I like to use my tablet for pretty much anything on Photohop. But, if you don't have a tablet then it is just as easy to use your mouse. I also need to state that I am using Photoshop CS2, but most of this stuff is pretty basic, so I am sure that its just as easy on any other version.

First start off with opening up the photo you want to adjust in Photoshop... pretty straight forward ☺

What you will want to do next is zoom into your picture where you would like it to be, and then crop it. You don't need to crop it all the way down to where you want it to be at the end, but its easier if the image doesnt have all the extra background stuff that you don't want.

Next you will want to find the "Levels" tool.

Once you find it, adjust the image so that it appears to be lighter. I usually slide the middle arrow to the left a bit as well as the far right arrow. And then I slide the left arrow to the right just a tini bit.

Then you will want to find your "Blur Tool". You will want to use this to smooth out any grainy spots in your photo. The lighting was poor in the room that I took this in, so I needed to use it. If you took your picture outside or in a nicely lit room, you might not need to use this.

I decided after smoothing everything out that I wanted there to be a bit more contrast. So if you also decide this at any point find your contrast/brightness tool.

This tool is pretty straight forward to use. If you play around with the bars you will get it.

Now find and open  your color balance tool.

This tool is great to use if you have too much of any color in your picture. For example, the lights in my bedroom (where the picture was taken) have a lot of yellow in them. And the sheets are also a little yellowy. So when you open your color balance tool, you will want to slide the bar the opposite of the color you are trying to fade out. So I slid the bar further towards blue, but when I did this it looked a little more red, so I slid it to Cyan. You get the point, so slide the bars around until it looks more natural.

Next you will want to find your burn tool. You will want to use this tool where there are any shadows, or dark spots. You just want to make these spots a tini bit darker so your image doesn't look quite as washed out from using the levels tool and the contrast tool. In this particular picture I also darkened up the kiss marks a little more so they were more noticeable.

Now find your dodge tool. This is the tool used to lighten instead of darken.

Now you will want to get a bigger brush for your dodge tool. Once you have done that lighten around the edges and around your baby/kid/whateva ☺
Once you have done that you can crop your image to whatever size you would like it to be at, I decided I wanted a little less of the background, but you don't have to do this.

You now have your finished product! 

This is a great way to make your more "grainy" pictures look nicer. There are different techniques for making pictures look nice if they are really clear. I will show you one of those another time.
Thanks for reading!

Barefoot Sandals!

Ok, so every mother knows that baby feet, as adorable as they are, are shaped kinda weird for a while.. which means those cute newborn shoes don't fit. With a baby boy, I got over it and just had his bare feet showing all the time. But now with  my baby girl.. I want her to be dressed up ALL the time. I mean.. Walmart trips.. I dress her up.

Anyways, I saw these cute ribbon "barefoot sandals" online. And I thought to myself, "hmmm those are expensive I bet I could crochet a pair of these myself!" so I did! and I am not very good at writing down crochet patterns.. actually I never have. So I don't have a pattern for you.. If you want one just ask and I will try my hardest. I also have them for sell on Etsy if anyone is interested.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/152281090/barefoot-baby-sandals?ref=pr_shop

My daughter is almost 3 months old now and I still only put barefoot sandals on her. They are so much easier to get on, and they are adorable. You might not be able to get away with it as much during the colder months. But over the summer they are amazing. I have made about 8 different pairs, but these are the only ones I have pictures of at the moment.. and I think I have temporarily lost a couple pairs. *sigh* The first pair I made were the ones in the first photo, and they are by far my favorites, and they go with just about every outfit she has.

If you would like a pattern just leave a comment asking for one and I will try to write it down while making another pair!

A Jar Full of Cute

I found this nice big jar at Ross for only $3 a couple weeks ago. And I have been trying to decide what to do with it. I knew I would come up with something so I just put it away.. and then it hit me!

It is perfect for all of her cute little flower headbands, barefoot sandals, and bracelets that I have made and bought her. I am very into cute storage items because we live in an extremely small space. So anything to help keep help keep our items more organized is pretty sweet.

I have been able to find a lot of jar items like this at places like Ross and TJ Maxx for really cheap. And not only jars but they have tons and tons of storage items. I would say that 80% of the time I get my storage and decorative items that I haven't made myself from these two stores.

Fabric Flowers

Aurora in the headband and sandals

I crocheted a headband and barefoot sandals to put the fabric flowers on.

Ok so I found this really cool way to make a fabric flower that is SUPER easy on Pinterest. But the instructions arent in english so I just copied from the pictures.

 

 

 

Ok so I found this really cool way to make a fabric flower that is SUPER easy on Pinterest. But the instructions arent in english so I just copied from the pictures.

Here are my instructions in English.

1. Use something round (whatever size you would like. I am not sure that it matters that much) and trace out 5 circles.
2. Cut out the circles… I know this seems very difficult so far
3. Fold the circles in half and start your needle and thread going through the center.
4. Overlap another circle and connect with thread.
5. Repeat until you have all 5 circles connected.
6. Then overlap the end and the beginning and connect with thread
7. Pull your thread all the way through until the circles crinkle together to make a flower!
8. Use a button (or whateva) as the center of your flower. 
9. Connect your beautiful flower to whatever you want! 

Super easy and cute! As you can see from the picture I made my little girl a crocheted headband and pair of lace up barefoot sandals, and put the flowers on them!

The original link is here if you would like it. http://www.duitang.com/people/mblog/46697209/detail/

About my crafty blog

I am one of those people that will do ANYTHING crafty that I can get my hands on.

I decorate, oil paint, sculpt with clay, carve into wood and stone, crochet, knit, sew, play on photoshop, draw, photograph. I am not necessarily the best at any of these things, but I love to do them all.

On this blog I will simply show off the things that I have made and maybe give ideas to other people. I will also post where I find a lot of the stuff I use to decorate and make DIY stuff.