the BIG REVEAL

Update!!!

This giveaway is now closed. Thank you to all who participated and more than doubled our blog following!! Check back VERY soon to find out who the lucky winners are!

What you've all been waiting for has finally arrived!! First, lets see what we are giving away, and then we'll cover the entry rules...

The first giveaway bag is what we have been calling "the Jordy." This bag's finished measurements are 10 1/2"x13 1/2"x3". It has 2 handles, a cell phone pocket and 2 flat pockets for your small essentials. The outside fabric is a bright teal-blue covered in a brown geometric design. It's corresponding brown lining matches perfectly.

The second bag is what we have been calling "the Elise"; however, for reasons known only to us, we would like to change it's name. This bag's finished measurements are 8 1/2"x10 1/2"x2". It has a single shoulder strap attached by two silver rectangle-shaped rings. We used a zipper for closure and added two pleated pockets. The outside fabric is a striking teal and green paisley with matching teal lining. This bag's surprise is the hand sewn fabric daisy pin adorning it's lower corner. This would be perfect for carrying your essentials out to dinner, or as a unique handmade Christmas gift.

THE RULES

Bag #1-the Jordy

To win this bag, you must do two things.

1. Become a follower of this blog.

To become a follower, click on the link on my sidebar and the prompts will guide you. Once you have become a follower, you MUST comment on this post, letting us know. This is imperative; otherwise, we may fail to include your name in the giveaway.

2. Help us get the word out!

You can Facebook, tweet, email, add a post to your blog, etc. telling everyone you know to come to Vibrant Designs for the bag giveaway. Keep a tally of each time you Facebook, tweet, email, or blog about us; then at the end of the week, comment on this blog and tell us how many times you "got the word out!" WE TRUST YOU.

Bag #2

To win this bag, you must do two things.

1. Become a follower of this blog.

To become a follower, just click on the link in my sidebar and the prompts will guide you. Once you have become a follower, you MUST comment on this post letting us know. This is imperative, otherwise we may fail to include your name in the giveaway.

2. Tell us what YOU think we should name this style bag!

What do YOU think this bag should be named? As mentioned early, for reasons known only to us, we have decided to change the name of this bag. We are going to let our readers decide. For each entry, comment on this post telling us your idea for the bag's name. If you have 5 different ideas, that's 5 different times you can include your name in this giveaway.

At the end of one week, we will put all the names of people who entered "the Jordy" giveaway in a hat and pick a name at random. For those who have entered the second giveaway, we will choose a name that we feel best describes our bag. The winners of each giveaway will be announced next Thursday by 6pm EST. When commenting to enter your name in one of the giveaways, please include your name and where you are from; just a town will be sufficient as we need to be able to distinguish between the entries. At the end of the week, we will announce the name and location of the winners. Each winner should then email me with their addresses so the prize can be shipped. PLEASE, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

Recent Diaper Bag

Just a little fun before the BIG REVEAL tomorrow morning! Whose getting excited?? If you are new here and do not know what I am referring to, come back tomorrow and find out! We are hosting our first giveaway starting tomorrow. Not one, but TWO bags will be in this drawing. Come back tomorrow to find out which two bags they are and how you can enter your name 20 times if you want to!

Now, on to other things...

Ok, a couple days ago, I made another diaper bag...it's rather belated...but it is done. I used this tutorial of mine which is called the Mod Diaper Bag. A friend of mine had twins in the spring, and they were 10 weeks premature. So, the baby shower was held off until they both made it home healthy from the hospital. Then, I just could not get my life under control enough to start up my sewing again. (we moved in early March to a new house) As I said, it's belated, but better late than never, right? Besides, this thing can be used as a purse eventually anyways!

The recipient is a hUUUge Ohio State fan and had asked for red and black, er, crimson and black. Sorry fans! That was the only specification, so here's what I came up with.

This bag has 6 inner pockets. 2 end pockets for bottles, and 4 side pockets for clothes, diapers, and whatever else you can think of.

Instead of my normal two strap method, I changed this one and made it a little more like a messenger bag. The flap closure is wider, and the single strap is adjustable. I hope you like it sweet friend! I love your boys and will miss you all when you're gone.

Just a couple pretties

I saw some items at a store that gave me some inspiration this week. Thought I'd share a few pictures of what I came up with. WARNING If you are here looking for bags, you will not find them in this post! The first one is made using strips of torn fabric (NOT cut). I think it's my favorite even though I really love the vintage inspired headbands I created as well. This has a shabby chic look to it that I really love!!! I guess we should call it the Shabby Chic headband.

These two pieces of jewelry came from vintage belt buckles.

This butterfly was a vintage broach. In person, the color is somewhere between a pink and a purple so I paired it up with a purple headband.

There's a bead that this broach reminds me of...I think it might be called a "cat's eye" bead? This would be perfect for the person whose favorite color is blue! These headbands will be for sale in my artfire shop as of August 25. So if you're interested, come on over and take a look.

These were fun to make and didn't take any time at all.

Vintage Inspired Headband by Vibrant Designs

I LOVE vintage jewelry. Broaches to be specific but any vintage jewelry is great! I often find jewelry with broken clasps. These pieces are generally either cheap or free. What could I possibly do with broken vintage jewelry? I have saved a few pieces over the years that were just sitting around waiting for me to come up with this idea: my vintage inspired headband!

For this project you will need:

1 1/2 yds of 1/4" velvet ribbon

piece of vintage jewelry

hot glue gun

glue sticks

headband

wire cutters

To begin, cut 2 pieces of ribbon approximately 1 1/2" long. These cover the ends of each side of the headband.

Put hot glue on the headband from the bottom up about a half inch on each side. Place one of the small pieces of ribbon over the glue.

Do this with each side of the headband...



Start at the bottom-inside of the headband, and add a touch of glue. Place the end of the ribbon over the glue, and begin wrapping the ribbon around the headband.

Continue wrapping the headband all the way around until you get to the end. Secure with glue here as well.




Place nickel size amount of glue on the back of your chosen piece of vintage jewelry. Place it on the headband wherever you desire.

Let glue dry and stand back and admire your handiwork!

You can use any piece of jewelry for this project. The wire cutters are for cutting the clasps off the back of the jewelry to create a flat surface for gluing. Happy Crafting! I would love to see what variations others come up with!

"Town" Backpack

(Ahhh! That flap looks off center!)

First I need to say that while I did make this bag, I did NOT create the pattern myself. I found an amazing tutorial at Heart of Mary a while back and actually made two of these last Christmas. Someone saw the one's I made last Christmas and ordered one for themselves. We chose a beautiful teal paisley fabric and a matching green lining with a hint of sparkle to it. The pattern calls for the solid fabric to be the main portion of the bag. I prefer patterned fabric, so I made the pattern fabric for the main portion of the bag, and used the solid as the detail.

I added a zipper pocket on the back inside section of the bag. Instead of a fabric drawstring as per the tutorial, I purchased a package of shoe strings and used one of them. The drawstring pull came from Joann's. After having tried a fabric drawstring on the first "Town" backpack I made, I found that the shoestring worked so much better! I am amazed at how easily this bag comes together! The most difficult part is getting through so many layers on the back of the bag when sewing the handle, straps, flap, and casing to the body of the bag. Before I made the bag, I couldn't visualize how the casing would work out. Heart of Mary did an amazing job on this pattea matching wallet, or credit card holder...

the wallet is now tucked inside the backpack

ahhh...couldn't find a white drawstring so I had to go with black. That really hurts my sense of...I dunno...color coordination maybe? What can you do? These straps are done just like what you would find on a store bought backpack. One piece of hardware works as the slide and the "loop."

You've got to have a handle. Who wants to always be carrying around a backpack purse on their back?

Have to have one good view of the back. It was such a beautiful day out today! See the sunlight shining on the bag?

This bag went together in one day. It's so much easier now than the first time around. Tell me, what's your favorite style bag?

In other news, don't forget to come back next week on thursday. The very first Vibrant Designs bag giveaway will start on Thursday and run for one week. Winners will be announced on Sept 3, so DON'T FORGET TO COME BACK!

Mod Diaper Bag Sale

The Mod Diaper Bag is being featured this month on the Vibrant Designs website!! Come on over to order now and receive 15% off the Mod Diaper Bag. This lasts until September 30th so be sure and order in time for that new baby coming or for that perfect Christmas gift.

Be sure to check back soon. The cross body hipster tutorial will soon make it's appearance but even more exciting than that is our very first blog giveaway! One of our own bags will be featured and given away to the lucky follower/commenter. Keep a close watch!

my Toddler Backpack

My daughter just turned 3 on Friday and I had come up with the idea of making her a little backpack some time ago for when she turned 3. At our church, when the kids turn 3, they move on from the nursery to the adult service in the evening. (Due to lack of space at the moment) So, this means she will be bringing things with her to occupy her time in a quiet manner and she will need a way to carry these items. Hence the reason for the backpack thought. So, I have off and on been asking her what kind of backpack she would like to have. I even lead her a bit, asking if she would like Hello Kitty or Tinkerbell (which she does like both) but she kept coming back to a Dora backpack. To be honest, I do not like Dora real well. Not that Dora is a terrible show, or bad for kids...because it's not. I just think Hellow Kitty or Tinkerbell is TOO cute. I would have loved to have made her one of them, but...oh well...on to the color. So I would ask her what's your favorite color? "Yellow." Every time, yellow. No problem with that, but will one of you find me a Dora backpack in yellow? Pink. Yes. Purple. Yes. Yellow. Not so much. So, I browsed Etsy and found a cute Dora and Boots patch in mainly red and YELLOW. The magic color! So, I purchased the patch and then got to work drafting a pattern for a toddler backpack. If you're interested in a pattern, you can either wait on me to do a tutorial, or you can check out Made by Rae. She has one for sale (that you can find on her sidebar) which is pretty similar to mine but I chose to draft my own pattern because I had already gone over my budget for the project. I decided on my measurements and I figured the basic bag pieces are the same as my Weekender Bag style and they are put together in the same basic way. I used a frisbee to get the curve on the top of the bag, traced it and cut the corners off. I did use piping, but I probably won't do it again in the future. In my opinion, it was too much trouble for a two tone bag. It really didn't even show up. That's just my two cents worth.

The bag in question sitting on our toddler chair. It's partially unzipped. The front has a zipper pocket. I had wanted to do one of those poofy pockets like on store bought backpacks. I thought I had it figured out but I wasted a zipper on it, and couldn't figure out exactly how to go about it. Do any of you have any thoughts on this particular quandry? I was on a strict time schedule so I ended up putting the zipper pocket into the panel instead of on top of it.

I did straps like these but realized afterwards there is another way to do adjustable straps on a bookbag. I'll be trying the other way next time. I added a handle and that was my major mistake. I placed the handle under the straps and sewed them in place at first. I turned the bag and then figured it out. Ugh!! Seam ripper was put to good use here! Oh yeah, I attach my straps on the bottom SIDES. This makes more sense to me and seems to be more comfortable on the back.

A couple of views of the Dora patch I picked out. I wish you could have seen her eyes light up when she pulled out her Dora "packpack." Even though I would have rather made a Hello Kitty or Tink bag, I would have made a dozen more Dora bags just to see that look light up her face!

Stuff inside before church tonight. Mostly stuff she got for her birthday, which turned out to be almost completely Dora. SHE loved the party. I...tolerated it. HA!

The size is a little big, but she can grow into it some that way. Like I said, she's 3 years old, but she wears a size 18-24M. This backpack should fit any average 3 year old.

I have a niece turning 3 in October who LOVES kitties. Can I say, "Hello Kitty?" So if anyone wants to see a tutorial, it'll be a while but I'm willing. First things first though. I'm working on my Cross-body Hipster Tutorial at the moment. It should be ready within 2 weeks so be sure and check back!

INTRODUCING

My BLOG button! I have wanted to do this for so long and I thought it must be crazy difficult. Tonight, I remembered something my husband has told me only a zillion times in the past. Google it. Ha! Ok, so I googled it and I found this tutorial. It was extremely clear, unlike any of the other information I found, and I will let her know how much it helped me. I don't know html. You might as well be speaking in foreign tongues for all I understand the writing of it. Thankfully photobucket does the writing of it for me. Without any further discussion on my part, here is my button. Please let me know if you have any problems with it...and I'll try and find someone who can help you...I mean, I'll be happy to help!


YOUR <a href="http://www.vibrant-designs.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i638.photobucket.com/albums/uu106/preachfitz/Old_sewing_machine-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Vibrant Designs" /></a>

Calling All Penny Pinchers round 2

OK. Where in the world can you find this contraption??? This is hilarious! Is this akin to getting two things done at once?

Sorry. On to the meat of the post...(snickering...uhuhh...)

More Ways to Save Moooolah!

-Have you ever let the laundry sit in the machine after it has been washed, forgetting to put it in the dryer? Then you get that musty/moldy smell, and have to run it through again? (Guilty as charged) What happens in my house is that the hubs or myself drops a load of laundry and leaves for work or something. The adult left at home doesnt' know, and doesn't change over the laundry...henceforth the musty/moldy smell. So tip #1, don't do this! You'll be saving on your water bill and laundry detergent.

-Changing out your regular lightbulbs for those squiggly (as my friend likes to call them), er...fluorescent, light bulbs. A co-worker of mine did this and her electric bill cut nearly in half! This is next on my list of things to do for saving money...

-For those of you who sew bags, you chould frequent yard-sales in the summer for cheap purses with hardware, zippers, buckles, sliders etc on them. This will save you a couple bucks for each bag you make. Happy Sewing!

I don't know about you, but whenever I see this, my inner crazy turns on!!

-Another reason for yard sale shopping...clothes for the upcoming year! I have no erthly idea how much money this saves because I've never bought all new clothes for each of my kids each year. I couldn't because we simply can't afford to. I save new clothes for the things I can't find at yard sales.

-Library as opposed to buying books...or at least, library first to find out if you really like the book. Then...ask for the book for Christmas!

-Try making your Christmas list early in the yar, then keeping an eye out for sales on those items throughout the year. Get it done by Dec 1 and you'll have a little less stress and can actually eNjOy the holiday! (or if you're me, yoiu spend the year trying to make each of the gifts.) *This tip from Househoncho.