Let me introduce you to...

Cassie from Primitive and Proper!!  So, I'm a seamstress, but I do have lofty goals of redoing/refurbishing old furniture.  I have three great pieces in my craft room at the moment that would look great as one of Cassie's pieces!  So, I've been haunting her blog, trying to learn and glean as much as I can before this summer, when I attempt to, myself, redo these three pieces I own.  It's a scary thought...but moving on...

Hi all! I am Cassie from Primitive and Proper and I am so excited to be a guest here at Julie's lovely blog!

I know Julie focuses mainly on sewing, but I have a little furniture eye candy for you today.  Trust me when I tell you you don't want to see my sewing projects, or have me giving you any sewing advice.  I can sew straight lines, and have made some pillows and curtains in my time, but my talent and patience at the sewing machine is limited.  My craft is furniture refinishing, primarily painting.  I thought today I would just take you through some of my favorite all time before and afters, and share loads of color inspiration.
This French sideboard is to date I think my most popular post.

Another all time favorite is this red vanity.  Red can be a challenge to work with, but always looks so fun!

Green is another fun color to work with!  This dresser was given a ore modern look with glossier paint and white painted hardware.

And this has got to be one of my all time favorites, but I love gray and white!


I have painted furniture in almost every color under the sun!  I have done white shabby chic finishes, glossier modern, distressed and antiqued... I like to try it all!  Sometimes I get adventurous with pattern, like on this desk.

And this dresser...

There are so many fun thigs you can do with furniture!  If you are into before and afters, I also host a furniture makeover party every Wednesday called POWW (Piece of Work Wednesday), where you can party and share ideas.  I hope you will hop over and pay me a visit!

Julie, thank you so much for having me here today!

WOW!!  Aren't those pieces amazing?  I am loving them!  Now, which colors should I choose for my three pieces?

Touring Tuesday: The Little People...a tutorial

If you haven't yet entered in Kitty Cats and Airplanes giveaway, please do so!!!

As I was doing research for our upcoming vacation, I found a couple websites that gave this tip: bring along a package (or 2 or 3) of pipecleaners to let your kids play with.  They can make letters, numbers, shapes, crowns, bracelets, necklaces, you name it!  So, for our recent trip, I picked up a package of pipecleaners and tried it out.

Hmmm...maybe it's because my kids are all fairly young yet, but who do you think made most of the shapes?  Yeah.  Their not so very crafty mommy. (At least when it comes to pipecleaners!)  I did, however, come up with this little cutie.

Neither of my kids is a blond, but my middle child loves the color yellow.  So of course when I asked what color her hair should be it was none other than yellow.  Wanna know how I made this little girl?

You'll need one yellow pipecleaner and one white pipecleaner.

(The materials list is astounding!  I know.)

Make a loop like so to get an idea of where in half is...

Make a small circle at the half way point and then twist the two tales once.

Bend the left end about a 1/2" down...the first arm...wrap it once around the base (shoulder) of the arm.

It should look like this now...

Bend it again about 1/2" away from the shoulder.

Wrap the end around the shoulder/chest area 3-4 times.

You will end up with a 'short' leg.  You can either clip this off now, or feed it into the body at the end.

Now we'll be utilizing the second end...

Bend the end about 3/4" away from the 'crotch.'

Fold the end up towards the crotch and twist once around the base of the thigh.  Wrap the end around the back of the body...

And angle it downward to shape the second leg. 

Bend leg about 3/4" away from crotch or base of thigh. 

Wrap any ends you have around the body or upper leg.

Making the hair...

Feed the yellow pipecleaner through the head to the halfway point of the pipecleaner. 

Wrap the pipecleaner around the head...

Continue wrapping the pipecleaner until you reach the desired length and clip off the end.

At this point, if you decide you want a pigtail, wrap the other end a couple more times down the 'face' (or the right side), clip it, and you're done

If you want hair down both sides, continue wrapping the pipecleaner down the other side until you reach your desired length then clip the end off.

And here is my yellow haired little person for my daughter.

I might add that these little people kept my 5 year old and 3 year old occupied for about 45 minutes in the van!!  I was quite surprised.  They're leapster and dvd kind of kids on trips, so this was...ehmm, different for all of us.   

Kitty Cats and Airplanes Giveaway!!

First of all, I would like to thank Bree of My Crafty Crap (okay, I love her blogs name!) for guest posting here yesterday about her blog and the exciting things happening there.  I too am taking part in her Style Stitches Sew Along this year...

although, don't tell anyone, but I have yet to take part.  I WILL THOUGH!!!  And those who DO take part get to also take part in each month's giveaway!!  Yeah, that is awesome. :)  So, if you've never seen her blog, head on over...as soon as you read this post!

I'm pretty sure I found Aimee of Kitty Cats and Airplanes via a blog link up party....somewhere.  However, I DO remember the item she made that lead me to her little corner of the blogosphere!  It was her very pretty

button bracelet for which she gave a wonderful tutorial!!  Then as I continued to wander her blog, I found that she had just done a series of jewelry making tutorials.  Oh dear me yes, something I would love to learn but know nothing about!  I read all four: here, here, here, and here.  Welcome Aimee!!

Hello Vibrant Design readers! I am so thrilled Julie invited me to guest blog for her today!  I'm Amie, and I run a little blog called Kitty Cats and Airplanes. It's a place I like to share my crafty endeavors, recipes, and other projects that inspire me. I have serious crafting ADD, so you're sure to always find something new and exciting!

This is me and my hubby, isn't he dreamy? He's great, he puts up with all of my crafting obsessions and even dabbles in some crafts himself! Some of my favorite projects include:

 Button bracelet. I love making jewelry! I have both an Esty and a whoopdwhoop shop where I sell and swap my jewelry.

Chic black lace skirt.

And a grown up lace bow. I have a ton of tutorials so be sure to take a minute to check out all of them!

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Are you totally ready for spring? Some of you lucky folks might be blessed with year round warmth, but I live in Maryland and it was in the 30s today! I've been craving some springtime bliss, so I decided to spring up my accessories with this!

This cute zipper flower cuff definitely causes me to daydream of the smell of fresh cut flowers. Mission accomplished! Wanna make one of your own?

You will need:

• Felt
• Spring colored zippers
• Fun buttons
• Glue gun
• Scissors (both pinking shears and embroidery scissors)
• Needle and thread (not pictured)
• Disappearing ink pen (not pictured)

Got it all?

First, we gotta make the cuff. Cut out a strip of felt two inches wide with your pinking shears. Feel free to use your straight scissors here, but I liked the interest the pinking shears added.

Wrap it around your wrist, and add an inch to the measurement. Cut your felt strip to size, your wrist measurement plus an inch. You could easily just measure your wrist measurement, add an inch, and then cut your felt to size, but I was too lazy to go find my measuring tape.

Dig through your buttons and find a cute one. Using a needle and thread, sew it onto one end of your felt strip.

Next we're going to make a button hole. Wrap your cuff around your wrist again, and overlap the button.

It's kind of hard to see, so hopefully I can explain this well! Press the felt on the button and find the edge of it. Make a tiny dot on with your disappearing ink pen. Feel around on the other side, find the edge of the button, and make another dot. These dots should be more on the inside of the button, you want the button hole to be smaller than the size of the button! Keep in mind you can always make the button hold bigger, but to make it smaller you have to bust out the needle and thread again and that's just too much work to even think about!

Use the embroidery scissors to carefully cut in between the two dots. Remember, it's way better to make the button hole too small than too big!

Now you've got your cuff! I would totally wear this as is, but like I said, I'm desperate for spring time loveliness. Time to embellish!

You're going to get six petals from your zipper. The shorter your zipper, the smaller your petals will be.

And measure it. (Yeah, had to get up to get a ruler. Ruined my lazy plans.) Divide that number in three and mark with the disappearing ink pen again.

Unzip the zipper and carefully cut on your marks. You'll end up with six little zipper pieces.

To make the petals, shoot a little bit of glue from your gun on one end.

And fold the other end over. It's all petal-y now! Repeat with the other five pieces.

And you'll end up with six little petals. Huzzah! Set them aside for now.

To make the vine-y things, I just unzipped a green zipper and cut off the ends.

Fold one end under, and randomly glue the green zipper in a zig zaggy line across the length of the cuff.

Like so! Then you can glue your petals on! (I'm getting a little ahead of myself here.)

Glue your other petals on and add a cute button for the center.

And proudly wear that baby out! Ahhh, I can already feel the spring breeze on my face. :)

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Giveaway Alert!
With all that spring cleaning you've been doing, you deserve something new to add to your jewelry box! I'm giving away anything you want from my whoopdwhoop shop! Yes, anything! (What is whoopdwhoop? Click here!)

How can you win?

• Leave a comment! Make sure to include your email address so you can be contacted if you win. 

For extra entries:

• Follow Kitty Cats and Airplanes.
• Like the Kitty Cats and Airplanes facebook page.

Three easy ways to win! The giveaway will run through Saturday, April 1st. Good luck!