Egg Carton Super Chick PDF Tutorial To The Rescue

My deeo fwend, might you need saving today? Is wife, wif its many woes and nevo-ending compwications, geding you down? Do you need a fwendwy someone in a pink cape and owange cwown to come down fwum da sky to sweep you off yo feet and bwing joy to you now? Weo... nevo feeo. It is I! Supo Chick to da weskew!

I have dedicaded my chickwet wife to bwinging smyos to sad faces and to dwying wet teos. My favowite job in da wold is heoping angwee folk waff again.

Do you want me to come to yo house to heop you now? As you can imagine, I am avaiwabo at da cwick of a button. Check me out in da Micheo Made Me Shop!

Hi there!

Michele here.

Yes, what Super Chick says is true. Her sole purpose in life is indeed to make others happy. A noble task if ever there was one. And now she - or a downloadable PDF tutorial showing exactly how to make her - is, in fact, in The Shop just in time for Easter!

Be advised that to make her, you will need an egg carton (as above), a serrated steak knife, scissors, a hole punch, some glue, a bit of paint and paintbrush, a marker, needle-nose pliers and a couple of straight pins.

The Egg Carton Super Chick: Saving the world one frowny face at a time!

♥︎M

Pyramidal Pincushion PDF Tutorial in The Shop!

 

Hi.

Is it Thursday today? I believe so.

Well, this is as good a day as any to update the little Shop, I reckon. Today's offering is one that's been around a spell and that several people have asked me about over the last few years. And, I am nothing if not accommodating. After a while... eventually... when I'm good and ready, that is.

It is the downloadable "Pyramidal Pincushion PDF Tutorial" in all its colourful glory. Notice the cover page screenshot below...

In this tutorial, I show you how to put together this scrappy, felty, pyramidal pincushion. The supplies are decidedly simple. You'll need some felt and felt scraps, cotton string, embroidery thread, scissors, a few pins and needles, and of course the handy-dandy tutorial. With that, you'll be on your way!

The project is probably best suited for the intermediate crafter. You'll do well to posses some basic embroidery skills. And if you're one of those crafters with an artist's heart, you'll find you'll be able to make your very own customized version of the pincushion, if you so desire.

The 9-page PDF covers the step-by-step pincushion-making process and includes detailed photos, a full colour template, live links to some wonderful on-line embroidery instructions, and a convenient black-and-white printable version of the tutorial. 

Here's a screenshot of the last page with two versions of the completed pincushion.

I had a fun time creating and assembling the whole she-bang, and I think you'll have an equally fun time making it.  Henceforth, find the downloadable "Pyramidal Pincushion PDF Tutorial" in the Shop!

♥M

I Felt It Was Time + A Giveaway Winner

Excitement of excitement, I've been busily working on a new Shop tutorial! Hard to believe, I know. It's been way too long, months and months, since I've updated the ol' Shop. The poor thing is no doubt feeling forlorn from neglect. Probably thinks I don't love it anymore. Not the case, I can assure you.  Anyway I'm "knot" going to say much more about it at this time, except that I "felt" it was time. (Ya, that's a clue alright... along with the above pic.)

Now, on to more pressing matters... that Giveaway Winner I mentioned?

Yes, well... as chosen by my very own personal random number generator -The Boy - the winner of Quilting Happiness is...  Commenter #26: TRACEY who said: Looks like a great book, thank you for the review and chance to win. 

Congratulations Tracey, you're most welcome, and I think you'll enjoy this book! Wahoot! I will email you forthwith to arrange delivery.

♥M

Box-Covered Boxes PDF Tutorial In The Shop!

Unusually, today's post is freakishly in line with the shop post of earlier this week. I surprise even myself sometimes. Could I be more organized? I don't think so...

Screen shot of the Box-Covered Boxes PDF Tutorial

So, in keeping with that organizational mood, I give you my latest PDF tutorial... "Box-Covered Boxes"! In this lovely, albeit oddly titled, 6-page step-by-step downloadable project, I show you a fun way to uniquely transform a cereal, cracker or tissue box into a sturdy and sophisticated, one-of-a-kind storage container. See? Storage container. To keep you all organized and such? Yeah, that's right.

Requiring only the simplest of tools and materials such as a pair of scissors, a utility knife, glue, a few empty cracker or cereal boxes, and a ruler and pencil, this re-use project does take a little patience but even the new crafter can achieve some truly lovely results. Do note that this craft is NOT suitable for children as it requires the use of a utility knife and your fine fine-motor skills.

Find the sweet "Box-Covered Boxes" PDF downloadable tutorial in the Michele Made Me Shop! 

♥M

Michele Made Me Shop

Disclosure: When a reader clicks the button in this post and registers with E-junkie, I am compensated financially.

It occurred to me the other day that I haven't written about the "Michele Made Me Shop" much at all. So I wanted to share a little of what having my own online shop is like for me.

First, some background. I opened my shop back in September 2011 which, wowee, makes it a whole year and a half old I guess! It features downloadable PDF tutorials of predominantly re-use type projects, similar to the free tutorials that appear on the blog. I don't sell actual objects. Only digital content.

My shop setup couldn't be simpler. I set it up on one of my blog pages and powered it through E-junkie. What's that? E-junkie is, in the words of the company itself, "a copy-paste shopping cart and digital delivery service to sell anything, anywhere, easily". Essentially, I just upload my PDF tutorials to their site and, for a small monthly fee, they take care of the rest from dealing with payment to distributing the documents to my client. I'm so pleased with how smoothly it worked right from the get-go. It's pretty great!


I don't know how I decide which projects will become shop PDFs. I think I reserve what I consider to be my more unique ideas for the shop. But not always. Each PDF tutorial is a labour of love, that's for sure. Every one takes energy and time. Once I decide to make a shop PDF, then my level of effort goes up a notch because I know that people will be handing over their hard-earned money for it. I do not take that for granted. I try very hard to put the best of myself in each one.

I create all my shop tutorials in Apple iPages, a word processor and page layout program. When I decided to open the shop, I knew nothing of iPages or document layout at all. To this day, I'm picking it up as I go. I find learning new software super-challenging and scary. Something about it turns me into this spineless, incompetent, intensely whiny monster. It's not a side of myself that I'm particularly proud of. She doesn't come out very often; I try to keep her under lock and key. And I know my go-to computer guy (my husband Lo), barely tolerates her. BUT I had to let her out to learn iPages and eventually, she did! I want to cry though because I'm familiar with iPages now, it works for me and I actually like it, but Apple hasn't updated it for 4 years and probably never will!!! Snif snif... At some point I will have to look into a new layout program like Adobe In-Design. Which, of course, means releasing the monster. So I put it off... I put it off... I put it off... I put it off... One day I'll have to take the plunge, and, Gord, it won't be pretty. Sigh...

Edited to Add 13 Feb 2013: 

The brilliant Sister Diane just sent me a note to let me know that iPages was (despite Apple still calling it iPages '09) updated in 2012. I'm a little confused about the name thing BUT happy/relieved! Here's a link with those details: Apple Updates iWork. Thanks so much Diane!

Screen shot of Egg Carton Nativity Scene PDF Tutorial

Having only one shop to go by, and therefore only one data point, I can only speculate as to how well the Michele Made Me Shop is actually doing. I'm not a millionaire yet, in case you were wondering. But it has a nice flow of visitors and customers too. So I think it's doing pretty well.

What motivates a person to want to open an on-line digital shop? In my case, it was financial. I felt that I could only rationalize continuing to blog at the pace I do if I were contributing to my family's earnings. After all, we all have to eat and clothe ourselves. Coconut macaroons are a must. As are flannel pyjamas. I considered the many and varied ways to make the blog pay for itself. To be honest, I continue to think about it. What feels right for me? What suits my character? What fits in with my values? Obviously, one of the money-making strategies I settled on, was the digital shop. For someone who is lazy in certain crucial ways as I am, the Michele Made Me Shop is a perfect fit. Basically, it runs itself. When I'm ready, I upload new tutorials to the shop. I don't ever worry about filling orders. Customers download the PDF tutorials at their own leisure. And I get to share my michele-way of crafting with the world while making money!

Screen shot of Denim Bowl PDF Tutorial

Maybe this is absolutely the wrong way of looking at it, but I kinda see my shop as a glorified donation button. For a few dollars and a couple clicks, people who want to support me and see this blog continue and flourish can very easily download a beautiful creative re-use tutorial. I often feel that when a client clicks that cute "add-to-cart" button, they are not just doing it to get the next thing. They are telling me something. They're sending me a message. And it says: "I really love what you're doing here. It's worth something to me." That's important to hear sometimes I think. It's a message that builds me up and makes me stronger. And I thank you, my precious client, for sending it.

♥M

Egg Carton Nativity Scene PDF Tutorial in The Shop!

Warning: This promotional post is littered with bad puns and exclamation marks.

Today I have the eggstreme pleasure of introducing you to my latest egg carton tutorial for purchase in The Shop!

The "Egg Carton Nativity Scene PDF Tutorial" is an eggshellent, 35-page, full-colour, downloadable set of photographed instructions for making a 14-piece nativity scene out of egg cartons. That's white, I said egg cartons! As you may or may not know, I love my egg cartons. I think they are eggsquisite, and that's no yoke!

Edited to add: Please note that, unfortunately, English egg cartons are not compatible with this North American egg carton pattern.

Screen shot of the PDF title page and document

In the tutorial, I show you how to make The Holy Family, the three Wise Men bearing gifts, the ox and donkey, the shepherds, their lamb, and more! Only the simplest of tools and materials are required to fashion the lot of them including a pair of scissors, an exacto knife, a hole punch, gobs of glue and paint, and of course, of whole coop full of egg cartons!

Please do keep in mind that this craft can be done by the whole family but results will vary with skill level and age, and children will require adult supervision.

Here is a peek at the little lamb. He cracks me up...

The "Egg Carton Nativity Scene PDF Tutorial" is ready and roosting in The Shop!

♥M

Hexcellent Headband PDF Tutorial in The Shop!

Yay, as promised, the Hexcellent Headband Tutorial is now available as a PDF download in the shop!

I thought I'd do something a little different and upload a little taste - screenshot above - of what a customer gets when they purchase the PDF Tutorial. See? It's a very pretty document containing a supplies list, step-by-step instructions, full colour photography, live links, and to top it all off, a printer-friendly version!

I get a lot of satisfaction pulling each PDF tutorial together for the shop. So many different skills come into play: design, crafting, photography, layout, writing, editing, patience, late-night snacking... I truly enjoy the process but it pretty much amazes me how much time, raw emotion and chocolate chip cookies go into each one, truth be told. But seeing that finished PDF on screen... well that is, in two words: FREAKING SWEET! And makes it all worth it.

So, if you missed this particular tutorial during the 7-day "get-it-while-it's-free" stage, let me tell you a little more about it now. The tutorial is a 6-page downloadable document that shows you how to make this cute hexagon headband from some small fabric scraps, interfacing, and a widely available standard elastic headband. It requires access to a computer and printer, but otherwise no special tools are needed. You'll use only scissors, a marker, straight pins, and needle and thread. With guidance, an older child (10 years and up) could make it.

Once again, the Hexcellent Headband Tutorial is available here.

You have yourself a fine day. Me? I'm feeling rather peckish...

♥M

Denim Bowl PDF Tutorial in The Shop!

Happy Saturday to you!

Today I have a joyful little shop update!

It is a PDF downloadable tutorial for a two-toned recycled denim bowl. The 6-page photo tutorial will guide you step-by-step through the creation of this pretty bowl. The project requires little skill and only a few supplies including a couple scraps of denim, a bit of crochet cotton, some fabric stiffener, and a circular metal juice lid from a frozen concentrated fruit juice container. The end result is not only very pretty and unique, but also useful and most satisfying to put together. I know you will enjoy it, just as I did!

The PDF downloadable tutorial is available in the Shop!

Have yourself a fabulous weekend. I'll return again very soon.

♥M

Juice Can Cereal Box Basket Tutorial in The Shop!

It's time I update my wee shop, don't you think?

Today's shop offering is a 9-page PDF tutorial for my "Juice Can Cereal Box Basket". You've probably divined from its name that it is entirely recycled. And you've no doubt correctly assumed that it is woven from a metal-bottomed, frozen concentrated fruit juice container and a cereal box. You'd be right on both counts, of course.

Does this mean we're on the same page, you and I, and I barely have to speak anymore? That's okay. It's good that we're comfortable. I'm happy that you "get me" you know? Darn nice, that.

Well I  am off to enjoy my weekend. You have a lovely one too.

♥M

A Dozen Egg Carton Folk Ornaments Tutorial in the Shop!

Happy Saturday!

There's a new PDF Tutorial in the Shop...

As you can imagine from today's post and Thursday's as well, I've been obsessing over my stash of egg cartons lately. Over the last little while, I've spent some time (maybe way too much) creating a dozen egg carton people. Of course, they were so darn cute I had to (I had no choice, man) make Christmas tree ornaments out of them!

It's amazing how many little people you can make with egg cartons. Honestly. I made 12 of them. And then I turned the whole thing into a 28 page PDF tutorial. Crazy? Okay, I admit it may be a little nutty of me but hey, it was a hoot-and-a-half to do! And I have no doubt that someone somewhere will have a fantastic time making these, just as I did.

So "A Dozen Egg Carton Folk Ornaments" PDF Tutorial is now living in the shop. Why, in heaven's name, can't I come up with shorter titles for these things, I ask you?... At any rate, the characters you'll be able to create using the techniques in the tutorial are limitless, but I've come up with 12 to get you started. They include a set of fraternal twins, an angel, a school boy, a knight, a little ol' lady and several more. Aside from the egg cartons, the list of materials required is short and sweet. You'll need egg cartons, string, gesso if desired, acrylic paint, a marker, a pair of scissors, an exacto knife, a regular hole punch, some glue and a large needle.

Edited to add: Please note that, unfortunately, English egg cartons are not compatible with this North American egg carton pattern.

I hope you're in the midst of a fantastic weekend. I will see you again on Tuesday!

♥M

TP Roll Thistle Ornament Tutorial in the Shop!

Happy Saturday! I'm happy to report that the TP Roll Thistle Ornament PDF Tutorial is now available in my shop. This little guy has been in the works for eons. See, I conceived of him last summer as part of the Feast of the Flower series, and then it took me a while to get my act together and make up the PDF tutorial. Good things take time I figure...

The design has been flipped on its head, and updated with gorgeous colour and detailed step-by-step photo instructions. In terms of supplies, all you will need to make this recycled ornament are toilet paper rolls, paint and paint brush, glue, scissors, an Exacto knife, some string, a ruler and pencil. That's it! Oh, and um yes, you will also need to set aside a little time to focus on creating it; some skill is necessary to achieve the thistle effect. In addition, please note that this is NOT a craft for young children. Exacto knives and kids do not mix.

The 8-page TP Roll Thistle Ornament PDF Tutorial is hanging happily in my my wee shop!

Have a delightful weekend. I will be with you again on Tuesday.

Drop-Dead Denim: Pocket House Picture Frame in the Shop

The Drop-Dead Denim month made me do it...

As you can see, this little project combines an upended blue jeans pocket and yesterday's Denim Photo Flower Tutorial along with a sprinkling of embroidery to create the Pocket House Picture Frame.

"The Pocket House Picture Frame Tutorial and Template" is happily esconced in the shop.

Today I'm Diggin' This Denim: Potholders by Alisa Burke

I hope you're having a sunny Saturday. See you Monday!

Drop-Dead Denim: Fern 'n Bird Chair Cushion

Did you know that it's September? Did you know that Michele Made Me and friends are doing only denim crafts this September? Did you know there's a lot of stuff you can do with denim? Did you?

'Cause there is.

It's the truth I tell you.

Just look at these recent posts: here, here, here and here.

And furthermore, my chair cushion is covered with denim. And there's a bird on it. As well as a fern. It's my Bern 'n Fird chair cushion. I mean Fern 'n Bird chair cushion.

Edited to Add: March 6, 2016 - The Fern 'n Bird Chair Cushion Tutorial and Template is now available on the Tutorial page!

And did you notice that I have a shop now. I'm an honest-to-goodness shop owner. See how cool and casual I am about it? Hello my name is Michele and I own a shop. True, there's only one thing in the shop but whatever. I have a shop. Insert a million smiley faces.

Check out my newly opened (literally seconds ago) shop HERE.

So the chair. What can I say about the chair?

Well... the chair used to be brown and green like so:

But I removed the cushion, sanded the brown down with all my might, and gave it several coats of not-quite-white paint mixed from some painty remnants I had kicking around. I decided to recover the cushion in these greyish-blue jeans for the Drop-Dead Denim event.

But I wanted to spiff the denim up a little so I decided to go the freezer-paper stenciling route and to that end, created the Fern'n Bird design. Then I re-covered the cushion in my newly pretty-fied jean and screwed the cushion back onto the chair. And lo and behold, a denim chair with fern 'n bird!

Swank, eh?

Now I have to make a matching one. I'm ever so pleased with the result! Ain't denim great?

Have you ever made anything from your old jeans? If so, what are you waiting for? Upload it to the Drop-Dead Denim Flickr Group so I can take a gander.

Today I'm Diggin' This Denim: Anthropologie's Grafton Chair

You have yourself a great weekend. My friend Charissa of The Gifted Blog will be taking care of Monday's Drop-Dead Denim post. I'll see you then!