Flower Barretts--Melinda

For these clips, I modified the pattern here so the flower would have 6 petals. I got the idea from a friend who sells them, SOOOOOO if you aren't a crocheter and think these are cute, go HERE and you can buy ya some (prices are fairly modest too).



Melinda-- I'm going to post this, because it's cute. If you still need to add anything you can edit it at any time.

Halloween Treats!--Melinda

So I actually made these last year, but I was looking for pictures of things to post here, since it's been awhile, and saw these and thought it was timely (I've been using that word alot lately). The instructions were out of a Parenting magazine, but I don't know if it's posted. Here's what I remember:

Place white melties (or white chocolate) in a double boiler (I make a make shift double boiler by putting a bowl on top of a small pot of boiling water) or melt in microwave (stirring often), add a couple drops of green food coloring (I used the Crayola Neon colors green I think). Coat one end of pretzel with chocolate mixture, then roll one side in desired "hair" (coconut flakes-you can color that too, stirring in food coloring with the flakes, but I'm the only one who loves coconut, so we used chocolate sprinkles). Then put a hersey Kiss at the top ( make sure that there is enough white chocolate on top so it will stick!). Set on a wax paper or parchment lined cookie sheet and draw on a face!


Put em up as decoration, I filled the cup with beans to hold the pretzels up...although if you have little ones, you will probably end up with a bunch of pretzel stumps because they will snitch them and only eat the tops off :-)

Conversation Heart barrett's--Melinda

First off, lemme introduce myself :-) My name is Melinda and I grew up in SW Washington state. I went to college in Rexburg, ID where I met Crystal who, when we recently got re-acquainted with each other via FaceBook, invited me to contribute to this blog! My 'craftiness' has gone through phases, when I was little I thought I was VERY good at everything.....then I grew up and realized that I was really only good at a FEW things....and now I'm honing those few things. And since I haven't perused this blog much yet on my own, I'm not totally sure of what to put on here, but I thought I'd do a pseudo tutorial with this one. Onto the craft:


I got into crocheting when a former roommate taught me (she had learned from her adopted grandma in Rexburg) and I have really come to enjoy it. I don't get to do it very often, but for me it's a lot easier than knitting.

A friend of mine does amazing ribbon hair clips for girls and that's what got me started. One of these days I'll post about the curly ribbon ones. Anyhow....I found a pattern for a crocheted heart (click here) and made one exactly as shown for practice and to get a feel for it. Since it's quite a bit BIGGER than a hair barret should be....I modified it by only going 9 rows before making the top part of the hearts and chaining the border all the way around. (I used crochet thread and I think a 1.9cm hook...or 2.1 I can't remember, it all depends on what size you want). I then used a needle and red crochet thread to sew the word "Love" onto the pink ones. Then I used a high temp glue gun (lower temps will cause the ribbon to fall off) to glue ribbon around the outside edge of a double prong clip (can be found at any beauty supply store, such as Sally's or Peerless) and then arranged the hearts the way I wanted and hot glued them onto the ribbon on the clip and voila!

I have to say that I think these are one of my most favorite accomplishments of the recent past!