T-Shirt Diaries and More

It's the last Upcycled Awesome until Stashbusting September starts tomorrow. Are you ready? Doing some last minute supply shopping? I am personally taking it easy getting ready for the excitement of seeing all of your wonderful projects. Link up your stashbusting goodness below:

Stashbusting September is about to start, have you signed up? You can go beyond just signing up and put the blog hop link on your page so your crafting friends can join in the fun! First off this Stashbusting September is going to be different because it is going to be run hear at The T-Shirt Diaries, and also over at Pinkapoamus. Secondly we have a lovely mascot. Seriously what would a contest be without a mascot? So let me introduce you to Stashbusting Sam: Stashbusting September blogs are voluntarily giving up buying crafting supplies for the month of September. They promise to: Link your blog (the main page please not an individual post) to the linky below. The linky will be open until September 3th at Midnight. Craft for personal use only with items they have on hand. No buying new craft supplies, even if you are shopping at Goodwill or garage sales. It is all about busting your craft supply at hand and actually doing those projects you bought all the stash for in the ...

I Love belonging to a CSA.For anyone who doesn't know what a CSA is it stands for Community Shared Agriculture. You basically pay for a share of a farm and get fabulous fresh produce every week. I am so happy to ramp up my families produce consumption for the twenty or so weeks during the year that we participate in the CSA. The one problem I have every year is what to do with all the Kale? I have been making stir fried greens and collard greens, but really I get bags and bags of this beautiful Kale and I just didn't know what to do, until now. I have discovered the joy of Kale Chips! First cut the stems out of your Kale and lay them on your baking sheet. Oh yeah preheat your oven to 350 degrees at this point. Next you will want to drizzle the kale with olive oil and sprinkle on some salt. I don't have exact measurements, but don't over saturate the kale. Place the Kale chips in the oven for 10-15 minutes. you want them to dry out and brown a littl...

It's Easy just link up your Stashbusting September projects to the "Stash Bust" page (coming on September 1st and the powers that be will narrow everything down to the top ten. Who are the powers that be? We are still waiting on hearing back from some guest judges. We will put a poll up for the top ten, run it for a week and the winners will be revealed. F.A.Q. Do I have to sign up for Stashbusting September to enter the contest?  Yes What if I slip and buy something, can I still enter? We all make mistakes, slip, run into a once and a lifetime sale that just can't be passed up. I hope you don't slip, but if you do all will be forgiven and you can still link up.  Can judges vote for themselves?  No Can I enter more than one stashbusting project? Please enter as many projects as you want. What if I shop twice? Then it is really not a month of stashbusting is it? What if I have to shop for my job? It's your job that is cool just don't grab an...

First off I want to thank the wonderful bloggers who donated prizes for stashbusting September. This is huge and so very generous. They have faith in your mad stashbusting skills and want to reward you for your efforts. First and second prize will win this fabulous prize package from Jill at Envirocraftiness: Each Prize Package will include: 1 clutch 2 sets of hair pins 2 reversible headbands I am so jealous I wish that I could win! I love the hairclips. Third place will win a set of twelve cards thanks to: Aren't they lovely! Finally we have a pattern from: Nancy's Couture For a Bowtique Blouse Pattern PDF (So cute!): More information to come on how you can win these fabulous and fun prizes. Please show the wonderful bloggers who donated some love by visiting their site, you just might find a new blog to Envy! Happy Stashbusting,

Today I would love to share a little stashbusting inspiration since September is literally right around the corner! This morning I made a cute little yarn wreath from all materials that I had lying around my craft room.  I love, love, love making wreaths.. they are soo versatile, festive and simple.    Here is the one I made today! I used an old wreath from the $1 store, 1 skein of yarn, scrap fabric, twine and buttons. First I started by wrapping my whole wreath in brown yarn. Then I wrapped the wreath with some twine. Then I added fabric flowers in different shapes and sizes. Last I painted the letter I for my last initial and hung it on a brown ribbon. Viola.. a few less items in my craft room and a beautiful wreath for my door! Hope you join Stashbusting September too.. it's going to be FUN! And don't forget you can visit me anytime HERE Love, Amie

*** Quick Note: Stashbusting September sign-ups in the post below! PLEASE sign-up now*** It is Upcycled Awesome #59. Link up your projects below and show the world what an awesome upcycler you are! If you have some stashbusting projects feel free to show us those too! Heck anythig goes if you crafted it you can link it.

This weekend my husband and I ran the OROC race. OROC stands for Outrun Ovarian Cancer. It was an important race for me because my my mother-in-law is an Ovarian Cancer survivor. Some important facts about Ovarian Cancer from the OROC Website : This year, 28,000 women in the U.S. will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer A Pap smear is NOT a test for ovarian cancer: A Pap smear detects cervical cancer There is no reliable screening method for detecting ovarian cancer Currently, most women are diagnosed with an advanced stage of the disease If ovarian cancer is detected early; it is a manageable disease with a much higher survival rate Family medical history can provide essential clues to a predisposition to ovarian and other female cancers The risk of ovarian cancer increases with age, especially around the time of menopause Symptoms are subtle, persistent and usually increase over time  It was an amazing race with so many amazing people. Balloons were released in...

My favorite part of Stashbusting September is all of the amazing ideas that other bloggers come up with. If you are interested in providing a guest post (and we have a lot of good ones coming up) about your stashbusting journeys and a tutorial on one of your creations please email me at thetshirtdiaries@yahoo.com. I am hoping to put together the schedule by Wednesday so please! Throw your hat in the ring as soon as you can. P.S. if you would like to donate a prize I would love it! We have some great stashbusting prizes lined up and I would love to add more to our goodie bag!

I have it, I will admit it. There are craft blogs that I check non-stop. They are probably the same ones that you do, but just in case you haven't checked out some of these lovelies take a click and enjoy some of my addictions:   Who isn't obsessed with MADE? I loved her recent tutorial on how to make your own banner and am pretty darn embarrassed I haven't gotten a new banner going on. Doesn't the name say it all? Lots of great tutorials and stuff for boys. I LOVE it! Zween is an amazing blog here in Cleveland. She focuses on upcycling which I love and her products are so cute. She makes this fabulous upcycled bag plush owl. So adorable and the fused wallets, I love them. Eco- Friendly in Cleveland it really doesn't get any better! Other mentionables I can not live without: Little Pink Monster Tea Rose Home Lil Blue Boo The list could go on! Basically I LOVE all blogs!

*** Quick Note: Stashbusting September Link is first, then on the bottom of the page is this weeks Upcycled Awesome, which will ask for a thumbnail picture of your awesome project!*** So much to do so little time. First:  I am in the first round of Auditions over at So You Think You're Crafty . If you're not familiar with the contest, So You Think You're Crafty has a theme every week and each competitor must create something based on that theme and voters (you!) decide who moves on the next week. The competitor with the least votes each week must leave the competition and the competitor with the most votes wins that round. I'd love to at least make the top 10. Go browse and go vote! !  Secondly: Have you signed up for Stashbusting September? It starts in two weeks do so here: Finally It is Upcycled Awesome #58. Link up your projects below and show the world what an awesome upcycler you are!

Please head on over to vote. I can't tell you which one is mine, because it has to be fair in the game of crafts, but vote for your favorite. Wish me luck all the auditions are awesome and only ten of us get in the game. Vote now!

I have been wondering if your significant other reads your blog. Being a crafting blog it's not like I reveal anything scandalous about my family (there is nothing scandalous but lets just pretend). I do however try to be honest about things like say my baking failures They were supposed to be drop cookies and my crafting supply addictions. So the answer to my own question is NO ? Frankly my husband could care less about the world of crafting. How about yours?

Stashbusting September is almost here!  Hip Hip Hooray!  Stashbusters save the day!  I can't wait .. so in preparation for the real stash bust I have been racking my brains with ways to use the hundreds um thousands of pieces of crafting paraphanalia that I own.  So today I started small.. you know just some pieces of scrap fabric to make my daughter a sweet little flowered headband because you don't have to go BIG to use your stash.. you just need a little creativity! So here is how you can make one for you or someone you love. Ingredients Headband scrap fabric glue stiffy fabric stiffener Take your fabric and cut into into a looong strip, long enough to cover the outside of the headband.  I glued one end to the bottom and then wound it all the way around and glued to opposite end so it looked like this: I made a little rose for the top of the headband by cutting fabric into a circle. Then I cut it around and added some little curves to the outside. Then I pu...