Showing posts with label guest post. Show all posts
Showing posts with label guest post. Show all posts

Friday, 30 May 2014

Guest Post: How To Remove the Image Border / Shadow in Blogger

Today's guest post is a useful blogging tip from MJ who blogs at Little Panda Crafts...

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Hello everyone! My name is MJ and I blog over at Little Panda Crafts. Thanks so much to Lupin for having me here! 

Today I wanted to share a blogging tip with you all. Do you have that image border or "shadow" that pops up automatically whenever you post a picture? Like this:


At first, I really didn't mind. Then..it started becoming annoying. I wanted to get rid of it...but how? Turns out you can do it with these few easy steps!

1. Go to Blogger. Click on Template, then Customize.


2. Once in Customized, click on Advanced.


3. Scroll down through the choices in Advanced until you see Add CSS. Click on it.


4. Paste the following code into the text box:

.post-body img, .post-body .tr-caption-container, .Profile img, .Image img,
.BlogList .item-thumbnail img {
  padding: none !important;
  border: none !important;
  background: none !important;
  -moz-box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px transparent !important;
  -webkit-box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px transparent !important;
  box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px transparent !important;
}


5. Make sure you hit Enter after the } or last character. Then click Apply to Blog.


And there you go! No more annoying image border/shadow!


I hope you all enjoyed this tutorial! Please let me know if it worked for you, or if you have any questions. Thanks again to Lupin for having me guest post today! :)

Love love love! MJ

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MJ is a blogger who loves crafting, writing, and meeting new friends! You can visit her blog at www.littlepandacrafts.blogspot.com to find more crafting or blogging inspiration, or just to chat :) She's also on Pinterest & Bloglovin.

Fancy taking part in my Guest Post series? Click here for more info.

Friday, 16 May 2014

Guest Post: Honey Bee Felt Busy Book

Ooh, look, another fab guest post! :)

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Hi – I'm Monica from Marc’s Treasure Basket! I'm into all sorts of things that involve kids and creativity.  I'm working on creating an amazing space that has the best of kids, learning through play, creativity, DIY & yarning, where you’ll find all sorts of easy and fun activities and craft projects to do with and for your children! I've created my first Busy Book (with FREE patterns) and what better place to share, than Bugs & Fishes!


This Busy Bee Book is packed with everyday skills a preschool child needs to learn to become independent and confident. This isn't really a book, more like stack of cards. I did this for a few reasons. Firstly, this allows the pages to be separated so more than one kid can use it at a time (which always helps in a room full of kids). Secondly, if one of the pages gets ruined, fingers crossed it's the only that does! I also purposely made no loose pieces - it's like socks- where in the heck do they go and how do they get lost!!!!

This book has been a real pleasure to make. I did most of it by hand, which was a first for me and I truly found it very therapeutic!


The best way to enjoy early spring sunshine spilling through the window!!

What I used:
Six 8 x 8 inch Felt Squares and a pack of assorted coloured felt
Needle and assorted coloured thread
Buttons
Hemline Pins
Fabric Glue
5.5mm and 8.7mm Eyelets
Small pair of Scissors
Soft Toy Filling
Cardboard (six 7 & 3/4 x 7 & 3/4 inch squares)
Black felt tip pen
Coloured Threading Laces (I found mine here)
Ribbon (black and yellow)
6 inch Separating Zipper
Sewing machine

Each page of the "book" is made by sandwiching a piece of cardboard between two slightly larger pieces of felt. Make sure you sew all the small pieces, buttons, etc on securely and supervise young children when they play with the book. 

Page 1: Flower Zipper


Once a child learns how to do their zip, life gets that much easier for everyone! This flower zip is a great way for children to understand and see the simple mechanics of how a zipper operates.

What I did:

I sewed the bee on first to the page then used a sewing machine to attach the zipper onto each side of the flower and to sew the pink and white sides of the flower together. I then glued the page to the cardboard and pinned the flower to the page and used the sewing machine to bind the pages (along with the flower) and cardboard together. Make sure that the reverse page is completely finished before binding it all together!

I then cut off the extra side of the flower to make the page square. If I had more time, I would have added sequins to the flower for a more textured look and feel.

Page 2: Letters and Sound
 

This is a great interactive way for kids to play around with letters and sound. Sticking with the Bee theme, I chose Wing, Bee, Hive and Flower. This is a simple but time consuming page.

What I did: 

Sew the letters onto the coloured squares first and then sew the squares onto the page. The 3D elements are all stuffed with soft toy filling and the ribbon is sewed into them.

When finished, I glued the ribbon onto the cardboard and then glued the page itself onto the cardboard. Use the sewing machine to bind the pages and cardboard together (when the reverse page is finished). Use Larger Eyelet holes and place one on the top left hand side of the page.

Top Tip: Pin the letters really well, felt likes to move around!!


Page 3: Button Flowers


This is a great activity for kids to gain dexterity and work on their problem solving skills. The ribbons are all different lengths and they all have a specific flower to land on!

What I did: The bees become the button holes on this page. I sewed each bee by hand, making sure to put the ribbon in before sewing it up, as well as making sure the ribbon is long enough to reach from the bee hive to the flower on the reverse. I then used the sewing machine to make the button hole.

The flowers have 3 layers. I sewed the bottom layer on first and then the other two (circles) on with the button.

Page 4: Hive Counting


I saw this and wanted to create my own version. This is a great way for kids to learn that numbers identify how many objects are in a set.

What I did:

I sewed on the hive with a black hive behind it - if made the hole bigger the kids could put the bees into the hive, but I sewed my "door" up. Make sure to tuck your ribbon in before you sew up the hive! Numbers can be placed around the hive and bees sewn next to the numbers.

When both pages are done glue them onto the cardboard and use the sewing machine to bind the pages and cardboard together. Used Larger Eyelet holes and place one on the top left hand side of the page.

Top Tip: Use a black felt tip pen to outline the hive to give it more definition.


Page 5 & 6: Threading Objects and Shapes


This is a great activity for colour matching, shape recognition, problem solving and dexterity.

What I did:

Sew on all the objects. I stuffed the clouds and forgot the flower stem (oops). Then make sure to line up the shapes on the opposite page and sew on the shapes.

Glue the pages down on the cardboard and use the sewing machine to bind them together. Use the smaller eyelets to make threading holes in each object/shape. Use Larger Eyelet holes and place one on the top left hand side of the page.

Top Tip: Cut little gaps where you want the threading to come out of (I did it at the bottom) and glue the thread into these gaps. Make sure the thread is the correct length to make it through both eyelet holes (some will be longer than others).



As I said before I truly enjoyed creating this book and I hope you enjoy the free patterns. I'd love to see photos of your completed work. This definitely won’t be my last Busy Book, so follow us at Marc’s Treasure Basket and watch this space!

Click on each pattern sheet to view it full size and print. 




Friday, 9 May 2014

Guest Post: Apps for Craft Bloggers

Today I'm sharing a guest post by Anna from The Dusty Attic, all about apps!

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In writing this post I got to thinking - what do we craft bloggers get up to in a normal bloggy week? Well, we make stuff to start with. Then we photograph the heck out of it. Write blog posts. Share those posts on social media. Think of more stuff to make. And so the cycle continues! All of this without even mentioning the rest of our (usually pretty busy) lives. So how can our smart phones help us out?

As a craft blogger I use my iPhone a lot (other smart phones are available). Snapping photos, blogging, reading other blogs I follow, not to mention Facebook, Twitter and Instagram! I don’t always get the chance to get my laptop out when my little girl is around and so I often find myself doing stuff on my phone that in an ideal world I would be doing on my laptop. But such is life, and with millions of apps available for smart phones, it’s made my life a whole lot easier.

So today I thought I would share the love and let you all know about some of the apps that I use on my iPhone that assist me as a blogger. You can get most of these apps for iPads and tablets as well as for Android and Windows phones.

Blogging:

Most of the bigger blogging platforms have their own apps – WordPress, Blogger and Tumblr for example.

I use Blogger and within their (free) app you can do basic stuff like viewing, editing and writing posts, although adding photos can be a bit of a faff. The way I use it is for writing draft posts, and then adding links, photos and other finishing touches on the laptop. This means I can draft posts on the go, and they are sitting there ready for when I get the chance to sit down for more than 5 minutes!!

The WordPress app is a lot better (I use it for work) – there’s a lot more information available such as blog stats and various settings available too.

I use Bloglovin (another free app) for keeping up with all those other blogs I follow, what I love about Bloglovin is that you get suggestions of other blogs you might like based on the ones you already read! Fab!


Photo editing:

Before you even think about posting that snap of your latest make you need to swipe it though some sort of photo editing app. You can of course use the standard ones that come with apps like Instagram.

Sometimes a quick snap and an Instagram filter is fine – but for product photos or images that have come out a bit under- or over-exposed, for example, I use Afterlight (currently $0.99 on the App store, Android version coming this year). It has loads of editing tools – the current version has 15 adjustment tools, such as contrast, exposure, saturation and so on, as well as 56 filters, 66 textures and 75 frames as well as the standard cropping, rotating and other basic tools.


Social Networking:

I’m addicted to social media, and love that all of my bloggy friends are less than 140 characters away!! Using platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram is one of the easiest ways to publicise those blog posts you have spent ages writing. But keeping up with all of your tweeting and facebooking can be tricky, especially if blogging isn’t your full time job.

I like to use the Hootsuite app (free on the App Store and Android) for scheduling posts on Facebook and Twitter. You can write and publish your post in the morning and then schedule some Twitter posts while you are on the bus to work, while having your morning coffee, or even at the gym! Haha, that’s me at the gym, on the exercise bike, scheduling blog posts. Not. But you could!


Organising:

Being a craft blogger, not only will you have your blog to update and social media to procrastinate on and use for promoting, you may also have an online shop, another job (wish I could be a craft blogger full time, but have to pay the bills!), kids to look after, a home to run, a busy social life – and not to mention any crafting for yourself – phew! How do you keep track of everything you’ve got going on?

I use an app called Weave (free on the App Store – not currently available for Android) to keep track of my many to-do lists and want-to-do lists in categories such as home, blog, crafting and baking.

You can set up different projects (the categories I referred to above) and assign to-dos to them, or you can create one off to-dos that don’t fit into a project. You can also track your finances, great for keeping a record of your income from advertising and sponsoring, as well as any expenses (I’m thinking craft supplies here!!).


Inspiration:

There is a ridiculous amount of internet out there people – and it’s sometimes easy to look at so much that it all becomes a glitter-filled blur.

And that is why I like to use Pinterest. I use it like a scrapbook, or rather, a collection of scrapbooks. It helps to curate all of my inspiration in one place, so that when I suddenly decide to crochet that pair of rainbow socks I saw on someone’s blog last month, I can easily head over to my Pinterest crochet board and go straight back to that post.

What I love about the app is that in addition to being able to track the things I find, Pinterest also (helpfully) has categories that you can browse or search through. Spare 10 minutes? Have a little bimble into the Pinterest app and look through the ‘home’ category for some décor inspiration. Want to make something with Nutella for dinner but not sure what? Peruse the ‘food’ category.

OK, so it can be used for evil, in that you just pop on for 10 minutes and three hours later you are still scrolling through the wedding category (even though you only share your heart with the cat) – thank you infinite scroll…


These of course are just a few apps that help me as a crafty blogger!

What apps do you swear by?

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Anna is a blogger from way up north near the Lake District. As well as writing her blog the Dusty Attic, she also sells her felt brooches and accessories from her Etsy shop. She is a social media-aholic and loves that she also gets to blog as part of her ‘proper’ job! When she’s not blogging for work or play, she can usually be found creating a little something from yarn, felt or fabric, or (if it is a sunny day and not too windy) walking up a hill or by the sea.

You can find Anna here: Blog | Shop | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

 Fancy taking part in my Guest Post series? Click here for more info.

Friday, 18 April 2014

Guest Post: Embroidered Felt Cat Hoop Tutorial

Today I'm sharing a cute sewing tutorial from Rebecca, who blogs at Hugs are Fun.

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To make this embroidered felt cat hoop you'll need -

Wool felt - I used mustard yellow and tan for the cat, but feel free to customize to match your own furry friend!
Matching embroidery floss (thread)
6" wooden embroidery hoop
Background fabric


Print out the template and cut out all the pieces. Stitch each piece in place with a whip stitch around the edge, using three strands of embroidery floss.


Using a backstitch, stitch whiskers and a mouth.


Tighten the fabric onto the hoop and position your cat onto the fabric. I found it easier to pin the cat so it didn't shift, but it's not absolutely necessary.


Trim away the excess fabric, trimming the fabric as close to the edge of the hoop as possible. You can cut a circle of felt to glue to the hoop, but this also isn't absolutely necessary. Add a ribbon for hanging or just hang the hoop directly on the wall.

Click here to view the template sheet full size and print at 100%.   


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Rebecca blogs at www.hugsarefun.com about her cross stitching and other craft exploits. She is the mom of two young girls and has a background in illustration and design. 

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Thursday, 10 April 2014

Guest Post: Spring Bunny Wreath Tutorial

Today it's time for the second of Rebekah's tutorials, making a spring-themed wreath...

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If you loved making the Spring Bunnies from my earlier tutorial then you'll love what you'll be able to do with them next!  Adding your felt Spring Bunnies to this yarn wrapped wreath makes a delightful accent to any wall.  Follow the steps below for instant cuteness!


Supplies

- 5 felt spring bunnies, made using this tutorial

http://bugsandfishes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/guest-post-felt-spring-bunnies-tutorial.html

- scissors
- hot glue gun with glue stick, or craft glue
- tape
- 12” (30.5 cm) green foam wreath
- 3.5 oz (100 g) skein of medium weight yarn in a soft green
- 1 yd of green burlap ribbon or green silk ribbon about 2” wide (you'll have leftovers)
- 21” of yellow silk ribbon ⅛” wide
- 1 bunch of silk flowers in a complementary color of your choice
- ball point pins for attaching silk flower bunches
- 6” x 8” piece of card stock in any color you want
- medium sized sticker letters OR colorful markers


Prep Your Wreath

1. Take your yarn skein and wrap about 1.5 oz of it into a ball or about ½ of the yarn skein.  Once you have your ball of yarn, cut it away from the skein. Tie the loose end of the ball yarn around your foam wreath.

You may find it helpful to tape down this first loop to keep it from sliding around as you start wrapping your yarn around the wreath.  Wrap in a counter-clockwise motion, doing a few wraps at a time. Make sure to keep the yarn from overlapping as you wrap.

Push each wrap “section” you do up against the previous one so they cover the foam wreath completely.  Going slow and steady will keep your yarn wraps neat and tidy! 


Continue around the entire foam wreath until it is completely covered in yarn.  Once you reach the top, tie it off and cut off any remaining yarn.  If you used a piece of tape to hold your starting loop you can remove it before you tie off the last loop.


Set aside.

Make Your Sign

2. Cut out your Sign pattern from the template provided and use it to trace an outline onto your cardstock, make sure you mark where your holes need to go.  Cut out your cardstock sign.

3. Decorate your sign by adding the phrase Happy Spring using either your sticker letters, like I did, or writing it out with your markers.  To keep your words straight, use a ruler and lightly draw a line across your cardstock then use the line as a guide to line up your letters as you go.  Once you’re done simply erase the line.


4. Taking your yellow silk ribbon cut the length in half so you have 2 x 10.5” pieces. 

5. Punch two holes where you previously marked.  Turn your Happy Spring sign over and put a little piece of rolled up tape on the back then stick it to your work surface.  This will help keep the sign from moving too much during the next step. 

6. Pull one piece of your 10.5” yellow silk ribbon through each hole.  You’ll want the end of each ribbon to touch the bottom of the sign.


7. Place your yarn wrapped wreath over the Happy Spring sign.  Make sure you find where you tied off your yarn loops from step 1 as you’ll want to keep them at the top (they’ll get covered later).  The top middle point of your sign should be about 2-3” down from the inside of your wreath and your yellow ribbon should be under the wreath.

8. Grab 2 ball point sewing pins and set them close by.  Gently pull one of the yellow silk ribbons up and over the outside of your wreath. Make sure your ribbon is not twisted!  Pin lightly in place to hold it there.  Repeat for the other ribbon.


9. Next pick up the other end of one of the yellow silk ribbons (your interior one) and overlap it just enough to cover the other ribbon end that you just pinned down.  Carefully remove your pin, keeping both ribbon ends overlapped and push the pin through both ends and all the way into the wreath until it is as close to the surface as possible. Repeat for the other ribbon.

Once you’re done, gently peel up your sign and remove the tape from the back.



Arrange the Bunnies & Flowers

10. Heat up your glue gun and have your extra ball tip sewing pins nearby.  Gather up your wreath, bunnies and your silk flower bunch. 


Start pulling off clumps of silk flowers.  They should come off the stems readily and each grouping should have a “hole” in the center.  This is where we will place the ball point sewing pin through to hold the flowers to the wreath.  Keep a few flower bunches aside for step 13.


11. Once you have all your flowers plucked off do a “dry run” arrangement of how you’d like to have your bunnies and flowers placed on the wreath.  It’s not necessary to glue or pin anything just yet.  It might be helpful to take a quick picture of your final arrangement so you can remember where everything goes :)  Then take just the bunnies off and set them aside.

12. Pin on your flowers.


Pin enough flowers onto your wreath so you can arrange your bunnies around them again.  Once you have a few of your flowers pinned in place, take one bunny and add a dollop of hot glue or craft glue to the back side of your bunny and glue onto your wreath.

REMEMBER that hot glue sets quicker than craft glue so make sure your bunny placement is where you want it to be prior to gluing.  Also if using craft glue remember not to touch your wreath for a few hours and keep it lying flat so the craft glue has a chance to set.

The bunnies will be permanent but you can always move your flower bunches around to get the look just right!

Continue gluing on the remaining bunnies and pin on any additional flowers you like.

Add Your Burlap/Silk Ribbon

13.  Add your green burlap ribbon or green silk ribbon to the top of your wreath between the two yellow silk ribbons.  Arrange it so that it is covering the yarn knot tie offs from step 1.


Measure about 7”-8” (or longer if you need it) up the ribbon from the wreath and tie a tidy knot there.  Cut off the excess and if using a silk ribbon dab a very small amount of craft glue or fray check on the end of the raw ribbon edge.

Using the few silk flower bunches you set aside from step 10, pin these over the ball point sewing pins that are holding the yellow silk ribbons so that they are hidden.

You’re done!!

Hang your wreath anywhere inside your home and enjoy it throughout the Springtime until Summer arrives.

Click here to view the pattern sheet at full size and print.


©2014 Tumus Designs  This pattern is intended for personal use only and not for commercial distribution or reproduction.  Items made from this pattern may not be resold in any form or modification.  Please respect copyright law!

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Rebekah is a gardening addict, an avid quilter and hand sewing mama to one very busy toddler, 2 ridiculous cats and the wife of an equally talented sewing husband.  She enjoys designing quilt and hand sewing patterns, reading epic fantasy series, obsessing over cute things, photography, yoga pants and the occasional video game binge.  You can follow her exploits and sewing adventures over on her blog.

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Fancy some more free tutorials? Subscribe to my newsletter for a monthly free pattern and visit my crafty tutorial archive for lots more free projects.

Visit my shop to buy my printable PDF sewing patterns: