Have you seen the paper wall art tutorial that Jessica from How About Orange has shared?  It is so cool and very easy to make.  I can see children and adults alike getting some quick wall art satisfaction out of this one.  Her colors are arranged so beautifully too!

I Love it, an I'm putting it on my very long to-do list.  I would love to use her color layout for a quilt some day too.  When it comes to choosing colors... I always need some help!  Get the free tutorial to make it yourself here.
 

I am very lucky to have some wonderful and generous blog friends to help me out with guest posts while I move around the globe.   Today's guest post is so fun AND right in time for the London Olympics!  I hand over the blog to Abby, from Things for Boys.  Abby inspires me with every post and I'm having SO MUCH FUN devouring her blog and catching up with everything I missed before I found her.  You must check out her blog, projects and tutorials,  BUT first..... a lesson from Abby about how you can put postage stamps on a bag!  So cool, I really can't wait to do it!


Hi everyone, I'm Abby from Things for Boys. My blog is all about the things I cook and craft for my two boys, hubby and a toddler. Don't let the name of the blog fool you though, there is plenty of projects on there for girls too! I've even got a series, Build a Bag, which is all about me making a bag (using one of Janelle's amazing patterns) from the very beginning, right to the very end. I've designed the fabric and had it printed with Spoonflower and I'm waiting for it to arrive so I can get sewing!

Seeing as Janelle's blog is all about bags, I thought I'd stick with the theme and tell you about a bag I've made. Now, I was going to pretend I got inspired by British fever from the Olympics, but I have to be honest... I made this bag many years ago! I think I still lived at home with my Mum!

I've always loved the British postage stamps. They're all the same, but so very different. I love the variations in colour! I still look at the bag and try and pick my favourite stamp.

A Very British Stamps Handbag

The amount of materials you need will depend on the size of bag you want to make, so I'll just explain to you how to go about it.

To make a 'Stamps Bag' first you need to buy a bag of stamps. I went to a stamp and coin shop and got a big bag for a few dollars. They were all still attached to envelopes, so I soaked them off in cold water and laid them out on tea towels to dry. Don't soak them in hot water because they'll curl up.

The bag itself is made from black velvet, with the velvety side facing in to make the lining of the bag. I used less than a half metre (half yard). The stamps are glued onto the back of the velvet with mod podge. I just kept gluing until I was happy with the size.

Then I cut out the velvet panels leaving a seam allowance of about 1cm (3/8") around the sides. The bag is a simple box shape with an open top. So I have 2 panels the same size for the front and back, then 2 the same size for the sides and then the bottom. I also cut out pieces of thin tablecloth plastic to go over the top of each piece.

I finished off the edges of the velvet on the sewing machine so they don't fray. Then, I sewed the tablecloth plastic on top of each piece. Then the bag was put together by sewing all the pieces together, with the bottom going on last.

I wanted the stamps to be the whole feature of the bag, so the straps are also made of tablecloth plastic to keep them invisible. I cut 2 long strips and sewed them onto the front and back panels of the bag.



Do you feel like adding some postage stamps to your next project? Take a look at my pinterest board full of stamping inspiration. Not into stamps? Then take a look at my reusable cotton tea bags, sugar scrub for hands or shopping tote made from a t-shirt.

If you like these tutorials then take a moment to like me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter to keep up to date with thingsforboys!

Thanks for having me on your blog Janelle!
 
Thank you so much for joining me Abby and helping out with this blog post, I really do feel so lucky and honored to have you here.  Confession:  I am a total stamp geek, among my other my many "geek genres".  I'm sure I have a huge box of stamps back in storage in Canada that will be found on bags very soon.  Love it!!

Thank you all for reading, 

One of my bloggy/sewing/handbag friends has just put up a new website!  Please check out Helen's, (from Handbags by Helen), new Website and hop over to her blog post to enter in her contest to win one of four bags.  There must be 50 comments on her blog and at the moment there are only a few... so please go on over and share some website/blog love, follow her, and enter to win a great bag!!

Handbags by Helen: Countdown to launching my new handmade handbags we...: Here it is at last...my new website . Today's the official launch and who better to share it with than all the lovely regulars from Handmad... etc.

Great job on the website, Helen!  I love it.  So easy to navigate and find everything you want.  I love how you show what fabrics are available for custom orders and have a gallery of custom orders you have done.  Well done!

Thanks to Shasta, my G+ page is up and running.  I had no idea what I was doing or why I needed to do it until I read her helpful posts on how to get it looking spiffy!  Let Shasta at In the Old Road, get your G+ profile tweaked to perfection and then join her and the of the G+ Blog hop in an opportunity to make new friends!  Thank you, Shasta, for all of your help!  I'd like to share her G+ Blog hop with you, out of gratitude to her, for sharing all of her G+ knowledge. 


Taken from IN THE OLD ROAD:
To participate in this hop, all you have to do is link up your G+ PROFILE page URL. For the "name" section, use your name or your blog's/website's name. Use your personal photo or blog's/website's button or logo for the thumbnail picture. You may link up at this blog or any of the participating host's blogs below:


We would appreciate it if you would also follow the hosts of this blog hop (add them to your circles). All of the host's g+ profile pages can be found at the top of the list. This blog hop is only for g+ pages...please do not link up your blog's url. We encourage the sharing of your personal, blog or small business' g+ (profile) page. After you link up your g+ profile page, please visit some of the other profiles that are linked up and add them to your circles. We want you to help your fellow bloggers' g+ page grow!


Thank you, Shasta and Thank you to the other hosts as well.  I'm busy adding all of these new friends!
 

I'm very excited to introduce you to Veronica, from sewVery.  Veronica is a very creative and talented seamstress who has so much to share with you on her blog.  You will be inspired!  Today she is showing us how to make a super cute little summer dress for sizes 2T - 6 that you can sew in about an hour!  Read all the details on this post and then click over to her blog for the tutorial.  Sew Cute!

Hi, everyone!  I'm Veronica, and I'm guest posting from my little blog called sewVery where I share all the clothes I make my three-year-old daughter along with various other sewing and crafty projects. I rediscovered sewing only a year ago, but now I can't go a day without thinking of my next project!


A few months ago, not long after I started blogging, I found Emmaline Bags where I entered a contest and won Janelle's Emmaline Bag Pattern. Soon after, I emailed her with a few questions about purse hardware, and the next thing you know, we were chatting about other things as well.  She is a super sweet person with a great personality, and her purse designs and patterns are the best around!  I was ecstatic when she invited me to guest post on her blog today!

Then panic set in momentarily!  Ok, not really, but I had to come up with a project, and hopefully a good one at that!  It's still unbelievably hot right now, so I thought I would put together a fun, simple little dress for my daughter, Ella, to play in for the rest of the summer and share it with you. Then I had to think up a name for the dress, and Summer Fun Dress popped into my head!  Perfect!


First, I labored for almost an hour on which fabrics to use and in which combination.  I think it sometimes takes me as long to pick out the fabrics as it does to make the outfit!  I can't possibly be the only person that does this, can I?

I've been hoarding my favorite fabrics (don't you?) and decided to finally use some of my pieces from Amy Butler's Lark collection.  I haven't used any since I made my Emmaline Bag earlier this summer. You can read more about it here.


It's pretty wild, don't you think?  But I have absolutely loved using it, even when it doesn't go with a thing I'm wearing!

I only had a half yard of the main fabric I wanted to use, which ended up not being quite long enough for the Fun Dress.  Since I really wanted to make this a dress and not a top/tunic, I ended up adding some of the leftover fabric I used for my Emmaline Bag to the bottom of the dress.  I think it was meant to be!





Instead of just centering the decorative strip in the front of the dress, I changed it up a bit and rotated it to the side.  The way the dress is sewn together, there are no side seams, so you can place the decorative strip pretty much wherever you desire!


This dress apparently inspired my daughter to do some crazy dance moves (or maybe it was the ice cream that did it)!



Ella had so much fun wearing this dress that she wore it two days in a row! How's that for satisfaction?!



Maybe I should make another one for her, but this time change it up a bit. I'm sure Ella would be game for helping me pick out the fabrics.  She enjoys shopping for fabric almost as much as I do!

You can make endless variations of this dress by embellishing it in a variety of ways.  For instance, you could make it with two decorative strips instead of one, lengthen the main fabric and leave off the hem strip, add another set of shoulder straps so it ties on the shoulders and not around the neck, leave off the ruffle strip or add some trim to the edge of the ruffle.  I could go on and on!  All you need is imagination!

Want to make your own version of the Summer Fun Dress?  Then you're in luck!  I've put together  the full tutorial for making the Summer Fun Dress in sizes 2T - 6 here on my blog, sewVery.  This is where you'll also find details on how to use a glue stick to easily attach trims for sewing.



This dress is so simple to put together and only takes about an hour to sew. I hope you'll give it a try. If you do, please let me know that you did.  I'd love to hear from you at sewvery(at)gmail(dot)com.

Thanks, Janelle, sewVery much for inviting me to visit today!  This was fun!


Thank you so much Veronica!   I feel lucky to have both you and Ella on my blog today.  Ella is so adorable and makes the perfect little model.  Cute! 

I hope you will all try this easy to sew pattern for your little one or share it with someone you know that would love it too.  It's too easy to pass by and there are so many things you could do with it!

Thank you for stopping by,

Yes, I wrote a Poem.
I am often asked how I say Emmaline.  Usually, by my husband.  (Actually, he doesn't ask, how I say it, I just correct him when he says it wrong.)   I am sure there are at least 2 ways to say Emmaline, and both are correct... but I only say it one way ;)  So back in the day, which was a Wednesday, I wrote a poem. Not a good poem; it won't make you laugh or cry.  Just a poem.  I hope it helps!

Emmaline

Source

What's in your name?
Why there's Emma and Line
Of course

Neither Emma-Jean
nor Emma-Bean.
Not Emma-Dean
or Emma-Lean.

Almost Caroline
nearly Elmoline.
Practically EmmaVine
and Emmashine.
Hinting on Emmalign...
but completely Emmaline!

Who is Emmaline?   Not me.... I am Janelle, otherwise known by my friends as Jellsie or Jells, and by some family members as... Nellie.  (My girlfriends here in Australia named me Jellsie, which I am fond of actually.  You see, no one in Australia can go by their given name.  They are all Baz, Shaz, Daz, Jono, Stevo, Ricko, Sez, Jacko, Shar, Car, Cher, Jase and Possum... to name a few.  I love Australians)  I digress....

Emmaline, is a baby girl name that I love very much, but didn't get to use.  When deciding on a name for this "sewing thing", I knew I wanted it to be named something pretty and feminine, and it had to come from a special place in my heart.  It could only be Emmaline.

Thank you for reading and following along while both Emmaline and I carry on, learning and growing as we go...

Rose are red
violets are blue
I suck at poems
How about you?  ;)