My First Tutorial!

 
I am really excited about this project, it is an easy and cute little clutch. I made one this summer, hand sewing it all together, and decided to make some as gifts for the girls who attended the class I had been teaching. But with making five of them I thought the process would go faster if I machine stitched them together, and they turned out great!
 
What you need:
1 sheet of craft felt for the body (I found some fun printed and imprinted felt for this project)
Small coordinating pieces of felt for flower leaves and center
1 foot of ribbon
1 snap fastener
Accent thread
Hot glue
 

Directions:
1.You could cut the felt for the body in any size or orientation you want, for what I was doing I cut the sheet in half lengthwise.

2.Round one end of the piece.

 

3.Make flower pattern by drawing a six point star, then draw your petals around the six points to get them nearly even.
 

 
4.Cut out a felt flower using the pattern you just made.

  

5.Then take your felt flower put it on a larger piece of felt and cut around the first flower about an 1/8 of an inch, to make a slightly larger flower. (You can use two colors for your flower or do a two tone which turns out really neat)

6.Cut out a leaf pattern which is flat on the bottom, and place the flat side along a fold when cutting out the felt so you have two leave which are connected. The leaves will get folded to the desired angle so they don't come out on opposite sides of the flower.

 

 
 

7. Cut out a small circle for the center, I used the scraps from step 2 to get the centers for some of the flowers.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

8.Fold the large felt piece to the dimensions you like. Fold the ribbon in half and place inside the folded felt, coming out at an angle from the top. Pin in place, adjusting the length to fit over your hand or the hand of the person you are making it for.
 
 
 
 
 
 

9.Sew down the sides. I used the multi-stitch zig-zag: width 3.5 stitch length 0.6 on my machine to achieve the look I wanted. Play around on some scrap felt and try different stitches until you get a look you like.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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10.Turn clutch over and sew around the rounded flap, so when the flap is folded down the stitching looks nice on top
 
 
  
 
 
 
 

11.Place snap fastener where desired and attach according to manufacture directions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12.Sew small center onto flowers, I found it easier to manually turn the hand wheel on my machine so I could better control where the stitches went since the circle was so small. Hot glue the leaves to the flower. Hot glue the flower onto the flap covering the snap, and enjoy your adorable little clutch!

 

 

 

 

 

 

These would be a great gift for a young or teen girl in your life. You could even make it using the full sheet of felt and it would be more your typical clutch size. So many options, so have fun! And have a blessed Thanksgiving!!!

Buckeye Brownie Bites

I tried a new recipe last night, and well it had chocolate and peanut butter, so of course it was delicious!! I am calling the recipe Buckeye Brownie Bites because I think it describes it well and is more fun than, Peanut Butter Brownie Cookies.
The original recipe called for a brownie box mix....but for those of you who know me well, I never (I know, never say never) ...rarely make things easy for myself. So I used our favorite brownie recipe for that part.
Without further ado...the cookies!!!

Buckeye Brownie Bites
4 squares unsweetened chocolate
2 cups sugar
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
                                        
 (or just use a box mix instead of the above ingredients....whatever your preference)

1/4 cup butter
4 oz. cream cheese
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter
3/4 cup chocolate frosting or glaze (optional)

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. In saucepan melt butter and unsweetened chocolate. Once melted remove from heat and stir in cream cheese until blended. Add egg and vanilla.

2. Stir in sugar, flour, salt and baking powder.

3. Roll dough into 1- 1 1/2 inch balls and place on un-greased cookie sheet 2 inches apart. (Making them this size you will get about 40 cookies. The original recipe said the amount should be a rounded tablespoon which would make 24 cookies, but that seemed kind of big to me.)

4. In a small bowl mix powdered sugar and peanut butter, then form into small balls with hands. (Be sure to get the same number of peanut butter balls as you have brownie balls, the picture is so you can see size comparison between the two.)

5. With thumb mush the brownies to create a nest for the peanut butter, and smooth the edges.

 

6. Place peanut butter in the nest, and flatten.

 

 

7. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-14 minutes. Allow to cool for 30 minutes on cookie sheet before removing.

8. Spread frosting or glaze on cookies if desired.

 

 

I should give you a warning with this recipe, they are rather dangerous, as one would wish to consume all the cookies by oneself. So don't make it if you are the only one in the house, because they would all be gone by the time anyone else got home.