My first attempt at purses!

Onto my latest project...purses!  I've always been a bit chicken to try anything bigger than accessories that you put inside a purse, but decided to try my hand at it.  In fact, it wasn't as hard or scary as I thought it would be.  I looked at a purse I had and kind of backwards engineered it in my head.  First I made a brown and yellow bag out of this globe print that I'm a little bit in love with!

The best part about this bag?  It's reversible!

Did you notice my new Eye Spy DIY label on the front of the bag?  I had some fun making waaay too many sew in labels this weekend!

After finishing that purse I decided to make another, with the red gingham and denim.

Here it is with the denim side out?  I can just imagine someone carrying this to a 4th of July picnic!

 And here is a shot with my new label, this one is in red.

The labels were so simple to make.  All it takes is a roll of ribbon, some iron on transfer paper, a printer, and an iron.  I used GIMP, a free online photo editing tool, to make the labels look how I wanted them, then inverted them so the text was backwards (that step is important).  I was able to get about 50 labels off of one sheet.  Then I printed it on the transfer paper and ironed it onto my ribbon.  So easy!

Dove Chocolate Discoveries Giveaway!!! {CLOSED}

It's finally here!  The first giveaway on Eye Spy DIY and it's a good one!  Have you heard about Dove Chocolate Discoveries?  If not, you are missing out on an amazing chocolate experience!  I'm pretty lucky, because my sister, Stephanie, is a Dove Chocolate Discoveries Chocolatier, so I get to try out lots of their chocolates!  Dove Chocolate Discoveries hosts great chocolate tasting parties where you come and eat chocolate; how fun is that?!

Let me show you a few of their products.  My favorite product is the chocolate mousse.  It is so creamy and decadent; and it's so easy to make!

I will be trying the new White Chocolate Raspberry Daiquiri Mix at my Dove Chocolate Discoveries party this weekend and can't wait!  They sound delicious!

You can also make your own chocolates as well with the Pro-Series Tempering Unit. You can add super cute patterns to the top of them with transfer sheets.  I got some of these for Christmas and they were adorable and delicious!

Would you love to win some amazing Dove Chocolate of your own?  Stephanie has generously offered one of my readers a mousse kit, including one mousse packet and two chocolate bars (makes 6-8servings) and a raspberry daiquiri packet.  Don't worry if you don't drink alcohol you can make the daiquiri mix with lemon-lime soda instead!

How to win (open to US Residents only):
Mandatory Entry - Go to Stephanie's Dove Chocolate Discoveries site and come back and comment with your favorite item.

Bonus Entries (Leave a comment for each entry)
1)  Become a follower of the Eye Spy DIY blog, or let me know that you already are a follower (1 entry)
2)  Sign up to host your own chocolate tasting party with Stephanie, if you live in the Boise/Meridian/Nampa area (2 entries)
3)  Sign up under Stephanie to be your own Dove Chocolate Discoveries Chocolatier; you can get started through the end of March for as little as $49.00! (5 entries)
4)  Sign up to receive Stephanie's Dove Chocolate Discoveries Newsletter, the link is in the bottom right hand corner of her site (1 entry)
5)  Blog, tweet, or post a facebook message about this giveaway (1 entry each-Please leave a link so we can go check it out!)
6)  Make a Dove Chocolate Discoveries Purchase through Stephanie (3 entries)

The giveaway will be open through March 1st.  I will select the winner using random.org, the winner will have 72 hours to contact me after announced!

Can't wait to see if you won or would you like to buy some chocolate of your own?  Currently Dove Chocolate Discoveries doesn't allow online purchases, but you can still make a purchase by contacting Stephanie through her site.

Good luck and have a sweet day!

You can now follow me on Twitter!

I've finally joined the twitter world!  I put it off for so long, but finally gave in.  It will be a bit of a learning curve for me, but I'm excited to finally have a twitter account.  You can follow me by clicking the twitter button in my sidebar.

Zipper Pouches

I was busy today and  I made a few coin purses.

I really love the blue and green flower one!

Here's a shot of the inside:

Want to make one of these your own?  Make sure to stop over at whoopdwhoop.com and you can make one your own!

For all you nerds out there....like me!

I tried my hand at freezer paper stenciling yesterday.  As some of you may know, I'm a bit of a math nerd, so chose a math pattern to put on my shirt.

I first cut out my pattern on freezer paper with an Xacto knife.

I ironed it, shiny side down, onto my shirt.  I placed another piece of freezer paper inside my shirt so the paint wouldn't bleed onto the other side of the shirt.  Then painted with fabric paint.

After the paint dried, I peeled up the freezer paper, put a piece of fabric on top of the shirt and run your iron over it.  Then you are done!

Now I have a shirt that shows off my nerdy side.  Freezer paper stenciling ended up being pretty easy.  The hardest (and most tedious) part was cutting out the patter on your paper.  Hope you enjoy!

Flower Bobby Pins

I'm on a bobby pin making kick lately. I recently made the two flower bobby pins below.

Does the purple flower look familiar?  If you've seen my shoe re-do, it should!  They are the flowers that I took off the shoe.  Take a peek here.

And the second is the remnant of a long zipper that I had to shorten to make a zippered pouch.  I rolled it up and used a glue gun to hold it in place.

Want to see more bobby pin flowers?  Check out my bobby pin rosette tutorial!

Heart Necklace

I found this great tutorial for a beaded heart necklace over at Tatertots and Jello.  I thought it was very cute and made one for my sister for her birthday!

I made two hearts each in our birthstones.  Green for me (birthstone is peridot) and Purple for her (birthstone is amethyst).

I think they turned out pretty cute.  Make sure to head on over to Tatertots and Jello to check out the tutorial!

Swirly Earrings

I made some swirly earrings today.  They were super simple and only took a few minutes to make! 

What you'll need:

• 2 pieces each of 4 inches of 20 gauge silver wire
• 2 earring hooks
• round nose pliers
• jewelry hammer
• metal block

 1)  Bend one of your wires in half.

2)  With your pliers create a loop on one end and slightly bend the wire.

3)  Slide the earring hook onto the wire.

4)  Now create a loop with the other end of the wire, like in the picture below.

5)  Put your earring on your metal jewelry block and hammer the curves with your jewelry hammer.  The first picture at the top of this post shows one before it's been hammered and one after.

6) Finish with the other earring, put them in and you're done!

 

And now for some exciting news.  Eye Spy DIY was featured over at Suzy's Artsy-Craftsy Sitcom!  Go take a look and check out all her amazing projects and great linky party!  Thank you so much Suzy!  You are amazing!

Recipe-Chicken Tortilla Soup

This is my first recipe posting here up on Eye Spy DIY, hopefully everyone enjoys it!  I love spicy food, and especially during these cold winter months nothing is better than soup.  I find myself making this easy chicken tortilla soup a lot during the winter.

Ingredients:

• Two chicken breasts
• One can enchilada sauce
• One can black beans
• One can stewed tomatoes
• One can diced green chiles or jalapenos
• Two bell and one Anaheim peppers (diced)
• 3 cloves garlic (minced)
• Chili Oil (1 teaspoon, more if you like spicy)
• Chicken Stock
• Tortilla chips

Okay, now here's the really easy part.  Throw everything but the tortilla chips into a crock pot.  Set on low and let cook for 8 hours.  Ladle into a bowl, salt and pepper to taste, and enjoy with tortilla chips!  This is usually my base recipe, you can add different things to make it your own (i.e. corn, potatoes, sour cream, etc.).  Hope you all enjoy this recipe!

Linking up to:

More checkbook covers and a couple clutches

I have been making more checkbook covers and zippered pouches lately and thought I would share them with you.
First is my pink and yellow checkbook cover.

Next I made a coordinating pink and yellow gathered zipper clutch, following the great tutorial from over at Noodlehead.  Make sure to check it out; it is a great tutorial!

I made a non-gathered zippered pouch in this adorable animal print.  I made a checkbook cover that matches this as well.  It even has hearts on it, perfect for Valentine's Day!

And last but not least another checkbook cover in brown and yellow map print.  I love this fabric.  I have a pillow that I made out of this too, and best of all, I got the fabric on the clearance rack!

If you would like to make your own checkbook cover, it is extremely easy.  You can see my tutorial here.