quicksnail

Excellent Invitations

2009-11-18T19:50:00.001-05:00

These invitations were made by me and a young woman at my church. They're for a program in which teenage girls get to showcase projects they've done throughout the year. This year's theme is an awards show so we tried to go with an sparkly Hollywood theme. We had fun making them all different :)
See how shiny!

Nursing Cover

2009-11-12T22:02:00.000-05:00

I found a pattern for this nursing cover online. It said the project should only take an hour... A trip to Joanne's, a temperamental sewing machine and 3 days later I have this. Of course I had to add extras because that's what I do :)
Closeup of adjustable strap, buckle and baby peep (corset boning).
I put weights in the bottom corners to keep the cover from flying up if the baby kicks it (like my first would).
I had a tiny bit of leftover fabric from the trim so I thought I would use it all and make a tiny pocket. Why? Because it looks cute... I don't know. And why did I add trim? Good freaking question. It made the project take twice as long as it should...

Art Book

2009-11-06T21:26:00.004-05:00

I love the idea of bookbinding as an art so I thought I would combine them :) I really like the way this book turned out with the print of a painting as the cover. Very fun.
Detail of the coptic bind on the spine. The thread I used was rose colored with a plain gray back cover.
The text paper is plain white. I really just wanted to show what the inside cover looked like--I love the way the coptic stitching looks :)

Car Cake

2009-09-06T20:02:00.003-04:00

I was talking to some friends the other day about birthday cakes and apparently it's not normal to make an elaborate cake for a little kid. I am totally that mom, though! My boy just turned 2 and I made this cake for him. And I LOVED doing it! Maybe that's excessive. Maybe it's just silly. But I like it. Being able to make silly stuff like this is half the fun of being a mom :)

Spring Cookies

2009-05-20T16:00:00.005-04:00

Mmmmmm, sugar cookies! I love sugar cookies. And fruit. And cream cheese frosting. You just can't go wrong :) I've posted the recipe to these cookies before, here. I just made the cookies a little thick (I love thick sugar cookies!) and topped them with some cream cheese frosting. Then I sliced some strawberries and kiwi to decorate the top. Lovely spring cookies to celebrate fresh fruit. Yum :)

Book Bag

2009-05-06T13:19:00.005-04:00

This is a "Book Bag", much like a book purse except that it was specifically made to hold books. Scriptures, to be exact. It's made with book board to make the sides and base extra sturdy. The client wanted a bag big enough to hold scriptures, a manual, a magazine, flyers, pens & pencils and whatever else you may need at church. So I made one. She even picked out her own fabric and sent it to me so it's exactly what she wanted (I hope!).
Here's a side pocket with matching button closure. It's a 3-D pocket. Very fun :) There are 4 pockets on this bag.
The pencil pockets on 2 sides of the outer bag hold 2 pencils each. So 4 pens and pencils will fit comfortably in the special pockets :) And there's a secret slip pocket inside the bag to hold anything you don't want people finding...
So the bag can hold a lot. And it's pretty sturdy. And it was actually pretty fun to make :) This bag retails at $35. Let me know if you're interested :)

Have you ever covered anything in chocolate?

2009-05-03T19:48:00.001-04:00

It's a lot of fun :) I couldn't figure out how to drizzle the chocolate, though, so if anyone has any great tips, I'd love to hear them!

Strawberry Bread

2009-05-01T08:59:00.002-04:00

It's strawberry season! I went with my family to a strawberry farm and got a huge box of fresh strawberries so I had to come up with ways to eat them. I found this recipe for Strawberry Bread and it was delicious!! My husband called it sugar bread because it was so sweet and a lot of the sugar seeped into the crust. Yum :) Anyway, here's the recipe if you want it:

2 cups fresh strawberries
3 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter and flour two 9 x 5 inch loaf pans.
Slice strawberries, and place in medium-sized bowl. Sprinkle lightly with sugar, and set aside while preparing bread mixture.
Combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt and baking soda in large bowl: mix well. Blend oil and eggs into strawberries. Add strawberry mixture to flour mixture, blending until dry ingredients are just moistened. Divide batter into pans.
Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until tester inserted comes out clean. Let cool in pans on wire rack for 10 minutes. Turn loaves out, and cool completely.

Pink and Green

2009-04-25T20:02:00.004-04:00

I made these items for a baby girls' room (see post below ;) ). Her colors are pink and lime green so the theme was extremely easy and fun to work with! Above are the diaper station pegs with matching fabric bags, which are completely washable. Pegs with matching bags retail for $20 for 3 (like above), and $25 for 4.

The mom-to-be wanted lots of books for her baby girl so what do you need for books? Why, bookends, of course :) Painted to match with decorative letter and picture frame. These bookends retail for $15.

The small, decorative shelf was made specifically to hold up the girl picture frame and decorative T. And I made this large (the bow part was about a foot in diameter), neon pink bow to go on the door of the house where her baby shower was taking place. It's made out of paper! A piece of poster board, to be exact. I thought that was pretty ingenious of me... not to brag or anything... Contact me for pricing on these things.

It was a lot of fun figuring all of this out. Girl decorations are so fun and easy, especially when there's a theme! Let me know if you're interested in any of these items and I'd be happy to make some themed room decorations :)

Just Print Invitation

2009-04-16T13:26:00.004-04:00

This baby shower invitation looks this way for a few reasons: 1) The mom-to-be has decided pink and lime green will be her little girls' colors. 2) The invitation had to be simple enough that it could just be printed from a regular printer (the client's stipulation). 3) "Thalia" is spelled 2 different ways because of a typo... don't worry, I fixed that before I sent the final version! And 4) I blocked out any sensitive information because I've posted this on the internet :)

If you want an invitation of some sort, contact me!! These are fun and easy to do... especially if they're "just print" :)

Thank You Card

2009-04-09T13:32:00.004-04:00

I started this design for something else but then thought it would make a cute "Thank You" card. So now it's a "Thank you" card. It's really bright and flowery: just in time for Spring! These cards are 3.5 x 5 inches and blank on the inside. They're sold in packs of 10 with white envelopes. The pack retails for $10. Let me know if you're interested: nicolinisnail@gmail.com.

Easter Frame

2009-04-08T08:24:00.002-04:00

I like to give framed holiday photos of my kid to relatives. It's a little lame. But no one's complained yet and whenever I go over to their houses the photos are always sitting out... :) They're fun to make, anyway. This was really easy. I took photos of my baby (which are hard to see because of a glare on the glass) then cropped and tiled them in Photoshop. I put the finished photo product in a frame that I had painted with green and yellow dots. As a final touch, I added the painted wooden ducky at the top. Super easy, fun holiday photos :)

Claire Blanket

2009-03-31T12:38:00.008-04:00

The Claire Blanket. I love these blankets! They can be as crazy or as simple as you want them to be. This one is a little toned-down compared to color schemes and whatnot that I usually use. I think it turned out really well, though! The C looks kind of like the Cardinal's C and the E is spaced a little too far away, but overall I think the blanket looks pretty good. And I'm a big fan of random swirlies... can you tell? :)

This blanket measures about 31"x26" and is perfect for use on the floor. It retails at $45. Send me an email if you're interested in having one made and you can tell me what name you want and what colors: nicolinisnail@gmail.com

I did reserve the right to make it strange...

2009-03-29T21:43:00.008-04:00

Five people won a free gift from me. One person traded the free gift for something else, so I made four of these:
And I had soooo much fun making them!!! They're all different and all just a bit weird. But that makes them fun, right :) These "Dana Bags" are on their way to the 4 recipients. I hope you like them! But, then, I made no guarantees that you would like what I made...

The bags have double button-loop closures. I love buttons! I'm always on the lookout for interesting buttons. If you have any you don't want, send them my way...

All bags are lined with matching fabric. And none of the thread matches. I do that on purpose, don't worry. In college I took a sewing class from this very old-fashioned woman. One of our projects was a skirt, which I wasn't excited about because it had to have darts in it. I made a black skirt with silver thread. She gave me a D on it for using un-matching thread! Seriously?!? I obviously knew it didn't match. I obviously used contrasting thread to make the skirt more interesting because it was a stupid project in the first place. So now, because of that incident, I make sure to have contrasting thread in everything I make. Is that vindictive? Stubborn? Artistic? I don't know. I'll just call it a QuickSnail trademark ;)

The Dana will retail for $15. Send me an email if you want one: nicolinisnail@gmail.com. You can even pick the color :)

Humanitarian Aid Bags

2009-03-28T21:45:00.002-04:00

I haven't posted any projects for a while... it's not because I haven't been doing anything :) Recently I've been working on these Humanitarian Aid Bags. They're school bags for kids in 3rd-World countries.

I just wanted to post them to prove I haven't just been idly sitting around... :)

Apple Muffins

2009-03-22T09:17:00.004-04:00

Yum. Apple muffins are super yummy. And very healthy. I got some apples recently and I can't stop making these muffins!! They're just so good. If you want to try them, here's the recipe:

1 egg, beaten
3 tbsp. vegetable oil
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup milled flax seed
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup of sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1-1/2 cups finely chopped apples

Combine the egg, oil and milk in a large bowl. Add all dry ingredients and mix until just blended. Batter will be thick. Fold in apples. Fill well-greased muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-22 minutes or until top springs back when touched. Makes 12 muffins.

I like to make it even more healthy sometimes by substituting 1/4 cup of sugar with 1/4 cup of honey. It tastes just as good.

Growth Chart

2009-03-01T08:21:00.003-05:00

I finally finished this growth chart!!! It took me over a year to do it. I started it when my boy was a newborn and vowed to finish it before he turned 18 months. He's 18 months today. I finished it this morning. This project took sooooo long that I got pretty sick of it... so the letters aren't as crisp as I would like and there are other things wrong with it. But overall, I like it. Sadly, I don't think I will do this again :) Way too much work! Everything is hand painted and drawn by me. And the tagline "Grown in Idaho" is definitely copyrighted so I don't think I could sell it. And my son isn't growing up in Idaho... I just thought it was cute :)

Un E-Book

2009-02-23T16:21:00.003-05:00

This is a book with content :) The client bought a book online not realizing it was a e-book. She wanted it in a tangible form so I made it into a normal book.
It's very simple because it is the least expensive version of book. I added an indented leaf on the cover because I can't help but decorate things :) The book is all about growing herbs and recipes to make with the herbs you grow. Since I don't own the copyright I would not make this book for anyone else but if you have something you would like made into a book I'm always willing to do it :)
Here's a shot of the content. I received a PDF of the book and had to format it to make it book-binding ready. These kinds of projects are a little more challenging (formatting is the hardest!!) but a lot of fun :)

A Fundraiser

2009-02-11T22:12:00.008-05:00

Synovus Bank of Jacksonville is having a fundraiser Thursday and Friday, Feb. 12th and 13th. There will be a bake sale in the main lobby of the Synovus building, located at 10407 Centurion Parkway N., Jacksonville, FL. It's right next to the Brooks Family YMCA.

Money raised at the bake sale will go to the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation. So, if you have a chance, go and get some yummy baked goods! QuickSnail's biscotti will be there :)

Have you ever had a bad cookie day?

2009-02-10T16:18:00.007-05:00

I decided to make Valentine sugar cookies. I have the best recipe for sugar cookies! They never turn out bad. Until today.
The dough was so liquidy that I couldn't roll it out, cut shapes and then place them on the baking sheet. I had to roll the dough directly onto the pan, bake it and then cut the shapes out. It was ridiculous.

Here's what I was left with after baking and cutting--still tasty but not so pretty.
Then I tried a new frosting. I'm always cautious with frostings. They never meet my expectations. And this one fell far below... I didn't even bother to really decorate them. And that's usually my favorite part! Sad. They did taste good but I didn't even try to give them to anyone because they were so far below par. I wish I knew what I did wrong because this is usually my most reliable recipe. Oh, well. I'll make them again when I get over this debacle and post some pictures :) Here's the recipe in case anyone would like to try them (because they're usually great!):

1 1/2 C. powdered sugar
1 C. margarine or butter, softened
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 1/2 C. all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar

Mix sugar, butter, egg, vanilla and almond extracts. Mix in flour, baking soda and cream of tartar. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Roll dough to 3/16-inch thickness and cut into shapes. Place on lightly greased baking sheet. Bake until edges brown (about 7-8 minutes).

Beaded Journal

2009-02-04T08:08:00.003-05:00

Here's my first project made with the antique beads--it was pretty fun :) This is my favorite type of book: The Flatback. It's a real book. And I made it. I'm always a litte amazed by how normal it looks... This one is 5.75 inches x 6.25 inches.
More detail of the beaded cover. Isn't that green paisley cute?
Here's a shot of the inside decorative cover page. The book will lay flat when you open it once it is being used regularly. Like any book, the spine is stiff when it is first made. It will loosen up. The text pages are blank white for someone to write whatever they want in it :)

Antique Beads!!!

2009-02-03T20:24:00.003-05:00

I inherited all these antique beads and sequins (long story) and I just thought they were so cool that I had to post them on the blog!! Look at the tubes: They were only 15 cents! That's crazy. I already finished a project with some beads. I'd never used them before but had a lot of fun beading :) Now what to do with the sequins...

Invitations

2009-01-27T13:05:00.003-05:00

I love making cards! They're so fast and easy and you can use just about anything to make them look cute :) These were made for an event called New Beginnings. I posted multiple so you could see how they're all a bit different but still have the same feel. Card-making is more fun for me if I can make them all a little different. It's the little things that make me happy :)

For these, I cut the background card from decorative paper. I printed the message on plain white cardstock, then trimmed the message to fit on the background. I then used an exacto blade to cut out the little flowers in the middle of the card--exacto cutouts are my favorite with handmade cards :) After that I attached the message to the background using decorative brads and strung green twine through the cutout flowers. See? Fast and easy. And so fun!!

Book Purse & Wallet

2009-01-24T20:42:00.005-05:00

What is a book purse, you may be asking yourself? Well, this is:

It's a purse make with bookbinding skills. That means not only did I sew, I used book board and lots of glue to put this "Book Purse" together. The wallet, as well, was made like a book cover. Here's a little more detail on the inside of the purse and wallet. They match. I'm a big fan of things matching.
And, yes, the wallet does fit inside the purse. This wallet only holds cards (maybe I should call it a "Cardfolio"?). I really like the idea of carrying very little, so for a long time I only made card-holding wallets. They're nice and compact. I still carry one. It's small enough to fit in my pocket. I love it!

Diaper Station

2009-01-19T20:38:00.002-05:00

Once a baby reaches a certain age it's difficult to keep dangerous diaper-changing things (like diaper rash cream) out of his/her reach. My little boy would grab everything in the near vicinity and shove it in his mouth. Until I made this:

His room is brown and white so all the trim is brown and the handmade fabric bags hanging from the pegs are also brown. Personally, I like the color scheme :)

There are so many possibilities with this project! If you want a custom-made changing station just let me know the theme and color scheme and you'll have a great, unique gift!

Mmmmmmm, Biscotti!

2009-01-17T19:27:00.003-05:00

That's the most delicious dipping biscuit ever! This is homemade Cranberry White-Chocolate Biscotti. I have to make this a few times a year around the holiday season. Actually, maybe more than a few times. And once or twice in the off-season... it's just that good. And surprisingly easy. So, here I am passing on my knowledge of lovely, baked treats in the hopes that you too will become addicted. Why? I guess it makes me feel kinda powerful when I get other people to like what I like... I don't know. I hope there's not a psychologist out there who knows what that means about me. I'm sure it's not a good thing...

1/2 C. butter, softened
1 C. sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 C. all-purpose flour
1 T. baking powder
3/4 C. white chips
3/4 C. dried cranberries

1. In large bowl cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time. Beat in vanilla. Gradually add flour and baking powder to the creamed mixture. Stir in white chips and cranberries. Dough will be sticky and somewhat runny.

2. On lightly greased baking sheets, divide dough into three portions. Shape each portion into a 10-in. x 2-in. rectangle. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool for 2 or 3 minutes.

3. Transfer to a cutting board. Cut diagonally with a serrated knife into 1-in. slices. Place cut side down on baking sheets (no need to grease again). Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to wire racks to cool. Store in airtight container. Will make about 2 1/2 dozen.

Ella Blanket

2009-01-12T12:56:00.010-05:00

This blanket was soooo fun to make!! It's cute and girlie without being too frilly or over-the-top. This was my first real attempt at applique and I actually think it turned out OK. I LOVE these colors! If I ever have a girl all of her things will be in these colors :) And can you see the sewing designs on the back of the blanket (the side with "ella" on it)? I was very proud of those because I did them freehand. It was so fun!