New Tank Tops

I've had a lot of time on my hands since I graduated earlier this May. I've been trying to keep busy as much as possible while I job hunt. I recently read Miss Scarlett's School of Patternless Sewing  by Kathy Cano-Murillo, and I was inspired to make some article of clothing with a Carmen Miranda feel to it. As many may have noticed t-shirt design is kinda my thing. I started sketching and ended up with a whole collection of tank tops. These will be up in my shop soon, limited editions. I can't wait to wear them, especially the Carmen Miranda one. I'm thinking cheetah print or maybe a bright red circle skirt circle skirt and my wonderfully fabulous new platform, sling back, peep toe, ruffled cheetah print shoes. Hair wavy and loose with a huge red flower in my hair, now I'm feeling like Miss Scarlett :)

Magic Shirts Tutorial

The excitement for our summer Disney trip has been building. I had been trying to come up with an idea for some one of a kind tshirts for my kids to wear on the trip over to Disney World, but was having no luck coming up with the perfect magical shirt. Then while picking up some trims for another project I came across Tulip Color Change fabric paints. These 3D paints go on white, but once you step into the suns UV light colors appear magically. What better shirts for their first trip to the Magic Kingdom than "Magic" shirts. After some trial and error I finally figured out how to make the magic paints work on dark colored tshirt.
Want to make your own?
Here's how:

Hand Beaded Sugar Skull

When I was little I remember watching my mom sit with a stack of cut out felt shapes and a box full of sequins and beads. She would make big beaded broaches in the images of Santa, Poinsettias, valentines hearts, and pretty much everything else. Every now and then she'd let me help with one, half way through I'd get bored and give up. Last year I bought some fabric that I loved, and wanted to make some throw pillows with. After the first couple of pillows were done, they were cute but I couldn't help but think they were missing something. I dug through my craft closet and found a package of sequins and seed beads and knew that was exactly what was missing from my pillows, some sparkle.

My version of a Look Book

I've been trying to put together a "Look Book" to send to my customers, but everytime I get down to it I get overwhelmed. So this morning I decided why make a full book, why not just showcase a few of my favorite items every few days. Not so overwhelming for me, or too much info to bore customers. This is what I came up with:
XY Factory Rockstar Look of the Day

Beaded Pillows

I remember my mom making sequins, beaded pins when I was little. Hearts for Valentines Day, Christmas trees, Jack o Lanterns, you name the occasion she had a pin for it. She let me make a few every now and then. Recently I found the cutest fabrics, I wanted to make pillows with it but felt they needed a little extra something to make them stand out from the crowd. I pulled out a box of sequins and seed beads while cleaning my office and I remembered those pins my mom made. I sat down and started sewing them to the fabric. My mom was here last week, she helped me with beading the pillows. WOW is she fast, for every 1 I made she had finished 2. It's been fun and relaxing beading the fabric panels. I actually have so many more ideas I would like to bead. Here are some of the finished pillows. I'm planing a tutorial to be posted soon :)

These are currently for sale in my etsy shop http://www.Longoriagirls.Etsy.com 

New Shop Widget from CraftCult.com

What a cute way to show off your shop! 7 themes to choose from.

Wall Art

Of all the rooms in our home the master bedroom has seen the least love. I decided it is finally time to give it a makeover. Nothing big, we don't have time to paint the room, so I thought I'd make some art to hang over the head board. I had a couple of painted canvasses that were sitting in the garage, instead of buying new ones I decided to reuse them.
Here's a little step by step tutorial on how to make inexpensive wall art using old canvasses.