KamSnaps Review and Give-away - Now closed

Today I am happy to review the KamSnaps Snap Pliers and Plastic Snaps!

As you know, I like to make bibs.  I even sell my bib pattern.  I have made many, many bibs and all with a metal snap that had to be pounded in with a hammer.  Often the snap wouldn't work properly and I'd have to redo it, sometimes over and over.  I've even ruined a bib trying to get the snap in.  My friend Rebecca had a KamSnap Pliers and Plastic snaps.  I had my doubts that a plastic snap would work well in my bibs, as they are 3 layers thick but she offered that I try it out and I am so glad I did!

So, so easy to use!  And so professional looking too.  I have had a 100% success rate with these snaps and I am now having fun using them in all sorts of applications.

KamSnaps is a great company to work with.  They shipped my snap pliers and snaps right away.  They offer free shipping for US orders of $28 or more and on Canadian orders of $35 or more.

Not only that they give away a free set of pliers for every 100 new facebook fans & Twitter followers. For every 1000, they will give away a snap press!

http://www.facebook.com/kamsnaps   &  http://twitter.com/KAMsnaps.

Check out their blog where they constantly hold giveaways and post the latest sales and announcements: http://kamsnaps.blogspot.com/.

Soother straps are a fun and easy baby gift (or a baby gift add-on).  KamSnaps also sells the clips that I used to make mine.

Are you new to snaps?  KamSnaps has a comprehensive Getting Started page on their website.  Check it out if you are wondering about something snap-related.

They also have a great tutorial page which has a bunch of diaper conversion tutorials as well as a few other handy ones, such as this roll up tote which would make a great grocery bag.

I ordered the plain snaps but KamSnaps has an abundance of other fun snaps to play with too!  They offer star and heart-shaped snaps in many colours.  They sent me a few fun ones to play with, which I did.  But I gave the bib away before I took a photo of it.  Oops.  It looked very cute with the red star snap!

The engraved snaps are also super cute.  How about a VW Beetle in Gray?!

Or a turtle in Red?

Take a look at the many choices for engraved snaps, including Ooga Booga.

Now on to the give-way!

KamSnaps is offering one of our readers a coupon code for $20.95 good for the purchase of a snap pliers!  Shipping is free within the US on orders of $28+ and Canada of $35+. 

  Residents from any country may enter.

To enter, let me know what you would use your snap pliers for.  Would you make your own diapers?  Pouches, bibs...?  Let me know!

There are also 5 additional ways you can enter.  Please leave a comment for each one you've done.

- like KamSnaps on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/kamsnaps

- follow them on Twitter http://twitter.com/KAMsnaps

- publicly follow their blog http://kamsnaps.blogspot.com/

- add the button to their website or blog (button can be found on the bottom right sidebar of our blog http://kamsnaps.blogspot.com/

- join the KAMsnaps.com mailing list (left sidebar of kamsnaps.com).  They never share email addresses with anyone else.

Hope you all have a wonderful week!  I'll leave the give-away open until Friday 12:00 Noon, PST.

A Wreath and a Winner

I picked this twig wreath up at the thrift store a while back.  This week I got to work with some fabric and the hot glue gun to come up with this.  I'm pretty happy with it!  (Inspired by this one on pinterest.)  It isn't actually hanging on my front door though, I just put it there to get a photo of it.  It's in my living room in close proximity to my table runner.

Anyway, on to the winner of the give-away.  Thanks so much to everyone for entering and for the new followers.  We don't actually want new followers just to make us feel good inside, really.  But having a good follower base will allow us to do some product and pattern testing and let you all know about it too!

The winner is #11 - Sian, who is just getting back into blogging after a hiatus.  Congratulations, Sian and I'll email you shortly!

Come back Monday for a review and give-away for Kamsnaps!

My friend Rebecca is hosting a give-away at her blog today.

Moments in my sewing room 2

Two out of nine blocks done! It's making me happy :)

And this is what's been keeping me busy this week. Three girls with the chicken pox. This was taken before they got all their spots.  We're over the hump now though and they're feeling much better!

The Give-away is still open. It will be open until Friday sometime. Go here to enter!

Flurry Table Runner

A while back I bought a few charm packs at Pink Chalk Fabrics.  The other two were to make gifts with but I bought one charm pack for me.  And I love the bright, happy colours!  (And if you are from the Fraser Valley you understand why I need bright colours in the winter.)

Charm Pack is Flurry by Kate Spain.  I made this table runner at the Quilt Till You Wilt we had in early November and I'm enjoying it already.

The Give-away is still open.  I'll keep it open until Friday sometime.  Go here to enter!

Give-away - closed

I promised you a give-away, didn't I? Sorry to take so long to get to it. I didn't forget!

I cut up some of my stash to bring you this happy fat quarter bundle.  You can tell I like dots.  And bright colours.

Suzanne and I love to sew and create.  We like to blog about it too.  Blogging keeps us motivated to keep on making and finishing what we start.  It's also fun to connect with others who like us, dream of what we are going to make next while falling asleep at night!  :-)  We especially like it when others are inspired to sew and create too.  We love comments and answers to our questions and opinions.  It is certainly fun!  So thank you for reading our little blog.

So, would you like to play with these fabrics?

Leave me a comment.  Just say 'Hi', or if you feel like it leave me a link for your favourite tutorial.

Comment a second time to let me know if you are a follower of our blog.

Comment again if you've spread the word about our giveaway.

Please, please put your name and email address in the comment if you are anonymous or don't have your email address in your blogger profile.

Moments in my sewing room

Not much time here for sewing or quilting but I did start a quilt so I have been spending a few minutes at a time in my sewing room! It's very exciting to be playing with fabric again!!

Birthday Party Messenger Bags

Today was Melissa's birthday party with her classmates. She didn't really want to play too many games so I was racking my brain for what we could do. Last night I was doing some online 'research' into what I could do with these girls and I read an article about a mother who had a sewing party for her 9 year old. I figured I'd give it a try....

I did take photos with the girls faces too but I didn't think I should publish them on my blog.

If you had talked to me while we were in the middle of it I would have told you that I would never do it again. But as we got closer to the finish line they were more excited about it and when we were finished they were thrilled. One of the girls didn't finish her bag but she just didn't feel like doing it and I wasn't going to make her. Melissa gave her the one she had made. (She's sweet that way. She didn't want to see her go home without one.) So, I'm not sure if I want to tackle another sewing project at a birthday party. It was worth a try though.

And a photo of the birthday girl in action. I think this shot is so funny. She's blowing so hard because she doesn't want any candles left burning. For every one left that's how many boyfriends she has, or so they say. I'm happy to report that she didn't have any left burning. Good girl.

My beautiful 9 year old.  I love this girl so much!

Pattern was a free tutorial by Amy of Diary of a Quilter

Sleep Sacks

This week I've been working on sleep sacks. I've used the pattern from Anna Maria Horner's book Handmade Beginnings. If you've been reading this blog for any length of time you know my love of bias binding. I love how it adds so much to the sleep sack. I also got to give my new snap pliers a workout. I've been having fun with this project!

I bought all of the fabrics for these at Joann's in Bellingham.  The flannel was on sale for 2.99/yard.  So affordable and much less expensive than up here in Canada.

Colette, do you still read our blog? Which one would you like for Danielle? 

Toddler-In-The-Hood Jacket

I loved Zachary's Baby-In-The-Hood Jacket so much that I decided to make a larger one. The pattern is from the book Handmade Beginnings by Anna Maria Horner. It only goes to size 2 so I made it a little larger and longer.

The fabric is a dark gray denim on the outside and a heavy plaid cotton for the lining and accents. I think it's a decorator weight fabric. I've had it in my stash for quite some time so it was good to use it up!

Do you know that it's very difficult to take photos of Zachary? He never ever stands still. So it took 28 photos to present you with these 5 mediocre photos.

The coat is meant to be for church and going out. When I showed it to him he said, "Nursery?" (That's where he goes when we are in church.) So it must look like a church coat to him.

And on this last photo you can see the view down our street.  Snow on the peaks!  Crisp cool mornings and sun!  The forecast was for rain and showers all week, but if this is rain then I'm happy!

I'm pretty sure my kids had a conversation this morning something like this:


Carolin:  Hey Zach, Mom looks pretty busy today.  She's got housework and stuff to do.  It's going to be a pretty boring day for us, I'm sure.


Zachary:  Yep, I think you're right.  We'll have to make our own fun.


Carolin:  What should we do?


Zachary:  I think we should start by ripping Ben's light off the wall again.  It's no fair that he should have a light by his bed anyway.


Carolin:  That might work to get Mom's attention.  We could also pretend to be colouring nicely and then dump out the whole drawer of pens and pencils.


Zachary:  Good one, Carolin.  While you are doing that, I'll rip apart a library book and try colouring on the floor.


Carolin:  That should get her attention.  While she's cleaning it up we'll go downstairs for awhile.


Zachary:  That should work.  Then we'll play with some of the girls stuff while we're down there.


Carolin:  I know just what we can do down there.  I've always wanted to dump out all of their beads....

Ever have days like that?  I'm so glad I can walk out of the door tonight at 5:45 to Quilt Till You Wilt with a bunch of other like-minded individuals.  Mostly moms like me who probably have their share of stories to tell too.  I'm looking forward to it!

Quick Naptime Project

I made Zachary super happy with this pillow case. Easy, fast and fun!

Suzanne and I have posted over 300 times on this little blog.  And we are almost at 200 followers!  Thanks for reading.  It's fun to share our sewing projects and sometimes a bit about our lives.  When we reach 200 followers I'll do a bit of a giveaway.  That's a hint.  :-)

Before and After

This was a fun project! The skirt and shirt are hand-me-downs from my niece. It's a cute outfit but by the time it would fit any of my girls I'm not sure they would wear it. I LOVED the fabrics in the outfit though.

So, I set out with my scissors and an old pattern to use for sizing and turned it into a cute little dress for Carolin.

I used the existing neckline, sleeves, buttons and buttonholes and the tiered skirt, though I had to shorten the middle tier.

I don't know about you, but I find re-purposing SO very rewarding.  Especially when it works.

(My niece liked what I did to her outfit.)