I Have a Project in My Head and Felt on My Table.

I picked up some felt at JoAnn’s the other day. I’m excited for what I’m going to do with it. I hope it turns out like how it’s pictured in my head. Prepare for some sewing to come. Yipee!

Mod Pod in Malibu from Michael Miller

P.S. Isn’t this Michael Miller print so fun!? I have no idea what I would ever use it for, but I just love it. I need to think of something to do with it so I can buy some.

Sewn Sandwich Bag Toppers

Kyle and I team teach the 12-13 year olds in Sunday School at church. They are fun kids who love to talk (mostly off topic.) We really like to have fun with them and get to know them. We’ve thrown a few homemade pizza parties at our house recently, which are some work, but totally worth it.

I decided to bring in treats this past Sunday. I made my favorite chocolate chip cookies. I wanted to tie them into the lesson somehow, but couldn’t think of anything. So I gave them a quote that went along with the lesson. I decided to put two cookies in a sandwich bag (one for each child), typed up the quote, printed it on cardstock, and sewed it onto the tops of the sandwich bags.

This is such an easy way to jazz up packaging goodies without a lot of money or extra crafty things. I used the same idea for party favors for Hailey’s friends who came to her birthday party. That time I used clear plastic sacks I found in the party aisle at Target.

Sorry the stitching is so hard to see.  I used light blue thread that was already loaded on my machine. And I did this in the evening, so the lighting wasn’t very good. Excuses, excuses. I know… :)

Seriously, this is so fun. I think just because it’s quick, easy, and gives good results. I used InDesign, you can use Word, or whatever program you’re comfortable with. Just make your text area the width of your bag, I think my sandwich bags were about 6 1/4 inches. I made them 4 inches tall, so when it is folded over the top of the bag it is 2 inches on either side. Keep your text on the lower 2 inches (the upper 2 inches will be on the back), and leave about 1/2 inch on the bottom for stitching. Print it out on cardstock, cut it out, fold it in half, insert the top of the sandwich bag all the way into the fold and sew a straight line.

I sewed about 1/4 inch away from the edge.

Voila! Super cute packaged cookies.

[Printable] 4x6 Thank You Cards

We had a baby girl join our family two months ago, yesterday. Yay! We had many people help us out by providing meals and giving gifts to baby girl and her sister. We really feel so blessed to have such great friends and family.

Of course I want to thank each of them for what they have done for us. I finally made some thank you cards to mail out. I feel pretty good that I have them done after just two months. With Hailey, our oldest, I didn’t mail anything out until she was 5 months old! Better late than never, eh?



The cards are sized 4x6. They are printed on the front, and blank on the back so I can write a message. I am having them printed at my old home, the copy center at BYU in Provo, UT. I worked there for a total of about 6 1/2 years (off and on a little bit, part-time as a student and later full-time as a non-student). I seriously miss the copy center some days. I have an odd attachment to copy machines and printers.

ANYWAY… I thought I’d share the fruits of my labor with you. Lucky you! :) The file is an 8.5x11 PDF with two 4x6 cards per page (2-up), complete with bleeds and crop marks. Click on the image below to be taken to Google Drive where you can download the file.

Enjoy! And thank you for following along with me!

[Recipe] Ham and Cheese Puffs

If Hailey were in charge of what we eat for lunch we would eat pb & j sandwiches every day. I’m usually all for it because it’s quick and easy. But, we need some variety. I found a recipe for Pepperoni Pizza Puffs on Pinterest. We tried it out and loved it. I made the recipe another time with ham and cheddar cheese. We liked them even better.

These puffs are fantastic because not only are they easy to make, but they freeze well. I triple or quadruple the recipe, bag them up, and put them in the freezer. When we’re hungry, we pull out however many we want, heat them in the microwave for approximately a minute, and enjoy!

The recipe says to use mini-muffin cups, but I’ve made them with a regular muffin tin as well. They just need to bake longer. I do prefer the mini ones though. There is something extra fun about mini and bite sized.



Ham and Cheese Puffs
adapted from Plain Chicken

3/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
3/4 cup whole milk (I use what I have on hand, typically 2%)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup cheddar cheese
1 cup diced ham

Pre-heat the oven to 375°. Grease a 24-cup mini-muffin pan. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, garlic powder and baking powder; whisk in the milk and egg. 
Add the cheese and ham; let stand for 10 minutes.

Stir the batter and divide among the mini-muffin cups. Bake until puffed and golden, 20 to 25 minutes.

Serve with ketchup for dipping and enjoy!

Welcome, welcome!

Welcome to hillmade!

I’ve created this blog as a place for me to share and document what I’m up to in my personal time. Here you’ll find my latest sewing projects, fun activities and things I’m working on with Hailey (and in the future, Keira), and I’ll share some of my favorite recipes. I do want to use this blog as a tie-in to my Etsy shop as well. I have a goal to get new items up for sale in the shop this spring. I’ll post about those as they happen here as well.

This is something I’ve thought about doing off and on for the past year. I finally made the jump because of increased traffic we’ve received on our family blog. The majority of the traffic is coming from Pinterest. I love the attention some of my sewing has received, but I’d like to keep our family blog just that, a blog about our family. The majority of the posts from our family blog that apply to this blog have been transferred over. They are also still accessible on the family blog.

I haven’t been up to much sewing or baking recently. I think I’ve spent only about an hour in front of the sewing machine since Keira was born in December. We’re pretty adjusted now, so that is soon to change, I hope. I have a lot of ideas rolling around in my head, I just need to find the time and the motivation to get started on them.

I do have one recipe to post sometime in the next few days, so watch for that. :)