Get design tips to boost the impact of your display ad

[Cross-posted from Inside AdWords]

While the right text and placement of your display ad are always crucial, you should also make sure that your ad is well designed. But how exactly can you ensure that your ad stands out on a web page, looks professional and is consistent with your overall brand message?

On Thursday, September 2nd, we’ll be holding a short one-off live course on effective display ad design. The session will give you a set of practical design tips including key insights on using color, font and images. The focus will be on the Display Ad Builder tool, although the tips are applicable to display design in general. The course is suitable for anyone interested in display advertising.

The course will be held on Thursday, September 2nd at: 3pm - 4pm BST / GMT+1 (London), 10am-11am EDT (New York), 7am-8am PDT (San Francisco).

Sign up here to attend.

Posted by Miles Johnson, Inside AdWords crew

Phase One of Dining Room Makeover

I have had a vision for the dining room for quite some time, but never had the courage to just do it until a few weeks ago. The hubs had another business trip, so I thought it would be the perfect time to do a little board and batten:o) I had never done wood working to this scale, but thought How Hard Can This Be?.....all by myself.

Remember last time the hubs went out of town? I surprised him with an office makeover.

He may start taking my debit card away when he leaves for business trips from now on:o)

I don't have a good Before picture...just the one from S.R.'s birthday party.

Very bland walls....and no, this isn't my dining room table;o)

Here is the After

Much better:o) Here's the process that we I went thru to get to this stage.

I painted about half way down the wall. I used Olympic paint b/c I was trying to save a little money....don't waste your time. Go ahead and spend the money on GOOD paint. It is almost like painting with water. That was mistake number one. Mistake number two was not priming the MDF.

 After getting all the boards hung, I started painting the bottom half of the room with a high gloss white that matched the trim work. This part seemed to take forever. I did a little caulking, and a little mess making...

I was lazy and didn't put anything down to protect the floors. Thank goodness it came up with no problem.

Now the dining room didn't look this good after I got done with it.

I got in way over my head, and the hubs had to come and rescue me. He did a great job on the finish work. He said that he got the easy part:o) I about killed myself a few times trying to get the boards hung:o) Anyway, we still want to add a little trim to the top of the "board" part. That part will be handled by the hubs. My next job will be to make curtains. I already have the fabric. Just waiting to get the motivation...The kids are leaving to go to their grandparents tomorrow, so it may be a good time to tackle that project:o)

So here's the before again:

And the After:

In love:o)

Speaking of birthdays, E's birthday party is coming up NEXT WEEKEND!!! I really have to get on the ball. His party is Cowboy themed. I can't wait to share some of my ideas for his big day. I also have a demonstration to prepare for next Thursday for the Homemakers' Club Cultural Arts Fair....I'm not busy at all;o) 

I hope you all have a great day!!

Email overload? Try Priority Inbox.

[Cross-posted from the Google Enterprise Blog]

Information overload is a reality of the modern workplace. The average corporate worker sends and receives more than 150 messages per day¹, an email deluge of varying importance: key project updates from colleagues, requests from higher-ups, appointment reminders, and automated mail that’s often much less important. With so much information to process, simply figuring out what needs to be be read and what needs a reply takes up a lot of time. Today, we’re excited to introduce Priority Inbox Beta in Gmail, an experimental new way of reducing information overload.

Priority Inbox is a new view of your inbox that automatically helps you focus on your most important messages. Gmail has always kept spam messages out of your inbox, and now we’ve improved Gmail’s filter to help you see the emails that matter faster without requiring you to set up complex rules.

Here’s how it works: Priority Inbox splits your inbox into three sections: “Important and unread,” “Starred,” and “Everything else”:

Messages are automatically categorized as they arrive in your inbox. Gmail uses a variety of signals to predict which messages are important, including the people you email most and which messages you open and reply to (these are likely more important than the ones you skip over). And as you use Gmail, it will get better. You can improve the ranking in Priority Inbox by clicking the buttons at the top of the inbox to mark conversations as important or not important.

As a result, your inbox is better organized, and you can spend your time addressing your most important emails right away. When we tested Priority Inbox at Google, we found that people spent 6% less time on email after enabling this feature. This translates to a week’s worth of time saved each year for information workers who typically spend 13 hours per week on email today!²

Luke Leonhard, Web Services Manager for Brady Corporation, says “Like many of our users, I get over a hundred messages each day. Priority Inbox saves me time by displaying emails in order of importance, letting me process them more efficiently than before. The time I save can then be spent on new projects that add value to Brady rather than managing my inbox.”

Over the next week, we’ll be rolling out Priority Inbox settings to users in organizations with the “Enable pre-release features” option selected in the Google Apps control panel.

Helping users manage lots of information has always been a core goal of Gmail, and we’re excited to see how Priority Inbox helps users in organizations mitigate information overload and get to important messages faster.

Posted by Doug Aberdeen, Software Engineer

1. “Email Statistics Report, 2009-2013”, The Radicati Group, Inc, 2009

2. “Hidden Costs of Information Work in the Enterprise Exposed in New IDC Progress Report”, IDC, 2009

More advertiser control on YouTube

[Cross-posted from the YouTube Blog]

At YouTube, we’re constantly working to give advertisers control and flexibility over their YouTube campaigns. We place great value on this because ads are an extension of what a company represents as a business, and we want YouTube to be a place where that reputation and image can flourish.

To that end, we’ve been rolling out features to keep advertisers in control of their campaigns. We announced one such example last week, when we launched a feature that gives select advertisers the ability to voluntarily age-restrict their videos. But there’s more work to do.

To date, we’ve given advertisers the ability to pick and choose individual videos on YouTube to target using our Video Targeting Tool. But one of the most frequently requested features we’ve heard from advertisers is the ability to exclude individual videos and channels from the campaigns they run on our site. Today, we’re excited to announce video and channel exclusions, a way for advertisers to pick specific YouTube videos and channel URLs that they don’t want their ads to appear with.

Here’s an example: let’s say you run a vegan bakery. You want to strike a balance between good exposure for your baked goods online, while staying true to your company values in offering items free of animal or dairy-products. Now you can indicate which videos are not the best fit for your audience. Since your customers are probably not watching ‘Homewrecker Hot Dog’, you can provide this video exclusion under the "Networks" tab.

Similarly, you might run a keyword-targeted campaign on bakery-related keywords, and exclude whole channels that you don’t feel suit your audience. So if FoodNetworkTV has videos centered mostly around cooking meat dishes, you have the controls to prevent ads from showing on that channel.

Alternatively, if your ads are appearing on a video that has content you deem inappropriate for your audience, or perhaps isn’t performing in terms of click-through rate or conversions, you can optimize your campaign by using this new feature to exclude it.

Google has also been investing significantly in ensuring brand safety, transparency and control for advertisers across the Google Display Network. We’re hoping that these added layers of control will make your campaign targeting even more precise. Keep sending us your feedback so we can make future product improvements.

Baljeet Singh, Senior Product Manager recently watched “AH NOM NOM: Wholesome Bakery Best Vegan Bakery Food Cart In San Francisco”

Menu Board Tutorial

For Updated Info on this Post, 
Click HERE.

I know that I normally save my tutorials for Tuesdays, but I finally got this thing hung and wanted to share it with you now:o) I just couldn't wait. This is my menu board:

This piece of wood has been sitting in our garage for quite some time now. It was a scrap piece of wood left over from S.R.'s Dollhouse Bookshelf. I thought I was going to make it into one of those antique looking clock faces that Pottery Barn had on the front of their catalog for ages. So I painted it. The board was so thin, that after being painted it started to draw up on itself. The hubs decided to make a frame for it on the backside to make it more sturdy. He did an excellent job. I tried my hardest to get a good even circle, but that was a waste of time and energy. So I had to totally scratch the idea of an antique clock face. 

One day while staring at this blank board, I finally got the idea to turn it into a menu board. Not sure where the idea came from, but I knew that I had to do it.

So this is what I started with

My blank board and

My trusty chalkboard spray paint. This stuff lasts forever. This is the 3rd project I have used it on. Unbelievable!

I taped off the board into 6 sections. Why 6 and not 7? I don't cook on Sundays. That is my day of rest where I do absolutely nothing but Glorify the Heavenly Father and eat like waaaay too much food:o) Hallelujah, praise God!

Once the sections were taped off, I covered the top and bottom with newspaper to catch the over spray.

When all the paint was dry, I removed the tape very carefully and got this:

Don't you just love the clean lines that tape leaves. I always get a little giddy after seeing a straight line pulled off:o)

Now this board sat for a very long time with it looking like this. I really didn't know what I wanted to do. Then the Hank Williams song "Hey Good Lookin' " started running thru my head and I knew that was what needed to be on the board. 

I borrowed my neighbor's Cricut machine....(thanks Holly!!!)....and cut all the letters out of black & white vinyl. While I was at it, I went ahead and made labels for all of my jars too. It makes things so much easier now when I am baking. I never second guess myself:o)  

Here is a closer look at some of the lettering

I just hand painted the scrolly work at the corners. Nothing too professional:o)

(This was last week's menu...appetizing, eh?)

So here's the before of this area in my kitchen

Nothing too spectacular 

And the after

More fabulous than not...HA! And just so you know, the board is hanging straight, I just can't hold a camera straight;o)

The board is a little on the blendy side with the wall color, but I am hoping to fix that shortly. Not sure on the paint color, but I do know that there will be COLOR:o)

Hope you guys like it and I hope you have a great day!!
********
Updated Color:

(don't pay attention to the terrible lines across the ceiling....the painters were there to patch the ceiling and they messed up my beautiful straight lines:( It's all better now, though)

LINKING UP TO THESE PARTIES:

AND

Weekend Wrap Up at Tatertots and Jello

Going Google across the 50 States: Bowery Lane Bicycles in New York rides towards success with Google Apps

[Cross-posted from the Google Enterprise Blog]

Editor’s note: Over the past couple months, thousands of businesses have added their Gone Google story to our community map and even more have used the Go Google cloud calculator to test drive life in the cloud. To highlight some of these companies’ Gone Google stories, we decided to talk to Google Apps customers across the United States. Check back each week to see which state we visit next. To learn more about other organizations that have gone Google and share your story, visit our community map.

Two years ago, Patrick Benard and Sean Naughton completed their first handmade bicycle. Shortly after, they opened Bowery Lane Bicycles in Manhattan with a commitment to having a positive impact on the environment and the local community. Today, they continue to design bicycles for the urban cyclist, build them by hand in New York – in a local factory that uses solar panels to generate 30% of its power – and sell them from their showroom and at city cycling events. Even on the business side, the founders have taken a community approach, working only with local vendors and freelancers.

A year after Bowery Lane Bicycles opened, Michael Salvatore, chief officer of just about everything, was brought on board to help run the business. His first task was to get the company operating and communicating on a more professional level by banning personal email addresses for work and implementing Google Apps so everyone had @bowerylanebicycles.com email addresses. From experience at previous companies, Michael knew that email addresses were only the beginning and started using Google Apps to improve other business processes. He shares with us how this was done.

“We rely on freelancers and friends located throughout the city to get projects done, and Google Docs makes this possible. Our friends have day jobs so being able to access everything online and collaborate with us in real-time, from anywhere, is not only convenient, it’s essential.

Google Calendar also helps us quickly spread the word among our friends about upcoming cycling and charity events where we’ll need staffing help. We keep a master calendar of all events and send out invites directly from Google Calendar. On the sales end, our showroom is viewed by appointment only, so we use a shared calendar for all of our scheduling.

To track inventory, I use Google forms. When a sale is made the model number of the bicycle purchased and other relevant information is inputted into a form. All the details are then populated directly into my spreadsheet and I can keep track of which bikes are low in inventory and when I need to order more. It’s simple but efficient.

With most of our business software needs taken care of, we can focus on our main goal – manufacturing the best bikes we can. Yes, we’re a small start-up, but we realized early on that successful companies need to be able to communicate quickly and keep track of their business as they expand. We can do just that, thanks to Google Apps.”

Posted by Michelle Lisowski, Google Apps team

Day 5- A Winner And Patience

Thank you to all of you who took the time to leave a comment on the Minnie Mouse post. All of your comments were so sweet and I really appreciate them. So, our winner is....

#11- Cassandra!

Her comment was:

I just saw your blog via one pretty thing. I love the outfit! We're taking my daughter to disneyland for her first bday next week. She already has a minnie outfit but definitly needs the clippies. Thanks for the tutorial!

Cassandra, shoot me an email so I can get you your mouse ears a.s.a.p.:o)

I know I said that I would have E's Mickey shorts ready for this morning, but a fall wreath got in the way(more on that next week), and traffic school(don't ask).

I am in a rush this morning trying to get out the door, so I hope to have the shorts completed by the end of naptime today, and I will post them later this afternoon.

Have a great Friday!!!!

Day 4-Cinderella Shirt

I know that yesterday I said that I would post Mickey Mouse shorts today, but I got a little side tracked and didn't do them. They are on the agenda for today though:o) However, I did get this one done on Tuesday night.

I am kind of under-impressed by this shirt:o) I had a great vision and when this vision came to be, I was just like, 'oh, okay.' Anyway, you can tell that it's supposed to be a Cinderella shirt. This was the first time that I had worked with satin....very slippery and kinda stretchy at times. 

I really like the "bubble skirt" on the bottom of the shirt. 

Here are some views of the under side to show you how everything was sewn together. The lining is actually shorter than the actual bottom of the shirt, so when sewn together, it creates this bubbles effect. You can do this on any pattern you choose.

 I had to make sure that I got those white things on the side...not really sure what they are called:o) I am happy with how it turned out though....but like I said, slightly under-whelmed.

I was able to make this shirt for less than $4. Not too shabby:o)

**

So let me know what you think. S.R. loved it of course and wanted to touch it the whole time she was trying it on:o)

Make sure to leave a comment on the Minnie Mouse Tutorial Post for your chance to win a pair of Minnie Mouse Ears hair bows. The winner will be announced tomorrow morning. Have a great day!!

YouTube Homepage: Promoted Videos advertisers can get it while it's hot

[Cross-posted from the YouTube blog]

For big advertisers on YouTube, the YouTube homepage is often seen as the holy grail. It's the highest-profile placement on YouTube, providing marketers with the ability to deliver a big impact and drive attention to content, trailers or advertising. To give you an idea of the scale we’re talking about, the homepage has been delivering nearly 45 million impressions per day and 18 million unique visitors a day in the U.S. — that's the equivalent to the ratings of several top-rated prime-time television shows combined. While impressions and unique visitors are never guaranteed, users who visit the homepage are actively looking for the next video to watch, so advertisers naturally want to be part of the action.

A little known fact is that a few days each quarter, we open up the YouTube homepage to Promoted Video advertisers. These companies end up getting a bit of extra exposure from their campaigns. There are a couple of ways to make sure your ads show up on the homepage, should the opportunity arise. First, log into your AdWords account, and under "Campaign Settings," consider the following:

• In order for Promoted Videos ads to appear on YouTube browse pages, watch pages, and on the homepage, select "Display Network"
• To appear *only* on YouTube placements, select "Relevant pages only on the placements I manage" and add youtube.com as a managed placement.
• To appear *only* on the homepage, select "Relevant pages only on the placements I manage" and add youtube.com::pyv-top-right-homepage as a managed placement
• Set a specific bid for the homepage and keep in mind that it is a more competitive placement
• Please note: this feature is only available in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the U.K., and The U.S.

Because the dates we run Promoted Videos on the YouTube homepage vary, we unfortunately don't have a set schedule to provide to our advertisers. However, we typically know about 48 hours in advance. If you have a managed account, you can ask your Google representative to let you know when these opportunities arise so that you can increase your bids to improve your chances of showing up.

Several advertisers – large and small – have found great success showing Promoted Videos on the homepage. One YouTube advertiser, Dynomighty Design, grew their entire business by using Promoted Videos and getting placements on the YouTube homepage. Founder Terrence Kelleman says: "YouTube helps us sell our product, learn about our audience and build a strong brand image. And as a small company with a limited advertising budget, YouTube has become our main advertising strategy. Not only are costs low with Promoted Videos, but healthy conversions also make YouTube our #1 referring site in terms of traffic and revenue." To read more about Dynomighty's story, check out their original YouTube video and their feature on the Official Google Blog.

The YouTube homepage has a captive, engaged audience and it's our goal to let advertisers understand how best to reach customers that would be interested in hearing from them. For more information about advertising on YouTube, visit youtube.com/advertising, and for more information on Promoted Videos, check out ads.youtube.com.

Mark Sabec, Product Marketing Manager, recently checked out YouTube Show & Tell, home of the best creative marketing examples on YouTube.

Guidance and Updated Policies for Writing Reviews

[Cross-posted from the LatLong blog. While this post about writing reviews may not be actionable for business owners like you, we wanted to share this information about the guidelines and policies we have in place to help ensure that reviews about your business that appear on your Place Page are useful and relevant. -Ed.]

Three years ago we launched reviews for places on Google so that you could share your opinion of any place in the world. Your reviews help other users find places that are right for them.

We encourage you to continue sharing your experiences and opinions -- both good and bad. At the same time, we want to ensure that the information posted in reviews is useful and relevant for everyone. So today, we’ve updated and clarified the guidelines and policies for writing reviews. These guidelines help to make sure that reviewers understand how to write thoughtful reviews, that readers will find them informative, and that the content of the reviews provide useful feedback for Google Places business owners. We’re also sharing more information about when and why some reviews may be removed from a Place page. Below is a quick summary of the updates. Be sure to review the updated policy for more details.

Tips for writing great reviews
There isn’t an exact formula to writing a great review. Reviews are best when they reflect the unique opinion and viewpoint of an individual. You can share as much or as little information as you’d like: you might choose to describe the intricate details of a restaurant’s decor, or simply recommend your favorite dish. In the updated policy, you’ll find several best practices to consider when reviewing a business. These tips can help you convey your personal opinions clearly and effectively.

Does Google remove reviews?
The short answer is yes. Reviews are intended as a way for people to share useful and relevant information. That encompasses a wide range of opinions, most of which are permitted by our policy. However, in instances in which a review is in violation of our policy, we will remove the review. It’s important to remember that negative reviews aren’t against our policy. We encourage you to share your honest opinions about a business. And if you’re a business owner, you can directly respond to reviews to share your side of the story.

The process for reporting a review that violates our policies hasn’t changed. You can still report a review using the Flag as inappropriate link found next to each review submitted through Google Maps. When a review is flagged, we'll check to determine if the review violates our guidelines and take action accordingly.

This policy update is our latest step in our ongoing effort to improve your experience with business reviews. We hope you continue to voice your experiences, thoughts and opinions of the places you visit!

Posted by Stephen Seyboth, Product Manager

Building your web presence with Google Sites and Google Places

Today, we’re launching a Getting Started Guide for Google Sites and Google Places to help local business owners who are looking to increase their presence on the web and on Google Maps. Creating a Google site for your business will allow potential customers to learn more about your products, hours, and location before they even set foot in your store. It should also help answer some of those frequently-asked-questions that you’d otherwise have to take over the phone.

With Google Sites, you can easily create a free website for your business. We have site templates that you can choose from, and, within a few minutes, you can create a new website. There are also some quick tips available on how to customize it with images of your business, a map of your location, or a menu.

This guide will also show you how to ensure that a listing about your business appears for free when potential customers search for you on Google.com or Google Maps. The listing, which you can quickly and easily create through Google Places, includes basic information like your business name, location, and phone number. You can also edit it at any time with additional details like coupons, customized messages and more to help your business stand out. To find out more about Google Places listings, please see this blog post on the official Google Blog.

We hope that you find this Getting Started Guide useful!

Posted by Lisa Ding, Google Sites Team

Day 3- Princess Shirt and Capris

I have seen a lot of these sweet little outfits all over the place. 

You know, the shirts that have the knots thru the button holes. The boutique shops are packed with them. While in Walmart getting all of my fabric cut by a sweet little old lady, I was racking my brain trying to figure out what I was going to do with this really pretty princess fabric. Then I remembered all of these outfits I had been seeing. Now most of these outfits come with the enormous pants with ruffles. I think they are absolutely adorable, but I'm not sure how S.R., who is 2, would handle those type of pants in the Orlando heat, so I stuck with capris. This is a very simple outfit, and it took no time at all to sew it. 

It cost around $8 to make the entire outfit. This was the most expensive to make thus far. The Princess fabric cost $4.94 a yd. at Walmart. S.R. was very excited to try it on the other night. I plan on having the phrase "Princess In Training" monogrammed across the chest:o)

***************

Tomorrow I will be posting a boy's outfit...I'm not going to leave Little Man out:o) And on Friday I will have a Cinderella shirt to share with you all.

Remember to leave a comment at the end of the Minnie Mouse Skirt Tutorial for your chance to win a pair of Minnie Mouse Ears Hair Bows. The Giveaway winner will be announced Friday morning. Enter as many times as you please:o)

Have a great Wed.!!

How to Run, Get Online, and Promote Your Business with Google Tools

When first starting a business, everything is new and different. So what are the first things you need to do to turn your vision into reality? This process can be a bit intimidating -- and unnecessarily resource-consuming -- without the right tools and guidance.

Through a complementary suite of services, Google aims to help small businesses like yours navigate this uncharted territory. So as your business goes through the three phases of getting up and running, getting online and getting in front of customers, think of our products as tools designed to help you on your journey to success!

Run Your Business with Google Apps

Google Apps helps small businesses get up and running with email, calendaring, instant messaging, document, spreadsheets and presentations, site creation and video. The applications are hosted by Google, so you can just turn them on and get to work quickly. With this cloud computing approach, you don't need to worry about installing, maintaining or upgrading software, and you always have access to the latest technology. You can also use any device: PC, Mac, Linux, Android or iPad, if it has a web browser and a connection to the Internet you can access your information from anywhere. This is particularly helpful for people who need to work from various locations, like their office, home and car.

The cost savings are compelling, especially when you're on a tight budget: cloud computing is about 1/10th of the cost of on-premises software. It's also more secure than storing data on laptops and USB keys that are easily lost or stolen. But the biggest advantage of Google Apps is hardest to quantify: increased productivity through easier collaboration. Employees often work in teams, with colleagues in various locations. Web applications make it possible for them to share documents and files without attachments or version control issues because everything's online and up to date. They can also collaborate together in real time, which makes work more efficient. For more information, check out this video series on getting started with Google Apps.

Get Online with Google Places
Google Places offers an easy way to establish and maintain an online presence even if you don’t have a website. It allows business owners to add a brand new listing to Google's local database, or to edit their existing listing that appears for free when potential customers search for them on Google.com or Google Maps.

By ensuring that basic information - like your business name, location, hours of operation and phone number - is up-to-date, customers can quickly and easily find you online. And with the option to provide additional details - such as photos, videos and coupons - business owners can stand out on the map to attract more customers. You can also edit and check your info at any time to discover how many people have seen and clicked on your free listing.



Promote Your Business with AdWords
AdWords is Google’s online advertising program that acts as a matchmaking service between businesses and customers. AdWords ads are displayed along with search results when someone searches Google using one of your keywords. That way, you'll be advertising to an audience that's already interested in your business.

No matter your budget, you'll only pay when people click your ads, and there's no minimum monthly charge with AdWords. Ad performance tracking reports are built right into your account, so you can tell what's working and what needs improving.



We look forward to providing additional tips and tricks for your small business on this blog, and hope these help to get you started. So what are you waiting for? Get your business going, establish your online presence and promote your business using any of our tools that you find helpful. Good luck!

Posted by Kat Eller, Small Business Blog Team

Day 2-Minnie Mouse Skirt & Ears Tutorial

I hope that you all had a great Monday. Yesterday was E's first day of preschool. He did great. I did great until I had to leave him. S.R. and I both cried when we got in the vehicle:( She cried b/c she wanted to stay at "pwe-skoo." I cried for the obvious reasons. He was unsure about being there, but when I came to pick him up he was all smiles.
So anyway, on to day 2 of Disney Week. Today I have the bottom half of a Minnie Mouse outfit. I have a white t-shirt to go with the skirt. I am going to have it monogrammed soon. I am sharing 2 tutorials today. For the skirt and the ears hair bows. The bloomers are a pair of shorts just like the Snow White shorts, but I ran elastic thru the cuffs of the legs and added the eyelet trim. L-O-V-E It!

Here's what you need:
Skirt:


-2 Coordinating Fabrics
-Elastic
-Thread

Hair Bows:


-Black Felt
-1" Grosgrain Ribbon
-Extra Thin Ribbon(not sure the measurements on the small ribbon)
-Thread and Needle
-Stick Pin
-Hot Glue Gun and Glue Sticks
-Alligator Clips

Directions on the Skirt:

This skirt measures for a size 3T. Make your adjustments accordingly. Cut 8 4"x11" strips from the red and 8 6"x11" strips from the black.

Next, you just start sewing the long sides together, alternating colors. If you have a serger, that's great. If not, make sure to zig zag the edges to cut down on fraying. I did a straight seam first, and then a zig zag stitch.

Once you have sewn all of the pieces together, connect into a complete circle. 

Press. Try to get all the seams pressed down in the same direction. This will help you later when running the elastic thru the casing. For the hem you will need to press 3/4" down and fold it under again and press to hide all raw edges. You will want to do the same for the waist, except fold down  1", and turn under, hiding all raw edges.

Stitch a seam all the way across the hem as close to the edge as possible. On the waist, you will want to leave an opening to run your elastic thru. Cut the elastic to the desired length. Put a safety pin on each end, and run it thru the casing.

Sew the ends together, making sure that the elastic hasn't turned, and stitch up your hole.

For the tulle skirt underneath, I just folded over the fabric ran a running stitch all the way down 1" from the fold. 

 Run the elastic thru and then sew up the seam. There was some excess, so I just trimmed the bottom when I was finished. Tulle doesn't fray, so no hemming:o)

Now for the ears:

Here is a pic of the supplies:

Make yourself a circle pattern. I used a circle cutter and it is 2 1/2" in diameter. Pin to felt, and cut 2.

Now here comes the tricky part. I will do my best to explain how to make the hair bows, but you may be better off searching online for some tips:o)

I made a 2" hair bow, so fold the ribbon over itself until you have this:

Can you see that there is 2 loops on each side? Now flare those pieces out...

Take your needle and thread and stitch that into place. Tie it off. Then wrap the thread tightly around the ribbon to make it look like this:

Make sure to tie that off as well. Now comes the fun part...hot glue...get ready to get singed;o)

Take the thin ribbon and place it in the center. 

Place a small dot of glue on the back and wrap the ribbon around the thread. I know the picture looks like the ribbon is already wrapped around, but it isn't:o) I wound the thread around several times, and the flash bounced off of the thread.

Glue the bow to the circles, and then glue the circles to the alligator clips, making sure to have the clips facing opposite directions. 

And that's it:o)

Ta-da

And because I love you all so very much....I am giving a pair of ears away to one lucky reader:o)

Just leave a comment on this post, and I will announce the winner on Friday! Have a great day my lovelies!!
Giveaway is Closed.