Funky Scarf

I made this the other day to wear to a Church "birthday Celebration"  The fabric was the cupcake fabric I had left over from the pillow cases.

You will need strips of fabric cut 5 inches wide, and then either one long piece of 38-42 inches (depending on how long you want the scarf and how you are going to tie it.) I was using my scraps like I said so I had to sew mine together to make it 38 inches long.  I didn't want to worry about seams, so I just laid the fabric together and zigzaged the two pieces together.  

So what you should ended up with is 2 lengths of 5x38 inches.  I used the same color for the back and on the front alternated a white on white dot, and the cupcake fabric.  You will then take those two strips and putting them wrong sides together, sew two strips down the middle.  I made mine about an inch apart, so I basically sewed 1/2 inch from the middle on both sides.  Then take your scissors and cut into the fabric on both sides.  This doesn't need to be exact, because after this step you will be washing it and it will create a shaggy look and no one will notice the space between each cut.

After I had washed it and dried it, it still wasn't looking quite as "scrunchy" as I had envisioned, so I took some really thin elastic and threaded it up the two ends until it was the look I wanted.  

Broken Glass??

My first experience in playing with Mosaic stuff.  My sister in law asked me to help her with this project.  It was a first time for both of us, so we learned a little, and had a lot of fun! She had a broken vase she wanted to use, so she broke them up into fingertips size pieces.  I had a piece of framed canvas that we decided to use.

We mixed up some white grout and applied a thick layer to the whole thing. We then laid the glass in a heart shaped and filled it in.   We later decided to scrape the rest of the grout off.

We then let it dry for a while and then cleaned off the glass with a sponge. She took it home to let it dry and then she was going to spray paint the canvas white and tie a ribbon around it with a saying. 

I am excited that it really worked and actually turned out since neither one of us knew what we were doing!!  So next time you break a vase, don't worry we have a project for you!

Down Feather Pillows

My father in law kept all the feathers from his goose hunting this past season and asked me to make some pillows, since I was using feather, I ended up using this fabric I had from some curtains someone gave me.  They are super thick and has a lining on the back, which I figured would help the feathers from poking through.  I was making nine little travel pillows, so I cut them 12x18

This just shows what the backing looked like.  If you are to make some I would suggest using a thick heavy decor fabric.

I sewed up three sides, and left one of the short sides open so I would have enough room to stuff the feathers.

I enlisted my stuffers to help!

The kids had a blast stuffing with feathers everywhere, in our hair up our noses, we all took turns sneezing!  If you haven't ever seen down feathers, they are a little different then feathers you buy at the store, most of them didn't have a "shaft",and are just a ball of fluff, so they would easy fly in the air. Think baby geese, how they are just a ball of fluff at first, that's what we were using!!

After we stuffed them, I just turned the edges in about a half an inch and sewed it together. Here they are all done, I ended up having enough to do a standard size for grandpa. Don't they look so fluffy!!  They were amazing how you would push down on them and move your hand, and they would bounce right back, not like the store ones at all!! 100% better!!

We went to the fabric store and let the kids pick out what fabric they wanted. I love how they look with the pillow cases.  A really good tutorial here for the pillowcases. That is for a standard pillowcase, but really easy to size it down or up.

Skipping Preschool

I am skipping the preschool posting this week, we have been trying to play "catch-up" after all the snow days we had, and I feel like I was bombarded with things to do this week. . .  One of those things was that my husband and daughter went to the broadway Beauty and the Beast.  I wanted to make her a little Belle outfit for the night, because she was so excited to go on a date with her Dad, so I made these for the girls!

 I forgot to take pictures to give you a nice tutorial, but I found one here (this is basicly how I made it, but I used a lot more fabric to make it fuller, and didn't do two layers.  It's hard to tell in the picture, but I glued on the word BELLE with little gems.  As you can tell the girls were really excited to go!

New Product

When I thought about decorations for the laundry room there was one thing I wanted to do and that was cover frames in moss, I love the color of the moss and I wanted to add that texture and look into the room.  I went in search of some moss, and could only find big clumps of stuff sold in a big bag. I held off on getting something and I am glad I did, because when I ran into JoAnns the other day I found this:

It's moss, but a sheet of it, almost like moss fabric :) It says it's a new product, not sure how new it is, but I haven't ever seen it. . . I knew this would be perfect to cover the frames.

 First I covered the frames with the green flower tape I had from another project. After completeing the project I would say this step is a must. . .it helped hold the moss while I glued it down, and it helped camoflauge the frame so I didn't have to cover the whole frame.

 As you can see in this picture I layed it up next to the inner frame, and then wrapped it a little bit around the side.  I used my hot glue gun to glue it down.

 I used the same ribbon i had used to tie back the curtains, and hung them on the wall.  I love the softness look of the ribbon, and it turned out just how I wanted!!

Kitchen Re-do

Have you ever read those post where whoever is writing it, was driving down the road and found a great treasure that they just couldn't pass up???  I ALWAYS thought to myself and you might of too. . ."that never happens to me". . .finding something great on the side of the road. . .I am here to tell you not to give up. . .because it does happen!!

A few months before Christmas I was heading over to a friends house for girls night out, I drove down her street a little bit to turn around, and there I saw it. . .

and it really happens like they all say. . .Your heart skips a beat, a light comes down and shines on it and you hear faintly the sound of what you can only describe as angels singing.

I stopped and just starred at it for a while, I hesitated just getting out and shoving it in my car, one it looked pretty heavy, and two my mom had always taught me that stealing is wrong.  I kept telling myself that it wasn't stealing if it was thrown out for trash, but I just couldn't take it. . . so I went up to the door to see if anyone was home.  No one answered so I wrote a note and shoved it in my car, hoping I wouldn't have to bring it back.  Later I got a call from the owner who had made it for his daughters 20 years ago, and he was happy I had taken it!!!

I knew this would be perfect for my youngest for her birthday, I set it aside and told myself I couldn't work on it until after Christmas. . .it was hard to do, but the week after we got back from vacation I started working on it.

I cleaned it all up and painted it the turquoise color in the playroom.  I lightly brushed the brown over it to make it look "old" :) love that look!!  I also knew I wanted to use the red so I thought red polka dots would be super cute.  I got the fabric and surged around the edges. I gathered the top and hooked it to a strip of ribbon to give it more stability.  I then tacked it up on the underside of the wood.  I was going to do a spring rod, but I knew the kids would just pull it down, I am hoping this way it holds up better!

 I spray painted the faucet red. . .I was a little worried that it wouldn't work, but it turned out great.  I took it all apart and sprayed each piece, and then when it was all dry I put it back together again.  All the parts still move, and I love the red!!

 I bought I cute little nob for the front of the oven.

 I had a little white basket laying around so I thought it would be perfect for her to keep her washcloths ,  tablecloths and place mats I made for her.  I have a bigger basket for under the sink to store all the dishes when not in use.  On the right hand side originally it was a stove, but for Christmas my Dad made my little girl a super cute portable stove, so I left it blank, so she would have a spot to set her stove, and to play.  I just love the polka dots and how it looks, so simple, but I know she will love it!!

Keep your eyes open for treasures. . .you never know when you're going to find yours!!

Neck Pillow

A lot of time the Prince of Persuasion will fall asleep in the car. I always feel so bad for his little neck it looks like it will just break right off. So I started searching on line to see if I could find a free pattern to make a neck pillow. These are also great for those long holiday car rides.

My mom actually found the pattern and the brillant lady said to find a stuffed animal to put at the end of it so that it would better support there bobbing head. I thought it was just adorable.

So of course we had to make more then one, so we made one for my nieces and nephew. I think that this little african safari is just too cute! The girls are the monkey and the hippo. I couldn't leave it just like that I had to put bows on it because hey girls have to have bows.

This is the Prince and daddy sporting the finish product. He loves it he already tries to put it around his neck.

Turkey Placemats

I made these turkeys with a bunch of friends.  I wasn't the one with the pattern, and I am not sure where the pattern came from, so I can give credit.  But I thought they turned out so cute, and it would be a simple thing to copy, even without the pattern.  The shapes are very basic.

What you will want to do is get heat n' bond aka wonder under.  You will want to make all your shapes on the heat and bond, cut around them, and then iron it on to the back of the fabric you want to use. Then cut out the actual shape.  After you have all the shapes cut, peel off the heat n bond, and layer them how you want on to a piece of fabric.  I used just a simple muslin.  Make sure you hold the iron on long enough to make them all stick. Then cut the turkey out, so you can't see any of the backing.

 For the stitching I hand stitched using embroidery floss around the feet, face, gobble and eyes. Then used my sewing machine and a basic zig-zag to do around the body and the feathers. 

These were super easy and went together fast, they only thing is the hand sewing, but I just took it when I sat and watched my daughter at the gym.

I plan on using them at Thanksgiving with a fun tablecloth and accessories, but for now they are enjoying our table.



This fall I just can't get enough of the colored leaves. It is probably because I live somewhere that the leaves don't turn... and I am missing the beautiful autumns I grew up with. I got some free chargers from a friend. She was cleaning out her craft closet and she gave me these red chargers to do something with. She also had some leaves. So I took the leaves and some mod podge and I made this.Then what I did was layered the leaves how I liked it and glued them on. To get the shine I added gold dust to the glue.

Then I added some gold lettering and.... Tada! 

Crown Keychains

I was in need of an idea to go along with a lesson I was doing and this is what I came up with.  Very easy and you could do it for a gift, birthday favors, or even wedding favors, if you wanted.

First you take Shrinky Dinks.  I found mine at Michael's in the scrapbooking isle.  I got the Frosted Ruff n' Ready-not sure what that means, but that is what was recommended on line when I did some research.  I drew a simple crown.  You can trace any clipart or any other crown you like.  Read the directions on the shrinky Dinks, because you have to trace on one side, and then if you want color, you color on the other side.

After coloring, make sure you punch a hole in it before you bake it.  Follow directions to bake it and it should shrink a third the size.  This particular one in the picture I didn't color.

I attached it to the keychain, added beads and little sticky jewels(also found in scrapbook isle) to give a little bling. I used a jumpring to hang the crown on so it would jingle a little bit and not be so tight. This one I colored a light pink.  FYI: The color gets brighter after baking.  These were quick and very simple. Simple enough to do at a little girls birthday party :)

Cost
Shrinky Dinks- 5.99 for 10 sheets
Beads-Used ones I had at home, but they sell them for 1-2 dollars at Wal-mart
Key Chains- 2.99 for 20
Bling-2.99 for 150

I made 37 little crowns, and I still have 7 sheets of Shrinky Dinks left, and a few blings!

And so it should have begun....

So I should have had this done months ago since I started before May, but I am bound and determined to get it done. I am doing a quiet book for my kids for Christmas. My friend was actually the one who was convincing me that this is a great project and it sounded like so much fun. But now that I am into it. I keep thinking to myself what was I thinking. This is going to be a very extensive quiet book. I think the finish product will be 28 pages. So I am almost half way done. I wanted to share some of the pages I have done.

Spooky Lanterns

So every year our church does a Trunk-or-Treat. And we needed a few things to spice up our trunk. I thought it would be cute to make some spooky latern.  They would look better with some light in them, but we did not have any tea lights. Some creepy music and some fake spider webs and we are set. Oh, and don't forget the jack-o-laterns that we will be carving on Friday.

An Idea For a Place Mat Top

Cut your table mat to the size you want. Draw with a pencil the design you want.

Buy transparent fabric paint, in the colors you want.

Paint the image. I found that if you are messy and do not stay in the lines it turns out better.

I took metallic frabric paint to outline my leaves. I think it turned out pretty... Happy Painting.

Princess/Queen Crown and Wand

My children this year are going to be characters from the board game Candyland.  My oldest is a girl and she is going to be Queen Frostine.

For her dress I used an old bridesmaids dress and cut it shorter and added some white fluff.  Nothing to extreme, but I ended up making her wand and crown, so I thought I would share how to make an easy crown and wand, for any kind of princess.

I lost my camera so the pictures of the steps are also lost, so I am going to do my best to explain without them. 

For the crown, I took a plastic headband that I had and formed out of wire the shape of the crown.  I glued the crown form to the headband.  I cut strips of the same white fluffy fabric I used on the dress, and wrapped the fabric around the wire and headband.  Every so often I would secure the fabric with a little thread.  After I wrapped the fabric, I wrapped some beads I had leftover from another project.

For the wand I also formed the design out of wire, and wrapped it the same way as I did the crown, but for the handle I used a dowel so it would be a little more sturdy. My Queen Frostine loved how it turned out!

This would even be fun to make for birthday or Christmas gift for any girl who loves to play dress up!

Bathroom Curtains

I have been working on this project for a while and it is finally done!

I did curtains for our guest bathroom.  First I took 2 yards of fabric and cut it in half length wise.

I hate the look of seams when I use sheer fabric, so I take a lighter and go along the edges.  It cleans up the strings and melts it just enough to keep it from fraying.

Next I had beadboard leftover from a project.  I glued it together and painted it red with some sparkles. 

 I had a huge bag of these left over from another project also, and so I glued them all over the wood.

 I hooked the fabric to the back of the wood and hung it above the window. 

I am thinking that it would of turned out better if I had painted to wood white, but it's done and hung up!