A Pinterest Christmas!

Have I told you how much I love Pinterest?  Haha.  I do.  I love it.  Here are some projects I've been working on for Christmas this weekend:


An ornament with sand and shells that I brought back from our vacation to Kauai a couple weeks ago.  I bought a clear ornament at Michael's, filled it with sand and the shells, then tied on ribbon and a little tag to remind us of where it is from!

Inspired by this pin

A clip to hang recipes I am using in the kitchen.  This way they won't get dirty on the counter!  I bought the pant hangers in a 4-pack at Target, then traced, cut, and glued on scrapbook paper.  I used little black letter stickers to spell out the sayings and brushed on about 4 coats of matte Mod Podge.

Inspired by this pin

 Other side - What's Cooking?

A set of monogrammed gift tags for the whole family.  D = Daddy, M = Mommy, A = Audrey, N = Nathan.  The pin is from MarthaStewart.com.  I printed out a template from the website, then pinned the templates to felt.  I cut them out, then glued on strips of rick rack with Aleen's Tacky Glue.  I also cut out the initials from felt.  I just eyeballed these, I was too lazy to make a template.  I figured they are so small, it wouldn't matter if they were all slightly different.  I sewed the rick rack on with a straight stitch and coordinating thread, then glued the initial on top.  I sewed the initials on with a zigzag stitch and coordinating thread. 

Inspired by this pin

 Here is the whole lot - 4 for each member of the family.  I can't wait to tie them to all our packages!

 

The tags are a perfect companion to this idea I found on Pinterest - only 4 gifts a year.  My kids share a room (so space is at a premium), and they already have so much stuff.  I started my shopping this year with the 4 Gift Rule in mind.  It was hard to stick to!  My husband had an especially hard time.  He loves to buy toys for the kids.  He may have to just shop for Santa's gifts from now on!

Screenshot of this pin

What Christmas projects have you been finishing up this weekend?  Do you love Pinterest, too??

Craft It Forward 2011

On January 4, 2011, I promised to make something for the first 5 people who commented on my Facebook status.

So finally, the end of December, I am ready to mail them out!  Thank goodness for Facebook's new Timeline.  The first time I went to check who exactly had commented on this status, it took me over 30 minutes to scroll all the way back.  Now, I just click on 2011, then click on January.  Easy, peasy!

Now on to the gifts...

For Tia, a jersey knit scarf, sewn with elastic thread in the bobbin so that it would ruffle a bit.  I got the idea from this tutorial.  Since I used jersey knit and it doesn't fray, I didn't hem the edges.  It's really light weight and will be great in the late spring or summer!

For Laura, a shirt for her son, inspired by the Oregon sticker on my car.  I printed out a map of Oregon, then cut out the shape from white felt and sewed it on a little boys black shirt with a straight stitch.  I cut out the green felt heart and sewed that on top with green thread and a straight stitch.  Really easy and super cute!

For Shannon, a fun coffee cozy.  I've made them before, here.  If she doesn't buy coffee drinks often at Starbucks or other places, she can also use this sleeve on Kleen Kanteens (those things can get really cold if you put ice in them) or on to-go coffee mugs.  I used the left over fabric from making Kara's oven mitt and hot pad bridal shower gift and top stitched it with a cute flower stitch on my sewing machine.

For Wendy, a onesie for her baby girl.  I got the idea from this pin on Pinterest.  I had actually originally pinned the inspiration from one of Wendy's boards, so I hope she hasn't made one for her daughter yet!  The flower is from this tutorial because I wanted it to be permanently attached to the onesie.  If Wendy wants to turn it into a pendant, she just has to snip the threads and glue or sew it to a pin from the craft store.

For Kelly, a super hero cape for her daughter, Greta.  I also made capes for Nathan's birthday last year and Greta's brother was one of the attendees who received one.  I'll have to do a tutorial on those soon!  Kelly is also a teacher and last year her class wrote an imaginative story about Super Greta, a brave and courageous toddler.  In the story, Super Greta's cape was blue and red.  I made her real cape blue and purple, because purple is her favorite color!  I even practiced using my embroidery attachment to embroider "Super Greta" on the Superman emblem.  It turned out much better than the last time I embroidered something for Greta! Here is the finished cape in the car, on the way to the post office!

So, moral of the story, if I participate in Craft It Forward 2012, I will start these projects WAYYYYY earlier! :)  I'm such a procrastinator, it's not funny.

What have you been working on lately?

More Pinterest Ideas

I freaking love Pinterest.  I've been busy the past couple of weeks whipping up little crafts here and there for a variety of events.  First, my friend Pat got a great idea to make a "30 Sucks" gift for our buddy Tim's 30th birthday.  Here are the papers I made for it.  Pat stuck all the suckers in a blue vase and a florist block from the dollar store.  He loved it, but unfortunately, we forgot to take a picture of it!

Notice the papers are Duck colors!

Since Tim's was such a hit, I went ahead and made another one for one of my very best friend's 30th birthday party the next weekend.  She absolutely loved it!  Sorry about the crazy lighting - this was taken in a basement, surrounded by red table cloths, and on my iPhone.  Recipe for photo disaster.  You get the idea, though.  I used a pink, square vase I already had, bought a rectangle florist block from Fred Meyer and cut it down to size, then stuck in 30 Dum-Dums.  The "30 Sucks" sign is hot glued to a chop stick and the "Happy Birthday" sign is hot glued to ribbon that is hot glued around the vase.  Super cute and cheap!

Idea from this Pinterest link

I then got crafty for myself last week.  I had been staring at all kinds of DIY necklaces on My Style board on Pinterest and knew I could make something cute with these grey seed-bead necklaces I had laying around.  Armed with this "pinspiration" of another necklace, I got to work.  Using two pairs of needle-nosed pliers, I put two jump rings on opposite sides of each necklace (there were three necklaces), then laced one end of each of the necklaces onto one bigger ring.  I braided the necklaces together, then ran the rings at the end onto a bigger ring.  I looked all around my bathroom for an old necklace chain I could take apart, but couldn't find anything.  So, I took "pinspiration" from this ribbon and pearl necklace and used some yellow ribbon.  Yellow and grey are all the rage.  Grellow, anyone?

Here it is! I decided to model as I was stuck in traffic.  Totally acceptable use of time.

It's a little long, but for being free, I love it.

My next project was for 3 baby's birthdays.  We were invited to two different first birthdays and a 2nd birthday.  I knew I couldn't make all of the gifts, but I thought I could make at least part of them.  For the two year old's birthday, we gave her some felt food (orange slices, bendable bacon, and eggs - not pictured) and a little shopping basket full of cut-able food.  She loved it!  For one of the one year old's birthday, we gave her a set of felt food with a really cute baby pot and pan set with mirrors and rattles on it.  She seemed really excited to play with it when she opened it!  The third party was cancelled last minute, but I also made her the felt food and got her a recycled plastic tea set.  It's so adorable, I can't wait to give it to her!

Once I decided to make felt food, I found tutorials for making felt food everywhere!  Even when we went to the Pumpkin Patch, there was a booth selling tons of felt food and other felt toys.  It was awesome!  I'm really excited to make more felt things, since it was so easy!

Here is my last project - Brains in a Jar! I saw this and instantly knew I had to make it for something.  I don't usually like scary things, but this was so cool!  I stayed up a little too late last night baking, making frosting, and putting 6 of these little jars together.  Then, using a round cookie cutter, I cut the rest of the cake I had baked and placed each round inside a cupcake wrapper, smeared a little strawberry jam on the cake, and piped on some squiggles of the greyish-pink frosting.  The website that these were pinned from had a free printable for the jar lids, so I just glued some onto toothpicks and stuck them in the mini cupcakes.  I WISH I would have taken a picture.  They were so cute and so yummy!  Oh well, maybe next year I'll remember to take more pics.  Or maybe not! :)    I brought them to school for a little Halloween celebration in the staff room for the teachers.  We don't celebrate Halloween with the kids, since a large portion of our population doesn't celebrate at home.  But who says the teachers can't have some fun?!

 So, does anyone else love Pinterest as much as I do?  What projects have you been working on?

Earring Holder

While perusing Pinterest, I've noticed so many adorable earring holders lately.  I decided to make myself one! 

Here's one I loved, originally from I Heart Organizing:

And another one from A Girl and a Glue Gun:

I really liked the use of radiator screens from the top one and the fabric rosettes from the second one.  I decided to use a silver frame Ben's dad had given us that was sitting unused in our basement.  I then went to Home Depot and got a decorative radiator grate.  I had a guy at the store cut it into the dimensions I needed for my frame.  There was enough for him to cut two pieces.  I plan to use the second piece to make an earring holder for a friend as a gift.

I spray painted it white, since I thought this color would look ugly with my silver frame.  We already had a can of spray paint in the garage left over from painting little bird houses for my friend Carla's baby shower.  All I did was spray the grate white and pop it in the frame.

I then got to work making the fabric rosettes.  Here are my supplies:

I started off with this tutorial from Little Birdie Secrets.  She has you use fabric glue and 1 inch wide strips of fabric.  She suggested ripping the fabric to create long pieces of threads coming off the fabric.  I tried that, but it didn't rip very well.  I ended up washing and drying my strips, then ironing them flat.  This made it look a little more rugged.  As per the tutorial, you tie a knot in the end of a strip of fabric, and twist and wind around itself to create the flower, gluing every few centimeters as you go.  I made two flowers with this technique, one a little bigger than the other.

I then switched over to a tutorial from Lillyella: Uniquely You.  In the directions, you wrap your fabric strip around a skinny piece of cardboard.  I used the side of an empty spaghetti box - work with what you got!  You then iron the fabric to get creases in it.  Then, you remove the cardboard and wrap the fabric around a pencil.  When you remove the pencil, you can form it into a rosette.  Go to the original blog for better pictures and directions.  Lillyella does a much better job at explaining this than I do!

The next step was hot gluing the rosettes to my frame, adding earrings, and hanging it in my bathroom! 

 I love how it turned out!  I layered the last rosette on top of the first two, since it was poufier (is that a word??) 

 Here is a close up of the flowers.  You can see the raw edges of the fabric, which I like.  It would be cute to add a little pearl bead in the middle of the biggest rosette, too.  I think I'll stop here, though.

Here is a close up of another corner, so you can see the pattern of the metal sheet and the thin frame I used. 

Here is a breakdown of cost:
Frame - free
Metal sheet - $18 (a little steep, but there was enough to make two frames)
White spray paint - already had
Fabric rosettes - already had the glue and fabric

Total cost: $9, since I plan to make another one as a gift for a friend.

How do you store your earrings?  Would you use an earring holder like this? 

Coffee Table

Last summer I decided I wanted to build a new padded coffee table for Audrey as she started to learn to walk.  I was inspired by a post from Kara Paslay Designs over at Young House Love.  The table was stylish, inexpensive, and didn't look too hard to make.

Instead of building the base, like Kara did, I decided to search Craigslist for an inexpensive table. And I paid $25 dollars for it!  Score!  I promptly cleaned it, took it apart with an alan wrench, and started sanding the pieces.  My wonderful hubby took over for  me, finished sanding, and painted all the pieces white, using paint we already had to re-paint closet doors and trim throughout our house.

Here is the table, taken apart

I went to Ikea to get fabric (black with white leaves), then ventured over to the as-is section and found a HUGE piece of foam for $10.  What a steal!  I then swung by Michael's on my way home and grabbed a bag of quilt batting and a can of Scotch brand spray glue with some 40% off coupons.

To make the table, I borrowed an electric turkey knife from my mother in law to cut the foam, Design on a Dime style.  (If you watch HGTV, you'll know they always use those things to cut foam!  And it works!) I sprayed the top of the table with the glue and placed the cut foam on top.  I then stretched the batting over the foam and using a staple gun, stapled it to the bottom.  I trimmed any excess batting from the bottom.  I then stretched the fabric over the top and stapled that as well.  I stapled them separate in case something were to spill on the table, I could replace the fabric without having to replace the batting, too. 

I thought about adding the tufted buttons, like Kara's table, but in the end, it was too much work.  I wanted to be done!  I added a wooden tray to the top that I had gotten years ago from Target, and a blanket to the bottom shelf for cozying up with on the couch, and called it good!

Here's the breakdown of price:
Coffee table from craigslist: $25
Foam from Ikea As-is: $10
Batting from Michales (on sale): $5.99
Scotch spray glue from Michaels (40% off): $8.40
Staple gun & staples: already owned
Sand paper and white paint: already owned
Mid-weight fabric from Ikea: $16 for 2 yards

Grand total: $65.39
Pretty good, since similar upholstered ottomans cost hundreds of dollars!  If I would have just used a coffee table we already had for the base, it would have been even less!

What do you think?  Have you tried to upholster anything?  What about modifying or updating some furniture? Do tell!

Crafty Christmas

We're all feeling the effects of the recession.  With that in mind, I am planning on making most, if not all, of my holiday gifts this year.  I just perused the internet for free tutorials (can't even afford patterns!) and came up with a list of perfect gifts for my closest friends and family.  I'll be posting projects and where I got the tutes as soon as I actually start!

Happy crafting!

Living room is coming along

Remember that I'm in the process of re-arranging my living room?  Here's the low-down on what I've accomplished so far:
1. Painted 3 of the walls a lighter color
2. Moved the baker's rack tv stand to the garage
3. Moved the ladder bookcases to each side of the fireplace
4. Traded the blue chair for the brown chair that was in our bedroom.  Since I'm not nursing as much and Audrey sleeps in Nate's room now, there's no need to have the rocker in our room and it will get more use in the living room.
5. Went to Ikea yesterday and bought the white 5x5 Expedit shelf that I wanted.  So excited to put it together!

6. Hung curtains
7. Removed the large rug (part of it will be added later)
8. Took apart and sanded the new coffee table.  Just need to paint it and upholster the top.

That's about it!  I'm excited to be done!  I hope it turns out like the vision in my head.  Probably not, that never happens! :)

TOOO Cute Dollhouse

Alright, who's going to help me??  I found a super easy and totally adorable dollhouse tutorial over at Nicegirlnotes.com.  It's made out of an old nightstand, some scrapbook paper, and mod podge.  It's so my kind of project: easy and doesn't take long!  I just might have to make one of these puppies for Audrey to play with in a couple years!

Living Room Update

I've decided to re-do our living room ala Young House Love. They love everything to be "light and airy" and my living room was everything but. With black furniture, a dark brown sofa, dark brown walls, and black picture frames, it was starting to get a little cave-like. So I headed down to Sherwin-Williams and grabbed a gallon of paint the next shade lighter from the current color. I painted three walls the light color and left the dark on the fireplace wall as an accent. I also removed Ben's media center and relegated it to the garage. Remember when our living room was featured in DIY Magazine's "He Said, She Said" column?

Well, I am trying to follow John and Sherry's advice, but on a budget.  Instead of investing the time and money into built-in's,  I moved our two black ladder bookcases that used to be on the wall behind the couch to the wall flanking the fireplace. I had previously painted the fireplace brick white and the brass insert black. I added some Ikea baskets to the shelves and am in the process of getting rid of the DVD racks. We NEVER watch the DVD's anyway. It's only DVR and Netflix for us these days!  I moved the Pottery Barn cork board to the laundry room and found a new home for the blue chair.  I also am going to down-size the Flor tile rug, since a certain little puppy likes to make messes when we are gone.

Here are a couple "before" shots.   The one on the top shows the previous orientation of the ladder shelves, along with the new couch and Flor tile rug.  The bottom one shows the old brick fireplace, DVD racks, and baker's rack tv cabinet.

I'm dying to show you all the after photos, but I am not done yet.  I need a couple more weeks to finish up the final touches.  You'll just have to wait in anticipation until then! :)

Ikea Hacker

I'm obsessed with a new blog called Ikea Hacker. It's where readers post projects they've done that use Ikea products in a different way. I'm in love with the computer/ cookbook stand made from shelving brackets and kitchen cabinet pulls. I also really liked the garbage bag holder to hang on the cabinet door under the sink. These seemed like simple projects I could do. Of course I would love to create built-ins with Billy bookcases, but that seems so involved and time consuming. I'm all about instant gratification!

I went to Ikea tonight with my mom. It was her very first time being there, so of course we spent 4 hours perusing all the little vignettes and oohhing and awwing over the beautiful kitchens and scoffing at the cheap feeling dressers. I knew I wanted to try one of the hacks, so I picked up a Kvarta clock to the tune of $5.99. Here is the project I plan to do. I'll let you know how it turns out!

Window Fix-up

Last year we remodeled our bathroom. When this was done, I got rid of a set of green curtains for a waffle-weave brown roman shade. Straight on, it looks fabulous. However, when you are in the shower, you could see outside (meaning people outside can see you in the shower!) And the window is too low to have the shade open when using the toilet. My solution was to put a window frosting film on the bottom half of the window. I got this idea from Young House Love, one of my favorite blogs.

I first cut the film one inch larger on each side than the size of the window. I then cleaned the window, and sprayed it with water. I peeled the film from it's backing, and placed it on the window. I used a small squeegee to smooth out the bubbles and used an exacto knife to trim the excess film. I love how I can open the shade to let light in the bathroom without having to worry about my backdoor neighbors being able to see in. And this was such an easy project!