Christmas Plaque

I had this mirror left over from when I tried to use that Porcelain Marker for my bathroom quote project (here). You may remember that the marker dried up so fast I couldn't even finish the quote! I ended up using something different and so I had this mirror just sitting on my desk. I decided to use it for Christmas :)

Materials:
~ Mirror
~ Christmas picture
~ Mod Podge

I went through a church magazine and found a Christmas picture that I really liked. I cut it to size and mod podged it onto the mirror.



You could still see the mirror along the top of the picture so I decided to add a little quote. I've given up on using Porcelain markers so I just used a black sharpie and it worked perfectly! (Also MUCH cheaper!!) Since the picture was of Christ I decided to write "O Come Let Us Adore Him"


Here it is!

(The pictures aren't the greatest sorry)

Christmas Plaque:
~ Mirror: $0.00
~ Christmas Picture: $0.00
~ Mod Podge: $0.00

Christmas Plaque: Total Cost ~ $0.00

Christmas Trinkets

There's got to be a better title for this project, but I don't know what to call them, so for now they're trinkets :) Anyone who has a better name please leave it in the comments! I know it needs work :)

So, I wanted to do something festive for Christmas but didn't have money to spend and didn't really know to do. I decided to just go in to my craft supplies and start looking around. These are my favorite kind of projects because I just see what I have, put something together, and end up with a craft at the end! I get so excited when I'm able to create something out of all that stuff. To other people my craft corner (I don't have a craft room, just a craft corner) may look like junk, but to me it's a whole bunch of projects waiting to come together!

Materials:
~ Cranberries
~ Gold fabric
~ Candle holders

I started by looking at two projects I made last year (here). (They now sit side-by-side on my dinner table).


I love the cranberry look and while I was admiring my previous work ;) I decided that the green bottle had a few too many cranberries poking out of it. I decided to take off a branch. It looks much better now, and I was on my way to my new project! I cut up the cranberries and found some small scraps of gold material from one of my pillow projects (here). Now I just needed somewhere to put the two together.

I remembered that when I bought the candle holders for my bathroom (here) they came with little glass cups to place the candles in. I didn't end up using the glass cups with the holders so they were sitting in my craft box. I pulled two of them out, cleaned them off, and put the cranberries and fabric inside! What do you think?



When I started cutting the cranberries off the branch the outer paint layer came off, showing the styrofoam ball underneath. I had to cover that up! So I used a Crayola marker :)

Bird's Eye View :)

This "Oh Holy Night" was given to us by my mother-in-law. Don't you love it! Now I have my little nativity set with three cute things: my "Oh Holy Night" block, my Willow Tree angel, and my Christmas trinkets :)

Christmas trinkets:
~ Cranberries: $0.00
~ Gold fabric: $0.00
~ Candle holders: $0.00

Christmas trinkets: Total Cost ~ $0.00

1 + 1 = 3

I promise I have a very good reason for not posting any new projects in such a long time! C. and I are expecting our first little baby :) We are SO excited and can't wait to add a child to our family. You may be thinking, "Cool, but how does that relate to your blog?" Well, I haven't been feeling the greatest and when I get home from work I'm too exhausted to work on anything. The weekends are now used for naps and relaxing so I'll have enough energy for the coming week. However, I'm 13 weeks now and hoping that my 2nd trimester will mean I have more energy and less sickness! So I'm excited to start working on more projects and have some fun baby projects that I'll be doing! Please don't give up on me and keep checking my blog. I'll be posting soon!

Diaper Case

My sister is pregnant so to celebrate I made her a cute little diaper case! I've never owned a diaper bag but I've seen a lot of mothers fishing through looking everywhere for a diaper! (And sometimes it's kind of an emergency to get a diaper out for that little guy!) I found this tutorial for a diaper case on makeit-loveit.com (here). I was so excited when I found this idea, but I'll be honest, her tutorial is kind of confusing. She was doing all this in-and-out, double-sided, flip-a-roo stuff and I thought, why can't you just stick the two pieces of fabric together?" So I totally simplified it!

Materials:
~ Fabric: 2 pieces (one that is 8 x 12 inches and one that is 8 x 15 inches)
~ Sew-on velcro
~ Extra fabric for any fun additions you want!

Here are my two pieces of fabric

Make sure you fold under the raw edges along the top and sew those under. Then lay the two pieces of fabric RIGHT sides together and sew along the top and two sides.

Once you've sewn your two pieces together clip out the two bottom corners. Get close to the seam but make sure you don't snip through your thread!

This is the extra 3 inches on the back piece on the top. I wanted it to be the same width as the bottom section and I wanted to get rid of the raw edge, so I folded it under and sewed it all up, matching it to the bottom section so it wouldn't poke out when I folded the flap down.

Next just sew on the velcro! You can just do one piece or you can two if you want it to be extra secure.


I wanted to add a little pazzaz so I made two fabric yo-yo's and put them on the back bottom corner. I just safety-pinned these on because I wanted her to be able to take them off to wash the diaper case. If you want it to look a little more professional but still want the yo-yo's removable you can also do more velcro. I also cut out this thin piece of fabric (same as the yo-yo) and, with raw edges pressed under, sewed it along the edge of my flap.

Finished product (front view). What do you think?! Now it's easy to find diapers in that notoriously messy diaper bag and if you ever have a babysitter you can just whip this out and hand it over!

Diaper Case:
~Fabric: $3.00 (rough guess...I don't remember exactly. But this gave me enough fabric to make at least one more, maybe two)
~ Sew-on Velcro: $3.00 (something like that...but again, this gave me enough velcro to make 2)
~ Extra fabric: $2.00 (same thing...gave me more than what I needed)

So, even though the total that I spent equals $8.00, since I have enough materials to make at least one more, I'm going to say that this one diaper case cost me $4.00

Diaper Case: Total Cost ~ $4.00

A Splash of Fall

I know I've been bad at posting lately! I'll step it up :)

I have seen a lot of pumpkins on blogs I've looked at and I decided to jump on the bandwagon. They're so cheap and they're fun and they add a nice autumn feeling to your home. I got my 3 pumpkins at Smith's, they were only $1.00 each! (The big one was a different kind of pumpkin so I got it cheaper per pound than the small ones.)

Just a nice reminder that fall is here!


Splash of Fall:
~ large pumpkin: $1.00
~ small pumpkins (2): $2.00
~ cute table runner that goes so well with fall! (Ok, you don't need this, but don't you agree that it goes great with my pumpkins? It made me very excited! I love this table runner!): $0.00

Splash of Fall: Total Cost ~ $3.00

Quote and Candle Holders

I was at a garage sale with my sister (who got me into all this crafting and thrifting and re-purposing!! Thanks! I love it!) and we found these candle holders. They were so pretty! A really classy tan/gold color with black de-stressing, curvy and loopy with pretty leaves! They were only $1 so of course you all know what I HAD to do!!! I brought them home with me, not knowing where they would end up or what they would be used for, but knowing that someday I'd figure that out! It actually didn't take me too long to figure out that I wanted them on the wall in my bathroom surrounding a quote. I got this idea like 5 months ago but I only just finished because I had trouble getting my quote. I couldn't get my vinyl order to come through so I decided to come up with an alternative to vinyl.

Materials:
~ Candle Holders
~ 8x10 frame
~ Fabric
~ Paper/Pen (I used a scrapbook pen)

The first thing I needed to do was come up with an alternative to vinyl for my quote. I needed this because my order wasn't going through. I also thought though, now next time I move (which hopefully won't be for 2 years! Cross your fingers!) I can take this project with me. I saw these way cool things on a blog (here) called Porcelein Markers. Basically you kind of make your own vinyl, she made some dinner plates. So I went and bought one at Michael's but it dried up insanely fast! (I got the Porcelain brand anyone know about these things?) I had bought an 8x10 framed mirror at Dollar Tree and I couldn't even finish the quote. L.A.M.E.
I didn't let that deter me though :) I decided just to write it on my own so I got out some printer paper and wrote it with my best penmanship! It did look a little plain though so I added some fabric yo-yo's to give it some pazzaz.

I love these things! They're super easy too! Cut out a circle of fabric twice as big as you want your final yo-yo to be. Take a needle/thread and go up and down around the outside edge. Pull the thread until the fabric gathers into the center. Tie it up! That's it :)
(follow tutorial here if you want more detailed steps)

Here's the quote, I love this quote! Read the full thing here (I left out a few sentences)
(Sorry, I don't know why the yo-yos are purple in this picture, they're really red! It's the same fabric as my shower curtain! See that project here)

This did come with little glass containers to put in the candles and I actually bought some. But I decided it was just a bit too much with the candles, so I just left them out :)

Looks great with the shower curtain doesn't it?!

What do you think of the final product? I would say my bathroom is done, but I'm sure I'll think of something else to add to it later! :)

Total Cost:
~ Candle Holders: $1.00
~ 8x10 frame: $1.00
~ Fabric: $0.00
~ Paper/Pen (I used a scrapbook pen): $0.00

Quote and Candle Holders: Total Cost ~ $2.00

Table Runner

I am finished with my first quilting project! I made a 3 foot table runner and finally finished tonight. I'm very excited! I started this with my sewing teacher but had to finish on my own. It took me awhile to finish but I finally got some batting and fabric for the back as well as the binding. I don't have step-by-step pictures, sorry, but I do have a picture of the final product :)

I definitely learned a lot on this project. I got the pattern here but it was a little confusing because they want you to buy a package from them so they don't give you all the measurements. Luckily my teacher was able to help me figure them out and we actually did the hourglass blocks a little differently. The method I used saves you a lot of fabric and a lot of time! It's a little confusing to just explain so I'll put up pictures of this next time I do it.

When I bought the fabric for this I got 10 fat quarters which cost me about $20. However, it gave me enough fabric for 3 table runners. So if you decide to make one of these, you could lower the cost either by getting fewer patterns or just putting gift money towards the fabric and then giving away your two extra (or even all three). I also had to buy the batting and the fabric for the back (which is the same fabric I used to make the binding). This cost about $10 I think, but again, this was for all three. So I'm guessing my cost for this table runner was about $10, give or take.

Table Runner: Total Cost ~ $10.00

Flowers for the Bathroom Counter

My bathroom counter was just ... blah ... there was nothing there to catch your attention, nothing to ooh and ahh over. In our old apartment I didn't realize this because our bathroom was pretty small and I had done the shower curtain (here) and the beads for over the toilet (here). In our new place though, the shower/toilet area is kind of sectioned off from the counter/sink area so it desperately needed something! It was begging me to add something, anything, to make it pretty! I decided to agree to its demands and create something for my countertop :)

Materials:
~Fake flowers
~Styrofoam, cylinder shape (cylindrical? Is that a word?)
~Paint

I have been going through withdrawals...Hobby Lobby withdrawals. In our old place we lived like 2 miles away! Now we've moved 25 min further south and no closer to the next Hobby Lobby location. Sadly I have had to give up my frequent (sometimes VERY frequent) trips to the Hob Lob and I've tried to get my fix at other stores closer to home. I've realized though that there aren't any craft stores close to me! Because of this dilemma I found myself wandering through Family Dollar a few weeks ago hoping and dreaming that I would find something to use for a new project. And I did!!!!!! Hallelujah!

I found a wall full of fake flowers and some Styrofoam of all shapes and sizes. I decided to make a little flower vase for my bathroom. So I picked out three small bouquets and a cylinder Styrofoam "vase".

The white bouquet I picked out must have been some Easter special or something. It had this weird green, glitter egg right in the middle. ...Um... no thanks...

This is much better, don't you agree?
I played around with the arrangement in my hands until I found something I liked and then I stuck the bouquets inside my "vase"
I grabbed some paint that I used on my block frames (here) and painted over my "vase" to give it more of a vase feel. That was it :) Easy as pie! (By the way, why is this a saying? Making pie is hard!)

Before...
After...

What do you think? Do you like it?

Total Cost:
~Fake flowers: $1.50
~Styrofoam vase: $1.00
~Paint: $0.00

Flowers/Vase: Total Cost ~ $2.50

Working Again

Hello readers,

Last week I started my job at the school again and this year I'm going full-time. Because of this I won't have as much time to devote to my crafts. It is a HUGE stress reliever for me so I'll definitely still be doing it, but I won't be able to post as much as I did over the summer. Still check in with me though! I'm almost done with one project that I'm very proud of and very excited to show all of you! I also have everything gathered for another project that should be pretty quick :) Thanks for the support everybody!

Re-covered pillow #4, Weaved Pillow

I had one last pillow that came with our couches and I wanted to save it for a really good idea. And I got it! I'm way excited about this pillow and it's definitely my favorite. I got the idea from an old lady's dress :) haha Here it is...

Materials:
~ Old, ugly pillow
~ Fabric
~ Ruler
~ Pencil

I knew that I wanted a plain back for this pillow and a solid color underneath all the weaves in the front. I decided to do white in the front and red in the back. But when I went to cut out the white I realized that I didn't quite have enough fabric! So I decided to just cut up the stuffing of my old, ugly pillow to match the size of the fabric that I had left :) Problem solved! Now it's a kidney pillow instead of a square one.


Next was to measure how many strips of fabric I would need for my weave. You can do this with just one color but I decided to alternate red and gold. I took a ruler and drew out lines everywhere I wanted a weave strip to be. I drew this all out on the wrong side of my fabric (although since it's a solid color it didn't really matter which was the wrong side).

Then I measured how many pieces of red and gold I would and how big they each needed to be. I ended up doing 14 red pieces and 12 gold pieces. I sewed right along the edge and then turned them inside out.Two quick tips about sewing these strips together. When you're sewing a bunch of stuff all right after the other don't worry about cutting the thread and re-starting your sewing line for each one. Just sew them all on one big seam. Does that make sense? So when you get to the end of one piece, leave a little space and start the next one. Here's what you end up with, go ahead and just snip the extra thread in between each piece. This saves a lot of time and headache!
Tip #2: Most of you have probably seen this. If you ever have to turn something small inside out pin a safety pin to one side of the fabric at either the top or the bottom and then push the safety pin all the way through until the fabric is totally right side out. This saves even more time and headache!
Once I had all my strips of fabric right-side-out and ironed down flat I pinned them onto my fabric. Then I sewed all the way around the outside edge.

To make sure that the pieces of fabric stayed in place once the pillow got on my couch I tacked them down in the back. Every time the strips crossed each other I tacked down the bottom piece, making sure to not poke through to the top piece so as to keep my thread hidden. The back is ugly but this ended up in the inside of my pillow and it didn't matter what it looked like :)

After that was done I sewed the front and back together, turned it inside out, stuffed it, and hand-stitched the last few inches. That's it!! What do you think?!



Cost:
~ Old, ugly pillow: $0.00
~ Fabric: $0.00
~ Ruler: $0.00
~ Pencil: $0.00

Re-covered Pillow #4, Weaved Pillow: Total Cost ~ $0.00

Hang It Up

We got these three little decorative pillows for our wedding. I've always loved them but it's also always been a bit of a struggle trying to decide where to put them. They're too small to set on the couch, they just get sat on and last in the cushions. They're too big to put on a shelf and they lay flat so you can't even see what's written on them...that defeats the purpose! Well, today I came up with what I think is a splendid solution :) I hung them up! Ok...duh, I know, but they didn't come with anything to hang them up with so I hadn't thought of it before. Today I just fixed that minor little problem and ...voila... I have something "new" hanging from my wall, I can show off these cute pillows, and they don't get in the way anymore!

Enjoy the Journey Clock

I got this idea from Less Than Perfect Life Of Bliss. You can see her original post here

When I saw this project I knew that it was something I wanted to do! We own two clocks so I started deciding which one to use. I hadn't mentioned anything to my husband but he is so supportive I knew that he wouldn't really care if I took our clock apart and totally re-did it :) ...as long as I could put it back together! I took the clock apart and had it sitting out on the table when C. got home from work. He took one look at it and just started smiling and asking me what I was planning next. He's awesome!
Materials:~ Clock~ Map~ Mod Podge~ Scrapbook Paper
Like I mentioned before I got this idea off another blog but, true to form I changed it a little bit. Where's the fun in making something if you don't add a little of you in it right? The first step was to take apart the clock. I should have taken a picture of this, it was actually kind of fun! Just remember how to put it back together!

I went and bought a road map at the gas station and traced out how big of a space I would need for the face. I loved her idea of cutting out a map of where she met her husband. I cut a little slit in it so I could fit it over the arms of the clock. I wanted to still be able to tell what time it is, so I drew out the 12, 6, and 9 (something else was over the 3 spot...stay tuned to find out what! haha) and then drew little lines for the other numbers.

I wanted to add something extra special and I have always loved quotes. So I decided to add a quote onto my map dedicated to my husband. This is the one I decided on. I love it! Life is a journey and I'm so grateful that I have someone so wonderful to share it with!

"The trick, my brethren and sisters, is to enjoy the journey, traveling hand in hand, in sunshine and storm, as companions who love one another." -President Gordon B. Hinckley

After all the drawing I went ahead and mod podged the map onto the face of the clock.

I wanted to change the border of my clock too. I found the perfect scrapbook paper at Hobby Lobby! It has letters and postcards and stamps...all things having to do with travel. So cut out strips and mod podged that all the way around the outside of the clock.

After the mod podge was dry I took a sewing pin with a big head and cut off the pin part. Then I super-glued it to where I first met C.
I put the clock back together and showed it off to my hubby :)


Total Cost:
~Clock: $0.00
~Map: $4.00
~Mod Podge: $0.00
~Scrapbook Paper: $0.59

Enjoy the Journey Clock: Total Cost ~ $4.59