I finally got around to making this little fellow for my growing accessories collection.
I picked up the plaque at Michael’s, it’s just one of those plain wood ones. Then I screwed in some hooks here and there, painted it a fun colour and stapled some baker’s twine to the back!
Nail in wall and voila!
While shopping at a farmer’s market the other weekend I picked up some lavender and got a neat idea for these sachets for my drawers. They’re really quick and easy and can help destash your scrap bin, something I love to do. I’m making a run for the border today and so in lieu of a Create Along post (too busy with back to school) I thought I’d share this instead.
So you will need the following supplies, along with a needle, on a machine or for your hand.
The fabric pieces can be any measurement you want, they just need to end up a square. I made 2 and one is slightly smaller than the other but they’re around 3 1/2 inches square. You need to make 2 quilted pieces that measure wide enough for your front piece and then have some extra because they will overlap and make an envelope pillow cover sort of closing.
You’ll need white and black embroidery floss, some black fabric for eyes and ears and I used some scraps from my cup cozies as lining for the ears.
Panda making
1. Place the eyes on the pretty scrap (sew them on with black thread or iron on with a fusible thing)
2. Embroider the features on the panda, white eyes, and a black nose and mouth.
3. Layer the ear pieces – black, black and then lining. Sew around the curved part of the ears and then turn right side out.
4. Quilt together the backing pieces from scraps, hem the edge where the opening will be.
5. Put the quilted pieces on your work surface right side up, make sure the hemmed parts where the opening will be overlap by at least 1/2 inch.
6. Lay the ears down with the straight edge lined up with the top of the quilted pieces.
7. Place the panda face pretty piece face down on top of the pile. Make sure the ears are sandwiched in.
8. Pin to hold everything in place.
9. Stitch around the entire square.
Sachet making
1. Get your scraps and lay one on top of the other. I use the screenprinted bits that got messed up and I can’t turn into cup cozies.
2. Stitch around the square leaving an opening on one side, about an inch wide.
3. Stuff your sachet with something pretty smelling (potpourri, lavender, etc)
4. stitch the opening closed.
5. Trim around the square, be careful not to cut into your stitches.
The great thing about making the panda with an envelope closure is you can swap out the inner sachet when the smell fades or to change things up a bit. I’d love to see what you make!
Also, I’ve been dying to use handwriting on my photos and haven’t been happy with the results/methods. But today I figured I’d give it a try and not be so picky. Elsie‘s post sabout apps and techniques helped guide me in my quest.
Well I did a bunch of work tidying up my blog layout and some pages over the weekend but I also broke a whole bunch too. Luckily I have one of those computer programmer husband things so he was able to come to my rescue.
I now have all my DIY projects in a nice fun table on the DIY page.
I’ve got all the Create Along projects listed as well on the Create Along page.
I also made my social media icons smaller and much more subtle, they were bright crazy colours before. They were the colours from my blog palette but still too bright. If you want to find me I’m sure you can figure it out, they don’t have to hit you over the head.
I also wanted to take a moment to just say thanks for reading my blog. It’s coming up on 4 years of this wonderful thing and it’s been so much fun. What started as a personal journal of creativity for my eyes only has grown into so much more and I’m so happy that I can continue with it and that others are sharing in my fun.
You will need:
Some fabric scraps
Modge Podge
Knobs (screw pieces if they don’t have them)
Wall anchors
Cut a scrap of fabric and wrap it around the knob to cover it. Pour Modge Podge on the front and smooth it down saturating the fabric and gluing it to the knob.
You can secure it with an elastic to help it dry in place. Once it’s dry trim away the excess fabric.
The knobs I bought didn’t have screws on the end so I had to glue some in. If you’re repurposing cabinet handles you may not have to do that step. I choose 3 colours that would compliment my handmade art wall.
Decide on your spacing and drill holes in the wall. Secure the anchors and make sure they are flush with the wall. Then simply screw in the knobs.
The next step is the best, hang your accessories!
I used mine to display my growing tote/purse collection. Bags are from (left to right)
Kimmy Kingsbury, Hot Butter, and me!
Posted in DIY, gifts, scraps, tutorial-ish
Tagged DIY, modge podge, purses, scraps, totes
I’ve made a bunch of scrappy pin cushions since I started sewing and one thing I recently learned is you shouldn’t fill them with that polyfil stuff, apparently it can dull your pins and needles. I had no clue.
Some emery sand would be best, but it’s tricky to find. And while the nostalgic red tomato pin cushion reminds me of my mom sewing, everyone has one and having something different is fun. So I decided to start with the standard tomato pin cushion and do some reworking.
You’ll need:
tomato pin cushion (I already removed everything off it before the photo)
fabric square big enough to wrap it up
a scrap of fabic
embroidery floss
optional: ribbon or rick rack and some buttons
Figure out how your square of fabric will best fit on the tomato and start attaching it with little stitches around the top.
It should look something like this, with more or less fabric depending on the piece you started with.
Trim the excess, try to get it as close as possible to the stitches.
Thread some embroidery thread onto your needle and starting at the top travel around the tomato pulling tightly to secure the fabric. You can cross over and under the threads to help them stay in place.
Cut some sort of fun shape to cover all your stitching at the top. I went with the leaves on the tomato sort of shape out of a fun polka dot print.
Stitch around the secure the scrap to the top your the cushion. Try to pop up as close to the middle as possible and then attach a bit of ribbon or rick rack. I decorated the end of mine with buttons stitched on back to back.
And ta da! A lovely revamped pin cushion.
Hello everyone, well hopefully I’m enjoying some great weather in Belize, maybe I’m even on a beach! Which is why I asked Janee of Yellow Bird Yellow Beard to guest post for me. Here’s her cute DIY.
Hi Fun People!
I’ve seen these adorable little figurines floating around the internet recently, I’m sure quite a few of you have seen them also. Now I’m normally not a huge fan of glitter, but these are simply irresistible. Enjoy!!!
DISCLAIMER::: I’m going to say this just in case you’ve been living in a cave up until now and have never worked with glitter before. Your going to want to do this on an easily cleanable or throw-away-able surface. Or better yet, outside. Or even better still, outside on a throw-away-able surface.
xoxo
Janee
Posted in DIY, other crafts, repurposing
Tagged decor, DIY, glitter, repurposing, yellow beard yellow bird
Wow, feels like it’s been forever since I’ve done a DIY so here one is! I’m going to show you how to make these great little gift tags, an easy way and an up-a-notch way. I shared these last week over at Celeste’s blog and now I’m sharing it here! These ones are holiday themed but it would be really easy to change some colours and stickers and use them on birthday gifts or for another occasion.
You will need – cardstock (colours and some white), stapler, paper cutter/scissors, adhesive
Optional fun goodies – ribbon, stamps, stickers, embellishments, ink or markers
Cut the coloured papers in 2 1/2 x 7 1/4 inch strips. The white papers should be 2 1/2 x 5.
Fold the white pieces in half, these will make the inside ‘pages’ of the card.
Fold the coloured paper at 2 1/2 and 5 inches. The remaining section will be slightly less than 2 1/2 inches in width. Using scissors or a punch make a cut out in the middle of the card.
Next grab one of the white scraps and decorate it in some fun way. I chose to use a snowflake stamp and my markers. I used the snowflake to create a patterned paper.
Then place adhesive around the opening for the stamped white piece to stick on. Keep the adhesive over to the one side so it doesn’t peek out later.
Then add some more adhesive on the back of the white paper and fold the last bit over to hide it all.
Place the white piece inside the card and add a staple.
Now turn the card over and add the embellishment on the outside. Voila!
Depending on the supplies you want to get your cards can get really fancypants. The holly one was made with a button and leaves from a scrapbooking punch. The snow flake one has 2 pieces of an overhead sheet with some fake snow stuff I got at the dollar store inside.
Or you can also just put some stickers or cut outs on the outside.
Posted in DIY, papercrafts
Tagged cards, DIY, gift tags, holidays, paper, scrapbooking, stamping
Finished my camera strap, once again my sew-a-long project was finished on a Thursday night. Photos taken today, yeah I live on the edge. I’m also a bit of a dork since I put the strap on my camera and it was all pretty then realized it was going to be tricky to take the photos. Yeah, I’m rocking the brain power lately folks.
If you’ve created along with me lbg also has a Flickr group for sharing things made from her tutorials and patterns. I promise her convertible tote will be in this feature some day soon.
I used my new dying of cuteness fabric, had a hard time cutting into it but hey what else is it for? I paired it with some scraps I have kicking around.
I didn’t have fusible fleece so I just used some scrap fleece i had lying around instead. It feels pretty puffy but I’m not sure that’s the way it should be.
Next challenge a boxy pouch! Perhaps you’ve made one of these, perhaps not. I haven’t and I’ve wanted to for a while. Now that I’ve got zippers and flat pouch making down I’m ready for this twist.
I found 2 tutorials that seem like they’ll work, these first two are lined and the first one will be seamless and the other will have seams on the inside (which means no tricky turning), this one isn’t lined at all and might be good for a thicker fabric. So choose your weapon and come play along!
This post was originally posted over at Meremade as part of her September Back to School posts. My opinion may be biased but it’s a pretty handy idea and so I’m sharing it here.
Now that it’s back to school time things are a little busier in our house. I’m a teacher and with 1 in SK and having to get the kids out the door and over to the sitter I can use some help. This year I work in the mornings and not being a morning person doesn’t help when I have to get 3 people ready and out the door.
I usually lay out all of our clothes the night before and now I’ve come up with a handy little DIY that can help us all do it for the whole school week!
You will need:
Fabric for the tote bodies (you will be cutting 10 8×8 pieces)
Contrasting fabric for cutting the letters (I used a charm pack I had lying around)
Ribbon for the handles
Heat and Bond (really helpful but not necessary)
The first step is to cut your letters. I was planning on getting all fancy and cutting mine with my Cricut but I decided to just give it a go and do it by hand. Once I saw the size of my letters I decided that 8×8 would be a good size for the tote bags. I have 2 little boys so I’m only tossing some socks and underwear in there. If you have girls and might be including hair accessories or tights you may want to make your totes a tad bigger.
Cut your 8×8 tote pieces, set aside. Cut Heat and Bond as backing for your letters. This product saves a lot of time and allows you to just iron on your letters rather than having to sew them all around. If you like the look of stitching on top you can still do that of course, the Heat and Bond just makes extra sure those letters aren’t fraying or budging!
Iron the letters onto the bag tote front pieces. So 5 will get letters, 5 will stay blank.
Now you’ve got 10 squares of tote worthy fabric. We need to hem the top edge. So turn the fabric down to make a little hem, I did about 1/2 inch, press and sew.
At this point you could make yourself handles using coordinating fabric but I looked up and my ribbon collection was staring back at me so I choose to go to the easy route. Attach the ribbon slightly off center on the tote pieces. So sew it left of the center line on one piece and right of the center line on the other. If you lay it all out it will look like mine.
So you’ve created a loop to hang over the hanger.
Place the tote pieces right sides together and stitch around the 3 raw edges. And you are done!
If you happen to have some of those hangers from the store lying around you can use those to hang a top and bottom and then slip a handy little tote with the right day of the week on it over the hanger, fill with needed accessories, in my case socks, underwear and a diaper.
Hang in a handy spot (like on my linen closet door) and you’re ready to go!
Oh and keep the empty ones in a safe place. This picture is moments after Nate saying ‘Thanks Mom’ and wandering off with the Tuesday-Friday totes.
Posted in DIY, kid fun, sewing, tutorial-ish
Tagged back to school, DIY, organization, tutorial
And with that summer was gone. Imagine a tear slowly running down my cheek.
In more funner news, later this month, the 20th to be exact I’ll be posting a great keeping organized for school tip over at Meremade. Starting tomorrow Jennifer is going to be featuring a load of ideas for back to school crafty fun.
Mine will be awesome, just a heads up. It also posts on my birthday which makes it super-duper cool.
Well I’m off to prepost some more . . . posts. Not only do me and my son go back to school today but we’ve flipped our schedule from last year and we go in the mornings this year, something we’re not used to. AND my hubby is going away tomorrow and will be back Sunday night! I’m going to be one sleepy mommy this week. So I’m cheating on my posts. It’s for the best really, otherwise who knows what I’d be writing about!
