Painted Wall Quote

Who needs vinyl when you have a 50 cent jar of paint? Ok, vinyl is much cooler but this is what I painted on my wall, just using acrylic paint.

I found a font that I liked online, practiced drawing it on a sheet of paper, and hung the paper on the wall above where I wanted it. The first side came out great, but the other side must be a glossy finish because the white paint kept dripping. It was frustrating, but it turned out good.

The curtain shown is the only finished side I've done but I'm almost done and then I will be posting my ruffled curtains tutorial.

Also, I have been singing The Beatles all day. I have a feeling that will happen more often since I will be seeing it everyday!

Travelling

I'm out traveling, so I decided to post a pre-blogging project, my decorated suitcase! I hate trying to guess which suitcase is mine at the airport so I personalized it to stand out. Go check it out at Arizona Mama.

Large Picture Frame Mat

We went to Vegas a little while ago and got this really neat spray paint-painting done for us. They wanted to sell us a mat for it for $15 I told my husband heck no, they would be cheaper at Micheal's, especially with a coupon. We went and were going to get a custom frame and holy expensive! I don't think I'll ever be doing that, let alone for a $30 piece of art. We got a cheaper frame and I realized I could make my own mat for less than a dollar, especially since we don't have to worry about things being acid free because it's not a picture.

Every time I go to the dollar store I try to take note of what is there in case I need it later on. Last time I was there I noticed they had poster board. I went back and got a piece of the black and it was only fifty cents, awesome!

Take the fake picture that comes with the frame and set it on your poster board and cut out around it. Put double sided tape on the back of your art and lay it in the middle of the poster board. Put it in the frame and hang! So cheap any easy, right? This could be done if you had a printed picture as well, but I would make sure that the poster board and tape was acid free.

No-Sew "Take Luck" Pennant

Like my Brian Regan reference? If you don't get the joke, listen to it here. If it's not a running joke in your area, there are a million different things you could put instead. The joy of crafting is the personalization!

I saw this cute printable banner for St. Patrick's Day but I don't have any ink in my printer and I'm trying to do with out as long as I can. That being said I also scored some St. Patrick's Day material from a big find at a yard sale recently. For these small holidays I don't usually keep my decorations so this is a quick easy project that could fall apart by next year.


Materials:
Green Fabric of Some Sort
White or Contrast Fabric
Glue
Yarn

Directions:
1. Fold your fabric so that there are 8 layers.

2. Cut a banner-like triangle.

3. Use white fabric and cut out your letters.

4. Glue your letters to your triangles. I used tacky glue. If you use it, make sure you have something beneath it may bleed through just enough to make things a little sticky!

5. Cut slits in the top corners of each triangle. These holes will be used to string them together.

6. String them together, I had a preschooler help me with this, we just used yarn and she had fun pulling the yarn.

That's it! Quick and easy is how I like my holiday crafts! But as I'm told, I only like to do holiday crafts for the holiday's that I enjoy. And those are pretty much just the fall holidays. The springtime ones get on my nerves after the 40th themed post showing up in my reader! Haha I vent about that in my Valentine's Day post!

Souvenir Baseball Bat Display

I'm over at Arizona Mama today showing you how I made this souvenir baseball bat display. Thanks for checking it out!

Turkey Pumpkin Idea

Have any pumpkins that didn't get carved for Halloween? Head over to Arizona Mama to see the tutorial on these Turkey Pumpkins.

Mod Podged Coasters

This is a super simple mod podge project. I found glass candle bases at an overstock store. I mod podged the paper to the underside, and let it show through. On the very bottom I did a very generous coat of the mod podge in case of any spills. I didn't do it for these ones, but a felt piece glued to the bottom would make a nice addition to the project, to further protect your tables.

Cloth Height Charts

I was stuck in a recliner for awhile on bed rest, and I wanted to make a height chart for my baby boy that I was waiting for. I had been taking up a little bit of hand embroidery, and I thought that a cloth one would be perfect, and I could work on it right then.


This is the first one that I did. Click on the picture so you can zoom in to see it better. I was allowed to do stuff while sitting. So I cut the fabric, while sitting. I then ironed the edges under, while sitting. I cut fabric for the tree, while sitting.

I then stitched on the tree trunk and treetop, while sitting, what else? My sister helped with those, while sitting next to me. Those and the clouds are all done with a very simple running stitch. We also added a bird, he was stitched with a running stitch but then I used some back stitching for his legs, a french knot for an eye, and the satin stitch for the beak.

For the lines and numbers going up the side, I put the cloth in an embroidery hoop to make it easier. I measured and marked the lines with a tape measure and stitched them with a split stitch.

For his name I wanted it to be bigger and more special, so I used a bold chain stitch.

I didn't worry about finishing off the edges because most of them were stitched over at some point. For the top and bottom I basically hemmed them with hot glue and slid the dowels in. The top just has yarn tied to it.

I showed off my masterpiece at work, and my boss wanted one for his little girl. I told him he was crazy because it took me about 6 hours to make this one. He offered to pay me for one hourly so I made this next one.

I did this one a little bit differently. I knew I didn't want to stitch all of the lines, that was the most time consuming, so I bought a fabric paint pen.

With using a fabric pen, my edges wouldn't be finished as well, so I ran them through the sewing machine first.

The design is also majorly different, I had fun cutting out the pieces and arranging them. I pinned them all down and started on the bottom pieces first and continued to the top layer of pieces until everything was sewn on. Sometimes I had to move stuff around to get to the pieces underneath. With this one, I used too many little pieces and that was really time consuming.

I did a tiny bit of embroidery on the ladybugs, using a french knot for the spots and antennae ends. I made a long stitch to separate the wings and for the length of the antennae.

Once everything was sewn on I used the fabric pen to make the lines and numbers. This one was shorter because the girl it was for was a lot taller to begin with than my unborn child so I made it to start at 18 inches. She also had a less of a chance of reaching six feet, so it is a few inches shorter there too.

On this one I sewed the hems for the dowels, because if they were to fall apart in years to come I didn't want to fix them.

I still did the embroidered name, using the chain stitch as before.

With the two different versions that I learned from, my next one will be even simpler by using a simple design like the tree and by using the paint pen. Thanks for reading!

The Wild Olive is a good place to learn the basic embroidery stitches if you want to make a fancy one of your own. Thanks for reading!

Linked to:
Somewhat Simple

The (Mostly) Finished Nursery

With the first baby on the way, we have been working for months on decorating and setting up the nursery. It was so fun to plan for this mural by drawing on the walls. It was only with pencil, of course!


All of the accents painted on, the clouds, sun, and tree are all painted with acrylic paints, I found that the Joann's Craft Smart brand worked the best. My husband did most of the painting, I only did the clouds and tree trunk. He also stenciled the sun and tree.


The curtains I made, the valance was actually hand-sewn with embroidery thread while my sewing machine was broken and I was couch-bound on bed rest. I appreciate my sewing machine a billion times more now!




My favorite part of the room is the shelf with the cloud, I wanted the shelf to match somehow, and figured that making it a part of a cloud should work.



The height chart is another product of bed rest, with the exception of the cloth sewn on, it is all hand embroidered. It took forever, but I learned some neat stitching techniques for it. I'll be posting more on all of my embroidery projects later.

There's still a few more things that I would like to do, who knows if they will ever get done, but I have a few things on my wish list. One thing is to paint clouds on the ceiling. (Not an option for me and my big belly, I'd fall!) I would also like to paint glow in the dark stars on those clouds so that they were only visible at night. I would like all the main fabrics in the room to match a little better, so a new bumper and bed skirt that match the curtain and height chart are on the to-do list eventually too.

4th of July Flags- Printable

Hello Again! Here's some yummy chocolate chip pancakes and a free 4th of July printable. I made these to put on cornbread muffins tomorrow for our 4th of July chili cookout in our neighborhood.

Click here for the link to print these for yourself. Once you print them, just glue them together around a toothpick and you can make any food patriotic!

Here's some of the projects that we did last year. Happy 4th of July everyone!

Halloween Garland

This garland was a compilation of other cute crafts I had seen online. The tools you need are:
Toilet Paper Tubes
Scrap Halloween Fabric, cut into 3/4 inch thick strips, by 3-5 inches long
Yarn
Acrylic Paints

First you cut your toilet paper tubes in half. Then you paint them orange and add a black pumpkin face.

Next you will let them dry and start tying your fabric scraps onto the yarn. I made sure my strips of fabric were angled at the ends.

Tie strips for about 9 inches.

Punch Holes in your pumpkin, and thread the yarn through.

Keep tying strips for another 9 inches and add the next pumpkin. Do this until you run out of scraps.

Trim the edges of the yarn and hang for Halloween! Happy Haunting!


This is available at my etsy store click here to view. Thanks for looking!

Also Linking to:

Hair Bow Holder

The frame came from a yard sale. I think I paid 50 cents. I had the ribbon and fabric and paint on hand, so it was a really cheap project. And I will be using it to sell the hair bows at a craft fair next month so it will be useful to me to display them and to the luck person to end up with this holder.

Sand and paint the frame. I chose the color because it matched the princess crowns on the fabric. (Sorry for the lack of pictures, I forgot to take any until after I finished!)

Use the cardboard backing to measure your batting. I still have not bought batting, so I used 2-3 layers of fleece from another project. Cut out the batting to be the same size as the cardboard.

Use the cardboard to measure your fabric. Give it an extra 2-3 inches around the edges to make sure you have enough to glue to the back.

Layer your fabric first, then the batting and then the cardboard. Stretch the fabric tight and glue to the cardboard with hot glue.

Finish gluing all around. Measure your ribbon to be 4-5 inches longer than the cardboard. I like a lot of extra to make sure they are glued on tight.

Glue one side of the ribbon, make sure there is about 2-3 inches worth glued down. Pull very tight to the opposite side and glue down.

Do the same with the other ribbon and your done!

This is very close to the Ribbon Memo Board I did a few months ago, but I don't want to use staples to poke little fingers, since I was only gluing to the cardboard, not the wood.

Stolen Goods: Super Quick Tutorials

I don't need much direction when it comes to reading other people's tutorials. Usually. I see a picture or something in the store and try to copy it when I get home. So here are some pictures from the last few things I have done.


My (Super Quick) Pumpkin Jar Tutorial:
1. Mix food coloring with mod podge
2. Paint on jars
3. Cut out paper faces and mod podge
4. Let dry and add ribbon
5. Put candle inside and light :)


(Yes my craft room is constantly messy, fooled you right?!?)


My (Super Quick) Pennant tutorial:
1. Cut and Zig-Zag stitch Traingles
2. Sew to ribbon

Stuffed Toilet Paper Pumpkin

Last Year and years before I learned to make these cute pumpkins with a roll of toilet paper. Last year I also ran out of toilet paper in my house multiple times, and took apart the pumpkins to use the toilet paper.

This year I decided I didn't want to waste a whole roll of toilet paper, so I used just the tubes and crinkled toilet paper. I tried newspaper but I didn't like the way it looked.

First, you lay your square of fabric down. (Mine were t-shirts sleeves so I bunched them up and secured them with a rubber band.) Then you put your toilet paper tube in the center (I wanted small ones so I cut my toilet paper tube in half)


Next start crinkling your toilet paper, kind of fold it over and over. Place in around your tp tube and fold the cloth over it and stuff the cloth in the toilet paper tube.


When finished stuffing the pumpkin hot glue the fabric to the toilet paper tube.


Next, find something to use as a stem. I used a cardboard roll from aluminum foil. I painted it a darker brown and added leaves. All of these were also hot glued in.

Felt Christmas Ornaments

These ornaments took a bit of imagination, I cut most of the pieces free-hand. The only stencil I used was for the gingerbread man body and I used the same stencil for the santa body.

I cut out 2 bodies for each of them and added the other pieces from there. Make sure to cut out everything before you start stitching.

Next, stitch all of the smaller pieces onto the front and back first. (the gloves, buttons, faces, hats, etc.)

Then, start at the top, leave a few inches of your yarn or floss and stitch around the edges of the body.

Before you get all the way to the top, stuff the body with your filling. (I used my felt scraps instead of batting)

Finish stitching the top, and leave the same amount of extra yarn as you did when you started. Tie those two together at the bottom, and tie together at the top.

Now you are prepared with gifts or this year's ornaments. Another idea is to stitch the year on the back and maybe your name or initials. Have fun!




These are available at my etsy store, click here to view them. Thanks for looking!

15 Cent Notebooks

I don't think that I ever got a cute notebook or folder, unless I bought it myself. And the latest movie characters on a notebook was never worth my money. Now that I have to buy all of the school supplies, a 15 cent notebook is a good deal. I usually take a quick peek to see how much the cute ones cost, but a whole dollar more for the same thing?!? Forget it!

I don't have kids yet, but I'm a student still. I want cute school supplies too!! So I bought a bunch of the 15 cent notebooks and the equally cheap and ugly folders and took them home to decorate.

I used a little scrapbook paper and some mod podge. I made a folder for my stencils and a cute one to show if I had a little boy. Think about the possibilities! Magazine cut outs could make a collage of your child's favorite things, or you could print a Hannah Montana picture instead. Just be careful when using the mod podge you keep it away from the actual pages so that they don't get glued together or anything!


I made a rolled flower (click here for tutorial)for this notebook, and just glued that over the ugly words in the corner. (I've been fond of anything silvery or gray lately!)


If you don't want your kids making a mess of mod podge, use laminate paper instead. Have fun decorating!

Getting Dirty with Mod Podge- Glass and Yarn Art

I wanted to play with my new bottle of mod podge, so here's what I made.

Cut out all of your pieces of yarn first.

Paint a layer of mod podge around the entire glass. Then dip them in modpodge ( I put mine on a paper plate to the side, you don't want random yarn fibers hanging out in the mod podge canister later) and stick them on your glass. The mod podge makes a nice clear texture So you want it to be textured all over.

That's it! Now I have some funky labeled jars in my bathroom instead of just plain ones. Have fun crafting!

Meal Planning Made Cute

I've been seeing these cute meal planner boards all over the blogosphere and in stores. I wanted one, so after my intense yard sales day I found a frame to use. This would make a great Christmas Gift Idea for those of you planning Christmas early.

I forgot a before picture so this was after one coat of cherry stain. I found the stain in a small 2 ounce bottle on clearance at Wal-mart. I bought it because it was only 50 cents and we needed to cover up some scratches from moving our table.

The frame was much too light to match our kitchen so I brushed on about 5 coats of stain. I then brushed the edges with a stiff brush to make them look a little bit darker. I did this to the crease also. Distressing the frame would work well here too, but I wanted to save myself a step.

My husband came home right after I had finished painting the frame and wanted it for his office. Good thing I bought 2 frames!

In between coats of paint I worked on the paper arrangement. I chose to layer the butterfly paper in the back, the strip of tan textured paper on the left and a title of the leafy accent scrapbook paper. This could be done to look amazing in a million different ways.

I created the printed Jamer's Dinner Menu on Adobe Photoshop. The question of the day was, If you were a restaurant what font would you be? I figured we would most likely be a steakhouse. My husband was teasing me, we have a western room (the guest bedroom, not the kitchen) and thought I was going to put it in there instead of the kitchen. You can buy the printed design on my etsy or order a custom one if you don't want to make your own.

I used scrapbooking tape to arrange all the paper against the backing of the frame, and cut and pinned the vellum down with a brad in each corner. I even mod podged my marker to look cute.


I have it standing on a metal picture frame holder now, I might try some super duty magnets later. Now I can be organized in my kitchen and it's cute! If you want one already finished for you, click here.