quick T's for kiddos

I've been working on several projects for a craft boutique i'm hoping to be a part of in greeley this month. Here are a couple trial run ideas that were super easy and fun :)

here's t-shirt #1- the "tie"

supplies: onesie, cotton fabric, no-stich glue, scissors

Cut out the shape of a fat tie.i cut the "knot" out separately.

glue to shirt w/ this handy stuff

 if you're in a rush, you can leave it like this (and wear it as ben did last weekend) until you can top stitch around the edges.

here's design #2

I cut the little car, windows and wheels out of scrap material. The body of the car  is an old knit t-shirt of mine which is especially great to use because it won't fray like a cotton fabric would.

 I glued the pieces down then I (still need to) topstitch around the whole design

 here are a couple of burp cloths i made to match

paper chandelier/mobile

 Ben's room needed a mobile. i had seen something similar to this online with a price tag of over $50.00. Here's what "handy andy" and i came up with (fyi- this is my new name for husband. those of you with preschoolers have probably met "handy manny" on tv. my handy andy is waaaay handier. in fact, i think he could probably take over this blog with all his handiness. Yesterday he made homemade yogurt. today he reupholstered the top of the footstool in baby ben's room! such an over-achiever :)
Here's how YOU can make one too:

1. First, i cut out about 100 circles. i used Creative Memories circle cutter to cut 3 different sizes in 3 different shades of yellow.


 2. Then i punched a small hole (i used a needle) in the top and bottom of each circle




 



3. Then i laid out the circles in 9 rows and slightly varied the lengths

 4. Then i thread fishing line through the top and bottom holes of each circle in each row

 5. Here's where Handy Andy came in: i had already spray-painted this dowel that was probably 2 ft long? (bought at hobby lobby for less than a $1) He cut the dowel into 3 pieces and then glued them. This part looked pretty tricky to me. I don't know exactly what he did but i do know he used a strong white glue, crossed the rods atop a plate, taped them and let them dry overnight.

 5. then i tied 1 strand on each of the 6 ends and then tied 3 more strands in the middle triangle area to give it some depth. *TIP- leave extra fishing line to the bottoms of each strand so you can move the circles up and down or add/remove circles to make it look right.

 6. This step also required handy andy's help. to make it hang evenly, he tied fishing line to every other rod(3 ties) and then tied a knot at the top, then tied it to a long piece of line to tie around a screw that was put into the ceiling. **Wow, i used the words "tie" and "tied" 5 times in that run-on sentence...

 Here you can see  how i left the fishing line long so i could adjust them once it was hung.

"chevron" curtains complete

So...i would not have had a clue what "chevron" meant until i saw this post on MADE today. Afterward i felt pretty cool that i just happened to have hung my curtains with the very same "chevron" pattern that she featured without knowing how very cool they were. Amazing how one person i don't even know can bring such confirmation of coolness. :)

Anyway! here's a couple pictures:

Like i mentioned before, the fabric is made by Premier prints and bought from fabric.com.

Even though this was the 2nd pair of lined curtains i've sewn and the whole process did go much more quickly and definitely without as many headaches, i still see that i could never do it professionally...i just can't make myself measure and cut precisely or even close to precisely. There's just so much freedom in "winging" it that i don't think i could ever give that up... However, if i could get my super precise, ultra-organized, mathematical, analytical and detail-oriented husband to do all the measuring and cutting we might be on to something...

lamp shade recovered

 Well, even though this weekend has been a bit of a bummer with Andrew on a trip, the kids and i sick and AND it being a holiday weekend, i decided to try and accomplish something for the baby's room during naptime today. I was actually really looking forward to this project because i was sure it would be super easy and produce quick and wonderful results...well, it wasn't terribly difficult but i maybe should have taken the time to read a tutorial online because it wasn't as easy and quick as i thought. But here are some pictures for ya.

Supplies needed: 1 lamp shade (found this one at Target on sale!, fabric, spray adhesive, hot glue gun and scissors.

1. Cut your fabric about 2 inches wider than your lamp shade. i failed to cut mine quite wide enough and it made it a little more difficult. Plus, a printed fabric i found is a bit trickier to keep the pattern straight.

2. Next shake your spray adhesive and then gradually spray it on lamp shade and apply fabric as you go.

3. This is where i ran into the most trouble. Since the shade is slightly tapered the fabric didn't lay flat and even. In order to get rid of the bunch in the middle i decided to cut the fabric and start a new piece. Make sure you try to avoid too much overlap since once a light bulb is on you'll be able to see the overlap very well (found this out after project!)

4. Line up your second piece of fabric as closely as you can, spray and continue to smooth your fabric down as you go. it helps to kind of pull on the sides to keep it even and flat.

5. Once you're done you can then trim off some excess fabric from the top and bottom. i left about a 1/2 inch all around.

6. With the hot glue gun,  apply a small amount of glue to the inner rim and under the lip of the shade and gradually fold and press the fabric over the edge and into the little lip of the shade. i made small cuts where the the metal frame work attached to the shade.

All done! Now i need to decide what color to spray the lamp pole.

diaper box repurposed!

I can sometimes get a little discouraged by the fact that we're still changing tons and tons of diapers even though the girls are 2 something...and then i start to think about what it will be like to add another little bum to the line up in a couple months...yikes! that's a lot of diapers. And a lot of diapers boxes! However, we just recently started recycling ( i know, what planet are we from?!) so since we now break down all the cardboard etc. i noticed we were accumulating a bit of a collection of diaper boxes waiting to be prepped for the recycle bin. I also noticed how extremely sturdy those boxes were and what a handy little size they happened to be. So, I decided to try and pretty one up a bit and put it to use! Now, I'm actually a little excited when its time to buy a new box of diapers because i know i'll also get a handy new storage box. i have big plans to make a bunch for nursery storage in fun coordinating colors...

supplies: box, scissors, scrapbook paper- at least 4 1/2 sheets, decoupage glue or mod podge, duck tape

1. tape down the sides- makes it even sturdier

2. Fold the paper over the top a bit then start gluing it all around the box

3. When all the sides are complete, spread a thick layer of glue all over.
4. If you're motivated you could also glue paper onto the inside of the box or spray paint it.

4. Happily store items in your beautiful new box

Monogrammed Pillows

We celebrated my adorable twin niece and nephew's 1st birthday this week...they were actually born in december but my smart sister decided to celebrate on their 1/2 birthday- much less stressful and more energy to focus on the cuties.

SO, here's what i came up with to give them: Cuddly monogrammed pillows! And since i'm sure you're all DYING to know exactly how i did this (very easy) project, i'll give you some step by steps.

Supplies needed for one pillow:
-14 inch square pillow insert (you could just use some loose stuffing but i thought the insert gave it more structure)
-15 inches of Flannel- for the front
-15 inches of soft, bumpy fabric for the back
- approx. 10x10 strip of white flannel for the letter- this depends on how big you want your letter
- enough heat and bond to attach to your white flannel
-thread

1. First print out a letter from computer. i used regular ole Times New Roman in 600 size font in bold. I did add a bit more to the skinny parts of the letter so there would be a little more to sew on top of. Cut it out.

2. Attach the Heat and Bond to the white flannel- follow easy instructions on pkg.

(try to take a picture without your baby belly in it)

3. Next place your letter BACKWARDS on the paper backing side of the white flannel. (you might be able to see that i didn't follow this advice the first time...) Trace around your letter. Then cut it out.

4. Cut out "front" flannel into a nice 15x15 inch square. (if you're like me, it will take you cutting out one whole pillow before you remember you have a handy rotary cutter and plastic ruler in the basement just dying to get used) Calliope's pillow is sadly misshaped due to this brain lapse! :)

5. Remove paper backing from letter and iron it in the middle of your square

6. Sew around your letter to make it stand out and to further secure it.

7. Cut out the bumpy fabric into a 15x15 square

7. Round the edges of both the front and fabric fabric- i didn't do it scientifically at all- just kinda eye-balled it and it worked great. (this helps the points to not pucker and look weird)

8. Pin the 2 sides together (with the right sides inward) and sew a 1/4 inch hem. Leave a small opening to flip it right side out and to stuff your pillow in. ( Maybe 5 inches?)

9. Flip it around, stuff pillow and then slip stitch the opening. voila!

Here you can see the cozy back

Btw, "G" is for Gideon

and "C" for the lovely Calliope

And just because you're lucky, here's a picture of these adorable children from their birthday party....

linking to....

living room gets a make-over

before

This was definitely a bigger project than we anticipated but since this room has been bugging me for the last 2 years, we decided it was now or never to do something about it.

what i liked about the room: having built-in shelves, and a fireplace/mantel area.
what bugged me: the dark wood, dingy-colored brick and the over-all drab and dated look the 2 created

So, bless Andrew's heart  for jumping on board with my vision while we both tried to ignore the feeling that we were committing a major crime by painting so much solid wood and brick
But all the other woodwork in our house had been painted white by the previous owners, including the kitchen cabinets which made us feel a little more justified.

The BEFORE:

And the AFTER:

- For the shelves, we took them down, sanded and primed them with at least 2 coats of Zinsser 123 primer, then painted at least 3 or more coats of Behr's Ultra White in Satin. It seemed to take forever to get a good cover...wondering if i should have used a different kind of paint- anyone know?
Here's a great tip i got off of  just a girl - she uses a small foam roller when she paints furniture to get a nice, even finish. We used a brush to cut in around the shelving and mantel but other wise we used the roller and it really did make the finish smooth and more uniform looking.

 BEFORE of the brick

 AFTER

 For the brick we pretty much did the same thing except instead of sanding (ha!) andrew cleaned it with TSP cleaner. (another great tip from JAG) Then we put 2 coats of the primer using a regular roller and then painted it the same color as our walls. I had a really hard time deciding whether to paint the brick white or the wall color. We already had a bunch of the wall color paint on hand so we decided to try it, figuring i could easily change it at another time.
however, here's a pic right after i started painting the color on. i meant to take one before i began so i could get a feel for what it would look like just white but i forgot.
Any opinions??

 Oh, also A. spray-painted the fireplace cover using Rustoleum's High Heat spray paint and it worked great.

Well, there you go- probably way more info than you wanted to know but you got it anyway :)

p.s. just as i was finishing this post my sweet little 5 yr.old design star informed me that he "actually really misses the old brick color AND the old cabinet color. Mom, did you hear that? i really miss the old color- the brown AND the old brick"  gotcha man- I'm taking note.