Mar 15 2013

Baby Burp Cloths!!!

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When my nephew was born, my sister-in-laws, sister made her these super cute burp cloths and I have always wanted to make them.  That day has arrived!  All you need for this project are cloth baby diapers, ribbon, thread and a sewing machine.  I used white thread for the bobbin and a thread that matches your ribbon.  I chose two different ribbons, one was satin and the other was a grosgrain.  Here is my lesson learned:  The grosgrain was MUCH easier to sew on, I will only use grosgrain going forward.

I folded under about 1/2″ on each end and pinned them to the diaper, following the sewn line that is already there.

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Then I just sewed up and down each side of the ribbon and you  are done!!

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Mar 5 2013

Fabric Covered Headboard!!!

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I did it!  We were re-doing my girls bedroom, they needed a paint job and some new furniture.  While looking for furniture I thought back to an idea, I’ve always wanted to make a fabric covered headboard.  My husband is slowly buying into all these DIY projects, I replaced our garbage disposal not to long ago, I think this gave him faith I could handle this.  I looked all over the internet to find a tutorial and finally decided on this one, from About.com.  I liked it because it addressed making legs for the headboard, many people just hang these directly on the wall.  I pretty much followed this tutorial but learned a couple of things along the way that I would like to share.  Please disregard my lack/mismatched bedding, still working on that part!!  Also, I didn’t really take pictures along the way… sorry!!

Fabric Covered Headboard

* Don’t be intimidated walking into Home Depot, the guy who cut my plywood for me was super nice and into this project.  He says people do this all the time.  He told me to come back and show him pictures!!
* In the instructions it sounds as though they suggest you cut your legs from the plywood.  For a more sturdy support, figure out the height from floor to top of headboard, and have the guys cut you a 2×4 for that length.  I think my post was actually 1.5″x4 but it will give you much more support.
* I used 2″ thick upholstery foam I found from the Online Fabric Store.  I used the regular, not the high density, and it worked really well and their price seemed the best after some research.
* I used spray adhesive and cut the foam to the exact measurement of my headboard instead of trying to staple it to the back.  This worked really well, one error I made that worked out well was that I ended up with about an extra half-inch at the top.  This actually allowed me to give it some nice shape when I pulled my batting and fabric around it.
* I would recommend using a home decor fabric.  It just looks better and hopefully will hold up a little better.  If you hit it right at Joann you can get a good deal, I had a 40% off and then another 10% off coupon and it was very reasonable.  My fabric was “Waverly Lovely Lattice”.  :)

I really can’t express how easy this was to make, and FUN, it’s something I’m really proud of.  The biggest pain is getting the bed frame screwed into the legs…  it’s hard when there are no pre-drilled holes!!  This is when I got to know the power drill, I ended up drilling holes with a bit and then using some nuts and bolts.

Feb 3 2013

Pay it Forward…

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So, a friend of mine started a crafting pay it forward this year, I of course decided to get on it.  If you visit my Facebook Page there are still two slots available to get a special handmade gift from yours truly!! The only thing is, you have to make something for a friend of yours when you receive your gift from me, pay it forward. :) Anyway, my favorite brother is the first recipient of my crafty goodness. He is a musician so I stamped a copper guitar pick for him and added it to a key chain.

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This is a fun little project that takes only a few supplies:

A guitar-shaped blank, I order mine from Beaducation
Your metal letter stamps
A jumpring
A key chain
I used a Patina solution to oxidize my copper but you could just use a Sharpie pen.

Enjoy the Super Bowl!!!

Jan 16 2013
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Party Favors!!!

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So, my twin little girls are turning 5!  I can’t believe it.  As you can imagine they are VERY excited and they want to share it with the world.  One world being their pre-school, two separate class rooms equals 20 kids to get favors for… I start thinking, this could get expensive, what can I do??  I find so much inspiration from Pinterest and have seen lots of projects with baby food jars, so I started collecting them from friends.  I combined a few different ideas and came up with the following project.  I also, thought this could be a good project to practice stamping names into metal blanks, I just used cheap ones so there was no fear like there is when I’m stamping into sterling silver.  Since I already own the stamping supplies this project cost me about $15.  You can modify this project in so many ways to suit your needs/supplies on hand.

Here’s what you will need:
Baby food jars
Spray paint
Ribbon
Metal Blanks
Alphabet Stamps
Double sided permanent tape (or hot glue gun)
Candy

My first step was to clean the baby food jars, this was probably the biggest pain.  I tried EVERYTHING to get that stingy glue off and finally just broke down and used some crazy paint thinner I found in our basement.  Sometimes you just have to go to the big guns, I washed them by hand and through the dishwasher after this step.

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Next I got out my spray paint and painted the lids, I did two coats, I probably could have done a better job here, but I was in a hurry.  In fact, after looking at these pictures I think I will do another coat and be more careful.  Oh, I forgot to mention, in my spare time here and there,  I also would stamp a few blanks with each kids name from the class.

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I cut 20 pieces of ribbon long enough to wrap around the jar and overlap slightly.  I added a metal blank, already stamped, onto each ribbon.

Next I applied the two sided tape, I used a permanent one by Darice.  I just put a little at the beginning and wrapped the ribbon around and added a little more tape at the end.  I was surprised how well this worked, I just didn’t feel like breaking out the hot glue gun and thought I would give this a try.

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I filled the jars with Starburst, my girls favorite, and put on the lid!  My thought was that maybe some of the kids might like the metal tag that has their name and perhaps they could add it to a necklace or tie it onto something.  My girls had fun helping me with this and they are really excited to give each friend a personalized gift!

 

 

Jan 6 2013

Bored Kids???

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Two words for you, Perler Beads!!  While shopping for my yarn yesterday my daughter and I came across these little treasures, I was intrigued and bought a bucket for about $10, it came with 6000 beads and a few peg boards.  I am not kidding, this kept all 3 of my kids occupied for at least 2 1/2 hours.  They are so fun!!  They make a design on the pegboard, which takes a while, and then you use this ironing paper it comes with and fuse the pattern together.  They LOVE, the final result and are making more as gifts for all their friends.  I am heading out today find a book for more design ideas for them, this is money well spent!!  Oh, and go onto Pinterest and search Perler Beads, many, many ideas on there…

Here is the bucket, ignore all the candy wrappers… lol!!

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A busy beader!

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Some final products.. I over fused, I learned you are suppose to still be able to see the holes in the middle of the beads after fusing.

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Jan 4 2013

Chevron Scarf

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Have you heard of Ravelry??  It is an online knitting/crocheting community that you can just totally get lost in.  It’s free to join and they offer TONS of free patterns.  I know this sounds boring but I have been wanting a plain grey scarf…  So, I just spent about the last hour poking around on Ravelry, I can’t believe I have zero knitting projects going on right now.  Chevron patterns are super on trend right now, so I settled on this pattern and I will be off to the yarn store first thing tomorrow!  I will update my post with pictures when I finish!!

Jan 2 2013

Shoot Fly Shoot Review

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Well, I hope everyone had a great holiday season, things are just starting to get back to normal around here.  It’s back to school and work for us tomorrow!

As promised, I am following up on the Photography 101 class I signed up to take on Shoot Fly Shoot.  I am an absolute beginner, I know nothing about photography and I found this class very helpful.  It is broken down into 12 lessons, 12 separate videos.  The guys who teach it are really easy to follow, it has a very casual feel to the lessons and they really stress the point that you don’t need to make it over complicated.  I personally like the online classes for a couple reasons, most importantly, these are great lessons and taught well, but once you are signed up you always have access to the classes so you can go back and review the videos at any time.  Another nice thing about the online video, you can do it at your convenience, I’m a stay at home mom so I can take the class when it’s convenient for me.  They do a great job at not only explaining how to work the camera in manual mode but also how to apply it in different photography situations.  They teach you how to control ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed, I didn’t even know what these words meant before taking these classes, now I have a lot of confidence in my ability to find the right settings when taking a photograph.  I truly feel like I have learned a lot and look forward to going out and taking some scenery shots of Lake Erie in the near future, I’ll post them here!  I feel, most importantly, this class just gave me a really great starting point on where to go with my camera, I feel like now I know what I’m doing…  I’m not just pointing and shooting, I bought this camera because I want to control my pictures and be creative.

I signed up to be an affiliate of Shoot Fly Shoot, since I feel totally confident that this is a great way for beginner photographers to get comfortable with their cameras.  If you decide to check them out, please click on their advertisement (the one with the girl holding the camera) I have here on my blog so that they will know you were referred from my blog.  Thanks for checking in!!!

Dec 20 2012

Pretty in Pink

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With the holidays in full gear and having three kids who are involved in school and activities, there are a lot of gift exchanges going on.  And I have to admit, I use to get pretty hum-bug about these things pre-kids, it just seemed so pointless to me.  I mean really, you exchange names and everyone makes a list of what they want you to buy them???  Whatever.  Pointless.  But with the kids, it’s just so innocent and fun, they get a gumball and they are beyond excited.  It really restores the Christmas spirit.

Anyway, my girls ballet class is doing a secret santa and of course I had to make something, put all those beads to use!!!!  I recently have been reading about stringing beads together and thought this would be a great beginner project.  It’s REALLY simple, I completely made it up, so my technique is what worked for me, it could be the proper way to do it, it could be the wrong way.  This I know, it turned out great, my girls went crazy over it…  I’m making two more for them right now.  Please forgive my poor photography, this actually inspired me to go down the photography 101 road.

Supplies needed:
Beading string
8mm Beads
4mm Beads
Clasp
Bead Glue

So, I pulled out a couple feet of string, I am making a bracelet for a 5 year old girl, so I want my finished product to be about 6 inches long.  Here is a chart I found that you can use for guidance on length.  The first step is to add 4 of your 8mm beads.

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Then pull it into a circle.  I did this by pulling my string back through the bottom three beads, coming out under the 4th bead.

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Add, three more 8mm beads.

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Then create another circle by going through the 4th bead you left loose and going through the next two beads as shown below.  Continue doing this until you have reached the length you desire.

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Here is what my bracelet now looks like.

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I pulled out more string from the end that is still attached to the spool, maybe like another couple feet and cut it off.  I then started weaving in the 4mm beads.

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Going down the one side and back up the other.

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Continue…

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Then add your clasp.  I just kind of worked the string around the jump ring as many times as I could weave it back into my bracelet, probably like 5 times.  I also decided to add a jump ring and the initial “K” to personalize the bracelet.  And of course, I worked in the loose ends, cut the string and added a drop of glue on the ends.

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Dec 16 2012

Photography 101

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As i’m sure you have noticed, my photography skills are lacking a bit.  I got a nifty Nikon D5100 for Christmas and need some serious help with it!  I posted on Facebook for recommendations for a class from friends and one in particular caught my eye, Shoot Fly Shoot.  It’s an online course, which fits my lifestyle perfectly, this means I can take the lessons at my convenience.  The price is reasonable at $69 and I’ll always have access to the lessons I paid for.  I’m going to sign up, I will let you guys know if this is money well spent or not, but I think if you see a marked improvement in my pictures you’ll know!  Peace out for now!!!

 

 

Dec 11 2012

My Favorite Cowl

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This is my favorite cowl to knit, it actually knits up quite quickly and I think the results are so stylish.  I just finished this one:

The pattern I use is by The Garter Girl, it’s inspired by a Burberry scarf. I have made this a few times and it makes a wonderful gift. I have played around with using different types of yarns, in this case I used some beautiful yarn by Madelinetosh, it was Tosh Vintage in Curiosity. It was a little thinner so I used a size 11 needle and ended up only having to do 3 repeats of the pattern. One skein was the perfect amount.  Let me know if you give this pattern a try!