Christmas Cards!

I know it's after Christmas, but I didn't want those who were receiving cards to not be surprised!

First thing is first, I made a trip to Michaels to pick out paper. I LOVE fancy paper. It's really the only way to make a card. This year I know I wanted purple for my cards. It reminds me of royalty. :)

Other supplies I used included a purple felt pen, my paper cutter, toole, and a snowflake hole punch. The paper cutter is totally my favorite new crafting tool. I have no idea how I lived without one before. Scissors can kiss it. ;)

I measured out the paper to the dimensions I wanted and made the cuts. I used the toole as a decorative embellishment.

I wanted to give my cards a little something extra, so I sealed envelopes with handmade stickers. I also used the stickers on the back of each card as my "logo". Who needs Hallmark?

Handmade stickers are super easy to make, I just used my (glitter) gel pens on clear labels.

My "logo" on the back of a card.

The finished product! I'm so proud of my finished cards!!!

Fabric Christmas Wreath

This is a tutorial for a Christmas Wreath I made. I'm obsessed with fabric ruffles right now; I think this came out really well.
For this project you will need:

1 wire hanger
2 yards of fabric (whatever you want to make your wreath out of. This fabric should be double sided because both sides will be seen).
Fabric scissors
Needle
Thread (to match your fabric)
1 inch - 2 inch spool of ribbon (to coordinate with your fabric)

1. Cut out lots and lots of fabric circles. I did about 200. They are about 3 inches in diameter (across). You can make yours bigger or smaller, it's a preference thing. Also, no need to worry about making perfectly circular circles. Ovals and slightly misshapen circles are fine, they will actually add to the dimension of your wreath.

2. Bend the wire hanger, like this:
You want to make it as circular as possible.


3. I snapped off the hook part of the hanger. You can leave yours on and hang your wreath by it. I prefer a fabric "hook". I'll show you in step 9 how I covered up the part of the hanger that jettisons out.

4. Start sewing together your ruffles. Fold your circles in halves and thread thru the center of the circle, like this:

5. Now continue to add on circles, always threading from the center of the circle. Some you'll add as halves, and others you can fold into quarters. I add about 6 circles to get a nice fluffy ruffle.

Adding a half piece.

Adding a quarter piece.

6. Do NOT tie off your thread. Keep your needle and thread attached to your ruffle, as seen below.

7. Now circle the thread around the hanger. You are sewing your ruffle to the hanger. You should loop the thread around the hanger a few times to make sure it is secure.

8. Keep the ruffle nice and tightly close to the wire. Once it's attached, tie off your thread. First ruffle is complete. Now you keep repeating this process all the way around the hanger.

9. Remember in step 3 I said I would show you how I covered up the part of the hanger that sticks out? (below)

I put a bow over it!

10. I added gold ribbon ties sporadically. Here is the finished product!

Coasters!

After a month away I've begun to be craftsy again.
This weekend I hit up both Jo-Anne's fabrics and Michaels for lots of supplies.
This first craft is very simple (and cheap), it actually a great craft for kids. I remember doing it in kindergarten.

Set of 4 Coasters

First I went to Home Depot and bought a set of 4 blank white tiles. These fun less than a quarter a piece. I think mine were $.12 each. (It was an interesting check out, to say the least.)

For this project you want to use enamel paint/glass paint. you can find enamel paint in your local crafts store.

My twelve cent tile.


Fist thing I did was paint a picture on my tile. I used the same 3 colors, but I chose different pictures for each tile. This is a good project for kids because the paint washes off hands easily. You want to be quick with your enamel paint though as it does quickly.
After you finish painting your tiles you should place them in the oven on 400 degrees for about 15 minutes. This part is important because it allows the paint to set. You want to make sure you let the tiles cool completely before you handle them again. i just let mine cool in the oven for about 2 hours before I came back to work with them.

While your tiles are cooling we need to crate a backing for our coasters. If we leave the tiles un-backed they will scuff your tables with their rough edges. I used felt for my backing. I used a quarter to trace my outline.


I need 4 circles per tile.

I adhered my circles with super glue. You could also use craft glue or a hot glue gun.

I used gloves when working with super glue so that I could press each felt square into place without super gluing my fingers. (I also signed the back of all my tiles, obviously you don't have to do this part.)

My pretty finshed coasters!

Mini Cupcakes

So technically this isn't a craft, but I think you can get creative when baking so I'll post it anyways. On Friday night I made mini cupcakes for the BBQ I was having on Saturday.
I ended up getting creative with the frosting.

Enjoy!
I started off by melting both my frosting, and my peanut butter. That's right, peanut butter! You can really melt almost anything to use as frosting. Some other ideas would be marshmallows or candy. You need to make sure you melt it on a low heat otherwise it will burn.

While the frostings were melting I made my mini cupcakes and took them out to cool on a wire rack. If you don't cool your cupcakes they will fall apart when you try to ice them.

Now I dunk each cupcake upside down in either the chocolate or the peanut butter frosting. Sometimes i dunk in both. The reason you melt your frosting is that it ends up with a shinier, cleaner finish than if you were to use a knife to frost. After this step, I coated a few cupcakes with chocolate or rainbow sprinkles. As the frosting is still warm and gooey you can just roll the top of your cupcake in sprinkles to get them to stick. It's also less messy that way.

Ta-da! Finished mini- cupcakes!

Jazzy Chairs

Last year I bought a dining room table when Annie moved out. It was a craigslist buy. I think I paid $50 and got a table and 4 chairs. They were obviously from IKEA, but they fit my needs perfectly. Except, you all should know, I'm not a fan of fabrics that come with things. I love to reupholster. This is a simple, fun way to make something that is generic more flavorful. If you have furniture from IKEA in particular I would encourage this craft. All I needed was a screwdriver (Philips), a heavy duty staple gun, my chosen fabric.

This is the chair before I reupholstered it. You can't really tell from this picture, but the fabric was old and dirty. I removed the seat part of the chair from the frame with a screwdriver. Took all of 30 seconds.

Sorry this is a blurry picture. I just found my digital camera, so the picture quality will improve soon, I promise. No more blackberry shots.

This is the underside of the seat cushion, you can see I have already begun removing the old fabric. I just used a staple remover to get all the old staples out. I cut the new fabric to the dimensions of the chair, plus about 3 inches all around.

A good rule of thumb to stapling is to staple one staple in the middle of each side on all 4 sides. This will ensure that the fabric will be taught enough in the middle. You work your staples in a circle, stapling one staple on each side till all the fabric is stapled. (Artists use this trick when stretching canvas).

Ta-da! Newly upholstered chair! Completely new look for about $15!

Pillows Galore!

So if you read www.im26nowwhat.blogspot.com you know that have a lot of pillows. I recently moved and realized I had 8 throw pillows. Some of my male friends thought this was too many... I think they're guys and don't know the importance of a good throw pillow.
Four of the pillows came with the sofa set. The other four were pillows that I bought that I actually liked (I'm not a fan of the pillows that came with the sofa). Today I decided to remedy the sofa pillow situation. I had some fabric and decided to make throw pillowcases. I'm a fan of coordinating colors, with designs that don't necessarily match.

The pillows were surprisingly simple to make.

You can also purchase pillowcases at my Esty shop:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7734433


You can use quarter cuts of fabric from any fabric store for this project. They measure about 18 by 24 inches. Choosing pre-cut fabric can save you a step.

The first step is to cut a backing piece that is 3/4ths the size of the front of the front of the pillow.

The next step is to put another backing piece, also 3/4ths the size of the front. This is the back of your pillowcase, and the opening for your pillow.

I didn't take a picture of the step before this. I hemmed the edges of the backing pieces, so that no frayed pieces would show. After that I sewed the pieces to either side of the front piece.

you want to make sure to sew the fabric so that the seams will be on the inside of the pillowcase.

After this step fold the white pieces in and sew the bottom and top of the case.

Voila! Nice, simple, cheap pillowcases!

This is their new home on the bench seat in my living room.

Outside Home Improvement

Last night I had a few people over for a shindig (not a party). We had a great time hanging out under a lit tent, playing drinking games and enjoying each others company. I set my tent up in the yard part of the backyard (the part with grass versus the patio). We have a nice bricked patio area, but it was overrun with weeds. I didn't have enough time to pull them all up. Today, I remedied the backyard situation. I also made my own weed solution to make sure that the weeds didn't come back.

Recipe:

4 parts Water
1 part dish washing soap
(not the dishwasher kind)
salt

I used an old spay bottle to spray down the patio once I was finished with my weeding. You want to make sure to spray the area that you want dead. This solution will kill the soil, so you don't want to use it in a yard. It will kill your grass in addition to the weeds.


The yard before picture.

The after picture.

Hey! I Can Do That!

I find myself saying this a lot in stores. Whenever I see something cute and craftsy, I want to take a shot at it. Today, I actually had the time to do that.

I saw this t-shirt in Ann Taylor Loft yesterday while shopping with Annie. I really liked it, but I just cannot bring myself to pay $40 for a t-shirt, no matter how cute.
They had it in a lot of colors, this is the white one.

I can bring myself to re-purpose a shirt that I haven't worn in years. This is the shirt I used, it's about 8 years old, from Old Navy.

I started by cutting these pieces out. I used white toole. You can use any color you want. I used toole because that's what they used at Ann Taylor, but you can really used any kind of thin fabric you want. You want to stay away from heavy fabrics as they won't fall correctly.

I cut out about 30 of these. I free hand drew the flower outline on the toole with a color pencil.

I also recommend you have a good pair of fabric scissors. If you don't have fabric scissors it will make the cutting a lot harder. You may want to cut more of less flowers out depending on how full you want your shirt to be. If you need a flower template just print out this page and cut out my picture... Ta-Da! template done.

Here is my finished shirt! I'm excited to wear it out!

Here is a close up of the flower ruffles. You don't have to be precise at all, I wasn't. The shirt should show that you had a hand in making it. I placed my flowers 3 cut outs to a bunch to make one "flower". For the part that trails off, I just used less cut outs.

Voila! I knew I could do that!

Lights Out!

Or light's on. Your choice.
As you all know by now I have completely redone my bathroom. There was a little bit of a stand out situation though... my light switch. It was old and yellowing. I decided I needed something fun and new. I am sure you have all seen lots of decorative light switches at Home Depot, Target, etc. However, instead of buying something new, I decided to reuse the old. With a little paint, I think it looks better than ever.

This is the old light switch. Pretty standard, not at all attractive....

I tried a couple of different types of paint on the switch before settling on paint pens. I found that latex paint peeled right off, and acrylic would have needed about 50 coats before it covered the yellowing of the old light switch. Paint pens are a great investment if you don't own them. They can be a little pricey, but they last awhile. I've had mine since college (yay sorority life!).

A pack of 5 pens will run you about $15.

Also note that's I'm working on an old mat, it's important when working with paint to have a clear surface that you don't mind getting paint on.

Here is the finished product! I kept it really simple with polka dots for this one, but you can decorate yours however you like. It's a great personal touch for any room!

Refurbished Picture Frames

I have been toying with the idea of starting a second blog dedicated to crafts. (My first blog is www.im26nowwhat.blogspot.com). I have lots of ideas, that I would love to get down and share with everyone. I tend to not have enough time to get these ideas actualized but whilst I'm on my furlough I have decided to execute some of my master plans.

Today's entry is a simple one. I redecorated my bathroom in my new house. I didn't have a lot of money to spend so I decided to refurbish some frames I already had.

I picked up these frames at IKEA. They came in a package 5 for $1. That's right, I picked up all four of these for only $1!

First you need a place to work. I was working in the basement, but I decided to put down on old mat to work on.

I painted all four frames white. I knew these were going in a bathroom, so I decided not to put pictures in the frames. I think it's kind of weird to have pictures of your friends whilst using the facilities. Instead I used old postcards. They give a lot of color and are always interesting to look at.

These are the frames in their natural state. They were a light colored wood.

The picture frames after a few coats of paint. A good tip for painting small objects is to paint one direction for the first coat, and then the opposite direction for the second coat. (For example paint vertically, then horizontally). This ensures that there are no "bald" spots in the coats.

Here are the frames with the postcards in them. I grew impatient so I used a hair dryer to quicken the drying process.

Here is the finished product all lined up in my bathroom!