Round 5 Material

It's time to announce the material our Top 3 Contestants will be using for their final projects of One Crafty Contest!  Are you ready?  It's....

BURLAP!

Beach Ball Pillow and a Silhouette Promotion!

Little Crafter and I share a few important mutual loves, namely Starbucks, art projects, and the beach!!  Now that the weather is warm and summer is headed our way, we're both getting impatient for our Myrtle Beach vacation.  To help us think beach-y thoughts while we're still here at home, I thought it would be fun to surprise him with a beach ball throw pillow.  {It worked!}  Here's how I made it, with the help of "Cammie" and some sewable fabric interfacing I received from Silhouette.

BEACH BALL APPLIQUÉ PILLOW COVER

Burlap Rosette Wreath for Spring

A few weeks ago, as I took the shamrock down from my front door, I found myself  in need of  really wanting a new Spring wreath!  My last several wreaths have involved yarn or ribbon wrapping, but this time I wanted something more rustic and natural.  I started browsing Pinterest, found some inspiration, and ended up with this: 

Here's how I made it:

Stenciled Easter Treat Bags

Ready or not, friends, it's coming!  Easter is just around the corner!  Here in the Artsy House, Little Crafter has been begging to make some holiday crafts.  In fact, if you noticed a huge deluge of pins on his Pinterest board a few days ago, let me assure you that they're really all hand-pinned by the little man!  He made me type "Easter Crafts" in the search bar and then started clicking like crazy.  True story.

Anyway, we didn't have everything we needed on hand to make any of the things he pinned and he decided it was too cold for a trip to the store, so I pulled out some canvas bags I had left from a project last year and let him go to town making these:

Materials:
- canvas bags
- cardstock or newspaper
- fabric paint
- sponge brushes or daubers
- stencils {ours are Martha Stewart}

Step 1: Place some cardstock or newspaper in your bag to prevent paint from going through to the other side.

Step 2: Use fabric paint and a sponge brush or dauber to apply paint to the bag using desired stencils.

That's really all there is to it.  Just make sure you don't put your stencils or your hand down in wet paint, and you're good.  Let it dry completely before filling the bag.

I have to say just for the record that I learned an important lesson while doing this project with Little Crafter. Gone are the days when I design a project and help him to execute it my way.  No, friends, from now on, his projects are truly his projects.  I had a design in mind, but he knew exactly what he wanted, and so I let him go for it.  He came up with both of these designs 100% on his own.  He chose the stencils, where they went, and what colors to use.  Pretty good, huh?  I guess starting him early paid off!

LC also did all the stenciling himself except that I helped with the "Happy Easter."  I held the stencils in place and he did the paint work...which means I ended up with a lovely "crafter's manicure."  Did you know fabric paint doesn't like to come off of skin?  Yeah.  Me neither.

I think they turned out just adorable, and he is beyond thrilled with them.  It's cute to see how proud he is of his handiwork...he wants to show it to everyone, so he's beside himself with excitement that I put it here for, as he says "everyone in the whole wide world" to see.

They're the perfect size for filling with candy and treats or with plastic eggs, which is what's in ours at the moment.  If you like them, I'd love for you to leave a little comment I can read to him...it would make his day!

Hugs & Glitter,

Crafty Ladies Spring Projects

Hey, friends!  Remember last month when I shared with you about the first ever meeting of my real-life "Crafty Ladies" group and the fun decorative wooden blocks we made?  Well, we recently got together again to have some more girl-time and craft therapy.  This time, more ladies were able to join us for our spring projects.  

We had two projects, decorated flowerpots and decorated wooden eggs.  Everyone had the same stash of supplies to use: fabric, paint, Mod Podge, ribbon, jute, stamps and Staz-On ink.  Once again, I was just amazed by how differently each person's projects turned out even though we all had the same choices of materials.  Take a look at some of the finished products:

My friend "Short Jess" decided to cut a butterfly out of a piece of fabric in my stash and Mod Podge it on top of a coordinating fabric.  Then, she added ribbon and left the very top natural.

My friend Kelly painted her pot and added "Live Simply, Live Hopeful" around the rim with alphabet stamps.  She decided to use her eggs as plant markers when she and her hubby plant vegetables and herbs this year.

Another butterfly lover, my friend Sarah, used fabric on her flowerpot and painted her eggs in various spring colors.

My mom, Sherl, covered her pot in turquoise polka dot fabric and a contrasting bow.  She decorated her eggs with spring-y ribbon and small flowers.

My girl Erin, who I'm sure you remember from the Christmas Handprint Plaque and various other crafty adventures, made this fun flowerpot covered in turquoise fabric and eggs stamped with special words.

I am loving the pink eggs made by my friend Tall Jess...she trimmed scrapbook paper with pinking shears, wrapped it around the painted eggs, and finished it off with some twine.  She also used fun green fabric on her flowerpot and a wired twine accent.

I'm crazy about the eggs my friend Jenni made: "He is...Risen, Lord, Friend, Savior." Love it!  Her pot turned out gorgeous too, covered in fabric and finished off with a ribbon accent.

And me?  Well, I stamped some words on the eggs, then used my Martha Stewart dauber to add colored polka dots.  I like the way they look arranged in this basket I found.

And my pot?  Well...it speaks for itself, doesn't it?  Who saw that one coming?

What do you think?!  Do I have an amazingly talented and creative group of friends or what?  I just love these girls and I love having a time set aside each month for getting together to make fun things!  Which projects are your favorites?

Hugs & Glitter,

Infinity Scarf Giveaway!

So, you know how there are those projects you see and you pin and you always mean to make but you never seem to get around to them?  That's how it's been with me and the infinity scarf.  I've wanted one for ages, but never actually got the fabric, looked up a tutorial, and made one.  

Until yesterday.

Little Crafter was spending the day with his grandparents so hubby and I could attend our Home Run movie screening.  After the movie, we decided to get some carryout Chinese food for dinner...of course, the restaurant is right by the fabric store, so I ducked in to get some material for a few pillowcase dresses for the Uganda drive.  While I was there, I couldn't help but look at the knit fabrics, and once I saw this brown and white print one, I knew it needed to become an infinity scarf.

I got a yard of fabric, to make sure I had enough, then came home and {after consuming unmentionable amounts of shrimp lo mein and orange chicken}, searched for a good tutorial.  There are lots of great ones out there; the one I used is from Rach, who blogs at Family Ever After, but it's actually a guest post of hers on Skip to My Lou.

Essentially, all you do is cut your fabric into a big long strip.  Mine was as long as the width of my fabric, which ended up being about 58" when I cut off the selvage.  It was 10" wide.  You fold the right sides together and sew it along the side like a big tube.  Then you do a sneaky little maneuver to sew the ends together and turn it magically into an infinity scarf!  Rach has a great photo of that step.  I was really intimidated by that part just reading about it, but she's right, once you actually do it, it makes sense and works really well.

As it turned out, I needed less than 1/3 of the fabric I bought to make my finished scarf {which, by the way, took about 15 minutes, tops}.  Sooooo, I whipped up another one.  Whatever shall I do with it?

What's that?  What's that you say?  You say give it away?  Well, okay!  {Happy birthday, Dr. Seuss!}

Rafflecopter will walk you through the entry process, and one of you lucky readers can be my twinsie!  Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Fabric Covered Flowerpot

This year, I started something really exciting; an in-real-life crafting group!  We call ourselves the Crafty Ladies, and we meet one afternoon a month to have some creative girl time together.  We decide on a project, I purchase most of the supplies, and then they reimburse me when they show up to craft!  In January, we had our first meeting and created decorative wooden blocks.  We decided that the theme for February's event would be decorating flowerpots and wooden eggs for Spring.  

Before the ladies came over, I decided to try out a few techniques so I could help to inspire and teach them.

One of the experiments was Little Crafter's Paint Drip pot, which is so fun and easy!  The other idea I tried out was covering a pot with fabric and Mod Podge.  Here's the basic technique I used {and later shared with the girls}!

Materials:

- fabric {you can use all one fabric, or you can use two or more coordinating ones}

- pinking shears

- paintbrush or paint spatula

- terracotta pot

- Mod Podge: Fabric formula

Step 1: Cut your fabric into small squares {about 1 1/2"}.  

 Depending on the size of your pot, cut as many squares as you think you might need.  If you need to cut more later, you always can.

Step 2: Begin Mod Podging your squares onto the pot.  First apply Mod Podge directly to the pot.  Then, place your fabric on top of it.  

Make sure to cover the entire surface, as well as folding it down to cover the bottom and go over the rim of the top.

Step 3: Cover the entire surface of the pot with a nice coat of Fabric Mod Podge to seal it.  Let dry completely.

Step 4: Add a plant!  Once your pot is dry, you can plant anything you like in it.  I chose tulip bulbs.  Just a note: do your planting outside.  Otherwise you can end up with a dining room table and floor that are literally covered in dirt...or so I would think...not that I know or anything...{ahem, cough}.

Next week, I'll be sharing a post where you'll get to see how my friends' fabric covered flowerpots turned out.  All but one of the nine ladies decided to go with this technique {the other painted hers a pretty shade of green}.  I'll also show you the decorative eggs.  You're going to love what they created!

Hugs & Glitter,

Monster X-ing Yard Sign

 



Friends, I am so excited about today's project and about the materials I got to use to make it!  If you're a regular reader, you know that I heart Mod Podge.  {So much so that my buddy Terry once joked that if I were stranded on a desert island, I'd Mod Podge together some sticks to make a raft and then sit on it crafting until I got rescued.}  Well, recently, I was selected as part of a Mod Podge Halloween campaign.  When I received the box of supplies from Plaid, it's a good thing I was sitting down to open it!  Look at all the goodies inside...



11{!} different kinds of Mod Podge, eight colors of paint, plus a brayer, rollers, a brush, adhesives, and Mod Podgeable shapes!  I couldn't wait to try out every single product...you know I love me some Mod Podge... 

As it turns out, there's pretty much no way to use every single supply in one project, so I had to settle for making several projects instead, the rest of which I'll be sharing with you in upcoming posts.  I love how all of them turned out, but I have to say that my favorite is this DIY Monster X-ing Yard sign.  Here's how I did it, and you can too!

 

Materials: 

Here's what I used from my box o'fun!

Folk Art Outdoor acrylic paints

Outdoor Mod Podge

Sparkle Mod Podge

Sponge Brush and Roller

 

I also needed:

4 wooden craft boards

a dowel

paintbrushes

fabric scraps

google eyes





 

I gave each of the boards three coats of paint and used the Outdoor Mod Podge as a glue to hold them together.

I totally freehanded them, and chose fabric from my stash that matched my paints.  I applied the Outdoor Mod Podge to the back of the fabric, then smoothed the shapes down, getting out any air bubbles.

This was totally my favorite part!  It was such fun deciding what each monster would look like and watching them "come to life."  I wanted them to be super silly rather than scary because Little Crafter doesn't like anything spooky {and hey, neither do I}!  I love that the paints are designed for outdoor use, just like the Mod Podge, so I don't have to worry about the little monster faces washing away or flaking off.  At this point, I also added Sparkle Mod Podge to one of the monsters, and can I just say it's my new favorite product?!  My gosh, I want to sparkle everything!!  It's super easy to use and it has just the right glitter size and ratio!  Little Crafter agrees, saying, "Glitter makes everything better."  So there you have it.

Or, if you're one of those fancy machine-owning types, I suppose you could do this with vinyl instead.  {jealous?  me?}

I just painted inside the indentations my pen made.  The letters aren't perfect, but they look better than if I'd freehanded them and you can't tell from a distance!

 

This was fun because I got to try out the little roller bottle and roll the Outdoor Mod Podge all over everything!  I like how it made a nice even looking surface instead of leaving brush strokes or those stray bristles I sometimes have to deal with on my projects.  It's a great tool for a project with a medium-large surface area to cover.  I added the google eyes on top while the Mod Podge was still wet.

 

 

My sign wasn't particularly thick, so I used glue and a clamp in the back instead of screws.  You may also want to add scrap wood pieces going vertically on the back of the sign on either side of the dowel to help with stability.

 

Step 7: Add your own monster {optional}...

 

I'm loving it.  It's so festive and fun; a great way to decorate for the season without being scary for LC or the other neighborhood kiddos.  What do you think?  Would the little monsters you know approve?

 

Be sure to stay tuned for more fun projects Little Crafter and I have made with our box o' goodies!  He's been working hard to make a one-of-a-kind centerpiece using just about every kind of Mod Podge in the box!  Speaking of which, if you're interested in learning more about the products we've been playing with, check them out on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest!

 

 



Happy Fall, Y'all!

 

This post is part of a paid campaign with Plaid and BluePrint Social.  The opinions in this post are entirely my own.

 

 

Another Quilt Square...

A few weeks ago, I shared with you the exciting/super-intimidating project idea I'm working on for Little Crafter's Christmas gift.  I'm making him a quilt {or at least I hope to} composed of squares that remind him of our "I love you" game.  So far, I have three completed.  I've already posted about the first two:

 Are you ready to see number three?  The colors in the photo are a little off...it looks brighter and more vivit in person, but you'll get the idea:

To make it, I cut four triangles from different fabrics and sewed them together to form the kite.  I also cut out two cloud shapes.  Then, I ironed heat-n-bond light onto all of the pieces.  I ironed the clouds onto the fabric first, sewed around them, then ironed the kite in place and sewed around it using a zig zag machine stitch.  The last step {or so I thought} was to add the words and the kite string using puff paint.  Buuuuuut, I happened to have a little accident that caused the kite string to smear and get paint on the lower cloud.  Part of that, I was able to turn into the little heart you see.  The other part had to be covered up, so I cut a third cloud and appliquéd it on after the paint was dry.  Live and learn...

Now that the Lego party is over, I can get back to working on some more squares...stay tuned!

Happy Crafting!

****UPDATE: My "Love you to the moon" quilt square is a finalist over at Happy Hour Projects!  I'd love it if you'd vote for me there {only if it's one of your 3 favorites, of course}!  Click the button below, then click "vote" ABOVE my square.  Thanks. :)