Spring Floral Craft Using Coffee Filters

Let’s get ready for spring (because we all are ready!) with a little flower craft. I had a lot of fun making winter wreaths using coffee filters, so I decided to play around with them again.

Turn a sweater into pillows

I rarely buy clothes without trying them on first, but of course the one time I do, I end up with this beauty.

I’m not sure what the problem was. It is a sweater. How hard is that to try on? Whatever the reason, I bought it. When I got home and put it on, I was instantly transported onto the set of The Golden Girls.
The show=awesome. The clothes=even more awesome.

I wanted to do something with it (other than wear it!) because I liked the pattern and the colors. I love the look of sweater pillows and I thought this actually might make cute throw pillows.

Let’s see.

For this button pillow, I cut part of the sweater into two rectangles and sewed them together with the bright sides facing inward. I left one side open and turned the pillow right side out (so my seams were hidden) and stuffed it with pillow filling. I folded my open side down twice and sewed it to the sweater, creating a folded section. I sewed three buttons along the fold for decoration.

For the following sweater, I used a throw pillow that I already had as my base. I placed the corner of the pillow up into the cuff (the white corner was the cuff) and used a button to hide the ends that I had to mush together.

I was able to wrap around the sweater and sew it along the other seam. Since I was sewing the seam on the outside, I decided to do a scrunched look.

With the scraps I had left, I made borders along white pillow cases that I had.

I was able to use up almost all of the sweater!

So before you go buy living room or porch pillows, take a look in your closet first!

If you enjoy these posts and want to receive them right to your inbox, click on the Follow button.

Bag for your diaper bag

If you’re a mom with young kids then you know how many bags it takes just to leave your house. Being able to condense anything is a huge help.

I was getting frustrated trying to run errands because I hated lugging a diaper bag and my big purse. But then if I put my wallet and phone in the diaper bag, they would just fall to the bottom, never to be seen again. I just wanted something that was the perfect size to hold the essentials from my purse and still fit nicely in the diaper bag.

You may be wondering why I don’t just get a diaper bag that was made in this decade, one that has all the upgrades like…. pockets.

This is my diaper bag.

It has no pockets, no frills, and the zipper is broken, but I love it and I’m sticking with it. I just needed to solve this one, small problem.

If you don’t have this problem or don’t use a diaper bag, you may still like making these little bags. I’ve found they are actually nice to have around for all kinds of things.

All you need is a zipper (which is like $2.00 at Wal-Mart), some fabric, and felt or leather (if you want).

Cut your fabric into pieces about the size you want the bag to be. I used felt strips to have at the bottom of the bag for support. Suede would look nice, too.

If you do want to have felt or leather at the bottom, line the pieces up with the right side of your fabric, pin in place and sew along the edge.

When you open it up, the seam will be hidden and it will look like this. Do the same thing to your other piece of fabric and felt.

Line one side of your zipper up to the right side of the top of your fabric piece, pin in place and sew.

Add your other piece of fabric and felt to the other side of the zipper, pin and sew.

Unzip the zipper a little if you like. It will make it easier in a bit. Then stich the three remaining sides (with the right sides of fabric facing each other) and trim excess fabric.

Turn bag right side out and you’re done.

I made one that was shorter and wider as well.

Now I can just put my essentials in this bag for easy access.

If you enjoy these posts and want them to come right to your email, just click the Follow button!

Candy bag woobie

Babies just love sounds, especially if they are the ones making them. This is such a fun, easy way to make a woobie that is also entertaining. The crinkling sound this makes could keep your baby occupied for hours. Well, okay minutes, but every second counts when it comes to keeping a baby content.

If you developed a sweet tooth like I did after having kids, you probably have empty candy bags at your disposal. Just be careful that the bag doesn’t have any sugar or residue in it. Hard candy bags are best becuase then there was no contact with food in the bag at all.

Anyway, what you will need is the candy bag and two sections of fabric that are a little larger than your bag. If you want you can add some ribbon tags that stick out for more entertainment.

Next, put your sections of fabric together with the right sides of the fabric facing towards each other. Basically, you are going to sew this up inside out.

If you are doing ribbon tags fold them in half and pin them inside your fabric strips (with the folded part tucked inside and pin in place. Do this all the way around, placing ribbon tags every so often along the way. Then place your plastic bag over the top of your project and pin it onto the top. This is going to look SO strange and you’ll wonder how this will ever turn out right, but trust me.

Sew all along the project  (about 3/4 inch from edge) and leave a 3 inch opening.

Now start working the fabric through the hole to turn the project right side out. Just squish it on through little by little. This process isn’t pretty. Once you get it right side out, a ruler helps to push the corners out. They can be stubborn otherwise.

Now you have a 3 inch opening to stitch up.

Just fold the edge of the fabric down so the edge stays consistent with your sewn edge. If you want to put a final ribbon tag in, you can. Pin the opening closed and stitch it up. I prefer to do this final part by hand (rather than sewing machine) so I can control the process. Since your seam is hidden on the whole project, you don’t want this 3 inch section to look awkward.

And that is it.

Here is the final product. It makes a crinkle sound every time you touch it.

So have fun with this. I hope your baby enjoys it as much as mine did. 🙂

If you enjoy these posts and want to receive them right to your inbox, click on the Follow button.

Hanging frames

If you have any frames whose propping flap (does that thing have a name?) is broken or if you’ve run out of room on your tables, here’s an easy fix. All you need is ribbon, a hot glue gun and some nails or removable hooks.

First, decide where you want the picture to hang on your wall. This will help you determine the size of ribbon you’ll need.

Then turn the frame over so the back of the frame is facing you. Fold your ribbon in half with the ends at the top of the back of your frame. Hot glue the ends into place.

Then flip them over and hang them however you like. I had a shelf that had hidden hooks so I hung mine there.

But you can get as creative as you want. If you hang them from a nail or a 3M removable hook, you can just decorate the hook.

I hot glued a pebble directly onto my hook to create this look.

The nice thing about these is that you can do so much with them. You can make the ribbons any length you want, use decorative ribbons and do all kinds of things with decorating the hook.

Have fun!

If you enjoy these posts and want to receive them right to your inbox, click on the Follow button.

Kitchen Table fort for kids

Who didn’t love hanging out in forts and play houses when they were little?
With just a table and some quilts or fabric, you can create an instant play space.

I highly recommend using a king sized quilt or heavy fabric that is large enough to cover the entire table. That way, all you have to do is make the door and windows.

I was set on using only what I had, which meant cutting and sewing the fabric to make it fit. This was a lot more work and since I am clumsy at sewing large pieces, it came out sloppy. But that is okay, especially since kids don’t judge your work, they just enjoy playing with it.

I didn’t take pictures along the way but it’s pretty simple once you’ve got your fabric in place.

Here is the house once it’s all done.

Since I had to cut and sew, I used the top edge of my sheet to make an awning.

For the door, just make a slit and sew ribbon on the inside of the slits and another piece of ribbon on the outside of the house. This will allow you to pull back the fabric and tie a bow to create this opening.

For the windows, just cut a square out of the fabric and sew two equal sizes of fabric on the top of the square. Then you can sew the center of a piece of ribbon to the side of the window. This allows you to pull the curtain back and tie it in a bow.

You can do whatever you want with these houses. You can make a mailbox, more windows, a patio door…whatever. I experimented with tie-up shades 🙂

Now, fill your house with pillows and toys and let your kids have fun!

If you enjoy these posts and want them to come directly to your email, click the Follow button.

Glass Jar Fun

In an effort to replace our plastic food containers with glass, I started saving all of the jars from sauces, jelly, pickles, etc.  It’s a cheap (well, free) way to get started rather than buy a bunch of new glassware all at once. They are a great, non-toxic alternative to plastics, especially if you like to heat your leftovers up right in the container.

I decided to play around with them using paint, Mod Podge, and some printouts from the computer just to see what would happen, especially on ones with stubborn labels that just will not come off.

After sanitizing the jar really well (dishwasher with hot cycle is enough), I painted directly on the outside of the jar with acrylic paint, which I think I bought in the craft section of Wal-Mart. You can paint the whole jar or just a section, whatever you want.

Don’t forget to paint the lid, too.

Once that dries (usually 12-24 hours) you’ll need to do another coat. You may have to do several coats to get the coverage you want.

Once it’s painted how you want,  spread a layer of Mod Podge over the painted jar with a sponge brush (or paintbrush-whatever you have). You now have a layer of glue on your jar and you can place whatever cutouts you want on it. I went with a veggie theme.

Place your cutouts wherever you like painting on top of them with the Mod Podge, which acts as a glue and a sealant so it goes under and over everything. Be sure to paint Mod Podge on your lid, too. It will look white-ish and goopy, but don’t worry, it dries clear.

Let that dry (again 12-24 hours) and repeat so you have several coats of Mod Podge. You want the paint and the cutouts to be completely sealed. Let dry at least 48 hours before washing.

After washing, they are ready to be used!

Note: Hand wash only. The dishwasher will melt the paint right off in one big clump.

Note: If you mess up or don’t like how it turned out, put it in the dishwasher. It will melt the paint right off in one big clump and you can start over 🙂

If you enjoy these posts and want to receive them right to your inbox, click on the  Follow button.

Button Swap

I love this little shirt my niece handed down to my daughter.

It always looked a little masculine on her, though, and it was hard to make it girly. I just wanted something easy and fun to add a little pop to the the shirt.

I decided to look through this basket of buttons from my Grandma Weetie and found the perfect ones to use.

I thought the bright red would stand out nicely and wanted something a little more subtle for the pockets. This lime green was perfect.

I just used a seam ripper to remove the buttons and hand sewed the new buttons on.

Note: It’s really important to test the new buttons out first to make sure they will fit through the holes. Let’s just say you learn from experience on this one!

Now the shirt has a little personality to it with just a simple change of buttons!

If you enjoy these posts and want to receive them right to your inbox, click on the +follow button.

Fun Summer Sippers

Summer is finally here so it’s time for a fun way to drink our cold drinks.

This project started because I bought these cucumber melon waters thinking they were just flavored sparkling water, but after I got them home I realized they were filled with sugar and they were too sweet. Anyway, as I was pouring them down the drain (sad, I know) I noticed that the bottles were nice because they were all clear.

I recently bought Crackle Medium to try on a wood piece I have so I thought I would experiment to see if it works on glass, too. Crackle Medium is a liquid you paint on between coats of paint that causes the paint to crackle, giving it an aged look. It’s pretty cool stuff.

The first thing I did was run the bottles through the dishwasher and then soaked them in hot water to get the labels off. Then I used painters tape to tape off sections and patterns for the bottles.

For the crackle effect to work, you need contrasting colors of paint. Since I wanted white as my final paint, I used a darker paint for my first coat. I just painted it right onto the bottle.

After that dried, I painted a coat of the Crackle Medium. With this stuff, just paint it in one direction and immediately move to the next section. You don’t want to stroke up and down in the same spot.

After that coat dries completely, you can paint your top coat.

With the top coat, it is the same thing…you don’t want to stroke up and down in the same spot. Just one brushstroke in one direction and move over to the next section. You’ll notice the crackle effect starts to take place almost immediately.

After your top coat dries completely, you can add fun decorations. I cut out circles of fabric to put on the bottle. So for those bottles, I painted a coat of Mod Podge on the bottle first, put my fabric pieces in place and then painted another coat on top to seal in all in.

You could also just dab dots of paint as decoration.

Let everything dry completely and paint a final coat of Mod Podge over it to seal it in. You don’t need to seal the whole bottle, just the part that is painted.

And, then you are done. Time to fill it with a fun drink and make it a party!

If you enjoy easy, DIY ideas, click the Follow button now so you don’t miss any!

Resurrected Sweater

awwww, don’t throw out your poor sweater just because it has a hole in it. Rather than end its life, let it start a new life with a quick patch job.

I actually have to credit this project to my husband. I showed him the hole disappointedly and he said (jokingly), “Why don’t you just slap a patch over it?”

I’m sure he wishes I would just laugh at his jokes. Instead, I take them very seriously.

On the bright side, I called him a genius and left him alone for an hour while I worked on this.

Here is the sad state of the sweater before…

First I sewed along the edges of the hole just to clean it up a bit. I don’t know if this was really necessary, but it felt like the right thing to do.

Next, I cut a circle out of red felt just large enough to cover the hole and pinned it in place.

With a zig-zag stitch on my sewing machine, I sewed around the edge of the red patch (twice for good measure) and that was it.

Since the patch is on the back of the sweater, it definitely is a different look, but I like it.

You could also do this with clothes that have a stain that won’t come out. Just cover the stain with a patch and sew it on in the same manner.

Now go grab your Goodwill bag and see what you can resurrect!

If you enjoy these posts and want to receive them in your inbox, click the +follow button now.