First Etsy Sale!

I am so excited--this last week I had my first Etsy Sale! I sold the vinyl saying "Live Laugh Love" to a wonderful nice lady, and I had so much fun packing it all up and sending it out! I also sent her a bonus freebie--a super cute vinyl sewing machine--which she loved! Here are a couple pictures of what I did so you can get an idea of what you get when you place an order with me. Thanks for looking!

Paper Covered Treasure Box

I just love working with paper...especially on wood with Mod-Podge! I made this treasure box for my husband to put memories of us in...any cards we've given each other, love notes, ticket stubs from dates, pictures, little trinkets...fun things like that. I thought it'd be nice to have all those treasures in one place (it's already full!). I got the wooden box at the craft store--it was plain and screaming to be dressed up. To do this, I removed the metal pieces that were removable--pieces that were screwed in. The other pieces I had to cut the paper to fit around them. I cut my paper to fit each side, then I adhered the paper to the box using Mod-Podge. I inked the sides with a dark brown chalk box. I also applied the "together forever" vinyl and hand wrote our names at the top. Next, I sealed it with the Mod-Podge, waited for it to completely dry, and then I reattached all the metal pieces I removed.

{I had to cut the paper to fit around these pieces.}

{I was able to remove these pieces before adhering the paper to the box.}

The final product---it looks like the paper is a little pink--but it is actually a pretty red--just so you know :-)

Baby Car Seat Canopy

My baby grew out of the cozy cover we bought for him at the store---his little head was popping out of the head hole so you couldn't close it to keep him snuggly warm...so we needed something bigger to protect him from the elements. The weather is still not too good here--you'd think we'd be having some spring time weather by now! It snowed last week and it's been rainy with an occasional hail. And of course, it's ALWAYS super windy here. This baby car seat canopy was a super easy and fun project to make. All together, it probably took me 2 hours to do...and I'm so glad I did it! We used it yesterday (it was raining and chilly) and he was so cozy inside that he fell right asleep! Definitely worth it!

You'll need:

1 1/8 yd minkee

1 yd cotton or flannel coordinating fabric

2 magnetic clasps (you'll also need some felt to put between the clasp backing and the minkee)

grosgrain ribbon (for loops to hang toys inside)

Trim the minkee and coordinating fabric to 35 1/2" X 40 1/2". I finally took out my quilter's mat and rotary cutter and used that to trim the fabric. It was SO easy and fun! I love it and will definitely be using it more often!

Next I cut 4 strips of fabric from the minkee, each measuring 3 1/2" X 8 1/2". You'll use these for the handle straps.

Put your fabric right sides together and sew all the way around with a 1/4" seam. Leave a hole to turn the fabric right side out. Do the same with your fabric for the handle straps. Turn out each piece and press (I didn't press mine beacuse I didn't want to flatten the bumps on my minkee...I know someone that tried pressing minkee with bumps and she ended up with no bumps!) then hand sew the openings closed. BEFORE SEWING THE STRAPS CLOSED: you'll need to add your magnetic clasps. Then sew the openings shut.

Now center your straps on the large piece--attach them by sewing through all thicknesses of fabric.

I decided to attach some looped grosgrain ribbon to the inside to hang toys for my baby to play with...all I did was sew the ribbon into loops, then I sewed them right into the seam from the handle straps.

Super Easy No Glue Fridge Magnets

These magnets are so super easy to make...and they look so cute on the fridge. I would be careful, though, if you have little ones at home...you wouldn't want them to get ahold of these. All you need is a brad, a flower, and a magnet. Are all brads magnetic? For this project they need to be! When I made these, I thought they were so great, because later on down the road if you want to use the brads or flowers for another project, they are so easy to take apart and recycle!

Easy as.....

1...............................

2..................................
3!

Mirrored Window Re-Do

{Before} I had already sanded the finish down a little...prepping for paint

I found this window at the Thrift Store downtown a long time ago, and I finally decided I wanted to do something with it other than let it sit in the closet gathering dust. It was actually in really good shape--real wood, nice stain and finish---it looked brand new. But I LOVE old, shabby, antique, almost ugly looking things---anything with cracked and peeling paint, rust, nicks and dents...you name it. So naturally, I had to do that to this. I decided to try crackle paint. Let's just say I've been trying to get this project done for about a month. I have FOUGHT and FOUGHT with the crackle paint. My original plan was to do a base coat of soft black paint, then use the crackle paint with a white coat over the top, so you could see the black cracks through the white. Well, I can't even tell you how many layers of black, crackle, then white I have on this baby. It was so frustrating trying to get the white paint to go on evenly with only one or two strokes (with crackle paint, if you overbrush it WON'T work). All I ended up with was streaky looking white paint, a few cracks, and lots of black showing through in a not very pretty way. Occasionally I'd get one side to look perfect, but the other sides looked horrible. I finally gave up and decided the black and white was way too stark of a contrast and that is why it wasn't working. So I went for a white base, then crackle, and a blue top coat. It WORKED! Boy was that a relief. I thought there was something wrong with me! After I did the white, crackle, then blue, I used some walnut ink stain over the top and stained it to give it an even older look. I finished it off with a sealer.

{Before the walnut ink stain}

{After the walnut ink stain} (please excuse the spots on the mirror--I hadn't cleaned it yet!)

{After} Doesn't the vinyl bird on the wall add a nice touch? :-)

Fabric Flower Ring

Since my 6th month of pregnancy I haven't been able to wear my wedding ring---I was so sad and looked forward to when I could wear it again. So when I had my baby in January, I thought, okay...I'll wait a few weeks and see if it fits again...in hopes that all my swelling would go down and I'd be somewhat back to normal. Well, I've tried my ring on every couple of weeks since then and although my swelling has long been gone, I've discovered that my knuckles are still too big. Sad! Will they ever go back? So I decided to make a temporary ring to get me through until then. I looked at the craft store for some kind of ring I could use to put something on, and I came across a "jump ring holder" in the jewelry section. I tried it on my ring finger and BINGO! It fit just right. So I thought I'd make it work. I made these cute, tiny little fabric flowers with ripped strips of fabric that I then twisted and hot glued together in a spiral. Then I sewed on some little green beads and attached the whole thing to the ring. I think it has a sort of shabby, charming look to it. Then, on Friday, I found some actual adjustable rings that I think I might try a few things with....I thought maybe some vintage-y old buttons---we'll see...

Baby Dinosaur

My husband and I were reading in a magazine that black and white patterns are really good for a baby because of the contrast, and so I thought that it would be fun to make our little boy a stuffed animal using that type of pattern. It was a bit of a trial and error process because I created my own pattern for the dinosaur, plus I've never sewn a stuffed animal--I've crocheted them before, but this is a different story. I had a blast drawing it all out and getting just the right look I wanted. The toughest part was getting the dinosaur's back just right, I had to undo my stitch around that curve and take in the red minkee. But it turned out fantastic! I thought this fabric was cute because it looked boy-ish. I used red minkee too, for the soft texture. I used felt for the eyes and a hypo-allergenic, washable polyester fiber fill for the stuffing. When I gave it to him, he grabbed for it right away---it made all that hard work worthwhile. :-)