Mighty Crafty

T-Shirt for Me

2012-01-16T18:38:00.001-06:00

It started out as a project to clean up my craft room. In the process, I kept finding old projects I had meant to create - which distracted me from my original goal, to clean up my craft room. This is one of those projects.

Over a year ago, I picked up a couple of t-shirts from Target on clearance and an iron-on design from Jo-Ann's, also on clearance. (I have a bad habit of seeking those clearance sections out.) And I had an unopened Silhouette rhinestone kit that I'd been itching to play with. Since my iron was already out (something I never use) for another project (and another blog post), I decided I would try my hand at making myself a t-shirt. Voila...

I ironed the design on the right shoulder and the bottom left. You can't really see the design on the bottom but it's there - a very faint shadow that adds a little extra design element. The iron-on was for light-color fabrics, so it was more like a dye than an applique design (like the iron-on material for Silhouette, for instance). It got darker the longer you left the iron on it.

Next up was to get the rhinestone design cut from my Silhouette. I found the heart (from the rhinestone starter kit CD) and the swirl (flourish_3_2362) design and cut them out in the correct rhinestone size (I wish that was an easier process - how are you supposed to keep track of what size rhinestones you need for the project?).

Then the trouble started. I don't know if my blade was dull or if I just didn't cut deep enough (I used the default settings for cutting the rhinestone material) but the little circles didn't cut all the way through. Ugh. So I had to painstakingly push out and remove each of the bajillion circles from the design. Huge pain.

Okay, moving on. It was time to place the rhinestones in the template. Fun! Only not. At all. The kit comes with a paint brush thingie and tells you to gently brush the rhinestones into the template until they are all facing up. Only that doesn't work at all. The brush just pushes the rhinestones away, especially any that you actually get into the template (by accident). So I broke out my tweezers to place each rhinestone into the template. Deep breath.

I was able to pick up the rhinestone design perfectly with the transfer tape and place it on my t-shirt. Whew. I placed a pressing cloth over top of the rhinestones and set my iron on top. After 60 seconds, I checked my progress. Only my iron wasn't plugged in. Sigh. Plug in the iron. Try again. 60 seconds later, it was looking good. I gave it a bit longer, and then removed the transfer tape. Beautiful rhinestones left behind. So pretty.

Uh-oh. Then I noticed that my pressing cloth had sucked out all of the dye from my original iron-on design. Sonuva.... Luckily, it was faint enough that I decided to just try to iron the design on again, over top of the rhinestones. There was just enough dye left in the transfer paper to make the design show up again. And if it's a little offset from the original, it just gives it a little extra shadowing. (Or so I told myself.)

So in the end, I did end up with a new t-shirt, even if I did have a few (several) moments of wanting to throw the whole thing outside. It ended up looking very pretty.

I may not be making more t-shirts very soon, but I do like wearing this one. It reminds me that seeing things through can be rewarding. Occasionally.

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Gallery Wall

2012-01-09T21:02:00.004-06:00

I made my very own gallery wall. I actually finished this up last fall but haven't had a chance to blog about it with all the holiday projects. I've seen so many beautiful gallery walls with words or quotes inserted in them all over Pinterest, and I decided to do something similar.

I had a bunch of framed black and white photos of my boys from newborn age up to age 5. (Now that they're 8, I definitely need some new ones.) They're all framed in black frames with white mats - I like the consistency of using pretty much only black frames throughout my house, so that the frames all match, no matter what shape or molding they have. And I had a blank wall in my foyer that needed decorating. So gallery wall, it was.

Before I started hanging, I needed to clean and reframe some of the photos. These had been hanging in our house in Kansas City for several years and were in need of some TLC. I was kind of amazed at how dusty the inside of a picture can get when it's been hanging on a wall for 7 years. I used this opportunity to open each frame up and clean it. I also penciled a name and a date on the back of the photo and on the front of the white mat. (Only Dad and I can tell them apart some days...)

My handy tool set included:

Swiffer duster - to dust :)
Windex wipes - to wet clean the glass (love these!)
Norwex polishing cloth - to dry and shine the glass
Painter's tape, glue, and clips - to glue and hold the frames together in a couple of spots that needed some love
3M Command hanging strips - I am obsessed with these strips. I used these strips to hang all the photos on my gallery wall, even the big 20x16s. The hanging strips aren't as cheap as just nailing into the wall, but they are super easy to use and leave your walls intact. I have these in multiple sizes and keep them around continually. (The 3M Command wall hooks are a must as well - they go up quick, hold well, and come off really cleanly.)

Then it was time to hang everything on the wall. I should have planned this out - but that is not my style at all. LOL. Instead, I just put up the first photo, and then the eyeballed where I wanted the next one to go, etc. In the first iteration (yes, there were several - see "I'm not a planner, above"), I had three straight lines of photos across the wall. And it was awful. They were straight and level, but it looked all wrong.

I took everything down and started over. Sigh. Another try. Still not what I wanted. I was driving my husband crazy at this point, with all the picture frames laying all over the floor of the living room for a week while I tried to figure out where I wanted to place them.

Finally, I had the bright idea of leaving an open space in the middle for some word art. That made all the difference in the world, and I was able to stagger the photos around the wall. So much better.

For the word art, I used phrase Live & Laugh (live__laugh_C00896_23067) from the Silhouette store. Under that, I added shape Flourish 1019 (not sure where this was from, I'm not finding it in the Silhouette store). Both were cut from black vinyl. I just love, love, love how it turned out. It makes me smile everyday.

The whole wall turned out really great for our space. Now, I just need to add some more recent photos of our boys...

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Baby Quilt

2012-01-02T22:00:00.004-06:00

I made a quilt! It's the first one I've ever made - and I love how it turned out. I made this for my brother's baby girl and gave it to them as a baby shower gift. It matched their color scheme so well, even though it was just a mash-up of beautiful, crazy colors. So happy they like it!

It's an incredibly easy quilt pattern - the classic rag quilt. The front is smooth...

...and the back has all the seams, frayed to be super soft.

This quilt is super easy to make. Here's the directions in a nutshell:

Cut your squares of fabric and batting - mine were 6-inch squares, with the batting cut just a 1/2 inch smaller. Make your squares larger or smaller depending on how big you want the finished size to be.
Make little quilt sandwiches with a piece of batting in between two pieces of quilt fabric.
Sew an X from corner to corner on each sandwich. This is easier if you sew them in a continuous line, leaving just a tiny gap between each square. So, sew one line of the X for all your squares, then clip them apart, then sew the other line of the X for all your squares, then clip them apart again. (It will make sense when you start sewing.)

Lay out your squares in the order you want to the rows to be. Sew the squares together in long rows, keeping the seams to the same side.
Sew the rows together. This part get tricky because your quilt will get super bulky and you'll have to roll it up to fit it into your sewing machine. Just be patient (not something I'm good at!).
Edge the quilt with a double-line of stitching all the way around.
Clip the seams just up to the stitch line. Clip them about a 1/4" to 1/2" apart. Yes, ALL of the seams. This will take a long time and you might want to wear a glove to protect your hand. Use good scissors. Watch a movie while you're doing this because it will take a long time.
Wash the quilt at least once - you might want to do it twice. This is what will fray your clipped seams. Check your seams after the first wash to see how it looks. When you're happy with the fraying, put it in the dryer. This will fray it some more. You will have SO MUCH lint you will think you surely broke your dryer. Also, you and your clothes will be entirely covered in lint and thread. Go outside and shake everything off. You can also use a lint roller or brush to get more of the lint off.

That's it - your quilt is finished. You will love it even if it seems like you will never be clean of lint again.

One more time - isn't it lovely? I'm ready to make another one for our bedroom. How long will it take to make a king-size one? I'm sure I'll be ready to cut off my hand by the time it's done...

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Christmas Gift

2012-01-02T12:19:00.000-06:00

I love making gifts for Christmas - this one is easy to do and looks so pretty when it's finished. I gave these to my "moms" this year and also to the boys' teacher. Everyone really loved them.

Just find a frame that you like - I used a 5x7 frame for my gifts. I then framed some beautiful Christmas scrapbooking paper behind the glass. On top of the glass, I adhered a white vinyl "joy" cut from my Silhouette. This was a free shape they gave out during their 12 days of Christmas (joy_C03059_1). I was so happy to use it - it was perfect for what I needed.

That's it - very easy to make and lovely as a Christmas present. You could customize these for any holiday or birthday. I'll be making more soon, I'm sure...

Christmas Home Tour

2012-01-02T12:10:00.000-06:00

I know Christmas 2011 is officially over, but I thought I would finally get my Christmas decor photos posted. (Resolution for next year - post this earlier!) Let's start in the foyer...

I posted about this wreath already, but this is what you see first when you step through our front door. A bright and cheery spot.

Next is our living room. This was our first Christmas in our new house, and we put our tree up in the living room. The boys love to decorate the tree. We had a lot of fun putting up our ornaments and remembering the special memories attached to each one.

The coffee table with Christmas decorations - the photo album is one of my most favorite things. It has our Christmas card photos for every year since the boys were born.

I set up several of my Christmas house on top of the hutch. I used boxes under the snow to elevate them and then put up lights behind them. Very pretty!

Finally, our mantel. Probably my favorite of everything this year.

I made the new Christmas art piece.

I used a $5 garage sale frame and painted it black, sanded it a bit, then varnished it with a very light coat. I covered the background with a pretty silver wrapping paper and put it behind the glass. On top of the glass, I hung the red felt star (from Target). Very easy and very cute, I think.

I also made the garland for the mantel. The evergreen garland itself is a cheap one from Jo-Ann's. I added two long red berry swags and a strand of lights. The pine cones are actually light covers from another strand of lights that I used here instead. I also stuck some Christmas holly picks in the garland after I hung it on the mantel.

I also framed a few new stitching projects I finished up this year.

"Home for the Holidays" is a free pattern from You Can Make This.com. I love the red with the turquoise - such happy, festive colors.

The Santa cross-stitch is a kit from Jo-Ann's. Very simple but cute.

At night, the lights on the tree and the mantel make everything look beautiful.

That's it for our Christmas tour - hope you had a wonderful holiday!

Outdoor Christmas Decor

2012-01-02T11:40:00.000-06:00

I've had a lot of fun with our front porch this year for Christmas...

Isn't it pretty? I love it. I hate to take it down now that Christmas is over.

The bench is a work-in-progress but started out as a garage sale find that was missing a seat. Byron cut and attached some boards so I could use it for now - I plan to paint and finish it up once the weather gets warmer again. The sled is another garage sale find. I'd love to find some old ice skates too. The rest are bits and pieces from my holiday stash.

The ladder behind the bench and the old chair are the same ones I had out for Halloween, just dressed up for Christmas instead.

I wove lights in and around the chair and trees on the bench so that it really looks pretty at night.

We didn't put up lights all over the house this year, but Byron did put in green and red lights for our exterior lights - it looked really nice.

That's it for the outside - next up, a Christmas tour of the inside of our home.

Ornament Wreath

2011-12-20T04:58:00.002-06:00

I love this wreath! I've seen several ornament wreaths on Pinterest and have seen them in the stores for a few years - and I finally thought, surely I can make one too. I followed this great tutorial. It wasn't hard - it just takes awhile!

I started with an 18-inch straw wreath. I thought this would be too small of a wreath, but when you get all the ornaments glued on, it's really a lot bigger than you might think.

I wrapped the straw wreath with silver tinsel and then started hot-gluing my plastic ornaments on. And gluing. And gluing. It does take awhile. You have to glue a bit, then hold the ornament in place until it sets up a bit before you can move on to the next one.

The end result is gorgeous though - so, it's worth it!

It's now hanging proudly in my foyer over top of my old window frames. So beautiful!

More Christmas-goodness coming soon!

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Fall Wreath

2011-12-19T05:16:00.001-06:00

Well, it feels like I jumped right from Halloween into Christmas. Before we get into the Christmas projects, I did want to share the one fall project I did - a new wreath for my foyer. I'm kind of wreath-obsessed right now, I guess. I love how this one turned out.

I was inspired by this wreath - I loved that monogram letter. I found my letter at Jo-Ann's and painted it black and then bronze over top. Very fall-ish.

The wreath itself is a grapevine wreath from Hobby Lobby. I got a couple of fall leaf garlands from Hobby Lobby too, the very cheapest ones, since I only wanted them to fill in the background. I then hot-glued the gourds and flowers in place. There are a few fall picks in there too. Love it!

Okay, I think that's it for fall. Next up, I'll be sharing Christmas projects...

Jack-o-lanterns

2011-10-30T22:27:00.000-05:00

We carved our pumpkins, and I think they turned out amazing.

Nathan designed his own and carved it out himself with Grandpa's help.

It was even Nathan's design to put the eyeball in with toothpicks. Love it!

Jack really, really wanted a Mario pumpkin. We couldn't find any suitable templates online, so we printed off a Mario face and Daddy promised to do what he could. He hand-transferred the pattern onto the pumpkin and started carving. And carving. And carving.

Hours later, it was finally finished.

I think it might be the most impressive pumpkin we've ever had in this house. Wow. (And Jack was very happy.)

Halloween Front Porch

2011-10-30T09:21:00.001-05:00

So there's one last stop on my Halloween tour - our front porch. The boys, hubby, and I had a lot of fun putting this all together.

I incorporated lots of garage sales finds I'd been picking up over the fall months, including a $1 ladder, an old chair, a little step stool, and a couple of crates and baskets.

Hubby attached 2 cut boards to the ladder to create a couple of shelves for me, which worked great. We picked up the pumpkins and the corn stalks on our trip to the pumpkin patch.

Just for a little more fun, I made these little spider web vinyl window decals with my Silhouette.

The web is called Spider Web Flourish (spider_web_flourish_1818) and the spider is from the set called Echo Park Halloween Shapes (echo_park_halloween_shapes_C00245_48353). Just cut it out in black vinyl and put them up - very easy.

The long strand for the top left spider I just cut free-hand.

Our new house is wired really well for outdoor lights, so everything plugs into 2 outdoor outlets and then is run off a switch inside the house. Love it! (In our old house, I had to put on boots and a coat to run outside and turn on the lights during the snowy months - so glad I won't have to do that!) Our spooky front porch looks great at night.

I especially love the spider lights I have peeking out of our rose bush.

And the little spider webs on the front windows are very nice. They might be my favorite part.

We are ready for Halloween! On the docket today, pumpkin carving, iced pumpkin cookies, and a trip to the Lincoln Zoo for a trick-or-treating. My favorite time of year.

Halloween Decor

2011-10-24T20:45:00.002-05:00

Halloween is a week away! We are very excited here in this house. I've put the finishing touches on my Halloween decor, and I thought I would round it all up in a single post.

In the living room, I have this little display on our coffee table. I sewed up the runner myself, using a pattern of my own creation. I used the same fabric throughout the house, so everything goes together. The pumpkins on pedestals are new from Hobby Lobby this year - a wonderful birthday gift from my mom. Love them!

The scrapbooks are Halloween-themed. I keep them in storage for most of the year and then bring them out just for the holiday, which keeps them kind of special for the boys. The stripe scrapbook holds a double-page spread for each Halloween, and it is absolutely one of the favorite things I've ever made. I create a new page after each Halloween. It's amazing to see how the boys change from year to year, all in a single scrapbook.

I've already posted about my Halloween mantel and garland, but as long as we're in the living room, here's one more look.

It makes me so happy to see this everyday!

In the dining room, I have a little vignette on the table. Again, I sewed up the little quilted square for the table, and then I just added a few pieces I had on hand. Nothing fancy, but it's fun for now.

Back to foyer, I have a little black Halloween tree. I love to decorate this for the holiday and have been collecting little Halloween ornaments over the years.

It's lovely at night when it's all lit up.

The tree sits next to the antique radio where I have a little Halloween display as well. Again, a matching runner which I sewed to match the others.

This sits below the Halloween wreath that I've already posted about. Here's the whole foyer altogether.

And at night, it's very fun with all the lights.

And that's it for my Halloween tour today. Thanks for looking!

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Halloween Wreath

2011-10-12T22:36:00.005-05:00

I'm super excited about this project! I had hung my shabby window frames and knew that I wanted to hang a Halloween wreath. But first, I had to make one.

I found a white branch wreath at a garage sale for $3. It was perfect - but it was white. Spray paint to the rescue. I painted it black, along with some artificial flowers I had on hand, and started creating my wreath with my trusty glue gun. (I had finally found my much-loved original glue gun packed away in the very last box we hadn't unpacked from our move. It had been labeled "board games" by the movers. Thanks movers! I would never have thought to look for my glue gun in there. Humph.) I rounded out the wreath by adding lights, an EEK! glitter sign, a spider web and a big orange spider. All these items were in my Halloween stash just waiting for the right project.

And here it is, hanging in our foyer with the shabby window frames as a backdrop.

The cat and mouse wall decals were another item I had in my Halloween stash from Target's clearance last year. Just a fun touch.

That orange spider on top is very fun - my favorite part, I think.

The wreath came together so fun. My boys love how spooky it is, especially at night.

Our foyer is looking very much like Halloween now. My favorite holiday!

Thanks for looking!

Update - I was featured on One Tough Mother's Not So Tough Tuesday Linky Party. I'm honored! You can check it out here...

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Window Frames

2011-10-11T21:52:00.005-05:00

I was so excited to pick up these 4 old window frames at a garage sale for $5 each. I think I probably could have talked him down a bit, but I was just too thrilled to find them and afraid someone else would snatch them away. Aren't they lovely?

They were so dirty and chippy. My first task was to scrub them down a bit with a wire brush and hose them off. After I let them dry for a day, I glued the frames together at the joints. They were a bit wobbly, and I didn't want them falling apart any more than they were. After the glue dried, they were nice and tight.

I then added a bit more white paint to cover up the glue and to add some additional distressing. I just slapped the paint on and then rubbed it off with a clean cloth. Nothing fancy.

I had a plan for where to hang these now-lovely window frames. Remember my plain old foyer?

Yeah, it could use some sprucing up. So I hung up 2 of the window frames on the bigger wall.

My plan is to use this space as a backdrop for my seasonal decor - and it's the perfect place to hang an inside wreath. I love how it looks! They are just the perfect amount of distressed wood and chippy paint.

So pretty! I have a Halloween wreath to show you next...Yay!

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Wicked Spider Stitching

2011-10-09T13:19:00.003-05:00

This was a quick little stitching project I made up for Halloween. It's adorable!

The Wicked stitch pattern is a freebie from You Can Make This. It originally calls for a crystal spider head with sequins on the body - but I didn't have either of those on hand, so I did my usual thing of just "making it work" as Tim Gunn says. In fact, that's pretty much my craft mantra - just make it work. So I used extra large french knots for the body instead of sequins and just satin-stitched the head. You can see that I'm not the neatest stitcher in the world, but I love how it looks!

The frame was an unfinished wood frame from Hobby Lobby - I just painted it black, sanded the edges for a bit of distressing, then added my very favorite matte craft varnish for the tiniest bit of sheen.

It's now one of my favorite pieces on my Halloween mantel...

Thanks for looking!

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Halloween Garland

2011-10-08T09:52:00.007-05:00

I have loved seeing all the gorgeous Halloween garlands around blogland this year. But as soon as I saw this fabric banner tutorial from Craftaholics Anonymous, I knew I needed to make it!

I had Halloween fabric on hand that I had used to make a couple of table runners (more on that soon!), so I already had the perfect fabric to use for my garland. I used black yarn for my string, 3 strands tied together.

Next, I cut my strips (1"x9") - about 48 strips of each fabric. It was a bit more than a yard of 9-inch-wide fabric cut into 1" strips. Then I sat down with my boys and watched a new episode of Mythbusters (finally they're back on!) and tied on my strips. I love, love, love how it turned out!

Oh my goodness, isn't it the cutest? I'm dying! I loved my Halloween mantel before, but this really adds that extra touch.

It was one of the easiest things I've ever made - seriously. The hardest part is cutting out your strips. And if you don't want to do that, Linda at Craftaholics Anonymous has a kit you can buy where the strips are already cut out. Super easy and adorable!

And here's my updated Halloween mantel. Love it!

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Table Runner

2011-10-06T22:00:00.005-05:00

I have had these lovely red toille napkins forever. They have served as a cover for an antique radio we have in our foyer.

I love how they look - the pattern is one of my favorite things in the world. But something always bugged me about how they slid around and didn't stay in place.

So one day I thought - why have I not just sewn them together? I have no idea why this never occurred to me before. LOL.

So I made a runner out of them...

I'm really happy with how it turned out. I didn't have a pattern handy, so I just figured out how big I wanted the finished runner to be, then cut the napkins into squares. I found some dark red corduroy fabric to go with the napkins, and cut that fabric into strips for the sides and one large piece for the back. The napkins were a little thin, so I used some quilt batting to give them some weight.

I think it turned out perfect...

A much better look for my foyer. More changes coming soon...

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Halloween Art

2011-10-05T21:48:00.005-05:00

For my Halloween mantel this year, I made this art piece. Super fun and easy.

The frame itself is from Goodwill. It was priced at $9.99, but since it was 1/2 off day, I got it for less than $5. The original piece was rather...blah. :)

Yeah, I think it could use a bit of sprucing up. I took it apart, cleaned it up, painted it with a couple coats of black acrylic paint, then sealed it with my favorite matte craft varnish.

For the artwork itself, I bought a large piece of fine art paper from Hobby Lobby, then cut it to size. The crows and the tree are vinyl wall decals that I purchased from Target last season during their holiday clearance (love shopping those sales!). I pieced the tree together on the art paper, then put the frame back together. I hung it above the mantel with picture hanging strips (love those too).

I think it adds just the right accent for my Halloween mantel.

A super quick and easy project. I'm hoping to make one for each season. Love it!

Be sure to check out the rest of my Halloween mantel too...

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Tutorial: Welded Titles with the Silhouette Machine

2011-10-01T13:02:00.008-05:00

I just love creating welded titles with my Silhouette. It gives everything such a custom look. What is a welded title? It's where all the letters/numbers in a font/image are touching - so that when the Silhouette cuts it out, the letters are all attached as a single item.

Vacation Album Memorabilia Pocket
These folders hold brochures, tickets, and other items from our vacations. I labeled this one with a couple of welded titles and a background frame, all cut from the Silhouette. I welded the letters together so that each word was a giant sticker.

Fonts: Mr. and Mrs. Popsicle and Wish I Were Taller from Amanda's Free Scrapbook Fonts

Creating welded titles is one of the best features of the Silhouette. I love the look of a customized title with all the letters touching to form a single word or phrase. I struggled for a bit on how to do this quickly, so that the work of getting out my machine and the tools was worth the finished look of the project. So I practiced and practiced and practiced. (And got lots of advice my friend Brooks!)

So I put together this tutorial on how to weld letters from your fonts with your Silhouette. Give it a try!

Type your word in your Silhouette document.
Click Ctrl+U to ungroup each letter from the object. A light gray box appears around each letter.
Click off the word, then click the second letter of your word. Use your arrow keys to nudge it close to the first letter in your word. (Using the arrow keys is more precise than just dragging them around.)
Repeat the select/nudge process with each letter of your word until they are overlapping each other as much or as little as you want.
Once you have the letters in place as you want them, you need to weld the shape together. Holding down the Shift key, click each letter of your word.
Under the Modify window, click Weld.
See how your shape looks. Is everything connected? Click it and move it around. Does everything move together? If not, Ctrl-Z to undo that move and try the Weld process again. Sometimes it takes some fiddling around to get those skinny letters in place.

That's it - you're ready to cut! It's really pretty quick once you get the hang of it.

Once I cut out the titles, I like to use my Xyron machine to turn them into stickers. The full-back adhesive is great for those intricate little details and keeping everything stuck down where you want it.

How about a few more examples?

Birthday Folders
Here are a set of memorabilia folders I created to go in my boys' birthday scrapbook - to hold cards, etc., for each birthday. I created a welded title for the year for the front of each folder using the steps shown in the tutorial.

Font: Wish I Were Taller from Amanda's Free Scrapbook Fonts

Celebrations File and Card File
These file folder boxes house my handmade cards and a tickler file of the celebrations we keep track of during the year. I learned this system from Jen Mohler's Saving Your Sanity: Celebrations class at Big Picture Classes. Love that class!

Font: Minya Nouvelle from dafont.com

If you haven't tried to create welded titles with your Silhouette - give it a try. I so love making these customized titles! It's not hard to do and really makes your projects look so special. Share with us - what have you been creating with your Silhouette?

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Halloween Mantel

2011-09-30T23:51:00.013-05:00

I'm so glad Halloween is on its way! Definitely my favorite time of year. This year is the first year I have a mantel to decorate. Whoo-hoo! It's been so fun getting out all my Halloween decorations. I've made a few new things this year too.

The Halloween subway art was a free printable from eighteen25. So gorgeous!

I had an extra frame hand that I painted black, then just framed the printable.

The vase I found at a garage sale for $1 - and I got the black river rocks from Hobby Lobby. I found a few branches in my neighborhood - spray-painted them black - and made this spooky little tree. I was inspired by my friend Brooks and her gorgeous black branches last Halloween. (Thanks Brooks!) I made the framed crow tree art. I love how it looks!

Finally, I stitched up the little spider and painted another frame for it. I added the spider web and the word blocks I made earlier this month.

Rounding it out are my favorite Halloween ornaments, some spooky LED eyeball lights, and some fun candy corn candles. I put a black spider web under the whole thing. So happy with how it all looks!

It's especially fun at night with the little lights on...

I have a few more fun Halloween projects to share - coming soon!

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Halloween Door Art

2011-09-26T21:00:00.006-05:00

I made some new door art for Halloween! Love how this turned out!

I've had this cute door hanger for a few years and I love it but I thought it needed some freshening up.

So I had hubby cut a board from some scrap wood, painted it black, then sanded the edges. I sealed it with some matte craft varnish as well - I love the subtle sheen it gets. Then I used my Silhouette to cut the Trick or Treat (trick_or_treat_C20090907230548_18816 in the Silhouette store).

I finished it off with a brass cup holder screwed into the bottom - spray-painted black - then stapled the orange polka-dot ribbon to the back to hang it up. I love it!

So stinking cute!

Updated: This project was featured on Craftaholics Anonymous as part of the 2011 Fall Frenzy. Wow - I'm honored!

Excited to link up to these parties:

All Things Thrifty Home Decor's All Things Spooky Linky Party

Wood Word Blocks

2011-09-13T21:22:00.004-05:00

Last month, I picked up this *adorable* wood block word kit from Thoughts in Vinyl and finally got a chance to make it up. Love how it turned out! The kit came with wood blocks and vinyl letters - I used my own papers and paints for the backgrounds. Summer-themed on one side - patriotic-themed on other.

I was further inspired by the Halloween and Fall word blocks and decided to make my own. Again, I used paints for the backgrounds, but grunged it up a bit with some distressing ink from my scrapbooking stash. Then I cut the vinyl letters out with my Silhouette using Howser for the Halloween words and Wish I Was Taller for the fall words. Both fonts are wonderful frees fonts from Amanda's Free Scrapbooking Fonts. I also used a few shapes from the Silhouette site: Echo Park Halloween Shapes (echo_park_halloween_shapes_C00245_48353) and Leaf Silhouettes (leaf_silhouettes_C00060_30551). I think the blocks turned out great - love how they look!

One quick tip - if I was doing these again, I would keep to having words on just 2 sides of the blocks. The blocks are up on my mantel, so you can't tell - but when they are lower - like on a table - you can see the other words on the other sides. Doh! I didn't think about that until it was too late. Oh well. They still look great to me...

Tile and Paper Coasters

2011-09-12T19:24:00.002-05:00

I saw these coasters on Just a Girl's blog and loved them immediately. I had been searching for a set of coasters since we bought our very first grown-up, real wood coffee table. (Yes, our first, and I'm turning 37 next week - can you believe it??) But I hadn't found any I loved at any of my usual shopping stops.

So off to Home Depot I went to grab up some floor samples to make my own version. There were lots of different floor samples to choose from, but I really liked the faux-tile (aka linoleum).

I found cork board at Michaels in big 12x12 squares, which worked perfectly. I cut the cork just slightly smaller than my tiles, then hot-glued it onto the back. I could have stopped there - but I thought it would be cute to mod-podge some pretty paper to the top. After letting it dry, voila - my coaster masterpieces were ready.

This set is now on my beautiful, new coffee table. I love red toile.

And this set I gave to a dear friend who hosted our family for a weekend visit.

Now I need another set for our family room. These are super easy and make great quick gifts. Just make sure to let them cure for a few days before stacking them or they'll stick together a bit. You can still pull them apart, but it's slightly embarrassing from a gift-giving standpoint for your gifts to be stuck together... :)

Ugly Couch Transformation

2011-09-10T09:12:00.010-05:00

My first-ever furniture transformation project! Yes, I'm kind of nuts starting out with something this big. I'm not sure what possessed me, except that it started out like most of my craft projects do - with an overwhelming urge to just jump in and do it.

I had some red leaves upholstery fabric on hand that I was planning to use in our bedroom - but then I bought a different bed set and the new fabric really didn't go with it at all. So I thought it might look good on our couch.

Our couch. Sigh. It was old - more than 10 years old. The fabric was not in good shape. Lots of worn spots and stains. The pillows were all super flat. So it was either figure out a way to recover it - or burn it. So I decided there wasn't much I could do to mess it up, right?

I went back to Home Fabrics and Rugs to get more of the fabric, knowing that I didn't have enough on hand to cover the whole couch. I literally drove for 3 hours not even knowing if they would have any more of the fabric. I didn't call ahead to check either. I just wanted to leave it up to fate. (I'm a dork like that.) I got to the store and frantically started looking for the fabric, all the while trying to act like I wasn't on a mad mission. Luckily, they had another bolt. Whoo-hoo! I ended up paying about $8/yard for this fabric. I love, love, love it so much.

Use the big guns.
Don't waste your time using a wimpy staple gun. I started out stapling my fabric on with a little Black and Decker battery-operated 19 volt staple gun. In fact, I had gotten it for my DH at Christmas with the express idea that I would be using it to recover furniture. Alas, this staple gun wasn't powerful enough to handle this project. After recovering just one arm of the couch and lamenting to DH about how hard it was to get the fabric to stay put around the curvy arm, he brought out the big staple gun, with the air compressor and everything. What a difference. Smooth sailing from there.

Do some initial prep.
Before working with the new fabric, I cleaned up the old couch. I use a butter knife (very professional) to take off the back of the couch. Those staples were in there good, and this took some time.

Once it was off, I vacuumed out the inside of the couch. I even found a few Hot Wheels cars from my boys. Too funny.

Trust your instinct.
Just start putting your fabric on and stapling! This is easy for me to say considering we were going to get rid of this couch unless I could salvage it in some way. Also, my fabric didn't have an direction, so if you are using a stripe or a plaid, you'll have to do more planning than I did. But since I didn't have that challenge, I just laid the new fabric over top the old and started stapling, pulling, stapling, and trimming.

Initially, I worried about stapling this new fabric over top of the old. I'm sure the proper way is to take the old first. But I had no patience for that. So I just plowed ahead, putting the new right over the old.

Lastly, I reconstructed the entire back from a new piece of fabric, just folding and cutting as a I stapled.

Reconstruct the Pillows
As I said, the pillows were flat from years of use. To fix that, I slit each pillow open, stuffed them with more stuffing, and sewed them back up. That one little fix made an amazing difference - big, fluffy, comfy pillows!

Then I sewed new covers for each pillow out of the new red fabric to match the couch, plus a coordinating blue and yellow for the four smaller pillows.

The last pieces were the big couch cushions. I didn't even attempt to do those myself. They're big and curved, and I just didn't trust my sewing skills for that one. So I found a local upholstery shop - Pechous Upholstering here in Lincoln - and had them recover them for me, using my fabric. The total cost was about $160 - well worth it to me! They turned out beautifully. I highly recommend their work!

The Big Reveal
Ready to see how it turned out? I'm so excited with how it looks!

I even add fabric-covered buttons and tufted the little yellow pillows. Love how those turned out.

I was pretty nervous about the back of the couch as this would be the only place where the staples would actually show. But it was really a pretty smooth process. I think it looks awesome, and you can really barely see the staples. I thought about gluing a piece of braided trim or something over the staples but I don't think I will even bother - you can really hardly see them at all.

And one more time....tired and boring before:

And fabulous, beautiful after!

Thanks for looking!

This project was featured at Coastal Charm!

Entering this project in Not JUST a Housewife's Best DIY Project of 2011:

Linking up to these parties:

T-shirts for the Boys

2011-08-24T03:22:00.005-05:00

I decided to dress up a couple of plain t-shirts the boys had with some custom artwork cut with my Silhouette machine. Love how they turned out.

This one is for Jack - he's quite the gamer. The Game Boy icon is from Tombats 6 dingbat font. "old school" is the Courier New font. Both cut from fuzzy black heat transfer material.

And this one is for Nathan - the Star Wars fanatic. The Rebel Alliance symbol is from the SF Distant Galaxy Symbols font. "Join the Rebellion" is the SF Distant Galaxy font. Both cut from white fuzzy heat transfer material.

The boys loved their new t-shirts. So fun!

Adding this project to this weeks Homemade Projects at Tip Junkie!

Weekly Menu Plan for Aug. 15

2011-08-14T22:00:00.005-05:00

I've gotten a menu plan together for this first week of school - yay for me! Sharing this list via Org Junkie's Menu Plan Monday for August 15, 2011.

Tacos with all the fixin's
Asian Sweet Spicy Chicken Wings with Pioneer Woman's Onion Strings
Spaghetti with salad and garlic bread, along with squid dogs for the boys
Grilled brats with chips and dip
Bacon-cheeseburgers with tomatoes and corn on the cob

A pretty easy menu this week, but this will be the first time I'm trying the wings on my own. It's my friend Brooks amazing recipe and I'm excited to give it a try now that she's given me a live demonstration/tutorial during her family's visit to our house a few weekends ago.

Knife Block - Round 2

2011-08-11T05:33:00.005-05:00

Decided to get just a little bit fancier with the knife block by adding a vinyl word to the tiny space at the bottom. Again, inspired by Tiffany's version with the chalkboard vinyl.

I did mine in white vinyl, cut on my Silhouette. I used Google Translate to translate the word "knives" to French and came up with "couteaux" (again, thanks for Tiffany for the idea!). I used the font Plantagenet Cherokee (this one came with Windows) and added the brackets to each side. Easy and cute.

Updated Knife Block

2011-08-10T05:12:00.002-05:00

I saw Tiffany's post yesterday on DIY Club and got a wild hair to do the same thing to my yucky, old knife block. It's only been staring at me for the last 7 years (at least). It's not pretty in the least - and I was planning to just buy a new one.

(Sorry for the poor "before" photo - I didn't take a pic of the knife block before transforming it - I was too excited! So this is the best I could do. It's that wooden thing to the right of the stove.)

But inspiration stuck after seeing how pretty it could be with a little spray paint. Voila!

So much better... very much matches my new kitchen. I used Valspar's black spray paint in satin finish. It's honestly a little too glossy for me, but I still like it better than the old wooden knife block.

Before painting it, I sanded it down on all sides with some sandpaper I found in hubby's toolbox. It was very grungy - who knew it would be so dirty just sitting on the counter all these years? Yuck. After sanding, it looked so much better already, but I was set on painting it by then.

This was the first time I'd tried to use spray paint. It was a bit harder than I thought it would be. I did get a couple of spots where the paint sorta dripped, but not enough for anyone but me to notice.

All-in-all, I love it completely. Thanks Tiffany for the inspiration!

Personalization with the Silhouette

2011-06-06T06:43:00.002-05:00

I'm loving my Silhouette! My friend Brooks made me an awesome "baseball mom" t-shirt to wear to my boys' baseball games - and I was inspired to get my boys' baseball gear personalized.

Isn't the baseball mom t-shirt adorable? Seriously. Love it.

And here's the boys' baseball gear.

I used the font Varsity to create their names, being careful to watch the sizing because of the spacing above and below this font when you type it out. Also, make sure to mirror your fonts when printing them on the heat transfer material. I used smooth red and flocked white. The baseball on their bat bag came from the Silhouette store (design baseball_outline_C00450_17986).

My boys were so proud of their baseball gear - they said the other boys would be jealous that they had such a cool mom. :) So sweet!

Easter Stitching

2011-05-13T09:28:00.002-05:00

I know Easter has long-since past, but I didn't want to wait until next year to share this quick little craft project. I all about quick!

I've never really had much interest in stitching but for some reason, the urge hit me right around the Christmas holiday, and I found so many cute patterns online that I decided to dive in.

This Easter stitching is one of the first ones I've ever done and I LOVE it. The pattern is a free download from Twin Stitchers on You Can Make This (an incredible crafty website!).

The frame is a quick crafty project too. I had a stack of these wooden frames I had purchased from the Target $1 section a few years ago (gotta love that Target $1 section) and I painted one in a turquoise acrylic craft paint, then gave a couple of coats of Modge-Podge for shine and seal and roughed up the edges a bit with some sandpaper. I layered a sheet of polka-dot pattern scrapbook paper over top of white cardstock for the background. Then I just glued the finished stitching to the paper. Quick and easy!

If you haven't tried your hand at stitching, it's so super easy - I promise you can do it! You Can Make This even offers a free downloadable guide on Stitching Essentials that will teach you everything you need to know. It's how I learned! The perfect portable craft to take with you when you're sitting around watching your kids do whatever sport/activity they're involved in.

Cute Owls

2011-05-11T09:28:00.003-05:00

About a month ago, Roeshel posted this beautiful PB Inspired Easter Vignette where she showed how she painted several bunnies to match her decor. I loved that idea - and when I saw these adorable (yet kind of gaudy) owls in the Target $1 section, I knew I could do something similar.

Aren't they cute? But I knew they'd be cuter with a little love - and paint.

I painted them using a sage green acrylic paint I had in my stash (several coats) and then I rubbed on a little glitter glaze I had on hand as well, to give them a bit of shine. Now they look perfect on my new mantel.

Linking up to these parties:

Easy Beach Decor

2011-05-04T21:28:00.004-05:00

I'm so ready for summer to get here. We moved to Nebraska in February during crazy cold and snow and this spring has been pretty dreary. Plus the wind is just blowing like crazy this year. I keep thinking it's because we have moved to the plains of the Midwest but DH assures me that's it been windy everywhere this year.

So I decided to add a little beach to my mantel decor to help speed summer on its way. While cleaning out my craft room, I found a bag of sand from who knows where and a bunch of sea shells. I was about to put them in the Goodwill box but instead I grabbed one of the 10,000 vases I had just unpacked from our move, poured the sand in, topped it with the shells, and voila - easy beach decor.

I love it.

I added the star fish and other beach items and now my mantel is looking a lot more summery.

Hurry up summer!

Edited: Sharing this on My Romantic Home's Show and Tell Friday

Bulletin Board

2011-05-03T16:01:00.007-05:00

This bulletin board didn't survive the move - the only thing that got broken, if can you believe it. But I was feeling thrifty and decided to keep it and use it anyway instead of shelling out $20 for a new one. The corner of the cork itself was broken, and the frame had come apart as well.

It sat on my office desk, covered it it's usual collection of papers and photos for 2 months before I finally decided it's time had come. I remembered this post from Tatertots and Jello about her office redecorating project and thought I could do something similar with some fabric I had on hand.

That's how the craft urge generally comes over me - I think I don't have any creativity left in me and then one day, I just get a wild hair to do something.

So that's how the broken bulletin board transformed into this:

So pretty!

I had to reconstruct the broken corner. I evened out the rough edge with scissors (an exacto knife would have probably been better but oh well) and then layered some cardboard to create a new corner.

I glued the triangles together to get the approximate width I needed to match the bulletin board and then hot glued it into place.

Then I hot glued the fabric to the cork board. Staples would have worked too but I'm a hot glue gun girl. (Funny story - I STILL can't find my trusty glue gun. It's been lost in the move somehow. I had to buy a replacement glue gun and it's not nearly as good as my old one. I keep hoping I'll find it one of these days.)

Tip: Iron your fabric before you attach it. Duh. Again, I'm just too impatient to think these things through thoroughly. I ended up trying to iron it AFTER I finished the project, which worked only partially.

I painted the frame in white acrylic paint, then covered it in Mod Podge to seal it up and give it a bit of sheen.

Then I put the fabric-covered cork board back into its frame, hot-glued the frame back together and hung it on the wall with Command Picture Hanging Strips. Love these hanging strips! They are like velcro and make hanging anything on your walls super fast and easy.

And there you go - a DIY-salvage project. Love how this new-to-me bulletin board makes my office feel more homey.

Linking up to these parties: