sweet nothings

Stocking Hangers

Once we finally got our mantle hung, I immediately started holiday decorating! I wanted new hangers and new stockings. I had already purchased fabric to make our stockings (which i actually didn't get enough to make Wina's which is why her stocking ended up being houndstooth :D ) 

THe one problem I found was that because I had waited so late to start looking for stocking hangers...there wasn't really much of a selection left in the stores. So what's a girl to do? Make her own!

Hobby lobby had knobs on sale. So I picked up 5 glass and metal knobs. 

I also purchased 5 wood plaques that are about 4 in square. At lowe's I picked up brackets and 1x2 piece of wood. I also picked up commando velco removable hanging tabs.

I cut the wood into 3 inch pieces. I screwed the wood piece to the plaque using 1x3/4" brackets. 

yes...I should've taken the price stickers off, but they were not coming off easily and leaving a sticky residue so I left them on...nobody will see them anyway. Then I spray painted the entire thing black.

I drilled a hole in the center of the square and inserted the the knob. After I put the knobs I put velrco sticky on the bottom on the brace.

Put it on the mantle where you want it to rest. With the removable velcro I can take it off the shelf after Christmas and it won't leave a mess...well at least that's why the product promises!

I think they turned out so cute! The stockings were sewn up last night...procrastinate much? But I really love how it all turned out. 

until next time...

S

 

Headboard Bench

Two years ago I found this headboard at a yard sale for $5.

Much to my husband's unhappiness it's been just one more thing cluttering his side of the garage for way too long. Sunday after Thanksgiving was a perfect day to do something about that sad little headboard...

I dug through our scrap wood and other than going to lowe's for two front legs and the decorative wood piece on the front ($15 total at lowe's)...I bought nothing new! With a little paint and some light sanding...I have a lovely bench for our front porch! Grand total $20 (sorry in advance for the yucky pics. it's rainy and cold here in Texas)

The pillows I made this weekend...Burlap and red/white ticking. (just a side note...i don't like burlap. i know it's a hot craft staple but it's dusty and not straight and just bleh! this is probably the last burlap project i'll ever do! :D ) I stenciled the "merry" and "christmas" on the fronts of both pillows. The "christmas" was actually white but after the rain it's looking a little pink...oh well. As for the pot. I spray painted a clay pot red. With a 1 3/4" inch punch and some white contact paper it's now a polka dotted pot! And i won't even lie...that's a $4 fake poinsettia. I kill the real ones so I figured if I put a fake one out there it'd last a bit longer! :D

I think the bench and the pillows (pot too) turned out pretty festive! The bench will be fun to change up for different holidays and seasons!

until next time...

S

 

 

 

Miss "whatever" sash project

Ever since watching the Miss USA pagent Nora has been asking for one of those "pretty ribbon things" I've put her off for awhile and she started up about it today. This was super easy and I'm sure I could've spent much more time cutting out some sating and making a really fancy sash but didn't have the energy for it today. Easy was the way to go! 

I found some wide ivory satin ribbon. I'd guess it's about inch and a half wide. I just draped it along each girl's chest and measured...no fancy calculations.

Then i cut each end of the ribbon to have a V edge. 

I did sew an angled edge at the should so that it would lay correctly but you don't have to do that I'm sure it'd be fine without that step but i'm a bit anal.

Next I dusted off my box of unused rubons. FOund a set of black letters that fit the ribbon. I also found some metal brads with a jewel in the center.

After getting the girls requests for their titles I went to work...

Just an FYI...rubons go on ribbon very easily and you can use a crochet hook to rub them :D it works when you can't find your special rubon tool lol

Maddie's you can't see...but she's Miss Texas. :D

Nora hasn't taken her's off and she's quite proud of her title.

Maddie on the other hand took it off as soon as I snapped a picture. figures.

Fun cheap project!

until next time...Stacey

 

Oversized Chalkboard tutorial

I didn't take pictures of the "during" but this is a very easy project. I was really wanting to make a piece of subway type artwork for the collage wall in our dining room. Something similar to one of these...

 

(image from pinterest)

The problem is that I wanted a quote that I loved but sadly I was way too indecisive on this matter. The only thing I could come up with was something that I could change up. A chalkboard...I wanted one that was really large...so off to lowe's.

I bought a 2x4 1/2 inch piece of plywood and cut it down to 2x3. I think they can do that at lowe's but I had Tim do it for me :D

I gave it a good sanding. Then I put a coat of flat black paint on it. Gave it another good sanding. Then I put 2 more coats of chalkboard paint (purchased at lowes or home depot). I used a foam roller. I sanded between each coat. I put one more coat of the chalkboard paint and this time instead of sanding the entire board I used a 80 or 100 grit sandpaper and sanded the edges of the board. I wanted it to have a nice distressed edge. Be sure and let it dry really well between coats of paint.

Once all of that was done, I had nora rub it completely with a piece of chalk. Wiped it off and wrote my current quote on it...I think it will be fun to change quotes with the holidays and seasons. I love this chalkboard and it was very simple to do!

Enjoy! Hopefully I'll have the wall finished soon and can share the entire collage wall! Today we are pulling carpet out of the living room and laying floor! Woohoo!!

Until next time...Stacey

Bunting Tutorial

I'm working on various projects for the photo collage wall in our dining room. So far most of the frames and artwork are up and finished. Mainly the only thing lacking are the pictures in the empty picture frames. I'm hoping to get new pictures done of the girls in the next few weeks! I just thought I'd stare this cute little bunting I made. I love it

I had some scrap linen fabric. I cut out triangles using pinking sheers. 

Then I printed the letters I needed onto freezer paper taped to regular paper. I taped it to regular paper so it would easily run thru the printer.

After cutting out the letters, I ironed them to the triangles.

Then I tapped acrylic paint onto the "stencil".

Removed the paper...Then I sewed the triangles together using pre-gathered black lace.

i think it turned out really cute! Hope you enjoy!

Until next time...S

Framed Heart Art

 

I saw the wreath at Hobby Lobby today...$2 or $3 and 30% off of that. I loved it and just really wanted to do something with it. I stuck it in my cart and started walking and thinking...found a frame for $10 plus 50% off. I needed something for a background. I searched the scrapbook paper but didn't find anything that stood out. I did find a piece of fabric though and I purchased 1/4 yd at $7 a yard with 30% off...so here you go.

Remove the backing, matte and glass. I cut a piece of fabric to cover the glass. I wrapped the glass with the fabric and did something massively technical...I taped the fabric down with scotch tape :D

( It looks like I used a ton of tape but honestly I only used a few pieces. The frosty white in on the glass is actually etched glass.)

Next I put the glass, matte and backing back into the frame.

 

and last but not least I glued the heart wreath onto the fabric. Luckily the wreath had a flat back so all i had to do was add some glue and stick it to the fabric!

 

That's it! Easy! I love it and can't wait to add it to the rest of my Valentine decor when I get back home!

 

Fabric Memory Game Tutorial

 
This year I wanted to spend some time making a few little things for the girls. I make them clothes and costumes and such all year, but I rarely just make fun stuff. This week I made memory game from fabric and our family pictures! I've seen tons of variations of these and just went with what I felt was the simplest way!

Supplies -

printer fabric paper ( i prefer cotton poplin but you can use whatever you find just make sure it is NOT fusible)

felted wool (i'm not talking about felt by the yard. i tried that and it has too much fuzziness to it. you need the heavier felted wool)

sewing machine and thread

fabric

computer and inkjet printer

pinking shears (or a pinking shear rotary cutter blade)

I chose 18 pictures. I picked only pictures of our family - girls and us plus wina. I made a new document in Photoshop (8.5x11) and put 6 pictures per sheet. I cropped each picture to 2.5". I spaced the pictures so that they were spread out with at least an inch around each picture. I printed each page 2 times giving me a total of 36 pictures. I figure that we can divide them up and each girl can play with 9 pictures each or all 18. just seemed like a good number :D

After I printed the pictures I cut each picture out to be 3 inch squares. The 2.5" pictures plus a white border. I removed the paper backing and pressed each square with the iron.

Out of the fabric I cut 36 4" squares. If you are using cotton fabric which is usually 42-44" from salvage to salvage...it takes about half a yard of fabric

Out of the felted wool I cut 72 4" squares. I believe I used a yard and an 1/8 of fabric. The wool is only 36" wide.

 

all wrong sides together fabric, 2 wool squares and photo to make the "sandwich"

I used a little spray adhesive to keep them stuck together so that I didn't have to pin them together. The photo fabric square is smaller than the wool and backing fabric. It's the quilter in me...but I always make the backing and batting larger...

 

Sew around the photo making a nice square...

This entire project goes really quickly. The longest and hardest part was choosing pictures!

Once you have all of the squares sewn together...you need to use either pinking shears or pinking rotary cutter to trim the excess off. I places my ruler about 1/8" from the picture edge and used my rotary cutter to trim. I have rotary pinking shears and for this project it was perfect!! Mine is olfa brand and you can usually find them at joann's.

  

With an additional piece of fabric and ribbon, I made a little drawstring bag to keep the cards in...I used my 8.5" square to cut two pieces of fabric...sew them together right sides together along 3 sides. Made a casing at the openinging. ran the ribbon through and there you have it!

 

Until next time...

 

Glitter Ornaments

While digging out the Christmas books (I keep them stored in vintage suitcases) I came across a 4 pack of clear glass ornaments.

 

I guess I'd already put all of the other ornaments away last year and just needed to stuff those someplace. Anyway, I decided to do something with them...Here is what I cam up with. Very quick and easy! I think they turned out pretty cute! Because I had all the supplies for this project on hand, it was a no cost project!

 

You need the following:

*spray adhesive

*clear glass (or plastic if they make them?) ornaments

*bling (I dug through my bling basket and found an M and an N, a cute cross and a ho ho ho)

*glitter (the glitter i used came from joann's. I used an entire color packet per ornament)

It's easy peasy...

I put the self adhesive bling on the outside of the ornaments.

 

Next I removed the gold hanger thing at the top of the ornament. I'm sure it has a name...maybe?.

Then I sparyed the inside of the ornament with spray adhesive. Some of the spray adhesives have a strong odor so you might want to do this part outside. I used the Elmer's brand and it really has no odor.

 

There will be a liquid inside of the ornament and i just turned the ornament so that the liquid glue could cover the entire inside of the ornament. I poured the excess glue out.

Next I poured an entire glitter packet inside the ornament. I'd say it was probably a couple of teaspoons.

 
 

Replace the hanging cap piece to the top of the ornament. and voila! You are done!

Instead of using bling you could use vinyl letters or wording. Or you could just put the glitter inside and leave the outside plain. All up to you!

 

 
 
Enjoy!

until next time...

 

LIttle Sneak peek

My sister was teasing me yesterday because I said I was making a little yard art...she said "oh lord...what in the world are you making now"  well, due to an issue (ran out of spray paint) the project I had planned on sharing today will have to wait one more day. But just to give you a little idea...here is a peek and I'll hopefully share both, yes 2, projects tomorrow!

Enjoy!

until next time...