Fall Decor: Glitter Pumpkins

Well yesterday I decided it was time to crack out my fall decor.  I have more I just wanted to focus on my table for right now.  Sort of just...ease you in. 

I wanted to change up my centerpiece for fall.  I also switch it up for Christmas too, but I wanted a new fall themed centerpiece so I picked up some stems at Hobby Lobby yesterday and it makes a big difference.

Also something I sat down to do:

GLITTLER PUMPKINS!

They really don't even require a tutorial.  My advice: do this in an area that's easily cleaned up.  I applied the glitter in a brownie pan so I could just pour the glitter back after I was done.

These pumpkins are both real and fake.  The tiny one in the middle and the two on the right are fake (obviously with the brown one) but the two on the left are real.  I picked those up at the grocery store for $.76 each.  I painted one in copper and applied glitter to the other.  

It's such a simple change but it makes a big difference!

Next up: leaf garlands!  Hooray!

Linking up:  See the "I Like to Party" link up top

Baby Shower Invites

I'm currently planning a baby shower for my best friend.  Its at the end of this month and it's hitting me that I still have a lot to do!  Luckily I have most of what I need - I just have to buckle down and make everything!

So today I'm going to show you how I made the invites!

The shower's theme is baby clothes because my friend hasn't really had a chance to go clothes shopping for her little man.  We're assigning clothing sizes so my friend is prepared.  As it is, by the way things are growing he's measuring as a big baby so he may only be in newborn sizes for a very short time.

I knew I loved the idea of those onesies with the ties for baby boys.  I still may end up making one of those for her too, because they're so adorable.  I wanted to have that reflect on the invites too!  So I found a onesie shape online and traced that onto white cardstock:

The tedious part is the cutting.  It takes a while!

After all the onesies were cut out, I cut a shape of a tie and traced that onto scrapbook paper I already had.  I like the idea of different patterns.

 After those were cut out, I started gluing them onto the onesies.

 I'm really happy with the results.

After that was done, I got stuck.  How do I word this?  I googled for help but there really isn't much on "Baby Clothes" themed showers.  The themes that are common are "Bath Time" "Bed Time" and assigning themes like that.  But assigning clothes?  Is that weird?  I kept going back and forth about it but my friend said she really needed clothes for the little guy!

So I just decided to think of something original.  I don't pretend to be a creative writer but I was able to come up with a little poem that got the point across:

A baby boy is coming soon,

And while he may be tiny,

He'll need some clothes to keep him warm,

And cover his little hiney!

After that hurdle was over, it was just a question of putting it all together.  This is where I get lazy: I have regular sized envelopes so I wanted them to fit the envelopes I already have.  So I measured and cut the backing which I decided to do in tan.  I printed out the poem along with the registration information.  I have a stamp for invites which I used for the bottom.  After mounting it with a strip of cute paper it was done!

The blurring isn't smudged ink, I just didn't want my address up here along with my friend's last name.  You know...it could make things weird.

Done!

I cut out cute paper to assign baby clothes sizes.  Addresses, stamps and one thing down - about 20 more things left to do!

Linking: See "I Like To Party" link up top!
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TCB, 

Little Changes: Star Fish Accent

Last week I guest posted for Amy over at One Artsy Mama.  And I'm going to re-post the project!  This is just a little accent that'd work for most themes.  

My guest bedroom is a beach theme, but not an in-your-face beach theme, very subtle, white washed, reclaimed wood and airy feel.  This is the first star fish or seashell anything that I put in there and it's very small, which is how I like it.  

Here is what you'll need:

1. Canvas - I bought this at Hobby Lobby for $3.99 - but I could have waited for it to go half off too and saved some more.  
2. Paint.  I wanted a very pale blue so I mixed a little bit of Spa Blue with White Wash to get the color I wanted.
3. A star fish, or really anything that would go with your theme of choice.
4. Glue gun & Glue sticks
5. Tape.  I used regular old run-of-the-mill scotch tape because I wanted thinner lines.  
6. Not pictured - paint brush.

Next:

I taped off one inch sections.  I eyeballed it, because I'm lazy and truthfully I wasn't after "perfect."

Next:

I mixed my paint so I'd have a very, very pale blue.  I just wanted faint lines because I like the white-washed beach feel for my guest bedroom.  I only painted on one coat and it took about 10 minutes to dry.  Once it's dry go ahead and peel off the tape.

Next:

Star fish generally don't lay flat, so I only applied glue at the points and let it set.

Next:

 Because this little accent is small, I used a push pin.  I mounted it in between the guest bedroom door and the door to the guest bathroom.  

And that's all there is to it.  Quick - simple and easy!  Just the way I like it!  Well I hope you all have a great week!

Linking up: See the "I Like To Party" link up top!

A2Z,TCB,


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Baby Gift: Poppy Flower Onesie

I just finished what I like to call "The Poppy Onesie." These flowers don't really look like poppies but the inspiration came from this tutorial at The Pleated Poppy.

I actually used this tutorial last year to make this t-shirt:

Mine is different than Lindsey's at the Pleated Poppy. Don't get me wrong, I love hers, but after having a few different t-shirts with floppy flower embellishments...that I have to iron and re-iron after I wash, I wanted something that wouldn't need extra care after coming out of the dryer. So the difference is that I went through and stitched down the edges to give the flowers a really ruffly effect.

Like this:

I know this kind of looks like a hot mess, but actually on, I get a lot of compliments on it. And we all know that when you get the "Where did you get that?" question on something you made - that's the ultimate sign you didn't screw up.

So because of my pet peeve about having to take special care on embellished shirt flowers, I decided to give my sister in law a break and sew the flowers down too.

Here's the tutorial:

What you'll need:

1. Thread - preferably that matches the fabric you're using. 2. This is actually the bag of scraps I kept from my original shirt shown above. What they are, are old white t-shirt circles. That's right - you'll need t-shirt or knit material, but what I used was an old stained t-shirt I was going to throw away anyway. Also in that bag - pins. Yes, you'll probably want some pins too. Cheap and easy. 3. Whatever it is that you're embellishing. 4. Scissors.

Step One:

Cut out a circle, or something that resembles a circle out of the knit material you have. This doesn't have to be perfect.

Step Two:

Fold the circle into fourths so you have a triangle.

Step Three:

At the bottom/ tip of the triangle you just folded, run a few stitches through it. You can also see these steps through Lindsey's tutorial as well.

Step Four:

This is what you'll get after you stitch through the middle. Once you have a few of those, you'll begin placing them on the onesie/ whatever you're embellishing. DO NOT SEW THEM ON YET. You'll want to place them where you like them first, pin them, and once you're happy with the placement - sew.

Step Five:

This is the placement I decided on. So I removed the pins and sewed them to the onesie through the middle. As you can see, you can stop there - it's still really cute at this point, but if it bothers you to have to iron things down once they're out of the wash...

Step Six: (Optional)

Take a needle/ sewing machine and roughly stitch around the edges of the circles. I made mine overlap in different ways and while I don't have "during" pictures, it's really simple to do.

So this is the end result:

See? Easy. And what's more? My sister in law won't have to worry about sad, wrinkled flowers out of the wash because they're sewed down. This little onesie can be paired with cutie little pants, skirts, or whatever else my SIL wants to put her in. I'll probably make her something similar in a headband. Maybe that'll be next week's tutorial?

That's about it - if anyone gives it a try please let me know it goes!!

Linking Up: See the "I Like to Party" link up top!

TCB, A2Z, TM,

Quick and Easy Monogram Frame

First of all - Happy Father's Day to all those Fathers out there! Especially to all the great fathers in my life!

Today I'm featuring an old craft of mine. Why? I didn't finish anything I wanted to this weekend and still have 3-4 half finished crafts that I need to just do! So instead I'm going to tell you about this fun little monogram frame.

I did this because this frame has a chip on the bottom left corner and I thought -well, if I screw it up, its ruined anyway. So I decided to pull colors and patterns from my bedroom and go from there!

Really this doesn't require a tutorial. I used old scrapbook paper and mod podge. I didn't use any kind of stencil, I drew a basic flower, cut it out of different patterns of paper, spaced it out and...that's about it. The monogram I stenciled onto cardstock and the scrapbook paper on the back was literally glued right onto the frame backing.

After it was all dry, I put the frame back and that was it!

Quick. Crazy easy. Free. These are the crafts I love the most. It goes perfectly in my bedroom among the other pictures on my dresser...now I just need to incorporate more purple in there!!

Linking up -see the "I Like to Party" page.

A2Z,TCB,

Ruffle Flower Tutorial

I finished the matching headband piece today.

Now, the way that I like to make headband flowers is so they're as versatile as possible. I like to make them so I can not only attach them to a headband, but also to a clip or alligator clip. It also wouldn't be too tough to turn it into a brooch or pin as well.

I checked with my sister in law to get her opinion on flower size before I started. She said she didn't care. I wanted to make this a little smaller than it turned out but I think it'll still look cute on my sweet niece's head. I used a couple steps that I've already mentioned before in last week's tutorial.

To begin:

The essentials -

1. Something to protect the surface you're working on. Obviously this old thing is my gluing mat - too ruined to use for any other purpose. 2. Some old felt lying around. You'll need a circle and a strip. The strip isn't pictured here but will be later. 3. A glue stick. You seriously won't need more than one, unless you're glue happy, and in that case - go nuts. 4. Needle & thread. 5. Beads. I ended up deciding to use a different bead than these, but these would have worked just fine too. 6. Glue gun. 7. Ruffle strips. I used a little more than this strip - which is where the extra fabric and needle & thread come in to make more ruffle strips.

Next: to begin...

You'll need a circle. I should have used a smaller circle because this really decides what size flower you make. This doesn't have to be perfect, but if you feel the need you can always trace something around the house.

Next:

You'll need one or two ruffle strips depending on the size of the flower you're making. I ended up using two. To see how to get the ruffle see last week's tutorial.

Next:

Begin gluing the ruffle strip to the outside edge of the circle. Right as I started the thread popped completely undoing the ruffle. Since I was using glue, I just bunched it and kept gluing so it worked well enough.

Next:

This is where the first strip stopped so I had to stop and make another. Because I don't have a sewing machine to quickly ruffle up another strip - it took a little while. Again - how I did it by hand is in here.

Next:

After the second strip I was left with a little hole. You can barely see it above but it's there. Honestly I probably could have stopped there and just glued on the bead and been fine, but I wanted to make sure everything was covered anyway.

Next:

I had a little ruffle flower left over from last week, so I used that.

Next:

So I squished it up and...

Put some glue at the bottom...

And glued it into the middle to cover up the bald spot.

Next:

I originally had different beads I planned on using but since this flower ended up a little bigger than I planned, the beads wouldn't be visible so I grabbed an old jewel bead and used it instead.

Next:

The flower portion is done, now onto the bottom to make it versatile.

Next:

I cut a little felt strip and glued it onto the bottom of the flower. Normally I like to stitch it on because it feels a little more sturdy, but in this case I think it'll work just as well to glue it on.

Next:

This strip makes it so you can put an alligator clip in there so it attaches onto a baby headband. This is probably what my sister in law will end up doing. When my niece gets a little bigger I can always make her a cute T-shirt with the same flowers and she can attach the clip seen up above and keep using it. With the strip, it will also be extremely easy to slide onto a harder headband too. This fun clip can grow along with her.

So that's it! A versatile little flower for my little niece!

To go along with her new ruffle bum onesie.

Yes, it seems a little big compared to the newborn onesie, but I've already cleared it through my niece's Momma and she approves!

Linking up: please see the "I Like to Party" link up top.

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A2Z,