Inspiring painting!

I know this blog is for the things that I've made so that I can give you all tutorials on how to, but I couldn't resist showing off a painting I had commissioned.  I saw a picture similar to this and fell in LOVE with it.  I sent the picture to a local artist who came up with her own twist on it.  She took down personal details about me to make it more like me.  I CANNOT wait to pick this up.  If you love this as much as me, leave me a comment and I'll pass along her info!  Love, Love, Love this!!!!

Butterfly shirt

Estimated completion time: 1 hour
Estimated cost: $10 (if using an old shirt)

Things you'll need:
Sweatshirt
Felt
Scissors
Sewing machine

1. Cut out "wings."

2. Cut out design 4 of each.

3. Sew the designs onto the wings. Remember to sew one set on each side of the wings

4. Sew the straight side of the wing down.  (You can sew down the entire wings if you wish, but I left them so that they'd be able to "fly".)

That's it!

Flower Hoody

Estimated completion time: 1 hour
Estimated cost: $10 (if you're using an old sweatshirt)

Things you'll need:

Hooded sweatshirt
Felt in green and "flower" color
Scissors
Sewing machine

1. Cut out 2 strips of green felt.

2. Cut out 2 leave patterns of green felt.

3. Cut out petal pattern from another color (I knew I was going to double mine up, so I cut twice the amount).

4. Sew one strip of the green fabric on one side of the zipper.

5. Sew the other stripe on the opposite side of the zipper.  (When this is zipped up it will cover the zipper.)

6. Sew the green leaves leaves on either side of the stem (above the pockets so that they're still usable).

7. (You don't have to do this, but I like the thickness of the doubled up petals.  I sewed the petals together so that it would be thicker.)

8. Sew the petals around the hood.  (right up to the edge of the hood.)

That's it! 

Dinosaur hoody


Estimated completion time: 1 hour
Estimated cost: $10 (if using an old hoody)

Things you'll need:
Hooded sweatshirt
Coordinating felt
Scissors
Sewing machine (I suppose you could hand sew, but that would take a very long time)

1. Take your felt and fold it in half length ways. Cut the design you want for the spikes ensuring that it is as long as the sweatshirt.  You'll now have two of these. 

2. Cut up the middle of the sweatshirt, right on up through the hood.

3. (You don't have to do this, but I wanted to.  I sewed the two pieces together.)

4. Turn the sweatshirt inside out.  Placing the spikes in it so that the spikes will stick out on the outside.

5. Sew the shirt back together.  The spikes will be on the outside.

That's it!

Easy No Sew TUTU

Estimated completion time: 30 minutes
Estimated cost: $15

Things you'll need:

2 spools of tulle
1 yard of ribbon
Scissors

1. Slip knot (not sure that's what it's really called.  But you basically just make a lower case "n" with the tulle placing your thumb and forefinger inside the tulle. Place your hand and tulle over the ribbon and rotate your hand downwards.  Your tulle will now be knotted around your ribbon.) Repeat until your tulle is all on the ribbon.

THAT'S IT!

Over sized Picture
You've probably seen these all over Pinterest, it's the same thing, I just made mine a bit smaller.

Estimated time to complete: 30 minutes
Estimated cost: roughly $15

Things you'll need:

Engineering print from Staples
MDF board
Mod podge (or watered down glue)

1. Upload your picture to Staples.  Chose the engineering print option (you can also do a colored print but it is probably 3 times the price, but it'll work the same way).  They'll let you know when it's printed. (I chose the A1 size roughly 3X2ft.)

2. Cut your board to the size of your print.  (I cut mine about an 1/8 of an inch smaller so I could wrap the picture around.)

3. Paint your board with your mod podge.

4. While the board is tacky place your print on top, being sure to eliminate the air bubbles.


That's it!!!! I chose a thin MDF board so I couldn't add hardware to the back to hang it, so what I did when I hung it was just nailed through the corners.  I hope to buy some crown molding to frame it when I have some free time (and some money!)

Thanks For Helping Me GROW flower pots

These are the pots I made for my daughter's teacher and teacher's assistants.
These were super easy (except for taking the time for the paint to dry.)

Estimated time for completion: 40 minutes (not including drying time)
Estimated cost: roughly $10 (depending on if you have the paint and what plants you choose)

Things you'll need:

Ceramic plant pots
Black paint
White paint
Yellow paint
Paint brush
Tape measure (I'd suggest a non rigid one!)
Flowers
Soil

1. Clean and dry your ceramic pots.

2. Paint the bottom portion of the pots black.

3. Once the bottom is dry, paint the top portion yellow.  Also make sure to paint the top part inside the pot too.

4. Once this is completely dried (you may need to paint a couple of layers) pull out your tape measure.  These particular pots were HUGE.  On the first one, I measured out the exact inch, but it was really crowded (this is the one on the right of the picture).  So on the subsequent ones, I made it a 2 inch scale (this is the one on the left and the one in the back).  Anyway, paint the ruler across the top.

5.  When this has tried again, paint your saying on the black portion in white to create the chalkboard look.

6. Once this had dried AGAIN, place your soil up to the bottom of the ridge.  Plant your flowers and water.

Again, another easy project. 

What a crazy busy summer.  I haven't stopped making things, just been too busy to post.  So here goes.   This is the wreath that I made for my daughter's teacher at the end of the year.    I got the idea off of another Pinterest user.

Estimated time of completion: 1 hour
Estimated cost: roughly $10

Things needed:

Embroidery hoops X2 one large one small
Box of crayons (I used a couple boxes because I wanted certain colors, but I bought them from the dollar store so still really cheap.)
Ribbon of your choosing
Sticker letters
Small square (for 'chalkboard')
Glue gun
Black paint
White paint


1. Plug in your hot glue gun so that it will be ready when you need it.

2. If you want a specific color order set it out now.  If you don't just set out your crayons.

3. Undo the embroidery hoops.  Place the smaller one (without the hardware) in side the bigger one.

4.(Sometimes the husband has a brilliant idea, this time he did and of course it was AFTER I'd already completed this.  If you're a bit of a perfectionist, obviously I'm not, place a bowl, or paper towel holder inside the smallest hoop. This will ensure that you have a perfect circle of crayons) Start placing your crayons around the small hoop.

5. Glue the crayons around the hoops placing a drop of glue on the crayons to meet the small and large hoops.

6. Once all the glue is dried, determine what side you want to be the top.  Place your ribbon there to use as a "hook".

7. To create the chalkboard, paint a small square black.  Once it has dried paint on the teacher's name and school year.

8. Place whatever saying you want around the wreath.

That's it.  It was pretty easy.  

Homemade Nursing Tanks!

For those of you who know me, you probably know that I'm totally psyched about being able to nurse my little one. I wasn't able to with my first, so this is a wonderful thing to me (yes, even at 3am). I have no qualms about nursing in public. My thoughts on it are, "you eat freely, without being shoved in a private room." Of course, I'm fully covered (well at least my top half is), this is where my problem is. I've got nursing bras that the full cup comes down, which totally makes it easier (IMO) to feed, but my shirt still has to come up! So unfortunately, half of my back is hanging out for the world to see, and trust me when I say, I'm no Beyonce! I'm a real mom, so I have excess skin (he he he) back there. I've looked into nursing tank tops, but they're either ridiculously expensive, or they don't come in my size. I saw this awesome post on Pinterest and I had to try it out! (http://pinterest.com/pin/263812490642225571/) Mine are different than hers, but they all work out the same way. You can turn any tank top into a nursing tank. Oh the possibilities!

Estimated time to complete: 20 minutes (if sewing by hand) 10 minutes (if using a machine)

Here's what you need:
Spaghetti strap tank (or any tank would work so long as the straps are straight, no racer backs, or "wife beaters")
thread (I'd suggest the same color as your tank)
needle
seam ripper (I couldn't find mine so I just used scissors)

Here's what you do:
1. Either separate your straps from the shirt using your seam ripper (but be sure that you're only separating the strap or you'll be undoing the seam of the shirt) or you can just cut the straps as close to the seam line as possible.
2. Make a small loop out of the strap at the front of the shirt close to the seam line. (The larger the loop the longer the neck drop will be. But make sure it's big enough to fit over your clasp on your bra.
3. Sew the loop in place.
4. If you follow the post I got my idea from, you'll simply cut off the excess strap, but I thought that I'd be able to reuse my tank after my nursing needs are up. So I sewed the strap along the seam of the shirt heading towards the back. (That way when I'm no longer nursing, all I have to do is take out the stitches and resew the strap back to it's original position.)
5. To make this shirt the nursing tank, you'll need to pull the tab from your bra through the loop on the tank, then clasp the bra into place as normal. (see first picture)
That's all it takes!
Some words of wisdom, you can see from the second picture that the drop is still pretty low even with a small loop, but I figured that this will probably be worn under something so I'm not too worried about it. (And let's face it, when I was younger, the top of my bra hung out of my shirt anyway.) If you're modest, or you want to be able to wear the shirt without the top of your bra out, you can add a complimentary colored layer underneath by sewing a small piece of fabric across the shirt.
The biggest problem that I have with this shirt is that once you cut the strap from the back, there's nothing there to really hold up the shirt, so unless the shirt is tight, it will sag a bit, but again, I'm using mine in layers, so I'm not worried about it either. You could always use a size smaller and that should eliminate the problem too.
I hope that this helps the rest of you thrifty nursing mommies, or those of you who are making these for your pregnant or nursing friends!

Superbaby Bibs

So these are definitely a work in progress, but these are the first ones I've made. I saw something similar on Pinterest, but I can't find the pin now. Anyway, I haven't decided on whether the "superman" logo should be on it or not. What do you think?
Easy to make this version (I'm hoping to embroider some when my machine gets in!) and cheap!

Estimated time to complete: 20-30 minutes (depending on drying time)

What I used:
Dollar store solid colored bib
acrylic paint (what I had on hand)
paintbrush

What to do:

All you do is paint on the saying! When it has dried, paint the next layer. Do this until you're happy with the results. You could easily do the print and transfer method, or use a stencil. I just free handed mine but any method would work.
Have fun and be creative with these.

Upcycled Wipe Container

This is not an original ideal on my part. I wish I had thought of it, but sadly I haven't. This is something that I found on Pinterest from this site. (http://tatertotsandjello.com/2011/07/summer-social-guest-project-make_21.html)
While, mine didn't work out so well as a bag dispenser, it can be used for lots of things!
It's SO EASY!!!

Estimated time to complete: 20 minutes

Here's what you'll need:
Empty wipe dispensing bottle (lysol, clorox etc.)
contact paper
scissors

Here's what you do:

1. After you've used up all your wipes, wash out the container and let air dry.
2. Find a roll of contact paper you want to use. (I scored this awesome Zebra printed one, from the dollar store!!)
3. Unroll the contact paper and lay the container on it.
4. Measure how much paper you'll need. (Little tip, go about 1/8 inch short on the top and bottom, so that the paper doesn't get in the way of the lid or the bottom for balancing.)
5. Cut out the amount you'll need.
6. Peel of the backing of the contact paper and carefully lay the container on it. Roll the container so that it is covered. Remove bumps and bubbles as you go.

That's it! You could also add a little sticker to the label if you wanted, but I didn't go that far.

Tooth Fairy Pillow

My eldest recently lost her first tooth and her second soon followed. We scoured the house looking for a box or something that we could put the tooth in so that the "Tooth Fairy" would find it. We couldn't find anything that would easily fit under the pillow without making it uncomfortable. We ended up using a small jewelry box and it sat on the corner of her bed instead of under the pillow. A few days later I thought, "Why don't you just make something?" My New Year's resolution was to make or upcycle something every week. So it would have gone along with that anyway. So I set out to find what fabric I had on hand.

Estimated time to complete: 45-60 minutes (if sewing by hand) 30-45minutes (if using a machine)

Here's what I used:
a small piece of plain cotton fabric (blue with silver stars)
a white piece of felt
scrap pieces of felt for eyes and mouth
polyfil for stuffing

It was super easy to make. I made the tooth first. Here's what you do:

1. Cut a simple "tooth" design out of the felt.
2. Cut out your eyes. One of the felt fabrics I had on hand had silver stars on them and I thought they would be super cute as the eyes. So I cut out two of the stars for the eyes. I then cut out two blue circles just slightly bigger than the stars for the iris of the eye.
3. Cut out your mouth. (I just rounded the edges of a small square.)

Put your tooth together. This is pretty easy as well. Just sew the eyes where they would go. The only thing left is the mouth. Leave the top part of the mouth un-sewn. (This is where the tooth/treat/money will go.)
Next sew the tooth unto the "pillow" fabric. Fold the pillow fabric in half (in order to know where to place the tooth). Remember that you'll need to leave an allowance for the seams. I left mine at about 1/4 inch maybe a bit less. Pin the tooth in place (printed side up/showing and only through one side) and then sew it on. (I did this by hand, as my machine was broken. But, you could easily do this with a machine as well.) Just stitch around the tooth until you've ended back up where you started.
Now you'll sew the pillow. Refold the fabric to where the tooth is now on the inside. You should have three open sides and one side is the seam from folding. (You can stitch that side as well, if you really want to, but when sewing by hand, why do more work?) Pin together two of the sides and a third of the last one. Once you've got it all pinned, start sewing it up. When you reach the last side unpin the pillow and turn right side out. (If you're really picky and need your corners squared, you can use a pencil or chopsticks to get them to their points.) Stuff with your stuffing of choice and then sew up the last little bit of the pillow.
Since I've made this, I've read some other blogs about their "Tooth Fairy" pillows. One woman had the idea to add a strap to it, so that you can hang it on the outside of the door, so that the Tooth Fairy won't wake up the children when taking the teeth. I wish I had thought of that. If you wanted to add this strap, just take another piece of fabric in a longer strip and sew it in (you'd have to make the 1/3 sewn side the top to be able to add it in, but I think it would be worth the little seam!)
Hope you enjoy making this little project.

You now have a "Tooth Fairy" pillow that will safely hold your little one's teeth and treats/money.

Onsie Upgrade

These are some baby onesies that I made for a baby shower. The mother-to-be already has a boy and they'd kept all the baby related stuff, so they weren't in need of anything but the essentials. (Diapers, wipes, butt cream, etc.) But I thought that the baby could/should have something that belonged to only him. So, I made these little onesies. My sewing machine is broken, so these were all stitched by hand (oh, so not fun)! But I'm pleased with the way that they turned out. I also made on with the baby's initial on it as well.

Estimated time to complete: 30-40 minutes per shirt (if sewing by hand) 15-20 (if using a machine)

Here's what you need:
Onesie
fabric (for your designed cut out)
needle
thread
scissors

To make these, it's quite simple. Here's what you do:
1. You'll need a onesie and some fabric.
2. Decide on the design that you want to make on the onesie.
3. I encourage you to make a template for the design, or it might come out wonky! Draw your design on the backside of the fabric (if you're using letters or numbers, remember that they need to be backwards) and cut out.
4. Place the cut out on the fabric and pin it in place.
5. Sew the cut out onto the onesie.
Voila, you have a personalized onesie for the new baby.
Have fun and be creative with designs.
This mom was hip and cool, so the mustache and funky tie was perfect for this little boy. But you could do this for girls as well. The possibilities are endless, so start saving those scrap fabric pieces. You don't need very big pieces for most designs!

Easter crafts

Let me first start off by saying that I know that Easter is not about a bunny, nor cute little chicks. I can't even put into words how thankful I am for the true reason for the holiday. He has RISEN, and one day, so shall I! But, I find the Easter decor so cute and I couldn't help myself. Not to mention that it affords me the opportunity to do something crafty with my daughter. That being said, this is how I created my little wreath. (I'm glad it came out pretty cute, cause boy it was a lot of trouble!)

I thought that my daughter would find enough eggs from the egg hunt that I wouldn't need to purchase any additional ones for this wreath, boy, was I wrong! I needed about 16 more than she found!!! So I had to trek into town and find some plastic eggs. The pound store (our equivalent to the dollar store) had very few left, and what was left, well, I bought them up! Lol. So, that is why there is a lot of yellow on this particular wreath. Also, I thought that I still had the spool of weed eater ribbon that we couldn't use anymore. Nope, that apparently had been thrown out. So, I had to find something else that would work. I didn't want to use metal hangers, (We don't have any, anyway. But in hindsight, it might have made this SO much easier!) I couldn't find any fishing line, but I was able to find embroidery thread (the kind you probably made friendship bracelets with as a child). So, that's what I used. (I'm very into having cute decor or doing craft projects that don't cost a lot of money. So I try to use whatever I have on hand.)
Estimated time to complete: 1 hour (unless you have mommy brain and are using embroidery floss, if that's the case, then triple it!)

Here's what you need:
Plastic Easter eggs
drill
ribbon
metal hanger/embroidery floss/fishing line/weed eater line (whatever you want to string it up with)
Here's what you do:
After I gathered all the supplies, the fun began. My daughter helped me to pull the ribbon from the yellow eggs (they were supposed to be ornaments). And I drilled holes on one side of the egg (most of them already had a hole on one side, weird, I know). It would have been smart of me to line up the eggs in the order that I wanted them in, but I thought I could do it in my head. That was not very smart (I still have a major case of the pregnancy/mommy brain!) I found the longest (and biggest eyed) needle I had and threaded the floss through. I began the task of stringing up the eggs. Finally, after restringing the eggs several times, the last egg was strung, and I tied the two ends together. I left a little bit of room to be able to move the eggs the way I needed them.

This is when the real fun (major sarcasm here) began! In order to make the ears, you have to twist the eggs around one another to create three circles. I busted the string twice! Finally I made one circle stand alone and ended up tying it onto the main circle (the one used as the face) to prevent any more breakage. Once this was done, I twisted the ears so that they would appear longer instead of rounded. Again, I snapped the string because I didn't leave enough slack. After restringing the eggs for the 785 time, I left enough slack that I could have put two or three eggs on it.

In the end, I ended up with, for the most part, the look that I wanted. Using a pastel pink ribbon, I tied a bow on the top of each ear to hang the wreath by. I never, ever, want to use embroidery floss for wreaths again!!! So if you plan on doing this wreath, or one like it, I would highly encourage you to use something that is more rigid so that you can control the shape.

I wanted to add a face to it too, but after the hour and half (or more) that it took me, I wad done! Maybe next year, or... maybe not.

Happy Easter!!!

Sisters: one of life's greatest treasures

This is another rainy day spring break activity. A cheap little project that was fun and easy!
The canvas was bought at the dollar store and the paint and brushes were already on hand at home.
Estimated time to complete: 1-1.5 hours depending on drying time

Here's what you need:
Art canvas
paint
brushes
glitter (again, it was a must with my 5 y/o)
paint pens

Here's what you do:

My daughter picked the color for the background and painted it (with a little help from mommy). After the paint dried, we painted her feet. Again, she picked out the color (pink, of course). I stamped her foot onto the canvas. They weren't as dark as they should have been, so I "traced" her feet with the paint (a couple layers more) and when it was the color I wanted I sprinkled glitter over the wet paint.
Once the paint was dried and the glitter was stuck on we painted our baby's feet a contrasting color (black) and stamped them down in the middle of the first set of prints. Again, the prints weren't dark enough so I traced them as well. A few layers later, the prints looked the way I wanted them to.

I scoured the internet looking for quotes about sisterhood and "big shoes to follow." But I didn't think that something like that would set the right "tone" for the painting. I'd found lots of quotes about sisters or sisterhood, but none that felt "right". I found the "Sisters: one of life's greatest treasures" and knew that it was what I wanted.

Using the paint pens that I already had, I wrote the quote on the painting.


It was an awesome activity for me to do with my children. And it's a painting that I will treasure forever. I only wish I had another canvas. I would have made two, so that when they grow up they could have them for themselves.

Footprints In The Sand

My mother has always loved the "Footprints in the Sand" poem, but has never found the 'right' one to buy. We, being abroad, don't have access to a Walmart or Target either, so I didn't have one of those plaster footprint kits. (We did one with our eldest, so we needed to have something to do with our youngest.) So, I figured that I could make the picture for my mother and have our daughter's footprints on it too.

It was very easy! I bought a painter's canvas (from the equivalent to the dollar stores back home) and I already had the paint (just kid's art paint) and brushes, and the paint pens (for the writing). So, it was a very inexpensive little project!
Estimated time to complete: 1-2 hours depending on drying time

Here's what you need:
1 art canvas (whatever size you want to do)
paint (I used blues, greens, white, brown, and black)
paintbrushes
glitter (you don't have to add the glitter, but I did this with my 5 y/o so glitter was a must!)

Here's what you do:

First thing I did was paint the "water". I mixed a couple different blues together and let the layer almost dry completely before adding the next color. When it was nearly dry, I added a few streaks of white to make the "foaming waves".
Next, I painted the sand. Again, doing multiple layers of colors, this time, browns, tans, yellows, oranges, and again white.
After the painting had dried for a few hours, I added the words to where I wanted them. When the wording had dried, I started the "fun" part. In order to do the footprints, my eldest daughter helped to paint the baby's feet while my husband held her. The hardest part was the footprints. I stamped her little foot down and tried to "guess" where that foot would fall on the next step. Also, because she was fussy about having the cold paint on her feet, she was kicking. So we didn't get the chance to repaint the foot, so each footprint got progressively lighter.
Doing the same thing with the other foot, created the "walking" effect.
When the painting had dried, the footprints weren't as noticeable as I'd like them to be. So, I painted over them with the same color just adding layers until it was the color that I wanted.

That's all it took to get this one-of-a-kind painting. It will make a lovely gift for my mother for her birthday, or Mother's day.

Treasured Life

I know we all say that we value or treasure our lives, but I don't think we do. Not really anyway. Today, I was taken back. My 5 year old is learning to read. While preparing to make dinner tonight she wanted to help. So, I let her help with the rice. She "reads" everything, but she had to sound out every letter. She was sounding out "warm" from the rice maker. It took her a few tries, but she eventually got it on her own. But, she was able to read the word "cook" without having to sound it out. I sat there amazed. Then I starting thinking, "isn't it just amazing how our brain processes things. We can look at a word and within a nanosecond we know what it says." I just stood at the sink with the water overflowing from the pot I was cleaning and just thought about how we take for granted everything in life. I've decided from today forward, I'm not going to. I'm going to appreciate everything!