Archive for the ‘Crafts’ Category
A Quick Teacher’s Gift
This past week was Teacher Appreciation Week and our school didn’t really do too much in honor of it. To be honest with you, I would have totally missed it if I hadn’t seen something mentioning it online. Kind of disappointing.
So Thursday night, when I remembered, I put together a quick teacher’s gift for under ten dollars. After ten years of teaching, I can tell you that teachers appreciate the thought. It doesn’t have to be a fancy gift…it truly is the thought that counts. Don’t get me wrong-the gift cards were nice but some of my favorite gifts were the hand-written thank you notes from my students and their parents.
My son and I put together a candy jar full of gold wrapped candies. I used the Cricut to put her initial and a #1 ribbon on the jar. I used grosgrain ribbon to tie a little bow on the jar and I had my son write a note to his teacher thanking her for everything. The jar is a cracker jar from Target and cost $4.95. It is a beautiful glass jar with a lid.
Marshmallow Shooters and Pillow Shields
Marshmallow Shooters & Shields
My dissertation was submitted and I had nothing better to do than sit and wait (right, and if you believe that I have an entire “to-do” list you can complete for me!). So, over Thanksgiving I decided to start working on some Christmas gifts – many of which I had purchased supplies for LAST year! This year’s “fun” gift was family sets of marshmallow shooters with shields!
SHOOTERS
Supplies (for one shooter):
12-inch length of 1/2 inch PVC pipe (sprinkler/plumping pipe)
One – 1/2 inch end cap
Two – 1/2 inch elbows
One – 1/2 inch T joint
Craft glue (I like Tacky Glue)
Sandpaper
Directions:
Cut the PVC pipe into three pieces 2” long, and two pieces 3” long. My original intent was to cut these by hand with a small saw…luckily, I ran into my neighbor at Lowe’s and when she found out what I was up to, she volunteered her husband and his nice, FAST table saw (we bartered 3 shooters in the deal!). What was I thinking??? I did cut one piece by hand, and it took me as long to make one cut as it did for T.H. to do about 20!
It is also important to get two smooth edges (one for each end, since invariably big and little people pick them up and “shoot” out of either end). Even though the table saw made pretty smooth cuts, I still used the sand paper to “finish” off the edges a bit.
Lay out as shown in the picture below.
Starting with the mouthpiece end (top right in picture), use a paint brush, Q-tip, or foam applicator, to brush a SMALL amount of craft glue around the edge of the connecting end (of course, if you put the glue on the wrong end, just flip it around – if it is smooth enough!). You may need to add a few drops of water to the glue to get it to be “brushing” consistency. Insert the PVC piece into the elbow and wipe away any excess glue. Repeat process for each PVC piece and connector. I let the shooters dry overnight before putting them away to start on the next project – the body armor.
Hints/Notes:
*The PVC pipe comes in 5’ lengths – with careful measuring/cutting, I was able to get enough “little” pieces to make 5 shooters out of each length – if your pieces aren’t exactly 2” or 3” it is no big deal!
*You do not want to do the pipe cutting inside – we made a real mess on my neighbors’ patio!
*I made 18 of these shooters for less than $20, including a new bottle of Tacky Glue
*Play rules include “No aiming at heads” – Marshmallows travel at high speeds when shot!
*After the initial gift giving/opening, these shooters have been consigned to outside play only (see picture below – marshmallow stuck on INSIDE of living room window, found FIVE days after Christmas!)
*I think these would be fabulous fun for a sleepover, couples wedding shower, family reunion, etc. You would certainly “break the ice” quickly!
SHIELDS
Supplies for One Shield:
½ yard fabric (all one color, or assorted scraps – I used flannel, mainly because that was the only pink camouflage I could find)
½ yard of 3/8” wide grosgrain ribbon
12” of 7/8” wide grosgrain ribbon
1/2 yard of Heavy-duty interfacing
Polyester fiberfill
Embellishments – optional (e.g., buttons, silk flowers)
Pattern:
Directions:
Since I made enough of these to outfit an army (or at least a large squad!), I started by cutting out a number of solid color pieces for the backing. Then after cutting out an assortment of full pieces from the coordinating fabrics, I cut them into smaller pieces and did some mixing-matching – this means your finished front piece will be a bit smaller than the backing (because of the seams) – just trim to match (I’m all about making these projects fun and easy – not precise and perfect!).
All seams were about ¼” (give or take!). Sew the two small pieces together – iron the seam and sew on a piece of the 3/8” ribbon (I used a zigzag stitch for this). Sew the top piece to the bottom and repeat ironing and ribbon. If you’re going to add buttons, an initial, or any other embellishment, now is the time!
Baste the interfacing to the inside of the solid back piece (or, if you were smart and actually bought iron-on interfacing, iron that stuff on!). Flip it over and on the outside, place 7/8”
ribbon for “grips”. See picture below for placement (I forgot to take the picture of the back as I was making these, so just used an extra piece of the interfacing … do NOT sew your grips onto the interfacing – because then they would be INSIDE the finished shield!).
Stitch ribbon in place on each end (where the pins are in place).
Now, placing right sides together (after trimming the back piece to match the front piece), stitch the two pieces together, leaving a small opening so that you can stuff the pillow “shield”. Trim the seam, and then turn inside out. Stuff the shield and then top stitch to finish (and close the opening).
Once the “battle” got heated, we were laughing so hard I had tears running down my face! Too bad I forgot to make myself one!
Wishing you and yours a healthy, safe, and Happy New Year!
Tags: Crafts, Debbie, Entertaining, family, Repurpose
Homemade Advent Calendar
My 7 year old son is a LEGO maniac. Since he is so into building with his LEGO bricks, I decided to splurge on this:
If you buy LEGO products, you know that it was definitely a splurge…especially since I normally buy the dollar chocolate Advent calendars. Once I decided to purchase this for my son, I knew I needed to come up with an idea for my daughter. I contemplated the LEGO City Advent Calendar for her but I decided that while she would enjoy opening it up and putting the pieces together each day, it would ultimately end up in my son’s room.
I decided that I would make an Advent calendar myself using some of her favorite things. I have to give credit to my friend, E, for the idea. We researched different make-your-own Advent calendars on our favorite craft blogs and Pinterest, but nothing jumped out at us. There is one that we want to sew but we knew that would we would be cutting it close! That is when E saw the idea to tie up the little gifts in a candy roll style and hang it from a hook. We gathered up our goodies and got to work! For my daughter, I bought one package of Squinkies and I had a bag of Polly Pockets I had bought at a consignment store. I also had My Little Ponies in my closet that I used.
E made four of them. In her girls’ calendars, she tucked nail polish, lip gloss and candy. In her little guy’s calendar she used a bunch of Hot Wheels she was regifting from her older son. For her older son, it was LEGO Mini Figures and candy. They don’t have to be expensive items. They can be notes, candies, and more.
Making the Calendar
You need an inexpensive 2 ply with lining paper table cloth. We used a red tablecloth that E picked up at Target for $3.00, ribbon, scissors, and your items.
Cut your tablecloth. We started the project cutting the tablecloth on the short side because we wanted to make sure we got six calendars out of it. Because we cut on the short side, we had to tie two panels together. If you cut the long length, you shouldn’t have to combine more than one panel because it will be long enough. We cut our strip 8 inches wide so that all of the items would fit.
Decide the pattern of your gifts. If you are using all candy pieces, you can skip this step. If you are mixing up candy and toys or notes, you will want to decide how to arrange it. For example, E used 9 gifts (chapstick, nailpolish, Hot Wheel cars) and her pattern looked like this (the T stands for toy and the C stands for candy).
Tie off the top of your strip with curling ribbon.
Place your item in the tablecloth strip.
Twist the tablecloth around the item so that it covers it up and tie it off (kind of like a little piece of candy or sausage links).
Repeat until you have 25 links for the 25 days counting up until Christmas.
Curl the ribbon and hang from a hook. You can make a little card with an initial or name to staple to the top of the Advent calendar.
I knotted the ribbon so that little fingers wouldn’t decide to give it a tug. Each day, I am going to have my kids cut off the next surprise before the tied off ribbon. I hope this becomes a yearly tradition!
Tags: Christmas, Crafting for Christmas, Jennifer
My Little Black (Friday) Book
I. Love. Black Friday.
Black Friday is way more exciting to me then a turkey that had to cook all day and is eaten up in 15 minutes. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the together time with the family and the yummy food that was cooked lovingly but I spend the majority of Thanksgiving looking through the ads and making my game plan strategy.
We use Black Friday to pick up gifts for Christmas as well as things we have been eyeing for ourselves for awhile but just didn’t want to spend the money. That being said, I Christmas shop for my family all year and I need somewhere to keep track of purchases and also to store coupons and receipts. Usually I just pick up a new notebook but last year I was admiring my friend’s shopping notebook that she made herself. I convinced her to help me and this morning we completed our project!
To make your own little Black Friday book, you will need the following:
- marbled composition notebook
- four pieces of cardstock
- stickers or paper to use for decorative elements
- glue stick
- two sandwich bags
Tags: Christmas, Crafts, Paper Craft
Prettying Up a Burp Cloth – Version One
It seems as if we are all silently motivating each other to get back to work on our Threaded Together blog! One person posts and all the rest of us seem to follow suit. I hope that we are going to be able to keep up the momentum!
When I got my embroidery machine, the first thing I wanted to make were custom burp cloths for some friends. Kelley made me some when I had Little S and I absolutely adored them. They were the only burp cloths I would use. I got so many compliments from other mothers who were carrying around plain, boring burp cloths. They are so easy to make and are a lovely handmade gift.
I know there are a ton of tutorials out there on how to make these burp cloths, but I am still going to share what works for me. Please keep in mind that I am not a seamstress and my sewing skills are very amateur!
To complete these burp cloths, you will need burp cloths, fabric (I prefer flannel for this project), thread, and your sewing machine.
The first step is to embroider the burp cloths with your design. If you don’t have an embroidery machine, you can skip this step. They will still be adorable burp cloths and make a great gift. Also, you can check around your local embroidery places and see how much it will cost to have them embroider. For such a small design, it may only be a few dollars.
Next, cut your fabric about an inch bigger (all around) than the burp cloth.
Fold over the fabric to create a pretty edge, iron and pin to the fabric. Here is where I go all amateur sewing skills on you. These burp cloths are sometimes all wacky and making a perfect square will not fit the burp cloth properly. I fold the fabric over the top of the burp cloth as a way to measure it.
Here is my stack all ready to be sewn!
Once the fabric is pinned to the burp cloth, sew all around the perimeter of the cloth. I use a zig zag stitch.
After that, sew up the lines of the burp cloth. This will make the same lines down the flannel fabric giving it a more finished look.
Wrap up with a pretty bow and give to the lucky mother!
Music Room Guitar Decoration/Picture Holder
YAY! The Weekend Warrior is back! That’s right! I finished another project! Not just another project, a WHOLE ROOM!!!
We moved to this house almost TWO YEARS ago and have had the ugliest formal living room ever. I don’t know what is wrong with the people who lived here before us, but our walls were two colors – a dirty olive green and a burnt sienna brown. It was so dark and dismal and BLEH!
Yet, for some reason, it is the last room downstairs that we got to (two years later!). I guess it just took me going back to work to get motivated to finish it. Why the heck is that? The less time I have, the more things I am trying to get done!
As you can see, we got rid of the ugly colors and painted the room a nice blue-ish grey. {Aaaahhh…so soothing} In designing this room I wanted a way to display pictures of family and friends. However, I am really not a “photo wall” type of person. I have tried it over and over – all the frames matching, not matching, lined up, not lined up, this way that way, every way. I just am not a fan of people photos in picture frames. So I started trying to think of ways to display our pictures, and this is what I came up with!
If you don’t get it at first glance, it is supposed to look like the neck of a guitar with all of the frets and strings (it is also over 6 feet long). It’s Art meets Function!
Our formal living room has always been our music room. This was not a room repurpose – just redecorate. Other than this artwork the rest of the room is all function: it has two electric and two acoustic guitars, a ukulele, small bongo , Cajon (a wooden box that you sit on that sounds different every side you hit it on), electric piano, and a full set of drums.
No, I do not play a single one of them. My husband plays all of them, my nine year old son plays the drums, and my five year old daughter plays the piano. I can’t even keep a beat on a triangle! And no, I cannot sing either. Well, that’s not true, I am a ROCKSTAR in my car – alone.
So, anyway, this was my grand idea to bring some design and purpose to this huge empty wall that we had. It looks EXACTLY the way I had envisioned it. EXACTLY. I was SO thrilled with the way this turned out and I was SHOCKED at how quick and cheap it was to do.
Music Room Guitar Neck Wall Photo Holder Thing-y:
Materials:
- 1×2” wooden board cut into TWO of each of the following lengths: 14”, 13”, 12”
- 8 – 2” silver nails
- 4 – 2” screws
- 8 – 2/4” screws
- 12 black screw covers (the “rare items” section by the screws at you local hardware store)
- 12 white thumbtacks
- 3 packs of 26 gauge craft wire, each five yards long (or whatever combination you need to get 6 strings of wire each over six feet long)
- package of miniature clothespins
- guitar picks (as many as you want)
- can white (or desired color) spray paint
- glue gun
- screw driver
- wire cutter
Directions:
- Sand and spray paint the wooden boards with the white spray paint. Do NOT skip the sanding! It has taken me years to learn how important this step is!
- Using a wire cutter, cut 6 sections of wire that are about six and a half feet long. Set aside.
- Using a glue gun, hot glue a clip on the back of each guitar pick. Be careful! Make sure your picks are sturdy enough to not melt under the heat of the gun, and make sure you don’t glue the clips closed.
On a side note, my husband and I debated back and forth as to which picks to use. He had quite the collection, varying from the first pick he EVER used to play guitar (below in purple) to picks he caught at concerts, got from music shops, etc. He could tell me where they each came from. Or, we also had the general, packaged picks purchased from any store. Which to use? Well, considering they were all stored away in a box, we went with using the “important” ones. We have a rule we live by in our house when it comes to keeping stuff. If it’s important enough to us, we put it where we can see it all the time. This is one reason we keep such little “crap” in our house. If it isn’t important enough to display, it isn’t important enough to keep. Thanks babe!
- On one of the long and one of the short painted wooden strips, put a pencil mark evenly spaced out where you will drill your screws in.
- On the inside four pencil marks, use four of the short screws and place the screw cover down first. Then turn the screw until it is all but 1/4” in (the screw cap will be hanging kind of loose at this point).
- On the outside two pencil marks, do the same but with two of the long screws (you are using the long ones on the outside because these are the ones you will actually be using to screw the wooden piece into the wall)
- Place the 14” wooden block with the screws in it on the wall where desired. We put ours in the lower left of the wall and angled it so the “neck” would be slanting upwards to the right
- After that piece is screwed in, measure the space for the next several wooden blocks. We used a level and a ruler to do this (all have exactly 12” between each block). The two 14” blocks should be at the bottom, then the two 13” ones, then the 2 12” ones. I don’t think perfection matters. I really don’t even think the blocks needed to be cut different sizes, because it’s such an optical illusion on the wall, you can’t even tell in my opinion. We used two of each of the 2 inch nails to attach the middle four pieces to the wall.
- After all six pieces of wood are attached to the wall, begin attaching the wires to the pre-placed screws. I found it easiest to start with the wires at the top piece. I then stretched each wire down to the wooden bar at the bottom. There is no need for the wires to be attached to the bars in between. These are just for show to look like the frets of the guitar.
- As you can see above, I tightly (but don’t pull so hard you pull the board off the wall) pulled the wire and wrapped it around the screws (that we did not screw in all the way earlier) underneath the screw cover. Using wire cutters, clip off the excess wire. Tighten the screws as far as they will go so the caps no longer move and the wires are secured into place.
- Close the screw caps over the tightened screws. For an extra touch to make it more realistic, as well as to add more depth the piece, I stuck a white thumbtack in the middle of each black cap.
- Clip on the guitar pick clips you made earlier and use them to hang whatever you desire. Photos, art work, music tablature, whatever!
And there it is! I am SO PROUD of my little creation. I’m sorry this isn’t a great tutorial at all, but some pieces of artwork are just difficult to recreate. Or I just do a terrible job explaining it! Hopefully you get the idea.
Tags: Art, Marissa, music room, picture holder
Quick Easter Project for the Family
This little bunny candy dish makes a sweet last minute (and inexpensive, too!) Easter gift! Here is how to make one for yourself or a gift!
What you need:
- one terra cotta pot
- one terra cotta dish that is much larger than the top of the pot (pot will sit in dish)
- white and pink felt pieces
- a straw hat that fits over the bottom of your terra cotta pot
- spray paint/paint of your choice (make sure it is non-toxic or be sure to only put wrapped candy in your dish)
- candy of your choice
What to do:
- Paint the pot. Remember that it is going to e a bunny when it is finished!
- Paint the dish.
- When the pot is dry, paint a bunny face on it.
- Seal the paint.
- Decorate the little hat with bunny ears using the pink and white felt. Attach with a glue gun.
- Fill with candy of your choice and have a Happy Easter!
Homemade Magnetic Valentines
‘Tis the season of hearts, chocolate, Cupid and his arrow, and Hallmark cards. As with many other holidays, my true love is/will still be out to sea on a gigantic air craft carrier while I am sitting at home TRYING very hard not to eat the candy our kids bring back from school. Have I mentioned before that my children do not eat candy? Yes, I know, surely there was a chromosome that was switched or left behind or broken in half or something when they were conceived. Whatever happened, our children do NOT have a sweet tooth. I finally just got rid of last year’s Halloween candy.
Anyways…Since Dad is out to sea, we have to prepare early to send him a care package in hopes that it will get there on time. The average arrival time during his deployment was 10 days. Then there was the package that took 5 months to get there. Sometimes it only takes a few days. Whatever the case, it is always better to be safe than sorry!
We kept this care package simple. I made some of his favorite homemade trail mix with a Valentine spin – basically a million different types of nuts, dried cranberries, and the Valentine m&m’s to give it a nice red and pink tone! I threw in a bag of Gobstopper Heartbreakers and also opened the bags of several mixed candy packages – Butterfingers, Hershey Kisses, BabyRuths, Nestle’s, Peanut Butter Cups, etc – to toss in loosely with everything else. Really, my husband won’t eat many of those items, but everyone in the offices shares their care packages with everyone else. A lot of people don’t ever get things sent to them at all, which I think is a terrible shame. I would send every person on that ship a care package for each holiday if I could.
For the actual Valentine part I made him a nice simple little card using small paper hearts to make a flower in the middle on the front of the card (forgot to take a picture before packing it up). The kids made their own special valentines though! A reminder: Dad is out on a aircraft carrier, an all metal aircraft carrier. I don’t know if anything on that ship is not made out of metal. This, of course, makes it very easy to send him things that are magnetic. Homemade magnetic picture Valentines to be exact!
Now, I don’t have a fancy dancy paper/vinyl/magnetic cutting machine like so many of you do, and I probably never will. So we had to do this the old fashioned way!
For the materials I used a 40% off coupon at my favorite craft store to buy a roll of magnet that has one peel off adhesive side (regularly $9.99 for I think a foot by two feet of magnet and make sure you don’t buy the kind that has one paper side), and at home I already had craft paper, stickers, and an x-acto knife.
First, take the magnet out of the packaging and lay it out flat weighted down by books for a day so it won’t curl up while you are working with it. To begin the project, I cut out two 6 x 6 inch pieces from the magnet and saved the rest for later. I then cut the same size out of my background paper (shown in the picture in a blue pattern).
I removed the adhesive from one of the pieces of magnet and, being careful to keep it smooth, stuck the blue paper onto the magnet. Using a symmetric heart I had cut earlier to use as a pattern, I placed the heart on top of the paper covered magnet and traced the outline with the x-acto knife. Now I had my magnetic heart base.
Since these were Valentine cards from the kids, I wanted them to decorate them as they pleased. Little K and D used stickers to decorate the border of their hearts, leaving the middles clear for a picture. After they were done, I used 3D mounting squares to place their pictures in the middle of their hearts.
So there we have a fantastic, inexpensive, little Valentine’s Day care package for Dad so he knows how much we love him and are thinking of him! Hopefully he will receive it in time and love his homemade magnets that he can stick anywhere on the ship!
Tags: Homemade, magnet, Military Care Package, pictures, valentine's day
Anthro Inspired Ribbon and Beaded Necklace
Only 17 days into January and I am already starting Christmas and birthday presents! YAY! Might actually get everything made this year!
Last night, instead of just lounging around and watching television I decided to be productive! I had been to Joann’s earlier and picked up beads and ribbons for an Anthro Inspired necklace by Flamingo Toes (one of my new favorite sites!).
I followed Flamingo Toes’ tutorial step by step. The only changes that I made/thoughts I had were as follows:
- Instead of stringing cord, I used Soft Flex wire
- My necklace only used ten strands like hers, but I think my beads were smaller than hers so it looks even less “strandy”
- I bought a strand mix that was $3.99 with a coupon. My bead total was $2.00 for enough beads to make about 1.5 necklaces
- I didn’t bother pressing the ribbon once I had turned it…mainly because it was 11:00 at night and I was feeling lazy
I definitely plan on making half a dozen of these for birthday and Christmas gifts. I was so impressed at how similar they looked to the original Anthro design and how beautiful they look on. Flamingo Toes’ tutorial is comprehensive and easy to follow.
Get beading!
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Tile Coasters
My husband jokingly calls this the most expensive Christmas gift I gave this year. It is actually one of the cheapest gifts I made but while a friend and I were making them, I broke my foot. I was walking outside to spray the coasters and as I walked out my front door I fell flat on my face. I had to have an xray and have been in a cast and on crutches for five weeks now with no end in sight…probably about another 4 weeks and then another 4 in a walking cast. Hence the reason this is the most expensive gift I gave this year!
Aren’t these tile coasters great? And they are cheap to make!
What you need:
- stamps of your choice
- StazOn Stamp Pad
- clear acrylic spray
- tiles of your choice (I wanted a smooth look so I spend a little bit more on tumbled tiles)
- small circle furniture protectors
First, clean off your tiles. They are going to be very dusty.
Using your StazOn stamp pad and stamps, decorate the tiles however you would like. I went with an easy pattern and just covered the whole tile with a flower stamp. After that, I put a stamp in a different color that read “You only live once, but if you do it right once is enough”. You will want to use StazOn stamp pads so it will not rub off of the tile. They are a little bit more expensive than regular stamp pads, but with a coupon it will only cost about 5 dollars!
After the ink has dried on the tiles, take them outside and spray them with clear acrylic spray. This is where I recommend you only carry a few at a time so you won’t fall out your front door and break your foot!
Once the tiles have dried completely, put a little furniture protector on each corner of the tiles.
A quick, inexpensive gift!
Linking to:
Tags: Cake Decorating, Crafts, Jennifer
