Baby Shower Banner

My cousin contacted me a couple weeks ago and asked if I could make her a fabric banner/bunting for her friend's baby shower.  She also wanted me to put the baby's name on the banner.  This is what I ended up with. 

I started by picking out four different fabrics in coordinating colors.  She requested pink for the baby girl! 

Then I found a template HERE so that my flags would be the perfect size.  I grabbed my rotary cutter, mat, and fabric and got to work cutting flags.

After I cut out my flags, I pinned two together back to back so that the bunting would be double sided.  Then I sewed around the sides using a 1/4 inch seam allowance. 

Then I trimmed each flag with pinking shears to add a cute detail and strength.

Then I pinned the flags to double-fold bias tape approximately 2-3 inches apart and then sewed the flags to the bias tape.

To add the name, I first found a font online that I liked.  I used Marcelle Script. Then I printed her name on card stock and cut out the letters. 

Then I traced the letters onto a small piece of fabric that I ironed onto a Heat n Bond iron-on adhesive.  

Once all letters were traced, I cut them out, peeled off the paper and ironed on to the flags. 

Cheap and Easy DIY Dinosaur Costume

 

Wesley had a cute hand-me-down dino costume for Halloween so I wasn't planning on being super mom and DIYing his costume this year.  And I wasn't planning on dressing up either, until Halloween approached and I got in the Spirit.  Luckily for me, I was able to DIY the cheapest and easiest dino costume for Jeff and I.  It cost me $4 for both of our costumes and I was able to complete them both in about an hour.  Want to know how???  Here are the directions.

 

You Need:

A Sweatshirt

4-6 squares of felt

Scissors (I used pinking shears)

Pins

Sewing machine or needle and thread

Hot glue gun and glue

 

 

Start by folding your felt in half and cutting spikes (triangles) using the folded edge as the bottom of your triangle.  So when you unfold your triangle, you have a diamond shape.

 

 

Then pin your diamonds in place (where you want your spikes).  FYI- if i did this again, I think I would have put the spikes right next to eachother. 

 

 

Next, cut out your tail and pin it to the bottom edge of your sweatshirt.  Mine is a little off, but what dinosaur has a perfect tail, right?

 

 

Then cut out an oval or circle for the front of your sweatshirt. If you are using a zip-up like mine, cut your circle in half and pin it to your sweatshirt.

 

 

Then sew a staight line up the middle of the back of your sweatshirt, catching the center of your spikes.  If you plan to remove the spikes later, set your stitch to the longest length and start and stop sewing at each spike so you have less holes.

 

Sew on your tail and tummy as well.

 

Then using hotglue (or you can sew), glue the spikes halves together and watch them stand up.

 

 

And you are all set!  Seriously,the cheapest, easiest, and fastest homemade costume I have ever attempted.

 

 

Here's Jeff sporting his sweatshirt with our little dino.

 

 

And our little dino family.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Desk to Nightstands with Concrete Tops

I mentioned earlier this week about the nightstands Jeff made for our bedroom update.  He got a free desk from goodwill because it was in such poor condition, that even they wouldn't sell it!  I had been looking for a desk to make into nightstands ever since I saw this post by Sugar Bee Crafts last year. 



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 The one Jeff found was perfect. Of course I don't have a good before picture because Jeff was too eager to rip the old desk apart and start on the project, but I managed to have him snap a few before he made too many changes. The desk had a lot of water damage, so Jeff ended up replacing the sides of the drawers with 1/8 inch plywood.  After, he basically rebuilt the shell, he sanded and painted them white and gray.

The top of the desk was so water damaged that it also could not be used, so we thought of different options for the tops.  More plywood, marble, laminate....and then Jeff had the brilliant idea of making his own concrete tops!  He built a "mold" using a piece of plywood as the base and then left over pieces of 1x2s that he clamped together.  He realized after a couple of cracked tops, that the best concrete to use is actually mortar.  It dries incredibly fast and left no bubbles on the top.

To seal the concrete he used this stuff.

Then he adhered the tops to the base using construction grade adhesive.

 

We chose these glass knobs from Home Depot to finish them off.

And here they are in our bedroom.  Its starting to come together!

(bonus sneak peak of our new headboard!)

 

Easy and Cheap DIY Baby Mobile

For Wesley's mobile I created a super easy and super cheap version of some mobiles I saw on Etsy.  If you are a perfectionist, you may want to stop reading because my methods may drive you mad.  This project was done the easiest and quickest way and is in no way perfect.  (you will be able to see that in the detail pics).  But I think it works just fine and  I am very happy with the way it turned out.

DIY Baby Mobile 

What you need to make your own:

construction paper

sewing machine and thread

two small dowels (got ours at Michael's)

fishing line

hot glue gun

small hook to attach to ceiling

paint (optional)

circle punch (optional)

Step 1: Cut out circles

I just used regular old scissors and cut out circles out of regular old construction paper.  They are not perfect circles and I wanted several different sizes, so I just went to town cutting. 

Step 2: Sew circles together

Did you know you can sew paper? Welp you can.  Just feed the circles through like you are sewing anything else and wait a few seconds before you add the next one.  The few seconds in between will create the spacing between your circles. I went completely random in the order I fed the circles through.  

(If you don't have a sewing machine, you could just glue circles to string)

Step 2b: Create separate strings of circles

You can do this two ways.  you can sew one looooong string of circles and then cut the strings at the desired lengths.  Or you can start and stop sewing each new string.  Either way you do it, you want to end up with 17 strings.  If you are more exact than me, you will want to measure your strings and make sure that you have 4 each of 4 various lengths, plus one extra string that is the longest. I just did mine at random lengths (are you beginning to understand my ways?).  

Step 3: Attach dowels together

Optional step: paint dowels first.  I kinda wish I would have painted mine. 

Form an X with your dowels and secure together by wrapping thread or yarn around the center.  I couldn't get mine tight enough so I used hot glue to help bond them together as well as the thread.

Step 4: Attach strings to dowels.  

You will tie one string of sewed circles to the X of your dowels and then four strings on each dowel leg.  I simply tied the thread around the dowel and then secured it in place by adding a drop of hot glue. 

Step 5: Attach fishing line to dowels

This was the tricky part for me.  I couldn't figure out a way to keep the mobile balanced, so I ended up tying fishing line to the ends of each dowel leg (and securing with hot glue).  Then I gather the four strings together above the X and tied them in a knot with a long string of fishing line.  I attached the end of the fishing line to a small hook that screwed into the ceiling. 

  

Chevron Pallet Art

Can I let you in on a little secret?  The reason Jeff gets so many projects done in such a short time is because

  1. he is not a perfectionist 2. he's a genius in creating short cuts.

Case and point: Chevron Pallet Art

First, let me show you what I ended up doing with it. I got some great ideas from a couple friends on how to spruce it up, including adding a neon stripe or cutting out our silhouettes using the scroll saw and hanging them up on the pallet.  I thought those were awesome ideas, but since my secret is that I am inpatient (and i didn't have any neon paint nor did I want to wait to make silhouettes), I ended up with this.

I used three yellow frames I had around the house that weren't really doing much for me in their present state, added a little jute string, and initial tags made from my cricut, and there you have it.

But back to Jeff's secret (not so secret any more).  This project is a perfect example because 

1. The chevrons are not straight

2. he came up with the most genius way of taping off the chevron pattern

This is how jeff taped off the chevron print.  Look at the top portion of the boards.  See how he just taped off diagonal lines creating a basket weave-like pattern?

Then using an exacto knife, he cut away the lines that he didn't need, revealing the chevron print.

I though this was so smart of him because every time I thought about painting something chevron I didn't end up doing it because I knew it would take me forever to tape it off. 

To complete the project, Jeff used an old can of white spray paint and gave the whole thing a light coat making sure that you could see the wood grain through the paint.

And in case you are wondering, this picture shows you how Jeff put the pallets together.