Laundry Room Signs {Wash, Dry, Fold}

I started these laundry room signs back in September, and they sat... for months. Until finally, I was tired of looking at them in my guest bedroom. I had finally decided how I would display them and what color scheme I was going for in the laundry room. I originally got the idea from CraftOManiac, and with some pre planing aka browsing the internet, I knew how I wanted to make these signs my own!

I purchased the same plaques from the dollar store, removed the ribbon, and began painting with a "sample" paint I had from painting our house. After I was done painting I was ready to cut out my letters with the cricut and mod podge them on the plaques; however, Mr. Woodsy was not happy with how rough the wood was. So he took them, and sanded them down for me, and then I painted another coat of paint on them. 

While the paint was drying I decided on the font I wanted to use, and began cutting out the letters using the Jasmine cricut cartridge. 

 I then applied a thin layer of Matte Mod Podge to the panted plaque. I carefully placed the letters on the plaque and let it dry for a good 20 minutes.  *Obviously this is the wrong order that the sign should go in.

About 20 minutes later I applied another layer of mod podge. Pictured above is the mod podge dried. I then waited MONTHS until I did anything with these inexpensive signs.

A few week's ago I finally decided what color ribbon I wanted to use and where I wanted to place these signs. I decided I wanted them to read vertical instead of each sign hanging horizontally. I used one consecutive piece of ribbon as pictured above. 

After reconfirming that I liked the spacing I removed the bottom sign and placed hot glue on each of the ribbon pieces. 

I carefully placed the sign on the ribbon (pushing down firmly to make sure that it sticks). Make sure when you are pushing the sign onto the ribbon that it doesn't move and that hot glue doesn't drip over the edge of the ribbon and adhere to your floor (like mine did)! 

Repeat the last two steps (two more times) until all three signs have been glued to the ribbon. 

Here is the finished product... except when we went to pick it up the "wash" sign was leaning over. 

So, I fixed this by adding additional dot of glue towards the top of the ribbon on each side. 

I used my handy dandy Hot Glue Gun Helper to push the ribbon that had the hot glue on it onto the placque. No more hot glue burns here! :) 

I consulted with Mr. Woodsy on where I would like it hung, and he went right to work. 

Here is the final product! Plus, a sneak peak of what's to come (Re-Wrapped Fabric Board)! 

Simple {Reversible} Tote Bag

*This is the only photo I have and it was taken on a camera phone. 

One of my first sewing projects I attempted after receiving my sewing machine in 2009 was the simple (reversible) tote bag. I found a plethora of awesome tutorials from Skip to My Lou, and instantly fell in love with the reversible tote bag. It looked easy and I figured it would be a great first project. This one hour project took me at least a good 3 hours. I think I had to seam rip a good three times, and at one point I had sewn the bag completely shut! In the end it was a great learning experience. 

*This photo was taken on my camera phone. 

I made this bag for my sister in-law to house her birthday gifts last year! I used four full fat quarters and a quarter of a fifth fat quarter. This is probably my favorite bag I've made to date, and after making it I never found the same fat quarter pattern again at JoAnn's. 

*This photo was taken on my camera phone. 

I love the contrast of the blue inside the bag. Not sure if you can tell, but the straps have little blue flowers on them that match perfectly with the inside. 

After almost a year of no tote bag making I made a tote bag for a very special 3 year old's birthday!

It housed her birthday gifts, and best of all she now has a new bag to tote around her toys. I used my Fabric Heat-N-Bond application to apply her name and the crown to the bag. 

I am so pleased on how the letters came out! 

Here is what the bag looks like when it's inside out.

So, if your looking for an easy, beginners, sewing project. This my friends, would be the project for you! 

Tissue Paper Tree

We hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday! I wanted to post about this tree prior to Christmas, but we just got too busy! I saw these amazing tissue paper tree's earlier this month on Spunky Junk {go to there tutorial for more details} and I instantly knew I wanted to make at least one tissue paper tree. I actually wanted to make a variety of tree's but like most projects... time got the best of me! Remember, how I hosted my third craft lunch at work the other week? Well this was the project I started working on... little did I realize that I was taking on a gigantic project!

Here was what I started with... a ton of tissue paper squares. At the time I took the picture I wasn't sure which cone I would go with... of course me not realizing how large of an undertaking this was I went with the largest cone I had!

Here is the first row of tissue papers glued!

This was after an hour of folding/hot glueing... 

A close up of my hours worth of work! 

Me concentrating on the hot glueing/placing of the tissue paper. 

After 5 of the longest hours of my life my tree was finally complete! Yes, 5 hours. Most craft blogs won't tell you how tedious the project was! Needless, to say I finished this 2 days before Christmas and did not work on any other cone tree's!

Christmas Craft Lunch; Styrofoam Ornaments

Last week a few of the girls and I at the office decided to have another craft lunch. So far we've had two and they both were a big hit. We typically choose an easy project that doesn't require too many supplies and something that could be completed within an hour! We choose to make the infamous cone tree's scene here and here, but no one was able to find cones (except me).... so the two other girls who participated decided to make ornaments instead! {My cone tree post will be available soon!}

Kristi made a poinsettia ornament.

Krisit bought a few stems of poinsettia's and then cut them. She used hot glue to apply them and stuck the sharp end into the styrofoam ball. 

Here is a picture of her finished product minus the ribbon to hold the ornament.

Kristi also choose to make a second ornament.

She used glitter poms to make a bright and cheery decoration for her tree.

She used hot glue to apply all the glitter poms. 

Here is the almost finished product!

Sarah used scraps of fabric, cut them in squares and made a beautiful fabric ornament!

Sarah dabbed some hot glue on the styrofoam ball. 

She placed a square of fabric on the styrofoam ball and then with using a pair of scissors pushed the square of fabric into the styrofoam ball. 

Then she would fluff or move the brown fabric around before the glue dried. She repeated this until the entire ball was covered with the brown fabric. 

Here is her finished product!

Sarah also started a second ornament while at lunch.

She applied the remnant brown fabric scraps to a styrofoam ball and then hot glued wooden beads to make a pattern. 

{Mini Tutorial} Pillow Covers

Pillow covers are super easy to sew; yet some how I missed the memo on this! I just started sewing earlier this year, and my first project out the shoot was an elastic waistband pencil skirt! One would say it's just as easy as sewing pillow covers, but I never realized how simple the pillow covers really were until my neighbor showed me hers! That's when I got inspired to make my own. I have these really bright and vibrant out door pillows for my bench on our front porch, and in the winter months I want them to be more season appropriate. Last year (prior to owning a sewing machine) I made pillow covers using stitch-witch (iron on adhesive). They came out ok, but nothing to really be proud of. I recently found awesome fall/Thanksgiving material at Wal*Mart and new I needed to make some pillow covers for my front porch! I am going to walk you through the steps as best as possible. If you don't understand my steps, you might want to go HERE and read this great tutorial! Same concept as what I'm about to demonstrate! 

Supplies: 

-material to cover one pillow (about a yard and a half)

-Sewing machine

-thread, scissors, and seam ripper

1. Measure your pillow. My pillow was 20 x 20, so I cut one piece 21x21 inches long and another piece 30x21 inches long. You can cut the 30 inch piece in half. Then overlap the material, so that it measures to be about 21 inches long.

2. Next you will want to hem the inside of each of the 15 inch pieces of fabric. I folded each of the interior pieces about 1/4 inch and sewed a straight stitch.

3. Now that you've hemmed the middle two pieces of fabric pin them together so that they make a 21x21 inch square, and that one piece of fabric over laps the other (see the arrow above the picture? Can you see the one sewn seam). Take the other 21x21 whole piece of fabric and face that towards the already pinned together 2 pieces. The whole pillow should be pinned together and ready to be sewn. **Make sure that the corners line up. I used a 1/2 inch seam allowance and sewed using a straight stitch (to be honest you can use whatever seam allowance you want)! 

4. Once you've sewn around the perimeter of your pillow you can flip it inside out (patterned side), carefully stuff the pillow inside, and enjoy! 

Now I have two festive pillow covers for my front porch bench! 

{Mini Tutorial} Spider Dish Towel

I feel like it's long over due to feature a sewing project!!!
Before we pulled our Halloween bins down form the attic I knew I wanted to make a dish towel. I had leftover fabric from my Halloween Table Runner I made along with the dangling spider beads and knew that those would pair well with my dish towel. I had just finished my dish towel when Mr. Woodsy finally decided to pull all of our bins down from the attic... that's when I discovered I purchased quite a few Halloween dish towels on clearance last year! Oooops! Since I'm an avid cook I figure I can never have too many dish towels! 

Supplies: 

- 1 dish towel

-remnant fabric

-trim

1. Cut your fabric to the length and width of your desire. Pin it down, and sew it. 

2. Next, you will want to measure, cut, and pin down your trim. 

*Here is another picture of the awesome trim! Love these little spiders!!!

Finished product! 

{Tutorial} Creepy Spiders

I'm happy to report that I helped organize our first "craft at lunch" event at my office earlier this week. A handful of us are very crafty and craft all the time, so we decided to do an easy project during our lunch hour to clear our minds off work, and focus on a fun craft project. We adhered magnets on to the bottoms of our spiders, but you can honestly use anything like velcro or clips, etc... Our first crafting lunch was a huge success and we are already starting to plan for our next! 

supplies: 

32 black pipe cleaners (I bought 100pk for $4)

8 two-inch black puff balls ($2 for 4)

8 magnets (18 for $2 at WalMart) OR (clip, velcro, etc)

 1 sheet of black felt (.25 cents)

scissors (already owned)

glue gun w/ glue sticks (already owned)

Our craft project "instructor" for the hour, Sarah. 

This was Sarah's project that she taught us all how to make. 

I wish she had a craft blog, because she makes some really cool stuff!

Directions:

1. Plug in hot glue gun then start cutting small circles out of your felt (the size of your puff ball). 

2. Once your glue gun is hot enough; place a large "glob" of hot glue in the middle of the circle.

3. Take 4 pipe cleaners and place the centers of them on the circle. Push down, but be careful not to burn your fingers. Once the pipe cleaners are in place--place more glue on top of the pipe cleaners then press the puff ball on top.

4. Lastly, hot glue a magnet on to the bottom of the felt circle, and bend the legs to how you'd like them to look. *If for some reason your felt circle is larger than your puff ball you can always cut around it so that the felt circle does not show. 

5. If you would like you can add other decorative items to your spiders to give them more character you can do so at this time (googly eyes, small colored puff balls, etc). 

As you can tell this was a super easy project. One of my co-workers made one at the office, and then made the rest at home with her 10 year old daughter who LOVED the project! You can place these creepy spiders on your refrigerator, magnetic cabinet, or best of all on your garage. It gives for a creepy cool effect from the street! 

Here are more photo's from our craft lunch: 

Kristi posing with her 2 spiders. *The black and orange spider is a Halloween spider and has NO ASSOCIATION with a sport's team! (lol)

Christy with her eclectic spider!

Sarah and her crazy spiders!!!

Here's my favorite picture from our craft hour!