wall quilt

I wish I had a good camera because I love how this turned out.

This was really easy and a pretty inexpensive alternative to buying framed art. I used the same method as the crafty cork boards (w/o the lining and I stapled the fabric onto the canvas). I put it together with canvas that I bought at Michaels and then Anna Maria Horner's Drawing Room line of Home Dec fabric. I bought the fabric off of etsy.com for a pretty good price and used coupons for the canvases. Did you know you can use Joanns coupons at Michaels? It took a couple of trips, but I bought all of the canvases at a discount. All-in-all the project cost about $55.

I was afraid my husband was going to hate it. He's very traditional (and opinionated) and it's a bit ecclectic (which is what I love), but he came home and helped me put it together. I was so surprised I almost cried. I love LOVE the way it turned out. It really brightens up the room and makes me smile.

tutorial: covered button ponytail holder

This tutorial is probably unnecessary because it's pretty simple. I figured out a newer faster way to do it than the way I had originally been doing it, so I thought I'd share. I bought thin ponytail holders and a covered button kit that has 1 1/2" buttons. Any size button will do though. Then you need a strong piece of string.

Wrap your string around the elastic and insert it through the back of the button shank loop thing. Pull
Then Knot

Follow the directions on the box to cover the button. On the bigger buttons you can put a layer of muslin in between the button and the cute fabric. I highly recommend doing this so that the metal doesn't shine through the fabric. (I tried doing this on the smaller buttons, but it doesn't seem to work - too thick.)These make great, inexpensive gifts (especially if you can use a coupon at Joanns or check on etsy. Beware: these are very addicting to make!

ideas of gifts to make for christmas

I have to admit, I am not much of a procrastinator. I think my husband feels left out every year at Christmas because I have most of the shopping done by November. This year, I will save time for him, but I have to admit - I know what I'm making for pretty much everyone. I've even got it all cut out and in bags so that it's ready to sew whenever I'm ready to sew. . .

Here's a few ideas in case you're thinking about Christmas in October.

Beanbags: I'm thinking of making these for Carson. He likes throwing things so I might as well make him something that won't break.

Ponytail holders: great for little friends.

A list of 54 Free apron patterns.

If you're not going to make your grandma fabric grocery bags, maybe you could help her tame all of her plastic bags with a nifty grocery bag dispenser.

A belt for your stylish sister or friend.

Dish towels - always a great idea. Plus, cute and easy.

more to come. . .

crafty cork board

I had never considered myself "crafty" until this project. Perhaps being "crafty" has held a stigma of my mom and aunt toll painting cutesy pumpkins and other Relief Society-making-wreaths-out-of-garden hoses type projects. But, now I give in. I'm crafty and that's ok dang it.

I've been on the hunt a while now for a cute cork board or magnet board that I can put in my laundry room to post notes on (or more likely stuff I want).

Anyway, the space that I wanted to put it in was sort of limited so I decided to make my own. Walmart sells a 4 pack of cork board squares that are 12 x 12 (but they are pretty thin) for only $5. I wanted them to be thick as if they were on a canvas so I decided to hot glue 3 of them together. (Also, one is too thin to use - the pin would just hit the wall).

Here's how I did it. It's so easy I'm not really sure that a tutorial is necessary but what the heck.

1. Hot glue the cork board together. I did 3.

2. Cut fabric 16 x 16. I also cut out a piece of muslin to put in between the fabric and the cork board so the cork board wouldn't show through. Don't forget to iron your fabric.

3. Layer the fabric (wrong side up), muslin, and then cork board and pin up two (opposite) sides. I just used push pins to stick the fabric down so I could use the fabric again and switch out the fabric when I wanted to.


4. Fold up the other two sides. The easiest way to explain how to do this and have nice corners is to fold up the ends like you do when you wrap a gift - except fold that top flap towards the board with the bottom flap following.

5. Make sure everything is pulled nice and tight.
Viola - you're done. I covered some buttons and hot glued them onto push pins so the pins were cute too.


edit:: I should have put on here what I did to hang mine. Sorry for those of you that have had their boards fall off their walls (and then destroyed by their toddlers). I just hot-glued a picture hanging hook to the back of it.