Fabulous Friday - Kitchen Art

Here is another piece I put together for my "freshly" painted kitchen wall.   Monday I will show you the whole wall after its all put together.

 

I started with a cute piece of framed art from Family Dollar. It was on sale for 3.50 and is about 10x14.

Next I took the whole thing apart, use a flat screw driver to pry those wierd "cheap" staples out, Carefully. You won't need the glass for this project  

all it took was some E-600, (already had) some old old silver ware I rescued from my mother-in laws trash (free) and a piece of scrapbook paper I already had.  (.50)

I really like it, and I have had that silverware laying around for about 6 years now.....  I used some as hooks on a sign I gave to my sister which turned out very cute, but now I have some in my own kitchen. YAY.  I am so relieved to finally get the wall put back together!!! Well there you go, Easily done for under 10 bucks, and I finished the whole thing during one episode of The Office,

Messy Ruffle Collar Dress Shirt tutorial

I started with this dress shirt I had, It fit great other than the sleeves were too short, as always... So I started playing with it, shirt this nice shouldn't be sitting in the back of my closet for another 5 years. When I decided what the problem was, the sleeves, and the fact that I don't like boy dress collars on me, I cut them off.

I used a strip of whited knit to make some binding for the collar. I thought it would be the best way to avoid fraying. It will pretty much be covered up though.

I cut strips from an old pink t-shirt I had in my fabric stash. twice the length of the neckline, and about 1 3/4 to 2" wide. I went around the neckline tucking as I go rather than ruffling it. I wanted it to be a little messy looking, I was afraid if it was too uniform it would look really young. Here it is...

Let me know if you try it. I would love to see it, and post your picture here.

Meet My new crafty friend.... Anne!

This is so exciting for me. (I know I get excited easily) but I decided I really wanted to do some blog swaps and get to know other crafters who I feel like I have a lot in common with. So I asked Anne first, and guess what she said yes. I love the tutorial she did for us. I mean really, I love it. Just to prove how much we have in common, I actually got stuff out to make clippies sat, and then realized my daughter is to old. but I think she would really love these small and sweet little hair accessories.



So without further ado. Meet my new craft blog buddy ANNE

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Hi to all the readers at Becky's Craft Closet!!!

I am so excited that Becky wanted to blog swap with me today! My name is Anne and I blog over at FloralShowers.com I am pretty much a craft fanatic...I especially love to crochet and sew (although, I don't like sewing anything too complex---sleeves, zippers, that kind of thing is not exactly my forte. :-) I am the mother of 2 cute kids, and the wife of a super hard working and handsome guy. And I think I am addicted to blogging. I'm trying to cut back----but we'll see how that goes.


So today I thought I would share a simple tutorial on how to make felt flower hair clips. (I have been on a bit of a flower kick lately so that's what you get! he he.)


So here is what you will need:

* Felt circles cut into various sizes and shapes (and of course you will want lots of colors)
* Buttons
* Alligator Hair Clips
* Ribbon
* Needle & Thread
* Hot glue gun (not pictured. ha ha.)


1. After you cut out your felt circles, hand sew them together to form a cute little flower:


Then cut out and sew up a few more :-)

2. Then hot glue coordinating ribbon onto your alligator clip: (The flat side is the side that will go against your head...and if you are making this for someone with fine hair, you may want to leave this side "ribbon free" as it will help the clip not fall out.)

3. Now all you have to do is glue your cute ribbon covered alligator clip onto the back of your cute flowers

and then Voila! You are done! How easy what that!?!

Here are a few other tutorials I have on my blog that you may be interested in checking out! Make sure you say hi, and let me know you came from Becky's Closet!


How to Make a Ribbon Flower

How to Make a Baby Shower Wreath (Also, check out the baby wreath that Becky made using my tutorial!)


Thanks again Becky for letting me post on your awesome blog!!!

Washer Necklaces tutorial

This is the first type of washer necklace I made. Its not quite as easy as it sounded, so I am here to give you some pointers on what I learned.
The metal stamp kit was only 5.95 at Harbor Freight and washers are about a quarterish?? but buy way more than you need. You will have many mistakes trying to get it just right. But the first step is the most important.
1. Take some Ibuprofen for the headache you are about to get from all the pounding!!


2. Hold the stamp toward the bottom. Double check to make sure it is right-side up etc. I tried to stamp all of my kids names in a circle. For some reason I have never been able to get the w to work...ever..? and I had to abreviate McKinley to Mck. Well she is used to that anyway. Hammer it 5 to 10 times, or a couple of times HARD. Experiment with this.
3. The last step is to color the whole thing in black permanent marker, a few minutes later wipe it off using hairspray.

4. To hang it I wrapped the washer in wire, and attached a jumpring to the wire, and the ring to the necklace. Then I hung a bead from the wire using a head pin. I got many compliments on it.



The other thing I did this weekend was make a few headbands. I have finally convinced McK. that big flowers are cute in her hair, but with her short hair they need to be on a headband. I will show more on the How to later, but I needed somewhere to put them and found that a skinny mouthed vase works best. I pulled this out of the back of my cupboard and was so happy, now I can display this vase I bought from and artist on the beach in Costa Rica. It makes me smile. :)

Applique and Stencil Tuorial

Scroll Down for FeBrUaRy'S GiVeAwAy

The orange fabric came from a shirt he out grew and stained. I used a bowl to trace a circle and draw a basketball on the Heat'N
Bond. Then ironed it to the back of the orange shirt, cut it out on each line.

The next step is to peel the other layer off and iron it to the blue shirt. The all you have left to do is to stitch around the edges. You can even do this part by hand if you want too.

Here the shirt is stitched. I think it still needed something. So I printed the word out on a cute font. then traced it on to freezer paper. Freezer paper has a plasticky side. This side will be down, then iron it to the shirt. When your all done it will peel off like scotch tape. It is so awesome.

So cute, can you tell it was a $1.50. We will have no more plain tee's at our house.

A New outfit

McKinley has loved this shirt since we got it at Universal Studios. We also call it the day I met Kris Allen. :)

I really wanted her to get to wear it to school, since she was so into it. I cut the neck open and made a casing to thread elastic through and did the same thing with the sleeves cutting them off first as well.

Then I took another one of Jeffs Ex-work shirts and made a little ruffle at the bottom, it is her new favorite outfit. and cost me $5.00 for the t-shirt.

Skirt from a polo.

My husband got a new job and now I have a lot of these polo shirts with the old company logo on them. Everyone is repurposing clothes these days, so I thought about it for a while.
Last summer I had been wishing for a grey knit casual skirt...... , I cut one apart to make the main part of the skirt. THe second one I cut into strips for a ruffle on teh bottom, I am very tall and if I left it alone it would have been a mini skirt. Then I just made a drawstring to thread throught the waist...... TADA

I liked this up with Blue Cricket Design, and AWESOME blog, check it out HERE

sweater re-do

I loved a pick turle neck sweater outfit that McKinley outgrew a long time ago, and when I found this sweater at the DI I wanted to try and relive it.

THis is a Womens Medium. I cut the sleeves off at the seem. then took it in on the sides, Easy Peasy. I was really hoping it would be longer, but she is so tall. I turned the sleeves into legwarmers with a little heming, although she wanted to make them into fake leggings, cause well its too cold here.

Beaded Watch band Tutorial

Before starting you need to decide on the length, If you have a watchband measure it. If not measure a bracelet that fits nicely and subtract the length of the watchband.
Step one: Cut about 14 inches of stretchy bead/Jewelry cord.
After you have designed how you want your beads to be you will start with an end bead, slide it all the way to the middle, and put a lobster clasp on each side of the bead.


Step two: start beading - by putting a bead on each side, you want the beads to equal the same length when it is time to add the spacer bar. you will add one when you get 1/3 the bracelet done and again at the 2/3 length.
Step three: I add a few extra small beads to each kit so you can make them longer or add them to make the sides match up. Below I added a small bead on the left to make it match the right side.
Step Four: Here is the second space bar at 2/3 the way through the band.
Step Five: I add the final beads putting most of them on one side, lobster clasps and all.
below will help make sense of why I do this.
Step Six: The knot will be on the side now, and will be hard to notice. Put a drop of superglue on the knot. Also if your knot is right next to the clasp the superglue might seep into the clasp and ruin it.


I hope I explained it clearly, If you have any questions please just ask in my comments.

I also have plenty of watchbands, and Watchband kits in my Etsy shop.

How to cut Vinyl with your Cricut

I had a hard time finding istructions when I first started using my cricut, and a few people have asked me how, so this is how.



You will need vinyl of your choice (top) and transfer tape (shown below my vinyl so you know what it looks like). This can be done without the transfer tape, but will look so much better if you do use it, its fairly inexpensive. It costs the same as the pckg of vinyl and contains much more than you will need.









If you have the 6 inch cricut like mine you will need to cut the vinyl down to 6x12 to fit in your machine. You can still cut letters up to about 4 1/2 or 5 inches. Use your favorite font and cut them out just as if you were doing this with paper. Thats right. Its pretty simple, the next part is the really important step.

Next you will need to prepare a piece of transfer tape. Do this by cutting a little section off just guessing how much you will need. Peel off the sticky top part, and carefully lay it somewhere safe, so you can use it in a minute.

Then use an xacto knife on the vinyl to fix any spots it may have messed up on. Not usually a problem if you rblade is REALLY sharp. THen use the xacto knife to lift the letters off the page leaving the backing there (kinda like peeling off a sticker). put ot on the wax paper like side of the transfer tape.

This helps you be able to line up the letters easily lifting them back up until they are just straight, which is pretty easy since the transfer tape has a red grid on the back to help you.

once you have all the letters on, you place the sticky paper back over top. rub really hard with your tongue depressor. Next if you need to you would cut the words apart. Since mine is a chore chart, that is what I did.

The last step is to peel of the wax paperry side of the transfer tape, then place the "sticker" exactly where you want it to go. Another great thing about the transfer tape is you can center your words better. Then, you will rub it again with the tongue depressor, and peel back the white sticker paper.

Hope this helps, it is a lot of fun. This font is called Stone script. It is one of the less expensive cartridges because it doesn't come with any extra pictures and stuff. It is my very favorite!

Tea towel Apron tutorial

First, find a cute tea towel. I found this cute 4th of July one at Roberts for about a $1, then you will need about 1/4 yard of coordinating fabric.














then measure it into thirds, make two triangular tucks on each of the 1/3 marks.

Cut your coordinating fabric into approx 6 inch, strips, sew 2 of the strips end to end. It will be about 90 inches long (plenty long enough to wrap around your waist, I like to tie it in front). Iron it like I have in the picture.
















find the middle of the strip of fabric and pin the apron in it, then fold the fabric over and sew the strip closed.

TADA!!! If you have more of the strip of fabric you could sew a pocket or another strip onto the bottom using the same process above. I am too lazy.