Wood Letters

I love decorating wood letters. It's another fun art project, and looks great on the walls in your home.

Materials required:

Unfinished wood letters

Paper and/or embellishments

Paint

Mod Podge

I made these for my little girl's bedroom. It took me awhile to find letters in the shape and size I wanted them (and at a price I could afford), but these I finally purchased from Michaels.

I painted them each different colors, then used a stencil to cut out different sized circles. Once I had the circles all arranged how I wanted them, I used some Mod Podge to glue them all down and give them a shiny finish.

These letters are in my beach themed craft/guest room. Can't remember where I got them, either Michael's or Craft Warehouse.

I spray painted them all a beige color, then used different colored paper to cover parts of the letters. I traced the parts of the letters I wanted to cover onto the paper, then cut them out and glued them on using more Mod Podge. Once I had the letters covered in paper the way I wanted them, I hot glued some shells to the bottom of each letter.

Decorated wood letters are always fun, craft stores are always displaying different ways of using them. The hardest part is hanging them on the wall. Make sure you know how you're going to hang them before you get too far.

12x12 Canvas Art

I got this idea off of Craft Warehouse's website awhile back. Simple and cute artwork, for not much money.

The materials required:

12x12 canvas

Scrapbook paper, vellum, or fabric

Paint

Mod Podge

Embellishments (if desired)

I first took the 12x12 canvas and painted it to the color that I wanted. This created a kind of "frame".

Next, I covered the canvas with Mod Podge, and put the paper onto the canvas. Depending on the look you are going for, you can change the dimensions of the paper. Once the paper is glued to the canvas, cover the whole thing with Mod Podge. This creates a seal and a nice finish.

Side note: it takes some practice to Mod Podge correctly without getting any bubbles. If you have thicker paper, it works better. I've found that if I cover the canvas, then cover the back of the paper with Mod Podge too, it works better. Once you have both surfaces covered, lay the paper down and smooth out any bubbles. Sometimes bubble are inevitable, but annoying, especially if you're a perfectionist like me. 

From here on, the design is up to you. These two I just used the paper as the focal point.

This one is for my little girl's animal-themed room. I cut the paper down a little more, so that the black edge would show up better. I typed up the bible verse on some vellum, then used vellum tape to adhere it to the canvas.

 This one is in our bathroom. Once I added the pebble paper (which I love), I cut out a picture of a lab (looks just like ours, but it actually isn't), and glued it onto a piece of blue card stock, then attached it to the canvas using pop-up glue dots. I then added the letters in the bottom corner.



This is such a fun and easy project, and a great way to make unique artwork for your home.

Aprons

Our group of girls was having a "thankful for your friends" gift exchange, and I thought I would attempt making an apron for the friend whose name I drew. I looked at a bunch of different patterns and ideas, but ended up using this tutorial. The best part about it was it was free!!

I found some really cute baking themed fabric that I liked but didn't really fit my friend's style, so of course I had to make one for me :)

I had to pick polka dotted material for the accent fabric. I've discovered that that's kind of my signature.

After making the first one, I made a few changes to the second one, mainly the width and lengths of some of the straps. But I think they turned out pretty cute, excited to be able to wear mine!

First time following a pattern

I went to Joann's the other day when all their Simplicity patterns were on sale for 99 cents. They do this often, and I had previously made a list of all the patterns I wanted by looking at their website. This is much easier than sitting in the store looking through catalogs, especially with a kid in the cart. I picked up this pattern, and made Madelyn a dress.



It actually wasn't too bad. I had to read and re-read the directions, used my seem ripper multiple times, and had to alter a few things because of my supplies, but it turned out pretty good.

I even put in a zipper! Much easier once I figured out to use my sewing machine's zipper foot.

The dress is a little big. I followed the pattern for size 1 (Toddler sizes come in 1/2, 1, 2, 3, 4. I assumed they were 6 months, 1 year, 2T, 3T, 4T, etc). The arm holes gape a little, and the dress could be taken in quite a bit on the sides, but too big is better than too small. She can probably wear it for quite awhile, and even when it gets too short she can wear it as a tunic-style shirt. But I loved the polka dots (I'm always a sucker for polka dotted anything), and it looks really cute with a white shirt and white tights.

I have another pattern cut out and ready to make, just have to get around to it. This took 15 minutes or so to cut out the pattern pieces, then about 3 hours total to cut out the fabric and sew the dress. It should take a lot less time for the next project, now that I know what I'm doing :)

Revamping faded, ugly shirts

I've seen this done on a few blogs, and I always wanted to try it. I've realized that I don't like white shirts. They're too hard to keep clean and why wear white when there's so many other colors to wear?

I bought some purple RIT dye and followed the directions to dye fabric, using the sink dye method. My white porcelain sink did NOT turn purple, so that was a relief.

Here's the first shirt.

It was given to me by a friend. It was previously a dingy white. You will have to take my word for how bad it looked, I forgot to take before pictures. Loved the shirt, but it needed some new life. I was really happy how it turned out, can't wait to wear it!

The second shirt was one I've had in my closet for years. It was an awful dusty rose color that was the same color as my skin. But I loved the cut of it.

Had some help taking the pictures.

This one didn't turn out as well as the others. The instructions on the dye box said it was not recommended for fabric that was 50% or more of polyester. Of course all the shirts I wanted to dye were at least that (this one was 63% polyester). So I think that was why it had some color issues.

It had a spot of pink (don't know where that came from) and you can't really tell, but it's kind of splotchy on the back. Oh well, just have to wear it with a jacket.

The last one I got from a friend awhile back (I love free stuff). It's way too big, and very saggy and unattractive. And it was also white.

It was a different type of material, that's why it turned out with kind of a pattern. I will be using this shirt in the future to cut up and make into a scarf I think.

All in all, dyeing shirts wasn't too big of a project. The fabric dye for these three shirts only cost like $1.25. So 2 new shirts and a future scarf for that price? Not a bad deal at all!!

Birthday Cupcakes

I made a friend some cupcakes for her birthday. I used a box of Devil's Chocolate Cake and replaced the eggs with 1/4 cup of silken tofu for each egg. It makes the cupcakes super moist. I made fondant circles with letters on top of the cupcakes. I used this recipe to make the fondant. I've used it a few times, and it seems to work pretty well. The only problem that arises is when you try to roll it too thin, and add too much powdered sugar to it. Then it starts to crack and get brittle. But it's pretty easy to make, and doesn't taste all that bad, so I highly recommend it.

Here's how they turned out.

I need to get a better frosting tip for frosting cupcakes. They always come out looking a little like poo.

Introduction

My mom has been bugging me to post pictures of some of the projects that I've made, in order to help inspire other people. So, mom... this is for you :)

I will try to post before and after pictures (I'm kind of bad at that. I get going on a project, then forget to take a picture beforehand. Especially with limited time, I want to get going on the project, instead of stopping to take pictures. But I will really try to remember). I will also try to do my best to explain what I did. AND take pictures of the process, but those will be harder than before pictures, so we'll see.

If anyone has any questions or comments, please let me know. I would love inspiration from others, and would love to help any new crafter.