Wooden Easter Eggs

Easter is fast approaching, so with that in mind I bought these unfinished wooden egg cutouts from Wood Creations and gussied them up.  I am not always huge into wood crafts, but these were just too cute to pass up!  I also had a lot of fun with the design and method on these.

I got all my supplies at Hobby Lobby, which include the paint, ribbon in a scrap pack, scrapbook paper, and that awesome flocked glitter.  Isn't that just neat?  First, I painted each egg with about three coats of acrylic craft paint.  Once that was dry, I decoupaged the paper onto each egg.  Next, I did the flocked glitter.  I used a Martha Stewart ball point glue pen (best idea ever) and drew a line of glue along all the paper edges.  I spread the flocked glitter along the glue and kind of pressed it down to make sure it got glued evenly.

As a finishing touch, I tied lengths of ribbon around each egg.  On the two biggest eggs, I tied little extra pieces around the knot to give it a little bit more substance.

 

I just love how bright, fun, happy, etc. these little babies are.  Who else is super excited for Easter now?!?

Chillin' with My Peeps Stenciled Shirts

I was in the middle of about four other projects, when I had this idea for Easter shirts for my girls this year.  I am someone who is easily suckered by seasonal items at the store.  Before, it was mostly candy and decor, but now that I have kids my little love of all things holiday reaches into clothing as well.  This year for Easter, I wanted to make dresses for the girls (which are almost done!), and I got to thinking about other kinds of holiday-themed clothing, which is when I had the idea for these shirts.

Admittedly, the idea wasn't entirely my own.  I first saw it as a wood craft, but thought the concept could easily be really cute for Easter shirts.  Plus, I was able to use things I already had on-hand, so I didn't have to spend a penny on these.

My method was the same I have used on my stenciled shirts in the past, using vinyl cut on my Silhouette as a stencil.  It works pretty well, although I'd love to try their stencil vinyl or freezer paper.  I tried cutting freezer paper on my Silhouette a year or two ago, and it didn't work at all, but now that I have new mats(yes!) I am thinking it might work after all.

After I designed the graphics and cut the vinyl, I put the vinyl on each shirt and used my fabric ink and brushes to paint the shirts.  I had to do three coats of the white, which was a little bit ridiculous.  Once I was done painting in the stencil, and I pulled off the vinyl and let the paint dry.  For the eyes and noses, I dipped the other end of my brush in brown fabric paint and dabbed it on.  To make sure the ink was cured, I baked each shirt in the oven for one minute at 350 degrees.  This was mostly for the silver paint, since it doesn't cure just by air drying.

If you'd like the Silhouette .studio cut file for these shirts, just leave a comment with your email or send an email to audzipan at gmail.

Linked: Craft-O-Maniac, Skip to My Lou, Sugarbee Crafts, Shwin&Shwin, Tatertots & Jello

Faux Weathered Metal Letters

As part of my master bedroom revival, I revamped my little A and C letters.  Here's what they looked like before:

I had painted the sides black and decoupaged cute black and white scrapbook paper on the front.  It was cute, but we were overdue on an update.  I was able to get most of the paper off, but some of the paper didn't come off.  Due to the nature of the letters, I could have just flipped them around and painted them.  Since I would be able to flip them over if I didn't like it, I decided to try an experiment and see if I liked it.  (Story of my life.)

 

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I sanded the rest of the paper off with low grit sandpaper (very coarse).  I sanded in the direction of the lines, meaning I sanded the direction that I would write the letter.

After I sanded the front of the letters, all I had to do was hit them with a few coats of Rust-Oleum's Hammered Metal spray paint in silver.  So easy!  I am in the process of hanging these with a new focal piece above the headboard, plus I have a couple of new spring projects to work on.  I also finished a couple more decorative pieces for the master bedroom that I am really excited about.

Linked up: The CSI Project

Zippered Pillow Cover Tutorial

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As I mentioned last week, I have just discovered how to make a zippered pillow cover.  From one sewing beginner to another, here's how I did it.

Supplies Needed:

-Pillow form (Mine is 12"x24")
-Two fabric rectangles (Mine are 11"x23")
-Zipper (that is 2"-4" shorter than the side you are putting the zipper on)
-Sewing machine and notions
 (*A note on the fabric and pillow form dimensions: I usually use down pillow forms, and the finished size of the pillow cover is two inches smaller than the form.  This makes for a nicely-filled pillow, and is mostly important for down inserts.  However, the form I had for this project was very tightly stuffed, and if I were doing this pillow again, I would make the finished size of the cover the same size as the form, which would mean that my fabric size would be 13"x25" rather than 11"x23".  It was almost impossible to get the form in the cover!)

First, pin fabric rectangles together with right sides facing, and pin the edge where you'd like the zipper to be located.  Next, you'll be sewing the edges of the side together and leaving an opening for the zipper.  To find out how far you need to stitch in on each end, measure your zipper and subtract that number from your side length, then split the resulting number in two to figure out how far in you need to stitch.  Example: I had a 9" zipper and and 11" side.  11-9=2, 2/2=1, so I stitched one inch in on each end with a 1/2" seam allowance:

Now, open the seam and iron it flat all the way down.

This next step is probably optional, but I like the finished look it gives the seam, and I think it probably strengthens the opening.  Sew all the way around the ironed seam close to the edge.

Now you are ready to set the zipper.  With the 1/2" seam allowance, the zipper should fit right over the seam.  Pin it in place with the zipper half open.

Now, you are going to have to semi-ignore my next photos.  Apparently, you are supposed to stitch on the inside of the metal tabs on the ends of the zipper.  I claim that I don't really know what I am doing.

Basically, you are just sewing a rectangle around the zipper.  Here is the breakdown:

1- Sew across the end of the zipper (on the inside of the metal tabs), making sure to backstitch.

2- Start sewing along the side of the zipper.  Use a zipper foot if you have one.  I don't, so I just move my needle all the way to the left and get as close as I can.  It seems to work.

3- Stop when you get to the zipper and set the needle.

4- Lift the presser foot.

5- Slide the zipper past the presser foot.

6- Put the foot back down and carry on.

7- Stop when you get to the other end, and turn the foot.

8- Sew across the other end of the zipper (on the inside of the metal tabs).
9- Turn the foot and go back down on the other side, doing the zipper slide trick (steps 3-6) again on the way back.

Beautiful!  You can relax now, because the hard part is over.  Make sure that you leave the zipper partially opened, so you can turn it inside-out when the time comes.  If your zipper cloth extends far enough to the edges of the pillow to interfere with your side seams, just trim the tails off to reduce bulk in the corners.

Pin the rest of the pillow together with right sides facing.

Sew all the way around the remaining sides with a 1/2" seam allowance.

Clip your corners, and turn it inside-out.

Good thing you left that zipper open!!  Get everything all turned out, then iron the seams.

Now grab that pillow form, stuff it in, zip it up, and you are good to go!

I love it!  Being able to sew your own pillow covers really opens up the possibilities for personalizing and changing up your home decor. It's also probably the easiest way to introduce a new color or pattern to a room, and now that you know how it will be a breeze.  As always, any questions leave me a comment or send an email.

Linked up:

Posey Patch Quilt

When I first finished my Craft Room v2.0, I had to borrow a quilt from my mom's collection on account of the news coming to my house to interview me about my Etsy shop.  We found that her "Posey Garden" quilt (modified Pauline Smith's Chelsea Quilt pattern from Kaffe Fassett's Quilts in the Sun book) matched the color of my walls perfectly.  It was so perfect, and I loved it and didn't want to give back.  But, I did give it back, which left me with an empty wall.  My mom graciously offered to help me make my own.  We followed the same basic pattern, but some of the fabric it used was out of print, so we had to make do with a couple of replacements.  The photo below shows my mom's quilt in my art room:

My quilt ended up more of a square, since we didn't do as many borders for my but it actually works better since it is more out of reach of little kid fingers.  I named my version "Posey Patch".

I love having this cheery quilt to brighten up my basement craft room.  Right now I'm down there working on Easter dresses for my girls.  It's my first time using a pattern in years, so there is a lot of refresher learning, and it's my first time making dresses, so there is also a lot of new learning going on.  The pattern said "easy", but I am beginning to doubt that. . .

Linked: TT&J