Coming Back Soon

Life has been crazy these past few months. With Halloween and Christmas coming up, I promise I will be back. Look for new posts starting next week.

On Vacation

I have so many things to post about! However, I am on vacation at my parents house in FL for the month of Feb.  Starting in March, look for tons of new things including a painted piano, floating shelves, coffee tables and a toy cubby!

Blog Swap! with Keeping it Simple

Hello! I am super excited to be here with you today!! Isn't Heather just amazing!! Wow, I love all the things that she does. All the wood work and decorations are so great.

Let me introduce myself, I'm Kaysi

from Keeping It Simple.

I'm the mother of three adorable little boys, ages 4, 3, and 1. I'm married to an amazing man, he is just wonderful. My family is my life! Those boys bring me so much joy and happiness!

I am a simple person, I don't like to over do anything. I absolutely love color, especially green, brown and blue. With many hours of painting, I finally don't have a white wall in my house.

Each day of the week, I have something different.

Motivate me Monday, that's where I have link party and you get to show me all the cute things that you have done.

Tutorial Tuesday, I give a tutorial of a craft that I have done

Whatever Wednesday, this is my day that I put anything up.

Tip Thursday, this is the day that I post a scrapbook idea or give a scrapbook tip

Fridays are the days that I do Blog swaps with other bloggers.

Here are a few things that you can see at my blog:

Picture/Card Holder

Menu Planner

Binder Clips Picture Holder

Mod Podge Sign

Painted Countertops to look like stone

Ribbon Bow Tie

Baby headband

Scrapbook idea

You should stop on by!!

Children's Lounge Pants

Disclaimer: My children wear these to bed; however, since they are not fire proof fabric, they are not Pajama’s

Every year for Christmas we open PJ’s on Christmas Eve (I told you I was behind posting!) This year I decided to make my children’s pants. It took maybe 10 minutes and was SUPER easy.

Materials:

About a yard of fabric

Scissors

Sewing machine

Thread

Elastic

Safety Pin

Directions

Fold your fabric, so that the wrong sides are facing and you have just enough room to fit your Childs best fitting lounge pants on

Fold your child lounge pants so that the crotch is pointing out

Lay them on your fabric and cut around them allowing about an inch all the way around, placing the outside of the pant on the edge.

Repeat

Now you have two pieces of fabric, open them up and place them right sides facing

Sew down the crotch following the curve, I double sewed this since the pants take the most stress in that area, do this to both sides

Now grab the sides you just sewed and put them together right sides facing; now they look like pants.

Sew up the insides of the legs, again double stitching in the crotch (I hate that word) area

Fold up about an inch for the bottom hems and sew all the way around

Fold down about a half inch and sew the waist, do not sew all the way around leave about an inch opening for the elastic to go through the waist

Measure a piece of elastic to your child’s waist size, mark that measurement with a line, cut the elastic about an inch or two past that line.

Place a large safety pin at the end of the elastic and thread through the waist hem pocket you just made. Just bunch and pull.

Once your elastic has made it all the way around match it up with the line you marked earlier, sew them together. Make sure your elastic does not flip while you are pulling it through.

Sew up the opening you left and you are done!

Cost:

About $3
Time: 10 min

Tips:

Wash your fabric prior to cutting

Make sure your fabric is right side up; you may notice the Maltase Cross is upside down on these pants!

ModPodge with Napkins

Modpodge with Napkins

It is so hard to find any Valentine’s Day decorations! Even Hobby lobby was lacking! So I purchased your typical wooden letters, and then while at the grocery store I saw some cute conversation hearts napkins. So I thought, I bet I can modpodge with napkins!

Materials:

Letters spelling out a word of your choice

Napkins

Modpodge

Exacto knife

Wood for a backing (I used some leftover Birch plywood)

Wood to help plywood stand up (I used some left over Poplar 2x2’s)

Paint

Directions

Cover your letters with a thin layer of modpodge, use just enough to make it tacky

Press your letters, face down, onto the back of the napkin

Turnover and smooth out bubbles, be extra careful since the napkins will be wet and could tear. Also, you will have texture; it is not going to be 100% smooth

Do one letter at a time and then set aside to dry

Now cover the tops, just over the letters with another two layers of modpodge, letting it dry in between

Allow it to dry completely

While the letters are drying cut your plywood to your desired length and paint it (you do not have to do this step if you have letters that will stand on their own, my V would not so I had to glue them to a board)

Glue on a backer to help it sit straight up and down

Once your letters are dry, flip them over and cut the letters out using an Exacto knife. Be careful not to slice the wood.

Cover the letters with a final coat of modpodge

Once that is dry sand all the edges just to make them look as clean as possible, I used ultra fine paper so I didn’t take of any of the paint.

Glue the letters to the board and there you have it!

Cost:

$10

Time:

About an hour with drying time

Picture plaque

The holidays were crazy! To say I let my blog slide is an understatement. I have still been working on projects; I just haven’t been posting them. Don’t feel slighted though; I haven’t been updating my family blog either, much to the annoyance of my mother!
These are the gifts that we made for each of the grandparents. Sometimes it is so difficult to get things for them, because really if it is something they want they buy it themselves! So we went with the old fall back, pictures! But how boring are just pictures in a picture frame? So I tried to spice it up!
Materials:
2x4
Scrapbook paper
Modgpodge
Paint
Picture wire or ornament hangers
Drill
Hot glue
Stamp pad
Directions:
Cut your 2x4 into a length that will fit each child’s name, we used 12 in.
Rip the bottom of your 2x4 so it lays flat
Sand any rough edges
Paint edges on all sides (you don’t need to paint the whole thing because only the edges show

Cut two rectangles to fit the front and back of your 2x4 out of scrapbook paper

Modgpodge the paper on the wood
Sand the edges to even out the paper and to expose some of the wood

Run a stamp pad along the edges to give it an antique look

Cut out your children’s names as well as a quote pertaining to the person you are giving it too.

Modgpodge these on, these pictures were taken of my 5th board; I was in a rush and didn’t get my spacing right on my quote. So take your time.

Cover with another layer of Modgepodge and let dry

Once dry, drill a small hole in the top of your board for each of your children

Squeeze some hot glue in and attach your wire that you twisted, or I found these awesome ornament hangers that were perfect, I just straightened out the end.

Stick pictures in and your done, I did a picture on either side. They were a hit with all the grandparents!

Time:
It took me about 1 hour for each
Cost: Including the pictures it was $3 a plaque

Christmas Stockings

As I mentioned before, we added another member to our family this year. Also, for the past 3 years, one of our stockings has always been a first Christmas stocking (my daughter was due on Dec. 20th but didn’t come until the 28th, so one year we had stockings and presents for a baby who hadn’t arrived) Technically, one of the stockings this year should be a first Christmas one for Collin, but honestly I am tired of mismatched stockings, so he isn’t getting one.


So, I decided to make matching stockings for the whole family. It was some trial and error, so it took me some time.

Materials:

1 ½ yards of main fabric (I used Red Flannel)

1 yard coordinating fabric (I used black satin)

Coordinating thread

Scissors

Ribbon

Optional: I used a rotary cutter and mat, I would really recommend this, it made cutting out the stockings and cuffs so much easier. I spent about $20 on one at Wal-Mart.

Directions

I took an old stocking that had a good size. I then traced it out on my fabric adding an inch on either side for seam allowance. I folded my fabric in half so when I cut the first stocking I was cutting two pieces of fabric, so instead of 10 cuts I only made 5

Once I had the first stocking cut, I laid that on the next two pieces of fabric and cut another.

I then cut 2, 5 inch wide by 18 inch long pieces of black satin. Again, I repeated this 4 more times for my 5 stockings.

Turn your flannel right sides facing and sew following the shape, repeat for each of your stockings

Now put two 18 inch long pieces of satin right sides facing and sew along the top side

Then, open them up and fold them right side facing width wise and sew the short side

Turn them right side out

Place the cuff inside your still right side facing stocking unfinished side up


Sew around the whole inside of the stocking

Flip your stockings right side out, fold cuff over and press

Figure out what length you want your ribbon for hanging your stockings and cut.

Pin the ribbon to the inside of your stocking, on the side you want it to hang from

Sew the ribbon in

I took my stockings to a local boutique to have them embroidered.

Total Cost: for just the stockings: $15 for the embroidery $25 total: $40, or $8 a stocking

Total time: 2 ½ hours























Tackle it Tuesday