Category Archives: Home Decor

Up for a Ride

Last spring, I had an idea to create a hot air balloon on canvas. Instead of taking the easy route and using paint, I decided I wanted to embroider the entire thing. Goodness, if only I knew then how long this project would take me.

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Nine month later, I am happy to say the project is finally complete.

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For the balloon, I did not use a special technique. I simply threaded a needle and took in and out, over and over again. I choose the colors one layer at a time. The selection was completely random, and if you notice, some colors repeat often and some are only used once.

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I love how the wrong side of the canvas really shows off all of the work put into the piece. It took a lot of thread.

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The final touch was stitching the basket. I was nervous about this detail, worried that would take away from the overall look of the ballon, but I am happy with how it turned out. I wanted to basket to have more of a textured look, so I used a darning stitch to make it look weaved.

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Exact dimensions

In the midst of stressful times, painting is good for the soul. My roommate laughed at me because she came home the other day and found me painting in bed. I figured when I was painting something so simple (see above), I couldn’t get too messy.

I found the idea from a letterpress print I found online. I didn’t copy the print exactly (that would be rude), but I did take the idea (and the bridge, canoe, feather, ruler and whale). Check out the letterpress shop here. It is one of my favorites, and it’s a great place to look for Christmas presents (hint, hint).

From Napkins to Pillows

Everyone brings an unique perspective to an antique shop. My roommate has an eye for furniture. Another friends has a thing for vintage jewelry. I tend to fall in love with fabric. The other day I was wandering through the rows at an antique store in Homewood, and a set of napkins caught my eye. Naturally, I bought them and a matching handkerchief nearby.

Once I took out the napkins’ seams, I cut them into perfect squares. When removing the seams, I usually lose fabric due to unraveling. I decided to not work with a pillow form, which meant I could make the pillow any size I wanted.

I ironed out the handkerchief, and pinned it in place on my designated “front” side of the pillow. With the lace edges, I didn’t want to compromise the look by using my sewing machine, so I hand-stitched the handkerchief to the napkin.

Once the handkerchief is sewed down, time to make the finishing touches. Take the two napkins and put the two “right” sides together. I used a 1/2 inch seam, leaving a small hole to stuff the pillow. Once the pillow was full, I hand-stitched the hole closed.

Super easy and quick to make.

His Grace

   

Anthopologie sends catalogs to my parent’s house, and every time I come home, I have a nice little stack sitting on my bed. Perfect for a little collage.

Confession – I found this on Pinterest, and it just looked too easy to not recreate it. The whole thing says, “If His Grace is an Ocean, we are all Sinking.” This Anthopologie catalog used beach/desert scenery, which worked perfectly. I cut out the words Grace, Ocean and Sinking, using a similar color scheme for each word.

I used ModPodge to glue the letters to the canvas. When them in place, I simply used a paint pen to write in the other words. Even though I ended up selling this one at the Spring Fling Flea Market, I think I’m going to make another one for myself.

Sweet Dandelions

When it came time to start thinking about things to make for Samford’s Spring Fling Flea Market, these pom-pom yarn flowers were the first thing I thought of. One, they are incredibly easy to make. Two, the materials are super cute. And three, the are simply adorable. I only sold them for 50 cents, and since so many people asked me how to make them, I decided to provide a little tutorial.

Step one – pick out the yarn. For this project, you are going to waste a good amount of it, so make sure to pick the cheapest yarn available. Pick any color. To my surprise, the navy flowers sold out faster than the others. I figured the light purple would go first, but I was proven wrong.

   

   

Step two: Take the yarn and start wrapping it around two of your figures. You’ll need to do this maybe 120 times. Then cut a spare piece of yarn.

   

Step three: String the yarn through the ball and tie a knot (double knot it, just in case). Make sure the knot is tight. If not, all the yarn will fall out.

   

Step four:  Cut through the yarn on the opposite side of the knot. This will result in a crazy-looking pom pom. You’ll have to cut a lot of yarn off before it starts to resemble the finished product.

Finished, it should look like this. Once you have mastered this, you really can make so many things. I have seen them placed on wreaths, made into garlands or like mine, turned into my version of a crafty dandelion. To make the little flowers, I purchased some cloth stem wire.

   

Last step: I cut the wire in half, placed one end in the pom pom and used a glue gun to make sure it will stay in place.

I love how sweet they turn out. And once you get them down, you can make 3 in 5 minutes. Super easy and super fast.

A letter for a friend

Back in 10th grade, I found this tutorial at a craft store about how to turn these cardboard letters into fabric letters. My large S still hangs in my room at my parent’s house, soI think it’s safe to say that 5 years later, I have mastered this craft.

K is for Karlie, my dear friend who had a birthday coming up. Luckily, I had a ton of batting and scrap fabric so all I needed to make this was the cardboard letter. I started by cutting the batting (2 layers of it) to the exact shape of the K. I did this for both sides.

Next, with the fabric I had chosen, I cut out a K with extra margins. Layer the batting on top of the cardboard letter and then the fabric on top of that. I used a hot glue gun (but you can use any adhesive) to glue the fabric in place, attaching the margins to the sides of the cardboard letter. Just make sure the fabric is taunt. Do this for both sides.

With that complete, I took the other fabric and made a strip that I could use for the sides. To make this strip of fabric, I cut it out and then folded and ironed the edges to make smooth edges. Simply glue the fabric in place, folding back the final edge so no raw edges are showing.

And there you have it. It’s super easy and makes an awesome gift!

50 Nifty United States

I am a big fan of Pinterest because it opens the door to many craft blogs I would never have found on my own. This project is the first one I have completely copied from the website. I figure if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! Plus, I’m always a sucker for a good map.

Thanks to a box of fabric so lovingly given to me by my aunt and old puzzle from my childhood, this project is super easy and super cheep!

I used the puzzle to make stencils on printer paper. When cutting each state out, don’t cut on the line but instead around it. Then I found a piece of fabric for each state (note, I chose not to do Alaska and Hawaii).

Next, I used Heat-n-Bond which I purchased at Joann’s. The directions on the package is pretty clear, but basically, cut a piece the size of the fabric. Iron the liner side. Cut the fabric to the shape you want (in this case, the shape of the state). And then once I had each state in place, I pealed off the liner and ironed it onto the muslin.

Above shows how I laid each piece out. Once ironed down, I took to the sewing machine to stitch the outline of each state. I used an embroidery foot (or a darning foot) for the first time. It was difficult at first, but you learn to get the hang of it.

I mounted the finished piece to a flat canvas (and when I say mounted, I mean I used packaging tape). I obsessed over the finished thing for about an hour, thinking I should definitely whip up another one. I could totally see this being sold at Anthropologie or Urban Outfitters for a crazy amount. Thanks to my box of scraps, this cost me less than $3!

The Colors of Fall (and Felt)

With Christmas only days away, I realize how late this post is. (But better late than never, I like to say) For Thanksgiving, I thought it would be fun to change up our family’s traditional table setting with a new table runner. And of course, the material of choice was felt.

I printed off different leaf templates and used them as stencils to cut the felt leaves. I stuck with five colors (brown, light green, dark green, yellow and dark red). I then cut a long rectangle out of white muslin – the base of the table runner. I used black embroidery thread to attach the leaves to the muslin by sewing the views of the leaves.

Once all the leaves were attached, I cut another rectangle of fabric and sewed the two pieces together (placing right sides together and sewing with a 1/2 inch allowance). The finished product is simply adorable, and it looked great on our Thanksgiving table.

Extra note: At each plate setting, I cut out more leaves on cardboard paper and wrote Bible verses on each. The napkins were tied together with the same ribbon I used in the table runner complimented by a nice sprig of rosemary.

Another school project

Junior year of college brought about another “creative” project. This time around it was for a grammar class. The basic idea was to pick a medium (book, song lyrics, magazine, etc) and find different types of sentences or sentence transformations in it. I picked my favorite book of the summer, Water for Elephants. And though the “creative” side of the project only counted 10 points towards the total, I couldn’t help but go all out.

I call it a banner. The main character in the book first realizes he has joined the circus when he sees a sign reading, “Benzini Bros Most Spectacular Show on Earth.” I found a font at dafont.com and used it as a template to cut the letters out of felt.

  

The rest was made with scrap fabric. I hand stitched the felt letters to my main piece of white cotton. Then I used fabric to make little pockets. I somehow had to incorporate the different sentences into my creative project, so I made put each sentence on a card – the pockets hold the cards.

       

And since I love having details, each pocket contains cards with a certain theme. Like above, popcorn bag = snacks. (Others = animals, performers, freaks and trains)

   

The good news, I got all ten of those points. If only you could major in arts and crafts.

For pleasant lighting

The florescent lights in my door room is the worse. My roommate and I refuse to turn on the small, buzzing, over head light. Our solution – lots of lamps. Abby has one by her bed, I have one by my desk and we have one in the corner by the mirror. (Trust me, it creates a nice ambiance) But I have been wanting to have a light by my bed, one that I could read by. So of course, I went to the internet, saw many ideas for hanging lamps, and traveled to Hobby Lobby with a semi-clear idea. That is until I reached the ribbon section.

 

 

The project was super easy. All I purchased was a variety of white/off-white ribbons and lace and a small embroidery hoop. I attached the ribbon and lace to the hoop by removing the outer hoop, folding the ribbon around the inner hoop and whip stitching the ribbon in place. I cut the ribbon at different lengths to create a more imperfect feel.

    

Once I finished attaching the ribbon, I put the outer hoop back on and used four pieces of ribbon to hang it. At Walmart, I found a Bottle lamp kit for $5. I assembled the kit by following the instructions up until inserting the cork into the bottle. I kind of make-shifted it so it hung down straight.

I put a hook in my ceiling, and simply hung the lamp and the cord together, letting the cord hang down the corner of my room. It has become the perfect reading lamp. The only thing that bugs me is the white lamp against the white walls… basically, it looks like another project is in the works.