Couch BEFORE and AFTER!

You read that right....  After!!! I finished the couch, I finished the couch!

duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duuuuuhhhhh! (you read that with the "and now presenting" music running through your head)

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I'm so happy it's done....  I took tons of pictures, and I plan on doing a reupholstery tutorial if there is any interest.

Old Frame/New Frame

 Do you have some old frames that look, well, outdated?? I've done it once, and I'll probably do it hundreds of times. Just give that old frame a couple of coat of Krylon indoor/outdoor paint- the colors you can choose from are amazing! And don't make the mistake of buying it from the craft store. Walmart sells it cheap. Do the spraying outside far from anything you don't want overspray to get on. I spray my frames in a box with a drop-cloth underneath, usually in the garage if it's too hot/cold/windy outside. Tape off any part that you don't want painted, the glass didn't come out of these frames, so I had to tape them off.

Add a beautiful piece of art (this one is an original by my daughter) and hang in the room of your choice. This technique also comes in handy when you have a bunch of mismatched frames that you want to hang together and look cohesive. Spray paint! It's amazing ;)

Baby shower craft night

I will admit... I don't love shower games. I don't hate them either.  When I throw a shower I like to keep games to a minimum or non-exsistant. I decided to try something different and have a craft baby shower.  There was some prep work (of course), but the craft was fun, not too time consuming, and anyone could do it!  We made art for the nursery- it was inspired by all the baby rooms I've seen that have the alphabet in wood letters of all different fonts hung on the wall.  I didn't have the time or money for that craft, so instead I came up with this variation:

Gluten Free Food, beautiful and delicious!

I painted an old, large frame that I had in my garage.  I picked mustard because I wanted the look to be vintage/old fashioned looking.  I cut a piece of thin plywood to the dimensions of the artwork cut-out in the frame, but I cut it just barely smaller than the actual dimensions in order to leave room for the fabric and batting that would cover the plywood.  I cut a piece of muslin and thin cotton batting to cover the plywood, I left a 2 inch overhang (or more) on all sides.  

I had to iron and iron and iron the muslin to get all the wrinkles out!

Starting from opposite centerpoimts, hot glue the fabric down.  Pull tight!  Work out from the centers, check for smoothness on the front as you go.

Smooth as butter!

My frame didn't have the tabs to hold the artwork in, I used small nails hammered into the frame and supporting the artwork in place of the tabs.

The base of the project is now ready.  Not too hard, and I happened to have everything but the paint color on hand!

I chose 26 different scrapes of fabric, with lots of solids.  Too many patterns would look too busy (next time I think I might even use more solids).  I lined them up in order of how I wanted them on the picture.  I measured the canvas size and divided it by 26 to see roughly the size of each letter (mine was about 3.5 inches).

Now the part that took the longest... Cutting the fabric.  I wanted the letters to be all different sizes, so I cut some up to 4 inches and some as small as 2 inches, and everything in-between.  I wanted there to be at least 6 really large looking letters.  The hardest part was adding the iron-on interfacing. I used light-weight heat-n-bond.  If I hadn't wanted to waste as little fabric as possible, then I could cut larger swatches of fabric and a bunch of 4 inch squares of iron on interfacing.  But I cut them all to size in the first place and cut the interfacing by tracing the fabric on it and then ironing it on.  It.took.a.long.time. But I wasted very little fabric and very little heat-n-bond.

To set up for the shower, I printed out three different options of fonts for each letter of the alphabet and placed the piece of fabric I wanted to be used for that letter on top of the "inspiration" fonts.  Oh, don't forget to print all the letters out reversed!  It's easier to just see the letter already in reverse and not try to imagine it. Place sharp fabric scissors and pencils all over the table.   Now you are ready for the party!

When the shower guests arrive they can cut out a letter or two whenever they want.  They can use the fonts you printed out as inspiration and a guide.  The only instruction I really had to give was to make sure they drew the letter backwards on the paper of the heat-n-bond on the back of the fabric and to try to make the letter fit to the size of the cut fabric.  As soon as all the letters were cut out, we arranged them until we liked how it looked, removed the paper on the back of the fabric, and then ironed on the letters.  Easy! And the guest of honor got to take home a finished project.

Oil rubbed bronze lamps (sorta)

We acquired a pair of bedside lamps about 5 years ago from some friends who were decluttering. We were about to sell our first house and needed some more substantial looking furniture to stage our house. They didn't have lampshades so I borrowed some from my mother-in-law while we had the house on the market. They worked great, but always lacked a bit of our style.
A year later I bought modern lampshades and it helped them seem more appropriate in our room, but I don't think my husband ever liked how stark white they were.
So, I finally just did what I had to do- spray painted them with a can of Rustoleum oil rubbed bronze metallic spray paint.

First I cleaned and prepped them for painting. I covered the knob, cords, and electrical source with tin foil. So easy! I used a few small pieces of painters tape to keep the foil tight to the cord right next to where it attached to the lamp base.

Then, I shook my can of paint and went to town. Super easy, instant gratification. The hardest part was not getting spray paint all over my garage- this stuff can spray far! Also, I had to make sure to look up from the bottom. It's easy to not notice that the curves and ledges didn't get any paint on their underside.
This project took less than a half hour, cost me a few bucks, and totally changed the look of the lamps.
They still don't look modern- but they do look a bit more sophisticated and appropriate for a bedroom.

2012 Resolutions

Finish my heap-o-(half-finished)crafts.

Single Girl quilt
Strawberry red and blue quilt
Strawberry Fields quilte
quilt pattern for Chris
COUCH!

Then a thorough clean of the craft room and I'll be a happy resolved girl.

Gingerbread House

This was my first attempt at making my own gingerbread.
The recipe I used turned out to be very tasty (usually I'm not a huge fan of gingerbread) and it is extremely sturdy.
The recipe:
2 3/4 cup sifted flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ginger
2/3 cup molasses
1 egg
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup oil
Mix all ingredients thoroughly. Chill several hours. Roll dough on the back of an oiled cookie sheet. Cookie sheet can be placed on a wet dishtowel to prevent slipping. Place pattern for house on rolled dough and cut around with a sharp knife. Remove excess dough. Bake at 300° for 20 to 30 minutes. Make sure it is well cooked, then place the pattern back on the cooked gingerbread and Trim edges, if necessary. Carefully place it on a flat surface to cool completely before you put the house together.
(from Worldwide Ward Christmas Cookbook)

I used melted sugar to glue the edges. I used a Martha Stewart recipe - http://www.marthastewart.com/341781/caramel-syrup
Do not stir it! And DO NOT get any hot sugar on your skin!

Here is the link to the simple template I used:
http://images.allrecipes.com/site/allrecipes/gingerbread_house_diagram.pdf
I reduced the size to 70% of the original.

For decorating, I started with royal icing, but it was too runny. I ended up only using the royal icing on my tree and for the snow on the ground. The icing I ended up using was just store bought white frosting (not whipped, not creamy, and not vanilla- white!)
I just piped it on with a icing tip and a plastic bag.
The kids can't wait to eat it. They already made cookies from the leftover dough.

Christmas Tree Skirt

I've been using a vinyl table cloth as the tree skirt for our Christmas Tree for years.  I wanted a real one, but I couldn't justify the expense when the vinyl tablecloth really didn't look so bad....  BUT, it ripped!  Yipee!  Soooo, I had some pretty poinsettia fabric and I purchased two round Christmas tablecloths and turned them into a tree skirt.  Ok, that sounds really simple- it was a bit more complicated than that.
First I measured the largest circumference that I could achieve on the poinsettia fabric, I folded it into fourths and used a pin and a string to create an arc.  This fabric (poinsettia fabric) would be the center of the skirt.
Then I folded one of the table cloths into fourths, the one I chose as the wide border on the top of the skirt.  I laid the poinsettia fabric on top and cut the arc 4 inches wider for the outside circumference, and then cut the inner circumference one inch into the top depth of the poinsettia fabric (so that there would be a seam allowance).
Lastly, I placed the folded tablecloth fabric onto the second round tablecloth (folded into fourths) and cut the arc two inches wider, but I did not cut out the center on this table cloth.  This piece would become the backing and the binding of the tree skirt.
To assemble:
Sew the border fabric onto the poinsettia fabric using a 1/2 inch seam allowance.  Sandwich the top (poinsettia and boarder sewn together), some batting, and the bottom/binding fabric together- just like you would for a quilt.  Pin or use basting spray to keep the layers together, and then quilt together with your sewing machine.  I used gold thread that I had on hand and it looked lovely.  I just marked the center of the skirt and then quilted lines straight across, intersecting at the center (like you cut a pizza ;).  Then I folded and ironed the 2 inch over-hang from the bottom- creating a binding.  Fold in one inch, iron.  Fold in one more inch and it is a binding over the top layer- iron!  (I call this self-binding, I don't know if that is the technical term).  Then sew around the edge of the folded binding...  Almost done.
Measure how big you would like the hole on your skirt to be.  I borrowed my neighbors tree skirt for this, so I would know what the professionals think is the appropriate hole size.  I marked out the hole with tailors chalk.  Then I sewed a straight line from the edge of the skirt, on the line I just drew, and back down my original straight line to the edge.  I took the scissor (and if you don't think I was scared to do this, then you're wrong!) and I cut between my sewed lines and up and around the hole circle I had just sewn.  Being careful to stay within the sewing- so the sewing could hold the three layers of quilt together.  I made some binding from the scraps of the back fabric and lined the hole with the binding.  This part almost broke my sewing machine.  There are a few places where I was sewing through basically nine layers of fabric.  So go slow!!!
Whew!  All done.   
I love it.  Totally worth the work.