Button Sheep

I saw this post and was instantly in love, it was such a cute, unique idea that I knew I'd make one. 

I was a little worried about having enough white buttons but you can't even tell I made a dent in my button stash.  I was really lucky, when I started crafting my Mom was more than happy to unload some of her craft supplies so she no longer had to store them.  Among them was her collection of buttons including all the ones she'd inherited from her Mom, I have an awesome container of unique ones.

I decided one evening it was time to start a new craft but it was too late to get any green fabric, I also needed a frame so I went to Micheal's.  I'm not actually very happy with the frame I got, I hate how shiny it is but it was cheap and the right size.  I have visions of spray painting it but for now I was too lazy and hung it as is. 

I also found at Michael's a green canvas bag for $1, I figured that was perfect so I took the back of the frame out and used it as a guide to cut out a square of fabric.  I should have done this last because I didn't leave any room for fraying and I did a lot of handling of the fabric.  Halfway through I stopped and very slightly trimmed with my pinking shears but the damage was already done and if you look at the right angle you can see that I didn't have quite enough, oh well.

I made very few changes to what Fowl Single File did, really the only thing I changed was the face.  I didn't want to use a french knot for the eye because I thought it was too small, I wanted something a little bigger.  Initially I decided to use felt and I came up with this.

Two things wrong, 1. It's in the wrong spot.  2. It's just plain scary.

I unpicked and ended up using the end of a dressmaker pin.  I just used pliers to cut off the head and then I hot glued it on.

If I'm really honest about this piece I'll admit that it really didn't turn out as cute as I thought I would.  I don't know what's different about it that I don't like but it's not a piece that I'll keep around forever.  It's hung in Catie's room beside her butterfly picture, I wanted to put it on the other side but I was afraid she'd be able to grab it.  Like I said, it's fine, if not slightly random in her room.

Here's the original which I love, and then mine which is okay.

Looking at them side by side I'm sure it's the colour of the green that I'm not happy with.  That's not something I'm going to change since I had to sew all those buttons on with different colour thread, I'll just have to learn to love it.  Her vibrant green is really a lot cuter than mine though.

Headband Redo

I found a package of headbands at the dollar store that almost fit Catie.  They look adorable on her and she even keeps them on surprisingly well.  They were all covered in a plaid fabric so I kept one black plaid and peeled the fabric off the other two.

Here's the one I've finished.

I took some pink ribbon and made little pleats.  I pinned these and sewed down the middle.  Then I hot glued it to the headband.

I think it's a winner.

I also took this cute flower that I'd made so long ago I don't even remember and glued a pin on the back.  I think it will look really cute pinned to one of my shirts.

Two really quick crafts, perfect for Sunday morning (I wanted Catie to wear the headband to church).

Fabric Rosettes

First off let me say this is not a tutorial.  If you read any crafty blogs these days then you have seen these flowers.  EVERYBODY is making them and you can find a ton of tutorials if you need one, I used this one.  Michelle wanted to make these and I needed to make a gift for a friend so we got together and came up with the below.

This teal group of three is exactly what I'd envisioned.  I turned it into a pin by gluing a bar pin on the back (we'll talk about that further down).

Michelle made this headband that I thought was so cute I made my own version.

Here's where the bulk of the post starts though.  We're going to talk about the bar pin I mentioned earlier.
I imagined this cute pin on a shirt just like this

But I wore it for about a minute before I decided it was going to ruin my shirt because it's too heavy so I hot glued a second pin on the bottom, like so.  (Luckily when I went to buy the pin I had to get a pack of 40, lots to go around).

This seemed to have solved my problem for about 20 minutes, it really is just too heavy for pins so I had two genius ideas.  I didn't implement the first because I had supplies for the second but what if you cut some cotton fabric, slipped that inside your shirt and then pinned the flower through both layers.  I'm wearing a cheap stretchy t-shirt that would get a hole really easy but if you added the bulk of the cotton I bet it would help.  Try that if you don't want to do the other option.

My husband happened to have one of these laying around from his last job.

It's one of those super strong magnetic name tags, perfect for what I needed.  The name plate was held on with double sided tape, I just ran a butter knife down it and it came off pretty easy.  It left some tape residue but I was going to cover that up and hot glue doesn't stick to metal very well anyway so the leftover tape would help hold it in place.

First though I had to remove my two pins so I plugged in my kettle, waited until it was good and steamy, held my flower with tweezers (to avoid burnt fingers) over the steam for a few seconds and then I peeled off the pin.  Repeat with the second pin and done.  Easy.

I do have two spots where the glue was but it's on the back, I'm not too concerned about it and it's better than a holey t-shirt.  I glued the metal plate to the back of the pin and voila, magnet with no pin holes in your shirt.

Here it is clipped to my shirt, you really can't see a difference at all and I'm no longer worried about little Catie fingers grabbing at it.

I Hung Pictures

It took 10 months but I finally hung some pictures.

For Christmas we were given these fun pictures but since then they've sat in a pile gathering dust.  I just didn't know where to put them because they seemed a little small to be on their own but I didn't have anything else to put with them.  I recently pulled them out again determined to do something with them so they've still been in a pile but this time the pile was in my way a lot.

I tried to find the blog where the inspiration for this piece came from but I really couldn't find it, I thought it was a perfect compliment for our three pictures though. 

I'm not sure I love them on the stairs, it's possible they clutter up the space but they're staying anyway.  The big picture frame also has a gold-ish trim on the inside that I don't like so I'd like to paint the frame black but I'm hoping Mom has some spray paint I can use so I don't have to buy any (And if she tells my I hung them too high I'm cutting off all contact with Catie for two weeks as punishment.  I looked up the proper height and measured.  So take that!)

Now I just need to tackle the rest of my stack of pictures.

Magnet Board Update

I made this magnet board years ago with my Mom at a Super Saturday and it's really useful and I always thought it looked just fine until I saw a beautiful fabric covered one.  This project quickly went on my to-do list and I finally got around to working on it.

I hit up the Fabric Addict (my favorite store) with every intention of finding something red to go inside the frame but instead the purple jumped out at me.  I love the pattern and I love the color, not sure how well it fits in my dining room but I decided I didn't care.

This was a really easy project.  I took apart the magnet board and used the sheet metal as my fabric guide.  Since my fabric was directional and needed to go on straight I traced around the metal with a sharpie to help me stick it down property once I'd sprayed it.  I'd bought just enough fabric so I only had to cut one side.  I then used spray adhesive on both the fabric and the metal and then I stuck them together, wrapping quickly around the back before my spray dried.  There were a couple spots on the back that didn't stay stuck very well but since it gets put back in the frame it didn't matter.  I closed it all back up, put my magnets back on and called it done.

I love the new look.

Before

After

Looking at these pictures makes me think perhaps it's time to re-paint my frame, it's looking a little rough.  Some other day.

Ribbon Holder

I saw this post a while ago and thought it was such a cute idea, I don't need a wrapping paper holder but knew it would make an awesome ribbon holder so I made one.  I definitely did not just whip this up as the project took considerably longer than I had anticipated.

I started a while ago by picking up supplies.  I got my frame for .25 cents at The Salvation Army.  It didn't have glass in it but that was fine, I didn't need it anyway.  I bought two packages of cafe rods from Home Depot for $4 each.  I wish they'd been a little cheaper but they do the trick even if they are ugly and brass.

I then started waiting for a day that wasn't too windy to spray paint and I've since decided that in Lethbridge there's no such thing.  I finally tired of waiting and painted anyway and just dealt with the wind.

I painted my frame using the leftover from Catie's lamp, happy that I wouldn't have to buy any paint for this projects.  Unfortunately I really hated it.  It looks so stark and white and doesn't fit the area at all so I ended up re-painting it pink with some new paint I bought.  I painted the hardware from the cafe rods as well.  I'm loving the pink, I was worried it would be a little too vibrant and I had thought I would distress it to tone it down a bit but I like it as is so I left it.

I then rigged up this handy little contraption to help me paint the rods.  I used bbq skewers that I poked through a box.  The rods are too heavy for just the skewers though so I taped some spools of thread on the bottom to hold the skewers.  I used the same buttercream yellow spray paint that I'd used on the ironing board.

In hindsight I should have spread out my bbq skewers a bit more because they were a pain to move when the rods were still damp but it was too windy to let them dry outside.

After everything was good and dry I gave the hardware and the ends of the cafe rods a quick spray with a varathane top coat to help protect from scratching.

I then attempted to add a hanger to the back and succeeded in breaking the head off one of my screws.  Frustrated I moved onto attaching the hardware for the rods which went much more smoothly except I discovered this is what happens when your attempting to insert screws while reading subtitles from an episode of Lost.  Those Jin and Sun episodes are killer for crafting.

Once that was done I again worked on attaching my hanger, I lost the head off another screw and finally got two to stay.  Here it is finished, with the ribbon, hanging on the wall.  I'm loving the way it ties in with the ironing board and I think it gives me a cute crafty corner.  Now I just need a couple more spools of cute ribbon :)

More Bows

I go to a Mom and Tots group every Thursday where we mostly just sit and visit while the kids play but this week instead we made some cute hair bows.  Everyone pooled their resources and we all came away with something we were very happy with.  The best part was I was finally able to finish the flower I'd been trying to finish.  Thanks for the fun and the alligator clips!

Hair Clips

I had some things to return to Michael's the other day so I headed over with my 40% off coupon just in case.  I have a hard time passing up the coupon so I wandered to see what I could find.   I walked past the silk flowers and noticed they were 50% so I grabbed some real cheap pansies.  I've been wanting some new flowers for Catie and this seemed like the perfect time. 

When Catie was born I thought those huge flowers were dorky and she only wore little ones but now that she's grown and has a significantly larger head I think they're adorable.  She doesn't have very many big ones though so I've been thinking about new ones.

Using my 40% off coupon I picked up some decorative Brad's for the center and this is what I came up with.

I'm going to make one more but I have finally exhausted my alligator clip collection and I must buy more, both for me when I'm doing my hair and for more clips for Catie.

Mod Podge

It was really only a matter of time before Mod Podge appeared in my crafting supply.

I've often seen cute projects that use the glue but I'd never owned any.  I picked some up at Michael's the other day for a craft that we'll just not talk about.  I abandoned it before I'd really even begun and before I'd sunk any money into it.  Instead I sat there looking at my Mod Podge wondering what I could do with it.

I have a magnet board in my kitchen and I had 6 magnets with words on them.  I'd never loved them but couldn't be bothered to do anything about it, they were functional.  This was the perfect time, I peeled off the words and picked through my scraps.  I think they look lots cuter hey?

After I was done I discovered two that I'd missed so I'll have to continue this project later but for now this was all I could be bothered to do.
L

Shelf Accessories

There were a few additions I knew I wanted to make to the shelf and lately they've really come together.

I was worried about my sewing machine scratching the surface since it will be moved a lot so I came up with a simple place mat to put underneath it.  I love the way the fabric looks with the pink box and the red shelf (it's the same fabric I used for Catie's chair).

I also wanted a pretty dish to sit on top where I could keep the items that get used the most often like a seam ripper, scissors and pins.  I had planned on stopping by Value Village to find something that I could spray paint but I found this glass, black dish at Walmart for only $6.  I figured a can of spray paint would cost about that much and I really liked the dish.  It's the perfect size and hold just what I need it too.

Hidden Skills

Brad and I are in the middle of making this awesome shelf that I'll blog more about later.  It's been such an interesting project and I'm learning all sorts of things.

I've never been a big woodworker. In shop class I made this plastic ring once, it had three colours all stuck together but when I used the belt sander to smooth the edge I ended up with two colours. I also made a cage for our guinea pigs and I can't tell you how crappy it was. That's really the extent of my woodworking.

While working on this project I've learned...

1. I've always known I hated sanding but I just hadn't experienced a nice palm sander.
2. An air nailer makes all the difference.
3. Using wood filler is just like icing a cake. Load lots on, scrape 90% off. That skill transfers right over.
4. I know the inch mark, I know a quarter and I know a half, but the marks in between means nothing to me.

Photos to come but we still have the tedious task of painting. Can't wait to see the finished product.

The Box

This crafting obsession is pretty new for me but there is one item that has made every single project possible, I go back time and time again and I'm never let down.  My best craft tool is the pink box.

The pink box belonged to my Grandma who passed away 15 ish years ago.  When she died it was passed on to my Mom who has loaned it to me.


Inside is the best supply of thread I've ever seen.  There will be not just orange thread but 8 different shades so I can find exactly the colour I was looking for.  Without it my quiet book wouldn't have been nearly as cute and it's saved me tons of money on thread. (This photo makes me wish I had a better camera along with the skills to operate it because this could have been such a beautiful picture.)

Underneath the tray are even better gems.  Snaps, Hooks and Eyes, Bias tape and buttons.  And just when I find a new project there's something inside it to help make it possible, like a kit to fabric cover buttons.

The box has it's quirks, don't even think about carrying it by the handle (that was the tip Mom gave me, she found out the hard way).  The thread is old so sometimes it causes problems, it's so tightly wound that occasionally it winds itself around my needle and I'm surprised every time that it can still smell so much like stale cigarette smoke but it only adds to the character of the box and it makes me think of Grandma every time I craft.
L

Hair Clips

I saw these hair clips on Make It And Love It and I knew immediately I'd re-create them.

These will sit for quite some time because Catie needs significantly more hair before she uses them but I love how they turned out and I had everything on hand so they were free.