Twin Girls' DIY Nursery

Hi there! Had some babies a little bit ago... 4 months ago. I started working on their nursery before they were born, but am just now finishing.  Probably because I had to make almost every decoration and/or collect used items. Oh and because twin newborns sort of take up a lot of time. Who knew?!

It started with finding these cute fabrics at SAS which were inspiration for a woodland creatures plus florals theme and took off from there. I am NOT a decorator and wish I could just pay someone to come decorate my whole house, but I had fun putting it all together and a pretty happy with how it turned out.

Pillow covers made with fabric remnants, glider from Craigslist 

Cute quilt EmmaLee made, hand-me-down crib, blanket crocheted by my aunt

This saying popped into my head when I was thinking about twins and I had to use it! I watercolored these little signs, mounted them on floral fabric and threw them in cheap Ikea frames. Blessing dresses crocheted by my mom.

Branch from our yard on Ikea hooks + a paper flower garland I made

Big paper flowers are by Bethany and I, Ikea spice racks as book shelves

Prints and frames from Ikea, fabric plushy trees and pompom flowers I made, wood log round from JoAnn's painted in chalkboard paint

Easy Gift for Dad

This Christmas I made a simple, inexpensive gift for Ray to use at work.  I found a pencil holder at Target and mod podged pictures on each side.  SO quick and easy, yet meaningful.

First, print 4 pictures on regular paper and trim them to fit your pencil holder.

Using a foam brush, completely cover the back of a picture with mod podge and secure to holder.  Then brush mod podge all over the front of the picture as well. Brush the mod podge over the edges of the pic and onto the pencil holder so it's all sealed down.  It will dry clear.  Repeat with each side and let dry!

Pine Cone Door Decor

The wreath I usually put on the door at Christmas time was lookin' pretty scary, so I made this for free!

 I stole some pine cones from my parents' yard, glittered them up with snow-looking glitter, hot glued them to various lengths of ribbon, then added a bow.  Such an easy alternative to a traditional wreath!

Batman Busy Book

One of my friends is having a baby boy soon, and her husband is obsessed with Batman. So I put together this little Batman quiet book or busy book or whatever you want to call it. I wish I would have made little pattern pieces to share as I went, but I was totally improvising and I'm sure anyone is capable of cutting nicer felt shapes than these.

The book itself is felt rectangles folded in half and sewn around the raw edges--one layer was too flimsy. Then I punched 2 holes on each page and put in eyelets (grommets) in and bound it all with binder rings. This all happens, of course, at the very end.

Cover: I just cut out a Batman symbol (freehand, mind you) and hot glued it on.

Page 1: I cut out a little bat cave and sewed jagged lines on it in white. I sewed only the top of it to the page so it could lift. Underneath I sewed a little pouch to hold the Batman finger puppet. I can't even tell you how I made him, but there was a bit of trial and error, cutting, gluing, and sewing involved.

Page 2: Cut out a bunch of shapes and glued them together. Except the vest which I stitched buttons on and sewed to the book, only at the sides. I also stitched on Robin's little smirk.

Page 3: I cut out 2 of each shape and letters just for the top ones. The bottom shapes are glued onto the book and the top ones are sewn to ribbons that are sewn to the book. I put Velcro on all the pieces so they can be matched up.

Page 4: I cut out a speech bubble and added strips of Velcro then sewed it onto the book. I wanted to find little Velcro letters (remember when they use to make t-shirts with them?!) but to no avail. So I finally settled for writing out every letter of the alphabet a few times in sharpie onto a strip of Velcro and cutting it up. There's a little bag in the book that holds them all. Then the kid can write out whatever he wants!

Page 5: I cut out all the shapes, glued them together, and put a little rope underneath the Joker before gluing him down to the book.

Page 6: I made the Batmobile from sparkly felt and sewed a little loop on the back. Then I threaded ribbon through the loop before sewing it at the corners of the page so the car slides back and forth.

Page 7: Pretty self explanatory. I traced the shapes of the pieces on the page of the book, so it wouldn't be too hard to put together, but it doesn't look very nice. I also made a little pouch for all the puzzle pieces.

Page 8: I cut two circles and two silhouettes (copied from Harvey Dent's actual coin, because I'm legit)--one in black and one in silver. Then I hand stitched around the face and all the details. I then sandwiched a piece of elastic between the two before sewing them together. I sewed the elastic to the book, so you can pull the coin and "flip" it. You can't tell from the way the picture's cropped, but I also stitched some scratches on the burnt side of the coin.

If I had a lot more free time it would have turned out a bit nicer and included hand-stitched directions on each page, but it turned out pretty cute and I'm happy with all the fun ideas I came up with!

Chore Chart

I needed a system to help the kids get their jobs done this summer, so I had them help  make a job board.    The girls picked out some paint and letter stickers from the store, painted the board, stuck the stickers on, and then I screwed in some mug hooks.  They're easier to screw in if you make a pilot hole first with a nail.  The little tags are just the right size.  I just wrote each job on a tag, and printed pictures for our youngest, who can't read yet.  When they finish a job, they move the tag over to the last column under "Done!"  I also included a hook at the bottom for all the jobs that are not on the agenda that day.

 Here are my girls getting crafty!

DIY Mother's Day Gifts

Mother's Day is coming up fast! Here are some projects I've rounded up from past posts that would make great gifts AND a new tutorial AND some free printables (compliments of Bethany). You've hit the motherlode! (see what I did there?)

For the Accessory Lover:

Mother's Day "Corsage" Brooch

I'm surely not the first to use this method to make a fabric flower, but briefly: I cut two strips of fabric, one about 1.5" wide and one slightly thinner and tapered at the end. Bother were roughly 20" long. Specific measurements are unimportant as you can gather and/or trim to your desired size. 

Next I folded each piece in half and sewed a running stitch (a longer stitch) along the raw edges and pulled on one of the strings to gather the fabric. I then used hot glue to spiral the ruffle around a small circle of felt, starting on the outside edge and working my way around to the center (tuck under any raw/fraying edges as you go). I finished it off by glueing a pretty button in the center and a brooch pin to the back. You can find those at any craft store or even Walmart, usually in the beading section. 

I pinned it to a pretty piece of card stock and labelled it in pretend calligraphy. A simple, pretty accessory (that won't die!) for mom to wear on Mother's Day.

Vintage Buttons Necklace: tutorial here 

For the Decorator: 

Pretty Throw Pillows: tutorials here, here, here, and here.

 Oversized Cross Stitch Wall Art: tutorial here

No-Paint Watercolor Map: tutorial here

For the Organized:

Envelope System Wallet: tutorial here

"Today" Reminder Board: tutorial here

 

For the Cook: 

Ruffled Apron: tutorial here

For the Sentimental:

Sibling Quilt: details here

 

Children's Silhouettes Window Pane: tutorial here

Forget Me Not Cupcake Bouquet and Book: details here

And here are some pretty card and tag printables to go along with whatever you give: PDF here

DIY Button Necklace

I've seen a few button necklace ideas on Pinterest, and decided to make my own!

 I went to SAS and picked out a variety of gold buttons, which was so much fun!  I don't know what it is about buttons, but I love digging through piles of them and finding the ones I like.  When I was little, my mom  would let me buy a few buttons to add to my collection (housed in a Ball jar), every time we went to the fabric store (which was often).  

 I arranged the buttons on a scrap of felt and hot glued them down once I had them arranged.  I also used wire cutter/pliers to snap off the backs of the buttons that were too bulky.  I then cut around the buttons so the felt wouldn't show, then sewed the chain to the back of the felt.

I love the different textures and tones of the buttons, and now this dress won't be so plain!

Playroom Decoration

 Our house has a huge loft upstairs that we use as a playroom.  One of the walls is large and blank.  It probably seems bigger than it is because the toys are so short.  It leaves a lot of blank space above them.  I was trying to think of something fun, cheap, and easy to fill the space.  I also didn't want anything permanent, just in case I change my mind or need to rearrange the furniture someday.

I saw that Joann's had their embroidery hoops on sale for 40% off, so I loaded up all four kids and we picked out five different sizes.  I ended up getting 19 of them, but it's easy to customize it to fit any space.  Then we headed over to the fabric department.  I LOVE looking at fabric.  It always makes me want to redecorate everything in my house because there are so many cute patterns.  Unfortunately, like I said, I had all four kids with me, so I resorted to letting my girls pick out the pre-packaged fabric quarters.  The prints aren't as cute, but they had all the colors we needed to make our rainbow, and my girls had fun choosing their favorites.  We did three of each color, except purple and pink, we only did two.  I'm sure this would be an excellent way to use up a fabric stash as well.  My scraps were mostly black and white, so I just got all new ones.

I washed and ironed all of the fabric so that it was smooth.  I laid the embroidery hoops out on the floor in front of the wall so that I could get an idea of how I wanted the layout and to make sure it stretched all the way across the room.  Then I had my daughter Ruby help me lay the fabric over the inner hoop and tighten the outer hoop over it.  We just trimmed off the edges of the fabric and they were ready to hang!  I went super easy on the hanging and just used push pins instead of nails.  I get nervous putting holes in the walls!  But the hoops hung right on the pins and I made adjustments where I needed to.

I love how it turned out and so do my girls.  It makes the playroom look more put together and fun.

Oversized Cross Stitch

I made this over-sized cross stitch at a craft night with friends a while back.  All you need is a canvas, paint, embroidery thread, and a needle.  First, I painted the canvas a metallic copper color and let it dry.

 I then chose a cross stitch pattern I liked, enlarged it, and printed it. You may need to print it on several sheets of paper then tape them together, depending on the size.  I put the pattern on the canvas and used a pin to poke holes through the paper and canvas at each corner of the squares in the design (where each "x" would go).

Then, I used a brown embroidery thread and followed the pattern.  Just sew like you would a normal cross stitch, tying off the last stitch on the back of the canvas.The result is an inexpensive, unique piece of art!