Saturday, January 21

Quilting Ironing Board

During a visit over Christmas my wonderful hubby heard the frequent comments from my mom about needing a tiny ironing board for next to her sewing machine.  So... this is actually made by my husband!

We started by going to Lowes and purchasing a board that was about 1x48x12.  I'm not sure those numbers are in the correct order, but.. you get it right?  OK... GOOD!  We had them cut it into 12 inch sections at the store.  You only need 1 for each board... we ended up making 3.
Next he stapled a layer of denim around the board using perfect hospital corners!  (He was so sexy to me that day... LOL)  We felt the need for an added layer between the wood and the ironing pad.
Next we chopped an cheap ironing board cover from walmart to fit over the denim and he stapled again using his sexy hospital cornering skills.  And... done!  A useful tiny ironing board for those quick pressings when creating quilt squares! 
See!  Fancy board for me and mom and my sister!  Good job Handsome Prince!  (I actually have him as that in my phone.  Sometimes I forget and go to look him up by his name and get confused when he isn't there... then I remember.  He isn't Scott!  He is my Handsome Prince!)

Thursday, January 19

2 Things From Pinterest

Here is something I saw on Pinterest that I loved.  I don't think that I would ever really do this but...  Long story short.  We knew we weren't going to be here in Florida for long so ALL our things are in South Dakota.  Anyways...  the house we are renting is EXTREMELY under-decorated and it has been getting to me more than I thought!  I decided to make a few things using 2 ideas I saw on Pinterest.  1) A Faux Antique Glass Tutorial and 2) a Schmancy Cupcake Display.

First... the Faux Antique Glass
I checked out every tutorial.  They are ALL very similar and ALL end up with something the same, but...  I knew what I wanted and here is MINE!  I haven't found a tutorial that uses this exact technique, but...  in all honesty...  it ain't that different!  LOL
Start with glossy Mod Podge, a disposable cup, food coloring and something glass!
I poured some Mod Podge into the cup and added a few drops of dye along with a FEW drops of water... again... A FEW!  To much water and you are just gunna have to put on a bazillion layers.  I tinted some brown and some blueish green!
Then I started layering away!  I let the glass dry COMPLETELY in between each layer.  I just popped in through out the day and painted a layer on the outside.
Here are some dry and ready for some more layers... I just wanted to show you the inbetween!
Next I set the oven at the lowest setting and bake them for about 25 minutes.  This hardens all those layers of Mod Podge and sets in to the glass.
And... the blues are much darker, but... hard to photograph!  Note the original color in the front.  As you can see... What started as a simple project of dying my kids toothbrush holder, the change jar and my candle jar ended up running into another project of tinting glass candle sticks for another project!  
Here I simply used E-6000 glue and some stacking skills to create what I have seen as a fancy dessert display.  I wanted something more to get those random few items off my counter top.  
AND the glue is strong enough that I can lift the candle stick at the top and it doesn't come apart! 
Below is my new soap dispenser holder.  I just did this cause I had an extra and... needed somewhere to put my new cake plate when it didn't have cake on it!  
I collected some of the beautiful white sand from the beach here.  My theory is that when the candle melts down it will be easier to get out cause of the sand!   I am so smart!  And... also modest.  I did try to get it down further, but I need more sand I think cause it's are to work in that tiny space even with my skinny fingers!
I didn't really create a tutorial on this.  My only tip is to glue the sticks to the BOTTOM of the plates first.  Then let it dry and glue the top the tops.  I used the fancy eyeballing technique of  getting them centered and the bottoms of the plate usually have a smaller rim to eyeball by!  Below is my new tooth brush caddy.  I spray painted the pieces first.  The middle bowl is darker grey than in the pictures, but..  Anyways, my sister hates the bowl on the top and even more so spray painted blue, but... I like it!  LOL  Yup.. I crazy I like em weird!




Tuesday, January 17

Death of a Nail Polish Caddy... or Not?

I know this isn't crafty, but... Deal with it! I have something important to tell you!
I have need to inform you of the departing of a long time companion of mine. She has been with me through some "pedi" spills, holding things together. While sad at this announcement I am also filled with a sense of peace.  I know she has fulfilled her purpose in life and moved on to more exciting things!

Since I am sure you read the title of my post, you already know who it is that has moved on.  My beloved nail polish caddy has been with me for about 13 years. I got her as a gift for being in a friends play when I was a junior in high school!.
Upon giving her a face lift to match the walls a entire ceiling of my room... She sat upon my desk and held many things. (You can see her original wrapping inside in the pic below.)
It's amazing she has held on so long! She is really just a cardboard container decoupaged once with scary flowery paper and another time by me with magazine cutouts. I put her in the tiny trash in my bathroom where she was once again rescued by my 7 year old daughter! (Do your kids rescue things from the trash too?)  I wonder what she will be holding now!
Perhaps you are asking yourselves why I would part with such a cherished item. Well... for Christmas I got gorgeous!  I guess I should say  Gorgeous, the Victoria Secret perfume.  I personally am ALWAYS gorgeous!  LOL  I decided it was time to give my nail polish collection a chance to grow.  The old caddy had no more room!  As you can see below I can now add a few bottles!  I had to use my contact boxes to fill the void for now.
So much more grown up right!  My new friend even has a Gorgeous lid!  Since My new box is flatter and larger AND has a lid I can...
Set some other junk on top of it!  Although...  It does appear as though I need a better method for storing those items..  But this bathroom has NO storage!  What you see is the storage I have and the other side is holding towels and the mouth wash that snuck into the picture!  Evil mouth wash!

Monday, January 9

Bleach Stencil For Dummies

We have all seen the bleach pen trick around the blog world or on Pinterest!  Well... here is a tip for those of us who are NOT good at drawing!  My parents live in Texas and have discovered a scorpion problem in their new house.  To fix that my dad has been obsessing over chickens.  I found some awesome scorpion print flannel and made pajama pants for christmas.
 I needed a chicken shirt for my dad.
Umm...  print out an image...
and trace it with your bleach pen...
Then flip it over onto your fabric and lightly press.
Then lift the paper.
Then touch up.  And  I added words!  Hee hee!
I let it sit for about 25 minutes before putting it in the washer.
Here is the shirt washed and finished!  Looks great with the scorpion pants huh!

Saturday, January 7

Super Easy Half Square I Spy Quilt

I am having do much fun making I Spy Quilts with all the novelty fabric I have been collecting! My mom and I joined a site called The Quilting Board. There are s couple different things on there. Picture sharing, Quilt ideas, chat groups... But my favorite spot is the Swap Section! Each swap has a theme. Some of them have you create several of the same block and then mail them into one person who swaps them around and mails them back to you. I like the fabric swaps! It is a great way to get fabric for a scrappy quilt and try out fabrics that I would never buy myself! (I have a new obsession with orange... I have decided that is a totally under appreciated fabric color!)

Anyways... One of the groups we joined is a 6.5 inch novelty fabric swap. Every month there is a different theme: Food, Wild Things, Love... As a result I have a fabulous collection of novelty prints!

Making an I Spy Quilt can be super easy. You don't need a crazy pattern because the prints are always out there!  This looks like strategically placed half square triangles right? Well.. I suppose it is, but... it was MUCH simpler than it appears!
This first step simply takes a bit of fabric sorting.  I made 4 sections.  Each 4 x 5 and made of 6.5 inch squares and each with a color pallet.  I did Red/Pink, Black Background, Purples, and Blue/Greens.  See pics below.
This next part can get trick.  I really only flipped the corners I did because I was trying to spread the colors.  If you get lost, just cut corners and switch them around.
I took the top right corners of the top right and bottom left section and swapped them.  
Then I took the top left corners of the top left and bottom right sections and swapped them.
Then I cut the inside corners of both top sections and the outside corners of both bottom sections.   I swapped the top corners with the bottom corners straight up and down.
If that confused you as much as it did me, then see the picture below!  As you can see I sewed all the sections together and then used lighter colors for a border!
Here is my husband attempting to ruin the picture when in reality he is simply admitting that the pink teddy bears and pink bumble bees are his fav!  lol

And done!  I backed it in swirly purple flannel.  It was SO FAST!  I can't wait to do another one.
Here is my sweet neice Taeli.  I'm thinkin she likes it!  All ready to play I Spy!