Pillow Cover

My sister in law gave me her old pillows she made when my husband and I got married. That was about 7 years ago, not including the time that my sister in law had them. That is just how long I have had them. I would say that it is about time for a make over. My girl's room needed some throw pillows so I thought I could put these old ones to good use. Follow along to see how I made these pillow covers.
First take your old pillow and measure all the way around it. If your pillow is rectangle you will need to measure horizontal and vertically. Mine is a square so I only needed to measure once. Which my pillow is 34". Now when you take this measurement to your fabric you will need to add about 1 1/2 inches to the length before cutting. So my new fabric will be 35 1/2" long
Next, fold, pin, and sew all the way around the edges. This seals your fabric so it won't fray latter on.
Now fold one end of your fabric over to the middle. Make sure you are doing this all inside out.
Then fold the other end of the fabric over. Making sure to overlap your 2 ends a little bit. I overlapped mine by about 2 inches. Once again you are going to sew, but this time your not going to go all the way around. You will only need to sew down the 2 sides that are open. Don't forget all this is inside out.
After you sew your 2 ends you will flip your fabric the right side out. As you can see you are left with a little pocket to stuff your pillow inside.
Here it is stuffed. Can you see the old pillow? You can also see why it was important to overlap your 2 end pieces. It creates a nice little covering so you can't see the old one.
Yay! For about $3 I have some new throw pillows for my girl's room. That sure beats spending $30 for some new ones from the store

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Valentine Dessert Stand

This is my last Valentine's Post I promise. I don't know who I am suppose to give credit to for this idea. The blog world has been swamped with all kind of platter making. I have no idea where it originated from. Once again this was one of the things that I made for our February activity for church, but like I said it got canceled. I still want to preserve my ideas. So here is my creations on the Valentine Stands. They were suppose to be for the dessert table.
I grabbed some heart plates, bowls, and little flower vases. I started with a plate and hot glued one of the vases to it. I used hot glue, because it made it sturdy enough to hold for a little while. Later on after I wash them I can peel them off of each other and store easily. If you want them to be permanently stuck like that use a stronger glue.
I made several different varieties. It adds more character to the table when there are different heights and levels. My first was a short one plate with a bowl on top. Cost to make: $2.15
Second. A little taller with 2 plates. I liked having the bowl underneath the second plate. It gives it more detail and adds height. Cost to make: $2.85
Lastly, the 3 tier. 2 plates with a bowl on top. I still had the other bowl underneath the 2nd plate like in the previous picture. I just added another vase and bowl on top of the 2nd plate. Cost to make: $4.25

I bought these plates the day after Valentine's so I got them for 1/2 off. Having your activity after the actual holiday has its perks. I love catching sales

Coffe Filter Carnation

All month long I have been planning our church's February activity. Of course being the month about love. Our activity was going to be how to strengthen your marriage. I was surfing the web and came across Ashley's Craft Corner. she made these foe carnation flowers . I thought they would be a nice centerpiece for the tables and some extras to have around for the dessert table. I made a few adjustments to mine so I could call them my own. Since red is the color for Love. We decided to make all the decor red and white. It was a no brainer.
First, you start off by making an "O" with your hand
Then stuff a coffee filter in. This is where my variation came in. Ashley dipped her ends into paint and water. Paint and me don't mix, and I didn't want to wait around for them to try before I could start assembling. So I took a red permanent marker and ran it over all the edges of the coffee filter. I know the marker in the picture is green, but my kids ran off with my red one. It was the next marker closest to me at the time.
When you are done marking all the edges twist the end

and squeeze inside one of the holes of a wiffle ball. Keep repeating this step until you have half of the ball covered. Then insert into a vase, planter, box, etc. What ever you want to use. I ended up using a white gift box that you get in the party section at Wall-e world. They come in a pack of 8 for like $1. Finish off with some red ribbon and there you have it folks.

Another cheap, yet sophisticated, project accomplished. You could make 8 of these for around $3.00

Now for some bad news. I have found out that our church building will be closed that whole week of our activity, due to renovations. Therefore, our activity is canceled. Bummer, now what am I going to do with these flowers?

Button Bracelet

My daughter starts her first Ice Skating lessons tomorrow so we were trying to figure out a way on how to do her hair to keep it out of her face. We came up with a french braid that starts at the top and up the back and ends up in the middle. We cut some ribbon to tie off her crazy hair knots. I will post a tutorial on the hair-do later. Anyways, we were trying to figure out what to do with the left over ribbon.

We came up with a bracelet...
First, I took the ribbon and measured it around her wrist. Then took an old button I had laying around and sewed it onto one end.
Then I folded the ribbon over to measure how long the button was, Then cut a hole big enough for it to fit through
Again, fold the tip of the ribbon so both of the cut ends of your slit are puffing out. Take a lighter and singe the cut. That way your ribbon will not fray later on.And there you have it folks. A matching bracelet to go along with her hair ties.I say this chick-a-D is ready for some ice skating. She has her hair done and a nice accessory to go along with it. I don't think my daughter could get anymore ExCiTeD?

Christmas Gifts

Today was the last day of school before the holiday break. Of course we had to come bearing gifts. I had some flash back moments of things I have found while blog hopping. I thought it was about time that I made something that I've actually posted on this blog. I thought for the teachers I would do the Crayon Monogramming frames found at this old post. She made her's with the teacher's initial, but I wanted the gift to go to both the teacher and her assistance, so I decided to do their room number instead. That way they could hang it out on their wall to give it character instead of having your plain,boring, ugly, brown plaque that they put out to label all the doors. Here is what I came up with...
A1 is Anthony's classroom and KF is Isabel's classroom. I think they were a big hit, because Isabel's teacher actually started crying and hung it up right away. Another teacher walked in and saw how cute they were and said she wanted to put an order in for me to make her one too.
Yes, I did make them 2 different styles. Anthony wanted his with more chunky letters and Isabel wanted to keep it sleek and simple. Either way is cute.
Now for the wrapping...
I had another flash back from this post and thought it would make a perfect bow to top my present box off with. Who doesn't like M&M (many & many) Thanks!

For the kids it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Everybody has seen them before. Its the famous Reindeer Candy Canes. But I added a twist. We made reindeer food to go along with them. That way they could sprinkle some in the yard on Christmas Eve for the reindeer to snack on while Santa is putting presents under the tree. How do you make reindeer food? I'm glad you asked.They eat practically anything you have in your pantry. What I had on stock...Peanuts, oats, parsley (for flakes of grass), red & green sprinkles, and for the magic touch, some confetti and silver pixie dust (glitter) to help give them power to fly.
Mix it all up in a zip lock bag and shake. I tried mix it in a bowl, but all the glitter stuck to the sides. It didn't work, but some how shaking it in a bag did. Transfer them into little mini ziplock bags you find in the jewelry making section at walmart.
Print off direction sheets, so the kids will know what to do with it and slide it into the bag. Lastly, tie on your reindeer candy canes and VOILA!
Anthony wanted blue and white Reindeer
And Isabel wanted Rainbow ones.
The kids enjoyed their Christmas Party at school. And they loved to pass out their little treats that they made for their friends. Happy Holidays! Enjoy the break

Fo-Etched Glass Door

Want to know how to get this beautiful stain glass door look for really cheap? Here's how...
Originally I got the idea from At Second Street, but her directions said to find a sheet of decorative paper and exacto knife out the pattern. Ouch, my hand hurts just thinking about cutting out all that detail. So when I went to A.C. Moore yesterday I found this paper. That is pre-cut for you. Hello Genius invention! I snatched it up for $1.99. I also got some etched glass spray paint for $3.00 and some Elmer's spray glue ($2.50) for adhesive.First, you spray some glue on the backside of your decorative cut out paper. This will help hold down all of the little scrolls into place. Once you have placed it on your window where you would like tape up some newspaper to avoid spray painting into your other window panels. The tape gives you a nice clean line as well. Now you are ready to spray paint. Once you are done simply peel away your paper. Keep repeating these steps until you have done all of your panels. You will need to keep reapplying the spray glue on after every window panel to make sure it sticks well. You don't want any little flaps coming up. Voila! You have a nice Etched glass door. Here is from the insideAnd from the outside. Note to self...I thought it would be best if I spray painted it from the inside, but after it was all said and done. I should of sprayed it on the outside. Its darker on the inside and harder to see out. If your looking in from the outside in it is very faint and is very easy to see inside. Oh well, to late now, but you can learn from my mistake. I will be your guinea pig. I still think it is pretty.

I also should have picked a pattern that revealed more that way it would have been more frost instead of glass. The pattern I chose didn't cover much. You can still see through the windows very easily. I wish my paper pattern was reversed on the positive/negative. That would have been awesome

Drum Roll Please......
Total Cost for Etched Glass door: $7.50
How much it would have cost: $300

I'd say that's a BARGAIN! and it only took about 30 minutes to do

Hair Bands

Ok, here it is. My 2nd post of my own personal crafts that I have made. With school starting back we have bought lots of back to school clothes, but unfortunately didn't get any hair bows. I went through some of my scrap crafts and clothes to see what I could come up with. This is what I got...3 HEADBANDS

and a FLOWER PONYTAIL HOLDER

As I was looking through all my crafts I had all different kinds of flowers. So I cut some off of the stems. I got a regular ponytail holder and cut a small piece of felt to wrap over the ponytail and superglued down to hold it together.
With this one I got one of my daughters old plain headbands and spruced it up with this big pink flower. First you have to find where the seam is on your headband. I'm holding it up in the picture
Next you take your trusty superglue gun and dab some glue on the flower and stick it on to where that seam is on your headband
VOILA! You now have a new and improved accessory.
This headband I made out of one of my old tank tops that I didn't want anymore and cut the hem/trim of the neckline out of it. Its perfect, because it is all sewn for you, and not to mention its made out of stretchy fabric. The only thing you have to do is measure your child's head and sew together an inch tighter. The butterfly came from an old clip that broke. Once again find your seam and superglue on.
VOILA! You have another.
The third headband I used that same tank top that I used from the previous headband, but this time I cut the hem/trim off the bottom of the shirt. It was a wider strip, but still was made out of the stretchy material. I used another flower I had and superglued it together.
VOILA! All accessorized out. Can I just say it is hard to take pictures of an active 2 year old. My school girl had already went to sleep, so little mini me had to be my model. She was happy to comply.There you have it, 3 new headbands and a flower ponytail holder. The best part, I didn't have to spend any $$$$. Go try it yourself. Start searching through your house for old junk and see what you can come up with.

Chandy-basket

Brassy Apple is ingenious. She made a elegant chandelier perfect my little girls room out of wire baskets she got from the dollar store. Brilliant. I'm telling y'all. Y'all are going to have to stop coming up with so many cute things, because I am way behind on my crafting. I can't keep with y'all. You all are just too good.