tonic living

Alright, I have to tell you that I just found the BEST most AWESOME fabric store on the web (and if you know different, please let me know)! I can spend hours looking at fabrics online but don't buy anything. In fact I have never purchased any fabric online because I can't feel it--I need to feel it--literally and figuratively.

In comes Tonic Living!!!! Again, simply awesome fabric

AND

You can buy swatches of many of the fabrics for one buckaroo! Yup, 1 dollar! I just bought 8 swatches ($10 total with shipping). I have no idea the size of the swatch, but let me tell you- I am super excited. Can you tell?

Here are a few that I will receive soon:

Plus 4 others....Who knows what I will do with them or if I want to buy yardage to make a project? I just could not resist getting the swatches to become inspired.

Have I convinced you to check them out yet?

Tonic Living

I'm kicking myself that I already placed my order because I am finding more that I want swatches of now. Dang!

servant of God banner

At church we'rein the middle of "The Year of Servanthood" --helping us to become better servants in our community, church and the world. I need a reminder for myself, while at work especially, that I am a servant to those I work with, so I made myself a banner. A pretty big reminder,to hang over my desk.

I used an old package (we're talking $.35 old) of iron-on bias tape, which I had never used before, as the hanging mechanism. It worked okay, but it needed some glue gun supplementation in a few spots.

Let's hope this banner will remind me daily to be a servant of God at work, at home and in the world.

Do you think I need to find another backdrop? Yeah, me too.

easy frame project

This is probably the easiest, simplest, fastest project I've ever done.

I wanted to turn this old $3 frame from the thrift store into another mirror for my mirror wall. So I spray painted it flat black and then went to Lowe's to get it outfitted with a mirror. The cheapest / smallest mirror that you can get cut is over $10, so I said "No thank you" and went home. I decided that I could make something else with it. I cleaned off the glass and was going to make a "white" board to write messages on, but I decided against that since I didn't want a white board pen hanging next to it.

So I decided to break out the scrap book paper and found some fall-ish designs: black and white leaves clouds. I added brown ribbon between the papers, free handed the letters

l-o-v-e and cut them out of the leaf designed paper and I stuck the glass back in.  Less than 20 minutes, not counting the spray painting of the frame, and Voila-Done!. Easy-peasy. I can even change it out according to the season and holidays...if I remember :)

Man, our house looks really traditional from this angle. One day I'll fix that!

shirt for our pastor

This is from a few months ago, but I never got around to posting it. Our son was dedicated to God in church and his shirt matched his name and our pastor commented on it and said he needed a shirt with a big lance going across it--can you guess his name?

Yup, Lance.

Our whole family was there at the dedication and afterwards at our house Papa said I should make Lance a lance shirt.

So I did. I made two.

One freezer paper stenciled.

The other was appliqued with his name freezer paper stenciled on as well.

With the note I sent to Pastor Lance, I suggested he use them as pj shirts since I'm not sure he'd want to be seen in public with them on :)

burnt edge flowers

These may be my favorite flowers to make yet!  The very talented Emily of Jones Design Company made these as corsages for her adorable family. (She must be extra talented to get her boys and hubby to wear matching flowers!) I fell in love and got right on to making a bunch...and I have a feeling they will show up in many more creations!

I started with a corsage which I turned into a headband. I did not take a photo, but I used regular pin backs and slid the closed pin over an existing plastic headband so that I can choose the color of headband I want to use, but still have the pin to use as a corsage. You can barely see the headband in the photo below, but I promise it's there!

Then I made one for a hat for a sweet baby girl.

And a more permanent headband. I first sewed it onto the headband.

Then hot glued a piece of felt over the sewn part to make it comfy on the head,

 and tada!

Fun! Make sure to check out Emily's tutorial and make your own! I'd love to see what you do with your burnt edge flowers!

squirrel mobile

Okay hold on to your hats people...I'm breaking out of the feathered friends habit (here, here, here, and here) and into the mammals!

I only got one good photo of Mr. Squirrel before he was off to the craft fair. And before he left I decided he needed googly eyes instead of embroidered ones...I think it was the right choice. :) Too bad I forgot to take a picture.

I used the same "ring method" to hang it as I did on the love birds. It's workin' for me.

love mobile

Yup, it's another bird mobile, but with a little twist- a love mobile! The little heart is just two pieces of fabric, sewed together, stuffed with filling and sewed up (like the birds, but without the blanket stitch). It is hanging from invisible thread like it is floating over the birdies' heads.

*love*

 

The eye is a french knot.

I've been experimenting with different ways to hang the mobiles. So far, this is my favorite:

I use an old ring (in this case an old jelly ring-remember those?) and invisible thread. Each branch is different, so it takes experimentation to devise the perfect balance. Basically, I take very long piece of invisible thread  and knot it around the bottom branch and work my way up winding it around strategically at certain points, balancing as I go. Then at the top of the mobile, I take the ring wind the thread around it, tie a knot, and work my way down the other side as described above and tie it off. Make sense?

If you make your own, make sure to send a photo or link!

scalloped welcome banner

Check out this cute little welcome banner. I made it for upcoming craft shows to welcome people into our craft booth. It could also be used to welcome a new baby, or just welcome people into your home or for a party...I guess just about any time you want to welcome people...a picnic, a BBQ, a baby/bridal shower...you get the idea. :)

I just love the little pom-poms! Makes it so endearing.

I made this banner very quickly for our 15 year high school reunion we had last month.

oldie car shirts

I made these freezer stencil shirts for an upcoming car/craft show. I've never even heard of such a combo, but when you think about it, it's a great idea: husbands get to look at old cars and wives get to look at new crafts! win-win!

Our son loves this shirt so I think we'll be keeping it and I'll be making another for the craft show!

(yes, our little sweetie baby has a cast on his arm-covered by a sock with the toes cut out to keep it clean...sad).

Gettin' a little doggy huggy-love!

I think I'll be making a few more of these before the week is up!

photo hook board

I LOVE hooks! I would hang everything on a hook if I could. I love easy access to my stuff and I like to see it so I don't forget I have it. So when I saw Sweet Daisy Designs'  Photo Key Holder, I knew I would be making one soon. I actually made this one over a month ago, just haven't found time to post.

I had Lowe's cut my wood down to size after I bought these cute little 5"x5"canvases at Michael's to make sure I knew the canvases would all fit since I wasn't sure I would be able to find the right size canvases. I painted right over the darling little anchor (Michael's had the most adorable nautical themed canvases...hhmmm..I keep writing "canvases"!) Then I watered down acrylic black paint and painted the wood. Before it dried, I wiped off most of the paint so the grain would show through. This must be done in stages so the paint does not dry too fast, especially if you are outside, like I was.

 Next came "aging" the edges of the painted canvases with an ink pad (I had never done this before...I'm still deciding if I like it, although it doesn't matter now, it's done and it's staying up!) Then I Mod Podged the  photos on the canvases.

I wish I had a Cricut or Silhouette cutter, but sadly, I do not, so I decided not to risk free handing or stenciling letter. Plus I convinced myself I prefer it plain.

I bought the hooks already on a black backboard at TJ Maxx for only $7.99 which was cheaper than buying each hook individually at the home improvement store. I just hammered some nails in the board to hang the hooks--easy-peasy! I also nailed some little nails to hang the canvases. Sweet Daisy's idea of gluing them may be better, but I am impatient and I did not read her directions all that closely and also gluing takes time to dry and a nail does not!

These photos remind me that i realllllllyyyy want to paint our walls! blaaaaahhh!