Bleach Pen Stenciling

Just stumbled upon this while in blog world.  What a cool idea. I am thinking this technique can totally be done on t-shirts for a fun summer/beachy look.  Head on over to Crafts & Sutch for a tutorial on this "no sew bleached sand dollar pillow"

Mod Podge Class

This invitation turned out wider than I expected, so it totally spilled over into the rest of the window... I had to make the image smaller to fit on the page.  Click on the picture and it should give you a larger version, so you can actually read what it says.  I will have to remember to make it tall and thin instead of short and pudgy next time.  Hope to see many of you at this class.  It should be loads of fun.

Placemat Pillow

Ok...  this is genius!  I just saw this tutorial on how to make a pillow using a fabric placemat.  WHAT???  I just can't get over how easy this looks.  I will definitely be buying a nice placemat at Target today.  They have so many cute ones and they are always seasonal and trendy.  I am SOOOO excited!

Big Top Party Decor

I found this video titled Big Top Party Decor by Simply Kelly B. so inspiring, especially as I am in the process of putting together my own son's birthday party... which is this weekend.  Yikes!  I have so much work to do...  but it's FUN work. 

Here are some still shots of Kelly B's circus theme ideas.  There are some great tutorials on her blog as well, so be sure to check it out (Simply Kelly B.)

 

May Class

Yummy Easter Goodies

Made these cupcakes for our Easter family gathering...

I made these nests using Chow Main noodles and melted chocolate and filled them with Hershey chocolate eggs. 

DIY big impact wall art

I have been looking for ideas for some easy and quick art project to hang in my Living Room.  Here are a couple that I will definitely try.  Anyone want to try them with me?

This first one is a Paint Chip Masaic Art piece, by Hope Studios. They have a great tutorial on their site for this project.  I love the look... and the price.  Looks like it is VERY easy to make as well... might not even need hubby's help with this one :)

The next one, is a Pottery Barn inspired piece.  I have been wanting a similar wall hanging from Pottery Barn for a while now...  I don't think they carry it any longer, but the price tag was $600, I believe.  I was SO excited when I found this tutorial by The Polka Dot Umbrella.  I will most definitely try to recreate this.  However, I will absolutely have to recruit my wonderful husband to help me with the construction.  Talk about big impact, though...  This piece measures 47"x47".

Cozy Flower Pillows

Flowers are such a huge trend right now.  Seems that lately I have been seeing flower pillows on all the awesome blogs I follow.  Here are some of my favorites.  Most of these are quick and easy tutorials to make your own. 

These flower petal pillows  just use scraps of fleece...  Fleece is so inexpensive and cozy and doesn't fray, so you don't have to worry about the edges unreveling.

This Ruffled Rosette Pillow might require some sewing... but I bet I could glue it together.  The end result is great and vibrant.

This shaggy ruffled pillow also uses up a lot of fabric scraps and has more of an earthy feel to it.  I like projects like these, where you don't have to be perfect because its imperfection also happens to be its beauty.

These pillows are made with the Oh So Yummy Amy Butler fabric.  I just love Amy Butler's style and vibrant colors.  Always a great pick-me-up for me.

And last but not least, here is a video, where Kim and Kris of the "DIY Dish" share how to create fabric Yo-Yos.  Those are very popular these days as well.  Click here to view more items they have made with these fabulous flowers.

House Number Sign

We've been living in our house for over a year now... but until today haven't had our house number displayed anywhere.  Cricut to the rescue, once again.  I absolutely love the way this turned out.

I noticed that burlap is so popular these days.  You can see it in all the upscale stores.  It's so inexpensive but has great texture and is very easy to work with.

For this project, I started with a square of burlap and frayed the edges.  Then I cut out numbers 2 and 6 using my friend the Cricut out of fabric.  I used iron on thing-a-majigy (what is the name for it???) to attach the numbers to burlap.  I also cut out "Creme" on the Cricut, out of freezer paper this time.  Ironed that on the burlap and used it as a stencil.  Then I used some heavy duty glue to attach the whole thing to the wood plaque, which I painted using acrylic paints and a layer of mod podge (mainly for texture).  For the finishing touch I added some upholstery tacks to each corner of the burlap.

I frayed the edges of the fabric numbers a little to give it a more shabby look.



I just love all the textures on this sign.  Here is a closer look at the burlap and painted background... along with that really cool tack.



Class Registration

Quick Reminder: Registration deadline for the next class is this Friday. If you haven’t registered, but would like to come, please let me know, so I can plan accordingly. I do have space left in both sessions… and please feel free to invite friends. Hope to see you next weekend!

Love it!!

I just love it when the UPS man brings me goodies...  :)

Savvy Cat Sign and Sunflower Saturday

I am loving my new Cricut Expressions.  This past week I purchased a software called Sure Cuts A Lot, which allows me to cut out images that I create on my own.  I have been playing with Adobe Illustrator, coming up with all kinds of ideas.  Here is a sunflower I made today.  I designed it in Illustrator and then used my new SCAL software to cut it out on the Cricut.  Then inked and curled the edges and glued all the pieces together.  This one measures about 3 inches around.

I am also in the process of making a wooden sign that says Savvy Cat.  Cricut has been a big part of this project as well.  I got some wooden flower shapes at the dollar store the other day...  a whole package of 10 was $1!!!  And for some reason I had 11 in mine, but I won't complain.  Painted them green (of course).  This paint is really cool.  It's metalic.  I also painted the edges with another green paint that's super glittery.  Then I added letters, which I cut out using my Cricut (love this machine!) in the middle and Mod Podged over the whole thing several times.  I am so happy with the way this project is turning out so far.  Hopefully I will have more time to play with it tomorrow...  teal and brown are the plan for the background.

The Walrus aka Chloe's new toy

I have made these toys for Chloe several times, and she absolutely loves them.  They are quick and easy to make and are pretty much free.  First, let me explain why we call it "the walrus".  Well, I will let the pictures speak for themselves:

And as I was looking for a picture of a walrus on the Internet, I also came across this one:

Pretty disturbing, huh?  Someone took the time to Photoshop this poor puppy's face on the walrus' body.  Reminds me of a certain dog that lives in my house.  Anyway... back to the toy.

I got this really cool stash of shirts from my niece today.  I have been looking for some pink, since it's Chloe's favorite color (at least I think so)... so thank you Grace for your donation.

Here is how you can make your own "Walrus" toy:

Supplies you will need - t-shirt and scissors.  Yup, simple as that.

First disassemble your shirt.  Because mine was a smaller size I needed to find the biggest piece I could work with.  You want a nice solid piece with no seams.

Lay your fabric piece flat and cut it into as many wide strips as you can.  I made mine about 2.5" - 3" wide and ended up with 8 strips that were about 15" long.  You can use more strips, it will make your toy fuller.  Less strips will make it kind of flimsy. 

Then stack your strips and tie a knot in the middle.

Now take each strip and cut it into thinner stips toward the knot.  I made mine about 1" wide.

Once all your strips are cut, take each one and stretch it out.  They will form these cool tubes.

And once that's done...  you have yourself your very own Walrus Toy. 
Tah - Dah!!!

I also used some of the same fabric to make this really cute headband for my niece as a Thank You for parting with her old clothing items... and allowing me to cut them up. 

New Toy - Cricut - In GREEN

I have been thinking about getting one of these for a while now... and today was the day.  I saw them at Walmart in a few cool colors... and they only had one green... and it was on sale.  Well, I think it had my name written on it.  So, I just had to splurdge and get it.  You might not see me for a while, I will be playing with my new toy!  Can't wait to plug it in...

Sunny Preview

The reason I've been so quiet for the past week is because I have been working on projects for the next class.  Here is a little preview of some of the things I've come up with...  It is just a preview... a little peek...  You will have to come to the class to see more.  Oh, and one more thing.  There will be cholocate and glitter involved!!!

Etched Glass - can I really do this?

This is the end result of my first attemtp at glass etching.  It was a super easy, fast.. and very satisfying project.

Supplies you will need:  something glass (obviously).  I purchased these two candle holders a the Dollar Tree.  They are probably about 4" tall.  The reason I have two is because my sweet husband, who was home not feeling too well today, said he would like to do a project with me.  What a good sport he is!  OK, now back to the supplies.  You will aslo need Glass Etching Cream.  I purchased mine at Michaels.  Not cheap but goes a long way.  I think my 3 oz. bottle was $12.99 but I used a 40% off coupon, so it was quite a bit less.  We used foam brushes to apply the cream.  Another thing you will need is some sort of a stencil.  I bought some at Michaels but decided not to use them because I didn't have repositinobale adhesive... blah blah blah.  So, we improvised...  next step.

I used my Big Kick and cut out a flourish (Tim Holtz's die) on some contact paper.  You obviously don't need printed contact paper but that's what I had on hand, leftover from when we lined our bathroom drawers. 

Then I removed the flourishes and saved them for another use... don't know what that use might be quite yet.  You need the negative space in order to create the stencil.



We then attached it to the glass...  and used some more contact paper around the edges, so the cream wouldn't get on the parts where we didn't want it.  You also want to make sure to remove any air bubbles, so the cream won't get under your stencil.



Here is my Honey applying the etching cream to the glass. 

We applied it very liberally, tapping it on, not brushing.  I think it works better that way.  But since it was our fist time, we don't really know.  The directions say to let it sit for about 5 minutes.  I followed the directions, and Greg left his for about 15 minutes, to experiment...  we didn't see much of a difference between the two. 

Then you rinse the whole thing, washing away all of the etching cream. 

Then peel away your stencil... and marvel at the beauty of your newely etched glass.  It's SO cool!

Here are our two candle holders side by side.  I still need to remove the labels from the bottom... and get some candles to go in them.