Fun Treat for Fall

I saw this idea on pinterest.com.  It is really simple and was quite the crowd pleaser at our last get together.  All you need is doughnut holes, chocolate frosting or nutella, chocolate sprinkles and pretzel sticks.  However, it took a lot more chocolate sprinkles than I expected.

Little doughnut acorns in a row

magnet board

magnet board

Supplies:

metal sheet from hardware store, cut to size, I did a 3x3

fabric

duct tape

ribbon

This was so easy to make, (except the cutting, but my wonderful husband did that for me!) all you do is cut your fabric leaving about 2 inches to fold over the back, pull it tight and tape it down.

Use a punch or a screw driver and a hammer to poke 2 holes in the top for your ribbon and tie it up.

We made this coat rack to hang coats at the bottom. just a 1x4 paint it black and put some hooks on it!

Kite mobile

I made this for the nursery I am putting together for our almost here baby girl.  It was VERY cheap.  The only thing I had to purchase was the felt and I got that on Etsy.com... I just searched "wool felt sheets" and there are quite a few venders, all have a variety of colors so just find what vendor has the colors you are looking for and you can purchase a nice stack.  When the felt arrived there was orange and white twisted string holding it together so I just used that as my mobile string. I got a screw in top hook from a friend (but you can find at any craft store), and then the sticks from outside.  You can make a mobile with what ever shapes or hanging items that you want... I chose to make mine a kite mobile (diamonds with sticks on the back :) ). My only tools were diamond patterns I made out of cardboard and a glue gun.
1) I made 3 different sizes of cardboard diamonds just using a ruler and "eye-balling" it. I then picked the order of the felt colors I wanted for each diamond set (I wanted a layered look, as you can see) and I cute out my shapes and placed them into the groupings I liked. and then glued them together.

2) Next I went and searched out the straightest small sticks I could find to glue onto the back... I did this to make it look like a kite and to help the diamonds keep their shape.  I broke the sticks to create the proper length and glued them on.  The cross stick I glued onto the other stick in the middle and on the two edges.

 3) I then found 3 sturdier sticks that I liked the look of to use as the arms of the mobile.  And leaving enough string at the top to hang the mobile I measured down how far I wanted each stick and secured it in place by wrapping the string multiple times around the middle (or where ever the stick balanced the best) and then tied a double knot to secure it... I did this for all 3 sticks.

4) Then I proceeded to add the kites to my sticks.  I only made 5 so on the top two sticks I added a kite to each side and on the bottom I hung one down the main middle string.  I attached the string to the kites by wrapping the string multiple times around the back stick and tied a knot and put some glue attaching the string to the felt as an extra security. and then wrapped and tied the top end of the string to the main stick, also adding a little glue for extra security.

5) And after doing that with all the kites my mobile was complete! I just screwed in the hook to the ceiling and wrapped and tied the string multiple times to the hook to make sure it was secure.  I may add the letters of her name to the front diamonds (if we can figure out what to name her any time soon) but for now this is how it looks....

There are a ton of ways to make a mobile, but I really loved the natural/rustic look of this one... if this is your style, give it a whirl... its cheap and easy!

Baby crib bumpers

I am not going to write out all the directions on here as I copied them 100% from this website I founds... i'll post it below so anyone who is interested can do the same.  The instructions were very clear and I was able to accomplish my goal (my first sewing goal since about 13 years ago in highschool) of making my baby girls crib bumpers.  The only thing I did differently than this blog is I made my own crib ties, I didn't just use ribbon... I'll be honest, making your own takes probably 5 times as long as just cutting and sewing in ribbon, but I personally like the look of it a lot better, so I'll show you how I did that...
Here is the link to make crib bumpers
And here are my tid bits...
1) pick out the type and thickenss of batting you want to use, I just went to the fabric store and looked at the batting on those big rollers and used the measurements of my crib to determine how much to buy.  Fabric wise, I bought 2 1/2 yards just so I would have enough for seams and all that jazz.
2) Make your pattern (how ever small or tall your bumpers are is up to you), I used wax paper and then cut off about an 1-1 1/2 inches off the width and then rolled it out one inch longer than the length of the side of my crib and cut.  I used the same piece of wax paper for all four sides, I just measured and cut the long sides first and then cut the wax paper to fit the short sides of the crib and then cut those... Walla!... I had all my pieces (the rest you can read about on the link I posted).

Now for the ties...
1) I suggest getting a partner in crime for this, it was much easier having help with cutting and measuring, and it went a lot faster.
2) Determine the width and length you want your ties, I didn't care if they could tie a bow, I wanted more the knot look so we cut mine 11 inches long and about an 1 1/2 inches wide... different sizes will have different looks.
3) We made this SUPER easy.... we cut one long strip the width and length we wanted and then we folded over the fabric, pinned that one to the next segment and cut another one and just kept using the last one we had cut as our pattern... the length of our fabric was such that we could just cute one long strip the width I wanted and then we divided it by 4 (which was 11 inches) and after we cut all the strips we needed we cut them into 4ths and walla (I had 8 long strips total which each cut evenly into 4 11 in pieces) (in the end you need 24 ties).
4) the next part took the longest, once you have all your 11 in x 1 1/2 in strips (or what ever length you choose)... you fold it in half, right side of the fabric facing in and you sew around two of the open ends leaving one of the small ends open (I did a zig zag and a straight stitch, doubled up, to ensure no fraying would occur), and then you start to turn it inside out, first start with your fingers, then you can use the end of a wooden spoon to push the excess fabric through (it really does take a while.), and then you can tuck in the raw edges of the open end and sew the end shut, iron the pieces flat, and there you have it... ties. (follow the link to show you how to sew them into the bumpers.)

Finished product...

clip board

My one year old is getting quite a clip collection and we needed somewhere to put them all where we could see them. I can't claim this idea as my own, I saw it somewhere, I just copied it, but it's really easy and turned out pretty cute!


All we did was wrap some fabric around a canvas and secure it with staples. Then stapled some ribbon on and hung it up on her wall. Easy Peasy.

painting fabric

I've had these chairs for a while now and just was never happy with them. I covered them in a solid fabric that ended looking the same color as the paint on our walls, blah. It looked totally different at the fabric store. So I painted numbers on them! a cute friend suggested this and I've been seeing it a lot in Pottery Barn and stores like that.

Fabric paint is really easy and cheep, and I just made the stencils by printing numbers on card stock and cutting them out with a razor blade.

(and check out the beginning of our Halloween decor, the bats hanging from the chandler)

quick update for scrapbooks

This was a cute idea I snagged from a friend. I am really good at keeping up on scrapbooks for my kids, just sticking pictures in each month, nothing fancy! So I have 10 books sitting on my shelves that are just really dull and mismatched.

I'm going to cover each kids in a different pattern. I found 4 different but matching fabrics.

Super easy to do (if you have a sewing machine).

Use your book for a pattern.

Cut out, sew all 4 edges over for a nice edge.

sew the 2 ends to make pockets to hold the cover of your book.

and there you have it! 3 of them at least, I figured that was enough for today considering all the other projects I have going at the moment.