Hawaiian Headband and AG Barrette

Hi everyone!  I hope it is warmer in your neck of the woods than it is in mine.  I don't know about you, but give me sun and 90 degree weather and I am a happy girl.  It has been unusually frigid this week, so to heat things up I decided I would break out the Hawaiian shower curtain I bought for $1 at a garage sale earlier this year and make some peasant dresses and hair accessories to match.  You can create one of a kind accessories for your girl without breaking the bank.  I just used things we already had at the house,so this project didn't cost anything to make.  You can't beat that with a stick.

In the picture above, you can see the peasant dress on Julie our latest favorite American Girl.  The child of the seventies in me wants to claim her for myself. The Hawaiian dress makes her look like something straight out of that Brady Bunch episode with the curse and the tarantula.  Yes, I love cheesy t.v. shows as much as you do.

Anyways, after I made the peasant dresses, my little cutie asked for matching hair accessories.  I know, she's not spoiled in the least, but like the crafty mama I am, my heart sang just a little bit.  Here is a better picture of the headband.  All it is basically is a Wal-Mart headband with two layers of fabric hot glued on and a jewel in the middle.  It will not take you more than an hour to do this. 

Here is a list and pic of the materials and pics of the tools you'll need:

Materials and Tools Needed:
Sewing scissors
hot glue gun
rotary mat (optional)
Circle template (optional)
pencil
headband

jewel or button for embellishment
scrap of felt
fabric to match outfit (six 3 inch circles and six 2 1/2 inch circles)

Are you ready to start?  Here are very detailed directions and plenty of pictures to help you on your way! Have fun crafting!

First, on the back side of your fabric, use a pencil
to trace six 3 inch circles.  If you fold over your fabric, you
can do several at a time.   This will be the bottom
fabric layer on your headband or barrette.  If you
don't have a template, simply use a jar lid or cookie
cutter the size you want the bow. 

Here is a better picture of the circles.  I cut them
four at a time by folding the fabric.  You only need
six 3 inch circles.

Next, just trace a 2 inch circle on your felt and cut it out.
  This is backing for your fabric so that it will be a bit sturdier.

Next, on the back side of your fabric, trace and cut six
2 1/2 inch circles.  This will be the top, smaller layer of fabric on
your headband or barrette.

Now take the 3 inch circles and fold them in half in
a taco fold.

Next, fold the right side up into a wedge, hot glue the
bottom only to hold it in place.

Next, fold the left side back into a wedge the same
size as the front and glue the bottom only to hold that
into place.

This is more than six, I know.  I wasn't sure how many
I'd need.  Make six of these double cone shapes

Glue your wedges around your 2 inch circle of felt.
Make sure the point of your fabric is in the center of
the felt so that it will not be lopsided or bunched up in
middle.

Here's what it looks like when you've finished the bottom
layer.

Here are the 3 inch and 2 1/2 inch circles side by side.
So make six of the 2 1/2 inch circles, then on top
of the bottom layer, glue them  in the middle to
form the top layer. 

Here are the six 2 1/2 inch circles glued on top.

Here is the view of the back.

Next, hot glue your jewel or button in the center.

Finally, hot glue the felt on the back to the headband or barrette.
You may want to try this on your model before you
decide where to glue it, depending on her bangs,
natural part and just taste preference.

Viola, you're done!  I hope your headband or barrette turned out well.  Please leave a comment and picture of your project and follow me so that you can keep up with all my projects.

Be blessed!  Courtney

Burlap: Simple Home Made Elegance

 Hi, friends!  Happy 2014 to you.  I hope this post finds you all well and blessed!!

I have jumped on the burlap craze like many of you and I have to say: the pillows are cute.

Here is an easy tutorial to help you make your own in less than thirty minutes.

Materials:
pillow form
1 yd. burlap
scissors
straight pins
sewing machine and coordinating thread

Step 1: Double over your burlap so that you can't see the pillow form through the loose weave of the burlap.  It just looks better.  Then lay your pillow form on the left side of the burlap.  Make sure the pillow form is less than half the size of the length of your burlap.

Fold the burlap over and check the size to make sure it fits.

Step 2:  Pin two of the sides along the edge of the pillow form to make sure the burlap will be snug around the pillow.  This reduces the appearance of wrinkles and folding lines in the burlap. After pinning two sides, leave one side open so that you can slide out your pillow form before sewing.  The fourth side is the folded edge of the burlap.

Slide out your pillow and then pin the last open side right along where the edge of the pillow was.  See the picture below. It was tough to get the camera to pick up the straight pin against the burlap.

 Step 3:  One side of your pillow is the folded fabric, so you won't have to worry about sewing that edge.  Sew two of the three open sides completely closed.  I like to leave the opening for the pillow in the middle of the fourth side.  Sew about 2 1/2 inches in from each corner of the fourth side.  This will give you four crisp corners when finished.  (See below.  This is the bottom edge in the picture.)

Step 4:  Turn your pillow case right side out so that your stitches are all tucked away neatly inside.  Pin the opening in the middle of the fourth side closed so that you can hand-stitch your opening neatly closed.  Make sure to tuck in the unfinished edges to form a straight and even fourth edge.  Use a thread that is a close match in color to the burlap and it will help give a neater appearance.  I use just a straight stitch about 1/2 inch from the edge to finish the pillow across the complete opening.

Here's the finished look! Happy sewing!!

One Man's Trash: Restyling and Using Yard Sale Finds

 Hey y'all!  In my southern hometown, yard sale season is alive and thriving.  I don't know about you but there's nothing I like better than a good bargain.  My parents raised me right and we have a standing date in the summer for early Friday mornings.  This is our Mimi and Papa time.  We scour our hometown for finds that you can't find in the big box stores and I have a hard time paying retail prices in the boutiques if I think I can recreate it. 

A few weeks ago I struck gold and found lots of goodies for right around $30.  If I'd bought all this in the store, I'd have easily paid over $300.  No, I am not exaggerating.  I know, it's crazy how much things cost now.  I sound old so I won't go down that road.  I will share with you what I paid for each item, not to brag but to make it more interesting.  So I hope you don't take this as bragging, but enjoy what I am sharing with you.

There is a lot to see in the picture, so I will point out the goodies for you.  Please excuse the back yard in the picture, it was too cloudy to take a decent picture indoors.  There is the gorgeous lamp with the red shade $5,  the gold frame $5, the retro ice bucket $1,  beside that is the faux maple picture frame ($.50) leaning against a bucket of cedar slats ($1) (Oh, the ideas I have for those!! Can't wait), there is a wicker basket $.50 ( I can never resist!), clear milk bottles ($.50 each), a decorative piece $3, a Vera Bradley insulated lunch tote ($2 WHAT!!), a turquoise and burgundy rooster hand towel $1, sunglasses $.50 each, two bead necklaces $.50 each, a National Audubon clock (Free, but I couldn't get it to work, so it went into the garbage.) and the barn wood coat rack $3 (LOVE), and you can see in the lower left-hand corner the top of the plant pedestal $4.  What you can't see are many, many books $.50 for hardbacks and $.25 for soft covers.  I love love love to read just about anything so yard sales are great for that.  I just refuse to pay over $10 for a book, usually. :-)

 Here is the gorgeous lamp on top of our c.d. chest.  My husband, kids and I are avid music lovers.  From Frank Sinatra to Metallica, The Cure to Randy Travis, it's there.  I love the way the lamp accents the rail fences quilt. At $5, I thought the lamp was a steal.  It even had an energy efficient, long-lasting GE bulb. A dab of red will do ya.  Some of the things I could use as is, like this lamp:

and the cozy red hen kitchen towel. For just $1, it so goes with the jasper walls of my kitchen.  I love blue-green and green-blue, robin's egg, turquoise, jasper, whatever you want to call it.  My country roots are showing in the chicken motif.  Who doesn't love a little hen or rooster here or there?   I do, I tell ya.

This plant stand was easy to make work by just adding the pot of perennials my sweet mother-in-law got me for Mother's Day.  Thanks Nanna!!  I am one of those people who meets no strangers, so I discovered at a yard sale that the lady was tired of moving this beauty and it was time to part ways.  At $4, I was ready to arm wrestle my mother for this.  Just kidding, I offered it to her first.  She has the same pedestal obsession that I do.  I have paid $20 for smaller ones at a big box store, so I was excited she passed on it.

 I think the decorative piece add to the gray and yellow scheme of my home.  It just needs something, but I'm not sure what.  If you have any easy ideas, feel free to comment. It was ready to find it's home at $3, I just couldn't pass up this heavy wrought iron piece.  The patina and detail are just precious.

The last thing I used as is is this barn wood transformed into a coat rack.  The rose bud pegs are just too cute.  It is a great addition to our entryway at $3.

Here it is, pictured with items hanging from it.  Just for a different look.  

Now for the items that I just had too many ideas for them to use them as they were.  I will share tutorials in future post and add links to them as I add them so that you can use them if you are a DIY-er like me. :-)

Here's my little princess's mirror.  It was pretty easy to transform from the gold frame.  I just prepared it with a thorough cleaning, used newspaper to cover the glass and then used Rust-oleum's GLOSS MAUI BLUE spray paint to cover it.  I then added mirror hardware to the screws in the back and hung it.  It went over well with my little princess.  She uses it when getting ready each time we go out.  The flash caught the background and you can spot several Disney items.  We do love us some Disney.  I painted the faux-maple picture frame to match the mirror and added a pic of my little princess and her favorite princess, Pocahontas.  I think my husband's Cherokee heritage draws her to Pocahontas.  Can't say I blame her.  I talked a very sweet,artistic lady down from $7 to $5 on this great bargain.  Don't judge, negotiating is part of the fun of yard saling, as long as you don't take yourself too seriously and get easily offended and are kind about it.  :-)

 I just matted the frame with some scrapbook paper I had on hand.  I just love Rust-oleum and this gloss Maui blue.  It went on well and just used two coats after primer.  I just use the regular Kilz that you'd us on a wall.  It worked great with the mirror as well.  I found this frame at a distant cousin's yard sale and was happy to snag it for $.50. Yes, 50 cents.  Cool beans!

Here's a better pic of the original gold mirror.  Behind it you can see the faux-wood ice bucket in all it's 70's glory.  Let's just say, this was the most tedious project of the bunch because I had to completely disassemble it and clean it before I could begin the decoupage process.  It was a booger to get back together.  We developed a love/hate relationship.  But I think it turned out well with the scrapbook paper, Modge Podge, and chrome vinyl letters.  

 I just love the green and silver together.  It will serve us well since we stay outdoors much of the time.  I paid $1 for the ice bucket and wondered about half way through the project if it was a waste of my time and money,  but I like it a lot now.  

Last but not least,  I tinted the clear milk bottles with food coloring and Gloss Modge Podge.  Note: Do not use water in them or the color and glue with come off into the water.  It did make for a lovely picture though with the wildflowers my little princess picked for her Mimi.  I only paid $.50 a piece for the milk bottles, so I didn't feel too bad over the water mishap. 

I will link tutorials to this post as I add the tutorials.  I hope you enjoyed my post.  If you did, be sure to follow me so that I can share more ways to make a home homey without spending a fortune.  Be blessed.  Courtney C.

Hanging Bath Sign for Guests

     Happy Halloween, everyone, a day late!  I hope you all had a blessed day and stayed safe last night.  We attended our church's Fall Festival, so we were safe from traffic.  I pray you and yours were safe as well.  With the way people drive on Halloween, you'd think people were handing out five dollar bills, right?
  Today's post isn't about Halloween or any other season but something I thought I'd share that will help your new friends and forgetful friends (like me) when they come to visit and need to, well, visit the potty.  I don't know about you but we people ask where my bathroom is, I forget to count the hallway closets and always say the second door on the right, hence the very messy linen closet, scary in its own right. :-)

     Now I have a sign hanging right over the doorway into the bathroom, so no worries.  Maybe my messy closet will stay our little secret.
      I found a tutorial for one of these cute signs, but changed the aging/distressing process a bit.  The one I found on pinterest used the process of spray painting over multiple colors and layers to produce an antique look.  I love it, but I am more comfortable with knicking up the second layer of paint with duck tape.    We love duck tape, and any chance to use it, I'll take it.
 

The materials you need for this project are:
a plant hanger            ( I bought this one from Lowe's a few years ago on clearance)
an oval plaque           ( I bought mine at Wal-Mart for $.97  It's double sided,so you can letter both sides.)
stencil letters, scrapbooking stickers, or cricut-cut letters
                                 ( I used storybook and cut the letters on cheap white vinyl from Lowe's)
two colors of paint     ( You might want to coordinate with the walls in your hallway or room in which the
                                    sign will hang)
a cup hook                 You will use this to attach the plaque to your plant hanger


The first step is to paint your plaque on both sides so it will look even on both sides and people can find it from either direction.  This will be the color of your letters, so think about what color you want for your letters.  I wanted my letters the same color as the hallway so I chose Valspar's London Coach.  This is a pic before I finished the sides so it really looks better than this. I am an impatient photographer in process. :-)

Below is the cricut I used to cut the vinyl.  I just used the cheap white vinyl like you find at Wal-Mart and Lowe's to cover your shelves, so it was around

 $4.00 for a very long roll.  I used the storybook cartridge for the lettering, but you could use scrapbook stickers, stencils or another cartridge and make yours unique.

Below is a picture of how the vinyl looked before I painted over the whole thing with white paint.  This protects the paint underneath the letters so that you get a great layered look.  Make sure you press vinyl or stickers down well so that you will get a clean look.

Next, just stick on your letters.  Remember to cover both sides so that people can read it from both sides and it's even. If you're not a tad OCD, this probably doesn't bother you.

 Next, I painted the whole thing white.  I know it looks dark, but it's my photography skills (or lack thereof) and not the paint.  I also added the cup hook to the top before I painted.  You can wait until it's dry to add yours.
BEFORE YOUR PAINT DRIES COMPLETELY, about 10 minutes after you have covered it, you will take painter's tape or duck tape, whatever you have, and stick it down around the outside of the letters.  It will peel the white off giving it a distressed, weathered look.  Stay away from the letters or they will not be crisp and clean when you peel the stickers free.

 Next, after the paint has dried, completely peel off the vinyl or stickers.  This is what you get.









Complete the other side and hang it and VIOLA!

 I hope you all have a blessed weekend!
Courtney C.