Monday, December 30, 2013

2013 in Motion

2013 has been a great year!  As far as blogging goes, my son's bedroom makeover was featured on Apartment Therapy, I attended my first blogging conference, I shared a home moment on homes.com and I had the pleasure of being featured on Country Living Magazine's website.  Because of this, I have made amazing friends and grew as a blogger.  In order to showcase my projects and recipes this past year and include snippets of my personal life, I decided to make a video to sum it all up!  I hope you enjoy and I sincerely thank all of you for your continued support of my lil ol' blog.  Cheers to what 2014 may bring!


Monday, December 23, 2013

No-Sew Bow Ties

Our dogs are an important part of our family, so it only seemed natural to include them in our holiday photos.  I wanted something cute for the dogs, so I decided to make a few matching bow ties.


For my no-sew version I decided to use my glue gun.

I started by cutting my fabric into a large square.

To prevent the unfinished edges from showing, I ironed a crease on both sides.

Next, fold the bottom half of the fabric to meet the center.

Then fold the top down to meet the center and slightly overlap the bottom half.

To keep things neat, I went over my fabric again with my iron.

Flip the fabric over and pinch the center.

Dab a little hot glue to the center of the bottom pleat and attach it to middle of the bow.

Repeat the same step for the top pleat.

Flip your bow tie over and dab a little glue in the center of the pleat to secure the shape.

Cut a long piece of fabric and fold the raw edges toward the center of the fabric and iron flat.

*Your piece will not need to be this long if you are only making one bow.  It should be long enough to wrap around your bow and secure with glue.

You could easily attach an alligator clip or pin to the back of your bow tie to wear it in your hair or around your neck if you like.

I simply attached the bows to the dogs' collars using my glue gun.  If you would like something less permanent then you can attach them with a piece of elastic glued to the back of the bow tie and slip it through the collar. 

My dogs don't wear their collars around the house, only when we're walking them and for pictures!



They look so cute in their bow ties!


I'm a little bit in love with that face!




I am linking this post to: Home Stories A to Z 
Tip Junkie Handmade ProjectsLove of Family & HomeTDC Before and After

Friday, December 20, 2013

Chalkboard Inspired Ornament

I'm a little obsessed with the whole chalkboard craze!  It seems like it's everywhere I look.  I just wish I had a steady hand and fancy handwriting skills.

I was inspired by this image.  With the holidays right around the corner, I decided to create my own ornament.  The process ended up being fairly easy.  Here's what I did!

I began by separating and painting a mini-embroidery hoop with silver craft paint.  After the paint dried, I placed a piece of black fabric between the two hoops and trimmed the fabric close to the edge of the hoop.

Then, using my printer, I printed my inspiration picture out close to the size of my hoop.  I removed the fabric from between the hoops so I could transfer my image to the center of the fabric.  Next, I traced over the front of the image with a pencil, making sure to cover the entire image getting it as dark as I could without tearing the paper.


After lifting the paper from the fabric the outline of the image is now visible.


I went over the design with a sharp white crayon to make the details darker.



I love that I was able to create the ornament for cheap with materials I had on hand.





No annoying chalk smudges!

















There are tons of chalkboard fonts and templates out there to explore.  The creative possibilities are endless.  Have fun creating your own chalkboard effect!

Monday, December 16, 2013

Homemade Paper Holly Ball Ornament

Homemade Paper Holly Ball Ornament
I'm not sure whether I was in grade school or Girl Scouts, but I definitely remember making handmade ornaments as a child.  I was so proud of myself and couldn't wait to give them to my mom so she could hang them on our tree.  Now that I'm a mother I cherish handmade ornaments from my kids.  I'm excited to share with you a simple paper ornament I made with my children!

Homemade Paper Holly Ball Ornament
The ornament we made was inspired from this post by Camille Styles.  We started by gathering all of our supplies which we had on hand.
-ruler
-hole punch
-round object for tracing
-scrapbook paper
-pencil
-scissors
-hot glue gun
-ribbon

Homemade Paper Holly Ball Ornament
Begin by deciding how large you would like your ornament to be, then trace and cut out 2 circles and set aside.

Homemade Paper Holly Ball Ornament
Next you will need to cut out your paper strips.  I decided to make our ornament fuller than my inspiration picture, so we ended up using about 40 strips of paper.

Homemade Paper Holly Ball Ornament
Before cutting, punch a hole in the center of each strip marked by the lines of your ruler.

Homemade Paper Holly Ball Ornament
After each paper strip has been cut begin placing them around one of circles you cut in the beginning step, with the hole-punched edge facing out.  Make sure each strip is placed even in length and each strip slightly overlaps the strip before it. 

Homemade Paper Holly Ball Ornament
I began hot gluing the paper strips around the circle, making sure to get them straight across from each other as best as possible.  This tip will allow your ornament to tie close with ease.
  
Homemade Paper Holly Ball Ornament
Place the second circle cut out, on top of the center of the ornament.

Homemade Paper Holly Ball Ornament
String ribbon through the holes of each strip...

Homemade Paper Holly Ball Ornament
gently pull closed then tie a knot.

Homemade Paper Holly Ball Ornament
To keep the holiday theme going I added felt holly and berries.

Homemade Paper Holly Ball Ornament
Instead of hanging our ornament on the tree, we decided to make a special place for it on our shelf.

Homemade Paper Holly Ball Ornament
I hope you enjoyed it!