My Daughter's Design

My teenage daughter has many talents! One of which she's been honing is drawing. We saw an adorable giraffe on Pinterest. It was a card, when I went to the link, the creator of the card had linked to the site that was selling the giraffe rubber stamp. I really wanted it! But alas, it was outdated and no longer available. Cue my daughter..."Mom, I think I can draw that."

And she did. Then she thought...he needs some friends...so she drew a couple more jungle animals...

Then...we scanned them...messed around with Photoshop Elements...and then Make-the-Cut...and made die cuts out of them...

Then we put 'em together for a jungle themed plaque for a good friend. (The monkey and foliage are all from My Scrap Chick.) Can't wait to welcome little Aaralyn Blyss!

Upgraded Coffee Thermos

Last weekend was the neighborhood garage sale I look forward to every year. It usually has a pretty good participation of sellers and plenty of shoppers. A friend (who's expecting her first baby) went with me (as well as my four kiddos and an extra one to boot.) I really had to have some self restraint as I would see something and say, "Ooooh, I saw 'fill in the blank' on Pinterest, we could add some burlap, lace and a mason jar, a little spray paint and it would look so cool!" But alas, I resisted the chandelier, extra frames, interesting wood tables, etc.

But something I was looking for, was a 12 cup thermos, for entertaining. I stumbled across three at one garage sale. Again, I exercised a bit of self control and only bought one. My first thought was to  peal the "skin" from it and vinyl it up. But I could tell the more I looked at it, that underneath the wrapper there were some dents. So I decided to work with what was there and make it mine. I am not a coffee snob...I don't mind generic brands, won't pay the outrageous prices of the coffee shops that are all over the region, couldn't tell you the best coffee in town...and really only pay attention to the cream and sugar. So "Seattle's Best Coffee" would be a serious case of false advertising if I left it like that. My coffee isn't the best in any town :)

Using Make-the-Cut, vinyl and a free dingbat font from Clever Someday, I came up with this:

I'm just so tickled with how it came out!

Kissing Ball Topiaries

The following is a tutorial for a Pinterest inspired, kissing ball topiary. It is photo heavy to hopefully make it thorough.

A couple disclaimers to start off...

• My finger nails were not polished, filed or pampered in anyway before taking pictures...please ignore them.
• Although ,my desk was cleared off  at the beginning of the project,  most photos are in real time and the working mess is there for all to see.
• I thoroughly torched my finger with hot glue and the bandage on my right ring finger makes typing a hunt and peck adventure...my backspace key is getting quite a workout!
• My hot glue gun says to wear eye protection...nothing was mentioned about hands.
• The inspiration for this project was pinned on Pinterest from these sites: Pepper Design Blog, LW Design, and Today's Fabulous Finds.

 

1.Cut zillions of 1 foot length strips of crepe paper streamers. (I bought mine in a two pack at the dollar store.) To speed up the process, I used a 24" ruler for a rotary cutter and wrapped the crepe paper around it 'til I finished the roll. I then cut the top and bottom. I folded the pieces in half (all at once) and cut those too, to get my 12" pieces. (Approximate measurements are okay for this project!)  I used  a few rolls.

 

See? Zillions of crepe paper strips :)

 

2. Layer two pieces of crepe paper together. With sewing machine tension loose and stitch length as long as possible, sew a straight line down the center-ish of the crepe paper.

 

3. When finished with one, just sew right off the edge and start the next one. No need to clip threads at this point. 

I try to do a chain of about 5-7 strips before I leave a thread tail and clip it. Here's the next pile.

 

4. Pull the bobbin thread to gather the paper. Leaving the strips connected for this step helps with keeping track of the thread. After they are gathered, go ahead and snip them apart.

  

5. Fold a strip in half, keeping the gathers the best you can. Lost threads can be fake gathered as it's folded.

6. Roll up flower.

7. Generously glob hot glue on the bottom of the flower.

8. Stick it to the Styrofoam ball. (The ball I used is 6" and was the most expensive part of the project.) Styrofoam can handle the hot glue much better than fingers!

 

Notice the top of the line stand for the ball.

9. Repeat...placing flowers near each other...some visible space can be covered as you fluff the flowers.

10. Before filling the last bit in, hot glue a candlestick (also from the dollar store) onto the bottom of the ball. And then fill in the rest around it.

11. Remember all those threads...They need to be trimmed now. (I used a colored ball so the white thread would show up.)

 And It's Finished!

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Personalizing Hard Hats

Had fun tonight making a personalized hard hat for my hubby. He's just started an engineering company and I thought the hat was a blank canvas just waiting for some vinyl. The logo was designed in Photoshop Elements and then brought into Make-the-Cut as a jpg.