Tag: tutorial

Turkey Day

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Now that Halloween is over, I am officially in Thanksgiving decorating mode.  To kick things off, I created cute turkey place cards. 

If you would like to make some for yourself, you’ll need:

One bag of mixed nuts, in the shells.  Pull out the walnuts and hazelnuts.

Hot glue gun

Dried, pressed leaves.  If you don’t have pretty leaves to dry, fake leaves or paper would work, too. 

A black pen

Oogly eyes or cardstock circles with black dots drawn in

Colored cardstock for beak and feet.  I used an old cereal box for the feet. 

To start, glue the hazelnut, pretty, slightly pointed side forward, to the top front of the walnut.  Again, the walnut should have the slightly pointed area to the front.  Then, write each guest’s name on one leaf.  Find similar sized leaves (4 more) for each turkey.  Glue the name leaf to the back at the center of the walnut.  Glue the remaining leaves and cover the glue from the previous leaves.

Cut ‘feet’ out of cardstock or thin cardboard.  First, make a slightly rounded ‘V’ shape about 1 inch long.

Cut toes by making another rounded ‘V’ in the center.  Then cut two more ‘V’s, totaling four toes.  Add a dollop of glue to the back of the V and place the walnut on top, making the turkey stand.

To make the face, use an all purpose glue to attach the eyes.  For the beak, cut a small piece of cardstock, fold in half, and cut again into a triangle.  Add glue to the V of the triangle and glue to the hazelnut.  Then, you’re done!

Top each place setting with a turkey and get ready to feast. 

Isn’t he cute?  And, when you’re done, you can eat him.  Sort of like eating the chocolate Easter bunnies.

Oh, here’s another cute idea.  Well, I think it’s cute.  Remember these felt leaf bowls I made?  Well, why not create a few more and use them as individual bread baskets?  We always have so much food on the table and so little room for each person.  This can limit the large platters on the table, and it’s something cute for guests to take home. 

If you don’t want to take the time to use tweed, you could just cut out several felt leaves, stitch the darts together and use a felt only bowl.  The leaf bowl above used a 6 inch, from top to bottom, excluding the stem, template. 

 

How To: Felt Leaf Bowls

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Last week, I shared a  few simple tablescapes, one of which included a set of felt leaf bowls.  I promised to share more about the bowls, so here I am.  Martha told me about this great DIY project.  When I say told, I mean her website suggested I look at these felt and tweed oak leaf bowls.  I printed the template on cardstock and bought a variety of felt and tweed. 

I thought I had purchased the right fusible interface, but I didn’t.  I took a trip to Hobby Lobby and asked for a little help to make sure I had the right interface.  What the woman suggested was “Wonder Under.”  Basically, it’s a sheet of iron on hem tape. One side is rough and the other side is covered in smooth paper.  Perfect for the job. 

I followed Ms. Martha’s instructions, but here are a few photos to help you along.  First, place the interface rough side down on the wrong side (the back) of the tweed square.  Press for 5 to 10 seconds, move the iron to overlap slightly and press again.  Do this until your entire square is fused.  Then, trace the oak leaf pattern on the paper side of the interface.  You don’t have to be precise with the tracing.  You could even make your own leaf pattern, just add the darts. 

Once you’ve traced the oak leaf, cut the design out.  Remove paper backing and place on the felt square.  Cover with a damp cloth and press for 10 to 15 seconds, or until fused with the felt. 

Cut around the tweed leaf design, getting as close as possible. 

One more step, sewing the darted areas.  I overlapped the backs of my pattern to make a deeper bowl, but Martha suggest sewing with a zig zag stitch without overlapping the fabric. 

I may make another set of shallower bowls, but I like how these look, so I may not.

What do you think?  Anyone going to give these a try?

You + Me = Art?

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Some of you may know that I create custom prints.  Well, I was working on the Carved Initials print for an order and a light bulb went off!  What if I made a ‘sculpture’ of a carved initials tree for our home?  So, I went out back to our woodpile and found a small log without bark.  It was just what I wanted.  Ben cut it down to size; it’s tough (not to mention unsafe) to work a circular saw with a six-month old in hand.  Then he scrubbed off the dirt and the last bit of bark.

Then I quickly drew a heart with B+A inside. 

 Ben used a Dremel tool to ‘carve’ the heart and initials.  If you don’t have a Dremel, just do it the old-fashioned way.

 The carved areas didn’t show up from far away, so Ben used a soldering iron to burn in the areas, but brown paint or stain would work just as well.  After it was burned in, it looked like this:

Overall, this piece is about 12 inches tall and 4 inches in diameter. 

It hasn’t found a permanent home, but it’s on the entertainment center for now. 

I love that it is personalized, interesting, easy and quick to complete and FREE!  Where do you get your inspiration from?  What little things do you do to personalize your home?

Refinished Bookshelf: Reveal

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Last week I shared how I refinished an old wooden bookshelf for our boys’ room.  It wasn’t quite done then, but it is now and we love it.  Ben was skeptical when I started sanding, but he does admit that it’s pretty now.  I really love that we’ve brought new life into an old, seen-better-days piece of furniture, without paint.  Well, there is some paint.  The back panel had a little damage.

I knew I couldn’t fix the back and keep it stained, so I filled the damaged area with putty, let it dry, sanded, primed and painted everything.  After three coats of plain white paint, hours of drying, and a vacation in Minnesota, I was ready to finish what I had started.  Using a pin nailer, I carefully attached the 1/4 inch plywood back to the bookshelf.  I chose the pin nailer because it shoots nails that are literally the size of pins, without a head.  It’s great for small pieces that might split if larger nails were used. 

Once the back was secured, all that was left was to bring the shelf back inside.

Have you refinished a piece of furniture to give it a new lease on life?  Do you have any tricks or tips to share?

Pillow Talk

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Yesterday, I shared a felt circle pillow that tickled my fancy.  After looking at the picture for a few minutes, lusting after it, I realized it would be pretty simple to recreate the look.  I remembered that I had a few yards of a similar yellow colored felt that I bought on clearance last year, so I used that. 

First, I determined the size of my pillow.  I knew I wanted a rectangle, so I cut my piece of felt to a 12 1/2 inch by 18 1/2 inch rectangle.  Using a spool of ribbon, I traced a circle on to the felt and cut it out.  This circle was my template for every single circle to follow.  Why, you ask?  Because, dear reader, both sides of the circle are visible and I didn’t want pen lines all over.  That, and I don’t have a disappearing ink pen.  If you do, you could use that.  Because I didn’t, I pinned my template to the felt and cut one circle at a time, like this.

After cutting roughly 120 to 150 circles, I started sewing.  First, fold the felt in half to get a rough cross-section.  Pin the circle in place and sew straight across the center, in whatever direction you’d like.  Place the next circle close to the first and sew it in the center, going a different direction.  Continue placing and sewing the circles one at a time until you’ve covered the front.  There will be a few gaps between the circles, but it’s not a big deal.  Try to get most of the circles close together. 

Here’s a tip: Start from the center of the pillow and work your way toward the edges.  Once you’ve added many circles, there’s a lot of fabric and it becomes difficult to reach the center.  I learned this the hard way. 

Here’s another tip:  Keep 1/2 inch perimeter without circles, for your seam allowance.  Then, pin any loose ends toward the center of the pillow before you sew the back on.  This will prevent edges from getting sewn where you don’t want. 

For the back, I cut two  12 1/2 inch high by 12 inch wide pieces of scrap white cotton to make the back.  The process is very similar to this envelope closure pillow.  The only difference is it’s not all one piece.  Start by folding and pinning the short edge.  Fold over and pin again, then sew the along the edge for a nice, clean seam.  Once both edges are sewn, place the pillow front face up.  Add one of the back pieces to meet the edges of the front, face down.  Pin in place.  Add the second piece, keeping a few inches of overlap and pin, face down.  Sew all four edges and cut the corners.  Turn right side out, stuff with a pillow form and enjoy your work. 

 Wondering where the cable knit pillow came from?  I made that from an old sweater.  Follow the instructions above, substituting the felt circle front for a chunky knit sweater and voila!  Instant fall and winter warmth without a hefty price tag.  While we’re on the topic of pillows, check out this one for our theater room.

We’ve decided to add pops of yellow to our windowless theater room to brighten up and bring life to the space.  It also doubles as a great fall color, but can be used year round, bonus! 

Have you started any fall decorating?  What do you think is the best or quickest or easiest or all the above way to inject seasonal accents to seamlessly blend with the rest of the decor?