Upcycled Baby Food Jar Easter Bunny Candy Holder

Have you ever noticed that some of the things you learned when you were very young seem to stay with you while others fade away almost immediately?  I find that it happens more often these days.

Felt Storage Container - Knocking off West Elm

Have you ever come across a solution that was so brilliant in its simplicity that you wondered how in the world you didn't figure it out earlier?  Yeah., me too. Last night, I was looking through the West Elm catalog. I happened upon this:

SOURCE: WEST ELM

Of COURSE I Pinned it to my Knock Off board. This morning, after my youngest son left for his morning run, I walked into the boys' bathroom and was greeted by this: 

 Seriously!? The "issue": Adolescent male grooming products and not enough cabinet space. The "answer": Felt storage!

Valentines Day Felt Wreath and Pillows



Remember the cute felt wreath that my friend, Diane Passi told me how to make?  The hot pink one on the mantel in the prior post? Well, I liked it so much that I made another one! It's red this time, for the kitchen. Since a couple of you asked, here's a recap of the materials and a couple of close ups of the wreath in progress:

Materials: Heart wreath form, 1/2 yard of wide felt cut into 3 inch circles, ribbon in the same color as your felt, straight pins.

 Wrap the wreath form with the ribbon, fold the circles into quarters and pin them to the form...that's it!

Since I had some felt left over and my sofa was looking a little bland after the holidays, I decided to make a few felt pillows to make things a little more "cheery". Here's what I came up with for the family room:



I love working with felt!!!! It is pretty inexpensive, doesn't fray when you cut it, and it comes in fabulous colors! I used the least expensive felt at JoAnn's Fabric and had a 50% off coupon. I think that I ended up paying about $2.50 per yard for 72 inch wide felt. 

These pillows above are a combination of hand stitching and machine stitching but there's absolutely no reason that they could not have been done entirely by hand or using hot glue and/or spray adhesive. I decided to stitch mine since I hope to use them for a couple of years. I downloaded the pattern for the Cherub and made up the rest of the patterns as I went along.

I have a sewing machine that embroiders which I used to embroider the word "Love" on the cherub pillow and the "Be Mine" on the heart pillow. You could hand embroider or even use fabric paint for these.

I'm currently working on the family room mantel. Here's the ribbon and fabric garland that I'm using (it's easy to make. Cut cotton twine to the desired length leaving some on the ends to hang with. Cut 6 to 8 inch lengths of ribbon, felt, fabric, tulle, lace, or what ever else you have around (you may also want to add some hearts and wire "curls") tie the ribbons on the twine and, viola!, "almost instant" garland!

I'll show you the mantel and a few other projects that I'm working on in a few days. Until then, they're finally forecasting some snow for the 'burbs, so I should probably at least try to find my mittens! 

xo,

S

Deck the Halls with Homemade Ornaments. Simple instructions.

In keeping with last week's theme of Christmas, I thought that I'd share a few of the ornaments that I've made so far this holiday season:



The heart and mitten ornaments were cut from ivory and beige flannel that was leftover from a prior project and hand stitched along the edge with a simple blanket stitch using embroidery thread. I added a little tulle and some pearls for sparkle and stuffed them with leftover quilt batting.  The ice skate is a die cut ornament that I made at Archivers. They allow you to use their die cuts at no charge so long as you purchase the card stock from them. Which I did, using their "buy 3 sheets, get 3 free" coupon. After it was punched out, I glittered, "sewed" the laces, and glued on a pompom. Any of these look great on the tree and also make really cute package tags or add-ins.

Clear glass balls from the craft store filled with 1 tablespoon Epsom salts and about 1/2 teaspoon of glitter to make "sparkly snow", vintage sheet music that was cut cut into 3/8 inch strips using the Martha Stewart scoring board (you could also cut by hand, using scissors or a straight cut shredder) and then curled around a pencil. I still wasn't satisfied with how they looked (yes, it's true, I can't leave well enough alone), so I printed the titles of some of my favorite Christmas carols, cut them into banners and added them to the inside as well.  Once that was complete, I topped them off with a snippet of organdy ribbon and a pearl or jingle bell.

Bird's nests to which I added reindeer moss, eggs frosted with clear glitter and mushroom birds (also frosted with a little glitter).

I've got others in the works including 3 dozen "gingerbread ornaments" (made from apple sauce, Elmer's glue, Cinnamon, Ginger, Cloves and Allspice and decorated with puff paint) for a customer who intends to use them as favors for her cookie exchange as well as some clay tags that are a special order for another customer  but I need to spend a day or two finishing up the centerpiece and place card holders for Thanksgiving!  

xo,

S