Masks

I’ve seen a post circulating on social media that essentially says if wearing masks turns out to be some hoax, at least I can sleep at night knowing that my intention was to love my neighbors, and that is exactly how I feel. So earlier in 2020, I made a ton of masks for a local senior living facility so they can stay stylish and safe, plus a few more for some family and friends.

If you’re interested in making your own, you can download some different size templates here from another crafty blogger I found online named Craft Passion. Then you can follow this YouTube video I found for step-by-step instructions on how to sew it together.

Check out some of my finished products below!

Laminated Holiday Cards

Alright, 2020 has finally come to an end, but who fucking knew that 2021 would be all like “hold my beer” and shit? Certainly not me.

Anyways, before I dive into some crafts for 2021, let me show you how I wrap up all the Christmas and holiday cards that I get every year! It’s one of my favorite projects that was inspired by my boyfriend’s coworker’s wife at a team holiday party.

Here’s everything you’ll need plus the links to the products on Amazon:

  • A laminator
  • Laminating sheets
  • Binder rings
  • A hole puncher
  • Scissors
  • Card stock (optional)
  • Metallic and Black Sharpies (optional)

All you need to do is gather all the cards your friends and family mailed you, follow the laminating instructions, and laminate the cards. I can usually fit 2 cards on every 1 laminating sheet. Then I trim them and punch a hole in the top left corner if it’s a portrait-oriented card or if it’s a landscape-oriented card, punch a hole in the top right corner. Last thing you need to do is slip it onto a binder ring, and there you have it!

I’ll hang my previous years’ cards on the mantle along with the stockings when I decorate the house for Christmas, so these usually get packed away with my Christmas decorations once Christmas is over.So if you’re like me and slowly getting Christmas and holiday decorations put away, try this little project out to keep up with all the wonderful cards that were sent your way!

Shadowbox Shell Letters

It’s been a minute since I shared some crafts. Blame it on 2020!

This holiday season has been crazy, and to be honest, I’ve been sewing a lot of masks and other fabric gifts for people. I’ll post about that later, but first, I want to share something quick and easy that might be helpful for anyone who hasn’t finished their holiday shopping yet!

A few months ago, I found these sea shells at my parents’ house. I had picked them maybe 10-15 years ago from some beach in Florida and had kept them stored in these empty gummy bear containers. When I found these containers in a cabinet at my parents’ house, I knew I could find a craft project for them.

I decided I was going to make these super gifts for my niece and nephew to pass along the sentimentality of these sea shells. I always enjoyed picking sea shells with my grandmother and mother when I was a kid, and I wanted my niece and nephew to have a part of that too.

You’ll need:

  • A Letter Template/Cutout (I used the PT Serif Caption font that I cut out using my Cricut)
  • Shells
  • Shadow Box Frames
  • A Hot Glue Gun
  • Hot Glue Gun Sticks

What you’ll need to do is:

  1. Take your shells and glue them to the template using your hot glue gun. It will take some tetris-ing to get the shells to fit on the template the way you want them to. I also had to glue some shells on top of each other, but hey, crafting isn’t about being perfect.
  2. Once you’ve glued enough shells on the template to complete it, glue the template to the backing of the shadow box. Give it a few shakes or tugs to make sure it’s stable.

That’s it! You’re done! And you’re good to hang it up or stick it on the shelf.

I ended up making a few more for our friends and family, so I would highly recommend this project if you’re in a pinch. You can replace the shells with anything else – pebbles, marbles, glitter, etc. Now go ahead and give it a try!

Wooden Belt Organizer

Happy Fall Y’all!

It’s starting to cool down in Georgia, but it’s still hot af in this craft room haha! I wanted to share another project I did recently that helped with a little pet peeve I never knew existed.

Not too long ago, one of our friends had given me a broken stick from his back yard. I wish I could say that I’m the kind of person that would turn down free shit I don’t need, but I’m not. I took the stick but it sat on the banister of our stairs for a long ass time. Like really, what was I going to do with a broken stick? But then one day, something incredible happened…

So there I was watching an episode of Man Versus Wild with Bear Grylls climbing on some snowy mountain side. I looked over to my left which is where my boyfriend’s closet is, and what do I see? Belts. Belts just thrown over the top of the door all willy nilly, and it was then that I thought of something I could do to fix that.

I decided I was going to glue that stick together and turn it into a belt organizer for my boyfriend. I was lucky in that I had nearly all of the materials I wanted from other projects I’ve done in the past. If you’re interested, here’s what I had:

  • Elmer’s Glue-All
  • Sandpaper (I used a dry wall sanding sponge because that’s what I had on hand)
  • Wood Stain
  • Polyurethane
  • A drill
  • Rope
  • Hooks (this was the only thing I had to buy off Amazon)

With all those things in hand, all I needed to do was:

  1. Glue the stick together where it had broken and let it sit for a day.
  2. Sand it down to get rid of any potential splinters.
  3. Drill a hole at both ends of the stick.
  4. Stain it with the wood stain.
  5. Coat it in a layer of polyurethane. I think it’s recommended that you do at least 2 coats, but this project wasn’t serious enough for me to care about a second coat. Let it dry for at least a day.
  6. Take the hooks and screw them in.
  7. Thread the rope through the holes and tie a knot at the ends.

That’s literally it. This was a super easy project to do, and once you have all of these materials, you can apply them to other projects like making a necklace holder or something. Just take a look at what you have in your own backyard and think about all the wonderful things it can be!

Until next time!

Family Pillows

Let me tell you about one of the easiest projects I’ve ever done! These personalized pillows were the perfect way to use up some extra fabric and burn some time on a Saturday morning.

I started with a 12 x 22 inch pillow insert from Hobby Lobby and 2 pieces of fabric cut to a half inch larger than the pillow insert (12.5 x 22.5 inches). Then I watched a video similar to this one on YouTube, but if you just search “how to sew a pillow” on YouTube, you’ll find tons of great videos that work for you.

One thing that is super important to remember is to sew all 4 sides, BUT make sure you leave an opening big enough for the pillow insert to go in. Honestly, sometimes I forget this step and end up with a pillow case that is sewn inside out and no way to flip it inside out.

Anyways, after I stuffed the pillow insert in, I closed the gap left by sewing together the opening. I personally ran it through the sewing machine, but it’s recommended to hand-finish that gap.

Lastly, I added iron-on vinyl using my Cricut machine and the heat press. I couldn’t find the font I used, but a few of my favorites are Hellena Script, Jasmine, and Wisdom Script.

These two are out the door and have been given as gifts, so the next time you have a housewarming party to go to or need a quick and easy homemade gift, try out these personalized pillows!

Personalized and Reversible Placemats

One of my favorite things that I did under Quarantine 2020 was make these placemats. It has all the characteristics I look for when it comes to tabletop linens – personalized, reversible, AND machine washable!

I started with some old fabric that I had already washed, dried, and ironed out. I then cut out (4) 12×18 rectangles for each fabric, watched this video on how to sew placemats, and followed the steps in that video. I wish I had more to say, but someone literally made a video about how to do it yourself, so I’ll leave it up to her to talk you through the technical pieces.

One thing I did do was add my own touch by personalizing it with my last name. I picked a nice font in the Cricut Design App and sized it up to be 2 inches tall, used my Cricut Explore Air 2 to cut out the letters on my iron-on vinyl, then used a heat press to transfer it to the placemats.

I would highly recommend doing this super easy project for yourself or for someone else as a really nice housewarming gift! Doing all 4 placemats probably took me 2-3 hours on a lazy Saturday, so go put on some Netflix, make some tea, and put that sewing machine to work!

Spring/Summer Wreath

I have a love for wreaths – just ask my boyfriend how many we have in storage right now. One of my favorite pastimes is going to Homegoods to look at seasonal wreaths because who doesn’t love a good piece of door decor?!

But I have come to realize that my love for wreaths has turned into a bit of a hoarding situation that I need to get under control, hence this post on a wreath that I can leave up for half the year!

When I initially bought this wreath, I knew I didn’t LOVEEE it. I’m sure some of you know know how that goes – it’s good enough but just not perfect. Every time I put it on the door, I just hated the way it looked and knew that eventually I would have to either donate it to Goodwill or figure out how to make myself love it. Spoiler – I made myself love it!

The initial wreath didn’t have any of the florals on it, so I took some fake florals that I had in my craft closet from my niece’s birthday and cut the stem about a 3 inches from the top (you’ll need the stems to wiggle the flowers into place on the wreath). Once I got the flowers where I wanted them, I used a hot glue gun to glue the flowers and stems into place.

So that was my quick and dirty way that I transformed this boring wreath into something that I left up for half the year!

Kids Triangle Quilt

IMG_8702

I have always been somewhat of a crafter. Growing up, my two favorite classes were art class and English literature, and as long as I was doing something or creating something with my hands, I felt unstoppable.

Over the years, this has manifested itself in many forms:

  • Creative writing
  • Cooking
  • Locker decorations for my high school lacrosse team
  • Food photography
  • … and most recently, sewing and cricuting

You may have seen my previous posts about starting my t-shirt quilt back in spring 2018 and finishing it in winter 2019. Now I’m tackling another quilting project in the form of a triangle kid’s quilt for my niece. I found this pattern inspiration from just browsing Pinterest, and you should be able to find the fabrics in this post at your local Joann Fabric and Craft store.

IMG_8701

I picked 3 solid fabrics and 1 accent pattern for the front of the quilt. After cutting it up into triangles, I spent A LOT of time laying it out so that the quilt looked balanced because well… it would drive me absolutely crazy if it wasn’t well balanced. My next step was sewing the triangles together in rows, then I sewed all the rows together.

The last few steps were getting the batting, backing it with a watercolor patterned fabric, and sewing the border. I thought about taking it to my local quilter to get it finished, but I honestly didn’t feel like spending the money on that (sorry I’m cheap) haha!

Here’s the finished product! I completely forgot to take some pictures before I gave it to my niece, but here’s a screenshot of my post on social.

QDBW9512.jpeg

I was super happy with the way it turned out, and I really can’t wait to start on my next quilt! I’m thinking it will be one for my college t-shirts, but I’ll keep you guys posted on that.

Screen Shot 2016-01-02 at 4.40.29 PM

Repurposed Fan Blades

Well well well, here we are 8 months into 2020 and basically 6 months into a pandemic. Recently, I’ve been thinking that I want to find more ways to document how different life is at the moment because one day, my kids might want to hear first-hand how much of a shit show 2020 was. I’d like to have some sort of proof. Until then, all I’ve got for you is my rambling and a post about repurposed fan blades.

To be fully honest, I started this project last year when my boyfriend decided to replace the ugly ass fan we had in our guest bedroom, so this wasn’t a 2020 project. To be fair, I thought the fan was pretty, but it really didn’t get the job done in terms of moving air, keeping you cool, or actually… just turning on in general. We decided it was time to invest in a working fan which left me with 3 old fan blades and a fun idea to pass some time.

So here’s what I did to repurposed these fan blades!

Step 1: Clean dust build up off of fan blades with some soap and water. Let air dry.

Step 2: Paint a base layer. I did white for the palm fronds and red for the UGA piece. Let air dry. Repeat 2 more times.

Step 3: For the palm fronds, I used a stencil I bought from Michael’s a few years ago. For the UGA piece, I freehanded the lettering with a pencil then colored it in with paint.

Step 4: Take some creative liberty and do whatever makes you happy! I gave the palm fronds an ombre feel to it, and for the UGA piece, I added some splashes with some white paint.

Step 5: To finish, I just took some modge podge and covered the whole fan blade to seal everything in.

So there you go! It’s a quick skeleton of what I did, but hey, I’m here to inspire, not to write novels about how to do anything (because quite frankly, I’m no expert in crafting). But I hope you enjoy these pictures of the final products!

Everyone be safe out there and wear a damn mask please!

Screen Shot 2016-01-02 at 4.40.29 PM

FINISHED: T-Shirt Quilt

 

248BD4C6-C6FE-43AB-AD2F-BC1087F63119_1_105_c_Original

Tada! After working on this quilt on and off for about 2 years, it’s finally finished. A few years ago, I decided that I was going to make a t-shirt quilt of all my old high school t-shirts as a way to keep the shirts but not have it clutter my closet.

Between then and now, I had a lot of life changes as I mentioned in my 2020 Vision post, and I didn’t necessarily make it a priority to finish this quilt. However, once I moved into my latest place, I decided that I wanted to finish this quilt before winter 2019. So throughout the course of 2019, I finished the top sheet, found a finisher near me, sewed the binding myself, and cut the final loose threads off the edges to be able to completely call it done.

Take a look at the finished product and let me know if you have any questions on how to get started yourself!

IMG_8768