Little bits of lovely

I love working on little details in our home. It's those details that make this place we live in so particular to us and not just any apartment you see on Pinterest or in a magazine (also the clutter and mess...)

I made this wreath sometime last year and its been hanging on our tv/art wall since Christmas. I purposefully made it black so I could easily change the decor on it to fit any season or holiday. But, since its me we're talking about, even easy decor changes can get procrastinated on for months.

Sunday, May 26...I finally took the Christmas colors off the wreath and added some colors to carry us through any season and match the living room. I also did this about 20 minutes before guests were scheduled arrive. Pressure inspires me...as with any procrastinator ;)

Glitter

I've been playing with glitter lately. I bought a little sampler pack a few months ago and finally got around to experimenting.

I first tried it on the tops of some salsa jars I've been saving. They're a great size for random little craft supplies and oversize buttons. The glitter adds just enough color and sparkle to liven up my craft room. The silver photographed the best but I also did some with orange and dark pink glitter. You can see the pink ones in the picture below.

Next I painted a small canvas a pale silvery aqua then added some big blue chevron stripes. The chunkier glitter is some I found in a box of paint we borrowed from my mother-in-law. I've been wanting to play with the chevron pattern lately so this was a fun little way to play with that.

This cute birdy has been a work in progress for a while. I bought a plain ceramic bird at Michael's a while back but couldn't decide what to do with it. It was yellow for a while but I didn't like it. I made too much of the silvery aqua paint for the chevron canvas so I painted it over the yellow. Loved it! I found some deep teal/purple glitter in the sample pack and added it to just the wings and tail. The colors actually match a screen printed bird in our room that I love.

I plan to glitterize lots more :)

Chevron canvas with all my thread

My little sewing corner

Today I've been working on cleaning up the rest of the craft room. My fabric stash is out of control so that's going to take a while. I did, however manage to beautify my ribbon collection. Picture later perhaps :)

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goin' bunnies

I have a pretty decent list of projects I need to work on this coming week for some custom orders.  I also have a surprise gift I'm hand sewing for this weekend.  With all this on my plate, what is it that I feel compelled to do as soon as I get home from work today?

bunnies!

 

 

Yup...I want to knit a handful of bunnies.  It's quite ridiculous I know.  Maybe I'll just knit one then get back to my blanket stitches and colorful felt.  Oh by the way, here's a sneak peak pic of what I'm working on.  The recipient might possibly read this, or see it on facebook so I can't post any more, it would give it away too easily!

Here's to some crafting focus in the next week...and to bunnies :)

Button love

I just love buttons! I'm pretty sure I've made that clear on here before, but just in case you're new and didn't know...I love them. I have quite a collection, that is now divided by color into at least 12 jars.  I saw this on pinterest and loved it instantly, button AND aqua?! Yes, please. 

For my first non-sewing button project I decided to go small.  Plus, I had these small canvases from years ago when I still lived in San Marcos and was decorating my own apartment. I've been seeing button art a lot on pinterest but never tried it till now. I thought a little valentines heart would be the perfect beginner project for me, plus I didn't have to buy anything.

I taped off the canvas with painters tape and painted the red lines.  I then removed the tape and groaned at how Messy the edges ended up. I used my super fancy chiseled sponge brush (.49 cents at Michael's) to fix this. The lines are a little wonky, but I'm saying it adds character. 

I then poured out all my Red buttons and started arranging them into a heart shape. Let me say now that whe it comes to crafting I can be a little tiny bit OCD. It took me forever to get the perfect shape and I kept bumping the canvas sending my perfection into disarray. It was a dramatic 10 minutes of me sitting home alone being very anal. 10 minutes equals forever right? Anyways. I didn't have the exact size red button I needed to keep my heart even so I thought a different color could be fun. To make it something I could hang all year and not too valentiney I decided on aqua instead of pink. Plus, I love aqua, duh. 

Once all laid out, I began gluing from the bottom up. Everything shifted slightly but I kept my cool and remembered crafting is fun, and not stressful......mostly. 

To finish everything off I painted a cursive "love" in aqua.  I of course forgot to erase all my pencil lines before I took these pics, but don't worry, they're erased now. 

I will be propping this up on our mantle through valentines day and the probably hanging it in our kitchen somewhere since it matches our color scheme in there. 

Anyone out there making fun things with buttons?

new project!

 I've been searching for some kind of jewelry hanger for my necklaces ever since we got married.  There seem to be many options out there for a counter top jewelry display, but not many at all to mount on the wall.  I wanted something fun but not ridiculous.  I eventually gave up and put 3 nails in the wall next to our medicine cabinet and hung my headbands and necklaces there...and groaned every time I saw it.

yay for blurry pics

I was perusing pinterest last week and saw a picture of a canvas with some hooks on the bottom that someone was selling on etsy.  It looked simple enough and I thought I can totally do that for my necklaces!

The next day we went to Michael's and I bought an 8x10 canvas and some smaller/longer ones for some other crafting experiments (see my mini hall makeover from the other day).  I had the soft gray fabric on hand already and picked the hooks up at Lowes.  I simply cut the fabric to be a few inches larger than the canvas, stretched it around and stapled with our little staple gun.  I then added 2 strips of thin white ribbon for a little pizzaz.  I was going to find a patterned fabric but decided that might be too much with necklaces hanging in front.  I like the simplicity the ribbon adds.  Fianlly I screwed 9 hooks in.  These were a mother to get in!  The first one was easy, then they started getting dumb.  I think some were screwed through a knot in the wood, and others through the layers where the corners are held together in the wood frame.  Needless to say, my fingers were sore after the final hook.

To hang it in our bathroom I simply put 2 nails in the wall and set the top of the frame on them. I figured it's not holding a lot and is very likely to get bumped where it is so no need for a more complex hanging device.
 

ribbon detail

I love how this turned out, as simple as it is, and I can't wait to figure something else out for all my hair flowers and bows.  They're about to fall off the ribbon I have them hanging on and I want more storage room so I can make more :)

day 15: felt

wedding flowers

Today I am thankful for felt.  It's just so good!  You can manipulate it to be so many things.  My favorite thing to make with it is flowers.  With Whitney's help we made all the bridesmaid bouquets from yellow, gold, white, and gray felt.  I made my bouquet out of white, gray and aqua felt with buttons and tulle to accent it.  They were all just so fun and cheery.  Since felt doesn't wither and die I still have mine sitting in our room.

I use felt in all my hair clips, little key chain animals and even in ornaments.  The best feature is it doesn't fray so you don't have to sew any of the edges. 

Felt, you are amazing and I'm thankful for you every time I sit down to craft :)

flower work

I've been working on some new flower techniques lately.  I made the flower above out of piping.  My sister wears a lot of olive green and couldn't find ric-rac to match so I tried my hand with this.  For the most part I like it.  I think it has a more modern look to it.  I'm not thrilled that you can see the stitching that came on the piping.  On my next one I may try pulling that out once the flower is sewn in place.  In my head it will work...we'll see how it works in real life :)

The flower below is a completely new technique for me.  I made a few similar to it for a halloween wreath hanging in our apartment.  At first I thought it looked too childish.  I played around with some button combos and fell in love with the orange and aqua.  The flower still didn't seem complete.  I remembered I had all these tulle circles cut out from making my wedding bouquets.  I snipped 2 down to size and sewed them on with the buttons.  I think it gives the flower just enough sparkle!  This one actually isn't a hair pin either, it's more a brioche. I put a pin back on instead of a clip and wore it with a sweater on Sunday.  Will definitely be making more pins!

I've started making Christmas flowers for a craft fair I'm going to be selling at called Budafest.  It will be my first one!  One of my best friend's sister, Jess will be sharing a booth with me.  I've been to tons of craft shows with my mom but I've never actually sold my stuff in person.  I'm a little nervous but mostly excited! 

I plan to sell my flowers mostly.  I've already made 6 sparkly Christmas ones and have 2 more ready to sew when I get home today.  I will also be making some everyday color combos.  Aside from my flowers I plan to make some felt covered mini notebooks, maybe some reindeer nuggets (based of these cuties), and hopefully some other cute accessories.  I made some super cute garland for halloween out of yarn and store bought pom poms (glittery and plain) that I plan to reproduce in Christmas colors.  I might make some to sell as well.

Of course, anything I don't sell at the fair will be put in my etsy shop.  I hope to post some sneak peak pics of my progress during the next 2 months.  Here's hoping I don't lose steam and show up with 8 flowers and nothing else :)

yesterday, today, tomorrow

Yesterday I knit 2 adorable pumpkins while relaxing at home.  I intend to get some pictoral proof this afternoon.

Today, I'm sending some special knits on a voyage to another continent.  Those pics will be posted once they meet their new mom :)  They were made to be mailed over 2 months ago and that just never happened.  I must confess I wasn't particularly motivated to get them out of our apartment considering how cute they are!  I guess I'll have to make my own now.

In some more ric-racky news, I bought some interesting ric rac this weekend.  Think vinyl, sparkle, and glitz!  All these things are too obnoxious for an entire piece of clothing, but for a flower, perfect!

This weekend I hope to knit a bat, make a wreath for our door, sew a new flower for my hair and...oh yeah, clean our dining room table.  It might look like a small yarn/felt/crafting mountain.  The hubs has this crazy idea that dining tables are meant for dining...pfffft!