Silhouettes

Happy belated Mothers' Day, friends!  I know I'm super late on this post, but I had to share what I did!  First let me say that my first Mothers' Day was so wonderful, I hope yours was too. I know that it's notoriously a day in which the mommy gets pampered (which I definitely was) but really I loved it because it caused me to reflect on all that Liam has accomplished in just 9 short months.  I'm so proud of how he has grown and the little boy he is becoming.  He's at the age where his personality is really developing and he's so much fun!  Sometimes we just laugh and laugh.  It's a joy that can never be topped. 

So here's what I made for my moms!  It's a silhouette of the grandbabies.

 

I'm working on a tutorial on how to accomplish this using photoshop, but for now I'll just tell you what I did.  After uploading a picture of a profile into Photoshop I used the pen tool to create an outline. (The pen tool is better in this case than the lasso tool because the pen allows you to create a vector image - one that can be re sized whereas the lasso keeps the image pixilated).  

Here's my cute nephew.

 

 After cutting out the outline, I traced it onto a piece of black card stock and then cut that out.  From there all you have to do is tape or glue it onto a piece of white or cream card stock and then frame it.  So easy!

I refinished the frames too.  I wish I would have taken a before picture.  I found the matching frames at Good Will.  They were an ugly brown and gold, but I painted them black and added a thin coat of silver pearl to give them a more distressed look.  I stapled  cream ribbon bows to the back for hanging.

I'm really happy with how they turned out, and this really is an easy project that anyone can do.  I'm working on silhouettes of my husband and I for our living room!  I've never liked my profile, but I'm embracing it for the sake of sentimentality.  Make any yourself?  I'd love to see!

my homage to Will and Kate

With all of the hullabaloo surrounding Will and Kate's wedding, I thought it would be fun to craft something up relating to their big event.  The most obvious image I could think of was the British flag, and although it's a great flag and all, I didn't really want one as a home decoration.  So I came up with my "I do." pillow.  I'd never made a pillow before, but I am very pleased with how simple and rewarding it was to make! 


First thing I did after cutting the fabric (it's a sort of linen look a like that I cut to 17 1/2 x 10 1/2), was freezer paper stencil my lettering on.  

I drew my letters with a black sharpie on the dull side of a piece of freezer paper.

 

Then I used an exacto knife to cut out the black parts being sure to keep the insides of the letters for later!

Next I ironed the stencil and extra pieces shiny side down on my fabric and painted on my brown.  I tried not to paint it super thick or thorough because I wanted a more aged look.

Once it dried, I peeled off my stencil (it comes off really easily with no residue!) and made my pillow!  I'm not even going to pretend like I knew what I was doing.  I just used the few simple sewing techniques I know:  pin right sides together, sew a straight line, clip corners, turn inside out, stuff with poly-fil and hand stitch closed. 
And voila!  I'm so proud!

This literally took me maybe an hour all told.  I know I set out to create an homage to Will and Kate, but in the end it's more for my hubby so that he never forgets that I still "do"!  


Hope you liked it, and I really think you should make one because believe me, if I can do it - you definitely can!

Sham-Wow Revamp

Well, maybe not a Sham-wow, more like the Dollar Tree knock off - Wow!  So I was perusing the aisles at my local Tree the other day, and would you believe my excitement when I found they had added a knock-off "As Seen on TV" section?   I was quite thrilled to find this shammy!  I haven't tried it out yet, but it seems to be the same material as the original, so I'm assuming it will do just fine.  The best use of it for me would be a drying pad for my dishes as we don't have a dishwasher.  But now that I'm on this creative journey, I couldn't just leave it the way it was...

 So as my banana muffins were baking ....

I decided to embellish my new toy.  I started out by making a cardboard cutout of a little birdie...

then I used it to cut out a fabric one (I love how the fabric has a star right where the eye would be...a totally pleasant happenstance)

I grabbed some heat 'n bond I happened to have and followed the directions to adhere my birdie to the shammy.

...added a fabric boarder and a "clean! clean!" with perm. marker  (not great, I know, but it's all I had) and Voila!  a functional, and much prettier, I might add drying station!

Now, go make something pretty!

Cheap Thrills

Part of waking Lucia involves becoming a little more fashion conscious.  But let's face it, deciding to dress better doesn't change the fact that you may not have the means to do so; at least not all at once.  So I've been looking for inexpensive ways to accessories outfits I already have.  I came up with the idea of embellishing cheap bangles and decided to write a tutorial about it, not because it's that ingenious of an idea (because it's not) but because I realize there may be someone out there (like ME!)  that likes to actually see how to do something instead of just reading about it.  So here's my ridiculously easy diy accessory.

I started out with two cheap bracelets from Walmart.  The silver one had texture to it and I wasn't sure how it would fare, but it worked well.

Bought some ribbon on clearance.  The red one was quite wide and was wired, but I fell in love with the pattern.

I pulled out the wire.  It slides right out.

Then I tore the side seams off.  I wanted the ribbon to look more like torn fabric and not so neat.

It wound up looking like this.

Then all I did was fire up the ol' hot glue gun and started gluing every so often as I wrapped the ribbon.  This may go without saying, but it's better if you put your dots of glue on the inside of the bracelet so you don't have any lumps on the outside.

I wrapped the other one in a thin sea-foam green ribbon.  It wrapped much easier but took a little longer.  So pretty.

Here they are in action.  

Ok, so these may not be the best shots of the bracelets themselves, but look at that cute, chunky baby!

 

The awful photo quality doesn't do these bracelets justice.  They really are cute.  But don't take my word for it!  Make some yourself.  You could make one for every outfit.  It would also be cute to add more embellishments to them, say a fabric flower or some beads?

Ciao,
Lucia