Tag Archives: decoration

finished napkins

Christmas Advent 2015 – Day 15 Napkins

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As part of my Christmas table decorations, I made some homemade napkins. I consider myself a very amateur sewer. If it involves straight stitches, I can probably do it. These are nice and easy turned out really well.  I am very happy with them. I made them like the tutorial here. The only difference with mine was that I did two rounds of top stitching at the end.

finished napkins

Materials:

  • 14 fat quarters
  • 3 yards of fabric
  • coordinating thread
  • rotary cutter
  • sewing machine
  • pins

Following the tutorial linked above, I ironed all my fabric, cut out my pieces (I cut mine 21″ x 14″), and pinned them right sides together.

fabric all cut out
Fabric all cut with my rotary cutter.
napkins all pinned together
Fabric all pinned together and ready for sewing.

I sewed around each napkin leaving a 3″ space open to turn the napkins right-side out. Next, I cut the corners off, making sure not to cut the seam. After turning the napkins right-side out, I picked out the corners of the napkins with a large darning needle. The chopstick method the tutorial mentions works well too.

sewing topstitching
I did two rounds of top stitching.

I ironed the napkins and then sewed the top-stitching, closing up the hole in the process. I did sew two rounds of top stitching as I like the finished look it gives the napkins.

finished napkin

I did my happy dance when I got my first one finished and had to send a photo to my mother and sister.

finished napkins

I am really happy with the look of all the different colors. Pick your favorite color to use at dinner!

finished napkins in homemade napkin rings

The napkins look great in my homemade napkin rings. In the picture above, you can see the fabric I used for the backside of all the napkins. I wanted something to tie them all together as a set.

Happy Crafting!

Kristin

finished mini tree

Christmas Advent 2015 – Day 12 Mini Christmas Tree

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Today I am finally able to post a project I have been working off and on for days. I have been working on four different projects at the same time. I had so much gluing and painting, that while one was drying, I worked on another project.

I am so very happy with how my mini Christmas tree turned out that I did a little dance after the final photo shoot.

Materials:

  • Bamboo skewers
  • Green ribbon in various colors
  • Styrofoam ball
  • Tacky glue
  • Super glue
  • Brown paint and paint brush
  • Fine green grass turf
  • Green felt
  • Mod Podge Acrylic Spray

finished mini tree

I cut up five spools of various green ribbon (I said in a previous post that you would probably see this ribbon again as I had bought too much of it). They are all six yard spools that I bought for $0.50 each at Joanns. I cut 30 pieces in each color in 3″, 4″, and 5″ long strips. I split these between the three trunks of the tree.

I stuck the bamboo skewer in the Styrofoam ball for stability and handling and started tying on ribbons with simple overhand knots. The ribbons are tied on with the longest, 5″, tied at the bottom, then the 4″, and finally the 3″ pieces at the top. I mixed up the colors as I went along.

ribbon being tied onto bamboo skewer

Once I had all the ribbons tied, I pushed them all to the blunt end of the bamboo skewer. I dabbed a bit of super glue to the top ribbon to ensure they would not come off the skewer. I added another drop of super glue to the bottom ribbon so they would not slide down.

Next, I cut the Styrofoam ball in half and tested the appearance with the be-ribboned skewers stuck in the half ball.

trees done, stuck in unfinished styrofoam ball

After a successful test, I knew that I would need some weights added to the bottom to keep it from easily falling over. I grabbed four of my small magnets and drew around them on the underside of the half ball. Then, I cut out the Styrofoam and inserted the weight/magnet. Once I had all four cut out, I glued the weights/magnets into the Styrofoam holes.

styrofoam ball cut in half, cutting holes to insert weights

I painted the trunks (the exposed bamboo skewers) and the Styrofoam half ball brown. When the paint dried, I covered the top of the Styrofoam half ball with watered-down tacky glue and then coated it with the fine green grass turf (this is used for dioramas and small figures and is fine green dust essentially, you can find this easily at Hobby Lobby).

After the glue dried, I lightly brushed the green turf to remove and loose bits. Quite a bit came off, don’t worry, this is normal. I sprayed the turf covered dome with the Mod Podge Acrylic Spray so that no more of the turf would come off of it. The brown paint showed through and looked like real life pine trees where the grass is thinning due to fallen pine needles. (I actually added a little more brown paint after adding the turf as well, as I really liked this effect.)

Then, I cut a piece of the green felt to fit the bottom of the turf dome and using Tacky Glue, glued it to the bottom of the dome. This would keep it from scratching on any surfaces.

Finally, everything was dry and I stuck my be-ribboned skewers back into the turf covered dome and Voila! It was done.

finished mini tree

Happy Crafting!

Kristin

confetti in glass ball

Christmas Advent – Day 8 Confetti Ball

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Day 8 and I went for an easier project today as I am working on two of the future advent projects already. The snowflake confetti I bought has come is so handy throughout this year’s advent and even a small bag of it was a LOT of confetti. I am just now halfway through with the bag.

confetti in glass ball

Materials:

  • Clear glass ornament ball
  • Snowflake confetti
  • Glitter
  • Ribbon
  • Thin wire
  • Jump ring
  • Pliers

I pulled the top off the ornament and filled it full of snowflake confetti and glitter, then put the top back on the ball. I did fold up the arms of the snowflake confetti before I stuffed it inside. I then took the thin wire and made a loop then threaded some pieces of ribbon on it. I then used a jump ring to connect it to the ball. Done!

confetti in glass ball

Placemats and another awesome wreath are in the works. You should see them soon!

Happy Crafting,

Kristin

napkin rings

Christmas Advent 2015 – Day 7 Napkin Rings

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Loryn has been doing lots of entertaining lately and has the most awesome table. It is gigantic and sits our family very well. I decided that for this advent, I would make the table decor for Christmas family dinners. Today I made the napkin rings.

napkin rings

Materials:

  • Scrapbook paper
  • Tacky glue (white glue)
  • Foam sheets
  • Mod Podge
  • Sponge brush
  • Wax paper

I cut strips of scrapbook paper in three different styles to 1 1/2″, 1″, and 1/4″ wide by 7″ long. I used a sponge brush and some watered down tacky glue to glue the papers one on top of the other. I then squeezed these flat between some wax paper and heavy books.

I cut 1 1/2″ by 6″ long strips of the foam sheets and once the paper strips were dry, I used some more watered down tacky glue and the sponge brush to glue them to the foam strips. I again squeezed these flat between my sheets of wax paper and heavy books.

I then trimmed the paper on one end to evenly match up to the foam and left a 1/2″ edge of paper on the other end. I smeared straight tacky glue on the inner side of the leftover edge of paper and a bit on the end of the foam and curled it around the tacky glue bottle (nicely doing double duty here) and glued the ends of the foam/paper strips together, making sure the paper strips lined up, wiping any excess glue away, and ensuring the rings formed good circles.

napkin rings

After the glue was dry, I used another sponge brush and covered the rings with one coat of Mod Podge. I am not too worried about durability and if I need to make more next year, I will gladly do so. This was fun and easy and only took a couple of hours.

I only show five of the rings above as the others were all still drying. I only made a few to start to be sure I liked how they turned out. I also used several colors of foam sheets to add a little more color. (I know the insides of the napkin rings will be hidden by the napkins themselves, but they do spend a lot of time on the table with nothing in them after everyone pulls their napkins out.)

Stay tuned for napkins and other table decorations coming soon!

Happy Crafting,

Kristin

Ribbon garland

Christmas Advent 2015 – Day 4 Ribbon Garland Finished!

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Hey all! So, my SO and I went out for breakfast and then made a run to Joann’s this morning and I got the rest of the ribbon I needed to finish the ribbon garland. Of course, I go too much, so do not be surprised to see the ribbon in another project before this year’s advent is finished.

Materials:

  • Gold bead garland
  • Lots of ribbon
  • Scissors

Ribbon garland

In theory, this is an easy project as long as you have the time. It took me two days working about 10 hours total to finish 13 1/2′. I used a gold bead garland and tied 4″ strips of ribbon between each bead. My total yardage of ribbon was approximately 90 yards.

Close up of ribbon garland

You can see from the image above that I tied two pieces of 6″ ribbon between each bead. I am very happy with the result. It is going to look great on the Christmas tree. The start of this post (from yesterday) is here.

Happy Crafting,

Kristin

Three green foam tree ornaments.

Christmas Advent 2015 – Day 3 Foam Tree Ornament

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I made it to day 3 of the Christmas countdown! This feels a bit monumental, as we have been absent from craft blogging for so long.

Today, I made little tree ornaments out of foam sheets (Foamies) in various shades of green.

First my materials:

Photo of materials used.
The materials I used to make my foam tree ornament.
  • Small plastic snowflakes
  • Head pins with eyes
  • Jump rings
  • Tiny jingle bells
  • 4 sheets of green Foamie sheets
  • Wire cutters and pliers
  • Pointed yarn darning needle
  • Circle cutter (Thank you Martha Stewert)
  • Superglue (not pictured)

I used my circle cutter to cut out 24 circles of various sizes of green foam from 1″ to 2″ in diameter. I then poked a hole in the center of the plastic snowflakes and the green circles with the darning needle. Using the head pins, I slid on one snowflake, one circle, and another snowflake, twisted a loop and cut the wire. I ended up making 24 of these and then using the jump rings, I strung them together for a total of eight green circles on each ornament. I attached a single jingle bell to the last foam circle with a jump ring to add a little fun and noise.

Lastly, I cut three more circles at 1 1/2″ diameter and cut them in half. I glued these into cones with superglue and then slid another snowflake on a headpin, then poked the headpin through the bottom of the cone, made a loop at the top of the cone and attached an ornament hook. I used another jump ring to attach the cone to the rest of the tree ornament and Voila! I was finished.

Green foam tree ornament.
Pretty green tree ornament.

I am very happy with how these turned out. My one recommendation is to use a circle cutter as cutting these out by hand makes them look very lopsided and wrong. The circle cutter makes them perfect and even.

Three green foam tree ornaments.
Just as easy to make three as it is to make one!

Happy Crafting,

Kristin

Red wreath, completed and hung on my door.

Christmas Advent 2015 – Day 2 Paper Wreath

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Day 2, Hurrah!!

I have been making wreaths off and on over the years, but lately, for every season. I love all of the pretty scrapbook papers available and I have such a hard time not investing in every type of paper punch ever made. I have managed very admirably to keep this part of my craft collection to a small box that holds my paper and various cutters.

Materials:

  • Scrapbook paper (heavy and thin)
  • Paper punch
  • Glue
  • Wire
  • Wire cutters

I have this awesome petal paper punch that I have barely used and picked up on clearance some time ago. I needed an excuse to use it. After this project, it has certainly seen some usage. I started by making two green wreaths (I had a LOT of green scrapbook paper). I cut out 1 large circle (about 10″ for the outside diameter) from two pieces of heavy paper, glued them together, made a quick wire hanger that I attached to the circle, and then I started punching out petals. And more petals. And more petals.

First wreath in progress.
First wreath in progress. I made the other two wreaths much wider.

The first wreath I made is pretty thin, and while it looks great, I like wider wreaths better. When I started, I just randomly placed the petals to get a feel for the design. I found that I really liked the way the wreath looked with the petals pointing out on both the inner and outer side of the ring. Above you can see a few, but I had not quite gotten into the swing of placing the petals.

Close up of wreath hanger.
Here you can see my hanger and how I covered it up with petals.

I then found that I needed to cover the wire hanger and built up petals around the wire until I could hide it under yet more petals. You can also see the petals pointing inside and outside the wreath. I just kept layering until you could no longer see the paper ring underneath and until I liked the layout of the petals.

Green wreath, half completed.
Mostly complete wreath, still have to add the outside petals.

Above is the first wider wreath I did, again all in green paper. You can also see the start of hiding the wire hanger. I found it much easier to do all the inner pointing petals, then some of the middle petals, glue on the outer pointing petals, and then finish filling in the middle part of the wreath with the paper petals.

I was using the cut out center piece of the paper ring for my glue. I would pour some out, dip the wider end of the petal into the glue and then place it on the paper ring. In the picture above, you can see my bowl of petals. I punched lots and lots of these.

Green wreath, completed and hung on my door.
Green wreath, completed and hung on my door.

The finished green wreath looks great and I was very happy with the outcome. So happy that I immediately set out to make another one in more Christmassy colors, red and green.

Red wreath, completed and hung on my door.
Red wreath, completed and hung on my door.

So happy with it!

Happy Crafting,

Kristin

Paper clip snowflakes

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Cheri-I hope everyone is having a wonderful Holiday Season so far.

These are two ornament that I made from paper clips.

Supplies

Large paper clips

Round nose pliers

Grommets

Small gauge wire

Glue

I first started by experimenting  with different paperclip bends.  I knew that I wanted to make a snowflake so I made sure that I would have a way to connect them to each other. After I had a pattern I liked, I began to work on the connection. The grommets worked great for the 2nd snowflake as I had a loop to affix it to. The top one I decided to wire, after I wired it I put a drop of E-6000 on each wire. This stabilized the connection.

Hope you are enjoying our Christmas countdown and again Happy Holildays.

 

 

Erector/Steampunk tree

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Cheri-This tree was very simple and if you have an old Erector Set you can make as many trees as you want.

I adore Erector Sets and when I was little, my brother would build me little doll carriages out of his set.  I thought he was the most awesome brother that ever existed. Too bad he doesn’t have them anymore.

These happen to be some odds and ends that I picked up at a sale, they have the  most amazing patina. I ran screws down the center to create a color contrast.

My only regret is, these were the only ones I found.

I don’t think anyone will need detailed instructions because it really is self explanatory.

Hope you like it. And, you can never have too many odds and ends. Merry Christmas!

Paper Punch Ornament

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Okay, I am 2 days late with this post, but you will have to forgive me, between class, a major migraine, and a massive snowstorm, I have been a little bogged down.

In my last post, I used this wonderful paper punch and I just have not been able to resist using it again. This time, I used gift-wrap for the paper cut-outs. I have discussed before my one-time hobby of making temari balls. I have massive amounts of supplies left over from this hobby and I raid it regularly for other projects. For this project, I nabbed a wrapped ball that I had already made. I use stuffing and wrap it with loads of sewing thread. I was a little more proactive this time and added my hanger before I got started adding the paper punch-outs.

Paper ornament with paper punches

I cut out loads of the paper punch-outs and used beading pins and sequins to attach them to the ball. I started at the bottom of the ball and went around in a spiral adding paper punch-outs as I went around and up the ball.

Paper ornament close up

It is a really easy ornament to make and only took me about a 1/2 hour. This does not include the time it took me years ago to make the thread-wrapped ball, but that only took me about 20 minutes at most. You could also use a foam ball for your base as well.

I am really happy with how the ornament turned out.

Happy Crafting!

Kristin

Small photo of paper ornament.