Long overdue...

It's been a while since I've done any crafting.  Since the holidays we have been sick, busy, or sick and busy.  I have been just trying to keep the house from crumbling and frankly, I haven't had the energy to do anything creative.  Not to mention my computer died and had to be replaced.  However, I still have some Christmas gifts to tell you about.

My kids are the only grandchildren my parents have so I knew that for their Christmas gift I wanted to do something with the kiddos.  I surfed around for the perfect craft idea and never really found anything that really sparked my interest.  However, I have been wanting to do something with photographing letters to spell something out.  I'm sure you've seen those all over the place.  I finally decided to use that idea and have my kids holding the letters to spell out LOVE. 

I recycled an old piece of poster board and drew the letters out and then headed outside with the kids.  The youngest wasn't as cooperative but it worked out anyway.  The hardest part was finding a frame.  We chose to get one with extra openings to bookend the word with extra pictures of the kids together.  Anyway, the grandparents liked it and it was a fairly inexpensive gift.

My next crafting project includes sewing.  I got lots of sewing supplies for Christmas and have been itching to try them out.  I'll be sure and keep you posted.

Uncrafty Mom out.

Crafty Christmas part I

As I have stated in earlier posts, this Christmas was slated to be a crafty one.   I had several ideas of gifts to make for my family and friends and I actually did some of them.  A few of our grand ideas didn't quite turn out as I had envisioned so those had to be scrapped.  However, there were a few projects that I am actually quite proud of.

As many of you probably know, I have an addiction to Pinterest that I'm proud of.  One of the first things I pinned was a gift idea for the inlaws.  I know you have all seen it.  A board painted with clothes pins for photos of the grandkids - you can see the one on Pinterest here.

The hubs went to Lowe's and got a board that I painted with some black latex paint.  Then I tried a tracing technique, also found on Pinterest here, and painted on the words.  I had found the cutest little binder clips at Office Max after Thanksgiving that I hot glued on and printed out some wallet sized pictures of the kids from Walmart.  Here's my final product:

Overall, a pretty simple project that just requires a little time.  The cost was pretty low, all under $10, and if this uncrafty woman can do it, I know you can!

In my next craft blog I will show you another gift I made.

Happy Crafting!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Crafting has had to take a back seat lately due to the holidays and all the commitments that go with it.  However, I have had it in the back of my mind to make a holiday outfit for Z to wear to multiple Christmas events.  On cyber Monday I cruised on over to hobbylobby.com and found some super cute fabric that was just perfect.  So, I got on the web and visited multiple sites and how-to's to see how I can best put this fabric to use.  I decided on a pillow-case dress because it best seemed to fit my skill level.  I never could find a tutorial that I liked online so I just kind of winged it.  It was, in a word, aggravating.  I am still getting to know my machine and we had many "come to Jesus" moments this week as I worked on the dress.  We had to have it tonight for a school Christmas program and I was literally sewing ribbon on minutes before walking out the door.  Here's my little model, not the best pictures but you get the drift.

She loves her new dress and it looks great with the Christmas Tree bow I made.  It's plenty big so hopefully, after all the blood, sweat and tears, I poured into this dress, she can wear for a couple more years.

I have other crafts that I am going to be tackling, but, they are gifts so the blogging on those will happen after the holidays.

Enjoy the season!!

It's finally happened!

I know you all have been anxiously awaiting this day, and yes folks, it has finally happened...I have a sewing machine!  My mother-in-law apparently has a cache of them in her barn and graciously dug one out for me.  I picked it up on my trip home last weekend and today I set about trying to get to know the machine.  Now, let me assure everyone, I am a complete novice when it comes to sewing.  Yes, I did try once, 20 years ago, to sew, and if you have read my first blog entry you know how that turned out, but I retained nothing from that experience.  Thank goodness for Google and it's powerful search engine, which sent me to numerous videos and tutorials.  By watching a delightful British girl I learned how to thread a bobbin and my machine.  I was set to go!  I practiced on some fabric scraps and, although they were not straight, my seams did stay together. Success!!  So, what was I going to do with this new found skill?  I had pinned a link on Pinterest for a DYI skirt made from an old pair of jeans.  My sweet daughter is very slender and tall so most of the pants she has are too short.  I designated a pair of jeans that fit well around the waist for this craft.  Here's the link to the tutorial.  My try was...well, not the best.  The tutorial is specifically a no-sew craft, using fabric glue instead of a sewing machine, but I went ahead and tried anyway.  Basically, after a few injuries, I was able to complete the skirt, but no, it does not look great.  Thankfully, Z is only 4, and although she considers herself quite stylish, maybe she wont notice my crooked seams.  Perhaps denim wasn't the ideal medium for a first-time sewing project.  Live and learn, right??

I will post a picture of the machine at another date, frankly, I'm too lazy to get up and go take one at the moment. ;-)

Happy crafting and as always, I welcome any suggestions, ideas or comments!

Slowly but Surely...

I have recently been documenting my quest to find cheap ways to decorate my young daughters bedroom.   We had an old wooden wall shelf with pegs gathering dust in the garage so I set about refashioning it to contribute to Z's somewhat barren walls.

Pretty banged up after 2 moves.

I first sanded this down after digging around in my husband's tool box for sandpaper scraps (shh, don't tell him).  I used leftover wall paint to give the shelf a nice neutral color.

I decided after looking at the plainness of the shelf, that I should use this opportunity to try my hand at decoupage.  I even found this on Pinterest and made my own modge podge.

At first I didn't really have a vision, but, after I drug out all of my miscellaneous crafting supplies, I decided on what materials I wanted to add and went from there.  I had some chipboard and cut out a scroll designs for the side out of scrapbook paper.

I also used some fabric scraps I thought were cute and a die cut for the rest of my design.  As an after thought I hot glued some buttons I found in the bottom of my sewing basket as embellishments.

I decided to make this shelf multifunctional by reusing yarn and clothes pins that I actually recieved at Z's baby shower almost 5 years ago (tear).

Displaying some art masterpieces.

It is a big hit already and I haven't even decided what to put on the shelf.  Maybe that's another craft for another day...

Happy Crafting!!

Craft, Thy Name is Thrifty!

I am a thrifty gal.  Unfortunately for my thriftiness, I am also uncrafty.   As my previous posts have attested, I am trying to up my craft skills in order to be productive enough that I can save money in some areas.  I would love to get to the point where I can make my daughter a cute dress for school instead of buying one.  I have a long way to go.

I own a pair of shoes that are so comfortable.  I have had them for a guesstimate of four years.  I love these shoes. I wear them often.  These shoes have the holes to prove my love.  Ideally I could afford to buy another pair of navy blue Toms but unfortunately, the budget says no.  Instead of throwing the shoes in the trash I got on Google and searched for a way to salvage my favorite shoes.  I came across this tutorial and quickly made a trip to Hobby Lobby for fabric scraps and E-6000.  This technique looks easy enough that I felt fairly confident tackling this activity.

Here's a picture of my Toms after I stitched up the holes in the toes.  They didn't have any other holes so I chose a simple path and decided to just cover the toes.

I picked out a couple of squares of fabric and fitted it over the toes of the shoe.  After putting that on I dug into my ribbon stash and added some to my shoes.  It's not the best looking and I got half the container of glue on my fingers, but it did the job.  And, the great thing about this craft is, if you grow tired of the look, you can add more fabric.  I may get more adventurous and add some stitching or embellishments later on.

Anyway, here is the finished product.  It was truly easy and pretty quick, even for this unskilled mamma.

Happy Crafting!

One craft down...

I love our house.  I really do.  We were super fortunate to come across this find.  It's roomy and bright and our landlord allows us to make it our home.  Our last house, in our last town, was still on the market when we rented it and therefor, we were unable to hang anything up on the walls.  I have a lot of walls here and I sure am enjoying getting to unpack my belongings and find a new home for them.  In our living area we have a large wall that needed something substantial to hang on it.  Nothing we had really worked there.  During my daily perusings of the internet I came across this tutorial on how to turn an old frame into a display for several photos.  I thought to myself, "Now here's an easy craft I feel pretty confident in doing."

I sent out the word that I was on the lookout for a large wooden frame in any condition.  My wonderful mother was able to find one at an auction and picked it up for a whopping $2.50.

What $2.50 can get you...

I sanded it down and painted it.  Spray paint would have been easier and faster, but it also costs money and I'm not all for that.  Instead, I used left-over wall paint and gave it a couple of coats.  After it dried I sanded it again to give it a slightly aged look.

I bought some natural jute at Hobby Lobby and used thumb tacks to string it on the frame.  The original tutorial used upholstery tacks and pinned it on the front of the frame but I preferred to do mine on the back.

I had ordered some pictures to hang on the jute but I wasn't sure what size to get.  I opted for 4x6 but next time I may order 5x7.  I didn't want to use full size clothespins and couldn't find the small ones anywhere.  Instead, I used some binder clips that I picked up at the dollar store and found I like the look better than the clothespins.

I may add another line of jute and more pictures or I may order larger sized pictures, I haven't decided yet.  I thought of taking off the hanging line but I actually don't mind that you can see it.  All in all, it was a cheap and easy project and I am loving how it looks on my wall.

P.S. I have 400 feet left of Jute if anyone can suggest crafts that use it. ; -)