"MOM" Photo Blocks

How sweet are these photos of me and my mom from way back? I just got a bunch of old photos scanned to a disk at ScanMyPhotos. Normally it's pretty expensive... I'm talking $100 for a thousand photos... but I got a really sweet deal through Groupon - a thousand photos for $29!!!. Love Groupon.

SO I printed these ones on my black and white printer on regular printer paper, mod podged them to some 3.5"x3.5" wood blocks that I painted black, and added the letters cut from paper using my Cricut.

Happy Mother's Day!!

Jedi Robe

My 3 year old son loves Star Wars (despite the fact that he's never even seen it) so I made him this Jedi Robe using a great tutorial I found online at www.DeGraeve.com.

The tutorial is wonderful but since I was doing it for a child instead of an adult, figuring out the hood and neck was a bit of a challenge. I also could have been much more generous while tracing around and under his arms so keep that in mind if you try it. Good thing he doesn't care about the details :)

I used a twin flat sheet (from his bed, actually) to make this one and one for his baby sister and it was plenty of fabric and the cost for one of those at Walmart is only $4 :D

May the force be with you...

Vinyl Projects

I know you've all seen these family name plaques a hundred times and don't need a tutorial on how to do them BUT I just had to share my first vinyl projects with you because I'm so happy that I finally got the guts to try cutting my precious vinyl with my Cricut! I've mentioned that I love Make The Cut but I'm going to say it again... I would definitely not be using my Cricut much if I didn't have it. The possibilities are endless with this software and it's cheaper than getting any more than 2 cartridges anyway! But moving on... do you see the little squiggly designs on either side of "Est. 2001"? I found that character in the "Curlz" font, turned it sideways and enlarged it. I cut two normally and then flipped the image and cut two more. I was going for a wrought-iron-ish design above and below these three 8X10s that I put on my wall using those corner picture holders for scrapbooks.

I'll be honest, I'm not loving it but I think if I can find a big frame to go around all of it that might be cute, right? It just really needs some dimention since it's all completely flat. If you have any other ideas for me about what to add or alter, I could really use some input!

Tutorial: How To Make Curtain Rod

I'm not sure if this is really worthy of a post or even if this can be called a tutorial but here's an easy project for someone looking for a wood curtain rod like I was.

All the furniture in my kids' room is natural wood and so I wanted their curtain rod to match but the only one I found locally was really expensive so I made my own. I found the rod at Home Depot for $8 after cutting it to the size I needed (price will vary depending on how much you cut) and the two balls were a buck each at Michaels with my coupon. I gave in and bought the set of brackets from Home Depot for $9 (and they do match although in the picture you wouldn't know it) so all in all it cost a total of $19 which isn't amazingly cheap but still decent.

All you have to do is drill holes in the ends of the rod and in each ball then wood glue a little dowel to attach them. Done :)

Tutorial: How To Make A Ruffled Monogram Pillow

Thank goodness for birthdays or I'd never have an excuse to make stuff! I feel like the only time I get to create anymore is when my kids are going to a birthday party. My poor neglected kids don't ever get anything made by me either because it's just getting harder to find the time as they grow. Not to mention the fact that we just moved AND started a new job. But ANYWHO...

Here is an adorable pillow for a little girl's bedroom that you can personalize with her initial.

I used my Cricket to cut this letter "M" but you could easily print it then trace it onto your fabric and cut. This was my first time cutting fabric with my Cricket machine (using these instructions) and it worked great.

It was also my first time applying an applique. I'd had the stuff to do it forever but was intimidated. For no reason I might add. It was so easy. All you need is Fray Check, Heat n' Bond and a somewhat simple shaped applique. For me, sewing around the applique was too hard when I used a super curvy font (i.e. "Curlz").

So this is what you do:

Cut out two squares for your pillow in any size you choose. Also cut out a letter (or anything else you want to use for your applique) and apply Fray Check to the edges. Cut four strips of fabric for you ruffle that are each about 1.5 times as long as one of your pillow's sides, fold them over length-wise with wrong sides together and iron.

Then open them up and sew them right sides together on the shorter sides until you have a big loop. Iron the seams open and then re-iron it length-wise over the seam. Come to think of it you might as well just wait to iron the entire thing lenth-wise until after you've sewed each strip together.

Now gather the whole thing by sewing the raw edges together with an extra long stitch length and pulling on the ends.

Now attach the ruffle to the right side of one square with pins. Use your seams as a guide by pinning them to the corners so that it's all even. Speaking of corners, make sure your ruffles aren't bunched right there because mine were sloppy and I had to use my seam ripper and redo them after sewing over the outter edges of my ruffle the first time.

Use your Heat n' Bond to apply your applique to the other square. Once attached you can sew around the edges of the letter using your zig-zag stitch and a very low stitch length setting.

Next, take your monogramed square and lay it face-down on top, right sides together, and re-pin, removing the pins used in the previous step as you go.

Now you're ready to sew! Leave a small opening to pull it right side out through (it's best if this opening is in the center of two corners instead of at a corner). Once right side out, stuff with batting and sew opening shut using invisible thread or a matching thread if fabric is a solid color.