Crafty DIYs

I seem to have quite a few friends that are pregnant lately. Some want some advice, some don't- I respect them either way! I stressed out a lot while pregnant, researching what to get baby and the differences between brands. Who am I kidding- I STILL stress out, but hopefully not as much now that I realize that the likelihood of me accidentally killing my child has greatly diminished. Anyways, in an attempt to be helpful, I put together the following Listmania! List together on Amazon. Maybe it will help you out. http://amzn.com/lm/R1X7Z8PA2WSFH7 Enjoy!

So I found some great deals on composition notebooks, and since I'm still making my way through some scrap material, I thought I'd make some fabric covered notebooks for work. Time : 15 minutes (tops) each Cost: $1.50 for each book, scrap material. In all fairness, I could make 3 with a fat quarter, so lets say $2.50 for the fabric for a total of $7 for 3. Supplies : Book Fabric Spray Adhesive Mod Podge Card stock First, I put the notebooks over the fabric to cut- kind of like wrapping a present. Then, I cut with roughly 1" to spare around the notebooks Once cut, I re-measured with the notebooks open, cutting scrap. Then I cut slashes at the binding.... Then, I took my FAVORITE spray adhesive (3M) and sprayed the covers- OUTSIDE. Then I carefully wrapped the fabric around just the cover, letting the fabric hang over. After that dried after about a minute, I put some Mod Podge on the inside covers, and folded the fabric over.

So I had a great print from Michael Miller- 1 yard to be exact, and wanted to make a summer top. I was inspired by A Beautiful Mess Blog , but I wanted a more finished look, so this tutorial was born! Time: Rougly 90 minutes Cost: $8 Yardage: 1 yard First, measure your hips. Divide number in half and add 3 inches. Then, measure the length you want. I wanted this to be bubble-top esq that I could tuck in. If you want it longer, you will need a yard and a half. So, I'm a size 10, it equalled: 40/2+3= 23 X 22 . 5 (yardage folded in half, so that was nice. Cut 2 rectangles that size. With yardage left over, cut 2 2.5X45 inch strips. Ok. Lets get started. With each of the thin strips, fold in half with right sides facing each other. Sew up one end and the length of the other. Once you've done that, go back and sew a zig-zag along the edge to prevent fraying. Top: Ironed, bottom: not. Next turn the strips inside-out. To do this, I used a paintbrush handle, bu

I have a lot of scrap fabric laying around, so when I saw the tutorial for super easy fabric scrap mousepad ,over at How Joyful's blog, I decided to give it a go. Grade: A...  It really was that easy and simple Time: 1 hour, if you include drying. 20 minutes hands on. Price: $4 for the shelf lining. But it could ultimately make 14 mousepads, so really 29 cents mousepad. That's pretty nifty. I made 7 of them, so yeah! I literally have no lessons learned from this project, other than it has increased my love of Mod Podge. Give it a go! It's worth your time.

Being a beginner in the art of crafting, I keep on coming across different posts that would require an ingredient I did not have at home- Mod Podge. I didn't know what it was, and basically felt no need to go and get any until my current list of craft projects was complete. But then I did. I bought some. And I'm in love! It's pretty cool. Remember my earlier post on how to decorate a container? Well, I was making some more this morning, and decided to see what covering the cloth in mod podge would do to my finished result... And looky! Shiny! I don't think the photograph does it justice- the cans look as if the fabric were painted on . I'm in love. So then I went on to make my mousepads! Post to come momentarily. Lesson? If you've been thinking of giving mod podge a go, its time.

I love many of the fairy gardens I've seen. So, after a recent trip to the dollar store, I decided to make my very own to update my backyard and hide my poor green thumb when it comes to hanging baskets. Supplies Note- I only used 1 bag each of the stones and gems Time: 45 minutes Cost Break Down for 5 Fairy Gardens Houses- $1 each (dollar store!!) Paint- $3/ per sampler (home depot so I could choose my own)- X 4= $12 Stones- $1 (dollar store) Blue Gems- $1 (I'm telling you- dollar store!!) Pinwheels- $1 for 3 (dollar store) Flowers- around $3 each, X4= $12 Total= $32 for 5 mini gardens- roughly $6 a piece .  BEFORE PICTURES Planter before (boring) Garden Before (ugh)  Ok. So now that we've witnessed my ugliness of the before, let's get down to business. 1. Paint your house. Paint your houses to your hearts content. Or leave them alone and let the elements weather them. But the fun of that part is just coloring them as you wi