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Happy Crafting Feb 2013

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I am in a sort of creativity jam (yet again) and need some ideas from fellow crafters. Instead of making simple banners with regular shaped flags I want to create something different. How about flags in the shape of cute animals? I have included a picture of paper cutouts of what I am thinking so far. Are there any other shapes that might be interesting for kids/children?
Of course I can make banners from these cute animal, but how about any other craft that can be created? What else can I do with these animal shapes?
Any ideas, suggestions, pointers are highly appreciated.

 

Sweep your loved one!

 Micro DIY #4

This is the 4th post in my Micro DIY series that I have specially created for Valentine’s day. The idea is very simple – to have fun creating craft work from simple house hold things. Also time is an important reason for these Micro DIY projects, each one of them can be done in less than an hour, some of them would take few mins only.

 

Well let’s get started. We all have dozens of paper napkins sitting in the pantry or basement which we may have had bought on some occasion but haven’t used them since. We had a Valentine’s day party at our home last year and I have few dozen Valentine’s day theme paper napkins left over from the party. Today I’m going to use them but not to wipe anything but to create a banner from  them. How does that sound?

 

5L

 

This is very cool & quick idea specially when we don’t have time (who does these days?).  This is how the final craft work would look like.

Napkin-Banner4

 

All we need is a dozen napkins (depending on how many flags you want to have in your banner, one napkin will make one flag) of any color you like, satin ribbon and fabric cutter. That’s it.

 

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Cut a small slit on the two upper corners of the napkin.

 

 

Pass the satin ribbon through the slits at the top of each napkin.

 

 

You may want to hang this inside because you don’t want your banner to get wet or soaked because then the flags will once again become napkins but this time you will have to throw them away :-). So be careful to hand the banner in a dry place.

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“Sweep your love one” banner is ready to be hung anywhere in your home.

 

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Happy Crafting!!

 

Other Micro DIY projects in this series –

Micro DIY #3- Stir & Wrap
Micro DIY #2 – Cozy Times!
Micro DIY #1 – Love!

Super Bowl Party Decor DIY

Are you ready for some football? We are almost there. Packed with action, entertainment, concerts, band and ice sculpting performances, variety of foods, ice cream and a whole lot more. With so much going on how can I sit still and do nothing. Everybody at your Super Bowl party will be asking you the recipe for this one of a kind, original DIY Super Bowl  mega event party banner.

Ingredients you will need for the banner –

  1. Football ball color fabric
  2. Iron on backing
  3. Football shaped paper cutout
  4. Satin ribbon
  5. White fabric paint, brush, fabric knife

Most of the material list item you will get it from your local craft store or from Joann.

 

superbowl14

 

It’s no brainer that the color of this banner has to be the same as the color of football. So I chose the fabric accordingly. Also each flag also has to be shaped like a football ball i.e. “Prolate Spheroid” (isn’t that cool?).
Step 1: Apply Iron-on backing on the back side of the fabric to strengthen it.

superbowl462

 

Step 2: Check procedure for using Pellon iron on backing from the picture given below.

superbowl464

 

 

Step 3: Write on the flags with washable marker and pre-cut stencil.

superbowl465

 

Step 4: Paint the cut out stencil with fabric paint

superbowl466

 

Step 5: Thread the Satin ribbon through needle, then poke lightly with the fabric knife near the top of the flag to make a small cut. Pass the Satin ribbon through the cut and repeat the same for all other flags.

 

superbowl4610_edited-1

 

superbowl13

 

Our Super Bowl  banner is ready, so let’s get ready for the game and party!!

 

DIY Valentine’s Day Banner

Heart1

 

Valentine’s day is a celebration of hearts filled with love, longing for love, waiting for love, yet unknown to love, ready to share the love, swimming in the joy and passion of love, going nuts being in love, giving more love than before, expecting to receive love and… so on and so much more.

For me and in my craft world it is an appropriate time to create something that reflects love, passion and hearts. So I have made a DIY banner for Valentine’s day with fabric cut in the shape of hearts and it has super-cute print on it. To add a little more craft to this banner I have connected to each bunting a hand-knit flower. Hope you all like it.

So the first step as always is to make sure you have all the material you need for to create this banner. Prepare the material so that you don’t have to worry about anything when you are in the middle of doing things.

  1. Designer fabric print (of your choice)
  2. Pencil
  3. Pellon iron on backing
  4. Satin ribbon
  5. Rotary cutter or Scissors
  6. Fabric knife
  7. Heart shaped stencil (I couldn’t find one in the market so made my own. It is very easy to make it. If you are good at drawing, draw a heart shape on a white sheet of paper. The size should be approx 6 x 6 inches. You can also find a heart shape on internet and print it (if you use a shape from the internet make sure you have the permission to download that artwork).
  8. Needle and thread

Now we are ready to start with our DIY Valentine’s day banner project-

Heart4

 

Use a heart shaped stencil to trace the flower pattern on the fabric.

 

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You can trace as many designs as you want on the fabric, just remember to do so on the back of the fabric. I drew 7 buntings, you can draw more or less depending on the length of the banner you want to make.

 

Heart6

 

Now you need to add firmness  to each bunting. To add weight and stabilize the bunting you would need to add an “Iron On Backing”. You can get them at Jo-Ann (http://www.joann.com) or Hobby Lobby (http://www.hobbylobby.com/) or your local, favorite craft store. (http://www.joann.com/peltex-1-side-fusible-interfacing-20-w-x-10yds/prd49910/)

 

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Put your  heart shape on top of  Iron on Backing. Use hot iron until fabric is fused with Iron on Backing.

 

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See instructions below in this picture.

 

Iron on backing1

 

Lay a single pennant on a foam board. Cut two small slits on the fabric with fabric knife or scissors.

 

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Repeat the same for all pennants and then put a satin ribbon through the slits of each.

 

Heart2

 

The shape of the pennant doesn’t have to be heart-shaped, you can choose any shape you like.

 

Heart1

 

To decorate the bunting ever more I have used knitted flowers (http://www.thethinthread.com/2013/knitting-in-2013-new-beginnings/). You may add any type of decoration to the bunting. I have done something simple and used the knitted flowers which I created few days ago.

 

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Tuck your decoration with needle thread .

 

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Love is in the air and this is how my DIY Valentine’s day banner finally looks like. Feel free to use this DIY to create your own and share them here. I have also put this final banner on my Etsy shop.

 

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Thanks for reading the post and if you enjoyed it or would like to share somethings, please let a comment below.

 

Easter Bucket

Easter Bucket with Custom Name, Personalized Easter Bucket

[Read more…]

Kiss Me I’m Irish!

Kiss Me I’m Irish – DIY T-Shirt

This is a fun DIY that can be done in no time. For this DIY project I got help from the “splendid blender” pen, literally!  You can read all about the magic of Splendid Blender pen (aka ‘Woodcrafter’s Marker’) at this awesome tutorial - Villabarnes. In this tutorial you can learn how to use the wonderful technique of transferring any image on fabric, any fabric. This technique uses “Splendid Blender” pen which you can buy from you local craft store (sometimes they are a little hard to find, don’t lose heart if your local craft store hasn’t even heard of it, check other stores and one of them will know about it). The one I used is by the company called “Chartpak“.

 

Take a print out of your desired image/picture on a laser printer. Laser printer gives a better quality printout and works well with the instructions in this DIY. Transfer the image on to the T-Shirt using the blender pen as per the instructions explained on Villabarnes blog. Once you have the image transferred, use the fabric markers to draw and fill the image with color of your choice.

 

Kiss Me I'm Irish T-Shirt DIY #1

 

Kiss Me I'm Irish T-Shirt DIY #2

 

Kiss Me I'm Irish T-Shirt DIY #3

 

Kiss Me I'm Irish T-Shirt DIY #4

 

Happy St. Patrick’s Day 2012.

 

Wee Bit O’ Irish!

Baby Bodysuit or Kid’s T-Shirt for St. Patrick’s Day

This adorable DIY project  will show how to easily hand paint and design baby’s bodysuit or T-Shirt with four-leaf clover design. You can dress your baby and show Irish pride…. even if they’re only a wee bit Irish or even if you are not Irish but want to celebrate this day and have fun.

 

This is a very easy and quick DIY and looks great too. The paint used is non-toxic fabric paint. Bodysuits and t-shirt’s could be white or any other color of your choice. This T-Shirt has a lucky three leaf clover design that will keep kids from getting pinched. The design can be easily painted on to onesies, t-shirts, bibs and even blankets.

 

All you need for this DIY is fabric marker and any T- Shirt.

 

Cute St. Paddy's Day Tees For Kids

 

Draw outline of a three-leaf clover symbol. If you unable to draw it for any reason, there is an even easier way to do this. Just follow the simple instructions for how to draw clover leaf outline here.

 

St. Paddy's Day 3 Leaf Clover Tee

 

Now use fabric marker to highlight the outline

 

St. Paddy's Day 3 Leaf Clover Tee

 

Fill the design with green color fabric marker.

 

St. Paddy's Day 3 Leaf Clover Tee

 

Done.

 

St. Paddy's Day 3 Leaf Clover Tee

 

Similarly you can make a four-leaf clover design with smiley face in it.

 

St. Paddy's Day 3 Leaf Clover Tee

 

The tee with a cute, green clover leaf logo is ready. Your baby can wear it now with pride!

 

How are you celebrating your St. Patrick’s day? Are you and your family taking part in the parade or going to watch the parade in your town? Share below your creative ideas or DIY that you are creating to make this day more fun!

 

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

(Note: This year St. Patrick’s day in on Saturday Mar 17th 2012.)

 

 

 

Happy Easter!

Easter Decoration Candle DIY Project

Many of  you commented on and appreciated my earlier DIY projects (St. Patrick day candle and Valentine’s day candle, thanks so much for all the comments.) about how to decorate candles in an easy way. With that I’m encouraged to put one more candle decoration project but this time for Easter.

 

Note: This DIY project idea is inspired by  the blog post “Graphic printed candles DIY” which can be found on the wonderful blog called “Crafty, Scrappy, Happy” by Jaime Lyn.

 

For this candle decoration you can use any photo. For example you can use your family photo, baby photo, sticker, cartoon and even a book picture. In this DIY project I have used a bunny picture from a paper napkin. Let’s get started! First we have to get a picture of our choice and then we will laminate the picture on the candle using liquid wax coating. This is a little tricky part and I’ll explain how to do this below. Once this step is done, I promise you that everybody who looks at this candle will ask you about it and about how did you do it? This is an inexpensive way to custom design your candles. I learned this technique long time back from my art teacher. This is a great way to laminate any art work with wax and save it.

 

Let’s get started. You will need a photo, a plain white candle, scissors and hot liquid paraffin wax.

Easter Candle Decoration DIY

Cut your picture and put it on the white candle.

 

Easter Candle Decoration DIY

 

You can find paraffin wax in your local art store. Make sure that you only use “Paraffin Wax” and don’t try to use just any wax.

 

WARNING: Make sure that you use proper gloves for melting and then handling liquid paraffin wax. Remember to work in a well ventilated area and never heat paraffin wax hotter than 240º F (it will burst into flames).

Easter Candle Decoration DIY

 

Now you can use this liquid wax just as any other paint. So get your painting brush and dip it in and paint over the photo on the candle. Try to give a nice coat of wax all over the photo specially around the edges.

 

Easter Candle Decoration DIY

 

 

Happy Easter Candle Decoration DIY

 

Easter Candle Decoration DIY

 

With this liquid wax painting technique you can laminate a photo on the candle.

 

How are your candle decorations coming along? Share your links/pictures, comments, feedback in the comments below.

 

Happy Easter to you with all best wishes!

 

St. Pat’s Day

St. Patrick’s Day Candle Decoration DIY

 

St. Patrick’s day isn’t too far and I hope that all Irish and Irish American folks and even those who are not Irish but like to celebrate, take part and enjoy all holidays of the world are getting ready –

  • with their Shamrock’s inspired designs for the parade,
  • the big feast,
  • sunday church,
  • dancing and singing along the tune of  wonderful ballad “The Wearing of the Green”
  • and of course who can forget the beer :-).
This DIY is very similar to my earlier “Valentine Candle” DIY project. Please check out the details in that blog post if you want to see the instructions/steps for how to paint a candle, what paints can be used etc.

Valentine Heart

Micro DIY #8

Valentine’s Day Ribbon Heart. 

 

A ribbon heart can be made in just two steps and under two minutes.

 

 

Step1: Simple knot


 

Step2: Fold it down

 

 

When ready you can either use fabric glue or stitch to keep the heart shape.

 

Happy Valentine’s Day!

 

This is the 2nd last and #7 Micro DIY in the series that I created for Valentine’s day. Some of my earlier posts in this series are –
Stir & Wrap
Cozy Times!
Love!
Sweep with Love
Valentine Candle
Sweet Love
Love Necklace 

 

Love Necklace

Micro DIY #7

Valentine’s Day Necklace

 

 

For this DIY you can follow the DIY steps as described in my “Thank you Gift Tag & Necklace” blog post.

 

Happy Valentine’s Day!

 

This Micro DIY is part of the series that I created for Valentine’s day. Some of my earlier posts in this series are –
Stir & Wrap
Cozy Times!
Love!
Sweep Love
Valentine Candle 
Sweet Love

Sweet Love

Micro DIY #6

Valentine Cupcakes

It was a lot of fun to decorate these little cupcakes. All you need is “foam stickers” which you can find at Joann’s or at your local favorite craft store. Then glue these stickers to tooth pricks and put them on the cupcakes.

Don’t they look cute now and probably sweeter?

 

 

I chose the stickers that made most sense for Valentine’s day.

 

 

This Micro DIY is part of the series that I created for Valentine’s day. Some of my earlier posts in this series are –

Stir & Wrap
Cozy Times!
Love!
Sweep Love
Valentine Candle 

 

Happy Crafting!

 

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