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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-

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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.

 

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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.

 

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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.

 

Halloween Happy Smiley Ornament Pumpkin

Super cute hand painted Halloween Pumpkin banner bunting. It will be the best Halloween decor in the neighborhood and will make guests, everybody smile & love.

 

Happy Smiley Halloween Pumpkin

 

Check this banner on my Etsy store

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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!

 

DIY with XLO 2

DIY with Christmas Leftover Ornaments (XLO) – Part 2

 

 

 

 

This DIY is a follow up to my previous blog post. This DIY is even simple and a lot more fun. All you need for this one are the following items –

  1. Christmas Ornament balls
  2. Black felt
  3. Black permanent marker
  4. Super glue

 

You can draw with permanent marker any face or cartoon character of your choice on the Ornament ball. Use felt to create hat and beard and then glue them to the ball. I created few of them and enjoyed each one. Every time you will create something new and different.

 

I would love to hear about your experiences. Please leave your comments about my blog and DIY projects and feel free to share yours. Go and have some fun.

DIY with XLO I

A fun DIY with Christmas leftover ornaments (XLO) and Disney stickers – Part 1

 

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2012

Happy New Year 2012

 

Hello,

Happy New Year to all my friends! Let’s welcome New Year 2012 with enthusiasm and joy. Let’s welcome new colors of 2012 and make plans to add them to the painting of our life.

 

Happy New Year 2012 Banner (on Etsy)

 

Happy New Year !!

Tahira

Xmas Ornament II

Last minute Christmas Ornaments (DIY) – Part-II

Here I’m as promised in my last post posting few more fun, easy DIY for you to get some more last minute Christmas ornaments on the tree.

 

Step 1: First choose your Christmas ornament design.

  • Check my earlier post to find out how to choose your design or where to find one.
Step 2: List of items you would need for this DIY

Step1: Material List

 

  • Artificial Leather or Vinyl. (You can buy this from your local favorite craft store or from stores like Joann. This is one example of what I used.
  • You would also need Satin Ribbon
  • Super Glue (I use this)
  • Fabric markers or Fabric paints  (I used this)
  • Pencil
  • Flat paint brush
  •  Punch cutter (you can use this)

 

Step 3: Take white color Vinyl and draw your ornament design on it with fabric marker as show below in  2 or 3. Cut your design shape with scissor as in 4.

Step 3: How to draw and cut the design on Vinyl

 

Step 4:  The ornament is cut in the share of Christmas tree and is almost ready now, see 1 below).

Punch a whole at the top of the Christmas tree with punch cutter (2).

Use any fabric color to paint the ornament. Obviously since this is a Christmas tree I have painted it with green color (3, 4).

Step 4: Cut and Paint your Christmas ornament

 

Step 5:  Decorating the Christmas ornament is the most fun step of the DIY. Look in your craft box for any  sticker, beads,or scrap book stuff (1).

Stick these stickers/beads 0n your ornament with the help of super glue (2).

Finish all decorations (3).

Take 6′ of satin ribbon and tie it on top of the ornament through the whole which we made in Step 4.2.

Step 5: Decorating the Christmas Tree

 

Voila.. you Christmas ornament is ready to be hung on the tree. Go ahead and do that and share some pictures.

Step 6: Finished Christmas Ornament

 

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Cookies

Gingerbread Cookie Galore on Christmas

It’s the time of the year when baking gingerbread cookies, drinking egg nog, non-stop shopping, watching Christmas movies with family & friends and a lot more doesn’t seem enough to hold you over until the big day.

 

I don’t know about you but this year I’m on an insane loop of baking and decorating cookies (and eating them too :-)). In my dreams I see myself as a baker of exotic, out of this world gingerbread cookies. Though it’s just a dream but still very fulfilling and it is so beautiful that I don’t want to make it a reality. Not sure if that makes sense but that is what it is.

Gingerbread Cookie (Credit: normanack's photostream - http://www.flickr.com/photos/29278394@N00/)

Here are some of my favorite blogs that fuel my dream.

1) What is more adorable than a bunch of gingerbread men, especially those cute ones that are missing few appendages :-)? Ashleigh of “Bee in our Bonnet” blog has a wonderful post about how to make some of these “ABC Gingerbread Men“. You must check them out if you dream to be a baker or even if you really want to bake some.

ABC Gingerbread Men by Bee in our bonnet

 

2) How about decorating some cookies like a real crafter, using a cookie making kit? Wow that sounds like something I can do. Ashleigh at “Bee in our Bonnet” is a pro in this and has created a kit for people like us. It’s incredible you have to try it. Now I can also claim that I made gingerbread house cookie by hand (may be with a little help.. shhhhh… don’t tell that to anybody).

Gingerbread House by Bee in our Bonnet (guest blog on Eighteen25Blog)

 

3) The Sugarbelle (Callye) at “The sweet adventure of Sugarbelle” blog is one of the top divas of cookie decoration. Her work is inspiring in so many ways, far and beyond cookies. Beware she is out for some serious Worldwide Cookie Domination and she just might!

Her “Rustic Poinsettia Cookies” are out of this world.

 

Keep baking, decorating, sharing and enjoying your gingerbread cookies!!!

 

Merry Christmas!

Winter snow banner for kids room decor (DIY)


Last minute Christmas Ornaments 

 (DIY) – Part-I

We all know “Christmas” is around the corner and just ready to knock on our doors. I have been fascinated like many other craft junkies with the desire to never stop making Christmas ornaments. So this time I have a DIY to design your own Christmas ornament and give new look to your decoration or your tree. This is going to be a short, sweet and quick project for the whole family including the kids.

 

I wish this DIY Christmas ornaments may festoon your Christmas tree with joy and love.

 

Now let’s start cranking!!

 

#1: First choose your Christmas ornament design.

I know choosing is hard and even harder is the question of where to find these designs/patterns? Well I think I can help a little bit to get you started there. One of the easiest and most creative way is to draw a design/pattern by hand. Of course that ain’t easy and if you are like me then you would rather prefer a pre-made design or pattern . Who doesn’t love easy, premade, free stuff? I do!

 

There are numerous such resources on the internet. Check out few of the awesome resources listed below –

 

#2: Choose a Holiday/Christmas pattern fabric

You can buy this from your local favorite craft store or from stores like Joann. Below is one such pattern-
Simplicity Pattern 2723-Christmas Decorations-One Size.

 

#3: You would need a Pellon Iron-on-backing (Single Sided Fusible Ultra Firm Stabilizer) and you get it from your local craft store or from Joann.

 

#4: You would also need Satin ribbon.

 

#5: Lastly you would need a Scissor or Precision Knife. If you already have one then we all are set to start creating our DIY project.

 

Here are some of the Christmas ornament designs.

Christmas Ornament Designs

 

In the following image you can see all of my 5 items – Christmas Ornament Designs, Holiday themed fabric, Iron on backing, Scissor and Satin ribbon.

List of items for Christmas Ornament Design DIY

 

Step1: Apply Iron-on backing on the back side of the Holiday themed fabric to strengthen it.

Apply Iron-on backing

 

Check procedure of using pellon iron on backing  from the picture given below.

Instructions for how to use Pellon Iron-on backing?

 

Step2: Trace your designs on the Pellon iron-on backing i.e. on the back side of Holiday themed fabric. See ‘1’ below.
Now cut the fabric along the trace line with your scissor or precision fabric knife as shown in ‘2’ below.

 

You’re done cutting the design. Your ornaments are almost ready and will look like as shown in the image below.

Christmas Ornaments

 

Step3: Now we just need to thread the Satin ribbon through needle, then poke lightly with the fabric knife somewhere near the top of the ornament to make a small cut. Pass the satin ribbon through the cut and repeat the same for all other christmas ornaments.

 

You can hang the Christmas Ornaments garland around the Christmas tree or above your front door or porch or on any wall in your home.

 

You can also stick single ornaments any where in your home or even hang them on the Christmas tree.

 

The same above steps can be repeated for any ornament design. You can create single ornaments or a garland (kind of banner bunting) of Christmas ornaments.

Christmas Ornaments Garland

 

For your kids room the ornaments can be made with baby Christmas fabric designs & patterns.

 

For this DIY imagination is the limit to what you can create, depending on what theme you want to choose. I have few more DIY projects to share  that are related to this idea only and will be back soon to do that.

Happy Crafting till next time!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

Gift Tags

Thank You Gift Tags & Necklace

 

Hello dear friends I have a fun DIY to share. Holidays are all about celebrating life and thanking the people that matter in your life. There are different ways to express thanks, thank you notes, tags and thank you necklace is just one of them.

In this DIY (Do It Yourself) project I’m going to show how to create a beautiful flower tag with any message that your heart desire.

 

 

Step1) Material List for DIY thank you tag

  1. Artificial Leather or Vinyl.
  2. Satin ribbon
  3. Rotary cutter or Scissors
  4. Super Glue
  5. Compass
  6. Yarn Needle
  7. Fabric markers or Fabric paints
  8. Design print
  9. Pencil
  10. Pellon Iron on backing
  11. Fabric print & design of your choice
  12. Double zero Paint brush
  13. “Thank You” Block or Stamp

Step2) Take your designer fabric strip, make sure the size is 4″ x 18″ 

 

Step3) Cut fabric strip straight with the rotary cutter.

 

Step4) Take needle and yarn for the running stitch [for me this was a difficult step because I couldn’t decide which yarn to use, which is obvious since my yarn box is a mess, I’m sure your’s is not :-)]

 

Step5) Connect corners of the fabric strip together with running stitch to make circle . Fold the strip and run stitches for gathers.

 

Step6) Pull thread from both the corners to pull gather in the middle and now you can see the flower shape. Tighten the knot then cut the extra thread. 

 

Step7) Use Iron to press down the flower this will help to give flower a better shape .

 

Step8a) Now we will need a piece of sponge foam. Spread some fabric color of your choice smoothly on the foam. Tap on the color few times to smoothen the colored surface.

 

Step8b) Tap the “thank you” block/stamp on the sponge few times. Make sure your stamp is evenly dabbed in color.

Step9) Don’t forget to put your fabric or vinyl on hard surface before stamping

Step10) #1 Draw a circle around your “thank you” stamp, with the help of compass.

Step10) #2 Use super glue and stick the cut out in the centre of your flower.

 

 

 Step11) Tuck satin ribbon to the back side of the flower .


Step12) Show that you care and add personal touch to any gift with this “Thank You” tag. I used mine on a wine bottle as a gift.

 

I also used this flower gift tag with a necklace as shown below.

 

You can tuck the necklace to the flower tag with thread, needle and Jump ring.

A “thank you”  tag is a fun and loving way to show your love, support, encouragement or gratitude for anybody whom is important in your life. So don’t wait, go ahead and create some fun tags.

Did you like this DIY? If you did please put few words or leave a comment. Even if you didn’t like this project, that’s cool too, still leave some suggestions.

Happy Holidays!

DIY – Clown Turkey

In the spirit of the holidays and the movie “Muppets”  (to be released on Nov 23rd) and the characters in it who are just adorable, I have  created a fun “do it yourself” handicraft project which I hope can bring smiles. In this DIY project we will create a funny, clown Turkey banner to welcome thanksgiving and I can bet it would make you just as happy.

Let’s have some fun.

Step1: Here is the Material List for DIY Funny Clown Turkey

Image1: Material List for DIY Funny Clown Turkey

1. Artificial Leather or Vinyl
2. Satin ribbon
3. Rotary cutter or Scissors
4. Super Glue
5. Hand Puches
6. Fabric Markers or Permanent Acrylic Paint
7. Math Compass Math
8. Design print
9. Paint Brush
10. Precision Knife
11. Ultra ShapeXPress (Die cut any shape you want) (you can get it from Fiskars or Joann or at your favorite local retail/online store)

Step2: Now with the help of a math compass we are doing to draw a semi-circle of 4″ radius on the back side of the Vinyl. (I loved using the compass after a long-long time, I can’t even remember when I used it last). I used a yellow color leather fabric/vinyl.

Image2: Draw semi-circle using math compass

Step3: Cut a semi circle with the help of Ultra ShapeXpress. This is an amazing tool and can help Die cut any shape you want.

Image3: Cut a semi-circle using Ultra ShapeXpress

Step4: You can darken the outline of the circle with a marker and it would make it easy to cut the precise shape on the Vinyl.

Image4: Cut a semi-circle using Ultra ShapeXpress

Step5: This is the most interesting part of cutting the Vinyl. In this step we cut one more circle for the clown turkey’s face (I used 1.5″ diameter circle).

Image5: Cut a small circle which will be the Clown Turkey's face

Step6: Draw Turkey’s wings with a pencil and then mark the outline with a washable fabric marker.

Image6: Draw Clown Turkey's wings with washable marker

Step7: Cut the Vinyl with scissors along the outline of the Turkey wings. Once cut this is how it should look.

Image7: Cut the Clown Turkey wings

Step8: Turn over the Turkey’s face and put super glue on its back side as shown below and then glue it on top of the wings.

Image8: Cut out Clown Turkey's face and paste it on the wings

Step9: Fill Clown Turkey’s wings with your favorite color, using Fabric markers or Permanent Acrylic Paint.

Image9: Fill Clown Turkey wings with your favorite color

Step10: This is how I filled up the Clown Turkey wings. Do you like it so far?

Image10: Fill Clown Turkey wings with fun colors

Step11: Now we have to trace the most important part of the Turkey – the nose – a.k.a. Pygostyle.

Image11: Trace Turkey's nose a.k.a. Pope's nose

Step12: Now we have to glue the Turkey nose on the little circle (the turkey face) with super glue and paint it with suitable colors. Obviously I painted the clown Turkey nose with Red and  Green.

Image12: Painting the Turkey long nose.. it took a looooong time!

Step13: We are almost done with the clown Turkey flag and this is how it looks like.

Image13: Final Project

Step14: We need to make small cuts with a knife in two of the wings in Turkey flag to allow several Turkey flags to be hung together as a banner.

Image14: Make small cuts in the Turkey wing

Step15: Put matching ribbon throw the slits to hold the flags together in a banner

Image15: Put the satin ribbon through the small cuts in the Turkey wings

Make 4 to 6 Clown Turkey flags. You can fill each flag with different colors for the wings and nose.

Image16: The wonderful, funny, clown Turkey is in the town

Isn’t that one funny, clown Turkey banner?

I would love to hear from you about how did your Turkey banner turned out? You can share that with comments and links to your work.

I’m planning to travel a little bit around Thanksgiving, but I’ll be working all along.

So I’ll be posting more DIYs soon.

DIY Last minute Halloween Accessory

Do It Yourself Last Minute Halloween Accessory

I have always loved belts and they look cool in every season and occasion. We are just few days away from halloween and I’ll help you to create a last minute accessory (belt) that is fun, makes you look pretty and is darn cute. Let’s get started –

You can make this “last minute dress accessory” in any size you want. According to the waist you can change  the length of the belt to whatever size you want.

Material List for DIY Last minute Halloween Accessory –

  1. Artificial Leather or Vinyl.
  2. Satin ribbon
  3. Rotary cutter or Scissors
  4. Super Glue
  5. Punch cutter
  6. Yarn Needle
  7. Fabric markers or Fabric paints
  8. Design print
  9. Measuring tape

Image1: Material List for Last Minute Halloween Accessory

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