Canvas Nativity

Found this in the archives and with Christmas around the corner, seems like the perfect time to post!!

I love Nativities but I have just never found one that I wanted to buy. Well, I came up with an awesome nativity set!!

I bought this guy a while ago, I was going to put a quote on it but suddenly I had a better idea!

I cut these out with my Silhouette:

This canvas had been painted white so I thought these would stick to it. They didn't. So I put each one on the canvas individually and used my NEW BEST FRIEND (Mod Podge!), to stick them to the canvas:

I thought I would need more than one coat of mod podge but to my surprise one coat was enough!

Finished product!! My hubby loved this one!! I can't see this going away after Christmas either, so it might stay year round too!

til next time & Merry Christmas,
nik

Canvas Christmas Tree

I had a pack of two canvas sitting in my closet and this week I decided to do something with them.
I got these at Hobby Lobby for 40% off! (I love the Hobby Lobby App!)

I cut this out with my silhouette and placed it on the canvas:

I have found that vinyl does not stick well to canvas, so I used this as a stencil and painted the quote on. I read online that the trick to painting is to use mod podge to glue the stencil down and then the paint won't bleed. So I went over the whole quote with mod podge:

Verdict: It worked incredibly well! I didn't have to worry about any of the letters or vinyl moving around.

Then I painted. I chose gold for the star and alternated red and green for the quote, then brown at the bottom. 

I think I did about 4 coats of paint. It takes a lot of paint to cover canvas.

Once it was dry I peeled the vinyl off and used this little nail tool to help me get the vinyl out of the o's, a's and e's:

Finished product!! It looks like a Christmas tree!! This is one of my favorite things I've made in awhile. I absolutely love how it turned out! I already don't want to put it away after Christmas is over, so it might stay out year round!!

til next time,
nik

Happy November!!

I love November. I love the changing leaves, I love the weather, I love Thanksgiving. I love a holiday that is about being thankful for things.

This week I worked on making a wreath for our front door. I have sat down to make a wreath at least three times and this time I finally gave up. Wreaths are not my thing. But making signs is my thing!

I painted this board brown:

Then I cut these out with my silhouette:

 And placed them on the board:

 Yay it looks good! After doing this I wondered if brushing mod podge over the top would make it look better. I like mod podge but EVERY TIME I use it I have this fear that it is not going to dry clear and end up looking like this:

(This is before it dried)

 Even though I have used it on multiple projects and it ALWAYS dries clear, that fear always comes back when I use it.

Finished product!!

The mod podge didn't actually make any difference at all. I can't wait to hang this on the front door!!

Happy November!!

til next time,
nik

Menu Board

I have been wanting some kind of menu board for awhile. I really love the chalkboard ones but just can't bring myself to buy one. Using things that I already had, I created one. Now this one works for me because I only cook once, maybe twice a week. If I cooked more, I would need a bigger menu board.

I have a bunch of these boards sitting in my closet, I used to use them when we lived in Alabama to put quotes or "Go Noles" on!

 I printed out this guy with my Silhouette:

I decided to stencil the days of the week on the board instead of using my Silhouette.

I wrote them in pencil just in case I made a mistake and it was a good thing I did because, of course, I needed to move some around.

It was easy enough to just paint over the erased pencil marks with white paint. And then I just painted the letters black.

And added what I had printed out with my Silhouette at the top:

Then my loving hubby helped me screw in these hooks underneath each day of the week. We tried just screwing them in but ended up having to drill starter holes in order to screw them in.

Then I found these adorable metallic binder clips that I hung on each hook

The plan is to clip a recipe onto whatever day I'm going to cook that recipe. So far it's worked well. I planned to cook Pork Chop Casserole on Tuesday and did. Then I ate leftovers for a week. I need to find more recipes for one, since my hubby doesn't eat what I eat. I get tired of eating leftovers after a couple days. Any suggestions?

til next time,
nik

A Tale of Failure

I like to try new things. I see something and think "I could make that" and probably 6 times out of 10, I can figure it out. But sometimes I don't. And today I'm going to share something that I just COULD NOT figure out.

Enter Rocking Chair:

Picked up at a thrift store by my Grandma and then given to me. The seat cushions were the same ugly fabric as the ottoman, they were just being washed when this picture was taken. They didn't wash well so enter the idea of new cushions!! I mean, come on how hard could it be to recover new cushions? It's just measuring, cutting, and sewing. (Ha, if only I had any clue.)

I first tried to measure the chair and then cut out cushion stencils on cardboard. That DID NOT work. Then I had a genius idea, why not take the old cushions and trace them? Hello! Totally worked!!

I cut those out with scissors (which by the way took FOREVER). Then came the fun part, buying foam and FABRIC! (I love fabric, I pretty much hoard it). My hubby and I decided on 2 inch thick foam because it would be more comfortable.

The green fabric was going to be the ottoman, the other fabric the chair.

Next problem, how do you cut 2inch thick foam?? Answer: With a knife and a lot of time.

After cutting out the bottom cushion, I thought I would cover it and then cut out the top cushion. (Reason being I was tired of cutting through foam, plus I thought this would be the easy part).

Now everyone says "measure twice, cut once." I decided to trace my cushion 2 inches bigger all the way around then it actually was. I sewed it up and....it was too big and too small. How can it be both?? Trust me, it can. It was too big wide and too small length. So I took it in on the sides and added 2 inches of fabric.

Is this real life? It was now too small. So I decided to start on the back cushion. I figured I would learn from my mistakes. Ha.

Cutting it out from the foam wasn't so bad. I pretty much have the hang of cutting foam now. Now, when I traced my fabric, I cut just about an inch bigger than I needed.

The frickin' thing didn't fit. This is after I had already doctored it. The first time it ended up being 2 inches too small!! So I added 6 inches, 2 for each side and 2 for the width. Still too frickin' small!! How is that even possible?!?!

It was at this point that I quit. Sometimes you just gotta admit when something has the better of you. I had already put in too much time and effort that it wasn't even worth it to me anymore. I'd love to admit that every time I try something it works, but that's not real life. Sometimes I try things and they don't turn out at all. And that is okay.

So off to Target I went to see if there was such a thing as a "rocking chair slipcover". Guess what? There's not. But after an hour of wondering around (and finding multiple things I did not need but couldn't not buy) I found this:

It says right on the package "fits multiple shapes and sizes". Guess what? It doesn't. The dang thing didn't work, so it will be going back to Target. But while I was wandering around Target, I found this baby ON SALE:

Flannel sheet set for $35! Awesome because we needed new sheets!

So can you guess what the rocking chair is wearing?

Yep, old sheets. And guess what? I love it! And guess what else? It's staying like that for awhile.

Any tips or tricks on recovering cushions is appreciated. One day I may get tired of the sheet and decide to try again.

So not every craft I do is perfect or even gets finished. But just because I failed doesn't mean I won't craft again or even try my hand at this again.

Oh, also, I'm trying to get better at blogging again. We'll see how this goes.

til next time (hopefully that's soon),

nik

The Tale of How I Turned One TShirt Into Two Headbands in One Afternoon

I don't have a lot of time for crafting anymore (and blogging is wayyyyyy down on my list). To find out more about why I don't have a lot of time to craft anymore, click here.

Yes, that's right. I am now the proud owner of my (well my husband and mine) very own party store!! And I love it but unfortunately running your own business doesn't leave a whole lotta extra time for anything else. And so my craft room sits mostly unused. But sometimes, when you have a passion for something, you have to MAKE time for it. And so here is the tale of how I took one tshirt and made it into two headbands all in a VERY short amount of time, probably about 30 minutes or less.

I LOVE headbands. I'm lazy. I don't want to give up my sleep time to do my hair in the morning. This means that I have to have a headband collection. And I love to crochet them, most of the time. But THEN, then, I saw a tutorial about making a headband out of a TSHIRT! A comfy, stretchy, cute headband? How could I pass that up?

And I just happened to have a hot pink tshirt that I never got around to wearing. 

The tutorial told me to cut a strip 1.5 inches wide and 2 inches shorter than the circumference of my head.

But like I said before, I'm lazy, and from seam to seam the shirt was about 4 inches shorter than my head. So I just cut there. And then you just sew the ends together. In my book, crafting literally does not get any easier than this. Now you have a headband.

The only problem I had was that it was not wide enough. I like wide headbands and this one was teeny. Not that I won't use it but since it only took me about 15 minutes to make, I didn't mind making one that was wider. This time I cut it 5 inches wide. And cut at the seams again to make two strips.

It looked like this:

This will make 2 headbands!

 Fold it in half, sew and BAM! DONE!

This one is MUCH wider and more my style! Now I only have to decide if it's going to get a flower or some kind of embellishment. My FAVORITE part of this headband is that there is NO hemming. The tshirt naturally rolls under, so it basically hems itself for you!!

So even if you have just started your own business, this is a craft you can knock out in less than 30 minutes!

til next time (and that might be a while),

nik