Guest Tutorial: 10 Minute Buttons & Bows Frame

Hi! I’m Jelli and I’m excited to be here sharing with you and Lisa on Sew Gloried! I blog at Jellibean Journals sharing sweet treats, family life, faith walking,  and fashion attempts. Thanks, so much Lisa, for letting me share this cheerful 10 minute buttons & bows frame with you!

Buttons and bows make everything pretty.

(adding a  baby doesn’t  hurt either!)

I recently purchased a quaint, pink wooden frame  with intentions of boosting the color and charm factor straight from the craft box.  A few buttons and bows later and voila! A merry and delightful little frame to showcase my two favorite cuties.

To glam-up a basic frame, all you have to do is craft a few pretty felt bows and and glue on an array of colorful accent buttons. This cheery little project cost me a mere ¢1,600 ($3) and adds a burst of  happy color to the house.

Supplies

• Basic frame (I love the sturdy ruggedness of wood)
• Felt bows (see tutorial)
• Colorful buttons
• Craft glue
• 10 minutes (That’s 3 commercial breaks, folks.)

Instructions:

Arrange items on the frame to your liking. Glue those puppies in place. Finito!

What’s your favorite way to decorate a basic frame?

 

Jelli is a wife to one specTACular Costa Rican, mommy to a brown-eyed (almost) 6 month-old cutie girl, American ex-pat living (temporarily?) in Italy, and a missionary for Jesus via Youth with a Mission. She especially loves baking desserts often, sharing them occasionally, and eating them always, of course! Visit her and leave some comment love.

Wonderful Wednesday

Wonderful Wednesday show-case time where I pick a few projects linked up to various link parties this past week.

Our first feature is this deer wall hanging by Maggie at Hell on Heels Housewife.  She combines a few trends here including the ruler art, silhouettes, and deer; the result is stunning!

Source: thehellonheelshousewife.blogspot.com via Maggie on Pinterest

And how about this yummy looking South of the Border breakfast casserole by Mari at Inspired By Family Magazine.  My mouth is watering!

Lastly, check out this book page wreath by Katie from Katie{Did}It.  Isn't it adorable?! And it'd be super easy if you wanted to embellish it according to season/holiday etc.

Once again, those featured can check out the buttons page and grab their "featured" button! Thanks for sharing your projects and ideas with us ladies!

Linking Up Here!

Horse Head Pillows

This past Christmas I participated in my 1st office Christmas party and secret-Santa gift exchange.  The co-worker who's name I drew really likes horses and on the sheet of ideas we passed around she requested a new saddle :/ Well, they cost a-lot of money this college student doesn't have so I was able to come up with these pillows which I think she liked!

These are the basic steps:

Cut a square piece of fabric for the front of the pillow (sorry I don't have a pic of this!)

Cut two pieces of fabric for the back of the pillow.  Cut these pieces the same width as the front but just a bit shorter than the front square so that you have two rectangles of the same size that are slightly shorter than the front square. (sorry I don't have a pic of this either!)

Finish one edge of each of the back rectangles.  I did this by zig-zagging the edge and then folding it over and stitching along the edge.  

I cut two horse-head shapes out of fabric using my Silhouette machine.  You could also print out a shape and trace it on to your fabric and cut it out that way if you do not have a cutting machine.  Because I was making two pillows I flipped the image for one so that the heads would be facing each other.  

Stitch close to the edges of the shape to hold down.  I did have fusible interfacing on the back of mine as well but I felt safer also stitching the edges down.

With right-sides together match one back rectangle up with the top of your pillow.  Pin along the top and sides.

Layer the other back rectangle on next, finished edge toward the middle and matching the bottom and side edges with the edges of the front square. 

Sew along all outside edges.  This creates the pocket/envelope pillow cover.

Turn right-side out and insert pillow form! You're done!

Stay tuned for the Giveaway revealed coming on Saturday!

Linking Up Here!

Love Language

I've been reading a bit about the 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman lately and have been thinking about what my fiance's is and I think it's words of affirmation.  So I used Tagxedo to create this print for him for Valentine's day using words that describe him.

Read my tip on Tagxedo after the break!

Storage Canisters

The only toy that can handle my dog's play is a tennis ball.  So I've been saving the containers and have started using them around the house.  But, one day I decided to decorate them to make them cute!

1. Open silhouette software and choose a design.  For the first canister I chose an all-over background pattern that was one of the original 50 designs.  Also change the page size to 6.5"x9.5"

Note: To change the side of the vinyl that cuts first (long edge instead of short edge) go to the "Page" tab then at the bottom select "Advanced Options" this will allow you to choose which edge you want to insert first.

2. Picture #3 is what the vinyl looked like when the machine first started cutting...(SORRY I PUT THE WRONG NUMBER ON THE PICTURE)  

3.  I thought I was safe and looked away...which is how picture #2 happened!

4.  So...I stuck my piece of vinyl on the mat and re-cut it that way.

5.Me doing homework...Sil cutting away...

6.  Weeding time! I used the hook tool.  I can tell you this is much cleaner weeding than the garden kind in the summer.

7.Weeding all done!

8.  Smooth transfer paper on top of vinyl.

9. Carefully peeling the transfer paper and vinyl away from backing...some of the design did break :/ but I kept on peeling.

10.  Grab on of your tennis cans that you have removed the label from.

11.  Smooth transfer paper and vinyl around can.

12.  Slowly peel off the transfer paper and smooth down any vinyl that didn't quite stick.

Walla!  You have some cute canisters in which to store things! The one on the left stores plastic bags in the car. The one on the right now stores doggy treats for Bailee!

For those without a silhouette I think it'd still be super cute to just cut .5" to 1" strips to apply either horizontal or vertical to dress them up a bit.

What will/do you use your tennis cans for?

Linking Up Here!

Cowl-Neck Tee

This week I made a resolution to start using up the clothing items in my "alter-me and I will be beautiful" clothing pile.  This pile has grown to about 4 skirts, 5 tops, and various other pieces of clothing.  It may not seem like alot but being that I am working out of my bedroom for alterations and this pile is taking up my floor space.

So as an effort I went scrounging for some tutorials/ideas to alter some tees that I had stuck in the pile because I really never wear them as a result of the wide/lowcut neckline.  Well as I was stalking pursuing Katy's awesome blog: Sweet Verbena  (if you haven't checked it out, well, you should!...like right now) I discovered this tutorial:

(click the pic)

(among the other really neat tutorials she has...scroll to the bottom for a list of some of my favorites)

and then I thought "hmmm....that cowl neck adds extra fabric around the neck region...I'll bet that it would work just splended on those shirts I have at home!"

Pleather Techniques

Recently I found a great resource for working with pleather.  I love the look that this leather-like material has for finishing purses and accessories, however it can be a bit difficult to work with.  

Here you will find a way to sew the straps like I did in the pictures below.

If you're wondering about the button hole way of attaching well there's a tutorial for that too!

 The above tutorial wasn't out when I sewed this bag so I sorta just made it up as I went along and ended up just zig-zaging(?) the edges of the hole that the strap goes through since I could not get my pleather to look like it does in the pictures over at her tutorial.  I also did the button hole on the front of the strap so that the end of the strap wasn't showing on the outside.  Because my strap wasn't as wide I also only did one button hole. Although next time I'm going to try the tutorial way!

CUTE Custom Business cards!

This fall I am hoping to do a few craft shows with my Sgt. J's mom who makes super cute sweater mittens.

These are the ones she gave me for my birthday :) They'll make the coming cold weather a little more cheery anyway!

So anyhow, we would do a booth together. 

Ruffly Chenille Onesies

Hi folks!
As I'm sure many have seen there are quite a few ideas going around as to how one can dress up simple baby onesies.  Some friends of mine recently had an adorable baby girl and so I decided to try out an idea I'd had for some faux chenille applique.

I'd first seen the faux chenille technique over at Aesthetic Nest when she used it to make this baby blanket:

I first experimented with it in pillow form and loved the results so I wanted to experiment with it on a smaller scale in creating some texture to applique.

Below is the:

Faux-Chenille Applique Tutorial

Ribbon Jewlery

Last week the ribbon jewelry out there got the best of me and I just had to make some! I had gotten some larger beads on clearance a while back that were just waiting for a project like this!

I made a necklace and two bracelets.

See where I wore it after the jump:

the Headband bug...

So, I caught it, the headband bug.  LMM hosted a headband linky party last week and that was it I was infected with the obsession.  It's been coming on for a while now with all the super cute fabric flowers out there and super cute headbands that aren't just for 8 yr olds anymore.  SO I thought I'd share a few with you that I'd made lately...here they are:
What I did:

You can find similar inspiration/tutorials here:

How to Change a Blog Name

...WITHOUT losing everything!

Hello folks!
As you might have noticed I recently changed the name of my blog, including the url because I have an OCD about things matching think it looks more professtional if my URL and blog name match .  However when I first changed the url I opened up my blog, clicked a post link and AHHHHHHH!!! the link was broken and I got a message that the blog was no longer running! NOOOOO!!!!
Frantically I scrambled for a way to undo it, I tried changing my blog url back to what I had originally had it as and it did restore all the links.

Tote Tuesday Part 3: Finale!

hello hello. I just realized that this tutorial series stretched out into alike 4 posts total!  I am astonished that I stretched it out that long and I promise that I will NEVER stretch a single project out into more than 2 posts EVER AGAIN.  I realize that I would probably not have enough attention span or dedication to come back and see what to do next so I wont ask you all to either from now on.
Now to the finishing the tote...hope some are still with me :)

MATERIALS:

• the assembled tote body (outside)
• the lining you've worked on so far
• fabric for handles
• if you are copying the handles I did you will need 2 contrasting fabrics)

STEP 1:
Sew lining sides and form bottom

• Fold lining right sides together.

• Sew together each side.
• Pinch the bottom corners and sew across like you did when assembling the tote body here.

STEP 2:

Tote Tuesday Part 2: Zippered Pocket

I include 2 different types of pockets in the totes I make.  I like to include a zippered pocket for all those things I don't want to fall out, but I also include a basic open pocket for the things I want to be able to grab quickly: a chapstick, pencil, etc.

SUPPLIES:

• Tote lining
• Fabric for pocket: less than a fat quarter

STEP 1: 

Cut Fabric

• 1-28"x18"piece of fabric you are using for lining
• note that the piece of fabric for the lining is the same dimensions as the fabric cut for the tote body, therefore if you are making a tote of different dimensions you just have to make sure the lining and tote body are the same size

• 1-10"x18" piece of fabric for basic pocket
• again, if you would like a larger, smaller, skinnier, fatter pocket you can adjust accordingly by determining how wide you would like the pocket (plus 2 inches for seam allowance and zipper placement), and how tall you would like the pocket (when figuring the height, multiply it by 2, because you will be folding the pocket over, and then add 1 inch for a seam allowance

• 1-8" zipper

STEP 2:
Mark zipper placement.

• Fold fabric for pocket right-sides together, hamburger bun style.
• About an inch under the top fold of the pocket is where the zipper will be placed, draw a rectangle about 7 1/2" long by 3/8" wide. As shown in pictures.

STEP 3:

Tote Tuesday Part 2: Lining

There are a few different techniques involved and I want to include many pictures with each one, in an effort to streamline things I'm going to split the lining up into a few different posts so I can include lots of pictures and still keep the posts to a manageable length.  All of the tutorials that make up the lining will be released within hours of each other (you wont have to wait a whole week for the next part :)

Below are links to the posts that make up the whole of the lining:

Basic pocket
Zippered pocket
Assembling lining

Tote Tuesday Part 2: Basic Pocket

I include 2 different types of pockets in the totes I make.  I like to include a zippered pocket for all those things I don't want to fall out, but I also include a basic open pocket for the things I want to be able to grab quickly: a chapstick, pencil, etc.

SUPPLIES:

• Tote lining
• Fabric for pocket: less than a fat quarter

STEP 1: 

Cut Fabric

• 1-28"x18"piece of fabric for lining
• note that the piece of fabric for the lining is the same dimensions as the fabric cut for the tote body, therefore if you are making a tote of different dimensions you just have to make sure the lining and tote body are the same size

• 1-10"x18" piece of fabric for basic pocket
• again, if you would like a larger, smaller, skinnier, fatter pocket you can adjust accordingly by determining how wide you would like the pocket (plus 1 inch for seam allowance), and how tall you would like the pocket (when figuring the height, multiply it by 2, because you will be folding the pocket over, and then add 1 inch for a seam allowance)

STEP 2:

Tote Tuesday Part 1: Outside Body

Here it is: Part 1 of the Tote Tuesday Tutorial series!
This tutorial is how to make the basic body of the tote.  Measurements I list here can be modified if you would like a tote that is wider or deeper.

Materials:

• 1/2 yard of fabric you would like to use for outside                                                                         (heavier weight fabric will make a sturdier bag but will be more difficult to sew through, if you use regular weight cotton fabric, like I did here see note under interfacing)
• 1/2 yard of interfacing                                                                                                                       (if you use a regular cotton weight fabric for outside consider using a heavier interfacing than if you are using decorator weight fabric)
• 12"x18" piece of accent fabric along tote bottom                                                                                  (here I use a piece of faux-leather, you could also use canvas, denim, etc. the thicker/heavier the fabric the more rigid the bottom shape of the bag will be)

Button Monogram Tutorial

This weekend a good friend of mine got married.  Being a poor creative student I decided to make a gift rather than buying one.  The picture above was inspired by this image that I'd found on another site a few weeks ago (if I find which site it was I'll update the link to go to that site).  

Flip-Flop Rescue

This summer we ran into a dilemma at our house. This dilemma arose when my lovely pooch took a liking to the straps on flip-flops.  We haven't caught her eating the bottom for some reason, only the top.  However when one has a face like this:

how can I not forgive her!

Anyway, she's gone through 2 pairs of my sister's flip-flops, a pair from 2 different friends of mine (luckily they were somewhat old pairs) and one of mine.  Now we wouldn't have a problem if people remembered to put their shoes up on the shelf since she is only about 14" tall...