Reusable Party Spirals

 I completely forgot that I made reusable spiral party decorations for our daughter's first birthday party. Hopefully I remember to use them at her next party!

Now I know you can buy these in many different colours, but they're so thin and I was aiming to have as many reusable items as I could so I designed these for 3D printing in 4 different sizes.

If you would like to print your own party decorations I have uploaded the files to Thingiverse.

Chevron Crochet Blanket

Well I finally finished the first crochet blanket I started! This one I wanted as a throw for the couch but since it was a pattern for a baby blanket it is a bit small. Maybe it can just sit on the couch for looks rather than warmth.

Since I watch tv while I crochet there were a few times where I noticed that I'd done an extra row that I had to undo. And since I have around one ball of each colour left I decided to start a 'leftover' blanket where I do blocks of colour using up the last of each leftover ball. And I doubled the width so hopefully one day we'll have a blanket big enough for two adults! Since I only have three leftover balls I figure I can just buy a ball whenever I need it until the blanket is big enough.

Colour In Cushion

I had forgotten about this fabric I bought from Ikea many years ago and decided to turn it into cushions for all the kids birthdays this year. Since I just finished the last one I thought I'd better get a photo before I wrapped it. So far the two kids who have received their cushions have loved them!

And now that it is done, I think I need one for myself as well. We just bought a daybed for our lounge room so I'm in need of lots of comfy, new cushions, for now we just have a whole lot of pillows with pillowcases on them. One by one those pillows will get turned into cushions - if you can't find a cushion insert just grab a pillow by the short end, one hand on each corner and flick it so all the stuffing compacts at the other end. A standard cheap polyester filled pillow will compact enough to fit into a cushion cover.

Desktop Drawers

I always love those cute little decorative drawers that you can buy to clear up all the clutter on your desk. For some reason though I had never bought myself a set, I just have those ugly clear plastic ones that don't actually hide my junk.

Until I saw these and decided it was time for an upgrade that doubles as a craft project.

It was so easy, spread pva glue on scrapbook paper, stick it on the drawer front, smooth out the bubbles then once dry trim the edges with a craft knife. The silver one was actually glitter contact which was the same process since it didn't want to stick to the mdf. So quick to do and it looks so much nicer.

Terrarium

My sister in law made beautiful terrariums as Christmas gifts one year and I tried so hard (and then replanted it twice) but I just could not keep it alive. So I filled the jar with a layer of white gravel then a nice thick layer of black gravel. Then went to Ikea and bought cute little plastic succulents in pots. I broke them out of the pots and poked them down in the gravel, added the ornaments from the original terrarium plus some cute mini ones.

It looks alright, I much preferred the beautiful fittonia and fern - I just could not get them to survive, so fake succulents will have to do. It would be great if I could keep indoor plants alive - I'm working on it, my fish tank is turning into a plant stand and so far I've got a few survivors!

Pillowcases

I made pillowcases for our nieces, nephews and little siblings for their birthdays last year. It was actually the first time I was so organised since I made them all at the same time! I read a few tutorials but found it easier to just grab one of my pillowcases to copy. Obviously buying a pillowcase works out cheaper, but these are all fabrics I chose for each child based on what I thought they would like. Lucky for online shopping as I couldn't find the ninja turtles or pokemon fabric in a store near me. It was worth the wait as those two were so happy when they opened their presents!

Motherboard clock

My hubby likes building computers and because family and friends know that, he tends to be given their old computers. Generally, these computers are destined for landfill so I decided to use one of the old motherboards as the background of a clock for my hubby.

I started by using pliers to pull all the components off but it was taking forever so I used our multi tool to cut all the bits off. Then I cut the motherboard to fit a square shadowbox photo frame and drilled a hole in the centre so I could install the clock.

If I ever make another one it will probably be five times quicker and a lot easier than this first one!

Lace Windows

The front windows in our house have fixed panes underneath - which is great for letting in light, but it also makes it easy for Trixie to see lots of things to bark at outside! In the past I have just stuck wrapping paper over those fixed panes, but after all the time spent painting those rooms and cleaning the window frames I just couldn't justify taping paper there again!

Pinterest is brilliant, but I never seem to have enough time these days so I haven't been on the computer a lot lately, luckily a few weeks ago I found the perfect solution!

The pinned photo pointed to Annabel Vita's blog where she used cornstarch to 'glue' lace to her windows for privacy, while still allowing natural light through.

It was a little awkward trying to cut such big pieces of lace to the right size, then attempting to get them to stick, but eventually I finished the first window.

I am so happy with how it turned out! I have noticed that I need to redo the corners, but it still looks good from both inside and outside! Trixie however is not as impressed and now needs to be taught not to jump up to look out the window - no matter how cute it looks to see her standing there watching you as you come home. 

There are two more windows to do, now all I need to do is make the time...

Eyelet Ribbon Hand Towels

I recently had a housewarming party to go to which meant thinking of a useful gift that I could make. I always find it hard trying to think of gifts for people who already have everything they need, rather than adding clutter that they won't ever use.

So I opted for hand towels trimmed with ribbon. With little kids they will always come in handy - and while my thought process is that hand towels are for use in the kitchen or bathroom, a small towel can have multiple uses!

Originally I picked a red polka dot ribbon, until I saw this pretty eyelet ribbon - I bought both and finally decided to go with the eyelet. I trimmed both towel ends with the ribbon, doing a straight stitch along the top and bottom where my white stitches would be hidden. For the ends I chose to do a satin stitch to prevent any fraying as well as to disguise the ribbon end a little.

These are easy enough to make and I figure they would be a good gift to make in advance and keep on hand in case of any last minute parties. I might even make some for my own house!

New Ironing Board Cover

I have been sewing for over a year now, and have only just sewn a new ironing board cover! I have bought covers for it that have never fit properly, but accidentally ironing a piece of interfacing onto my ironing board gave me the push I needed to actually start this project!

Luckily I had plenty of the grey and white IKEA fabric leftover from my first floor cushion. This was a pretty quick project to sew, apart from threading all that elastic cord through the casing. 

Now I have an ironing board cover I actually like, and one that fits properly - the joys of being able to sew!

Stone mushrooms for the garden

Back in January I glued together some river rocks and painted them to look like little mushrooms. Because I wanted them outside I varnished the first one and set it aside to cure for the required two weeks... then I wondered if all that time and extra effort was necessary. So on the 7th of February I put one painted, varnished and cured mushroom and one painted mushroom in the garden as an experiment.

Painted and varnished

Painted only

Nearly four months later, and both of my mushroom rocks are still looking great! You can see that the shiny one in the front with lots of spots is the varnished one.

What prompted the idea that the varnish might be unnecessary? Every time I clean the bathroom I see that bit of blue acrylic paint still stubbornly sticking to my sink! If regular cleaning with bleach doesn't remove it, in theory a painted rock should look great in my garden for quite awhile.

Squiggly Sewn Cushion Covers

I made a couple of cushions for my sister's birthday back in April - after a lot of frustration! Lately I haven't had much luck finding fabric for specific projects, and yet again I couldn't find anything I liked in red and black.

You might remember seeing a post I did for the envelope clutches where I just sewed heaps of random 'squiggles' on black fabric. Since I was really happy with my personalised fabric I decided to use that idea for my sister's cushions - after checking mum's opinion first of course!

I think they turned out great - although they were impossible to photograph. It is still enough of a novelty that I enjoyed the crazy sewing process and have added the need for my own squiggly cushion to my project list.

I'm starting to think I shouldn't look for fabrics for specific projects, rather I should buy the fabric I like and think about what to use it for later on...

Origami Hyacinth and Morning Glory

Last week I was checking my blog so I could choose an origami flower for May when I noticed I had completely forgotten about the Morning Glory flowers I made last month! For whatever reason I really believed I had not only taken the photos, but also published a blog post about them - obviously I need to do some brain exercises...

For April I decided to try out the Morning Glory origami flowers from the book "Origami Flowers: Popular Blossoms and Creative Bouquets".

Apart from starting with a hexagon, these ones were quite easy to make. While they were quick to finish, I don't really like them and probably won't try them again/

For May I went with the Hyacinth origami flowers since I had mastered the fold needed to make the hexagon paper. 

I really like these flowers, however being a hyacinth you are supposed to attach about 20 of them all to a thick piece of wire. I decided I liked them as single flowers so I suppose they aren't really a hyacinth anymore!

I am thinking of making templates for all of the odd shapes rather than doing the special folds using square paper - especially since the original folds aren't always needed for the flowers. Either way it certainly is interesting to learn new origami techniques.

Origami flowers I have made from this book:

January: Balloon Flower

February: Blue Star

March: Cyclamen

Windmill Cross Stitch

Last week we celebrated Opa and Oma's 50th Anniversary and I had a brilliant idea to create a cross stitch for their gift. I took a photo of a Dutch windmill from their tablecloth and started an attempt to create the cross stitch pattern myself - which was far too difficult! So I found a great website called Pic 2 Pat where you can upload a photo and they will generate a cross stitch pattern for you. It is a really easy to use, free online program which saves a lot of time when creating a custom cross stitch pattern.

With the colours being all over the place for this pattern it took a lot longer than I'm used to, but in the end I finished at least one square each day. 

And of course with a handmade gift you need to give a handmade card so I used watercolour pencils to create a bright flowery card!

Mattress to Floor Cushion

Ages ago we bought a new mattress to replace my old foam mattress - which I kept (you know, just in case) until I started to get sick of all that space it was wasting! But I still didn't want to throw perfectly good foam away...

So when Trixie was a puppy she got adult doggie sized mattress pieces as beds and the rest was cut into squares to eventually become floor cushions - and those squares have sat, wasting space for nearly two years! 

Until yesterday when the first experimental cushion was finally completed!

And of course, I didn't find a tutorial on making boxed cushions first - obviously I love to waste time unpicking fabric. After unpicking I just had to try and figure it out myself with some spare fabric, after more frustration I finally googled the solution! If you are interested in how to create the perfect corners just look at the pictures on this web page - you don't even need to read it since the picture explains it all.

Since I have furry pets everything has to be easily removed for washing so I added a nice big zip that extends  over the two corners.When I saw the price of the long zips at Spotlight I almost considered just using velcro, but luckily I noticed the rolls of zips underneath the racks. The zip I chose was only $3 for a whole metre!

Now I just have four more cushions to finish. I've been thinking I need to have a go at using piping for the first time...

Origami Cyclamen Flowers

For March I chose to try out the Cyclamen origami flowers from my book "Origami Flowers: Popular Blossoms and Creative Bouquets".

The cyclamen is a cute little flower, and I did once have a live plant - but I didn't do so well at keeping it alive. Besides that, indoor plants don't tend to live very long with indoor cats!

This flower was a little difficult to shape at the end, but they still turned out pretty cute! I do wonder if a thinner paper might work better for this flower - either way I quite like this particular origami flower.

Origami flowers I have made from this book:

January: Balloon Flower

February: Blue Star

Denim Cat Cushion

Last month I posted about Trixie's new denim jeans dog bed, which she loves. I had lots of scraps left over so I decided to make a cushion for our cat Dash as well.

Being a small cat he only needs a small cushion so I created patchwork pieces like I did for the bottom and sides of Trixie's bed. For Dash I decided to do a square cushion so it would fit nicely in his favourite spot on the desk without wasting too much space.

If you saw the photos of Trixie's bed you might have noticed that I used a pair of Ray's jeans which had red accents on them. I brought the red into Dash's cushion as well by playing with red thread and the decorative stitches on my sewing machine on every seam. I also used red zips on both cushions, not that they are really seen.

Luckily, after all the effort, they both love their new jeans bean bag cushions. Now I just need some more old jeans to cut up and create with!

Origami Blue Star Flowers

Today I was planning a post for the newest origami flower I learnt to make using my book "Origami Flowers: Popular Blossoms and Creative Bouquets" when I realised that I didn't post about the ones I learnt to make last month!

In January I tried out the Balloon flowers, and in February I opted for the Blue Star flowers.

This flower is a little awkward to make, but they turned out quite cute! I don't have the correct type of paper for the leaves, but my memo paper is great to practice origami with!

I am also doing a lot better with the floral tape, so I guess it was just me and not the tape that had issues!

If you are interested in origami flowers, keep checking back as I'm hoping to complete a new flower from this book each month of 2013!

Denim Jeans Dog Bed

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A long, long time ago (probably last year) I was walking past a window display and saw a rug and bean bag made from jeans. They looked great and of course I had old jeans with ripped knees that I no longer wore.

Rather than make a traditional style beanbag I wanted to make her a round cushion type bed so I made a template and spent forever coaxing thick layers of our old jeans through the sewing machine... I finished the top and then it got put in a box and forgotten about!

Trixie had a beanbag that she loved as puppy which has been sitting in the garage since her and Alfie ripped holes in it while playing tug of war with it. Since she already spent one winter without her snuggly bean bag I thought I had better get her new denim cover finished for autumn.

Now that it is finally finished I'm happy with how it looks, Trixie thinks it's comfy and she has a ball when I put her toys in the pockets!

The bottom and sides were much easier to sew since I cut the jeans up and simply used them as fabric. I quite like the bottom, and I'm thinking of making a denim cover for our Poang armchair... that hasn't been added to my list yet!

What did I learn with this project? That bean bags need long zips, otherwise it is a pain to fill them with beans. It is horrible and frustrating to sew through multiple layers of old jeans! The wrong side of denim sometimes looks really cool - I mixed and matched the different jeans as well as using the right and wrong sides for this project!

Just because it is cute, I thought I would share this scrapbook collage of Trixie on her new bed.

All I need to do now is figure out where to put her bed, at the moment it is in her favourite spot at my desk - where I have to move it constantly and climb over it!

Trixie's new bed was featured over at I Gotta Create!



Linking up here:
Manic Monday @ Serendipity and Spice
Transformed Tuesday @ PJH Designs
Sew Darn Crafty @ Sew Many Ways
Whatever Goes Wednesday @ Someday Crafts
Fluster's Creative Muster @ Fluster Buster
Wildly Original Link Party @ I Gotta Create!

Feather Cross Stitch Pattern

I have been wanting to add another cross stitch to my "coaster wall". I really should take an updated photo of it!

Quite awhile ago I started creating this feather cross stitch pattern which is finally ready to share with you. If you would like to see my other free patterns you can simply click the cross stitch tab at the top of my page or click here.

I chose to do this one in red to bring some more colour into our office. I'm considering doing a mirror image of this in blue for my wall as well.

I hope you enjoy my latest cross stitch pattern!

As usual, you can either click on the image to bring it up in full size, then right click and save as, or you can download the jpg through Google Drive.

Linking up here: 
Take-A-Look Tuesday @ Sugar Bee Crafts Manic Monday @ Serendipity and Spice Sew Darn Crafty Linking Party @ Sew Many Ways Transformed Tuesday @ PJH Designs Fluster's Creative Muster Party @ Fluster Buster Whatever Goes Wednesday @ Someday Crafts Wildly Original Link Party @ I Gotta Create!