Category: Tutorials

If you missed the first part of the picnic blanket tutorial, click here to head that way first.

Time to make the picnic blanket fun! I decided to add a checkers game, Bingo cards and tic tac toe grids to the top, but if you have other games your family loves, you can add them instead.

To make the checker board, you need 2 fabric colors. Using the lighter color, cut a square that measures 16 x 16 inches. Iron a piece of Heat’n Bond Lite to the wrong side of the fabric.

Out of the darker fabric, cut a rectangle measuring 16 x 8 inches. Apply Heat’n Bond Lite to the wrong side of the fabric.

Cut 32 squares measuring 2 x 2 inches out of the darker fabric.

Remove the paper from the squares and place them on the large square in a checkerboard pattern. Iron the squares in place.

Remove the Heat’n Bond Lite paper from the back of the checkerboard. Place the checkerboard on the center of the picnic blanket. Turn the board so the sides of the board align with the corners of the blanket. This gives you more space to sit when playing the games. See photo below for placement of the checkerboard.

Iron the board down to help it stay in place when you stitch. Use a zigzag stitch to sew the squares together and secure them to the top of the picnic blanket.

Time for the Bingo cards. Using a piece of fabric measuring 16 x 40, iron Heat’n Bond Lite to the wrong side of the fabric. Cut 4 rectangles measuring 2 x 10 inches. Remove the paper backing and iron the rectangle to the picnic blanket along the sides of the checkerboard. Refer to the picture above for placement.

Using a fabric marker, write BINGO on the fabric. Space the letters evenly.

To complete the Bingo cards, use the fabric marker to write the numbers under the letters. You can randomly select numbers for each section following the rules below:

Column B contains numbers 1 – 15

Column I contains numbers 16 – 30

Column N contains numbers 31 – 45

Column G contains numbers 46 – 60

Column O contains numbers 61 – 75

You can also use an online Bingo card generator and just copy the supplied cards.

Draw the tic tac toe games between the Bingo cards.

Time to make the game pieces. I used unfinished wood pieces from Michael’s. I used round discs for the checkers, Bingo markers and tic tac toe pieces. They were the 1.5 inch size. Katelyn painted them for me.

I used small heart shaped wooden pieces to make the calling pieces for the Bingo game.

The games are complete. Now it’s time to attach the top and the bottom of the blanket.

Take the top of the blanket and the vinyl tablecloth and place the wrong sides together. Now it’s almost ready! Round the corners slightly to help soften the edges and make it easy to sew the binding.

You can either make bias tape or use store bought tape. Place the bias tape around the perimeter of the blanket and stitch the edge of the blanket all the way around. Stitch carefully to be sure you catch everything as you go. If your stitching is off around the corners, your game pieces can slip through the spaces. If that happens, just restitch the area you missed.

Place your game pieces and other small games (like cards) into the corner pockets.

Roll up or fold the picnic blanket and you’re ready to head out for a bit of fresh air and entertainment.

If you have any questions or something doesn’t make sense, please let me know!

Things You Need:

1 vinyl tablecloth 60″ x 60″

1 piece of fabric 60″ x 60″

1 1/2 yards of coordinating fabric

Coordinating scrap fabric (to make checkers board)

34″ sew on Velcro cut into 4 equal lengths of 8.5 inches

34″ ric-rac cut into 4 strips 8.5 inches long

7 yards double fold bias tape

Heat’n Bond Lite

Fabric marker

game pieces: 24 pieces of wood 1.5″ diameter and 75 small pieces for Bingo calling numbers (I used small wooden hearts)

Let’s get started making the blanket.

I found a 60×120 tablecloth and cut it in half for this project. Now I can make a second blanket one day. I used a bottom weight khaki fabric for the top side of the blanket, also cut 60×60. So that’s where I started.

Next, cut the pieces of fabric you need to begin making the pockets and borders.

Cut 4 strips of fabric (out of your coordinating fabric) that measure 37 x 6.5 inches.

Cut the corner pieces that will form the pockets. Follow the measurements on the diagram below and cut 4 pieces total.

Stitch each strip of ric-rac to the top piece of your Velcro. Be sure to stitch it to the backside of the strip so it’s not between the layers of Velcro later.

On the side of the corner piece that measures 8.5 inches, turn under 1/2 inch and iron. Stitch the top piece of Velcro (with the added ric-rac) to the folded edge of the corner piece. Allow the edge of the ric-rac to extend beyond the edge of the corner. Fold back and sew the Velcro to the remaining corner pieces.

Place each corner piece onto the top portion of your blanket with the corners aligned. Mark the position for the bottom Velcro piece. I use a disappearing ink pen, but you can pin it to secure it. Doesn’t matter how you mark it, just be sure you have it aligned properly. Stitch lower Velcro onto the 60×60 inch piece of fabric for each corner.

Moving on to your 37 inch strips now. Fold one long edge of your strips under 1/2 inch and iron flat. Place the strips between the corner pieces with the folded side towards the middle of the blanket and align the outside edges of all the pieces. Using a 1/2 inch seam allowance, stitch the pieces together as shown below.

Place the border/corner pieces on the blanket top and stitch. I stitched each side of the seam between the border strips and the corner pocket pieces.

Part 2 of the tutorial will show you how to add the games to the top of the blanket!

Click here to head over to the second part.

I’m still working on getting a tutorial for my cloche hat. It’s coming soon, I promise! In the meantime, I thought I would share how I made the fabric flower for the hat.

I made a smaller size to use as a hair accessory for the girls. This flower and quick and easy. After making the flower, you can sew it to something (like a hat!), attach a broach pin or glue to an alligator clip.

Begin with the fabric you want to use. For the hat, I used one type of fabric, but for the flower hair clip, I decided to use two different ones so it would be easy to see what is what in this tutorial.

I cut up an outfit I made for Katelyn when she was younger. Gotta recycle when I can.

Decide how big you want your flower and find a circular object to trace. I used a measuring cup this morning and for the life of me, I can’t remember what I used for the hat flower.

Cut out your circles. I used 10 circles for this flower and 9 for the hat flower.

Fold each circle in half and iron flat.

Thread a needle and knot the end so you have a double strand of thread. Run a stitch through the straight portion of the half circle.

Slide the fabric all the way to the end by the knot and gather it on the thread.

Repeat the process with the remaining pieces of fabric.

Allow the half circles to curl into a circular shape and begin to layer the fabric as you go.

Once you get to the end of the fabric pieces, tighten the flower by pulling the thread. Make a knot to secure the flower.

Sew a button to the middle of the flower and you’re done!

I made it onto the next season of So You Think You’re Crafty! Thank you all for voting, even if it wasn’t for me. I hope you will continue to head over there weekly once the contest starts at the beginning of next year. It should be a fun ride and I’m so excited to be able to share this experience with my sis. I’m already hard at work on the first project for the contest and I can’t wait to see how it turns out.

This was my audition piece. My sister ended up stomping everyone with her cute bowling set, so she set the bar pretty high for the rest of us!

Having a Christmas party and want a cute way to display wine charms? Place them on a small Christmas tree and let them double as table decoration. Then guests can easily see and choose what charm they want on their glass.

I made some custom charms and placed them on earring hoops (I couldn’t find regular wine charm holders) and they worked great!

By making them myself out of some small pieces of craft felt and some DMC floss, I was able to make the charms the colors and style I wanted. I made some holiday themed and I stitched some with initials on them for my party goers. These make a cute housewarming or hostess gift too.

For another theme, I took small glass ornaments and wrote on them with a metallic Sharpie marker. I wrote names, drew holiday pictures and wrote holiday words, like Peace and Joy.

Just in case you aren’t feeling too crafty, using store bought wine charms on the tree is quick, cute and easy. You can’t get much better than that combination.

So last year, my mom saw an idea online to make a wreath out of different sized glass ornaments. So my sister, mom and I decided to give it a go. I think that in the end, mine was the only one that went. Mom ended up redoing hers several times and then dropped and broke some of it. I think it’s in their basement. My sister thought hers looked too much like an Easter craft because of the colors she chose. I thought both of them did a great job and they turned out cute, but in the end mine was the only one that made it to the front door. I will snap a picture of it tomorrow when I get it out as I start to decorate for Christmas.

This year, I found a mini wreath holder and these mini glass balls at a discount store. I’ve been wanting a wreath holder like this for a bit now. I then took some wire and bent it into a circular shape. I started to string on the balls and just put them on there pretty randomly. I didn’t attempt to make it look uniform. Then I bent the ends of the wire to hook on each other and placed it on the holder.

Now it looks so cute sitting on our fireplace mantel.

I also learned while taking pictures of this project that it’s important to be mindful of what you are wearing when taking pictures of reflective objects. I threw a jacket on over my pajamas really quick after I snapped and previewed the first few pictures.  I refuse to be like the people taking pictures of toasters to sell on eBay with reflections of freaky stuff.

I wanted to make some small wired pumpkins and this time I decided to add a bit of colorful beads to give it some magic.

It’s easy to make these pumpkins fit anyone’s style and decor.

Gather your supplies.

You will need:
18 gauge wire

Floral wire or a thinner wire than the 18 gauge

Beads (be sure they will slide onto your wire) in any color you desire

Super glue

Wire cutters (oops! I didn’t toss them in the picture)

Begin by pulling off about 10 feet of wire and coil it in your hands to form a wire tunnel of sorts. You could probably wrap the wire around a cylindrical object, but I like to just wrap around my fingers because I find it easier to hold. You want to wrap it about 15 to 20 times to have enough to make the pumpkin. The more you wrap, the thicker the pumpkin will look. This one ended up with 14. Leave about 5 inches at the end to make the stem.

Begin stringing on the beads.

Once all the beads are on the wire, evenly disperse them. You can also do like me and haphazardly spread them throughout the loops with a different amount on each loop. Just be sure to have some on each one. At the end I noticed I had 5 on one loop and none on the one next to it. Oh well, good thing I’m okay with random.

Turn the coiled wire so that the beginning of the wire is facing up and the beads fall together. Gather the loops together and wrap with floral wire and then cover with some of the 18 gauge wire. If I had the same color floral wire, I would have just left it uncovered, but since mine was green and I didn’t have a thinner steel wire, I covered it. If you want to cover it in the thicker wire, the floral wire will help hold it in place while you wrap. Catch the beginning of the wire from the coil when wrapping the center.

Wrap further across than I have in this picture. Going further to the top and bottom will help secure the pumpkin for this next step. Be sure to wrap tight enough to hold the wire, but loose enough the loops will spread out and stay formed. Spread the loops out to join the ends together and form the pumpkin.

Put a small dot of super glue along the loops where you want the bead to stay and slide the bead into place. Hold the bead in place for a few seconds and then move onto the next bead. I completed all beads on each loop before moving to the next one. I forgot to take a picture of this step, but you can see an idea of placement from the way the pumpkin looks when it is finished.

Thread the beads onto the threaded piece sticking out the top. This will form the stem.

Turn the end of the stem so it points back toward the center of the pumpkin and glue the beads into place.

To make a pumpkin without the beads, follow the same instructions, but leave them off.

For this pumpkin I used a 16 gauge wire for the pumpkin and the 18 gauge wire to tie the center. I still formed the loops in my hands and there are about 40 loops to get this fullness. I didn’t measure how much I used to make the pumpkin, I just kept coiling it until it looked thick enough when I fanned it out while holding the center area.

After I finished the pumpkin, I coated it with some brown spray paint. I love how it turned out!

These days headbands are all the rage for our girls. That’s about all they want to wear in their hair. It’s funny to me since I don’t ever remember wearing headbands when I was young. I wanted a way to create headbands that are cute and not crazy priced. I set out to make some myself using store bought basic headbands.

Things You Need:
Headband

Fabric scraps

Ribbon

Double stick tape

How to cover the headband:

1. Cut a piece of scrap fabric twice the width of the headband and just a bit longer.

2. Lay a strip of double stick tape along the top side of the headband and lay the fabric on top of the headband. Make sure it’s centered so the sides wrap around to the back.

3. Place a piece of double stick tape on the underside portion of the headband. Wrap the fabric under the headband and press into place on the tape.

4. Cut a piece of grosgrain ribbon the same length as the headband. Seal the ends. I prefer to use a flame to melt them just a bit.

5. Place a strip of double stick tape along the underside of the headband and place the ribbon over the tape.

6. Add a fabric flower or other decorations, if you want.

I’m sure using a fabric glue will also work for this project, but I found the double stick tape quick and mess free.

These are fun to make for different holidays too. I went ahead and made one for Halloween. Madison claimed it when she came home from school.

This is also a great way to buy cheap, ugly headbands and cover them or recycle some you already own.

I’m linking to some of these fun parties.

One night while I was up late, I found a blog that talked about making a weighted blanket. I’d never heard of such, but later when I mentioned it to my mom and sister, they knew exactly what I was talking about, so maybe I’m a bit late to the game and everyone else knows about these. A weighted blanket helps calm and soothe people with sensory issues.

It’s basically a heavy blanket. You sew squares and place a filler in the sections to add weight to the blanket.

They are great for kids with autism and for people with restless leg syndrome. I thought Katelyn may like one of these blankets since  she is forever trying to get dressed in snuggly clothes and under blankets. She is a cuddlebug for sure. It also may help kids who are hyperactive and have difficulty concentrating. So I thought that would be a bonus for Katelyn too. We can use all the help we can get in that department.
So the next morning, I talked to Katelyn about these blankets and she was all over the idea. We ran over to let her pick out some fabric and she chose the ladybugs and the soft minky for her blanket. The fabric store didn’t have the poly beads I needed to fill the pockets, so we headed off to the craft store to get them. I got the filler poly pellets that you use to fill stuffed animals and dolls and used my shipping scale to weigh the pellets so I could add the same amount into each square. It took me hours and hours to carefully sew and fill each square with the pellets, but she went to bed that night with her new blanket. That minky is some tricky stuff to sew too!

One tip I have is to sew carefully. I broke 2 needles making this blanket. The pellets hop around from the vibrations of sewing and scatter easily. If you hit one of those bad boys with your needle, you will be digging it out and putting on a new one.

For more information and some great tutorials on how to make a weighted blanket, here are some sites I found helpful.

Calming the Senses with a Craft Blanket by Craft Nectar

Weighted Blanket Tutorial by Crap I’ve Made

Tutorial: Weighted Blanket by Dandelion Mama

If you have any questions about how I made the blanket, let me know!

Recently, I began liking jewelry. I’m not into expensive stuff, so my husband doesn’t have to worry. The only rings I wear are my engagement and wedding rings and I’m not into earrings. I think I’ve worn them once in the last 8 years. Maybe one day I will wear some again, but for now, I love necklaces and bracelets. My favorite store these days is Charming Charlie. If you have one near you and haven’t been, you will have to plan a trip.

So over the last year or so, my collection of jewelry grew quite a bit. I quickly discovered I needed a better storage system than what I was currently using. I have two beautiful jewelry boxes, but neither work for big, clunky necklaces or bracelets.

This weekend, I picked up supplies while we were getting plumbing parts for the leaking toilet. First I thought I would use a peg board to hold my stuff, but decided to just get a piece of plywood. They have 2-foot cut square sheets that are perfect for what I needed. I also grabbed a pack of cup hooks.

Later that day, I used some white spray paint from the garage to put a light coat on the wood. I decided that even though I planned to just hang it on the back of our bedroom door, I wanted it to look cute. I thought about putting my monogram on it or my initial, but settled on drawing a picture.

So I sketched in pencil (getting the idea from the cutest doodle book I picked up at TJMaxx one day) and used paint pens to draw on the board. I screwed in the cup hooks and hung up my jewelry.

I love how it turned out. If I need more hooks for the future, I have plenty of room to hang more.

Now I just need to get it hung on the back of the door. I’m thinking of adding some eye hooks to the top and hanging it that way. Any other suggestions?

Tuesday was Katelyn’s birthday. I still can’t believe my little girl is already 7 years old. I need to get the pictures of her birthday ready to share. She got her first American Girl doll and lots of fun stuff to go with her. I also made her a new dress to wear to school. I usually let the girls wear a pin to school that says “Birthday Girl” on it. After spending hours making a dress, the last thing I wanted to do with it was to put holes in it for the pin. So I decided to make her a necklace instead.
I found a Shrinky Dinks kit at Jo-Ann Fabric & Crafts. It was just what I needed. It came with sheets of shrinky dink paper stuff, a hole punch, jump rings, a chain and some colored pencils. That was great so I didn’t have to dig out my jump rings or my hole punch!

I made the birthday pendant and I ran a ribbon through it for her to wear.

This started more ideas in my head so this morning, I played around with them some more.

I have this cute dog fabric sitting in my stash waiting for me to make Madison a new dress. I decided to use it to make a necklace for her. Maybe it will inspire me to get more sewing projects finished.

This is a great way to coordinate jewelry and other accessories with clothing. Just trace the pattern or object. You can string the object on a pendant or leave off the hole and glue it on something, like a hair bow. These would be a cute way to make personalized wine charms. Then I thought buttons would be fun to make too!

So I’m going a bit nutty with this Shrinky Dink stuff. Here’s the process I used to make the dog.

I placed the Shrinky Dink paper over the dog I wanted to trace and colored it with colored pencils. The Shrinky Dink papers have a smooth side and a rough side. You have to be sure to color on the rough side.

Then I cut around the dog shape, leaving a small area at the top for punching the hole.

Next, it is ready for baking. I use the toaster oven because it’s easy to heat and keep a good eye on it while it’s baking. It only takes a few minutes.

I line the toaster oven tray with foil and then sprinkle it with cornstarch so the plastic does not stick. Almost immediately, the Shrinky Dinks start to curl up in the heat. Then they spread out flat again. Once they are flat, they are ready to come out. Don’t walk away from the toaster because it’s a fast process and it’s fun to watch.

I took pictures in the toaster, they aren’t the best, but you get the idea.

After it comes out of the toaster, I just rinse it off and add the jump ring and it’s ready to go. Here you can see the comparison of how much it shrinks since it was the same size as the dog in the fabric before I baked it.

After the dog, I made these two.

First, I made three pendants with the name of each of my daughters then I tried out a monogram.

Katelyn requested a mermaid and Emily is still thinking about what she wants. I am also going to make holiday ones for them.