Vinyl Embellished Toddler Rocking Chairs

My parents get each grandkid a toddler rocking chair around their 1st - 2nd birthday timeframes.  They paint them all cute too!  With my son's, I added vinyl to it before I ever got a cricut... I cut it out with an exacto knife!  Took forever!

But with my daughter's and my nephew's (who are only about a week apart) I cut it out with the Cricut - way easier.

Here's my daughter's chair - front and back... I used the butterfly trail dots to go down the railing.

Here's my nephew's chair - front and back...

And here's both my kids in their rocking chairs.  They don't usually last very long out in the living room.  The chairs are in "toy time-out" a lot - hidden in my room since Emeree likes to stand on it to rock back and forth.  So hopefully soon she will be safer with it and they can be out more often.  Cause they sure do look cute in those chairs!

Pillow Bed (Double sided)

Once I saw the pillow mattress on Ucreate, I wanted one right away...don't really have the need for it yet, but it was so cute. 

Super easy - just 4 pillows stuffed into 4 compartments in a long piece of fabric.  Easy to make, take apart, and wash!

I didn't want to make multiple ones, so I used a cute, girly print for one side and solid gray for the other side - more boy-ish.  Perfect for laying down to read or watch a little Dora and Diego!

 The tutorial said she found pillows at IKEA for 99 cents, so I made a trip the next day.  They were $1.29 at my store, but that was still an awesome deal.  And I didn't want to buy an expensive duvet cover, so I used some flat sheets that I had laying around.  No one really uses flat sheets, so they are always in awesome shape if you find them in your linen closet or even at thrift stores. 

Since I was making it out of fabric insead of an already-made duvet cover, it took a lot longer, but it was fun to make.  I did get confused in one point of the tutorial about making the pocket flap for the pillow.  I made one but it doesn't work at all.  So I will need to add 1 or 2 snaps to each opening to keep it cute and closed.  But I gave the snap kit back to my mom, so I'll need to borrow it again.

And since my kids are still so small, I can fold the top pillow section over to make a double pillow for their little heads.  But they both woke up from nap and instantly plopped down on it.  I love when they like things that I made for them.

Mermaid Doll

My daughter is starting to carry around dolls while she's roaming the house, so I thought it might be fun to try making a doll for her.  Then I saw this mermaid doll pattern/tutorial and knew it would be the one to try.  I grew up in the hype of "The Little Mermaid"  in the '90's so I have a soft spot for mermaids.

And I liked that this one had a removable tail so she could just be a doll as well.  Here's the one I made.

I would suggest something if you are going to make this doll/mermaid...I used knit fabric for her body (the polka dot print) but that was a bad choice.  It stretched and was hard to get the bottom where her legs are to look good.  Also, it's color is too close to her body color, so it blends in.  I was originally going to use a magenta glitter satin, but thought the tail might not stay up on a slippery fabric - but now I wish I had just gone with my first plan.  I do wish it was easier to find better colors in felt.  They don't really make a strawberry blonde felt; I wanted to match my daughter's hair.  So I went with the brown; it's cute, but I wish there was a better color for a blonde doll.

The pattern printed out huge for me, so I just shrunk all the pieces in photoshop before starting since I didn't want a life sized doll.  I don't know if my printer settings were off or what, but keep in mind you can always shrink or expand patterns like this.

The tail was made out of scraps of fabric that my mom used to make my niece's mermaid halloween costume...a teal satin and a sheer, shimmery teal fabric to put over it for the shiny effect.  It was soooooo difficult to sew with.  I don't know how my mom stayed sane making a costume out of it.

I also used a scrap of shirred fabric left over from making a toddler dress a couple years ago to make the doll a dress as well - variety for changing outfits.  I didn't have any stuffing, so don't tell anyone, but I just used a seam ripper and pulled some out of a couch pillow :)  So this doll was made with scraps and borrowed stuffing - didn't cost anything to make her!!  I love free projects!

My daughter carried it around with her most of the evening last night.  It even went for rides on the truck with her.  Not the best picture of her though...she looks kinda disheveled.  Her hair won't grow on the sides, but she has a mop of curls on the top and in the back.  So kindof a mohawk and a mullet combination.  I can usually distract from that with a headband and hair clip when we leave the house. 

Wreath made from . . . Spoons!

My mom goes blog hopping just like me, and she happened to find an awesome project that I hadn't seen.  It's a wreath made out of plastic spoons - she found it at Nesting Place.  Here's mine!

I grabbed a couple boxes of spoons on my trip to the grocery store the next day and made this during nap time. The only problem was that my front door is white, so the white spoons just blended in with the door.

I went to party city to look at some cool colored spoons, but they were quite expensive compared to the 99 cents I spent at Safeway.  Then I got another idea...spray paint.  They make special spray paint meant for plastic, but the colors are boring - so I went with normal spray paint and just hoped it would adhere to the plastic okay.  It's going to stay stationary on my door, so hopefully the paint will last.  I painted it yellow so that I could have a fun, summer wreath.  It reminds me of either sun or wheat... but I like it.  It was super easy to put together, and I used all 48 spoons that came in the boxes, so $2 for a wreath isn't bad.

Fort Kit

I saw this idea on MADE during "Celebrate the Boy" back in February.  I fell in love instantly and was just waiting for the perfect recipient to make this for.  Make sure you scroll down on the "MADE" link to see the kits she sells - that's where I saw it first.  The other link is her tutorial.

My niece, Lorelai, is turning 7 this month and she loves to make forts.  So I thought a cool kit just for her (plus a bag to keep it all in) would be perfect.

I was having a hard time finding sheets that were "cute" but not expensive, so I went with solid gray ones and appliqued an "L" on the front corner of them to personalize it a bit.  I sewed ties on the corners and along the long sides like she did in her tutorial.  I did try thrift stores to look for flat sheets, but they were just as expensive as buying new ones - and they didn't match each other.  ($5 for a flat sheet at Wal-Mart)

Pinecone Wreath

I have wanted to make a pinecone wreath for a couple years, but don't have any trees dropping pinecones near my house that I knew of.  But back in February, we went for a walk along the waterfront and spotted a ton of pinecones on the ground. 

This wreath was intended for my mom for her birthday, but she was with me when I found the pinecones, so I had to fess up with my project since she would wonder why I was picking up a ton of pinecones.  But, she probably wouldn't have been that confused.  After all, I am her daughter, and she used to pick them up at random rest stops and parks when I was younger...something we always teased her about.

Anyway, I finally got around to making the wreath, and guess what!  She had totally forgotten about it, so it was still a surprise for her birthday!

Here's the back...

I was going to use a styrofoam wreath, but I would have had to paint it brown and then wait for it to dry - unless I didn't care about seeing white spots between the pinecones.  And I don't have much patience when I want to start a project.  So, I dug through my craft stash and found this old brown branch wreath - perfect match to the pinecone color.  And ironically enough, it was one that my mom had given to me when she was cleaning out her craft stash before she moved. 

Citrus Banner/Garland

I never know whether to call these a garland or a banner... oh well.  Anyway, I found these awesome citrus coasters made out of felt and decided that I wanted to adapt the idea into a garland.  I wanted a garland for the summer time, and this is perfect.

I love how it turned out.  Beware, this project takes a long time.  From cutting to sewing, these took several hours.  I only timed the hand stitching - each one took 30 minutes just for me to stitch!  But that's okay, my husband was working till 10pm last night, so I had plenty of quiet time once the kids went to bed and it gave me something to distract me from not liking that i was home alone at night.

The garland is heavy and wouldn't stay up on the mantle like the rest of mine do - hanging from the corners.  I had to attach it flat to the front so it wouldn't flip over and hand awkwardly.  I can't justify buying the gorgeous wool felt that comes in such wonderful colors, so I used what I can get from JoAnns.  And let me tell you, I'm very disappointed in their color selection.  The green and orange are very NEON - blah, and they don't have yellow :(  The pinks they had were great though.  So my colors aren't as scrumptious as the ones at the Purl Bee, but if you didn't have them to compare mine to, mine look great!

And, this was CHEAP - if you didn't already have the felt on hand, it's probably just over a dollar to get one sheet of each color (unless you buy it by the yard).

"Wedding" spin on the Mustache Mug

My cousin got married over the weekend, and I gave them these mugs. 

When I made the Mustache Mugs for Father's Day, I made these mustache and lip ones too.  But I added the "Mr." and "Mrs." to make it a little more cute-sy.  You can click on the link to the Father's Day ones above, but I used vinyl cut out on the Cricut as the stencil and painted in the design with porcelain paint and baked it in the oven.

"land that I love" frame

Another awesome idea from Eighteen25. . . but I don't have a silhouette to easily get the country image from :(

I love my Cricut, but I wish they were as tech savy as silhouette. . . with an image library instead of expensive cartridges.  Luckily, I have figured out how to import images that I drew into Sure Cuts A Lot and cut it on my Cricut . . . it took me about an hour to trace and draw this image from a map.  And since I'm sooooo nice, anyone who has a cricut (AND the SCAL software) just has to download this SVG file and then import it.

Click here to download - usa.svg

And here's a screen shot of how to upload the file.  Just open your SCAL software and . . .

Aside from drawing the image and waiting for the painted frame to dry, this project took maybe 2 minutes to assemble.  Awesome!

Shabby Apple Summer Sale - 20 percent off!!

What a great time of year to have a huge sale!  Shabby Apple dresses are wonderful and a lot of them just scream "SUMMER" to me! 

Use this code - SUMMER20 - to get 20% off anything SITE WIDE!!
**the only exclusion is Amalfi Coast Swim Wear**

And get this - the sale lasts for the entire month of July!!

Patriotic Plaque

I saw this idea yesterday at Eighteen25 and loved it instantly!  I liked that it was numbers - most of my decor is shapes or words.

But, I decided to "use what you have and make it work"...so I used a scrap piece of wood instead of a canvas since I have plenty of wood piled up in the garage and my husband thinks I'm crazy for saving everything that's left over from his building projects - he thinks I'll never go through it all - I'll show him.  Starting with this project!

I love me some wood number/letters, but I don't love the prices - the small numbers are about $2 each...so $8 if I bought all 4...and I don't have them on hand.  But I do have glitter and craft foam.  So I cut numbers out of craft foam and applied glitter and glue!