"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!

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! 

Another Patriotic Wreath

I know I already have an awesome 4th of July wreath, but when I saw this one, I wanted to make another one.  I can't decide if I like her buttons better than my stars, so I may end up switching them out for buttons later.  I don't have many indoor decorations for this holiday, so one of the wreaths will go inside and hang from the inside of the patio door in the living room.

The perfectionist/OCD part of me was annoyed the whole time at making this.  I wanted each wrapping of yarn to line up next to the previous one, but that wasn't going to happen since it's a circle and the inside is smaller than the outside.  So the rows on the inside had to overlap - I don't know why, but that bugged the crap out of me.  And it took about 2 hours of nap time to wrap.  I used one of the straw wreaths since they are a bit thicker compared to the styrofoam ones.  Also, with a trusty coupon from JoAnns, it was only $1.79 - cheaper than the foam ones for some reason.  I left the plastic wrapping on since it would help keep it less bumpy - not sure if you usually take it off or not...

I cut the stars out of craft foam, but they looked too bright since I didn't use white yarn, I used a cream colored yarn.  So I took out the brown ink pad and distressed the stars a bit so they would look a bit darker/worn.  I like it a lot better!

Subtle Patriotic Pillows

I wanted to make pillow covers that were fitting for the 4th of July holiday coming up, but I wasn't like most of the patriotic fabric I saw at the store - I was hoping for stars but didn't like the cartoon-ish ones I saw, so I wandered over to the home decor fabric and found a navy blue print.  And then I decided I was going to go for a subtle patriotic flare for the couch.

I used red satin for the band and bow, but I would suggest using something not so slippery - I'm adjusting the bows and fixing the way it's laying about every hour from kiddos (or my husband) playing or sitting on the couch.  I ended up making 2 of these pillows.  I have a red couch, so they look pretty on it - adding to the holiday decor.

The pillow covers are the removable type with the envelope back so that I can change them back to my every day pillow cover when the holiday is over.  For the bows, I just sewed a band to fit around the pillow, added a big rectangle for the body of the bow and then wrapped the bow center around the bow rectangle and the band.

4th of July Wreath - Re-post

 Since 4th of July is coming up, I thought I would re-post my wreath from last year...

I have had a couple questions about this wreath posted in comments or emailed to me, so in case you were wondering as well...
- how many stars did I cut?  At least a couple hundred.  I didn't keep count and kept cutting more as I ran out.  It will depend on how close you attach them.
- how big were the stars?  About 2.5 inches across.

2x2 Wood Firecrackers

I found these while blog hopping and went to my wood stash and immediately marked them to cut...my husband is my designated wood cutter nowadays since I almost cut my finger off making wood clovers in March.  So I had to wait till he got home from work to finish these.

I cut my 2x2's at 4.5", 6", and 7.5" for those who want dimensions.

I used a mixture of vinyl and painting to get the details.  I used the outside of the vinly for the USA letters as a stencil and painted in the letters with blue paint on the cream firecracker since the vinyl wouldn't show up on that light of paint. 

I attached my rope differently since I didn't want the tail exposed at the top, and I wanted it to stick straight up.  So....I hammered a thin nail through the top of each block and pulled the nail out.  Then I found a long pin and threaded it through the rope piece and stuck it in the hole.  So the pin holds it upright and no exposed tail.

I made 2 sets - one for the mantle and one for the shelf by the entryway.

Decorated Stars

I bought this star chain last year on clearance and just finally got around to finishing it. At least it's in time for the 4th of July. The star chain came in a rusted brown finish (they're metal). But I don't decorate with browns, so it didn't match my decor. I painted it a creamy white and mod podged scrapbook paper to each separate point. It took me forever to get 2 templates (one for each size star). I had to make several of them before I got it right. I left space between each paper and the edges so that the paint would show through.

Once I got the top coat on it, I added ribbon to the ends to secure it to the mantle.

4th of July Dress

So . . . Dana MADE me do it . . . Using her pattern and instructions, I made a dress for my daughter out of her Warhol Dress.

I turned this men's shirt into a 6-12 month dress for my daughter. I fits her perfectly except the shoulder strap (the one that doesn't tie) is too loose, so I need to shorten that. Otherwise, the length and shape is perfect. It looks adorable on her.

I applique'd stars on the dress with wonder under. After the white neck line was added, it needed something else to help tie the white all together. I also used red thread to top stitch around the stars.

I also did three rows of topstitching with red thread on the neck tie as well.

4th of July Wreath

I've been in a wreath mood lately and was trying so hard to find a patriotic wreath online but couldn't find anything but a couple of the tied rag kind - and that's not my taste. So I thought of this idea.

Felt stars and a navy ribbon.

I bought a styrofoam wreath at the dollar store and some red felt at Jo-Ann's and started cutting stars . . .

Unfortunately, these 2 stacks didn't even cover half of it. My hands were so tired from tracing and cutting stars so this wreath actually took me about 5 days to do. I took some quilting pins and pushed them through the center of the star and then attached them to the wreath. You can't really tell they are stars when it's all done, but I like the spikes.

Then I attached the navy ribbon and cut out some white stars from craft foam and glued them on the ribbon.

I love it - and it's been a while since I did a craft without inspiration from someone else's ideas . . .

I'm linked up to . . .