DIY Embellished Flour Sack Towels

Did you know that March is National Craft Month?  I didn't until the other day when I got my JoAnn's flier in the mail.

In light of this event, I thought I'd try to share a simple craft with you each week this month that would be something easy to do over the weekend {or during a nap time if that's all you have}.  I realize crafting is not for everyone, and more often than not my crafts end up as 'failed' projects, so don't be fooled by this into thinking that I am a crafting guru!  Every once in awhile I get inspired, and once I carve out some time I get a bit of fulfillment by using some creativity and working with my hands.  It's a nice break from sweeping, folding laundry, and scrubbing toilets.

Most of my kitchen towels are looking pretty ragged these days, so after seeing some pretty flour sack towels for sale in the store, I decided to embellish my own, for a portion of the cost.  This project is easy, it's inexpensive, and it's practical--all things that are perfect for me when choosing a craft.

You can choose any type of embellishments you want, I just opted to use some items I had on hand.  They happened to be the right colors for my kitchen {you can't go wrong with black} so other than the $5 I spent for a pack of 4 flour sack towels, I didn't spend any additional money.

First, you'll want to wash and dry your towels, just as you would once they've been used.  I also ironed mine prior to adding the decorative touches.  This isn't necessary, and I certainly don't iron them now that they're being used, but I felt like it was the appropriate way to begin a sewing project.  :)

Then, simply measure your embellishments to fit across the bottom of the towel {or the top, middle, or askew--whichever you prefer}.  I used ric rac, ribbon and some pom pom trim.  Simple stitches of thread in various widths or designs would also be pretty.

At this point you can either measure and pin your ribbon/ric rac/trim, or just eyeball it like I did.

Using either coordinating thread, or a pretty contrasting color, sew a straight stitch to attach the ribbon/ric rac/trim to your towel.

So easy!  This is a great project for beginners, and these would make excellent gifts.

I literally smile when I see these hanging from the handle of my oven.

If you're looking for a quick and practical craft for your weekend, go grab a pack of flour sack towels, take advantage of some of the sales going on right now at your local craft store and whip up some of these beauties.

Linking up to:
Tatertots and Jello

How to Make Fabric Poofs

I shared with you my Valentine's Day Mantel the other day, and mentioned that I would be giving a tutorial on how to make the fabric poofs that are in the buckets on my mantel.  I'm not really sure how to title these little guys, but poof is just gonna have to work right now.  If you think of something more creative, by all means, share!

Here's the step-by-step on how to make these:

Supplies:
-fabric

-scissors {or rotary circle cutter}

-circle shape to use as a stencil

-pins

-stryrofoam ball

1. Take your fabric and either trace out circles using a stencil of your choice.  OR, using a rotary circle cutter. For a short time while living in CA, I made and sold hairbows to a children's boutique.  In order to help with my little business, my husband found and purchased this tool for me and it saved me a TON of time!  Now, I'm glad to have it for projects like this when I need to cut out multiple circles.  This is what it looks like:

It's very similar to a compass, like used in math class, but this one has a blade on it.  You simply measure out the diameter of your circle, place the point on the fabric, and turn it around to cut out a perfect circle.

2. Once your circles are cut out, fold it in half, and then in half again, so that it looks like this:

3. At the bottom point of the circle {where all the folds meet} place a small straight pin and then insert it into the stryrofoam ball.

4. Continue inserting the fabric circles in this manner until you have enough of the ball covered for your liking.  For my purposes, I only needed half of it covered, because the bottom portion would be resting in a bucket, but you could continue all the way around the ball to make a complete sphere.

 At some point I had purchased this little bucket from the dollar bin at Target, and it was the perfect spot to rest my little poof of fabric.

This method is great for all kinds of crafts!  The original tutorial I saw using this method was for a heart wreath:

Felt Heart Tutorial

Felt Flower & Burlap Wreath

Several weeks ago I woke up one morning and decided we needed to purchase some fall crafting supplies.  A few hours later, the girls and I were out the door to visit just about every craft store in town.  I'm pleased to say that I didn't spend a ton of money, but did come home with some ideas and supplies for fall projects.  One such project was a wreath for the front door.

You may remember this wreath that I made for 4th of July

In case you're new here, I simply wrapped some burlap around a foam wreath form and attached fabric rosettes with safety pins.  You can read about it here.  Since I had used safety pins instead of glue, I simply detached the rosettes and had a blank slate to work with.

I found some felt squares at JoAnn's in these shades

They aren't the traditional 'fall' colors, but I liked the blue with the pumpkin orange color, and since my home is decorated with a lot of blues, I wanted that to tie in with my front door decor.

I found a tutorial here for making felt flowers and followed the instructions.  Basically, you cut a circle out of felt and continue to cut in a spiral form until you reach the end of the circle.  

You end up with a long strand of felt and this becomes your flower.  

The center of the flower should look like this

Gather the center in and then continue wrapping the felt around itself, tightly, to form a flower shape.

this is the underside of the flower

Once you reach the end it should look like this:

The great thing about these is that they don't have to be perfect.  See that extra bit of felt sticking up?  Well, once you finish the flower, you can simply cut off these imperfections to make it look better.

I used three different colors of felt and cut different sized circles (the bigger the circle the bigger the flower) until I had the amount I wanted.  

Now for the glue gun!  I placed a little bit of glue in random spots on the felt to make it hold together.  Then, I cut a piece of felt big enough to cover the entire back of the flower.

Then, I applied some hot glue to the flower.

Pressing tightly, I attached the piece of felt to the back and trimmed it to size.

I wasn't sure exactly how I wanted the flowers to look, so I just placed them on top of the wreath until I found what I wanted, and then took a picture so I would remember.

As I was looking for some more glue sticks to finish the project, I came across some brown yarn, so I decided to use it as well.  I just wrapped it around the wreath and sort of made an 'x' with it in different spots.

Instead of attaching the flowers with safety pins this time, I decided to go ahead and just glue them on.  Hopefully I won't have the heat issue I did over the summer, which caused my wreath to fall apart.

Here it is on the door and I love it!

Linking to:
Not Just a Housewife
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Sweet Little Gals'

Mini Pumpkin Place Card Holders

Fall is just around the corner and I can't wait!   This year I decided to tackle some fall crafts, so I'll be sharing those with you in the weeks to come.  When I couldn't sleep one night, I came up with this idea and I like how it turned out.

Want to know how to make them?

Supplies:

-Styrofoam balls (I used 2-inch size)
-Orange Glitter Paint (I used the new Martha Stewart multi-surface glitter paint in fire opal)
-Foam Brush
-Wooden Circles
-Brown Spray Paint
-Bobby Pins


1. Paint the styrofoam balls using the foam brush to gently dab the paint in place.  I tried first by squeezing the paint directly onto the ball, but found it worked better to dip the brush in the paint and dab.

2.  While the balls are drying, lay the wooden craft circles on newspaper and spray paint.  Once dry, flip over and paint the other side, making sure to cover the edges as well.  Why use these?  Stryofoam is pretty light, so these help the pumpkins to stay in place when they're finished.

3.  Once the pumpkins are dry, gently push down on the top to create a flat surface on the bottom of the ball. Then, using your thumb, gently push on the top of the ball to create a flatter top.

4.  Place a glob of hot glue in the center of the wooden circle and press the ball down to attach.

5.  Insert a bobby pin (open side up) into the top of the pumpkin.

6. Make place cards or buffet labels and insert into the bobby pin.

I'm not a big Halloween person, but these would look really cute with a jack o' lantern face painted on them, maybe like this:

Message On a Bottle

Whenever I went to the beach as a kid I always looked for bottles as I jumped through the waves.  I thought it would be amazing to find a message tucked away in a bottle.  It never happened, in case you were wondering.

This project is really simple:  dress up an old bottle and use it to send messages to people in your home.  It's not quite as romantic as finding a message in a bottle that has washed up on the shore.  But, it can achieve the same purpose of romance with your spouse, encouragement to your kids, or words of inspiration and welcome to guests.

Supplies:
-an old bottle (mine was from my cream sherry that ran out--need to get some more!)
-scrap piece of burlap
-hot glue gun
-scissors
-ribbon or other item(s) for embellishing

Lay the bottle on the piece of burlap and wrap burlap around the bottle to desired size (leave a bit of an overhang to fold over for a nice finish).

Place a strip of hot glue and attach one end of burlap, being careful not to burn your fingers as the glue will come through the fabric. 

Put another strip of glue, little by little, to attach the other end of the burlap.  Pull tightly on the burlap as you glue so there are no bumps around the bottle.

Fold this end over and glue again, leaving a finished edge.

This is what it will look like when the burlap is glued on

I wanted the majority of my bottle covered, so I cut my burlap a bit long.  I like the frayed edges.

Find  a piece of paper to use for your message.  I didn't have a hole punch, so used a push pin to make a hole in the paper to slip the ribbon through.

Embellish the bottle as you like.  I was 'sending' a  message to my husband so I made it pretty simple with just a black ribbon.  I can picture scrap fabrics, rosettes, all kinds of things--be creative!

Place your message where your desired recipient will find it easily.  I wanted my husband to see it when he went to bed, so I left it on his nightstand.  He loved it and said that it really encouraged him!  Mission accomplished.

One of the nice things about this bottle is that your husband could easily reciprocate by writing and attaching his own message.  Perhaps, he might even leave a single rose in the bottle for an added touch.  This is just a small way to express your love, but it might have a great impact.