Pinspiration Sunday: Felt Christmas Tree for kids

So this year is the first year we will be decorating for Christmas with a baby. Last year I made my husband help me decorate before Thanksgiving. But in my defense, I was due Nov. 29th, so we couldn’t be too sure when our little guy was coming so I wanted it done and out of the way. I’m figuring it may be difficult with my son’s puma like moving skills…I mean honestly, he doesn’t walk but he can crawl incredibly fast that he can almost out move me. Anyways, I came across this post on Pinterest for a felt Christmas tree from Johnny in a Dress, and I thought how perfect...he can decorate and undecorate that as much as wants. Here's my inspiration:

This is how I made mine. First I went to JoAnn Fabrics. Now my intentions that day was not to buy for this project but the felt was on sale for $2.99/yd so I had to buy it. I purchased a full yard of dark green (I wasn’t too sure how big I was going to make the tree) and only a half yard of the rest of the colors. Then with my Cricut machine I cut out a star, two different sized round tags (ornaments), a light bulb tag (because I wanted the shape, I just cut the loop at the top off) and a candy cane. I believe I used the Very Merry Tags die for the candy cane, light bulb and ornaments and George Basic for the star. I tweaked the sizes using the Cricut Craftroom software. I just cut these out of cardstock then used them to trace around on my felt. Then cut out the decorations.

The tree I cut out by simply folding my felt in half and cut a diagonal line from the corner up. Then I glued the star on the top using tacky fabric glue. I cut the trunk, presents and bows by hand and hot glued those to the bottom of the tree (the tacky glue just wasn’t holding up very well).

I used fabric paint on the candy canes to make the stripes.

I started to put paint on the ornaments too but then decided I really didn’t think it was worth the effort. When it comes time to put this tree on the wall I’m planning on using the Command Velcro strips.

These things are great! I use them for SOOOOOOO much around the house. That way I can put the tree up or take it down when he’s not playing with it. My final project looks like this:

Pinspiration Sunday: Yarn Ball Wreath

So I found this awesome Wreath on Pinterest and I fell in love with it instantly.

I wanted to make one exactly like it. However, I found this amazing red yarn and decided that I had to use it in this wreath. To make this wreath I headed to AC Moore. I went during moonlight madness so anything that wasn’t already on sale that week would be 25% at that time…so EVERYTHING I bought was on sale. This project ended up costing me a little more that I had plan, but that’s mostly because I chose a more expensive yarn. So here is a list of what you need:

Wreath form
Foam balls of various sizes (I paid about $7)
Yarn in various colors ($15)
Hot glue and gun (you need A LOT of glue, so I bought a new bag $3)

Additional items that can be used:
Christmas ornaments ($7)
Twine

First you cover your wreath form. I bought a wire wreath form because it was the cheapest ($2.99) and covered mine with dark brown felt. The one from Pinterest used burlap. I chose felt for two reasons: 1) my front door is dark brown and 2) I had brown felt on hand. I was sure to wrap it tightly and secured it with hot glue. Then came the tedious task of wrapping yarn around the foam balls. For the red and dark gray balls, I actually painted them first and allowed them to dry. That way I could get away with leaving some very small areas not covered by yarn and it wouldn’t be noticeable and I would save the yarn…cause again…I paid too much…LOL (Honestly it really wasn’t that bad, but I’m a thrift store shopper…I like bargains!) Anyways…I didn’t buy as many foam balls as I should have because, once again, I’m cheap and believe or not FOAM IS NOT. So...to make more balls, I improvised. I used crumpled up paper and plastic ornaments. I wrapped the yarn around, well, whatever, and made assorted sizes and colored balls. I already owned red and silver ornaments but I purchased a box of multiple sized and finishes of smaller red and silver ornaments from Wal-Mart for $3.50 per box. Then I just started gluing then to the wreath form. I liked the idea of the snowflakes from the original inspirational wreath but I didn’t find any I liked. I looked at AC Moore for the wood ones that had dark edges but couldn’t find them. But that can always be added later. This is my final project:

Pinspiration Sunday: Snowman Muffin Tin

So I found the above snowman tin on Pinterest. It looks so adorable and easy to make. I headed out to the thrift stores to find some old muffin tins. One weekend I only spotted a mini muffin pan. So I scooped that up for 50 cents. Then the following weekend I found two regular sized muffin tins for 75 cents each! What a steal!!!!! They were silver like this.

I bought blue spray paint from Wal-Mart which was less than $4. And I had a bronze spray paint already at home. (The mini pan was already a dark brown color and I liked it the way it was) I sprayed the two larger pans. And let them dry.

Next I started painting the muffin projections using a sponge brush and dabbing the color on. At first I only painted the top. I used white craft smart paint from Michael’s (which I already had) on the blue tin and vanilla on the brown.

But upon revisiting my Pinterest board I realized the whole muffin projection was painted. I then splattered the entire thing and hand painted in some snowflakes.

Unlike the original Pin, I couldn’t find the cute wooden hearts used for the noses
(I looked at both Michael’s and A.C. Moore) so I just painted them on.

Once I was completely done I sprayed them with an acrylic sealer. After I sprayed them and they dried I noticed the paint on the snowmen faces looked splotchy. So I covered them with a few more coats of paint, reapplied the faces and then sprayed acrylic sealer on them again. Added some ribbon to hang them by.

These will make great gifts! I actually just went on the original site which was an Etsy shop. This shop was selling them for $20! I made 3 total at a cost of < $6. With a profit like that, I may have to sell mine too ;^P

Pinspiration Sunday: DIY Pacifier Clips

I found a tutorial on Pinterest to make your own pacifier clips. Before I get into how I made them, please keep in mind that I DO NOT know my way around a sewing machine. My sewing machine was given to me for free from my husband’s grandmother and is from the 70’s...So in this tutorial it talked about having a serger. I had no idea what it was so I had to look it up and to be honest I’m still not really sure…haha! Anyway, pacifier clips are AMAZING! No worries about that binky falling on the floor when you’re out and about. But these little straps are about $4+ a piece and they come in some crazy colors which means they don’t exactly go with the little one’s outfit. So now I can make my own, however I want it. I also want to say that I will not be able to describe how I made this very well. I STRONGLY suggest you visit Sew, Mama, Sew! for the original post for guidance. So here is what I did. First I went to JoAnn’s with a handful of coupons. I got suspender clips, interfacing and found fabric on sale. I bought quarter yard of all the fabrics I liked. I bought some girly fabrics too. I’m planning on making a bunch and they can be future baby shower gifts. I’ve also found a few other DIY baby items on Pinterest that I may make and do matching gift sets. But that’s for another day… So back to the pacifier clips…life with a 10 month old pretty much means all my projects get done in stages. And this one wasn’t any different. First I cut all my fabrics to size. She had 14 inches X 2 1/2 in. for the fabric. 14 X 1 1/8 in for the interfacing. After I made the first one I really didn’t like the length of it so my second one I made, I cut the length to 10 inches. After all my pieces were cut, and a few days later, I actually started to make them. First I ironed the edges in. I didn’t measure how far just kind of went for it.

Then I cut the end edges at an angle.

Next, I folded it in half length wise and ironed it.I placed the interfacing inside. Then I pinned it to stay in place.

I just sewed along the edge all the way around.

After that it was time to attach the clip and Velcro. I placed a suspender clip through one end and sewed it in place using a Zig-Zag stitch and then took Velcro and sewed it at the other. I didn’t measure the distance between the two pieces of Velcro. I just looped the strap through a pacifier to see about where it should go. And in the end I got something like this:

Here is a picture of the clip in action (sorry it’s a little blurring, my little guy was coming at me)

It was really a simple project even for a non-sewer like me. Hopefully I will improve the more I make. We’ll see. But for now, I think they are pretty cool looking anyways.