like magic

So here's what my bathroom window has looked like

since I tossed the water-stained curtains

we'd had hanging there since we moved in. 

BLAH!

I am not a curtain person.  I have a very hard time finding curtains that fit my style + my personality + the colors I've chosen for the room.  Needless to say, I have very few window treatments in my house.

I knew I wanted white curtains but I also knew I didn't have much money to spend.

I found this great white shower curtain in the clearance section of Target.

It has a nice texture woven through it

and {BONUS} half of the seams are already finished for me!

I cut the curtain in half to make two panels.

I double-folded a 1/2 inch (total 1 inch) seam along the cut sides of each panel.

I ironed and pinned the crease and then sewed it with a straight stitch through my sewing machine.

 To get rid of the shower curtain holes along the top seam, I folded (only once since the seam is finished) the top down about 3 inches (about double of the seam for the curtain holes).  Then I used the width of the seam for the curtain holes as a guideline to sew the curtain rod pocket.   I just sewed a straight seam along the top and bottom of the curtain hole seams and, VOILA, a curtain rod pocket with a gather at the top.

Finally, I dug out some scrapbooking materials to create my ribbon tiebacks.  These are actually Martha Stewart adhesive ribbon strips.  I only removed about an inch of the adhesive backing to create a band and slid it onto the curtain. 

Easy, peasy!

And I love how they turned out.

Valentine Craft Tutorial

 Last year, I made this super-easy and super-cute paper heart garland.

 Several people wondered how I made it, so I put together this short tutorial

 for you just in time to make for Valentine's Day.

First, pick out some pretty coordinating papers.

I used about 4-5 different papers and cut twelve 2 3/4" hearts out

of each on my Cricut machine.  If you use double sided paper, you

won't need quite so many. If you don't have a Cricut, you could

hand-cut or punch out your hearts.

My garland ended up holding 28 hearts, but you can make yours

as long or as short as you want.

I laid out the hearts on my floor, alternating patterns so that two of

the same were not right next to each other.  I also checked to make

sure that each side was a different pattern.

I applied three spots of adhesive to stick the two sides of each

heart together.  If you used double-sided paper, you can skip this step.



I sewed the hearts together, leaving about a foot of thread

on either end for hanging.  Make sure your sew line is towards

the top of the heart so that your garland is balanced and the hearts

don't flip over when you hang it up.

Enjoy!

Christmas Crafts

Disclaimer: Family members who may or may not be receiving these as Christmas presents, you may wish to skip this post, a.k.a. DO NOT OPEN UNTIL DECEMBER 25th! For those of you intent on peeking {JILL}, try to act surprised for the boys' sakes when you open them...

These gifts are fun and easy projects to make with your kids [at least school-age]. I cannot take credit for them. Evan actually made them when he was in kindergarten and it has taken me two years to get around to trying our own versions.

For the first project, you'll need Christmas balls, tree hooks, white acrylic paint, a sponge brush, and various colored paint pens.

Use the sponge brush to spread white paint over the fingers and palm of one hand of your child.

Have them hold their hand with their fingers flattened out and place the ball in the palm of their hand so that their fingers will be on the sides of the ball when it dangles. Have them slowly place their hand around the ball and set aside to dry. I say SLOWLY because you run the risk of creating two-headed snowmen if your child moves their hands around ~ trust me, I know :)



When the paint is dry, use the paint pens to draw snowmen faces, coal buttons, and scarves. You could also add your child's name and date on the back if you wish. Once that paint is dry, add the tree hook, some ribbon if you like, and it's ready to gift.

For the second project, you'll need empty film or diabestic testing strip canisters, white acrylic paint, sponge brushes, black paint pen, orange ribbon or felt, glue, glitter, pipe cleaners, pom-poms, and tree hooks.

First you have to paint the empty canisters white. Don't worry too much about coverage ~ you'll be covering them
with glitter later.

Once they're dry, use the paint pen to draw eyes and a mouth. Cut the orange ribbon or felt into a small triangle and glue on as a nose. Let dry.

Using a q-tip or small brush, spread glue on the entire canister, avoiding the eyes, mouth, and nose. Sprinkle with glitter, covering completely, and let dry.

Cut pipe cleaners to about an inch to an inch and a half and bend into an arch. Using a glue gun, attach pipe cleaners onto snowman's head and add pom-poms over its "ears." Add tree hook to top of earmuffs and it's ready once it's dry.

These make great family or teacher gifts. I must say as a teacher that I still have every single ornament a student ever gave me and I love getting them out every Christmas and remembering who they are from.

Happy Crafting!

no scrappy share

Remember this post?

Yeah, well, I do, too. And I'm dying to get into all my fun new paper.

However, I've been a bit busy with other creative endeavors these past few weeks....

Nathan's birthday party invitation:

Ryan's book character pumpkin for the contest at his school library:

[Can you guess our character????]

And putting together costumes for

1 Indiana Jones....

1 Mario Brother....

and 1 Wyatt from Super Why...

Hopefully, I'll get to scrap again soon....

Super Easy Superhero Cape

Just in case a little person in your life is in need of a superhero cape this Christmas, I thought I'd share the link where I found a FREE pattern and tutorial for the capes I made for Nathan's birthday party.

Remember?

The free pattern and tutorial can be found here at the apple cyder blog. Her directions were very easy to follow and didn't take long at all to cut out, pin, and sew together. I made 7 of these babies and it didn't take me very long at all....maybe 3 hours tops.

I ordered the superman iron-ons through etsy and in retrospect, if I'd had more time, I would have ironed them onto yellow fabric first and then cut out and appliqued the symbol to the cape because the iron-on doesn't show up very well on the darker fabric. I would have also made everyone's cape like Nathan's - blue on one side and red on the other. That was kind of an afterthought. The other capes were either all blue or all red.

Live and learn, right? :)

I'd love to see your capes if you decide to whip some up in the next 10 days before Christmas. That's plenty of time - hahaha!!

Cheap & Easy

This is my mantle....

I cannot take claim for the creativity here. I stole all my ideas from my MOPS crafts coordinator, Karen ~ she is awesome ~ someday, I will dumpster dive with her!!! :) She was kicked out of the Pottery Barn Outlet dumpster once [apparently you're not allowed to actually put to good use something that they have thrown away as trash].

Anyway, most of the stuff you see came from the dollar store!!!!! Yes, I said the DOLLAR store! And the rest of it was pretty inexpensive [read: found around my house, on the beach, or at Walmart]

the greens....$1

the large glass hurricane.....$4

the sand.....$4

the candle plates....$1

the glass votive holder w/wire handle....$1

You can put this look together, too. Just gather various sized glass containers and fill them with sand. Then you can add shells, candles, votives, black & white photos, greens....whatever you want to give it texture and dimension.

I made the glass votive holder with the wire handle. The glass container was a parmesan cheese shaker for $1 at the dollar store [I bought 10]. All I did was get some wire and twist it into a handle and wrap it around the top of the jar. Filled it with sand, plopped in a votive, and it was complete.

Aren't they cute? And super cheap and easy....

I made a bunch and gave one to each of my sisters and sister-in-law on Mother's Day. I'm going to make some more ~ why not? ~ and hang them along my front sidewalk as decoration.