Two Tips Tuesday

 

TIP#1:  Making A Spring Door Hanging From Photo Mats

This was one of those projects that got into my head and I could not let it go until I did it.  I have this happen to me frequently about something I want to write or something I want to make.  It will plague me until I see it through.

I truly love how this turned out so if you are curious how I made it...read on.

I found these photo mat kits at the dollar tree and really thought they would make a great craft project. They are the ones used for signatures at weddings or birthday events.  The idea popped into my head after I started playing around with burlap and was itching to make tiny, sweet flowers for Spring.  I also wanted to use only materials I had on hand since I was not sure how this project would work.  I am a crafter who wings it from start to finish and learns along the way.

 So grab your scrap fabric, scissors, ribbons, buttons, glue gun, Modge Podge or Spray adhesive, needle, thread, embroidery floss. (Not all pictured)

I first cut out a square of burlap slightly larger then the opening to the photo mat.  Then I made my flowers from scrap fabric and ribbon.  I wanted them to be 3 dimensional so I added a button on the circle flower and frayed the fabric.  I turned the white ribbon into a layered flower and sewed a pearl in the center. The tulip is fabric sewn together and slighty stuffed with polyfil for dimension.

I wanted the stems of the flowers to also be 3 dimensional and give a sense of movement.  I used thin, green ribbon a twisted them until I was pleased with the look.  I pinned them into place.

I then only sewed a tiny stitch on the top and bottom so that the twisted part popped off the burlap. After securing the stems, I sewed the flowers in place.

To cover the mat, I used a dish towel used from another project.  I cropped it around the mat and then cut out 4 squares on each corner.

I traced the opening of the photo mat, then traced a 3 x 5 card in the center of that to create the opening in the towel.  If I could do it again, I would have traced a smaller square. And done this more meticulously.  I also drew a diagonal line in each corner.

I cut on that diagonal to create flaps in the opening that I could fold back.

Like this.

 I then used Modge Podge (spray adhesive would work well too), brushed it on the photo mat and smoothed the towel in place folding the sides on the back and gluing them as well.  I did the same for the flaps in the middle.  The same process is done with the second photo mat using burlap but I did not cut out an opening to create a backing for the door hanging. I used fabric glue for the burlap which needed a faster and stronger bonding glue. (You can use hot glue but I always burn myself on big projects)

 Here's the front.

I cut 5 strips of burlap to make loops and hot glued them to the burlap backing piece.

I glued the burlap square with the flowers sewn on the opening of the pink covered mat.  If I could do it over again, I would have mounted the flower square onto something sturdy like a piece of cardboard. Then I hot glued the two mats together.

 The edges are rather messy and the frame was kind of boring so I used some white cording I had to frame the flowers as well as the edge of the frame using hot glue to adhere it.

I was going to buy a dowel to put through the loops but I have been so busy with the house thing that a trip to the craft store was out.  Once again, I was forced to improvise so I used a white floral branch I had and glued pearls and crystal beads to it and to match the delicate look of the flowers.  It turned out so nice!

I glued the cording to the back with hot glue and then covered it with burlap and to make it look clean and neat.

There you have it!  A pretty Springtime Door hanging made with photo mats!

TIP #2:  No Slip Clips

I had been working on another tip for 2 days that has not been working out so I consider it such a blessing that I came across this tip via One Pretty Thing who featured Treasures for Tots with this quick tutorial on putting non-slip grip to a girl's hair clip to keep it from slipping.  Both my girls have fine hair and I thought this was genius! Apparently, this clever idea has floated around the blogosphere and I am the last mother of girls on earth to be clued in.  So in case any of you are like me, there's the scoop! (above picture is my version).

Happy Tuesday my sweet friends!

Another House. Another Offer.

I am beyond thrilled but I am trying to guard my heart.

We found another house today and we are ecstatic!  I am scared to show you pics but I figure if I am scared, then I am a tad superstitious and if I am superstitious, then I am not really having faith.  So here it is...

Omigosh...seriously I went to go post a pic and MY COMPUTER TURNED OFF!   No power.  It just turned off...(OK. I kicked the cord out of the socket but still this made for a timely moment of mega drama).  Talk about getting superstitious! OK.  Uploading pictures for the second time...

Look at Cati saying Welcome Home!  

Actually, she kind of looks like she just yelled Get Off My Property!  But I choose to believe she is the friendly, neighborly sort of girl.

Cati and me posing for a pic out front.  I so wish I cropped out my caboose in this pic.  It is moments such as these that I am reminded that I need to lose the 30 pounds I gained preggo with Ella. But then I go eat a cheeseburger and get over it. I really did.

Family pic with our realtor's phone.  

Now Ella looks like the angry, unsocial neighbor.  And Cati is laughing at people.  

This does not bode well for my parenting skills. 

They look much more friendly here.

So here we go again.  So many details to share but I will share them with you later.  Bottom line is that this house is...

So much cheaper.

Not far at all (actually closer than the other house).

It needs some work done but mostly cosmetic.

It is a short sale that a buyer just backed out of due to the long wait and was about to be approved by the bank.

We stepped in and took over the same offer to the bank.

Signing contract tomorrow.

God's hand is all over this and if this house works out, so much makes sense now.

This is not a dream home.  But it is a super nice home!!!!  It is worth far more than we would pay for it and after we get done with it, I think it will be lovely.  I am excited to invite you along for this particular ride too.  

Thank you to all of you who have emailed me to find out how it is going.  Figured you would enjoy updated pics of the girls and my rump. When we are pretty sure about how thing are going and it will be ours, I will invite you for a tour inside.  

Take care, my sweet friends.  Thank you so much for your care and loving comments.

House Hunt Status

I owe you an apology.

I am realizing I am only really posting on Two Tips Tuesday and that is not good.  I love all of you and I miss updating you on this pink life I have going here.  So let me share about our house hunt that is all consuming and so incredibly hard.

Well first of all, the house we initially put an offer on?  It floated back to us for another opportunity with family offering us money to buy and close on it and the sellers still said no.  Can you say we are rather thick headed?   I imagine my actions could possibly emit a slight sigh from the King of Kings. I think my actions can be that exasperating.  But I am loved and cherished by God.  I know. 

So tomorrow is kind of a pivotal day because we are searching in an area we had not considered and would not have considered since it is kind of far away.  It is north of us (and my peeps who live near me already know where I am talking about I am sure).  For those of you who don't know, where we live in kind of expensive. The cost of houses in our county may be considered highway robbery by some.   It is kind of weird but north of us, you get a whole lot more house for your dollar.  So we are going to try it and see what happens.  We already have some lovely houses to look at tomorrow so please pray.  We basically have one more week to find a house and be under contract before renting is the inevitable only option.

Please pray us UP!!!!!!

I will keep you posted.  Until then, forgive me for infrequent posts. I have also been unable to visit a lot of you which makes me sad too.  I will be back on my game soon.  Promise!


Hugs!

Two Tips Tuesday

TIP #1:  Chalkboard Pots

Hi friends!  I am back doing my own Two Tips for today.  I am excited too because I am doing kind of an entertaining theme which has been on my mind for weeks now.  Last Saturday was supposed to be an all girl's lunch with some of my sweetest, most wonderful friends but I had to cancel due to that wretched illness which had befallen us.  I had been planning this lunch for over a month and all of us were set to leave the kiddies at home and just enjoy being together.  The good thing is, we will reschedule.  But with us moving soon (nope, no new news yet) it is kind of up in the air.

So.  In light of that, I have been making and wanting to give little things  to spoil my girlfriends and make the lunch special.  I played around with a a gazillion ideas and here is one of them. 

I wanted to do favors and I thought little potted herbs or flowers would be great to give since it is the beginning  of spring.  So how cute do those pots look with chalkboard paint (I used the spray paint) with the label written on there in pink chalk?

 How much cuter would they make as place cards?  Fun, fun!  Full effect in next tip....

 TIP #2:  Unconventional Napkin Rings

OK.  Call me crazy but I really like the idea of making my own napkin rings on the cheap. I always have a ton of ideas but never implement them because I don't entertain as much as I would like to.  Even though I love it.  And this idea from (yes. again.) Tatertots and Jello was fabulous and I loved that she got her napkin rings from the dollar store.  Inspired by this, I made the above napkin rings with pink ribbon, a frayed flower made from a dishtowel I used on another project with a burlap rosette in the center. I had checked out my dollar tree for the generic napkin rings to cover with burlap but they did not have any.  But then I came across...

Yes.  Hair rollers.  Isn't that a hoot? :o)

Seriously, what a perfect thing to make into napkin rings.  They are light.  They are round.  They are cheap.  Ahhh.  Crafty bliss.  And I have been playing around with burlap lately wanting to do a gazillion crafts with it.  So here is a teeny and brief tute on how to make these:

Materials:

Burlap (or other fabric or material)

Hair rollers (the self stay ones)

Glue gun or fabric glue

Ribbon, buttons, or other optional accessories

I placed one roller in the middle of the fabric and kind of eye balled it to be sure about 1 inch of fabric extended to either side of the roller.  I then used pinking shears to cut since burlap unravels and frays easily.

Placing the roller in the center I placed a little glue under where my thumb is and began rolling it up.  I put glue on the inside of the roller and tucked in the excess in as I rolled.  The fun thing is that the roller keep the fabric in place to keep it from sliding. See?  Practical too.

I rolled the burlap around twice making sure the pink color could not be seen through the burlap. 

 As you roll it, glue the inside and work your way around tucking the burlap in on both sides.
Another option after completing this is to line the inside with felt or a pretty fabric.  I forgot to take a  picture of that.

I decided to keep a set of them plain in order to change up my color scheme with ribbon and other embellishments.  This one I just wrapped a color coordinating ribbon around it and tied it in a simple knot.

I just love how they turned out!

** Don's forget.  You can be a guest blogger on Two Tips Tuesday and share your tips too.  

Just contact me with your fabulous ideas!

Happy Tuesday Friends!

He Colored My World...

I am actually shaking as I type this because I am so nervous to do this.

But I need your advice.  All of you who read this. Yes, YOU!  And I just reached over 200 followers (Yay!  How fun because I am grateful for every one of you) and what better time to re-introduce you to my special story.  But I have to tell you that I am so fearful of failure that it can sometimes paralyze me.  And I have toyed around with an idea that I am scared is not a good one.  So I want to know what you think.

For those of you who have not been with me since I started this blog, I began this blog because I love to write. And I typically have a story to tell on any given day because life is just funny.  But one of the most impacting, dramatically life changing events of my life was going through infertility and having both my girls come to be our daughters. It is my 2 Shades of Pink Story.

And I wrote 8 posts about this amazing and painful time in my life.  I wrote all of it so God could receive all the glory. I know some of you may have read it but those of you who have not, would you consider reading it and telling me if you believe it can be published?

I know all of you are not editors of some publishing company but it would mean so much to me.  I believe this story can touch many hearts regarding infertility, fostering/adopting children, and most of all about a God who can do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine.

The title that keeps niggling at me is like this blog but it is He Colored my World Two Shades of Pink.

I have taken all 8 posts and put it on a page at the top of the blog.  By no means is it in manuscript form!  I just pasted it in there so it is easier to read.  I am also not sure if many people know I went through infertility to become blessed with my girls. But I want you to know now.

Will you read it and let me know what you think?

It is long and may take a big ol' long while. Go get a snack and something to drink before you do it. But let me know if you think this story needs to be seen in a book some day.

I would love to hear your thoughts.  Be gentle.

Two Tips Tuesday

Another Guest Blogger! 
And she is getting crafty!  I have to tell you this guest blogger is one of my favorites and I have been with her since she started her wonderful blog.  Meet Tammy from she wears flowers.  Every single time I peek in on her blog I am mesmerized at her creativity   She is one crafty lady, so sweet, and a mommy of 3 girls which endears her to my heart even more.  What is even more special is that we have developed a friendship outside our blogs with email.  It warms my heart that I can call Tammy a friend and even more so to introduce you to her and her wonderful creativity.

First of all, let me just say, I am giddy with excitement to be a guest blogger on Two Shades of Pink. Besides the fact that I am completely captivated by her blog, I was ecstatic that Jessica actually wanted my tips. When I volunteered, I feared she would politely put me off, but she didn't. Maybe it was desperation, but I am still ecstatic!
 
I am Tammy and I am a relatively new blogger. I like to blog about my crafts and my sewing projects because it helps me organize and balance what I am doing, what I should be doing and what I want to be doing! I spend a lot of time sewing for my three daughters and, recently, finally getting in gear to open my Etsy shop (this week--YAY!). I like other crafts, too, so I try to cover all of my creative bases at one point or another.
 
Tip #1
When I read Jessica's tip a couple of weeks ago about felt and fabric rings using covered buttons, the wheels in my brain just started spinning. I LOVE covered buttons--and, actually, the ones I love are the ones in the kit that she mentioned in her post she didn't want to use. But, that's okay. I knew just what I wanted to do with some covered buttons that have a shank on the back like the ones in the kits. A few supplies later this is where I ended up.

 

This little bracelet is easy to make and quick. I like quick and, if you read my blog, you know I am a big fan of easy, too. I got all of my supplies from Hobby Lobby or JoAnn's.

Supplies:

 

Easy Clasp Bracelets, Button Covering Kit, Fray Check

Scraps of Fabric

Needle and thread

Instructions:

Start by covering your buttons according to the package directions.

 

Next, you will make fabric yo-yo's to layer under your buttons. You will need a fabric circle that is roughly 4 times larger than your button. You will probably have to experiment a time or two with the size by scrunching it together. Once you decide on the right size, cut the same number of squares of fabric as the number of buttons you have covered.

Here's a quick way to turn your square in into a circle or circle-ish shape:

 

Next, stitch around your circle. You want to "skip stitches" so that you can pull the threads and gather the fabric up. Stitch close to the edge being careful not to go off of it. You can also use your sewing machine to do this, but I know Jessica is not friends with hers (yet!) so I thought I should respect that.

 

Pull the threads tightly and carefully so they do not break. When you have a tiny fabric "purse" tie the threads in a knot and trim ends close to the knot.

 

Gently adjust and flatten the tiny purse until it looks like a flower.

 

Hold the flower by the gathering stitches, turn it over, and snip a tiny hole in the back. Put a few drops of Fray-Check on the edges of the hole so your flower doesn't fray later. Let dry completely--maybe 15 minutes.

 

Push the shank of your button through the center of your gathered stitches and out the hole you snipped. Thread the button and flower through your bracelet. Repeat until you have the number of buttons you want. There you go. Don't you love it?

 

 

You can do so much with these little "flowers". I got so excited about these, that I made a hair accessory, too. You can see that at my blog, she wears flowers. 

Tip #2

Nothing says spring to me like pinwheels. (You know, it's the whole "In/out like a lamb and in/out like a lion thing.") This year, I thought I would make my very own. It was really hard to choose which papers to use so I tried a few combinations.

Supplies:

Two-sided paper

Spray adhesive

paper cutter

ruler

small hole puncher or eyelet setting tool (optional)

jumbo brads

hot glue gun

medium wire wreath

felt scraps

spray paint (optional)

Remove the outer loop of your wire wreath. Mine broke off easily, but the next two loops did not and I had to use wire cutters to remove those. Spray paint your wreath the same color or a similar color as your door color. This way, your pinwheels will look as if they are suspended in a circle rather than on a wreath. Let dry while you make your pinwheels. (And, no, I didn't paint mine because I was too lazy it was already really close to the color of my door.)

This is the type of wreath you need:

 

Using your paper cutter to cut as accurately as possible, cut seven 5-inch squares of your main design. Repeat for the secondary design. Using spray adhesive, which will allow your paper to stay flexible still, glue together so you have 7 two-sided 5 inch squares. Trim any excess if necessary.

 

Make one 5 inch square out of scrap paper to use as a template. Draw a diagonal line from one corner to the opposite corner. Measure 2 1/2 inches from the corner along this line and make a mark. Repeat for the opposite corners.

 

Using your small hole punch or an eyelet setting tool (or even a sharp pencil if you are careful)--I'll just call it your "hole-making tool", poke holes through the marks you just made. When you are done, it should look like this:

 

Next, mark your two-sided paper using the template. I made very small and very light marks on the "main" design, but I am showing the secondary design (just a solid yellow) because it shows up better.

 

Cut diagonally from each corner towards the center until you reach the mark. Be sure to cut as straight as possible so your edges look clean and sharp.

 

Punch a hole in the center where you already marked it. Punch holes around the corners--every other triangle point--being certain that you only punch each large triangle once.

 

Put the jumbo brad through the first hole in one corner. Start on the side that is your primary color and push through to the side that is your secondary color. Gently bend the corner with the brad in it towards the center of your square. Be careful you do not fold/crease your paper. 

 

Turning your pinwheel, bend the next corner towards the center and push the brad through it as well. Do the same with the other two corners. Finally, push the brad through the hole in the center and flatten it out at the back of your pinwheel.

Repeat for the rest of your squares.

Glue a ribbon hanger onto your wire first.

 

Glue your first pinwheel to the hanging ribbon. I used low heat glue so that it didn't harden and cool as quickly. I also set my pinwheels around the outside of the wire so I knew where I wanted each one and which direction I wanted to turn it. I didn't want them to be too uniform, but they kind of came out that way anyhow since the pinwheels themselves are already uniform.

Cut 7 one inch felt squares. Hot glue generously in the center of the felt. Quickly glue the felt to the back of the wire and press the pinwheel to it from the front. Because there is a little dip in the center back of the pinwheel, it will not glue easily to the wire without the felt on the other side. This is what it looked like from the bottom, but you do not have to turn it over to do the gluing.

 

 

Hang your wreath and then make some more. 

 

Like I said, it was difficult for me to choose my colors. I couldn't decide between bright and cheerful spring or flowery, soft spring. As I started making these, it occurred to me that they could easily be made out of fabric as well. You can go to my blog  to see what I turned my fabric pinwheels into.

This is also a great craft for older children to do by themselves. My daughters loved making the pinwheels although they had no interest in the crafts made out of pinwheels. Here are some more ideas for paper ones. And, just so you know, all of these crafts were made in one afternoon--they really are quick.

So Fun! I am putting both of these on my craft To DO list!

Happy Tuesday Friends!