DIY Car Mat Tutorial

While searching for birthday presents for my now three year old, I came across an adorable felt car mat.  Since my little one has been into cars lately, I thought it was such a cute idea.  Once I looked at the price I thought, no way, I can definitely make that.

After a bit of research for ideas on Pinterest, I knew this was something I could tackle easily and you can too!  I set off to find my felt.  When it was all said and done, I paid about $8 for all the felt.  I bought a yard of green felt, half yard of gray felt and a bunch of individual felt pieces in all different colors.   I also got foam letter stamps (more on that later) but those are optional.

So, here’s a quick tutorial.  This is more just to use as guidance to get started.  Use your creativity and come up with a mat unique to your little one’s taste.

First, take your green felt and cut it in half.  You want to make two squares that are the same size.  I think my finished size was roughly 36” X 36”. Set one piece aside.

Lay out your piece of green felt nice and flat.  Then make a plan for your roads.  For mine, I started by cutting two long strips from my gray felt to form a cross right through the middle of my “town”.  I made these strips twice the size of my girlie’s cars so it could be a two way street.  At first, I thought that I would sew everything down so all my streets are sewn on.  Once I got to the buildings, I decided sewing everything would take a lifetime so I switched to hot glue.  Either way, both work well.

After I made the two larger streets, I filled in my four squares with smaller roads.  I simply laid my piece of gray felt on top of one of the squares and drew a road that would connect to the larger roads.  I also made each square different.  Be creative. :)  Attach your smaller roads using your method of choice.

Once all your roads are on, come up with different buildings/places you’d like to have in your “town”.  I just made a list of all the places we go with my little one.  Then I went to the computer and simply googled all my buildings for a template to copy, such as “museum template” or “museum clipart”.

With all my templates printed, I started to come up with a game plan.  I laid all my pieces out on top of my felt mat and kept rearranging everything until it all fit nicely.  Then I took my individual pieces of felt and decided what colors I wanted everything to be.  Next, start cutting and cutting and cutting. :)

Once everything was cut out, I decided to label some of my buildings.  This step is optional but helps identify your building easier.  I took my foam stamps and simply stamped labels onto the buildings using white paint.  Such as “fire” for the fire station.

Next, glue, glue, glue!  Once everything is glued down, your mat really starts to come together.  You could stop at this point but I felt like it needed something more so I embellished my buildings with doors and windows and made some other little embellishments throughout the town such as stop signs, flowers, trees, etc.  Use your creativity.  If your child is old enough, this is a great point to get them involved.

You’re almost done!  Go find your other piece of green felt that you cut out eons ago because this project takes quite a bit of time.  Place your two squares on top of each other right sides out.  You could skip this step and leave your one piece of felt as is but I felt like this step really completed the look and reinforced the mat.

I had some double fold bias tape on hand but if not, you’ll have to pick up a package in whatever color you’d like.  Using a cup as a template, I rounded the edges of my green pieces of felt to make the corners a bit smoother when attaching the bias tape.  Pin everything together and sew your bias tape in place.

Lastly, I attached a piece of ribbon to the side of my mat so that I could roll it up and tie it together for storage.

Take a deep breath because you are finally finished!  This project took quite a bit of time but it is so simple and easy to create.  For a fraction of what you’d typically buy one for so even better!  If your kids are older, it can be a fun craft for them to help with and use their creativity as well.

My First Rag Quilt

When I was asked to make this t-shirt quilt I was little skeptical because quilts can be very time consuming! Then I found this cute idea to make a rag quilt. I used this tutorial http://cinnaberry-suite.blogspot.com/2011/08/t-shirt-quilt-tut.html and you can find many more on the web. They're so simple and so much easier then a traditional quilt. At first I was unsure about the rag look but once it was all complete, I really started to like it. Sorry I don't have better pictures, I forgot as usual.

Children's easel

We've had these two old "bachelor days" end tables laying around in our basement just waiting to either be given away or re purposed into something spectacular.

At a recent craft fair I saw these cute little flannel boards with felt dolls for kiddos.

I loved the idea but the price tag was a little out of my budget.  I knew I could easily (and on the cheap) recreate them.

So I simply took the top off one of those not so beautiful end tables and covered it with flannel.  It took me about 5 minutes and the flannel only cost about $2.

Then I went searching online for felt dolls when I came across some adorable ones on Amazon that were already cut out and were half the price of the others.  I don't want to be spending hours and hours cutting out little intricate doll pieces.

These are just a few of the pieces it came with...there's all kinds of outfits to piece together.

For the other side of the easel all I did was spray paint it with chalkboard paint.  Easy enough.

After attaching some hinges and chains, it sets up nice as a little floor easel for my little one to play with.

A perfect gift for very little cost!

If you don't have two end table, you could buy a cheap piece of wood too and it would still be a very inexpensive project.

Hanky Scarves

After inheriting quite a few hankies from my grandma I was hunting for ideas to use them rather than have them stuffed away in a box.

My first creation was this adorable little hanky shirt for my babe.  You can find a tutorial over at Trey and Lucy.  It was the perfect lightweight fabric for summer and I'm pretty sure it will still fit next year.

I knew I wanted to make something I could wear as well to show off these vintage hankies.

So, who doesn't love scarves?  I wear them all the time and I knew these hankies could easily make an adorable addition to my wardrobe.

They are so simple to make.  Just pin the ends of two scarves together and sew with as little of seem allowance as you can.  Repeat to your desired length.  Mine was about six feet or six hankies long.

If the edges don't match up due to the sizes of the hankies, don't worry about it.  Once your scarf is complete, you won't even notice.

I am in love! With so many different colors in the hankies, their are endless possibilities.

I'm back!!!

Hello there!  I’m back! 

As you probably figured, I decided to take a little break from blogging.  It all started out by me wanting to reorganize and clean up my blog.  Then things happen and I got caught up in life.  A day turned into a week and a week turned into a month.

I was overwhelmed and inspired by all the feedback I got when I took my blog down.  I’m so happy to encourage others to create! 

Well, since I’ve been gone, I went on somewhat of a rampage on my house and decided anything and everything needed to be cleaned and organized.  It’s an ongoing process and is a bit more work than I had planned; probably another reason blogging was put on delay.  But honestly, all the work is completely worth it.

Having an organized house puts you at such peace.  I will continue this voyage with the hope of one day having a place for everything…not that necessarily means everything will be in its place.

I hope to share some of my organizing tips in the next couple months of course with crafty inspiration mixed in and of course some Christmas goodness.  

For now, let’s enjoy some Halloween craftiness.  I realize Halloween is over and these don’t help much this year but if you’re like me, get started on them now and quite possibly they will be ready for next Halloween.

I have to have a little disclaimer here…all these ideas came from Pinterest.  If you haven’t checked it out, you should!

First up, these cute little lanterns.  They are made from recycled glass jars I had been saving up and left over paint.  Which made them free!  I hope to save up some more jars and create a bunch more for next Halloween to light up our porch windows.   Get the tutorial here.

Next up, pumpkins galore.  These pumpkins are so quick and easy…and you don’t even need a sewing machine.  Although, I’ll admit, I used mine to speed up the process.  I used some lefover fabric so mine are in more neutral colors but they'd be super cute in bright, bold colors too.  Find out how to make your own here.

Finally, our little girl’s Halloween dress.  I wanted an outfit for Halloween for our little stinker but wasn’t really finding anything I liked in the store.  Then I came across this free pattern and knew I could turn it into something perfect for Halloween.  It’s such a simple and quick tutorial; I plan to make a couple more everyday dresses as well.  For this one I just shortened the sleeves, added a bow on the collar and some ruffles on the bottom.  You could do all kinds of things with this simple pattern.

I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween.  Can you believe it’s November?  The holiday season is upon us!

I’m excited to be back and thank you for all your support!

$0 - Crochet Owl Hat

Since fall has abruptly greeted us here in Nebraska I decided it was time to make some hats for my little girl.  And of course, with yarn I have on hand.  The first is a cute little owl.  I adapted this pattern from other patterns I've used and I'm sure there are similar ones on the web out there. As I'm fairly new to the crochet worlds, this is a rough pattern for a one to two year old.  I used a size H crochet hook.

Hat (hot pink):

Chain 3, Join

Round 1: 6 hdc in loop made from chain 3 (do not join)

Round 2: 2 hdc in each hdc around (12)

Round 3: 2 hdc in each hdc around (24)

Round 4: *1 hdc in next hdc, 2 hdc in next hdc* repeat around (36)

Round 5: 1 hdc in each hdc around (36)

Round 6: *1 hdc in next 2 hdc, 2 hdc in next hdc* repeat around (48)

Round 7: 1 hdc in each hdc around (48)

Round 8: *1 hdc in next 23 hdc, 2 hdc in next hdc* repeat around (50)

Round 9 to length desired: 1 hdc in each hdc around (50)

Slip stitch and weave in ends
Add ears using about 6 strands of yarn by folding them in half, sticking your crochet hook through one of your hdc on your hat at your desired position, pulling the folded loop through and then pulling your ends through the loop you just pulled through and tighten

Earflaps (hot pink):

Slip stitch to join with bottom of hat where you want your earflap to be

Round 1: chain 2, 1 hdc in next 10 hdc

Round 2: chain 2, turn, 1 hdc in each hdc across (10)

Round 3: chain 2, turn, skip first hdc, 1 hdc in each hdc across (9)

Round 4: chain 2, turn, skip first hdc, 1 hdc in each hdc across (8)

Round 5: chain 2, turn, skip first hdc, 1 hdc in each hdc across (7)

Round 6: chain 2, turn, skip first hdc, 1 hdc in each hdc across (6)

Round 7: chain 2, turn, skip first hdc, 1 hdc in each hdc across (5)

Round 8: chain 2, turn, skip first hdc, 1 hdc in each hdc across (4)

Round 9: chain 2, turn, skip first hdc, 1 hdc in each hdc across (3)

Round 10: chain 2, turn, skip first hdc, 1 hdc in each hdc across (2)

Slip stitch and weave in ends

Add second earflap in the same way on opposite side of hat

*Optional Step: To finish off the bottom of the hat, hdc around
Add braids at the end of each ear flap

Beak (orange):

Chain 10

Round 1: 1 sc 3 chain from hook, 1 sc in each sc across (7)
Round 2: chain 2, turn, skip first sc, sc in each sc across (6)
Round 3: chain 2, turn, skip first sc, sc in each sc across (5)

Round 4: chain 2, turn, skip first sc, sc in each sc across (4)

Round 5: chain 2, turn, skip first sc, sc in each sc across (3)

Round 6: chain 2, turn, skip first sc, sc in each sc across (2)

Round 7: chain 2, turn, skip first sc, sc in each sc across (1)

Slip stitch and leave long end to sew to hat

Hand sew nose to hat in desired position

Eyes (light pink):

Chain 3, Join

Round 1: 6 hdc in loop made from chain 3 (do not join)

Round 2: 2 dc in each hdc around (12)

Round 3: 2 dc in each dc around (24)

Round 4: *1 hdc in next hdc, 2 hdc in next hdc* repeat around (36)

Slip stitch and leave long end to sew eye to hat

Hand sew lashes using black yarn

Hand sew eyes to hat in desired position

$0 - Picture or Word Blocks

My first project for the zero budget party are these picture and word blocks that I have had sitting there staring at me since Mother's Day when I made others as gifts.  These are so easy to make and although mine were free to make right now, they are really cheap to make if you don't have the supplies on hand. Here's what you will need:

Wooden blocks

Acrylic paint in a color of your choice

Acyrlic antiquing medium

Small hinges

Sponge brush

Pictures or scrapbook paper (not pictured)

Sand paper (not pictured)

Mod Podge

First you will want to sand all of the rough spots on your wooden blocks.  You can skip this step if you wish but it will make your blocks look much more finished.  Once all are sanded (don't forget to wipe any dust off the blocks), paint each block.  I recommend only doing one coat because it will make the antiquing/sanding part of the project much easier.

Once all of your blocks are dry, you will apply your antiquing medium.  Follow the directions on the bottle, it is very easy.  And remember less is generally more with this stuff.  Paint a thin layer of the medium all over your blocks and then wipe away with a rag until you have just a hint of brown to make it look "antique".

Note: I didn't apply the antiquing medium to the center since the picture or scrapbook paper would cover it.

Wait for all of your blocks to dry and then you will sand each one around the edges.  You don't want to sand all the paint off and be back where you started, just slightly sand the edges and a couple rough spots to give it a worn and ragged look.  Once all your sanding is complete, make sure you wipe your blocks down good to get all the dust off.

Finally you are ready for your pictures or words.  I did one with pictures and one with words for reference.  If you are using pictures, you will want to cut down each picture to the size of the front of your block.  If you chose to do a word, you will need to cut a piece of scrapbook paper to the size of the front of your block.  Then you will need to cut letters out that will fit on top of the piece of scrapbook paper you just cut.

And now it's time to get out the mod podge.  Follow the directions on your bottle but again, this is very simple.  Apply a thin layer of mod podge on the front of your wooden block.  Place either your picture or your piece of scrapbook paper on top and press down evening out any bubbles.  Place aside and let dry.

If you are doing letters, you will need to apply another thin layer of mod podge on top of the scrapbook paper (once your other layer is completely dry).  Press your letter down and smooth out.  Set aside to dry.

Once your pictures and words have completely dried and are attached to your wooden blocks, you will want to apply a top coat of mod podge to seal the deal.  Once again let them dry completely.  I would recommend leaving them be for about 48 hours.  They will be dry within a couple hours but the modge podge is still sticky and does not set for a couple days.

Lastly you will attach your hinges to create an accordion style display!  You can also sand just a bit around the edges of your pictures to create even more of an antique look.  So many possibilities with these...I've already made tons as gifts and for around our home.