Color Your Summer: Rainbow Button and Bead Art

Did you catch my latest project tutorial over at Kojo Design's 'Color Your Summer' series? It was so busy last week with family in town for Matilda's birthday that I didn't get a chance to share with you.

Head over to Kojo Designs to view the full project tutorial on how to create this one-of-a-kind rainbow button and bead thread spool art piece.

Click HERE to read more.

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Summer Rag Flip Flop Tutorial

So it's finally summer around here and I was asked by the folks at Joann Fabric and Craft stores to come up with a summer craft project inspired by their new summer catalog, Cape Discovery. If you like crafting with your children, this is a great place to gather up some new ideas. The girls and I flipped through this catalog to find our inspiration project:

After looking at all the different project ideas in the Cape Discovery Catalog, we chose to create some 'Summer Rag Flip Flops' for the girls. My girls definitely love a good craft!

These were such an easy, inexpensive craft project that is perfect to work on together with your little one. This project takes a small amount of fabric and a few other supplies found at Joann's and you've got a pair (or two) of festive shoes for the summer!

Summer Rag Flip Flop Tutorial

from The Cottage Mama

Supplies:

1 pair flip flops

1 - 2 fabrics (fat quarters or 1/8 yard each)

1 set Clip-Eez sparkle clips (found at Joann's)

Scissors or rotary cutter

Instructions:

Gather your supplies. 

I selected three 'Lisette' fabrics from Joann's. Since I was trying to be good (I'm currently on a fabric diet), I only purchased a 1/4 yard each (since that's the smallest amount you can have cut). I kind of wish I had more since I really love these colors.

The girls loved these sparkle clips when we were shopping at Joann's. And they were 40% off that day, so they were a real deal. They had tons of other different styles of clips that were really cute.

Cut your fabric on the fold into 1" strips. I used 8 strips per pair of flip flops, but I'm sure that will vary depending on the size sandal you are using.

Cut your 1" strips of fabric into 7" pieces.

Pile up your fabric strips and get ready to embellish your flip flops!

Start tying knots on the straps of the flip flops with your different fabrics. You can use one print or many......it's entirely up to you. Leave a little room at the very front for your sparkle clip. This is a great step to work on together with your little one. If they can tie a knot, they can do this project!

Once you've finished both sides of the flip flops, you will need to add the sparkle clip to the center. Open up the clip to apply.

Here is what the front of your flip-flop will look like after you have applied your pretty sparkle clip.

And here are both of your completed 'Summer Rag Flip Flops' with sparkle clip and all!

And if you have two girls, you might need to make two pairs........we don't want anyone feeling left out now, do we?

Here is a little side-by-side shot of the inspiration sandals from the Joann's catalog.

Then let your girly pick her favorite pair to wear this summer!

We had a great time making these flip flops and there are plenty of other Summer Fun projects that I would like to do with my kids this summer break. Don't you just love summer? I'm so glad it's here!

You can check out plenty more summer DIY projects to do with your little ones in the Cape Discovery Catalog from Joann's. And if you want to stay up to date with Joann's, sign up for their Discover Connect and you will receive a 20% off coupon. Pretty nice, I'd say. You can sign up HERE.

Happy Summer!

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Repurposed Picture Frame Tray Tutorial

About a week ago, several of my girlfriends and I headed to the flea market for a Mom's day out. When I attend the flea market, I am always on the hunt for sewing related antiques, furniture for the house, or unique antique decorative items. We happened upon this one booth that was filled with more garage sale like stuff rather than antiques, but this gold frame caught my eye. It was only $1.00 and the second I saw it I thought that it would make a cute little tray. So I scooped it up and told my friends what I had planned for this little beauty.

I think I saw a tray with this frame because the frame itself is a little angled, but you can give this project a try with any style or size frame you would like. This picture frame tray will take you minutes to complete and there is no-sewing involved (I know, kind of rare around here lately). Let's get started......

Repurposed Picture Frame Tray

by Lindsay Wilkes from The Cottage Mama

Supplies:

1 picture frame

1 scrap piece of fabric

Instructions:

Grab a picture frame. Use one you already have on hand or hunt for some inexpensive frames at your local flea market, garage sales or thrift shops. Like I said above, I liked that this frame was angled, so it seem to make a nice tray, but choose any frame you would like.

Flip the frame over and remove any hardware on the back. This frame was really easy to take apart, I simply popped the stand and hardware off with my hands. If you have a more stubborn frame, you may need to pull out your pliers.

Above is what the back of the frame looked like after the hardware was removed. If the holes bother you or you plan to give this as a gift, cover the holes with a piece of decorative paper or fabric. You could even write a nice note to the gift recipient. Adhere the paper to the back of the frame with heavy duty glue or mod podge.
 

I simply flipped the back of the frame over and used the other side because the holes didn't show nearly as much. This little tray is for me, so the bottom didn't need to be perfect.

Measure the inside of the frame to figure out how large to cut your fabric. My frame had a paper insert inside the frame, so this was the perfect template for cutting the fabric. You could also use decorative paper instead of fabric, if you prefer. Cut the fabric or paper to size.

Insert the fabric into the frame and slide the back of the frame back into place.

And then step back and admire your sweet little tray.

I'm planning on using this as a jewelry tray, but the options are endless!

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Creating With Kids: Painted Fabric

My kids are little. Savannah and Matilda are still in preschool and Caspian is 16 months. But despite their young ages, I like to try to involve them in creativity as much as possible. Would I love to plunk them down in front of a sewing machine and get them sewing? Yes. But I just don't feel like they are old enough yet. You betcha, that when the time is right, Miss Savannah will be getting her first sewing machine, but until then, I've been trying to come up with other ways to involve the kids in creative projects.

For Christmas the girls wanted to make some handmade gifts. I thought about some different things they could make or that we could make together. So I decided that I would have the girls paint some different designs onto a large piece of fabric and I would use that fabric and create some sewn gifts for our family and friends. A little creative collaboration, if you will.

The project was a big success! The girls had a great time painting on the fabric and I had a lot of fun turning their fabric into sewn gifts.

Do you want to do some fabric painting with your kids? Here are some tips that worked for us........

Gather up a bunch of acrylic paints in different fun colors. I had quite a few Martha Stewart craft paints on hand, so we used those. My favorite was probably the glitter paint because it gave the fabric some pretty sparkle. Use whatever paint you would like and make sure to get out your paint brushes as well.

To make it easier for the girls to paint, I taped the fabric onto a large piece of cardboard. This way the fabric didn't slip and slide around their table.

I just cut up a plate we had, poured the paints on and let them go to town. There were no rules, except that they could not paint on the walls. And I made sure they were wearing clothes that it didn't matter if they ended up with paint on them (because they did......they definitely ended up with paint on them).

Guess who this is in the picture above? Notice the orange paint, the orange shirt........remember her orange birthday party? Yes, that's Miss Savannah. She still loves orange.

And Miss Matilda still loves blue.

I had the girls paint on Osnaburg fabric. It's one of my very favorite natural fabrics. It's really inexpensive and I just love the look and feel of it.

After the girls were done painting, we let the fabric dry for 24 hours on the board. Then I peeled the tape off of the fabric and cut it into some sewn gifts.

Here is what we made.........

I used the Rick Rack Tissue Paper Holder Tutorial to make these gifts. I added in a cotton fabric for the lining and used pink rick rack as an accent.

We also made some rustic heart shaped ornaments. For these I just cut two hearts and sewed around them with a 1/4" seam allowance. I stopped before I reached the beginning of the first part of the stitching, stuffed them with fiberfill, inserted the twine and finished sewing around the heart.

The girls were really excited to see their hand painted fabric turned into sewn creations. I love giving handmade gifts during the holidays and it's especially fun when we can create together!

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DIY Cabochon Jewelry

As much as I love sewing, sometimes I get the urge to do something a little different. I've been planning some of my DIY Christmas gifts this year and I thought it would be really fun to make some pretty jewelry for friends and family.

Flower cabochons have always had sort of a vintage feel to me and I find them to be really beautiful. You can buy them from many different sources online (here are a ton sold on Etsy) and they are really reasonably priced. Basically they are just molded resin and are really lightweight and easy to work with when crafting. You can attach them to just about anything, but this year I decided to make rings, earrings and hair pins.

If you get these going in assembly line style, you will have plenty of jewelry in no time!

DIY Cabochon Jewelry

by Lindsay Wilkes from The Cottage Mama

Supplies:

Flower cabochons (found here)

Blank bobby pins, rings or earrings

E6000 or other industrial strength glue

Instructions:

Gather up all of your supplies for this project.

Like I said above, you can purchase some really gorgeous cabochons via Etsy.com. I ordered all different shapes and sizes so I would have a wide variety of different styles and colors.

As far as the blanks go for bobby pins, rings or earrings, I purchased the earrings and bobby pins online and found the rings at our local Joann super-store. You will have more of a selection if you order online, but you should be able to find all of these at your local craft store. Our lovely blog sponsor, Crafter's Vision carries some different blanks as well.

I bought adjustable rings because I'm not sure of everyone's ring size. Just make sure the blank portion of the ring is smaller than your cabochon (or at least the same size). The square rings (that came in this variety pack) didn't really work for this project since the blank was too big.

E6000 is a great glue to have in your stash of craft supplies. It's super strong and dries clear. You can find this at your local craft supply store. If for some reason you can't find this, then just look for another industrial strength glue. Jewelry gets a lot of wear and tear, so you don't want it falling apart.

So this project is really simple. Take a dab of glue and place it onto the blank jewelry, then press your cabochon on top. Leave them upside down to dry for at least 24 hours.

For the smaller pieces, like the earrings, I just put a dab of glue on some paper and dipped the top of the blank part of the earrings and pressed them to the cabochons.

These make great gifts for girlfriends, teenage girls and teachers.

Package these pretties up and you are good to go! 

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