Laundry Room Sign

This is another style of the laundry room sign I made several months ago. I ran out of the 1 x 4 x 8 pieces of lumber I normally use, and used a big square piece I had previously cut instead. I pretty much did the same thing, only the layout is obviously a bit different because of the shape of the wood. Crackling, sanding around the edges, then Cricut vinyl letters. I can't remember where I got the black ribbon of sorts- it's a nice wide grosgrain type- but I know that I recycled it off something, probably a gift one of the kids got. ( I always feel a bit excited when I can do that :) ). This was made for a friend who is putting together a basket for an auction, and she asked me if I could make the laundry sign for it. No problem! It came together quickly. I like this big square size from the lumber that I cut- it's about 9 x 9 inches.

Ribbon and Wood Hair Clip Holder

I've been trying to figure out a way to keep my girls' hair clips contained (and somewhat matched- so I can find matching clips when we have them), and after perusing some sites and talking to my friends, I decided upon the ribbon and wood idea. I cut a small piece of wood from a 1 x 4 x 8, painted it 2 colors (a base color and top coat) and distressed it a bit- cause that's how I roll.... I then cut strips of ribbon and glued the top of them to the back of the wood, glued on more ribbon to make a hanger, and cut out some vinyl letters with my Cricut. (The Cricut letters are totally unnecessary, and you could easily Mod Podge some cute paper on the wood instead of painting it or do whatever you want). I just wanted the function with a bit of "cuteness" added. Waiting for the paint to dry took the longest amount of time. My girls immediately liked it- ooh, I suppose I could have made polka dots and their initials... that would have been cute.... Anyhow, I can now find the matches to the clips and see exactly what I have instead of digging around in a basket with them loose. I'm pretty happy with this. Unfortunately my method for organizing the hair ties is not as cute- I have them all around a long paper towel roll- functional, but not cute... Oh well, if you have any ideas for that, please feel free to share... because that paper towel roll really leaves a lot to be desired visually....

Cards made with the Cricut Damask cartridge

I borrowed the Cricut Damask cartridge from a friend and played around the other night- trying to come up with some easy cards for teacher gifts. There were some designs that I liked better than others, and if I'd had more time I would have embellished them more. I added stick on rhinestones and pearls to add a bit more to them. Anyhow, you can use any combination of colors that you like that complement each other. I wish that I'd had wider organza ribbon to tie around them, but like I said, they were quick gifts and I didn't have time to go get more. Anyhow, I took a quick picture of them all together, no great close ups.. but it's enough to prove that I did something.... :)

Girl's room fabric picture/memo board

These are just another version of the french fabric and ribbon board that I created with the brown damask fabric in my last post. For these, you can just get a piece of foam core board at the Dollar Store, or any other place that sells it. I did the "reduce/reuse/recycle" bit and used leftover pieces of foam core board from a MOPS project a few years ago that have been sitting in my stash (to my husband's displeasure...they've been there for a while.) He's so long suffering with my craft stuff- he calls it "Pandora's Craft Box"... Anyhow... I used 2 smaller pieces and glued them together with hot glue to make them a little bit bigger. I covered it with sheet batting again (using spray adhesive), and wrapped fabric around it, pulling it tight and smooth as I glued. I then attached my ribbon the same way as before (referring to a picture of some skinny ones we'd done in MOPS for refrigerator versions of these... surprisingly, all the leftover foam core board was not left over from that project....) because the foam core wasn't super thick, I was able to stick a big ol' embroidery needle through the middle of the ribbon's cross points and make a stitch to pull it in just a bit to make the ribbon feel more snug against the fabric. (Yes, "big ol' " is an official term of measurement somewhere in the world.. :) ) All that was left was to glue buttons on- I bought these specifically for this project when I bought the fabric a couple of months ago. This is a project that I've had on my list to finish- now that MOPS is done for a bit, I can focus more on the many crafts projects piling up that I've been itching to get to. These are for my girls' bedroom, and way overdue. I glued a loop of ribbon on the back so I could hang them easily, and just for the record, if these were being made for a gift, I'd have covered the back to and make it look a lot nicer, but I figure that since they're just in my girls' room, the front is cute and that's all that matters to me right now... (lazy I know...) These can be done pretty cheaply if you already have batting and either a stash of fabric already, or access to inexpensive fabric. I think I'm going to start perusing the remnant section of Jo-Ann's. :)

Fabric and Ribbon Memo Board

Well, my husband will be happy, - not because I made more crafty stuff, but that I made use of a metal framed cork bulletin board that has sat in either our room or our boys' room for years. I took the board and attached some sheet batting (cut to size) with spray adhesive. I measured the board and went searching at Jo-Ann's for some fabric that I'd like. Out of all those choices, I ended up with this brown damask print. It was hard to find something I liked well enough and that would go with any decor color I might use. It took a little bit of time to center the print so that it wasn't lopsided- I'm sure it probably is to a degree, just not to the point that it's bugging me anymore. Note to self: next time get a print that needs no straightening...... I used hot glue to adhere the fabric on the back. ( Note the picture of my cat who immediately claimed the board for herself as soon as I finished covering it....) To figure out how to arrange the ribbon, (after attempting it briefly myself), I searched out French Memo Ribbon Boards on Google and used some examples for reference. I used hot glue to hold these down, but there was too much slack for my liking on the front of the board, even after gluing the cross points down. I decided to try out my staple gun to see if that would work to make it tighter and I was happy with the results. My other option would have been to go out and buy some flat thumb tacks and use those instead. I was happy to not have to go out and buy more supplies :) . I used hot glue again to glue my buttons down at the cross points- I used embroidery floss to add a little bit of interest to them. Now all I need is to hang it up, but I'm not sure which wall I'm putting it on, so for the moment, it's at least done and waiting for a home. ...........And my husband wanted me to just get rid of the board........... :)

Inexpensive, easy Teacher Gifts

This is a variation on covering journals and other notebooks. I found these swivel notepads at our Craft Warehouse for a dollar each, and thought, well, they would be much cuter with cute paper covering them. As I've done previously, I traced the notepad shape on the chosen paper, cut it out and glued it on. I used sandpaper to sand the edges of the paper off the pad to make it cleaner looking, and then inked. I added a flower and button in the middle and a little bit of Stickles glitter glue. The childcare workers I gave them to really liked them. Easy gift, not too time consuming... not a whole lot of brain pain involed.. always a plus!