Easy Paper Pendant Bunting

{Say that post title 3 times fast!}

One thing that occupied my time this summer and kept me away from the computer was I had my first niece get married.  We tied several quilts for her, threw her a shower, and spent quite a bit of time helping my sister get ready for the wedding and deal with the craziness.

Just one of the many quilts we tied for her.

For the shower I offered to make a pendant bunting with the lovely couples name on it.  At first I thought I'd make a material one like I did here, but then I decided I didn't want to put all of that time and money into something that would just be used once or twice.  So I set about coming up with a cheap and easy way to make one.

I'm sure some of you are just thinking, "Why doesn't she just get out her Cricut or Silhouette to make the letters?"  Well, I'm in the .0001% of DIY ladies who does not own one of those machines.

So I bought some scrapbook paper that would feed through my printer, created the triangle shapes of the pendants in my word processing program, chose a font I liked, and typed up their names.  Then all I had to do was print them out, cut along my triangle shapes, and I had my pendants.  Then I used some matching bakers twine to join them together and embellished the whole thing with some cute paper flowers I picked up at the scrapbook store.  Not too bad huh?

Hmmm...looking at these pictures is making me think I should make a Thanksgiving one for my mantle.  My house is seriously lacking Thanksgiving/Fall decorations...

Treasure Box

My responsibility in my church is to teach music to the 3-7 year olds.  As you can imagine it's quite a treat.  :) They are so much fun and definitely keep me on my toes.  It's always fun to ask for volunteers to be my helper or play a game.  You can imagine that about 90% of the 30-40 hands shoot up and nearly pull the kids up out of their seats.  I try to only pick on those who have been reverent and participating, and I TRY to not call on the same kids all of the time, but it's a lot to keep track of.

I don't remember where I got this idea, but I'm sure I read it somewhere online.  I've created a Treasure Box containing coins with the names of each sweet little child on them.  I'll use it to pick helpers whenever I need one.  However, they'll only get to help if they have been listening and participating.

I plan on introducing the box to them by talking about how treasure is something that is valuable and that is worth a lot.  I'll then talk about how they are valuable to God and how they are "treasures" to Him.  We'll read Isaiah 13:12 - "I will make a man more precious than fine gold..." and Doctrine and Covenants 18:10 - "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God."  (Not familiar with the Doctrine and Covenants?  It's considered scripture for those of us that belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  You can learn more at www.mormon.org.)

This little box wasn't difficult to put together.  I was planning on building one myself and had even found a few tutorials online.  Then I found this unfinished box at Hobby Lobby for about $3.  That was a no brainer!  I used stain that was left over from my chair refinish and Pro Deo sign.  That stain is now DONE!  It was sludge at this point and I was barely able to scratch out enough for this box.  My wonderful friend cut the letting out for me on her Cricut.   For the coins I purchased 1" wood discs online, spray painted them gold, then printed out the kids names on 1" clear, round labels.  Wa-lah!  I had my treasure box complete with treasure.

Hopefully the kids like it on Sunday!

Pro Deo Pro Patria

My hubby bought this painting for me several years ago for Christmas.  It's one of my favorites.  It's been hanging on our wall ever since, but recently I've been trying to do more decorating around it.  I'd seen several projects were people secure a few boards together then paint a saying on them.  I liked the look and the project seemed easy enough so I thought I could do one to go with the painting.  However, I couldn't decide on a saying.

One day, like a flash of inspiration, it hit me.  "Pro Deo, Pro Patria"  As I've mentioned before my husband is in the military and this saying is his unit's motto.  It means, For God, For Country.  It's perfect for this painting!

This was an easy enough project.  I used boards that my husband brought home from work.  They were just throwing them away.  I used left-over stain from the chair I refinished.  All I had to buy was the mending plates to secure the boards together, 12 screws, the white paint, some letter stencils, and stencil glue.  I'm not lucky enough yet to own a Circuit or Silhouette, so I have to rely on the old fashioned type of stenciling. :)

Let me say I forgot how much I dislike stenciling.  I stink at it!  At first I just taped the edges of the stencils and used acrylic paint.  BIG MISTAKE!  I had major paint bleed.  I tried scraping and a few other things to fix it, but it wasn't working.  So I resanded the board and restained it.  I wasn't about to make that mistake again so I bought some stencil paint (it has a creamy texture) and stencil glue.  So much better!

I still had a few places where I got paint outside of the stencil, but nothing like the paint bleed I had before.  On the places where the paint was light I was able to put a little stain on a cloth and rub it over the paint.  It covered it up great!  Then on the places where there was thicker paint, I would put some stain over it, let it sit a few minutes, then rub with the cloth to blend it in.  I was so happy it actually worked!  There are still a few places where there is faint paint, but nothing bad!

Now my sign is happily setting above my George Washington painting.

Happy President's Day everyone!

Embroidery Hoop Christmas

One day I plan on using embroidery hoops to decorate my little girls room, so I've been picking them up at second hand stores whenever I see them.  I came upon my stash in a closet a while ago and started brainstorming how I could use them for Christmas decorations, and here's what I came up with.

Meet Mr. Snowman

Different sizes of embroidery hoops, circles, winter...a snowman, of course!  I think the hat is my favorite part.  I used a cashew can, and a random plastic lid I found in my cupboard.  I cut them both in half and covered them in felt.  I think he's got personality!  My little one definitely likes him. :)

Add some buttons, pom poms, a felt nose, and ta-da!

Fabric Snowflakes

At first I thought it would be cool to have just the snowflakes stretched through the hoop with no background.  Then I decided that would be a nightmare to make work, so I settled on some contrasting  material to put them on.

I found that using starch on the material helped.  It also helped to place some pins in it to keep it folded while I was cutting the snowflake.  I would also recommend using THIN material.  It gets to be a lot to cut through after you fold it several times.  You can find TONS of templates and ideas for cutting snowflakes online.  I decided to use some of the six point patters that I found.

I used some spray on fabric glue to put them on the background.  It worked great!  Some parts of my snowflakes weren't staying together because I cut too far, but I was still able to use them.  Once I glued them on you couldn't tell some of the snowflakes were in pieces.

I think I want to add some sort of garland around them to make them look more finished, but I haven't gotten to that yet.