Moms got a glue gun

How to recycle a burlap rice bag....

Say hello to my favorite little  project of the month.  I wanted to make a special gift for my daughter Ashley for her birthday and was inspired by this little burlap rice bag which I had been saving for a while, but didn't know what to do with.  The result was this little bag.  I used all thrifted or recycled fabric as well which is always a hit with my eco-friendly daughter.  I liked it so much, I thought I would share the process with you in case you run into a little bit of burlap that inspires you.

This is the before.  I used my rotary cuter to cut across the top, right under the zipper to remove it.  I will keep this for later.  Then I simply cut down each side to remove the side seams too.  This left one long narrow piece.

(sorry for some of the pictures, I was taking pics by myself)

 
 I didn't use a pattern with this project, I wanted to work around the size of the bag.  I think this also adds to the handmade, vintage, imperfect feel of this kind of project too.  I measured two rectangle pieces to create the sides and lined them up with the middle of the burlap piece.
 

Then, just pin down with right sides together and sew a straight stitch.  I sewed this bottom section first for both side pieces.  

 
Then, continue attaching the side pieces by turning right sides together with the burlap and attached with a straight stitch.  So, I will look something like an inside out square bag like this.  When working with burlap, you will want to keep the seam allowance generous.  In other words don't sew too close to the edges. 

When you turn it right side out, you have your basic bag shape.  From here, you could just roll over the top edge and sew down and be done.  I decided to add a liner to mine so I just repeated these steps with a solid color fabric and inserted it into the burlap bag, both unfinished at the top. The side fabric is corduroy from a pair of old pants of my husbands that was bound for donation.

For the straps, I cut some more of the corduroy fabric into strips and sewed down each side.  In this case, I folded over the edges, ironed, pined to the opposite piece and sewed down each side.  This way I didn't need to turn inside out when finished.

I didn't take any pics of making the liner, but here is a close up of the top.  I made the liner the same as the burlap piece, and a little taller.  I set it inside the burlap, folded over the top, then sewed it down.  This finished the top and gave plenty of room for the burlap.  Of course I had to add a fabric flower too.  The only new piece is the little fabric covered brad in the middle of the flower. 

My daughter was thrilled and that's what I live for.  She said I am the best Mom in the world.... well her best Mom I guess. 

I've been on a crochet frenzy....

 

and I'm having fun.  I started on the weekend and just kept going.  This is great if you want to keep your hands busy for a while.  I haven't crocheted since I was quite young and wanted to re-learn this year.  I also had several small random bits of yarn I wanted to do something with. I started out making these little squares, all single crochet in the middle and then experimented with a scallop edge.  I thought the edges didn't look right, but kept going.  They are a little chunky, but these are destined for my kitchen.  They make great dish washers.....I used to think that was an "older person" thing to do, but here I am.  Loving my little crochet dish clothes. Too funny.

Then I found this fantastic tutorial on a fun  blog called You Go Girl.  Go here to check it out.

She had this amazing project on how to add a crochet edge on a pillowcase.  I learned the correct way to do the scallop edge and practiced on an up-cycled pillowcase I already had.  I liked it so much I added a little fabric detail too.

So, if you are thinking about doing some crochet, give it a try.  It really is a little therapeutic to do while watching TV. 

I didn't want to do a full tutorial, but just give out a little inspiration.  Are you inspired yet?

Hugs
 

  

Be green and save with recycled seed pots...

 
(photo courtesy of Bonzai Aphrodite) 

How cool is this idea?  I wanted to do this project, but I don't have any garden space right now.  I wanted to share this idea with you though (on Earth Day no less).  It's a great way to save steps in gardening, start plants with seed, which is cheaper and recycle.  All good.  So go over to the super cute blog Bonzai Aphrodite to get the full 411.

Link Party time...

I just found another really cool link party at one of my favorite blogs, Tea Rose Home. The author, Sachiko, has such a way with upcycling materials like clothing, and fun projects with fabric and other items.  She is such an inspiration.  So, take some time to visit her blog and link up with all the other talented folks who have kindly linked their cool projects.  Wow, they are fabulous!!!

I linked up my little project from last month, my new sewing space.  I can't tell you how much fun it is to make something yourself.  From little crochet projects, to building something big, they all give such a sense of accomplishment.  As "the Martha" would say, "It's a good thing".

Craftaholics Anonymous support group...

A crafty little blogger named Linda at Craftaholics Anonymous is going through some serious withdrawal since she had a glue gun tragedy.  She kindly started a  little blog hop so we could all share our crafty goodness for a while.  How nice of Linda.  Take some time to check it out if you can.

I shared my recent little chalkboard project with the group and it seems to be a hit.  
It's so nice to see all the creativity thats out there today.  So much talent makes it hard not to be on the internet all day.  I gotta get back to crafting.....maybe later.  He he he

Hugs.

Save big by making your own laundry soap....

 
I know, I usually post craft projects on my little ol blog, but I think making your own laundry soap can be crafty too.  I'm sure a lot of you are looking for ways to save on anything we can these days so I thought I would share this little way I've found to save a lot on laundry costs. 

The recipe I like to use to make my own laundry soap is a powder soap.  I find this cleaner and easier to manage than the liquid version. I found a lot of funny stories on disasters with the liquid version.

 The formula I used in my last batch was as follows: 1 bar Fels-Naptha soap (about 2c), 1c washing soda and 1 c Borax.  Make sure to use washing soda as it is different that baking soda.  You can add a little baking soda to your mix as a whitener if you want to as well.

The only effort on my part was in grating the soap.  I used my little grater myself, but you can use a food processor for quicker results.  You want the soap to be as fine as possible.  I found that this only took about 5-10 minutes.  Keep in mind that while you have everything out, you can do a couple of bars at a time and either store it or make a larger batch of laundry soap.  Better yet, make one of the kids do it for you.

After you mix the ingredients in a big bowl, just put in an airtight container to store.  I put mine in a little old canning jar. 

For your laundry, you only need 2Tfor a large load.  If you have an HE machine, just use 1T for a large load.  It doesn't seem like that much but it works fine. Commercial  detergents are full of fillers, perfumes, whitening agents and sudsing agents, all of which you don't need.  Foaming and sudsing are ways to make it appear that the detergent is working and to make a small amount of cleaner go farther in the water that it's packaged in.

This is true soap and not detergent.  Detergents are petroleum based (yes, as in gasoline) and a synthetic imitation of soap. Think of detergent as margarine compared to butter.   

As far as the cost goes, it's only about  $.03/load.  Most detergent is about $.30 to .40/load, big difference.  I paid $1.49 for the Fels-Naptha soap, $2.98 for the washing soda(Publix) and $2.99 for the Borax (Wal-Mart). Keep in mind there are dozens of uses for these products as well as laundry soap too.

There is a lot of information online about these individual products so I won't list much more.  But, I got the seal of approval from my husband who happens to have an advanced degree in Chemistry and Biology that it's all good and very safe and good for the old planet to boot.

There are several ways to mix this recipe up too.  If you want to make a vegan recipe, just exchange the Fels-Naptha with a vegetable oil based soap like castile soap.  You can use other soaps instead of Fels-Naptha but you don't want one that has very much fragrance or it won't work as well.  You can consider using Zote, Ivory or another soap that's a laundry soap would work best. 

If you would like to try some other recipes or try the liquid version you can go to this list on Tipnut. This site has a lot of extra information too if you want to do some more research. And if you want to buy the ingredients on-line, a good source is Soaps Gone Buy.  I bought my first batch of products from them and had a good experience.  The site also has some recipes for household cleaners using the Borax and Washing Soda too.  Even with the shipping cost, you will still save money.

And of course I can't leave out where I got this idea in the first place.  You can get recipes from my favorite family....the Duggars right here.

The cutest chalkboard you'll ever see....

 

Yes, my friends, chalkboard paint comes in colors.....aaaahhhh.  I can hardly stand it.  I am soooo happy with this little project.  I'll take a breath now and tell you all about it.

It was a Saturday....I was in my local Joann's store....and there it was.  I had no idea that chalkboard paint came in any other color but green, or black, but there they were.  And me, with my 40% off coupon scooped it up in a hurry.  This color is Hot Pink (aka awesome). 

To make this story even better, I thrifted the little chalkboard for $3.00.  I think I might faint now.   True story.

I was inspired by the a fabulous project with an entire wall painted in chalkboard paint, and little branches added.  I am renting right now, so I wanted a smaller option.  I pulled the branches right from outside.  That little thing at the top that looks like an alien is an air plant, native to Florida.  I thought it added something to the mix.  I attached with my handy dandy glue gun and added a little banner, some flowers made from ribbon with tiny clothespins glued to the back.  I found the little bird nest at Wal-Mart and added my little bird.  I also made tiny pom poms from coffee filters and spritzed with some glimmer mist.  And of course doodled. 

I'm so excited.  This will change with the seasons or what I have in the house from time to time.  I hope this inspires someone to do the same.
 

Fun with birds...

Do you love birds?  I've seen them every.where this last year, in crafts, in home decor and fashion.  We all love nature shapes I think.  This is a little tutorial on how to stretch your craft products to work more for you and an idea on a finish for them.  If you are into paper crafting, you probably have several punches or have purchased those adorable little chipboard shapes of birds, butterflies, flowers and such.  If you haven't it may be because you aren't sure how to finish them. 

In this case I started with this cute new punch I bought from Stampin Up.  Love, love, love all of their products.  I wanted to use the little bird shape, so I punched him (or her) out first.  Then I sat the shape down on Grungepaper, a Tim Holz product. It's so versatile because it has the strength of chipboard, but is very flexible like paper. 

As you can see, I traced out the shape a little bigger than the original.  This is how I expand the use of the punch.  Now, the one I made is not quite the same, but that's part of the fun.  If you have a hard time doing this free-hand, this is a great alternative. 

Then, I painted my little bird with some pink paint, and added some distress crackle paint over top. You can add some more distress ink over this, but I wanted mine to be a little cleaner.  Then a little pearl for an eye.

Here are two of the little guys when finished.  You'll notice the blue one is a little "fatter" than the other.  That's the variety you get when using some freehand tracing.  You can add fun little items for the wings too.  Now imagine these on a card, or scrapbook page accent.....yummy.

This is a little tease for my next post....one thing you can do with little birds.  Stay tuned...

Hugs
 
 
 

What to do with all those scraps.....

 I've seen a lot of cute things done with tags this last year and I finally got around to making some myself.  Tags are a great way to use up all of those precious scraps that we all have a ton of.  It's so hard to throw out the pieces of your favorite papers and trims. 

In these tags, I left them in their original color and just piled on the goodies.  These are some of my favorites because I was able to use crinkle seam binding ribbon.  I colored it myself and was excited to use it.  I 'll have to post a tutorial on that maybe later.  I also made a little flower from some vintage pattern paper, and cute some leaf shapes from cardstock and canvas.  The tiny one has an itty bitty fabric flower.  I think they have an elegant feel to them.

These are some more, using just little scraps that I had.  I would like to be more organized at the Holidays, or just any other time a gift is needed so I'll be making more of these to have on hand.  I think it would be fun to have a little "tag party" at my house with some friends.  Just a pile of tags and a pile of scraps.  Wouldn't that be fun before the holidays?

 

Pretty little Butterflies...

I found these really cute tiny frames at Target and wanted to make something cute with them.  They are really small, 2" x 2" in the middle, so I needed something really small.  I used my handy dandy butterfly punch (Martha Stewart) to punch out some in different papers.  I started with kraft paper, then vintage text paper, patterned paper, then some embossed tissue paper I had from another project.  I just layered them and sewed down the middle to secure.  I finished it off with a tiny pearl accent in the middle.

I wanted a little touch of yellow in the background so I used some fabric I had with a little check pattern.  This was easy peasy and didn't take very long to do.  I love these kind of projects for the home that can add a personal touch, not cost much, and look adorable all at the same time. This would be a great thing to do with a bunch of mis-matched frames all painted in the same color, or with any other image in the middle. 

I'll have to keep this in mind while I'm out thrifting and see some more little frames. 

Peace out....