Easy Valentine's using Tatoo boxes

 Making cute and unique Valentine's for school parties doesn't have to be stressful.  I found these little boxes with tattoos inside at Walmart.  Then I printed off little labels and Sam signed each one.  We slapped them on the box with a piece of tape.  Boom.  Done.

 

Luke's were just as easy.  I printed off these cute little pennants and Luke signed them and taped one to each pencil.  Boom.  Done.   

{Sorry for the lack of an "after" picture.  The project was done and put in a backpack pretty quick!}

Custom DIY Iron on Patches for Jeans

If you have boys, chances are they have jeans with holes in the knees!  If it were closer to summer, I would just cut them off and use them for shorts, but we have 2-3 more months of cold-ish weather that they need pants! Also, we just bought both boys new jeans at a killer sale during President's Day weekend and I really didn't want to start seeing new holes in brand new pants.  So what to do?

First, the new pants that don't have holes yet:

You can make your own or buy iron-on patches at the store and put them on the inside to re-inforce the knee area.  This will help prevent holes in the first place. 

Iron-On patches at the store look something like this:  

They come in different colors and with iron-on adhesive already on the back. You can cut the patches in half for kid-sized pants.  Then you can just turn the pants inside out and iron them on about where the knee would hit the inside of the pants.

If you have a lot of pants to add patches to, you can make your own iron on patches!

This is the magic stuff you need to make your own patches:

Thermoweb 17-Inch by 5-Yard Heat'n Bond Ultra Hold Iron-On Adhesive

You can find smaller packages of this but it's more cost effective to buy a roll and you can use it for a TON of projects.  I use this a lot around Halloween time for costumes! Make sure you do not get the purple package--the "Lite" kind is for thinner fabrics.  You need the red pack for the "heavy" or "ultra" hold since you are using it for jean patches.  

(Here is a great YouTube video on how to use Heat N Bond!)

To make what I call preventative patches, all you need is a remnant of material and this Heat N Bond.  I had some twill khaki colored material in my stash.  You just need something somewhat heavier (but not too thick or heavy) that will make a sturdy barrier to prevent holes.

Next, cut the material to the size you want your patch.  I made my patches roughly 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 or 

4 x 4ish.  I didn't measure and they weren't even very uniform.

Next cut the Heat N Bond the same size as your patch.  Follow the directions on the package to adhere your bonding to the patch fabric and then iron it onto your jeans.  

These patches will reinforce your pants and make them more resistant to getting holes in the first place.  

NOW THE FUN PART!!  

How to make custom patches with cute fabric!

Like I said before, normally these pants would be in the "make into shorts" pile, but he had too many pairs with holes so I had to fix at least a few of them so I didn't need to buy any more.    

On pant's right leg, I just put an iron on patch on it since the hole wasn't see through.  The threadbare strands just stuck to the patch and shouldn't get much worse with the help of reinforcement.  

On the pant's left leg there was a gaping hole to fix.  I could have just put a patch of denim behind it like these:

But I decided to make them more fun.  

I had this great superhero fabric leftover from other projects.  I was able to cut out the specific character to peek through the holes of the pants.  

Turn your pants inside out to work on them.  

First cut strips of the heat n bond and iron the onto the jeans (about 2-3 seconds) and let it cool for a little bit.  Then you can remove the paper backing on the heat n bond and the "glue" should remain on the jeans. 

These were two different holes and I put the strips on differently.  Both ways worked just fine.

There's no right or wrong way to cut the strips. You can make them look nicer if you want, but you just need to get enough glue to get your patch to stick.

Then cut out the patterned fabric big enough to cover all the glue parts on the jeans.  You don't want any exposed glue because it will stick to your iron. 

Lay the fabric onto the glue (right side facing down toward the open part of the hole.   Follow the Heat n Bond instructions (it should be about 8-12 seconds pressing down).  This will adhere your fabric to the jeans and cover the hole.  

If your fabric is a thin cotton like mine was, you are going to want to put another thicker patch over it to make it durable.  This patch you can cover the whole size of the patch with heat n bond and iron the whole thing down.  This particular one I used one of my store bought patches cut down to size.  Once it's all adhered and cooled, you can cut away any loose fabric sticking up.

And then turn the pants right side out and your done!

The whole process may take some practice, but it really does not take very long.  I patched and fixed 10 pairs of pants in 1 1/2 -2 hours.  

If you have parts of the pants around the hole that are sticking up like this......

You can cut a little piece of the iron-on adhesive and secure it to the patch from the right-side-out side.

I hope this tutorial was helpful!  Good luck mending your pants with awesome patches!

Let me know if you have questions in the comments.

Baby Girl Projects: Hair Bow Holder Frame

This will be the last of the baby girl projects until I finish her room!  I have done a lot of projects to decorate the nursery, but I'm going to post them once the room is all done.

This one was pretty easy, too! I like easy if you haven't noticed.

I took a very large frame that I already had (I tend to collect them) and spray painted it purple.  This particular frame did not have glass, but it did have a hard backing.  I took that hard backing and covered it with thin batting and a piece
of fabric using hot glue to secure it.

Then I took lace and ivory ribbons with gold designs (like gold polka dots) to string across the whole thing. I got all my ribbons and lace at Hobby Lobby during a 50% off sale.  (I didn't use all these ribbons, but I found all these cute trims and ribbons at Hobby Lobby and they were hard to resist!)

I also secured the ribbons using hot glue on the back.  Then I put it all back into the frame and I was done!  I just clipped on a bunch of hair bows that I had leftover from the ones I used to make for craft fairs.

The original plan was to screw hooks directly into the bottom of the frame to hang all my elastic headbands, but then I decided I would just re-use the hooks that I used to hang towels on for Sam.  So I spray painted that purple too and then hung up all her headbands (which I got for crazy good steals from a girl selling them on a Yardsale Facbook page)

Something happy to look at when you first come in the room!  This picture shows the ever-so-smidgen of a sneak peak at the curtains ;)

 The rest of the room will have to wait until I get it all done!  Hopefully that will be this week or next.  Baby is coming soon!  I'm 38 weeks as of yesterday!

Baby Girl Projects: Car Seat Canopy

I almost forgot about this project--which is silly since it's the first one I did and it's been on the car seat by the front door for over a month now!

We had to get a new car seat since our previous infant seat expired in July.  I got one that was dark teal so that it was gender neutral but still pretty.  Baby girls need pretty things. 

The colors of the car seat inspired this fabric choice and I love how it turned out! 

 Of course she needs bows instead of buttons on the handles ;)

 I love this fabric! (found in store at JoAnns)

I found this pink floral at Walmart

There's a million and a half tutorials out there on how to make one of these--just Google it and find one that looks like how you want it to look.  

Baby Girl Projects: Easy Baby Blankets

You can never have enough blankets when babies are around!  I love having lots especially for variety in all the dozens of photos I take of my cute little munchkins!

Here are two blankets i whipped up one morning:

First, I got this crocheted blanket at a vintage market and I wanted to try lining it with flannel to make it warmer and more cozy.  I found this cute fabric at JoAnn’s (couldn’t find it online) and did my best to cut out a big piece to fit the blanket - allowing enough of the edges to fold under.  Then I just sewed the flannel piece directly to the crocheted blanket.

Second, I made a flannel backed blanket.  I also found this cute cotton chevron fabric at JoAnn’s and got a coordinating piece of flannel to put on the back (couldn’t find them online).  They are super easy to make too!  Just get 1 1/2 yards each of 2 coordinating patterns.  Lay them right sides together and then trim your edges so the blanket is nice and straight.  You can make curved corners if you’d like—just use a bowl for your curve template.  Then sew up the edge with the fabrics right sides together—leave part of an edge about 8 inches un-sewn.  Then use that hole and turn the blanket right sides out.  Topstitch around the entire blanket, and iron it when you are all done! I decided to topstitch it using a blanket stitch that I have on my sewing machine. 

If you are looking for more baby blanket ideas, I posted a few others a while back.  Thanks for stopping by!

Baby Girl Projects: Easy Baby Burp Cloths

Some babies don’t spit up much (Luke) and some babies spit up a lot (Sam)!  I’m not sure which way this baby will go on that, but it’s better to be prepared so I made ten super cute burp cloths to take on the task.

These are super easy to make and they are so fun to customize and make cute!

Here are all 10 of the cloths I made!

I made 7 burp cloths using wide strips of fabric:
I didn’t need a tutorial for these (they are pretty simple), but if you do, I found this really great one on The Petite Lemon blog  I would highly recommend pre-washing the pre-fold diapers before you sew them.  They shrink up a lot in the wash the first time.  You can pre-wash all the fabric you use, too, but I’m super lazy and don’t do that part. If you don’t pre-wash the diapers, though, you will likely regret it later when you wash them.  I did not iron the diapers after I washed them.  That will just stretch them out again, and I don’t think it’s necessary.

The other 3 cloths, I sewed ribbon on the ends.  Use a lighter to seal the ends of the ribbon, and cut it longer than you think you need because the diapers will stretch as you sew and you want to make sure the ribbon goes all the way to the edges. 


Some people don’t like the burp cloths with fabric doing down the middle because they say it’s less absorbent—if you are in that camp, then the ribbon edged ones are the way to go because they leave most of the middle plain so that the diaper part is catching all the spit up. I don’t mind either way, and I love a good excuse to use a lot of different cute fabrics!

If you are looking for a simple baby gift, this is a great one.

Next Up: Easy Baby Blankets

Baby Girl Projects- Bouncy Chair Makeover

When my doctor was talking to me at the end of August about the possibility of needing to deliver early, I immediately jumped into “baby girl projects” mode and tried to get as much as I could done!  I also kind of flipped on major nesting and started cleaning out all the closets and rooms in the house (there was one day I spent an hour scrubbing the toaster oven?! Ridiculous)…but that’s not nearly exciting for you as all the cute girly stuff.  This week I am going to start posting all the girly projects I've been working on around here. 

First up—The Bouncer Chair

I received this chair as a gift when I had Luke and it has gotten a TON of use.  First Luke used it all the time, and then I used it all the time with Sam, too!  It’s just nice to have a spot to put the baby down that’s near you sometimes—I especially use it when I am working on the computer or trying to eat dinner.  It’s pretty portable and can be moved from room to room.  However, it’s kind of ugly so it definitely needed to be cute-i-fied for baby girl! 

Here’s what it started out as:

This was the makeover for Sam—I just made a really basic cover using fleece I had laying around.  It must have been pretty comfy because Sam fell asleep there all the time!

And now here is what it looks like now! I spray painted the blue legs pink and then covered the chair in batting and then a cute white and gray polka dot fabric that I got on fabric.com.  I’ve been working on Sam’s baby book and there are A LOT of pictures of Sam when he’s being cute in the bouncer chair, so when I was picking fabric I wanted something cute but really neutral!  I think we found a winner!

Tomorrow: Easy Baby Burp Cloths! 

Valentine’s Day Porch Decor & Wreath

I don’t know about you, but my house is down right depressing after I take down all the Christmas Decorations.  So I put up some Valentine’s Day decor up—starting with the porch.  Something fun to come home to when I run errands.

I’ve never had a good Valentine’s Day wreath, so I started with that.  I love yarn wreaths and I had the perfect thick purple yarn in my stash. 

Things didn’t go quite as planned. 

I just wanted to do a big cute bow—but I thought it looked too plain. 

A few days later I found some pink and purple glitter stems marked 90% off (making them like 14 & 19 cents each!) at Michael’s so I took down the wreath to add them for extra embellishment. 

And well that’s when things went really wrong…

Oops. 

Lots of hot glue and duck tape later I had fixed it and then I could add my extra embellishments.

Ta-Da…  

And now I love it!

But then my porch pots were looking sad without anything in them so I got this crazy idea to make a heart pillow and put it on a stick…

   

I don’t have a pattern but this is a picture of how I cut and stitched it together…

Stitch two pieces of your fabric right sides together.  Leave the bottom open so you can flip it right side out and stuff it.  Then stuff your dowel in it and tie it together with ribbon.  I used pinking shears on the bottom raw edge.

Thanks for stopping by!

IKEA RAST hack – Teal and Tacks

I started making over our Master Bedroom in September--I got busy with Family Trees so I haven't finished all the details in the room enough to show it off.

But I've been wanting to show off these nightstands for months now!

When I started the Master Bedroom overhaul I decided we needed nightstands that had more storage space.  I immediately thought of all the cute IKEA Rast hacks that I've seen and knew that I wanted to do one of my own!

When I was choosing the paint color for our bedroom I ended up buying a whole gallon of a really dark Teal color.  I decided not to put it up on the walls, but then I was left with a whole gallon!  So I chose to paint my Rast nightstands with it instead!

Then I got some cute knobs at Hobby Lobby when they were 50% off (this happens all the time--do NOT pay full price!) And I got some upholstery tacks for the edges and I love love love how it looks!

And with a little fake staging, here's the final result!

You'll have to see them in their final nightstand glory once I finish the rest of the room, but for now I'm happy to show them off like this!

So what do you think?