Spring Table Runner

Custom Home Decor!

I'll start by saying that I'm a sewer, a garment sewer to be exact. I appreciate the art of quilting but haven't really gotten into it. I live in Minnesota so I LOVE a warm quilt but where would I put them all?! So I decided I will begin by treading lightly. How about a table runner? I can stash a couple dozen of those in the space a quilt occupies! Rather than reinvent the wheel, I found this free table runner instruction. Overall it was spot on, but the binding was a bit trickier than it lead on. 

It was this project that I discovered the walking foot. That's how I made all of those nice even, straight lines. I love it and can't wait to use the walking foot on my fall table runner that is in progress! If you haven't used one, you have to check it out. It's a bit spendy, so I was lucky that to borrow my mom's. Thanks mom!

Easter Bunny Garland

Fun with Felt!

My 6 year old son is always bringing home cute craft projects from school. He gets so excited telling stories about what they represent, and I thought we could use more of that pizzazz at home. I came across this fairly easy Bunny Peeps Bunting tutorial. I mostly followed the instructions except for I:

• hot glued buttons for eyes rather than paint
• machine stitched noses and mouths rather than paint
• placed the bunnies on the ribbon so that I could make two longer stitches that look like eyebrows. The tutorial positions the bunnies lower, so it looks like the poor things are hanging by their ears!

Tooth Fairy Pillow

Special pouch for a child to place their baby tooth 

The pace at which my son is loosing his baby teeth has picked up and spurred me to make this tooth fairy pillow. I gathered inspiration from other similar pillows posted on the web. The tooth shown on the front has a small pocket. The lost tooth is tucked away at bedtime and magically replaced with a few quarters (or whatever amount it is based on the generosity of your tooth fairy) by morning! I also added a strap so it can be hung it from his bedroom door. 

I started with (2) 6 x 6 pieces of blue felt and cut out a tooth shape from white felt. With a needle and white yarn I stitched his name at the top, then blanket stitched the tooth to the blue felt, leaving an opening at the top for the tooth and money. Also, about 1/3 of the way down from the top of the tooth I ran a bead of hot glue from side to side to prevent the tooth from falling down too far. 

Next, I placed the blue pieces of felt wrong sides together. Because I did a pretty blanket stitch, I didn't have to turn it out. I stitch all the way around leaving an opening just big enough to push some poly fill through. When stuffed, I finished stitching all the way around. Here is a good tutorial on how to do a blanket stitch. It's really quite easy once you get going. 

When I showed my son, he was quite excited about it and exclaimed "the tooth fairy is pretty small, so she's going to fit in there real good!"

Newspaper Seed-Starting Pots

Recycle your newspaper!

My professional resume states that I'm a "self-starter". If I had a personal resume, it would list "seed-starter". Every year I start some of my outdoor flowers and tomato plants indoors from seed. I think I've determined that in the end it's really not that much less expensive than just going out and buying my flowers and plants but a ton more rewarding.

I watched this YouTube video and decided to fore go the Jiffy peat pots. They are inexpensive and great way to recycle old newspapers. It involves rolling recycled newspaper around a glass or jar. The finished pots are sturdy and will break down quickly once they've been planted in the soil.

I planted marigolds and allysum. I'm not sure if it was the newspaper pot, seed, potting soil or green house technique I used, but these babies shot up in just half the germination time! This photo was taken at 4 days, the germination period is 8-10 days!

In every gardener there is a child who believes in The Seed Fairy.  ~Robert Brault

 

Space Alien Valentine Card Template

My son and I made out-of-this-world alien valentine cards for his class. It was an easy, fun, and fairly quick project to do. 

Supplies:

• Alien Valentine Template - download here!
• Bag of Hershey's Hearts or any other candy you can think of for the nose
• 8.5 "x 11" green paper, the thicker stuff like poster board is better
• Exacto knife
• Black marker
• Green pipecleaner
• Wire cutters
• Hot glue gun

Putting your valentine together

1. Print the Alien Valentines Day template on 8.5" x 11" green paper
2. Crease on fold lines and cut out hearts
3. With the black marker draw the alien's eyes and lips on the front
4. Have your munchkin sign his/her name on the inside of the valentine.
5. Use the wire cutter to shorten the green pipe cleaners to 6" long
6. Adult job: Make two small holes at the top of the valentine with the Exacto knife. Just big enough to thread a pipe cleaner through. 
7. Maneuver the pipe cleaner through the holes. On the inside of the card, twist pipe cleaners twice and shape antennas with a pencil.
8. Glue candy piece to front for the nose. 

Happy Valentines Day!