heart door mat

I think it's pretty obvious that I have an obsession with hearts. I came across a door mat that I loved and while at Ikea one day I found the perfect rug to use for it. This rug was $4.99...can't beat that, plus it has a nice rubber backing on it that keeps in it place on our porch.

I cut a heart out of vinyl and centered it on the rug. 

You could easily use paper, the vinyl didn't even stick to the rug.

Using a sponge brush and paint work from the outside in, as long as you aren't pushing brush strokes outward the stencil will work great.

It was difficult to get a solid coat with this rug but it looks like it's supposed to be that way anyway. 

I let it dry over night and then put it out on our porch. I love it! 

A happy little mat for our front porch :)

Happy Monday!

craft room progress

We moved into our new house February 15th and I am slowly making progress on decorations. My sister in law had a great idea to cover a bulletin board in fabric and ever since she made hers I have wanted to make one. Well I finally got around to it and I love it! I still need to add more fun things to it but so far, I love it!

I started with a plain bulletin board (terrible pictures!)

I wrapped fabric around it and stapled it to the back. My sister in law used spray adhesive which I think works equally as well.

And here it is hung up with a few things on it. It now lives above my sewing desk and adds a little happy to the room. I am determined to get some little flowers for the bucket! I downloaded this free printable and colored it in. I've added a little garland to the top since taking this picture and that really added to the "cuteness".

I want mine to be more of a piece of art than functional.
What do you have on your bulletin board?

Valentine heart oven mitt pattern

This heart oven mitt is so cute! The little half hearts are perfect to slip your hands in and grab anything hot. This would make an adorable Valentine's gift with a bag of chocolate chips or any baking supply.

Materials needed:

-2 fat quarters (or scraps, the heart isn't too large)

-heart pattern (found here)

-batting, Insul-Bright is best and can be found at any sewing store

-trim (if desired, pom pom trim is adorable on these!)

-sewing supplies

Steps:

1. Cut:

    2 large hearts on the fold of fabric

    1 large heart on the fold of batting (I used Insul-Bright because it's heat resistant) 

    2 small heart halves

    3 strips of fabric or bias tape pieces about 10 inches long

2. Attach bias tape & trim to straight edge of the heart halves

3. If using a strip of fabric make a loop for hanging by folding fabric in half twice and stitching along edge length wise

4. Make a sandwich in this order:

    batting

    front large heart face up (green heart in picture)

    half hearts placed like they are shown in the finished mitt face up

    loop for hanging (fold in half and pin near top of heart)

    back large heart face down

5. Sew around edge and leave a gap open for turning

6. Turn right side out through gap

7. Hand stitch closed

Happy Valentine's Day!!

scrappy stocking ornament tutorial with pattern

I saw a cute little scrappy ornament on Pinterest that was made of out fabric so I took the same concept and turned it into a paper ornament. You can cut all the pieces out by hand pretty quick and whip a bunch of these out in no time.

All you need is: 

cute paper

glue/scissors

stocking pattern click here

sewing machine (optional)

For the stocking shape base you'll want to use a thick cardstock, it will only be seen on the back but will make your ornament more stiff and last longer.

The scrappy pieces can be cut from any type of paper, patterned paper weight is the best.

Cut out the pattern and cut all your pieces out. 

Then using a distressing ink and sponge, distress your edges. This isn't required but does give the stocking a more finished look.

Glue each piece to one stocking base starting with the top piece so it all lines up well.

Here's what it will look like once it's all glued together.

This step is optional but as you can see in the stocking on the right I sewed along all the lines with my sewing machine.

Take the extra stocking base you cut and glue a piece of ribbon or twine down. I recommend a tacky glue that will hold really well. Then glue the scrappy piece on top of that.

Here's what it will look like all glued together. 

You can stop here or sew around the edge like I did in the image below.

Here they are all finished and cute! Left stocking is just glued together and right stocking is sewn together. The sewing around the edge helps keep the ribbon in place but the tacky glue also keeps it in there pretty good.

Please share a link in the comments if you make some, I'd love to see them! Or post them on Instagram and tag me @dresdencarrie.

re-useable snack bags

I saw something similar to these on a blog a few days ago and knew I could make them. 

These re-usable snack bags are great for dry snacks but also work for food like grapes. The fabric for these is super cheap. I bought 1/3 yard at Joann and it cost $.60. Pretty cheap huh?
One thing I love about these is that they don't use velcro, they are easy to wipe clean 

and super easy to make. Here's a little tutorial so you can make them on your own.

Items needed:

1/3 yard utility fabric (see picture below)

sewing necessities (machine, thread, etc.)

This is utility fabric, it's the same thing all the re-usable grocery bags are made out of. It's about $2.99 per yard, the only bummer with this is that stores tend to not have many options with prints/patterns.

Cut strips of fabric 12"x6", your fabric should already be 12" wide if you bought 1/3 yard.

 Zigzag stitch or serge the bottom side

 This picture is a little confusing, I folded the top half down 5 inches and turned it over so the pattern faced up on the front side. 

You can play around with it depending on which direction your pattern faces.

 Fold the other part over the front so they over lap an inch or 2 and pin closed.

 Zigzag stitch or serge down both sides

And you're done!

Very easy right? I went back and double stitched the sides just to re-enforce the stitching. If you serged it there is no need to double stitch.

If you aren't familiar with the baggies that fold over themselves like these, here are 2 pictures of what they look like folded open.

Fill it up and fold it closed again!

Enjoy!

necklace/earring frame

I've been wanting a earring frame for quite awhile now, but most of the ones I'd seen wouldn't hold stud earrings. Then I thought, why not use a window screen for the main piece? That would accommodate any type of earring. So I looked and looked for a screen but couldn't find one for less than $20, not terrible, but definitely not worth it to me. I was driving down a street one day and noticed a store called ReStore-Habitat for Humanity. Basically they get donations of home supplies, such as windows, doors and cabinets and resell them to make money for Habitat for Humanity. I highly recommend this place for any home decor projects.

My cousin was in town and wanted to make a frame also so we went to ReStore. The screen ended up being $1...that's right...ONE DOLLAR! How could you pass that up?!

Then we went to Hobby Lobby to find frames, preferably ones without glass so we wouldn't have to get rid of the glass.

So here's what you need for this project:

window screen

frame

hot glue

paint

knobs

I ended up spending about $7.50 total for this project.

First find the frame you want and paint it

next cut a piece of screen material that will fit in the frame, mine was an 8x10 frame so that's the size I cut my screen. Then hot glue it in. We were going to staple it in but the hot glue is plenty strong to hold earrings up and was easier.

hot glue some knobs on, my cousin painted hers mustard yellow and they were adorable

the hot glue has proved to be plenty strong as well for the knobs

add some earrings & necklaces and hang it up

Have a great week!

Felt Heart Garland Tutorial

I've been seeing so many Valentine's Day projects on Pinterest and I finally sat down and made myself a little garland. It turned out way better than I imagined. I love it! Here's a tutorial on how I made it.

Cut out 2 pieces for each heart

layer two together and stitch them together starting from the bottom

stitch around and leave a small opening, put a little stuffing in it and stitch it closed

your hearts should look like this when finished

string bakers twine or any thick thread through your needle

from the back, bring the twine through

and then back through toward the back (this will make the hearts face forward when hung)

leave extra twine on each end to hang the garland

and you're done, just hang it up and admire it :)

aren't the hearts so cute?!

leave a link in the comments if you make one so I can see yours!

love bird wall art

I made this bird wall art a while ago for a tutorial on Tatertots & Jello, but I don't think I ever showed it on my blog. So here is a little tutorial on how to make a Love Bird Wall Hanging using the Silhouette and a sewing machine.

I made this out of some scraps of fabric and an old frame I had laying around (actually a wedding gift that I wasn’t too fond of :) )! The inspiration for this piece came from a pillow found here and a card found here.

First I took this frame and painted it a nice white color so 

it would stand out against the fabric I chose.

Next I cut out all these little birds using the Silhouette with the 

fabric Interfacing on my fabric.

Then I arranged the birds on my piece of fabric, which actually didn’t 

take too long after I got out my giant ruler.

You want to know my favorite thing about the fabric interfacing from Silhouette? It is double sided, so once I had the birds in place I simply ironed them on and they stayed in place the whole time I was sewing them on. You could of course use the no-sew interfacing, but I prefer the sewable because I love the stitched look.

I chose a tiny zig-zag stitch in pink to give them a little more character. After sewing it you could either wash the entire piece or do what I did…use my fingernails to fray the edges.
Once they were sewn on I put it in the frame and there ya go!

Have a fabulous day!

Don't forget the GIVEAWAY ends TONIGHT! 

Winner announced tomorrow!