My Fabric Rosettes

I have been loving the rolled/twisted fabric rosette tutorials and singed posie tutorials around the web.  I have been making them for everything!  They fit the vintage taste I am developing.


Here are some tutorials to get you started:
Posie Style:

• Make It and Love It
• Grace Laced
• I attached my layers and decorated the centers by stitching "X's" on my posies.  I wanted to avoid any small parts for use on baby items.

Rosette Style:
 

• My Sparkle
• Studio 5
• House of 3
• I used parts of different tutorials.  I folded the strip lengthwise and tied a knot for the centers, hot glued to a felt circle (or a spare piece of the same fabric) and maintained the fold while rolling and folding around the center.  I hot glued as I went, attaching it to the base.   Try these with satin type fabric for a fancy sheen and good fray, or jersey knit for a softer, more casual look.

Satin

Jersey Knit

ThickMuslin

What to do with them?  This batch is for baby headbands.  I made mine with velcro dots to make them easily interchangeable. Plus, no hard clips to scrape or poke little baby heads.  I have also seen them for bib necklaces (like on the Studio 5 link,) as pins to decorate scarves, purses, etc., made out of muslin and glued around lampshades, or to decorate pillowcases,the sky is the limit.  My first batch went to personalize my diaper bag, to help me discern it from my Sister's, since we both fell in love with the same one.

If you make some, I would love to hear how you used them.

Labeled Laundry Bins

I am trying to get our laundry system back in order before the new baby comes. It helps a lot having a kindergartner who is learning to read! This is my most recent project with my Silhouette machine. I love it.  Each bin is the perfect size for a load, so when one is full, we just dump it in. What laundry tricks do you use?

Thrift Store Cherubs

 I have been working on my Valentines decor for the Hutch.  I thought some kind of little cherub or cupid statue would be great, but didn't want to fork out the money to buy one.  I don't go to the thrift store often, but found myself there one random day. And I spent 50 cents a piece on these beauties.

 Why yes, that is some gold leaf type finish on there.

Out came the spray paint. Love that stuff!

The one on the left has been painted and glazed. The right one has only been painted.

 

One of the best days of my craft shopping career? The day I came across this can of mistinted glaze at the building supply store.

See the tannish gold color? that is what it was. I talked the guy at the paint counter into re-tinting it for me.  A nice shade of gray. It has been the perfect color for all my antiquing. And nothing beats a whole can for $2.50!

In the end, these two came out perfectly, and will make their grand appearance on an upcoming post of my Valentine hutch decor. 

Cutting Shelf Liner (Contact Paper) on Silhouette

If you can get by with adhesive shelf liner instead of vinyl-it is much less expensive! The roll I bought is 18 inches (twice as wide) by 24 feet (more than twice as long). For the same price or less than the average vinyl roll.

Some tips I am learning along the way:

• The less intricate, the better. It is too thin to do fine work on.
• Set the blade at 1
• If the paper is curling, use a mat or bend it to help it straighten, otherwise it will fold under the blade as the machine cuts.
• Transfer tape is too strong for the adhesive on my paper. I get suitable, but not perfect results using press n' seal food wrap
• More tips are coming as I learn them...

Christmas Decor 2010

I had my nativity scene in mind when I picked the paint color for the Hutch, so I was quite excited to set up my Christmas Hutch!

And we finally got all the knobs on.

Plus, my handy man came through with an awesome way to display our stockings! (And no, the number of stockings is not a hint, they just display better in even numbers!)

 Our little nativity toys end up exploring the whole house. We are lucky when they all make it back.

What could be more festive than an extended family of giant gingerbread people about to devastate a little gingerbread town?

That is what I thought! Merry Christmas!

Autumn & Halloween - Hutch Style

I have been having a lot of fun decorating my hutch with every season. It is great actually having a place to decorate! Here are the layouts from Halloween & Autumn of 2010, plus the other decor we had in the living room.

Halloween

Autumn

There will be vinyl everywhere!

Santa surprised me with a Silhouette machine for Christmas. I love that guy! My Hubby helped me play with it the other day. His design software skills come in quite handy.  We printed off a little image for my beat up phone...

and then we worked out a design of our own for the laptop.  We had seen some pretty cool decals for laptops, this was the style I wanted.  We found a swatch of fabric online that had the basic pattern, and my dear converted it and dressed it up to fit just right. I love it.

 

I am sure there will be many posts to follow! 

*Note to self: Check out this site for ordering vinyl 

*Note to self: When cutting on contact paper, use thickness 1, blue blade, and speed around 5.  Cut paper to 9 inches wide to fit under feed rollers.