Christmas in the Apartment

I've shown you pictures from my daughter's apartment before but I thought you might like to see it currently with some Christmas decorations around.   It's really coming to life as she makes it her home.

This wreath she made from a magazine hangs on her front door.  She just rolled up the pages and glued them on a piece of cardboard.  I like how she really made it full.  Both my older girls have made a few of these and they make a nice addition to a wall for basically only the cost of your time.

A little print gifted to her from her sister.  The trend of putting things up on the wall with washi tape is cute. (And, easy!)

Cute little wall hanging she made last week with scraps. 

 These are in between the windows.

A free print from online...sorry, I'm not sure where it's from.

This is a greeting card she bought and put in a suspended frame.  Greeting cards make for really affordable art!

A shot of the wall with the shelves she made. Note another magazine wreath in the upper right one.

Her kitchen is nice sized.  She could still use some stools, but none in her price range have come her way.  I bought some she could use, but they need hours of refinishing.

Her vintage cart has now become a "tea cart".  I love this.  All her pretty tea tins are out to be enjoyed instead of up in a cupboard.  She's a coupon clipper so she can buy pretty tea.  She made the two mugs on the left in her college pottery class.  I was impressed.

Tea tins and succulents...nice window in the kitchen too.

I posted about her embroidery hoop "hello" here. Check out the link if you want a closer look.  That was inspired by Mollie Makes.

She bought the trays at a flea market although, I have some of the same kind in the basement.  We used trays just like these when I was growing up for birthday parties.  People always came to visit on birthdays back then.  These hung easily with command strips and now serve as memo boards with magnets.

This little Santa and Reindeer garland is cute!  You can't see it very well in my picture, but Rudolph has red glitter on his nose.  The how-to to make your own is here.

This is another embroidery hoop project.  All pretty and sparkly! For more details on it, you can look here.

I didn't get a good picture of her bed but she currently is using the bed that first was my parents...gifted to my husband, Jim and I over 25 years ago for a wedding gift...we gave it to my brother and wife...who gave it to another niece....and now my daughter has it, refinished it, and is using it.  The dressers are currently being stored, but the set will be reunited eventually.  Kind of neat how that came about.

Thanksgiving: Gratitude: Today: Everyday

Upcycle: Inspiration in Your Mail

Shortly before my daughter's birthday, an advertising packet of cards came in the mail from Piperlime.  I was pretty taken with their images and just couldn't throw the cards in the recycle bin.  The card stock they were printed on was really nice too.

I decided that cut up and "altered", they would make a fun birthday card for my second daughter.

She is certainly fond of clothes and accessories so it seemed a fit for her.

The card is like a flip book.

I thought you might enjoy seeing a few of the pages.

  The cards I began with were two sided, but I didn't worry too much about what showed up on the back of the pages.

I used free form cutting to cut out all of the letters for my message pages.  Nothing Fancy, I'll call my hand cut font.

Free form cutting can work even for a flower. :)

The little girls thought this card really looked perfect for their big sister along with the "be happy" card.

I used rivets to finish off the holes and tied it all up with a black cord.  You could just punch a hole though if you didn't have rivets.

If you are interested in how I went about cutting out the pages, continue on:

First, I made myself a frame the size I wanted using a ruler and exacto knife.  The finished size of the page is the inside measurement of the frame.

Now, I could use the frame for seeing what part of the card I wanted to crop out.  This really works well for you to visualize the proposed page.

Also, with this method you can easily see how the image may look set at an angle.

Once you like your placement, trace the inside of the frame with a pencil.

I used a ruler and my rotary cutter to cut along the pencil lines.  You could of course just use a scissors.

(blurry cell phone picture here...)

If you are a maker of sorts, I would highly recommend a rotary cutter, cutting mat, and a clear ruler.  They sell them for quilters, but I use mine equally as much for cutting paper as I do fabric. And, those tools make projects much easier!

I made this out of a catalog this morning.  Only folding, a scissors, and a glue stick needed.

With all the Christmas catalogs and advertising that will be coming out now, you may want to keep your mail!

Saturday Digest

►Have you heard of Newspaper Blackout Poetry? Kim from Art in Red Wagons does a lot of found poetry, so this is quite similar.  I stumbled across it through Instagram and thought that I had to try it.  The above image is my attempt while I was avoiding cleaning up in the house this morning. I was intrigued by the message I found in the paper.

►It's been a sorting/organizing week here.  Out with the old and in with the older.  That seems to be the motto around here. :)  I have ordered some new fibers though and am pretty excited about them. (The links are to Instagram pictures.)

►The harvest is complete for my husband and the little girls and I got to ride along in the truck and combine for the last bit.  It's really a wonderful time of year!

►Are you a lover of fabric?  Cotton and Steel is a new to me line and pretty new to the world too.  The videos at the bottom of the link are really fun to watch if you like to know about design and fabric. I'd recommend the Bespoke video.  I hope to think of a project so I can order a piece of their double gauze.  See what's happening?  After sorting and organizing....I'm thinking of the project BEFORE I order the supplies.  I hope this doesn't last, it's not as much fun, ha!

Enjoy your weekend!!

Just For Fun: Andy Warhol Inspired Print

I've always wanted to do an Andy Warhol inspired print and today something made me think of it. It's a little "busier" than most copy cat prints and it could use more tweaking, but that's okay. I took this on my son's 20th birthday and we were missing my son in law so I'd love to try it again with another picture when he's in it.  

I hope your week is off to a good start!

 

Snip and Sew and Good to Go.

 You may remember these dresses from this post of my Friday Finds.  They were to be transformed into the girls' Halloween costumes, and it worked!  :)

The Barbie costume was pretty simple.  I just needed to sew it in and remove the extra room built into the bodice.  The shoes were picked up at an estate sale a week ago and although she's only 9, she wears a women's size 7 or in this case 8N.  The purse is a vintage one that I had in my stash. She wanted a black purse to put her treats in.

A little Barbie "B" helped to confirm who she was dressed up as.  We picked up this secret from our school cheerleaders doing face painting at a camp...use water color pencil colors for face painting.  It worked beautifully!  We already had these on hand for arts and crafting. Just dip in water often and draw.  It was bright, vivid, and easy to wipe away a mistake.

The blue dress required a lot more snipping and sewing to become Elsa, but worked out very well.  I cut off the entire upper bodice and then took the lining to make a new bodice.  I found snowflake stickers at our local Dollar General to help convey who she was dressed up as.

I used the sleeves to make her sparkly train. (I forgot to take pictures of this while it was still light outside.)  She wore vintage shoes I had for dress up but opted to trick or treat in tennis shoes. Some stitching came undone while at school with her costume, but a safety pin held it back in place.  I love sewing costumes, no fancy sewing or finishing of seams, you're just good to go.

They had a lot of fun in the costumes and now they'll go in the dress up tub.  Barbie wore her high heels throughout all of trick or treating!

And, because it was so cold that night, I dug out two of my vintage coats for them to wear while we were out and about.  A little big, but warm!