Not counting the tools, the supplies for this project cost me less than $5. Score.

SUPPLIES:

old wire clothes hanger or wire long enough to make a large circle

fleece remnants in multiple colors–I used 5 different colors using 1/4 yd. each of 4 of the colors and 1/2 yd. of the light blue (my main color)

Sizzix Big Kick (or other die cutting machine)

Circles #2 die

Crop a dile

You’ll want to cut your fleece into pieces to fit on your die (approximately 5″ x 5″). I found that having two layers of fabric go through at a time worked the best.

Turn on Pandora and start cutting your circles.  Lots and lots of circles.

I put them all on a tray and mixed up the colors. I wanted them to be as random as possible. You’ll have five different colors and four different sizes.

I had an old wire clothes hanger that I wanted to use for this project. I just twisted it apart and bent it into a circle. You can use any type of wire form for this project. As long as you can string on the circles, it should work just fine.

The crop-a-dile cuts through that fleece like butter. Make small holes in the middle of the circles. As soon as I added the holes, I’d string them onto the wire. The crop-a-dile could cut through 2-3 layers at a time.

Don’t pay too much attention to colors or sizes. Random works out well. I had my daughter help me with this part because I kept wanting to pick out specific colors. She would hand me a few circles at a time, I’d punch them, and then she’d string them up. It was a fun little activity to do while watching a movie together. Now we have a nice little wreath to show for it!

My poor door was looking sad without a nice, fall wreath. I decided to make one. It was really quick and affordable so let me tell you how I did it!

SUPPLIES:
straw wreath
assorted colors of burlap (main color 1/2 yd, other colors 1/4 yd)
silk leaves
glue
pins

Keep the plastic on the straw wreath. It will be completely covered and it makes it much less messy.

Cut the main color of burlap into 3 inch wide strips following the length of the fabric. Begin pinning the strips on the wreath. I don’t think I need to tell you to pin on the back of the wreath. But, maybe I do. So, do that.

To make the little burlap rosettes, cut strips about 1/2″ wide along the length of the fabric. Dab a bit of glue along one edge and start rolling it up.

Rocket science. Or not. The burlap unravels a bit and adds to the look. I like it a lot.

I had a garland of fall leaves and I cut a few off. I used a pin to place them on the wreath and arranged three rosettes to cover the pin. I also used pins to place the burlap rosettes.

I tied a 3 inch wide piece of burlap around the top and then pinned in a longer strip to hang it on the hook.

That was it!

Looking back, I wish I had used the darker burlap for the wreath base. The way I have it right now, it blends into the door too much. The good news is that it just all pinned on so I can change it out however I want. Maybe next year…

The fabric I used for this potholder is from my stash of practice fabric. I think this used to be someone’s tablecloth.

Because I used the iron board fabric, the batting didn’t need to be as thick. I like having them be a bit on the thin side so the iron board fabric is a great way to accomplish that.

I did some concentric squares quilting and I really love the way it looks.

I’m thinking of making some more of these in some better fabric to have as ready-to-go gifts.

I made an ironing board cover as part of my online HomeEc class.  I used an Alexander Henry fabric with a sewing motif.  It makes me happy!

I thought this project would be more difficult, but it was really quick and easy.  The hardest part was measuring and cutting the fabric–just because of the size of the ironing board.

This is ironing board fabric.  You can find it at most fabric stores.  It is heat resistant and perfect for ironing boards, pot holders, oven mitts, or anything else you’d like to use in extreme heat.  I lined the cover with the fabric and attached elastic around the edges to hold it onto the board.

The elastic does a good job of holding the cover on but it doesn’t hurt to add some board clips.  They also sell these at fabric stores.  The clips help to smooth out the cover and keep it taut.

This cute cover almost makes me want to iron.

Working with these Canvas Corp tags was a lot of fun.  I like the fact that they are a blank canvas, just waiting for you to create.

The design and products that you use are all up to your imagination.

This was a fun and easy project.

My supplies included fabric, mod podge, black paper, & my cricut machine.
I measured the fabric to fit on the canvas tag and then glued it down using mod podge.

While this was drying I cut out the letters in the word family using my cricut machine.

Next I put each letter on top of the fabric/canvas tag.

I covered the letter with Mod Podge and left to dry overnight.

I tied several pieces of black fabric together and clipped on the canvas tags using the tiny clothes pins from Canvas Corp.

I love the way the project turned out.

I would recommend these canvas tags to anyone that enjoys crafting.

These products were provided to me (Christy) to try out.  I was not paid for this review.

This is another Home Ec class project.  I didn’t really have much use for a banner so I asked around to see if anyone wanted one.  My friend Wendy, the actress in the craft challenge commercial, is the Young Women’s President at our church and she said I could make one for them.  Done.

It was really difficult to take pictures of this long banner.  But, I hope you can catch the vision.

I used brightly colored fabric as the base and the backs of the circles are felt.  I cut the felt flowers using my Sizzix Big Kick and the Flower Layers #3 die and the Circles die.  I attached the flowers to the banner using Fabri-tac.  I used a wide white ribbon along the length of the banner.

Each value is represented by a color.  The theme shares what these young women stand for and learn each week:

We are daughters of our Heavenly Father, who loves us, and we love Him.
We will “stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things,
and in all places” (Mosiah 18:9) as we strive to live
the Young Women values, which are:
Faith
Divine Nature
Individual Worth
Knowledge
Choice and Accountability
Good Works
Integrity and
Virtue.
We believe as we come to accept and act upon these values,
we will be prepared to strengthen home and family, make and keep sacred covenants,
receive the ordinances of the temple, and enjoy the blessings of exaltation.

I hope they are able to get a lot of use out of it each week and enjoy having it in their room.

I learned some new techniques on this project including how to iron fabric into circles.  I’ll have to show you all that in a video or more in depth post in the next few weeks.

We’ve been restructuring our downstairs area and those tables were getting a lot more use and were getting harder and harder to clean off.  I decided to come up with a solution.  I’ve been thinking about it for some time and the other day at Joann’s I saw a remnant of vinyl.  This isn’t the sticky vinyl I’ve been using in my Cricut.  This is car upholstery vinyl.

I cut a strip big enough to fit the top and started to cover the top of the table with Mod Podge.

The Mod Podge probably wasn’t the best choice of glue.  But, it is what I had handy.  For the second table I used yellow carpenter’s glue and it seemed to have a better hold.  In the end, neither one of them held it on perfectly but I came up with a good solution.

Why didn’t you just staple it on, ChristyNelson.net? Good question.  That was what I was planning originally.  Then, I decided that it was too loud to do at night and I didn’t really want the vinyl to wrap all the way around the edges of the tabletop.

This is Duck Tape brand duct tape and you can find it in all sorts of designs.  This one I found at my local Super Target.  I thought this would be just the thing to put around the edge of my end tables.  It will cover up the rough edges of my vinyl (I just trimmed it with scissors–that was the easiest way I found) and it would also hold down the edges where it was kind of easy to peel up the vinyl.

I placed the tape along the edge and did one side at a time.  I folded over the corners with the first bit of tape to reach it and then started the next side by overlapping it.

I call the covering my “permanent placemat” and will be easily cleaned with just a wet cloth.  One down…one more to go!

Guess what?  I’ve got some of my projects in the Dinotalk Scrapbook Invitational contest.  Could you take a moment and vote for me or one of the other participants?  We are competing to win $100 gift card for us and $100 gift card for the charity of our choice.  Many of you know that my oldest son has autism.  If I win, I would donate my prize to the Autism Family Network.  It is an organization that provides support and help to families and friends of people with autism.  I can’t tell you what an amazing resource that has been for me and my family.

This is one of the projects I made for them a few months ago. It is still one of my favorite projects. Dinotalk products are really fun because you get to record a message. On this project I used some rub-on letters to write out the word “Play”. The picture I chose gives that word a double meaning because it shows my kids playing and also gives you a hint that if you press the frame, you’ll hear a message. You’ll just happen to hear my kids say, “We love you, Grandma & Grandpa!”.

You can vote for this project by emailing CN-3 to contest@dinotalk.com.

This was another frame I did for them.  I doodled on it a la Zentangle.  I used a Sharpie poster paint marker directly on the frame and it looks great!  I pretty much want to zentangle everything now.  I’ll be doing another post about that later.

This next project will also be part of another blog post, but wanted to show you since it was also a entry in the invitational.

This is a recordable paper greeting card and when you open it up it says, “It’s so fluffy I’m gonna die!  It’s so FLUFFY!“.  It’s a shout out to Agnes from Despicable Me and if you haven’t taken your whole family to see that movie yet…DO IT!  So cute.  My kids loved that movie and my daughter listened to this card at least 30 times before I packed it up for the trip to Chicago.

I hope you’ll take the time to vote for your favorite for this contest.  It’s for a good cause and it will give you a good idea of all the great things that you can do with the Dinotalk Naked collection.

I received all of the Dinotalk products featured here for free but was not compensated in any way for this post or my opinions on this product.  Those are all mine.

Most of the jewelry was made incorporating felt beads and glass beads.  The colors were amazing and the designs had a modern whimsy that drew me in.

What really got me excited, though, were the displays.  These were really clever and could easily be replicated.  It would make for a gorgeous vendor booth display.

The day I saw the post on Fresh Nest about these bean bags, I knew I needed to make them.  You see, my kids sit on a kitchen chair and an old office chair if they want to watch their little TV or play video games.  Did I mention this is right in the middle of our family room?  I’ve been looking for a bean bag solution but they are so expensive!  I wanted to make one myself but didn’t have the time or energy to figure out how to do it without a pattern.  This pattern was perfect!

My daughter loves it.  She calls it her “favorite pillow, EVER!”.  Before I had the outside finished she would sleep and play with the inside.  Speaking of the outside, I used the leftover fabric from my table skirt.  I didn’t have quite enough to make two using the same fabric so I had to go and do some shopping for the 2nd one (that hasn’t been made, yet!).  On the inside I used some cotton twill fabric that I had in my stash that was gifted to me.

The stuffing was the most difficult part.  I used a combination of polyfill and cut up foam.  The foam was purchased already in bits from Hancock Fabrics for $.25/bag.  It was really hard to work with but since it was practically free…I went with it.

This project also includes my most successful zipper in all of history.  I pulled the tab out here just so you could see that there actually was a zipper.  It is pretty much hidden and works like a dream.  I don’t know why I’ve had so many problems with zippers in the past.  This one was a breeze.

I have all the supplies on hand to make the next one.  Looks like I better get on that!