Header image

DIY Wipe Down Kids Table

Posted by christy in For Kids | Home Decor | House | Projects | Tutorials | Upcycling - (6 Comments)

I bought a few wood end tables at a garage sale a couple of years ago.  The kids use them for coloring, eating, playing, kicking, etc…  They’ve been well loved.  I think I only paid $5 for both of them and they were already a little worn so I never really worried about them.

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!

, , , , , , , , , ,

Vinyl Covered Mousepad

Posted by christy in Craft | Cricut | Projects | Tutorials | Upcycling - (0 Comments)

I predominately work on a laptop.  It is all mine.  I’m really used to using my touchpad and haven’t used a mouse for a couple of years.  This weekend, I’m having some strangers use my computer to help me do some usability testing for a client of Toolulu.  Having a mouse for them to use was kind of important.  I found a freebie mousepad I received from CHA and decided to personalize it!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

toolulu.com mousepad

THE PROCESS:

1. Measure your mousepad.  Mine was 7.5″ X 7.75″.  Using my Gypsy and my Cricut, I cut out a frame background shape with those approximate dimensions.  This particular shape is from the Songbird cartridge.  I cut it out using the Provo Craft black vinyl.

2.  Because this was one solid piece of vinyl, I didn’t bother using transfer tape.  I just applied it to the top of the mousepad like a giant sticker.

3.  I cut out “toolulu.com” using green vinyl.  I set the letters to cut at 1.5″ tall.  I used the Simply Sweet cartridge.  HINT: there isn’t a “.” on this cartridge.  I set it to cut out “toolulu!com” and then just didn’t use the top of the exclamation point.

4.  You’ll definitely want to use the transfer tape if you’re doing a design like this one.  I show how to cut and apply vinyl in a video post I did a few months ago.

5.  Use your mousepad!  I tested out the mouse I was using on vinyl before I applied it to my pad to make sure it would work.  Vinyl is a nice, smooth surface and works well.  If you’re planning on adding a lot of different layers, you’ll want to keep those along the outside of the mousepad so it doesn’t interfere with the main path of the mouse.

This is a really fun project because it is quick and non-permanent.  If I decide I don’t want a Toolulu mousepad anymore, I can just peel of the vinyl and add on something else!

, , , , , , , , , , ,

Flower Headband

Posted by christy in Projects | Sewing | Tutorials | Upcycling - (0 Comments)

pink floral headband

This floral headband was one of the quickest and easiest projects I’ve completed.  I was inspired by some trash.  My friend, Lisa, came over and had me serge the edges of some flannel blankets for her new baby.  All the flannel edges that are basically trash,  looked so amazing in a pile and I knew I had to make them into little rosettes.

I made three rosettes.  The larger one had a bit more fuzz along the edge.  The smaller two…not so much.  All you do is roll up the strip of flannel until it is the size you want.  I added a bit of tacky glue along the edges to keep it rolled up here and there but that is it.

I had a spare headband that needed embellishing so I got out my trusty glue gun and added the rosettes off to the side.

I made this the night before I went to the Big Omaha conference.   I went with my Toolulu business partner, Deb, and we had a blast!  Here we are in the photo booth with our friend, Nia.

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Junk Mail Bead Tutorial

Posted by christy in For Kids | Jewelry | Paper | Projects | Tutorials | Upcycling - (0 Comments)

A couple of years ago today, we had a play date at my house and I let the kids go wild making beads out of my junk mail.

You can use different materials to make these beads as fancy as you’d like.  We used some glossy paper that I had on hand.  Think about using scrapbook paper rolled up and finished with a clear lacquer and then mixed with glass beads for a funky bracelet or bookmark.  Maybe I should try that…

Supplies:

junk mail (magazine paper, brochures, etc…)
toothpicks (we couldn’t find ours so we used matches)
Elmer’s glue
scissors
string

1. Pick out your paper. We used  paper cut from one of those playground brochures.

2. Get your stick.

3. Cut your paper into triangles. The longer the triangles, the thicker the bead. Experiment with the size you like best. Then, starting with the largest side, start rolling them (right side down) onto the stick.

4. When you get to the end, put some glue along the tip and then keep rolling. You want to have a little excess so you can roll it across the rest of the bead. Your fingers will get a little messy—that’s what crafting is all about! Using Mod Podge would be a better option if you’re making beads for more than just play.

5.  Here are some of our finished beads. You can then string them onto string, yarn, or beading cord. We just used some old crochet thread I had lying around (turquoise/silver…oooh la la). The girls loved them!

, , , , , , , ,

How to Make a Tooth Fairy Pillow

Posted by christy in Projects | Sewing | Tutorials | Upcycling - (0 Comments)

My son has a lot of loose teeth and has already shed most of his front ones (top and bottom).  He never really quite got the concept of the tooth fairy (he has autism) when he started losing his teeth at age 4.  In fact, he lost most of his teeth at school and would throw them in the trash.   When we were at the dentist yesterday, I asked them if they would just nudge the loosest one out.  They presented it to me in a little treasure chest.  ”My” first tooth!

My son now understands the tooth fairy and was looking forward to placing his tooth under his pillow.  I decided to make him his own tooth fairy pillow to put on the door of his room.  This took me about 10 minutes to make and I had everything in my stash.

toothfairy pillow

I used an old pair of his pajama pants.  I trimmed off the cuff using my pinking shears.  I saved that piece for the handle.  Then I cut a chunk off of the leg.

tooth fairy pillow pocket

I made the pocket next.  I cut a tooth shape out of felt.  I did a bit of hand sewing on the tooth around the three sides.  It is the perfect size for a tooth, a note, and a chip (my daughter wanted to make sure the tooth fairy had a snack!).

Once the felt tooth pocket was attached to one layer of the cut off pant leg, I pinned the handle (the cuff) inside the top of the leg.  I stitched across the top leaving about 1/2″ seam allowance.  I filled up the pillow with scrap fabric.  I did this only because I have no idea where I put my fiber fill.  That’s what I get for cleaning up my craft room and putting things away.

I stitched the bottom closed and showed it to my son.  I think he likes it!

toothfairy excitement

Curious as to what the tooth fairy brought?  She was fairly cheap as she didn’t have that much cash in her pouch.  He got 6 dimes.  His sister got 4 nickels as a “tip” for including the chip.  What can I say?  The tooth fairy loves chips.  Lucky for me, the tooth fairy left me the tooth under my pillow so I could keep it.  She’s so thoughtful.

What does the tooth fairy do at your house?  Do you have a special pillow?

, , , ,

Learn. How to Make Napkin Rings Out of Paper Towel Rolls

Posted by christy in Stamping and Paper Crafts | Tutorials | Upcycling - (3 Comments)

The guest blogger today is Nova, Glass Half Full Gal. We follow each other on twitter and have all sorts of crafty conversations! Nova’s so crafty she did about 8 different crafts before settling on this one. Enjoy!

napkin rings

I love to reuse and recycle. Though, where we live in the country a convenient recycling program. So, I’m bigger on reusing items. I think everyone can come up with a use for empty paper towel holders. The most common is probably binoculars. My son has created them on his own quite often.

Napkin ring holders are a great craft that kids can participate in making. Hosting a family dinner or event? Crafts like this keep the kids busy while you tend to the menu and are decorative table art too!

For my summer napkin ring holders, I’m using a ladybug to decorate the top of the ring. If you have a die cut for this pattern, it will make things a snap.

IMG_0300 Supplies:

Empty paper tower roll (this will make 7 napkin rings at 1 1/2 inches in length)

White acrylic paint

Cardstock: Black, Red

Ladybug die cut (or cut out manually)

Hole-punch (if you don’t have a die cut)

Black or silver pipe cleaner (chenille sticks)

Googlie eyes (optional)

Cut your empty paper towel holder at 11/2 inch increments to make 7 rings.

Paint your napkin ring holders with acrylic paint. I prefer white, however, the color may vary depending on how you plan to decorate your ring.

Cut one black circle and one red circle for each ladybug body. I used my Sizzix Originals Circles #2 die to cut a circle at about 1 3/4 inches in diameter. I then used the smallest circle on the die to cut out two black circles for heads (about 3/4″ in diameter).

IMG_0298Cut out a triangular section for the wings on one side of each of the red circles. Punch two holes on each wing for each red ladybug body. I used a larger hole-punch for the back and a smaller for the front. These make the black spots on the ladybug. Adhere the red body circle to the solid black body circle. I used ‘sticky do’ foam dimensional adhesives to give the ladybug some dimension. You can paint eyes on your ladybug head or leave black. I used googlie eyes on mine for a fun affect for the kids.

Cut a piece of chenille stick about an inch long. I folded the ends to make the tips of the antennae and then folded the piece in half. Attach to the back of the ladybug head. Attach the head to the body. Now, simply use craft glue or an adhesive of your preference to attach the ladybug to the painted napkin ring.

Other ideas you can do are to adhere jewels, or paint an initial as a monogram. Decorate with patterned designs with glitter glue. Wrap ribbon around the ring to fancy it up at bit.

I did a few of these for demonstration. The options are endless!

Nova Ordner a/k/a Glass Half Full, formerly owned and ran a Litigation Record Procurement Company for 12 years. Currently, she is a Household Manager, mother of two children and wife to a farmer. Nova is also proud to be a Team Writer for Root & Sprout. She’s an optimist who sees life from the greener side. She’s a Glass Half Full Gal.

, , , , , ,

Learn. How to Make a Kid T-Shirt Dress from an Undershirt.

Posted by christy in Tutorials | Upcycling - (1 Comments)

Today’s guest blogger is Mandy.  Mandy has been a craft challenge participant for a while and we’ve gotten to know each other through twitter.  Her blog is rather new so I hope you’ll go and check it out!  She has a lot of great things on there.

Hey everyone…this is Mandy from Id Rather Be Crafting and I’m so excited to be filling in for Christy. This post will show you one of two things:

First, I suck at laundry.

Second, (and in the vein of a Craft Challenge) if you use just a bit of craftiness, even a nasty old shirt bound for the trash can be turned into a cute dress or cover up, without using any thread!

sara remade tshirt dress

before undershirtThis is the undershirt I started with….

I swear it was washed. Several times. But, as my husband is all man, it has gotten a “little” yellow around the pits. Despite that, it took only a few supplies and some elbow grease to give it a second life in my daughters wardrobe. Want to give it a try?

Take the nastiest shirt out of your husbands pile of dirty clothes drawer of freshly laundered undershirts and get to work. Our first step was dying the shirt. This isn’t really necessary, but it does make it look less like an undershirt. Grab a box of dye from the craft store and follow the directions. Easy.

Once it is dry, throw it on your child. You will want to kind of pinch the front and back together around her side to get an idea of how tight or loose you want the dress. Also take note of where her arm pit is to make the arm hole later. I marked mine off with pins, but if you have a particularly wriggly child, I would suggest using a marker, just outside of the line you plan to cut. Then cut that bad boy all the way from the bottom of the shirt to the shoulder. Don’t worry about cutting neatly, as most mistakes will be hidden as the t-shirt rolls and comes together.

tshirt cut and dye

Once you have your sides cut, take your scissors and make holes on the side you just cut, going from the bottom of the shirt, and stopping where you marked the arm pit. The holes should be about one inch apart from each other, and one inch in from the cut side. You will probably have to do the front then the back, but just try to make the holes line up. Then do the other side of the shirt! Once you’re done, lace up the holes using either a ribbon, shoe lace, or some other scraps in any fashion you choose. If you tighten and scrunch the lacing, it will make the dress shorter – kind of like ruching.

riley remade tshirt dress

For my oldest daughter, this is where the construction ended, but for my 4 year old, it was still too baggy. We ended up cutting the top of the shirt off (where the arm pit marks were) and making it a spaghetti top. I braided a few t-shirt scraps together and just poked a hole where they were placed, threaded the braid through, and made a knot on the back side to keep it in place.

making tshirt The fun for the kids is decorating. Gather a bunch of different sized circles (using tupperware, bottles, cups, lids, etc) and put different colors of fabric paint on plates. We stuck a cereal box in between the layers and then I handed the reins to them. They turned out perfect!

After it dries, you are good to go! Make it unique with a different neck line, or fringe the bottom, or a different painting. It takes a little time, but was a great way to show my girls how to turn trash to treasure.

, , , , , , , , ,

Learn. How to Weave a Chair Seat With Fabric.

Posted by christy in Tutorials | Upcycling - (5 Comments)

Meet Lisa, our guest blogger for today! I know Lisa from my local knitting group. She’s super funny and always has the best stories from her adventures in teaching Kindergarten. Enjoy this post from her!

My name is Lisa. I’m a teacher, knitter, quilter, and all around crafter. During the summer months, I tend to find myself neck deep in ongoing projects and I blog about them here.
A month or so ago I found a chair for sale. It was a beautiful wooden number with a rattan seat. The seat needed reworking (which I had never done) but the chair itself was sturdy and had such beautiful lines, I couldn’t pass it up.
I knew I had to repair the seat, but wasn’t sure how. After walking through my favorite fabric store ever, The Cosmic Cow, and drooling on a new fabric I was considering eloping with, the idea came to me. I’d incorporate the print into the seat.

woven chair

  • Here’s what you need:
  • 100 feet cotton clothesline cording (must be cotton)
  • 2 yards of fabric (pre-cut jelly rolls purchased from quilting stores will work if you’re not interested in taking the time to cut the strips)
  • matching cotton thread
  • sewing machine
  • ironing board & iron
  • chair

After cutting the fabric into 2 1/2 inch strips, iron them as if they were bias tape (folding the cut strip in half the long way and ironing), open the strip, fold each half in half again and iron. (you will have four equal sections after final ironing) This will hide the long side raw edges.
Next, you will wrap each ironed strip around the clothesline cord like a burrito. I found it easiest to position the cording in the center of the strip, folding the right half over first, followed by the left. Make sure to fold the beginning of each strip over to hide the short side raw edges and sew down the center of the wrapped cording using a straight stitch.
For my chair, I used the entire 100 foot strand of cording.

Below are pictures of the ‘naked’ chair and the different stages of weaving.

Here is the chair sans webbing. It received a good scrubbing then I stained the dowels in case any of them showed through after installing the new seat.

Prior to securing cording to the chair, I found the half-way point on the cording and marked it. I wanted to make sure I had enough for both sides of the chair.

I stapled the cording to the bottom of the dowel using a staple gun.


I wrapped the cording around the chair tightly. You can see the rope I used to mark the 1/2 way point. I decided that if I ran out of cording before finishing wrapping in one direction, I would space it out evenly. Fortunately, that didn’t happen.

I stapled the cording to the chair and cut. Using the same wrapping method, wrap the chair in the opposite direction but weave as you go. I made sure to weave the upper and lower part of the seat. Pull tightly as you go. I figured the fibers would loosen the more the chair was used.

This part is not for weak fingers. My fingers began to get sore trying to squeeze as many weaves as I could into the seat. I would up getting a knitting needle and using it to help me pull the cording. The end of the needle (not the point) was great for hooking the cord when the space got too small for my fingers.

When I couldn’t weave another row, I spaced the cording out evenly in both directions.

This is my favorite craft project of the summer. It was lots of fun to do. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via my blog and I’ll do my best to answer them. Have fun!

, , , , , , , , ,

Learn. How to Refashion a T-shirt.

Posted by christy in Projects | Sewing | Upcycling - (4 Comments)

The skirt pattern will have to wait until tomorrow.  We’re having a rainy day and I want to get some better photographs for the pattern.  Instead, I give you this t-shirt tutorial a day early!

t-shirt refashion

Here is the finished shirt on my duct tape dress form.  I really like the way it turned out and I can see myself making even more of these!  There are so many variations you can do and it was super quick and easy.IMG_2045

I started out with two t-shirts.  The green one was ripped and the white one was stained.

I cut up the green shirt so it would fit in my die cut machine.  I used the scallop circle die from Stampin’ UP.  You don’t need to have a die cut machine for this.  It was just super quick for me to run my t-shirt through there and get some uniform shapes.  You can cut out your own shapes using scissors.  I found this tutorial using cut up heart shapes.

IMG_2046

Here you can see my stained shirt and my stack of scallops.  Get some embroidery floss that matches your embellishments.  You can also use doubled up thread.

You’ll want to do a running stitch through the scallop shapes.  All that means is you want to run your thread and needle up and down across the shape two or three times.  This will gather up the shape and then you’ll want to tack it down on the t-shirt.

Once you have one down, pull the needle and thread through the t-shirt to the front.  You’ll want to make sure you pull it up underneath your shape so it is hidden.  Repeat for your next shape. I used six scallop circles for this shirt.  IMG_2047

I have several ripped t-shirts that I have big plans for.  Next time I’m going to use smaller shapes and different colors for a new effect.

I’d love to see your t-shirt creations!  Share them at my flickr group.

, , , , ,

Wardrobe Makeover

Posted by christy in Upcycling - (0 Comments)

yanni voices

Last night I spent the evening living it up with Deb from Fresh Nest and the Yanni Voices.   You can read about the concert at my personal blog.   I’m second from the right and I’m sporting a refashioned t-shirt and a skirt I made.

Please come back tomorrow for the skirt pattern.  It is made in panels and is easily customizable for any size!

On Wednesday, I’ll be blogging about the shirt and how I took two Goodwill destined t-shirts and made one functional shirt.

, , ,