Tricky Gift Diy

 I recently became involved with Secret Sisters at my church and I have been wracking my brain to come up with a neat way to trick my sister into thinkin my stuff is store bought instead of handmade since I do most of the handmade stuff in our group. Enter the back of a cardboard sleeve from my daughter's long johns

  

I cut it to size, added a saying and things that looked professional such as the small "1 pc" in the corner and the 'X' sticker (which is my subtle omage to my camp name), added Tim Holtz Distress Stain in antique linen, and used a hole punch to poke out the space for where it would hang in the store. I also covered the whole thing in packing tape to give it that laminated look, and I had saved the little plastic covered twist ties from some jewelry making supplies. I used a needle to poke holes for the twist ties and then used the ties to hold on the keychain. 

   

Voila! I know I am being sneaky, but that is half the fun. 

   

And check it out paired with the little notebooks I made the other day! 

I'm pretty excited to give this to my secret sister! She's a 90 year old woman in our church and just an absolute sweetheart. I can't wait to find more 'throwback' and 'vintage' style things for her. This is definitely stretching my creative muscles! 

Oh, and I found a way to get around the fact that if I were to make anything they would automatically know it was from me! I am making a ton of cards for all the secret sisters to share. That way, everyone gets homemade cards and no one can guess who they're from! Mwhahahahaha! 

If you are involved in secret sisters at your church, check out Pinterest! There are tons of great ideas there too! Have fun!

DIY notebook

A quick tutorial on my little books I make for the staff. 

Get a pack of 3 mini-composition notebooks at Family Dollar or any of the dollar stores. 

Get great papers to cover them. 

Cut them to size and glue with mod podge. It's ok to have some overhanging the edge as you can cleanly trim with scissors. 

Use 1" wide Gorilla brand duct tape and tape to the binding. Again you can trim the edges. 

Add a sticker to the front for a name or title plate, or leave it blank.

 I love the way these old fashioned style ones turned out. They're for a dear older lady in my church and I hope she'll really enjoy them. I hope you enjoy making these too. 

Attention!

Ba Da da! Ba Da Da Da Da Da Da Daaaaaa! (trumpet sounds)

I have just opened an etsy shop! Yes, it's true! Anything my crafty heart desires i will make and in turn sell. So far it is mostly cards but I hope to keep it running with lots of different crafty ventures. Will you follow me? CraftyStx I hope you will at least go check it out! Thanks so much! 

You may now return to your regularly scheduled programming.

DIY couch recover

My love seat looks pretty threadbare. Why? Well, there is a fun story behind this couch. It used to belong to the men's lounge at the college my husband and I attended. It was circulated through the men's dorm from room to room as they replaced the lounge furniture. It eventually made it's way to my husband and his roommates who took a house locally. When we got married, it became ours. Fun fact, the couch is as old as I am! I found a label on the bottom that has it's manufacture date. But when we got it, it was looking sad. The cushions were getting frayed and ripped. They were the same material as the rest of the rest of the couch. So I took action and recovered the cushions. 

    

My first effort was an ivory. Enter baby number one with sharpie markers! Hmm... Bad choice. So my next choice was a dark brown corduroy. This was easier to maintain. Harder to stain too. So I have recovered it in the brown corduroy twice. Now it is several years later and it just hasn't held up to college students visiting and the kids abuse. (Mostly the kids!) so, we stopped at Joann's the other day and I looked at more brown corduroy. It was $12.99 a yard on sale for 40% off. Hmm... I need about 5-6 yards of this stuff... So I looked at the red rage fabric. Low and behold, upholstery fabric! And half off all red tag fabric too! Score! It was originally $29.99 a yard, (yikes!) red tag for $21.99 a yard, (ok, that's a little better) and all red tag was half off so I scored at $10.50 a yard! This fabric was so perfect.

It was the brown I needed, the upholstery fabric that holds up longer, and it even has little flecks of purple and gold all through it! So matched my stuff! 

But, at the cutting counter, there was only 3 yards left, I took a risk, I know, but it turned out perfect! There was just enough to do the whole couch! Even my hubby said it looked sharp! I started by taking my cut pieces and folding them right side down over my cushions and pinned them in place then sewed two seems up the sides like pillow case. Once I turned them right side out it was a mattering stuffing the cushion back into them and hand sewing the seem in the back.

I really like the way this turned out! It looks better and it should hold up longer. I think I want to try my hand at recovering the rest of the couch at some point. Hmmm... Another project to ponder...

DIY stool

I found this guy in a little antique/thrift shop in my hometown for $5. It has a hinged lid and had a plastic storage tray on the inside. For $5, I could totally redo that sucker and make it my own and that's exactly what I did! 

    

I took all the pieces apart. Hinges off (in the little plastic bag there) and unscrewed the legs. I got out my spray paint selection from my stash and started with that brown satin finish I have.

Well, a quick stop at Joann's yielded a lovely piece of outdoor fabric in the remnant bin. I also grabbed some bating for a crib size blanket to it and fold and cushion the seat a bit. I started with a stripe evenly stapled across one side, then stapled the stripe evenly across the opposite. The front and back basically. Then I went to work on the sides and stapled them in place. Tucking in the corners was a little tricky but with patience and even some fabric glue you can do it! 

This is the end result. Yep, I spray painted black instead. Not just any black, the black for the plastic furniture! I like the effect. It's not too shiny and it even crackled a bit here and there. Once I screwed all the pieces back on and brought it inside, I decided this is the piece that will sit by our front door for putting on shoes and for storing hats and gloves! Now that was fun!! What's next? 

Audrey Says...

Welcome to another fave of mine. Audrey Hepburn. Fantastic actress! Beautiful lady. Such poise and grace! Well, she said some fun things too. This one is one of my faves. 

I got out my supplies, canvas board, paint pens, washi tape, wall art from dollar tree....

And now I was off. I spray painted the background black. I cut up my wall art stickers and placed them where I wanted. Heated it all up with a heat gun to be sure the stickers stuck. Then I got out my Art Deco silver paint fine line pen and went to work. I'm pretty happy wth the end result. Now to find a place for display.... Hmmmm....

For the love of Austen

Yet again I must craft. It always seems to hit me when I least expect it. I see a craft, think of something to do with it, and before you know it I have found myself in the middle of the craft. Well, this one came about because I have been crocheting a lot lately, and as a result I have a cramp in my shoulder. I have had to take a break from my crochet and while searching around the house for something to distract me from my housework, I stumbled across an idea I had put away for another day. 

I have always loved Jane Austen. I love the stories and the quotes from her books are priceless! I had asked my husband a while ago if he wouldn't mind if we used a quote from Jane Austen for a picture I have wanted to put over our bed. I finnally sat down to make this. The quote comes from Mr Knightly in the book Emma, and describes my husband and I perfectly. (At least it seemd a more appropriate quote than Mr Darcy's, "You have bewitched me body and soul." Talk about people asking awkward questions about a picture hanging over your bed...) 

To begin I used a thin sporatic layer of Jade satin spray paint. I then took a few branches from a nearby pine tree outside and layered on some brown lightly. After waiting for these layers to dry, I got out my paint pens and drew out on a separate piece of paper what I wanted to do as far as the layout, first to see how it would look but also to re-familiarize myself with the way a paint pen handles. The style of lettering is all my own. I layered several times with the white pen. I wanted the white to stand out well. I then shadowed with the fine point black pen. I went over again with the white to cover up any mistakes with the black. When I was satisfied with the result I used the pen to splatter white around the painting. For an added touch i used a gold fine line paint pen to add some gilt to the design by drawing in the pine leaves and branches. I am quite pleased with the result. It not only looks earthy, which will satisfy my hubby, but the lettering also turned out better than I thought, satisfying the critic within me. 

Yes, a simple canvas became a favorite piece today. I am happpy to have a favorite quote and author above my bed but I especially love that feeling you get from a craft well executed. 

So, what have you been crafting lately? I hope you find as much joy, satisfaction, and stress relief in it as I do!