Hello! Well I am back and I survived Disney and the heat. Actually I was more afraid of the plane ride then anything else. But now I am over it and can move on with my life (is that enough drama for you). So this week I bring back DIY Tuesday! I decided on a project that is a vintage project, but perfect for the trends of today! With all the faux bois and bark craze what could be a better project than a wood collection!
I always enjoy museum look home decor don't you! So slip on some hiking shoes and head for the trails! Gather up some branches or chunks of wood. I would keep the Branch diameter down to about 2 inches (this way they can fit on a shelf). Keep your branches in a dry place, making sure to get rid of any excess moisture. Cut the bottom and top off branch to make them flat for standing. Now you can saw out a 45 degree angle chunk to reveal the wood grain. You can either leave the wood exposed or cover it with a poly sealant. Each piece of wood (preferably from different trees) you can now label with the specimens name. You can either glue these labels on or pin them. I made some simple labels (below) so feel free to use them or make your own. This project literally needs no artistic or crafty talent. Its simple, fresh, and gosh dare I say educational!
xoxoxoxo

Hello my sweets! This week I found a truly lovely tutorial on making those cute little (or big) tomato style pincushions. The instructions are brought to you by the fabulous The Purl Bee .

If you are not familiar, The Purl Bee is the blog by the Owners of Purl Soho! Purl Soho is an amazing fabric and notions shop in NYC! This shop is beyond yummy for the fabric addict! So check out the shop and the tutorial and make yourself or your Mom a sweet as can be little cushion.

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I will try to post as much as I can this week. My family and I are soon to be off on a vacation. It will be my first time on ..dare I say it.. an airplane! So I am a tad bit on the jittery side.

wish me luck :)

Happy Tuesday everyone! This weeks tutorial is "How to make a mini book". Now you can use any size paper you wish to make this little book. Actually you can make a big book this way too! I like to make these for my Son using plain old printer paper or scrap paper, but you can use prettier paper.

Mini book
Step 1 &2: Fold paper in half vertically. Now fold it again horizontally.
Step 3& 4: Fold paper again vertically. Now unfold paper until your back to step 2 . You should have a piece that is 2 sheets thick and has a cross fold crease in the middle. Using scissors only cut the bottom fold crease when holding the papers horizontally. (See diagram below, cut where thick bold black line is in 2nd diagram)
Step 5& 6: Unfold the paper entirely. It should look like diagram 5 below. Next Fold the paper in half horizontally with open cut in the center. Hold onto each side and push toward the center. This should push open the cut you made earlier and make a diamond box. Now you should be able to see your mini book coming to life! You can use a glue stick to glue the center pages together.

Perfecto! Now you are ready to start drawing and writing in your mini book! Some wonderful ideas are making the spine out of cute fabric, or laminating the pages. You can even do this to make many pages and make your own flip book!

Well now I must run off and do my daily list of chores. It looks like it may be a beautiful sunny day today, maybe a good day for a walk!

xoxo

Its Tuesday! Yay! It is finally time for some easy DIY projects that anyone can master! Today's DIY is going to be.....

Fabric flowers!

STEP 1: Cut out 5 wavy flower shapes from the fabric of your choice(in the photo I am using paper). Each piece you cut will be a layer tot he flower. If you would like a bulkier flower add more layers! I chose to free hand cut my flower design (photo 1), but you can do it anyway you want really.

Step 2: Fold all of your layers in half except for 1 piece.

Step 3: Now you are going to stack and over lap each folded piece of fabric (see photo 3).

Step 4: Now all of your layers should be stack up. At this time I usually add the non-folded piece of fabric to the bottom. This is a good time to also add some stitches to keep everything in place.

Step 5: Now all of your piece should be held together with a couple of simple stitches.

Step 6: You can now add a center piece to your flower. I choose a vintage button from my collection, but you could use anything! Buttons, beads, fabric, ribbon...there are many possibilities!

Hurry! You now have a cute as can be fabric flower! Now go add it to something spectacular!
xoxoxox

This week is a special DIY project, an itybity exclusive of sorts.

I am proud to announce "Pretty little cozies" by Lark books! This book is filled with awesome cozy tutorials from some of your favorite crafty peeps and even a tutorial from my little itybity self :) The book is not released for sale until May5th , so mark your calenders.

So to celebrate I decided to give my itybity readers first dibs on this easy and fun DIY project!

Instructions to make your very own "Sunny side up Pan handle cozy"!

I am so excited about this! The book is filled, filled to the brim with awesome cozies! So please go check it out on May 5th! Now get sewing!

(These are the instructions directly from the book. Please be kind, these instructions(patterns) are only for personal use. If you have any questions please email me.)

Cheers!

xoxoxo

I plan on making this yummy cake tonight!

Happy baking!

xoxoxo

Well its that time of week again! Last week I got all caught up in family matters (not the tv show) and forgot all about diy Tuesday. But I am back this week with a fun recipe for the young and the old. With the economy pinching your every penny, sometimes it is nice to make a homemade gift or just something homemade for fun! So get your kids, your friends or just your creative juices flowing with this quick and nostalgic project.

Make your own Play dough

Ingredients;

1cp flour

1/2 cp salt

3Tbs veggie oil

1/3 cp colored water (I used 15-18 drops of food coloring)

Step 1) In a small bowl mix flour,salt, oil with spoon.

Step 2) Add colored water to this dry mixture and knead dough with your hands. Add more oil for dry dough, or more flour for wet dough.

Step 3) Your done! Just make sure to put your dough in air tight containers in the fridge. They last a couple of weeks and are sure to be a fun filled gift!

P.S.

Play dough also makes great Easter gifts instead of all that candy!
( Below are the 2 colors I made!)

Well I am off to the studio! Have fun making some funky play dough!
xoxoxo

Between the snow shoveling, germ attacks, and allergy scares who has the time to do any huge projects anymore. Geeze! Well this week is a quick and easy diy task. Today's how to will be printing fabric that can be used as appliques, hang tags, or iron-on of your favorite pics! It is very easy and inexpensive. You will need to own a ink jet printer, some sharp scissors or cutting blades, interface, wax paper, and printer fabric sheets (optional).

If you are looking to buy some printer fabric sheets I recommend June tailors sew-in computer printer fabric sheets. You get 10 sheets of 8.5 x 11 white (also available in cream) printer fabric. They are 100% cotton and can be found at Joann's fabrics and other notion type stores. They cost roughly $10 (but if you have a 50% or 40% coupon they are even cheaper!). I already have the printer and scissors, so I purchased some iron on interface for $1.50 a yard at Joann's. Now you are ready to start.

Step 1) Design an image on your computer or scan in a photo or image. Make sure you have made the image the correct size. Set printer on the "plain paper" setting, load printer with a sheet of fabric paper, print. Wait about 5 mins until you move onto the next step giving ink time to dry.

Step 2) Remove paper from back of printer fabric. Trim fabric, and then iron with a dry iron on cotton setting.

Step3) Cut interface to the size of your fabric image and lay on the non-image side. Sandwich your image and interface between 2 pieces of wax paper (making sure wax paper covers all interface). I lay wax paper on the ironing board to prevent interface from sticking to board. Iron on high until interface attaches to fabric.

Step 4) Now your fabric image has interface on the back giving it stability and you can use it at this point as a iron applique. Now to give it extra stability like for a stiff hang tag, fuse another piece of interface to the image side of fabric. This may give a tad bit of cloudiness to you image, but I think it is minimal.

Step 5) you can now trim or cut on your pics, tags or appliques and sew them into your crafty projects! I recommend dry clean only for one sided interfaced fabrics. I have had no bleeding ink problems in regular washing with the 2 sided interfaced fabrics yet.

Happy crafting!

Cheers

xoxox

Make your own Terrarium!

A project that has been around forever, but now has taken on new life in the home decor world. I love terrariums! If your lazy you can always head on over to the high-end florist and have one made for you, I personally am to cheap. I am here to show you it can be cheap, fun, and you don't need a green thumb to do it.

Materials: Glass container - I like to search the local thrift stores for weird jars, but you can find some inexpensive jars with lids at Target or any other local department store.

Gravel- you can get gravel at the hardware store or just pull some off your driveway, but remember to wash it before you use it.

Charcoal- You can get this at the grocery store or hardware store.

Sand or Soil- depending on the plant life you choose, you will need sand or soil. Sand for desert plants, and soil for succulents. All can be purchased at home& garden stores.

Plants- pick plants that will work well in this environment (mini cacti, jade plants, ivy, small palms, mini begonia, moss, and ferns)

Optional- rocks or other little statues or Dode-dads.

Step 1) wash glass container you plan to use

Step 2) add one layer of gravel, then a layer of charcoal, now a a-2 inch layer of sand or soil.

Step 3) Now it is time to add your plants. A good tool is a pair of chopsticks to help you poke plants into soil. Remember to use thick rubber or leather gloves for handling cacti.

Step 4) Add any little nik-naks or rocks at this time. I added a cute little plastic deer to live in mine :)

Now your terrarium is finished. Remember to place terrarium in a place that has suitable light for your plants. Also keep in mind some plants do not like terrarium lids (like cacti) .

Watering your terrarium: A good watering once every 2 weeks is enough. Soil should dry out between watering's for dry climate plants. Succulents require the least amount of watering. Usually the lid will keep in moisture making the terrariums a self contained eco-system.

Have fun and happy planting!

Cheers

xoxox

Shaving Cream marbling

Step 1) Layer about 1 inch of shaving cream onto a baking dish or pan.

Step 2)Level it out with a piece of cardboard as a scraper

Step 3)Use water based paint or food coloring. I used the little bottles of liquid food coloring . Drip some food coloring or paint directly on top of the shaving cream. Use different compositions like concentric circles, stripes, half moons. etc.

Step4) Using the back of the brush or a pointed stick or tooth pick. Swirl the paint. Do not push it down deep into the shaving cream. The paint will stay on the top.

Step 5) Pick a paper that fits your baking dish, and is some what thick . Lay paper on top of the design and press down. Pull the paper off. The shaving cream will appear to be all smeared but wait.
Step 6) Use the piece of poster board to scrape off the excess shaving cream. Like magic the design stays on the paper.

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This project is safe for all ages! It can be a tad bit messy, but has amazing results! Hope everyone has fun making some funky stationery!

Cheers!

xoxo

Hi! Its Tuesday again and that means it is DIY tutorial Tuesday! So today I am feeling rather down in the dumps. It is gloomy just a all around ick kind of day. So I have picked a project that makes me think of Spring and all the fun things one can find on a sunny stroll through the woods.

Animal track casting:

I also love the pictures and diagrams from this old book. It looks like it is from the 50's! Have fun!

Cheers!

This will be the start to my DIY series hopefully happening every Tuesday. I hope to include ideas, and instructions to craft/art projects for every level of expertise.

Rub on decals/stickers

You will need : a computer, printer, transparency film( the clear plastic sheets for over head projectors), hairspray, Popsicle stick

Step 1: Make some images (or scan in a drawing) on your computer that you would like to see in decal/sticker form. Use a software program (photoshop, gimp, picnik) to create a mirror image of your drawing. You must remember this step or your drawings will print backwards.

Step 2 : Spray transparency film with a light mist of hairspray. Make sure to cover the entire sheet, but not to much (no dripping). Leave sheet to dry for an hour.

Step 3: After your transparency sheet is dry, insert it into your printer. Print on the side where you sprayed the hairspray. Allow time for ink to dry about 30 mins.

Step4: Now your decals are finished. Cut images out, or leave them in sheet form. Press with image side down to any object, use Popsicle stick to rub. Remove backing when transparency sheet turns cloudy from rubbing.

Have fun and happy crafting!

Cheers