Tutorial Tuesday: Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a most wonderful Christmas! I'm still trying to fight off this cold that I got the day after Christmas. At least it waited until after Christmas to show it's ugly face! Anyway, I'm super excited about next weeks tutorial. Think home decor!

So until next week, here's a printable calendar for you! Here's the preview below.
You can download the PDF by clicking here. Just print it on cardstock without scaling or fitting to page. If you trim the page in half you'll have two calendars. One to keep and one to give to a friend. You could also print it onto fabric like this and border it in a coordinating fabric and have a nice hanging calendar for the year. I did a girly color scheme and a little more manly color scheme. (I got my fabric for my printer at Hobby Lobby. Most any craft store should have some!) If there are some other color schemes you'd like, let me know and I can recolor a few!

Happy New Year!!!

Updating the Blog

If it looks a little odd, please let me know! I'm trying to update things a little and will slowly work on updating the template and tutorial pages with images so you don't have to click on each link to see the project! Have a great Friday night!

Glittered Brads and Great Gift Boxes

I started with this:
2 silver brads, glitter, and a glue pad

Just tap the glue pad on the tops of the brads and sprinkle with glitter! Now I have glitter brads!

I made them to put onto this gift box...but I decided to just go with a red velvet ribbon instead.... You can download the template here. It's my little pizza box template from last year! If you print it slightly larger than 100% it will fit a gift card! Also great for jewelry or one cookie for a teacher or coworker gift!

Happy Crafting!

Tutorial Tuesday: Patchwork Pillow

Yep, lucky you! More tutorials today! (I still have a few more also!) I made this for my dad for Christmas. He loves family history, and he's furnishing his home in Germany right now so I thought he might like this:

My maiden name is Williamson so I found a Williamson family crest online, made it a little larger in Photoshop then printed it out onto printable fabric. You can buy these fabric sheets at most any craft store. They are 8 1/2" x 11" sheets of white or cream fabric with a paper backing on it. You just run them through your printer at home and heat set with an iron. The color turned out great!

If you want to make one here's the pieces you'll need for the front:

You'll also need one fat quarter for the back. I used 1/4" seams for this project. After you cut and piece the front together just cut a piece of backing fabric the same size as the front. Place the front and back right sides together and sew around the edge leaving a hole with enough room to turn out and to stuff. Just clip the corners, turn it out, stuff, and sew up the bottom! The finished size is about 15" square.

Happy Crafting!

Tutorial Tuesday: Fat Quarter Accent Pillows

Oh the weather outside is frightful..... It's been a icy, cold day here in Texas. It was too icy to go into work so I used today to finish up all the Christmas gifts I've been working on. I even took a quick break from making gifts and whipped up some quick new pillows for my sofa:
I LOVE this fabric and it has the colors of my home decor in it!

Want to make some? It took me about an hour to make both! Here's how:

You'll need 4 fat quarters total. 2 of the front fabric and 2 of the back fabric
Polyfill stuffing for the inside

I just took my fat quarters and made 18" squares with them. Pin a back and a front piece together with right sides facing. Stitch around the outside of your square and leave about 4" open for stuffing it. (I left my hole in the bottom middle. That way if your hand stitching isn't great the pillow will be sitting on top of it.) Clip the corners and turn it right sides out. Stuff the pillow and hand sew up the bottom and you're finished! This went SO fast and I was so excited to get these done that I forgot to take pictures of the process. If you have any questions just comment and I'll be happy to answer them!

Happy Christmas Crafting!

Merry Soaps Updated

Just a quick note to let you know that the Merry Soaps post has been updated with the word art I used for the inside of the bottles.

Merry Soaps

I know it was just yesterday that we made yummy Krispy treats but here's another great, simple, quick gift.
I asked my husband to help me name this tutorial and he suggested
Merry Soaps: so here it is!

I started with the $1 bottle of soap from Wal-mart. (For your project, any clear soap will do, as long as the label is easy to remove, and there's no printing on the actual plastic bottle. This had a sticker on the front and the back but they were easily removed.)

Print out a few words onto a transparency with a laser printer. (Don't use your inkjet printer because the ink is NOT waterproof. Print out what you'd like and take it to your local copy center and have them make a copy onto a transparency.) I made my images about 3" high by 2 1/2" wide. After I cut them out, I trimmed them down by holding them up to the bottle to get the approximate size. I also rounded the corners which made it look a little nicer. To insert it into the bottle just roll it up and stick it into the top. It will unroll by itself once it's inside the bottle. If you need to adjust it at all just use the pump. When it's in the right spot, just screw the top back on with the pump behind the transparency. Tie a ribbon and you're done!

And, I left work so quickly today to catch my train that I forgot to email the word art to myself so I could post it to share with you. As soon as I get it tomorrow I'll edit the post with the link, then you can download the words I used above and use those if you want. :)

Edited: Here's the link for the downloadable PDF. When you download it, just print at normal scale and it will print to the correct size. A preview of the file is below. You can make 8 different soap bottles with the file. Download it here.

Have fun!

Tutorial Tuesday: Krispy Treat Gifts

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I had a LONG week last week so I was glad to get some relaxing and crafting done. I had a mini crisis when I realized Christmas is almost here! (Or at least, the time to send out all packages so that they get to family in time!) At work we use Photoshop a lot but I've been trying to use Illustrator a little more so today's tutorial I created for you in Adobe Illustrator! I hope you like it! This is a simple gift that would be great for neighbors or a stocking stuffer. It's also great for those that work. I've been taking it to work and it can be made in the microwave!

It's a perfect single sized serving of deliciousness!


For each package you'll need:
1 1/2 cups rice krispies
1 1/2-2 cups mini marshmallows
1 sandwich bag
1 snack size bag

Just add the rice krispies to the sandwich bag and the marshmallows to the snack size bag and layer together like the photo above. Then fold the ends on the top in slightly and staple. Print out the package with instructions here. (I used a piece of white cardstock. It's in a PDF format. Be sure that when you print it you DON'T tell it to scale it or print to fit page. It's just the right size so if you print it at 100% it will work perfectly!) After you print it, just cut down the middle and fold each piece. You'll have two pieces that are 8 1/2" x 5 1/2". Staple to the top and you're done! Super easy!

This is what the back looks like.
This is a preview of what the download looks like. Be sure to print it out from here though. If you click on the image and try saving and printing it may not print out the correct size!

The only thing the person that receives this needs is one tablespoon of butter and they will have a yummy treat!

Happy Crafting!

P.S. Look for more posts this week as I realize that I've got more Christmas related posts than there are Tuesdays before Christmas! So we'll be having more tutorials than just today. I've got a few more gifts, and some home decor. All easy of course!

See you soon!

Tutorial Tuesday - Tile Transfer Art

I wanted to post this earlier, but it took me a little longer than usual to write up this tutorial. Don't let the long list of instructions keep you from doing it, it's actually pretty easy and definitely worth it! Here's some examples of what you can make with this tutorial:


Set of 4" tile coasters. (A little boutique store nearby sells a set similar to this for $40. Each tile only costs about .50 so you can make them MUCH cheaper yourself!)
I made this tile for me to take to work. I have it sitting on my desk so anytime I want I can peek over and see my husband! It's a little more durable, and I think better looking than putting him in a picture frame! It's also a 4" size tile. (How cute is he?!? He also wanted me to let everyone know that he doesn't really have a big black spot on his forehead...it's a small hole in the tile.)

This is the one I'll show you with my tutorial pictures. I made this for a birthday present for a friend who LOVES french things! This is a 6" square tile.

Ready for the supplies?

Tumbled marble tiles. They have these at Home Depot, Lowes, or any other flooring store. Make sure you get the tumbled ones. This will NOT work on tiles that are really smooth and polished. There needs to be some roughness for the transfer to work properly. (See close up below for what it will look like.)


1 jar each of these: Golden Gel Medium (Heavy Gel Matte) and Golden Medium (Matte Medium) These will be the most expensive part of the list, but they will make a TON of tiles! I use my 40% off coupons for Michaels when I buy these. You'll find them by the canvas and acrylic colors.
1 image printed backwards on a LASER printer. (Don't print it at home unless you have a laser copier. Most people, like me, have an inkjet printer.) Just print it out and take to a copy place and have them copy it for you. It doesn't have to be on a special type of paper, regular copy paper is fine.


1 baking sheet lined with newspaper
1 foam paint brush
1 clean sponge (I use the regular side, not the extra abrasive side.)
1 sheet of thin cork (this is only if you make the coasters)

Ok, now you've got your supplies so let's get started!

-Wash and thoroughly air dry your tiles. This will get off any dust from the tumbling process.
-While letting the tiles dry, print out your image and trim down to the size of your tile, plus 1/4" edges. (If you're tile is 6", trim it to 6 1/2" x 6 1/2". If it's a 4" tile trim to 4 1/2" x 4 1/2".)
-When the tile is dry, paint the front, back, and all sides with a coat of the Golden Medium-Matte Medium and let dry.
-When the tile is dry from the acrylic, put a fairly thick coat of the GEL medium directly onto the paper leaving the 1/4" margin around all sides. I tried to show you what your thick coat and margin should look like in the picture below:
Your paper will probably curl up a little bit but that's ok.
Here's the finished Gelled up paper. (I don't think gelled is a word...but you know what I mean!)
Turn your tile upside down and center onto your gelled up paper. By lining up the tile on the paper it's easier to center your tile with the image.

Once it's positioned, turn it over and use a brayer to press down the paper onto the tile and make sure there are NO air bubbles. (Just to clarify. The acrylic on the tile will be dry, but the acrylic gel on the paper will still be wet.)

After you've done that it's time to bake your tile. Place your tile (like seen below) onto your newspaper lined baking sheet. Put it into the oven for 15 minutes at a temperature of 200 degrees F. Basically what happens here is that the acrylic on the tile and the acrylic on the paper bake together and bring the laser toner with it.

When the 15 minutes is up, take the tile out of the oven and transfer to a wire rack and let cool for 15 or 20 minutes. (The time here is not critical, so you could leave this sitting for a day or two and it won't affect the outcome.)

Next, transfer the tile to a work surface covered in scrap paper. Grab your sponge and a small bowl of water. Get the sponge wet and start to wet the paper. You'll start to see the image come through when the paper is wet....we want to remove the paper and the image will appear! This is the fun part!

Here's where a few layers of the paper have been sponged off and you can see the image transferred onto the tile. Keep slowly removing the paper until you've got the majority of it off.


Sometimes it helps to let it dry for a minute or two so you can see better where the paper still needs to be removed. If you look at the picture below you can see a few paper fibers hanging onto the black part still, it's where it looks a little cloudy. If it looks like this it's fine. When we put the finished coat of acrylic on it, the few paper fibers left will disappear.

*Notes on removing the paper: Don't rub too hard and make sure your paper is fairly wet. It doesn't have to be dripping, but if it's fairly wet it will make it easier to remove without damaging the acrylic layer.

After removing all the paper and paper fibers, put another 1-2 coats of the Golden Medium-Matte Medium onto the tile and you've got a completed tile. This makes a great gift! Try printing out Christmas images or quotes to make holiday decorations for yourself too!

If you decide to do coasters, place a thin sheet of cork, cut to fit, on the back so they don't scratch your furniture.

*Because the acrylic melts with heat, if you make the coasters, please don't use them with hot drinks. Also don't use them as trivets either or your image will be stuck to the bottom of your hot dish.

If you have any questions please leave me a comment and I'll respond and try to clarify anything that may have been confusing.

Happy Crafting!

Tutorial Tuesday X2! Cookie Cutters

We had a church activity for some of the 11 year old boys this past weekend and I wanted to make a special treat to bring....so I decided to make little tie-shaped sugar cookies. (Let me go ahead and warn you, I am not and have never claimed to be a good icing decorator! Please don't laugh too hard at my icing technique! :) As my husband said "It's ok, everyone has a brown and green polka dot tie in the back of their closet somewhere!")

Ok, back to the tutorial. Here's the finished product!

Here's the main item you'll need. This is in the plumbing section at your local hardware store. It bends fairly easily and is ideal for more simple shapes. (Making lots of curves or very intricate shapes will probably not work too well with this method.)

As usual, this doesn't take long at all! In fact, I made this in the car while waiting for my husband's carpool which was running a little late.
I drew my shape on a napkin and then bent the metal to the shape.

Once I got home I used a tin cutter to snip the shape off of the roll. I held it together with a small binder clip and it worked great. (I also learned that if I wanted to spend about $8 I could buy a rivet gun which would also have worked well to hold the cookie cutter together. For a more permanent solution this would probably work great!) The metal was only about $1.50 for a whole 10 ft. so there's plenty left for making more cookie cutters!


Happy Tutorial Tuesday!

Tutorial Tuesday - Handmade Memory Game

This is a really simple project also and GREAT for a handmade Christmas gift! You can very easily adapt it for different age levels as well. This one is a fairly simple match the pattern game. For a little more difficult version, try printing out upper and lowercase letters, or pictures and the matching words. Or even match the english word with the spanish or french word. (Told you it's easily adaptable!)

Here's what you'll need:
A few packages of these:
-Wooden squares. I used two packages for the one I made. Originally I had wanted the squares to be larger than 1 1/4" square and was going to order some from here. At the last minute I decided to just make them smaller. I found these at Hobby Lobby. Most craft stores will have them. However, if it's for a fairly young child, the bigger ones might be better for their hands to grasp.
-You'll also need some white paint. I painted them with acrylic paint, you can also spray paint them.
-Scraps of patterned paper. (I say scraps because that's exactly what I used. Each paper piece I put on was a 1" square)
-Mod Podge (or another adhesive)
-Krylon Shiny clear coat finish.

So, just paint the front and back of the tiles. We're trying to make the back side as uniform as possible. Even a slight difference can detract from matching the pieces.

For each match cut out two 1" square of paper (or alphabet, or whatever you decide to make it with.)

Use the mod podge to adhere the paper to the tile, adhering one piece to each tile.

When this is dry, give it a few coats of Krylon clear coat to finish it off. Don't forget to use the clear coat on BOTH sides, not just the side that has the paper on it.

If you're really crafty, you can make a little drawstring bag to store them in. (I wanted to, but didn't have time.) This is such a small game that I could see this being carried around for waiting rooms in the doctors office or other such occasions.

Here is my pile of finished matching tiles.
Close-up. I love how the clear coat really gave it a smooth finished look!

The entire project took me about an hour, not including the clear coat drying time. And the only thing I didn't have on hand was the wooden tiles, which I spent $3!

Happy Crafting!

Tutorial Tuesday-Easy Home Decor Blocks

Happy Tuesday! Here's the quick tutorial for today:


What you need:
Wood scraps, spray paint, cardstock, and cardstock stickers. (I used this one which I bought from my local scrapbook store: It's called Fall Cardstock Stickers from the Timeless Collection for Deja Views.)



Here's what I did:
1. Spray painted some wood scraps that I found in the garage a nice chocolate brown.
2. Peel off the cardstock stickers and place onto a piece of coordinating colored cardstock.
3. Trim around cardstock to make a border and adhere to your wood block. Easy as that!

If you can't get a hold of the exact page, any fall themed sticker will do. Also try printing a quote directly onto a piece of patterned paper. Any of these will give you a quick, easy, fall decor item.

Happy Crafting!