Day 52: True Love Plaque

This plaque is my favorite project thus far! I didn't know if I would be able to make it look how I wanted because I obviously lack a lot of skills in the art department. My family always says that my sister is arts and I am crafts. But, it turned out almost exactly how I wanted it too.
I started with a medium size wood plaque from Hobby Lobby.

 

 

I chose to use black for a base color, white for the letters, and red for the heart.

I painted the board black and added a little white where and there for a more distressed look.

 

 

I free handed the words "True love was born in a stable", trying to give them a more boxy look. In a bottom corner I painted a red heart.

I love it! The saying is such a precious reminder of God's love for us and his delicate way of giving us the greatest gift of all!
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Day 51: Leather Arm Cuff

I was so excited about trying these Leather Arm Cuffs. I think they will make an awesome stocking stuffer for the guys.
I bought a bag of leather scraps and dug through it until I found a piece I thought would be big enough for a cuff.

I measured around Pete's wrist and cut a leather strip appropriately. I cut it to be wider on one end than the other. Then I marked with 2 straight pins where to put the snaps.

This was where everything stopped working. I didn't realize that I needed a little tool to help me put on the snaps. I tried and tried to hammer the snaps in place without the tool and thought it was working. It looked good and I could snap them together but when I tried to unsnap it they fell apart. I worked on it a long time only to break the snaps. Pete tried too but no luck. This will make a great gift and won't take long with the right tools so, I will be purchasing the tool tomorrow and trying again. I will be sure and update WHEN I get this to work!

**UPDATE**

I bought the snap tool today.

Such a little thing to be such a problem. It still took some work but I manged to actually follow the instructions and got the snaps to stay on!

 

I went ahead and doubled up on the snaps. Since my cuff wraps around it was helpful in keeping it together and I thought it looked cooler this way.

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Day 50: Baby Toms

Halfway through! Can you believe it is only 50 days until Christmas! I am so excited to celebrate our Saviors birth! We love to give gifts to those around us to help remind us that Jesus came to earth to die in our place and cover our sins with His blood, giving us the gift of life.
Today's project is a gift for a precious baby in my life. I really wanted to make her some little baby "tom" type shoes. My finished project today did not turn out as well as I would have liked and probably won't be given as a gift. However, just a little tweaking on my next try and I think they will be great.

You will need:
Suede
Canvas material
and 1/2 in elastic
You can find my pattern for these shoes at the end of this blog. This pattern is for a size 1 but can easily be enlarged for a bigger foot.

Cut all pieces of a the pattern out of a double fold of canvas material, except for the sole. Cut 2 of the sides, giving you 4 side pieces.

Take the back piece and sew down each side with right sides together. Turn right side out.
Hem the top of each side piece. Pin each side piece to the back piece and sew using the smallest zig zag stitch.

Cut the V out of the toe and sew in the elastic. You will have a little fabric hanging over on top this is OK it is for hemming. Hem the top edge of the toe.

Line up the edge of the sides and the toe and sew with the small zig zag.
Lastly, turn the shoe inside out and pin the canvas to the suede sole, lining up the heal with the back and making a pleat on the toe with the extra fabric. Sew.

Trim any excess suede or fabric. Turn right side out. Repeat all instructions for the second shoe.

My assembly and sewing left something to be desired but the pattern is good. I will be making more of the these. Practice makes perfect.

Here is the pattern. I searched and searched and couldn't find a way to put up a pdf on the blog. BUT, if you copy and paste this picture to a word document and scale it to 8.5x11 paper it will be the size shoe I made.

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Week 8 Project List

Sunday November 4, Day 50 - Baby Toms
Monday November 5, Day 51 - Leather Arm Cuff
Tuesday November 6, Day 52 -  Pie in a Jar
Wednesday November 7, Day 53 - Wooden Plaque that says "True Love was Born in a Stable"
Thursday November 8, Day 54 - Tread Belt
Friday November 9, Day 55 - Crochet Grover Hat
Saturday November 10, Day 56 - Peppermint Serving Tray

Are you gearing up for the holidays yet?


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Budget Update Week 7

Bias tape $3.32 for retro apron
Pumpkin $3.89
Suede scraps $3 for rustic leather notebook
Total for week 7 = $10.29 Pin It

Day 49: Bows for Wrapping

Back in the saddle! Today I made a traditional wrapping bow and a curly bow. Both were simple and didn't take very long to make.
I was able to use pieces of Christmas wrapping paper left over from last year.

For the curly bow I used a rectangle of white and red paper. I folded it in half 3 times and cut it into 1/4 in. strips leaving an inch uncut at the bottom of the paper. Staple the uncut part of the paper so that it is easier to work with.
Using scissors "twirl" the paper strips like you do with ribbon. This is a little difficult because if you pull to hard the paper tears.
After making all the twirls I pulled them apart some to make the bow fuller.

For the traditional bow I cut strips of the blue wrapping paper. 3 long pieces, 3 medium pieces, 2 pieces a little shorter, and 1 small piece.
Taking a strip, hold it with the wrong side facing you. Take the end of the strip and fold it around to the middle making a point (probably best to look at the tutorial pictures for this). Do the same to the other side. Repeat with every strip.
To assemble, stack the pointed strips on top of one another placing the points side by side and tape in place. Start with the longer pieces and work through the second to smallest pieces. Take the last piece and fold it into a loop. Staple. Place in the middle of the stack.

These took less time to make than it did to write about it. This is a good project to keep in your back pocket to use up all your wrapping paper left overs. Pin It

Day 47: Fleece Scarf

OK, I know that I missed day 47. I was on my way to a ladies retreat on Thursday morning and had these perfect plans of making the Mummy Meatloaf  before I took off. However, once again my plans apparently were not God's plans because as far I got on the meatloaf effort was defrosting the meat. I was very disappointed but I put the meat in the fridge and myself in the car and headed out. This was the first day that I have missed completely.
I needed that retreat much more than I needed to make meatloaf! God drew me much closer to Him this weekend and that is the number one priority.
When I got home today I wanted to make up for my missed day so I grabbed the meat out of the fridge... and it looked questionable. Out it went and I was back to square one.
I remembered that I had some left over fleece from the owl rice packs that I made last week. I got it out and made a quick child's scarf. It took all of 10 min. and I am counting it as my day 47 craft. :)
I used 4 pieces of fleece. A piece that was 38x10 in. and 2 pieces that were 5x10 in. in a contrasting color.

 

I sewed the smaller pieces of fleece to the ends of the large piece of fleece.

 

After I sewed the pieces together I cut even fringes along the smaller fleece pieces.

 

Done. It's a little to short for an adult but should be a great fit for a kid.

 

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