I’ve been making these quick bow ties for years.  They are great for quick dress-up items and even Halloween costumes and had originally put this quick & easy tutorial together as a set of images to share with a certain tall, super artistic bride.  The day before her wedding she was looking for some last minute bow ties for photobooth props and not finding anything to her liking.  So, I snapped a few photos to get her started and then she rocked them out in her true artistic fashion.    Below is the quick and dirty tutorial to whip up your own photobooth or next impromptu costume.

Supplies Needed:

• 1 piece of felt (or other fabric) for each bow tie.
• elastic headband or wooden dowel
• scissors
• hot glue

Instructions:

1. Start by cutting off the piece that will become the center of your tie.  If using a standard size piece of craft felt, just cut down one edge vertically and approximately 2 inches wide.
   
2. Fold each of the edges of the larger piece of felt to the inside.  Hot dog style. I leave a small opening in the center to make it a small bit larger, but this is not necessary.

1. Take the long skinny piece of felt, and fold in half.
   
   
2. Take the large piece from step 3 and squish it to the center (from both the top and bottom) to create the “bow” shape.
   
3. Use the skinny piece to wrap around the center of the bow to hold it together.  Secure the piece to the back of the bow with hot glue and then trim the excess length off with scissors. If you are using an elastic headband for your bow tie secure it underneath this center piece as well.
   
4. Ready to wear…either as a bow tie or a large bow headband.  Or if you are using for a photobooth attach a wooden dowel to the back as perfectly demonstrated by the Über creative Lauren (go ahead, link over and check out her super fun photobooth photos while you are at it)




So, there you have it a no sew fun bow tie in less than 5 minutes!  Try them out, you’ll have fun I promise   How will you use your no sew bow ties?  Wedding photobooth props?  Halloween costume?

I received an email over the weekend from a bride-to-be working on ways to keep costs down for her upcoming 400 person wedding.  Her request was a simple napkin wrap template…no graphics, just elegant text.  So, Meredith this one is for you, and the possibilities of ways to use this wrap are endless!

Click to Download:  picklepicnic_textonlywrap

The template above use the Monterey BT font which is free to download from Sofontes.  New to Napkin Wraps?  No worries, visit this post for step-by-step instructions on how to use my napkin wrap templates!

I mentioned the Envelope of Doom in a previous post, the part I’m not sure I mentioned was the second portion of the challenge.  The goal was to create projects you could gift to someone in your life…preferably not yourself.  So, with those rules in mind this is first of the 3 (or more) projects I created using several components from the  “envelope of doom“.  Don’t have an envelope full of supplies…don’t worry.  You could create this project using items from your local dollar store as well!

This gift is for a friend with a cute new puppy.  A puppy who needs a little something frilly to let folks around the dog park know she’s a little girl.

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Supplies Needed:

• Collar
  (shhhh…don’t tell her it started as a kitty collar.  Just remove the bell and she’ll never know)
• Felt Scraps
• Plastic Scraps
• Embroidery Thread
• Silk Flowers
  ones with many small blooms work best to make a fuller flower
• Scissors
• Glue
  I used hot glue, but even double-sided tape would work to hold the plastic to the felt while you cut and sew.
• Needle
• Hole Punch (optional)

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Step by Step Instructions:

1. Start off by taking your flowers completely apart.  Some crafty person could be able to use the stem pieces later, but I just tossed them in the recycle bin for plastics.  For this project I used 3 sets of the pink hydrangea “blooms”.
2. Because this will end up on a collar for a fun, bouncy doggy it needs some stability so bring on those holographic Valentines (if you don’t have Valentines on hand you could use any sturdy bound for the trash plastic product).  Using a large spool of thread as a guide outline a circle and cut out with a pair of scissors.
3. Using a rectangular hole punch make two punches to the center of the piece of plastic.  You will use these later to attach the flower to the collar so place them at least 1/2 inch apart.
4. Attach your disk to a scrap of felt with a small amount of glue, and then trim around the edges.  Be careful to leave a 1/4 inch overhang to use for attaching it to the flower later.  Then use this piece as a template and cut a second felt circle.
5. Take the non-plastic felt circle of felt, take a needled threaded with matching embroidery thread knotted on the end and bring through the center of the felt circle. Take 1 flower petal and sew it to the center of the circle with one stitch that goes on either side of the center hole.
6. Fold one half of the first petal over hot dog style so that half of the felt circle is exposed.  Stitch down an additional petal to the side of the existing petal.
7. Repeat Step 6 until surface of felt circle is covered (leaving space around the outer edges to attach to the bottom).   The more petals you use the fuller your flower will be.

1. Thread your need with matching embroidery thread and bring both lose ends of thread together so it’s doubled.  Run needle through the finished side of the felt covered plastic disk and through the second hole back to the finished side.  (see photo above)
2. Place the plastic disk side of the bottom piece on top of the bottom of the flower.
3. Using embroidery thread & needles, use a blanket stitch to sew the two pieces together.  When finished the plastic disk should be completely hidden inside the felt/flower sandwich.
4. Using thread ends left from Step 2 re-thread your needle and attach the flower to the collar.  You could either stitch it directly to the fabric of the collar…or I ran the needle around the plastic collar stay piece and tied it off after several wraps.  This holds it in place, but also allows the collar to “grow” with little Miss Lucy.
5. OR…don’t have a puppy you need a collar decoration for?  That’s OK, you could use this same method and just attach a pin back and use it for a brooch, hat or bag embellishment.

Total Cost: $1.00 and up

CDog wasn’t home when I took these photos, and I haven’t received any of Lucy sporting it yet…so a large stuffed animal came out to model it for you

So, there you have it….Project #1 completed.  So now let’s chat…do you craft things for your pets?

The Crazy Crafty Wicked Cool Envelope of Doom that it!

Long ago (ok a few months ago), and in a land far away (hey, California is pretty far away from Georgia) the lovely Michelle L. won a Stash Busting give-a-way and created a blog.  There she created treasures from her winnings and posted them for all to see.  One day Michelle hatched a devious plan and decided to share with the world her “stash”. Using her leftover winnings and her own personal “stash”, the “Crazy Crafty Wicked Cool Envelope of Doom” give-a-way was born.  In her words, “I’m calling them ‘envelopes of doom’ because the items are going to be pretty eclectic. Okay, insanely diverse. And a few, possibly mind-bogglingly awful. It’s up to YOU to re-imagine and transform them into wicked coolness.”  The winners were to, “promise to make at least three interesting things from the contents, and post them online for us all to see.  Also, since this is kind of a “craft-it-forward” deal, I think your assignment should be to make things for other people – in other words, come up with three gift ideas, and tell us how you gave your creations away.”

Now, that sounds like a challenge I’m up for…and as luck would have it.  I was one of the winners!

After a bit of a technical glitch that put my envelope a bit late arriving, I opened my mailbox and was off to an immediate start, chanting “must catch up, must catch up”.  I ripped it open and spread out the contents quickly take stock of the monumental task ahead of me.  Honestly, I’m not sure what to think of some of this stuff.  There is some odd yarn-like stuff, a panel of hologram valentines, and an expired Starbucks card.

I put all that aside for a moment and focused on these odd-looking pink squares.   Interestingly enough they matched up exactly with the green pixie stick deal which makes me think they might be some sort of construction toys…. Wanna see?

Oh, TOYS!  That’s it… I have a friend who collects Barbie & her assorted stuff…so I quickly assembled the 3 pieces together.  Do you see where I’m going with this?

Yes, my first project was to create an action figure doll size set of weights.  I even gave it a try myself…

Now that’s my kind of workout!

Just kidding Michelle…I’ll be posting at least 2 of my projects from doom in the upcoming week.  Couldn’t resist kicking off this challenge with a bit of crafty humor!

If you want to see the other goodies these lovely crafters are coming up with, check out Michelle’s blog:  Mich L. in L.A.

So, let the April Stash Bust posts resume (Yes, I realize it’s now May).  Mid-April I had the perfect weekend to get a few stash busting projects finished up since the hubby was at his dad’s to attend the first Indy Car Race in Alabama.  Racing just isn’t my thing so I opted to stay home and tackle our weed filled flower beds instead.  So, Saturday after spending the majority of the day working in the yard and finding out my credit card number had been stolen, I retired to my little craft room to see what I could whip up.

I had originally purchased this aqua t-shirt with the intentions of making my niece a bunny shirt for Easter.  Since that didn’t happen, I decided I needed to do something quick with the shirt so I could include it in a package I was planning to mail my sister that day.  So I started digging around in a couple of the plastic bins of craft supplies I have stashed in a closet and came up with some leftover buttons from a wedding project and a massive stack of embroidery floss.  Put all that together…and you get this Cute as a Button Heart Shirt.

It was super fast to make and turned out much better than I’d imagined.  I like that it looks like a more expensive boutique shirt, yet cost me right around $5.99 to make.

To make your own version you’ll need the following:

• T-Shirt
• Buttons (I used (25) 1 cm buttons for this project)
• embroidery floss
• needle
• pencil to draw outline
• heart shaped template (optional)
• embroidery hoop (optional)
• hot glue/fabric glue (optional)

Instructions:

1. Press the shirt flat
2. Create Heart template and copy outline to shirt.  I used a regular pencil but a tracing pencil that washes away would have worked better if I’d had one.
   
3. If you want to add a little bit of extra attachment of the buttons to the shirt, take a moment to glue the edges of the buttons to the shirt.  Take care not to glue the centers so you can stitch them down in the next step.
   
4. Thread your needle with embroidery thread and tie off with a sturdy knot.
5. Start in the center of the heart and stitch your buttons to the shirt with moving around the heart.  This is where an embroidery hoop might make the process much easier.
   
6. And after about an hour….1 cute as a button heart shirt :

Oh…so about those cute pink shorts.  I have to admit I bought those Saturday on a trip to Target during April.  I know…I wasn’t supposed to be adding to the stash before I finish busting through it but if it was less than $1 does it count?  My local store had all their Easter goodies marked 75% off, but a nice lady watching me pick up a bag of Dove eggs told me it was actually ringing up 90% off.  Which included all their children’s Easter themed clothing.  So the shorts cost me a whopping $0.43 (including tax) and then I sewed a matching button in the middle of each of those cute little bows on the sides just to tie it all together.

Project Costs:
- TShirt -  from stash – otherwise Target – $5.00
- Buttons – free from stash – otherwise $1.99 for package, using 1/4 of package
- Embroidery Floss – free from stash – otherwise $0.99
GRAND TOTAL:  $7.98 if you needed to buy everything at once.
My Grand Total:  FREE from STASH (ok…$0.43 for the Easter Clearance shorts)

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Safety Note:   Make sure all buttons are glued and then sewn on securely.  Due to buttons, do not leave your baby unattended while wearing this garment.
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I learned this trick from one of my high school friend’s mom years ago.  She is the quintessential southern mom and entertainer, so each time I have the opportunity to attend a shower,tea, or coffee that she is coordinating I make sure to take notes.  Want to see why….

This was from the Wedding Coffee they threw in my honor last Spring.  She just whips this up in a matter of moments.  It’s pretty amazing to watch!

I’m horrible at arranging live flowers.  It’s like I try to cram everything in the same place and end up with one side really over-weighing the other one…but using this little trick it’s a breeze to make sure you have things evenly placed.  It makes me *almost* look like I know what I’m doing….

Ignore the flowers in these photos, I used some leftover flowers my hubby gave me to get a bit more life out of them before they went into the trash and mixed in some of the knock-out roses & greenery from right outside our front door.

Supplies Needed:

• Container to use for arrangement.
• Floral Tape (or other waterproof tape)
• Flowers & Greenery for arrangement
• Snips or Scissors

Instructions:

1. Take out your container and place it on a solid surface.  I like to use our milk glass leftover from the wedding, but a simple glass square from Dollar Tree would also work great.  Try to choose something with a wider opening so you can build your arrangement out with a bit more space.
2. Use scissors to cut strips of your floral tape that stretch the width of your container opening.  If floral tape is wider you might need to snip it in half width wise for ease of arrangement.
3. Starting at one edge of the opening carefully place tape strips across the mouth of the container making sure to evenly space them apart all the way to the other side of the container.
4. Turn the container and repeat this process going the other direction to create yourself a grid of sorts.
   
5. Trim the stems of your flowers to be the depth of your container.  Make sure to leave a couple that are a bit longer to use in the middle.
   
6. Starting in the center, using slightly longer stemmed flowers, carefully insert one flower stem into one open square of your tape grid.
7. Carefully add flowers to the grid working from the center to each edge to help create a rounded type of arrangement.
8. Once finished with your flowers, feel free to go back and insert bits of greenery into the arrangement to fill it out a bit more.
9. Display!

What about you, have you picked up any entertaining tips from your friend’s parents in your younger years that stuck with you?  If so, by all means share…

PS.  I just realized this was my 100th post!! 

In honor of Earth Day & my April Stash Bust endeavors I decided to try my luck at reusing several TP(toilet paper) rolls because I’m not sure about your household but we seem to have an abundance of empty cardboard rolls.  I’m really loving bunting right now, so I set out to make some sweet candy bunting from my trash & stash…and this is what I ended up with:

What do you think?  I’m thinking it’s quite cute…and so easy to make that you could even have you kids help you with this project.  It could be fun for a child’s birthday party or even dressed up a bit more to hang behind a candy buffet.

Supplies Needed:

• Toilet or Paper Towel cardboard rolls (1 TP roll averages 9 pieces of candy, or 4 feet)
• Tissue Paper (you could also use fabric)
• Curling Ribbon
• Twine (Ribbon or Yarn would also work)
• Hole Punch
• Rickrack Scissors
• Craft Knife or Scissors
• Double-Sided Tape (optional)

Instructions:

1. Using your craft knife or scissors carefully cut your cardboard rolls into 1/2 inch pieces.  (If you are doing this project with small children this is a step an adult should complete ahead of time.)
   
2. Using a standard hand-held hole punch punch two holes across the tube from each other.  Repeat this process for each of your 1/2 inch pieces.
   
3. Cut bunting twine to your desired finished length.
4. Cut your tissue paper (or fabric) into 5 inch square pieces using pinking sheers. (If doing this project with children this is another step that could be completed by an adult ahead of time.)
5. Carefully thread one piece of cardboard onto the twine. (hint: To make this easier I actually taped one end of the twine to my table.  This helped keep one end stationary while I was threading from the opposite end.)
   
6. Take a piece of tissue paper and place it under your threaded circle and fold it over to overlap in the front.  (hint:  You might find using a small piece of double-sided tape helpful to hold everything in place, but it isn’t necessary.)
   
7. Using 4 inch pieces of curling ribbon, tie off each side of your “candy” with a hard knot.
   
8. Using scissors curl the ribbons to make a decorative tie.  (If you are doing this project with small children this is a step an adult should complete once the stringing process is completed.)
   
9. Repeat the length of your twine.
10. You can move the pieces slightly along the finished product to help evenly space them.
11. Hang and Enjoy!

See…quick, easy, and a fun way to turn a common household trash item into something fun & decorative!

And if you have extra “pieces of candy” left over you could always glue them to place cards or signage for a sweet look.

Price Breakdown: Free from my trash & craft stash!
However, if you wanted to create these with no supplies on hand you could do so entirely from your local dollar store!

What crafty fun will you reuse trash & stash items for this week?

This post should kick off the beginning of our wedding DIY recaps. One of the projects I took on for our wedding was dressing up the table just a bit.  It seems that all too often with buffet dinners the tables can get “left out” of the decorating grand plan since it’s not really “necessary”.  I didn’t want to just go with rolled silverware/napkins to be picked up from the food line. Instead I wanted something a bit more formal, yet still in line with our not-so-shabby chic surroundings.  By setting each place setting with the silverware and folded napkin with menu, I think it gave our tables a bit more color and pop…even if my husband did call me crazy for obsessing over it!

Since I’ve already posted our menu template that was created to fit inside a folded napkin, and the paper napkin wraps we used for seating cards, today we’ll go over how to easily fold your napkins into the pocket shape.  I know there are quite a few different methods out there, so I used bits and pieces and ended up with this one working best for me.

Items Needed:

• Napkins (the ones we used for our wedding were purchased from Ikea)
• Iron & Ironing Board
• Something fun to put in the pocket

Instructions:

1. For best display iron napkins flat before starting folding process.
   
2. Place napkin front (or finished) side down
3. Carefully fold the top horizontal edge (the one farthest away from you) down about 3/4 the length of the napkin.  Iron top portion of napkin for crisp edge.
   
4. Fold the bottom horizontal edge up and over the previous fold.  This will create your pocket and again iron to create crisp fold.  (Hint:  This set controls the depth of the pocket, so simply adjust your fold size for larger/smaller pocket).
   
5. Now, flip the whole napkin over so that the pocket it now face down on your ironing board.
6. Fold each vertical side of the napkin into the middle so that they meet flush and form a square.  Once again press for crisper look.
   
7. Finally fold the left side over on-top of the right side and press one final time.
   
8. Add menu, favor, or other fun item into the pocket and set your table.
   

Afterthoughts:

This is where I’ll be honest and forewarn you that ironing and folding 100′s of napkins will take a WHILE.  I did the first 50 by myself over several nights and it seemed to be taking forever to fold, add the menus, & the name card wraps.  Then with the help of two wonderful friends was able to finish the second 50 in a few hours in an assembly line fashion.  If you are doing this for a larger event I HIGHLY recommend the assembly line approach skipping the middle ironing steps and only iron at the beginning to make sure the napkin is flat to start with.  All in all…I’m still really happy with how everything turned out.

If you are following along with our DIY wedding table scape so far we’ve (click for details):

• Collected milk glass vases (grandma’s collection supplemented with thrift store finds) and given those to our florist to use for centerpiece containers.
• Created Table Numbers with Frames, Fabric, & Wooden Numbers
• Folded 100 Napkins into Pockets
• Cut & Printed 100 Menus to place inside Pockets
• Printed, Cut and Attached 100 Napkin Wrap Seating Cards

I am trying to get a slight bit ahead with posting holiday napkin wraps…my mom would be so please! Speaking of Moms here are a few napkin wraps inspired by the mom’s in my life.  Hope you enjoy Part I which we’ll call the “Mother’s Day Tea Set”

Let’s kick this off with a simple pink background.  This would be great for a Mother’s Day Brunch, Tea Party with the girls, or even a pink wedding.

Click to Download: Pink Background Napkin Wrap Template

And a simple tea kettle that looks fun printed on colored cardstock:

Click to Download: Tea Kettle Napkin Wrap Template

A finally, a pretty china tea-cup!

Click to Download: China Tea Cup Napkin Wrap Template

All templates use the Monterey BT font which is free to download from Sofontes (see link on templates page).  New to Napkin Wraps?  No worries, visit this post for step-by-step instructions on how to use my napkin wrap templates!

What do you have planned for the mothers in your life to celebrate Mother’s Day this year?