Halloween: Candy Corn

I found these candy corns on pinterest and loved them. I tried to follow through to the original link but I think someone had clicked on an etsy image so you can't get to their shop. Anyway, the originals were made with yarn and since I only had white yarn and didn't want to buy yellow and orange yarn, I thought I could make this a scrap challenge moment. Having espied foam cones for $1 each at Dollar Tree, I knew this would be a fun and simple project for the holidays.

I bought two cones and used an empty serger thread cone for the little one. Together they ended up making a cute little family.

You will need:
foam cone or other cone shape
fabric or yarn or ribbon in desired colors
hot glue gun and glue
1. I used the rotary blade and cut strips of fabric in white, yellow and orange in 1/4" widths.
2. Start at the top and cover the top first then wind down. The first one I did, on the left, I started at the bottom and it wasn't as smooth as the later ones. You learn as you go, right? Overlap and glue as you go.
3. That is it. Seriously so simple.
If you are in Athens, let me know if you want the rest of my scraps. I totally over cut and have enough to make at least two more big ones.

Scrap Challenge: Floor Cushions

I have wanted cute floor cushions for awhile. I love the way they look in magazines, I think they are perfect for kids and for playing with kids on the floor. So the scrap challenge was my perfect motivator. And this project is great because it actually uses large amounts of your scraps, not like some of my projects which barely made a dent. And this is perfect for home decor weight fabric which I happen to have a lot of. So this is the perfect project. I started by coming up with a pattern. I modified the fabric ball pattern I made here. I tried to scan it for you but it was too big to fit in my scanner. I just made it bigger. And then I constructed following the ball pattern.
For the pink one I used larger pieces of scrap fabric and a pair of Steve's old jeans which are really worn out and soft. The crazy one is just lots of different bright fabrics and black and white prints.

Once stuffed full-I used about 1 1/2 bags of stuffing per ball, I wanted them to be tufted so they would be cushions and not just huge round balls. So I bought a couple of kits to cover buttons, I love covering buttons! And then found my largest needle, thankfully I found an upholstery needle my mom gave me because using a smaller needle involved me trying to squash the pillow down and poke it at the same time while trying not to stab myself or Steve in the finger. Do the tufting first and make sure it is secure and then sew the button on. The great thing about the button is that it covers all your messy tufting stitches.
And you are done. Pretty simple once you find that big needle. And guess who loves them? Any child who has come over so far. And I love them too. They are the perfect seat for at home story time. Henry likes to lay on them and totally relax. He also likes to plop from cushion to cushion and drool as evidenced in the pictures. And if you decide that you want to lay your head on one, Henry will decide that he would like to lay his head down too and will make you move.

Scrap Challenge: Felt Coasters

The Scrap Challenge continues with some wool felt coasters. I have never felt the need to use a coaster as much as I have here in Georgia. Ice cold drinks + heat = water rings. And now since we have a couple of pieces of furniture I care about, its coaster time.
Perusing around the internet, I couldn't find anything I really loved so I came up with these on my own. I ended up deciding on felt and I had envisioned a kind of retro striped pattern. The grey felt is leftover from Henry's halloween costume last year and the colors were in my scrap box.
Each square is two pieces of grey felt cut to 3 1/2 inches square. The stripes are in 1/2 inch widths and then I trimmed them as I needed them to fit into the design. All the strips were heat n bonded into place and then I tried to decide if it would be worth my time to sew them on too. I sewed a couple but also didn't sew a couple. Did I quit sewing because I was lazy? You betcha. But I think they still look great. We'll see how long they hold up. Easy as pie. And they are seriously saving my table.
My favorite one is the bottom right, red and orange. It wasn't my favorite when I put them together but it is the one I keep being drawn too when I'm looking for a coaster. The different colors also help me keep track of which drink is mine around the house.

Scrap Challenge: Number Bean Bags

So to continue the Scrap Challenge I thought making bean bags for Henry was another good option. I remember playing with bean bags my mom made for us, I remember the smell of the dried beans through the fabric very clearly. I did numbers since it could be a great counting/ learning thing for the future. Now he just picks it up, examines it and then throws it on the ground with a scream while making sure you are watching. Maybe one day, he'll scream the number as he throws it.

So to start, gather your supplies. I made 10 (1-10) and they are 5" square. So I cut 20 squares of fabric 5 1/2" for the seam allowance. The fronts are patterned cottons from my scrap bins, the backs are 3 pant legs from refashion cutoffs-denim and blueish white chino. I also used wool felt for the numbers and dots and lined each bag with a layer of white sheeting to make them more durable. For the filling I used split peas, 1/2 lb per bean bag.
I then spent way too long choosing my font for the letters after some meager attempts at free handing them. I ended up using Casual, a free font from dafont.com. I love this website especially for digital scrapbooking. I printed out the numbers in size 225.
Cut out your numbers and dots from the felt and use heat n bond to adhere them to your fabric. Then sew around each piece with your machine. This bit is time consuming but will ensure your bags last. Don't use no sew bond because it doesn't last forever and if you try and sew it the glue with gum up your needle, break your threads and lead to a slightly dramatic episode where you will almost give up in frustration as you vow to your husband you will never craft again. (No, this did not happen to me this time but I would be lying if I said it had never happened to me in the past.)
I then serged my bags together leaving a small hole to turn them right side out. You don't have to serge them, sewing on the regular machine will be fine. Turn them right side out and then fill with peas. A large funnel works great. I measured mine by weight because I was not good at eyeballing half a bag of peas. Sew the edge closed with your machine and repeat for all 10. I filled and sewed each bag individually because I didn't want peas spilling everywhere while I sewed.
Henry does like them but would not pose with them. I think he is getting wise to all my crafty toy picture taking. So this is the only usable shot I got. Him twirling with his blanket while the bean bags lay on the ground untouched.

Scrap Challenge: Banner

Its the last day of the scrap challenge, sad. Just kidding. I will still keep it up until my stash is heavily depleted. Maybe even a weekly feature like refashion Tuesday. So I know that banners, bunting and the like have been done. Its nothing new but I still wanted one in Henry's room to brighten the space. I love him being surrounded by lots of bright colors and patterns. Plus I like being surrounded by those things and its my call. I'm the mom.
Anyway, here are a couple of tips when making a banner.
-gather your materials and cut lots of different sizes and shapes. This time I did both triangles and rectangles. I have also seen half circles that looked way cute.
-cut out everything and then iron it
-arrange your pieces in your desired pattern before you begin sewing. Why? because then you don't end up with all the same fabrics at the end of your banner.-I have made banners by serging along the top and creating a chain, I have also done it that way with a sewing machine. But my favorite is to use bias tape. You can either make your own or buy prepackaged from the notions section of any craft store. I think it makes it look way more crisp. For mine I used 2 packages of 3 yd bias tape and then one section of leftover homemade bias tape, all stuff I had on hand.-Think about your space. I made 3 smaller banners so they could all hang face front. If you have long banners you might have parts facing the back. Hopefully that makes sense. -One thing too, now that you have your banner made, how fast would it be to cut out a few letters from the cricut and pin on for birthdays and parties. That way you don't have to make special birthday banners you only use once a year.

Henry likes the banners and insisted on being in one of the shots. Oh and this shot is to show how I rearranged Henry's room. I moved the crib to the middle of the room under the ceiling fan and then we put his tunnel in the corner. So he has a whole little play area which is nice for containing toys and looking very cheerful and fun.

So hopefully this week has inspired you to do something with your crafty supplies. If you do something, let me know. I would love to see it. Happy Weekend! Happy Crafting!

Scrap Challenge: Soft Snake

Steve loves snakes.

I do not.

He wants to own one one day, like in our house.

I do not.

This is as close as we're ever going to get. Inspired by this tutorial which you have to buy and I was too cheap. I like how it came out but I wish I hadn't cut the tongue so short. Oh well. I just made one long strip of 8 inch wide pieces and then sewed it into a tube, tapering as I went to create the tail. Then I seam ripped a couple of holes along the seam to stuff it easier. Hand sewed them closed and done. I also prearranged all the fabric strips so I liked the color flow and patterns. Henry doesn't love it yet. He has dragged it around a little bit but when I tried to drape it on him for a picture he wasn't having it. For the mouth I just improvised with some felt cut into rectangles and wool felt eyes and tongue.

Scrap Challenge: Fabric Balls

Henry is a true little boy. He loves cars, wheels, and balls. So naturally the scrap challenge would cause me to remember this tutorial and pattern from the purlbee on making beach balls.

Again I scrounged through the scrap bins and pulled out coordinating fabrics. I cut out my pattern, cut the pieces using a rotary cutter and mat and was delighted with how easily they came together. To make it fun I used an array of colors, patterns and textures. I had corduroy, suiting, thicker cottons and sheeting all mixed together. There is even a bit of one of Steve's old shirts in there. I stuck with the large and medium sizes. Sew the biggest one you intend on making first, I thought the bigger one was easier to piece together until I got the hang of it.
As you can see I couldn't stop at just making one so I made five.
Action Shot!
Henry loves them. He'll throw one and scream. And then you hand it back to him and he'll do it over and over again. Or tonight we came up with a new game. He sat on the couch and we tried to keep all the balls on the couch while he pushed them off. It was hilarious. We were all laughing and out of breath. Plus they are super soft so you don't feel bad when you (accidentally) hit him in the head.

Scrap Challenge: Fabric Matching Game

Our regular scheduled programming (Refashion Tuesday) will commence again next week in honor of the Scrap Challenge. Sorry for any inconvenience this might have caused.
Round Two of the Scrap Challenge. So far I am making a lot of progress on cleaning out the bins. The only problem is, the last project and this one took up very little fabric. But oh well.

While searching on Pinterest for some brilliant way to use scraps I found this matching game. Perfect. I have a large variety of patterns and this is a great way to keep those small pieces I love.

Again, here is the tutorial but I will share some tips from my experience.-I used both black and white paper (I made two sets and used what I had on hand) the white looks way better. It really brightens and unifies.
-For white paper, I just used a bunch of ugly scrapbook paper I had that was Asian themed but white on the back. Its a great way to use more stuff you have but will never use and should get rid of.
-In the tutorial she describes how she just glued everything together and knew it would not last forever. I took it one step further and decided to laminate my cards.
Pros for Laminating: last a long time, faster than really gluing securely
Cons for Laminating: you lose the charm of being able to feel the fabric, if the laminating gets messed up you are stuck with a sub par product, if you chose to hot glue your fabric quickly in place, the laminater will melt it through the fabric and you'll be able to see it (Note: Exhibit A), it could get expensive fast. (Exhibit A: Hot glue through the thin cotton fabric. Also badly chipped trucker nails. Please excuse me.)

Overall I am happy with how it turned out. I would do things a little differently next time. Next time, no laminating. I would just sew around the edges of the cards on my machine. To finish it off, I made another drawstring bag out of scraps to store it in and made Steve play me to see if it works. It does and I won.

Scrap Challenge: ABC

So I have a lot of scrap fabric. Four bins to be exact. WAY TOO MUCH for a normal person and even TOO MUCH for a crafter. So in the spirit of cleaning out stuff, like closets and such, I have started a Scrap Challenge. It is a personal challenge, no one else is involved. Just me and my fabric. The goal: from four boxes to one and a half. Why half? So I have room to keep some fabric going forward. So the first thing I did was examine my soul. It was kind of deep. I have serious hoarding issues when it comes to clothing and fabric. I have emotional attachments to these things until they become a burden. Case in point: Who feels they need to keep tiny little bits of wool felt? I do. I might need it one day. Lame. So its time to get real and clean it out.

After you look into your soul and realize you can't let the box of scraps ruin your life, you'll need a diet coke. Drink in hand, I began to brainstorm all the projects I could do and wanted to do with my scraps. I searched pinterest, bookmarks and came up with a list.

Here it is:So this week we're kicking off the challenge with a new project everyday. And over the course of the next months you will hopefully see all of these things come to fruition.
Getting down to business I first went through all the scraps and tossed about half of them. If I couldn't envision using it in one of the projects I threw it away. It felt great. Then I went through and sorted for the first project. I saw this plush alphabet on Pinterest and thought it would be a perfect use of tiny pieces that I loved. The link has complete tutorial plus template download for free.
I chose to do one set of the ABC's in rainbow and then I made another set plus extra vowels. I also opted to make them magnets since I thought that could be fun but I didn't use a circular magnet. I knew Henry would be able to pop a bigger magnet out and swallow it. Instead I cut small squares from a magnet sheet I have had since high school. No joke. I have moved that thing like 12 times and finally am using it. I also did solid white backs on all the letters instead of a patterned fabric. If it is a magnet, who is going to see the back?
I love the way it turned out. And Henry loves it too. He likes to take them all out of the bag and place them on the ground, color side up. I made a small drawstring bag from more scraps (!) and now have them stored away until Henry is a little older and can use it properly. Since I have some magnet sheet left I think I am going to do numbers and maybe some figures like people and cars and trees. We will see where the scraps take me. Oh and my friend Emily also made these but made her set HUGE and I am a little jealous of how much I like them. So if you are going to do this project give "bigger" a thought.
So has anyone ever used magnetic paint? I want to have a place for Henry to eventually play with his magnets that isn't in the kitchen. Our kitchen is narrow and I have a feeling it would just be too tempting to not stuff all my hard work under the fridge.

And finally a big thank you to Andrea for helping me cut them out on the drive to Myrtle Beach!