Shabby Vintage Christmas {Paper Doilies: Part II}

Alright, we're continuing ideas for having your own

"Shabby Vintage Christmas" 

using paper doilies as our decorative agent.  {If you missed the first post, click here to see it}.

So this time I wanted to use our paper doily snowflakes as more of a template.  I knew their adorable holes & cutouts would look fabulous as a stencil, so I decided to use them as a snow-inspired backdrop for a large "NOEL" canvas art piece.  Modern, yet vintage-feeling, and completely unique..."these are a few of my favorite things!"

What You Need:
*paper doily snowflakes {the best place to get paper doilies is at a craft store (JoAnn's, Michael's, Hobby Lobby) or WalMart; you can find them in the cake decorating aisle, of all places! Then, if you missed it, please see this post for how to make them into snowflakes}.
*spray adhesive
*spray paint in color of choice
*"Glitter Blast" spray paint in color of choice
*blank canvas in size of choice
*chipboard letters {I found mine for $2 each at Hobby Lobby}
* hot glue gun

Take your blank canvas and go outside so that you can do some painting.  What you want to do first is position your doily snowflakes on the canvas in the pattern you want.  Hang some over the edges and overlap a few to give more realistic depth.  Once they're where you want them to be, you're going to take them, one at a time, and spray the backs with the spray adhesive {do this by placing the snowflake down on some newspapers or other material you don't mind getting spray paint all over!}.  As each is sprayed, put back in place on the canvas and hold down a few seconds to adhere {be sure to press the edges down well!}.

Once all your snowflakes are in place, you're going to take your "Glitter Blast" spray paint and spray over the entire canvas - snowflakes, edges and all!  Let it dry for about 20 minutes, and then carefully remove your doily snowflakes {p.s. do NOT throw these beauties away! they're now bee-YOO-tiful all full of glitter! Sew them together to make a garland, hang from the tree or mantle, or attach to packages!}.

{this photo does NOT do the actual item justice! the glitter spray is GORGEOUS!}

Now it's time to spray paint your chipboard letters.  Do in a well ventilated area outside, and let dry about 20 minutes. 

Then position them onto your canvas where you want them {you can break out the yardstick/ruler for this if you want, but I just eyeballed it}.  Once they're where you want them, you're going to carefully take up the edge of one side and put hot glue (glue gun time!) all over the back of the letter, and then carefully lay the letter back down into position.  You must work quickly with hot glue, as it dries fast.  Be sure to *NOT* take the letter all the way up, or you'll lose the exact position you want!  Just left one edge of the letter, being sure the other edge of the letter does *NOT* leave its position on the canvas!  Once you've hot glued them all in place, you're ready to hang your beautiful canvas up for all to see!

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Shabby Vintage Christmas {Paper Doilies: Part I}

I love doilies.  I do, I do!  It might stem somewhere from me seeing them everywhere around the house when I was little, as my Grandma crocheted them nonstop.  Mix that in with the vintage style that's so incredibly "in" right now, along with the incredible femininity and intricacy of these little lovelies, and there ya go ~ we have ourselves a winner!

{paper snowflake doilies as part of Christmas package wrap}

So, I have just been totally inspired by these little lovelies, as of late.  I am currently working them into the adam's blankie hair accessory line {although, they're also currently available on our highly fashionable baby bibs now, if you just can't resist the doily, like myself!}, as well as all parts of our house.  Seemingly.  And much to my husband's dismay. Ha!

{paper doily snowflake in our diy shabby garland...tutorial to come later on the blog!}

Naturally, I wanted to implement them into my Christmas, too, of course!  So the first thought I had was making them into snowflakes.  Afterall, doilies inherently already have small cuts & eyelets that resemble snowflakes themselves.  So I figured I could just add my own distinct eyelets to them, and I'd end up with some "truer" looking snowflakes that are each unique to themselves...just like real snowflakes, of course.

{paper snowflake doily implemented into pre-made store garland}

 To achieve this look, you gotta go back to your grade school art class.  Not literally, of course.  But just think back to some of your earliest crafting as a child. Remember making paper snowflakes?  Yup.  I thought you would.  This is the same thing!  You're going to take your paper doily {available for purchase in any craft store {Michael's, JoAnn's, Hobby Lobby, WalMart} in their cake decorating aisle} and fold it into half 4 times, until you end up with a thin wedge, like so:

Now comes the fun part: snipping!  Just take a small pair of scissors and begin cutting tiny shapes along the folded edges of your wedge.  You can snip off the tip, or choose to leave it there.  Remember, every "snowflake" is unique, so make them all a bit different from each other!

{after all the cuts are in.  you can vary them up, tho!  rounded, heart half shape, etc.}

Once all cuts are done, open it up, and you'll end up with something like this!

So now we just need to flatten it.  To do so, you'll need to get some cotton fabric {if you don't have raw fabric yardage laying around like me {what's that you say? you don't? whaaaaat???  kidding!}, you can just grab a plain cotton tshirt instead} and put it over your snowflake.  Iron on top of the fabric for a few seconds.  Then flip over your snowflake, lay the fabric back on top and iron again.

 

 Now you should have a flat snowflake.

Now comes the real creativity!  You need to decide what you want to do with this little piece of fabulousness!  I had a hard time deciding...so of course I made tons so I could use them many ways!  Here are just a few ideas of what you can do with your doily snowflakes:

*Hang from the ceiling in clusters, creating your own snowy dream! {Would look fabulous over a front entryway buffet table/lowboy}
*Hang onto garlands {see images at top; tutorial for the diy shabby garland to come in next "shabby vintage christmas" installment!}
*Hang from your mantle
*Attach to your stockings
*Hang on the tree
*Sew together to form its own snowflake garland
*Use as tags for Christmas packages {see image above {NOTE: One was spray painted with the ahhh-mazing "Glitter Blast" spray paint from Krylon! You GOTTA get some of that stuff!  It's fabulous!!}
*Use as stencils {idea for this & tutorial coming soon!}

Enjoy!  And be creative!  Let me know how YOU decide to use your snowflake doilies!

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Color Fad

Move over, Pink, and make way for PURPLE!

Is it just me, or have you all been noticing more and more purple around {been to Target lately? They have a whole slew of purple home decorative items}?  It seems that I have started to notice a trend of purple popping up here and there more and more....  From children's clothing to home decor, I think it just might be trying to give pink a run for its money!  And to this I say, "It's about stinkin' time!"  I mean, I love me some good pink and all, but seriously.  How. long. must. "it". be. PINK!?!!  {Although I'm STILL waiting for the "pink and brown" and "blue and brown" fad to leave the baby industry.  C'mon now! Any day, peeps!}

So I just recently made this custom headband for a friend of mine who's brother is getting married soon. It's for her 6 month old daughter to wear to the wedding.  The wedding color?  Yup, you guessed it ~ PURPLE!

I'm digging it, and am find myself wondering, "Hmmm...where can I add some purple in my house?"  I love plum purple with mustard yellow...so maybe once we redo the nursery, our daughter's room could be in those hues...mmmm...my mouth is almost. almost. salivating. ;)

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Inspiration Friday

I love beautiful things.  They make me perk up inside and more importantly, give me inspiration!  Inspiration to achieve. Inspiration to create.  Inspiration to inspire others.

So, as I was telling you last week, I spent some time this last weekend attending the "Creative Estates" first annual conference.  It was located at the lovely "Inspirador" in downtown Chandler (Arizona).  Inspirador is a gorgeous facility that hosts lots of weddings and events.  And quite fittingly, they have an "inspiration room" up front for people to, well, get inspired! 

And looking in there certainly inspired me!  I now have a new determination to create only more and be better in those creations! Below you'll see some of what I saw.  Soooo, what do you think? What is invoked in you when you see these pictures (so sorry about their quality, by the way, but you can certainly still get a great sense of their beauty!)?

part of the "Inspiration Room"

gorgeous way to display memorable photos!

love the pearl frosting details..and how they alternate designs between cake layers

this dolled up cupcake was at "In Pockets," a shop just down the road...isn't she so pretty all gussied up?

so loving the framed grass...thinking this must make at least an annual (if not permanent) appearance in my house each Spring!

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Owl Bookends: DIY Tutorial

I've seen many different versions of these cuties around, and when I saw them, I just knew that I'd have to make them! And beyond just being used as bookends, they obviously serve as cute decor, as well.  What's that mean?  These are well worth your time to make. :)

 {Materials Required}:
cotton fabric
felt {white, black and an additional color of choice is optional}
sewing machine
rice
fiberfill
scissors
pen
funnel

Okay, so first you need to decide how big you want your owl/s.  I decided to go with two different sizes: one baby and one mama owl.  (But please KEEP IN MIND: if you're using them for bookends, the bigger the better, to hold all that book weight.  I decided I only needed one bookend, and am going to use my smaller one as a play, beanbag sort of toy).  For the small one, I cut a rectangle about 7x8 inches, and for the larger one, a square about 11x11 inches.  Then I freehanded an owl shape onto the backside of one of my smaller cotton rectangular pieces of fabric.  I drew only HALF of the owl, then layed it on top of my other small rectangular pieces of fabric.  Next, I folded the fabric over (length-wise), and cut along my owl shape.  By using this folding & layering method, you'll get symmetrical sides for your owl and matching sides for the front and back of him, too.

half of my owl shape (the smaller owl)

how it looks folded, before cuting

Now place your two large rectangular pieces of fabric together, with the right sides facing each other.  Go ahead and take your cut out owl shape and pin it onto the wrong side of your large pieces of fabric.  Cut our your large owl shape, using the smaller one you already cut out as your pattern.  Basically, you're just going to cut the same shape as the one you already did, but go out a couple inches from the smaller one's edges.

Now take your white felt, and cut out 2 circles (layer two small squares together, and then cut the circles from that), which will make up part of the owl's eyes.  You're going to need to cut out 4 white circles altogether - one smaller pair for the baby owl, and one larger pair for the mama owl. (You can't go wrong with a size here...just eyeball what size you think looks best).  HINT: use some sort of round thing you have in your house to make the perfect circle...a biscuit cutter (as I did, shown below), tupperware lid, etc.

For the eyes & beak, you're going to use your felt.  Cut out two small black circles for the baby owl's pupils.  Cut out two larger black circles for the mama owl.  OPTIONAL: I decided to add another dimension to mama's eyes, by adding a pair of pink circles to her eyes...right in between the white & black circles for her eyes.  Now you can also cut out a beak to match: for the smaller owl, I did a little triangle, and for the mama owl, I did a diamond shape - both in an orangey-yellow color of felt.

Take just one of the pieces of one of your owl bodies, and lay the eyes & beaks on it to see where you want them to be.  Now pin down the beak and remove the eyes from the body.  Sew the beak on - be sure you're sewing onto the RIGHT side of your fabric, and sewing onto only ONE of the body pieces!

Now take your white eyes, and pin them in place on your body, right above the beak.  Sew them on.  You can do a straight stitch or zigzag in a matching or contrasting color - whatever you prefer!  I chose a soft pink for my baby owl, and a green thread for my mama owl (to complement her baby green owl!), and did mine in a zigzag stitch for fun.

After you've stitched on the whites, stitch on the middle color (if you chose to do so), and last, the pupils.

Here is what your owl will look like so far:

Okay, time to put the owl together!  Go ahead and put the pieces of the owl's body together, being sure the "right" sides are together and matched up along the edges.  Pin in place. 

Sew (I chose about a 1/2" seam for my larger owl, and just 1/4" seam for my smaller one) along the edges, leaving about 2 inch opening at the bottom of your owl (be sure to backstitch when you start & stop, to secure your seams).

Clip the curves. (If you're new to sewing, this means that wherever there is a curve (at the top between the ears, and on both sides of the body), you're going to need to take your scissors and cut little slits just about to the seam.  This will allow for the curves to lay right).

Now turn your body right-sides out.  (You're almost there!)  You're going to take some of your fiberfill and stuff this into the head part of your owl.  Be sure to really get it into the ears and in their points. This will help your owl keep its shape and stay 3-dimensional.

Once you have enough fiberfill to fill the ears and about halfway down the eyes, you're going to start adding the rice.  This will help weigh him down...necessary if you want your owl to be able to "stand" and definitely necessary if you're using as bookends.  Use your funnel for less mess.

Once he's filled about 85 -90 percent of the way, you can stop filling.  Now you just need to turn in the seams, and either sew straight across with your sewing machine, or hand-stitch it shut, along the bottom.

 

Now just follow the above steps for your second owl, and you're done! Enjoy!

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Spring Decor: Take Three

I think I'm finally done decorating for Spring!  Yay!  I love all the vibrant colors this time of year, and I find it especially easy to decorate for because a lot of your inspiration and actual elements can come from the great outdoors.  That's right, just trim & clip and bring it inside!

So this is my third {and probably last} post regarding Spring decor.  {In case you're wondering, I have decided to decorate more for Spring {versus Easter} because it's more versatile and can stay up longer.  That being said, I do have some Eastery things, of course, but it's mostly just Spring-themed}.  In case you missed the last two, you can check this one out for a nice Do-It-Yourself Spring Flower Wreath, or click here to check out our DIY cupcake liner wreath, garland and trees!

So the last bits of my Spring decor include a branch centerpiece with some owl and egg images hung from it, my pink tree branch with paper butterflies {left over from our sweetie's first birthday celebration this past weekend!}, and some eggs nestled in moss.

For the Owl branches...just trim branches off your trees, and strip off most of their leaves.  You can leave more or less, but I wanted mine to have just a few, to make it seem Spring-like with just a few leaves budding on it.  I purchased the .pdf file from Land of Enchantment {on Etsy, but of course!}, then printed, cut, hole-punched their tops, and hung them from the branches with a thin twine. I added some moss to the bottom of the glass hurricane, as well. It's a very vibrant-colored green moss, which I LOVE ~ very Spring-like!

Here is the Butterfly Tree branch. For this one, I clipped a LARGE branch {versus a few small ones for the smaller owl tree display}.  Then I spray-painted it pink.  Next I found a butterfly silhouette clip art from the web, printed it out, cut it out, and then traced it onto scrapbook papers.  I mod-podges two pieces of paper together to make them two-sided.  While wet from the mod-podge, I also bent some of them so that they'd dry more realistically, that is, more 3-dimensional {instead of just flat}.  After that, I just hot-glued them all over the branch, and then stuck the whole thing in a large glass hurricane.  She's sitting in our entry-way now, but will take up permanent residence in our daughter's bird and flower-themed room after Spring.

Lastly, I got some gorgeous little eggs and set them in a basket filled with moss, and a glass flower bloom {from Michael's} on a large candlestick holder that I had purchased years ago and repainted ivory recently.  {I couldn't believe how well these 2 decorative pieces fit together!} I clipped off a few of our pink twigs from our large pink butterfly tree to make it more nest-like {I think it's always a good idea to have pairings of the same elements around, but utilized differently, if you can.  Makes it all more cohesive but not too matchy-matchy, if you will}.

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