Pastel Tissue Paper Spring Sign

March 16, 2015March 25, 2015 spcountrygal Craft, Decorating, Home Accessories, Spring Craft, Super Saturday Craft, Home Accessories, Spring Craft, Super Saturday, Tissue paper

Has Spring sprung where you live? It has here and I love it! The trees all blossomed a few weeks ago and flowers are coming out and everything is SO green.

The phrase, “A breath of spring” certainly comes to mind. I wanted to make a little something today to celebrate spring. I knew that I wanted to make a sign of some sort with a length of 1×6 pine that I had in my garage. I originally thought that I would make an Easter sign of some sort, but Easter will be here and gone before we know it. I wanted something that can stay out for a couple of months or so and this is what I came up with:

I love this phrase. To me, it means that where you are right now in location and life circumstances is where you are planted. You might be thrilled with where you are planted like a sunflower planted in good soil with ample water and full sun. Yep, it is easy to bloom well in those conditions. Maybe right now you are planted in not so perfect circumstances. Bloom where you are planted means that even if your part of the world right now is weed infested with poor soil and very little sun, do your best to bloom anyway. Basically, think positive, be happy, take life as it comes and pull out those weeds if you can. If you can’t, then you be the best bloom you can be to brighten up your little spot in the garden.

Of course I could have whipped out a can of paint as I usually do when making similar signs, but this time I decided to try something new. Want to see what I used instead of paint?

Tissue paper! I love the mint green that came with this pastel tissue paper set that I got at little old Dollar Tree. The steps were simple:

Crumple up the tissue paper to get it all wrinkly, then semi-flatten it back out
Using a regular paint brush, paint a layer of decoupage medium on the bare wood, top and sides. Another option would be to paint a base color similar to your choice of tissue color so you don’t have to do as many layers.
While the decoupage medium is still wet, lay a sheet of paper slightly larger on all sides so you can wrap it around the edges. As you lay it down, encourage wrinkles but attach it securely.
Immediately (meaning that the layer below is still wet) brush decoupage medium on top of the tissue paper layer. Apply to all sides (except the back). On each corner edge you will have an excess of tissue…just tear it off and lay the remaining down with the decoupage medium. You won’t even be able to notice it.
Wait until the layers are dry before adding another layer. My bottle says to wait 15-20 minutes. I broke all rules and used my hair dryer to speed up the process and it worked just fine. I’m such a rebel.
Add as many layers as you want. I added 3, but if I would have painted the board first, I would have just added one, maybe two. Maybe next time I will paint with one color and tissue with another just for fun. Maybe white with one layer of pink tissue on top for a sheer color effect.
If you get any tears, that is okay. Just tear a piece of tissue (straight edges will show up more than torn) and decoupage right over it.
If you want the back to look nice, decoupage it as well once the front has completely dried.

Really, the process is super easy and adds a different look. For added effect, rub a little stain or dark wax on to accentuate the texture. Hmmm…maybe this Fall I will try that.

I cut out the vinyl lettering with my Roland Stika vinyl cutter, but you could easily just print this Bloom pdf out (the font is Café Rojo) on paper (maybe with a cute print) and decoupage it right on your sign, leaving some space so you can see the your wrinkled tissue border around it. (Do a test run with this method…some printer inks smear with the decoupage medium. If yours does, I have heard that if you spray your printed page with hair spray, it will fix the problem.)

So, there you have it. Simple, yet profound at the same time.

Unfortunately the pictures don’t really show the fun texture, but I really like the effect. Try it for yourself and let me know what you think! Now, go BLOOM!

(This project was featured as one of 6 Spring-Inspired Projects at the Do Tell Tuesday Link Party! Thanks Lisa, Diane, Cassie and Tori!)

Giant DIY Satin Flowers

March 13, 2015March 13, 2015 spcountrygal Craft, Decorating, DIY, Home Accessories, Pillow, Super Saturday, Thrift Store Craft, Decorating, DIY, Fabric, Home Accessories, Pillow, Super Saturday, Thrift Store

Remember this post where I showed you how to make adorable satin flowers? Well, I love those little flowers so much because they can add cute touches to anything from hair, to clothing, to home accessories, to purses, to gift packages. To be honest, though, they are a bit small to add a lot of WOW to a room. You know the theory that “bigger is better”? Well, it is if we are talking about bigger budgets, bigger backyards, bigger pieces of chocolate cake. Bigger thighs? Maybe not so much. An-y-way. I thought that I could take this idea of making satin flower up a notch and make one, well, bigger. The process was pretty much the same except I added more layers. Eleven, to be exact:

For a base, I covered a circle shaped pieced of cardboard with fabric (to keep it pretty) to add stability:

Of course I glued the flower layers to the ugly side so the bottom looks nice and finished.

This finished flower turned out to be about 8 1/2 inches wide. Big enough to make a statement in a frame that I backed with unpainted textured wallpaper:

I thought that it turned out pretty good, and I’ll admit that I excitedly thought, “I MADE that!” every time that I walked past it. The above picture just doesn’t do it justice. The satin is so beautiful and I love the color that the fabric turns when the flame melts the edges. Come to my house sometime and you will see.

After I had walked past it a hundred times or more I got thinking again. Dangerous! I adopted a new theory, ” If bigger is better, gigantic is the best!”. Are you with me?

I looked in my fabric stash and found this lovely blouse that had been purchased and cut up for my daughter’s school project last year. This little number set me back probably $.50. Way cheaper than fabric store fabric. I didn’t want to ruin good fabric if my big idea didn’t work.

I totally know what you are thinking. “How could you cut up such an stylish blouse?” I know, right?

As I started cutting I realized something awesome, this 100% polyester fabric tears really easily. In no time at all I had a large stack of fabric squares. The largest squares were cut out of the back of the blouse, but I was amazed at how much fabric was in each sleeve. I didn’t even try to count how many layers this flower has. I just know it was a lot because I wanted my gigantic flower to be nice and fluffy.

Using the same process that I showed you in my Super Simple Satin Flower tutorial I started melting my edges. Unfortunately, my hubby was working at home when I made this and I knew that he would not welcome the thought of me putting fabric over a flame in the house so I did it on my front porch. Trust me, it is much faster to do indoors. Every little breeze makes the candle flicker.

I made a cool little video to show you a way that I found to speed up the process, but ding-dang-dong, I can’t for the life of me figure out how to add it in WordPress. I will keep trying to figure out how to add the video, but basically, just take one side and simply fanfold the edges (maybe a 4-6 inch section) and hold the fanned area vertically about the candle’s hot spot to melt a larger section at a time. Quickly spread out the fanned out area just in case parts fused together and then melt any sections that might have been missed. Again, don’t put the fabric IN the flame, just OVER the flame. We are melting, not burning the edges. It probably took me an hour to melt all of my edges.

Once all of your pieces are melted, start stacking, largest on the bottom and work your way to the top. Many of my pieces were similar in size and that is okay. Just do this:

See how I put the glue down and scrunched the fabric to make sure the layers beneath can be seen. This also adds wrinkles which help add volume.

When I got to the center area, I took 4 of my smaller melted shapes, pulled the center down to form a cone shape and glued them down to hide all of the hot glue spots. At this point, I still had some extra melted fabric sections so I folded them in half and glued in the bare areas.

Ta-dah! This baby is about 14 inches across! It’s gigantic!

Here, you can see how I added it to a throw pillow:

And here I attached it to a framed mirror:

In all honesty, this bright blue doesn’t go with anything in my house, BUT, my daughter is going away to BYU this fall and this BYU Blue gigantic flower will go with her. Now that I know that it IS possible to make a Gigantic Satin Flower, I’m making one for me!

So, whadda-ya think? Was my $.50 investment + 1 1/2 hours of my time worth it?

(Here is a different blouse makeover project that I made)

DIY: From Blouse to Pillow in 10 Minutes Flat

February 26, 2015September 19, 2016 spcountrygal Craft, Decorating, DIY, Home Accessories, Quick Project, Sewing, Thrift Store Craft, DIY, Home Accessories, Quick Project, Thrift Store

Do you have pillow forms hiding at your house? Maybe in your garage? Closet? Craft room? Yeah, me too. And when I say “pillow form”, I am also referring to ugly throw pillows that just need to be updated. Like the ugly hunter green checkered pillow that I adored in the 90’s. It has been hiding in the garage for the last 10+ years. Well, I resurrected it today with this:

I know what you are thinking… that is one stylish blouse. Am I right? Or am I right? Or am I right? The fabric is a really shiny rayon/polyester mix that doesn’t photograph well, but you get the gist. This blouse came from my local, small town thrift store that likes to do deals like “as many clothes as you can stuff in a bag for $2” sales. Yep, I shoved this in my bag, knowing that I wanted it for the fabric only. I wanted to see if I could use it to make some of these silk flowers:

Unfortunately, my gray shiny blouse was an epic fail for that project. Caught on fire! Luckily, I was near the kitchen sink. I know that polyester fabric melts, so I just “Bing”ed the question, “Is rayon flammable?”. The answer, “Yes. Very much so.”. Perhaps I should have checked before I lit it with a candle. Hmmm…you learn something new every day.

I couldn’t let the blouse go to waste, I mean, it cost me a quarter. I got my thinking cap on and thought of my ugly hunter green checkered pillow hiding in my garage and out it came. Remember this pillow tutorial where I made a heart-shaped pillow out of a sweater with buttons? Same concept here. I just cut out two rectangles just a bit bigger than my pillow form using the front and the back of the blouse and then sewed around all four sides. No need to leave an opening so I could shove the form in and hand sew it shut. No way… that is where the buttons come in handy. Check it out:

Can you see how I made the buttons (which were purposely hidden on this particular blouse) off center. Much better than sticking them smack-dab in the middle. Don’t you agree. I made a floppy bow using one of the sleeves and just safety pinned it on. That way I can reposition it later if I want to. I will show you how I did the bow some other time. Promise.

Since it is a rectangular pillow, it can sit either way:

Now you can see why I just pinned the bow on… I might want to change the position depending on which direction the pillow faces.

I seriously spent more time getting my sewing machine set up and then put back away than I spent making this simple pillow. You have GOT to try one for yourself. Resurrect an old pillow of your own. Time to do some blouse shopping.

DIY: Super Simple Satin Flowers

January 24, 2015September 19, 2016 spcountrygal Craft, Decorating, DIY, Gift Idea, Home Accessories, Quick Project Craft, Decorating, DIY, Fabric, Gift Idea, Home Accessories, Quick and Easy, Super Saturday

There is something incredibly awesome about being able to take a flat piece of fabric and turn it into something 3 dimensional, useful and beautiful. I don’t consider myself to be an expert seamstress, but I still love to create with fabric. I’m in no way the inventor of this simple satin flower, but I thought that I would share how I make them.

First of all, you will need some sort of a polyester satin-like fabric. You can find it everywhere. Since you don’t really need very much fabric for each flower, it helps to check the remnants section of your fabric store. I have even cut up items of clothing to make these. Check out your own fabric stash. Or, someone else’s fabric stash…with their permission, of course. Seriously you only need a tiny bit of fabric. How much depends on the flower size that you want.

I had a few different fabrics that were satiny that I quickly found they weren’t polyester. To see if a fabric is polyester, just place an edge of the fabric above (not into) a candle flame. Polyester will melt on the edge, which is just plain neat-o. This melted part will darken in color, which makes a pretty cool effect. The fabric will pucker and bend, making the previously flat fabric more flower petal-like.

To get started, cut out your fabric. If you are a perfectionist, you might have a problem with this, because it really doesn’t matter how you cut the fabric. I usually just roughly cut squares, but circles or cloud-like shapes will work. Play around with it…that’s half of the fun.

For each flower you will cut 4 or more shapes in descending size and a thin rectangle for the back so you can attach a hair clip. The more layers you add, the fuller the flower will be.

See how imperfect my cuts are? I will admit that the white fabric isn’t satin, it is more of a sheer fabric, but it must be polyester because it melts. It is fun to see what fabrics will work.

Next step, grab a candle. I prefer small-ish candles in jars. Think dollar store. I’m not going to lie… when I first started making these, I just used the flame on my gas stove. Works seriously fast. If you are worried about fumes, I haven’t really had a problem with this… maybe do it under the stove vent.

The process is simple. Run the entire edge of each piece of fabric above- not inside- of the flame. As you get going, you will notice that there is a hot spot and that is where you want to place the edge of your fabric.

The fabric will curl up as it melts, and that is great. I like to have the shiny side of the fabric facing me as I do this, but play around and see what works for you. The cool thing about the square edges is that they seem to disappear, get rounded, as they melt. I like to mess around a bit and even allow the heat to “cut” in a bit. Experiment with it… it is seriously fun.

Here are my same pieces, after melting the edges:

Now it is time to layer the pieces. Start with the largest one first, add a drop of hot glue to the center, then place the next smallest piece, and so on until you have used all of the pieces except for the thin rectangle that goes on back. For the center, you can get creative with buttons, gems, beads, whatever. As an alternative, just scrunch up a couple smaller melted pieces of fabric to form the center of your flower (see brown flower at the top of this post).

Of course you can be done right here and just hot glue the thing on a frame or pillow or whatever, but if you want your flower to be a hair clip or easily moveable, add a hair clip to the back. Michaels has them, but a beauty supply store (Sally’s) seems to have them cheaper and of higher quality.

To attach, clip the center of your melted thin rectangle piece, with the flat side of the clip facing down, then glue onto your flower like so:

Now flip it over, ooh and ahh over it, run to the mirror and put it in your hair and admire it…

…or grab the closest nearby child (with this excitement, it doesn’t matter if it is a girl or boy… well, I’m sure it matters to the boy). Doesn’t it look great?

What else can you do with these beautiful flowers?

My Scriptures bag that I take to church gets changed out regularly now:

Here’s how I packaged a pair that I made for a baby gift: I just printed up the words on cardstock and cut to size.

Classy, huh? Or you can make it the “bow” on your gift. Get your thinking cap on… I know that you will come up with a hundred ways to use these awesome flowers that you made. What was once a boring, flat piece of fabric is now an awesome accessory. How simple was that?

Stay tuned to see how I took this project and amped it up for home décor. You’re gonna love it!

“Welcome Fall” Porch

October 9, 2014October 17, 2014 spcountrygal Chalkboard, Decorating, DIY DIY, Porch Decor

How often do you decorate your front porch? I am embarrassed to admit that, as of last week I still had Easter eggs in my porch’s floral arrangement. Sad, since it is early October. And, yes, those really are Christmas trees flanking my front door, but they have been standing as sentinels right there ever since we moved in 3 1/2 years ago. Again…sad.

Well, I got out all of my Fall décor and threw some on the porch

Talk about boring! It looked like Michael’s craft store threw up Halloween and it landed up on my porch. Don’t get me wrong…I love Michael’s, (LOVE Michael’s!), but this display had nothing interesting, different, or creative. Time for an update. I grabbed a branch from a tree that had fallen down on our property, put it in an iron urn, and hung some pumpkin shaped-bells and metal leaves (that I spray painted turquois) on the branches. That gave the display some height. I also spray painted the tall set of pumpkins with chrome and hand painted the single pumpkin a gray-blue chalk paint and then brushed on a super thin coat of Minwax Ebony stain on each. I like how the stain gives an aged, finished look. Although I can do it either way, I decided to display the non-Jack-O’Lantern sides.

What else, what else? Oh, yeah. The chalkboard that is hanging on the door, that I gave a tutorial for here. I had promised that I would explain how I did the chalk writing: I used a cool font called Blueberry, typed what I wanted to say, and printed it out. If you want to copy it, click here: WelcomeFallChalkboard. After I printed it out, I ran the long edge of a piece of chalk on the back side of my printed copy- only where the lettering was. I then positioned the paper, right side up (chalked side down) on my chalkboard. Using the rounded edge of a paintbrush (a stylus, pen or Sharpie with the lid on would work, just as well), I carefully traced around each letter. After removing the printed paper, I used the faint chalked transfer lines as my guide. Easy. The whole process took about 2 minutes. Just think of the possibilities of making cool chalkboard art.

So, here is my porch, 2nd time around:

Nothing over the top or fancy, but like I said before, my goal was to get away from the “look at me, I’m a Fall color” colors this year and try out a totally different color palette . Basically gray, pewter, turquois and just a touch of orange. What do you think? Does it still look Fall-ish?