Tutorials

Chic Coffee Mug Planter

That title is quite a mouthful! :) If you think of something shorter let me know!

Quite a while ago, a dear friend gave me a set of 4 Home & Garden mugs. I like them. My kitchen is yellow and blue, but I just didn't have any space to put them. So they have just been hanging around waiting for me to make them useful! I thought they would make cute little pots sitting on my kitchen windowsill, however we have a wrap-around porch (love it) but that makes it impossible for anything to grow on that sill! Bummer! Hubby had even drilled a drainage hole in one mug! And then the mugs just sat around. for. a. long. time.

BUT, last week I had an idea :) So here goes, a step by step for you:

For your supplies you'll need: a cute little coffee mug, a cute little saucer, liquid nails, three iridescent glass pebbles, flowers and some dirt.

Next, put a drainage hole in your mug. Hubby did this for me :)

Here it get's a little sticky ;) and not any actual pictures of this step. You'll want to lightly dampen the glass pebbles, put a little dab of liquid nails on and position them in the middle of the saucer in a triangle shape. Make sure they are close enough together that your mug will sit on top of them comfortably. You should probably wait the 10 minutes for them to quick set, but I didn't. Then add a dab of liquid nails to the top of each pebble and sit the mug on top. Make sure it's positioned where you want it. The liquid nails is workable for about 10 minutes.

Now, your mug looks like this: sitting on pretty little feet on a pretty saucer.

The pebble feet allow for any extra water to actually drain. Without the pebbles the mug bottom is flush with the saucer = no drainage even though you drilled a hole.

Now's the "funner" part (yeah, I know funner's not really a word) Get some dirt and a pretty plant and dress her up in your new Chic Coffee Mug Planter! I did give the mug and saucer a 1 hour cure time as was suggested on the Liquid Nails label, BEFORE planting the Verbena.

One more look for you...

I'm sharing this post over at Kimba's. She is having a DIY Season Finale over there. If you're stopping by from Kimba's, I hope you'll stay for a little bit and have a look around. Make yourself right. at. home!!

Heart Doilie Valentine Shirts

Little by little I have been pulling out the Valentine decor, which got me to thinking about seasonal clothing for the girls. For our Handmade Christmas I had used some paper doilies and fabric paint and made two of these. They were so much fun and so easy that I was pretty sure I could use the heart paper doilies for some shirts!
First off, here are the supplies you'll need. Elmer's Spray adhesive (love this stuff), fabric paints, sponge brushes, shirts, cardboard, paper doilies. Yes, that is glitter in the picture. I had the bright idea of putting it on the wet paint; but that didn't really work, because the paint soaks right into the shirt
You do want to wash and iron your shirt before you get started. Also place the cardboard piece between the front and back of the shirt to prevent any paint bleeding through.

Take your doilies outside and spray them good with the adhesive.

Make sure you wait 3-5 minutes before putting your heart on the shirt! This allows for a temporary bond and when your finished painting you can pull that sucker right off :)

Using your sponge brush, dab the paint on in pouncing motions - not strokes. You don't want to break the paper up. It helps to have a cute assistant :)

When you're done painting, carefully pull the heart off, taking care not to transfer paint in places you don't want it :) Now they need some drying time. I let mine dry all night. The following day I heat sealed the paint using the ironing method.

I thought they turned out great! Now I just need to get some hairbows made to go with them :) Having girls is so much fun!! :) How blessed I am!

Some close-ups for ya - White for my favorite oldest...

Red for my favorite middle-child...

And pink for my favorite youngest!

If you try the tutorial, I'd love to see your work ;)
I'm linking this tut up with Kimba and Today's Creative Blog and

There are lots of fabulous projects to see! Thanks for taking a peek at mine :)

O Christmas Tree Ruffle Shirt Tutorial

I am SO excited for Christmas this year!!! In fact it has been a little "hard" to get through the Thanksgiving season because I want to jump right to Christmas ;)
We all know ruffles are pretty HOT right now! One night as I lay in bed, waiting for sleep to arrive, I thought up these ruffle Christmas trees! I could hardly wait to make them!! Pretty cute, huh? Would you like to make some for your cuties?

I thought you might :)

First step, measure your ribbon. (I used Grosgrain) You'll need 5 pieces: sizes 1.5 in, 3.5 in, 5.5 in, 7.5 in, and 9.5 inches. For the trunk just cut a piece that looks about right :)

Next, heat set your ribbon ends - no picture! Kinda hard to hold the match, ribbon and camera!

Then using a straight stitch, sew down the middle of each green ribbon piece, DO NOT BACKSTITCH! Gathering the ribbon will be easiest if you set the machine to the widest stitch length

Now your ready to make your ruffles. Holding the ribbon in your left hand, gently pull the TOP thread; keep working the ribbon and thread until the entire length is ruffled.

Your ribbon strips should look like this...

Now, begin pinning your ribbon strips to your PRE-WASHED shirt,

Starting at the bottom of the tree, straight stitch each piece on to your shirt, back-stitching at the beginning and end of each ribbon. BE CAREFUL that you are only sewing the first layer of the shirt!!! I know, I did this the hard way! I thought I had separated the front from the back and I hadn't :( Trim off your thread tails.

Next, sew on your trunk and admire all those ruffles :)

Are you gettin' excited??!! It's almost finished! The last step is embellishing your tree! The sky's the limit here!

Since I have three little girls, I thought it would be fun to embellish each shirt a little different! My first tree has the button ornaments, my second shirt has the bow topper and my third shirt...well those embellies I need to look for. If I can find some cute, tiny birdie buttons; I will sew one birdie perching on the tree and then two under the tree!

Hope you enjoyed this little tutorial, it's my 1st!!! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments. If you do use my tutorial I'd love to see yours afterwards :)

Merry CHRISTmas