The Best Seat in the House

My favorite part about giving a gift is seeing the surprise/excitement on the other person's face.  This gift got me just that exact reaction.  And I love that!

This past year the family decided we would have a nothing-new Christmas.  Not including the gifts for all the kids, any presents we gave had to be recycled, handmade, previously used or vintage.  Every year we each draw a name of another family member and have a $50 budget.  I drew my sister-in-law Laura's name.  She wanted anything for the house, specifically a bench for the entry way or front porch if I could find one.  She also said she would like to have something with their last name on it, if possible.

Challenge accepted.

I came across this cute little storage bench at an antique mall and it was quite a steal at $20.  All it needed was a little personalization and it would be exactly what she was looking for.

Luckily, I just learned how to do a Citrasolv transfer and had the perfect solution...

I printed their last name in a variety of different fonts on my handy dandy laser printer (in reverse of course) and transferred them onto the thick comfy cushion I made.  These transfers took under an hour!  How can you beat that???

Plus, I already had a piece of 4" foam that was the perfect size for this bench!  The whole thing ended up costing less than $30!  The only problem is now I am a little jealous...secretly I thought about keeping it and coming up with a different gift.  But, after seeing how much she liked it...I was glad I didn't.

Superheroes come in all shapes and sizes...

I am not quite sure how the time has gotten away from me, but it has been 2 weeks since my last post.  I am on the verge of putting my house on the market, so I have been spending all my spare time trying to finish up a few small projects to get it ready.

Hopefully I can get my act together and try to be a little more organized with my time.   Especially since I have joined the Naughty Notions Challenge and need to get my clutch done!  I have started my first attempt, but I am not all that thrilled with how it is turning out.  I think I just need to sleep on it and decide in the morning if I am going to move on to plan B.

Now, on to the superheroes in my life.

It all starts with a boy named George...

George is 5 and doesn't like to go anywhere without his superhero cape on.  So, I knew for Christmas I wanted to make him a personalized one.  (Since, I have 3 nephews between the ages of 3 and 5, I made one for each of them.)

(It was a little chaotic that day, so I didn't get pictures of each one wearing the capes, but this is what Charlie's cape and Connor's cape looks like)

George loved it so much that he wore it home.  Oh yeah, and they are reversible...

Even grandpa was a little jealous and had to have a turn being the superhero.  Which led to this...

and this...

It was fun to see them really enjoying the capes.

Old Shirts = New Scarf

A while back I decided I wanted to do a few recycled projects with old t-shirts.  I asked everyone I know to clean out their dressers and donate a few t-shirts to my cause.  I couldn't believe how they all came through for me...

Three quarters of this pile is from my brothers and their families.  The other quarter is from the 98 cent sale at the DAV Thrift store.

I already had several projects in mind. Revamp a few t-shirts into a new look, a scarf, an ipod case, a laptop sleeve, a few green bags, a scarf, a skirt, maybe a few pair of pajama shorts, etc.

I may not get through all of those projects, but I will definitely get several of them made.  So, let's start with the scarf...

I decided to get a little scrappy with this project.  I picked 25 t-shirts that had fun or colorful prints on them and cut them up into 9" x 4" rectangles.  I made sure not to put two t-shirts of the same color next to each other, but other than I just start picking up pieces and stitching them together to create the front of the scarf. Then I took a piece of solid navy jersey fabric that I had in my stash and cut it to the same size as my scarf front.

To add a little feminine flair to the scarf, I stitched a ruffle on each end before stitching the front and back together.

The coolest thing about this scarf was that when I wore it around my family, everyone could look at the scarf and see what used to be there t-shirt...and everyone had a little piece in there.  

Plus, it keeps me a lot warmer than I expected.  Perfect for cool days.

An Outdoor Rug Makeover

A few months ago I found this great sisal rug at a thrift store for $6!  Yes, I said $6!  I couldn't pass it up.  I had been on the lookout for a rug I could paint to use on my kitchen floor and this was the perfect size.

Unfortunately, I have this playful dog that thinks anything on the floor is a chew toy.  So, I laid the rug out in the kitchen to see if she would leave it alone....but, it only took about 10 minutes to decide it wouldn't work.  She was just waiting for me to leave the house so she could tear this rug apart without me stopping her.

On to plan B....a birthday gift for mom!  Once again I wasn't smart enough to get a before picture, but hopefully with this one you can imagine the before pretty easily.

I used a large wall stencil to create the background print.  As you can see from the picture, I had a few spots where it didn't line up perfectly.  This was my first stenciled rug and the surface was so uneven.  Even with the imperfections, I love how it turned out....and more importantly so was she!

Hopefully I can find another great rug like this one again very soon!

Crafty Upcycle #1: Ombre Bleached Jeans Tutorial

I am totally on board with this explosion of the ombre trend.  So, I decided to give a few pairs of old jeans a new look...one successfully and one not-so-successfully. 

Here are the before looks:

 This was a pretty easy, yet time consuming process. 

Supplies Needed:

Old (or New) Pair of Jeans

Bleach

Large Bucket or Bin

Pants Hanger with Clips

A word of warning...if you are planning on doing this, try to organize it when you can do it outside.  I was not that smart and bleached these in a bucket set in the bathtub in a bathroom with no window.  By the end of the night my eyes were burning so bad that I was having a hard time focusing on my bleach fumes induced hallucinations.  

Step 1:  Mix 12 cups of bleach with 6 cups of water in the large bucket or bin

Step 2:  Attach hanger to jeans on the end you are not going to bleach (I recommend you leave the waist the darkest and go lighter towards the bottom)  The hanger will help you control how evenly  the jeans are set in the liquid.  

Step 3:  Once you have decided where you want the first layer of faded color to be, fully immerse the jeans in the bleach/water mix up to that point.  Leave the area that you want to remain the darkest out of the mix.  Let the jeans soak for at least 10 minutes.

Step 4:  Remove the jeans from the mix and let hang dry for at least 30 minutes to allow the bleach to take effect.

Step 5:  Repeat Steps 3 & 4, but each time leave a larger section of the jeans out of the bleach/water mix.

Step 6:  Once you have bleached the entire pair, let hang dry over night.  Wash the jeans and they are ready to wear.

Note:  One pair that I bleached turned yellowish in the area that was supposed to be white.  I soaked them in liquid dish soap for a few hours and then washed them with OxiClean twice and they came out white. 

Here is the final product: 

Let's start with the bad news first....my failure jeans:

(Please don't judge me on my lack of a pedicure)

This look just didn't work.  So...I guess now I shall try, try again.  Maybe a denim skirt or a coin purse.  To be continued....

Now on to the good news...my success jeans:

This worked so much better!  I was thrilled with the final result and now I have a pair of jeans that are a little  more exciting than the rest of them.