Fabric Covered Storage Box

My daughters keep teasing me about Pinterest and all the cool things that I see there.  They think that I won't make any of the things that I pin.  To prove them wrong and to keep a record of what worked and what didn't work, I'm going to post some of the projects that I've made from Pinterest.

Homeschooling is a lot of fun and we enjoy the lifestyle as a family.  It does create a lot of things to store and not all of them fit neatly on a bookshelf.  All the flashcards, clocks for practicing telling time, educational cards, learning gadgets are difficult to store.  I usually end up throwing them in a box that was originally used to hold reams of printer paper.  The boxes did the job, but were unsightly in my family room.

I grabbed my handy stapler, some old fabric (previously used for curtains?), some scissors and began covering the box.  I did the bottom first to make sure that there was enough fabric.  After cutting the fabric several inches longer and wider than the box, I folded an inside flap that was turned under to hide the raw fabric edges.  Both inside and outside of the box was stapled to hold the fabric in place.  Pull the fabric taunt and the repeat on the opposite side.

The sides were folded in slightly from the edges to create a smooth edge at the corner of the box.  Due to the extra fabric (created from the folding) extra stapling was necessary.

The box lid was done the same way.  It only took about 15 minutes to do the first one and less that 10 minutes for the other boxes.  I was so pleased to get rid of the ugly boxes that I made several more boxes to hold other items.  Now the odds and ends of life are stored in a manageable way and my shelves don't look like an office supply cupboard.

Cables and Cogs

A friend (Melinda) requested that I post some pictures of some of Amy's jewelry.  Amy's etsy shop is called Cables and Cogs.  She pulled most of her stock from her shop during Water Fest and won't be re-listing the items until after next weekend.  One of the organizers from the Jones, MI craft fair contacted Amy to encourage her to have a booth. 


This is a photo of a Steampunk bun holder.




              
                                                     Steampunk Star Flower Bobby Pins

New Socks!

My daughter gave me a new pair of socks. Not just boring, old, ordinary socks, but beautiful hand knitted socks. She even let me pick out the colors, brown and green. They are so warm and thick that my toes are toasty warm all day long. Amy taught herself to knit with a little help from my mother at the beginning. She does a lot of knitting and loves to try new patterns. I'm envious of her talent. Any type of yarn work makes me crazy, so these socks are something I will never be able to replicate. Thanks Amy!!!

More Small Handbags

The kids went through my fabric stash and chose some material for me to use making small handbags. I'm pleased with the results and am having a blast making purses. How many handbags can one person own before being called extravagant?

One piece of fabric was a grass-like print that varied from cool blues and greens to reds and oranges. My oldest two girls liked the orange.
But I preferred the green/blue colors.
This is a medium blue/teal with fine black linear print. Unfortunately, the photo doesn't show the fabric at its best.



With some of the left over fabric, I was able to make two CD holders for stocking stuffers for two of the kids at Christmas.

Cute Handbag

I recently found this blog which provides a pattern for this really cute bag. The bag only uses about 1/2 a yard of fabric or 2 fat quarters, a small amount of interfacing, and 1 magnetic snap. This is the first time I've used magnetic snaps and I will definitely be using them in the future. The bag went together easily in about 1 hour, with interruptions from my kids. After seeing the result, my girls went through our fabric stash and requested bags from this pattern.

Camera Bags

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While browsing the Sew Mama Sew blog, I ran across these camera bags. I made several to give as Christmas/birthday gifts this year. There are a large number of scraps in my material cupboard and I can't force myself to throw away batting scraps when I'm making quilts. These little bags are a great way to use up some of these too good to throw away items.

I'm beginning to make iPod holders using the same idea, but changing the dimensions to fit a 2" x 4" iPod.

Easy Mouse Pad Craft

In my fabric cupboard was 1/2 a roll of cork. The cork was originally purchased to make felt leaf coasters, from a Martha Stewart craft show. The leaf coasters have been gone for several years, but the left over cork remained. We own several computer and own ugly race car mouse pads. I used one of the old mouse pads as a pattern that I traced onto the cork. After cutting out the shape, spray adhesive was liberally sprayed on one side of the cork. Some fabric scraps were used to cover the cork and then trimmed down to size. All the mouse pads needed to be placed under stacks of heavy books to make the mouse pads lay flat. The mouse pads look so much better and the project was very simple. The most difficult part was removing the adhesive from my fingers.

Summer Handbag

My kids are selling their items from the Entrepreneur class at flea markets and craft shows throughout the summer. My two oldest daughters are making a variety of knitted items for the booths as well. Mike suggested that I make a few items to sell also, because I'm desperately trying to use up fabric scraps that are "too good to throw away." After our school day was complete, the afternoon was spent making items to sell. This handbag was one of the items I made. It's fully lined with two inner pockets. The plan was to use a zipper closure, but I didn't have a large enough zipper in a coordinating color. Instead, a flap was made for a button closure.

It's so much fun to design a pattern and make changes when working on a project. I love this fabric and am thrilled with how well the bag came together. This may end up in my closet instead of in the craft booth!

More Christmas Cards

The kids and I managed to make 20 Christmas cards, 30 gift tags, and 6 small gift bags for Christmas this year. I also found a pattern to make card stock 3-d triangles for ornaments. I stamped 8 of them for Mike and the kids, which I'll fill with candy for them to open Christmas Eve.

Amy and I have spent the afternoon listening to late-80's through late-90's pop music. It's really sad that she and I can sing all to all the words!
Happy Memorial Day!

Christmas Crafting

Yes, it is Memorial Day. Although I should be painting the kitchen cabinets which were started 3 weeks ago, I woke up early this morning and began making Christmas cards with Paige and Madelyn. This is not as time-wasting as it sounds. There is never enough time around Christmas to make cards AND I'm using up craft supplies so that I can be better organized. That's my story and I'm not budging!

Here are some of the cards we've already made.


I also managed to make 12 scrapbook pages. Now, to make potato salad.

My Newest "Hobby"

Katie and Steve have a business that they are establishing for their Entrepreneur class. They are selling dog outfits. Unfortunately, neither Katie nor Steve sew. Guess who spent a lot of time at her sewing machine this weekend? These are a sampling of some of the 16 outfits that were made for their business. Katie is learning how to cut out patterns and Steve is helping with some of the hemming and he designed and printed out all of the clothing tags. They would like to get another 50-60 outfits made by the Expo on May 19th. I'm not making any promises, but it has been fun.

Knitted Handbag

My daughter Amy is a great knitter and kindly made me this bag. She used a cotton/polyester blend yarn for easy wash ability. I'm ashamed to admit that she made the bag for me last summer, but told me that I needed to sew on the button. The buttons were purchased and then misplaced. When buttons were found, the bag was misplaced. I recently located both buttons and handbag, so the bag is finally ready to be used.

Gift Cards

Madelyn and I spent a couple of hours on Saturday making gift cards. She would really like to begin making greeting cards and I wanted her to start on small projects. We made 70 assorted gift cards for Christmas. Madelyn learned some stamping techniques and I have a good start on my tags for next Christmas. We're hoping to spend some time next week making more gift cards and then begin to make gift bags.

I never have time in November or December to make gift cards. I usually just write the kids' names on their packages using a felt tip marker. The already completed tags are in sheet protectors in my holiday notebook. It feels wonderful to have some Christmas crafting already completed!

Handbags

Years ago when I owned a ton of shoes, I purchased many handbags to coordinate with my outfits. I was unmarried back then and had money to spend on personal items. Since the children were born, there isn't a lot of money to spend on purses and shoes. I no longer have different bags and shoes for particular items of clothing. A good black leather bag sees me through the winter; a straw bag or light colored leather bag is for summer use.

Last year, I purchased a new banana colored bag. It wasn't an inexpensive bag, nor was it top of the line. Three weeks after purchase, the handle began to fall apart. At the end of 2 months the purse was tossed into the trash. Spring is approaching (hopefully) and I need a new purse. Instead of dropping a lot of on junk, I decided to make my own. Mike brought home some upholstery fabric samples and I tried designing my own.

This is a clutch bag for when I got out without the children and need to carry their stuff.

This will be an everyday handbag. It is a nice roomy size and has a full zipper on the top. Later this week, I will be making a matching change purse and wallet out of the same fabric. Both purses are lined with a floral fabric.

Stampin' Up Cards

These are the cards that I made at the Stampin' Up party on Saturday.


Later in the day, while the kid's were watching Prince Caspian, I decided to make some very simple cards using my scrapbooking supplies and a few stamps that I had purchased years ago at a Stampin' Up party.



I enjoyed making the cards, but I just can't see spending hours making greeting cards that will end up in the trash.

Simple Pine Cone Craft, Ummm

The local Joann's store has a large pile of cinnamon pine cones stored in their entryway. The smell is wonderful,albeit overpowering. A small bag of pine costs almost $5 and I'm cheap. Today, I discovered a huge plastic storage bin filled with pine cones that we had collected several years ago.

I baked the pine cones for 1 hour in a 250 degree oven. After they had cooled, Madelyn sprayed the pine cones with clear polyurethane. After they had dried, we placed small batches of pine cones in a large metal bowl and sprinkled them with cinnamon oil.

My whole house smells faintly of cinnamon. The children and I placed baskets and small bowls of pine cones throughout our living spaces. After Thanksgiving, we'll be adding small pine branches and red bows to the containers.

About 1/2 of the pine cones were used. Now, to think of ideas for the rest of them.