Family Tree Pillow

In case you missed it over at So You Think You're Crafty, here is my audition project:

I've added in some extra info.  It's written in blue.

Family is very important.  I love to integrate our family legacy into the designs we have around the house. This family tree pillow is a fun way for family and friends to learn more about a family's 'roots' when they come over.

I first made a family tree pillow for my grandpa for father's day.  This is the one I made for him.

A month ago, my father-in-law,passed away.  At his funeral, they planned to have a display table of memories.  I've been in the family for five years, but I didn't really feel like a had a tangible offering to display. I felt like a pillow would be a good way to both show a memory and become one.

I went through about three failed ideas before this pillow worked.  I used the Silhouette program because I thought I would cut the tree out of iron-on vinyl.

Sadly, the letters were WAY too small to cut.

It had taken me a long time to adjust the tree and get it to look right, so I stayed with the Silhouette design, but decided to switch to printable iron-on stuff. I could print the words, but still cut out the tree.  

Sadly, the store bough transfer iron-on stuff would not only cut, but broke my Silhouette machine blade.  

On to attempt three.  I bought "colorfast" printable fabric.  I wasn't as excited about the look, but it worked.  At that point, I was willing to make concessions in design.

 

The tree and words are printed on color safe printable fabric, then outlined with hand stitched embroidery.  

I think adding piping gives an updated and finished look.

I love that this idea is completely customizable to most decor styles by using different fonts, fabrics, or graphics.  I have plans to make one for each of my children's rooms so they can always know where they come from.  I just have to figure out how to fit the name "Mahonri Moriancumur Stapley" up in those tiny branches.  Hah!

Thanks to those of you who clicked over and voted.  Season 9 starts in a week or two, so you'll be seeing more from me soon.

Buzz in the Bathroom

My sister is a hair stylist.  She pities me and lets me pay her in crafts for haircuts.  She recently re-did her son's bathroom Buzz Lightyear style and wanted some vinyl to go on the wall.

I've been considering subway art lately.  I like it, but I haven't really found a project to try it on.  I used the Silhouette software to play around with "Buzz" words.  I also used an online coloring page I found to make a Buzz shape.  

I don't know that I would consider the final product to be subway art, but I did use a few hints I found online about making subway art to guide me.

1. If you've never done subway art before, stick with 3 or 4 or so fonts so you don't over do it.

2. Line up the words to create a visual outline of a shape (usually square or rectangle).

3. (I'm sure there's a technical name for this) Imagine you have horizontal lines on your layout. Line up the words so that your eye can travel across that visual line all the way across your project.

I didn't have a lot of words so I didn't worry about this as much, but you can see that the 'to the' and the "to" are lined up to create those visual lines.

I don't usually get that "I'm awesome" feeling after most of my crafts - but I did after this one.  I might have to spend some more time making subway-like art so it can happen again.  

I also think my sister's an awesome sport for agreeing to paint her bathroom Toy Story green.

Yo yo Pillow

I saw a post on The Purl Bee's website about making a mini yo-yo quilt.  

I don't have much need for a mini quilt, but I thought it would be fun to make a pillow for my grandma's birthday.

Then I got jealous of my grandma's pillow and made one for me.

I think it will be fun to try using more than one color for this project.  There are a lot of pattern possibilities.

I never even worked on my pillow at home.  It was all done in the car or on family summer trips.  The yo-yo's are easy to carry around and make a few at a time.  I just followed the tutorial given on the Purl Bee's website. I made 64 yo-yo's and they were pretty much perfect to line up 8x8 on a 14" pillow.

Down side: It is tedious to sew all the yo-yo's together.  Obviously not so bad that I wouldn't do it a second time.  Bad enough though, that I only covered the front of each pillow. 

His and Hers Pacifier Pockets

Ashley from Make it and Love it blogged about her tutorial for pacifier holders just right when I needed it.  That week I was making some baby gifts for a set of twins that will be born down the street from me.  I haven't ever been able to craft for a boy and girl set of twins and I got all giddy about making some his and hers things.

Ashley's pattern pieces and tutorial are perfect.  I didn't really have any trouble at all (that said, I decided not to worry about my curves being perfect before I started).  I even applied the snaps with no trouble.  If you've never done snaps, Ashley has a tutorial for that too.

I kept the fabric a simple gray color because I didn't know what mom's diaper bag looked like, but there's a lot of fun things you could do to embellish this project.  It also takes very little fabric, so it's great for scraps.

Neither of my first two kids went for the pacifier.  I think if I made it a little bigger I could keep some tissues or my phone in one...

I'm also kicking myself that I didn't take pictures of the little shoes I made as part of this gift.  I used this pattern and they turned out SO cute.  Even the husbands of the recipients of these shoes have thanked me - and that's never happened before. 

Bedroom Update - part 2 continued, again

You may have seen my post about mirror like spray paint from Krylon.  It didn't work.

Take two on the bedroom wall art.  Again.

This time, I picked out a new frame.  It was off white, so I spray painted it with white paint and re-distressed it.

I cut out some vinyl.  I'm still learning how to use the Silhouette and this part was tricky.  I had to put 4 pieces together on the glass and it didn't quite line up perfectly in a few places.  It was good enough for me though.  

I bought a piece of fabric from Hobby Lobby and put it behind the glass.  I had hoped for some green in the fabric, but didn't see any that I liked there.  Again, good enough for me.

The finished product: