diy crepe paper and faux flower backdrop {a dollar store do}

All you need to create this pretty bit of fun is an assortment of crepe paper party streamers, faux flowers w stems removed, and small wooden clothespin. Cut crepe paper and hang onto wire or string with clothespin, add a de-stemmed faux flower and that's it! Time for pretty! Most of these items or variations of could be at your local dollar store. My flowers came from our local dollar tree and I often find larger clothespins and crepe paper streamers there, though not so much in these colors.

scrumdilly diy: festive foil garland

 

For the may bed, I whipped up this super easy, super colorful foil garland in under thirty minutes (give or take time for glue to dry). And now you can too! Give the pics a gander to see how I did it and if yer not a visual learner keep reading and I'll show you how.

Materials:

*foil pizza pan from supermarket or dollar store
*permanent markers such as Sharpie or Bic
*junky scissors
*1.5" circle punch
*yarn/embroidery floss
*Aleene's tacky glue (white glue should be fin but tack glue is so much better)

Step 1: Use a pair of junky scissors to remove the outer rim of your pizza pan. Take care, the new edge may be sharp. Make sure to use junky scissors so as not to ruin a good pair.

Step 2: Color all over one side of your pizza pan with your permanent markers.

Step 3: Punch out your circles using your circle punch. You can also cut by hand but that might take forever. My original plan was to do this in my classroom to create pieces for a wind chime but the cut foil is a bit on the sharp side (and the fumes from the Bics are STINKY) so this became my bed garland instead.

Step 4: Lay a line of foil circles out face down with two inches or so space in between. Next, lay your length of yarn/floss out on top of the circles (I actually put my yarn/floss down first having cut it so to match the space between posts on my headboard). Add a small blob of glue so that it blobs over the yarn/floss and also touches the circle. Top off with another circle with the happy colors facing out/up.

Step 5: Allow to dry or hang in a happy place after ten minutes if you are impatient like me, enjoy!

diy: easter chick garland

I've had two packs of chenille easter chicks hanging around the tiny casa for three years now just waiting, waiting, waiting to be strung up for a march or april bed. Enter one very bad day in a bad brain kind of way and a million things to do and you get a very cranky jek craft, craft, crafting away at this. I made the entire garland in less than ten minutes and then realized I never took pictures of the april bed so I strung it up in zee bedroom instead of the living room and got all shutter happy.

This is super duper easy. Make sure your chickies have felt wings, otherwise you'll be threading your yarn or string into them and they will be flying away. The chenille used for the chicks is so fine and fluffy that there is not much to anchor it all together.

 

I looped off my yarn at both end, hung it up, then arranged the chicks. It's all seriously happy, is it not? I was worried the blue chicks would be a bit faded against the aqua wall but the wall is just green enough and the chicks are just blue enough it all works. Tomorrow is Easter so maybe on Monday you can score yourself a couple boxes of chickies on super sale. Enjoy!

arting it up for the february bed

 

I do not have any diy photos but I'll tell ya it is super easy. The hardest part is waiting for the paint to dry. I used three sheets of paper sized 11"X 17" and squirted a bunch of happy colors on each piece. I then grabbed an old credit card and got to scraping the paint around, adding more and scrape, scrape, scraping away. I ended up with a large blob of paint on each piece of paper that i scraped off with cardboard.

After the paint dried, I cut out a heart shape from each piece using a pattern I made from another piece. I used a pattern so each heart was the same size and shape and I would not have to fold the painted paper.

Hearts are taped to the wall with painters tapes. Washi tape did not hold and masking tape would probably pull paint off the wall. I do love happy scrape art!

scrumdilly diy: make an upcycled necktie flag

I was and am really proud of the denim flag I made last year for the july bed. Last year's flag was originally going to be a necktie flag but I couldn't source enough red, white, and/or blue neckties in time. Fast forward to this year when the mister and I began buying up neckties whenever we found them. The mister uses them for his tinkers damn ukuleles and I use them for various craft projects. As I collected them I would put aside the red, white and blue ties.

 

June came and I pulled out all my ties and found all sorts of red, white, and blue prints. I also felt completely uninspired...I was over the red, over the blue, and over the white. I wanted more color, more fun, and I really wanted to use this amazing green floral tie that was most probably a gift from this happy spiffy lady (thank you, Nikki!)

And that was that. I pulled out all the happy ties and began stitch-stitching them together...here are some details....

I used a medium zig-zag stitch in various contrasting colors to stitch the ties together. I originally pinned the ties together but quickly grew tired of having the pins poke me and ended up holding the ties next to each other as I zipped them through the machine.

Alternate the direction of each tie as you go to create as rectangular a flag as possible. I snipped the excess tie pieces at various lengths and stitched them down to keep them from fraying. My flag might actually look a little more flag-like had that bottom tie been less wonky and weavy and wavy and full of its biased self. It curled and I had no idea why or how and it might have been tension issues but being that I am a lazy sewer I rarely touch that dial and so I attempted to add another tie to the bottom but had to rip it out (which took me half of an hour) when it proved to be even more wavy wavy than the one above. I added it to the top instead and found to my dismay it too was full of its biased self. So now my flag looked a little less flag-like but it did look a little wavy so I went with it. Besides, after that point my seam ripper and I were not on speaking terms.

 

After you assemble the base of your flag pick out a bit of happy fabric for the base of your stars. I was super thrilled to find a blazing purple velvet top at the thrift to use. The only problem was that the velvet was of the stretchy kind and no matter how many pins I pinned it still slipped about all over the place. Stitch the second base onto your flag base and go rifle through your junk drawers for beads and old costume jewelry.

Yes, I actually managed to scrape up fifty odds and ends of the bejeweled kind for my stars. You really do not need to go that far but I had been holding onto these bits and pieces for a decade and decided to use them up.

The best way to attach the shiny baubles to the velvet is to use a hot hot HOT glue gun. No cute mini bedazzled gun will do, you need some super bond. Plug in the glue gun and while it heats up, arrange your baubles how you like.

Secure in place with a hefty dose of glue. Don't worry about the webby bits. Once the glue dries you can pull them off. Just get all glue happy and be careful of your fingers.

Once dry, tack it to your wall and salute!

All in all I think I made this flag for around $5 or maybe even less as many of the ties came from Nikki and/or a $5 bag sale from a local thrift. The velvet top was $1.50 and the baubles were from granny. In retrospect, I am wondering if the flag would be more stable and less wavy if I stitched my ties to the pillow case I had originally intended to use as a backing. So, think about it, gather up some ties and go for it! And if you do make one, please, please, oh pretty please send me a link and/or a photo! 

scrumdilly diy: yarn wall medallions

This month's making the bed art was super fun and easy to do. My first three medallions were made from cardboard and when I realized I needed some more I used up a paper sack as I was out of cardboard. Paper bags are much easier to work with as is creating your circle without outlines. Here ya go!

Materials:

*yarn in a variety of colors

*tacky glue 

*sponge brush (optional)

*recycled paper bags or other sturdy paper

*scissors

 My jumping off point for this project involved this chunky neon red yarn. I like working with chunky yarn for this because a little goes a long way. I could not find other neon colors of the chunky kind so I rounded out my medallions with a combo platter of colors.

Cut open you paper bag and lay on a flat surface (sorry the pics are from the cardboard). I used the floor. Apply a large dollop of tacky glue and spread across the paper using your sponge brush or fingers. You could probably use white glue but Tacky Glue is thicker and more pliable.

Cut a length of yarn at least six inches to start and press one end down into the glue and gently wrap it around itself creating a spiral circle.

Continue applying glue as needed and  wrapping yarn around the circle until you get the diameter you like. Set aside to dry.

I made a few on my bag and cut them out after they were dry. If you are making a grouping, use the same colors in different combos so that they play well together without being too matchy-matchy.

 

Another plus for using paper instead of cardboard is that the paper does not curl nearly as much as the cardboard. It's also easier to hang. Add a loop of two of packing tape to the back and get to decorating.

 

Have a medallion party, serve round food, decorate with balloons, spin some records, and have fun!

make a beaded pom-pom garland

 Not really a photo diy but I think you'll get the gist of it. I've been on a pom-pom kick lately. I have a small pile of yarn but completely lack any fiber arts skills so I mostly use the yarn for gift wrapping. Over the spring break, the nephew and I were watching this episode of Doctor Who when I spotted a nifty garland hanging in the children's room. It reminded me of the elephant garlands that Cost Plus carries and how I keep meaning to make my own version and even have all the fabric sitting here, cut and ironed and waiting for me to DO something with it already. I had planned on doing a Valentine's Day version (see how long my piles hang around) and well...that did not happen...not yet at least.

 

The end of the month was fast approaching and I still had not thought of what I wanted to make for the april bed. The garland was perfect and so I set to work making pom-poms. I do not have a fancy pom-pom maker nor do I have the energy to make one from cardboard. I had a glimmer of a memory of my mamos teaching me how to make them using just my hands and so I did a quick internet search to refresh my memory and discovered this nifty video by Ez of Creature Comforts and I think I have linked up to it before. I prepped my supplies and popped 'em onto a large tray and worked on turning out pom-poms whilst watching various programs on the computer.

After I had a happy pile, I gathered up some embroidery floss, a large eyed needle, and a pile of smaller store bought pom-poms. Oh wait...that isn't true, I forgot I had had another idea for the bed and did some neon paint splattering to a pile of white pom-poms a few weeks earlier. I gathered those up along with the other store bought poms and did a rifle through my metal drawers to see if I could wrestle up some more beads.

Back to the sofa to work on stringing it all together. The best way to do this is while watching a program or movie so that you aren't really paying any attention to your stringing. You want it to be varied and not a direct pattern. Just knot your end, add some beads or a pom or a couple poms and then a bead and a homemade pom and so on until you reach the almost-end. 

 

 Loop the end and knot and you are ready to hang it all up. It will be a bit heavier than you thought it would be but you will probably be most pleased and develop a slight addiction to making pom-poms and more garlands. I know I did...

 

 

Here is another one I made for a birthday gift for one of the sisters-a-go-go. I went with purples and blues for her...see how customizable these garlands can be? Pony beads work great and the little jeweled beads at a bit of pretty to the whole thing. A darning needle will work just fine and easily pierce the pom-poms. The pony beads I used for the top garland glow in the dark which I had no idea until I went to bed that night. Have fun and get to wrapping that yarn!

making the bed: art of the month

For the march bed I had this idea to make a bunch of frilly newspaper flowers to put up on the wall but couldn't decide on which kind to make. I then spotted this project (via decor8) which I immediately pinned and wondered how it would translate into larger flowers.

I love painting newspaper. Love it! It takes me back to kindergarten and gives me a chance to play with odd color combos. By doing up a new sheet of paper every week or so (or day), I manage to create a small pile for crafting into when the mood takes me there. All you need to do is blob paint onto one side and along the center fold, fold paper in half and smooch away. It's quite cathartic, inexpensive, and it packs a pretty punch. Thank goodness for that stack since I somehow managed to miss-cut my flower base three times! I kept cutting all the way through my folds thus ending up with two pieces instead of one happy flower shape (I was beginning and ending my cutting on the same side, don't do that). Not one to let it all go to waste, I figured out a way to incorporate the mistakes and ended up with a large floofy flower of sorts that adds just the right touch to my march bed.

You might be able to see that I accordion-folded the two miss-cut pieces and then tied them together. I cut two small slits in the large flower and used the yarn-tails to adhere the middle sized petals by lacing the yarn through the slits and tying the ends together in the back. I then cut one of my other miss-cut pieces into a smaller flower following the pinned instructions, with success! A short length of crepe paper streamer was fringed then rolled to create the center of the flower. I used a piece of washi tape to keep it together and a big whopping blob of glue to adhere the smallest flower to the middle and then the flower center to the top. Does that even make sense? Let's see...the largest flower layer is layer one, followed by the tied layer two, then the glue layer three and finally the center. The whole shebang is taped to my wall using packing tape that so far has not attacked us in our sleep. Overall, a fairly quick (save for drying time) and easy project (as long as you cut along the right folds...think diamond shape).

diy: army of love

I had the idea for htis project back when we still lived in Los Angeles. I got as far as spraypainting my army men but the finished project never happened. This year, I thought it would be perfect for my february bed. Thank goodness for the wood scrap pile behind the mama a-go-go's house! 

I spray painted the army men purchased from the dollar store with multiple coats of florist spray paint, front and back (after a good soak in soapy water). The spray paint doesn't really stick very well but if you can get the whole thing all glued up you should be okay. Maybe good old fashioned regular spray paint would work better? 

I first thought I would glue them onto a painted white board but I liked the way this scrap piece looked and left it as is. I even thought of adding the words army of love underneath the heart but couldn't decide how or what with so I left it. Before you do any arranging or gluing, add a hanging fixture to the back if you wish to hang it on a wall. I forgot to do this part and when I was trying to hammer in a nail, a half dozen fo my army guys popped right off and needed to be reafixed. After you get yer fixture on, arrange your guys into a heart shape and play around with them until you like the way they look.

Heat up your glue gun and get to gluing. Ignore all the thready bits. You can pull them off once everything is set. 

Hang or prop in a happy place and enjoy!