I know I’m biased towards my homemade creations, but I do think this wreath is a total cutie! While a little time consuming, it is a totally doable project. Ready to begin?

Items Needed:
foam wreath
burlap (about 1/4 yard)
fabric (about 1/4 yard)
glue gun (yes, I bought one! And it was only $2.99. Not sure why I was holding off on this purchase….)
Fusible interfacing
Sewing Machine

Step 1:
Cut burlap into long strips, about 2 inches width. Using your glue gun, attach one end of the burlap strip to the foam wreath. Tightly wrap the burlap strip around the foam wreath and use the glue gun to attach the end.

Step 2:
Keep adding burlap strips to the wreath until the wreath is covered.

Step 3:
Make fabric rosettes. I discovered a product called Fat Eights, which is pre-cut quilting pieces that all coordinate with each other.

There are many tutorials online, including one I used in this post. Here is a tutorial within a tutorial!

a. Cut your fabric into a long strip, about 1.5 inch width.

b. Fold strip in half and then in half again. Roll fabric around itself, twisting as you go.
c. Add glue dots to hold fabric in place. You have to be pretty dexterous for this!

The width and length of the fabric strip will determine the size of the fabric rosette.

Step 4:
After making your fabric rosettes, slap a lot of hot glue on the back, press and hold onto the burlap wreath.

Step 5:
Continue to add fabric rosettes in a fun pattern!

Step 6:
To make the wreath holder, I cut out a strip of purple fabric and used fusible interfacing to attach it to a wider strip of burlap. Using a 3 inch strip of fabric, twist to make a small loop. Then run a quick stitch across the stop of the ends of the burlap and fabric to attach together and create a loop (make sure the wreath is inside the loop when you sew it!)

Step 7:
Hang up your wreath and admire! People will feel so welcomed when they stand at your door!!

I made this as a gift for a dear friend, but I may need to make one for myself too!

Check the parties I’m linking up to on my Linky Parties page!

Now that I’ve finally done these two crafts that are so popular on the internet, I feel like a true crafting blogger.

Everyone else, you may continue reading.   My niece’s birthday is coming up (actually, tomorrow. And yes, her banner will be arriving late) and I wanted to make something light and flat I could send in a card envelope.  Enter the fabric banner, which is by no means new to the blogging world, but certainly is very cute.

Supplies Needed:

fabric

fusible interfacing

iron

bias tape

triangle template

sewing machine w/thread

scissors

Step 1-

Iron fabric to interfacing. I did this so the triangles would be a little stiffer since my fabric was light and thin.  I suppose if you used a heavier fabric you could skip this.

Step 2-

Cut out triangles.  I used 2 different fabric patterns  and needed 4 triangles for the name Emma. I also cut out a triangle template from my Silhouette, but you could easy get a template from Word autoshapes.

Step 3-

Stick triangles into a flap on the bias tape.  Pin the triangle to hold it in place.

Step 4-

Using your sewing machine, do a stitch across the length of the bias tape. I used a zig-zag stitch.

Step 5-

You can stop here, OR keep going by adding letters to spell out a name, word or phrase.  Iron on more fabric to the interfacing- this will be for your letters.  Using letters as a template (I cut out letters on my Silhouette), trace them backwards on the interfacing.  Cut out with scissors and then iron onto your triangles.

Step 6-

Hang up and admire!  Love your project so much that you keep putting off mailing it until the day before you want it to arrive.  I’m sure the US postal service can get it from Chicago to Seattle in less than a day…

Happy Birthday Emma!

Needless to say, I had to try it immediately.

ThatGuy was all like did you craft on the bananas?  I was all like yeah I did. Pretty sure he is majorly impressed with all my crafting energy this summer and counting the days until school starts.

My mom is AWESOME and can do all these cool things on the sewing machine I can only dream of.  This summer I’ve been under her guidance and today I felt brave enough to sew on my own.  Surprisingly, I’m quite pleased with the results!

Ta da!

Here’s how to make a burb cloth.  This one goes out to all the babies who like to spit up.

1. Pick out a cute fabric and a backer (I recommend terry cloth).  You can also use fleece or minky.  Prewash to shrink and clean.  Cut out a rectangle 16 by 11 inches.

2. Pin the RIGHT sides TOGETHER.

3. Sew around the edges, leaving about 1/2 inch seam.  Also, leave about a 3 inch opening to ride-side out your burb cloth.

4. After you righte-side out your burb cloth, iron down the sides to get a nice crease.

5. Carefully top stitch around the fabric, especially over the opening.

6. Another quick iron and snip off the extra threads.

7. Admire your new burb cloth!  Tie them up with a ribbon to make them look even cuter! These are almost too cute for any babies to burb on.  Almost.

8. Repeat to make more burb cloths.  If you want to do wash clothes, cut 5×5 squares and do steps 2-7.

I’m so pleased with my creation I put it up on my Etsy store!!

ThatGuy accused me of buying this monstrosity of a frame only because it was on sale, which is partly true.  But I also like the dramatic look of the frame!  Because we like to spray paint everything, this black frame soon became dark gray.

Now we are in a great debate about what picture to put inside.  I like this one from the 4th of July:

(Yes, I made him wear red to coordinate with my blue and white.  We are a very festive couple.)

ThatGuy would like this one from a recent wedding photobooth:

Awesome photo by Yes!Photo.

Dear Reader, which one should go in our frame??  The lovely, festive couple grateful for our country’s freedom or a raucous wedding party-goer giving the The Most Interesting Man in the World a noogie?

Look at that beautiful new mommy!  Can you believe I didn’t take any pictures of the cute baby on my camera?!

I have the ultimate pie crust recipe, passed down from my mom (who got it from dear old Betty).

Sift 2 cups flour and 1 1/2 tsp. salt.  Add 1/2 cup veggie oil and 4-5 tbs of COLD water.  Stir with a fork until combined.

Then because I’m lazy, I used 5 cups of frozen fruit.  You can use any berries- I did a mixture.  Combine fruit with 2/3 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, zest of one small lemon and 1 tsp ground cinnamon.  Roll dough out and lay into pie and add fruit mixture.

You need to create a vent on your pie to let the steam out.  I used a paring knife to cut out the letters to spell the birthday girl’s name.  This will really impress your friends and they will think it took you many long and tedious minutes instead of mere seconds.

Wrap crust in foil.  Put in a preheated oven 375 degrees.  For frozen fruit bake 50 minutes, then remove foil and bake additional 25-30 minutes.  For thawed/fresh fruit bake 25 minutes and then remove foil and bake for an additional 25-30 minutes.

And I couldn’t forget ThatGuy!  Made him a mini-pie with extra fruit and crust. Then, because we are newlyweds and are mushy in love, I smooshed the O into a heart and stretched the J out to a C.

The “trash” is a grill top with 3 metal cylinders attached to act as little feet.  When the top is turned upside-down, it’s a perfect plant holder!  Being the expert spray painter, ThatGuy applied a coat of shiny red paint.

Then we tried an experiment.  ThatGuy had brought home a variety of seeds from a recent job, so we planted 2 plants in the center and spread the seeds around.  The plan was for the seeds to sprout into beautiful, colorful flowers.  Here’s what it looks like 6 weeks later.

Clearly, this isn’t what we envisioned happening.  Perhaps we accidentally planted grass seeds?  Or maybe even weeds?

Feeling like we had given these seeds enough time, sun and water to grow, it was time to change them out.  ThatGuy and I picked out sunflowers and mums.  I know all you gardeners out there are probably shaking your heads at our poor choices that will never thrive in a grill top, but they are brightly colored.  And on sale.

Ta da!

I did save a couple of sprouts that looked cute on the side of the grill top.

And I moved some of the flowers from the orginal display to their own pot and put them in the shade.  Hopefully they will do better.

Our finished front porch: