Angie's Door and Anisa's Mom's Headboard

A few years ago, my mom got a new front door. She loved her front door tons and didn't want to just get rid of it, so she had my little brother make it into a headboard. It's pretty cute, isn't it?


After I met Angie, I found out that she had the same front door. That's kind of crazy, isn't it? So, here is a before picture of the headboard/door.

I love doors... especially fun ones like these!!! I would love to find a cool old door to make into a corner bookshelf for my kitchen!!!

1 Craft, Three Ways: Wreaths

This is the perfect time of year for wreaths. Deck the halls and all that, right? I found this little grapevine turkey in my storage closet. My mom gave him to me a while back. We were never sure what to do with it. November we're doing wreaths and here's one that needs to be finished. Necessity is the mother of invention. I did have two issues. First, I kinda liked him the way he was. Second, I have a wreath hanger on my door that presented a bit of a challenge. In the end, I decided to go with simplicity and wrapped wired harvest-themed ribbon around each tail feather except the middle one. There I tied a fancy bow. I twisted the streamers from the bow and glued them on each "feather." When I put him on my door, it was hard to see his little poultry head. By Cami's suggestion, I stuffed him with tulle. It was a light tan and still hard to see the turkey's head. I guess I'll be heading back to the craft store to find a darker brown. For now, I'm kinda liking this little guy, though.


-Angie

Wreaths was a hard one for me... not that I don't love wreaths... I totally do. But I already have cute wood craft wreaths for every month and I just recently did a square wreath for my class. So, what else could I possibly do? Then I saw these wreaths in Pottery Barn. As always, I love to get my decorating inspiration from Pottery Barn magazines.

So, this is how I made them. I bought embroidery hoops. I took the outside hoop that screws apart and used that for one wreath. And I cut the inside one open and used it for the other wreath... then just taped it back together when I was done. I bought two books at a thrift store... It was kind of hard to rip up a perfectly good book, but, hey, you do what you've got to do for the sake of decorating. I got two books so that I could have two different sizes of pages. I cut slits in the top and bottom of each page and slipped it onto the embroidery hoop. When I was finished, I closed up the embroidery hoop and tied the ribbon to the hoop. I put these in my office.... I'm going for kind of a French county look in there and I thought the books were kind of officey... (my spell check doesn't think that's a word). I plan on leaving them up as an all the year decoration.
(truth be told, I like the PB ones a little better, but I think it's the red ribbon that I like. I have purple as an accent color in my office, so I may go on a hunt for some purple ribbon to brighten the look up a little. On a side note... I just found the most awesome website ever. I love wood crafts and I love wood, but I'd love to take it a little further. This woman has step by step instructions with diagrams and pictures and everything of how to build knock off furniture from stores like Pottery Barn and such. I can't wait to get started in a fun project... I've been wanting to make shelves for my boys' rooms.)

-Anisa

My wreath started out with a simple bleached willow wreath purchased at...the dollar store. Seriously! It was just under the size of a dinner plate.
I bought a bag of green feathers, sorted them by size and began inserting them, following their natural curve, in between the twigs, using hot glue to secure them.
I did the outer circle first, the inside portion. For the final covering of the wreath, I overlaid the feathers til the willow was covered, still using the hot glue to attach them.
I tied a few small bows with some pretty American Craft ribbon, also attaching them with hot glue.
Inexpensive and unique!

-C

Product Challenge: Buckets

Our product challenge this month was buckets! (I can't lie to you, I was super excited because I already had a project done with buckets that I hadn't posted yet). So all I had to do was take a picture. Do you love the dollar section at Target as much as I do? Well, they often have buckets. So, awhile back I bought several buckets at Target to keep my ribbon in. I made a template out of paper for the bucket, then used my scraps of scrapbook paper and covered the buckets with every color of the rainbow... and then some! I then tied little scraps of ribbon on the handle of each bucket. This helped organize my obsession with ribbon (well, at least the smaller pieces. I have the full rolls of ribbon just in a cupboard... I really like ribbon). Hey, let me know if you want to see pics of my whole craft room sometime and I'll try to clean it up to make a post!!! Just leave me a comment.

So, the ribbon ones are totally cute, but you can't forget my favorite bucket of all..... my thread bucket. I love this thing. I keep it next to my sewing machine so when I clip off the thread I have a quick place to throw it!!! -Anisa:)

My bucket project ended up not being a craft but an organizational project. I had been reading Pretty Organized Palace's blog and one post in particular caught my attention. She was sharing some fun ways to cozy up the home for fall and winter. With my inspiration starting there, I headed to my local Hobby Lobby and purchased this large bucket/basket. At home I filled it with all my yummy yarn for crocheting (and one day hopefully knitting) and placed it by the fireplace. I love how it makes my family room just that much more comfy cozy with the bonus I have yarn storage in plain sight.

-Ang

Check out these darling buckets that one of our readers... Shellie... sent into us. Super cute storage. Here's what she says about them,

"Here is what I have been doing with buckets. I only have 3 done. I still want a ribbon one and thread etc… I just bought some for a couple of dollars and spray painted them, cut out vinyl on my Cricut for the letter."

Way to go Shellie!

1 Craft 3 Ways: Little Monsters

I was a little nervous doing something with monsters for October. Not that I'm scared of them. ;) I couldn't think of anything to make that had to do with monsters. Until this morning. My kids and I were hurrying home from running errands so we could play with a little friend of ours. A playdate....hmmmm....(Can you hear the wheels starting to turn?) The light bulb went on-a way to get my craft done and entertain the kids. They would do my monsters for me! Brilliant!

First I had my son and his buddy each draw me a fairly large and simple monster. This is what I got:

Next, I opened my overflowing box of felt scraps and started cutting, sewing, and adjusting as needed.

Let me introduce you to Fire Dragon and Hem:

And Fire Dragon with Hah (Hem's other side):

The boys loved them. Using the kids art work to create crafts was such a fun way to capture their little imaginations for a long time!

Ang

I was so excited to do Monsters. I just recently bought monster bedding from Target for my little boy's room. But I hadn't gotten to the decorating part yet. So, I thought I'd do a little paper piecing.... It's not like I haven't done it before!

-Anisa

I've got a couple of monster projects going on at the moment, but this is what was done in time for our post today.

Do you remember those ATC cards I mentioned a bit ago, checking for interest? Well I found an excellent site that regularly does card swaps and I joined a few of them. This is my first card for the theme of Monsters. It's a baby monster's first portait. How nice it is to kill two birds with one stone!

I might toss another one of my monster-themed crafts onto the blog later this month, but in the mean time, come up with your own! October is an awesome month to immerse yourself in creepy-crawliness.

--C

1 Craft-3 Ways: The Essie Doll

One day, I was just thinking about my little girl and how nice it would be to make something sweet and simple just for her. I folded a piece of printer paper in half length-wise and drew one half of a doll shape. I cut, I tweaked, I reformed and THEN I used my new pattern to cut out the form in muslin and gave a set to Anisa, Angie and myself and we each made it our own.



I made the doll, keeping open a side seam (thanks, Angie), made her dress separately and used acrylic paint for her hair and lips. I used a fine Sharpie pen for her face.

Putting her all together, I realize that there's a lot more tweaking and enlarging to do, but she's sweet anyway. Very June Cleaver-ish as opposed to the little girl look I thought I'd captured.

- Cami

I took my fabric and chopped her limbs off to make a dress form... big surprise! I made her a tiny apron and I'm using her as a pin cushion. (she looks a little weird.. I probably should have cut the skirt shape off of her too.... sometimes crafting is such a learning process).

-Anisa

What started as one idea quickly turned into another completely unexpected idea with this sweet little thing. Originally, I thought of making the doll into a little elf that would show up around Christmas and "spy" on my kids. A few sample dresses later and I realized something. This doll was not meant to be an elf. She was meant to sit on top of my Christmas Tree!

Her leggings were fused on to the muslin cutout with some wonder under. The dress is a separate piece, but hot glued around the neck. The red trim around the neck is also hot glued. I used some curly doll hair that you can get at most any crafting store for the hair. Her face is drawn on with a fine tip Sharpie, and her heart shaped mouth is painted on in a deep red. She was looking a little drab still, so I added some of my own eye shadow and blush to perk up her face a little. I love her to pieces now and can't wait to see her on top of my "mommy" tree. (Anyone want to come decorate the rest of the tree for me though?)

Ang

1 Craft-3 Ways: Aprons

For our 1 Craft 3 Ways this month we decided to make aprons. It was so fun to see the different patterns and fabric that we each chose.

I have a friend who is an awesome cake decorator. She teaches classes at Hobby Lobby and I told her a LONG time ago that I would make her an apron. So, I finally made her one for her birthday! I bought this cute fabric at Hobby Lobby:) I don't do well with patterns, but my mother-in-law had an apron similar to THIS pattern that you can buy at Material Girls. I just kind of looked at the pattern and made my own version. I will do a tutorial for this apron in the near future or you can purchase the pattern here. I went a little apron crazy and I have another apron in the works that is made out of a pillow case (tutorial coming soon) I also made an apron similar to this one that I am going to be GIVING AWAY soon in a CONTEST that we have coming up.... stay tuned!!!
Anisa

Aprons are the uniform of motherhood. I didn't believe that until I put one on while I was cleaning my kitchen. Guess what? I wanted to clean! But, I'm not in love with the aprons I have in my drawer already. This post was the perfect opportunity to create a new and beautiful uniform that I would love wearing. The fabric was found at a local quilting store on clearance and the pattern came from my moms stash. (Seriously, we're talking the late 70s!) When I saw the simplicity of the aprons, I knew it would be easy to update it. Instead of making the the neck strap and waist ties out of fabric, I used some inch-wide grosgrain ribbon that contrasted with my main colors. I also added the yellow gingham ruffle to the bottom for a little extra femininity. It was such a quick and easy apron and I love that it wraps completely around me. (In fact, Cami told me-ok, she dared me- I should wear it to church. Looking at this photo, I almost could!)

Angie
I had no desire to make an apron per se, but looked forward to sharpening my sewing skills (which compared to Angie's and Anisa's, need a lot of work). I asked a small group of friends if anyone wanted an apron. At least three volunteered to help by accepting one. I'm lucky that some graciously deferred and I only had to make one.

However, as soon as I started flipping through Angie's copy of A is for Apron, I found myself in love with at least three different ones and came home with the fabric store with fabric for nearly that many.

I settled on this one for starters. A simple, big pocketed design which filled Jeana's only requirement: she wanted a big bow in the back.

-C

1 Craft 3 Ways- Travel Bag!!!

For our 1 Craft-3 Ways this month we decided to do some type of bag that you could use on a vacation.


I have always wanted a HUGE swimming bag. We go swimming a lot and I need a bag big enough to hold 5 towels, 5 swimming suits, cover ups, life jackets, toys, etc..... that's a lot of stuff! So, when Angie made her placemat purse, I thought I could kind of do the same thing with a beach towel and make a BEACH TOWEL BAG. It took a little trial and error because the first bag a made was just tooooo huge. But I think I have perfected the process.

Look for my tutorial on how to make this awesome bag on Wednesday!! -Anisa

>><<

This little baby has been on my craft to-do list for sometime.

I knew it would be the perfect little tote for vacation for my kids (and me too). Then I started seeing little reusable sandwich bags popping up here and there. A perfect match. A water bottle holder paired with a reusable treat bag. LOVE it. I got the tutorial for the holder here at Pink Chalk Studio (via Ucreate). The treat bag is of my own design. (Hey-sometimes reinventing the wheel is much more fun than following the directions.) In order to make it day-out friendly, I attached some grommets (a.k.a. eyelets) to both the treat bag and the holder and fastened them together with a key ring (the kind that pull open). Now the kids can carry their own water AND their own snack. Brilliant!

Watch for a tutorial soon on making your own reusable treat bags!-Ang

>><<

I had no idea what I'd do for a travel bag until my friend Rachel mentioned she liked a bag that another friend had and that she'd love a similar one herself for a writer's conference attending.
Like a true crafter I blurted out: "We could make that!" and I did.

I got the original concept from this pattern, but enlarged it somewhere in the 25-30% range. I also designed interior pockets to fit the user's purpose better. (If you'd like clearer pattern instructions that the link, email us and I'd be happy to provide them.)

The finished bag was about 18" x 13", enough to fit legal length writing pads and a larger laptop. The hidden closures were also my design (along with some other cosmetic changes). Buttons are sewn to the main body of the bag and coordinating button-hole straps are sewn on the inside of the flap.


Being only my second challenging sewing project, I'm pleased it turned out so well and as requested: serious on the outside, fun and girly on the inside!
--C

1 Craft-3 Ways: Use a scrapbook product for a Non-scrapbook craft

In honor of our month of scrapbooking, we thought that for our 1 craft 3 ways we would use a scrapbooking product to make a non scrapbook related craft. I actually had another idea in mind, but then I was wandering around IKEA one day and I came upon this cute plant pot. I have been wanting a plant for my black and white living room, but I couldn't find a great pot. I loved the vertical lines of this pot.... and I love ribbon. So I came up with this idea. I just hot glued strips of ribbon to the pot!!! I love it! - Anisa

I love notebooks. I love making lists (and crossing things off my list). A recent tune-up on my sewing machine, some lined paper I made in Word (or make some using Photoshop and this tutorial), scrapbook paper and a few embellishments helped me make this:

It's been so great to have a cute place to put my daily tasks and long and short term goals. The best part was it was SO easy to make. Cut half sheets of lined paper (regular ol' computer paper) and a piece of heavier patterned scrapbooking paper. (I believe mine was 9" x 6"-or just enough to give about a 1/4" border all the way around.) Carefully sew down the middle of the book. For this part I didn't use my foot pedal. I did it all by using the turn knob on the side of my machine. (Do a test run to make sure your paper stack isn't too thick.) When it was all sewn together I decorated the front with a few simple embellishments, rounded the corners with a punch and inked the edges. It is my favorite notebook. -Ang

This craft is on the CHEAP!

First, I made these magnet board clippies with free promotional magnets (for animal vaccinations, of all things) and Mod-Podged squares of scrapbook paper on them that match my kids' rooms.

My kids always have so many things to hang up (little crafters, all)and they were really excited when I gave these to them.

Next, I bought some simple wooden spring clothes pins at Target for less that $2. I painted some red with acid-free acrylic paint (which I use along in my scrapbooking) and covered the others with Mod-Podge and Rusty-Pickle doodle paper.

I clip these on wires that I strung across my wall in my scrapbook/craft room and use them to hang un-finished scrapbook pages and cool products that I want to use on my next scrapbook page! --C

1 Craft-3 Ways: Spring Accessories

The snow has finally melted. The grass is greening up. Flowers are blooming. Winter is OVER!!Being women, what better way to celebrate spring than by adding a few new accessories to our collections?!

That's what we thought, too.

I've been having a bead craving lately, and thanks to Bead Style Magazine, I found the cutest free pattern. I did have to become a "member" to get the pattern I wanted, but that was also free. It took me a good while to do this project, but in the end it was totally worth it! I love working with beads and wire instead of just the stretchy bead cord or even fishing line. There are a few basic techniques to learn such as making a basic loop, a wrapped loop, different knots, etc. (Bead Style has a great how-to basics section in the back of every issue.) It didn't take long at all to learn them, and I've been amazed at all the fun new looks I can try now.

-Ang

I guess I couldn't keep away from the flowers either and used polymer clay to make a keychain for me to carry around. It was made from a simple cane pinched into a petal shape and then cut into small slices and layered around a shape of my own design made of scrap clay. I baked it and glued the two halves together, leaving a small side slit to get a photo of my family in there.
The photo on the right is the best representation of the true colors. Thanks Anisa for lending me a camera!

Happy Spring!   

-Cami

Okay, so I'm not an accessories person.  I don't wear jewelry... I don't even wear my wedding ring.  I toiled over ideas of what to do for this craft for a long time.  Then I saw my niece with a cute headband on when she was swimming.  I thought it would be fun to wear a headband since I always put my hair up anyway.  It would give me a little bit of style.  I found a tutorial on Chocolate on my Cranium that was super easy!

-Anisa

One Craft-3 Ways: Decorative Pillows

Our topic for 1 craft-3 ways this month was... decorative pillow. I copied these little guys from

Pottery Barn Kids and made a little owl to match my pillow from our applique last month.

To make it, I hand drew a pattern on paper. I used my light yellow as my main fabric. Then I ironed on the other fabric pieces and did some machine applique around the pieces. It was a lot of fun and it turned out really cute!!!

-Anisa

I've been reading about print-making and thought it would be fun to incorporate a print of my favorite poet onto a pillow for the couch where I often do my reading.

This pillow was the first 'quilting' I've ever done and was probably waaaay over my skill level, but in the end I learned a lot and I'm quite pleased with the result. It measures around 18" x 18".

The print is actually an iron-on created by me using a photo of the poet which I manipulated/enhanced in Adobe Photoshop Elements and printed on ink-jet iron on transfer paper.

-C

About a month ago I found a pillow pattern by Amy Butler that I just had to make. Needless to say, I was excited our "one craft, three ways" post was pillows. When I found this basketball fabric, I knew I definitely had to make one and it had to be for my basketball-obsessed little guy. Using this pattern:

I secretly made this pillow:

I left it in his room after he had gone to bed. The next morning I woke up to, "Mommy! Thanks so much for my new beanbag!!" (Which it's not-totally a pillow, but why argue?) I will definitely be making more of these.

-Ang

P.S. Finished size is about 18 inches across and 9 inches high.

Towels in Triplicate

For our 'One Craft, Three Ways' feature, Anisa came up with the fun idea of decorating our own Christmas dishtowels.

I think I was the most hesitant to do this project. What in the world was I going to do with a towel? For Christmas??? But not having any fabulous (or otherwise) ideas of my own to contribute, I went along with it. I managed to fly solo to Hobby Lobby where I bought some Christmas-y fabric, not totally loving it or knowing what to do with it. Then....I'm not sure what happened...but all of a sudden I knew what to do!

Remember back in the day when all dishes were done by hand? I remember my favorite dish towels, though slightly gray from years of dish-drying and counter-wiping were my moms flour sack towels that someone (probably her) embroidered. They were the best. No towel could dry a dish faster or better! Anytime I have to hand dry the dishwasher overflow, I've found myself wishing for those wondrous towels. And now....TA DA! Here they are!!








These amazing and adorable designs come from Wee Wondefuls. You can get the patter free here.














Of course I had to do both the boy and girl elf. They are way to cute to do just one!
-Ang

I love buttons. I think it comes from my love of scrapbooking and having texture and dimension on my pages. I'm not exactly sure where I came up with the idea (my own brain, I guess). I decided to sew buttons in the shape of a tree on my dish towels. Here they are. It's a little impractical to dry your hands on (you have to dry them on the side) but it's way cute!!!

-Anisa

I had a lot of great ideas floating around in my head for this one, but being severely limited by my lack of sewing maching I had to try other things.

After several failed attempts at as many ideas, I settled into something familiar...crocheted snowflakes. My tree is covered with them. I made them the during the second year of my marriage and they're still going strong. Anyway, it really stands out on the black towel that matches my kitchen.

--C

Gratitude Box

One of our favorite parts about crafts is diversity. We each have our own styles. One of the features we want to provide to you on our site is "One Craft- Three Ways." Once a month we will choose a craft that we all like and want to do. Then we will go our separate ways and create. We will publish the final results here for you to see how a blank canvas can turn out three different ways.
This month we chose Gratitude Boxes. This a great way for our families to share what we are grateful for. We can add our thoughts to these boxes year after year.

We started with a blank box. In this case, a papier mache from Provo Craft, purchased from the local craft store. (box measures 5 1/2" X 5 1/2" not including scallops)

Here is Anisa's final result. I decided that I would like to put a chipboard album inside mine to record my families thoughts on what they are thankful for. Here is a glimpse of what the inside of the album looks like. Each person has a page with a tab on the side with their name on it. Each page has a little paper bag pocket with a card inside. On each card, we will write the year and what we are grateful for.

I wanted a box that my family could contribute to on a monthly basis, so I tried to stay with everyday colors (versus fall colors). The plan is once a month we'll gather as a family and write down things we are thankful for. Come next thanksgiving we will have a great record of our last year's blessings and something fun to read over dinner. As my kids are all small, it will also be fun to see how their handwriting changes and improves.
Angie also wanted to use hers throughout the year and so chose colors that fit her home decor rather than traditional fall colors.

Cami went with a simple approach, using semi-traditional Thanksgiving colors.
She used 7 Gypsies Graditude sticker sheet to embellish the box as well as the cardstock squares inside.



Although Thankgiving is past, you can use this concept for anything. Last year, Anisa used an embellished craft lunch pail to make a box to hold the gifts that her family would give to the Savior for Christmas, such as service to others, etc. May be she'll share it before the month is out.