Toilet Paper Tube Snowflakes {tutorial}

I am in LOVE with these snowflakes... in fact, I'm a little obsessed.  Last year I came across toilet paper tube snowflakes on Pinterest.  I thought they were awesome... so I started saving my trash... toilet paper tubes, paper towel tubes, empty wrapping paper tubes (along with my glass jars, tin canes, etc... I love to collect trash).    I had my students make some snowflakes, and my aide made some really awesome ones, then I found some time to make some... and now I can't stop making them.

So, here's a little tutorial....

1.  Gather your supplies.  Toilet paper tubes, scissors, hot glue and hot glue gun.

2.  flatten the tubes and cut them into 1/4" pieces.

 3.  Here are some of the basic shapes that I used in my snowflakes...  I created these shapes by folding the tube strips.  I also cut some of the strips for a few of the projects.

 4.  I started most of my snowflakes by taking 6 (yes, all snowflakes have 6 sides, not 4, not 5, not 8... kind of a pet peeve of mine) of the basic flattened oval shape and making my center.

5.  From there I tried to get creative.  I folded the shapes in different ways and hot glued them together.

 Some of the shapes were cut open to overlap each other.

 I kept adding to get the look I was looking for.  I found a lot of my ideas by looking on Pinterest and doing google searches.   Some of my favorite snowflakes were these snowflakes from The Crafty Sisters. I even searched for pictures of actual snowflakes and tried to copy those.

Here are some of the different snowflakes I made.

I then spray painted them turquoise and added a little glitter.  They also look awesome white or silver... and glitter is the best finishing touch!

I hung mine in my living room window.

Now, start saving your trash and have fun!  But don't get too obsessed:)

Half Table {repurposed furniture}

My Father-in-law does property management.  My hubby gets the fun opportunity of hauling off the "junk" that people leave behind when they move.  Most of the time it really is junk, but sometimes he brings things home to see if I want them.  A few weeks ago, he brought home a drop leaf table just like this...

(I did not take a "before" picture of the actual table because it had a disgusting black banana stuck to it... seriously people leave gross stuff behind).  We had been looking for a small desk to put in our living room for our laptop.  We wanted something in a central location so we could monitor the kids.  I had seen a few "half tables" awhile back on Pinterest and thought it was kind of a cool idea.  As soon as he pulled it out of the truck, I said, cut it in half!  He thought I was crazy... he always does, but he goes with my ideas any way.  We took the drop leaves off, and we cut the table in half.

 The first half we are using as a laptop desk in our living room.  It leans against the wall nicely.  We secured it to the wall with a "L" bracket under the table.

 Here's the side view.

 Here it is with a chair that I redid... an awesome yard sale treasure.

My hubby requested that he got the 2nd half to use in the office... it makes the perfect printer stand.  And I think I'll use it as a charging station as well.

Ombré Dresser

I have been seeing Ombré dressers on Pinterest lately, and I'm in love:)  My boys had been needing a new dresser in a really bad way.  They have been using a somewhat girly (okay, maybe way too girly) dresser that I used to have in my craft room.   Well, I ran across this dresser at my grandma's house and thought it would be perfect.  (I am horrible at taking before and after pix).  This dresser was solid wood, but the top drawer was damaged... no problem.  We needed a place for the DVD player anyway.  I had to prime the entire dresser with an oil based Kilz primer to cover the "old wood" smell.  I got this paint chip from Home Depot with black at the bottom and various shades of grey going up. 

 I had them make me a sample of each color.  Then I used whatever white paint I had laying around for the outside of the dresser.  I painted the handles with a metal spray paint and put a coat of polyurethane on the dresser. 

 It was a bigger project than I thought it would be, but I LOVE IT!

Pictures just don't do it justice:)

4th of July Float

Sometimes I really don't know why I do these things.... why do I spend hours, days creating a float for a 5 minute parade in Kanarraville, UT?  

My cousin, Summer, and I thought it would be fun to do a float for the 4th of July.  Last year we just had the kids decorate their bikes.  This year, we wanted to win!

 Our theme was "Our Founding Fathers are the real Super Heroes."    We used the Cricut to cut out all of the lettering and stars.

 My husband built a frame out of PVC pipe and we used a vinyl table cloth from Walmart for the background.

 I didn't want to do too many dollar store decorations, but, hey, they are cheap.  I thought I'd dress up this bunting a little with tulle tied between.

 These pinwheels were really fun to make.  I got the idea from Style me Pretty.  I used 1.5 sheets of 8.5x11 card stock.  I cut them in half lengthwise and glued 3 pieces together.  Then I accordian folded them and turned them into a circle.  I hot glued the circle in the center, then glued them to wooded dowels.

 The founding fathers pics were super easy.  I used my gathering foot on my sewing machine to gather the crepe paper.  Then I just glued it to the back.   I printed the pics from Wikipedia.  I just used a big X of duct tape to attach them to the trailer and I loved the way it turned out.

 These "bottle rockets" were made from old wrapping paper rolls.  We covered them with wrapping paper.  Then we made paper cones to go on top.  We taped shiny stuff to the bottom and taped them to a wooden dowel.

The kids all dressed up like super heroes... get it???

So, they gave prizes for the best 5... in no particular order!  I say we won:)

Cut-off Jeans

We went on a family camping trip over Memorial Weekend.  As we were packing to leave, we decided to steal my niece for a few days (her parents were going to be coming to our house on Friday, so why not?)  The only problem, was that she had only taken pants and long-sleeved clothes with her on our camping trip and she wouldn't have any shorts or t-shirts to wear in sunny St. George.  We knew we'd have to buy her some clothes, but her mom told me that I could cut off one of her pair of jeans that was too short.

I was just going to cut them off and call it good, but I thought it would be fun to give them the rolled up look.  Then, I was thinking I would embellish with ribbon or lace or something.  But when I looked at the back of the pants (I should have taken the picture before she got them dirty), I thought, why not try to duplicate the pockets (as close as I can).  

I cut the jeans with my pinking shears so they wouldn't fray.  Then I turned the hem over just one time... 2 times would have been too thick for my poor sewing machine.  Then I sewed the navy blue rick rack over the unfinished edge.  Lastly, I hand-stitched the white embroidery floss to match the pants.

Here's a close-up!  My stitching isn't perfectly straight by any means, but I think it gives it character:)

They totally look cute and now she has a new pair of shorts!

Berry Wreath Make-over

Do you remember these berry wreaths that were super popular a few years ago?  I'm not sure that they are going out of style just yet, but I thought I'd do a fun BRIGHT make-over with mine!

 First I sprayed primer on the wreath.  Then I spray painted it PINK!  (Just so you know, it takes a LOT of paint and primer... probably a whole can of spray paint to cover all of the branches!)

 Then I made paper flowers to go around the wreath.  I used this tutorial from Under the Table and Dreaming.  I used buttons in the center to add even more color.

Here's the final product!!!  I'm in love:)

Beach Towel Bag Tutorial

Beach Towel Bag Tutorial....

Supplies:

• 1 Beach Towel (I bought the cheapest at Walmart)


• 5 yards gros grain ribbon (just to be safe)


• Sewing machine


• Thread to match ribbon

Step #1- Fold the towel in half

Step #2- From the open side, measure in 22" and cut the towel (You are essentially cutting out the center of the towel. The excess that you cut off will make a pocket for the front of the bag)
Step #3- Turn the towel and cut off about 4-5 inches of one side of the towel (otherwise the bag is just TOO big). You may want to serge or zig zag stitch any of the unfinished edges of the towel.
Step #4- Now take the excess piece that you cut out of the center of the towel. This is going to be a pocket. The top of the pocket is going to be one of the edges that is already finished. From that end, measure down 18" and cut the other edge off.
Step #5- Take the pocket and place it on one of the pieces of your bag. You will want all of the finished edges to be at the TOP of the bag. You will want your pocket to be about 5-6 inches down from the top of the bag. You are going to sew ribbon over the sides of the pocket so that none of the unfinished portion will show. Pin the pocket into place.
Step #6- Sew the pocket onto the bag. Do NOT sew the top of the pocket (or you won't be able to put anything in your bag:)
(I had a little excess on the bottom that I had to cut off only because I wanted the pattern to match up)
Step #7- Place right sides of the towels together and pin just the bottom of the bag.

Step #8- Sew the bottom of the bag... do NOT sew any of the sides or the top.  You still want to be able to open it up fully to attach the ribbon.
Step #9- open your bag up and lay it front side up on the floor or on a table.
Step #10- Pin your handles all around your bag. I made the actual handle part of the bag 32". You will want to make sure the ribbon covers the side of your pockets.
Step #11- Sew right on the edge of your gros grain ribbon... sew both sides.
Step #12- Fold the towel right sides together.
Step #13- Sew down the side of your bag (starting at the top) until you are about 6-8 inches from the bottom of the bag.
Step #14- Open up the part you didn't sew and ...
...put that part together.
Step #15- sew the open part together. (I hope these pictures make sense) Do this on both sides of the bag. It just makes a flat bottom to the bag.
Step #16- Flip your bag right side out and you will have an awesome bag to take to the pool!!!
Please feel free to email me at twiddlethumbs@rocketmail.com if you have any questions.

-Anisa