Halloween Spooktacular Table Runner

Sometimes when I'm shopping I spot supplies that I think could make something fun, but I have to let the idea marinate in my head for a few days before I've figured out exactly what I want to do!  I'd originally spotted a bunch of great damask pillow cases at the Dollar Tree and wanted to turn them into sweet holiday pillows. I couldn't find the right color combo, however, to actually make it work.  (They would have been amazing if I could have found orange pillows, but specificity is sometimes too much to ask for the Dollar Tree).

When I was rummaging through the pillow cases I spotted some similarly styled damask table cloths, table runners and napkins. I suppose if you really wanted your couch and table setting to match you could pick up all 4 items, but they seemed a bit too matchy matchy to me. I ruminated on the black damask set for a few days before deciding I wanted to whip up a Halloween themed table runner.  Originally I thought I might cut up the table runners and hang smaller pieces on dowels to make banners of sorts, and I may still decide to do this, but for now, I love how my table runner turned out. It really couldn't have been an easier project.

The most time consuming part of this project was picking out the right Halloween-y inspired font to use for the table runner.  You can throw "Halloween fonts" into Google and come up with a ton of free fonts to install on your computer. I had a certain vision in my mind, so I just kept searching until I found the right one. The font I used here is called Blackwood Castle and I found it on www.DaFont.com.

You can find a more detailed tutorial for freezer paper stencils I've done before here, but I'll run through the quick and dirty of how I made this below.

After I set up my design in Microsoft Publisher (I suppose I could have easily used Word too). I printed out the text in the font I'd decided on and got to work. I actually ended up mixing up the font style for each word because I really liked how the word "eek" looked in lower case letters, but hated how "boo" looked lower case.  Mix it up and decide what works best for you.

I traced the letters onto my freezer paper and then carefully cut them out. Remember to save the inner pieces of your letters!! I ironed my table runner, lined up the stencil so they were both the same distance from the bottom of the points and then ironed them on - including the little inside pieces for the letters (which you can see in the B, and O's below. Once I was happy with their placement (I had to carefully peel off "eek" and realign it) I was ready to paint.

I decided to use silver paint for this project because I thought that white might be too stark on the table runner. I wanted the letters to show, but not overly pop in color. 

Once the paint was dry I carefully peeled off the freezer paper and it was done!  

It wasn't until I was all done that I realized that my table runner was WAY TOO LONG for our little Ikea table. It hangs off the sides nicely though so if we were having a party where we weren't sitting at the table it would hang nicely.

From this photo you can see that mine is about a foot and a half too big, but it's okay, I still love it.

Close up: I decided to go light on the silver paint because I LOVED how the damask pattern showed through the fabric. If you didn't like this, I'd recommend doing one light coat, letting it dry, and then adding more paint. It's better to add more paint in stages so that the moisture from the paint doesn't make the freezer paper lift.

Because I had all of the supplies on hand, except for the table runner, this project cost me exactly $1. Not too bad, for a sweet Halloween decoration!! 

How are you preparing or decorating your house for Halloween? 

Craft Show Prep

I have to start this blog post off with the cuteness that is Mr. Figg. Figgy's mom sent me this adorable photo of him napping while wearing his Halloween Pet Bow Tie. Just look at him!! Halloween Pet Bow Ties are available in the shop for a week or so longer so be sure to snatch up yours today.

I've been doing a bit of prep work in anticipation of my very first craft show coming up in November. I've been trying to get extra product assembled, been working on branding and different elements that are required to put on a display for the show. I thought I'd share some of my work thus far today.

Here's a freezer paper banner I made for my shop:

Freezer paper stencils are super easy and fun. You can read my tutorial on how to make them here.

After searching around for price tags, and realizing that for what they are they tend to be rather expensive, I came up with my own. It only required that I buy a heart shaped punch! I had the paper, embroidery floss, and tiny hole punch on hand. I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out.

Lily of the Valley Hair Piece

I finally came up with a felt sample color guide. I've been meaning to do this for a long while now, and when I was organizing my felt the other day I finally got around to putting together a sample sheet.

I've been working on developing some sample mobile figures for the show too. While it's not reasonable to bring finished mobiles to the show (just too much work), I figured I should show a bunch of my samples so that people can get a sense of the designs I've made previously as well as a few new designs I've had floating around in my head for a while. 

You can order a felt baby mobile online from my shop HERE.

There's a huge pile of pet bow ties in progress on my desk. I've been trying to whip up quite a few in each pattern of fabric so I can be as prepared as possible!

I'll come back and share more as I keep developing things! 

If you'd like to come out and check out the music and craft fair, Lavender Paper Hearts will be at JP Rocks and Rolls, November 10th. 

Freezer Paper Onesies!!

I love freezer paper stencils and they're a great and pretty easy way to jazz up a plain onesie!! You can check out my Freezer Paper Stencil Tutorial from last year to learn how to make these!!

Here are a few onesies I made recently:

This onesie is actually for Ali & Jen's brother Andrew (or Pooter as we call him) and his wife Lauren. They're also expecting a baby in July (and yes, they're a very fertile family!)  Lauren is actually half Puerto Rican and I thought that this onesie could be a fun and funny nod to her heritage.  I know it's rather simplistic, but for some reason "no hablo" (which translates to "I don't speak" in English) coming from a baby/on the onesie cracks me up to no end.

Pooter and Lauren run an amazing photography business. Andrew takes the pictures, and Lauren helps out in all capacities. You should check out Andrew's work here:  Collective Perception Photography. CPP shoots all over California and they specialize in weddings, engagement shoots, great family photos, and even sweet photos of children!!  Andrew does an incredible job of capturing the personalities of the people he's photographing and he really gives them all a sense of feeling.  Below is a stunning photo Andrew shot to commemorate Lauren's beautiful baby bump and to celebrate baby Darko (as they're calling him/her for now).  You can find more up on CPP's Facebook page.   

Collective Perception Photography

This onesie is for baby Nessie whose mobile was featured last week.  For some reason Ali and Andy have always thought that Jackalopes, the mythical creatures that are part rabbit and part antelope, are awesome.  So putting this design on a onesie for their baby has actually been a must-do item in my idea folder for ages - even before I found out they were pregnant!!  It's simple, playful, and fun - just like them!!

Have you given freezer paper stencils a try before?  If you haven't they're so easy and fun. Check out my tutorial HERE.  Happy Crafting!!

The Waiting Game Has Me Crafting Up a Storm!

This is my second submission for the Dollar Store Crafts Wedding Crafts Contest!!

I'm in a weird waiting period between the time that I've submitted my dissertation to my committee and when I actually will hold my defense (which is actually tomorrow.  This post got pushed back a bit. Wish me luck!!) Since I've done everything else I can think of for my dissertation (bibliography, appendices, discographies, miscellaneous paperwork, etc.) I've been using the rest of my time reading bad (read: AWESOME) books and crafting up a storm for a variety of different projects.

E and I attending and or are in a few weddings this summer so these were the first few projects I tackled.  Recently I made some banners (using freezer paper) for my cousin's wedding and a hair piece that my sister-in-law will wear on her wedding day. See my Etsy Shop Lavender Paper Hearts for hair pieces! I'll have a similar hair piece coming very soon!!

 

This was my first freezer paper project which I made a few months back for my SIL's bridal shower. They were used as mini-table runners for her shower and looked sweet under her cake.  My SIL is also going to use them to hang on the backs of their chairs on their wedding day!! They could even be made into little door hangs, or if you added a small dowel and grabbed a cute Sheppard's hook from the Dollar Tree you've got an instant welcome yard sign for any event!! 

I also used freezer paper on the wrapping paper for my cousin's wedding present.  I had to press it VERY LIGHTLY so that it didn't tear off the paper when I removed the stencil, but I think it looks pretty cute (if I do say so myself!)  You can find the paper bow tutorial here. I'm kind of in love with it!!

Seriously, if you haven't tried freezer paper stencils you totally should.  These stencils are actually pretty easy to do if you have a little time and patience. You can use them on all kinds of things too! We even had a little baby onesie decorating party for a baby shower this last January!!

Freezer Paper Stencil Tutorial - For Banners or Monograms


For this project I used the following supplies:

• Freezer Paper -I found mine at my local big box store for $7. I have enough to make stencils for the rest of my life.
• Flour Sack Towels from the Dollar Tree - If you don't want to sew be sure to check out the towels. I found that sometimes they have all 4 sides hemmed, sometimes just 3, sometimes just two.  It saves a little time if you can find some that are hemmed on all four sides, but it's a quick zip through a sewing machine if they're not finished. 
• Paper clips or binder clips - on hand
• Acrylic Paint(s) & Brush(s) or Sponges (I used sponges from the Dollar Tree) - on hand 
• Paper, computer, printer - Basically you need these to get your stencil - if you draw it by hand even easier!
• X-acto knife - on hand
  
• Iron - on hand
  
• Cardboard - on hand - I don't know about you, but I LOVE to keep the cardboard that comes with dresses and shirts that I buy online. I may have a supply hoarding problem.
  
• Sewing machine (optional)- If you find a flour sack with hemmed sides you're golden OR if you like the rustic chic look be bold and don't bother to hem!!

Step 1: Basically what you want to do first is figure out what awesomeness you want to create into a stencil.  I used a free online downloadable monogram from Wedding Chicks (who have amazing free downloads!)  Because I knew my cousin wasn't into anchors for her wedding day I used photoshop to modify the design and I added two sea stars which were more her speed.  (Yay for beach weddings!!)  Since the flour sack towels are 3ft by 3ft I blew up my image in Publisher so I could print it poster size. I then taped the sheets together.  (Just to give you an idea - I had 16 sheets total for the larger monogram in this tutorial.)

TA-DAAAA - one ginormous stencil!! You can see in the top right hand corner that I am apparently not very good at matching up lines. I had to fudge part of the swirl by drawing it in my hand in order to make them meet... it seemed easier than taking the whole thing apart and retaping. 

Step 2: Now, because the stencil was so big, I had to tape together two strips of freezer paper. I don't have a photo, but I just laid the two sheets on top of the stencil to see how big they needed to be and then got out my tape and stuck the sheets together.  Note: The shiny side is the part that sticks to the fabric so you want to draw on the dull side. When you open up the package of freezer paper this will be very obvious. Next you'll need your pencil or sharpie and you just start tracing away so that you copy your design onto your freezer paper. *Helpful hint: I also paper clipped the stencil and the freezer paper together since it was such a large job and I didn't want it to shift! I would say it took me about 15 minutes of laying on my kitchen floor to trace this onto the freezer paper.

Step 3: Next I got out a thick piece of cardboard and my x-acto knife and I started to carefully cut out the stencil.  **REMEMBER TO SAVE THE LITTLE FILLER BITS - I don't have a photo of this step, but you can see in the photo below how I had to fill in the bubble part of the letter B. These are strips/shapes that you cut out but you need to remember to save them because they fill in the letter - without them my B would look like a weird D.  I had a few more of these filler bits from some of the swirls too so I laid them out in order as I cut them out so I would remember where they went.

Step 4: Once you've cut out your entire stencil you want to iron your flour sack to make sure it has no creases. This will REALLY help you out when you try to iron on the stencil - I promise!! (I tried to cheat this on my second flour sack and it was terrible and required a lot of fixing. Learn from me - don't be lazy!)  Then carefully lay out your gimongo stencil on top of the flour sack and fiddle with it for a bit until it lays down exactly how you want it.  Leave out the filler bits for now.  After setting your iron to medium high heat with no steam start in one corner and carefully begin to iron on the stencil.  Take your time because you want to make sure it's iron down correctly. If you make a mistake you can carefully pull up the paper (CAREFULLY) and re-iron it into place.  Once you've ironed the whole stencil go back and place in the little filler pieces one by one and press them with the iron onto the flour sack.  Your finished work should look sort of like the image above.

Step 5: Now that you've got your stencil in place it's time to paint.  Put a piece of cardboard behind your fabric/stencil so that it won't leak onto whatever surface you're painting on. For good measure I clipped my fabric to the cardboard so that it wouldn't wiggle and smudge paint on the back side.

Using a brush or a sponge (I used a sponge I cut in half) carefully begin to blot on your paint.  You don't want to add too much at first because the fabric will soak it up. 

Step 6: Once you've applied all of your paint let the whole thing dry for a while.  I let mine dry for about 30 minutes before I attempted to peel the stencil off. I wanted to reuse the stencil for a second flour sack to save me some time so I peeled it away really carefully.

You can reuse the stencils about 2-3 times before they start to not really work any more.  To reapply the stencil I used a sheet of packing paper between the stencil (which now had paint on it) and my iron so I wouldn't hurt my iron - it worked perfectly!

If it's a smaller less detailed stencil you can just cut a new one. For the little monogrammed banners I made for my sister-in-law I just cut a new stencil.  You also might notice that those are smaller - I only used one flour sack that I cut in half and then I hemmed up the raw edges with my sewing machine.

These banners are going to be used as decoration for my cousin's wedding.  They can be hung up on a bar, draped across a table - you could even get a dowel and some yarn and hang them from a sheppard's hook (the Dollar Tree usually has really cute ones in the summertime!!)

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Lastly, be sure to check back frequently - I'm really excitedly working with a fantastic wedding blog, Big Day for 10k, to  host a giveaway for one of my hair pieces in the next few weeks!! I'll make a post as soon as it's all nailed down!! :)

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