Category: crafts

Best of Bare Feet on the Dashboard – Crafty Edition

It’s my 3 year blogging anniversary this week, and I’m celebrating by bringing you my favorite and most popular posts from the past 3 years.   I’m kicking off the party with my favorite crafty posts.  I started blogging to have a creative outlet, and creating fun stuff is a huge part of that.  I’d love for y’all to check out my old projects and feel free to pin away if you like what you see.

DIY Baby Book with Free Printable Pages
(My most popular crafty post so far.)
The Picket Fence Project – Roadside Trash to Wall Decor
Part One   Part Two
Anthro Inspired Sandal Makeover
Anthro Inspired Headband with Vintage Fabric
Cake Plate Jewelry Holder
Festive Paper Flower Tutorial
The Mod Podge Doily Canvas Project
DIY Solar Powered Light Jars
Ribbon Mobile for Baby’s Nursery
Felt Embroidered Bird Onesie
Handmade Felt Christmas Stockings
Burlap Easter Wreath
A Burlap Wreath for All Seasons
Bowtie Onesie Tutorial
Vintage Highchair Makeover
Birds in Flight Nursery Mobile
Burlap and Pinwheels Summer Wreath
Cheap Giant Photo
Pinterest Free Printable
There they are, all my fav crafty posts.  Happy blog anniversary to me!  
What was your favorite craft project that you made in 2012? 

**UPDATED** Pinterest and Time Management ~ Free Printable

We’ve all seen them.  There are so many unbelievable ideas on Pinterest, but some of them really make you wonder what kind of time the creator had on his or her hands.  Apparently that creative mama is managing her time a little better than I am.  She is probably out making something cool right now rather than wasting her life away skimming through Pinterest.  This little saying came to mind today.  

 After wasting a considerable amount of time on my beloved Pinterest today looking for ideas for Mini Bear’s room, I decided a free printable was in order. Click HERE for the free PDF.  Just play nice and link back here if you post it.

What’s your biggest internet time sucker?

Frugal Christmas: Our Red and Aqua Mantle and Color Scheme

My goal this year was to decorate our new house in as festive a manor as possible while spending as little as possible and repurposing old decorations.  For this project I ended up buying only one can of spray paint and two spools of ribbon.  Everything else came from old decorations or prior projects.  Mission accomplished.  I just love red and aqua together, and I had some candles, mason jars, and Christmas balls that worked toward the color scheme, so I went for it.  

 These blue mason jars were a gift from my Meme (that’s southern for grandmother) and I use them all the time.  I filled them with Smell of Christmas potpourri by Aromatique, an Arkansas company.  I tied red ribbon leftover from other projects around them and placed this cute little trio on one end of the mantle.  

 Our stockings are hung by the chimney with care.  I made Jed’s and mine, but ended up throwing the one I attempted for the Bear away in a fit of crafting rage last year (long story).  You can read about how I made ours here.

 For the wreath I took apart this spring wreath, spray painted it white, and wrapped it in aqua ribbon.  I used pine cones that were already wired from my bouquet in Marci’s winter wedding, spray painted them white, and tied them with aqua and white ribbons.  I attached three red jingle bells leftover from the Bear’s toddler friendly Christmas tree.  I hung it with wide aqua ribbon.  

 I bought the joy sign at a yard sale a few years back, and the red and aqua Christmas balls were from after Christmas clearance years ago.  I nestled them in aqua fine net tulle that I also used the last few years.

 The red candles normally live in other spots around the house, but they look cute as a trio mirroring the trio of mason jars.

 I carried the red and aqua theme into our bedroom by decorating another mini tree with leftover jingle bells and white ribbon.

What’s your favorite Christmas color scheme?
How do your stay frugal with holiday decorating?

Frugal Gift Ideas: Personalized Coffee Mugs

I saw this idea on Pinterest a while back and thought it would be a perfect craft for my MOPS group.  I’m one of the craft leaders for our MOPS group this year.  The original pin recommended using a Sharpie marker to decorate a dollar store coffee mug, then baking it for 30 minutes at 350.  After a little research I discovered that Sharpies are not food safe.  Uh oh.  Acrylic paint is food safe, so I tried to find a way to incorporate it into the idea.  I found another pin that used paper doilies as a stencil and thought that might work well with the acrylic paint.  I found mugs and doilies at our local Dollar Tree and brought acrylic paint, foam brushes, and Sharpies as well.  Here’s how it went down.   

 Everyone found a mug of their choice.  There were three different shapes and sizes.  I told everyone the could use Sharpies as long as they didn’t put it near the lip of the mug or on the inside.  I shared the doily stencil idea, and demonstrated how to tape the stencils onto the mugs.  Then everyone went for it.  Some folks used just Sharpies, others used just acrylics, and still more used a combination of the two.  I let them all dry, baked them at 350 for 30 minutes, and then let them cool.  The Sharpies ran until they dried, FYI.

Take a look at a few of our finished products.  I used a Sharpie to paint my mug, but kept the marker clear of the area where my mouth would be.  You can see the pattern the doily made on a few of the mugs above and below.

 Some of the mugs that were totally covered in acrylic needed to be glazed after baking.  They ended up with a rough, dry finish.  The Sharpied mugs and mugs with smaller patches of paint looked great after being baked.  If you make these as a gift, be sure to let the recipient know that they need to be hand washed.

What frugal gifts are you giving this year?  

A Big Brother T-Shirt to Announce Our Pregnancy

When we found out we were expecting our 2nd wee one, I tried to come up with a sweet way of announcing the pregnancy to our friends here in Dallas, our family far away, and my bloggy folks.  I decided to hand embroider the announcement on to a t-shirt for The Bear to wear.  My hand embroidery skills are… not strong.  But hey, what’s life without a little imperfection?  

 I shot a few pics of The Bear in his t-shirt after I finished it, and sent them out to friends and family that live far away, with the caption, “The Bear has an announcement.”

 It took some of our friends and family a bit to figure out they had to read the shirt to get the announcement.

 Later we put the shirt back on The Bear to go see some of our friends at our regular Taco Thursday dinner. Such great reactions.

 The Bear also wore his shirt to my Young Life “retirement” party to share the good news with all our YL friends.

 Finally, I used the the pics to announce the pregnancy here on the blog.

 To make the shirt, I used a plain navy blue shirt that was already a part of The Bear’s wardrobe.  I have a collection of vintage felt and embroidery floss from and estate sale purchase years ago.  I used orange felt and navy blue floss and an embroidery needle that was waaaaay too big to stitch the design.  I fastened the felt into an embroidery hoop and stitched away after drawing the words with an disappearing ink pen.  I used the hoop as a guide to cut out the circle, and then stitched the circle onto the shirt.  Done.

How did you announce your pregnancy? 

I’m sharing this design over at Prudent Baby’s Embroidery Contest and at some other fun craft parties.

Summer Mantle and a Cheap Giant Photo

I love to change up my fireplace mantle, but I don’t like to spend money.  I have to look at it constantly, so I want it to be something I enjoy.  Often I repurpose items from around the house.  I used one of my Meme’s vintage blue mason jars to hold up 3 fun pinwheels I found on clearance at Hobby Lobby last year.  I also used 3 red candles from around the house for the other side.  The giant photo in the middle is my masterpiece.  I saw a great post on Pinterest about blowing up photos for under $5 and decided to put it to the test.  I edited my photo by adding text, then took the file to Kinko’s on a thumb drive.  I asked them to blow it up to a 2×3 engineer’s print.  It cost $3.  Total.  The quality is not the same as when you pay for a more expensive print, but I love the look of it and the fact that I can change it out at will.    

My husband cut out a piece of foam insulation to fit the print, and I painted the edges aqua to match other accents in my living room and disguise the ugly foam insulation.  I mounted the print using spray adhesive.  Easy.

Have you tried the giant print trick yet?
I made 2 others; one for Jed’s classroom and one for the 
ugly mirrored closet doors in The Bear’s room.  
So fun and so frugal.  Go for it!
I love linking my ideas at these blog parties.  Click the links to check them out and find crafty inspiration.  If you’ve never visited a blog party, you will be blown away by the creativity shared and imaginative ideas.  
Monday: CraftOManiacMad in CraftsIt’s So Very CheriSew ChattyThe Girl CreativeKeeping It SimpleC.R.A.F.T.Boogie Board Cottage, and Sumo’s Sweet Stuff   
Tuesday: Raising 4 PrincessesThe Kurtz CornerHope StudiosToday’s Creative BlogCoastal Charm, and New Nostalgia 
Wednesday: The Trendy TreehousePolka Dots on ParadeLil Luna, and The Thrifty Home
Thursday: Somewhat SimpleTales from BloggeritavilleThe Shabby Creek Cottage, and House of Hepworths
Friday: Sugar and SpiceKojo Designs, and The Shabby Nest
Weekends: Tatertots and Jello, Serenity Now, and Candace Creations 

Burlap and Pinwheels – A Summer Wreath

I’m still in love with my interchangeable burlap wreath.  It just makes switching out seasonal decorations so easy.  For summer I left the grass and flowers in from my spring wreath and added pinwheels from Dollar Tree that were 3/$1.  They happened to match the ribbon I used in the spring wreath.  Click here to see my spring/Easter version and here to see the Valentine’s Day version.  

 Getting the pinwheels to stick in the wreath was far more difficult than I thought it would be.  I thought the stakes would poke through and make the pinwheels stand up.  Nope.  They broke off instead.  I weaved each stake through the grass a little bit and then used straight pins to secure the stakes onto the back of the wreath.  Because the wreath is on our front door and gets opened and shut a lot, I’ve had to readjust the pinwheels several times.  I’m ok with that.  I love the whimsical look of this wreath and the fact that it cost only $1 to switch to a summer version.

Pinwheels, flip flops, Americana, beach flair… 
How do you decorate for summer?  
I love linking my ideas at these blog parties.  Click the links to check them out and find crafty inspiration.  If you’ve never visited a blog party, you will be blown away by the creativity shared and imaginative ideas.  
Monday: CraftOManiacMad in CraftsIt’s So Very CheriSew ChattyThe Girl CreativeKeeping It SimpleC.R.A.F.T.Boogie Board Cottage, and Sumo’s Sweet Stuff   
Tuesday: Raising 4 PrincessesThe Kurtz CornerHope StudiosToday’s Creative BlogCoastal Charm, and New Nostalgia 
Wednesday: The Trendy TreehousePolka Dots on ParadeLil Luna, and The Thrifty Home
Thursday: Somewhat SimpleTales from BloggeritavilleThe Shabby Creek Cottage, and House of Hepworths
Friday: Sugar and SpiceKojo Designs, and The Shabby Nest
Weekends: Tatertots and Jello, Serenity Now, and Candace Creations 

Decorating an Easter Mantle

Spring is here and Easter is one of my favorite holidays.  
Ok, I say that about all the holidays.
But seriously, Easter is my favorite.
I love that it represents the risen Jesus and the hope of new life.
To decorate our mantle, I took inspiration from Pinterest and used lots of items found around our house.  The cute sign I bought on sale last summer at my favorite shop in Little Rock, The Full Moon.  They have an assortment of fabulous things that is ever changing, and they have really great sales a couple of times each year.  I even registered there for my wedding.    

The bunnies were inspired by a few Pinterest finds like this one, but I couldn’t find a pattern that was the right size.  I sketched one out and used it to cut the design out from several different colors of cardstock.  Then I glued little puff ball tails onto my bunnies and glued the bunnies onto a brown ribbon measured to hang across the mantle.

Super cute little baby bunny.  

I brought in 2 giant flowers that we’ve had since our wedding.  They decorated the gift table at our rustic barn reception.  I filled 2 of my Meme’s old blue mason jars with plastic eggs, inspired by this Pinterest find.  I added artificial flowers leftover from last year, and a sweet flocked bunny I won from a blog giveaway at Goodbye House, Hello Home a few years ago.

I love the color the eggs and bunnies and flowers bring into the room.  It feels like spring.

Our wedding and engagement pictures have been on our mantle for a while now, and I’m feeling it is time for a change.  I’ve searched for ideas and landed on a few that I’m working on.

If you are looking for more Easter ideas, here is my Pinterest inspired Easter wreath.  
How do you celebrate Easter? 
Check out the fun craft parties I link to on my right sidebar.  

Let’s Make an Easter Wreath

Easter is my favorite holiday.
Spring is my favorite season.
I really love the joy of Jesus risen and all of the bloom of new life.
I searched Pinterest for spring and Easter decorating inspiration and found this and this and decided to combine them using my interchangeable burlap wreath that I made here.
Here’s how it came about:
I stripped the Valentine’s Day stuff off the burlap wreath and wrapped the bottom of it in haute fur yarn, pinning the ends of it into the wreath with straight pins. Then I cut individual daisies off the daisy chain ribbon and pinned them into the “grass” using coordinating straight pins.  I arranged a few plastic Easter eggs in the grass using the straight pins and moved them until I was happy with their placement.
I created the words using dollar store pipe cleaners and ribbon leftover from the nursery decorating.
You can find the pipecleaner letter directions found here.
I couldn’t decide where to put my lil birdie.  I moved him around and took him off and put him back on.  He sticks in with yet another straight pin, so it was super easy to move him.  What do you think- bird or no bird?
He ended up here.
 I’m super happy with the way it turned out.
 The letters were WAY more difficult than I thought they would be.
Pipecleaner molding is not my best skill, apparently.
I also had a bit of a fiasco with the ribbon.  I ran out on the happy and had to go back and make it super tight so it would cover the whole thing.  In between I went to Hobby Lobby to find another spool of ribbon.  They were out.  They had just received a huge shipment of literally every other type of ribbon except the one I needed.  A craftastrophe! Oh well.  It all worked out in the end.
 Does the Easter Bunny visit your house?

Frugal Friday – A Burlap Wreath for All Seasons

Thanks to Pinterest, an interchangeable burlap wreath has been on my crafty to-do list for quite a while.  It seemed like the perfect solution to my insatiable need to decorate for holidays but stay within our teeny tiny budget.  I finally got around to it last week and dolled it up for Valentine’s Day without spending as extra dime.      

 I bought a straw wreath form at Hobby Lobby using their eternal 40% one item coupons.  I had a ton of burlap left over from other projects, so I cut it into 4-5 inch wide strips.  I kept the plastic on the wreath form after searching all over for tutorials.  I started gluing and wrapping the burlap strips, pulling them super tight to keep the wreath looking neat.  Every time I work with burlap I forget that it is super messy.  Seriously, consider yourself forewarned.  You will have burlap dust EVERYWHERE.  It is itchy and insidious.  Bring out the vacuum.

 After letting the burlap dry, I went through my scrap ribbon and pulled out all the reds and whites.  The big white poof in the middle was the bow on a Christmas gift I received.  I used straight pins to attach the poof to the wreath, then started pinning the looped ribbon to the wreath around the poof.

 I had a few fabric roses made from vintage fabrics lying around, so I pinned them on the wreath as well.  I cut scrap ribbon into workable lengths and looped each piece 3 times before pinning it to the wreath.  I kept pinning ribbon loops onto the wreath until it felt right.  I was inspired by lots of burlap wreaths and ribbon wreaths that I’ve seen around the internet on Tatertots and Jello, Pinterest, and other fabulous sites.

 You can see one of the pins I used in the photo above.  My plan is to remove all the ribbon and switch to a springy wreath this weekend.  I’ll toss the scrap ribbon back into my pile and start over.

 I couldn’t decide if I liked it better without the felt heart hanging in the middle (3 for .30 at Target after Christmas).  I took it down and liked it much better.

 I tied a loop of ribbon to the top so that I could change that out easily as well.  The whole thing will change to a new season with very little effort.

  Are you on Pinterest yet?  Let me know if you need an invite.
What’s on your crafty to-do list?  
I’m sharing this project at some fabulous parties.  Check them out on my right sidebar.