tutorial Archives - Bare Feet on the Dashboard

Category: tutorial

13
Oct
2014

Create DIY Fall Felt Leaf Headbands for Girls {& Mamas} #GoodyGorgeous

categories: beauty, diy, fashion, handmade, tutorial

This shop is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® and Goody, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #GoodyGorgeous http://my-disclosur.es/OBsstV

My sweet girl officially has hair long enough to style, and it is a daily challenge for this mama. She may look cute and innocent, but my little peanut turns in to a MMA fighter when I try to style her hair. Thankfully I’ve learned a few tricks that are making it easier on both of us. Sorting out her tangles with the Goody TangleFix brush and then throwing on a cute headband is our new daily hair routine. I created a fun fall felt leaf headband for a mother/daughter style that is easy to throw together. Read on for the full tutorial and more of our toddler hair tips.

(more…)

26
Mar
2014

Toddler School: Make an Easy Easter Egg Garland with Your Child

categories: crafts, decorating, frugal, kids, play, toddler school, tutorial

The Bear and I love a good project. This little Easter Egg Garland was a really fun one to create with him, and gave him lots of great fine motor skill practice. Stringing objects is part of his upcoming skills check with our pediatrician’s ages and stages questionnaire, so we’ve been working on it together. I thought making an egg garland would be great practice and give us a festive decoration for our mantle at the same time. He is so proud of his creation, as you can see above. His two year old attention span couldn’t handle making the whole thing in one day, so we worked on it bit by bit over several days.

(more…)

27
Feb
2014

Two Minute Tiny Turban Headbands for Baby and Toddler Girls {with Tutorial}

categories: baby, crafts, diy, fashion, frugal, handmade, tutorial

Today I’m showing you how to make a super cute tiny turban headband for the little cutie in your life, made from old onesies or t-shirts. These are so simple and quick to make, but I love the way they look and that my daughter’s stained and outgrown clothing can find new life in darling accessories. These require no sewing and can be made in about two minutes, seriously.

Here’s all you need to make these cute headbands:
scissors (sharp for cutting fabric)
old baby t-shirt or onesie with at least a 2 inch stain free strip in the middle
Patterns and stripes are especially cute if they are a similar shade on both sides of the fabric.

Cut a strip out of the middle of the t-shirt or onesie. Knit fabrics are ideal because they are less likely to fray. I like to cut a 2-3 inch strip for each headband, but you can test different widths and see what you like the best.

This is the perfect use for all of those outgrown onesies with stains around the collar, and is so quick and easy. After you cut out your strip, stretch it out using your hands. Then twist it over once, then once more to form the turban style twist shown below. You’re done. See what I mean about super quick and easy? Find a cute baby to wear it and whip out 20 more while you catch up on Downton Abbey.

Isn’t it the cutest on my Pearl Girl?! Another bonus is the headbands are super comfy because they are made from soft, worn in fabric. Here’s another fun idea: make one in your size to match your little one. You can also cut the strip and tie a knot to create another style of headband.

What is your favorite way to upcycle old clothes?

25
Jul
2013

Duck Creek DIY: Antique Dining Room Chair Makeover {With Tutorial}

categories: decorating, diy, tutorial

We have a beautiful dining set given to us by Jed’s dad. It is 80-100 years old and has been passed down through several generations. The seats have been recovered several times with some pretty unfortunate fabric. The latest was a tan vinyl that has probably been there for 30+ years. It was time for a change. We love the color of the wood and the set is very well made. The wood is in great shape, but the seats were struggling. We have five chairs, a table, and a buffet.

Before = Struggling

This was our first time recovering chairs, so it took a little trial and error, a few Youtube videos, and quite a few Pinterest links to get through the adventure. We’ll walk you through it, so you can learn from our mistakes and save yourself a little pain and suffering. I highly recommend checking for coupons online before you buy your fabric and foam. You can save a bundle with a 40% off coupon at Joann’s. We originally bought a stripped linen home decor fabric, but it didn’t work out. We went back and found an awesome Ikat outdoor fabric that will be perfect for the spills and thrills that come with small children using furniture.

Here’s what you need:
sheet of plywood
circular saw
foam (enough to cover your chairs + a little extra)
outdoor weight fabric (or another thick fabric, at least home decor weight)
staple gun
staples (We used 5/16 size.)
sharp fabric scissors
exacto knife or utility scissors

Make it happen:
1) Take your chairs apart. Unscrew your seat from the chair and remove the padding and fabric. If you can salvage the padding, go for it because it will save you about half the cost of this project. If your seats are still in good condition, you can skip down to step three from here.

2) Create new seat bases from your plywood sheet. Use the existing seat to cut out a new one using your circular saw. Create your pattern by tracing the old seat, then cut out each new seat carefully.

3) Use the previous fabric seat cover to trace a pattern on your new fabric. Make sure you check to see that all of your seat cover are the same size (end chairs are often larger). Use fabric scissors so that the least amount of damage is done while cutting the fabric.

4) Cut out your foam if needed. Again, salvage the old foam if you can. We used a 1 1/2 inch thick green foam material because the density will help with wear and tear. Use the seat as a template for cutting out your foam. Don’t use your fabric scissors on the foam or they will no longer be sharp. Use an exacto knife or utility scissors.

5) Assemble! Place the foam on top of the wooden seat, then wrap the fabric tightly around it. Starting in the back, pull the fabric tightly over to the bottom of the seat. Staple that bad boy down. This is where we ran into trouble with our first fabric choice. The linen couldn’t handle being pulled tightly and started to run. Disaster! The outdoor weight fabric worked MUCH better. After you staple down the back, move to the front and repeat on all four sides. Do not be afraid to use a LOT of staples. Seriously. Get after it.

6) Reattach your seat to the chair. Done!

I’m obsessed with this fabric, and I think the grey and green goes really well with our teal walls. What do you think?

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: CraftOManiac, Mad in Crafts, Sew Chatty, Keeping It Simple, C.R.A.F.T., Boogie Board Cottage, and Sumo’s Sweet Stuff
Tuesday: Hope Studios, Today’s Creative Blog, Coastal Charm, and New Nostalgia
Wednesday: The Trendy Treehouse, Polka Dots on Parade, Lil Luna, and The Thrifty Home
Thursday: All Things with Purpose, Somewhat Simple, The Shabby Creek Cottage, The Girl Creative, and House of Hepworths
Friday: Sugar and Spice, Kojo Designs, Diana Rambles Pin Me Party, and The Shabby Nest
Weekends: Sweet Tea Social @ Texas Women Bloggers, Tatertots and Jello, Serenity Now, Buttercream Bakehouse, and Candace Creations

06
Mar
2013

Let’s Make an Easter Basket – A Tutorial

categories: crafts, handmade, holiday, kids, tutorial

I love the joy of Easter and the new life it brings. You can read some of my other Easter posts here. Last year I looked long and hard to find the perfect Easter basket for the Bear, but all the options I loved were too pricey. I had paint and ribbon on hand and decided to make a frugal, durable, cute Easter basket. I purchased a peck size basket at Hobby Lobby for about $4. Here’s a crappy image of a peck basket from Amazon so you can see what it looked like before. I totally forgot to take before pics.

I painted the basket using Rustoleum Painter’s Touch Satin in Heritage White and a sponge brush. It took two coats to really cover the wood.

I used my glue gun to line the inside and outside with satin ribbon leftover from our wedding. Yes, we’ve been married almost 5 years. Yes, I probably over bought on wedding ribbon. Oh well. The ribbon serves two purposes. It looks super cute and covers up the rough edges and staples that hold the peck basket together.

I tied satin ribbon into bows on each handle and glued them in place. I’m sure these will have to be replaced someday but they are holding up well so far.

I painted the Bear’s name onto the basket using a navy blue paint pen. I am not skilled in the handwriting department so it took a few tries and a few wipe off/repaints. I finally went with dot letters because they are very forgiving and look super cute. I highly recommend this method if you struggle with paint pen writing like I do.

We use ribbon as Easter grass after seeing the idea on Young House Love and not wanting to find the plastic stuff everywhere. My dad hates the plastic Easter grass with a passion (4 kids = a ton of Easter grass clean up over the years) and loves this idea. I used two rolls of green ribbon from the dollar store and just unrolled them completely and put them in the basket. The clean up is incredibly easy. You just pick up each long piece of ribbon and throw it back into the basket. We’ve made a game out of tossing the ribbon and eggs back into the basket after Bear inevitably dumps them out.

The Bear loves his basket even more this year. He has carried it all over the house and loves playing with the ribbon and plastic eggs.

What’s your favorite Easter candy?

I’m obsessed with Cadbury eggs.

09
Jan
2012

A Vintage Highchair Makeover with Tutorial

categories: baby, crafts, decorating, tutorial

Fisher is now 7 months old, and was in desperate need of a high chair. We looked all over to find one that we liked, but had no luck. We wanted a vintage wooden one, but all that we found were ridiculously expensive. Big plastic models were looming in our future when our friend Betsy spotted this metal gem at a vintage store for $20. She grabbed it for us. Jed was horrified.

The poor chair was all kinds of ugly, and Jed though there was no hope. As eternal optimists, Betsy and I saw lots of potential. I took the ugly duckling home and it sat in the garage for a while until we had time to get the project completed.

The tray has already been sanded in the above pic. It was originally the same color as the back below. Ick.

Ugly, oh yes she’s ugly. On the other hand, she is very well made and easily folds to store flat against the wall. The tray also removes completely so that it can be easily cleaned. Awesome.

The tan seat and seat back had to go, immediately. My mama and I went to visit City Craft, a great Dallas fabric store. I wanted to find some oil cloth to recover the chair so that it would be durable and easily cleaned. City Craft has a great selection, and had a sale going on. I choose an oil cloth design in black and white that looks like Mexican papel picado decorated with birds, flowers, and calaveras (happy dancing skulls a la El Dia de Los Muertos).

We removed the cushions and Jed sanded the ugly bronze paint off of the seat, tray, and back. The legs and arms were already in pretty good shape.

I removed the vinyl covers off of the seat and back, and then laid them out on my oil cloth.

I cut a big square for each one.

Then I trimmed it down to size. I had to trim it even more so that it would fit well.

Meanwhile, Jed painted the tray, seat, and back with a lovely light turquoise. He had to do 3 coats to get it to look right.

To recover the seats, I had to carefully stuff the oil cloth behind and under the seat and the back. Then we hammered the seat and back in. This was the trickiest part of the whole project. I got a little frustrated, but persevered so that we could have this lovely creation.

What do you think?

I love it.

I love the black and white, the papel picado design, the paint color, everything. I’m a little obsessed with it, quite frankly.

Fisher loves it too.

The metal makes a great sound when he bangs his little hands on it, and an even better noise when he bangs his sippie cup.

I love using vintage pieces because they are often so much higher quality than plastic crap from Target. We love Target and have our share of plastic baby stuff, but are happy when we can have something a little more stylish and sturdy to go with the rest of our house.

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for putting up with the insane amount of pictures in this post. Like I said, I’m obsessed.

How have you used or repurposed vintage furniture or baby gear?

I’m sharing this project at some great blog parties. They are listed on my right sidebar. Be sure to check them out to see tons of awesome crafty ideas. Thanks for reading.

I also linked up at the PAINT IT Party at Design, Dining, & Diapers.

09
Aug
2010

Festive Paper Flower Wreath – A Tutorial

categories: crafts, decorating, tutorial

Back in May, I decorated my living room with handmade paper flowers. They are cheap and easy to create, and I love the festive color they add to our home. I intended to make a wreath of the same flowers to hang on the door between our kitchen and living room three months ago. I just got around to it. The Queen of Procrastination strikes again.

I found a wreath at the Dollar Store, and already had the tissue paper and wire. I decided to create a tutorial this time around, because several readers asked for it last time.
1) Cut a rectangle in your desired size from at least 4-5 sheets of tissue paper. You can cut it all with one cut. Your flowers will be the size of the smaller end of the rectangle. The number of sheets and length determine the fluffiness of your flower.

2)Start at one of the short ends, folding like a fan in one inch (ish) folds. Continue these folds all the way to the other end.

3)This shows the fan like folds.

4)Cut two small triangles in the center of your folded paper.

5)Cut a 10 inch piece of wire and wrap it around your flower. Twist it at the bottom of the flower so it hangs like a stem.

6)Start fluffing your flower from one side, then the other. Do this by separating each piece of paper from the others, one at a time.
You can cut the edges into points, rounded edges, or leave them straight. I prefer the rounded edges.
Take each flower and twist the wire around the wreath. I created flowers of all sizes for this wreath. You could create a more homogeneous design with flowers all the same size or same color. I like the festiveness that the different sizes and colors create.
Here is the finished product. I think it is bright, happy, and pure summer fun.

I’m linking to some great parties. Check them out here.

03
Aug
2010

Cleaning Makeup Brushes – A Tutorial

categories: beauty, tutorial

I am a procrastinator. I am quite possibly the queen of procrastinators. One of the little tasks I always put off is cleaning my makeup brushes. I use Bare Minerals makeup, so my brushes get a lot of build up over time. I try to spray them often with Sephora brush cleaner, but they still get funky. I read on Real Simple that you are supposed to deep clean your brushes every month. It had been probably 6 months or more since I last cleaned them. Yikes. Here we go…
I used 3 different bowls so that I could soak brushes while I was swirling others. I added a teaspoon of antibacterial dish soap to each bowl.
Do not let your brushes get this nasty. Mine were seriously gross. The bacteria builds up and gets transferred to your face. Yuck.
I’ve read that you aren’t supposed to let the base of the bristles get wet, because it can affect the glue. My brushes were so gross that I had to soak them, and they seemed to be fine afterwards. Do what you have to so they will be clean. Take each brush and swirl it around until it comes clean. It may take a few minutes.
Think like Dory (Finding Nemo) and just keep swirling. And swirling. And more swirling.
Check out the nastiness that was in the bowls after I finished cleaning my brushes. Sick. When I poured it down the sink I was amazed and a little grossed out.
It is key to do this when you won’t need to reapply makeup for at least 8-10 hours. It will take the brushes a while to dry after you finish cleaning them. Just lay them out and give them some time. I’m so glad I finally got around to getting this done. My makeup looks better when I apply it with clean brushes, and I feel better about not putting gross bacteria on my face.

Do you use make up brushes? How often do you clean them?

What mundane task have you been putting off?

I’m linking to some great parties. Check them out here.