Sew Awesome | BURLAP TREE SKIRT

As I stated in my last post, "Last year our tree was a little sparsely decorated due to our college-kid budget, but the day after Christmas I did some stocking up and found a nice assortment of red and gold ornaments for pretty reasonable prices. Before MMM had even gotten out of bed on November 23rd, I had our tree up and decorated to the nines."

Part of these decorations included a simple but awesome tree skirt. I know that burlap was totally in last year, and many of you may be a little "over it" by now, but my minimalism combined with my bargain-hunting determined this was just the perfect choice for a fabric. I spent less than $10 on the skirt and only one or two hours of sewing (while taking many small breaks to pay attention to the shows I was watching on my computer).

MATERIALS:
     - 2 yards of 48" (or wider) burlap
     - 16" of 48" wide medium weight red fabric
     - Sewing machine (and typical sewing tools)

DIRECTIONS:
1) Cut your burlap down the middle. If your burlap already has finished edges along two sides (like mine did), make your cut parallel to those edges.
2) Connect your two burlap pieces to form a long, skinny rectangle. To keep my connection clean, I folded the edge of each piece under 3/4", then layered the two raw edges inside of each other (making a type of "z" looking from the top) and stitched along both sides of the fold.
3) Finish the short sides of burlap by folding each edge over about 3/4" two times and stitching down along both sides of the fold.

4) Pleat one long edge of your burlap. For me, it was easier to create a series of large pleats (about 8 inches each), sew those down, then return and do another series of smaller pleats to that same edge. Pleat this edge however you want with the goal of making that edge about 12" long in the end.
5) Create a long tie from your red fabric. Cut the fabric into two 8" strips.
6) Cut a miter edge into each red strip (what is this called in sewing terms?): lay the two strips on top of each  other, and cut the edges along a diagonal. flip one piece up-side-down, re-align the diagonal edges, and sew the pieces together. Open up the connected piece and press to make a flat seam. If your short ends are unfinished, fold under once and stitch.

7) Fold the two long edges of your red strip over 1/2" and press. Align the center of one pressed edge with the inside of your tree skirt. Stitch along the entire red strip, connecting to the tree skirt.
8) Fold the entire strip in half and pin the pressed edges together on both ends. Pin the pressed edge to the tree skirt in the middle portion and stitch along the entire length of the red strip.

9) Wrap the skirt along your tree trunk and tie a fat, happy bow with the red tie.

I love this simple skirt because it lets our tree get most of the "glory" and it reminds me of real trees at nurseries whose roots are tied up in a burlap sack. This may be stretching it a bit, but the rustic feel also makes me think of Christ swaddled in a rustic little manger.

"And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn."

Luke 2: 7 

Craft Confessions | SHINY CHRISTMAS TREE TOPPER

Can you believe it's already December? It's my favorite month, probably because it's full of my birthday, chilly weather, warm hot chocolate, sparkly lights, and Christmas! I'm somewhat obsessed with Christmas, and I've been anticipating it since about September, but My Main Man keeps me tethered and makes me wait until the day after Thanksgiving to put up my Christmas decorations (little does he know I go crazy listening to Christmas music for four whole months).

Last year our tree was a little sparsely decorated due to our college-kid budget, but the day after Christmas I did some stocking up and found a nice assortment of red and gold ornaments for pretty reasonable prices. Before MMM had even gotten out of bed on November 23rd, I had our tree up and decorated to the nines...minus a tree topper. With all of our pretty new ornaments, this just couldn't be! Crafty powers of the world united, and I created a total failure of a Christmas star. It was supremely ugly and time-wasting. I was upset, and my husband suggested we just spend the $5 on a store-bought star instead of countless more hours.  Well, my stubbornness won out, and while MMM was at work I gave the star another attempt, with success! In case you, too, need to top your tree beautifully, here is a template and my step-by-step process to creating a sparkly Christmas star!

MATERIALS:
     - One large poster board
     - Masking/Painter's tape
     - Spray adhesive
     - Gold glitter (or whatever color you prefer)
     - Exacto knife (or scissors)
     - Bone folder

DIRECTIONS:
1) Decide how tall you want your star to be. Enlarge the template below so that the distance from point A to B matches half the height you want. (This template printed at 100% on 8.5 x 11 paper will give you a 10" tall star).

2) Print off the template, tape to your poster board, and carefully cut out four times. (I cut my sections a little different, so ignore the differences in the photos.)

3) Score the star pieces with the bone folder. On one side of the piece score only the connections from star tips to the center point (B). Flip the templates over and score only the connections from the star valleys to the center point (B).
4) Fold your star pieces in accordion fashion to shape star points.
5) Use masking tape to connect piece 1 with piece 2 for each side of the star. Then use the tape to connect the front and back halves of the star, beginning at the top point of the star. Leave the bottom 4 edges unconnected (you'll need an opening to stick your tree branch into). At the end of each star point wrap the masking tape into a sharp point.
6) In a VERY ventilated area (preferably outside), spray the front half of your star with spray adhesive. Liberally sprinkle glitter all over the adhesive-covered area. Repeat as necessary until the entire surface is covered in glitter and none of the poster or tape underneath show. Do the same for the other side of your star. Pay special attention to the edges of the star (they were a little tricky for me to glitter).

7) After allowing the adhesive to completely dry, place the star atop your tree and admire the sparkly beauty you have created!

Like I said, I love Christmas, and beautiful decorations really make me happy. This decoration is especially awesome because it reminds me of Christ and why we really celebrate:

"Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him...When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy." 

Matthew 2: 2, 10

Stay tuned for an easy tree skirt tutorial!

Craft Confessions | WITCH'S LAIR (So excited for Halloween!)

I'm so excited for Halloween this year. The weather in Kansas City has been nice and chilly and crisp lately; I love it! In our new home, we have a little entry room before guests walk upstairs onto the main level of our home (check out some pictures below and you'll understand). We have a beautiful roll-top desk inhabiting this space because it is way too heavy to haul up our stairs, and because it makes a good drop-off place for our mail, umbrellas, motorcycle helmet, etc. I had tons of fun decorating the table by our front door last year (check it our here), and I couldn't resist the urge to do something similar but so much bigger with our entry desk this year!

Let me break this down for you. I have to give kudos out to all the great designers out on the interweb who did most of the heavy lifting for me. I just put their great ideas and creations together!

We have a small, skinny window that is usually covered by wooden shutters. I opened up the shutters and placed some trace paper over the window (so a soft, spooky glow will come out at night). Then I cut out a rat silhouette and glued it onto the paper. That ought to look good at night :). In the right picture, I have a lovely bouquet of dead leaves (stacked on some degloved Harry Potter goodness) and a jar of "bat skulls" (courtesy of Love Manor's amazing flickr page).

On the other side of the desk top, I've got a collection of ingredients for good witchy remedies. First we have a jar of berries and leaves, a bottle of snakes (label from Love Manor and rubber snake from The Dollar Store), and a little sign that says "Kick off your shoes and head on up". Granted, the sign isn't witchy at all, but the fonts and graphics match the lair's theme, so I left it up.  Behind the sign is a large candlestick (from my wedding centerpieces) and a dollar store candle that I made drippy with melted wax.

Across the mirror I draped a creepy looking cloth (also from the dollar store) and clipped a few witchy recipes on top (also printed from Love Manor). In the center of the desk top, I stuffed and labeled a brown paper bag (with an awesome free label from The Graphics Fairy- isn't she awesome?) and a candle I purposely melted on freezer paper.

On the writing level of the desk, I placed a few books covered with very spooky titles including "A Pocket Guide to Transfiguration". In the middle is an old college textbook of mine with a fake chapter on Cyanide (all text copied from Wikipedia) placed in the spine. These book covers and fake pages are created from scratch, but I've included them at the bottom of the post in case you'd like to use them!

On either side of the desk are awesome cubbies that I filled with more "utilitarian" items. The left side has paper bags, clothespins, mixing sticks, and a can of dead man's toes (with another label from Love Manor). On the right side are small glass jars filled with graveyard dust (dirt from the yard), witch hazel (a random plant from the yard), and blood (tomato juice).

I wanted the other corner of this tiny room to get some love, too. So I wrapped our monogram in a bit of spider web. (The picture on the left might help you understand the set-up of our house a little more.)

So here's where we started (the images on the left) and where we ended up. What do you think?

BOO!

Here are my sources:

Love Manor

Graphic Fairy

My book sleeves and cyanide pages (some images from The Graphics Fairy):

Renter's Plight | UGLY CLOSET DOOR

Many moons ago, I mentioned doing a series called "Renter's Plight" where I present temporary solutions for dealing with ugly rental conditions. My post today is really similar to my first post, found here, where I covered the back of some awkward cabinets with stylish wrapping paper.

In our new home, we have three bedrooms, which means both My Main Man and I get our own home offices. I actually get a bit lonely without him working next to me, but I'm taking this opportunity to create a clean, well put-together space where I can meet with clients for my design business, The Main Event. Just behind my desk (and immediately next to the space where clients might sit) is a closet with sliding doors. The doors are a dark wood, which actually isn't the most awful thing aesthetically. However, those doors are my view anytime I sit at my desk, which is often, and I needed to make them either prettier or more functional.

In one of my infamous dollar store trips, I found a 15 foot roll of brown craft paper, and I had to have it. I taped one sheet of craft paper to each door, and drew out calendars for the upcoming months. (I even made a super sweet/dorky template so I can quickly draw new calendars when I run out.) I tried two different formats, and I'll figure out which one I like more over the next few months. I'll use colored markers to classify different activities, like green for birthdays, purple for client deadlines, red for holidays, etc. It should be a really helpful organizing tool to have everything mapped out right in front of me, and I honestly like the craft paper a lot more than the wood doors!

Have you done anything similar to cover up less-than-wonderful finishes in your home?

Craft Confessions | CHAIR RE-PAINT WITH SEALANT FOR PENNIES!

In my efforts to set up my home office, I realized I was in dire need of a good chair. I previously used an inexpensive folding chair I purchased at Ikea, which totally did the trick, but then a certain family member of mine managed to crack the back support. The chair still technically works, but every time I lean back in it I can just hear the back support screaming to its other, slightly attached half, "Hold on for your life!" (probably in a pirate accent, just for effect).

When I was reunited with My Main Man in Kansas City, there was a sturdy, nicely detailed wooden chair sitting in our entry-way that had been left in our garage by the last tenant. I promptly adopted the chair, evicted the three spiders who called its underside home, and began my scheming. We're on a pretty tight just-spent-thousands-of-dollar-to-move-across-the-country budget, so I knew I really couldn't spend much, if anything. Luckily, I had a small can of interior primer + paint already on hand, and I'm pretty obsessed with white, so I went to town on the chair. I really didn't do anything special during that stage, so I'll spare you the boring details. The awesome part happens to be how I finished the chair. I learned this finishing technique from my awesome daddy, who happens to be a general contractor, and I used it on a conceptual model during my architecture undergrad. Here's the secret: candles! And really, I only used half of one candle, which I purchased in a set of four from the dollar store. After the paint on my chair was all dry, I simply rubbed the candle over all the contours of the chair, then buffed it out with a white washcloth. If I missed a spot, I simply repeated the process just in that area.

Let me tell you how much I love this finishing technique: SO MUCH! It seems so simple, but it works amazingly and the benefits are really too great to miss:
(A) It's so cheap. My total candle usage amounted to 12.5 cents!
(B) It's fool-proof. As long as the base paint color is a light color (or you can apply this directly to unpainted wood), you can't mess the process up.
(C) You don't inhale toxic fumes or have to worry about your kids/animals making a mess later with remnants of your finishing solution.
(D) It gives a nice, matte finish to any project, which I think is really nice and natural without being overbearing.
(E) The finished product is totally finished immediately! You don't have to wait for the finish to cure or dry before use. This sucker is ready to go ASAP!
(F) Depending on the candle you use, your finished piece might smell really good for a long time. Score!

Really, the only downside to this method is that it wears off slowly with use, so I may have to re-finish my chair in a year or two. But to be honest, it's so little effort that I'm still not deterred at all! What kind of projects would you like to use this process on?

P.S. Next week I'm going to show you the amazingly simple cushion I made for my rear to better enjoy this chair!
P.P.S. I'm in love with our new yard. Seriously want to build a tree fort between all of these guys, but they're technically not part of our property... or our state!

Craft Confessions | PASSPORT BOOK

Some of my posts for a while will be related to things I made for my trip to Thailand and Cambodia this spring with my husband and his classmates. Hopefully they're applicable for your traveling OR everyday needs!

When I travel internationally, I feel like I have so many things to keep track of like my passport, plane tickets, maps, credits cards/cash, ID cards, and so on. My wallet isn't really the perfect size or shape for all of these items, so I made myself a simple passport book for my many checkpoints through Asia.

My materials included a cheap hard cover notebook, grey vinyl, a heavy-duty sewing needle, scrap fabric (for the pockets), and later on I added in a binder clip.

First, I dissected the notebook and pulled out all the paper while maintaining the binding in the center. With the book open, I measured it's perimeter and cut out a piece of vinyl to those dimensions with a bit of wiggle room. I then measured the dimensions of one cover side and cut that out twice (with wiggle room again). I wanted to hold my passport on the right side, so I cut a slit up and down just a bit longer than my passport binding. On the left side, I wanted to hold cards, so I cut multiple strips on top of each other a bit longer than a credit card. To keep the cards in place, I measured a long piece of scrap cloth just wider than a card and as long as the number of cards I wanted to hold * 1.5 (it was really a lot of eye-balling, so you might have to test this out a bit on your own).

I stitched the scrap cloth in an accordion pattern onto the vinyl. I then stitched each pocket side onto the larger piece of vinyl. The pieces kind of moved around, so I trimmed off the excess to even things up. I flipped the hard book cover backwards, and slipped the vinyl sleeve onto it. In addition to the slit for a passport and cards, I could slip maps into the space between the vinyl and book covers. The passport book was complete! However, when I got to Thailand, My Main Man wanted me to keep his passport and other papers with his, so we attached a binder clip to the left side. It turns out that it worked really well and holds plane tickets really well! Good thinking, MMM.

Mod Bod | PUMPED UP KICKS

Some of my posts for a while will be related to things I made for my trip to Thailand and Cambodia this spring with my husband and his classmates. Hopefully they're applicable for your traveling OR everyday needs!

I love high heels. At an astounding 5' 2" (cue laughter here) I can always use some help in the height department, and I love how heels can instantly make an outfit look polished. Even though it's often more practical to don flats, I don't have a very extensive collection of cute and comfortable flat shoes. I knew there would be lots and lots of walking involved in our Asia trip, so I headed out to Target (my second church) to find some cute and simple kicks. My options were a cute floral print (which I loved, but it seemed so trendy that I could imagine those shoes being out-of-fashion by next summer), some navy or teal lace-less slip-ons (also cute, but potentially problematic when matching to multiple outfits), or plain white gals. I didn't want to be a bore, but none of the colors/patterns available really fit the bill, so I went ahead and bought the white kicks. 

Never fear, though. I had a plan! Using some gray acrylic paint I had on hand (I told you I'm obsessed) and some masking tape, I marked out a simple striped pattern on both shoes and painted a couple coats. When I removed the tape, I realized my shoes looked kind of nautical (which is totally alright with me), so I searched the internet for some interesting shoe-tying methods that would look like sailor's knots. The picture below shows what I settled on. 

I'm pretty in love with these shoes. Besides travelling to Thailand and Cambodia, they followed me to KC and Vancouver. They're really in need of a wash, but I'm a little sad to wash off the dirt from so many different places. Is that weird of me?

How to Throw a Winter Party | Welcoming the Gals

This week I've been sharing how I put together a "Cozy Winter Social". It was a perfectly fun way to distract myself while my husband was out of town. If you want to see the other stages of putting the party together, check out my posts from the rest of this week!

I mentioned yesterday that this party was a bit of a social experiment since I invited lots of women that only had friendship with me in common. I knew I would need to be proactive from the start of the party, so I created a welcome table. First, I created the kind of cute whiteboard I've seen floating around the internet. Using a dollar store picture frame I painted white and some wrapping paper I also bought at the dollar store, I created a simple place to write a welcome message with directions for my party-goers.

First, I had my guests fill out a name tag with a conversation-starting questions. There were six different name tags so that hopefully my guests would have a few things to talk about.They said:
"I went on an awful date once. It went like this:____"
"When I was a kid I wanted to be a ____ when I grew up."
"I have a super awesome battle wound:____"
"My most awesome hidden talent is:____"
"My guilty pleasure TV show is:____"
"If I had a gangster name, it would be:____"

Second, I had the guests fill out raffle tickets for some cheesy prizes. (I didn't think about this ahead of time, but it was probably great incentive for my guests to stay around for a bit and not leave early.) To keep the suspense going, I packaged each raffle gift in a brown paper bag with a simple label that matched the invitations. Get ready for how awesome these gifts were (remember, I was going for white and/or wintery): tapioca pudding, breath mints, toothpaste with mouthwash, tea lights, an ice pack, and Hoot the Owl (who I blogged about a couple weeks ago). I think it was fun for everyone to see what goofy gifts I had in store.

(L) How part of the table looked with the candles lit
(R) The Beautiful Brunette won tapioca pudding!