Picture cushion

 I'm so thrilled with the result of this cushion that I made a friend for her birthday that I had to share it with you. I was a bit stuck with what to get her. She has been so supportive during our mum ordeal and I wanted to give her something nice. Clothes wasn't the thing and then I thought cushion.

I went to her blog and stole one of her photos. Luckily they were in high resolution and I printed it onto canvas paper that I had. (If only it was really this easy. I also had to buy ink, realign my printer heads, waste a few sheets and stop trying to print it from powerpoint and then I finally got this image but it should just be print)

 The picture is a4 size and my thought was a long cushion rather than a classic square. In my stash I found some grey linen which went well. I also cut some calico the same size as the linen had a bit of give to it and I didn't want it to stretch when I stuffed it.

 I zig zaged the edges and essentially appliqued the canvas to the linen and calico. Then I sewed up one long edge and pressed it.

 I also found some quilt batting and decided that that would give it a richer finish. I trimmed it to size and then sewed a black velvet ribbon over the edge of the photo and along what will be the back of the cushion.

 Then turned it all inside out and sewed the side seams leaving the top end open. I trimmed the corners before turning it in the right way.

 Once the corners were pushed out, I stuffed it with some wadding - quite stiffly. Then I hand stitched the end closed.

 And all finished - here is the front

And the back if you didn't want the picture on display.

What thrilled me the most was that she loved it. Apparently it was one of her favourite photos (luck on my part) and she was missing her older sone who was off on camp with Xandy. Nailed it!

Harper name plate

That little girl I mentioned yesterday arrived at 2am this morning. Harper Victoria. Both mum and bubs are very well. So onto her gift.

For a newborn I love a bit of a personalised gift. For a second girl there is less that you need so I like the idea of a name plate or picture.
I did this one using the silhouette. Apologies for crappy photo - my iphone is eternally blurry and you can even see my reflection in the glass.

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The while frame is 12 x 12. Inside the backing is a lustre and I cut the pink butterflies out and glued these on. I printed the name (Chalk-hand-lettering-shaded) using the silver silhouette pen attachment.

 While the silver pen was in I also made a card. I had navy card stock and matching envelope which I stuck to the mat. The card is using carolyna Words font.

The name on the envelope is a little OTT but I did it anyway. The font is hadwriting-draft. The fonts are downloaded from dafonts.com.

big sister little sister

 There is a little girl due any day now and as with all new babies they get a lot of attention. They already have a gorgeous little girl who is 4 and I didn't want her to feel left out so I made these as her present. 
 The bases as basics from Target - nothing to break the bank. Then using Fontdinerdotcom Sparkle font, cut the words out of freezer paper on the silhouette.

Due to the obvious size difference I scaled the lil sis down to an appropriate size. Heated the freezer paper with the iron to get it to stick as a stencil and painted it with silver fabric pain. 

Then to give it that little something else, added some iron on diamontes to the stars.
All wrapped up with a book for big sis to give to her new lil one.

Pencil case number 2

The kids were occupied with Jumanji (I love that movie) so I had a chance at sewing the other 2 pencil cases.

Here is spencers - Benji's went off without pictures

Preparations - pencil case

The holidays are drawing to a close and our thoughts head back to school. We went and paid our fees (yes for free education - don't get me started) but this also includes our books. So heavily laden with 3 bags of books, we decided to go fabric shopping for pencil cases.
Armed with denim and some craft prints (and a couple of necessary goodies for me of course) we headed home and the nagging began.
Alexander gets a diary this year so we designed something that would reduce the chances of this getting lost within the first week. We laid out his pens and worked out how many divisions we would need. Made a paper pattern and he cracked the whip and I sewed.

The front has pocket for his diary and his jotter. We also added some slots for regularly used pens.

 The top zipper opens into one large pocket with a smaller one to keep pens in. I hope the teacher takes some of this excess as they get the year supply of pens - it seems risky to give them all to my son at once! I'm sure there are others in a similar boat.

The back has a ruler pocket at the bottom and two pockets accessible from either side. These open into the inside of the lining and is a great spot for the calucaltor compass etc.

Only remaining job for this one is to put his name on here using the silhouette and orange vinyl but I still have 2 others to make!!

How to - Easy Square Bean Bag

I popped outside to my crafting shed to find some fabric for a friend. It is a bit of a post christmas mess, and I couldn't get in enough to find it - but I found something else and promptly changed tack.

Beanbags. They had been on my pinterest radar for a while. I actually had them on my list to head out and buy some fabric - but as luck would have it, I found I already had the perfect stuff. (let the record show that this was the only luck for the day!)

Rather than the classic bean bag shape, I wanted something that would take up less floor space, but free up my couches. I like both these designs -

crashmatstore.com

cabbageroseblog.com

With my research done, and settled on the rectangle design, I easily whipped up three beanbags (with a little time out for a trip to emergency) and you can too.

For a child or a junior size I had a finished rectangle of approx 1m x 1.4m. This is big enough for me to sit comfortably, but for an adult I would suggest increasing the width and the height proportionately.

The beauty of this size meant I could run the fabric across grain - meaning purchase of material for each bag was 2 meters of fabric which is 145(ish) wide. This is a canvas weight furnishing fabric from ikea. I had bought it (discount price) to cover some chairs some time ago, and when I found the remain, there was just the right amount for 3. In fact I had an extra 20cm.

Truly - this is how easy it all was.

Here is my fabric - yes it needs an iron, but the wrinkles will fall out later so I didn't worry about that.
It is 2 meters wide here and 145 high (in this picture)

Then I fold it in half - now 1m wide and 145 high with the right side inside. Then I simple sewed a straight line along the top, down the side and along the bottom - leaving about 30cm open to put the beans in. I decided - thinking of safety - not to put a zip in but to sew it up. If over time it needs more beans, I will simply split the seam a little. I sewed it with a slightly shorter stitch just to give it a bit more security.

 Then I turned it in the right way. Take time to push out the corners for a lovely rectangle. Now would be a good time to press it. I did some top stitching for additional security around the edges. I did a seam on the very edge - right the way round and then another one 5/8 on inch in - except for the gap.

This size bag takes 200 litres of beans -= or 2 bags each. I got mine from Kmart. Once the beans are happily in there (this is probably the hardest bit of all),

you simply pin up the gap and sew it up

I simply matched my 2 rows of topstitching. One of the other additions I made to this was adding handles. I put these in the gap I'd left to fill them up, because I thought I may end up hanging them somewhere to put them away.
















Happily, they were all put to use straight away!

Chalkboard Style Card- using my silhouette

Seems I'm on a bit of a roll!

The big squirrel needed a card for his birthday and I have been loving the chalkboard signs and thought I would tackle one myself. Sometime in December - when I was "tidying" I lost my cutter mat for my Silhouette machine. It didn't come to light so I order a new one from Craftonline.com.au and it arrived in only a couple of days! Since I was putting in an order, it seemed a good opportunity to try out the silhouette pens - that draw instead of cut. Perfect for this project.

Inspiration:iheartnaptime.net
I scrolled dafonts for some chalky fonts and banners that may do the job, downloaded them and started creating in the silhouette software.

This is what I came up with:

Then it was as simple as changing the blade to the silver pen (in retrospect would have preferred white but thats ok) and it was off doing its thing!!

Then all I had to do was fold it and cut it and mission complete -

 well almost - also needs lovely birthday message inside!!

Acrylic Tumbler Stencil

The big squirrel is clocking up another birthday on Saturday. It is a drag to have your birthday close to Christmas, so we always try to make a bit of a big deal about it. This year we have seafood dumplings for dinner - yum.
The problem each year is what to get. It is hard enough to find gifts at Christmas and now we are back there again!  Somewhat fortuitously, one of the kids broke his favourite cup. It was an accident - a basketball landed on his 'top dad' plastic cup - not too major, just that it was his favourite. I did a silent "yay" as now we could give him a replacement for his birthday.
We hit the shops to get a good plastic cup. Glass breaks and plastic can vary. We ended up with a double walled acrylic - however it is in Christmas green and our only other choice was red. Maybe as the year progresses we may be able to pick up a clear one. (All of $3 at Kmart)

There was some thought as to what to put on this cup, but then I remembered it was a top dad one so I thought a quick internet scan for images as a reference. Lucky for me I found exactly what I wanted and copied the picture through the silhouette software, and made a quick template of the top dad sign.
I cut this using some vinyl I had. I only have pink or black, so chose to make a template and paint it rather than using the vinyl.

 I had some of this frosted medium that is meant to give the effect of frosted glass and its what I had in mind of using until I read that it needed to be baked. Next best was this puffy paint. I have used it on plastic before and its fine - and this cup cant go in the dishwasher so no drama, decision made.

 I mixed the silver and white for a lighter colour and painted it with a paintbrush. I was happy with a texture because it is quite difficult to see on the green.  Peeled off the vinyl and leave for 24 hours to dry before wrapping it up.