Projects of the Past

Before I do posts on my current projects, I will do a brief summary of my past projects. I wish I'd taken pictures of all of the ones I've given away because I liked those, too. I'll make sure to do that in the future. If you would like any extra information on how I made any of these, just ask. (I googled instructions for most of them!) Of course, future projects will be described in more detail.

And let me just say that if I learned anything by walking around my house taking pictures of everything, it is this: I need to dust more often, I need to clean my house more often, and I need to learn how to do better photography. :) Don't judge me, just use this to get some inspiration for your own home!

Here we go! I hope this gives you some good ideas. Take what I've done and make it your own and make it better! :)

I like to do a lot with vinyl and my Cricut. Here is one of those magnet boards that you can buy (unfinished) at Robert's. I painted it, sanded the edges a little bit, and then stuck on my vinyl letters. I also made the magnets, which you will see in two of my other projects. If you don't know how to make them, here is how:

Buy clear glass stones (with flat backs) at the craft store. Cut out cute scrapbook paper, use photos, or anything you want, and Mod Podge it to the flat side of the stone, with the image facing the stone. It dries clear and will show through the stone. Then hot glue a little magnet on the back. I have them all over my magnet boards and fridge. 

 I wanted to make a table runner for my entryway table. I found instructions for this quilted one online. It was really easy. I just used strips of fabric for the outside, and instead of buying batting for the inside, I used a scrap of an old mattress pad that I was finished with.

 After adding framed photos to my big family room wall, I wanted to spice it up a little bit. I found a tutorial online for making fabric flowers, which I'd been making for my hair. I made some extras and sticky-tackied them to the corners of a few of the frames for easy removal when I change my mind, like I always do.

 When I hear or see a quote I like, sometimes I like to display it in my home. A 12x12 frame and some scrapbook paper makes it into "art"!

 Here is another one I did in the 12x12 frame. It is a quote I like, but I also personalized it to give it a lot of meaning to me. It says "All that I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen."  Sometimes there are things we don't understand, or we have questions. I added little tags at the top, on which I've written some of the dates that I have seen the hand of the Lord in my life. Just seeing the dates reminds me of the things I know and the things I've felt, and helps to dispel any doubts or discouragement that I may be feeling.

 Next to it is a cute vinyl tile that my sister-in-law, Kylee designed last year! I love it so much that I had it up all year. :) I just moved it front and center when the Christmas decor went up!

 Family Home Evening board, which was also made out of an unfinished magent board from Robert's, vinyl and the Cricut, homemade magnets, and a fake flower!

 A bow holder made out of an unfinished oval piece of wood from Robert's. I used ribbon from my stash and hot glued them to the back. I used scrapbook paper, Mod Podge, and the Cricut to decorate the wood. I also made most of the bows.

 Another Cricut/vinyl project, thanks to a piece of scrap wood from the garage, and some black acrylic paint.

 Valentine's Day present from B to Jordan when she was only 2 months old. I used Sculpey clay to do the handprint, and then painted a tile and glued it on. Once again, the Cricut and vinyl is to thank for the letters.

 We made the JOY blocks for a Relief Society activity one night. I think it is just a 2x4 cut into 3 different-sized blocks. Then they are painted black with squares of scrapbook paper and the letters glued on. If you turn the blocks around, it says "B-O-O!" and has Halloween paper on the back.

As for the snowman, he is made out of a terra cotta pot turned upside down and painted white. A foam ball was glued on top, and I painted thumb tacks black for his face. Real buttons are used for his buttons, a piece of ribbon for his scarf, and a cone made out of orange construction paper was glued on for his nose. It would be cute to make smaller versions of this, I think, and make a whole little family. B would get a kick out of that, especially if one of them was her!

 We did this for a Beehive activity one night. Sugardoodle.net had a link to a site with antiqued pictures of almost every temple! We just printed them out, Mod Podged them to black boards, and tied a ribbon around. Now all the girls have a picture of the temple in their rooms, if they didn't already.

 I bought this unfinished growth chart at a craft store. It was solid white and folded up, accordion-style. I covered each square in scrapbook paper and covered the seams with matching ribbon. If there is a photo slot next to her height, I add a current photo.

 When we bought our house, the people left a lot of shelves and things on the walls. This one was in the kitchen and had this weird farm scene on the background. I moved it to B's room, covered the picture with scrapbook paper and criss-crossing ribbon to turn it into a mini memo board. Dual functionality! :)

 Her dresser used to be particle board with the faux-wood finish on the outside. Spray paint did not like to stick to it at all, but I finally got it to be antique white. It looks better with her cherry wood crib. This big side of the dresser shows, so I made this little tree to spruce it up a little. I had been wanting to buy a biiiiiiiiig vinyl tree for the wall of her room, but decided it wasn't worth the expense. So I made this little one myself.

 I didn't know what to do with the big wall of her nursery, so I made my own letters to write her name. This is really ghetto, but I cut apart cardboard boxes and painted them white for the backgrounds. Then I stuck on black paper, and then the letters I made with the Cricut. Hung them up with ribbons and tacks... ta da!

 This one is kind of embarrassing because it is my own design. Ha ha. It fit her old crib a little bit better. She would wake up in the morning asking for her books, so I made this little book pouch. It kept them off of the mattress so she wouldn't roll on them in her sleep, but they were accessible for when she woke up. It also bought me a couple extra minutes of Zzzzzzs.

This is my favorite rag quilt that I made for B.

 This is a full-sized quilt I made for B to use in the future. The layers are all pinned, but I can't bring myself to actually quilt it. I've never machine quilted before and I don't want to screw it up after I've spent so much time getting this far! Maybe in the back of my mind I'm hoping that one day I'll go get it out of my closet and it will be finished. Magically.

 One of the dresses I made B. She has another one that is still too big, and I also have bought a pattern for a CUUUUUUTE skirt I'm going to make her when she doesn't have any more skirts that fit. :)

 Yet another 12x12 scrapbook paged quote that hangs on B's bedroom door.

 I thought this lamp shade was kind of plain and boring, so I bought buttons and glued them all around the edges.

 Another scrapbookified (I made up that word!) quote from the 2011 General Relief Society Broadcast. I found it so inspiring and uplifting that I just had to make it cute and put it in my bathroom. I either need to find another home for it, or protect it in a frame before it gets splattered with water.

 Getting tired of the 12x12 pages in frames yet? :)

 I don't remember where I read about this idea. You get a recipe box that will hold 365 notecards. You write each day of the year on a card. At dinner every night, you write one line about something that happened that day, on the card for that day. As the years go by and you pull out the card to write about the day, you get to remember/laugh about what had happened on that day in years past. This is only the 2nd year we've done it, but I can already tell it is going to get even more fun as the years go by. I just decorated my box with scrapbook paper, but I want to redo it because I don't like the paper anymore. :)

 The stocking I made for B.

 I didn't have my Cricut yet when I made these, so I bought the vinyl and put it on boards that Jordan cut and did a decorative edge on.

 Ok. I LOOOOOOOVE this idea. I saw it on Studio 5 last week (studio5.ksl.com). You make gift bows with double-sided scrapbook paper and a brad. That is IT. It takes like 2 minutes and would be SO CUTE on a box wrapped in plain brown paper. I love love love love love these.

 The diaper pouch I made for B. It holds about 4 diapers and a little container of wipes, plus some Desitin. I don't really like the fabric anymore (ha ha see how I change my mind a lot?) but I don't want to redo it because it is my Christmas wish that B will wake up one of these days and decide that she doesn't want to wear diapers anymore.

 These are pens that sit next to the phone. I used floral tape to attach the flowers to the pens, and I keep them in a little mini terra cotta pot with small pebbles in it.  Tip: make sure the pens WORK before you spend time beautifying them! :)

 A little candy jar that looks like a gumball machine. You could totally take this idea and make it WAY BETTER. It is an upside down terra cotta pot, painted red, with a little matching saucer glued on top, right side up. Then a glass bowl glued on top of that, with an upside-down saucer with a knob glued on top as the lid. Yep, we are out of gumdrops.

 I made these little "family forever" frames a loooong time ago for everyone in my family. I just used embroidery floss on muslin and then framed it. Everyone got a different color combination.

This was done when we lived in an apartment and didn't have access to saws or anything. I couldn't find wood blocks for sale at the craft store, so I made these blocks out of styrofoam and wrapped them in brown paper bag paper. Highly NOT recommended! :) They fall over waaaay too easily! Maybe I could poke dowels throught the bottoms and stick them in some kind of planter box thing. Then they would look like flowers! Hmm.... ideas are floating around now. Anyway, same thing as the JOY blocks, with the scrapbook paper squares and Cricut letters. Embellish with buttons, raffia, ribbon, eyelets, brads, etc. 

 I made this for my friend's baby shower. Same board as the FHE board, different paint color, different words. Same kind of magnets, too.

 I love this wreath! You can buy round metal hoops at the craft store, or just bend a wire hanger. Take strips of fabric and tie in double knots allllllll the way around. I think it is so cute. I used a wire hanger but I think next time I'll use a metal hoop. The hanger bends too easily.

 Here is a Thanksgiving tile my sisters-in-law, Kambree and Andrea designed together. It reminds me that I never cut out another one on the Cricut for myself! And now Thanksgiving is over! Maybe I will remember before next year! :)

Currently I am working on four projects: a jewelry holder bulletin board, snowmen neighbor gifts, a thanksgiving gratitude craft that I already LOVE and it isn't even finished (oh great, Thanksgiving is over... maybe it will be ready for next year), and a really cute rose wreath that should be finished tonight! I am really excited for my current projects and I'll do more detailed instructions for each one as I finish/post them.

Please let me know if you have any questions about my previous crafts or if you need help making your own versions! And show me pics of what you make! (I have to know this is useful to someone if I'm going to keep this thing current! :))  HAPPY CRAFTING!!!!!!