fabric - I'm Topsy Turvy

Fabric Origami Christmas Star Ornaments

December 7, 2012 by Ashlee · 5 Comments

I actually made these stars 9 years ago during our Christmas in Japan. We hadn’t been able to ship anything over, and we certainly didn’t have a tree so I found some gorgeous Japanese fat quarter squares and made these ornaments. I made about 80 of them and shipped half of them back to family in the states.

For a tree I cut out green card stock handprints, the bottom two rows are my husbands hands, then mine, then The Reader and finally topped off with Computer boy’s hand prints! We taped them to the window, added a bunch of the ornaments and voila, a bit of Christmas in Japan!
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Filed Under: christmas, Crafts, Holidays · Tagged With: fabric, ornaments

Mothers day gift- Family subway art pillow case

May 3, 2012 by Ashlee · 12 Comments

My parents just sold their business and their house! They aren’t sure what’s next but whatever they choose to do it will involve some kind of traveling, probably in an RV or motor home. My folks love to drive, travel and see the world. And my mom LOVE her felt pillow case to cuddle with in the car.

So instead of some random pillow case I decided to make her something to remind her of all of us while they travel around!

Plaid Crafts sent me the most amazing bag of goodies from their Martha Stewart collection to create with for mothers day this year! I have a project for my Mother in law to share tomorrow as well! It was an inspiring bag and I already used some of it last week for my teacher appreciation gift! I already have grand plans for the rest as well!

The supplies were super easy! A flannel pillow case, Martha Stewart paint, with the sponge applicator top and alphabet stencils or a vinyl cutter…

I had a great time picking out fonts for everyone! I included my parents, siblings, spouses and all the CURRENT grandkids on the pillowcase!

I created it in photoshop first…

then I laid out a plan in my silhouette studio for cutting out all the names!!!

I slid a foam board inside the pillow first for a work surface. Then I put the names onto the pillow (see the blank spot? I was saving it for my unborn neice…. then the day after I “finished” the pillow I woke up and realized I forgot one of the already HERE ON EARTH grandbabies! I am a total dork!)

these applicators are AMAZING!!! They attach right onto the paint! And they clean up like a breeze.

I did mess up ONE thing, Kimber was supposed to be pink and Reece was supposed to be red! GAH! I’m still upset about it!

For the big FAMILY on the end I used the metallic silver paint! It’s LOOOOOVELY!!!! It has this gorgeous glimmer and I love it!

Peel off the vinyl…

ANNNNNNDDDD it’s done- and GORGEOUS! I’m tickled and my mom is going to LOVE it! Now to find a space for my unborn (and probably the last) grandbaby!

(karate chop pillow photo)

Filed Under: Craft Tutorial, Crafts, Family, Holidays, mothers day, paint · Tagged With: fabric, pillow, silhouette machine, tutorial

Teacher appreciation Canvas art

April 28, 2012 by Ashlee · 17 Comments

This month is Autism Awareness and next week is Teacher appreciation. Since my children attend a Charter school for children on the autism spectrum I wanted to make my teachers gifts have a slight autism theme to them.

Since the symbol for autism is multi colored puzzle pieces I decided to make those my centerpiece, and found a fun puzzle quote that seemed teacher appropriate as well.

I used my sihouette machine and fabric interfacing to cut out puzzle pieces from some riley blake fabric squares I had is some fun bright colors

Then I ironed them onto the canvas (I placed a piece of cardboard underneath while ironing to get it nice and stiff)

Then I cut out the teachers name and the quote in vinyl (also using my silhouette), since I want the vinyl to be a stencil pull OUT the words.

I received a bag of some AMAZING Plaid- Martha Stewart collection products for my mothers day project (More about that next week) and inside were these AMAZING brush tops that attach right onto the paint bottle. AMAZING I love love LOVE these tops!

So I pressed the vinyl stencils onto the canvas (again use the cardboard underneath to get crisp lines) and painted right over the vinyl.

peel off the vinyl and your done! I love how they turned out! And my kids are excited to take them to their teachers next week! What are you doing for teacher appreciation? Don’t forget to go link up to this month’s Point of View!

Filed Under: Craft Tutorial, Crafts, decoration, paint · Tagged With: craft supplies, fabric, silhouette machine, tutorial

Oversized Ruffled headband

January 19, 2012 by Ashlee · 6 Comments

I made this headband last year for So you think your crafty, it was party of my 7 red items for red week (AKA the week I got voted off). But with the craziness of morning sickness that followed for the few months after that I actually haven’t posted MOST of the crafts I made for the competition! Never too late, right? (some of the ones I DID post were my ruffled quilted stockings and tree skirt, my 6 pillow refashions, my homemade aqua-sand, my ruffled camera strap and my boot-cut to skinny jeans refashion)

I honestly love how this turned out, but of course it matches my faux hawk and hair color really well!!! But even on my daughter (without “spiky” hair it still looks good, but it’s definitely a statement of sorts. Personally I like it big, statements are a GOOD thing in my book as long as it involves being mostly dressed…

This was so long ago I don’t remember my measurements exactly, but I eyeballed it anyway. This actually used to be a blue tablecloth that I dyed red (I love rit dye). I cut the first piece out at about 6 inches wide and 30 so inches long… I wanted a pretty rough, thick look so instead of serging the edges I used a long zig zag to add to the texture. Then ran it through my sewing machine with my ruffler foot attached.

I also cut some tulle at about 5 inches wide and about half the length, and ruffled that too, although not as much so they are about the same length ruffled. Finally I cut one last piece about 4 inches wide and 10 inches long also heavily ruffled. Notice I didn’t worry about ruffling it in the center all the way down, I wanted this to have off center parts where the fabric stuck out farther than others.

Layer all three together and I ran it through my sewing machine one last time down the center to join the layers!

Then I hand sewed it onto a comfortable headband! If you make your own my suggestion would be to put the blank headband on, then play with where you want to have it. Mark the headband with something, take it off and sew your ruffle into place! Wear and enjoy!!!