I've been loving the 'subway art' inspired projects that I have seen floating around the blogosphere lately. As far as I can tell, this item from Pottery Barn is one of the sparks that started the whole thing.

Here is a lovely Valentine's version from Tater Tots and Jello, she has a great tutorial on her site as well

A colorful rendition for the bathroom (cute) from I <3 Food For Thought

And a New Year's Resolution version from So You Think Your Crafty

I loved all of these and seeing as how I was snowed in today, I decided to see if I could make one myself, MacGyver style, using only thing I had in the house already.

I rummaged around in my craft room and found an old poster sized frame, black and white card stock, clear contact paper, a ruler and a glue stick. I covered the cardboard backing of the frame with black card stock. If I had been able to get out of the house, I may have opted for black spray paint, but this actually worked better than I thought it would. I tacked the sheets of paper in place with the glue stick and covered the whole thing with clear contact paper.

Next, I used my Cricut to cut out all of the letters I would need. I went with a 'Resolution' or 'House Rules' theme I guess. I used a ruler to align the letters and glued my little heart out with the glue stick. To secure the letters, once dry, I covered the whole thing again with clear contact paper.

Popped it in the frame, and ta-da! Subway art for the office.

Oh! and if you want to do something on a smaller scale, check out this FREE Valentine's printable from eighteen25--so cute!

This is a fun and easy DIY project that gives new life to that old hoodie sweatshirt you have hiding in your closet. You know the one you love but it really is not fit for wearing in public anymore? You can upcycle your hoodie into a protective sleeve for your laptop in no time, like this:

For this project you will need:

A sewing machine or needle and thread
An old hoodie sweatshirt
Pins and Scissors

Step one, cut the hood, arms and back off of your sweatshirt, making it as square shaped as possible, like this.

 
Next, fold the fabric right sides together.

 Using your laptop to measure, pin the fabric along length and down one side to form a pouch. Remove laptop. Sew long side and one end closed to form a pouch. Trim off excess sweatshirt material. Turn right-side-out.

The finished product is a lap top sleeve with your sweatshirt logo on the front and the hoodie pouch on the back, perfect for holding the power cord/and or mouse for your laptop.

front

back

I made this for my husband as a Christmas gift and he really liked it! I am always excited when I can DIY a good gift for a fellow, they are so much harder to craft for than girls. I would also like to thank Rachael with Lovely.Crafty.Home for the assistance in making this project. This is a product of one of our super fun joint craft bonanzas like the Drop Cloth Christmas Stockings. And trust me, if we can sew it, you can too!

This is a project that I did about a year ago and I have gotten so many compliments on the result. Budding branches are SO easy and practically free to make, and the end result is just, well, lovely:

To make these yourself you will need:

A glue gun & glue sticks

Twigs from your yard (I used a branch from our red bud tree, but any twig you like the shape of will work perfectly)

Tissue paper in the color of your choosing

Pencil  & Scissors or a daisy shaped craft punch like this one from Martha

Floral tape (optional)

First, stack three sheets of tissue paper and begin cutting out flowers. You can use any color or combination of colors you'd like. Begin to cut out  1 1/2" - 2"  daisy shapes. I found that a 5 petal design works well and if you are hand cutting, keeping the ends of the petals round is important.

Once you have some daisies cut, use the end of a pencil to twist them into little blossom shapes.

If you have floral tape, you can use a tiny piece of it to secure the point of the blossom together and make a little stem. If you don't have floral tape, don't worry about it. I have made these both ways and there is very little difference in the end result.

Lastly, dab a dot of hot glue on the back of your tissue paper bud and secure it to the twig. I found it easy to decide where to put these little guys since I chose a twig from a blooming plant. It was really obvious on the branch where last year's buds had been.

Glue on as many or as few buds as you'd like. I have had these guys on my fireplace mantel for over a year and I am not tired of looking at them yet (which is unusual for someone who redecorates as much as I do). They are sweet and graceful and seem to go with every season. I hope you enjoy this project as much as I have!

Oh, and I found a few variations of the project out there in the blogosphere:

Once Wed added wee felt berries and a ball jar full of moss to the mix

and Dinsey's Family Fun has a kid friendly version

I had no idea I could love a wreath, like with my whole heart and soul, but let me tell you, dear reader, it is possible. Wreath love is real.

This project, inspired by my good friend and partner in craft crime Rachael of Lovely.Crafty.Home, is not difficult, but is also not for the faint of heart. You will need 3-4 books you are willing to sacrifice. Garage sales and second hand stores are a great resource for books that are cheap and free. Or, like me, you may have an exorbitant amount of paper backs that have already been read and are now professional dust collectors. The subject matter of the books matters not, but pay attention to the color and texture of the pages when selecting your books. A little variety is good, but you don't want to get to contrast-y. For example: I ended up not using an old text book because the pages were too smooth, shiny and white-white compared to my other selections.

You will also need a LOT of glue sticks and a low temperature glue gun. The low temp glue gun is a key element. Trust me, your fingers will thank me later.

Other than that, just scissors, a foam wreath form and plenty of time are all that are required of you. Head on over to Lovely.Crafty.Home for the complete tutorial. The process is simple and you will LOVE the result. I promise.

Oh….and how amazing would these be on square wreath forms….or on chapel doors for a wedding…SWOON!

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A Christmas classic, popcorn garland is simple to make and gives your tree a sweet vintage-y vibe. To make this craft you will need:

½ cup popping corn

¼ cup cooking oil

Sewing needle

Light colored thread

Fresh Cranberries (optional)

Start by popping your popcorn on the stove-top.  With microwave popcorn's popularity, this simple task seems to be a bit of a lost art. It doesn't take long at all and the result here will be a dry popcorn with no butter or salt, perfect for stringing. Add ¼ cup of oil to a large heavy pot with a lid. Add popping corn, cover and heat over high heat until kernels start popping. Shake pot on burner to keep kernels from burning. Keep popping until there is a 2 second lull between pops. Remove from heat and keep shaking the covered pot for a few moments to allow for any extra pops. Remove lid and transfer popcorn to a large bowl. Thread needle and being stringing popcorn, alternate with cranberries as desired. I put a group of three cranberries every two feet or so.

This project also does not take as much time as you might think. I completed garland for our seven foot tall slim tree in less time than the broadcast of this evenings Monday night football game between the Colts and the Chargers. Happy stringing!

I have a feeling that come spring time, I will have these bad boys all over my house.



I am freaking out a little because I love them so much. I want to do a little dance and make...um...at least five or so right now! Head on over to 100 Layer Cake to see this delicously simple tutorial on how to make your own Alice-in-Wonderland-sized paper poppies. Enjoy!

Filled layer cakes are delicious and you can come up with some wonderful flavor combinations. Filling a cake is not much more work than simply icing a layer cake, so once you are committed to layering, you might as well go the extra step and make your cake really special.



For my spooky dinner party, I prepared a red velvet, raspberry filled round cake with cream cheese icing. It was delicious! To make this cake yourself, first begin by baking two 8" round red velvet cakes. Let the cakes cool for about 10 minutes in the pan and the transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. While the cakes are cooling, make your cream cheese icing and set aside. Once the cakes are cool, trim the tops with a serrated bread knife, to make them even. Then place once cake, trimmed side down, on to your cake plate or stand.

Fill your pastry bag with icing and using any large tip to draw a circle around the edge of the bottom cake.

Now you are ready to add your filling. I used a good quality local raspberry jam from filling. Spoon a liberal amount of your filling of choice into the icing circle:



Place the second cake on top of the first, cut side down.



Next apply a "crumb coat," a thin layer of icing that keeps crumbs where they belong-on the cake-not the frosting! Once the cake is coated, place it in the refrigerator to chill for a few hours, until the crumb coat is firm.


Now you are ready for the final layer of icing. I use an icing spatula that I keep in a glass of hot water while I am icing. The hot water heats up the metal spatula, making it easy to spread the icing and create a nice smooth finish on the cake. To keep with the spook theme, I used black gel icing to create a spider web design on the top of the cake and perched a paper cut our spider on the edge.



Filling and layering a cake is easier than you may think. Give yourself plenty of time to allow for cake cooling and icing setting and you will be impressed with the results!

Just in case you had sparkle pumpkin envy real bad, the brilliance that is Twig and Thistle has come to your rescue. Behold, the DIY candle holder version of the foam glitter pumpkin that I picked up at Michael's a few weeks ago. Thank you Twig and Thistle!

How cute is this little guy?! I was on a quest for cool table number ideas and I came across this tutorial from Intimate Weddings, which gave me a great idea--why not make jack-o-luminaries to decorate my house for fall? I love how they turned out and this was an easy and fun project. It would be great for kids too, with a little supervision on the cutting part.

For this project I used three 12x12 sheets of orange card stock and one 12x12 sheet of black card stock (which made four 6x6 luminaries). I also used my paper cutter, an excato knife, a pencil and a glue stick.

To get started, cut each sheet of 12x12 paper into four 6" squares. Draw your jack-o-lantern face of choice on one of the orange squares and use the exacto knife to 'carve' it. (Please note: the side that you have drawn on becomes the 'back' of the square, so that it faces the inside of the cube on the finished luminary.)

Next, fold over a 1/2" flap on one side of the orange square that has your jack-o-lantern face, two additional orange squares, and one black square. Apply glue to the 1/2" flap on each square and glue them together to form a cube.

Be sure to put the orange square with the face cut out on the front, the black square on the back, and the plain orange squares on each side.

Place over a tea light in a glass holder and enjoy!

With a bumper crop of cayenne peppers in the container garden, it was time to get creative, so I tried something new---making cayenne pepper (the spice) from scratch. I got some ideas from a few websites and decided to go for it. I preheated the oven to its lowest setting, 175 degrees. I removed the green tops of the peppers.



I placed the peppers on my oldest baking sheet and dried them in the oven on low heat for four hours. When the peppers were darker in color and brittle, I removed them and ground them into a super fine powder using my food processer on its highest setting. I added a tablespoon of salt to the mixture then transferred it into my spice jar. Presto!

Despite some aggressive food processing, there are still a few seeds left in the mix, so the next time I do this, I plan to remove the seeds before drying the peppers. Also, be sure to let the fine powder settle for a bit before removing the lid from your food processor!