Craft Cheat Tutorial: Easiest Wall Art EVER!

Now this is a project for even the non-crafter.  Easy, cheap & fast for wall art that works.  I had this space in my dining room that needed something added to it for years.

Problem was I couldn't find something that:

1. Was the kind of colors/style I wanted
2. The right size (my space needed something several feet wide, but not too tall)
3. Reasonable price (wall art this big is $$ even for the cheapest stuff)

I'm not a painter & have ZERO drawing skills, so I didn't want to mess up a canvas attempting either one.   I decided to go the "cheater" route instead.  I used a cheap blank canvas, some scrapbook paper I had & poster putty to make my ideal wall art that is also completely reusable so you can pull it all off and make something else whenever the mood strikes.  Total project cost about $10, which is way less than buying something I may end up hating, but would be stuck with keeping because of the price.

Here's how:

- Scrapbook paper in complimentary colors/prints
- Poster putty
- Blank canvas
- Scissors/Cricut (optional)
- Craft paint (optional)

I needed something pretty big, 24" x 36", so full sheets of paper were a perfect fit, but you could always cut them down to make any size desired.  I laid out the papers until I liked the layout and then used little bits of the poster putty around the edges of each piece to attach them to the canvas.

Then I used my Cricut to cut out a giant fleur de lis and attached that on top with more putty.  If you don't have a cutting machine, tracing a shape you like and cutting with scissors or buying a pre-cut shape are easy alternatives.

I didn't want the side edges of the canvas to be glaring white, so I used some leftover acrylic craft paint to paint them a soft green, but that's just personal preference.

Using Mod Podge or some other adhesive would make this more permanent, but I like having the option of being able to take all the paper off to reuse for something else and then swap in whatever other ones I feel like whenever I want.

This room isn't the easiest to photograph, so the pictures don't do it justice.  It looks nicer in person.  I'm pretty pleased with the results though and if I change my mind, no big deal.  If only everything else was this easy...

Sharing this with my FAVE LINK PARTIES too so check them out HERE!

Craftastic Monday

Let's start this week's party with the Halloween features of the week:  Quarry Orchard's Ghostly Candle tutorial.  Spooktacular!!

And

Sustainably Chic Design's Dollar Tree Spookathon Halloween Plates made without even needing a Cricut!

Now that this party now has 100+ links every week, it's hard to leave comments on each one.  And I wish I could, because I know receiving comments is important.

Some link parties are starting to require leaving comments on other links or the party itself.  I don't want to MAKE people do it, but I'd like to challenge everyone (including myself) to try to comment more often on other people's projects in general.

It's feels good to hear nice things about something you've made, especially when you've worked hard on it.  Sew Can Do has nearly 1,000 subscribers, but when a post has only a handful of comments I still think "maybe those are the only people liking it".  So when you see projects you enjoy, take a few seconds to let those bloggers know and make their day a little brighter:)

Now enough jibber-jabber from me, check out some of these great projects from last week's party:

My May Sunshine transformed an Ikea photo frame into this adorable notice board with 3-D butterflies:

Polwig.com made these puzzle blocks from cut up juice boxes.  How eco-cool is that??

And these lovely tile trivets by The Miss Adventures of Susie Homemaker.  Pretty & practical too:

One last thing, if you're adding to the party, PLEASE remember to link back to this party somewhere.  There have been a lot of great projects I've wanted to feature the past few weeks, but since those blogs didn't have a link back anywhere on their blogs, I couldn't consider them:(


If you've created something fun (sewing, cooking, decorating, papercraft or anything else crafty), link on up! The rules are simple:

• As long as it's crafty and made by you it's Craftastic. Just add the link to your specific post (not the main page of your blog).
• Include the name of your Craftastic creation, your blog name & a pic of your project.
• Grab my party button & put it on your post or blog to share the party with everyone.  
• Check out some of the other great links and share some crafty comment love.

This party is for sharing your own fun craft ideas & homemade projects (not promoting products), so please no giveaways, linking up another party, Etsy shops or online stores.

I leave the party open until 12pm EST Thursday. As usual, at the end of the week I'll be featuring some of my favorite links, so please remember to add the Craftastic party button to your post or blog so I can consider featuring your project:

<a href="http://sewcando.blogspot.com"><img src="

http://i893.photobucket.com/albums/ac133/cerise422/sewcandoPARTYbuttonworking.jpg"/></a>

Plush Peanut Pals

The minute I saw the pattern for this plush peanut, I knew I had to make it.  HAD to.  A big zip up peanut shell with two peanuts inside.  It was just so darn cute and clever, I wish I'd thought of it!

It came from this adorable vintage plush fruit & veggie pattern set by Vogue (#1566).  It's over 30 yrs old, but the styles are timeless.  Check out all the garden goodies and their sweet faces:

They're all super cute, but the peanut set just jumped out at me.  The pattern is so old that fleece wasn't even a fabric option listed!  I knew it would be the best choice so it would be cuddly for the kids and easy to work with too.  Quilting two layers together gives it just the right thickness and shell "texture":

The peanuts inside are removable and I used fleece scraps & buttons to make their faces instead of trying to use the ancient transfers in the pattern. I think I like the way they turned out better anyway:

How could a kid resist this face peeking out?

As you can see, it was a hit:

Who wouldn't want a few peanut pals to hang out with:

Now if only I could find some time to make the whole garden my kids would be in 7th heaven!

Sharing this with my FAVE LINK PARTIES too so check them out HERE!

Fall Into Craftastic Monday

I love Fall, but with school, holidays and birthdays it goes by too darn fast, so I usually miss my window for doing seasonal crafts this time of year.  Got to be a good mom before being a good crafter!  So, please throw me a lifeline and show more of your Fall or Halloween themed projects, recipes, creations, decor, etc. so everyone can get some inspiration and I'll be sure to include at least one as an extra "bonus" themed featured item each week.

To kick off the new Fall/Halloween feature of the week, I've selected two projects that have similar styles but totally different ways to make them, so there's a little something for everyone's crafting arsenal.

Cute As A Fox's Mason Jar Ghosts made with jars & etching cream:

And Life In Rehab's Glass Shade Lanterns from chandelier shades & frosted glass spray paint:

Both super cute & easy to make.  LOVE it!!

And here are some other fun things that caught my eye last week:

Look at this cute elephant softie by Pins & Pens.  There's even a free downloadable pattern so you can make one of your own!

Ami at AliLilly had the great idea to make this beautiful flower art out of her daughter's baby blankets.  So cute and a great keepsake:

And because it's never to early to start thinking about all the holidays coming up, check out this great tutorial from Kiwi At Heart for making these winter yo-yo trees:

Now I want to see what you have got for us!  If you've created something fun (sewing, baking, decorating, papercraft or anything else crafty), link on up! The rules are simple:

• As long as it's crafty and made by you it's Craftastic. Just add the link to your specific post (not the main page of your blog).
• Include the name of your Craftastic creation, your blog name & a pic of your project.
• Grab my party button & put it on your post or blog to share the party with everyone.  Please put a link to the party or to your linky page IN your post.
• Check out some of the other great links and share some crafty comment love.

This party is for sharing your own fun craft ideas & homemade projects (not promoting products), so please no giveaways, linking up another party, Etsy shops or online stores.

I leave the party open until 12pm EST Thursday. As usual, at the end of the week I'll be featuring some of my favorite links, so please remember to add the Craftastic party button to your post or blog so I can consider featuring your project:

<a href="http://sewcando.blogspot.com"><img src="

http://i893.photobucket.com/albums/ac133/cerise422/sewcandoPARTYbuttonworking.jpg"/></a>

Birthday Tea Dress

This is the dress I made for my daughter's 1st birthday.  I wanted something that would be a pretty little tea dress & found a pattern for a tunic top with a cute front pleat and went for it.  I added extra length to make it into a dress:

I love how the sleeves fold up to show the contrasting fabric and are accented with a little bow detail:

And the easy open back, which I made even easier by using snaps instead of buttons.  This made it simpler to take off after it got covered with birthday cake:

The pattern used was the Savanni Tunic of Ottobre Design's Summer 2010 issue.  The overall design of it is straightforward, but the directions seemed to over complicate things a lot.   Maybe it's because I'm a visual person, but my one big gripe about this (and most of the other Ottobre patterns really) is that they just cram all the instructions into a tiny paragraph with no illustrations.  And maybe one or two posed pics of the item, but never a total view, so you can't refer to that for help.  Not very user-friendly.  So if you're brand new to sewing....good luck.

I accidentally stitched the top & bottom layers together wrong the first time because I thought I was following the directions despite my crafter's sense telling me it wasn't right.  And this was after reading & re-reading it several times.  Ugh.  So ultimately I find myself just assembling it as it makes sense to me instead of using their steps.  Once I finished it I also felt like the front was too blah, so I added another button & bow.

Here's how it looked on (I didn't think to take a better picture!):

Perfect for the party & that's what counts!

Sharing this with my FAVE LINK PARTIES too so check them out HERE!

Craftastic Monday September Style

Why yes this is a Pineapple Baby Hat kicking off a new Craftastic Monday.  What's the occasion?  Well, cooler weather & Halloween are both fast approaching, so babies need ways to keep warm and have fun dressing up at the same time!  This is one of the newest hats I've made.  I've got my new creations & all my most popular designs available in my Etsy shop, The Green Hedgehog, so my daughter won't be the only baby having fun with hats this fall!

I can see I'm not the only one who's been busy.  Even though last week's Craftastic party fell on a holiday, there was no shortage of great projects.  Here are a few fabulous ones:

How about these handmade wooden buttons by Michele of Michele Made Me?  So pretty & unique AND she shows us how with a tutorial -

Check out this cute memory game by Camille of The Mother Lode using her daughter's own artwork.  This would definitely get kids excited to play and is a great way to save their masterpieces:

Stephanie of Stephanie's Scribbles made this great personalized wall art using some creative photos & gives all the info and links on how:

Ok crafting superstars I want to see what you have got for us!  If you've created something fun (sewing, baking, decorating, papercraft or anything else crafty), link on up! The rules are simple:

• As long as it's crafty and made by you it's Craftastic. Just add the link to your specific post (not the main page of your blog).
• Include the name of your Craftastic creation, your blog name & a pic of your project.
• Grab my party button & put it on your post or blog to share the party with everyone.
• Check out some of the other great links and share some crafty comment love.

This party is for sharing your own fun craft ideas & homemade projects (not promoting products), so please no giveaways, linking up another party, Etsy shops or online stores.

I leave the party open until 12pm EST Thursday. As usual, at the end of the week I'll be featuring some of my favorite links, so please remember to add the Craftastic party button to your post or blog so I can consider featuring your project:

<a href="http://sewcando.blogspot.com"><img src="

http://i893.photobucket.com/albums/ac133/cerise422/sewcandoPARTYbuttonworking.jpg"/></a>

Murder, She Wrote - The Birthday Mystery

Ok, time for a totally random craft post.  Two days before my sister's birthday I was wracking my brain trying to come up with a great gift, when this idea hit me.  She's a huge Murder, She Wrote fan - as in has all 50 billion seasons on dvd, the books, the board game (yeah, I didn't know that even existed either), etc.  But there was no time or extra cash to stalk eBay for crazy fan items.  So once again, my dynamic duo, Cricut & Sure Cuts A Lot, came through for the awesomest & easiest gift idea.

I did a search for the show font and downloaded it for free (FYI - it's called the Lansbury).  I got a photo box from Michaels and typed up her name, the words above and a heart in the SCAL software & cut 'em out with the Cricut.  I laid them out so that it would look just like the brown book in the opening credits of the show and used Mod Podge on the backs to stick them on.  PRESTO! A personalized, super fan's dream and done in less than an hour.

Most well known tv shows, video games, bands & movies have free fonts available out there in cyberspace, so it's worth the 5 minutes to look around for them.  Keep in mind, this sort of thing is for fun, personal use only - if you try to make stuff to sell using a branded font, you can be opening yourself up to a world of copyright infringement & lawsuits.  Not a wise idea.  But free gift-wise, it's ok, so let your creativity run wild with them. Both adults & kids love getting one-of-a-kid fan stuff as presents.  A good source for themes is TypeNow.net.  They've got all kinds of fabulous ones.

I've been able to work birthday magic using the Star Wars & Xena fonts as well and let me tell you no matter what you make with it, it's always a hit with the recipient, because it's something even a mega fan has never seen before.  The next challenge is my sister's boyfriend's birthday.  He's got a Back To The Future theme going, so come back for a future post on that (sorry for the pun, just couldn't help myself).  Hehe.

Sharing this with my FAVE LINK PARTIES too so check them out here!

Tea Lover's Project Paradise!

So many of you left such sweet comments on my Tea Party Birthday & all the projects I made for it - it makes a girl feel so proud!!  Especially because I NEVER thought of myself being the type to throw a beautiful party without any design help or using pre-made stuff.  Proof positive that with a little effort & patience, anyone can get crafty!

I'll be doing some individual project posts soon to show how I did a few things, but for those of you who can't get enough tea-related projects, right this minute, there's good news!  Muffins and More is doing an entire Tea Lover's Roundup and is featuring my Teapot Invitation & Tea Party for today's projects.  Yay!  Stop by & check out all the fun tea themed goodies.

And if you still can't get enough tea stuff, August was Tea Cup Month over at Luv In The Mommyhood & yours truly's tea party is linked up there too.

And for those of you that don't like tea (if that's even possible!), head over to Train To Crazy's Sewing for Baby Month and check out my Moses Basket Bedding Tutorial which has kicked off a month full of baby-themed projects.

Labor Day Craftastic Monday Link Party

I hope everyone starts this week with some well deserved rest & relaxation.  Even though it's a holiday, I've got the party open to show off your crafty stuff this week.

Thanks so much for all the sweet comments on my Tea Party Birthday Party & Viking Baby Hairdo Hat from last week.  It feels great to hear when people like the projects I'm really proud of - it's definite crafter validation!  Lots more fun stuff is coming over the next few weeks, including my featured favorites from the August Craftastic Birthday Link Party.  With the holiday weekend, getting ready for school &  a lot of crafting commitments I'm spread a bit thin, but at least I've got today squared away, right?

Here are a few of my favorites from last week's party:

This cute felted nest from Ellen of Creative Passive,

A gorgeous fairy box tutorial by Frenchy from Le Chateau des fleurs,

And these chocolate box pincushions by Suzy of Suzy's Artsy-Craftsy Sitcom.

Ok crafting superstars I want to see what you have got for us!  If you've created something fun (sewing, baking, decorating, papercraft or anything else crafty), link on up! The rules are simple:

• As long as it's crafty and made by you it's Craftastic. Just add the link to your specific post (not the main page of your blog).
• Include the name of your Craftastic creation, your blog name & a pic of your project.
• Grab my party button & put it on your post or blog to share the party with everyone.
• Check out some of the other great links and share some crafty comment love.

This party is for sharing your own fun craft ideas & homemade projects (not promoting products), so please no giveaways, linking up another party, Etsy shops or online stores.

I leave the party open until 12pm EST Thursday. As usual, at the end of the week I'll be featuring some of my favorite links, so please remember to add the Craftastic party button to your post or blog so I can consider featuring your project:

<a href="http://sewcando.blogspot.com"><img src="

http://i893.photobucket.com/albums/ac133/cerise422/sewcandoPARTYbuttonworking.jpg"/></a>