DIY Faux Flower Hand Knit Pillow

Easy & thrifty Do-It-Yourself decor is always a win!  Today I'm sharing how I made this gorgeous little throw pillow with just a few basic craft supplies and minimal skills.  You do not need to have any special knitting or sewing skills for this one!  

The plush chenille yarn gives great texture to the pillow and the silk flowers, with wood bead centers, add pretty details and color.  You can customize it with whatever colors and flower types you want to go with any decor.  

Materials:

- Skein of jumbo chenille yarn (28yds or more)

- 2 bunches of silk flowers

- Large painted wooden beads

- Crochet or other thin yarn & large craft needle

I happened to get all my supplies from Hobby Lobby, but similar items can all be found in most craft stores.

To make the actual pillow I used thick chenille yarn called Yarn Bee Eternal Bliss in the Ivory color, and a simple hand knitting technique to create a round pouf style pillow.  I followed a great video tutorial from Do It On A Dime to make it.  

I used it previously to make this Fluffy Pouf Pillow for my baby's room last year: 

I'd just recommend making the loops a little looser if using chenille yarn.  The chenille doesn't stretch and flatten like a wool/wool blend yarn so you don't want the stitches to get too tight to work with.  My finished pillow was 11 inches in diameter and 7 inches high, so I did 15 stitches around and 8 rows high. 

I picked some large & small bloom faux floral bunches

and a box of assorted painted wood beads in complimenting colors:

I pulled the blooms off the stems and removed the plastic centers and arranged them to get the shape I wanted on the pillow and then worked with them individually.

I cut a strand of my crochet yarn and threaded a bead then threaded both ends through my craft needle:

Then I ran the needle through the center of the bloom where the hole was through all the petal layers since I'd removed the plastic pistil & stamen:

I knotted the yarn to hold the beads tight in the center.

Then I took the yarn tails and wrapped them around a few loops of my pillow's top and tied some tight knots and clipped off the excess tails.  At first I used my craft needle to help, but it's just as easy to do by hand.

I repeated this attaching my blooms really close together to get a nice full floral top:

Then the pillow was done.  There were plenty of flowers and beads left to make another pillow, so with some of the items on sale, each pillow comes out to be about $12-15.

Since it's so easy to modify this design by using different yarns and toppers, I'm thinking about making some holiday themed versions since we've got Halloween, Thanksgiving & Christmas all coming up.  So stay tuned for more pillow crafting fun! 

 

Easy Project Love: Hand Knit Round Pouf Pillow

Want a quick & easy project that looks like it took a lot more effort?  Have I got the craft for you!  This fabulous Hand Knit Round Pouf Pillow.   

With baby coming any day now and nesting mode kicking in big time, I've wanted to do a few simple projects.  Things I can potentially leave at any time & easily come back to have been key - especially with a curious and active under 2yr old running around.  Now's not the time for me to be designing new things from scratch or drafting patterns with my brain & belly both a bit worn out.  I found a great video tutorial for making this hand knit round pouf pillow that's cheap, takes next to no time and requires even less knitting skills.  I'd seen poufs like this in catalogs for ridiculously high prices so being able to make one myself, inexpensively, was a huge draw.


I also wanted a cute little throw pillow for the glider in our nursery and this turned out just perfect for it:



I'm not going to rehash an already awesome & easy to follow video by copying it step-by-step in photo form here, but you can find the original here at Do It On A Dime.  

I'd actually found a different video first, but the instructions & camera work were harder to follow.  And the finished sample pillow shown at the beginning of that video was actually larger than what was made during the tutorial so when I was done it was too small and I had to unravel the whole thing.  Grrr.  

The Do It On A Dime video gives two size options and once I learned the technique I did one that was in-between to get the ideal size.  My finished pillow was 11 inches in diameter and 7 inches high, so I did 15 stitches around and 8 rows high.  



That original video tutorial I found was from a shop that also carried the 100% Merino wool yarn used.  It was crazy expensive and they didn't have the right color either, so I found a great Merino Acrylic blend over at Hobby Lobby (FYI it's called Yarn Bee Showstopper) that looked identical to the pricey one and was on sale for $7.  It literally looked and felt like cotton candy while I was working. Is it weird I totally wanted to eat it?  

I'd bought it before I found the second video, and in it she mentioned using this very yarn as a cheaper option to the 100% wool, so I knew I was on the right track.

A few tips I learned from making this were to use a little clip to mark the start of each row.  If you're easily distracted or have to step away in the middle, like I usually do, this keeps you on track with knowing how far you've gone.  It's also important to keep the stitches uniform and not too loose - if they gape too much you'll see the poly fill on the inside.  The yarn has a good amount of give so you can always stretch it a little to widen the stitches when you stuff it.  

Also, you'll need less poly fill that you'll anticipate so it's ok to under stuff it a bit - the thickness of the yarn gives it a lot of the pouf shape.  

Lastly, I learned from the first video to fold a little yarn remnant in half and stuff it in the center hole of the top and bottom of the pillow to give it a nice finish (and to stop up the hole so you can't see inside at all): 

I LOVE how this turned out and how cute it looks with all our other furniture and pillows in the room.  I'm totally going to make more of these, maybe even a giant floor sized one.  I'm also on the lookout for some thick chenille yarn to do different textures.

Fluffy Yarn Reindeer Decoration Tutorial

I don't know about everyone else, but I'm definitely short on time this Christmas season. The days are counting down so fast and there's still loads to do.  This is when the Christmas crafts need to be pretty quick & easy.  Enter: The Fluffy Yarn Reindeer.

I'd seen yarn wrapped trees and a few reindeer here & there, but they all had a children's arts & crafts, rope-y look and even the slightest imperfection was really noticeable.  I wanted our reindeer to look a bit magical and what could be more fantastic than fluffy, shimmery antlers?

With his cherry red nose and snowy texture, he's an elegant Rudolph:

The best part? It's simple to make, doesn't require loads of materials and is inexpensive.  My craft win trifecta.  I didn't even have to leave the house because I had all the gear just sitting around in my craft hoard stash.  Which is good since I don't have time to run to the craft store all that often these days.

Materials:

- Papier mache reindeer (or tree/whatever shape you like)
- Skein of eyelash yarn 
- Tacky glue & hot glue
- Red shank button & satin ribbon
- Optional, but helpful, acrylic paint in the color of the yarn

The first part is optional, but key if you're a perfectionist type.  Add a bit of acrylic craft paint to the areas that are more challenging to cover.  This helps camouflage any gaps.  In this case it was the pointy ends of the antlers.  If I were doing this all over I'd probably paint the entire thing, but I was short on time so I just did a few choice spots.

I found starting at the antlers was the easiest with the yarn.  Dabbing a bit of glue along the upper area, I laid a bit of yarn over the antler tip and wound the yarn around about an inch down.  I did it a few more times to get the tip covered and then wound downward and moved to the other antler, loosely going upward and winding in more tight rows on the way back down.

Spread more of the tacky glue around the muzzle area

Then start winding from the antler area to around the mouth:

Wind around the area and then back around from the neck to the tip of the muzzle to get full coverage and then start looping it around the ears.  Dabs of hot glue here & there help keep the yarn from slipping off.

Work down the neck and then start wrapping around the center and then front to back to get the entire midsection covered well:

Then wrapping down one leg and adding a dab of hot glue at the hoof and cutting the yarn. I glued a new strand at the top of each of the remaining legs and wound down finishing them the same way.  Using a pin, I pulled loose some the the eyelash strands than got matted down with all the winding to fluff him up a bit.

For some added detailing, I ground off the shank of a cherry red button and hot glued it on for a nose.  Adding a nose was my daughter's idea and it really added the right touch.

I tied a satin ribbon bow around his neck and our fluffy fantasy reindeer was complete.

This little fella is ready to bring some wintery cheer to a special spot in our home.  Mantel, side table, table centerpiece, he can go anywhere!

Merry Christmas!

Fluffy Three Dimensional Letter Name Wall Art

Looking for an easy project for decorating the walls that's fast & cheap?  Then today's how-to is right up your street: Fluffy Letter Name Wall Art.

3-D names/words on the wall has been around for a while decor-wise, but I wanted something a little different than just basic yarn or puffed up fabric letters.  I didn't wan't it to involve a lot of materials or frustrating techniques though.  This method ticked all my boxes and takes just minutes to make too.  And it works great for any words you want to add to the wall (not just baby names!).

I used was some mdf letters from the craft store:

And some leftover eyelash yarn:

All I did was tie the yarn onto one end of a letter with a knot and then tightly wind the yarn around the entire letter.

I made sure to keep the yarn taut and each strand nice and close to the other so there'd be no gaps.  By using a dimensional yarn like eyelash it creates a puffier, fluffier letter and you can't see any of the winding.  Added bonus was since my yarn had variegated colors, it made some pretty stripe-like effects.

It makes it very forgiving if the strands overlap or you need to do a few extra wraps around the curves.  At the end I simply tucked the tail under a few layers and glued it in place.  That's it!

I didn't want the weight of the letter to pull on the yarn when hanging so my husband tapped in nails so the letters sit on them.  Since they're up high and over a tall dresser they won't get bumped or grabbed at, so it works perfectly.

It goes great with the 3-D Faux Candy Wall Art I did for the other wall of his room:

This little project has been a long time coming.  I actually had it done about 6 months ago, but only finally got it up on the wall (and able to photograph in place) about 2 weeks ago.

Life with a new baby + 3 other kids has definitely changed my speed and prioritizing!  I had the letters done before the baby came though, so he did technically have it in his room when he arrived;)