DIY Pokeball

 
My brother went to Comicon a couple weeks ago, which is basically an awesome geek-fest where everyone dresses up as fictional characters from video games, books, movies, etc. It's pretty awesome. He dressed up as a character from Pokemon, so I threw together this cute little Pokeball in about 10 minutes. Here's how I did it:

Super easy, right? Just paint half of a styrofoam ball red, and glue on a black strip of felt and three felt circles. Sadly, I didn't get any photos of the whole costume put together. :( Apparently several people wanted to hold the pokeball so it got a little smashed, but altogether it held up pretty well for styrofoam. :)

Check 'em out!

DIY Blog Organizer

Hey everyone! Sorry for the lack of posts... Right now is a craaazy time for me. I have so many ideas spinning around in my head, I don't know where to start! Today I wanted to share my blog organizer. It's a simple 3-ring binder that keeps track of all of my post schedules, DIY ideas, and inspiration! Here's a peek inside to find out how to make your own!

The first page(s) is a calendar to plan posts and write out deadlines. I made this mid-way through April, so there's hardly anything in it yet. Each month, print out this page and fill in the month and the numbers for each day (check a real calendar or find one online). There's also a space at the bottom for notes.

In the middle is my "inspiration" part. I cut out pages from magazines and slipped them into clear sleeves. Some of them are just photos, some are articles - whatever floats your boat!

Near the back is my "brainstorming" section. I have pages (above) that are labeled with different categories, and sticky notes to illustrate my ideas.

Right behind the "brainstorming" section, I have a clear pocket that has a pen in it, a ruler (came with the binder), and a big sticky note pad. I actually got mine as a prize at an adult's arcade called Dave and Buster's (cool, right?), but you can easily make your own by gluing sticky note pads to a thick piece of cardstock.

Download the calendar here Download the cover here Do you use a planner? What have you found works best for you?

My Mini Piñata

Whenever I have spare time, I take a look at my "must do" Pinterest board where I pin projects I will actually do (!!!). I discovered a tutorial for mini piñatas and took a shot at it. I wanted something fun + modern to match my room, rather than your typical festive + bright piñata, so I made my piñata white. This project is 100% inspired/made from Jordan's mini piñata tutorial, which were made as party favors and are oh so adorable. I made mine a little differently and used it as a decor piece. Let me show you how I did it:

1. Cut two identical donkey shapes out of a cereal box. Now cut strips about 1.5" wide and tape them along each side of the shape. I had to wing it for the ears, because the original tutorial didn't separate them. Basically I cut out eight more square pieces and assembled them to create two tiny boxes. 2. Cut long strips of tissue paper, and fold them in half. Then cut slits down the 'open' edge (not the edge that's the crease of the fold) and glue them on the donkey form. The head and back were tricky, so I just cut + glued individual pieces instead of wrapping. 3. You're done! This project took me about four hours to complete because it took me a while to figure out how to make the form then wrap it. Just load up on some Netflix shows and you're good to go! 

One thing I would have done differently is using white tape instead of gray. The glue I used made parts of the tissue paper see-through, so there are some darker areas because of the tape showing through. Except for that, I love the way it turned out. It's perfect as a bookshelf gem or a decoration for a party!

Owl Valentines

I love Valentine's Day! It's definitely one of my favorite holidays. I love the valentines exchanges, the treats, the hearts... I pretty much love it all. Here are some adorable owl valentines you can create yourself.

Supplies: Solid-colored cardstock, wrapping paper or patterned scrapbook paper, scissors, a glue stick, and a pencil.

First you need to download and print out your templates. To do this, go HERE and click 'download or print'. Cut the shapes out to use as stencils and trace around each one with a pencil on patterned or solid cardstock. Be sure to trace on the back of the paper, so your pencil marks won't show on the front side. You should have two wings, a body, a heart, a beak, one white shape and two smaller black dots (for the eyes).

Now glue the pieces on the body. Getting the wings in the perfect spot can be tricky - this was all hand-drawn so it's not perfect :) You may need to trim a corner off so the edges match.

Voila!

Aren't they super cute?

Now you can attach a piece of candy on the back with tape and write a cute little owl pun ;)

This project can be time consuming, so I would recommend making these valentines for a small bunch of friends. Don't be afraid to make them all different colors and patterns, too. I even jazzed some up with a thin coat of liquid glue on the wings and sprinkled on glitter.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Check out this month's sponsor:

Valentine Garland d.i.y.

Yesterday I saw Warm Bodies with some friends. I do NOT have a strong stomach at all, and it's a zombie movie. Zombies eat brains (and people too). Even though it was kinda gross, it was a really cute love story and had several hilarious parts. Speaking of love (sort of)... I made a cute + simple Valentine's heart garland. You can make one too!

1. Gather some baker's twine (I bought mine at Hobby Lobby) and felt. 2. Cut out a heart shape from paper for your template and pin it to the felt. 3. Cut out several hearts (I made a short garland, so I cut out seven) using the paper as a guideline 4. Hot glue the twine to the back of your hearts.
I love mine! It turned out exactly how I wanted it to :)

Check out this month's sponsor:

DIY Dog Treats

These dog treats are so easy to whip up for your pooch. Even for me, because I take forever when I bake/cook something. I picked up a bone cookie cutter and a recipe from the dollar section at Target, but you can use any kind of cutter for this.

Ingredients:
1/2 cups water
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
4 tablespoons peanut butter
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 oats

Blend water, oil, eggs, and vanilla together. In a separate bowl, whisk flour, cornmeal, and oats together and then pour into wet mixture. Now add the peanut butter and mix all ingredients until you form a ball of dough. Roll out and shape. Put onto a non-stick lightly greased cookie tray. Cook 20 minutes at 400 F. Turn off oven and allow the biscuits to cool in oven until crisp and hard. Store in airtight container.

I made about 3 1/2 dozen treats with a 3-inch cookie cutter.

And... she loves them!

DIY Glitter Ornament Lights

 

I love Christmas lights. They are just so fun and festive.

 I made a quick garland by laying out my lights (24ft long package of mini lights from Target for $5) and tying on the bulbs (also from Target) with clear fishing line.

 This is such a simple project and only took my friend and me about 30 minutes to complete it.

Do you put Christmas lights up inside your house?

DIY Felt Baseball Ornament

This year I tried to make almost all of my gifts, but it didn't work out so well. I ended up buying most of the gifts for my family (it's hard to make stuff for a teenage boy who's into video games), but thankfully I did make some ornaments for friends, and this is one of them.

My inspiration for this tutorial was just a friend who likes baseball (duh). But it would work for pretty much any sport involving a ball, and it's so easy all it requires is some felt and thread!

So, I started by tracing a cup on some felt and cutting out two circles:

Then I took two strands of red embroidery thread) and just went to town hand-sewing a ton of 'V' shapes down the top circle. This part is tricky. I found it works best if you're not straining to get perfect 'V's that look exactly the same, because 1) it takes forever and 2) they look worse than the ones I did quickly without thinking about.

Once I finished making the front, I put the two circles together and hand stitched the edges together.

 Before completely sewing up the top, I stuffed a teensy bit of stuffing in there and then added the string to hang it from (braided embroidery thread).

 Have you bought or made your gifts this year?

inspiration board.

I love InStyle magazine. One thing I really like about them is that they have pretty pictures. Making an inspiration board is something I've wanted to do for a while now, so I cut out pictures from InStyle and pinned them on a big magnet board from Ikea with magnets. Then I covered the edges of the board in washi tape :) Super easy, right?

You can pin up anything that inspires you. It could be a scrap of fabric, a piece of jewelry, a paint chip, etc.

Happy Sunday! xo Kate

Vintage Bow Mobile

Today I am going to show you how to make your own vintage bow mobile with some fabric scraps!

Supplies:

vintage fabric scraps (or any kind of fabric, if you want to go more modern)

wire hanger

clear fishing line or thread

needle
heavy-duty wire cutters

hot glue gun

While I was searching for an embroidery hoop in the garage (I was going to make the base an embroidery hoop but I couldn't find any) I came across a bin of my mom's old fabric scraps. In fact, the hot pink and white polka dot fabric in the photo above came from my mom's bridesmaids dresses! Most of the fabric is pretty old and I thought it had a vintage-y feel to it, so I went ahead and used it.

Cut off the hook of your wire hanger. Bend the wire into a circle by wrapping it around something large and round (I used a paint can). Twist the ends together and cut off the excess with wire cutters. You should have something like the result above. My hanger was already white with some of the covering rubbed off in some places. I decided to leave it, because it added to the whole vintage look.

The next step is making your bows. I've included a few different ways to make your fabric bows below...

Bow #1. Cut a long, narrow piece of fabric and a smaller one. Take the larger piece and bring the two ends to the center. Then pinch the fabric in the center and wrap the smaller piece around the center. Glue the small piece together on the back of the bow.

 

Bow #2. Do the same exact thing with bow 2 but instead of wrapping the smaller piece around, simple put a few stitches in it.

Bow #3 (the faux bow). Take a long piece of fabric and tie a tight knot in the center. Bring the two ends together toward the knot and glue them down in the back. From the front it looks like an ordinary bow.

Experiment with different sizes and styles for your bows. I loved trying out new ways to tie bows and learned a lot from this project!
You should have a collection of about 10-15 bows for your mobile:

To attach the bows to the mobile, take your needle and thread fishing line through your bows (this is one reason why you want to limit your hot glue because the needle won't go through it). Knot it three times at the bottom so it won't fall through your fabric, and tie the other end of the line to your hoop.

So simple and cute. :)
xo. Kate