Top Posts of 2012

My top 2012 posts are as follows:

DIY Burlap Wedding Shower Invite

Red Envelope Knock-off Artwork

Craft Room Reveal

Chevron Curtains

And my most popular post of 2012 is my DIY Pouf

I can't wait to share my projects in 2013! Happy 2013 to everyone and thanks for reading!!

DIY Train Table

For Christmas Little Man got a homemade train table made by grandpa. My dad made Little Man this train table based on the directions from Ana White. I know he made a few tweaks, but I don't know what they were.... I made the mistake of letting Little Man play with the table before it was painted and I was not sure how I would ever be able to get the time to paint it without disrupting play time.... but I found the time! And Little Man was even more excited to get back his table!!

The pouf I made for the table works great! The navy bins my mom purchased from Pottery Barn Kids. My dad was going to make the wooden bins, but my mom found these on sale so we just got them instead.

I love the knock off of this table and Little Man loves LOVES LOVES the train table "ba pa" made him!

Knock Off Decor Feature

I am so excited that my pouf was feature over at Knock Off Decor last night!

Stop on over at Knock Off Decor and check it out!! I LOVE Knock Off Decor, there are so many fabulous projects to view!

My version of the Pouf!

I love all of the Poufs available to purchase, including the cute Striped Poufs from West Elm! SO Cute, but so expensive! So I figured I could make my own! How hard could it be? I am an expert at pillows! My plan is to let Little Man use this at his train table because its hard work playing with trains all day and he likes to rest once in a while!

I wanted to sew an 18x18 square cube cushion that was 12 inches high.

Materials needed:

About 2 yards of fabric (I used Wavery Lovely Lattic Fabric)

White cording

2 Packages of Blanket Batting

1 Package of loose batting (I only used about 3/4 of this)

Sewing machines and supplies

So I cut 5 pieces of patterned fabric and one white piece (for the bottom). I cut 4 pieces of my patterned fabric to be 13 x 19 for the sides. For the top and bottom I cut a piece of 19 x 19 in both white and my patterned fabric. (I was trying to save my pretty fabric so I used a white canvas for the bottom)

I started by pinning and sewing the 4 side pieces back to back until I had a big circle of fabric.

Then before preparing to sew on the top, I decided to add white cording for an extra detail. I first pinned my cording to my top fabric.

And then pinned the top layer to the side layer and SLOWLY started sewing the 3 pieces together. I worked with one section at a time.

I took my time at the corners and went back a couple times to try and get them as straight as possible.

I then repeated for the bottom panel. This was much easier because I did not have to deal with the cording! I left one whole side unfinished for stuffing. I do not like hand stitching so I always sew both of my corners on the side I leave open so they still look good after the hand stitching is completed.

I then turned my fabric right side out!! (My second favorite part!!! First is when I am done!!)

I LOVE the cording! I am glad I took the time for the extra detail!!! Now it's time to stuff!!

To stuff the cushion I started with two packages of Blanket Batting.

I measured 18 inches and folded it so it was 18 inches wide.
I folded the entire stack until it was a nice pile of batting!

It was REALLY hard shoving this batting into my cushion!!! But I got it! Once it was in, I did the same with the second roll.

I then used loose batting and stuffed it between the two flat sheets and around the corners. I stuffed the cushion until it had the shape I wanted. I thought this would take more batting than it did. It used only about 3/4 of a large bag.

My stuffed cushion! I then finished sewing off the remaining open portion of the cushion (like you would a pillow!)

I LOVE IT! It needs a little fluffing of the batting, but I figure Little Man can take care of that while playing trains!!







If you enjoyed this pouf tutorial, please check out the other 3 poufs I have since made!!!

Knock Off Decor

I am so excited that I have been featured on Knock Off Decor for the SECOND time!!

I love this site and am so happy to be featured on it! Check it out, so many fabulous knock offs!
My most recent project to be featured was my Red Envelope knock off canvas art!

In November my Dr. Seuss Bathroom was featured. This bathroom was a lot of work - and I actually painted those fish! But I am so proud of this bathroom and Little Man still loves pointing out all of the fish each time he takes a bath!

Thanks again Knock Off Decor!

Red Envelope Knock-off Artwork

I love Red Envelope for their unique gifts. I have bought and received my share of things from Red Envelope but recently when exploring their website I came across their personalized canvas art work starting at $120. While I would have no problem purchasing a personalized canvas for that price but these are SO simple looking that I figured I could easily make them myself for a fraction of the price.

I LOVED the state canvas! So cool! But so easy to make! (For some reason this was really hard to photograph - the state looks pink.... it's not, it's white!!!)

I used my Silhouette Cameo to make state of Wisconsin and the text.

I searched the internet for a state of Wisconsin image and I found a pretty simple one. If you can't find a simple shape you can use the directions I used for making a silhouette of my son in photoshop.

To cut the state shape with the Silhouette, I saved my image as a JPG and opened it in Silhouette studio. In the trace menu I selected my entire image with the "select trace area" and then selected "trace outer edge." I then re-sized mine to be about 12x12 since I was using a 16x20inch canvas. Then it was off to the cutting machine!
I then transferred the state and words to the canvas.

I then piled on the white paint to try and seal the vinyl to the canvas. I actually did two light coats and it did NOT bled.
I then painted several layers of Martha Stewart's Surf craft paint.
I did let it dry over night so it was good and dry. I know some remove the vinyl when wet, but I figured it would be easier to remove the large state image when dry since its so large! I was so nervous pealing the letters off!
But it turned out GREAT! I love it! I love the detail that the Silhouette cut out for the state border!
I think it turned out great! Here is the original from Red Envelope for $120!
While browsing the Red Envelope site I came across this pretty canvas that will go well in my guest bedroom! Again $120!
Well here is my version. So simple I just used my Silhouette again. And this canvas I have had for about 5 years and re-painted over it the dark gray not knowing what I would use it for! So this was a pretty near free project for me! This canvas is about 15x30 inches and I love how large the canvas is and how there is so much extra space on the top and bottom!

Christmas Pillows

I am so excited, I just finished two Christmas pillows!

The pillow on the right was inspired by the Crate and Barrel pillow.
I started by cutting 3 inch circles form about a 1/2 a yard of green felt fabric. I decided to only do one shade of green for my version.


I cut a tree shape out of felt, and used the fabulous tutorials all over the web folding the circle into forth and then put one stitch through it and then into the tree shaped background.

I then continued this about a hundred times!!


Until I had covered the entire tree.


I then used white fabric to sew a pillow. I like to make my pillows with the envelope closure so I can easily change my pillow cases out. I then hand sewed the tree to my pillow. This was a little harder than I thought because I had to be careful I did not sew through bother layers of the pillow. The inside of this pillow is very messy, but it's the inside, so it does not matter!

The back of the pillow.
I also made another pillow that I pined on Pinterest a while back. The original pin was Quiltish but I found it from the blog: inspired honey bee. I love how this pillow turned out. Even though I am not good at using Wonder Under, I used it and then used my sewing machine to outline the trees to the pillow.



Both of my pillows! Love them!