Supplies Needed for 6 Gift bags:

• Cute paper gift bags (I bought the Snowman bags above for .25 each at Kroger)
• Small plastic bags for your goodies
• Cute ribbon for the bag ties
• 1 pack of Christmas Oreos (Each pack contains 30 cookies which equals 5 cookies per child)
• 6 candy cane shaped containers filled with Christmas M & Ms (I think they were about a $1 each)
• 2 packs of Fruit Roll Ups (Each pack contain 10 roll ups which equals 3 per child with 2 left over)
• 2 packages of assorted colored Goldfish
• 1 pack of Candy Canes (Pack contains 18 canes which equals 3 per child)
• 1 pack of Christmas sugar cookies shaped like Christmas Trees from the bakery at Kroger (Pack contains 12 cookies which equals 2 cookies per child)

All you have to do is divide everything up and put the cookies, Goldfish and Oreos into the small plastic bags and tie with a ribbon to secure.  I finished this little project in under an hour.

Read how I made it here.  Oh and if you like the paper I used for the grass, you can make your own at Japonizer.  Japonizer is a neat little Japanese inspired background generator site.  I use it all of the time to make cute paper for craft projects.

I hope everyone is having a great holiday season, Cheers!

I recently made Olive a really simple cat toy and she loves it.   Since it is her favorite toy ever, I decided to share a tutorial with you guys.  I know cats will play with almost anything, but at least this toy looks cuter than a toilet paper roll or plastic water bottle which are Olive’s 2nd and 3rd favorite toys.

Supplies Needed:

• Two Metal Book Rings
• Fabric scraps of all sizes
• 2-3 foot long piece of ribbon or string

1.  Tie fabric scraps onto one of the metal book rings.  I just tied each one to the book ring and secured it with a double knot.  If your cat manages to untie it you can just simply tie it back on.

2.  Attach your 2-3 foot ribbon or string to the first book ring and then to the 2nd ring.

You are done.  You can attach the book ring without all of the fabric tied onto it to a door handle or just drag it around and watch your cat follow.  Olive loves when we swing it past her, so she can act like she is jumping so high to catch it.  When she is done playing with it, I just hanging it from the door handle of our craft room.  Olive loves to run past it and bat at it.  She is such a funny kitten.

]]> http://fayedodgeszombies.com/2011/09/30/easy-diy-cat-toy/feed/ 0 http://fayedodgeszombies.com/2011/08/25/diy-fabric-covered-bracelet-tutorial/ http://fayedodgeszombies.com/2011/08/25/diy-fabric-covered-bracelet-tutorial/#comments Thu, 25 Aug 2011 19:40:16 +0000 Faye http://selenahodge.porchswingmedia.com/?p=3880 Recently for my friend Dawn‘s birthday, I made her some fabric covered bracelets.  They were so easy to make and are really pretty.

Supplies Needed:

• Pretty fabric
• Aleene’s Fabric Fusion Glue Pen (or any type of fabric glue)
• bracelets
• clothespin

I started by taping my fabric to the bracelet just in case I wanted to change the fabric later.  Next I wrapped the fabric pretty tightly around the bracelet and secured it with a little fabric glue.

I used the clothespin to hold the fabric while the glue dried.  I let the glue dry over night but it technically only needs a couple of  hours to dry.

Once the glue is fully dry your bracelet is ready to wear or wrap up if you are making them as a gift.

This was the first time I have every stenciled on anything and I am hooked.  The worst part is cutting out the stencil, but once your stencil is cut out, the rest is quite easy.

Supplies Needed:

• Freezer Paper (Not wax paper)
• Good Scissors/Craft Knife
• Iron
• Acrylic Paint or Fabric Paint
• Stencil brush or sponge applicator

Either draw your own stencil or find a stencil template,  trace it onto the Matte (non-shiny) side of the freezer paper and cut out your stencil.  Place the stencil on the fabric with the shiny side down and press with your iron.  My iron was on a medium setting and I ironed it for about 30 seconds.  The freezer paper works wonderfully as a stencil and is easy to pull off once the paint is dry.  Since my design was simple, I drew it myself (as you can tell) but there are plenty of free stencils available online.

Place a piece of cardboard or a piece of freezer paper under the fabric before you paint to catch any paint that bleeds through the fabric.  I would suggest using a piece of freezer paper because the cardboard I used stuck to the underside of my fabric and it was kind of a mess.  Use the sponge applicator to gently paint the fabric.  Allow the paint to fully dry before you remove the stencil.  I let my fabric dry overnight.

Now the fun part!  Peel the freezer paper off your fabric to revel your nicely stenciled design.   Read the instructions on your paint.  You may need to iron over the paint to set it.  I didn’t do this step.

Since I was only stenciling the stems and leaves, I still had to sew on the fabric flowers.  I simply layered circles that I cut from a light cotton fabric  and stitched them on by hand.  My fabric was from a thrifted cotton button up shirt.

I was pretty happy with the final result and so was the mother to be!

All you need is a screwdriver, a staple gun, fabric and something to help you remove the staples, like a flat head screwdriver.

This is the fabric I chose.  I bought it at a thrift store and at first I thought it was vintage but it is possible that it is vintage inspired.  Sometimes it is hard to tell.

First unscrew the seat cushion from the base of the chair.  My cushion only had 5 screws holding it to the base.  Next simply pull out the existing staples and remove the current fabric.

Use the fabric you just took off as your pattern for cutting out your new fabric.  Next stretch the fabric over the chair cushion and staple the fabric to the chair.

I folded the raw edge of my fabric under before stapling it, just to make it look neater.  The truth is that nobody will be looking at the underside of your kitchen chairs and if they do its rude. Notice all of the holes from previous re-coverings.

Once you have finished stapling the fabric, re-screw the cushion to the base of the chair and you are done.  You can re-cover 4 chairs in about an hour or so, depending on how long it takes you to remove the current staples.

Since re-covering these chairs, my kitchen feels way more cheerful.

Day of the Dead skulls are fine for a baby's onesie right?

Here are some of the other onesies the shower guests made for Christy.  I love the punk rock onesie!

Photo Credit: Raven Guyton

This year I made my mom this little decorative tray for her bedside table or bathroom.  The tray I choose to use was already painted gold.  I used paint markers and acrylic paint to paint the flowers and initials.  Once everything was dry I covered it in varnish.  It took a couple of days to finish because some of the paint markers were oil based and took longer to dry.  But overall it was pretty easy to make and my mom loved it.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother’s Day!

I am not sure why I am making that face.

Look at that customer service!

The Doughtys were very helpful.

These screens were such a great idea.

I love Nikki's airplanes.

Nikki's bags, stationery and aprons

Nikki's cute little bows were a hit. She sold all but 3.

Since I didn’t get any really good photos of our booth, I included these photos I took the day before the festival.

Upcycled T-shirt Pillows

Aren't these Tooth Fairy pillows cute?

Planners and Journals

I will be adding some of my unsold items to my Etsy shop soon.  So what do you think?

This is the front of my merchandise bags.

My Etsy address is stamped on the back of my merchandise bags.

I also stamped my Etsy address on the back of my stationery.

These little tags are for my stationery sets.

I love how cute my notebooks look with my Etsy address stamped on them.

So let me know what you think.  Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.