French bolster pillow

Some of you noticed the bolster pillow photoed with my frenchy dining chairs.  I don't know if you have ever checked out the price on bolster pillow but they are pretty expensive.  When I came across a flat filled with bolster pillows at Goodwill outlet, I snatched up four.  I didn't really need four but at the deal I was getting, I couldn't resist!

Here is the before.

Not only did I get a super long bolster pillow, but I salvaged a super long zipper from it too!  Of course loving all things french related, I wanted to make a french pillow.  I gotta say I just love my cricut!  I used it in conjunction with a software called Sure Cuts A Lot.  This software allows me to use any font I have on my computer with my cricut.  It rocks because I don't have to pay for all of those expensive cartridges.  Anyways, I cut out the stencil on my cricut using freezer paper.  (I'll be doing a tutorial on that later.)  Sewed and tied.  This is what it came out like:

I do admit that I had to use my foot to squeeze the pillow into its new dress.  I'm loving it!  Can't wait to figure out what to do with the remaining three I still have.

I'm sharing over at:

    

Ballard Inspired Pillows

My son's teacher is getting married.  The room moms' have organized a bridal shower for her.  This gave me the perfect excuse to make my own version of these pillows from Ballard's:

I like the idea of it saying Mr. and Mrs. but just don't think burlap pillows would be all that comfortable.  So digging I went into my material stash.  I dug out some natural colored denim (much softer than burlap).  After cutting it for my pillow dimensions, I next had to consider my template for the Mr. and Mrs.  Although I like the Ballard's pillow, I am a sucker for a more script font.  After selecting a script I liked, I cut out a template with my cricut on freezer paper.  You know the rest, iron it on, paint, and sew.  I'm pretty pleased with the outcome.  I'm hoping his teacher will like it just as well.

I'm sharing over at:

Just something I whipped up at http://www.thegirlcreative.com/

 

http://todayscreativeblog.net/
 
 
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday @

Union Jack Pillow

Union jack pillows are everywhere.  I don't know if you have been seeing them but I couldn't get them out of my head!  I've seen some really cute ones out there in blog land.  Seeing that last night we were suppose to get blasted with ice and snow, I decided it would be a great time to make one.  Unfortunately, I didn't have the right fabrics to make it like the ones that inspired me.  So, I did the next best thing.  Drag out drop cloth fabric and craft paint. 

It was a little tricky cutting out the union jack flag with freezer paper.  Here is a shot of the freezer paper ironed on before the painting fun started.

Here it is completed.

For those of you who know the flag well, you can probably spot my mistake.  Mistake and all, I love how it turned out.  It did require a lot of craft paint and may not feel the softest but it will do the job in a pillow fight.  When the weather lets up, I might wonder out and get fabric to make a different version.  Maybe I'll do a little UK pillow display. 

Linking up at:

   

It's a wonderful life!

You just don't know how wonderful life is until an emergency comes up.  Last week my husband was diagnosed with a deep vein blood clot in his leg.  Yesterday morning I had the scare of my life.  My husband had some chest pain and difficulty breathing which are indication that the clot broke loose and travelled to his lungs which can be life threatening.  Needless to say, I was a mess in the ER yesterday.  All I kept thinking about is what if this could be it.  What and how would I tell the kids?  What would I do without him?!  Thankfully it wasn't a pulmonary embolism!  It turned out to be pneumonia which isn't good but a lot better than the other.  He is back home on even more medication but doing much better.

Which leads to today's post, It's a Wonderful Life!  I had started working on this pillow 2 days ago but just didn't realize how true the message was until yesterday.  Now that I've calmed down and hubby seems good enough to do a conference call, I wanted to share my latest craft with you.  Know that I'm taking good care of hubby but I needed a little therapeutic blog time.

I used muslin, my cricut and Sure Cuts a Lot software, freezer paper, iron, craft paint, and ribbon.  Of course I cut my muslin down to the dimensions of my pillow plus a 1/2", giving a 1/4" for seam allowance on all sides.  I found out about a great software called Sure Cuts a Lot.  It allows you to cut any font on your computer and SVG images.  So, no more cartridges.  This was the first time I used the software.   I selected my font and size.  Typed out my  words and flipped it to mirror image.  I did this because when you use freezer paper with the cricut, you put the matte side down.  Thus, when ironing on the freezer paper, your message will read correctly.  Then, the tough part was ironing down the paper and putting all of the little pieces in the proper places.  Once ironed on, I painted away, sewed and viola.

I added the ribbon and a little flea market pin bling to dress it up.

So, as you read the message, It's a Wonderful Life, just remember that and enjoy everyday because you just don't know when things could change. 

I am sharing this over at:

Today's Creative blog,
Before and After party @  
Centsational Girl's  Christmas Craft link party.


(Will probably edit to add links to parties.)

Fluffing my nest

You may not have seen my Goodwill transformation of coffee table to ottoman.  Here is the completed project:

While shopping at JoAnn Fabrics, I stumbled upon this cute fabric.  I couldn't believe it when I found out it was only $3.00/yard.  I wasn't for sure what I was going to do with it but felt I needed to have some.  This is what I came up with:

I lived with the white slipcover on the ottoman for a while.  I don't know about you, but I like the house to appear clean.  Notice I did not say clean just appear.  Because my kids leave toys and books about and I just get too tired at bedtime to clean up, I decided I needed a slipcover that allows me to hide the kids toys under the slipcover.  Let me say it is amazing how much you can shove under an ottoman.

Once the ottoman slipcover was done, I knew the couch needed pillows.  I recovered the pillows from the top picture.  I decided to join the rosette crazy and made two smaller pillows.  I put the rosettes on with safety pins from the inside.  I know it sounds weird but I like to change things up.

 
I thought this fabric seemed so summery.  It added a punch of sunshine.  What do you think?

I'm linking up with Thrifty Decor Chick,

Pillow Talk

The room we added on last summer has been screaming for me to decorate it (not just put overflow stuff in it). I have been inspired by so many coastal, beachy decor from everyone's blogs. I thought that this would be a good theme for this room.

So, I am starting off small. Let's talk pillows. I found these great toss pillow covers on clearance at Target for only $1.24. I snatched up two. You can't by a zipper and fabric at that price! Here is what it looked like before:

You probably noticed the chalk lines. The pillow was originally 18" x 18" but I need it to be 14" x 14" finished. So, I measured, sewed an L, and trimmed the excess. Next, I used scrap muslin and printed out the photo and saying. I used spray adhesive on cardstock to affix the fabric onto the paper and just ran it through my printer. (If you do this, heat set it.) After that, I used extra fusible webbing to adhere it to the pillow. In my experience, the fusible webbing may come off. So, to keep the pillows around for a while I went ahead and stitched around the muslin. Here is my one of a kind beachy pillows:

I am linking up to: