Pieced Journal Cover with Initial Applique

Another day, another handmade Christmas gift! 

These journals with pieced covers are the perfect personalized gift without breaking the bank. I made mine with help from a tutorial found at Stitched in Color. The great thing about these is you can piece your fabric into any pattern you want! Once you've pieced enough together to cover the notebook, simply trim it down, and finish it off. I also added an initial appliqué to personalize my covers. If you do this, just be careful not to make my same mistake -- don't stitch your appliqué on and accidentally sew the cover closed!

{Linked on Be Different...Act Normal, Sewlicious Home Decor, The Wondering Brain, A Little Claireification}

DIY Peg People Ornaments

Lately, I have been extremely busy. I keep adding items to my "to do" list and not checking many things off. Not only is Christmas quickly approaching, but we are attempting to get our home ready to sell at the beginning of the year. I'm making several homemade gifts, cleaning and decluttering, planning my daughter's 3rd birthday, teaching sewing lessons, painting kitchen cabinets, doing Christmas activities with the kids, making baby quilts, and attempting to keep up with the laundry. So my posts will probably be few and far between over the next couple of months.

And now for a fun and simple holiday tutorial! Each year before Christmas, we like to get our kids one new ornament that is just for them. Last year I splurged on character ornaments, but this year, I wanted to try my hand at making ornaments instead. After some research, I found some super-cute wooden peg people and decided to give them a try.

You can find similar items for sale on Etsy, as well as tutorials on various blogs. This was not my original idea, but I made these in a relatively short amount of time and wanted to share!

What You Need

• Wooden pegs (I found mine in an 8-pack at Hobby Lobby)
• Craft paint
• Fine paint brush
• Pencil
• Small screw-in hook (similar to the one pictured at the right)

What You Do

• Decide on what kind of people you want to make. I let my kids decide which characters they wanted. Eddie chose Iron Man, Captain America, and Spiderman. Violet chose Winnie the Pooh, the Grinch, and Rapunzel (not pictured because she is missing somewhere in the house).

• Find an image or toy to use as your model.
• Using your pencil, sketch your design onto the peg. You really don't have to be good at drawing for this. I am awful at drawing! These peg people are meant to be "minimalist," so use simple shapes and straight lines. And if you mess up, erase and try again!

Mr. Darcy, in progress

• Start painting. I generally begin with the most prominent color in the design and save my outlining for the very last. For most of my pegs, I used two coats of paint. Don't forget to paint the bottom of your peg, too, as it will be visible when hanging on a Christmas tree!
• Once your paint has dried, insert your screw-in hook. Depending on the size of hook you use, you may be able to do this without a drill. I used a drill and our smallest drill bit to drill a hole into the top of each peg, then screwed the hook in.

Pegs for my niece and nephews -- Sleeping Beauty, Ninjago, and Buddy the Elf

{Linked on A Little Claireification, The Wondering Brain, Sewlicious Home Decor, Be Different...Act Normal}

DIY Puzzle Storage Mat

I love jigsaw puzzles, but ever since I had kids, I haven't really been able to put them together because we have nowhere to keep them. This year I decided I wanted to get some Christmas puzzles, so I worked up a solution for storing them. Enter the puzzle storage mat! You can buy storage mats from various places for various prices, but they all look basically the same. And after reading customer reviews, I realized that the mats are generally just made of felt. So I thought I should whip up my own. Here's a quick how-to:

What You Need
1 yd felt or flannel (I used flannel)
2 fat quarters in coordinating prints

What To Do

First things first... you'll want to figure out how big your puzzles are. This information is generally found right on the box. The largest puzzle I own is 30" x 38" (2000 piece), so I wanted to make sure my mat was large enough to accommodate that. My finished mat ended up being approximately 39" long x 24" wide.

I purchased nearly a full yard of light green flannel that was in the remnant bin due to some spots on the fabric. The flannel (or felt) will be the puzzle building surface, so you want a continuous piece.

For the back of my mat, I wanted to add a little pizzazz, so I pieced my coordinating fabrics together before attaching them to the flannel. My backing ended up a few inches smaller than my flannel, so I folded the edges of the flannel over, barely overlapping the edges of the backing. Then I zigzagged the fabrics together. Once the front and back were attached, I went back around the outside edges of the flannel with a decorative stitch which should help keep the edges from wrinkling.

Now I can build my new puzzle! And when I'm finished for the night, I can simply roll it up in the flannel and store it in a mailing tube.

{Linked on I Gotta Create, Life After Laundry, Embracing Change, Live Laugh Rowe, 52 Mantels, Joyful Homemaking, The Crafty Blog Stalker, The Girl Creative}

Easy Throw Pillows

My kids are really hard on throw pillows. After our last purchased pillows became completely flat and partially unstitched, I decided that it would be less expensive to just make my own. Of course, the best part about making my own is that I can choose my own fabrics and sizes.

The even better part is that I used fabric from Stampin' Up! My hubby works there so I got a great deal on it, but you can get a pretty good deal, too. They have discontinued their fabric line, so all their fabric is on clearance. (Click here to check out what they have.)

Now on to the throw pillows! All you really need to make a pillow is fabric and poly-fill stuffing. Choose your size and cut accordingly. Sew the edges, leaving a 4-5 inch gap. Turn it right side out, then stuff with fluff! Make sure you get the stuffing well into the corners and equally spread so the pillows don't turn out lumpy. On two of my pillows, I did decorative top-stitching around the edges to add a bit of detail.

I made several sizes, but kept them all square or rectangular so that I didn't have to sew any curves. The largest one I made is 15 inches square and I think it is a little small if it was going to stand alone on the end of the sofa. But grouped with a couple of smaller pillows, I think they are pretty cute.

And naturally, one of them already got messy toddler face prints on it before I got a chance to Scotch-gard it. I also think I will make slipcovers for each size in various prints so that I can change up the look without having a ridiculous amount of pillows to store in my tiny house!

{Linked on Huckleberry Love, Carrie This Home, Sew Can Do, All Things Fee, Serendipity & Spice, Our Delightful Home, Ladybug Blessings, Nap-Time Creations, Inside BruCrew Life, Cedar Hill Farmhouse, Coastal Charm}

The Thankful Project Day 11 - Something I Was Taught

Topic: Something I Was Taught

There are many things I could write about this topic, but I figured I should choose just one. And since today is my parents' 35th wedding anniversary, I want to write about what they have taught me about marriage.

I was fortunate enough to grow up in a home with both of my parents being present and supportive of my brothers and I. And most of the time, they made it seem like marriage wasn't hard work. Now that I've been married for over 9 years, I understand that marriage is hard work sometimes, but it's also tremendously rewarding. Now I understand the sacrifices my parents each had to make in order to keep our family together and strong.

My parents and I on my wedding day

So the thing that I am most grateful that they taught me about marriage is that it's about working together and compromising. My parents are both very unselfish and even though I haven't mastered that, I feel that I have been better prepared than some people are to manage the give and take of marriage. And even in difficult times, they taught me that instead of thinking about what is best for me, it's better to think of what is best for us.