Making Shelves Out of Recycled Materials :)

Do It Yourself Recycled Shelves :D

DIY shelves :)

Corner

Side view

I finally finished my DIY shelves :)


Here's how you can make your own:


1) Spray paint some old book shelves.
I actually used the side of an old bookcase to get a longer shelf, which meant that the board had holes in it from where the bookshelves could adjust in height.  I "fixed" these holes by hot gluing different color buttons on them.  It made the shelves a bit more fun for my daughter's room :).


2) Buy some ribbon OR use some old material you have lying around the house to make the supporters.
 I measured and cut out 8 stripes of material, 2" x 28".  I then paired the material up with the right sides facing inward (pretty material facing each other) and sewed down the length and ONLY the length, because you need to flip the material afterwards (like you would if you were making a pillow). 
After flipping the material right-side-out, I sewed the two ends together, making a continuous piece of material (like a circle :).  I will say that it's easier to buy ribbon, double it (makes the shelves stronger), and sew the ends together.


3) Now it's time to put your shelves up :).  You will need 8 nails (two for each piece of material)
Measure 9" above where you want your shelve to be placed, for this is where your supporters will be fixed to the wall.
 Take your material OR ribbon and place a nail right below your sewed seam and 1/4 in from the outside (you will do his to the other side too, so you will have TWO nails on each side of the material, 1/4 inch from the sides of the material.)  Hopefully the photo above will help a little bit.
Do this to all of your material.


4) After you have fixed your material to the wall, simply slip your boards through the material and straighten it so it makes a 90 degree angle to the wall. 


I LOVE THESE DIY SHELVES, AND I HOPE YOU DO TOO!!!

Pin Cushion Braclet

Today I started to make a few more cloth diaper covers, so I decided that I needed a pin cushion!  In the past I had seen a really neat YouTube video by "crafty gemini" on how to make a pincushion braclet. I made mine a bit different, but used the same general idea.


I used a milk cap as my base instead of a soda cap, used hemp as my pin cushion "guts" instead of batting, and used hemp for the outside instead of felt.  I used hot glue to adhear the cushion to the bottle cap and the bottle cap to the wrist band.  Then, for the final touch I used a diaper snap to get the braclet on and off. 

We will see how I like it, but I figure it's safer for me to drop this on the floor to pick up really fast than to drop my whole plastic container of pins on the floor with Luciana crawling around!!!!  :)

Wow, it had been too long since I posted in this... Yea, I am not the best blogger, but I do have a couple new ideas!


I recently started drawing again and am falling in love with it :).  I just finished a commissioned portrait of a couple who lost their wedding photos to a fire after 6 months of marriage. I was able to create a 16" x 20" drawing of them from some wedding photos that someone else had taken and given to them after the fire.  I drew their first wedding portrait after over 40 YEARS of marriage. 

The 3" x 3" photograph I had to work with (Permission to use photo granted)

The finished artwork, framed and in their hands. (Permission to use photo granted)

Doing this artwork gave me another idea.  I enjoyed working on the lace wedding dress and thought that I could benefit from a little more of a lace study.  The lace looked pretty good, but not realistic enough for my taste.  So, my next artwork is going to consist of either a solid background color with acrylic or more of a translucent feel with water color and an overlay of black lace.  I want this piece to have three separate panels and two different colors.  Here is a rough sketch that I put together (I am not going to use these colors, and the lace will be more detailed):

Lace panels:

(At the same time I am going to be working on a Mother-Baby Nursing series that I hope to show in one of our town's First Friday artwalks in months to come. I want to bring an awarness to the benefits of nursing and also to display the mother-to-child bond, as well as show that it should be culturally okay to nurse and in public.)

Making Pajamas for Luci :)

Well, here is another one of my projects ...


Luciana was running low on pajamas, so I made her some :D

I started out by making a pattern based on a pair of pajamas of Luci's that were getting to small. I traced the different parts of the pajamas and then added length and width to the areas that needed adjustment.

I then serged the back two panels together, added the white collar and the white cuffs on the sleeves, sewed the arms on the body of the pajamas and then sewed the sides of the pajamas together.

Then I sewed the edge on the legs where the snaps will go and added the white cuffs for the legs.

Lastly I added snaps.... I have to buy more snaps in order to call the pajamas complete, but for now there are two snaps added!

 I really enjoyed sewing these pajamas.... special thanks to my mother-in-law who let me borrow both her serger and sewing machines to use for a while. 


 Hope you like Luci's pajamas :) Thanks for reading all about them :) :)

Making A Baby Book

A new idea has entered my head :).


I have my B.A. from Evangel University in Art Education (Kindergarten -12th grades) and am currently a stay-at-home-momma to a beautiful 8-month old little girl, Luciana.

I was recently reading some of Luci's board books to her when I realized how much I love kids' books, for they are full of colorful pictures and simple words. So, why not use my art talent to make a personalized book for my little girl?!


My personal favorite stuffed animal that Luci owns is her Giraffe. Because of my favoritism, I plan on making a book about a little giraffe, a "get-to-know-me" book about Giraffes :). 


Plans for the book:


1) I am going to first do a couple of sketches from Luci's Giraffe and try to figure out if I want a realistic looking Giraffe or a cartoonish looking character.


2) I will then do a rough outline of how I want to write the Giraffe story book


3) I will sketch the pages out using a pencil and then overlay colors on the penciled drawing


4) After the book is all illustrated, I will add the words. I may type them on the computer, stencil them, or draw them free hand.


5) Once the book is completed, I will get it laminated (though it would be cool to get it published :p)


6) Lastly, I plan on adding an attached bookmark to the book that has three purposes:


             I. To act as a place-marker
            II. To be useful as a teething toy :)
           III. To act as an interaction device for Luci and I to use as a pointer to point to the   
      different facts about the Giraffe that the book is describing.





 

Making Fitted Crib Sheets

Once again I have decided to make something because Elijah and I are on a limited budget, and I feel really proud of myself when I do it the DIY-way :).


I am making Luciana some crib sheets for her new 4-in-1 crib!  I had some leftover material that fit it JUST PERFECT and is the perfect sheet material. 


Steps to making the crib sheet:


(1) I layed the matress down on the material and cut a pattern out for my crib sheets.
(2) I pinned my pattern and fitted it on my mattress to see if there were any adjustments that needed to be made before I started sewing
(3) I then used a serger to serg the corners and edges of my sheet.
(4) I measured out elastic, and hemmed it around the corner edges of the mattress
(5) I fitted the sheet on the mattress and was SUPER pleased with the results!


I have never sewn a fitted crib sheet, nor have I ever used a serger sewing machine... VERY COOL AND SUPER EXCITING!