diy tote bags

I bought a half a dozen of plain canvas tote bags before Christmas after seeing a bunch of adorable canvas tote bags with great quotes on them at Indigo. If you are like me, you see something in a store that you like, take a look at the price tag and say to yourself "I can make that". Then you go out and stock up on supplies but never seem to get around to making that awesome project. Well, I finally got around to embellishing my canvas bags and I'm really happy with how they turned out. 

I used iron on transfers and iron on glitter on each bag. They were so easy to make and best if all - there was no sewing, no gluing and no mess. 

Here's how I created these bags:

A. Find a quote or saying that inspires you. I looked to my Pinterest board for quotes and sayings that I have been collecting for projects like this. 

B. Use any word editing program you have to create the design for your iron on transfer. I worked in Illustrator to create mine, but you could also do this in Photoshop, Word or whatever you feel comfortable using. Some iron on transfers offer online support that allows you to create the art to use on their products - like this one.

Note: I knew that I wanted to add some glitter iron on shapes to my design so I kept that in mind when I was setting up the type. 

C. Print your iron on transfers on a laser printer. Follow the instructions on the package to ensure the best results for your transfer. 

1) Most iron on transfers require you to print in "mirror image mode". You will iron the transfer paper with the white side up so I cut out the transfer to remove most of the excess white space so it is easier to work out placement of the transfer before ironing.

2) Place an old pillowcase over the transfer before ironing and follow the instructions for ironing on the transfer.

3) Some iron on transfers recommend peeling off the transfer sheet while hot and others recommend peeling after cooling for a minute. Either way - peel off the sheet slowing and check your transfer ... it is often possible to go back and iron again to fix any problems but you need to do it before completely removing the transfer sheet so take your time on this step for best results.

D. I think that the iron on glitter gives this project a little something special. The iron on glitter material is so easy to use and I used my paper punches to create perfect heart and butterfly shapes for my bags. 

1&2) My secret to using paper punches on the iron on glitter material is to remove the clear protective layer before punching for a cleaner cut.

3) The packaging instructions tell you how to iron on the glitter shapes. I was careful when I was ironing the glitter shapes to the bags so as not to iron over the lettering again - just in case!

Iron on transfers are not inexpensive and even if they were, I hate to waste my supplies, so I created smaller designs (with my daughter's names) to add into the blank areas of my transfer sheetsnbefore printing. I ironed the smaller designs to the inside of some of the bags as an added touch.

This would be an easy diy project for a destination wedding to use as guest bags.

Like the fonts that I used to create my designs? Find them here ...

Butterscotch

Caferus (normal, basic, shadow, inline)

Catalina typewriter

tea time with my scrapbooking supplies

I love tea. Decaf Earl Grey with lactose free milk is my favourite.

This is a tea box that I decorated at the cottage a few years ago. It was just a plain wooden tea box and I'm not really sure where I got it from. It was not an antique or I'd remember everything about it.

I used my scrapbooking papers and some embellishments to decorate the outside and inside of the box.

This is the outside of the box. I used modge podge to glue all of the scrapbook papers to the box. If I was making it again today I would have used gel medium instead of modge podge but either will work. I sanded the edges of the paper to give the box an aged look but also to make the corners tidy.

I didn't do a lot of decorating on the outside lid of the box because the box is usually open when I use it for company and when it is not in use it's in the cupboard. The picture in the metal frame is the sunset in front of our cottage ... my favourite place and time to sit and drink my tea.

 Here is the inside of the box ... you can see that I stained the wood ... it would have taken too long to add scrapbook papers to each of the dividers and I figured that they would be covered with the tea bags most of the time so it was not really worth the time or paper. I found scrapbook papers with numbers on them that fit perfectly in each little section (I love numbers).

 This is my favourite part of the box and the reason I wanted to decorate it. I used a picture of my oldest daughter when she was 3 years old to decorate the lid. She loved to play tea with her stuffed animals ... she had a play house at our old cottage and she would pull all of the wicker furniture out of the play house and set up a tea party under our umbrella. I loved those days.

I had to be very careful when I chose elements to attach to this layout because I didn't want them to fall off or get hit by the tea bags.

I've been using this tea box at the cottage for about 5 years. I really should look for another tea box so I can make one for home. I'd love to find a picture of myself and my grandmother drinking tea together when I was smaller ... that would be a great keepsake.

I hope that if you have one of these boxes hanging around in your home that you will think about personalizing it with something that makes your heart sing.

I'm teaching this weekend at Scrapbook Queens in Mississauga and I am hoping that some of the new scrapbook papers for Fall and Holiday have arrived! I'm starting to think about Christmas gifts already. Have a great week!!

recycled tee shirts

As the summer weather has finally arrived, I found myself going through our closets this morning to see what short sleeve tee shirts still fit, what needs to be donated to the second hand store and what can be used in a craft project!!

I discovered that my youngest daughter, who only seems to own tees with holes in them, actually has a few tees hanging in her closet with the hangtags still on them. I really can't wait until she has children someday. So, between Robyn's {favourite} tees and a few of my own, I found myself with a new supply of materials for craft projects.

I bought this cute Mickey Mouse tee shirt over ten years ago at Disney World that was too worn out to donate but I loved the screened logo too much to throw it out ... so I used it to create another one of my sewing kits in a bottle. I did a quick tutorial on these a while ago, you can see it here. I used a mini canning jar this time ... it is just the right size for a few spools of thread, some needles and pins.

I've already packed my mini sewing kit in a jar to take to a class I'm teaching on Saturday ... we are making ribbon bracelets and this will come in handy during class.

fyi ... there are still spots available for this class if you live in the area and are interested ... I'm only teaching this class once because my vintage materials are limited. Any supplies that I have left over after class I will use to make these bracelets to sell in my etsy shop.

I know that my oldest daughter talked about making a blanket out of her old graphic tees ... I think that we saw that idea on one of the Twilight movies. Bella's mom made one for Bella ... come to think of it, I have a feeling that Jacob's mom may have made one for Jacob too and that is why Jacob is always walking around without a shirt on! ;)

 If you have posted any project ideas with graphic tees that your older children can't part with on your blog (or know of other blogs that have) ... please let me know! I have a feeling that we are going to have some ideas flying around our house after school today. Have a great weekend!

fun and games

Hello there! Sorry I have not been posting as often as normal ... I've been "playing" for the past few weeks and I honestly have not had a lot of time to be on my computer ... but I'm back now and I thought that I'd share with you one of the projects that I created on the weekend. We are going to a Euchre/Halloween party at the end of the month and I've been wanting to make these cute little "what's trump" cubes for a while. I got the original idea from my friend Mary ... I'm not sure where she got the idea from but she had someone paint the cubes for her ... I'm reusing an old deck of cards that was missing some cards and sitting in my "junk" box.

So here's what you will need - playing cards (6 cards for each cube), wooden cube (I used 1 3/4" cubes but you can adjust the size as long as it isn't bigger than the cards), mod podge, a sponge brush, sandpaper or nail file, paper cutter or scissors, and a piece of acetate.



I started by selecting 4 cards from the deck - in this case, I choose the four Jacks. Then I cut the piece of acetate to the size of my wooden cube ... 1 3/4" by 1 3/4". I was then able to use the acetate over the cards to figure out how I wanted to cut out each card so that the suit was showing in an eye catching way. If you don't have a piece of acetate you could always cut a square out of the middle of a piece of paper and move

 the paper around to show where to crop the card. I cut each of the four Jacks out using my paper cutter. If you don't have a paper cutter you can trace around the acetate square like a template and cut the cards with scissors.

I liked the red and white design on this set of playing cards so I cut the last two cards for the sides of the cube out of cards that I didn't want to keep. If you are not crazy about the design on the back of your playing cards ... use some nice scrapbooking paper for a totally different look!

I glue two sides of the cubes at a time by applying the mod podge directly to the side of the wood block. After gluing the first card down, flip the cube over and paste the next card on the opposite side. I did both of the red suits first in this example.

You can set a couple of books on top of the cube to keep the top card flat while drying if you wish.

After about 10 minutes the glue should be dry. Using a fine nail file or sanding paper, sand all of the edges of cards that you have just glued down so that you trim the paper to exactly the size of the cube. You should have nice clean edges at this point. Continue to glue down the cards on the next two "opposite" sides ... I glued down the two black cards next.

After the glue has dried on the third and fouth cards, sand all of the edges. Now you are ready to

glue down the last two cards on the last two opposite sides ... repeat what we did before and finish by sanding all of the edges!

And now we are done! Wasn't that super easy ... once you've used up all of your face cards and aces you can experiment with the other cards in the deck ... if you didn't cut up too many of them to use on the sides. I think that these would make great gifts for anyone that you know who likes to play euchre!

I've got lots of other great things that I've been working on and will share with you shortly.

Oh and by the way, the reason why I've been busy is because I've making samples of some really cool projects to teach at Scrapbooking Queens in Mississauga ... you can check out my class dates here ... my first class is another game that I created for my daughter's 6th birthday (she will be 11 tomorrow!) ... here's a sneak peak of what I call my "friend"ship game ...

more "green" crafting at the cottage

Last week we did some crafting at the cottage while we were on holidays. It was fun to just pull out my scrapbooking supplies and let the girls do what they want. Robyn and her cousin Amanda were keen to try out some collages after I showed them some amazing collage ideas in the current issue of  Somerset Studio The Art of Paper and Mixed-Media magazine.  

I let the girls go through my stash of papers, old books and scrapbooking supplies on their own and only offered helped if they asked me. I really wanted them to come up with their own ideas and not to worry about what was right or wrong or what anyone else thought looked "good".  I think that they had a good time and they worked on their projects on and off for two days. 

On the second day, Robyn was happy that I pulled out some of my special scrapbooking supplies for them to use if they wanted. I keep a bunch of my favourite scrapbooking supplies in a spice rack that I upcycled a couple of years ago ... and I don't share these supplies with the kids very often. 

  

I bought this spice rack at Costco at least 10 years ago. It wasn't your ordinary spice rack - it came with 16  spice jars, can and bottle openers, measuring spoons and a bunch of other kitchen tools ... and the rack spins! Once the spices were gone and I grew tired of seeing the rack on the overcrowded kitchen counter I knew that I needed to find a new use for the spice rack and give it a "makeover" ... so I turned it into a "scrapbooking supply organizer".

I used bright coloured scrapbooking papers to decorate most of the wood on the rack. The hooks that originally held kitchen tools were perfect for hanging paper scissors and packages of two-sided tape.

I cleaned out the spice jars and decorated the tops with scrap pieces of cork and flowers that I made out of vintage silk flower petals and buttons. I was originally going to make up labels to decorate the tops but I knew that I would be constantly re-labelling the containers over the years and it was easy to see what was in each jar from the side. The jars are filled with rhinestones, buttons, brads and miscellanous scrapbooking elements that I like to use for cardmaking, scrapbooking, collages, etc. 

The top of the spice rack had a hole in the middle to hold wooden spoons ... I used a small clay pot to fill the hole and store a few spools of my favourite ribbons.

 Haley was inspired by the girls as they were collaging and decided to do a little "upcycling" of her own. She had a white chair in her bedroom that I picked up at a garage sale a few years ago ... she didn't like the shiny white paint on it and thought that it would look better painted in a flat sky blue. After painting the chair, she cut words and phrases out of a couple of the books that I use for collages and covered the seat in random pieces of paper ...

it turned out pretty cool and Haley is so proud that she came up with the idea all by herself!

welcome to the cottage

Our family spent the Easter long weekend at the cottage. The weather was beautiful and there was lots to do outside as well as inside. We remembered that we had not been to the cottage since the end of December when we walked in the front door and saw all of the Christmas decorations and tree were still up!

There was lots of craft time worked in between cleaning, cooking and entertaining. Robyn enjoyed making "rock people" on afternoon.

 

Robyn loves to go through my containers filled with large smooth beach rocks that I collect every summer on the beach at the end of Long Point. She colours them with my coloured sharpie markers and adds googlie eyes ... and of course they all get a name!

I like to use the beach rocks a different way. I have family and friends sign the rocks and leave them in a large glass jar in our front entrance ... kind of like a guest book but better because I encourage everyone to not only write their name but to decorate the rocks as much or as little as they want.

I set everything out on a table so that it is one of the first things that you see when you walk into the cottage ...

I refill the bowl of rocks all of the time to make sure that there are lots to select from ...

we have lots of coloured sharpie markers to choose from ...

and the large glass cookie jar from Ikea is perfect for holding lots of rocks.

It always makes me smile to watch the kids go through the jar to find the rocks they decorated in previous years ... and then ask me if it's okay for them to decorate another rock this year. And I always say "yes" and remind them to write the year so that we will remember when they made it!

 

We still have some chocolate cupcakes to eat up from the holidays ... but with all of the chocolates and candies from "the bunny" ... I think that they may be around for a few days!

flower pens

The weather was so beautiful this past weekend ... the snow has melted away except for the one spot where my daughter's snowman stood guard ... the winter coats were left behind as the kids play on the street and rode their bikes for the first time this year ... and I'm starting to dream about spring flowers.

I noticed that Michaels had spring (silk) flowers on the front page of this week's flyer and I'm going to make a bouquet of flower pens for my studio office desk. I created a bunch of these flower pens a couple of years ago for my youngest daughter's school. They sat in the school office in small clay pots and everyone commented on them. I was so pleased to find out that a number of the school staff were inspired to make more of them to decorate their desks as well!

Here's what you need to get started:

inexpensive ball point pens (the ones that you can remove the end cap), small silk flowers (with or without leaves), green floral tape

Let's make it:

1. Remove the end caps from the pens.

2. Use a pair of wire cutters to cut the stem of the silk flowers about 1/4" from the base of the flower (or long enough to fit into the empty space at the end of the pen). You may want to cut a couple of leaves off to add to the pen - optional.

3. Place a bit of glue in the open end of each pen and add one flower. Allow the glue to completely dry before continuing.

4. Starting close to the flower at the top of the pen, wrap the floral tape around the pen. Continue to wind the tape all the way down to completely cover the pen and create a "stem". You can add a leaf or two as you wrap the floral tape ... keeping in mind the placement and where you will hold the pen when it is in use. 

I like to display a bunch of pens in glass jars or clay pots. 

Welcome spring!!