Personalized "China" - Dollar Store Craft!

I saw a photo tagged on Pinterest that gave a very short, easy description on how to personalize a mug:

http://www.abeautifulmess.com/2012/06/his-her-sharpie-mug-diy.html

Of course, I HAD to try it! So very addicted to the Dollar store now *sigh*. It keeps my crafting costs down though! So here are the supplies you will need to do this at home:

1.) Sharpie Marker
2.) Plain white dollar store ceramic mug or plate
3.) Small bowl of water
4.) Cotton pad
5.) Oven

The first thing you want to be sure of is that the plate is free from fingerprints, dirt, and/or smudges. Next, preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and pick your design. I am in the midst of slowly redecorating my kitchen/dining room into an Alice in Wonderland theme, so I chose an image and phrase from the book.

Next, begin to draw out your design. If you mess up, dip the cotton pad in a bit of water and wipe the marker off; if you do it somewhat quickly, it "erases" quite easily. If you are a bit further along and decide it isn't right, you may have to scrub a little more, but the cotton pads are great at taking the marker off.

Once your design is in place and you are satisfied with how it turned out, bake it in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. I went out and mowed the lawn and accidentally left it in the oven longer than 30 minutes, but it still turned out beautifully:

I haven't tried using other colors of Sharpie yet, but I am thinking I need a mug to match so I am going to try them. I would imagine it would work the same way, and Sharpies come in lots of different shades which means this project can be personalized in lots of ways. This would also be a great gift idea and is something most children could do with supervision.

I have a few more crafts to post including more of the stuff I found in the shed, so stay tuned!

Super Easy T-shirt Vest

I found this amazing blog through Pinterest (so addicted to that site) called Wobisobi and the blogger there, Ann, has this incredible fashion sense that she has used to create tons of tutorials for making and upcycling your own clothes. From one of her tutorials I made this:

This vest took about 10 minutes to make, start to finish. Ann's tutorial is here. If you are super fast you can make this in 5, but I went back and redid some of the cutting to make it fit better. One of the great things about Wobisobi is that Ann really takes the time to explain it step by step, so even the most craftily challenged among us can tackle this project easily.

The shirt was bought at Walmart for less than $4. My husband seriously thought I was out of my mind for cutting up a brand new shirt, but he was impressed with how it turned out and admitted it was a good idea. Did I mention this project has NO SEWING involved???

You can personalize this a little more by dip dying the ends, or adding buttons or fringe or some cute fabric stamping, or even lace trim. The possibilities are endless! One small alteration I made to the tutorial was to cut the hole a little more to one side than the other; I wanted a slightly wider back and smaller collar. You could, if you wanted to do a bit of sewing, add a back panel of some stretchy lace (if you don't want to sew, use fusible webbing and an iron to attach).

Do yourself a favor and stop by Wobisobi, you will be so glad you did!

Weekend Recap

So this weekend I spent an amazing amount of time perusing blogs and finding some great ideas from really talented women. I have to say I enjoyed a ModPodge day on Saturday and created a custom book cover for my Kindle.

I saw these covers selling on Etsy and had to make my own. I am going to come up with a tutorial when I do my next one; this is just the prototype I figured out on my own and while pretty and functional, it needs some extra do-dahs to class it up.

The necklace is the one I made Friday, and it was super easy to create. The discs with the hanger already attached were $3.99 for 6, and the chains were $3.99 for 4. The paper and embellishments I bought on sale, but alas I had forgotten my coupon so I had to pay full price for the ModPodge (boo! But it's ok because this stuff is amazing!) So for a grand total of $2.00 you too can make this amazing necklace! For a step by step tutorial, visit simplymodernmom - she has an easy one with pictures.

These little necklaces are selling like hotcakes on Etsy and other sites, and are really easy to personalize. You can add other little metal charms, change the chain or even hang it on ribbon, and include a special message to make it uniquely you or perfect for someone else.

One of the other things I have been obsessing over lately is birds and bird cages. *The Graphics Fairy LLC has an extensive collection of pictures and clip art, everything from silhouettes to Victorian inspired illustrations. I found some amazing paper from K&Company by Brenda Walton:

(You might recognize the cover page as the one I used to create the Welcome Sign) 

I am already planning another necklace using paper from this pack and printing an image on it of a swallow from the Graphics Fairy site. 

Keep your eyes peeled for the rest of the week as I will be posting more pictures and the tutorial for the eReader cover!

ModPodge Luv

The only time I have ever used ModPodge was one time in college to decopage a picture frame. But lately I have been seeing all these amazing crafts people were doing with the stuff, and inspired I felt the need to go to the craft store and pick some up.

Of course I needed a project to work on, and I found this sign for 60% off (!) so decided it would be my first victim subject. I also picked up some more scrapbook paper and accents (also on sale for 40% off!) to help add more embellishments and fancy it up. Plus, some of the paper had glitter on it and I can never say no to glitter.

I am really digging the vintage, cottage, shabby chic look and birds, so I chose a piece of paper that had that feel to it. First I positioned the sign on the paper, then I traced around it to give me a cut line. After I cut it out, I played with it a bit to get it just right on the sign, then using a brush laid down a coat of ModPodge.

I wanted to be sure the birds were on the sign, but they were at the edge of the page, so I had to get a little creative with the placement. It worked out ok still because I was able to take some of the scrap left over from the rest of the page and fill in the gaps. A few more embellishments over the seam and some more ModPodge and you wouldn't be able to tell at all (unless you read my blog since I totally just spilled it there).

Then I took a black marker and scribbled over the raised lines of the word "Welcome" to draw more attention to them. The finished sign:

It totally came out cute and so one of a kind! And since I had the ModPodge out anyway, I made the necklace at the same time. The cost of making the sign was about $7. Total crafting nirvana found - bliss!

You can do the same with a regular piece of wood or tin - maybe even redo/upscale one of those dollar store ones.