Washable Bolster Pillows Tutorial

When Little Man moved into his big boy bed (nervous Mum started with a mattress on the floor), there was a gap between his bed and the wall due a column on the wall.

Nervous Mum (bit of a theme here...) was worried that he’d slide down and get stuck, or worse, his cuddly flat puppy might disappear in the middle of the night and parents get called in to search. Since I had lots of fabric leftover from his Transport Quilt Cover, bolster pillows were the way to go.

I love the cosy look they give to the bed. It reminds me of the two foam mattresses/couch that my grandparents had (in very 70s fabric). I know at some point these will be used as a weapon against his little sister (if my kids are anything like me and my brother), but at least there's three of them, so both kids can be armed.

Since they’re in a little boy’s room, I made them removable (and have already had to wash them a few times!). Here’s the tutorial:

How to Recover a Lampshade Tutorial

My son has been in his big boy room for well over a year, and I still haven’t shared all the projects! For a refresher, I started with this transport-themed appliqued quilt (doona/duvet) cover, matching art work and fabric bookends:

 

Since I seem to like things matchy-matchy, I decided he needed a matching lampshade for his bedside table. I intended to revamp a second-hand lamp, but they’re hard to find with electrical safety laws here, and I felt a bit funny not knowing the history of the lamp when it was going in a toddler’s room. Next best option was to head to IKEA, where I picked up an OLLSTA shade with a JANUARI base – a plain and simple combination.

Using the same striped fabric from the quilt, here's the final big boy room lamp:

Here’s the tutorial:

Tutorial: Dollar Store Tray Makeover

As I mentioned previously, this was my craft for the Dollar Store round of So You Think You’re Crafty, but I was knocked out  the previous round (Congrats to Randi of Dukes and Duchesses for taking out the crown, by the way!).

I’m one of those people that only sees junk when I head to the dollar store, so this was quite a challenge. Wandering around aimlessly, I spotted a plain white melamine platter/tray. This could solve the frustrations I’ve had with walking in and out the backdoor a million times whenever we decide to barbecue or eat outside.

So what could I do with an ugly, cheap-looking melamine tray? We were given a lovely platter years ago (maybe an engagement present?). I love the simple blue design, but don’t have anything to match it (and the pattern is no longer in stock). I’m not much of a painter, but I thought the design was simple enough for me to try.

Acrylic paint doesn’t adhere to melamine (I checked!), and I didn’t want to buy glass paint that I’d probably never use again. An experiment with tacky craft glue and acrylic paint adhered well to the melamine and created a nice 3D, glossy, non-slip surface. The result: a fun tray that matches what I already own for next to nothing that doesn’t look (too) cheap!

Materials
Melamine Platter/Tray
Butcher’s paper (or thin paper for tracing)
Pencil
Craft knife
Ruler
Sharpie/Permanent pen
Acrylic Paint (I used two shades of blue)
Tacky Craft Glue
Paintbrush
Small snap-lock bags
Procedure
Here’s the serving platter that I used as my inspiration:

And the plain melamine serving tray:

I started by tracing the outline of the pattern onto butcher’s paper (with pencil).

I started cutting it all out with a craft knife, but as it is a symmetrical pattern, I ended up using a few cut-out pieces as a guide, and drew the design onto the platter with a permanent pen. Tracing the pattern first was good practice for someone like me who doesn’t draw. I started by marking the centre point of my platter:

And then sketched and traced out the full design. I had to use permanent pen as this was the only thing that wouldn’t smudge off the melamine.

(I’m not the most artistic and there were a few whoopsies!)

Mix together a big blob of craft glue with a smaller blob of acrylic paint – sorry this isn’t very precise, but here’s what it looked like (I used two different blue paints to get the shade I wanted):

After mixing it all together with a paint brush, I painted the outside edge of the tray (I probably should have taped along the inside section to get a sharper line). I then added a bit more dark blue paint and put the remaining paint/glue mixture into a zip-lock bag and squished the mixture into one corner:

I put the zip-lock bag in the freezer for 15 minutes to thicken the mixture up. Then I snipped the tiniest amount off the corner of the bag. Using my cake-decorating skills, I piped the paint-glue mixture over the outline on the tray:

(Not perfect, but a reasonable effort!)

Freezing the mixture made it more like puffy paint and gave a 3D effect. I left the paint to dry overnight.
The next day, I mixed up some more paint-glue mixture, gave an extra coat on the outside of the tray and painted over the remainder of the sketch, filling in some of the piped sections. (I didn’t freeze and pipe this time as I wanted the different heights to give a textured look.)

I did have to blob the paint on reasonably thick and touch up with an extra coat to cover all the permanent pen. I then let the tray dry overnight again.

So considering I can’t draw or paint very well, I’m really happy that I created a tray that matches one of my favourite serving platters. The slight glueyness of the paint also makes things stick to the tray just a little and helps the tray feel steady when I’m using it.

How about a barbecue this weekend?

Linking at:

Dollar Store Platter Tray

I was knocked out of So You Think You’re Crafty just before the Dollar Store round, but I still made my craft for that week. So here it is!
I’m one of those people that only sees junk when I head to the dollar store, so this was quite a challenge. Wandering around aimlessly, I spotted a plain white melamine platter/tray. This could solve the frustrations I’ve had with having to walk in and out the backdoor a million times whenever we decide to barbecue or eat outside.

So what could I do with an ugly, cheap-looking melamine tray? We were given a lovely platter years ago (maybe an engagement present?). I love the simple blue design, but don’t have anything to match it (and the pattern is no longer in stock). I’m not much of a painter, but I thought the design was simple enough for me to try.

Acrylic paint doesn’t adhere to melamine (I did a quick check to be sure), and I didn’t want to buy glass paint that I’d probably never use again. An experiment with tacky craft glue and acrylic paint produced adhered well to the melamine and created a nice puffy, glossy, non-slip surface that I wanted for the platter. The result: a fun tray that matches what I already own for next to nothing that certainly doesn’t look cheap!

See the full tutorial here!

Car, Boat, Train: Fabric Bookends

My husband and I are both bookworms. To instil the same love of reading into our kids, we have a growing collection of kids books. When decorating my son’s room, I wanted some bookends to go with the transport theme, but really couldn’t find anything I liked. So what is a craft blogger to do, but make her own.

I seem to have decided on making his room matchy-matchy. I used the same templates and fabric as the appliques on his quilt cover and wall art.

There’s rice in the base to help them stand-up and rubbery drawer liner is used to keep them in place.

You could use the same techniques to make a bookend or toy out of almost any picture!

Click here for the full step-by-step photo-tutorial:

I still have at least three more projects in the works to complete his bedroom. Then I’ll put together a tour of his bedroom so you can see it all together.

Hope you’re enjoying all the boy projects in the craft-blogosphere at the moment. I know I am!

Sneak Preview: Car and Train Bookends

So once again, I've failed to get a craft tutorial together (but to be fair, I've actually been on holidays this week and scheduled posts before I left). Here's a sneak preview of a tutorial-in-waiting:

 

I made these fabric bookends to match the quilt cover and wall art that I've blogged about previously. I didn’t take step-by-step photos as I wasn’t sure how they were going to turn out. BUT I love them, so I’m going to make a boat and give put together a detailed tutorial.

I’ve completed one other project for my son’s big boy bedroom, but I’m not going to say what it is. Here’s a sneak peek:

 

Can you guess what it is?

Bedroom Door Name

Here’s a quick and easy project to start the year off – wooden name for a bedroom door. Yes, I’ve done this before, but thought I would show off the version for my daughter’s room.

All you need is wooden letters (available in craft and hardware stores), different colour paints, a paint-brush and some Blu-Tak. I’m sure you can work out the steps. Too easy!

Planes, Trains and Automobiles Wall Art Tutorial (with templates)

After making the transport-themed quilt cover for the little man, the next step was to make matching wall art (so I could move the nursery animal wall art I made into the baby's room). I had space on the wall for 4 pictures, so I decided to skip the bicycle from the quilt as it was way to fiddly. That left me with a plane, a train, a car and a boat.

Here's a quick tutorial (including templates):

Materials
Art canvases (Mine were 30cm x 30cm (12"x12"))
Paint
Fabric (I used quilter's weight cotton to match the quilt)
Medium-weight iron-on interfacing
Scissors and/or exacto knife
Fabric Glue
Paper and Printer (to print out template)

Procedure

1. Paint the art canvases. I like to make sure I paint the sides, and used two coats of paint to get good, even coverage.

2. Iron interfacing onto the wrong side of the fabric (as per packet instructions). I use this to make the fabric a bit stiffer and to stop the fabric glue from seeping through, making the fabric hard and tacky. I prefer the soft fabric look and feel!

3. Print out the template from here.
4. Cut out the templates and trace onto the interfacing-side of the fabric (in reverse!). Cut the fabric pieces.

5. Using fabric glue, stick the fabric pieces to the canvases.

Once again, you can find the template I used here. (Note: this is the first time I've linked to a google document - please let me know in the comments or via email if you can't access it!)

I've still got a couple more decorations for my son's room to show you - stay tuned!

Edited to add: I've fixed up the link to the template. Let me know if there are any more problems!

Planes, Trains and Automobiles Applique

If I had to describe having two kids under two in one word it would be: relentless! It feels like someone is always crying, wanting to be fed, needing a nappy change, wanting a cuddle... I don't think I'll be going for 3 under 3!

But somehow, I've got two sleeping kids and a few minutes to blog (see how long it lasts), but not quite the energy to put together the tutorials I've got in the works. So, I thought I'd share some close-up photos of the appliques from my son's Big Boy Bed Quilt Cover.

This was only my third attempt at appliques, and they are far from perfect. (Why did I have to choose images with so many small circles???) I enjoyed making them though - I got into the flow at my sewing machine. I used Heat'n'Bond Lite to fix the appliques to the backing material and sewed a zigzag stitcharound each piece in coordinating thread (not brave enough to try contrasting thread yet. I learned a lot as I went - how to turn corners and go around curves. Maybe one day I'll put together and tips and hints post!

Not sure how long the peace and quiet will last, so I better get a few things done! More posts on the big boy room coming soon...

Big Boy Applique Quilt Cover

A couple of months before our beautiful bub arrived, we moved the Little Man into a big boy bed (actually, at the moment, it's just a mattress on the floor as I was worried he'd fall out and I like that he can get in and out of bed by himself). Looking in the shops, I really struggled to find any boy designs for a quilt cover (doona/duvet cover) that weren't skull and crossbones (not our kind of thing) or character merchandise (how long do they stay popular for?).

So of course, the answer was to make something myself. The most common words out of the Little Man's mouth are "dah dah dah" (car) and "choo choo choo", so a transport theme was the way to go. I found these stencils at a local craft store, which were perfect since drawing is not my strong point (and I'm sure we'll get lots of use out of them down the track).

Finding the right fabric was a whole other matter. I searched countless internet fabric stores looking for a nice boy print (I've heard that the selection of fabrics available for boys is improving, but designers, there is still a LONG way to go...). Finally I stumbled across New Traditions Stripe in Chartreuse from Robert Kaufman - boy colours but not too obvious or baby-ish - just what I was looking for! I matched this with Mod Squares in Leaf from the Monaluna Mingle range and Homespun cotton in navy, green and white.

After a period of Perfection-Induced Craft Paralysis, I finally got into the sewing and here's how it turned out:

 The photos were actually taken before the bed moved into the Little Man's room with the bed actually in the baby's room, hence the plastic still on the mattress...

 I had to make a matching pillow case too:

The backing is navy flannel to make it nice and snuggly! The Little Man loves it. Every time he sees it, he points at and names each applique.

I've got a few other projects to show you in the same theme for his big boy room, which I'll post in the next few weeks as I have the time and energy. I've posted close-ups of the appliques here.

P.S. Thanks for all the congratulations. I'm enjoying getting to know my sweet baby girl (whilst keeping a toddler at bay). A few people asked for her stats: she was born 3.508kg (7lb 12oz) and 52cm long (20.5inches).