Cinderella Wall Art

I found this frame at Goodwill and I liked the size of it. I also liked that it's a wood frame, has a hanging fixture in back and has glass. I knew I could transform it.  Here's the "before" pic:

 

I cleaned it and took it apart. I decided to use the message from Cinderella as my inspiration, so I looked for a paint color in "Cinderella-blue".
 

The actual color is Sailing Sky from Michael's.  

Then I painted the frame, and did several coats. 

I created the graphic in Word and printed it. Then I put the frame back together and had a new art piece to add to my gallery wall!

Quiet Book - Part 3 - Learning to Tie and Button

There are two new skills these pages teach, although the pages are so fun, you don't even realize they're teaching you something!

 

Flower page - learning to button.  This was an easy page.  I had the buttons leftover from the gumball page.  I just freehand cut out flowers, with a buttonhole in the center.  Then I sewed the buttons into place.  Then I used my sewing matching to add the stems and grass.

 

 

The ballet shoe page teaches you how to tie a bow.  Hadley, at 3, might not be there yet, but I think she'll have fun untying!

I think I'm about halfway done with this project - it's been really fun so far!

Quiet Book Part 2 - The Fishing Page

Thanks to this picture on Pinterest, I was obsessed with making rainbow-colored sequined fish.

So when I saw this pack of sequins at Michael's, it seemed perfect.

For this project you'll need:

felt - gray, green and shades of blue

rainbow sequins

thread and needle

fish pattern

scissors

magnets

dowel rod
washi tape (optional)

Step 1:  Find online a fish pattern you like, size it to the size you like, print it and cut it out.

Step 2:  Use the pattern to cut out 12 fish shapes out of the gray felt.

Step 3:  Sew on the sequins in rainbow rows on 6 of the fish shapes.

Step 4:  Sew the 6 sequined fish to the plain backs, making sure to sew a magnet in the nose of the fish.

Step 5:  Cut out 2 worm shapes.  If you want a face on the worm, sew that on one side first.  Then sew the two shapes together, making sure to sew a magnet in the bottom.

Step 6:  I freehand cut out waves out of three different colors of blue and a sun and it's rays.

Step 7:  Sew the sun and rays on the page first.  Then sew the sides and bottom of the top wave. Then work your way down, sewing the sides and bottom of each wave.  That creates pockets on the page where the fish will live.

Step 8:  Using a short dowel rod, create the fishing pole.  I wrapped mine in washi tape, just for fun.  Then I used my hot glue gun to secure the thread to the top of the pole and then sewed the end of the string to the worm I had made.

Step 9:  Cut a thin rectangle piece of felt, which will make a case to store the pole and sew the bottom and sides to the page.

This would also work well as a stand-alone game.  Let me know what you think of this page!

Quiet Book Part 1

I've been on a break for the last few weeks...not planned, not because anything big was going on...I just didn't have any projects that I was excited about doing.  And I have to be excited about them.  Browsing Pinterest, I came across inspiration for a quiet book and got really excited about making one for my niece.  I found a lot of page ideas, but none came with complete instructions.  And that is the part of sewing that I like - figuring out how something is going to work - how to create a picture on Pinterest or an idea in my head. 

I think the reason there aren't good instructions about how to make each page - it's too complicated, intricate and time-consuming to document and explain every step.  So, like other bloggers, I'm not going to try - I'm just going to show you what I have done so far.

Gumball Machine

Barn with Farm Animal Finger Puppets

 

Mixing Bowl with Cupcake Ingredients/Oven Cupcakes

(Getting close, but still a work in progress)

 

Rainbow Fish

(Still in early stages - I want to add magnets to the fish, for the background make waves, with pockets where the fish will live, and add a fishing pole with a magnetized worm.)

 

It's been fun having a big project that I'm actually excited about working on, although I've been to Michael's so many times this weekend, the employees are like, "Oh, it's you."

 

And my home is craft-messy. #keepinitreal

 

I have more pages to make and then I have to figure out the world of crop-o-diles and eyelets and grommets, (oh my) and then put it all together.  I'll keep you posted!