Rainbow Collage Craft

Good news - you probably already have EVERYTHING you need for this craft!  

Step 1:  Use a cereal box side and just freehand draw/cut out a rainbow shape.

Step 2: Get some box lids, paper plates, any "container" and then go to your craft supplies and cut/grab small items from each color of the rainbow:  ROY G BIV (and add Pink if you like!)

I used red, orange, yellow, blue, green purple and pink. 

Ideas:  ribbon, construction paper, scrapbook paper, cardstock, wrapping paper, feathers, tissue paper, foam, foam shapes, stickers, buttons, washi tape, felt, fabric, pipe cleaners, stick-on jewels.    

Step 3: Time for the kids to create!  Give them the cardboard shapes, the colorful materials and a glue stick or bottle of glue and tell them to create a rainbow collage!  Even if they use the exact same materials - no two will look the same - and I love that!

Yarn-Wrapped Rope Rainbow

I saw these on one of my favorite blogs a week ago and I was OBSESSED with them and with trying to make one.

If you remember my post about Guest Room Planning, I thought it would go great in my guest room, which is black and white, with fun pops of color, drawn from this sign I bought on from the Etsy Shop Just Add Sunshine..

Step 1 was finding the rope...which was a challenge.  I thought all home improvement stores would have it, but I searched online and they didn't.  It was available from online retailers, but I wanted to see it before buying because it's hard to picture rope diameter.  I ended up buying mine at Joann Fabric - in the crafting supply aisle, but it looks like it's no longer available online in their stores.  Here is some white rope I found on Amazon that looks like it would work well - I think I'd try the 5/8 inch and 50 feet.  

For this project you'll need:

white rope

yarn, in different colors and textures

scissors

hot glue gun/glue

needle and thread

blue tape (optional)

Step 2 - Lay out your rope to determine what length to cut each piece.  This took quite a while for me to readjust.  I think because of the limited selection in the store, I ended up with 16 feet, when I had been planning mentally, I was thinking I should get 24-30 feet.  Mine turned out a fine size, so I would say anywhere between 16 and 30 feet would work.  My rope measurements are: Red: 30 in., pink: 29.5 in., orange: 28 in., yellow: 26 in., green: 23 in., turquoise 1: 22.5  ____  

Step 3 - Cut the rope.  Once I had my rope laid out, with 8 rainbow arcs, I cut the ends, while it was in place like this.

Step 5 - start wrapping.  Part of the look is leaving some of the white rope hanging at the end of each arc, so I measured two inches on each end and taped them with blue tape and then that's where I started and ended my yarn.  It takes a while to wrap, but you'll get into a rhythm that works for you.  I found that rolling the rope towards me and keeping the yarn taut by holding it in between my arm and my body worked for me.  

I think I wrapped the orange too tightly, so it ended up longer than expected.  I have no idea what happened with turquoise 1 - why is it so long?! 

I LOVE seeing the progress - every step of the way I'm so crazy about this project!  Since the wrapping makes your rope end up different lengths, I just taped or tucked in the ends of the yarn at this point, and waited to hot glue until the end.  

Step 6 - I readjusted once everything was wrapped and removed some yarn and cut some extra length of rope and then I hot glued the beginning and end of each yarn piece.

Step 7 - on the back of your rainbow, use a needle and thread to stitch together each arc at spaced intervals.

Step 8 - Sew on a piece of yarn for hanging.

I love it SO MUCH!

To give you a perspective about how big it is:

I LOVE the colors and textures this wall art offers.

😍

Whatever (Philippians 4:8)

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Philippians 4:8New International Version (NIV)

I have always loved this verse.

Exhibit A:

How funny is this?! I made this "wall art" in college.  And then took the worst picture ever of it. 

Exhibit B: 

Technology has helped my artistic skillz immensely.  I made this word cloud recently, using https://tagul.com/.  There are free sites that let you create word clouds, but they don't give you as many options. 

 

If you love this print as much as I do, I have just listed it for sale ($3.00) as a digital download on my Etsy shop TheBurlapFlower HERE.  You can download it and then send it to  FedEx printing service for $0.93!

Side note - I feel like I'm in good company, because you know who else loves this verse?  One of my very favorite bloggers, Meg Duerksen, who based her blog title on it:  http://www.megduerksen.com/

It is surprisingly hard to find an 8 1/2 x 14 (legal) sized frame, so I ended up ordering one online from http://www.arttoframe.com/ which let me pay through Amazon.

For a chance to win this print, comment below (on the blog, not on Facebook) and I'll randomly choose someone to send it to!

Flour Sack Dish Towels

I've always liked flour sack towels for the kitchen because they're thin and dry quickly and they're lint free.  My sister got some as a gift for Christmas and that started me thinking I'd like some too.  So then I looked on Pinterest to see if there were any cool, crafty ways to personalize them.  I found and LOVED this project by A PRETTY COOL LIFE.  So I decided to make some of my own.  I wanted a rainbow look, but I also wanted to make sure to include turquoise, since that is the main color of my kitchen.  And after it was too late, I realized I got yellow and green mixed up (according to rainbow order...) and I added a fuchsia in a weird place, and the green looks more forest-y than Kelly...but overall I'm happy with the result!

For this project you'll need:
flour sack towels (these were $4.88 for a pack of 5 at Wal-Mart)
thread in rainbow colors
sewing machine
patience
time

One thing I liked about this project is that it helped me learn something new about my sewing machine.  According to the tutorial, I should use triple stitch, to make the colors show up better.  According to my manual, triple stitch is available on my machine and the setting for it looks like three blue lines.  It took me awhile, but I then figured out I had to turn my dial to S1 to get that setting. 

I used the hem of the towel as a guide for my first stitch and then just lined the edge of the presser foot up with the row of stitches below it.  I usually have trouble sewing straight lines, but this method seemed to work for this project.

See the project unfold!

I made three towels, and did each color on all three, before moving on to the next color and it was SO MUCH WORK and TOOK FOREVER!  For one thing, winding a new bobbin and changing out the color of thread every few minutes is a lot of work.  For another thing, when the machine does triple stitch, it goes back over every stitch, so it takes longer than usual.  I timed one color on one towel and it took 2:37 just to stitch that line.  So that is an hour and eight minutes of just stitching.  Then add in time for winding the bobbin 9 times and changing the thread 9 times, and breaks for drinking diet coke and it takes a full afternoon to finish this project.  But the end result is beautiful, useful, custom and gives you a sense of accomplishment!