Pinterest Project: All About Owls

Lately, I've had an obsession with owls, so I dedicated a Pinterest Board to owls & birds. I think they are adorable. For my birthday, my aunt showed up with some owl pillows for me & some small stuffed owls for my daughter. I can't take credit for making these little guys, but they are so neat I needed to blog about them!

I am in love with these pillows, and my daughter likes them too. She took my pillows, snuggled up on the couch with her owls & watched some tv.
If you want to make some of these owls too, check out Lindamade, or several of these pins.
Recently, my aunt made V an apron skirt, and with the fabric scraps (plus some felt), I made an applique' for her shirt. I used the owl template (free) from Lil Blue Boo, which is a great site for tutorials & crafty ideas. I think the applique turned out pretty cute.

 

Two more of my favorite owl items are this t-shirt, "I'll Love you Owl-Ways," and the owl hat made by Heart for Your Home.

The next owl project I want to try is a felted owl, using the techniques I found here. Happy Crafting!

Project #2 Ruched Ribbon Zinnia flower

This week's project was to test out the tutorial on making a ruched flower. I originally found this pin, which lead me to the tutorial by Rushbrooke Strand.
I adapted the instructions slightly, and used ribbon so I could skip the step of folding the strip of material.
I started out with a 40" piece of 1" wide ribbon. The only other materials I needed were a needle, thread & scissors. I also used a circle of felt & hot glue gun to finish the flower & make it a hair clip.

 

If you like, you can draw lines at 90* angles down the strip (zig zag). I skipped this step and just eyeballed the angle while I stitched.

I started by folding under the end of the ribbon and making a running stitch up the side. From that corner, I made a running stitch at a 45* angle. When I got to the edge, I made a 90* turn and stitched to the next edge.

 After making a few passes, I pulled the thread tight, making ruched petals. The original tutorial said to curl the ribbon as you go, and use a second needle to stitch it into place. I found this difficult and decided to stitch the entire ribbon before curling it into a flower.

When I got to the end of the ribbon, I knotted off the thread. I curled the ribbon around and stitched it in a few places to hold it in place, tucking the ends underneath so you won't see an unfinished edge. Since I'm using these for hair clips, I then secured the flower to a felt circle using hot glue. Of course, you could sew this onto a shirt, or make a lapel pin with it.
Here's my finished flower clip, its about 3.5" in diameter. Let me know what you think!

I will warn you, this process is pretty time consuming, but it was fun project to do while watching tv in the evening with my hubs. I like this so much, I made them in several different colors, which you can see in my Etsy store, or Violet's Buds Facebook page.
Happy Crafting!

Project #1 Salt Dough Ornaments

This project was completed a month ago, but I thought it would be a great subject to post about. I found this pin about making Salt Dough Handprint ornaments. The pin linked to Homemade Grit's tutorial. Check out her post to see how her ornaments turned out!

We started with the recipe:
4 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 1/2 cups water

I combined all the ingredients and let my stand mixer (with dough hook) knead the dough for 15 minutes. Then I let my daughter reach in & hand knead the dough just for fun.

 

Next we rolled out the dough and cut it into circles using a plastic cup.

When we had enough scraps from the circles, I rolled them into a ball, pressed them flat & cut another circle.

I took my daughters hand and carefully pressed them into the dough. For the leftover smaller circles, I used stamps (with no ink) to press shapes into.

V enjoyed getting dirty, and taste-testing the salt dough.

We used a straw to cut small holes in each ornament to thread the ribbon hangers through, and I used small alphabet letter stamps to press my daughter's name into the ornaments.
The next step was baking. The tutorial I used for a guide suggested to bake at 300ºF about 20 to 25 minutes or until golden (spray cookie sheet with nonstick spray first). Our ornaments were thicker and needed nearly 40 minutes of bake time. After time was up, I turned the oven off and let the ornaments cool.

The next day, I used a paint pen & some old nail polish to paint in the handprints, my daughter's name & the year. Once the paint was dry, my husband sprayed the ornaments with a clear coat to seal them. Finally I added a ribbon to hang the ornaments.

The ornaments were a lot of fun to make, and pretty easy. They made great gifts for the grandparents this year.