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Archive for March, 2010

Green Giveaway Winners!

March 12th, 2010

Time to announce the winners from my first Green Giveaway!

For the giveaway via the Blueprint Crafts blog – Crystal is the winner of the reusable gift bag!

And for the Facebook giveaway – Erin is the winner of the reusable wine bag!

Congratulations to both, I hope you enjoy!

Tomorrow I’ll be posting a tutorial on how to construct pillow covers – but in the meantime, I’ll share these beauties that I whipped up for a couple of orders and another FREE recipe card printable!

First up, we have a hobo bag I custom made for my friend Ashley:

This was my first purse with a zippered pocket! So proud of myself, haha.

And I made this apron/hotpad/recipe card set as well.

I just love this color red with the damask pattern.

And my friend requested it have a punk edge to it, so I used that for inspiration with these recipe cards!

I used the same layout as the Mr. Bluebird recipe cards.

I just love the way they turned out!

And because they are so cute, I’ve made them available for you to download and customize! Click here to go to the download page.

Until tomorrow!

apron, giveaway, hobo bag, potholder, recipe cards

Time to Brighten Things Up!

March 11th, 2010

With the recent beautiful weather, I have been so motivated to continue decorating and revamping our apartment, and yesterday was no exception!

If you recall, I decided that I was going to reupholster our kitchen chairs … they were a sight for sore eyes, that is for sure!

Ok, well they weren’t too bad, but those cushions were in desperate need of a bath. Buy why wash when you have the opportunity to go bold! In today’s post, I’m going to show you how to reupholster the seat cushion of a chair – it’s really easy! And that’s coming from a girl who cringes at the thought of manual labor! Alright, let’s get started!

First, turn your chair upside down and examine the situation. I flipped our chairs up onto the bar to make things a bit easier – and this is what I found:

I realized that the cushion was being held on by 6 screws, 2 to the front, and 2 on either side.

Unscrew each carefully and set aside in a safe place – you don’t want to lose any!

After unscrewing, you will be able to flip the chair back around and the cushion will come right off. Then you need to cut your fabric so that it is about 8 inches wider and taller than your cushion. So, for example, if you have a square cushion that is 10″ x 10″, you will need to cut a fabric square that is 18″ x 18″. The extra inches allows the fabric to completely wrap around the cushion to the back so it can be stapled in place. *NOTE – my cushions were only about 2″ thick. If yours are thicker, consider making your fabric squares a bit larger. **ALSO if you are using a fussy print fabric (like mine) be sure you cut the fabric so that the pattern of the squares look identical.

Center your cushion on your fabric square, pull one edge of the fabric up over the edge of the cushion, and staple in place. I used a Craftsman staple gun with heavy duty staples that my parents had laying around their house.

Then, do the same as above, but with the side opposite of the one you first stapled.

Continue with the other two side in the same fashion, pulling the fabric tightly to avoid large creases in the corners.

Once you’ve finished stapling the fabric to the cushion, trim any loose ends, screw back into the chair frame, and your DONE!

Here’s how my chairs turned out!

Much better! And to be sure these cushions don’t get nasty like the last ones, I sprayed them with two coats of Scotchgard Fabric Protectant.

This upholstery fabric was such a steal! I believe I got it at Joann’s for less than $15!

And the colors are great – very rich, but vibrant enough to brighten up the room!

In my next post, I’m going to be sharing a tutorial on how to create decorative pillow covers, and announcing the winners of the GREEN GIVEAWAY!

So stay tuned! And remember, if you’re following along or have finished any of the Green tutorials or similar projects that I’ve featured, make sure you take a copy of the button below and leave a link in the comments section!

Until next time!

Comments ( 0 )

Green Crafts, refurbished furniture

It’s a Green Giveaway!

March 10th, 2010

Ok, so I’ve been a little too quiet for the past couple of days, and here’s the rundown:

My sewing machine is on the fritz! I’m hoping I just need to clean it out, but for now, I’m going to have to focus on non-sewing crafts. But that’s ok, cuz this week I am focusing on crafts for redecorating the house! I am SO excited!

Tonight, I am going to be working on recovering our kitchen chairs, check em out:

Nice right? And then you get closer and … dun dun dun….

I’ll say this much, I have definitely learned my lesson with micro suede! Pretty to look at, impossible to keep clean.

So as I make you anxiously wait to see how glorious (fingers crossed) these chairs turn out, I am proud to announce my first GIVEAWAY!!

For my blog readers, I have the reusable gift bag that I featured a couple of posts ago. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post telling me why you would love to have this bag.

And for my Facebook Fans, I have another GIVEAWAY – the yellow and brown reusable wine bag! Facebook fans, simply leave a comment on my wall telling me why you want the bag, and you’ll be entered.

Winners for both giveaways will be chosen at random, and announced Friday morning. Giveaway entries close at 12 am on Friday.

Want a better chance at winning? Blog readers and Facebook fans can tweet the following for an extra chance to win each item:
I entered @BlueprintCrafts Green Giveaway! http://ow.ly/1gPqY

That means each contestant could be eligible for up to 2 entries for each item!

I can’t wait to see your comments!

Comments ( 6 )

giveaway, refurbished furniture

Scrap Ribbon Headband

March 4th, 2010

Welcome back to my third post of Blueprint Craft’s month long GREEN quest!

If you’re like me, you always have just enough ribbon left over from a project that you figure you might as well save it because you know you will need it later. Then days, weeks, months, years (cough, cough) go by and you still haven’t used that ribbon. Well fear not friends! I have found the perfect project for leftover ribbon!

Today I’d like to introduce you to Becca, from Blue Cricket Design. I recently came across her wonderful tutorial on how to put those ribbon scraps to use! Introducing the Ruffled Headband tutorial!

Using two pieces of ribbon 20″ long, a cheap headband that I bought at 5 and Below, and this simple tutorial, I was able to create this little beauty!

The ribbon was actually leftover from the Mr. Bluebird Apron, so I haven’t had it stashed for too long!

It’s a bit hard to tell in the picture, but I paired the bright blue with a dark purple headband. I’ll probably end up giving it to Miss Grace!

Since this project was so simple to do, I decided to add an extra Scrappy Headband tutorial to this post! All you need is a thin headband (like the one above), and a strip of fabric that is about 2″ wide and the length of your headband plus about 2″. I didn’t take pictures while I was doing this, but if you follow this tutorial from Cally at Calico, you’ll achieve the same thing!

It is such an easy project, and so adorable! I think this is scrap fabric from a wine tote I made awhile back.

It would be a perfect gift to put in goody bags at a children’s birthday party! And I just love this little bow – so petite!

And to help show off the cuteness of this little headband, Miss Grace was more than willing to help model it!

It fits just right! As soon as she put it on, I knew she would be taking it home!

She is such a cutie pie! Grace loves the camera, and the camera definitely loves her!

Well that’s all for now! My next post won’t be until Sunday, but it will be a good one … I’m going to be sharing a tutorial on how to create an elastic headband out of scrap fabrics and introducing my first ever GIVEAWAY!

Until next time!

Comments ( 2 )

Accessories, Green Crafts, headband tutorial, recycled crafts, ruffles, scraps, tutorials

Reusable Gift Bags and Wine Bags

March 3rd, 2010

My favorite part about giving gifts is choosing the perfect wrapping paper and accessories to make the package 100% complete. The only problem is that I always spend so much time wrapping and decorating, and then the lucky receiver typically takes no time at all to shred the outer layer and toss it to the side. It’s kinda like getting a cake from the Cake Boss.

They’re so pretty, I would never want to eat it!

So instead of creating all of the paper waste that goes along with wrapping gifts, why not package them in something that your friends and family can use over and over again? I found two great tutorials for two very different bags perfect for gift giving!

First up: the Wine Tote from Sewing Republic.

As some of you may have noticed, this is the same wine tote that I made for Christmas gifts, and a birthday gift for my good friend, Alyssa.

You can reuse them over and over again, and they are perfect gifts to bring for the host or hostess of a party!

What makes them even more great, is that you only need two fabric quarters, and at Joann’s you can typically get those for $0.99 each! Eco-friendly, and great on my wallet! For these, however, I just used some scraps.

These are super simple to make too, it took me about an hour to whip up both.

To give them a little more pizazz you could consider using a patchwork scheme.

Or, you could add some fabric flowers!

Or, you could add ruffles to the handle – that would be super cute!

Next up we have a similar bag that’s just a bit larger, and instead of having a handle it incorporates a drawstring! From one of my favorite sewing sites, Sew4Home, this is the Reversible (and Reusable!) Gift Bag.

The finished bag ends up being about 13″ x 11″, but the tutorial is so simple, that you could adjust the measurements to fit whatever size you need easily!

I love that it’s fully reversible – it adds a bit of flair to the bag!

It uses a bit more fabric then the wine bags do, but if you’re a crazy crafter like I am, I’m sure you have some leftover fabrics laying around that you could use!

One change I made to the tutorial was instead of using cord for the draw string, I used leftover fabric from the interior print to make Patchwork String, a great use for scraps from Mairuru.

This project only took me about a half hour. Great for last minute wrappers!

Well, that’s all for today! But before I go, I wanted to take a moment and introduce you to another GREEN crafter, the Green Bag Lady!

Since 2008, she has been making reusable fabric shopping bags, and giving them away FREE at events in return for a promise that you will not use paper or plastic bags. To date, she has given away 8,577 bags!

She also provides great tutorials, for recyclable bags. On her site you can find a tutorial for Reusable Christmas Bags as well as a download-able pattern.

Time to wrap things up! But stay tuned because tomorrow I’ll be posting a tutorial on to make headbands out of scraps!

And be sure to check back on Sunday when I announce my first GIVEAWAY!

Annnnd for those following along, make sure you grab a GREEN button, and leave links to your green projects in the comments section!