Advent Calendar Tutorial

I don't blame you for giving up on me. What can I say? This is usually a pretty busy time for everyone, myself included. Time just has a way of flying by and I have to prioritize my time and family time is always gonna trump blogging {sorry folks, it's just the harsh reality! LOL} I was pretty busy having fun and enjoying my mom on her visit. Sadly I dropped her off at the airport bright and early this morning. Believe it or not my mom's visit wasn't really the hold up on the tutorial, I somehow managed to misplace the dang tutorial a second time! *grins sheepishly* So to make up for it I actually went through and made it all spiffy looking with Illustrator so you wouldn't have to loose your mind trying to decipher my chicken scratch hand writing.

I'll try to post a close up of a few of my stockings as soon as the weather cooperates and the sun peeks through the nasty dark gloomy clouds hanging out covering my bright blue AL skies.

Click to be taken to the file download page. Click "start download" to download the PDF file.

Mossy Gardens Part 2

For Part 1 go here.

Materials:
You'll have enough to make several good sized terrariums. Why not make some for Christmas gifts?

Activated Carbon ($5)
Keeps your Garden clean and stink free. Can be found in any aquarium section of a pet store. One bottle will treat lots of terrariums.

Dirt ($4)
Use some nice potting soil so you know its free of disease and bugs (Free if you've got some lying around)



Small rocks/gravel or sand ($3)
Keeps your carbon from going to the bottom of your jar.



Covered Jars (less than $2/piece at thrift store)
Covered is key here, less maintenance and makes your garden virtually kill proof.



Moss (free)
Take a nice walk with your family to a local park and watch the ground as you walk. You'll be surprised at the different varieties, textures, and colors you can find! Bring a ziploc baggie with you to transport the moss home. Be careful of not taking too much moss form any one place, we don't want to mess up nature's beauty!



Bigger Rocks
Pick these up on your walk too, or if you have some of these glass gems lying around, feel free to use those!



Spray Bottle
For watering. I bought one of those little travel size spray bottles (like for hair spray) for about $0.50 and keep it next to my mossy garden. If you are giving your gardens away, it's nice to include a spray bottle as well.

So how do we put it all together? First wash your jars in hot soapy water. Then layer your ingredients in this order:

• A thin layer of larger rocks, enough to cover the bottom
• An even thinner layer of gravel/small rocks or sand. Just enough to fill in the large crevices of your previous layer. This is to keep your dirt and carbon from falling to the bottom of the jar, and for drainage
• A small handful of carbon (it does not need to cover the previous layer)
• Add a nice even layer of potting soil. You can create "hills" by adding more soil up against a wall of the jar
• Now gently tear pieces of moss to your desired size and place on top of the soil. Add interest by mixing up the different kinds of moss.
• For the first watering I like to use a cup to gently pour water into the terrarium and make sure everything gets watered. A little water goes a long way.
• Cover your jar and you are done!
• Water with your sprayer once every 2 weeks or so. Just a couple of misting sprays is all it takes!

This is my favorite jar ever! $1.75 at the thrift store and it is mushroom shaped! Perfect for a Mossy Garden!


Look at all the different textures!

Fabric Tinting Tutorial and Give Away

Give away now closed - but enjoy the tutorial!

Congratulations to betsyb who said:

oooh ... i would love to own these and work this technique ... many darling grandchildren who will benefit from your *gifts* ... LOL ... oh, yea, ps ... i love your quote on the banner and the clip ... we have much in common!

...and Desi I did count you 'cause I'm nice like that and I can!

Finally! I have found some made some time to sit and write this post. I know some of you have been waiting on pins and needles or not fro this post. I will now reveal the secret to tinting my peacock quilt.

*dramatic pause*

Yeah I know, I just gotta milk it for what it's worth! And the super secret weapon is...

Colored Pencils!!!

Yup you read that right! Colored Pencils. That's it. oh yeah and one more tiny little detail : acrylic textile medium (don't forget this or it won't work.)


So how does one achieve this awesomely easy look?
You will need:
Colored Pencils (more on that soon)
Textile Medium (found with the acrylic craft paints)
Brushes in different sizes (love these, $3 at Walmart)
Cup o noodles er water
Paper towel
Scrap piece of fabric or muslin
Your iron

There are 2 ways to go about this. Tinting before quilting or tinting after quilting. It's up to you so experiment with it. The Peacock quilt was tinted once all the quilting was done. The Birdie block was tinted before any quilting (see below.)

For this tutorial I will be outlining the steps with the Birdie Block (which will someday be turned into something - but you wanted a tutorial right? Beggars can't be choosers!)

sorry for the poor lighting, again you want the tutorial or not?

You can get your very own bird pattern over on Cinderberry Stitches (this is one of the birds found on the Tail Feathers block of the month quilt pattern-block 5) Her stuff is gorgeous and if I wasn't so awful ... umm lazy ... umm awfully lazy at hand stitching I would be making The Tail Feathers quilt.

So anywhoo do as follows:

1) tape down your pattern so it doesn't move as you are coloring
2) tape down your fabric on top of your pattern (use some painters tape)
3) start outlining and coloring in your pattern as desired.
4) you may choose to color it all in or work in sections (up to you)
5) when you are done with the coloring/section take a brush and dip it in some textile medium and go over each area (wash and dry off brush between colors)
6) Take your piece over to your ironing board and lay your scrap piece of fabric over your item. press to set the colors. Some colored pencils have more pigment and will stain your scrap piece of fabric. It's better to get that excess color stuck to a scrap of fabric rather than your iron. I didn't exactly check, but I would imagine that the color that got transferred to your scrap muslin might get transferred to other fabric so be sure you are pressing on a clean area every time!! You don't want to end up with color transfers where you don't want them!
7) Follow the instructions on the bottle of textile medium for the amount of curing time before washing your fabric. Some suggest 24hrs, others suggest a whole week!

That's it!

You can see my work in progress and see my pattern taped underneath the fabric.

A word about colored pencils:
I tried this out with cheapo pencils and premo pencils. They both worked but gave very different results.

The Birdie block was dome using $0.97 Rose Art Pencils. Regular colored pencils have a hard lead and are referred to as hard lead pencils. They didn't blend as well and a lot of crosshatching is required to build up depth.

The Peacock Quilt was done with premo Prisma Color Premier pencils. I forget the actual price since I got mine in College 7 years ago sheesh has it been that long? The come in boxes of 12, 24, 36, 48, 72, and 120! They are much softer and are referred to as soft lead pencils. The Prisma Colors trump the Rose Art on pigment quality and content. They are also way more expensive ($12-$80+), but use a Michaels or Hobby Lobby 40% off coupon on a set of these and you are ready to go.

The Prisma Color pencils went on like buttah. I was able to blend colors together before and after I added the textile medium. Once the textile medium was added the pigments acted almost like paint, mixing and blending wonderfully. You can't even see the pencil marks on the peacock quilt. You can't even compare the richness of the colors! The Prisma Colors are so rich and deep just gorgeous! Hands down I prefer the Prisma Colors, but I can see myself also using the cheapo pencils as well.

Just so you know there are other brands of artist grade soft lead colored pencils.




So how about a little give-away? One lucky winner will receive a set of Rose Art pencils, a set of Rose Art brushes, and a bottle of textile medium. Everything needed to get started!

Leave a comment for 1 entry.

Post about the giveaway on your blog for another entry. (Then come back and let me know in a separate comment)

Oh and make sure I have a way to contact you!

Winner will be chosen by random number generator on Saturday night. Entries must be received by 7pm central time. No international entries because I don't think I can ship the liquid textile medium through the mail.

I'm not going to check every blog link but if your name gets drawn I'm definitely going to check and if you are lying you'll be disqualified from this and any future giveaways I host. So play fair!

Painted counter tops

Yes you can!

Yes indeed you can paint laminate counter tops. The key is a good primer and a good sealant. I have been meaning to do this for so long and we finally bought the materials to do it and after a week of brainstorming and a day of practicing I bit the bullet and painted my own counter tops. I really, highly suggest practicing before going at it on your very own counter tops.

I tell ya, Mr. Debutant is coming around to my harebrained ideas. He didn't even flinch when I told him I wanted to paint the counter tops! After wards all I got were compliments from him! :)

Materials:
1) practice piece of counter top
2) a really good bonding primer
3) oil based paints in your desired color family (I used 3 different colors)
4) paint brushes ( I used a natural bristle brush for this)
5) paint thinner for clean up
6) a mini paint roller (foam)
7) glaze for oil based paints
8) de-greasing cleaner (I used Simple Green)
9) foam craft brush
10) painters tape


First of all practice practice practice! First I tried sponge painting, didn't like it, then I tried troweling it on, didn't work, then I finally tried a color wash technique using "x" strokes - loved it! Also when you practice, try out your colors in different orders. The lightest color as your base will look completely different than your darkest color as a base.

When I was practicing I used the darkest as the base and then decided it was too dark. Without trying it out any other way I decided to go ahead and paint my counter tops using the lightest color as a base. Over all it looks nice but in my opinion I ended up with too much yellow in my kitchen! oh well, but I do love the look, it's very Italian-ish.

How to:
1) Clean your counter tops very well. I used undiluted maximum strength Simple Green. Run your hands over your counter tops to make sure there are no rough food particles stuck on. Use a scraper or a butter knife to scrape them off.
2) Apply one or two coats of your primer allowing to dry in between coats (I only used one coat)
Use your foam roller to roll the main parts and a foam brush to do the top of the counter top back splash.
3)Apply your base coat of color, again using the foam brush and roller. Allow to dry for at least 12 hours and until no longer sticky (I think I waited 16hrs)
4) Mix your 2nd coat. Mix glaze and paint to your desired consistency, following manufactures suggestions. It is much easier to pour your glaze into a container, then with a paint stick drizzle your desired color into the glaze, adding it a little at a time. I used about 10 parts glaze to 1 part paint. Now using your natural bristle brush dip into the paint a little at a time. On your counter top you will paint a small "x." Now repeat that "x" motion in the surrounding area until the paint is blended to your liking, and the brush needs to be reloaded. I found that a small "x" worked better than av large "x."
5) I did one section of counter top, then went ahead and mixed up my 3rd color with some glaze and applied that before my counter tops where completely dry. Again this is where the practice comes in. You might find that it is easier for you to wait for that second coat to dry before applying the last coat.
6) allow to dry and then seal using a non-yellowing sealant, such as an epoxy sealant etc.


I still have one more counter top to do, over by the kitchen sink and then I will seal them all. I'll be using a marine grade sealant that Mr. Debutant has lying around.

Here are pics of my progress for your enjoyment!

First off, a picture of the blue counter tops with my new flooring!

Counter tops primed

Here are the counters with the first coat of paint. Honestly you could stop here if you wanted plain counter tops (like in a rental.)

and here a few pictures of coats 2 and 3 (which went on at the same step)
Close up

And here is the whole she-bang, counter tops, cabinets (which we painted when we first moved in to the house) and the new floor. I love my kitchen!

Kitchen Table

Shortly after we got married Mr. Debutant and I inherited a dining room table and 2 chairs from his parents. Mind you this table had been theirs for years and years. Mr. Debutant has years of memories of home cooked meals at this table. I really have no idea how old the table was when we got it, at least 10 years old but I think it was closer to 15-20 (I'll have to ask him later.) Needless to say that while the table was sturdy it was lacking in visual appeal. Mr. Debutant comes from a family of 4 kids, needless to say they took their toll on the table.

So one day about 4 years ago I decided to do something about it, and as it goes with all of my major projects I did it without consulting my husband. My theory behind this is as follows: If I ask or mention that I intend to do something to any piece of furniture that is solid, or solid wood for that matter, Mr. Debutant tends to get all negative on me. He thinks I'll ruin a sturdy item, never mind that it looks like it's been through a garbage disposal. If it's sturdy and solid wood, you don't mess with it. he just doesn't catch my vision. So I've learned to just do my own thing, preferably when he is out of town so he won't interrupt until he sees the final product.

I think he's come around some now. After all he did agree to let me paint our blue kitchen counter tops (see next post.)

Anyway back to the table, I don't think I have any before pictures on this computer so I'll have to search my old hard drive to see if I can scrounge some up. But believe me, I was putting it out of it's misery by giving it new life. I think I've since seen the unfinished top and base at Lowe's (in case you are interested)

So here is the mini tute:
Materials:
1) an old table that has seen better days
2) floor tiles
3) tile/mosaic adhesive (found at Michael's in the mosaic section)
4) decorative gems/half marbles (frosted works better than smooth)
5) spray paint
6)grout
7) some sort of sealant

How to:
1) Do what you like to the base and side edge of the table top, sand paint etc. Don't worry about refinishing the actual top. My table was in decent shape in these areas so I only darkened the wood with a stain.
2) Place all your gems bubble face up on some plastic and spray paint with some paint made for glass. The frosted gems tend to hold the paint better because they are textured. I painted mine black. Allow to dry
3) Once dry glue all your gems (using mosaic glue) to the outer edge of the table top.
4) Break up your floor tiles into pieces ( I left fairly large pieces) You can do this by placing the tile between 2 rags so little pieces don't go flying all over, and then take a couple of good whacks with a hammer.
5) After you've vented all your frustrations on your tile, put the hammer down and step away from the hammer.
6) Now start gluing your tile pieces onto the table top (using the mosaic glue)
7)Once dry mix up your grout (I used black) and apply to the table top just as you would a floor. Clean up the excess. For this step follow the manufacturers directions.
8) allow to dry and seal with some sealant


I must admit I never got to step 8. And my table has done great, with the exception of the little glass marbles. So this last week I went back and re-painted the marbles by hand using a little brush and some black paint.

Table as it looks now

Close up of marbles with peeling paint

Re-painted marbles on the left and old marbles on the right

Getting ready for Market

The housing market that is. Over the next couple of weeks my husband and I will be working on making our house shine. I always hate that these last little projects that have been on your "to do" list don't get done until you are ready to move out! You put in some hard work, spit and shine, and elbow grease into a couple of weeks and then you don't get to enjoy them! Oh well, cest la vie!

We are still hanging on to some marginal thread of hope that something miraculous will happen and we won't have to leave our lovely home after all. Yeah, I know wishful thinking but it doesn't hurt to dream!

So we have made a list of things that need to be done to our house. Hubby has a list and I have my own list, each list is about 10 items long.

My list consist mainly of curb appeal items, but it also involves painting my laminate counter tops (I'm excited to try this), painting the bathroom cabinets, and general cleaning of the house.

One of the things on my list is to make pillow covers for the giant 25"x25" pillows we have on our futon. They are all mismatched and the light colored ones are now looking dingy thanks to the kids. I purchased them oh, about 1 year ago with the intent of eventually recovering them. Well it's moving time and decided new pillow covers would tie my living room together. I bought the pillows at Old Time Pottery for $5 each - what a great deal!



The theme of the room is set by my adjacent kitchen and this painting that hangs over the couch. The yellow of the kitchen matches the yellow flower centers.


Back when I bought the pillows I already had a plan in mind. I had fallen in love with these Pottery barn Pillows:

Textured Solid Pillow Covers

But at $40+ each (just for the pillow cover not the pillow inserts) That would have been $160! I can think of much better ways to spend $160 than on pillow covers. I went to the fabric store two days ago and spent $25 on fabric for all 4 including some wooden toggle buttons (I was going by a year old memory of the pillows) I might go back and exchange the buttons, we'll see.

I love the look of having different colored pillows. It's still coherent because the are the same style. I'll be pulling my pillow colors off my magnolia painting shown above: dark red, sage green, yellow, and ivory.



I'll take pictures as I make these super easy envelope style pillows so I can write a tutorial. I can't make promises as to when they'll be up though!

Bird Pillow

I'm so excited to share this finished project with you. I found the tutorial on Kellie's website: Don't Look Now. I fell in love with her style the moment I laid eyes on her site. How awesome is it that she shared the pattern and tutorial for free? Well the moment she posted the tutorial I knew I had to make one. In fact I went out and bought the material when she announced she would be sharing the pattern.

I started on Jan 5th and finished yesterday evening (Jan 13th.) So it took me little over a week to finish this project. It would have been done sooner if it wasn't for little things like sleeping, cleaning, cooking, and toddlers to get in the way! Actually I'm surprised I was able to finish so quickly. I had a few set backs such as not having the right free motion foot for my machine. I ended up using my brother 270d because I was able to get the tension set up better than on my Kenmore. However when I started practicing I realized I would have to go and get a clear free motion foot as opposed to the metal one that came with the machine for the embroidery function.

I'm actually surprised I finished it so quickly. I love the way it turned out, and more importantly my daughter loves it. Over all not too shabby for many firsts: first free motion project, first time sewing on the binding completely by machine, first applique "quilt", first time using my blanket stitch, and first pillow! (unless you count the quillow I made for my son.)

So here are the progress pics and don't forget to go over to Kellie's site so you can make your own pillow. One note, the tutorial is for a 20x20 pillow, I made mine 18x18 since I already had a pillow lying around. So I cut my panels 18.5"x18.5"

The front panel after I fused all my shapes to it:

The front panel after I blanket stitched around all the flower stems, and free motioned around the flowers and bird (no background quilting at this point.)

Here is the front panel all squared up after I completed all the free motion quilting. Everything but the stems was done free motion.
Here is a picture of the back front panel. As you can see my free motion skills are very "sketchy" at this point.

Here is a picture of the finished front:

And the finished back:

Tips:

• Wear snug fitting gardening gloves with the no slip palms and fingers (the little white dots)
  
• Use a clear free motion foot
• Practice first on a scrap quilt sandwich
• It helps to have a larger area than just the machine throat to work on. So either get an extension table for your machine or use some flat hardback books behind and to the left of the machine.
  
• Use light fusible web otherwise your needle will not got through the heavy stuff.
• I used this method by Sharon Schamber for doing the binding by machine. The video shows bias binding but I used straight grain binding. It seems tedious but I got perfect results and I was done in 1 afternoon, otherwise I'd still be slip stitching the binding on as we speak!