My Pretties: October 2010

Camera Strap Tutorial

I'm so excited! I get to have the cutest little camera at the portrait hot spots with my snazzy new camera strap. It was so easy to make. Like for real! My mom is convinced we could whip out 100 of these a day and should go in business! Unfortunately, Helen Keller could sew straighter than me and I'm sure our customer service line would be blowing up with people saying that they ordered a straight stitch and they got a zig-zag. Needless to say, I sewed the first 2 and my mom sewed the other 23 that we made.

I'm pretty sure it's self-explanatory how to sew a tube, but just in case, here is a tutorial for you.

First, go to Hobby Lobby or any other fabric store and pick out 14 different fabrics, because they are just to cute to narrow it down to ~~two~~ ten. You really only need 2 but I'm sure you can't resist either. If you choose to buy 14, apologize sympathetically to the poor girl cutting 1/4 yards of 14 different fabrics and offer to help her return them to the right place. I'm sure she has better things to do.

We ended up cutting them the width of the fabric (less 12" of the length to have some extra fabric to make flowers, ties, etc.)and 2.5 inches wide because I wanted mine to be extra long to scrunch a little bit.

Once you have your pieces cut, put right sides together and sew a 1/4" seam down one side. If you aren't a great seamstress, you can pin them down. Had I done this step, my seam might not look like a drunk walking the sobriety test line. Make sure to catch both pieces as you are sewing. It is possible that you may miss the bottom piece by a hair in a few places and have to use the handy dandy ole seam ripper and start over. I'm not sure. I'm just saying it's possible.

Once you have your first seam sewn, go pull out the mother of all irons

and iron it open flat.

Then come get your deadly weapon of a rotary cutter and cut your ends straight and even.

Once your ends are cut, go back to the iron and turn the ends under twice so that your raw edges are tucked inside the seam

then sew them down on both ends all the way across.

Now you are ready to sew your other long seam. Again, make sure that you catch both the top and bottom pieces. Seam ripping is never fun!

Now it's time to turn it right side out. We used a skinny PVC pipe and a chop stick. Put the PVC in the tube about 1.5" down

and stuff the end of the strap into the PVC with the chop stick. Keep sliding the strap up and stuffing it into the tube. In no time, it will be right side out.

Go back and iron it out flat to finish it off.

Now back to the 12" of the length that we cut off... I basically did the same thing, turning the ends up and sewing 2 side seams. It gave me a shorter mini version of what we had just made. I just tied it in a knot around the strap to pretty it up a little bit. We did some with a lens cap pocket, some with fabric flowers and the rest are just sitting there. We went to Hobby Lobby and to grab some dinner.

If you have an SLR, you should definitely make one. I'm all for supporting my brand (Canon rocks!) but not with an ugly EOS 5D camera strap. I'm going to try making a wristlet for my pocket camera next time. I'll post that tut when I do.

Bead Art

**Be sure to enter for a chance to win a $25.00 Gift Certificate from Expressions Vinyl below**

I have been recuperating from our party this weekend since the last car rolled out on Saturday night. You would think that the crusted up chili that has been soaking in the crock pot since Sunday or the brownie crumbs all over the house would have taken priority today but nope. Nothing could keep me from Hobby Lobby and crafting a little sumpin-sumpin today!

I came home with the most random assortment of things today. Some jump rings from the jewelery isle, some wooden beads, some wire, some scrapbook paper, some felt and of course, some Heirloom White spray paint since Hob Lob is the only place I can find it.

When I got home I sat here wondering what in the crap I spent $46.00 on because I didn't have anything really to make. So, I go pilfering through the basement and I find a piece of 1x4 board left over from another project. I'm on to something here. A 1x4, some beads, some wire and surely I can find some nails or screws around here. I gather everything and decided to make a "Blessings" bead board.

I laid out the beads how they should be and I only had room for "Blessing" but that works, right?

After spending 20 minutes getting them just how I wanted, I realized that was a ~~total waste of time~~ learning experience. With every hit of the hammer, the beads went rolling away. I was just going to have to wing it.

I hammered out the first few letters and the i.♥.instant.gratification part of me just had to wrap the wire around the beads to see if this was going to look as good as it did in my noodle. Ahhh, it did!

So I keep hammering all the little beads down until I get to the end and wrap the rest of the beads in wire. It's lookin' good.

Then as I'm looking for a place to put this little ditty, I decided to nail in 2 beads on the sides and string a wire to hang a few photos of my blessings from it.

Much better.

This was super cheap so I can see these being such cute teacher/neighbor gifts with last names, or welcome signs or maybe a monogram on a circle plaque... Ohhh, a monogram, I'm going to add that to my to-do list now!

Check out the Link Parties tab on my sidebar and see all the talented other ladies I'm partying with this week!

My First Giveaway! Expressions Vinyl

I am so thrilled that Expressions Vinyl is sponsoring my very first giveaway. Let me tell you. I am the most frugal shopper ever and after getting my Cricut Expression for my birthday, I scoured the internet looking for the best price on roll and sheet vinyl so I could get started on all the projects I had been dying to try. That's when I found Expressions Vinyl. I placed my order and in 2 days I had a package of vinyl sitting on my doorstep. With it, I have made this and added numbers to my door and made this.

Expressions Vinyl is an independent seller, not tied to any craft cutter brand, therefore, making it possible to offer great crafting vinyl at really low prices. They purchase high quality Oracal Vinyl - the exact same vinyl is sold by Provo Craft but in many more shapes and sizes.

Vinyl is great for scrapbooking, for home decor, and for other crafting projects. And you know, if you don't have a craft cutter, then print out the images you want on the computer, trace around the images onto the vinyl with a utility knife, and you can use vinyl too.

But what's great about Expressions Vinyl is that if you just need a bit of vinyl for a smaller project, no problem, they carry small sheets of vinyl. They carry a variety of sizes of sheets and rolls for the Cricut and Silhouette machines in over 50 colors and also carry heat transfer vinyl.

They also offer many tutorials on their site as well as their YouTube channel to help you with ideas and techniques for your projects. All orders placed before 2:00 pm (MST) will be shipped out the same day making it the perfect place to get any vinyl you want right when you need it!

Expressions Vinyl has offered to give a $25.00 Gift Certificate to one lucky reader. There are a few ways to win.

1. Follow My Pretties by clicking the "Follow" button on the right sidebar.

2. "Like" Expressions Vinyl by going to their Facebook Fan page here

3. Post about this giveaway on your blog letting your readers know too!

4. Leave a comment on this post letting me know which color would be your most favorite.

**Please comment one time each for each entry letting me know that you've done each thing. Also, make sure that you either leave your email address or have it in your profile so I can get in touch with you.

The drawing will be held next Tuesday, November 2, 2010.

I'm hosting my first giveaway this week!

I just received word from an awesome sponsor that they would like to do a giveaway on my blog. I'm not spilling the beans just yet until everything is finalized, but it's going to be great! Be sure to check back and make sure to enter to win!

Waving to everyone visiting from UCreate

I feel like I just won a Grammy or something and need to give an acceptance speech. I'm thrilled that Kari featured My Pretties and so glad you decided to stop by! I've been in party hosting mode all week and haven't crafted much of anything this week but be sure to follow my blog and come back often! Thanks again!

Handpainted Canvas

If you are reading this and you are one of my real life friends who may soon be having babies named Gavin or Reese... stop reading! Just mosey on somewhere else, like Thrifty Decor Chic or The CSI Project or Blue Cricket Designs

Why are y'all two still reading? I told you to move on! Anywho...
Somehow I stumbled upon this tutorial from Lil Blue Boo the other day. When I saw the tutorial piece, I had my canvas and paint out before I could figure out how to spell coincidence. It just so happens that the tutorial piece used an owl theme and the name Gavin, and whaddaya know? I have a friend who will soon become the momma to a sweet baby named Gavin whose room has an owl motif. I mostly used her design as an inspiration piece and didn't so much follow her step by step. I had an 8x10 canvas on hand and figured that would work. I started started by painting the canvas blue then used my redneck tracing method (printing the words off and tracing the back with pencil then rubbing the lead to give me a guide) instead of taking the time to look for my graphite paper. It worked just fine and I was probably done before I could have put my hands on the graphite paper that was invented for this type thing. I finished this one about midnight

and then gave my second canvas a coat of pink to start the next one the next morning. I used the same redneck transfer method to get my letters even and straight and freehanded the rest. A little while later, I ended up with this one too.

It's a lot of painting, drying and painting more to layer it but the end result is worth it. After they were done, I added some white puff paint to embellish them a little more and give them a little depth and texture.

Since the canvases come in a 3 pack and I only know 2 people having babies, I decided to make a Halloween one to go in the kitchen. It's pretty simple but turned out really cute too and gave the kitchen the little touch of Halloween that I couldn't figure out how to inject into the space.

I realized that I have a love-hate relationship with painting. I love to do it. I really do. It's almost therapeutic for me but I struggle with OCD and having everything be perfect. I try to tell myself that paintings are original and unique but that still doesn't quite work. I still get frustrated. I wonder if Picasso ever thought to himself "Crap! That line is crooked!"

Be sure to check out the amazing parties going on here that I'm participating in this week!

Let's talk Curb Appeal

Curb appeal is huge especially if you are in the market to sell in the near future and if your home look like this

you will be labeled "that" family... You know, the one with the missing shingles on the roof. Or "that" family... You know, the one that has all the yard tackies everywhere. You don't want to be "that" family. I promise you that!

These homes are clean, well kept, welcoming and charming.

Now onto why curb appeal is on my mind...

When I bought our home 7 years ago, I bought a foreclosed property from HUD at a great price (It will be paid off before I'm 37! Wahoo!) that just needed some serious TLC. I have spent 7 years renovating every room in the house with only our main bathroom and bonus room remaining... except for the exterior. It's horrible. I hate that when you pull into our drive and the exterior resembles nothing of the interior.

Up until recently, our home had a 20+ year craptastic roof that we just had replaced. Yay for a new roof. Boo for spending $5,000.00 on something that goes unnoticed. But boy did the old roof get noticed. Our home has aluminum siding from the 1950's and baby blue painted brick on the bottom. Double Yuck! The home had no landscaping to speak of except for 3 camellias and to top it off, it has a wonderful 20x9 front porch that some igmo covered with aluminum panels. It was a train wreck, fo sho! Well, God took care of starting the exterior improvements. It rained so much that our old roof just couldn't take it anymore and started leaking. I dealt with ugly. I couldn't deal with rain dripping on the new sheet rock we had just put in the ceiling. So, Mr. Roofer came over and $5,000 later, had us a brand new dimensional roof on our home. That's when I decided to do something about the rest of the exterior. Ideas were flowing. Photoshop was smoking and my plan was coming together on paper.

Our home exterior is like this right now, well except this was 2 summers ago and my plants are big and full now. If you have a queasy stomach, you might want to skip this part. I'm telling you... those aluminum things on the porch are enough to make you sick.

But, it will soon look like something similar to this I hope...

We are going to ~~karate kick~~ tear down the wretched aluminum panels and also add vinyl siding to the exterior because whoever engineered this plan obviously considered this some serious living space and used interior paneling rather than exterior siding on the walls of the porch. Idiot! We are going to build new columns and railings using either Pressure Treated Lumber or Composite Decking. I can't decide. It will be way cheaper to do lumber but a better long term value to do the composite, but we are not going to live here forever so I don't know. We are going to add shutters that I scored at the thrift store for $0.99/each of all places to the windows and also 2 exterior lights flanking the door. In the Spring, we will redo the landscaping as well. Monar, that's my grandmother, I'm going to need you. She literally plants sticks and they grow.

I can't wait to get started on this project. I'm sure it will be a long one, that will probably make me want to pull my hair out, but I'm so excited. I can't wait to be "that" family. You know, the one with the really cute house!

How to paint countertops

Dear 1970's,

You gave us such great things like The Walkman, the Cell Phone, Reese Witherspoon, Post-it Notes, the Hacky Sack.... why, oh why, did you create the Canary Yellow countertops?

Yes, our home was "updated" somewhere around 1972 to have beautiful Canary Yellow counter tops. I'm sure they were lovely back in the day, but oh.my.gee. make make barf! It was time to go! I would love to have stained concrete or granite or Corian or insert any other high end counter top finish but it just wasn't in the budget for our kitchen update. I knew there had to be another alternative, I just didn't know what. Then one day I'm perusing the spray paint isle at Lowe's when I see that Rustoleum makes a counter top paint just for fugly outdated laminate counters. Sold.

It was only $20.00 so we figured we might as well give it a shot. I mean, what is the worse that could happen, right? We could have ugly yellow counters or worse case, we could have ugly counters that actually matched the space. So, after watching a You Tube video or 200, we go for it.

The directions are simple.

Ventilate your area. Yeah, don't skip this part. This paint is oil based and has some wicked fumes. It Also said to turn off any pilot lights, but we didn't. Don't tell. I just didn't think it was that deep.

Sand down the surface lightly to remove any stuff that isn't supposed to be there, like the tons of wall paint because I'm the worst painter in the world, or the oily, greasy film around the stove. Clean them with a damp lint free cloth.
Tape off the areas you don't want to paint.

Then roll it on with a foam roller. Flat parts first, then vertical surfaces. I let my brush get too dry and it pulled the foam off onto the surface. Crap! I was kicking myself that I screwed it up. So, we let it dry a bit and I sanded the rough spots off and put a new coat on top. It totally fixed the problem.

You are supposed to let them cure for several days I think. I'm far too impatient for that and waited 24 hours I think. They have been painted for almost 9 months now, and there are only 2 small places that have chipped. They were totally my fault though. I was cutting something one and the tip of the knife slipped and scratched it. I may try to touch them up eventually but it's such a small place, you don't even notice.

Lowe's also sells a product that is a paint/epoxy mix that mimics the look of granite but it's about $250.00. For that price or pretty dang close, I could buy new laminate counters. This $20.00 investment rocked my world. I wouldn't have lived with yellow counters for so many years if I had known it would have been this easy to fix!

How to replace a light switch

I'm going to throw out a little disclaimer here and tell you I AM NOT an electrician. Electricity isn't something to play around with so be safe and turn off the main power to your home if you decide to try this yourself.

If you are blessed with living in an older home, you might have some of these lurking around every corner.

Our house had some white, some ivory and some black light switches and plugs. I have been slowly replacing all of them to be a bright white. It wasn't a huge deal, just something that irritated me every now and then when I noticed them. I could have called an electrician and paid several hundred dollars to have them replaced, but I chose to get Electrician 101 from my mom (who also isn't an electrician, just super handy!). It was a really easy project to tackle myself and only required a screwdriver.

Again I am going to say turn off the main power to your home before starting. Some people who will remain nameless to protect the guilty, do this with the power on but my mom (oops!) tells me to do as I say not as I do, so I'm telling you to turn the power off.

To start, remove the 2 screws on the cover nad you should see this.

Remove the 2 screws holding the switch in and pull it out to give you some room to start working. Your power is off now, right?

Then you see this scary mess of wires and stuff. Remove the screws and the wire should come off and look like this.

Get your new purdy switch and make sure that it's pointed down in the off position.
Loosen the screws and wrap the wire back around and tighten the screws. When both screws are tightened, put the switch back in place and screw it back into the existing holes.

Then replace your switch plate cover and you're done!

No, wait, if your OCD like me, straighten your screws and THEN you are done! Turn the power back on and test it out.

Doesn't it look a ton better than that stick-out-like-a-sore-thumb switch?

Seriously, I'm scared to even post this because I'd hate for your home to burn down or you get electrocuted from my 3 minute tutorial. Be safe!

No more lost casserole dishes

I swear I buy at least 3 Pyrex bakers a year. During the holidays, I am always taking a dish somewhere and it seems that I never get my dish back. I either forget to take them or purposefully leave them so that the leftovers can be had by others. Either way, I never have one when I need one. So, my solution... etch my name into it so I am for sure to get it back. And, if I leave it at Granny's and she serves her roast it, I'm not telling anyone I didn't make it.

Etching is so super easy! I first bought the Plaid brand Window Etch. It didn't work... at all. So much for being cheap and getting the cheaper bottle. I was back at Hobby Lobby the next day buying the good stuff. I ended up buying the smallest bottle of Armour Etch and I'm thinking it will last me until I'm 97 years old. It takes very very little of this stuff for it's magic to work.

I started by cleaning my dish well. Then I cut a stencil using my SCAL Software and my Cricut.

After it is done cutting and while it's still on the cutting mat, remove the part of the letters that you want to etch. Be careful to leave the inside of the P's, E's or whatever other letters might have something that needs to stay.

Then put your stencil on the glassware pushing any air bubbles to the edges. Make sure to leave a little room at the top and bottom for drips. Whatever this stuff touches. it's going to etch.