Easy DIY Fleece Tie Blanket

These blankets have been around for years....I've been making them since I was at least 14....so I have 10 years of experience with these babies.  They were go-to gifts in our family for many years...actually they still are.  

Who doesn't like a soft cuddly blankie?  I mean really now....

You're feeling comfy just looking at this picture....admit it. 

Anywho....I have made a few for gifts just this past year alone.  I took pictures of the process but never got around to making the tutorial until now.  

Here's what you do.   First off you will need to buy your fleece.  I usually like to do one side patterned and the other side a solid coordinating color....but you can do whatever you want of course

I usually buy 2 yards of each fabric...that is my go to size.  The blanket I am making in this tutorial was for a new born baby so I made it only using 1 yard of each fabric

One thing to take into consideration though....the first Christmas me and The Boy were dating I made him a 2 yard blanket since it was my usual.  He LOVES that thing to death (in fact it's so ratty now I owe him a new one) but it's a little too small for him.  My husband is 6'2 and a big guy....his feet stick out the bottom.  So lesson learned....if it's for a giant like my boy..try going  3 yards

Ok, so you have your two fabrics....lay them down sandwiched together so that the good sides are both facing "out"  You'll especially notice with the printed fabric, one side will be sort of blurry and one side more crisp.  Obviously the side with the clearer picture faces outward

Trim the fabrics to get rid of any printed words that sometimes shows as well as to get them to match up as closely as possible

Next, cut a 6 inch square out of each corner

Then cut one inch strips that create a sort of "fringe" that are about 1 inch wide and go up the 6 inches in to meet the cut from the corner.  You could use a ruler or yardstick if you would like, but I just eyeball it and move across and it has always worked well enough for me

Repeat this around all 4 sides

Then begin tying the fringe

 

These aren't tied like shoes....it's the kind of knot where you take both fringes together and wrap them around your finger,then pull the ends through the hole

I'm sure you could knot them together however you like...this is just what I've always done

Just keep working all the way around.  It isn't hard....just time consuming, so put on a movie or something while you work.  One side will be very easy to tie because it's the stretchy side of the fabric.  The other will be much harder because it doesn't have any "give" so the knot is much harder to tie.  

Forewarning:  Your fingers WILL hurt by the end of the project.  But at least you'll have a super cute blanket to show for it

And just because I think they're cute and funny....here is MoMo supervising as we worked on a different blanket.  She was all up in it the entire time

Man she's tough.....she was workin me like I was in a sweat shop!

 

Creative Wedding Gift Wrap

So my dream finally came true.....well....at least one dream

I FINALLY got to go to a damn wedding!  Not that I had never been to one before or anything cuz I have....let me explain

I have been married now for a year and a half and all I have been wanting since my wedding was to go to somebody-else's.  Not in a feed me, let me drink booze on your dime, give me cool party favors kind of way (although those are awesome wedding guest perks...no denying that!)  But more so in a way that I just wanted to sit back and watch another couples big day

You put SOOOO much time, effort, and money into your own that you come out with such an appreciation for the entire process....down to every little detail that you never would have noticed in your PB (pre-bride) days. 

Well....my sister Kinsey went to 7 weddings in the year after mine.  Yes.... SEVEN!!  Meanwhile I'm over here with a buncha invitations to NOTHING.  So needless to say when our friends got engaged last November I was pretty freakin excited

So combine the fact that I was practically peeing myself over attending this wedding already and my deep, deeeeeeep love for themes and bad ass gift wrap I had to come up with something cool.

I thought it would be funny to make the gift look like a wedding cake since people are always making wedding cakes look like stacked gifts.....see what I did there?

I think the sad part is that I then picked out their gift based off of what would lend itself best to a cake like size and shape.  So the gift wrap came before the actual gift....but hey....whatever works right?

We ended up getting them an enamel dutch oven that they registered for (it made a fabulous bottom tier)  And the top tier was a DIY Photo Coaster set I made.

I wanted the boxes to look like they had frosting piped on them.  So I used my hot glue gun to simulate frosting designs.  Here is the box for the top tier where I just did a simple dot pattern

I didn't take pictures of the bottom box, but I did the same technique making dots and scrolls

As I "piped" all around I had the box laying on its side...of course MoMo had to crawl in and make a house out of it.  (You can see the coasters I made)

The I spray painted both boxes white, glued on ribbon trim, stacked them in place, and glued on some fake flowers

We used bride and groom Pez dispensers as the toppers because our friend Morgan is a Pez collector and he went in on the gift with is.  It was his bright idea to add them on top...kudos to Morgie!

Came out pretty good......except......

I took these boxes from work and in  BIG, BLACK, lettering it said "Heavy walled elbow noodles"  No matter what I did....no matter how many coats of primer I used...I could NOT get that shit to cover

I cropped it out in the above photo.....but this is how it looked

Drove me effin crazy!  Luckily, the groom is a fellow food industry worker (me, groomy, and The Boy all met in culinary school) so he found it pretty amusing

I was one of the first ones there, but I kept my eye on the gift table and as soon as it started to fill up I swooped in and used one of the little boxes to cover it up

Problem solved!


It was a great night.  Two amazing people got hitched, there was good food and good company, and lots and lots laughs

I guess the wait was worth it =)

 

DIY Photo Coasters

Our friends Tanya and Dale just got married and I thought I would share with you part of their Wedding gift...DIY Photo Coasters.....even if it is alllllllllll over Pinterest

I wanted to give them something they wanted so of course that means a gift off their registry....easy peasy.  But I also couldn't let a big event like a wedding pass by without getting a little DIY action in

I figured coasters were something they could actually use in their house....but still sort of off the grid.  I don't think many people wake up and think "Hey....we need coasters with our faces on it!"   

That's where I come in.......

You need

Mod Podge, Plain tiles, Pictures, & Acrylic Sealer spray

 I already had the Mod Podge and sealer so all I had to buy was the picures ($1.05) and the tiles for .15 each.  Gotta love a gift where you get to empty out your change pocket.  My purse is much lighter now thanks to this project. 

Now I gotta confess.....I felt like a total creeper acquiring these pictures.  They hadn''t gotten back all their engagement photos yet so they only had 5 "sneak peek" pictures on their Facebook pages from the photographer.  And in total stalker/creeper status I saved them to my computer.

Is it just me or is that totally weird when you stop and think about it? Like I'm pretty confident they won't think anything of it (until they read this....awesome.) but it is kinda of weird that anyone can just right click and save your face.   But I guess that's a risk we all take right? haha

Anywho....clean your tiles well and cut your pictures to size.  I decided I wanted a border so I cut them into 3 inch squares

Apply Mod Podge to the back of the picture with a foam brush and position onto the tile.  Apply 4 coats of Mod Podge or more letting dry completely between each coat.  I would brush side to side for one coat, let dry, then up and down and repeat.   Unfortunately there is no getting around the fact that there will be brush strokes....so just got over it now.  I had to.

After you've done enough Mod Podge coats, spray 4-5 coats of acrylic sealer. 

I do these over the course of 3 days (start to finish) to ensure that each coat was completely dry and I didn't end up with globs

Once they were completely dry I added feet by cutting out squares of stiffened felt and hot gluing them to the bottom

Here they are all done

Wrapped them up in some ribbon that coordinated with the wedding colors

And that's all it took!  I really love how they turned out and hope they like them too.  Even with the whole stalker aspect.....

Introducing.....MoMo Mondays!

Anybody who knows me in real life or merely follows me on Facebook or Instagram could tell you that I am obsessed with my cat.  Yes.....obsessed.  

It occurred to me just this past weekend that it almost seems wrong how I haven't incorporated Mo into the blogging portion of my life.  She's a part of every other aspect of my life so I decided it was time to dedicate some posts all to her.  To give the blogging world a glimpse into the love that is MoMo  

I will be calling these posts "MoMo Mondays" (if somehow you hadn't already figured that our from the title.)

They will be short stories, pictures, and perhaps maybe a video or two that I hope will make you chuckle or smile.....and give me another social media outlet to brag about how dang cute she is.  

First Up....MoMo versus the Real Housewives

A few months ago I spent my entire day watching a Real Housewives of Beverly Hills marathon.  I only moved to pee.  Basically I was a large sack of useless.  At one point I noticed I couldn't hear anything and as I looked up at the TV I saw the volume bar working its way down

I looked at the other end of the couch where the remote was and there she was standing on the remote turning down the volume.   MoMo had spoken.  As I fumbled around looking for my phone to take a picture she sat down....but she never took her paw off the remote

She means business man.  You can see it in her face....Mo was pissed!  She was like "Damn it Mama pay attention to me!  Enough with these "catty" broads!" 

I love how her paw is perfectly positioned....almost as if she is threatening to hit the power button

Needless to say I turned off the TV and gave her an intense chin scratching session.  I also gained a little more respect for her that day.....she gets what she wants. 

DIY Dr. Who Inspired Fez Nipple Tassels

If I haven't mentioned before....my husband is a nerd.  But I think most wives think their husbands are kind of a nerd...right?  

He is majorly into Dr. Who and so are all of his friends.  One of his best friends, Dale, is getting married in a week  (woo hoo!) And he is also a huge fan of the Doctor

I mentioned in passing once when we were all hanging out that I should make nipple tassels that look like a Fez because fez's have tassels and Dale was the only who laughed....

I appreciated his pitty chuckle so much I knew I had to make his fiancee some DIY fez nipple tassels to honor his love for the show

This was new territory for me.  There aren't exactly dozens of fez nipple tassel tutorials to choose from.  So I got the basic idea of how to make the regular ones and went from there 

Here's what I came up with

I needed something that was shaped like a fez.  These little food cups were perfect.  They are the kind that dressings and stuff come in, only the bigger ones

Painted them red and poked holes in the top

Then I hot glued on red sequin decorative trim

Just keep making your way around until the whole thing is covered

I bought these out of date graduation tassels for .50 at Dollar Tree.  Pulled of the year and cut of some of the metal top so it wasn't as long.  Stick in through the hole you made on top and hot glue in place

Now for the nipple area.  Cut a circle out of red craft foam.  You could be more exact than me and measure it, but I winged it and just found a cup that was slightly larger than little "fez" we just made

Cut a triangle out of the circle

Using  hot glue those bring these two points together to create a cone shape.  This is what will make it fit your nipple well

This is why you need the circle you started with to be bigger.  Once you cut out the pie piece and glue it, it will be smaller.  You want it to be the right size so that you can then glue this entire thing into the fez cup and not be too big or too small.  Like I said, I winged it and it worked out to be the correct size

And there you have DIY Fez nipple tassels!

 

And because the Doctor always wears a bow tie I got a matching one to complete the ensemble

Seeing his woman in nothing but this would get any "Whovian" all hot and bothered

Before I wrapped them up I had to take a picture of me demonstrating the fact that they really do fit well over your nipple region.................................












 Don't worry.  I'm fully clothed in these pictures. ;)  After all....I do want my readers to come back don't I?

I hope I don't make that face often.  Is that supposed to be my "naughty" face??   If it is....that's pretty unfortunate.  Poor hubby

I have little experience with nipple tassels.  Correction...NO experience with nipple tassels.  In fact I even had to look up how you would even go about sticking these suckers on.  I read that eye lash adhesive is good so I included a few tubes in with the gift.  

It's up to them which one of them wears it lol  If Dale wants to take them for a spin I won't judge ;) 

There ya have it folks.  I'm no Dr. Who expert but hopefully I have delivered in the form of Doctor themed nipple wear

DIY Picture Frame Ring Holder

Forever and a year ago I came across this picture on Pinterest and was blown away by the idea

Why the heck didn't I think of this? The idea is so simple but soooo genius at the same time!

When I went to the source I realized it was a store bought frame from Kohls.  I knew I could probably find a similar frame if I looked hard enough, but being the project loving gal I am I decided to tackle this one myself

I got a small wood frame and painted it white.  I completely forgot to take a "Before" shot of the frame but I'm sure you can use your imagination to picture a plain old ugly frame.  Think "builder grade kitchen cabinet" color

This project was also a good excuse to invest in some mass amounts of pearls and gems

Then the fun began.  I glued every single one of those suckers on...one by frickin one.

Please excuse my grimy work station.  This is literally the same "lap desk"  we've had in my family since who knows when. Literally....I'm pretty sure it's older than me.  I don't remember a time not having it.  I think it belonged to my 2 oldest sisters and considering I'm the baby and younger by 12 years.....the thing is pretty damn old.  But it has held up like a champ and I kept it....apprently I love it?  I think the cuts, sticky glue areas, and marker marks give it some character.   Or does that just make it dingy?

Anywho....just keep gluing. Just keep gluing. What do we do we gluuuue!   Can you tell I'm pumped for the release of Finding Dory?   We only have to wait until the end of 2015...Crimony!

After you are done gluing, cut a piece of scrapbook paper or fabric to fit inside the frame.  I glued the paper to cardstock to make it more sturdy. 

Take a pearl pin and position where you want it on the paper and push through.  Once it's through bend the pin down straight so it lays flat and hot glue it into place like this

Then after hours and hours of gluing and burning yourself....you're done!

I made this for a friend that's getting married.  I really want one for myself considering how I put my ring in a cup right now....but I'm usually only willing to commit to a labor intensive project once.  The second time I just get annoyed and bored and get a "been there, done that attitude"    Just blame it on my ADD babayyy.  (name that song!)

Sooo...back into the cup my ring will go

Monster High Gift Wrap

Keeping with our tradition of gift wrap matching the theme of the party....I knew exactly what I wanted to do for Brooke's Monster High gift

I saw that on the show their lockers at the school were shaped like coffins

I had made a coffin box once before for a Halloween party to hold breadsticks so the construction of one was familiar

Draw out the coffin shape for however big you want it and cut out 2 of them.  One will be the base and the other the lid

Starting with the two longest sides, measure them and cut out strips making sure they are tall enough to cover height of your gift.  Hot glue in place

Repeat with all the other sides

Then I painted the whole thing pink and The Boy made the skull lock 

It's fun to do.  In fact I think I'm going to make myself some more sturdy versions of this for Halloween this year to keep year after year.  I'm looking forward to it


Ooooh the crafting mind.  Already planning rojects for holidays that are 7 months away,  It's a sickness I tell you....a sickness!