CARD DESIGNING

This is my cabinet in use.  It has been a lot of fun to design cards.  I had read a blog where a lady used her scraps to write Bible verses and give them to people.

Here are some of my cards I made.

I am looking into the Cuttlebug machine.  I do not have the Cricut Machine as it is a little to expensive for me.  It looks like the cuttlebug machine would do what I wanted for cards.

This was one of my favorites.  A great idea place is looking up cards making on Pinterest.
I am trying to find a crafts I can take in a RV if hubby and I go full time.
Looking forward to doing more.

DIY SCRAP BOOKING CABINET

Scrap booking is a craft that I really enjoy.  The problem is that getting all the supplies out and doing it on my kitchen table is not the best place. 
With some inspiration from Pintrest I decided to refurbish my old farm antique dough boy cabinet. 

The only room I had for it is in my bedroom, so the cabinet would be a good place to do the work and also be able to keep it neat and organized.

 I got out my delta water based paint and started to paint it Ivory.  After painting I distressed it with some sand paper to make it appear old.  Of course it is old-but old is the look I am going for.

I spray painted the drawers a celery color.  It would match with the comforter on my bed.  The hardware for the top cabinet doors were sprayed the same color.  I have not put the doors up yet. I am still in the process of getting some thin peg board and putting it in the middle of the doors.

The peg board idea came from another Pintrest inspiration
Then I will cover peg board with fabric to coordinate with the bedroom colors.   The fabric will face the bedroom and the peg board on the inside to have easy access to tools.

I found some contact paper and put it on the shelves and in the drawers also.
As you can see I have started to add some of the supplies to the shelves and the drawers.

My next project will be to cover the chair that fairly dirty from being in storage.  

Pintrest has given me some great ideas for covering the chair.

 Since it is a bedroom I am thinking of going for the skirt version.  It will depend on how much material I have in storage.  Since this is a frugal project I am hoping to use as many things that I already have.

Hopefully soon I will post the finished cabinet.  Just wanted to give you a glance at my project and how it is going. 

RELINED TRAVEL CASE

This travel case was given to me years ago by my mother.  It had been a very useful travel cosmetic case for many years.

As you can see although it is still useful it has seen better days.  I had attempted to glue in a piece of fabric to the top several years ago.  Not my best work for sure.  Must have been done in a big hurry to go some place.
This case definitely needs some TLC and a new look to take on vacation. 

This was the results of my endeavor to reline my cosmetic case.  Try finding an older case at a thrift store or redo one of your own and get many more years of usefulness for just a little time.  The Tutorial of how I relined it follows.

1.  Carefully remove old lining.  Use these pieces as your guide to make all pieces.

2.  This is just an example of how I made the bottom pattern. First  measure the lining bottom piece and then  measure the bottom of the case.  I found the case did not match up with the lining.  Over the years somehow it had shrunk or they had a great industrial machine that made it fit at the time.  SO BE CAREFUL THAT THE CASE MEASURES THE SAME AS THE LINING PIECES.  Then use them as an example to make your pattern pieces.
3.  After measuring  the bottom of case use a cutting board to measure and make a bottom pattern piece.  I use wax paper as it is inexpensive at  the Dollar General store.  Use a permanent marker to out line your pattern, it does not go through the wax paper. I have made hundreds of patterns this way.  Just use see through tape such as scotch tape to make larger pieces.
4.  NOTE: Because the other pieces are going to overlap the bottom piece make the bottom piece a little larger so that it goes up the edge a little.

5.  To make the curved edges a soup cup was used.  Any curved object that will give you the desired curve will do.
6.  Use the above technique for making the other pattern pieces.

7.  The main new lining was cut out of a drapery curtain that was bought at a thrift store. 
8.  I wanted the lining to have a little more sturdiness to it, so with a piece of quilted fabric I cut out one of each of the pieces.  I used the lines on the quilted fabric as a guide and sewed the fabric to the lining giving it a quilted look. You could use 2 pieces of fabric with some kind of lining in the middle like the kind used for quilts.
9.  The next step was to cut out plastic from quality Zip-Lock bags for protection to the fabric.  [Gee, wish there was a craft or fabric store closer than 2 1/2 hours away.  Iron on vinyl would have been great.  The zip lock bags did fine and with stood my vacation travel for a month.

 

10.  Using your largest zig-zag stitch (so the plastic will not tear) sew around the edges of fabric and plastic.
Do this to all lining pieces in appropriate places.

11.  After securing the plastic I used bias binding around all the edges. It is easy to make bias binding for yourself and be able to create the binding of your choice.  Visit my post on making bias binding http://nanasknoll.blogspot.com/2009/09/bias-tape-instructions.html

12.  Apply glue to the bottom of the case.  In my case the pieces overlap other pieces, so you will have to observe how your case went together. Taking pictures of the different areas will help when making pattern pieces and reassembling and gluing.  A fabric glue was applied and then a little hot glue to hold it in position until the fabric glue set up.

13.  The next piece is the side piece.  As you can see 3 pieces were used to make the length of the side pieces.  Where the pieces are joined, bias tape is used to hide the seams.  This side piece is made with the same procedures as steps 1-3.

14.  Apply fabric and hot glue in the same way as the bottom on the sides, leaving the top edge unglued.

15.  Once the side is secure apply glue to the top edge all the way around.

 

16.  The next piece is the flap that hangs down from the lid to the center of the travel case. The top section of this piece does not have the zip-lock bag sewn on it as it is not needed.

17.  I measured the old piece that held bottles in the case. I made a narrow piece and inserted elastic.  The elastic was pulled a little tighter as the old piece was a little stretched out.  The elastic piece was sewed with a tight zig zag stitch on each end.  Measure the same distance from either end and sew again allowing for 3 sections.

18.  This flap piece needed a little weight and stiffening so this plastic piece was cut and hand sewn to the section that would hang in the bottom back.

19.  NOTE:  This piece is glued ONLY on the lid piece.  This allows the lid to open and shut without restraint.

20. The lid is done the same as STEP 3-NOTE: make this piece the EXACT SIZE of the top to fit to the edge.
21.  Glue in place.
This travel case is now ready for many more years.

BIAS TAPE INSTRUCTIONS

When I learned this technique for making bias tape, I have been decorating and embellishing projects and clothes ever since.  I now have a tool for folding the bias tape.  If you do not have this tool the instructions for making the bias tape without it are included in this post.  So happy decorating!

I usually use about 1/2 yard to make several pieces of bias strips for my bias tape.
1.  Place the selvage of your fabric facing the bottom of your cutting board or table that you are using (as shown in photo).
2.  Place your see through measuring tool (STMT), or a yard stick if you do not have this tool at an angle on the fabric.  My cutting board has this angle already on it as my guide.  The object is to cut your strips on an angle or bias.  If using a yard stick, draw a line with a chalk pencil.  This will be your guide for cutting.

3.   Lay your (STMT) the width you want your strips.  I usually use a 1 1/2 inch but some decorating requires a wider piece of bias tape.
4.  Using a rotary cutter or a pair of scissors cut your strips.  The number of strips depends on the length of bias tape you need.

Your strips will look like this or wider, but angled on either end.

5.  Lay 2 strips as in the photo above.

6.  Lay the 2 strips right sides together.  Notice that the edges do not line up, they will be slightly off. See the above photo.  Pen in place.

7.  Sew a seam, starting where the fabric meets.  Notice the red seam.  This is very important so that the strips line up when you are finished sewing these your strips together.

8.  Trim off the excess along the edge of the strip on both sides.

9.  Line your strip wrong side up and open seam and press.

10.  To make bias tape without bias tape tool, fold your strip in half and press to create a guide line for your next step.

If you have a bias tape tool you can do step 10 with the tool.

11.  Using this ironed line as a guide in the next step.

12.  Fold one side of your tape towards line in the middle and press.  When you have finished with one side do the other side.

When you are finished both sides should look like the photo above.

13.  Fold the two folded ends to meet each other at the edges.  Simply said, just fold it in half and press.

For the HAND TOWEL or POT HOLDER hooks you will need to do this last step.

14.  Sew both the edges of the finished bias tape about 1/8" from edge.

If you have any questions you can e-mail me at   nanasknoll@gmail.com