The Dish Mat

 I saw this cute dish mat tutorial around Christmas time on Life in Grace and I instantly knew I had to make one. Of course that "instantly" has turned into almost 6 months but that is actually a lot faster than I get around to doing a lot of things. Anyway, Darby from Fly Through Our Window created the tutorial, which I didn't follow exactly, more just did my own thing but used the tutorial as a guide line. It turned out great! I'm so excited to start using it, I think I'll end up making an even bigger one next time.

Just line all your dishes in a row when you don't want to put them in the dishwasher. I'll probably just be using this for the larger items that don't fit in my dishwasher but I wanted to make the pictures pretty.

When you're all done just roll it up and store in a drawer, so simple. This is a easy and fast craft. I almost finished the whole thing last night when Reed and Addie had to make an emergency fish taco run.

Click here to be taken to Darby's tutorials and then click "Dish Mat". Did I mention how much I love Fly Through Our Window? It is one of my favorite feel good blogs. I could spend hours reading all of her posts.

Cute Storage Reuse

I had a bag of dried black beans that were spilling all over my cupboard. I decided to find something to hold the beans so I wouldn't have an extra mess to clean up. I found this old yogurt carton just waiting to be used so I poured the beans in and marked the container. I then found three more of the same countainers so I decided I could make them all into cute new storage for the kitchen.

I Just covered them with some cute adhesive drawer liner I had left over from my bookcase project. I knew I would find a use for it.

                             

I just cut off a big peace and covered the sides. I then used a sharp knife to trim off the ends. You could use an exacto knife, which would make more sense but I couldn't find mine.

I then just printed off some labels I made.

And glued them on with a good old fashion glue stick.

You could put an extra label on the top but I just decided against it. I think they look cute just like this.

I see many more of these containers in my future. I started walking around the kitchen just noticing how many things would be prefect inside this size container.  Chocolate chips? Check! Lentils? Check!

I made the labels into a PDF form so everyone can print them out and use them for whatever you want! Get the labels here. 

I'm linking this post to: Finding Fabulous, Tatertots and Jello,  Sumo's Sweet Stuff

Easy Homemade Baby Bib

Here is a really easy and cheap way to make baby bibs, use an old vinyl tablecloth. I bought this tablecloth from Walmart for like $4 about a year ago. It had its fair share of hard use and when it had one to many gross spots we took it off. I love the bright color so I wanted to do something with the extra material that still looked good and a baby bib was perfect!

I traced out my favorite bib making it a little bit longer and wider. I like it to cover Addie's shoulders, she always turns her head and gets her shoulder all gross.

I pinned up the bottom to make a little "pocket" for fallen food and sewed it down.

I then just used this bias tape to go around the edges to give it a more finished look. Finished it off with some Velcro and there you have it.

Here is the finished bottom pocket. I do not sew straight, that is about as straight as it's going to get.

It's really hard to get a picture of the finished project, even if you tempt toddlers with fruit snacks.

I love this because you can make SO many out of one tablecloth. You also don't even have to add the bias tape. To make it even simpler just cut out the bibs (the vinyl material doesn't fray) and safety pin them on. I'm going to do that with the rest of the tablecloth. I'm a very lazy crafter.

Check out The Thrifty Home for more Penny Pinching Ideas.

Irish Decor

Look at this cute St. Patrick's Decor. I want to make that Irish Board. Go to Lulu's Tiles for the tutorials.

A Valentine's Tree

My mom gave me a little white Christmas Tree this year that she was just going to throw away. We used it during Christmas as another decoration and then put it away. Then I saw on someones blog (I wish I could remember who! Update: It was Laurel's cute tree that I saw, you can find it Here) that they created a Valentine's Tree out of their little white one. Why didn't I think of that?? So here is my first Valentines Decoration of the year.

I was going to make my decorations but then I went to Michale's and found these cute little hearts on sale. The only problem was that they only had red, which really isn't a problem if you have some glitter and Mod Podge.


I just did a layer of Mod Podge (has it always been Mod Podge, I thought it was Modge Podge) and sprinkled the glitter on. Then I cut some ribbon and stuck it to the top of the heart.


Ta Da, pretty cute.


The finished Valentine's Tree. Now I just need to find some little gifts to go under it.



Penny Pinching Party
Blue Cricket Design
Creations by Kara

Easy homemade gift bows

Have you been wrapping all your gifts? I've started and I'm about half way done, now I just have to wait for the rest of them to arrive. My favorite tip about wrapping presents is making your own bow for the top. My mom has made these bows for as long as I can remember and her mom before that. It is one of those things I just kind of thought everyone did, until people started asking me how to make them. So here is the easy bow tutorial.


First use a scrap of wrapping paper that you have left over. I always use a square and fold it in half.

Now just start cutting strips, you can make them as wide or as thin as you want. Making them thicker or thinner will change the look when you are done.

When all of your strips are cut, open the scissors up and glide the paper across the blade. I always start in the middle and go in opposite directions. As you glide the paper it should curl the paper. You may have done this with ribbon, its the same thing. Don't push to hard because you could rip the paper.

Now group all of the strips in the middle.

Secure with a peace of tape with the edges hanging over the paper to attach to the box.

Tada! You're done. Easy, beautiful, and inexpensive.

Click Here for more DIY projects from A Soft Place to Land, and Works for me Wednesday. Click Here for more frugal Christmas ideas of Life as mom.

Bookcase Face Lift

I decided it was time to organize all of my craft supplies. I wanted a small bookcase so that everything would be easy to reach and organized. Whenever I organize something it has to not only be functional but pretty. That night I made my husband go to Ikea with me to find some shelfs that would work. We found this bookcase that had the perfect measurements but it was too plain. So I ran to the store and found some cute drawer lining paper.

If you find paper that is self-adhesive this is all you need. The back of the bookcase, scissors and paper.

Here is the finished product. I love to do this with all different kids of shelves, you can use just about anything on the background and it gives your furniture a lot of color and personality. Here are some picture of it up close with my ribbon organizer.

Here is the hutch I redid with fabric covering the back.

For more DIY products visit A Soft Place to Land.

Organize Ribbon

I've been organizing all of my crafting supplies this week. It was time to do something new because they were scattered all over the place and I could never find what I wanted.

I found a bunch of ribbon spools that I didn't know what to do with until I remembered seeing a box like the one above. I didn't want to actually make anything so I decided to improvise. I found this little container lying around and all I had to do was pull some of the ribbon through the slits. Simple! I think I got this container at Walmart for a few dollars and it came in a pack of three.


I know I have some more ribbon lying around, now to find them and put them in their new home. Works for me! For more works for me Wednesday click here.

Cute Cards

I love the look of this card. I'm thinking you could make some really cute cards with different fabrics. I'll have to give it a try. To find a step by step tutorial on these cards click here.

Cheap Halloween Decor

I love this picture. Doesn't it look old and spooky.

I saw this post and got inspired to do some cheap Halloween decorating. This is one of my favorite ideas. Just get some black frames and print out Boo in different fonts. This project cost me $3. I just got the frames from the dollar store, one of them wasn't black so I just painted it.
Have fun.

For more frugal ideas visit Life as Mom.

Embrodary Hoop Frames

Can I even tell you how much I love this idea? I saw this post on Serenity Now and I feel in love instantly. I started thinking about where I could find some hoops for myself. I actually made my sister go to the thrift store that day, but it's now been about three months and I finally took the time to create the hoops.
It was so easy! It only took about 10 minutes, I did it while Addie finished her lunch. I found the hoops for about .50 cents, panted them white to match her crib, and used leftover fabric from the tag blanket I made her. The best part is the possibles are endless, you could put anything in the frames.

Click here for more DIY projects on A Soft Place to Land.

Frugal Friday: Reuse Baby Food Jars

I have tons of these little jars lying around my apartment waiting to be put into good use. I love these little jars and felt like it was a waste to just send them to be recycled when I could recycle them myself into something fun. This was the first idea I had. In all of my craft drawers I have small items such as buttons and brads. Why not put them all together in small jars? Easy and inexpensive.

Click Here for more Frugal Friday tips on Life as a Mom.

Adorable Little Girl Skirt

Image from Made

I Saw this Mercado Skirt Tutorial on Made today. Aren't they adorable! I'm so excited to make one for my little girl. I will have to make hers a bit smaller since she is only now wearing 12 month clothes.

Go here to see Dana's amazing site. I love her site, her projects are so fun and her photography is amazing.

Go here for the tutorial for this skirt.

I'll post my finished product when I'm done, I'm so excited!