Here's some more inspiration from my Pinterest page...
Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts
Homemade Xmas Gifts - 2015
Just a quick look at the homemade gifts I sent to family and friends this year;
Here's some more inspiration from my Pinterest page...
Here's some more inspiration from my Pinterest page...
Vegan Halloween 2015
This is really just about my zombie-mom make up.
The shirt was really easy. I bought a tight maternity shirt and a doll from the thrift store that had hard arms/hands that I could detach from the soft part of the body. I painted my arms grey to get that zombie look.
I ironed on some patches to the inside of the shirt for extra strength and then cut holes, smaller that the arms and then push through.
I poured some fake blood (you can make it yourself with food coloring and corn syrup) over the edges of the arms and then quickly held the shirt up and left it on a hanger so the blood ran downwards.
For the zombie face I used craft glue in some spots by itself and some parts with one layer of tissue stuck to it. Once the tissue is on there you can make holes, scars, cuts etc but using your fingers or a tool. The parts that are just glue, let them dry slightly, then run your finger beck over them so there's kind of a hole in the middle, it looks like rotting flesh.
Once everything is dry - around 30 mins or so you can apply make up. I just used eye shadows (black, grey, purple, maroon and green) to get the dead skin look and then black under the eyes, around the edges of the face and along the lines in my face. The purple, maroon and green work well over the fake scars to give the look of bruised, rotting flesh. The middle of the sores I used black food coloring on a Q-tip to show depth, then the final touch was red food coloring on a Q-tip for the blood on the sores, and fake blood for inside the mouth, tears and nose bleed. I just colored my hands with the grey eye-shadow, using the black to contour around the bones. I used black food dye for my finger tips which I regretted later because it does NOT come out from under your nails LOL
I think it turned out pretty well since I had no clue what I was doing. Apparently I was so scary that our neighbor's kid wouldn't come to the door ;)
The shirt was really easy. I bought a tight maternity shirt and a doll from the thrift store that had hard arms/hands that I could detach from the soft part of the body. I painted my arms grey to get that zombie look.
I ironed on some patches to the inside of the shirt for extra strength and then cut holes, smaller that the arms and then push through.
I poured some fake blood (you can make it yourself with food coloring and corn syrup) over the edges of the arms and then quickly held the shirt up and left it on a hanger so the blood ran downwards.
For the zombie face I used craft glue in some spots by itself and some parts with one layer of tissue stuck to it. Once the tissue is on there you can make holes, scars, cuts etc but using your fingers or a tool. The parts that are just glue, let them dry slightly, then run your finger beck over them so there's kind of a hole in the middle, it looks like rotting flesh.
Once everything is dry - around 30 mins or so you can apply make up. I just used eye shadows (black, grey, purple, maroon and green) to get the dead skin look and then black under the eyes, around the edges of the face and along the lines in my face. The purple, maroon and green work well over the fake scars to give the look of bruised, rotting flesh. The middle of the sores I used black food coloring on a Q-tip to show depth, then the final touch was red food coloring on a Q-tip for the blood on the sores, and fake blood for inside the mouth, tears and nose bleed. I just colored my hands with the grey eye-shadow, using the black to contour around the bones. I used black food dye for my finger tips which I regretted later because it does NOT come out from under your nails LOL
I think it turned out pretty well since I had no clue what I was doing. Apparently I was so scary that our neighbor's kid wouldn't come to the door ;)
Sewing a Simple Quilt
Quilts are much easier than they look. It's just step by step instructions, I'm a complete novice seamstress and I just follow YouTube videos!
Sewing a Simple Quilt
What you will need
Instructions
Cut your fabrics using a square quilt ruler (around 9.5") or cut by hand but be precise.
Place your squares on the floor and arrange in the order you want them. Take the first two pieces and place them pattern facing each other, pin down on the side you are going to sew. Iron if needed. Sew a 1/2" seam allowance to attach them. don't forget to always back stitch at the beginning and end of every line of sewing.
Place all your rows in order somewhere flat. Repeat until all your rows are finished.
Sewing a Simple Quilt
What you will need
- Fabric of your choice - the amount will depend on how big you're intending to make your quilt. If you're using traditional quilt squares they are around 9.5" squared. I bought around 3 yards of fabric for a baby crib quilt. Whatever you use for the front you need the same amount for the back (if you are planning on using this fabric as your finished edges then you need to make sure the fabric is a few inches longer and wider than your front piece because you will be flipping it up over the front. NB: If your item is something that might get washed occasionally make sure you pre-wash your fabrics.
- Sewing machine, obviously :)
- Matching thread
- Fabric scissors
- Iron
- Pins
- Thick ribbon (optional)
- Batting - thickness if up to you, mine was a little too thick!
- Fabric adhesive spray
Instructions
Cut your fabrics using a square quilt ruler (around 9.5") or cut by hand but be precise.
Iron out the flaps that you've just sewn. this is very important to reduce the bulk in the quilt.
Continue until you have one row of squares done.
Place all your rows in order somewhere flat. Repeat until all your rows are finished.
Lay your rows out flat in the order you want the quilt to look.
Flip the second row up over the first row so patterns are touching.
Continue for the other rows, flipping every second row.
Sew a 1/2" seam allowance along the top of the rows.
Iron flat the flaps you've just sewn. Repeat for all the rows.
Now join the larger pieces together in a similar way by flipping up the second piece onto the first, patterns facing each other, and sewing a 1/2" seam allowance, then ironing down the flaps.
Repeat for however many more pieces you have.
Now you have the top part of your quilt! Place it on your batting and cut to shape.
If you are using one solid piece of fabric (which is the best way), then cut that to size too. If you are using quilting squares then repeat all the steps above until you have the top and bottom of your quilt. I did this just out of necessity to use up old material.
Once you have your quilt fabric on the batting smoothed out spray the fabric adhesive on the under side of the fabric (non-patterned side) and lay flat on the batting, smoothing out any wrinkles. I usually do one half of the fabric at a time as shown below.
Repeat for back of quilt.
Now you're ready to sew the quilt together with the batting! With your front fabric facing up as your guide, sew carefully down each line, the line that connects the fabric squares, from one end to the other.
repeat for all lines down, then all lines across.
Once this is done you are ready for your sides, you can trim extra batting if you like.
I used a large ribbon (3" wide) but if you see the quilt at the bottom of the post I used just fabric. If using fabric, as mentioned at the top, you will just have a longer and wider bottom piece of fabric (by about 3-4"). In this case you will just fold the pieces twice (like a hem) and flip over the front, you can iron them first to keep the fold.
In my case I used a 3" wide ribbon and ironed them in half so they were even. Then I sprayed the inside of the ribbon with adhesive, pinned it down and sewed the two long sides. For the small edges I sewed the ends into points and then sewed the ribbon over the top of the other ribbon at the corners.
I didn't mean to have that many rows of stitches but I messed up the first side (by not ironing them in half!!) and so had to match the other sides :/
Finished quilt!
This was only my second quilt. The first one made was a throw for the couch...
Teacher's Gift Basket
If your kids school is anything like ours about this time of year they send home "suggestions" of what you should give the teachers as an end of year thank you for looking after your brats all year. Some of the suggestions included notebooks and pencils....lame! I prefer the personal touch...they want to relax in their time off not be reminded of the year to come!
Check out my DIY page and Gift tag for more ideas!
Basket from thrift
Homemade Card
DIY Foaming Pump Soap
His hand soap recipe from One Green Planet I find amazing for the kids in the bath/shower. It's foaming so it's great for them to only use a small amount.
DIY Foaming Pump Soap
Ingredients
2 Tablespoons castille soap
Water
15 drops Essential Oil of choice
Method
Mix castille soap and essential oils together.
Pour into your pump container and fill water slowly to the top (you may need to let the bubbles settle occasionally)
Screw on lid. Shake around.
DIY Foaming Pump Soap
Ingredients
2 Tablespoons castille soap
Water
15 drops Essential Oil of choice
Method
Mix castille soap and essential oils together.
Pour into your pump container and fill water slowly to the top (you may need to let the bubbles settle occasionally)
Screw on lid. Shake around.
Freezing Stewed Tomatoes
If you don't have a canner and don't want botchelism this is a great way to preserve your tomatoes.
I started with sterilizing my jars;
Wash jars with dish soap and rinse well with hot water.
Preheat oven to 120C and place jars in the over for 20 mins.
I add the lids 5 mins before the end otherwise the rubber can burn.
Next I washed the tomatoes and boiled on the stove until the skin splits and is coming away from the flesh.
Once tomatoes are cool enough to touch peel the skin off.
You can also de-seed if you like but I didn't.
At this point you can freeze them whole or puree them in a blender before freezing.
I added some fresh herbs to mine and heated so that they were ready as a sauce base.
Defrost completely before using.
We Made A Tee-pee!
So not on a vegan note but on a family note...we made a teepee! Technically it's for the kids but it looks so comfortable I think I might sneak in there when they're not home ;)
This was a fairly easy project for around $60 - we got plain duck cloth on sale.
You need;
5.5 yards x 3 yards
5-6x Wood planks - 9' tall
Rope/ribbon
Sewing machine/fabric scissors
Drill
Optional Extras; tarp, paint, pillows, blankets
Instructions;
We started with one 1 piece of 11 x 2 yard piece of plain duck cloth and cut it in half down the middle.
Next I sewed the two 5.5 yard pieces together and lay out flat. mark down the middle of the piece. Using one of the planks of wood, drill a hole about 9" down on all planks. Lay wood down in the middle line of the material with the hole on the long edge. Start marking around to make a semi-circle on one side of the material.
Attach all your planks together in a teepee shape and feed the rope through and tie to hold in place.
Next wrap the material - round edge along the ground - around the planks and mark three button holes.
This was a fairly easy project for around $60 - we got plain duck cloth on sale.
You need;
5.5 yards x 3 yards
5-6x Wood planks - 9' tall
Rope/ribbon
Sewing machine/fabric scissors
Drill
Optional Extras; tarp, paint, pillows, blankets
Instructions;
We started with one 1 piece of 11 x 2 yard piece of plain duck cloth and cut it in half down the middle.
Next I sewed the two 5.5 yard pieces together and lay out flat. mark down the middle of the piece. Using one of the planks of wood, drill a hole about 9" down on all planks. Lay wood down in the middle line of the material with the hole on the long edge. Start marking around to make a semi-circle on one side of the material.
Fold the material in half on the fold line and cut around the circle with fabric scissors.
Next either hem or using a seam stitch sew the round raw edges to prevent fraying. The sides should have selvage so should not need hemming.
Next lay the material out flat and in the center of the flat edge mark two button holes on each side. This will be for the rope to feed through and attach to the wooden plank.
Next wrap the material - round edge along the ground - around the planks and mark three button holes.
Sew all the marked button holes.
The top two are for feeding through the plank as an anchor, the bottom 6 holes are to hold the teepee together at the front.
Technically now your teepee is ready!
We painted circle patterns on the material but tracing cups and plates and then using some old house paints samples we had left over from when we made a birdhouse. We had paint on our hands so we put hand prints on as well.
We covered the floor with tarp, then got some outdoor cushions and blankets from a thrift store.
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