Burp Cloth Tutorial: How to Make a Pretty Baby Gift

Guess who didn’t have the Internet at home last week? ME! While it was highly frustrating because I teach two online classes, it was kind of nice knowing that I couldn’t get on the computer. I’ve got a log of blog reading to do!




I’ve got an easy tutorial for everyone today. If you know how to sew a straight stitch, then you can make pretty burp cloths to give as gifts. Burp cloths are my go-to gifts for new moms because I firmly believe you can’t have too many! Ever since the day Elliotte went through every single burp cloth we owned plus some towels, I’ve given them as gifts. I used to order them through Etsy until I learned to sew and realized how easy they were to make.


All you need is a pack of cloth diapers and some coordinating fabric and thread. I like to use fat quarters from JoAnn because I can make three burp cloths with each one. These burp cloths are obviously for a precious baby girl.


Start by unfolding one of the burp cloths and measure the length and width of the center strip. Then, using a cereal box or something similar, cut out a strip equal to the center strip of the burp cloth. This will make things so much easier!


Using the cut-out as your guide, cut your fabric a little bigger than the strip. A rotary cutter makes things go super fast! I usually go ahead and cut all my fabric at the same time.


Now move to your ironing board, and iron your fabric around the cut-out. I also iron the burp cloths at this point too.


For the ends, I fold them over just like I’m wrapping the ends of a present.


Once the fabric is ironed all around, pull the cut-out from inside the fabric. Now you’re almost ready to sew!


Place the ironed fabric right side up on the burp cloth and pin it down in a few places.
Note to self: get a new ironing board cover! Gross!


Now it’s time to whip out your sewing machine! All you have to do is sew a straight stitch around all four sides of the fabric. Make sure you back stitch at the beginning and once you get all the way around the fabric. It’s “sew” easy! Yep, I typed that.


Once you’ve done all this three times, you’ve got a super cute and sweet homemade gift for a new mom and baby! If you want to get fancy schmancy, use a zig zag stitch or add some ric rack around the edges. I used a zig zag stitch on the bottom burp cloth below, and it adds a little extra touch.


Wrap the burp cloths up with a pretty ribbon and you’re all done! I love picking out fabric for these gifts and making them look pretty. I like to make them pretty for boys too.


Now you know how to make an easy baby gift that a new mom (and dad too) will use all the time! What’s your go-to baby gift? Give me some more ideas!

Linking up to some of these fabulous parties! Tatertots & Jello, Between Naps on the Porch, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Serenity Now, Mommy By Day Crafter By Night, The 36th Avenue, The DIY Showoff, Today’s Creative Blog, At the Picket Fence, Home Stories A to Z, Gingerbread, Remodelaholic, Thrifty Décor Chick, The CSI Project, Beneath my Heart, Crafty Scrappy Happy, Perfectly Imperfect, One Artsy Mama

Kitchen Reveal: Going from Black to White Cabinets

 
The kitchen cabinets are finished!!!!! I’m am so excited to show them to you! I thought it would be fun to dig up pics of how the kitchen looked when we moved in our house 5 1/2 years ago so you could see just how far it has come. There are a million tutorials on painting kitchen cabinets, so I’m not going to tell you how to do that. I sanded, primed and painted…6 COATS OF PAINT! Going from black to white cabinets will take you 3 coats of primer and 3 coats of paint. Trust me on this one! The white I used is "Antique White" by Glidden. Onto the pics.


Here is our lovely kitchen the way it looked when we moved in. (These are the pics from the MLS listing.) Shiny, paneled walls. Peaches and cream cabinets. Linoleum floor. Chili peppers hanging from the windows. No dishwasher. It was a jewel.




And here is how the kitchen looked before I painted the upper cabinets white. We moved the peninsula against the wall and added upper cabinets. All the cabinet doors and drawer fronts were replaced. We added a dishwasher and new appliances. I obviously painted the cabinets black. We installed hardwood floors and granite countertops. We painted the gleaming paneling a pale, minty green. My chosen colors were black, pink and green.




Here they are all finished! I really love the contrast of the black and white. It’s amazing how much the white paint has brightened up the kitchen. I hardly need to turn on the lights at night anymore because they just glow.


There’s always a sweet pug peeking in while I take pictures. My counters are never this clean, but the bright, white cabinets have inspired me to keep the counters as uncluttered as possible.


Here’s the main view of the kitchen! See how gleaming it is?! And don’t you love the “artwork” on the fridge? Priceless. I wasn’t about to remove it for pics. Keeping it real, people.




We all love a good before/after, so here it is!


BEFORE


AFTER


Six coats of paint and a week and a half of hard work was totally worth it! Don’t be scared to go for it.

Linking up to some of these fabulous parties! Tatertots & Jello, Between Naps on the Porch, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Serenity Now, Mommy By Day Crafter By Night, The 36th Avenue, The DIY Showoff, Today’s Creative Blog, At the Picket Fence, Home Stories A to Z, Gingerbread, Remodelaholic, Thrifty Décor Chick, The CSI Project, Beneath my Heart, Crafty Scrappy Happy, Perfectly Imperfect, One Artsy Mama

Stenciled Burlap Pillow Covers

Did I tell you that I went to Atlanta a couple of weekends ago on a girls' trip? Well, I did, and it was SO.MUCH.FUN! 


Su, Me, Lu, and Heather. We are missing our other two peeps, Claire and Kristen, who didn’t get to make the trip this year.


At least once a year, my girlfriends from childhood (we went to school together for 12+ years!) get together for some kind of weekend trip. This year we chose Atlanta for the relatively short drive and shopping. We went shopping, ate, slept, and went shopping! Stops during the weekend were an outlet in Dawsonville, GA, IKEA (I was a first timer and fell in love), Lenox Mall, Crate & Barrel, and not one, but TWO Ballard Designs outlets! I had no idea there was even one Ballard outlet, so when we found out there were two, we had to check them out.


One of my finds at the Ballard Outlet were $5 burlap pillow covers! I scooped up several knowing exactly what I wanted to do with them. I've been dying to stencil something, and I finally found my project!


For this stenciling project, I used freezer paper. For those of you not familiar with freezer paper stenciling, check out this tutorial. It is so easy!! I’ve been wanting some personalized pillows for our front porch with our monogram and house number, so that’s what I decided to do. I found a font in Word I liked, enlarged the letters and numbers to fit the scale of the pillows, printed them out, and then used my exacto knife to cut the stencil out on the freezer paper. An exacto knife is really key to cutting out the stencil since you want really precise cuts so the paint won’t leak under the paper.


To make my paint fabric-ready, I added some fabric medium to it. You can also buy paint made specifically for fabric, but I didn’t have any of that kind of paint.


Here is my stencil all cut out and ironed onto my fabric. The shiny side of the freezer paper goes against the fabric, and once ironed, adheres to the fabric until you peel it off. So cool!


Before you begin to paint, make sure you place something under the fabric so the paint does not bleed onto the other side. I used aluminum foil for some strange reason, but it worked really well. I used a sponge brush to paint the fabric so I could help push the paint into the rough burlap. I just dabbed a generous amount of paint all over the fabric to make sure it was well covered.


Here’s what your stencil will look like once it’s been painted. You should not have to worry about it bleeding around your stencil if it’s been ironed on well. You’re supposed to leave the paper on the fabric until it is dry, but this impatient stenciler pulled it off after only about 15 minutes! I couldn’t wait, and it turned out fine! I guess you could have a problem if you ended up needing another coat of paint…


The house number pillow is my favorite! I think it will add such a personal touch to our front porch. The layout of your numbers will depend on how many you have. I made one for my Mom as well using three numbers placed diagonally from the top left corner to the bottom right corner.


Don’t forget to save any small pieces of paper that go inside letters and numbers like the ones for the “8”. Let your paint dry a few minutes hours, then peel off your paper!

Let me tell you, it was so much fun peeling off that freezer paper and seeing perfectly stenciled letters and numbers! I now see why so many bloggers say freezer paper stenciling is addictive!

Here's a completed pillow looking pretty on our front porch!



A little side by side comparison.




Have you stenciled with freezer paper? I hope I've inspired you to give it a try!



Linking up to some of these fabulous parties! Tatertots & Jello, Between Naps on the Porch, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Serenity Now, Mommy By Day Crafter By Night, The 36th Avenue, The DIY Showoff, Today’s Creative Blog, At the Picket Fence, Home Stories A to Z, Gingerbread, Remodelaholic, Thrifty Décor Chick, The CSI Project, Beneath my Heart, Crafty Scrappy Happy, Perfectly Imperfect, One Artsy Mama

Let there be light!

Our garage is not pretty. It’s a garage, so it really shouldn’t be. You’ve probably seen our garage in the background of DIY posts/pictures like this one from my project table:

One of the first things you probably notice (other than the mess) is that it’s very dark. This photo has actually been adjusted for light, so it really was darker than what the photo suggests. The one and only light in the garage is in the foreground of the picture over the work bench. See that area back by the garage door and boxes? That’s where I do all my DIY projects. I used to lift the garage door up and down multiple times while working on a project so the light from the opener would stay on!
I’ve been asking for more light in our garage for a very long time now. Well, we finally got it done!! Last week while Ben was on a hunting trip out of town, I asked my Dad to come over and help me install some additional lighting. While not very exciting, it was very much needed. We he installed two more 4 foot shop lights, and the difference is night and day (pun intended)! It also helps that the garage is now much cleaner and less cluttered. Once I had some light, I got to cleaning like a mad woman. It was literally so dark in our garage that I had to use a flashlight to see which paint I needed.

Isn’t it as beautiful as a garage can be? No light adjustment in these photos!

Every time I turn on the light in the garage now, I’m surprised by all the light! I don’t know how long it will take to get used to it, but I sure am happy!

Well, I’ll tell you!!  It’s my new 12 inch sliding miter saw from Harbor Freight! It was a much anticipated birthday gift from my parents. Now that the garage is cleaned out and lit up like it’s Christmas, I can start using it! I’m quite excited to start looking for my next DIY project that will require a miter saw! Crown molding anyone?

Christmas Mantel

Christmas, Christmas time is here! I sure do love looking at all my Christmas decorations, but I can't stand getting them out and deciding where they should go! It seemed like it took me forever to get things ready this year. I already dread getting things all packed away in a few short weeks...I'm one of those that has to put my decorations away the second Christmas is over. I have to have my house back in order ASAP!

I'm so happy that I have a "mantel" to decorate this year! Making my own cafe shelves was the best thing for displaying my seasonal decor! For my Christmas mantel, I shopped my Rubbermaid containers full of Christmas decorations and used what I had. There are only a couple of new things on this mantel that I did not already have!

I've had my glittery, red wreath for quite some time now. It used to be my "front door wreath", but I thought it would look great on my mantel this year.

A mantel is not complete without some glittery ornaments.

I added some curly Q's that I used on my Christmas wreath to my WUSLU bottles. These bottles are turning out to be quite versatile!

Here is one of my new items! A well dressed pug ornament I found at TJ Maxx! Couldn't pass him up!

I have a thing for Santas...

I have so many Santas that I think I'm going to do an all Santa tree next year! You'll see many, many more Santas when I show you my tree!

I'll be sharing my mantel at this fun blogger block party!