Fabric Fireplace Screen

My fireplace has long been the bane of my home decorating existence. The fireplace is made of stone and has no mantle. The stone is very textured making it hard to hang anything. Living in Texas we don't have fireplace weather very often. That being the case 364 out of 365 days I stare at an empty soot covered hole. Finally, this past weekend my mother and I came up with a solution. Using some of the fabric I had leftover from Tallulah's bedroom we created a fabric covered fireplace screen.


SUPPLIES
Foam Board
Liquid Fusion Glue
Fabric
2 thin flat boards
Strips of magnet
Measuring Tape

The first thing I did was measure my fireplace. I then used those measurements to cut my foam board to the size I needed.


After I ironed the fabric (well ok, after my mom ironed the fabric) we wrapped the foam board like a package.


We used Liquid Fusion Glue to adhere the fabric to the board.


I didn't want to use wood board for fear one of my kids would pull the screen down on them. There is an existing piece of metal in the fireplace that houses the chainmail screen. I thought attaching a piece of lightweight foam board with magnets would be my best bet. However, with foam board I run the risk of one of those same kids pushing on the screen and breaking it in the middle. To prevent this we glued two thin boards across the back with Liquid Fusion Glue.

Using Liquid Fusion Glue we attached the magnet tape to the upper backside of the foam board. The magnet tape has sticky on the back, but it sucks and needed some extra help.


Most people hang art over the fireplace, I put mine in the fireplace. The colorful fabric print is busy enough that I'm not sure I need to hang anything else. Maybe I can finally be at peace with my stone fireplace thanks to my new fabric screen. It has only taken me 10 years to get here. Now why didn't I think of that sooner.

Visit us on Facebook!
Craft on!

Baby Blocks that go Boo!

Shopping for not so cheesy Halloween decorations can be a daunting task. Maybe there are people out there that don't want dismembered limbs laying about. That being the case we crafty types have to take matters into our own hands and create our own.


SUPPLIES
Decorative Ribbon
Clothes Pins
Crafty Chica Little Chica Paint Pack
Paint Brush (medium & tiny)
Decorative Chipboard
Tulip Fashion Glitter Orange
Small Glittered Skulls
Wooden Blocks
Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky Glue
Scrap Book Paper
Stapler
Liquid Fusion Glue
2 Small Pom Poms


I have gotten a lot of bang for my buck on the bag of wooden baby blocks I bought at the thrift store. You might remember I also used them to decorate for Tallulah's 1st Birthday Party. This time around I painted the blocks black with Crafty Chica Paint. I coated the front of the blocks lightly making sure to just get certain parts of the block painted so that there would still be white showing.


Once the paint dried I went back with a tiny paint brush and covered each letter with Fast Grab Tacky Glue. While the glue was still wet I sprinkled Tulip Fashion Glitter in orange.


While my glue was drying I made party hats for my skulls. I used Halloween themed scrapbook paper, this template and Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky Glue to make the actual hat.


Next I cut 8 2"(ish) strips of decorative ribbon. Fold each ribbon in half and staple. Once you have all 8 done use Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky Glue to attach them all together to create a ribbon flower. I glued a small piece Halloween chipboard in the center. Use a clothespin to hold the whole thing together while it dries.


While my party hats were drying I used Liquid Fusion Glue to attach all my blocks together. I also glued my glittery skulls to either side of the block sculpture.


All that was left to do was attach my decorations to the paper hats and then attach the hats to the skulls. I used Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky Glue for both.


I displayed my new Halloween blocks alongside my black cat collection and a few of last year's I Love to Create projects like my Hiss Banner and Black Cat Bobble Head.

Have you been whipping up anything fun for Halloween this year? I'd love to hear about it.

Craft on!Click here for today's daily giveaway!

A New Addition to my Poppet Family

One of my all time favorite episodes of Craft Lab was the one where I made poppets with Claudine Hellmuth. I walked away with the most adorable family portrait ever. The problem is years later, my family has expanded and I am short a few poppets.


Today for I Love to Create I tried my best to remember everything Claudine taught me and make a Tallulah poppet.


SUPPLIES
Rice
Liquid Fusion Glue
Pen
Card Stock Paper
Claudine Hellmuth Studio Sticky Back Canvas
Printer
Computer
Paint Brush
Tulip Fabric Markers
Needle
Thread
Scanner
Tulip Soft Fabric Paint
Scissors
Photograph of face


The first thing I did was find a picture of Tallulah. I cropped out her head and printed it up at the desired size to match my other dolls. I then taped her head to a piece of paper and drew her an outfit.


Once I was done playing outfit party I scanned the whole thing into the computer. Using Photoshop I cleaned up all the rough edges. I then printed the image out on card stock paper.


I watered down some Tulip Fashion Paint to make it more of a wash and painted my doll body and a piece of Claudine Hellmuth Studio Sticky Back Canvas. Once my paint dried I went in and embellished with polka dots and faux stitches. I wanted to emulate the original Poppets I had from Craft Lab so Tallulah would fit in with the gang.


Next is where I was thankful for the sticky part of the Claudine Hellmuth Canvas. I cut the canvas to the right size to fit the head and body. I removed a small portion of the backing at the top of the canvas to adhere to the card stock body. I also removed a small section of backing along the edges of the canvas body to seal it shut.


On the episode of Craft Lab Claudine and I stitched the sides of our Poppets together. This is more of a decorative stitch since the sticky from the canvas is really holding the seams shut.


My Tallulah doll needed a base to stand on so I traced her canvas dress and cut out a football shaped piece of canvas to 'plug up the hole'.


Were you wondering why I just removed sections of the sticky back rather than all of it? It's because I needed to fill my canvas dress with rice and I didn't want it to stick together. After filling the wee doll with rice all that was left to do was use some Liquid Fusion Glue and cover my base with the football shaped piece of canvas.



Ta-da Tallulah fits right in with the rest of her Poppet family. Next year we will have anther addition to our family, but I decided to wait rather than make a fetus poppet. I'm also short a dog poppet. I hung the poppets with the rest of the family portraits I am collecting and now I smile at them every time I walk down the hall.

Remember if you don't feel like making your own Poppet Family, Claudine will make one for you!

The Right Glue for the Job

When embarking on any craft project involving sticking two things together choosing the right glue for the job is crucial. One glance at the adhesives aisle in your local craft store and you can see sometimes choosing which glue you should use can be a daunting task. Don't worry, today for I Love to Create I am going to hold your hand through the entire selection process plus throw in a few gluing tips.


Fabric Glue
For those that don't sew a fabric glue like Aleene's Fabric Fusion can be your best friend. Without ever threading a needle you can often times fake a stitch or add an applique like on Customizing Your Kicks with just a dab of glue. One word of warning is to be careful not to get too heavy handed when gluing fabrics together as some things will darken from the glue.


Decoupage
Yup technically it's a glue with a fancy French name. If they sold Collage Pauge Instant Decoupage Medium in Gallon Jugs I'd buy it that way. Unlike most glues that don't show, decoupage can say it loud and proud on your craft project in glossy like I used on my terrarium picture frame, matte or my personal fave glittery!


Temporary Hold
Sometimes as odd as it sounds, you don't want your glue to stick forever. Aleene's Tack It Over and Over is the perfect temporary hold glue for projects like appliques or in my case holding a stencil in place for glass etching.


Fabric Stiffener
Not only does glue adhere things, it also stiffens things. Sometimes you want the stiff without the sticky and that is where Aleene's Fabric Stiffener and Draping Liquid comes in handy. Very handy when making things like say string lamps or doily bowls. Did I mention you can add paint and dye to it to give it color.


All Purpose Glue
No crafty home is complete without a good all purpose go to glue around. Aleene's Original Tacky Glue is one of my favorites. Now that I have a kiddlet using non-toxic glues is important to me. Liquid Fusion Glue is put to use more often than any other glue in jewelry studio. Not just on jewelry I use Liquid Fusion on majority of my craft projects from turning TVs into picture frames to my neighbors trash into a toadstool. Remember when gluing things together like for jewelry lightly sand the surface when you can to give everything tooth.


Acid Free Glue
And you thought gluing paper was the easiest of all gluing tasks, wrong. When embarking on a paper crafting journey like perhaps scrapbooking or anything involving photographs you want to be sure and opt for an acid free glue like Aleene's Acid Free Tacky Glue.


Spray Glue
I must admit I have only recently discovered spray glue and all I can say is Aleene's Tacky Spray, where have you been all my life. Sometimes you have a lot of surface to glue like when attaching a piece of painted black velvet to a canvas and a spray glue can be a life saver.

This is just the tip of the adhesive iceberg. There are metal glues, industrial glues foam glues and more. Just remember there is always a specific type of glue for each project.

How to Throw a Customized Birthday Part - Part 2

Birthdays come but once a year, so why not go all out? Last week I showed you how to make cupcake toppers, party favor magnets, banners and more. This week is part 2 of our series on how to throw a customized birthday party.


If you missed last week, let me catch you up. My daughter's name is Tallulah Fawn and I decided to throw her a customized, fawn themed 1st birthday party. Some people might say I went a little overkill, I say it's just right.



Literally from her head to her toes we kept up the fawn theme. Thank God for Grandma Perkins. She whipped Tallulah up the outfit of my dreams. Including a fawn in a party hat headband. The tulle was stitched to the headband and a wee little party hat for the crown was made. After that the tiny pom poms were glued to the gold lame party hat with Liquid Fusion Glue and then the fawn was glued to the headband.


Various deer vignettes were sprinkled throughout the house to keep things festive and in theme.



I decided one banner was better than two. Who knew you could buy paper already cut into the perfect size for making a chain banner in the scrapbook section of your local craft store? All that was left to do was to use my handy dandy Aleene's Glue Stick and some clothes pins to make the rainbow chain.



Ok so maybe it was more like 3 banners are better than 1.



The whole party production was a family affair. Not only did my sister Hope draw the amazing deer and gnome window decorations I showed you last week, she also was kind enough to loan us a piece of glittery taxidermy to welcome our party guests with.



I have taken a picture of Tallulah in the same chair every Sunday since she was born. Well not the first Sunday because I did not have the idea yet, but 51 out of 52 weeks is not too shabby. Anywhoo I hung all the pictures where the party guests could take a gander at Tallulah through her first year.



I'm now toying with the idea of doing a scrapbook with the pictures. I wish I had taken little notes of her weekly activities to add to this imaginary scrapbook.



Grandma Perkins to the rescue again. I had bitten off more fawnage than I could chew, so my mother stepped in to whip up a cupcake stand. Using cake rounds, scrapbooking paper, decorative scalloped edge trim and some Aleene's Glues she came up with something amazing. She even incorporated in Tallulah's birthday logo.



The cupcake stand matched the custom cupcake toppers I made perfectly!



Speaking of my mother and the birthday logo. Did you happen to notice in the pictures of Tallulah that she has a patch of her logo on her dress? Oh ya mom and her fancy embroidery machine made some serious magic happen.



Mmmm deer lollipop anyone? Not only did I use this adorable deer mold to make soap to put in all the goodie bags I also used it make fawn pops.



Plain goodie bags were spiced up with the birthday logo. All I had to do was print them, cut them and glue them to the bags with Aleene's Tacky Glue Stick. I filled them with Fun with Maisy: A Sticker Book (her best friend is a chicken named Tallulah), vintage Bambi (Little Golden Book)that my mother and I found at various Half Price Book Stores, fawn soap and bibs.



Did you really think they were plain bibs? I used a stencil from Stencil 101: Make Your Mark with 25 Reusable Stencils and Step-by-Step Instructions and Tulip Soft Fabric paint to put a fawn on each bib for all the wee attendees.



I had to keep one for the birthday girl, duh.



Between the cupcakes, fawn pops and cookie I should have put toothbrushes in the goodie bags. I sent the birthday logo to a local bakery who had a magical printer with edible ink that printed on sheets of fondant. All that was left for me to do (well actually my husband) was to bake and ice the cookies and stick the fondant logos on top.



So there you have it. I left no fawn stone unturned. Is it scary that I am already thinking of ideas for birthday number 2?