My Refinished File Cabinet

I recently obtained a new to me small file cabinet. I had one in the office/craft room already but it was really cheaply made and kept coming off its track so I was happy to take this one. But...it didn't match the furniture already in there, which is more of a birch wood color, along with a multicolored rug and lots of bright accessories. This was more of an oak, with gold finishes. Very 1980s looking.

I decided to change it up a bit. I knew I wouldn't be able to match the wood finish exactly so I wanted to do something that would complement the existing furniture. I decided on a nice dark blue - E calls it Tardis blue, Krylon calls it Oxford Blue, with silver handles.

First I removed the handles, name plates and lock and painted them all with a silver gray acrylic paint. Then I gently sanded down the cabinet and drawers to remove the veneer.

After it was sanded, I gave each component a couple of coats of spray paint.

Voila! A new file cabinet. I'm so pleased with how it turned out. This room has totally become my happy place!

 

Frozen inspired bows

My niece is a big fan of Frozen so for her birthday I thought it would be fun to do a Frozen themed gift. My friend has an etsy shop selling decorated mirrors and had some that were decorated in colors similar to what Anna and Elsa wear in the movie. When I saw that I decided to order one from her and based my whole gift around it.

So what goes great with a mirror? Hair accessories of course! I love making barrettes but with two boys, there is no one to wear them. So this was a good opportunity. I searched the web and Pinterest for ideas and found a couple of great ones: for Elsa and for Anna.

I made a few modifications, however. Hers were a little more intricate than I was looking for - I wanted something a little more everyday wear. So I followed the instructions for the basis of the bow and embellished them on my own for the rest of it. I also used sheer ribbon (except for the black which was more silky) for the whole thing instead of using grosgrain. And I didn't use alligator clips, I used the ones that fasten on one end. I love how they turned out!

This is my Elsa bow:

And my Anna one:

I also found some Frozen themed nail polish at Its Sugar to go with it as well. I couldn't wait to give her the present and I think she loved it! I know she has worn the Elsa bow a few times already.

And the great thing is my other niece has already requested bows for her birthday - coming up, Minion bows...

 

 

Knitted Christmas

This year I ended up knitting a few of my Christmas gifts. I love giving homemade gifts and I wish I had the time to make everything. As it was I barely finished and haven't had much time to talk about them until today.

The first thing I made (and probably my favorite of the items I made) was a hat and scarf set for my niece. My niece is super knit worthy - for her birthday I hinted that I had gotten her something really cool. Her response: "you made me a hat and scarf?!" Unfortunately I hadn't but now I knew what she was getting for Christmas. I picked out some variegated purple/green/grey in Sheepish as my niece loves purple. For the hat I used the Three Tams pattern from an old issue of Knitty (and used white Sheepish for the contrast color). The scarf pattern was Yarn Harlot's One Row Scarf.

My niece loved them! She was actually wearing them when I saw her this week, even though it was 75 degrees outside. Like I said, totally knit worthy.

For her little sister, I knitted a stuffed owl. My niece is so into owls so I thought it might be fun to knit her one (plus it would probably go over better than a hat would). I found an adorable giant owl pattern from Purl Bee. The pattern calls for super bulky yarn on Size 15 needles. I used Lion Brand Hometown, which is also a super bulky but recommends size 13 needles. I like the owl but I do wish I had gone with size 11 needles for a denser fabric.

My niece liked it. It's so big she could hardly get her arms around it!

Another project I finished was a hat for my aunt. In our family we do an exchange by drawing names and getting something for that person (like secret Santa but not secret). My aunt had seen me working on my niece's hat and joked that she hoped I would get her name so I could make her a hat. Well sure enough I did pick her! I used the Flora hat pattern. Other people who had kntitted the pattern mentioned in their notes that it came out big. So I switched to a size 6 for the body of the hat and a size 4 for the brim.

I tried it on before I gave it to her to make sure it fit and it fit me fine so hopefully it fits her well. I also gave her a bottle of wine to go with her present so I thought I'd have a little fun.

I made a hat for the bottle! The pattern is obviously not the same (I used Susan B Anderson's Santa hat ornament) but the yarn is the same.

My last knitting project for Christmas were gift card holders for the boys' teachers. They were nice, quick knits that added a little bit of personalization to the gift cards. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of them before I gave them away. But trust me, they were cute. I used a mini stocking pattern with leftover scrap acrylic on size 5 needles.

I also had two other non-knitted craft projects for Christmas. In my resolutions post I mentioned the sewing I did last year, with one of the items being heating packs for my FIL. These are so simple - just two pieces of fabric held right side together and sewn most the way around the outside, leaving a couple inches open. Then they are turned right side out and filled with beans. Lastly the opening is sewn shut.

The last project was a couple of ornaments for the babysitter. I made a batch of salt dough and rolled it out into two disks. I then had my boys press their hands into the dough and then poked a couple of holes at the top for the string. Since they were a little big I poked two holes in each to provide more support to the string. After I baked it, I painted the imprints of their hands and sprayed a glossy sealant on them. Then I ran some string through them.

Whew - I think that was all of the crafting fun around here!

For more finished objects, check out Tami's Amis!

 

Growing candy canes

My sister and I sometimes like to get the kids together and do a seasonal craft. Last week we got the kids together to do something Christmassy. She found a fun craft for them - growing their own candy canes.

First we took peppermint candies and added them into cups with "dirt" (crushed up Oreos) to cover them.

Then we sprinkled them with magic dust (colored sugar)

And waited for them to grow

The next time we saw them, they had begun to sprout (add in broken candy canes)

A couple days later they were fully grown!

The kids got such a kick out of this activity! And it was easy to do too.

 

Tutu Tutorial

I finished my second tutu yesterday; this was the tutu for my niece's doll. I thought since I've been talking about tutus a lot this week I would post a tutu tutorial (wow that's a mouthful).

These tutus are so simple to make. The only materials needed are tulle and a piece of elastic. For the tulle I just used the spools that you can buy in most stores.

The first step is to measure the waist. Since mine is a surprise for my niece, poor J had to step in as my model. I figured I would need just a little bit of negative ease so I sewed it about half an inch shorter than I measured. In this case I cut 20" and overlapped it by half an inch to sew it down.

The next step is to cut the tulle. At this point you will need to determine how long you want the skirt to be. Take that number and double it. Then check the width of your elastic and double it. Add the two numbers together. In my example I wanted a 9 1/2 inch length and my elastic was 3/4 inch. So I cut each strip to 20 1/2 inches (9 1/2 + 9 1/2 + 3/4 + 3/4).

Now take the tulle and fold it in half. Place the folded end of the tulle inside the elastic waist, pointing towards the bottom of the tutu. Take the unfolded end and pull it over the top of the elastic and through the loop. Repeat until the elastic is covered. I find it helpful to stretch the elastic slightly while doing this to make sure everything is covered well.

The doll tutu was very similar. I did cut the pieces of tulle in half lengthwise since it was a lot shorter. My doll is 10 inches around and I wanted a 4 in length so each strip was 9 1/2 inches. Otherwise the process was the same.

Voila! That's how it's done!

I'm linking up to parties at It's Overflowing, I heart Naptime, Six Sisters Stuff, and Bru Crew Life.