Table Runner Trials & Tribulations

You're probably wondering why the dramatic title? Let's just say I have a love/hate relationship with my table runner. I started this project months ago. Not that it took that long to make; I definitely procrastinated a bit because I knew it was going to be a challenge. I'd say it took a handful of nap times to make:-) I am proud to say I completed it!! It is by no means perfect, but it is presentable and not too shabby for my first attempt.

I guess you can consider this a "tutorial", but please know there are definitely things I would do differently next time. I wouldn't recommend making a table runner exactly this way, but hopefully you can learn from my mistakes by seeing what went right and what went wrong.

I started out by measuring my table...I eyeballed how wide I wanted it to be (how much of the table to cover and how much to leave showing). My table is about 44" wide and the table runner ended up being a little over 12" wide. You also want to think about how far you want the ends to hang down...do you want it hitting the seat of the chair or much shorter so it's not in someone's lap? Mine hangs about 10.5" off the table, a few inches shy of the chair seat. We don't use that table very often so I was going more for looks, not function.



I got my tape measure out since I was working with such a large chunk of fabric. I measured 13" and decided since my fabric was a pattern I would use that as a guide for cutting. However, I have since realized that the pattern print may not be exact so your best bet is to measure and cut. It did not mess up this project (luckily) and saved me some time, but that may not always be the case.



The tape measure (as opposed to the yard stick) came in handy when measuring the length.



Once I found a spot in the pattern to go by, I started cutting. I justified taking this short-cut because I knew I would be using the iron to get a more definitive line before sewing.



After cutting my piece of fabric, I trimmed the selvage (edge) centering the pattern. Next, I grabbed my red fabric to make a border.



I laid my cut piece of fabric on my red fabric. Then I measured and marked with my chalk pencil where I was going to cut the red fabric. I allowed for a 1/2" seam on both fabrics. So that left 1.5" of red fabric exposed.

*Side note: If I were to do it again, I would allow for at least 2" of exposed red fabric. I wish I could see more of the red fabric and it would be easier to iron down flat. Because one thing I don't like about my table runner is how "bumpy" it looks on the sides.



If you look really close you can see all the little white marks I used as a line for cutting. I did the same thing on the other side. I wanted to give it a more finished, professional look by having the red fabric wrap all the way under the bottom of the table runner.

*Side note: Not necessary!!! After looking at other table runners in stores the backside did not have a "finished look". My Mom's table runner that my Aunt Pat made does have a finished look on the backside, but she is amazing so maybe I'll save that for when I'm a little more advanced!;-)

The Cording/Piping

I'll go through this part in detail as it is pretty much the only thing I did successfully, lol!



Now for the cording/piping; whatever you want to call it! I grabbed it and put it in a pile on the floor across from me so I could give it a good stare down. I knew it was going to be a heck of a challenge, but I eventually grinned and bared it.

I pretty much went into this blindly, but did receive some great advice from my SIL before hand. She said to make sure and SEW IT AS CLOSE AS POSSIBLE; that it might seem like you are sewing too close, but you're not. I'm pretty sure this advice saved me hours of torment, that is why I have capitalized, bolded, and italicized it for you:-)



First, I ironed the edges of my fabric to make a straight line to help with pinning. Since the fabric was patterned, I found a spot in the pattern and ironed all the way down (again, keep in mind this is not a sure fire way to get a straight line - the pattern can be off).



Next, I took the fold and placed it right up against the base of the cord. Then, I pinned it as close as possible.

I'm pretty sure I did this the long way, but it worked. I pinned the patterned fabric all the way down on one side of the cord and then did the same with the red fabric all the way down on the other side of the cord. As I added the red fabric to the patterned fabric and cording, I took the pins from the patterned fabric out and replaced them so the pin was then holding all 3 together. You would have to be pretty good to pin both fabrics to the cording at once don't ya think? Or maybe it's me being a beginner and all;-) Anyways, that's what worked for me.



You can see in the 3 pictures above how I pinned the patterned fabric and cording and how I could see what it was going to look like once sewn.



And here you can see how I added the red fabric on the opposite side of the cording, making sure the fronts were facing each other in the middle pic and side-by-side in the last pic as the red was going to wrap underneath the patterned fabric.


Here is probably the worst video ever showing my pinning technique, but I wanted to include it just in case it helps:-)



Next, I got to sewin'! In the first pic above, you can see it all pinned together ready to go! Notice the lump where the cording is. Remember, you have to sew right up against it! Here is a sewing shot so you can get an idea...half of the cording was under the presser foot and the other half sticking out to the left there with my finger on it.

Sometimes my sewing got a little messy...but as you can see - you can't tell in the end! When I got off track and could tell I was sewing too far away from the cording I stopped and started over again a little above that spot. It certainly didn't make for clean lines sometimes, but it was important in getting the right results.



As for the ends of the table runner...well, I'm not going to go into detail because, honestly, they were kind of thrown together. I couldn't really wrap my head around how to get the red to go all the way down to the ends as a border. And I wasn't sure how that would work with the tassel. Also, I think a part of me wasn't completely satisfied with how it was looking so I didn't want to spend much more energy on it, but I also wanted to complete it!!

Here's a glimpse of the "ugly side" of my table runner! Not pretty. Basically, I cut my red fabric straight across, folded down each side (angled towards the point) and sewed a top stitch so it would look presentable on the front.

Fabric - I pinned and sewed the fabric on just as before, minus the red fabric. I basically made sure my fabric was even and came to a nice point, ironed the edges, pinned and sewed. It was even easier because I could see the base of the cording this time.

Cording - I cut the cording so it would make more of a "point" after sewing. But after the fact, I realized when playing around with it, it would have looked fine if I just wrapped it (making as much of a point as I could) and sewed.

Tassel - Again, I kind of winged this part, but it worked pretty well! I just stuck the string/loop it hung from up between the cording and used a thread and needle and hand sewed it on. I did several loopy stitches through the top of the tassel and each side of cording to ensure it was held in there well.



So there ya have it folks...in a nutshell (yeah right)! I'm not completely satisfied with it, but it's presentable and does the trick until I can whip up a new one (one of these days)!;-) I have a few different ideas for the next one...I'll probably keep it simpler next time!

What do you think? Does it look presentable even though you know the ugly truth? Would you have finished it or given up? Have you gotten into any projects that were over your head lately?

Kitchen Shower Crafts!

I recently threw my sister a kitchen bridal shower! It was lots of fun and I enjoyed making a few crafts for the occasion:-)

Butterfly Globes

I started out calling them butterfly balls, but then my sister's good friend (my friend too:-)) called them butterfly globes! I loved it and they really do resemble globes! I got the idea for them from one of my favorite blogs, YHL. Except, theirs is a baby mobile with flowers.



I started out with two sheets of shimmery scrapbook paper (blue & green - my sister's wedding colors), floral wire ($2 at Michael's), Tacky glue, and a Martha Stewart butterfly punch ($5 with 50% off coupon from Michael's). You will need a pair of pliers too if you don't already have some.



It was hard to get step-by-step pictures of this part, but I will do my best to describe what I did (and try not to get too distracted by my awesome polka dot pajama pants, lol!). I started out making a circle out of the wire and wrapped it around 3 or 4 times. I cute the wire and did 2 more circles. I spaced them out to make as close to a "ball" shape as I could. Then I attached them to each other by wrapping the wire around at the top and bottom. Next, I pulled the wires out, away from each other so it would fill in the spaces and have even more of a round shape. Last, I took 3 separate long strands of wire and weaved them in and out ,horizontally, giving the ball more structure and it's globe appeal. I tried to make them look even, but they definitely weren't perfect. I just wanted to be able to place the butterflies evenly around the ball.



Sorry, no pics of this next part either. But all I did was Tacky glue the butterflies to the balls. Sounds simple and it was, but it took a lot longer then I thought it would:-/ It was the first time I worked with Tacky glue. To me it seems a little more heavy duty/stickier than regular craft glue, but takes just as long to dry. Basically some took longer than others...it just depended if I had to hold in place or if it kind of stayed in place on it's own. The nice thing about it was it was so sticky that if it started to fall, it would just flip over and hang on so I would just flip it back over and hold it until it dried a bit more. So at least they weren't falling all over the place and getting glue everywhere:-) I thought about hot glue, but thought it might get messy with all those strings of glue everywhere. All in all it went well and I would probably do them the same way again, but would know to allow for more time. Also I ended up incorporating some patterned scrapbook paper (the one I used for the banner). My husband and I agreed they needed some contrast to the plain blue and green. I love how he pretends to be interested, haha. No, he really is helpful!:-)



So, what do you think? I love how they appear to be "floating"!

Dainty Doily Banner



Not sure where I got the idea for this...I wanted to add some color to my mantle for the party and I wanted the banner to be girly and tea partyish. That made me think of doilies because they're so dainty. And I thought "how easy would it be to cut out circles of scrapbook paper and glue them on top?". Well, that part was pretty easy. The tricky part was getting it to hang correctly! So here's what I did...



I started out with a couple of sheets of scrapbook paper and a pack of 30 4" doilies by Wilton for around $4 from Amazon. But Michael's has them too and for probably cheaper, especially with a coupon. I just happened to be ordering from Amazon and wasn't sure Michael's had them. I found a candle votive holder a little bigger than the inside circle of the doily and used it to trace circles on the back of my scrapbook paper. I cut them out and glued them with regular craft glue to the center of the doilies. I stuck them in a book so they would dry flat and not be all bumpy.



Next, I took a thin white ribbon and stretched it out on the floor over some magazines (to protect the floor from glue). Then, using Tacky glue (to have a stronger hold than regular glue), I glued each doily to the ribbon spacing them just so they were barely touching. I took it and held it up to the mantle to figure out how many I was going to need. I decided to do three sections of 7 (21 total) so it would hang evenly. I thought I was all finished and was super excited to go hang it up only to see that it was not going to work... :-( The doilies were turning every which a way and it was not pretty. I had a brief urge to give up, but then decided to go back to the drawing board. I originally thought about gluing them to clear string/fishing wire, but didn't think they would stick because it's so thin. But now that I had them glued on to something I could use the clear string! I just weaved it in and out of the holes at the top of each doily. This worked perfectly, forcing them to sit up straight and put their best faces forward (haha)!



You can see in the pictures above how they are glued onto the ribbon and then held up by the clear string at the top. And I simply taped the banner to the mantle with good ol' Scotch tape.

And that's it! Easy peasy and brings some life to the mantle!:-)

Other Shower Decorations:

My sister had pinned this decoration made with limes on Pinterest, originally from here.



So I gave it a try and loved how it turned out!!! Please don't judge my day old picture with bad lighting, lol! Probably shouldn't have put it next to their gorgeous picture, huh? Owell. And a word of advice if you try it for yourself...it only lasts 3 days tops! I kept it around for 5 days and it started growing stuff - yuck! A few people at the shower said how good it looked in my kitchen and that I should try to keep it all the time (refreshing it of course). It's a nice idea, but not very economical or low maintenance. Obviously I would have to change it out every few days and my container holds 18 limes!! Not cheap. Perhaps if I used a smaller container. But even then it's a little high maintenance for me. I think I'll stick to special occasions for now:-) And another great tip from my husband (who has picked up stuff like this from being in hotels) is to use sparkling water to give it a little something extra! It looked neat how the bubbles stuck on the limes.



Here's a shot of the dining room table...3 vases of flowers with a hurricane over the center vase. I wanted to use my new hurricane and wanted some flowers to brighten things up and this is what I came up with! I like how it turned out and was a new twist by using something other than candles in the hurricane.

Pssst...here's a sneak peek of the table runner I made!!! Stayed tuned for the tutorial:-)

My First Silhouette Project!

I recently completed my first project using my new Silhouette Cameo! My very sweet hubby gave me the electronic cutting tool for Christmas! So my first project was this "Just Married" banner I made for my sister to use in her wedding pictures:-) If you'd like to know how I made the banner, you can check out a similar tutorial here. I love how it turned out and my sister does too! I can't wait to make more things with my Silhouette Cameo!

Valentine's Giveaway!!!

Valentine's Day is quickly approaching and I thought I would get everyone in the lovey-dovey spirit with a giveaway!!! There are so many cute crafts you can do for Valentine's and I'm bummed I haven't had time. I was really wanting to make this guy from here.



And I still may and then he'll be all ready for next year!!:)

I picked up a few things to decorate the lucky winner's home for Valentine's Day!!!



There is the cutesy "LOVE" sign for hanging, some adorable, glittery (hard to tell in pic) decorative ball vase fillers, and a candy dish!

Because the holiday is so close and I want the winner to enjoy their prizes at least a little before Valentine's, I will be announcing the winner Friday morning!

To enter to win, simply leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite thing about Valentine's Day!! For example, do you love the candy, date night with your special someone, or is it a special memory you have? I love having an excuse to go eat somewhere fancy with my husband!! And my Dad has always made Valentine's Day special for his girls (me, my sis, and mom)! He always gets us the sweetest cards and some nice treat like flowers or candy:-) My husband has a lot to live up to!;-)

Thanks for sharing and reading!:-)

Congrats Robin!!

Elmo Birthday Party {The Crafty Side}

My daughter just turned 2 and we threw her an Elmo birthday party!! She loves that little guy!;-) Anyways, I wanted to share with you the crafty side! If you saw my previous post, you already got a sneak peak with the birthday hat here.

I don't have any more tutorials for you, but thought I would share some pictures and tips to help inspire some creativity! After all, that's one reason I started this little blog in the first place! More on that here.

First up...her birthday banner!



It was fairly easy, just a little time consuming with all the cutting! I purchased pre-cut letters in the teacher aisle of Joann's and a pack of scrapbook/card stock paper:



I traced a roll of ribbon to make my circles and free-handed a flower shape and used it as a template for the rest of the flower backgrounds. So once I had everything cut out, I played around with the patterns and colors until I got it just right! Then I glued it all together. Last, I punched holes on each side of the flowers and tied together with thin ribbon. One thing I would do differently would be to glue the circles and flowers together, but wait until after the punching and tying to glue the letters on. I had to peel a couple of mine off and re-glue because they weren't lined up quit right.

In the corner, next to the banner, I hung some pom poms that I made!! I followed an easy tutorial from here.



The only thing I did differently as use clear jewelry string/fishing wire type stuff from the craft store instead of the floral wire and it worked! The floral wire may work better, but what I used did the trick so I was happy! I was really surprised by how quick and easy this project was!

I ordered some Elmo cake pops and displayed them in a ribbon covered cone!



All I did was take some thick red ribbon I had on hand and wrapped it around the cone as tight as I could while leaving a tiny space to stick the cake pop sticks. To cover the top I trimmed the ribbon into a small circle and pinned it down.



I got these cute favor bags from an Etsy shop you can find here. I thought about making them, but didn't really want to spend the time. Also, they were reasonably priced and the shop had great reviews!

In keeping with the Elmo theme, the favor bags were full of sesame street coloring books, a small pack of crayons, a small carton of gold fish, and a Cookie monster or Elmo cookie! The coloring books and crayons were from the party store in packs of 12, the goldfish from Target, and the cookies were from Sugar Shack Sweets just like the cake pops.



Here's a shot of the whole set-up...don't you just love the life size Elmo balloon, lol?!

Next, I would like to share the Elmo cake!!!

Confession: I did not do any of the baking, white icing, or polka dots (Publix did). However, I can take all the credit for the Elmo!!!! And I'm super proud of how it turned out! Honestly, I was very nervous while doing the Elmo head because I had not practiced and it was my first time working with fondant. But I'm happy to say all turned out well! Whatcha think?



A cake bakin' friend gave me some good tips:

She told me to get a small batch of white fondant. I bought some for around $4 with coupon at a craft store and also some orange and black colors to tint the icing/fondant. It comes in a big block and you basically tear off however much you need, roll and kneed it, and add the tint color a little at a time with a toothpick. Then roll it out with a rolling pin to get it pretty flat. I used random kitchen objects to make my shapes. I used a shot glass for the white part of the eyes, a teaspoon for the black part, a regular spoon for the nose, and I free-handed the mouth. I used a butter knife to do all my cutting and touching up! I also used food safe latex gloves so I wouldn't get coloring all over my hands. Also, I watched a video on making fondant on you tube that helped a lot!

Icing:

For Elmo's red, furry head I bought a tube of red icing. My friend told me to get a Wilton French icing tip and poke at it for the furry effect. And this technique worked great!

So, what do you think? Have you done an Elmo birthday party before? What party themes have you done or will be doing soon??