Sunglasses Case Made With a $1 Pot Holder

Recently I signed up to receive a subscription to Country Living.  I did it online and I browsed the website while I was at it.  I noticed a craft that showed how a pot holder could be made into a sunglasses case.  I needed one so I thought this would be super easy and while I had my sewing machine out I would  finish my other sewing projects.   ( I am working on them right now!)

I used a dollar tree pot holder.

You get 2 for $1.  I pinned it together inside out and stitched around the edges.   Turned it right side out and stamped SHADES on it with my clear stamps and StazOn ink.

My sunglasses fit into it perfectly.

And now my keys won’t scratch my glasses while they are in my purse.

Cute and easy huh? 

Ok enough procrastinating.  It is time to hit the sewing machine again.  I hope you all have a great day.

Tracy

Linking to

Sunday Showcase @ Under the Table and Dreaming

Just Something I Whipped Up @ The Girl Creative 

Motivate Me Monday @ Keeping It Simple

DIY Project Parade @ DIY Show Off

Under $100 Linky Party @ Beyond the Picket Fence

Dollar Store Decorating @ Someday Crafts

Window Art

There is a large blank space on my window that I wanted to try and fill.  I came up with an idea that I am not sure if it works or not.  Sometimes I have to see if an idea grows on me.  This is one of those times.  I will have photos showing more of the window soon. Pinky swear.  If you have been following me then you know I am a slacker and I have been working on a certain project forever that is still not complete. 

Ok back to the window art. 

I bought some clear sticker paper that is repositionable and a piece of already cut (8x10) plexi glass from the craft store.

I printed my all time favorite photo onto the paper. 

It is my son hugging my dog on a fall decorated bench.  I changed it to black and white and used the sketch program I posted about recently.  I had to place the sticker on a little at a time to try and keep the air bubbles out.  I cut off the excess edges with an an  xacto knife.

I used plexi glass because it is light weight and unbreakable which seemed sensible  because I clipped it onto my window hardware like a curtain.

I

I haven’t seen what this will look like in the daytime yet.  But at night with the inside light off my back yard light shines through and it looks like this.

I have some other ideas to do with the plexi glass when I get my Cricut Machine.  This sticker peels right off or I can buy another piece of it for 99 cents. 

What could you do with this idea?  Do you like it?

UPDATE:  I have decided this project is a no.  It kinda looks like an xray on the window.   

Tracy

Linking to

Saturday Night Special @ Funky Junk Interior

Sunday Showcase @ Under the Table and Dreaming

Photo Editing

I wanted to share a free photo program with you all.  Donna at Funky Junk Interiors wrote about it months ago.  It is called Picasa.

http://picasa.google.com/

It is very user friendly and helps make photos look better for blog posts.  I thought I would show you a few examples of what it can do. 

I just recently did a fall table.  I took the photos at night.  If you DO NOT use a flash you can improve your photos.  My day photos look about like my night photos in this room because it doesn’t get much sunlight. 

Here is the photo before I edited it and after.

Major difference huh? 

In the basic fix program I used the Auto Contrast, Auto Color and Fill Light.   I also used the Straighten.

Here is a another example.

I did all of the same things as above but I also cropped this one so that the plug on the left wouldn’t be visible.

And another shot. 

Sometimes I think the yellow light kind of warms the photos and I like it, but most of the time I remove it.  I hope this helps if you are having trouble with dark, yellow and crooked photos. 

Tracy

Seasons Change and Table Tops Change

My summery table was looking out of place with the fall mantel.  So I did a makeover.

Here is the before.

After

I had to darken the lamp base.  Found the pumpkins at JoAnns.  Added some silk leaves to my ever changing shadow box.  A leave and pine cone tied with jute on the lamp shade and we are ready for fall. 

 

Tracy

Linking to

Weekend Wrap Up @ Tatertots and Jello

Saturday Night Special @ Funky Junk Interiors

Table Top Tuesday @ A Stroll Thru Life

Autumn Leaves Linky @ Censational Girl

Dollar Tree Halloween Decor Alert

I went to Dollar Tree today.  They had some fun 16 inch skeletons for sale.

He looked kind of plasticy (yes that is a word) and cheap.  Like maybe he cost a dollar.  So I slathered him in dark brown glaze and wiped it off to age him up a bit.

Sometimes older looks better.

Tracy

Linking to

Dollar Store Decorating @ Someday Crafts

Free Framed Graphic Art

My pine cone obsession won’t stop.  When I was recently in Ruidoso I took a photo of a pine cone.

I copied and pasted it to my paint program.  I use Paint.net  It can be downloaded for free here  http://www.getpaint.net/index.html

Then I used the Effects button and the  Artistic and Pencil Sketch from the drop box.

I selected my pencil tip size and range. 

And came up with this graphic.

I selected 4x6 and printed.

I printed it onto paper that was a brown paper sack color and placed it in a pretty frame.

It seemed lonely and in need of a fall friend so I added a cute pumpkin beside it.

I hope you can use this idea to make some new art for your frames. 

I wanted to thank everyone for the Cricut information.  I ordered one today.  Yipppeeee!

Tracy

Linking to

Show and Tell @ My Romantic Home

Feature Yourself Friday @ Fingerprints on the Fridge

Freezer Paper

The X-Acto Knife is not my friend.  I didn’t do a very good job cutting out my stencil.  Maybe with practice I will get better.  Maybe soon I won’t have to because I will own a cutting machine.  Does anyone have the Silhouette and use it with Windows 7?  It seems like the better machine because you don’t have to buy those expensive cartridges, but I am unsure about trying to get it to work with my computer that has Windows 7. 

Anyway, back to the freezer paper and the X-Acto knife.  I want to make some pillows and do a print with freezer paper.  I am feeling extremely lazy and I don’t want to cut out the pattern tonight so I tried the freezer paper on a shirt for my son. 

He likes guns.  His dad likes guns.  His grandpa likes guns.  I know some people don’t like them and that’s ok too.   

His favorite gun is a Thompson Machine Gun.

So I printed one.

Placed the freezer paper over it and tried my best to cut it out.

Ironed the waxy side down onto the shirt.

Used a stencil brush and some black acrylic paint and then peeled of the freezer paper.  I didn’t get photos of these steps.  Sorry.

I thought my son would really like it, but he wasn’t too impressed because I was limited with the size I could print.  You can tell in this pic that he is less than thrilled.

You can’t win them all.  At least I know it works and that I need a lot of practice. 

Tracy