DIY Star Wars No Sew Tablet Cover

August 25, 2016 / TakeTimetoCreate / 4 Comments

Hello Everyone!

Have you ever wandered around a fabric store and see some fabric that just jumps out at you and demands that you buy it? No, is that just me?

Well that is what happened with this Star Wars fabric, it demanded to go home with me and to be made into something awesome. I think I did the fabric justice by making a no sew tablet cover.

Materials:

~ Fabric I used this awesome Darth Vader fabric for the outside and I used sweatshirt fabric for the inside to help protect my tablet and provide a little cushion

~ Ribbon

~ Hot Glue and Velcro

Instructions:

~ I laid out the 2 fabrics with wrong sides together and cut out how much I needed. There wasn’t any measuring just make sure you have a little room on the sides and enough on the length to create a flap. I left a little extra on the side (but not too much) so I had somewhere to put my stylus pen.

~ Hot glue the fabric together around the edges. I did a little at a time and used a popsicle stick to help smooth out the edges with out burning my fingers.

~Once you have the edges glued then fold up the fabric, make sure you have your tablet to measure what you want the pocket to end. Then glue the edges together.

~ Then hot glue ribbon around the edges. My ribbon was not wide enough to wrap around the edge of the fabric so I glue some on the front and the back of the fabric. Glue ribbon every where that you see a raw edge.

~ Then glue on Velcro to the flap to close your cover and you are done.

I am in love with the fabric, I think I need to go back and get more to make a circle skirt.

In a upcoming post I will show you how to make a sew version of a tablet cover.

How to Reupholster an Office Chair

August 23, 2016August 23, 2016 / TakeTimetoCreate / 2 Comments

Hello everyone!

An office chair has got to be one of the most pieces of furniture that a person can own. You spend a ton of time in your chair so it should be comfortable and good looking. I had a chair that was wonderful, it worked great and I had it a long time. But it broke. So I had to search for a new one. After searching high and low I found one at a surplus store. It was in great condition and for only $15, I thought it was a steal. The only problem was the green fabric covering it. The color was ok, a dark green, but it was itchy and that was not ok. So I decided to recover so it didn’t drive me crazy sitting on it for 8 hours a day.

I think it turned out very cute. I found the fabric at Who Gives a Scrap. I talked about this awesome donation center last week. You can revisit that post here. They had this great upholstery fabric for only $2. Can’t beat that price. Here is how I went about recovering the chair.

Materials:

~Chair (this one wouldn’t be too bad if it wasn’t for the itchy fabric. Now I know why they had it for sale at the surplus store.)

~ Fabric (The stripped patter is cute and for only $2 I could pass that up.)

~ Staple gun, screw driver, glue gun, ribbon for edging

Instructions:

~ The first thing I did was take off the arm rests with the screw driver. I could have taken the whole chair apart and this might have made the process easier, but I decided to work around everything except the arm rests.

~ Then I measure the fabric and started stapling it on. The way this chair is constructed is a little weird. It has a plastic back and the original cover was Velcroed on, but I didn’t want to go that trouble so I decided to staple over everything.

~ I got the top part done then I went to town on the seat of the chair. The stripes made it easy to match the top to the bottom. I stapled everywhere then I went back and added more. I wanted to make sure everything held.

~ Once everything was secure and stapled on I hot glued on a tan ribbon that coordinated with the fabric. Then I put the arms back on that that was it. It took me a couple of hours to complete but it was worth it to not have an itchy chair.

Once I finished my son loved it so much he has asked me to do a chair for him. But if my chair is ever missing I know who to took it. Smile

DIY Agate Coaster

August 2, 2016 / TakeTimetoCreate / Leave a comment

Hello Everyone!

Happy August to you! Is is just me, or is this year flying by? Now that it is August I just realize that I am waaaaay behind on my crochet temperature blanket. You can read about it here. Time to start working on it again, but that is not what this post is about, lol. I am going to show you how to do something completely different Smile

These DIY agate coasters are an easy project that make a perfect gift.

Materials:

~ Sliced Agate. You can find them online in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes.

~ Paint Pen

~ Felt

Instructions:

I have had these agates for a while, they were my Grandfather’s, I found them in his stash of rocks. He was a rock hound and had something of everything. They are a little smaller than I would have liked, but I like to use what I have on hand. The neutral color is perfect for me, but you can get them in almost any color of the rainbow.

Then you paint around the edges with a paint pen. I picked mine up at Wal-Mart for a few bucks. I painted around the edge twice.

Put felt squares on the bottom to help protect your furniture and that is it!

Easy project to add interest and spice to your home.

DIY Locker Magnets

July 26, 2016 / TakeTimetoCreate / Leave a comment

Hello Everyone!

Recently I told my son some bad news, I told him that school is starting soon…haha. He is not too excited, but when I was his age I was excited for back to school. Not necessary for school to start, but mostly for the school supplies. I do love school supplies. I still do, I am always buying pencils, pens, notebooks, and other supplies. You can never have too many pens, haha.

Anyway, with back to school nearly here there are lockers that will need to be decorated. So when my sister and her family were visiting last week my niece and I decided to make some locker magnets because she going into middle school in the fall and she will have a locker for the first time! Her locker will be all kinds of awesomeness! .

Together we made magnets for her locker using stickers and flowers! This is an easy craft that kids can do to personalize their space.

Materials:

~Stickers and flowers

~Powder (I used foot powder, but baby powder would work)

~magnets

~Glue

Instructions

First take the sticker you want to use and put powder on the back. (I have a ton of stickers that I have collected through out the years, I seem to always pick up stickers when ever I am at the store. I just love stickers) Using powder is the trick to keeping the sticker from sticking to everything. I used foot powder because this is all I had, but baby powder works too. The powder sticks to the sticky part then you can put a magnet on.

We glued the magnet on (the magnets are sticky on the back, but I didn’t trust it so we glued it on) We used a magnetic sheet that we cut into smaller pieces.

We made a ton of sticker magnets and then we put magnets on some flowers I had. These all turned out super cute!

Also, I had these super cute Wall stickers that I got from the dollar store that look like frames. These are so cute so we made one of the stickers into a magnet frame. This will be perfect for her to show off her friends in her locker.

Here are the finished magnets. Isn’t she a cutie! I can’t believe that she is old enough to go to middle school. Time flies so fast!

Bonus Craft!

While she was in town we decided to make a magnetic board. We just took a dollar store frame and put a magnetic sheet in the frame. Then she decorated it will rhinestone (she is a girl after my own heart, you can never have too many rhinestones!)

I think it turned out awesome. (sorry the photo is backlit, but you can still see how cute she is.) It was so much fun to have a crafting buddy, I can’t wait until she comes back to town so we can do more projects together!

Recycled Glass Vase DIY

July 7, 2016 / TakeTimetoCreate / 1 Comment

Hello Everyone!

I hope you are all having a great week. Last weekend we had a wonderful relaxing weekend, with not much on the schedule! In fact, over the weekend is when I finished this recycled glass vase project.

I have had these little champagne bottles for ever. They were just too cute to throw in the recycling bin and I knew that I would eventually find the perfect project for them. And I did, I made these cute vases!

Materials:

~ Glass bottle. (I used the champagne bottle, but you can use almost anything else. For instance a used olive oil bottle. )

~ raffia, jute, cord, burlap, ribbon, flowers

~ washi tape and anything else you want to glue on your new vase!

~ Hot glue

Instructions:

#1. The Shabby Chic Vase

~For this vase I used this Natural Polished Hemp and wrapped it around the entire bottle. I did not take of the labels for this vase and the cord did a good job of covering the labels. But if I were to do it again I would take them off. Just keep gluing and wrapping until you cover the bottle. This will take awhile so put a tv show on and go to town.

~ One I was done wrapping I added some burlap ribbon to the base area and then a layer of pretty ribbon.

~On the neck I added some brown ribbon and a flower. And there you have it, a cute shabby chic vase.

#2 The Diamond Wrap Vase

~ For this vase I wanted a really fancy, blinged out vase and I think I achieved that look, haha. To start take the labels off and then take the bottle to a well ventilated area to spray paint it. (Confession time: I am not very good at spray painting, I am too impatient to wait between layers and I always make a mess. So usually my hubby takes care of my spray painting, but I really wanted to get this project done so I didn’t wait for him to get home from work. I thought my cardboard box was good enough to keep the spray paint contained, buuuuuut I may or may not have painted the glass my outside table… Oh well, I guess refinishing the table will be a new project for me to work on this summer. lol)

~Anyway when you are done painting and it is dry start wrapping the bottle with Diamond Wrap (I found this at the dollar store) Add a flower to the top and you are done. This is perfect for the dinner table or for holidays. Imagine how cool this vase would look in candle light?

#3 The Washi Tape Vase

~ I have this wonderful washi tape that I found on Amazon and I thought would look great on the bottle. I just started wrapping the bottle using a different tape for each layer.

~ Just keep going until you are done. Since the bottle is curved the tape didn’t lay flat in all areas, but that is ok, I think it look like it has been aged in a attic for a long time.

~ Add a ribbon to the top and a flower and you are done!

There you have it, some great vases made from a glass bottles that were headed to the recycling bin!

What have you used to make a vase out of?

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TBT Handmade dollhouse from my childhood

June 23, 2016 / TakeTimetoCreate / 3 Comments

Hello everyone!

Come with me as I take a small walk down memory lane.

Don’t you just love finding things from your childhood? Because I do! When my sister was in town the other day she helped my mom with some cleaning and when ever there is cleaning there are discoveries to be made. The great discovery of the day (at least to me) was when my sister found this doll house that my mom made for me when I was a child. There were some other crafting discoveries made that day that I will share with you on another day.

I loved this doll house! My mom made this from a pattern for my small dolls, I think they were called Glamour Dolls. I took this with me when we went to Utah to see family and I played with it all the time at home. You can tell that it was well loved by how dirty it is (I could blame it on it being in storage for so long, but that is not were all the dirt came from…)

The dolls’ hair is a little crazy, and again I can’t blame that all on the storage. I was rough on dolls’ hair, I loved to cut and dye and style my dolls’ hair. By the time I was done with them they looked fabulous, haha! And because I was my mom’s favorite child (haha) she even made clothes for my tiny dolls (which I am sure there were not easy to make). I am not quite sure why my dolls are all in sleeping clothes, maybe it is because pajamas are my favorite clothes…

This doll house was great! The sides zip up and down and the roof is Velcroed on so everything is self contained. My mom made it with plastic canvas on the inside which helped it hold its structure, but over time the plastic has begun to disintegrate so the house is no longer holding its shape. But that is ok, I think it still looks cute. The inside has a bed, couch, and chair. The furniture is easy to move around, but this arrangement was how I liked it best. The detail that my mom put into this house is wonderful, there are ruffles around the bed and the pillow even has ruffles, you can’t see it but the inside of the windows have lace curtains on them, there is detailing on the front door and there are shutters on the window. Now that I am older I can really appreciate the time and hard work my mom spent on making this doll house.

I remember playing with this for hours and my My Little Ponies would come by and play with the girls and my Barbie’s would stop by as well (I am sure that my Barbie’s felt like they were visiting a Hobbit house, but they came by any way) I played and pretended with this house for hours and it was so exciting to see it again.

Thank you for taking this trip with me down memory lane. What toy did you have from your childhood that you played with all the time?

DIY laptop cover

June 21, 2016 / TakeTimetoCreate / 3 Comments

Hello everyone!

The other day I was working on my laptop and just kept getting distracted about how boring it is. I mean, the laptop is just black, no color at all. And you all know me by now, so you know that this just won’t do. I had to fix it!

See much better!

Materials:

~ Laptop or any electronic

~ contact paper (I found mine on Amazon)

~ Letter stickers (I found mine on Amazon)

~ Exacto knife and scissors

Instructions

~ Cut your contact paper a little bigger than the laptop

~ Slowly and carefully peal the back off the contact paper and adhere to your laptop. Try to keep it straight and try and keep the bubbles out. I still ended up with bubbles, but that is ok. I think it adds to the creativity

~ Once the contact paper is on then carefully trim the edges with an Exacto knife. Smooth it all down and make sure it is secure

~ I love the chevron pattern, but I felt like it needed more so I added the purple, glitter letters. I think that was the right touch.

That is it! It is a great way to add character and personality to you electronics, and I already feel more productive!

And the best part is this was easy enough that you can change your design often. I have seen some really cute contact paper designs at the dollar store.

Turn Gift Bags into Wall Art

June 16, 2016 / TakeTimetoCreate / 2 Comments

Hello Everyone!

I have a serious question for you, have you seen the awesome gift bags at the dollar store? They are amazing! So cute and every design imaginable. When I see them I think that these should be hung on the wall and not given away. And that is just what I did.

This one I put in my teenage son’s bathroom. He got a kick out of it. We will see how long it stays there, haha.

This is not the most complicated DIY that I have ever done, but it is easy and fun and you can have new art work for a couple of bucks.

All you need are gift bags from the dollar store (from this picture you can see that I might have a problem collecting too many….. nah, I think I don’t have enough, lol)

And a frame ( I got mine from the dollar store as well)

Just use the glass from the frame to see where to cut and cut out the design and put in the frame and that is it! All done.

Think about all the options, you can switch out for the holidays (the dollar store always had gift bags around Christmas)

You can give a gift in the bag and give them a frame to use after they open the gift. It is like a 2 for 1 deal.

I thought that this one was very sweet, wouldn’t this look perfect in a nursery?

This one would look so cute in a nursery as well.

This one would great for newly weds, or even as a decoration at a wedding reception.

This one would be great for a boy’s room or a man cave. The possibilities are endless.

And the best part is that there is usually an identical design on the front and back so you can get twice as many pictures out of 1 bag. This is great if you have 2 kids that want the same art and you only want to buy 1 bag.

I did save the back of the bag for different projects in the future, so look forward to seeing these designs again.

I hope you can find some really great bags to hang on your walls.

DIY Magnet Chip Board Letters

May 12, 2016 / TakeTimetoCreate / Leave a comment

Hello everyone!

I have these left over chip board glitter letters. I love the color and and glitteryness but I only have a few letters left, so I though they would be perfect for this magnet project. But with so few options I had to figure out what to spell and “Be Kind” just stood out.

Be Kind is a motto that I try and live by. I don’t know what people are going through so I always try to be kind, no matter what the situation. So this is a nice reminder that I put in my office at work. I think being kind to each other is one of the most important things we can do.

So here is how I made these chip board magnet letters.

Materials:

~ Letters

~ magnetic sheets

~ glue (I used Loctite)

~ scissors and Exacto knife

Instructions:

~ The letter have an adhesive back so I pealed off the paper backing and I pealed off the paper protecting the magnetic sheet

~ Glue on the letter to the magnet. This is probably not necessary, but I like to be sure it won’t come off so I thought a little glue was a good idea.

~ Cut around the letter. I used scissors and an Exacto knife to get around all the edges.

And you are done. I think they turned out super cute. What letters do you need to use up and what do they spell?

Turn an Ikea bookcase into a bench

April 14, 2016 / TakeTimetoCreate / 6 Comments

Hello Everyone!

Isn’t Ikea one of the most wonderful places on Earth? I mean they have everything, all in one place!

Well a little while ago I was looking for the perfect bench to put in my kitchen, near the door. I couldn’t find anything that I liked, but I did see people on Pinterest turning an Ikea bookcase into a bench.

It is very simple to do.

Materials:

~ bookcase the is strong enough to handle the weight when tipped on its side. I used the Ikea Expedit, but I don’t think they have that anymore. But check around they might have a suitable alternative.

~ Plywood for the top

~ Foam cushion

~ Fabric

~ Staple gun

Instructions:

~ First assemble the bookcase. They might take awhile and you might need help. If you want to raise the height now is the time to add legs to the bench. I didn’t want them, but you may want something different

~ For the cushion, cut the plywood the size of the bench top

~ Then you make a sandwich of fabric on the bottom, ( I used a strip to help me keep it all in line. The fabric possibilities are endless) then the foam and lastly the plywood. Then stretch and staple all around.