Try It Tuesday: Latch Hook Pillows

Katie January 6, 2015 0 Comments

When I was younger, my grandparents used to make latch hook rugs. I remember making a “custom” one for my dolls when I was little by drawing it out on the mesh and then hooking the yarn in.  When I saw that Blitsy had Disney latch hook kits, I couldn’t resist getting Pumbaa (and Simba too, but he isn’t pictured).

Of course, I couldn’t remember how to latch hook and actually had to look up a tutorial on YouTube. I’m so ashamed!

These kits didn’t have the colors on the mesh, which made things a bit complicated.  My mom ended up helping me out because I kept losing my place and I would do maybe 100 pieces of yarn per American Idol 2 part episode!

They will become pillows, but I bought some African fabric and passed them on to my Aunt to turn them into pillows because she is more of a pro than I am 😉  When she has made them I’ll have to make another post to show them off!

Try It Tuesday: Make Your Own Disney Autograph Books

Katie October 21, 2014 0 Comments

Today I share how I made us custom autograph books for our trip! These are custom with our names on them (and favorite characters) and also much cheaper than the ones they sell in the park!

Supplies needed:

Book you want to convert into the autograph book
(I used this 4×6 sketch book from Joann.com)
“Sticker Paper” to print your cover on
Extra scrapbook paper or card stock
Hole punch
Ruler
Xacto Knife
Printer
Sticker maker

First I pulled off the cover from the spiral very carefully. Using extra (white) scrapbook paper, I cut down a piece that would fit on the cover.  Since the covers are black and the sticker paper is clear, it wasn’t going to show my design very well.  I have to say cutting the paper to fit was the hardest part and I went through 3 pages in my attempts.  OOPS!  (Measure twice, cut once!)

I already had my design figured out in Photoshop – but if you don’t have Photoshop there are plenty of other free image programs. There are also TONS of Disney fonts out there to use – I used Disney Park.  I printed it out on a plain sheet of paper first that way I could make sure I had the dimensions right before printing it out on the sticker paper.

Warning! It is best not to touch the sticker paper immediately after it comes out of the printer.  Let it sit to dry for a couple of minutes.  (Learned this one the hard way too)

I had also made a “If found return to” sticker for the inside of the book – rumor has it if you lose your book and Disney finds it they’ll mail it back.  I put if found before 9/29 (our last day) return to our resort.  If not, return to with our address and stuck it in the inside of the back page.  This was also good practice for lining up the sticker paper.

I trimmed the cover images down on the sticker paper and carefully stuck them to my white scrapbook paper.  I tried to center them as best I could, but left a little bit more room at the top since the spiral binding would be there.

I then ran that through my XYron sticker maker and carefully stuck it to the removed book cover starting in one corner and trying to line things up as best I could.  (Xacto knife came in handy to trim any excess.)

The holes on these books are squares, but the only hole punch I have is round so I used that rather than try to Xacto out all the little squares.

Then I carefully put the cover back on the book just as I had taken it off, and squeezed the binding to itself just to make sure it wasn’t too open and it would fall apart.

And that’s it!

Probably the easiest of the projects I have done for Disney and a great result!

Try It Tuesday: Make Your Own Disney Shirt #2

Katie October 14, 2014 0 Comments

For our second Disney trip, I decided to try Iron On Transfers (I think the last time I used iron on transfers was in 2000 with less than stellar results, but I was hoping that they’ve advanced a bit in the past 14 years!) because these shirts were red and I couldn’t trace a stencil from underneath it like I did with the white shirts!

First I printed out the text on a regular piece of paper to make sure the sizing was ok to fit across the shirt.  Then I decided I wanted the letters to be yellow instead of white, so I printed them again to make sure everything looked nice.  Then I finally got around to printing on to the iron on transfer.  I got special ones for dark clothing, they are on a white background instead of clear, so you had to cut out around the design or else you’d have a lot of excess white. You have to leave the print out alone for at least 30 minutes so that the ink can settle/dry!  The cutting out portion was done with an x-acto knife and there was some peeling of the black in the cutting.

Then I watched a tutorial on the website of the iron on transfer company so I knew what I was doing. I got some help and had a ruler to make sure things were even and then each letter was ironed on.  The white I mentioned earlier was around some of the edges and looked really obvious to me – so I took a black sharpie and carefully colored everything in.  From a distance, you can’t tell.  Up close, you can, but I don’t think anyone will get that close to look!

Try It Tuesday: Make Your Own Disney Shirt #1

Katie October 7, 2014 0 Comments

For our trip to Disney, we decided to do custom handmade t-shirts for the 2 EPCOT / HANSON days.  The first shirt I did completely by hand – the Hanson Symbol and a Minnie Mouse head.  I printed out all the pieces about the size I would need and was ready to go.

I was able to put the print outs under the white t-shirts and outline everything in pencil.  Then for what seemed like days and days I slowly painted everything in.  I’d let it dry and touch up.  Then when I took them off the cardboard I had underneath and held them up to the light – more missing spots!

It was pretty time consuming, but I’m happy with how these turned out!

Try It Tuesday: Ticket Stub Headers

Katie September 9, 2014 0 Comments

I’ve seen on various websites making a scrapbook page header out of used tickets.  While I’d never cut up any of my tickets, I ended up winning a pair of tickets to see The Wanted after I already had bought my ticket.  Since I was unable to find anyone to go with me, I decided this would be the perfect chance to try it!

What I did was printed out “The Wanted” facing the proper way as a test sheet to make sure that I had the sizing and all that right.  Then I printed it out backwards. I turned this into a sticker (and my sticker maker ran out of sticky stuff before the whole thing was done – this happens  far too often!) and then I stuck the tickets to it.

Then I took my xacto knife and cut around the letters and TA DA I had a header made out of the tickets.  (And if I wanted, the negative could have been used for a header as well – which probably works better for non-concert events when you may have multiple pages and can use them several pages apart!)

Try It Tuesday: Making Hair Elastics

Katie August 12, 2014 0 Comments

These cloth elastic hair ties (I’m not sure the proper name) are very popular right now and very expensive! I bought a set to try them out and while I like how delicate they are on my hair, I really need one to twist around my hair 3 times and the ones in the store only go 2.5 times so they are always falling out.  The cure to this problem? Make my own so that they are the right length!

I purchased a set of 6 ribbons from either peachycheap.com or asideofpeaches.com.  Unfortunately I can’t remember how much it was now – but I am sure that it was much cheaper than buying a set of 3 or 4 at the store!

I checked a few tutorials online and most recommended cutting the ribbon from 8-10 inches.  I started with 10 inches to see how that worked in my hair and it was perfect! And the tie also fit around my wrist perfectly as well.

Honestly making these could not be easier. (Except for the part I seemed to forget about when folded that the two ends should be cut in the same direction. Oops! If I was making these to sell then I’d have cared more but since they’re just for me, I’m not too concerned and I did catch myself on it about halfway through!)

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Try It Tuesday – DIY Critters Ring Dishes

Katie June 17, 2014 0 Comments

One of the first crafts I did from Darby Smart was the DIY Critter Ring Dishes.  The kit comes with everything you need in order to make the dishes as well as some instructions. My “critters” were monuments and I decided to use The Leaning Tower of Pisa and Big Ben for mine (although there was also a Pyramid and Empire State Building included).

First I used the gold paint marker to cover the 2 monuments I had chosen.  This took several sessions because I needed to make sure everything was covered and you couldn’t really hold them when they were still wet!  Then I drew the design on the dishes. Once everything was tried I sprayed the monuments with a sealant.  Then using the provided super glue I glued the monuments on the dish.

Super easy to make and super affordable!

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