Crafts - 24/34 - The Idea Room

Personalized Embroidered Hand Towels

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Make a festive hand embroidered dish towel to celebrate the season…every season. Do you remember these handtowels I made for some friends last Christmas? Well,I just made a Thanksgiving version for my kitchen.

I typed out the word blessing and then traced it onto the bottom half (in the middle) of a flour sac hand towel with a pencil. I found mine at Ben Franklin for $1.50. I have also seen them at Wal-Mart, etc. I then cut out some material (the same material I used for my oven hand mitts) and applied the flowers as an applique to the towel under the word I had penciled on the towel

Then I placed an embroidery hoop around the letters and embroidered the word using a backstitch. I wanted the word to be thick, so I used 4 strands of the embroidery floss.

The fun thing would be to have one for every holiday and season. I had planned on making one for Halloween with the word Boo, but never got around to it. Since the flour sac towels are so large, I think I will just turn the towel around and add the Boo to the other side. Then you could use the same hand towel for both seasons. Just turn the towel to the right side for the season. These could not be simpler to make.

I have this hanging on the handle of my oven door and have tied a ribbon around it, I don’t have to hang it back up anytime the kids get near the towel (if you know what I mean). When the kids dry their hands on it, it actually stays in place!

If you are interested, I have posted the pattern I used along with patterns for Boo!, LOVE, and Gratitude. Click here for the downloadable version.

November 5, 2009 · Filed under: Crafts, Embroidery, Fall Decor, Gifts, Teacher Gifts, Thanksgiving Tagged with

Felt Play Food

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play-felt-food theidearoom.net

I realize all of my latest posts have been sugary treats! This cooler weather makes me want to bake. Even this post is food related, but at least these are calorie free.

Shhh! Don’t tell my daughter, but here is a sneak peek at what my girls are getting for Christmas this year. I have seen felt food all over the internet and as soon as I began to see them, I knew I had to make some for the girls.

felt-food-theidearoom.net

To make this stackable ham sandwich, I used this tutorial here. Then after I got the hang of it, I kind of winged it and came up with some of my own designs for the lettuce, pickles and tomatoes. They really are very easy and require minimal sewing skills. If you don’t have a machine, you can hand stitch them as well.

make-felt-food theidearoom.net

I found a tutorial for the fried egg here and just made the bacon without any pattern. I also stumbled upon this site with a lot of different ideas for making felt food.

make-felt-food theidearoom.net

The strawberry pattern I used can be found here and the fruit slices were made using the patterns here. Then, after making the fruit slices, I used the same process and mad a slice of watermelon by cutting my felt in the same shape, but just larger.

And since I know some of you are going to ask, I got this fun wooden food play set from Amazon.com.

felt-food-theidearoom.net

I am so excited for the girls to see them on Christmas morning! If you know of any other free felt food patterns, I would love to know where to find some more. But beware…making felt food is very addicting.

October 27, 2009 · Filed under: Crafts Tagged with Activities, felt food, Kids

Decorative Vase with Dried Millet

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All you need to make one of these is a vase (I found mine at Taipan Trading Co. for around $4), dried millet (or any dried flora of your choice; found mine at Michael’s), a length of ribbon, and rice.

Take the dried millet and gently arrange them so that they sit nicely with the ones in the middle at the tallest and some around the edges at different lengths. Eyeball it! Then measure how tall you want them to stand in your vase.

With scissors, while still firmly grasping them, cut the bottoms of the stems so they are the same length. Then gently tap the stems so that they are all even at the base.

Set the millet in the vase and center it. Grab your rice, which has been placed in a pourable container, and pour it into the vase all around the stems. You may need to place the stems of the millet into a foam or styrofoam base if your vase is not tall enough. Otherwise the rice will firmly hold the millet in place. Fill vase 3/4 full.