Get Inked

Alright, Alright I didn't get a tattoo but I did a bit of inking on my pillow. This is a simple envelope pillow cover that only took minutes to make. What makes this pillow unique is that I wrote one of my favorite hymns on it. I wasn't sure how it would turn out but I ended up really liking that way it turned out.

Materials used:
Fabric- one yard
Quote of song of your choice
Permanent marker
Sewing machine

Total project time:
30 minutes

Note: If you are new to sewing and would like to see videos about envelope pillow covers and how to make them youtube.com is a great source.

Happy Crafting

Christmas Card

Marry Christmas!

Every year my boyfriend and I take pride in our Christmas card. We like it to be fun, creative and festive. This is our third year sending Christmas cards but this year was a but unique because we are living in separate countries. We started thinking about how we would incorporate both of our locations and how we would take pictures together since we were living apart. We decided to take individual pictures in front of phone boxes since it would be my first Christmas living in England. Luckily, there is an English phone box in both Coventry England and Jackson Mississippi.

A big thanks to Samantha Gibbons at www.gibbons-design.com for making our Christmas card so special. We are happy to have you design our Christmas card and can't wait to see what we are going to come up with next year!

All Wrapped up

Over Christmas I got a little crafty in other ways other than sewing. I decided that this Christmas was to be the year of brown. I found some wonderful brown paper from Ikea and got crafty. I started just using the brown paper with twine but that simply wasn't enough. I then added paper doilies, stamps and cut out Christmas trees. This was really easy and fun and made each gift special inside and out.

I am already looking forward to next Christmas so I can wrap more gifts!

More projects over Christmas included making pillows! Below is a picture of one of the pillows I made to match the Christmas ornaments I made previously.

Step-By-Step Directions
1. Choose a pillow (the one above was about 1.00 from Ikea)
2. Cut out a shapes or the desired design
3. Pin the design on the pillow
4. Hand stitch the design on the pillow

Note: You can always use buttons or other things to embellish the designs. I used white buttons to add to the top of my trees!

My First Christmas in England ended up being amazing. I missed all my Christmas decorations I left in the States however, I got crafty and made most of my ornaments, pillows and Christmas bunting. My tree was donated from ilovefreegle.org - so it just goes to show you that you don't have to spend a lot on decorating your house feel like Christmas.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I hope 2012 brings more crafting!