Shoebox Notebooks

Did you just buy four pairs of shoes with no regrets and now you have a ton of shoe boxes laying around? Me too!

I thought I’d put those boxes to good use and make a few little notebooks. These were very easy to make, and can be customized to whatever size/shape you need.

You’ll need:

I took one of the lids to a shoebox, tore the corners so it laid flat, then cut out the long rectangle that used to be the top of the lid.

 Then I took my paper and cut it down to size. There’s no exact measurement here, I just made sure that the paper was going to be smaller that the cardboard.

I know, this is a masterpiece of precision cutting, but a little imperfection never hurt anyone!

Once I made sure the paper was going to fit, I folded everything in half.

I took some washi tape and put a few pieces along the crease.

I punched two holes into the folds of the paper and the cardboard.

I threaded the embroidery thread through the holes a couple of times,

and tied a little bow on the outside.

And Viola! 

A cute little notebook made from a shoebox!

Now, if you’re feeling adventurous, or want to take it up a notch, you can bind the paper to the cardboard by sewing it in. That’s right, I said sew…I’m sewing. I didn’t make my mom come and do it for me!

The steps are pretty much the same. I wanted a different shape, and I rounded the edges on the paper and cardboard.

I still used the embroidery thread because I wanted the binding to be sturdy. 

I didn’t want the little knot to show when I opened the notebook, so I first started by threading it through the cardboard so the paper would cover it up.

Here we go. I tried to keep it straight, but as you can see…I had a difficult time. 

I’m sure this little stitch I did has a name, but I don’t know what it’s called. My sewing vocabulary is 

non-existent. 

I basically sewed the thread in going down, then went back up again to cover up all the gaps.

I learned that a thimble comes in handy to push the needle through all the paper and cardboard.

I think this is a good example of process, not product. 

 I’m very happy with how they turned out, actually. If you minus the fact that I probably cant sew a straight line to save my life, they are really cute. You definitely don’t have to be an expert to make these notebooks yourself. They were really easy and didn’t take me long at all. 

I had so much fun making these, and I hope you do as well!

 

DIY Banner

My sister got married a few days after Christmas. She had asked me to make the topper for their pecan pie they were having at the reception. After a few different failed attempts, I think it looks pretty good, and most importantly, my sister loved it.
(And yes, I did photograph the final product being held up by my couch cushions. Silly me, I didn’t have a pie handy…and I was too busy with the cheese platter at the reception to take a picture of it actually in the pie…)

When I first tried making this, I thought I had a pretty good idea-just cut out triangles and glue them on a piece of string that is tied to a couple skewers.
But the super glue got everywhere, the burlap I was using wouldn’t stick to it, and I ended up with my fingers glued together and a pile of sticky burlap.
After that first attempt, I was done. I quit. I called my sister to ask if she really needed a pie topper. She told me to eat a granola bar and try it a different way–just fold the burlap in half and sew it onto the string.
I told her it would never work and hung up the phone. But after my granola bar, I realized she was right.
So here’s how I made it:

You’ll need some fabric. I used burlap because that’s what I was ordered to use. But any fabric you want will do…and will probably be easier. Burlap gets everywhere and it kind of smells funky.

Take the long side of the fabric and fold it over, like so:

Then just cut out a bunch of little triangles. When you open them, they should resemble diamonds. And you don’t necessarily have to cut out triangles. You could do any shape you wanted.

Then fold a few onto a piece of string and pin them in place.

FYI, you’ll want an extra long piece of string. It’s easier to cut off any excess…but if you run out of string…well, then you run out of string.

Once they’re pinned, you can sew them onto the string. 

Now, I had my mom do this part because I was still grumpy and my sewing skills are pathetic. One of my goals this year is to get a little better/braver at sewing stuff. Next project I do that requires sewing I promise I will actually do it and not make my mom come and do it for me. 

Anyway, all she did was sew them down onto the string, and then she sewed the sides down so they weren’t open.

I kind of cleaned up the sides, but I didn’t trim all the way to where my mom sewed the triangle shut. Burlap can come apart easily so I didn’t want it to come open or anything.

Once they were all sewed down, I tied the ends to a wooded skewer. I used the ones intended for 

shish-ka-bobs…they were the perfect size for a little pie topper.

I tied them a few times and put a small dab of super glue on the knot to secure it in place.

For this banner, I used a sharpie to write the letters. I’m sure if you’re more proficient in sewing you can sew letters on. 

I learned a few different things while making this little banner:

1. Never try and make anything while you are hangry

2. Super glue will get everywhere

3. Mom’s can fix anything

I think I might try another banner like this soon…with easier fabric and on a bit larger scale. 

I wish I had a photo of it in the pie, but that cheese platter was so dang delicious. 

My sister loved it though, and that’s all that matters.

Felt Flower Headband

My favorite kind of projects are the ones that look a lot more difficult than they really are and they turn out super cute. Well this is one of those projects.

Once you realize all it is, is circles glued together then it becomes a whole lot simpler!
So I know it is just circles but I made a pdf of a few different sizes so all you need to do is print. I didn’t use all the sizes but then again all the different size flowers will make some awesome headbands. OH the possibilities!

Download Flower Headband Circle Pattern

Yum Yum! Yogurt! I can’t get enough of her, She is so cute!

Materials:

felt

elastic

hot glue gun

needle and thread

bead or button for middle of the flower

First you’ll want to decide how many layers to the flower you want, for mine I wanted 3 layers, so I used 3 different size circles for the flower petals. Then I took one size bigger than my largest circle and cut two more circles. These will be used later for the backing of the flower.

I cut (see my pdf download)

5- #2 circles

5- #3 circles

5- #4 circles

2- #5 circles

total: 17 circles

After cutting you’ll want to start with a set of 5 circles. For each set you’ll do the same steps. I started with the #4 circles. You’ll want to overlap them slightly and glue them where they overlap. 

(Use just a small amount of glue, you don’t want the glue coming through the felt. I’ll show you what I mean when we get to the next size flower.)

Next you’ll want to put the next circle on slightly overlapped the last one, but starting to form a circle. Glue.

Repeat the last step again, overlapping slightly, glue, forming more of the circle.

Repeat again, slightly overlapping, gluing and finishing the circle. Now the last circle should be overlapping the first circle. To keep the flower looking all the same we want the first circle to overlap the last circle. So lift up the first circle and bring it to the top.

Put a little bit of glue…

And you’re done with this flower! All the petals should stay in place.

Now onto the next size flower. We will do the EXACT same steps, overlapping and gluing.

And now you have your second flower. 

(Here is where I added a little too much glue on one petal and it seeped through, see on that bottom most petal on the right side? Good thing we can cover that up later!)

And onto the third flower. Overlap, glue, overlap, glue… you know the drill.

Yay! Our third flower!

 Now we have 3 different size flower. Don’t these look awesome? Eek I’m so excited already!

 Now we stack them. Big flower underneath the medium flower.

Then little flower on top.

Here is where the other larger circles come into play. Put a little bit of glue on just the outside of one of the circles. 

Make sure there isn’t any glue in the middle, we will be sewing on a bead and we don’t want to try and have to get the needle through glue, thats no fun.

And put it on the bottom side of the stack of flowers.

Now to the needle and thread. I was thinking that if you didn’t want to sew on the bead then you could easily glue it on. I wanted to sew mine on though because then I could pull it down a little and make it tight, making it look a little more like it is in the flower rather than on top.

I just tied a knot, when up through the middle of the flower, through the bead, and back down pulling tight and knotting it off. Didn’t it turn out cute?

Next get your elastic. Measure how long you want it, and cut it an inch or two shorter since it’ll stretch.

Add a little bit of glue on the end.

Glue on the other end, forming a circle. Make sure not to have a twist in your elastic.

Glue the seam of the elastic on the back of the flowers.

Put a little more glue on top of that…

And attach the last circle. Now you can’t see the mess of the glue and elastic that was there, and the added outer layer will make it nice and soft against the head.

Didn’t it turn out so cute?

You can even make a box and gift wrap it to a friend!

And my cute little girl wears it so well!

Now she just need to keep it on.