One Girl's DIY Diary

The Beekeeper’s Quilt: Final Strech!

By Make and Do Girl On April 1, 2013 · 7 Comments

Holy cow, I might actually finish this thing.

The Beekeeper’s Quilt—a project that is only for the most manic, masochistic crafters is exhilaratingly close to going in my “win” column. Last night I officially completed my last hexagon. That makes a grand total of 169 hexes. Let’s give a round of applause for those size 4 knitting needles that have been on the job now for over a year. Guys, you deserve a serious break. Plus, I’m not going to knit anything with sock yarn for a very, very long time. In fact, my next project is likely going to be a crocheted clothesline rug or something similarly, gratifyingly bulky. I’ve been sewing my Beekeeper’s Quilt together using a whip stitch on each side of the hexes instead of tying it like the pattern indicates. Although a whip stitch is taking a little bit more time, it makes the quilt reversible and a lot sturdier. Plus, when you’re already over 100 hours in on a project, what’s a few more?

Although I knew I ultimately wanted to sew my quilt together in a hexagon shape, for a long time I was just sewing the hexes together willy nilly. I just wandered about, wherever my seam took me. Now I’m going about the dirty work of filling in the holes to make one large hexagon. The template I created has come in really handy though because it showed me exactly how many hexes needed to be in each row. Now, it’s time to shuffle this Beekeeper’s Quilt through the final stretch. And when it’s finished, I’m going to immediately increase my homeowner’s insurance coverage. I mean, this thing’s gotta be worth at least a million dollars in man hours.

Easter Nail Art Idea

By Make and Do Girl On March 29, 2013 · Add Comment

Happy Easter weekend! Here’s a simple Easter nail art idea for you to fancy up your fingers for hunting Easter eggs (or if you’re like me, peeling the foil off Cadbury Eggs.) Substitute any poppy, springy colors to suit your mood.

How do you plan to spend the Easter weekend (besides eating pastel foil-wrapped candy, which obviously goes without saying)?

TUTORIAL: DIY Art With Buttons

By Make and Do Girl On March 25, 2013 · 10 Comments

This DIY art idea is quick, uncomplicated and inexpensive. It’s easy to accomplish, like I did, during a night of TV watching. (Plus, who doesn’t love to fall asleep to Netflix and wake up to something new and pretty hanging on your wall?) I think it’d be a super fun DIY art project for a nursery, craft room or a kitchen nook. Use the template I’m providing to make a sweet little tree or create your own masterpiece using any simple silhouette. It’s an easy art project for kids too!

INGREDIENTS:
-This tree silhouette and bird template.
-14×10.5″ piece of wood (or whatever size works for your design). If you don’t have access to a saw, Home Depot or Lowes will cut wood for you for about 25 cents per cut. Or you can check Michael’s for wood plaques.
-Tacky Glue
-Small paintbrush or a Q-tip to apply the glue to the buttons
-Buttons. If you don’t have a button stash, you can buy packs of buttons by color at Amazon, Walmart or a craft store. The more variety, the better. (These came from Walmart and cost about $8 total.)
-These swatches of designs for the birds or scrapbook paper. You want something that contrasts with your buttons. Too similar and the birds will get lost.
-A picture hanger of some sort
-(Optional) Acrylic paint for the edges of the board

1. Print the tree silhouette template and cut it out. Of course, you can use any shape you’d like. Just search “____ silhouette” to find a shape that fits your fancy.
2. Lightly trace the silhouette onto your wood.
3. Use the bird template to cut your birds out of your chosen paper. Loosely decide where you’d like them to live in the tree. Don’t glue them down quite yet.
4. Beginning at one edge and slightly overlapping your pencil line, glue your buttons down. Be careful not to use too much glue so it doesn’t seep out of the button holes. I used a Q-tip to apply the glue to each button.
5. When the buttons approach a bird, nestle the bird in amid the buttons in a way allows the buttons to snuggle in close. I found that using smaller buttons near the birds helped with this.
6. If you’d like, paint the edges of your board for a little pop of color.
7. Apply a picture hanger to the back of your wood board. AS Hanging Systems has plenty of snazzy wall hangers that would work great. There you go! Plop your button art up on the wall and sit back to admire it’s textured niftiness.

This post was sponsored by AS Hanging Systems. If you can make it, they have a way to hang it. Head over and check out all the options they have for hanging your crafty eye candy.

Linked up here.

Turn Your Wedding Bouquet Into a Wreath

By Make and Do Girl On March 23, 2013 · 1 Comment

When we got married, we had the wedding and then darted off on our honeymoon, leaving a ton of wilting flowers in our wake. Although I felt a touch sentimental and a little guilty about abandoning them to turn into what would essentially amount to really expensive compost, I wrote it off as one of the (many!) prices you pay for having a wedding in a state you don’t live in. Luckily, my mom wasn’t so quick to throw in the towel (er…toss the bouquet?) After the dust and our credit card bills had settled, my mom surprised me with this beautiful wreath made from flowers dried from my bouquet. It’s such a sweet idea and allows you to preserve your wedding bouquet in a way you’ll actually be able to enjoy on a daily basis. (Not saying a dried bouquet in a glass box isn’t enjoyable, especially if you spend a lot of time hanging out in the back of your closet with your Christmas decorations and taxes from 10 years ago.)

She didn’t do anything special to dry the flowers, just simply hung the bouquet upside down until it was dry and then dismantled it. (Although, if you’re interested, there are plenty of more complicated ways to preserve wedding bouquets.) She wove and hot glued the flowers into a basic grapevine wreath. I love how vibrant the colors are, even now that the flowers are dry. If you’re not having a wedding anytime soon, you could turn any bouquet into a sentimental reminder of a special day.