Our Tennessee Life ...formerly The Retail DIYet

Our Tennessee Life ...formerly The Retail DIYet: December 2011

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Burlap Stockings

If you read about my Thanksgiving Post then you know about the coffee bean sacks we used for table runners.  I love these and was trying to think of other uses for them, hence this post.  I decided to make stockings for our mantle out of them.  I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.  They definitely got better as I kept making them.  It was really just trial and error since I didn't work from a pattern or anything.  Just an old stocking I think I picked up at Target maybe 10 years ago.

I started by tracing the old stockings onto the burlap and cutting them out

 Then I loosely traced the stocking onto brown felt to line the stockings.  Make sure they are a little larger than the burlap cut outs--trust me...just do it! 

You'll need to sew these inside out and backwards of course!
Just turn them back to right side out and you'll be set!



 Yes--that is a huge fish over my fireplace...I'll share his story another day. 
This project cost me nothing since I already had these materials on hand.  Can't beat free decor!  I'll also post more on the JOY letters later.  It's a simple and quick DIY I found on pinterest (Yes, I am obsessed with Pinterest!  Who isn't?) and it cost under $7.00!
Danielle

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Thursday, December 1, 2011

Easy DIY Children's Toy

I saw something similar to this at our local Library.  They had a big felt board with all different types of fruit and veggies that the kiddo's could play with and rearrange.  Here is my holiday version.  It cost next to nothing since I had all of the supplies on hand, but if you were to buy felt you can purchase small sheets of felt for just a couple of cents.

I started with this $2.00 frame that I picked up at my favorite thrift store.  I had originally wanted to turn this into a chalk board for Emmi, but I have so many other ideas for it.  I actually have kept it in front of my fireplace for a couple months.  I like the weirdness of it. 
I took the actual painting out and covered it with red felt.  I didn't staple anything into the painting or the frame so no harm done to anything and it can easily be changed out or returned to the original state.
Next I just started making shapes--excuse the horrible job, but I did this all freehand!
Aside from being a cool thing for kids to play with this is also a way to learn and discuss colors, shapes, holidays and seasons!

Here is also another version for fall...

xo,
Danielle

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