A Knotty Blanket

This one is a sinch! I made this blanket in less than an hour and for less than $15.00 for my bestie's baby. It is so easy, inexpensive and a nice personal gift! My mother in law actually made one for my husband and I, and I've seen these blankets all around, but I actually had a hard time finding directions for how to make these...so for those of you who may want to make one one day, below are the instructions and steps.

Step 1:
Buy 2 pieces of felt.
Lay them on top of each other and align
as perfectly as possible.
Trim any access.

Step 2:
Measure and cut out a 4" x 4" square
on each corner of the stacked fabric pieces.

Step 3:
Start cutting your strips. I didn't measure,
but it was roughly 1" x 4"

Step 4:
Start tying the knots!
It is easiest by tying every other strip.

There are many ways to tie the knots.
Explore different methods and see
how different ties create a different look.

Step 5:
Personalize!
I chose iron-on because of my
awesome (sarcasm) sewing skills.
I did, however, sew a little to keep
these intact during washing.

homemade personal gifts are fun

As I said before, I'm way behind on my posting. I had really wanted to post this right after Christmas, but just got too busy. Needless to say, I'm posting it now :) This year, my husband and I really wanted to cut costs during the Christmas months and get everyone a small gift as well as make a personal and useful gift--so we made everyone personal message/keyholder boards!

OK, not exactly the best Christmas gift, but it's the thought that counts right? And I'm pretty sure most everyone appreciated them! We got the idea when I felt the dire need to make something with chalkboard paint. I had this naked spot in the kitchen, and after flipping through a recent Pottery Barn catalog came across this adorable saying written on a chalkboard in the kitchen: "Put in about 1 teaspoonful of good spirits, a dash of fun, a pinch of folly and a cupful of humor." I loved it and had to recreate with my own flair!

After I recreated for our kitchen, we then felt this would be a great personal gift for friends and family. Rushing to Home Depot, we got a thin sheet of smooth particle board, small hooks and some crown molding. It was seriously an assembly line at our house for awhile! While my husband cut the boards, I painted with chalkboard paint.

We then fastened the crown molding to the painted boards with wood glue and a stapler gun. We screwed in the hooks for the keys. We hung our board in the kitchen by simply screwing the whole thing in the wall, but figured not everyone would want to do that. To solve this (and make it an even cuter board!) we fastened ribbon at the top to hang it by. We then painted some small wooden letters black, and decorated with a white paint pen, the letters of their last name to make the board personal. We glued the letters to the framing with hot glue. It was adorable, inexpensive, practical and personal! Couldn't complain! To top off the fun gift, we wrote a cute message on the board and gave everyone chalk to keep their boards fun as well!

Below is what ours looks like. Again, I was sans camera and didn't get a picture of the cuter/more personalized ones. Maybe I will go back and add the letters and ribbon to mine as well? In any case, it is a fun feeling to walk in family/friends' homes and see these hanging proudly!

Vintage Picture Viewing

I'm kicking it back old school today! Now, I must say I haven't actually attempted to make this yet, but as soon as I get my hands on one of these vintage toys, I'm SO trying this!

Awhile ago my coworker brought in a View Master toy. Go ahead and flash back to the 80s when you remember checking out the coolest movie slides while aiming the View Master to the light. Well, the one he brought in had personal pictures in it! Maybe this is common, but my View Master only had the Disney characters in it, never me! His brother actually made it (AND in 3D!), but he had a lot of cool tools to do this.

So, I got to thinking how an average person could make it and here are my thoughts...what if we took this old toy, poked out the Disney character frames and replaced it with our own film negatives? This may work, but won't be in 3D. The images would also have to be zoomed out a good bit because the 35mm negatives are a lot larger (26mm x 36mm) compared to the View Master slide (12.9mm x 11.9mm). I know you can buy a special camera to make the View Master slides for you, or you could pay a photo company...but who wants to do that? I'm convinced we can do this with what we already have!


Another idea I had was printing the images at the correct size on a transparency sheet. This may be the best option because you will get the correct size. You could even go ahead and create the 3D image in Photoshop and print it from your home printer on the transparency. You would just need to cut it out and assemble, and viola!

Anyway, like I said, I'm definitely going to make this soon. It is on my list, I just need to get me an old View Master first! If you already have one, give it a shot! I'm sure it would make an adorable personalized gift for a niece or nephew.

Just a thought...a polka-dot thought!