Tag Archives: craft idea

DIY fabric covered wooden letters

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Hello everybody! I hope you guys are well.  I wanted to share with you my second project that I did this past Friday.

I’ve had this letter A and this pink toile fabric for a long time now.  I love this fabric so much that I decided to use it to decorate the letter A, which is my first initial.  I’ve never done this project before so I just did it my way and took pictures highlighting each step that I thought was helpful.  Basically, it’s like wrapping a present and using glue instead of tape.

Here’s what I did:

Using a ruler I outlined the letter (I didn’t trace it) on the front of the fabric because I needed more fabric for the sides and I wanted to see exactly what part was going to show.  I also used a vanishing marker.

I used my rotary cutter and mat.

This time I traced the letter on the other side of the fabric so I could know exactly where to place it down once I applied the glue to the letter.

I glued the letter down and these were my tools.  I used my x-acto knife, sharp scissors, a ruler (borrowed from my daughter :)), vanishing marker, glue, and a Q-tip (the top of my glue was broken so I used a Q-tip to apply the glue onto the front and sides of the letter).

Using my ruler, I started marking where I would cut and glue the fabric.  The process was like wrapping a gift.

As you can see in the pic above I lost some of the fabric due to the curve of the letter A so I just took a small piece of fabric and glued it onto the spot and then covered the side with the rest of the fabric already there.

Working my way around…progress.

For the little hole in the letter A, I used my x-acto knife and made a cut in the form of a cross all the way to the edge and glued the fabric.  At the bottom of the A, I used my sharp scissors and made cuts at the corners and glued the fabric as neatly as I could.  As you can see, there are some parts that are not covered.

Just take a scrap piece of fabric, make sure that it covers the area well and glue it on.  Now you’re covered!

Same process and…

…I’m done!  I love, love, love my fabric covered wooden letter.  After taking this picture so you guys can see it,  I placed it on my dresser and it looks fabulous.  I’m so happy with the result.  Now, I have a great gift idea and more arts and crafts to do for the future. 🙂

I hope you like this crafty idea.

Take care all.  Until next time…

A set of keys

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Hello everybody!  I hope you guys are well.  Yesterday I decided to do some arts and crafts.  It’s been awhile and I was simply in the mood, plus my daughter was taking her nap.  It doesn’t get any better than that, unless you’re taking a nap as well, but I was never good at that so crafting it is.  My first project involved a set of brass decorative keys and paint.  I have been wanting to do this for a long time now so what better time than the present.

Here’s what I did:

I purchased this lovely set of keys from a catalog, Terry’s Village, a long time ago.  You can check out their website for great, inexpensive home decor at terrysvillage.com.

Got my paint and brush ready.  I chose a baby blue, but I’ve had this bottle for a while now so I was scared that the paint inside was bad, but a good shake revealed that all was good.

I wanted some of the brass to show so I didn’t paint the key completely.  I let each key dry and then I painted the ring that held them together.

I love my new set of keys.  I love the blue shade and the brass gives it an antique look.  The painting process was actually quite calming, especially when there’s a two-year old napping away peacefully.  🙂

Take care all.  Until next time…

DIY project with iron on transfer, a great picture and a tote bag

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Hello everybody! I hope you guys are well.  Today I want to share with you a project that I love to make and give as a gift.  I love to add an unexpected and personal touch to a gift that actually comes from the person the gift is intended for.

For example:

My wonderful cousin, Janice, is an amateur photographer and she currently lives in Huntsville, Alabama.  Needless to say, I MISS HER GREATLY!  One day while driving, she spotted a gorgeous, enormous tree.  The sun was illuminating it perfectly.  A scene like that, you got to act fast if you want to capture it for life.  So she quickly pulled to the side of the road, got her trusty camera, and took several shots.

Ninety-five percent of the time when I receive a letter or greeting card from my cuz, there’s a picture or more inside.  Who’s the subject of the picture?  That’s the exciting part.  It’s always different.  It could be a funny picture of one of her cats, a butterfly outside her window, art displayed on the sidewalk in the city, a waterfall, horses, etc.  We love corresponding through snail mail because it’s so much more personal and it’s our special thing.  When I received a copy of her magnificent tree, it spoke volumes on how good of an eye she has and how talented she is with her camera.  This picture needed to be displayed, for her, but where?

Here’s the pic:

I love using iron on transfers, especially on t-shirts, but I wanted to use something different.  At A.C. Moore craft store, I stumbled upon cotton tote bags.  They were like blank canvases that you could decorate, but instead of hanging them on the wall, you could carry your masterpiece for all the world to see.  You could wear a t-shirt for a day, but you can carry your bag almost every day. 🙂

After scanning the picture on my printer, I inserted the pic into a word document and copy and pasted my cousin’s signature at the bottom of the pic.  This, I felt, added an extra personal touch.  I saved my project and printed it out on iron on transfer paper (tip: always remember to read the instructions on how to print your image on the transfer paper).

Once I had the image ready, I got my iron, a pillowcase, and a piece of wood that’s big enough to lay your project down.  Lay your pillowcase down on the piece of wood, iron out any wrinkles so you can have a smooth surface, and do the same for the tote bag.  Position your transfer where you want it to be and iron away.  Give it time to cool and then peel away the backing of the paper.

Here’s my project completed:

I was so happy with this bag that I almost kept it, but I didn’t because I knew it would bring so much joy to my cousin.  I filled the bag with the rest of her Christmas presents and when she received it, she was so happy and couldn’t wait to use her new tote bag.

I hope this idea inspires you to make many different and personal projects either to keep or to give.  Until next time…

Hello world, family, and friends

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First let me start by saying FINALLY, MY BLOG IS UP!! I have been wanting to start a blog for such a looooong time now. Due to my many excuses a.k.a. fears, I procrastinated as long as I could, but I’m ready now. I’m currently a stay at home mom of two, but my oldest is about to enter Kindergarten. YIKES!! There will be many, many posts in the future regarding my anxiety about having to let her go into the real world. It’s so scary. As for now I want to start my blog with a crafting idea because I’ve been crafting for a very long time. I’m constantly inspired by ideas I find on the Internet. My latest obsession is Pinterest.com. If you haven’t checked it out, do so and you will simply be hooked! I have so many crafty ideas to share with you. For example, I wanted to make some butterfly paper decorations for my daughter’s birthday. I currently own two large Fiskars squeezable paper punch machines, a circle and a heart.

I love these punches because they cut out the shapes easily and fast, so I wanted to find a butterfly one. After searching and comparing prices I just didn’t find one that I liked. Either it was too expensive or it was too hard to cut out per reviews. As my daughter’s birthday quickly approached, I still had no butterflies and I didn’t want to cut them out myself. Then one night it came to me, out of no where, I could use my heart punch to make the butterflies.
Here’s what I did:

Step 1: I punched out two hearts using pink card stock.

Step 2: I stapled the bottom of the hearts together in the middle to form the wings. I cut off the tip of one of the hearts so it wouldn’t peek out once I did the final step, but you can also bend it and tuck it in before stapling it.

Step 3: To complete my little butterfly, I used a black pipe cleaner, formed the body, glued it in the middle of the two hearts and viola, a beautiful paper butterfly.

Step 4 (optional)): If you want you can decorate the wings with crayons, markers, glitter, etc. or give them to your kids so they can decorate them.  Endless possibilities!!

Since my daughter was turning five, I did five each of three colors and affixed them onto our party decorations. They were a hit.

I hope you guys like this little crafty idea. I hope to share some more in the future as well as opinions and thoughts on different subjects such as parenting, life issues, relationships, and then some.

Welcome to my world.

Welcome to The Mercado Project.