Friday, July 17, 2009

Show & Tell Friday for July 17


For Show & Tell today, I am going to kill two birds with one stone by combining a show & tell with a homemade life post. Today is very busy as we expect overnight guests to arrive for the weekend. I have a LOT to do before they arrive!

So here are some of the homemade things I've been working on.

I needed a birthday card for my dad and decided to try and make one. I am a novice at paper crafting, but I do have some supplies for that sort of thing, so I got them out and referred to card project instructions I had found at the Jo-Ann fabric site some time ago. The idea was to do machine stitching around the "window" in the card, but I had these little "frames" on hand and decided to use one of them around the opening instead. I didn't have time to go to a store for any sort of embellishment, so used a moose button I had on hand. The only problem is that the holes in the button make it look as if the moose has been shot. Oh well... it was not too bad for a beginning attempt, I felt. And the recipient liked it!

In our part of the country, summer can be very humid indeed. So much so that toilet tanks sweat, and it's pretty much a necessity to keep a towel or something else behind the toilets to soak up the condensation. I usually just use a neatly folded old towel and that works quite well and can be tossed into the washer and replaced quickly. But sometimes, especially in a small space, the towel gets sort of messy-looking. I wished for something equally effective, but prettier. On someone's blog, I had seen a pattern for making a bath mat out of an old towel and backing it with cotton fabric, then trimming with an embellishment of some sort. So I decided to adapt that idea to make a mat to go behind the toilet. I cut an old towel into 4 pieces vertically (after first cutting off the ends) and used 2 of them to make this mat. I backed it with part of an old muslin curtain and trimmed it with a shell-themed candlewicking design (which had resided unfinished in an old sewing box for years). I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.

Here is a picture of my homemade swiffer duster refill -- scroll down to see the link to the instructions. I tried it out in a very dusty area, and you can see how well it worked.

And then this. We just redid a small half bath and had a small amount of the wallpaper border left over. It occurred to me that I could make a sort of valance for the bathroom window with it. I glued it to a piece of foam core board and glued on hooks to just hook it over the curtain rod. For hooks, I used the metal clamps that come in skirt hangers which you get when you buy skirts or pants. They were exactly the right size to work as hooks for this project. I do apologize for the sideways look of the photo. There is only a narrow hall outside the door of this room and I could not go far enough back to get the right perspective. This shot was the best of three.

That's my simple Show & Tell for today. To see what others have shared for Show & Tell Friday, head on over to There is No Place Like Home.

Happy Show & Tell Friday!

10 comments:

  1. Hi.

    You are creative. Nice job. Thanks for sharing. Happy friday.

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  2. What a cute card... the holes just make it look like a button and I'm sure you Dad liked it very much. In some of my craft supplies I have lots of paper crafting stuff, hole punches, trimmers, stuff I probably will never use. When I find it :) I'll let you rummage through and see if there's anything you or your girls could use since you seem to enjoy this craft and you have two little girls around now who would probably enjoy that too. Maybe this year will be the year for unpacking !?.

    God Bless,
    Mrs. Doug

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  3. Nice projects! Your comment about the moose looking as if it had been shot cracked me up. :D The card came out really cute, though! The swiffer duster looks great. I don't think I have my old duster handle anymore, or I would give it a try! Maybe I will buy one sometime. I really do like the way they work.

    And I think your valance idea worked well! It looks really nice!!

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  4. You are very creative and have wonderful ideas. My Mom&Dad's house had that problem with the moisture in the bathroom. When you have that kind of household humidity, you have to watch out for mold and mildew. Sometimes it collects on the back of wallpaper. Charcoal is another helper for this problem as is a de humidifier.

    Oh, and I love the card. The leaves and Moose are such nice touches. Is the acorn a button too?
    Mama Bear

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  5. Nice card, I'll bet Dad was impressed.

    Cindy

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  6. I think the card was really pretty. I bet it meant a lot to your Dad that you had spent the time making it.
    Your duster is really cute, and the rug to put behind the the toilet was a great idea.

    Iris

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  7. A very creative post! The card you made turned out very nice. Thank you for sharing!

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  8. I loved the card and I'm that your Dad did too. You're funny - shot:)

    I also liked you idea for the swiffer refill.

    Stop by The Old Parsonage sometime, I love company!

    Enjoy
    Leann

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  9. Wow love the card maybe they wont notice the holes! You've been super busy making dusters dusting redecorating everything looks great! ~enjoy your company thanks for sharing ~Blessings Heather ;-)

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  10. How nice to see so many ladies visiting around my kitchen table! Thanks for coming by, all of you, and for leaving such thoughtful comments!

    Mrs. Doug, I'll redouble my prayer efforts for you to get settled after that generous offer of the paper crafting supplies!

    In retrospect, I think the "holey" moose would have looked better if I had threaded some embroidery floss through the holes to make it look sewn on. I just wasn't thinking along those lines at the time, being in too much of a hurry.

    Stop in again, all of you! Like Leann, I love company.

    God bless,
    Mrs.T

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