Fabric Coil Easter Baskets

Happy Easter Weekend!  I’ve finally finished my big project for Easter…these baskets for my boys!

I used this tutorial by V and Co. on Moda Bake Shop as a guideline, but I didn’t follow it exactly. 

First, I wanted my baskets bigger.  When I was all finished, the bottom diameter was around 9.5 inches {about 10 coils}.  The basket was not quite 4.5 inches deep {about 8 coils tall), and the handle was almost 21.5 inches long.  I used nearly 12 yards of cording per basket.  I found the cording at Hobby Lobby in a box {near the trims} that you have the fabric station cut into the right yardage for you. There were 3 or 4 fatnesses and I got a middle sized cording.  There was a really fat size that I’d love to try , but I’m not sure it would be easy to get it to blend where the ends are on the basket.   I can’t tell you how much fabric I used.  I was using a bunch of remnants and fat quarters from my stash and didn’t really figure out how much I used in total. 

Also, in the tutorial she sewed all the coils together with a needle and thread!! Who has time for that??  I hot glued all the coils together once the fabric was all wrapped around it, then I hand-stitched the handles on for stability.

One more change from the tutorial—she folded over her strips, I left mine wide {1.5 inch about} and I think that helped the wrapping and sewing strips together parts go faster. 

I started gluing about halfway through so I could see how the patterns were working together.  The blue one {my first} basket took about 3 times as long to make than the second basket since I was learning and figuring everything out.  The second basket only took 2-3 hours and went a lot faster. 

I’m SO happy with how these turned out!  I wanted to make them ever since I found the tutorial last year.  It’s probably too late to make these this year, but pin this and make them next year for sure!   

Happy Easter!  Can’t wait to see what Sam does during the Egg Hunt this weekend!

Craft Closet Organization with Pull Out Fabric Shelf

This past week {or two} I’ve been cleaning out and organizing my craft closet.  I don’t have a craft room, just an extension of our computer desk, so most of my supplies live in their own closet in the hallway nearby. 

My craft closet used to look like this:

Now it looks like this: 
All in all, it wasn’t too bad for a while.  It stayed organized this way for about a year.  But after hoarding more supplies and fabric and shoving more unfinished projects and mess into this closet, it started looking really really bad! Here’s just a glimpse of what’d it become…I don’t dare show the rest!

With some work, I conquered the fabric and scraps and now have a better system for it.  After that I needed to work on the rest of the closet and make it more functional, too. 
One more time, here is the new pull-out fabric shelf.  (Click here to see how I built it).  It fits perfectly in the odd little nook that is in this closet. 

Starting from the bottom of the closet to the top, we first have the rest of the fabric.  Large yardage, denim, sweater material fits into the large bin, and all the scraps are sorted by color into ziplock bags in the smaller bin.  If the scraps or other fabric starts overflowing again, it’s time to purge! 

Next shelf up is ribbon and yarn.  I decided that ribbon is one of the hardest things on the planet to organize and no one has yet come up with an absolute perfect system.  I hated nearly all the things I found online, so I ended up using these two bins for ribbon.  Luckily it all fit!  I did have to purge some ribbon that I decided I could part with to make them fit, but compared to how I stored my ribbon before this is a better solution.

I spent 2 1/2 hours on Saturday organizing just my scrapbook paper!  I first went through the entire 50lb stack and removed all the paper I didn’t love any more.  I ended up clearing out a third of the entire stack! Then I organized all the papers into color family and then re-stacked it to put back in the closet. I could have put it all into separate 12x12 bins for easier access, but I like it this way because it takes up less space. I can usually find what I want without too much hassle. 

Next to the paper I have all the envelopes, and next to that I have two more bins. These supplies used to be in just one basket, but it was hard to find things and got messy fast. Now they are organized into stamps and the other is punches & Cricut supplies {extra blades, a few cartridges}.
Here’s the Punches & Stamps bins:

Fun!  Just looking at all those stamps in one place makes me want to start making something!!
Next shelf up is Kid’s Craft and a few miscellaneous things on the side.  The basket on the right has all kinds of things—pipe cleaners, googly eyes, foam stickers, fuzzy poms, and more.  The one on the left has markers, colored pencils, fabric markers and things like that. 

Lastly, the top of the closet stores all the smaller storage tubs with all the other various supplies!

There are three bins marked “Craft” and that’s pretty vague, but for me that just means it’s a random mix of supplies that don’t really need their own bin. Here’s what’s inside:

And that’s it!  I’m so glad I decided to tear it all out and organize each shelf and bin.  It’s so much easier to think and create when there’s not a cluttered mess everywhere!
BEFORE:
AFTER:


I’m proud to say that I didn’t buy a single tub or basket to organize this closet! I was able to use what I had around the house and not spend a dime! Thy only money spent was on the fabric shelf for the wheels and the handles.  I already had the primer and paint. The three smaller red tubs used to be on Sam’s changing table shelves, but we got him a dresser so they made their new home here!  Love it when that happens!

I’ve been working on the craft desk itself, but there’s still more work to be done, so here’s a sneak peak of what I’m working on for Easter until I’m ready to show that off. Can you guess what it is?

Conquering the Fabric Pile

I’m not sure what came over me, but last week and I randomly just emptied out ALL of my fabric, and all of my scrap stashes onto my guest bed.

Well it might have had something to do with this mess:

 I couldn't even shut this door anymore!

Something had to be done so I guess I just got fed up with it and threw it ALL onto the guest bed.  I had tons of scrap stashes, too.   A drawer full, a bin, and an old scrapbook carrier full.

Oh wait there was this little basket, too. 

Then I started organizing all the larger pieces by color.  This was fun, actually.

But the not so fun part was folding it all again.  It took me several days of going back to work on it since Sam {The Destroyer} couldn’t be near by to ruin my hard work.  I just measured the shelve and cut a piece of cardboard about that same size to use to fold my fabric with. 

Here’s some of the progress.

Then I also got started on the shelf itself.  It’s nice that it fits perfectly in the odd nook part of my craft closet, but I felt like it needed to be white to match the rest of the closet innards.  Being white also makes it less distracting from the fabric itself. 

I used Zinsser Bulls Eye 123 Primer because I already had a quart of it in the garage.  I’m not sure why I bought it originally, but I used it as a primer for these shelves.  They are just crappy Ikea shelves from an old entertainment unit we took apart, so it wouldn’t matter if I screwed them up somehow.  It took 3 coats of primer and then 3 coats of white paint to get these shelves to be somewhat decent looking.  I wish I’d just kept the shelves themselves on the unit, because the paint got scraped off pretty easily when I put them back in.  I just took a can of spray paint to the messed up spots. 

I drilled and screwed in 4 wheels into the bottom—all by myself.  My first attempt at using the drill!! 

I also drilled and screwed in handles. And here it is in the closet!







































I put a board on the floor to help the shelves easily roll in and out and it works perfectly!! 

I bet you are wondering what happened to all those scraps, too?  They were separated into color families and put into Ziploc bags which were then put into a smaller bin.  Smaller to allow for the roll-out shelf to do it’s thing.  If my scraps outgrow this bin, then it’s time to purge again.  No reason to hold on to tons of scraps that won’t get used!  The large yardage, denim, sweater material and large pieces of felt and flannel got organized and put into the big bin. 

Phew!  Overall it took two weeks, but so worth it!

I actually kinda feel like sewing something now…

Big Box of Balls

As you might remember, Sam got a bag of 100 balls for his birthday. 

And if you follow me on instagram {@kdbsmiles} then you also know I just got a new vacuum and it came it a really big box! 

Put the two together and you get an awesome box of contained fun!

A much better solution for these balls then all over my living room ;)

The Puffin

I came across this recipe from Lady with the Red Rocker for a puffin.  What’s a puffin? 

It’s a pancake…no it’s a muffin…it’s a PUFFIN! 

I. am. a. dork.

I thought it was worth a try since Luke likes muffins and he likes pancakes and I’m always looking for new muffin recipes to freeze. 

It’s super simple:

2 cups Bisquick
2/3 cup milk
2 eggs
3/4 cup syrup
Toppings – chocolate chips, bacon, sausage, blueberries, cranberries, bananas, nuts, etc.

Preheat oven to 350°.

Mix Bisquick, milk, eggs, and syrup together and pour into muffin pans with cupcake liners. Fill each cup half way, and top with your favorite topping. Bake for 14-15 minutes or until a toothpick, inserted, comes out clean. Makes 17-18, normal sized, puffins.

We did some blueberry, some banana, and some without anything since I have picky kids

Here’s what Sam thought:   

There’s no pictures of Luke eating these because he basically took one bite of a banana one and left.  He still won’t touch them.  Sam actually would only eat it that first time.  I haven’t been able to get him to eat another one.  Man, I hate having picky kids.

If you don’t have picky kids…then your kids will probably love these.  Even if you do, it’s worth a try!

Airplane Updated

I painted this picture of an airplane {as part of a series} a long long time ago for my nephew’s first birthday…he’s turning 10 this year!  My sister didn’t want/need the paintings anymore, so I took them back.  I thought this airplane one would be perfect in Sam’s room, but I didn’t love the colors.  I especially wanted the background to be white and not blue.  

  It would have been easy enough to make the background white without practically painting over the whole airplane, but I figured I’d probably end up changing all the colors anyway. I went ahead and painted over it a bit. 

Then I got to work re-painting the airplane in colors that would work a bit better in Sam’s room.  I decided to use some metallic paints, too.  Overall, I like how it turned out.  It’s not perfect, and could probably use some more detailing like I had before.  I’m seriously rusty when it comes to painting projects like this.  I was pretty stumped with what colors to do and where…I still might go back and repaint this plane one more time someday, but for now it will do. 

PS. Seriously loving gold frames right now! I bought 10 of these in 2 sizes when our Roberts Craft store closed, and now I’m wishing I bought them ALL so I could use them in my own bedroom, too!   

Scrappin' Sunday

This might take longer than I originally thought! I pounded out Luke's first book in like 2-3 months, but I don't think I'll be able to do the same with Sam's book.  I guess I just have to work harder!  Here's two pages I did tonight after we got the kids in bed: