DIY Pet Pillow: Chihuahua

It is that time again!!!

Link up your Pinterest projects with Sherry, Katie, Megan, and Michelle!

I have been wanting to make a Chihuahua shaped pillow of my mom's dog, Buster, as a gift.  

Materials needed:

1) A good quality photo of the pet/animal you'd like to use

2) Iron on transfer paper

3) Ink Jet printer

4) Sewing machine (or you could sew by hand)

5) needle and thread

6) material

7) Iron and some type of heat resistant hard backing (wood cutting board/piece of wood)

8) Poly fill

Step 1:

Prepare your image.  I used Photo Shop to add Buster to a white background and clean up the edges of his outline.  Then, I sized the image to best fit my transfer paper.  You may have to create a mirror image of your image but in my case, it won't matter which way he prints onto the paper.

Step 2:

Make sure you have enough ink in your printer.  You may want to print out a test print in order to make sure your image will fit the page the way you want it to.  Once you are good to go, add your transfer paper to the printer so that your image will print onto the unmarked side of the transfer sheet.  The ink must dry for 30 minutes before you can transfer it.  Now you may trim the image to your desired shape.

Step 3:

Iron your fabric smooth if need be.  Preheat your iron for 5 minutes to the highest cotton setting.  Do not use steam!  You will need to put your fabric over the heat resistant hard backing such as a wood cutting board.  You can't use an ironing board for this step.  Place your image face down onto your fabric where you want it to be.  Iron over the entire image using a circular motion making sure entire transfer, especially the edges, receives 15 to 20 seconds of heat.  Now, you may remove the transfer paper's backing.

 

Step 4: 

Trim your fabric to your desired pillow size.  Put the fabric with right sides facing in and sew around the edges, leaving a section a few inches wide open.  Now turn your pillow right side out and stuff with poly fill.  Finish by hand sewing the remaining opening.  Now you are finished!

Original inspiration pin came from go make me:

Source: gomakeme.com via Monica @ Creative Gator on Pinterest

Creative Summer Update/Pinterest Challenge

I have been interested in learning how to do embroidery by hand.  I have been inspired by several images on Pinterest.  Some as simple as embroidering of a road trip on a map to as ornate as beautiful flowers:

Sources:

1.  Map

2. Heart tree carving

3. Yellow flower

4. Orange poppies

Then I found this Seahorse pattern from Kim's Etsy shop, bigBgsd:

                                                  Source: bigbgsd.blogspot.com via Monica @ Creative Gator on Pinterest

Since I have a love for all things of the sea, I decided to try to use this PDF pattern as my first attempt at embroidery.  I used Kim's blog to figure out the scroll stitch as the border.  My stitching is not anywhere near perfect but it was fun to try.  As for the rest of the pattern, I just winged it.

I'm still trying to decide if I will rip out the scroll stitch along the top left and try it again.  Overall, it was a lot of fun and I look forward to learning new stitches. I plan to eventually frame it and hang it in my daughter's room on her gallery wall. I'm linking up with the Summer Pinterest Challenge hosted by Katie, Sherry, Kate, and Michelle.

Pinterest Challenge: Winter Edition

The Pinterest Challenge was thought up by the wonderful Katie from Bower Power to encourage us to actually make something inspired by something we have pinned on Pinterest.  It could be a craft, a recipe, artwork etc. Anything!  I really enjoy pinning and making wreaths for the different seasons or holidays.  While shopping with a friend recently, she mentioned that she would like a Spring wreath.  She told me she had admired a few with Easter eggs while at Target.  Her birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks so I decided I will make one as a gift.

I pinned this adorable Spring Grapevine Wreath from Martha Stewart last year:

Source: marthastewart.com via Monica @ Creative Gator on Pinterest

I like the look of the grapevine wreath with the moss but she wants Easter eggs, not woodland creatures. I wandered to the back of my local Michael's craft store and found a grapevine wreath with a little "basket."  So I just stuffed some Spanish moss down into the basket portion of the wreath form and hot glued a few colorful eggs inside.  I also love the look of a flag garland inspired by this wreath from Two Junk Chix:

Source: twojunkchix.blogspot.com via Monica @ Creative Gator on Pinterest

I cut out flag shapes from pink glitter card stock.  I used a ribbon threading craft punch to make slits to slide my thin pink ribbon through.  Next, I decided where and how I wanted the garland to look before tying it to the back of the wreath.  I added a few "feather" butterflies around the outside of the wreath and topped it off with a coordinating bow.

Please check out the great projects done by and link up your own Pinterest-inspired projects with Katie from Bower Power,  Sherry from Young House Love, Erin from The Great Indoors and Cassie from Hi Sugarplum!

Pinterest Challenge: February

Happy Leap Day!!!

This month's installment of my Pinterest self challenge is a recipe!

Rustic Tomato Tart

photo via lick the bowl

The original recipe can be found on Lick The Bowl Good's blog.  I've never made a tart before but I found this recipe easy to follow along.  We were having friends over for dinner this past Friday and I needed to make something meatless for dinner.  So while the kids played, the husbands shot pool, and the wives chatted, I whipped this up.  The only thing I would change next time would be to add a little less mustard.  But that is just my personal taste.

I also made and served horseradish cheddar beer soup via [grill, interrupted]* before the tomato tart.  Unfortunately, I did not take a picture before serving it up to my hungry guests.  This recipe made a large quantity and it was scarfed down pretty quickly.  What little leftover was eaten the next day for lunch by my husband.

                                                                                    photo via [grill, interrupted]*

My neighbor made a strawberry cream cheese tart for dessert.

Source: foodsnots.com via Monica @ Creative Gator on Pinterest

Our version which was delicious:

So there you have it, an entire vegetarian dinner inspired by Pinterest!

Pinspiration: Valentine's Day Edition

Valentine's Day was never a favorite holiday of mine growing up.  That all changed in 2007 with the birth of my first and only child bright and early on Valentine's Day.  Can I say best Valentine's gift ever??  Now I am slightly obsessed with crafting and decorating the house for my little Valentine.  Here are some of my favorite highlights from my I <3 Valentine's Day board over at Pinterest.

A pretty wreath to greet you at the door:

Breakfast:

Home decor:

To wear:

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Source: katiedid.squarespace.com via Monica @ Creative Gator on Pinterest

Do you love to decorate for Valentine's Day?

A Pinterest Challenge To Myself...

Pinterest...

I absolutely love that site for all of the creative ideas, pretty inspiration photos, and recipe ideas.  And since I have only 3500 or so ideas pinned, I thought I'd challenge myself to create, sew (well learn to sew), or cook at least one item each month for 2012.  I hope to share at least one project/recipe as I've tried them out.  Anyone care to join me?

So for the month of January, I am in full birthday party planning mode for my daughter.  This year she is turning FIVE!!! on Valentine's Day.  I asked her what she'd like to do for her birthday.  Her response was to "roll a ball."  So a bowling party it is.  I created a birthday party board on Pinterest for bowling party ideas such as invites, party favor bags, and decor.  I used ideas from two invites I found online to create my daughter's invites.

I liked the wording from this invite.  I decided to write it on black card stock I already owned with a white gel pen.

I used my circle cutter to cut out bowling balls from the card stock.  Then I used a hole punch to create the finger holes of the ball and another hole for ribbon.  The other invite I used as inspiration shows a bowling ball covering a pin and connected with a ribbon bow.

I decided not to cut the actual invitation into a bowling pin shape.  It was just easier that way and maybe a little bit lazy.  :)  The bowling ball slides away to reveal all of the important party info.  Taylor's favorite color right now is pink. I choose a hot pink colored font for the invite and used a matching sheer ribbon to tie it all together.  I found pink envelopes at Michaels and finished the invites off with gold inked addresses and heart stickers.  Side note:  The holes on this invite are wonky and this particular invite was not used.

Next on the agenda is designing the party favor bags.  I am working on making Hello Kitty "Thank you for celebrating with me" tags for the bags.  And I know they will have more pink ribbons.  I may even attach a another bowling ball similar to this idea:

I am also going to attempt to make Hello Kitty cupcake toppers using Photoshop and card stock.  I'll include pics after the party.

Thanksgiving Inspiration via Pinterest

Since Thanksgiving is exactly one week from today, I thought I'd share some of my favorite Thanksgiving themed pins from my Pinterest board "Let's Talk Turkey."  At the end of this post I will be linking to a great giveaway over at Little Miss Momma's blog.  You won't want to miss out!

A beautiful wreath to welcome family and friends:

Source: littlebirdiesecrets.blogspot.com via Monica @ Creative Gator on Pinterest

I went to Michael's last week to pick up some ribbon, picks, and faux fruit to make these sweet chair back decorations inspired by this pin:

This Give Thanks banner would look festive hung from a mantel or china cabinet near the dinner table:

Source: thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com via Monica @ Creative Gator on Pinterest

A fun kid's table:

These adorable gobble pillows would make a great hostess gift:

Source: tatertotsandjello.com via Monica @ Creative Gator on Pinterest

Fun printable that would look great framed. This could also be a hostess gift:

Source: etsy.com via Monica @ Creative Gator on Pinterest

And finally, the perfect turkey to go along with all of your side dishes:

Source: realsimple.com via Monica @ Creative Gator on Pinterest

Ashley from Little Miss Momma is holding a BIG blog giveaway today!  A Silhouette Cameo!  These are great for crafters and have so many uses.  A Cameo could be used to make that Thanksgiving banner and the heat transfer design for the gobble gobble pillow I mentioned above.  They are wonderful for making holiday and party decor, appliqués for clothing, stencils, wall decals, etc.  Make sure to check out Ashley's blog and giveaway today.

Pinterest Challenge Fall Edition

  Happy Wednesday!!

Katie and Sherry announced their 2nd Pinterest Challenge today on their blogs. The Fall Edition.  The idea is to recreate one of your pins.  It could be a little or big project.  It could be a fall craft, something for the home, or a delicious treat.  There will be posts next Wed, 11/2/11 on Young House Love and Bower Power to link up your projects and check out what everyone else created.  So get busy!

Here are a few pins I am considering:

I have a couple of faux pumpkins sitting around waiting for me to do something to them.

Source: Uploaded by user via Monica @ Creative Gator on Pinterest

Source: None via Monica @ Creative Gator on Pinterest

Source: None via Monica @ Creative Gator on Pinterest

I'd love to make these pumpkin place cards for our Thanksgiving table:

Source: None via Monica @ Creative Gator on Pinterest

A simple pumpkin wreath:

Source: None via Monica @ Creative Gator on Pinterest

These are just a few of the projects I am considering.  What about you?  If you need an invite to Pinterest, leave me a comment or send me an email with the email you'd like to use.