{Blast from the Past} Wooden Firecrackers

It's about that time again, where we start busting out the red, white and blue and all the craftiness those colors inspire.  Here's a flashback to these easy wooden firecrackers that I shared a few years back {in case you missed them or forgot about them.}

These cuties took me only about a half hour to whip up.  And I love them!  

If you want to make your own {and I know you do!}, you'll need:

three pieces of wood: 1 7 inches long, 1 6 inches long and 1 5 inches long and all about 2 inches wide

Red, white and blue paint

Wooden star

Hemp or twine

Hot glue and paint brushes

I started with this block of wood.  It was left over from the posts of our fence.  Pre-cutting, it was about 4 inches wide.  I divided it in half on two sides and drew some lines.  Then, my brother-in-law helped me do the cutting-I don't trust myself with power tools while being pregnant.  Once I had four pieces, I had him cut two shorter-taking one inch off of one and two inches off of the other.

So they looked like this.  Now, my pieces were pretty rough and I wanted them that way.  I liked the rustic look of them.  So I just lightly sanded the edges and tops and bottoms to smooth them out so there wouldn't be rough edges to catch on things or scratch up the furniture.

Once they were sanded and ready to go, I painted them.  Each piece got two coats of paint, which I let dry in between coats.

Like so.

Then it was time to add the "wicks."  I used three pieces of hemp for this that I just cut at random lengths.

Then glued to the top of each firecracker.

So they looked like this.

Then I wrapped a piece of hemp around the whole thing a few times and tied it in a knot at the back, then slid the star in.

Here they sit with some of my other red, white and blue decor.

I quite like the way they turned out.  And since I had almost everything on hand already, they were super-cheap.  The only thing I had to buy was the little star, which was a whopping 79 cents at Michaels!

{Blast from the Past} Purple Rosette Tee

I dug this one out of the vaults and dusted it off for you all, in case you missed it the first time around.  I'm sure you have a tee or two hiding in your closet or shoved in the back of your drawer that could use a makeover.  Here's some inspiration for you:

Purple Rosette Tee

Today I'm sharing a simple way to disguise a holey tee.  I'm still a novice seamstress, so when it comes to me and sewing, simple is best.

I had a little bit of a mystery-a bunch of almost new tees were developing holes in them, all near the bottom of the shirt, thus ruining otherwise perfectly good shirts.  Not only was it frustrating because I didn't know what was causing the holes, but I felt like I was wasting money because these shirts that had only been worn 2 or 3 times were now trashed.  

This is only about half of the pile of shirts with holes.  I needed to come up with a creative way to cover up the holes without it being obvious that I was hiding something.

With the purple tee (which is also right there on the top), the holes were kind of big and covered a wider area

They were also a little off-center, so it presented a bigger challenge. 

To fix yours up, you'll need:

A holey tee

A tee to cut up in a matching/coordinating color

matching thread

rotary mat, cutter and ruler

tailor's chalk 

Then I found this tee at a consignment shop and had an idea.  It matched the contrast stitching on the purple holey tee perfectly.

It was only $3!  And HUGE!  I've never seen such a large medium-sized tee!  But that meant there was plenty of fabric to work with.

To start off with, I folded the dark purple tee in half and with tailor's chalk, marked a line diagonally down from the collar to just past the last hole at the bottom.

I pulled it out flat like this, still keeping it folded in half (see the chalk line) so that the area I cut out would be even.  Then I cut out that chunk-bye-bye holes!

I measured the length of the piece I cut out and the width at the bottom and cut a piece out using those measurements from the lavender tee.

I wanted it to have a gathered look at the top, so I stitched some thread in about 1/4 in. down from the top of the edge and gathered it by pulling on the thread.

Then, using the piece I had cut out of the purple tee as a guide, I trimmed up the lavender piece

Then pinned it in place.

And sewed the pieces together.

Like so.

Now, you could stop here if you wanted.  But I felt it needed a little something more.

Rosettes make everything prettier!  I cut a few strips of fabric from the lavender tee and rolled them into rosettes, stitching them in place as I went so they wouldn't come undone.

Then attached them to my tee at the collar.

And there you have it!

Holes? What holes?

I'm quite pleased with how it turned out and I hope you love yours too!

{Blast from the Past} Black Bead and Flower Necklace

I'm slowly getting back to normal with blogging.  I'm working on projects and crafts more and I've got near finished so I'll have some fun things to share with you soon.  In the meantime, I've dug up some Scraps and Scribbles' gems from the past to {re} share with you all.

I love a pretty and simple statement necklace.  Something that packs a punch without being overwhelming.

Photo courtesy of Forever 21

I saw this necklace over at Forever 21's website some time ago.  I went to try and find it in the store, but no luck.  Then I thought, hey, I could make my own!

To make yours, you'll need:

About 3 yards of black "pearls" (I got mine at Joann's)

Sheer black fabric

Black ribbon, about 1/2 in. wide

Needle, thread, glue and glue gun

Start by cutting 3 lengths of the beads: one 35.5 inches, one 31.5 inches and one 27 inches.  You can adjust the measurements if you don't want your necklace as long.  Lay them out longest, middle and shortest (as shown in the picture.)

Cut two lengths of ribbon, 4 inches long each.  Glue on the ends of the beads, keeping them in the laid-out (longest, middle, shortest) order.  Glue the other ends to the opposite edge of the ribbon.  Be sure to keep them in order so they don't get twisted!

Glue on the other piece of ribbon, covering the beads.

There!  Now it's time to make the flowers.

Cut 4 9 x 1.5 inch strips of the sheer black fabric.  This will make three flowers-two small and one large.

Fold them in half, without creasing so you end up with a tube and hem together the edges, about 1/8 of an inch in.

Start rolling the tube, turning the raw edges at the end in.  Stop when it looks like this and stitch in place.

Gather the remainder of the fabric and roll around the center.  Stitch in place.

For the large flower, sew two strips of fabric together, end to end and repeat the steps for the small flower.

Now it's time to attach the flowers.  Decide where you'd like the flowers to be and start with the top one when you begin attaching them.  Glue the flower onto the center strand first.  We'll attach the addition strands once all of the flowers are attached.

Attach the large flower next, followed by the last small flower.  Once all of the flowers have been glued onto the center strand, attach the flowers to the other strands.  Be sure to keep the beads tight, but not over-tight, so there's no sagging or bunching in between the flowers.

And there you go!

Your very own, pretty statement necklace!

{Blast from the Past} Photo Collage Star

This project is one of my faves and one I get asked about A LOT!  So here it is {again} for those of you who might have missed it the first time around.

A dear and super-crafty friend told me about this project back when we were looking for fun, hand-made presents for Christmas a few years' ago and we loved the idea so much, we decided to make ones for ourselves.  She found the idea over at Better Homes and Gardens but I have searched the site over and over again and I cannot for the life of me find it.  Since I couldn't find the original or a tutorial, I've made up one up based on how I did it so you can make your own!

You'll need:

-A large, metal star-preferably one without any embellishments.  You'll need a smooth surface to glue the pictures and paper to.  I found mine at Hobby Lobby, but you can find them at lots of craft stores and/or home decor stores.  (P.S. the red one above is NOT the one I used for my collage.  It's only pictured to give you an idea and it is the exact same size as the one I used.)
*The one that I used to create mine is 22 inches across.*

-Scrapbook paper in 3 coordinating prints (one sheet of each print should be PLENTY.)

-10 pictures-you will probably want to plan ahead which pictures will go where on your star so that you have the right orientation (I recommend black and white pictures if using colored scrapbook paper-it's a little too much with color photos AND color paper)
I used 4x6's for mine, but if you're using a larger star, you'll probably want a larger print.

-Glue stick-make sure it's acid-free and safe to use with photos (think scrapbooking glue)

Mod Podge and brush

-Paper and photo patterns-these fit the size and style star that I used, you may need to adjust them to fit whatever star you are using or if you want less of a border around your picture and paper pieces.  You can click on the picture to make it larger, then right-click it to download/save (print it as a regular letter-size sheet.)

How to make it:

Trace and cut out 10 paper shapes-one small and large from one piece of paper and 2 of each from the other two ("paper front" should be facing you when tracing your shapes on the paper.)

Then do the same with your pictures ("photo front" should be facing you when tracing shapes on photos.)  

Using your glue stick, glue the paper and pictures to each point.  Cover the entire back and make sure they are pressed down very firmly onto the star so that they don't bubble when you Mod Podge them.  The pattern that you cut only one of is the top point of the star and then alternate the remaining patterns on the other 4 points.

There should be a small border around each piece where the star shows through.

Once you have all of your pictures and paper glued on, apply a thin coat of Mod Podge over the entire star.  Make sure you get all the edges.  Allow 20 minutes to dry then apply another coat.

Hang and enjoy!