Family Beehive Art Knock off

I grew up in Utah and as you may or may not know Utah is the Beehive state.  Throughout Utah you will can see beehive symbols in odd places, even the Utah Highway Patrol’s logo feature the beehive.  I like beehives, perhaps Utah rubbed off on me but there is just something so amazing about bees and their homes.(source)

On a recent trip to Deseret Books I saw this framed personal art.

Sadly, I couldn’t afford the $229 price tag, and then I remember a post at I Am Momma Hear Me Roar found HERE about getting cheap prints at Staples, by using the blueprint option, and thought and I can replicate this, for cheap.
I went to work and searched for a beehive image that I liked.

(source)

I didn’t want all the hoopla around it so I used my paint program and erased everything but the beehive.  I then went to The Graphic Fairy’s and found a bee image I liked (hind sight say’s I should have just used the bee’s in the original image, I think they kind of came out as looking like fly’s).
After I placed my bees where I liked them I went to Picnik and using tips from I Am Momma Hear Me Roar found HERE placed the final touches.  This was a gift for my brother so I but on his last name, the year he was married, and the little decoration underneath, the five bees represent my brother, his wife, and three sons.

I went to the Staples website and placed my order, within 10 minutes they called me back telling me that my order was ready, it was so quick.  This is what it looked like when I picked it up.

I took out my colored pencils and colored the beehive and bees yellow, and my vision was beginning to take place.

I then took wet black tea bags and rubbed them all over the paper, to make the paper not so white.

I had an old frame that the glass had broken out and had cardboard backing I originally planned on using a piece of extra white board that I had on hand but it wasn’t quite big enough.  Instead of buying a sheet of wood I decided to just use the cardboard, because I was trying to replicate a canvas look I wanted bubbles so I Mod Podged the paper directly onto the cardboard.
I still didn’t think that my paper was dark enough so I took some black acrylic paint and mixed it with my Mod Podge brushing it on top of the art work.  Once it dried I brushed on a few more layers of regular Mod Podge and framed it.

I am so happy with how this project came out.  My biggest regret?  Leaving it on the floor to dry, my mom’s dog walked on it and ripped a piece of the paper, whoops.  One reason I don’t have dogs. 
A break down on the pricing:
Printing                              $3.17 (tax included)       
Colored Pencils                   FREE (already had)                
Tea Bags                           $2.00                                
Picture Frame                      FREE (already had)                 
Mod Podge                         FREE (already had)           
GRAND TOTAL                  $5.17
Original Image                   $229.00                               
SAVINGS OF                  $223.83 
I saved a huge amount and even managed to make my image larger, BONUS!  I am so excited to give this to my brother and his family.   I originally planned on doing it for a family Christmas gift but I really couldn’t wait to make it.  Happy Birthday big brother.
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I’m the Band Shirt

This is the other shirt that I made for the contest over at I am Momma hear me Roar.

I really love this shirt.  This shirt for me is a blast from the past.  Growing up this was the thing to wear a t-shirt featuring a band  and a thermal shirt underneath it.  We would cut hole at the end of the sleeves and put our thumbs through them.  LOVE IT!  Although I’ve seen this look creep up here and there I really wanted to make one for  a boy that captured what I remembered, with also keeping it kid friendly.

Like every other shirt I started out with a plain t-shirt.  I didn’t have any to fit the boy that I am giving it to so I went to Dollar Tree picked up the shirt.  I also purchased a pair of 3T thermal pants that were in the baby section.  I had everything else on hand which means this shirt cost me $2!! Take the pants and rip out the seam in the crotch and cut the elastic.  This will give you two sleeves.

Then stich up the legs and sew them to the underside of the shirt sleeves.  I also cut notches for the thumbs in the ends of the sleeves and sewed around them.

Then decorate with fabric paint.  I cut the shapes out on freezer paper using my Silhouette and then painted and waited, and painted and waited, and painted and waited.

The front says I’m in the Band!! I thought about putting I’m the fan on the bottom but I think in this case less is more. 

On the back I put on a bunch of band names, names that a boy would like such as Foo Fighters, Blind Melon, and Green Day.

I know I’m a girl but I really want this shirt!!!  LOVE IT!! Again this shirt is in the mail waiting to be received once it is I will have pictures of it being worn by a boy, my mannequin makes it look a bit girly, need to find a nice boy figure that I can turn into a a mannequin.

YAY for the USPS my friends son got his shirts today and I got pictures of the shirt making it look not girly AT ALL!  Let the photo shoot begin.

Saint Patrick Day Shirt One

My girls needed shirts for St. Patrick’s Day I finished Kitty Kat’s last night.

I don’t have much green fabric on hand but was thrilled when I found this remnant of jersey fabric for .63 cents at Walmart, there was close to a yard of it, yay!!!  I like the idea of appliqués but my Princess used up the rest of my Heat and Bond so I had to come up with something different for the shirts, I did however have green t-shirts on hand. This tutorial will be for Kitty Kats shirt and I will hopefully post the tutorial for Princess’s shirt on Wednesday.

I had originally planned for this shirt to say Lucky Charm but when I was setting it up I liked the word Lucky so much that I got rid of the charm.                       This shirt really was simple to make so I hope that this tutorial comes off that way.

I printed up a design from my silhouette onto freezer paper and ironed it onto the t-shirt.

I then took my washable marker and traced the design onto the shirt.

When it was all traced this is what I had.

I then took my jersey fabric and cut it large enough to cover the entire design, I turned the t-shirt inside out and laid the fabric on top so that the right side of the jersey was on top of the wrong side of the shirt, making sure that it was covering the image on the other side.  I then ironed it so that it was smooth and flat and to keep it in position I took the scraps of left over freezer paper and ironed them it on the sides using it like a tape.

Next is to take another piece of freezer paper and place it on top with the shiny side facing up and pin it in place.  The freezer paper will work as a stabilizer and preventing bunching when sewing.

Turn the shirt right side out and begin to sew.  Remember that when sewing with jersey to switch your needle to a ball point needle.  I sewed a straight stitch and changed my settings to width 1.5 and length 1.0, I also changed my foot to my clear foot so that I could follow my markings when sewing.

Be careful not to bunch this is what it will look like when it is completely stitched.

 

And this is the images of the inside.

Trim the thread and tear off the freezer paper holding your stitching as you tear.

You can also trim off the excess fabric around your stitching.  Turn your shirt right side out and pull where you have just stitched making sure to separate the back from the front fabric and cut off a small piece.

Carefully trim up to where the stitching is leaving some excess fabric, it should look like this when finished.

Throw it in the washing machine to get rid of your ink marks. The finished product.

Fabric Soccer Ball Tutorial

As I mentioned on Monday when I made the fabric soccer ball for my Soccer Monkey, I had a hard time finding information on making a fabric soccer ball. In fact I had a hard time finding anything at one place, I found tutorials on how to make a soccer ball on a computer program and I read posts of people who had made fabric soccer balls but all they were doing was showcasing their accomplishments, so I knew that I needed to attempt to write a tutorial, if not for others than for myself so that I can always refer to it.

The thing that I love about these is that they are a nice way to get rid of all those extra scraps that you seem to collect. Now I’ll admit that I am not the best at keeping scraps but I do have a few and because of these balls I think I will actually start keeping more of my scraps.

I enjoy math but I have never taken Geometry and I’ll admit I had a hard time keeping track of what shape was a hexagon(6 sides) and what was a pentagon(5 sides) so I actually wrote the names on my shapes. I was fortunate to find a pentagon and a hexagon that were the same size, because when I attempted to draw it, well lets just say it was a disaster. For the Monkey’s ball I re-sized my image to make it smaller and then for this soccer ball I enlarged it. I like that there is a starting point and I can determine the size just by adjusting it in my printer

An official soccer ball has 12 Pentagons and 20 Hexagons you can download the template HERE and then adjust the size as you would like. I printed mine on card stock an then traced my image onto the fabric. My friend Len over at Crafty Homeschool has gotten me to start using washable markers to mark the fabric, I always check the fabric first as it can occasionally stain but I haven’t had any major problems and really enjoy using these.

For the Hexagon I selected 5 different fabrics and for the Pentagon I selected 4 different fabrics, but you can adjust this for whatever you have. I also was kind of “boyed” out after making the baby boy gift, so I made this a bit girly.

Because the ball becomes round as you piece it together it is rather difficult to plan out, so the only planning that I recommend is planning out the top and the bottom, in my case I wanted the top and bottom to be identical so I set them both up the same. You need to place 1 pentagon in the center surrounded by 5 hexagons.

Take your pentagon and place a hexagon on top of it right sides together, matching up the sides and sew together.

Stop stitching just before the end of the side as this will help align the remaining hexagons.

The next hexagon piece will need to be connected to both the pentagon and the already attached hexagon piece. Begin by attaching the new hexagon piece as the first piece connecting it to the pentagon, folding in half the other hexagon as you are sewing it on. Now that it is attached to the pentagon fold it in half and sew the other half on.

The hardest part in this step is making sure you get all the pieces attached together and not having a pucker. It should now look like this.

Continue until all the remaining hexagons are attached to your pentagon.


The top part is now complete, now repeat the above steps to make the bottom.

The top and bottom are now complete and match, now comes time to attach the remaining hexagons and pentagons.


Unfortunately, I don’t have a great image of the next step but if you look at the image below on the right is shows how to line up the next 5 pentagons.

Attach them in between the hexagon using the same steps as above for attaching them. This time there are 3 pieces of fabric at the center so be aware to make sure that all of the fabrics are connected together. Do this to both pieces.
To attach the remaining hexagons (I have no image) only attach them on one of the already started pieces.

When attaching the remaining hexagons you are now attaching 4 pieces of fabric. The easiest way to this is to attach to 1 side on the next side leave open, attach the furthest side, and then return to the middle piece and attach. I know this sounds rather confusing but it is the best way I can explain it and once you are at this step, it is easy to figure out how to complete attaching the shapes as you will find what works best for you.

Check every single time to make sure your corners match up, are all completely stitched and look GREAT!

All that remains are these 2 full pieces to attach, 1 piece is your original bottom with the added 5 pentagons and the other piece has all of the remaining pieces attached to it.

Turn these pieces inside out and attach all of the sides together. For this ball I was able to leave only 1 side open, but for smaller balls you may have to leave 2 or even 3 sides unstitched.

Pull the fabric through so that it is now right side out, clipping threads before hand.

Now all that is necessary is to stuff the ball. I stuffed with just fiber fill but it would also be nice to fill it with Styrofoam beans, and hand stitch your opening closed.

Now your ball is complete.

My girls have been having a blast with this ball. It is soft enough that they can play with it in the house and “Princess” has been using it as a pillow, that is what she slept on last night. As mentioned above this would be great if this was filled with Styrofoam beads, and this ball could make an AMAZING look and find ball, by just replacing some of the shapes with the clear vinyl. I hope you enjoy these balls as much as we have and feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
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