Red, White & Blue Roundup Day 19 with Life as Topher's Mama

Hi y'all! I'm gin, author of Life as Topher's Mama.

I am mama to Toph, wife to Matt and maestra (teacher) to bilingual third graders. But you're not here to learn about that, are you? No ma'am, you're here for the crafts. The red, white and blue crafts, to be exact.


Well, before we begin I have a confession to make. I am in no way a crafty person. I've recently become interested in making my home more beautiful and doing so without going through my son's college fund {which I'm planning to use for my Caribbean cruise, coincidentally}.

I'm a self proclaimed tutorialista; at this point in my crafting I'm usually not able to come up with anything on my own (but sometimes I get a creative spark), so I'm dependent on crafty ladies to post tutorials, so I can follow them step by step, thus making my home a more beautiful place.

Here is what I made:

This whole project was inspired from this, which I found on Pinterest.  {Who else thinks the inventor of Pinterest is a genius?}

Now, I didn't do this project as a way to decorate for Independence Day.  I just love the colors and the shabby chicness of it all.  Plus, my kitchen is red, so this goes well.

Here's how you do it:

• I stripped the ribbon and buttons from a ribbon organizer I already had. 
• I measured my fabric to be an inch longer than each side of the organizer and I pulled tight to staple it.
• I pulled my ribbon very tightly and stapled in the middle to separate each section.  This was a two man job because I was using the staple gun and I don't particularly trust myself using that on my own.  My husband was only happy to oblige because he prefers me to be able to see with both eyes.

Instead of covering the staples with buttons, I made felt flowers.  I found the tutorial for them here.
I told you I'm a tutorialista.

Then, I got to work on my cutlery frames. First, I gathered my materials.

Here you've got your fabric, cutlery, hot glue gun, picture frames, batting, red spray paint.  I didn't photograph the stapler but I used it liberally (sorry, stapler!).

First, spray paint your frames.

Then, cover the cardboard insert in the frame with two layers of batting.  You want the batting to make the cutlery stick out a little.  I stapled unabashedly during this step because I knew the fabric was going to cover them up.

Then, cut four pieces of fabric measuring about a half an inch longer on all sides of the frame.

Pull the fabric as tight as you can and hot glue it down.  It needs to be tight, but the frame will be going over this and will also make it tight.  Just no sagging! (That's what she said.)

Then, place the frame over your batting and fabric covered cardboard piece.  It should feel like a cutlery pillow at this point.

Now, spray paint your cutlery.  I got super lazy at this point and only sprayed one coat and one side of the cutlery.  It worked out though.

After your cutlery is dry, hot glue it onto their cutlery pillow.  I I laid my pieces at 2, 4 and 6 inches.

In the end, I hung my sweet red, white and blues on a forgotten patch of wall on the far side of my kitchen.  It's in kind of a narrow doorway which is why it's hard to get a good angle for a picture.

There it is folks!  I really hope you liked it and that you can somehow adapt it for you.

One more thing:  I'm obsessed with comments.  Don't be skurred to validate my newfound love of crafting and leave some serious comment love.

 

Jess, thank you so much for this great opportunity.  You inspire me silly, girl.