Watercolor Resist

Who knew?!  Rubber cement!  I saw this cool technique over at Sand and Sisal.  Called water color resist.  I love how they turned out.  Very easy and fun to do.

 

Just grab a stencil, rubber cement, water color paint and watercolor paper that is at least 90 lbs weight.

Place your stencil on the paper and apply a THICK coat of rubber cement over your stencil design.

Let the glue dry completely. I placed mine in the sun for about 5-8 minutes.

Now time for the fun part!  Paint.
Before I use the watercolor paint I like to brush on clear water over my paper.  Then I add my water downed color of choice.  The color then bleeds a bit since the paper was already wet.  The rubber cement acts as a shield and resists the watercolor paint.

Now Kim over at Sand and Sisal is really talented with her watercolors.  So check out what she did.  I kept it simple, I just wanted shades of blue.

Once again the paper has to dry completely.  I set mine in the sun for a 5-10 minutes.

Then use a clean finger and rub off the rubber cement!  You will be left with a white design.  If you  use paper that is thinner than 90 weight when you do this step your paper will rip and get holes.

Now for my obvious disclosure.  If the rubber cement is not thick enough, the watercolors will seep through a bit.  I'm not sure if it was the brand I used or I just need to really lay it on super thick.  I thought I had but obviously not since there are small areas of blue streaks. 

I actually like the imperfections.  Just wanted to share what happened to me.

Thanks for looking!

Skillet Baked Chocolate Chip Cookie

Since this is the first week back to school I thought it would be nice to have a special treat waiting for K when the bus drops her off today.

Nothing like a nice warm gooey cookie... I don't care if it's 90 degrees outside!

Doesn't get much easier than a skillet baked chocolate chip cookie!  Today I did not have the milk chocolate chips handy, but it is still great using just the semi-sweet chocolate chips.  I also like to use Ghirardelli brand chips.

I love using this Martha Stewart recipe when I need something quick or I don't feel like scooping out dozens of balls of cookie dough.

Skillet Baked Chocolate Chip Cookie

By Martha Stewart

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

¾ cup unsalted butter, softened

½ cup sugar

¾ cup packed light brown sugar

1 large egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 ½ cups mixed milk & semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In medium bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, salt; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars until mixture is light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

Add egg and vanilla; mix until they are fully incorporated.

Add flour mixture and beat until just combined.  Stir in chocolate chips.

Transfer dough to 10-inch ovenproof skillet and press to flatten, covering bottom of pan.

Bake until edges are brown and top is golden, 38-45 minutes.

DON’t over bake; it will continue to cook a few minutes out of the oven.

Transfer to wire rack to cool, 15-20 minutes.

Cut into wedges and serve warm.

Needle Threader

Oh my gosh how cute is this idea?!  Prefect gift to give a sewer or just have next to your sewing stash!

I saw this idea over at Wild Olive and thought they would be so cute to whip up.

Cut out wool felt in any color to measure 1 x 3 inches.

Cut out tan wool felt to measure 1 1/4inches x 3/16 inches.

I used 32 gauge wire and a 1/16 inch hole punch.

Fold felt strip in half and finger crease.  Open up and punch 2 holes on the crease.

Grab a needle and black embroidery thread to make 2 eyes and a smile.  (I used 3 strands.)  I did french knots for the eyes, wrapping around the needle twice.

Next grab whatever color embroidery thread you want to for the thread lines.  You can do matchy-matchy or pick something totally different!

Cut a piece of 32 gauge wire to about 5 inches in length.  Push both ends through the 2 holes on top of your felt strip.  I left about 1 inch to 1 1/4 inch loop sticking up.

Flip over your felt and twist your pieces of wire together to prevent from coming apart.  Then bunch up any extra wire.

With wrong side facing up I used my hot glue gun to apply a small amount of glue on half of the  felt piece.  Fold over and press down to secure closed.

You can use fabric glue if you want.

Next glue on the 2 tan pieces of felt to create your spool.  Allow the glue to dry by placing a heavy object on the felt, if using fabric glue.

To use the needle threader:  Bend top of wire to push through the needle opening.  Slip in your thread and pull back on the threader and your needle is now threaded!

I honestly do not use needle threaders but I think I might have to start cause I just think these are too darn cute! 

Of course you can never just make one of a craft... as long as you already have your supplies out might as well whip up a few!

Thanks to Wild Olive for such a cute craft.

Will be linked up to Made by You Mondays over at Skip To My Lou.

Little Red Stuffie

Here is a cute felt stuffie of Little Red Riding Hood.

I got the pattern from The Long Thread.  Such a great blog.  Choc-full of great projects!

I did a couple small things different when sewing together my little red.

I printed out the pattern pieces from  here.  It is 2 pages to print out.

I cut out my pieces using red wool felt, face colored wool felt and a fabric scrap for the dress.

I use tissue paper to trace the face design and then pin the tissue paper to my felt circle and start to embroider the face features.  I used french knots for the eyes.  (3 times around needle)  Once you finish stitching just carefully rip away the tissue paper.

Next fold the hood in half lengthwise and cut out a half circle that is 1/4" smaller than your embroidered face.  I used a circle cut to 1 7/8 inches.

Pin the face to the underside of the red hood and sew around the circle opening. (Photo does not show the stitches.)

Your hood will stretch a wee bit once everything is sewn together so make sure your opening is overlapping the hair so as not to see any flesh color peeking through!

Next lay out the fabric dress.  Place the cape pieces so they are aligned to the top of the dress.  I then laid out a piece of ric-rac 1/4 inch down from top of dress and placed the hood approximately 1/4 inch down so the ric-rac was just peaking out.  Then sew across to secure pieces together.

Place and pin right sides together: dress front and red felt back.

Start at bottom and sew around using 1/4 inch seam allowance.  Remember to leave 1 1/5 inch opening for turning and stuffing.

I stuffed fairly tight and used a ladder stitch to close up the stuffie.

I like how she turned out but I think I will make her hair a wee bit longer next time.

I love getting my wool felt from here.

Thank you for looking!  This post is linked up with Made By You Monday at Skip To My Lou.

Laundry Closet Makeover

My new happy place!  Who knew it could be the laundry (closet) room.

I spend way too much time standing at my laundry closet and it was just so uninspiring and ugly to even open up the doors!

Before

Before

I picked up some paint the other night and I could not be happier with the final color.  Of course I just can't seem to capture the true essence of the color with my camera but it is called Tide Pools by Behr.  I just love it.  It really does look like a piece of sea glass.  It is in the green family but not "minty" at all.

I picked up 2 glass shelves from Ikea which help to keep it open and light looking.

I wanted a white circle mirror to mimic a port hole.  But who knew they are impossible to find with out spending well over a hundred dollars.  I found a small set of 5 mirrors by Martha Stewart at Home Depot but they were black.  I thought no big deal I will just spray paint them.  Ended up breaking 2 of them just trying to get them out of the frame in order to paint them. A few other things happened and I gave up.

I only was able to salvage one of the mirrors, it's too small over-all but it will just have to do for now until I find something else.

I grabbed some of the jars I have around the house filled with shells and put them on the glass shelves to decorate.  It just makes me smile now to open up the laundry doors.  It's so calming and relaxing to just stand there now.  I like remembering the trips we have taken to collect the shells as well.

I also bought a narrow, metal 3 tier rolling shelf that fits next to the dryer to keep all the laundry supplies.  I like how it will be out of direct sight now.

I also hung up 3 hooks on the far right of the closet to hold a lint bag and delicate bag.

I still wish I could have a true laundry room, but my laundry closet does look a lot larger now with the changes I made!

UPDATE:

Yeah, found a circle mirror at Hobby Lobby.  I spray painted it and all good now!

I like how my hooks have circles too.