Burlap Bag to Doorstop

Remember when my friend Christina gave me this awesome gift basket full of antiques for my bridal shower?

Well, I have been pondering about what I should do with that snazzy feed sack, and I finally figured it out.  Doorstops!  I have been thinking a lot about how we needed doorstops for our back french doors that lead out to our patio.  And, we needed them A.S.A.P., since the weather is about to get cool enough to turn off the AC and leave the doors open! Woo to the hoo!

So, I grabbed my feed sack and did some more pondering about how I can make this work.  I had previously made a pretty nifty doorstop for our bedroom, so I figured I would do something pretty similar this time around.

First, let me show you this feed sack…One thing that I love about it is that it has something printed on both the front and the back.

The front says Hoffman’s Farm Seeds.  I dig it.And the back….Funk’s Hybrid?  I mean, come on, you had me at Funk’s!

My first step was to cut the bag so that it laid flat.  This way, I had one long piece of fabric.  I did this by cutting across one side and along the bottom. Voila!!!

Then, I gave the whole thing a good ironing.  From there, it was time to do some cutting.  I wanted the doorstops to be a bit taller this time around, because there is actually a step up into the house making the doors a bit higher.  Since they needed to be taller, I cut the fabric longer vertically. This worked out well, since the printing on the bag is more vertical.

I also made sure to cut both pieces the same size.  I did this by cutting one piece to the size I wanted, then laying that piece directly onto the center of the uncut piece.  I cut the uncut fabric directly around the edge of the top pre-cut fabric, basically tracing the exact size.   Hope that makes sense!  Probably not, but that’s as good as it gets for my explanation.

Anywho, those two pieces were to be the front of my new doorstops.  That means I needed two more pieces that are the exact same size.  I just so happened to have some tan fabric that matched pretty well with the fabric from the feed sack.  So, I cut two more pieces of that fabric the same way.I needed two more pieces, because I was making two doorstops.  Which both have a front and a back, just in case you’re not following where I am going with this.  Now, that I had all of the pieces cut to the same size, it was time to get sewing.

I took the tan fabric, “good” side facing up, and laid it down first.  I, then, placed my feed sack piece, “good” side facing down, on top of the tan fabric, making a fabric sandwich. This way both “good” sides are facing inward.  And when I say “good” side, I mean the side that I want to be seen when I am done sewing, so for the feed sack it would be the side with the printing.  Here is a peek at the inside of my fabric sandwich…Get it?

Then, I just sewed up all sides of each, leaving only a small opening on one side. The opening was about 3 inches wide. I left an opening, so I was able to turn the soon-to-be doorstop inside out. Once, I had turned each doorstop inside out I was left with this…I didn’t sew those openings up just yet.  I first used them to fill the doorstops with rice. I just poured the rice right in, totally expecting to make a mess, but it was pretty easy and mess-free.  However, if you have a funnel, you might want to break it out for this step.It took about 7 lbs. of dry rice to fill each doorstop. I didn’t want them to be so stuffed they looked like they were going to burst, but I did wanted them to be heavy enough to prop each door open.  So, 7 lbs. seemed like a happy medium.Once, they were both full, I sewed up the opening and then took them for a test run.        Check out that door propping action! Wanna get closer? Okay!…Closer still? Fine!…I totally dig them, and they serve their purpose!  Just in time for some nice fall weather. And, when they are not keeping those pesky doors open, they hang out here…Right next to the fireplace.I think I did a bang up job.  Don’t you?

Cards and Sparks

Going into planning our wedding, I thought it would be a lot of work, but it was more than a lot.  You have to think of every detail, I mean EVERY last detail.  You have to plan everything from the food, to the music, to bathroom arrangements, even things as simple as where people will put their cards.  Don’t get me wrong a lot of these things are fun to put together, but it can be a lot all at once.  Plus, I am not the type of girl who dreamed about my wedding day since I was born.  I didn’t really have a good idea of what I wanted in a wedding, so I started from scratch.

Anywho, this post is about a couple more things that I made for the wedding.  Just some more artsy-fartsy wedding stuff!

The first project was to find something to hold and display the sparklers that we planned have at the wedding.  Sandy suggested this galvanized bucket, that she had on hand…

And considering I’m a big fan of anything galvanized, I was on board.  Use whatcha got.  Amiright, people?  Now, to dress it up a bit.

I picked up these little burlap flowers at Michaels a while back for under $5 (can’t remember exactly how much, so that’s a ballpark). I knew I wanted to use them somewhere in the decor for the wedding.  How about on a galvanized sparkler tin?  Huzzah!Before I got going, I decided I wasn’t quit digging those buttons.  So, I dug around my art room and found a solution…Pearls!  They feel a little more “wedding” to me then the buttons.

I pulled the buttons off, and hot glued the pearls on…Ah, much better!

I also picked up some thick burlap ribbon for a couple bucks, at Michaels…I wrapped the burlap around the top of the bucket, just under the rim and tied it in place…

As for how I attached it, I just tied it in a knot on the back and cut off the access ribbon.Voila!  Then, I hot glued some of my burlap flowers on…And Boom!  Just like that, I had my sparker tin.

As for the actual sparklers, Sandy purchased them in bulk online.  She also had matches made, personalized with our names and our wedding date.  I then, just put together a document that we could attach to each sparkler.  I decided to put use saying “Help Us Light Up The Night” on each sparkler.  From there, we just attached a set of matches to each document with some hot glue.  Then, we put a couple holes on the top and the bottom, where we could slide the sparkler through.

Next up, I had to figure out what I was going to do for our card box/holder/basket, or whatever object you can imagine that can hold cards.

Here is what we used…

A birdcage! Sandy’s neighbor just so happened to have this guy on hand, and we thought it would be perfect to hold our cards.

I wanted the cage to match the sparkler tin, so I used the burlap ribbon and flowers again.This was a little trickier than the just wrapping the sparkler tin.  I had to weave the burlap in and out of the wire sides of the cage, still simple enough though.  I did this on both the top and the bottom of the cage.  I then, just tied the burlap and cut off the excess ribbon, once again.I also, tossed a paper doily in the bottom for fun.

Sandy picked up a couple cute little chalkboards from Hobby Lobby and painted the edges a sage green, I then just simply wrote “CARDS” on one.  You don’t want your guest to be confused to where the cards go, right?In case you’re wondering, I used twine to attach the chalkboard.  I just slipped it through the holes on each side of the frame, and tied it around the back of the cage.  From there, I just hot glued a couple of the burlap flowers on top and called it done!Pretty radical, huh?  Here they are being all matchy matchy…

As you can see, I made a “TAKE 1” sign for the sparklers, but that didn’t actually get used, we thought it looked better without.

Want some wedding photos?  Okay!Woot woot for sparklers! Below are our mom’s hanging out next to the display.  Aren’t they cute?And how about the card cage…Hubba hubba!

Lastly, us at our sparkler send off!  You gotta do this at your wedding, it was totally fun and the pictures are pretty cool too!                     

She’s Mad Crafty Yo!

I was checking out etsy the other day as usual, wishing I was had butt loads of money so I could buy everything my heart desires.  Seriously, I can’t get over how talented some etsy sellers are.  I love me some etsy! Anywho, I stumbled across this by this seller…

and this by this seller…

and this by this seller…

It seems I’m really digging the burlap type pillows with awesome quotes.  I love the first one Live by the sun Love by the moon.  And the last one that looks like the whale was stenciled on.  I thought about purchasing the last one because it is actually a door stop and I think it is a really unique way to prop open your door shyaa!  I also have a rule that if I can make something myself for cheaper than it is being sold, then I should try to make it before buying it.  I decided that even though this doorstop is only $15($10 for doorstop + $5 for shipping), I think I can make it myself for cheaper.  It seemed pretty simple so I went for it.  First I purchased some burlap from JoAnne Fabrics…

While I was there I also picked up a couple stencil brushes.  The burlap was $2.30 for 1/2 a yard and $.99 for the stencil brushes.  I had a coupon and my total came to $2 and some change, I also had a gift card so it ended up taking no mulah from my pocket woo hoo!

Next I picked up some rice from Walmart for a couple dollars.  I will use the rice as filler and for weight to hold the door back. Everything else I used I already owned, so total cost for myself was around $2! Score!

Here’s how I did it…

I first had to decide what I wanted on my doorstop, I knew I wanted a quote and I knew it was going to be holding our bedroom door open.  I decided to go with “rise and shine”.  I figured it would be one of the first things we see in the morning, anything to make me a little happier to be getting outta bed is welcome in my book! I started by making a template on the computer that would be my stencil…

Here it is all ready to go.  Next I cut all the lettering out…

Look at me go!

Here’s the finished product, now I have my stencil.  Next I got my paint out.

I decided to go with a grayish blue color for the lettering, who woulda thought?

I came up with this color.  I used a paper plate for mixing, I love easy clean up!

I then decided on the placement of my stencil.

Next I just filled in the letters with my stencil brush.  I just used a blotting motion until all of the letters were filled.

Here it is once the stencil was removed.  While that dried I worked on my next step.

Since the burlap has small holes in the fabric, I needed to make an interior pouch to put the rice in.  I didn’t want rice slipping out all over my floor every time we moved it. So I found a similar color fabric and cut out a couple pieces about a half inch larger on each side than I wanted the actual doorstop to be.

Next I got out my sewing machine(yup I have one of those). I started sewing the interior fabric inside out leaving one side open, then turned the pouch outside in(is that how you would say it?). I then poured in the rice filling the pouch up approximately 3/4 of the way. Then I sewed up the open end.

This was what I was left with, a white pouch filled with rice! Fancy!

I then cut the burlap with the stenciling about an inch larger on each side than i want the doorstop to be.  From there I placed the two pieces of burlap together stencil facing inward. Next I sewed up all of the sides but one leaving one end open again.

Once the three sides were sewn up, I flipped the pouch outside in? again.

Then I plopped the rice filled pouch in the open side.

From there I tucked in the unfinished end and sewed it up and I was left with this…

A pretty sweet doorstop that makes me feel better about getting outta bed in the morning.  Here it is in it’s new home…

one more…

Saved myself some money and I have a new way to keep our bedroom door open! Yahoo! Thanks for the inspiration etsy.