Hello there, my name is Susan Harms over at Create in Me. I am so tickled to be a part of Edie’s 12 days of Christmas this year! I tutor her precious daughters in Latin, but I also work at a local Classical Christian School where I am the part-time 1st Grade Aide. In my not so spare time I like to craft, sew and make jewelry. Come visit me and my stuff over at my ETSY shop.

Edie asked me several weeks ago if I would be interested in doing this tutorial; I was delighted because it actually involved something I have never made before. Always ready for a new challenge I got to work. I must say though that this was a major collaboration. I can’t take full credit for all of this work. It was great fun taking a break from Latin and putting this together. Edie took all of these wonderful pictures and I have attempted to put this tutorial together.

It is so incredibly simple, and the best part about it is that you can customize it and give it a totally different look if you want. (But why would you, it is so gorgeous!)

First you will need:

and

(please note in the picture that I accidentally got split rings, you need regular jump rings, about 5-6mm in size)

The bezel we used and the dimond glaze were purchaced at Bello Modo (they have free shipping). We really liked the bamboo look on it. But I was at Hobby Lobby today and they have greatly expanded their Vintaj selection and they have some great bezels there that are more simple.

If you want the bamboo looking bezel go HERE and HERE for the diamond glaze.

You will also need to pick out your favorite scrapbook paper and favorite font to print your favorite quote directly onto the pretty paper. You may need to play around a bit with it as far as knowing what size font to use that will fit in the circle. The font we used is “pyparus”. The quote I picked, is from a Steven Curtis Chapman song I will be Here that I had sung at my wedding. If you got married in 1991 you probably had that song at your wedding too. Have a listen, it is so beautiful and it makes me smile, because I still feel like I can sing that song to him every day, I also can almost hear him sing it to me.

Well, enough romance and on we go.

First you need to cut out your paper. This circle is 1 3/8 inch. But you can use a pencil or even just your fingernail to trace around it.

Take your Mod Podge and paint a thin layer onto your bezel

then place the paper over that and paint another thin layer on top to seal it. Be careful to use very little Mod Podge or the paper will bubble up.

Let that dry. We were impatient and waited just a few minutes, if the layer is thin enough that should do, but it might be better to wait a couple of hours.

Next, take the diamond glaze and fill in the bezel till it’s about to overflow.

VERY IMPORTANT

If you shake you will have all kinds if bubbles and they are next to impossible to pop. (not that we would have any experience that would let us know that *wink*)

Let dry overnight.

To assemble:

1. take the jump ring and open with pliers

Paint your Mod podge onto the tile, then put a thin layer on the paper and attach to the flat back of the tile so the picture is facing down.

Now paint a thin coat of mod podge on the back and let dry overnight.

You will then glue on the bail with the E6000. Make sure it is centered well.

Let that dry overnight as well.

The possibilities are endless. The bail hole is large so you can pull just about any chain or cord through to wear.

Let me add that you can also make these with fabric. Follow same steps.

Happy Crafting! Your mother, sister, niece or friend will love it!

Thanks Edie for the invite and for all of your help. Everyone else, I can’t wait to meet you, pull up a chair and come visit often!!

Here is a picture of the silhouette templates from the graphics fairy. They are really cute! I used the one with the hat for the little girls and the other two for my mom and sister.

Step one: Pin your silhouette template to your black felt and cut around the edges.
Step two: Embellish your silhouette with lace, beads, whatever you fancy!
Step three: Cut out a large circle or oval in a contrasting color using felt. This will be part of the backing so you want the silhouette to fit nicely inside.
Step four: Now sew your pin back on the circle or oval you just cut out.
Step five: After you have finished sewing your pin back on, cut out another piece of fabric in a smaller size circle or oval. I like to use either metallic fabric or polka dots for contrast.
Step six: Place the smaller circle or oval you just cut out over top of the first circle or oval you cut out. Now sew a straight stitch around the edges in a contrasting color. I like to use embroidery floss because it is chunky.
Step seven: Now sew the edges of the silhouette onto your base. Use black thread or embroidery floss.

Your silhouette should look like this after you are finished.

 

Here’s a little disclaimer before I begin. I had a friend here while I worked one day {and I just might have put her to work too,  trimming selvages and fusing the fleece to the fabric} and she asked, “Darby, please tell me you are not going to tell your blog readers this is easy?” Well, because she’ll call me out if I tell y’all this is easy… I better say it’s an intermediate sewing project that might require a babysitter or helpful husband to watch the kids. There are really no difficult sewing techniques required, it is just a little involved time wise. That way no one cusses me when they think they can crank out a picnic blanket in 30 minutes! Ok, good.

The finished blanket is really BIG {88″ wide x 63″ tall} and perfect for picnics. It has a top layer {trains for me}, a layer of fusible fleece in the middle, and a sturdy layer of {fun & blue} ticking stripe on the bottom and is complete with coordinating ties so it’s easy to transport to and from your favorite picnic spot. You may choose what ever fabric you like but I do suggest something a little more stable {like a lightweight canvas, ticking stripe, or upholstery weight for the bottom}. Be sure to watch sales at your fabric stores because the ticking stripe was 1/2 off and I bought nearly 4 yards for just $16!

Before I start: PINS ladies PINS… they make your sewing neater and easier {especially with layers}… don’t omit them! 🙂

Here’s what you’ll need:

3.5 yards of 44″ wide fabric for the top of the blanket {I used trains}

3.5 yards of 44″ wide fabric for the bottom of the blanket {I used blue ticking stripe}

1/4 yard of 44″ wide fabric for coordinating ties {I used red gingham}

3.5 yards of 44″ wide fusible fleece

1: prewash and dry all fabric and trim off selvages
2: Measure down 63 inches on the top piece of fabric and cut all the way across the width. This will leave you with 2 pieces of fabric 63″ x 44″. Do the same with the bottom piece of fabric.
3: Take the two top pieces of fabric and place them on top of each other with right sides together {doing your best to match up any pattern that might be on your fabric, which also might require you to trim the tops and bottoms once you’re all lined up}. Using straight pins pin down one of the {63″} sides {right or left side it doesn’t matter, just don’t stitch along the top or bottom} and straight stitch. Press seam open.

4: Repeat step 3 for the bottom piece of fabric, doing your best to line up any pattern the fabric may have.
5: Now you should have two pieces of fabric that measure 63″ x 88″, one will be your top and one will be your bottom.
6: Following the instructions on the fusible fleece, iron the fusible fleece to the wrong side of the bottom fabric.

Hi there, I’m Angel of TaDa! Creations. I am thrilled to be able to share with you two of my favorite tutorials right here on Edie’s beautiful blog.
Thank you Edie!

I live in gorgeous Minnesota where I married my crush from 7th grade. I feel so blessed to get to do life with him. Together we have 5 year old twin girls and a two year old baby boy. Though my passion is sewing custom boutique clothing for little girls with lots of hand embroidery, I also love to decorate my home. And now that my kids are getting older I can finally start putting decorative things back within their reach. So exciting, I know!

Now, about those tutorials…let’s get started!

I’ve always loved the classic look of silhouettes. Especially when they are of children, and even better yet, a baby. I knew I wanted these over our bed with the new black and yellow color scheme of our bedroom. So I finally got busy yesterday and cut them out.

I found oval 10″x12″ frames at JoAnn a while back. You can usually find them on sale for 50% off or buy one get one free. Or at the very least use a 40% off coupon (they accept competitors coupons too). I bought a new Exacto knife and 7 sheets of black scrapbook paper. I figured I’d make some mistakes and be thankful for the extra paper. I actually could have gotten away with just 2 sheets. For both the black and the white I bought paper with a mock linen texture to it.

I took pictures of the kiddos earlier, trying to get them all about the same distance away in the photo. Then I copied them into Word and printed them onto regular paper to use for my templates. I later had to print Emily’s a tad bigger to be in scale of Allison and Sam.

I determined that I wanted the final faces to all be looking to the left to I traced the back of the pint outs. I knew that later they would be traced to the back of the black paper so any ridges from cutting would end up on the backside. Drawing the outline on the backside also helped to be better able to see just the lines I wanted to cut on. Tape it to a window so you can see through from the front.

My initial first drawing. Lots to clean up and more details to add including eyelashes. You don’t really see eyelashes protruding from a sideview, but they add a lot to a silhouette.

Here is where I noticed that the scale of Emily’s face was a little smaller than Allison’s, so I went back to my Word doc and dragged it a little bigger until it seemed right.

Now to tweak the details. Allison originally had side buns, but I made it look more like one bun in the back and added the little flyaways under it. I also gave a better shape to their bows and to Emily’s ponytail. Sam got a bit more definition to his hair so he didn’t look so bald. And they all got retro looking collars, perhaps my favorite part of all.

Then I was ready to start tracing the lines with my knife (on top of my cutting mat of course). I didn’t tape anything down, I just held the template very tightly with my left hand. I did all of them while kneeling on the floor, which wasn’t fun, but it gave me good leverage.

On the right is the photo I cut out and the left is where the silhouette came out of. It was tough to get it to cut through the whole way around even though I pressed so hard my fingers ached (especially after cutting out all three). Just go back over those spots and when it’s all detached you’ll have a few rough spots to spruce up.

Next I double checked to make sure I liked the overall scale.

Here is all three cut out. It looks like I need to makes Sam’s nose a little more round, it’s pretty pointy here. And Emily’s upper lip got cut a little smaller than it should have. I need to redo hers for sure, but my fingers still ache so that will wait until tomorrow. I would suggest starting with the face so that if you make a mistake you haven’t wasted all your time and energy with the rest of the details. I learned that the hard way.

Close up of her mis-cut lip. Sorry Sweetie!

Next I used the glass from the frames to cut the white background paper out. I just swiped the Exacto knife all the way around the glass. That worked pretty slick. Of course you’ll have to wash the glass and get all the upc label residue off. Why do they always put stickers where they don’t belong?

I used archival double sided tape on the backs to secure them.

Then I laid them all in the frames to see what they would look like. I measured to make sure they were centered correctly. I thought I could eyeball them, but I did have to move one down and another over slightly, so I’m glad I measured.

Perfect, now they are ready for hanging!

I am so in love with these on my yellow walls.

You could really have fun with these and use a patterned paper for the background.
Or how fun to cut the images from a different color?

But I really love the classic look for this spot. They are just what this wall needed.

Do you think I hung them too high? I didn’t have the luxury of someone else to hold them up so I could see them from far away.

See the rest of our room re-do here
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV