Quick and easy handmade stuffed bunnies

I have a little bit of show and tell to do with the things I made for Christmas gifts this year. I did not make as much as years past, but I did do a bit of sewing and put together some craft kits for Elise. All in due time, but first, these bunnies.

Of course, bunnies might be more appropriate for Easter rather than Christmas, but who wants their kid carrying around a snowman all year long? And someone peeking out of the top of the stocking is essential in this house.

I followed this free pattern and used a couple upholstery fabric samples and some felt scraps from my stash. I didn't have any stuffing, so I filled them with shredded batting scraps. They each probably took about an hour to complete. Maybe less. Definitely a simple little bunny.

I am not an expert on sewing curves, but I took it slow and my zig zag top stitching does not look half bad. (Sewing with black thread on a dark fabric is also very forgiving.)

Like I mentioned before, I tried to use materials I already had, but I did buy a few safety eyes, something I didn't even know existed before a couple of months ago. It's almost like a screw with a nut on the back holding it in place. Easier to use than sewing a button!

I sewed tails onto the bunnies for some added detail. The neon houndstooth fabric I found at my grandma's house. Vintage polyester, but it looks so 2014!

Easy wall art: Framed vintage animal puzzle

Some months ago, my husband brought home this animal puzzle from his parents' house in a box of things from his youth. The box also included a bunch of (worthless) baseball cards and a collection of "cassingles" from the early 90s. This puzzle was undoubtedly the best thing in the box.

It's so weird. None of the animals are to scale and about half of them are just heads. I put it together, and it took me a long long time. Seriously, like over an hour. It's crazy hard!

There is no hope for any child ever being able to put it together, so framing it for display seemed to be the best way to enjoy it.

I grabbed a thrift store frame from my stash that seemed to fit the proportions best. Then I went hunting for a suitable background. The frame is about 14 inches wide which ruled out a lot of the patterned papers I had on hand. I ended up painting a piece of brown kraft paper with some watered down craft paint just to give it a bit of color. I think the washed watercolor look gives it some extra interest.

It took some fancy maneuvering and a few tries, but I was able to sandwich it between the backing and the glass without using any glue or adhesive. Easy disassembly should we ever want to just play with the puzzle again.

My two favorite moments in this crazy scene are the whale and frightened green octopus (in the above photo) and the dove's head in the wolf's mouth (below). Cuckoo, right?

A couple of antique mall finds

I scored on a recent trip to my favorite antique mall (and it's somewhat inferior neighbor). I'll show you my greatest find in another post soon, but these two are just as interesting.

I was almost out the door when I spotted this unusually shaped stained glass window. I'm not sure if it was from a house or what, but the colors and even the tone of the wood frame are going to fit my living room perfectly.

It was $35; I thought that was a fair price and a fantastic birthday gift to myself! Especially because there's no chippy lead paint to contend with like on so many antique windows.

I also found this small iron dog, who totally took advantage of my weakness for animal figurines. It's in too good of condition to be very old (I think), but for $4, I don't really care.

Festive paper scrap garland

Little makes a room look more festive than a colorful garland, and festive is exactly the look I wanted for the playroom.

I wanted to use fabric, but I definitely have more paper scraps lying around than fabric scraps. Use what you got, right? (Small confession: I did buy a two new pieces of paper to fill in some color gaps.) Plus, I'm just more comfortable working with paper. Me and paper go way back.

I took some rough measurements for how long it needed to be by draping my ribbon around the room. I did this by myself, and probably would have been more precise if I had someone helping me, but it turned out to be more or less pretty accurate.

I took that measurement and calculated how many pieces of paper I would need based on the width of the paper (2.25 inches). I added in a quarter inch width (per piece of paper) to accomodate for the gap between the papers.

After I cut the approximately 100 2.25 x 7 inch pieces I needed, I laid them all out to find a nice randomization. Then I folded all the pieces in half.

I took some 3/8" grossgrain ribbon I had on hand (the same ribbon I used to measure). Then I folded the paper over the ribbon and ran a stitch down the length of the ribbon with a sewing machine, adding papers one by one. A little time-consuming, but easy.

I used these cute birdie hooks to tack up the ends and one of the points in the middle.

Honestly, I think this is what ties the whole playroom together. It makes me smile every time I walk in.

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Check out another paper garland I've made.

Click here to see the finished playroom!

Ugly craft makeover: Birdie cutout

One of my new favorite things to do is to take an outdated piece of craft and give it an update. I'm calling them my ugly craft makeovers. You can find more tagged as such.

I found this wooden bird cutout sign at a thrift store for 80 cents. Cute, maybe, in like 1986. But the wood was solid, his silhouette was nice and the price was right, so I decided to rescue him.

I detatched the "welcome" sign from the bottom and set that aside for a future project. I gave it a quick sand, then spray painted him in in Real Red by Valspar. (I should note that I could have used normal paint, but I had the spray paint on hand and two coats of spray paint vs. a bunch of regular paint just sounded appealing.)

I paired him with this 11 x 14 inch natural wood frame that I found in a closet at my grandma's house. It had never been stained or painted, had no glass or backing, so what you see is how I found it.

Clean and modern. Quick and easy. Nice that sometimes projects work out that way.

Click here to see the finished playroom!

Rudolph gets a makeover

Don't worry, I haven't started the holiday decorating just yet. Spray painting weather is quickly fleeting and I wanted to make sure I squeezed this project in before it got too cold.

Remember this craftastic reindeer I acquired a few months ago? My grandma coerced me into taking it and although goofy, I knew I could transform it into something more in line with my tastes.

First, I ripped off the flimsy neck ribbon, googly eyes and puff ball nose. The eyes left a bit of glue, so I gave them a quick sand. The ears were a little loose, so I pried them off too. I intended to reattach them, but then I realized the reindeer looked less cartoonish without them. Who knew under all that junk was a slightly sophisticated silohuette?

I wanted to leave the antlers unpainted, so I masked them with painter's tape and some newspaper.

Then I gave it about three coats of Valspar spray paint in a shade called Churchill Hotel Vanilla (satin finish). Strange name aside, it's a nice creamy white without a hint of yellow.

After the paint was dry, I noticed Rudolph was looking a little plain. So I picked up this gold and silver jingle bell garland at Dollar Tree to make a necklace/collar.

The garland was pretty short, but it was the perfect length to go around the neck three times. The ends of the garland had loops on them, so I hooked the loop on one end over the first bell on the other to secure it. So easy and no glue or adhesive involved. The best part is that I can take it off at any point. I love things that are easily reversed.

I think that little bit of glitz was just what it needed.

I haven't decided what I should put in the shoebox-sized body yet. Probably small wrapped gifts as we get closer to Christmas. I have to put it away between now and then because a certain toddler thinks this is a ride-on toy.

This is such a dramatic makeover that it warrants side-by-side before and after photos!

P.S. As I was taking these photos in a very small, clear corner of our living room, I turned around and just had to laugh at the mess I was excluding from the photos.

See the reindeer in the lower left corner. More about what's in those giant boxes in a later post!

Craft makeover: Mod Podged bunnies

Even though the playroom is still under construction, I wanted to get started on some of the decorative items for the space. (I can't always devote a large chunk of time to painting or carpeting, but I do have little bits of time for smaller projects.)

Before

These bunnies were from my grandma's house. My mom made/painted them and we had the same set in our house growing up. I'm not really a fan of the "country" crafts look from the '80s, but the wood was in good shape. Nothing a little paint and paper can't fix.

I painted the edges with several coats of white glossy craft paint. Then I Mod Podged some scrapbook papers onto the faces of the shapes.

I used a different pattern on each side, but made sure each set of two visible sides coordinated no matter which way they were flipped.

These pieces are very sturdy and while I don't plan on letting Elise play with them, I don't think they would suffer at all if she did. Perfect for a playroom.