Point of View: Burlap

Welcome to this month's Point of View reveal! The theme for October is "burlap". This is the first time that I have ever made anything using burlap. Luckily I had a remnant of it sitting in my stash, just in case I ever needed some :) Take a look at the great ideas the members of Point of View have come up with this month...

Leanne from Organize and Decorate Everything
Camilla from Rosy Red Buttons
Gwen from Gwenny Penny (Click HERE to find the tutorial for my Embroidery Hoop Turkey) 

Amy from Ameroonie Designs

Angie from The Country Chic Cottage (Our guest this month... Thanks for joining us, Angie!)
Michelle from A Little Tipsy

As always, you can check out each of the tutorials by visiting each of the blogs listed above.

My project this month is this cute Thanksgiving decoration...

I love this chubby little guy! This is an easy, no-sew project. Want to make your own for Thanksgiving? Click HERE for the how-to.

Now it's your turn. Do you have a burlap project that you would like to share? We would like to invite you to join the Point of View Burlap Link Party over at A Little Tipsy. Any project that includes burlap is welcome at the link party. It doesn't have to be a new project... If you have something in your archives that's made with burlap, link it up! We want to see any and all burlap ideas. And remember, by linking up you have the chance to be featured by one of the members of Point of View next week! Hope to see you there!

Embroidery Hoop Turkey Tutorial

I know we haven't even gotten through Halloween yet, but I'm moving on to Thanksgiving :) I saw Betz White's embroidery hoop snowman on Pinterest, and that got me thinking about what other wall decorations I could make with embroidery hoops. I decided that a Thanksgiving turkey might be possible. Since "burlap" is this month's Point of View theme, I thought this might be a good project to put together this month. So... here is my project for the October Point of View reveal...

This turned out better than I ever imagined it would. Isn't he adorable?!?  This is an unbelievably quick and easy project, too. There is no sewing involved. All you need is a glue gun. Want to make this cutie for Thanksgiving?

Here's the how-to...

Materials:

• 4" and 7" embroidery hoops
• burlap, 7" square and 10" square
• felt (Scraps will do for the face and feet. You'll need larger pieces for the feathers.)
• cardboard (I used a Cheez-It box from the recycle bin.)
• glue gun
• scissors

Instructions:

Step 1: Print out these templates at 100% (no scaling, do not "fit to page")...


Step 2: Stretch your burlap inside of your embroidery hoops.

Trim the burlap to 3/4" from the edges of the back of the embroidery hoops. Use your glue gun to glue the edges of the burlap to the inside of the back of the hoops.

Step 3: Take your two embroidery hoops and place the smaller hoop over the top portion of the larger hoop, making sure that the screw on the smaller hoop is at about 5 o'clock. The felt snood will cover the screw. Use your glue gun to glue the two embroidery hoops together like so...

Step 4: Using the templates from Step 1, cut out the beak (yellow), snood (red), two eyes (black or dark brown), and two feet (brown) from your felt.

The red piece is called the "snood". Ignore the feet in this picture... I ended up cutting the legs shorter.

Use your glue gun to glue your felt face pieces to the small embroidery hoop, covering the screw on the smaller hoop with the red snood.

Flip your hoops over and glue the feet onto the back of the large embroidery hoop.

Step 5: Cut out your felt feathers using the large feather template from Step 1. You need five feathers. I used green, yellow, purple, red, and orange felt. Cut out 5 cardboard feathers using the smaller feather template.

Use your glue gun to glue one cardboard feather to the back of each felt feather. This will add stability to the feathers so that they won't flop over when your turkey is hanging up.

Step 6: Fan out your feathers to your liking. Set your turkey body on top to make sure you like the look of it and that it fits. Remove the turkey body. Starting with the bottom layer of feathers, begin gluing the feathers to each other everywhere that they overlap until all five are firmly attached together.

Glue the back of the large embroidery hoop of your turkey body to the feather assembly. You're done!

* In order to hang my turkey, I glued a paper clip to the back of the center feather at the very top of the cardboard. Also, I was a little concerned about how stable the turkey would be using my glue gun to put it together, but I was pleasantly surprised by how sturdy it feels.*

Doesn't he look similar to my Thanksgiving place card printable that I designed last year?

I'm still thinking of other embroidery hoop ideas. A Santa Claus or a reindeer might be next!

Now it's your turn... Check out this month's Point of View collage and link up your past or present burlap-themed projects at the Point of View Burlap Link Party!




I'm linking up...

Pin It Wednesday: Halloween

Halloween is almost here. I took the easy way out this year and stayed away from handmade costumes. Last year's Pillsbury Doughboy did me in... maybe next year :) I thought I'd throw together a few of my favorite Halloween pins to share with you. Here are this week's pins...

1. Paper Lantern Pumpkin How-To from Martha Stewart

Take ordinary paper lanterns and turn them into these beautiful pumpkins using paper, floral tape, and pipe cleaners. I love the way it looks with several displayed together.

2. Batty Felt Pillow Tutorial from Amy at Ameroonie Designs

I have been a big fan of this pillow ever since Amy posted it last year. I love the black on black. It's simple, but it makes a statement. I will get one of these made someday. It would complement the bats in my dining room nicely :)

3. Trick or Treat Bag + Mini Tutorial from Chris at Pickup Some Creativity

These little trick or treat bags are adorable. I love the fabrics that Chris used. I'm not a fan of the spooky side of Halloween, so this little kitty is perfect. Chris shares the cat applique design and a candy corn design, too.

4. Felt Halloween Decorations from Paper and String

These super-cute plush decorations are irresistible. You can't help but smile when you look at them. Best part? There is a free pattern and instructions available for download!

To see all of my Halloween pins, click HERE. Interested in seeing all of my Pinterest boards? Click HERE.

Sock Monkey for Craft Hope

This little monkey is going to Texas...

Hopefully she will bring a smile to the face of a child who has been affected by the devastating wildfires.

If she is as loved in Texas as she has been here at our house, she'll be a very lucky monkey. I know two little girls who are going to be sad to see her go...

They've already put in requests for monkeys of their own :)

Interested in helping out? Check out Craft Hope's Project 15. I followed this tutorial to make my monkey.

Boo!

I have finally made something that I pinned on Pinterest (from So Sarah Sews). It's cute and simple, and I love it. It's also a super-quick Halloween decoration to put together...

Isn't it cute? It's tiny, too... a 4" embroidery hoop. Add a little black cotton, some white embroidery floss, and you're good to go.

Each time I do an embroidery project I realize just how much I enjoy embroidery. I really need to find more ways to incorporate embroidery into my sewing projects. Speaking of which, have you seen these free fall embroidery patterns from Wild Olive? Adorable!




I'm linking up...

Cutest Thing Ever: Penguins in Sweaters

It has been waaayyy too long since I've done a Cutest Thing Ever post. The minute I saw this story, I had to share it with you. Earlier this month, an oil spill in New Zealand impacted the nation's blue penguins. In order to keep the penguins from preening their oil soaked feathers, and to keep them warm before and after rescue workers clean them up, a knitting shop in New Zealand called for knitters to make sweaters for these poor penguins...

image source: Toby Zerna / Newspix via Rex USA file

Seriously, does it get any cuter than this?!? This knitting shop was overwhelmed with penguin sweaters! They are now stockpiling them for any future need. This is an absolutely heartwarming story. Click HERE to read it and to see more pictures of penguins in sweaters. You'll be glad you did :) Have a great weekend!

Pin It Wednesday: Little People Love

Recognize these...

image source

They're vintage Fisher-Price Little People, of course. There's something about these iconic little figures that puts a smile on my face every time I see them. Fisher-Price manufactured Little People in this form from the 1960s through the 1980s. My girls love playing with the new Little People, but they just aren't the same. They set up all of their Little People one day last week, so you can thank them for this week's theme :) Here are this week's pins...

1. Little People Love Fabric by Duchess via Spoonflower

This fabric is awesome! I love that you can just look at these simple shapes and know

exactly what they represent.

2. Little People Cookies by Sugar Rush Treats

I don't think I could ever bite into one of these. They are absolutely perfect. Make sure you check out the link to see close-ups of each hand-cut cookie.

3. Little People Artwork by Jason at Escape Adulthood

I am absolutely in love with these. It doesn't get much cuter than this.

I have lots of fond memories of setting up an entire town of Little People houses and buildings. The set-up was my favorite part. By the time my brother and sister and I got everything set up, we didn't feel like actually playing with the village anymore :) Were you a Little People fan? Do your children/grandchildren play with Little People?




Interested in seeing all of my Pinterest boards? Click HERE.

Bats!

They've taken over our dining room...

When I saw this idea on MADE last Halloween, I knew I wanted to try it. I put it off last year because I couldn't get motivated to cut out that many bats. I decided to do it on the spur of the moment this year. My four year old and I gathered every piece of black construction paper we had in the house. We had enough to make thirty bats, and the cutting actually went pretty quickly. I folded three sheets together so I could cut three bats at a time. It probably took longer for me to put them up on the wall than it did to cut them out.

I didn't even think about it until the bats were up on the wall, but our old "beware of trespassing" sign looks pretty spooky with bats flying over it...

That's all I've got for new Halloween decor this year. I have a couple of projects I'd like to squeeze in, but we'll see if I actually get them done. One handmade decoration that I didn't share last year was my Halloween bunting...

I just sewed triangles of fabric onto pieces on black felt and sewed them all to a ribbon. I made this to fit the fireplace in our previous house, so it's a little short for the mantel in our dining room now, but I think it looks alright. I like how bright and bold the colors are compared to everything else in the space.

The girls and I did a little Halloween art project last week, too. They were supposed to make spiders out of handprints, but they just ended up smearing black paint everywhere...

Doesn't matter... they had fun :)