Hidden Treasures and Packing

Today was rather banal as I was packing most of the day but I am excited to get back to my own apartment and decorate! These plastic boxes with the lids have become my best friend in college as they are so handy in storing and transporting just about anything!

 In cleaning out my room I discovered an unfinished project of old calendar photos from a few years ago. I think I was going to make some sort of collage for my wall? Since the collage is still nonexistent, I think I will utilize this discovery and upcycle the calendar into framed artwork. Dollar Store Crafts has me inspired to make the most of my minuscule budget and tiny apartment. $1 frames and an old calendar turned into artwork will certainly liven up my dingy and dark circa 1940s apartment.

Tomorrow or the day after I will post the before and after of my apartment... for now, here are the left over calendar bits:

  

Stay warm and don't freeze!

XOXO,
MissEcoChic

Upcycled Tshirt Flowers

  Recycled T-shirt Flowers

Materials:

• Old tshirts/scraps of fabric
• scissors
• circular object [to trace around]
• pen/pencil/marker to trace with
• yarn or string
• hot glue
• needle and thread
• frame [$1 from dollar tree]
• paper in coordinating color to flowers (optional)
• buttons/beads to glue in middle of flower
• acrylic paint (optional)

Steps:

1. Trace around your circular object on the fabric scraps and cut out circles. I used thirteen circles to make mine. These are for the fabric flowers which will become about 3/4 the size of the original circle.
2. Now make 13 yo-yo flowers. Fold about 1/4 of an inch of the edge of a fabric circle and sew a running stitch as close to the edge as you can. Do this all the way around the edge of the circle until you come to the end. Before tying a knot, pull the thread and scrunch the material as tightly as you can into a pouch. Tie the thread. Flatten out the pouch and you have one fabric flower made. Do this for the rest of the circles. Thanks to SecretLife from Threadbanger for this tutorial on yo-yo fabric flowers.      
3. If you do not like the color of the fabric you used, using acrylic paint, paint the fabric flowers and leave to dry overnight.
4. Hot glue a bead or button, if desired, into the middle of the flower.           
5. For the background you can either use a scrap of fabric or paper. I used a sheet of yellow construction paper. I didn't like the way it looked plain so I painted the paper with a some watercolors.
     
   
   
   
   
6. After the paper has dried, arrange your flowers on a scrap of fabric or paper that will serve as the background.
7. Hot glue yarn as stems attached to the flowers. To make a leaf out of the yarn, just tie a knot around a loop of yarn.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. After the yarn is glued to the flowers, glue the flowers down to the paper or fabric background.
9. Now you can arrange the yarn stems in any way you'd like. You can glue them down each individually [like the first picture below] or you can gather the stems and make them into a bouquet [like the second picture below]. 
10. Place your artwork in the frame. If the fabric or paper is not large enough for the frame, you can use scrapbooking paper as a matte around picture. Just measure the amount of area you need around the fabric or paper and cut. I used an inch all around and made sure to tape the fabric and matte together.
11. All done! Display your frame :) NOTE: For the bouquet, I left the stems hanging out of the frame to emphasize the 3-D nature of the artwork. I think later I will hang the frame right above a vase and put the ends of the bouquet into the vase for it to pop even more. 

 

HAPPY CRAFTING! 

XOXO,

MissEcoChic