Bolero Shrug from a T-Shirt

Recently, I came across a recycled/upcycled project from Aunt Peaches site.  She made a No-Sew Bolero Shrug out of a simple long sleeve T-Shirt.  It looked easy enough and cute enough, that I just had to try it out.  So I ran to the thrift store, picked out an XL long sleeve T-Shirt, washed it, and proceeded to craft it up.  Here's what it looked like when done ...

And here's how I did it ...

Long sleeve t-shirt. I bought a size XL as per the suggestion of Aunt Peaches.  My size is actually M.

Cut off the bottom of the shirt as well a small part of the arms of the sleeve.  You just want to cut off the stitched portions.

Might be a bit hard to see but I cut straight up the middle of the front part of the shirt. Don't cut through the back of the shirt.

I then came down part of the way from the top of the shirt and cut it at an angle and all the way around the neck part back to the front.  Almost like I was trying to make the shirt into a v-neck since it was circular.

Here's a closer picture of the cut.

Now, turn it and put it on upside down.  Yes, you heard me right ... upside down.  The bulkiness of what is the bottom of the t-shirt will drape around your neck to give you that scrunchy look.

Here's what it looks like from the back.  HINT: Be sure to cut with sharp scissors and cut straight or you'll see a jaggedy cut.

The front again!

FINAL NOTE:  I did find it a bit annoying that part of the scrunched up part kept wanting to fall off the sides of my shoulders.  I had to keep pulling it off my shoulders and onto my neck.  Thinking I might have to do a little sewing to manipulate it to stay in place.  That or maybe I need a smaller shirt.  Anyhoo ... it is cute when it stays in place.


I'm partying this over here ...

Manic Monday        Pin It Monday      Motivate Me Monday       Handmade Tuesdays      Tuesday's Treasures       Nifty Thrifty Tuesday     A Peek into my Paradise     Off the Hook Party        Lil Luna Linky      We Did It Wednesday     The Weekly Creative Thursday      

3D Monogram from Cereal Box with Felt Dahlia

I've always been wanting to try this after seeing it floating around pinterest.

Being laid up due to an ankle injury, I figured this would be a good time to try.  So here it goes.  WARNING:  This post is pretty picture heavy ....

First gather your cereal box, scissors, and desired letter.  I printed out a letter on a 8.5x11 paper.  NOTE:  I found that the cereal boxes bought from bulk stores (Costco, Sam's, BJ's) are the best to use as they are much sturdier.  The ones from regular grocery stores are just too flimsy.  The boxes have to have some weight to them to hold up.

 Trace the letter you want on the front or back part of the box.  The biggest area of the box.

 Cut out the letter.

 Trace and cut out another letter.

 Using the sides of the cereal box, measure and tag every 1.5".

Make lines on the tagged measurement and cut out.  This will be the sides of the monogram.

 Here are the cut out pieces.

 Using a hot glue gun, strart gluing the sides to the monogram letter.  You will have to measure out where the bends will be and score it for easy bending.

 Here are the sides glued on all around the monogram letter.

 Another view.

 Now match and glue the second monogram letter onto the sides.

Here's the 3d monogram letter ready to decorate.

These are the 12x12 scrapbook paper I decided to use to decorate the monogram.

 Glue on the paper to the monogram and cut out the sides to fold over and glue.

 Glue the sides down.

 Now glue on the second paper to the other side of the monogram.

 Glue down the sides.

 Just like before, cut out "side" covers from scrapbook paper.

 Glue it around the sides.  Here's one side

 Here's another and done.  Time for the flower.

 Cut out 3 different size squares ... 2", 1.75", and 1.5"

 Here's the 2".  Fold in half and cut out a petal like shape.  Freehand is fine - just make sure there's a bottom part that is flat for the stem part, a bump out from there, and then a pointy tip at the top.

 Unfold it and here's the petal.

 Make a petal from each square - this will be your template which you will use to cut out on felt.

 Here they are all cut out.  I used 3 varying brown colors, as you can see.  For the 2" petal, cut out 12 pieces.  The 1.75" petal, cut out 10 pieces.  The 1.5" petal, cut out 8 pieces.

 Now cut out a felt circle size 3".  This will be your backing to the flower.

(sorry flash blew out the picture - one is the felt, the other is a paper template I used)

 Now take 1 petal and apply glue to the bottom part of it (the one with the straight edge) and curl the ends into the glue.  The petal should be cup-like.

 Do this for all the petals.

 Now glue the petals around the edge of the circle felt.  Before I glued mine down, I first arranged them on the circle to make sure they fit nicely together.  Then one by one, picked each petal up and glued it down to where I had placed it.

Here's the rest of the petals - the 1.75" and the 1.5"

 Again, arrange the 1.75" petals inside of the 2" petals then glue them down. 

 Do the same for the next set of petals (the 1.5" size).

 Cut a strip of felt 1" by 9" and cut slits along the strip.  I made my slits cut down to about 3/4 of the way.  Don't cut all the way through - just slits.

Then roll up one edge of the strip and keep rolling.  Keep the uncut part of the strip even.

 Once rolled, apply glue and stick it in the center of the flower between all the petals.

 Fluff it out and here's what it should look like.

 Glue onto the monogram and...

Tah-dah!

So there it is.  Not too hard, just time consuming but fun to do.  I think it looks good just the way it is but if you wanted to seal it, you could apply modge podge all over the entire thing.  I just don't like the strokes the modge podge sometimes leaves on things, so I opted not to do it with this.  It's just going to be sitting on a shelf, so I don't expect it to get any wear and tear.

I'm partying this post over at:

Renner Thursday - new haircut

Somebody help me because I think I might be just a little obsessed with Jeremy Renner.  Just a little.

My lil' man needed a haircut badly and I really do like Jer's hair style, so I asked our wonderful hair stylist to cut and style his hair just like Jer's.  What do you think?

 
Yeah, yeah.  I just had to pose him in the same manner.  Thought it was cute.  Makes me smile and laugh when I see it.  Aren't they both so cute?

~Peechee

Pretzel Brownies

I had a sweet tooth for a chocolate covered pretzel but didn't have any on hand.  However, I did have some pretzel sticks and a brownie mix.  So why not put the two together to make a pretzel brownie.  Hopefully it can curb my chocolate covered pretzel craving.
 

All you need is a bag of pretzel and a box of brownie mix.

 I took about 1/4 of the pretzels and crushed them - not finely but chippy like.  I then spread the chippy/crushed pretzels in the pan (which has been sprayed with oil).  I fixed the brownie mix as directed on the box and when done mixing poured the mix right on top of the pretzels.

Bake as directed and when done, let cool.

Now enjoy!

My brownies were chewy and the pretzels weren't too hard.  It wasn't bad at all.  A nice combo but they weren't chocolate covered pretzels.  So did it satisfy my craving?  Yeah.  I'm not wanting chocolate covered pretzels right now.  However, if someone gave me some, I wouldn't refuse it.  ;-)

Hope you n-joy'd!

I'm partying at:  Lil Luna Linky       Wow Me Wednesday