How to Make A Pillow Cover

Sorry these pics are terrible but they were taken at night.

I decided to make some pillow covers that were more "Fallish" for the living room. I bought 2 new pillow forms from Joann's recently (buy one get one free) and I bought some fabric (1 yard of each) that I loved. I didn't want the fabrics to be too literal with leaves and turkeys on them.

1. My pillow forms are 18 x 18 so I cut one square of fabric that's 19 x19. I gave myself a 1/2 seam allowance on either side.

2. Next, I cut 2 pieces for the backside of the pillow. I cut mine a little too short, so next time I'd cut a 12 x 19 piece and a 14 x 19 piece. You want them to overlap on the backside.

3. On the two backside pieces, fold the edge over about 1 /4 of an inch (I used an iron to keep it folded down) and fold it over again about 1/4 of an inch. I sewed along the edge.

Do that for both back side pieces.

4. Next, lay one backside piece on top of the 19 x 19 piece. You want the good sides of the fabric facing each other. You want the finished edge from your backside pieces in the middle. Pin it in place and sew around the edge from one side all the way around to the other. Lay the other backside piece on the 19 x 19 piece of fabric and pin and sew it on.

5. Turn it inside out.

6. Put your pillow form in.

The great thing about using a pillow cover and pillow form is that you can change it out whenever you want. You don't have a ton of pillows to store, just the pillow covers. And once you invest in the pillow forms (I got mine on sale for less than $5 each), it's really cheap to buy the fabric to make the pillow covers.

365 Days of Gratitude

So I was on Pinterest and pinned this mini-book. Then I visited the blog to find out more.

Seemed right up my alley. A way to reflect on all the blessings in my life and a way to use up all my odds and ends. My goal was to make this without buying anything new. Haha! Silly me!

My mistake was thinking that I had enough stickers to number each moment of gratitude. So if you decide to do this project, I highly advise against numbering each one with a sticker. I should have hand numbered them or used stamps.

But here's what I came up with. I decided to call it 365 Days of Gratitude in 2012 because I wanted to focus less on things and more on moments.

On this page I'll write a note to myself about why I started this book etc.

I tried to create as many spaces on each to write as possible and I cut some pages down so you could see the next page peaking through.

This page folds out.

I had a few extra pages so I decided to put some reflection pages at the end. I found these cute envelopes at Michael's. They have cards inside that slide out.

So I'm ready! Let the reflecting begin!

FAMILY

I found this on Pinterest. But knew that I'd need to adjust the colors to harmonize with my decor.

Here's how I did it. I printed out a letter K on our printer in about 700. Then I cut it out, making sure to leave the background in tact. I discarded the letter....but....

taped the outline down to my background. Maybe I should mention that I wrapped the backing of the frame I bought with scrap fabric. Then I spray painted the frame to black (I bought the frame at Goodwill for $1).

Then I just started filling in the outline with buttons. I layered my buttons (and I actually had most of them on hand, just needed to buy 1 package for $2).. But unfortunately, when I taped my letter outline down I forgot to consider how far down on on the page my letter had printed. So it left a bit of room at the top.

So I added the word FAMILY along ribbon at the top.

Some Final Fall Crafts....

 Here are a few of my final Fall craft projects.....a wreath.

I was really digging these "pinwheel" shapes I made for the banner, so I made some more for the wreath. Plus the letters in the middle spell "Welcome".

Got all of the candy loaded on to our countdown to Halloween using double sided tape. That stuff works GREAT!!!!

And finally, inspired by my good friend Kristy, over at The No-No Room, got my Fall To-Do List ready. I made little pumpkins out of the marble glass pieces I had left over from another project. I got the cookie sheet at Goodwill for $2, new. It was actually a really cheap project because I already had all the scraps of papers left from my banner. I had black paper on hand and used my Cricut to cut the letters. Oh and did you know...Big Lots carries Cricut cartridges. There up at the front, locked up. Not a wide selection but they had one I had been looking for. Only $25 compared to a regular price of $80.

The only thing I bought for this, that I didn't have on hand was the black enamel I used on the pumpkins. I tried using Stickles but it didn't look as good. The black enamel looked like the same packaging as Stickles, but it's more solid and less transparent.

Linking up with these linky parties: