Quick Valentine's Day Gift Wrap Tutorial

I wanted to dress up the gift I got Sean for Valentine's day this year, but I already spent the max for the budget we set on the gift itself. I don't have any Valentine's Day appropriate gift wrap laying around... so I decided to make my own out of supplies I have lying around my studio. Here's a quick tutorial in case you're in the same boat as me these last few days before Valentine's Day, and of course, you could adapt the colors and stamp shapes to make your gift wrap appropriate for any holiday.

Supplies:
Craft paint
2" Styrofoam ball (or something you can cut a heart shape out of... a pencil eraser would be good too if you want tiny hearts)
Fabric
Sharpie
Scissors
Paint brush (optional)

Directions:
First, cut the Styrofoam ball in half. I opened the scissors up and sawed at it like you would with a knife. Then, draw a heart shape onto one flat side using your Sharpie marker like you see in the photo below.

 Next, get out your craft paint. Dip your styrofoam "stamp" into the paint and press it onto your fabric. I used a random pattern, with pink and white hearts. Note: make sure your fabric is on top of something you're willing to throw away, as the paint may bleed through the fabric as you stamp.)

If you're not happy with how some of the hearts came out, you can fill in some places with your paint brush. I did this on a few just to make sure they definitely looked like hearts, but I like the sponge-y texture the styrofoam gave most of them so I just left them as is.

Then, let your paint dry. Once it's good to go, you can wrap your gift! The fabric I chose to use was a pre-finished linen napkin, 18" x 18", to wrap a 4" x 5" x 1.5" box. If you're extra ambitious and have a scrap piece of fabric, you could always finish the edges with a 1/4" hem yourself, but I think a raw edge would work just as well for this project.

To wrap, set your gift on top of the fabric with the wrong side of the fabric facing up. Orient the gift so that the flat sides of the box are parallel to the four corners of your fabric.

 Take one corner of the fabric on a long side of your box up and over the box, and tuck the corner under the box.

Then do the same with the opposite corner, except this time, fold the excess fabric corner under itself and lie neatly on top of your box.

You should have two corners of fabric left pointing out from the short sides of your box, like a little fabric burrito.

Twist these up and toward the middle of your box and tie a secure knot, and you're done. You can even reuse this fabric wrap for V-Day next year.

I decided after I got to this point that my gift wrap wasn't quite the level of in-your-face gawdy Valentine's hearts I was going for, but I'd already thrown away my Styrofoam stamp! So I went back and added red (This is what happens when all of your craft paint is running low... what you thought would be one color turns into three.) polka dots with a pencil eraser. Only the best for my Sean :)

Have a Happy Valentine's Day!

Budget Holiday Decor

We like to keep it pretty simple around here with our holiday decor. White lights outside, a pair of (fake) lit evergreen trees flanking our front porch, and matching wreaths on our double front doors. You've seen our stockings before. Those hang on our fireplace with a garland made of burlap that was leftover from our wedding. Then there's a few other stockings,wreaths, jingle bells, snowmen, and nutcrackers here and there.

I only did a pair of new projects this year, and I'd love to share them with you. First things first, the tree. We do like to switch up our tree decor a bit each year. This year we went out and chopped down our own tree for the first time since we met. We went with our friends John, Heather, and their baby Henry. December 2 in St. Louis, Missouri was a 70 + degree day.

But you could probably see that based on John's shorts and Sean's t-shirt in the photo above. I'm reminiscing... today it has been sleeting/snowing and in the 30's.

Turns out even if you think you're getting one of the smaller trees, they end up being a bit bigger once they're in a room instead of a field full of other trees. We figured, 8 foot ceilings, 6 foot tree, no biggie. Well, yes, biggie.

 It's a bit difficult to really be able to tell in photos, but this tree is massive. Thank goodness we still don't have much furniture in our front living room! Next year we'll probably need to test out the "How far will my arms wrap around it?" test.

This photo was taken after Sean trimmed and shaped the heck out of it, but before we found out he's apparently allergic to Norway spruce sap. That's a story for another day. To put the size in perspective, that garland is over 60 feet long, and it STILL doesn't wrap all the way around. I could have used probably another 6 feet to make it work. We did eventually add ornaments too. It's been a bit dreary around here to be able to get a good photo of that.

So speaking of garland, that's really what I wanted to show you in this photo. We used this tutorial to make a new felt garland for our tree this year. I cut, Sean looped, I stitched them together, we wound them around the tree. The best part is it only cost $2 (we used poly felt, which was on sale) and a couple hours of our time for the entire 60 feet of garland. Now that's my kind of holiday craft.

I've seen a number of crafts done with coffee filters lately, and when Melissa posted this project a few weeks ago, I knew it was time to break out the pack I'd purchased a few weeks before for 95 cents. Now I don't quite have the patience that Melissa does to take the time to use a whole pack on one wreath (I made two as we have that lovely double front door) so I decided to do my own thing instead of following any tutorials.

In the end, it's a good thing I didn't make it much fluffier. We have a glass storm door on the outside of our front doors that smashes anything deeper than a few inches, and smooshed coffee filters just wasn't the look I was going for. I added a few sparkly holiday picks, also from JoAnn, and called the project a day. Ribbon, filters, picks and wreaths (which I already had) all in cost me about $5 total.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Just stopping in for a special Sunday post to tell you to head on over to Simply Homemade magazine's blog, where I'm guest posting a simple gift tutorial today.

Simply Homemade asked me to participate in a 12 day long guest posting event; one post for each of the twelve days of Christmas. I picked seven swans-a-swimming, and decided to make a simple swan gift set: a wine bag with six wine charms. Head on over to Simply Homemade for the instructions and pattern download! Make sure to also check out days 1-6, including Lex Smith's hunger-inducing post for six geese-a-laying. Day 8 will continue tomorrow with a post from Kendall, Kate and Emily of Trends with Benefits.  

Holiday Shipping Reminder

Hi there! I've been sewing up a storm of stockings this week and wanted to share.

I'd also like to remind you of the holiday shipping deadlines for the Clever Betty shop. Handmade goods- stockings, calendars, accessories- should be ordered (before 11:59 pm CST) by December 16 for orders placed outside the U.S. and by December 18 for domestic U.S. orders. Fabric orders must be placed by December 19.

Stay tuned tomorrow for a special weekend treat!

Quick Handmade Gift: Infinity Scarf

I sometimes peruse the red tag aisle at JoAnn in hopes that I'll find a gem of a fabric that will spark an idea. Last week during such a perusal (I swear that's the last time I'll use that word in this post) I found a handful of those gems that were begging to be taken to the cut counter. What were they begging me to make them into, you ask? Scarves, of course! So I'm here today to share how I made one of the fabrics I found into an infinity scarf.

You've probably seen a few tutorials here and there on how to make an infinity scarf. I think I even pinned a pretty lace one myself at one point. But never having looked at any of tutorials, I just decided that I was going to figure it out on my own. I have a couple of infinity scarves, and since I'm sewing instead of knitting, I figured it'd be a pretty simple project. If I hadn't been taking photos as I went, I'd estimate that this scarf took about 10 minutes to make, tops. So those last few holiday gifts you need? Done. Right here. Quick and easy. Check it out:

What you'll need:
• 1 yard of fabric. This fabric should be something with a bit of drape to it: voile, (what I used) jersey, silk, you get the idea. Heck even flannel would probably do. It's up to you- I just wouldn't go for anything stiff, like canvas, or really even quilting cotton. Save fleece for a regular old scarf. Think soft and flowy. And a slightly wider width- mine was 58". Anything between 50-60" wide should be perfect.
• Scissors
• Sewing machine
• Coordinating thread
• Pins

So first, lay out your fabric and cut the long side in half. So I started with a 58" x 36" rectangle, and when I cut it, I ended up with two 29" x 36" rectangles.

Next, lay your two rectangles on top of one another with right sides facing together. Pin the edges of one 29" side and then sew a straight line with up to a 1/2" seam allowance. I spent a lot of time pinning on this step since my fabric has a very fine, gold stripe, and I wanted to make sure it matched up as best as possible. (Note: if you want to skip this step and NOT have a seam in the middle of your scarf, get 2 yards of fabric, cut in half length wise, and you can make two scarves!)

Then press your seam open. Now you should have a really long rectangle, about 29" x 71". Folding your fabric in half longwise, pin the two raw edges of the longest sides together. I chose to cut of the selvedge of my fabric at this point since it's so sheer, I didn't want to add to much bulk inside. (Pardon my cheesy paisley ironing board cover... that's another project in process to be shared here at a later date.)

Next you're going to sew a straight line, again with about a 1/2" seam, all the way down the two 71" sides. Basically you'll be making one big tube of fabric.

Once you've finished that, you'll need to fold over the hem on one of the short ends 1/2". I used a seam gauge and the end of my ironing board to press my hem- wrong side of the fabric still facing out, wrong sides together.

Now you can flip your fabric right side out so all your seams are inside the tube. Lay the fabric flat and press. Bring the two unfinished ends together in the middle (one with a pressed hem, one without)

I chose to add a little twist (literally) by flipping one side of the fabric so that the seam of the long ends didn't match up when I put the two short ends together. This is optional, but I think it adds a nice touch to an infinity scarf.

Fit the raw hem inside the pressed hem 1/2" and pin. Then sew a straight line down the middle of where the two edges meet. I lined my pressed hem up with the left edge of my presser foot to make sure I picked up all of the layers.

Next.... wrap it up and gift it, or wear it! That's it. Easy-peasy. I loved the fabric I found because it seemed like a weight that could be worn year-round with a variety of outfits. That and the little bit of sparkle in the gold stripe reminded me of the friend I'm going to give it to tonight! Who do you plan on making an infinity scarf for?

Handmade Holidays

Hi There! I hope those of you who celebrate had a lovely Thanksgiving. I wanted to stop in and tell you about a couple of new products in the Clever Betty shop.

The first is a DIY Pattern.

You can find the PDF Stocking Pattern in the shop here.  Those of you who sew will find that this is a really quick DIY project with easy to follow instructions. It comes with a list of the materials you'll need to get started, a pattern to print out for the stocking shape, and step by step instructions with photos that show how to put it all together. If you're not into sewing just yet... well, keep following this blog and we'll get you there! But seriously-- if you're not into sewing just yet, I'm also selling custom order stockings. Just choose your favorite Clever Betty fabric, and I'll take care of the rest!

Please just note the deadlines on each product page for order times to get them by Christmas. Can you believe tomorrow is DECEMBER 1? Where does the time go? I'll be throwing a baby shower for Sean's cousin tomorrow, and then we're going to chop down a Christmas tree on Sunday. I hope you have a lovely weekend!

Small Business Saturday

Are you a Black Friday shopper? I have to admit... I am most definitely not. I worked retail throughout college. Though I've not experienced any of the crazy stories that you might hear about in the media of workers being treated unfairly or customers being trampled, I wouldn't wish a Black Friday shift on anyone. There's an unspoken agreement between retail workers that the "black in Black Friday doesn't really stand for annual profits breaking out of the red... but for the doom that the day can present to those who experience it from behind the scenes.

I remember one year while working at The Children's Place a customer approached me and asked, "Why is the mall so busy today?" In my mind I was thinking wow, have you been living under a rock? But then I recognized that her accent was not American, and I tried my best to explain the ridiculous American tradition that is the biggest shopping day of the year.

Especially now as a web-based small business owner, I avoid any store on Black Friday like the plague. What could be more convenient then shopping from your own home? Thank goodness for Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday, amiright?



So if you're anything like me, I hope you'll support small businesses this weekend in lieu of spending hours circling the parking lot and standing in lines only to find out that what you wanted to purchase is already long gone.

You might also notice a few new additions to the shop that will help you with your holiday shopping:

The 2013 Clever Betty Tea Towel Calendar

And for all you DIY fans out there, check out the PDF stocking download!

Happy Thanksgiving!

February DIY: Warm Fuzzies

Psst... did you notice that Valentine's Day is only a week away? If you're scrambling for an idea for a card to go with your flowers and chocolates, I've got you covered!

We're going to start the monthly tutorials on this blog with a super simple card that you can probably make in 20 minutes or less. Super simple here friends! Here's what you'll need:

And some of this kind of stuff too:

Obviously your color choices are up to you, but you'll at least need some yarn, some kind of fabric, glue, scissors, a blank card and an envelope.

Cut a heart shape from your fabric. I usually just fold the fabric in half and freehand cut so when you unfold it both sides are the same.

Glue the fabric to the front of the card, and outline the fabric with glue. Take your yarn and start winding it around the shape of the heart, adding more glue to stick it down as you go.

I decided to add a second color of yarn, but you can make it however you want!

I thought about getting crazy with the yarn here and just continuing to cover the front of the card with it, but since I'm mailing this card, I didn't want to go overboard due to postage. I'd love to see yours if you try that route!

This part is really up to you, but since we're using yarn, I decided to go with a "warm and fuzzy" theme. You could say "You make my heart warm and fuzzy..." or add a little something extra depending on your recipient.

So there you go! A quickie V-Day card that's totally customizable in color, material, shape, wording and design. And I made it using materials I already had at home. :) I do hope you'll share your cards with me if you make one!