Tutorial Archives - Palmettos and Pigtails

{Walt Disney World} Mr. Mickey Mouse Head Bags

March 22, 2013 posted by Shara

Is it pathetic that I spent like, 3 whole minutes trying to come up with a clever name for these? Essentially, they are Mr. Potato Head felt bags…..but with Mickey Mouse heads instead. What would you call them?As you know, we are headed to Disneyworld soon on our family vacation with our best friends, Bets and Jay and their daughter, Lulabelle. And since Lu might as well be my third daughter, she reaps the benefits of any craftiness attempts I make!I bought new sheets awhile back and them came in these cute little bags with snaps…so of course I kept them, waiting for something that needed containment….and these ended up being perfect!! I bought a bunch of felt and cut out accessories in various colors (I sketched them out on cardboard first, then traced, since I had to make three of everything!). My favorites are the pink sunglasses and the purple “nerd” glasses.What a Southern lady, with her pearls on!Any guesses on how long it takes for the little felt eyes to go missing?!?! Hopefully these bags will keep the littles busy in the bakseat for a little while!

(linking up this week!)

Check out my other Disney Posts!

Get your kids pumped for your Disney vacation with these Disney Activities!

Disney Countdown Chain

Secrets of the Kingdom: A Collection of Walt Disney World Tips

Disney Princess Wand Tutorial

Filed Under: Crafts, Travel, Tutorials

DIY Rainbow {in a jar}

March 20, 2013 posted by Shara

This is the recipe that I used to create my Rainbow in a Jar that was a gift from our Leprechaun on St. Patrick’s Day. But honestly, it’s just a great, fun little recipe for some eewy guey slime that kids love to play with! You can make it any color you want, or use it to make a lesson in combining primary colors to make secondary colors!{Here’s the original post and recipe that I found on Pinterest}

All you need is equal parts liquid starch and clear glue. I used 1 1/2 cups of each {which is exactly two bottles of glue}….but in hind-sight, I wish I had done 2 cups of each to fill up my jar a little more.And you simply combine them in a bowl and stir. And stir. And stir. Until it makes a thick, jelly-like consistency.Then, I divided it into four bowls, and added 2 drops of food coloring in each bowl. {Don’t use any more than 2 drops!}I layered the colors in my jar {the gel pours pretty easily, and you can guide it into the jar with a spoon}. But I did notice that after letting it sit overnight in the jar, the gel colors kind of melted into each other {you can see the very beginning of it below}, which ruined the rainbow effect a little. Jayna didn’t care a bit, but next time I will wait until the last second to layer the colors.And finally, I added a scrap of green fabric to the top, tied some baker’s twine around it and set it our with the other Leprechaun gifts!And it was the source of independent play for about 30 minutes!

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Filed Under: Crafts, Tutorials

{Walt Disney World} Bibbity Bobbity Boo Wand

March 13, 2013 posted by Shara

We are having a blast around here getting ready for Disneyworld! Jayna cuts one of her chains every morning, and on the white strip days, we have had a fun new Disney activity to do! Yesterday’s activity has been the most fun yet though. Jayna picked the stick that said “Make a princess wand.”

And of course, I was prepared! I had bought feathers, sparkly pom poms, silver pipe cleaners and a dowel rod at Hobby Lobby. Add a glue gun, and we were ready to make a wand!

We started out by wrapping the pipe cleaners tightly around the dowel rod, hot glueing the ends down (or else the wire will be sharp!). Then we wrapped the feathers (which were actually from a hair clip that I took apart) around the top into a circle and glued them to the dowel rod too (this created a base on which the pom pom would sit).Then, I hot glued the giant pom pom on top, and viola! A sparkly, magic wand!

Disclaimer: Please do not let your children use the hot glue gun! I used it to attach one end of the pipecleaner, and then had Jayna wrap the pipe cleaner around the dowl rod before I glued the other end down.And of course every wand needs a princess to go with it! {And…cue the Cinderella dress!}Princess Jayna was casting spells on Maggie, Millie and me!Finally, Millie decided that she was tired of being turned into random things {think frog, tree, burrito…}. So, I made her one too!(Notice hers doesn’t have the feathers….she was insistent on trying to pull Jayna’s feathers out, so I left them off of hers!)

But first, Jayna decided that Millie needed a “Princess School” on how to use her wand. {I think she has been watching too much Sophia the First!}And now that they both have mastered the Bibbity Bobbity Boo, I guess I better watch out!

Linkin’ Up this week!

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Filed Under: Crafts, Life, Tutorials

Fireworks Painting Tutorial Revisited

August 15, 2012 posted by Shara

Hey, remember back in July I said I was featured on Cheerios and Lattes? I had made an uber-cute fireworks print teeshirt for Jayna, and guest-posted the tutorial on MacKenzie’s site. Well, I realized that I never did post it on my site. And although I’m sure every. single. one. of. you. went to Cheerios and Lattes to check it out, I figured I might as well post it on here again in case anyone was looking for Labor Day ideas, or wanting to get a super jump start on next summer.

You could also very easily use blue, white and silver paint to make the same shirt look like snowflakes!

I am also participating in a contest this week for creative family projects. And so I thought this would also be a good one for that! Click on the picture below to check out some of the other entries.

So without further ado: My 4th of July Tee shirt Tutorial Post

Since turning three this year, we have found that my daughter Jayna is starting to truly get into holidays. She wants to know all about them, and participate in any way she can. So this year, I started looking for a patriotic project that she could help out with. Her little sister, Amelia has a bunch of patriotic outfits in her closet, so we decided to make Jayna a shirt of her own. It all started with a blank tee-shirt, some paint, and a couple of pipe cleaners!

So simple!

Once we perfected our technique, we decided to make some patriotic decor for the outside of our home. So I found a spare piece of white fabric and we painted it outside.

We did find that the more we used the pipe cleaners, the more they kind of bent out of shape, but pushing down on each when printing did the trick. And the more imperfect they were, the better!

Amelia cheered us on from the grass! {And yes, she is in one of her 6 patriotic outfits!!)

After layering the red, blue and then white, we set it out to dry.

After it was dry, I cut the fabric into triangles and sewed them onto a long piece of ribbon.

And then Jayna and I hung it outside on our porch. It added a little patriotic flare to our house {until we can get our American Flag up!}

What are you doing to decorate for the summer?

Shara is mom to Jayna {3} and Amelia {10 months}, wife to Dave and blogs over at Palmettos and Pigtails. She used to be a teacher and wedding planner, but now her passions are her kids, crafting, and indulging in some Bravo! Check out the baby stuff she makes at www.etsy.com/shop/palmettosandpigtails or go read her blog to find out more about her humble little Southern Life!

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Filed Under: Life, Tutorials

Drab to Fab: A Pillowcase Tutorial

July 13, 2012 posted by Shara

As y’all know we recently moved into a new house. We also are doing our best to spread out major purchases and be “thrifty” in our decorating. So, to add some color and spruce up our front porch rockers, I decided to cover some old pillows that I found.

It was so easy, I decided to make a little tutorial so you can do it too.

And boy do I have some ugly, faded pillows!

First, measure the length and width of the pillows you want to recover. I used 19″ square pillows, but these directions will work for any size square/rectangle pillow. For the front piece of fabric, cut an inch longer and wider than your pillow.

For the back, measure an inch extra down, but 4-6 inches extra wide to account for the overlap.

Then, cut the back piece in half.

Fold over the raw seams of the two halves and sew. I actually folded them over twice so I wouldn’t have to worry about fraying. These two seams will be the overlapping part of your pillowcase.

Then pin the pillow case, right sides together, all the way around. The long pieces will overlap. Sew a 1/2″ seam around the edges and then use shears to trim excess. Make sure you clip your corners too.

Turn the pillow case right side out.

And put your old, ugly pillow inside.

Tada! You’d never even know those old things were in there!

And don’t they look so lovely?

Hmmm…what else needs new pillows now?!?!

If you use this tutorial, please let me know….I’d love to see your “new” pillows!

Linkin’ up here this week!

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Filed Under: Crafts, Life, Tutorials

Fireworks Print Tutorial

July 3, 2012 posted by Shara

Y’all, I am soooooo excited to tell you that my lovely Roman Curtains were featured last week on Cherished Bliss!! I entered them into her linky party (called Craft and Tell), and out of 116 projects posted, my little curtain project was viewed the most! Happy Day! Click below if you want to see if for yourself (or see some of the other projects).

And in other news….I am guest posting today over at Cheerios and Lattes with a fabulous Fourth of July tutorial. Here’s a sneak peek at ONE of the end products!

So, be a friend and go on over there and leave MacKenzie a comment about how much you love me, Jayna, or my Fireworks Tee-shirt tutorial! =)

Have a Safe and Happy Fourth of July tomorrow!

Linkin’ up here this week!

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Filed Under: Life, Tutorials

I was Featured! (and A Spring Wreath Tutorial)

April 5, 2012 posted by Shara

Happy Tuesday! I’m so excited to tell you that I was featured on My Favorite Finds this week (for sharing last week’s tutorial on my Upcycled Brown Paper Basket). It was super easy to make….you should try it!

Here’s something else that is easy to make…

I was challenged about a month ago, by my mother, to make a spring wreath. And because I have nothing better to do, it kind of got pushed to the bottom of my To-Do list. But then, I remembered that I would much rather craft, than wash windows. So, it got pushed back up to the top!

I saw lots of cute spring wreaths on pinterest, and decided to keep it simple, with materials I already had. After all, I didn’t want to blow my new budget already!!!

So, I decided to use some foam (from Lowes) duct-taped together to make my wreath form, and some left over packing paper from our move. My goal was to use the paper to create some shabby-chic-ish southern inspired (Magnolias, perhaps?) flowers.

I crinkled up the paper and wrapped it around the wreath form to completely cover the grey color.

And then I cut the paper into strips. I folded the strips accordion style width-wise, so I could cut more circles out at a time. I cut three sizes of circles.

My circles were a little sloppy and uneven, but it didn’t matter at all in the end. And as I worked, I decided that my mom’s wreath needed a little color. But I still liked the idea of a white base to the wreath. So I decided to color just the edges of each of the circles purple (perfect for the Lenten Season!).

After coloring ALL of those circles, I started crinkling. I actually got Jayna’s help…she crinkled and reopened my flowers, and then I glued the three layers together. Then I topped it with a little crinkled scrap of paper in the middle to be the flower’s stigma.

I used a hot glue gun to glue each flower onto the wreath form, in close proximity to each other, so they kind of all scrunch together.

And I left a little gap at the top, so that when my mom hangs it, her wreath hanger won’t squish the flowers. I put a little smiley on the back so it would be easy to find.

But then I decided that I needed a bow to make it look a little more complete (and elegant!). I had a hard time finding ribbon that I liked, so I bought some thick, crocheted lace instead. I made a bow and tacked it in place with hot glue. Perfect….shabby chic!

Here’s where I’m linking up this week!

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Filed Under: Crafts, Tutorials

Brown Paper Basket

March 26, 2012 posted by Shara

In the midst of babies crying, toddlers whining, and dogs barking, I hear a beautiful sound…the doorbell. Normally, I curse this sound because it makes my baby cry, wakes up my toddler, and makes my dog bark. But that was already happening, so I welcomed the distraction. But when I peered out the window, no one was there. Now, this has happened to us before, when we got Boo’ed at Halloween….a candy version of Ding Dong Ditch. But this time, when I opened the door instead of candy….BOXES! Pampered Chef and Thirty One boxes to be exact!

So as exciting as opening all those boxes was (and no, it wasn’t all for me….I’ll have to redistribute to all the lovely ladies who bought all that stuff and allowed me to get all of my stuff for FREE!!), the packaging in these things was ridiculous!

And since I made a pledge to my good friend The Lorax, to speak for the trees, I thought maybe I’d find a way to upcycle some of this packaging. A long time ago (before the days of pinterest unfortunately!), I had seen a cute use of recycling newspaper…..cutting into strips and weaving it into a basket! Reminded me of Girl Scouting….

So, I decided to try it with some of the brown paper from my Pampered Chef boxes. It was in pretty rough condition, but I found some good strips, and cut those into approximately one inch strips. Then, I folded each of those strips in half and used white thread to sew down each side with 1/8″ seam allowance. I figured that would make the brown paper look fabric-like when the basket was finished.

Basket weaving the bottom was the easy part. Just make sure you are adding strips equally on all sides to keep you basket even. I started with strips that were about 4 feet long, having no idea how big the basket would end up being.

About halfway through making the bottom, I realized that I only needed the strips to be about half that big (I wanted my basket to be about a foot squared, to hold my fabric scraps). So I slid everything over and cut about two feet off the end of each of my strips.

When I decided that the bottom of my basket was big enough, I started on the sides. I bent all the strips upwards, and then took a new strip and weaved it around the side (under, over, under, over….just like the bottom). I used a little piece of tape to hold the end of the strip to make it easier to weave. Let me tell you, it wasn’t pretty.

I thought about quitting. The strips were everywhere except for cooperating. But I used tape liberally for those first couple of strips around the sides. (I did take the tape off later, so just use it to tack).

But after about the third layer of weaving around the sides, everything kind of fell into place and starting looking like a basket!

With every layer I added, I was able to adjust the lower layers and make everything a little tighter and neater. I was also able to take off the tape, as the other layers helped hold the ends in too. I just tucked the ends into the weave. When I decided the sides were high enough, I stopped adding strips around the sides, and just tucked the ends of the basket into the weave. You can see some of the places where I did that in this picture.