Shop the House for Autumn Decor

Hello Autumn!  You are my favorite season, and I'm especially glad that it didn't cost a dime to bring you into my home this year.  A little felt pumpkin hanging on my china hutch makes me smile.  It's made from felt ovals, which you can find explained HERE.  The little Fall tag was also made from things I had at home and you can read about it HERE.

Apothecary Jars (a garage sale treasure!) are really fun to fill with seasonal pretties.  

This tray also gets redressed for each season.  The sweet little green custard cup has vanilla scented soy beads in it, along with a candle.  Smells so good and is a fun texture.  Soy beads hold their scent a long time...much longer than potpourri. The green footed vintage bowl is for sale in my Etsy, HERE.  So versatile!

I love little white ceramic containers...this one displays vintage family photos. Now it's dressed for fall, sitting in the middle of a fall candle ring, which came from a previous garage sale. :)

A suede green leaf placemat makes a nice centerpiece foundation for the dining table, along with a footed vase filled with fallish goodies.

The antique drawer I bought at a flea market this summer is whistling Autumn now too!  I made the felt stuffed leaves by hand.  Fun and relaxing as an evening lap craft.  The book is an antique Dr. Martin Luther German Bible from the 1800s!  Literally trash-picked from the top of a dumpster!  It's precious and was unharmed.  

My antique Tea-For-One looks cozy with my favorite ceramic bird, antique coffee mug filled with roasted hazelnut soy beads, and Scrabble letters spelling R E S T.  Ahhhhh.

The mantel antique window also got redressed for fall.

Scrabble letters...love them.

Toilet Paper Roll pumpkin (tutorial HERE) and green candle look good together on the piano.

And lastly, my front storm door is sporting the cute silk leaf garland that my daughter stitched together for me last year.  Simple and festive!

So, without spending a dime this year, the house is dressed for Autumn...and the need of using the fireplace most evenings now is the crowning touch. I'm ready for cheery fall days and cozy fall nights.

Thank you for stopping by!

Blessings!
Donna
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Stitched Paper Bookmark...a Nice Little Giftie

Today I needed 2 little gifties to mail in two cards...one as a tiny b-day gift and one as a thank you gift.  It was so much fun to make these little beauties with things right in my craft stash.

I found four coordinating papers in my scrapbook supplies.  I used cardstock for the bookmark base, and the other papers as embellishments.  I folded the approximately 8 inch long cardstock strip in half and used my sewing machine to stitch on the coordinating blue rectangle to its lower half.  Next I put the brad through the printed circle and into the bookmark.  Now it was ready for the final stitching...just all the way around the exterior of the folded bookmark.  Lastly came the punched flowers, a foam dot gave dimension to the top flower, and a button finished it off.  I added 3 small pink  ribbons to the top, gluing them to the back of the bookmark.  And glued a piece of blue paper over their tails on the back, to keep it neat and tidy.  Printing out the word 'friends' in Courier font and attaching to the front was the last touch.

Lastly I added a handscripted message with a black fine tip gel pen, and the little bookmarkers were ready to pop in a card and mail.  I hope my friends will feel loved and special when this bit of handmade love is delivered to their mailbox.

Making bookmarks with paper, embellishments, and the sewing machine (or hand-stitching if need be) is fun, easy, inexpensive, and easy to mail.  Could be a sweet stocking gift or teacher's gift too!

Enjoy!!

Blessings,
Donna

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10 Weeks til Christmas!!

Christmas is Coming!

Just 10 weeks away...that makes me excited!!

And it means we should all be getting busy planning out meaningful, special gifts for our loved ones and friends.  

I want to invite you to come to my etsy shop, Perfect Darlings, for some one-of-a-kind gift ideas.  I offer free shipping to the lower 48 of the USA, and special rates to Canada.  If you wish to order shipment to anyplace else, I will charge you the additional cost for just that shipping amount.  Convo me.  Here's a sampling of some gifts in my shop...and THANK YOU for stopping by!  We Etsians (?!) really do appreciate your business.

Baby Crinkle Taggie Toy 

Minky dots are soft to baby's fingers and face and the crinkle sound inside is fascinating to them.

This one has a heart ironed on.

The ribbons provide tactile stimulation with their satin, gross grain, and rick rack textures.

What a sweet little stocking stuffer...easy to take along in your purse or bag and easily hangs with your little plastic toy rings to the carseat or stroller.

Sweet little handmade felt quiet book for toddlers

Sweet fabric matching game with felt pouch, with a Noah's Ark theme

A batch of vintage sewing materials for the seamstress on your list.

Vintage Square Flower Pyrex, in near perfect condition

English Wedgewood China plates

Vintage turquoise Pyrex dish in near perfect condition

Antique little salt and pepper set on a silverplated tray
Thank you so much for looking!
All this and more are ready for shipment.

Blessings!
Donna at Perfect Darlings

DIY Baby Crinkle/Taggie Toy Tutorial

Recently I've become interested in sewing a baby krinkle-taggie toy for a baby gift.  After doing alittle online research, I was so surprised to find out that the "crinkle" inside these toys is nothing more than a piece of cellophane or an empty, clean bag! Bingo!  I can do this!  Off to JoAnns for some delicious fabrics and ribbons.  I love that this juvenile print isn't specifically baby, but will be eye-catching to the little baby girl I made it for, and the minky side is very soft for little fingers and faces.

It's quite easy to make, so let's get started.  Buy about 12-15 inches of a pretty woven print and a coordinating soft minky fabric.  Also be sure you have several colors of matching ribbon  and ric rac in different textures.  I used my Corelle luncheon plates, which are 9" across, to trace a circle onto the print, with a fabric pen, then cut it out.

Delicious colors!

I got so excited making this toy that I sometimes forgot to take photos along the way!  :)  But you'll also want to cut out the same sized circle of the minky and one of the cellophane or clean cookie/candy bag.  Then I decided to cut 3 ribbon/ric rac strips of each of the four I was using.  This worked out really well for the 9" circle.  I made the ribbons alittle bit different lengths and widths, just for variety and interest. They are about 3"-4" long.

Then pin the ribbons which are folded in half, in equal distances around the circle.  Mine had about 1.5" in between each one.

Next I laid the minky fabric, right side down, on top of the right side of the flowered fabric, and put the clean crinkle circle on top of that.  Pin them for sewing all 3 layers together.

And here's where I got excited and didn't take photos of the sewing.  Sorry!  But I sewed around the circle, with a seam allowance of about 5/8 inch so that even if a layer shifted a bit, all edges would be caught.  Leave a 1.5"-2" opening for turning the fabric right side out.  And before turning it, I trimmed the seam to about 1/4" and cut little slits from the edge to just near the seam, so the circle curves would lay flat when turned out.

After the circle was turned right side out and I saw that everything was good, I hand sewed the opening closed, attaching that last ribbon in that spot.  Then a careful line of top stitching all around the circle, about 3/8 inch from the edge, for the nice look of it and to be sure the ribbons are all secured.  Do you love the polka-dotted ric rac?!  Hobby Lobby.  The other ribbons came from JoAnns, some gross grain and some satin smooth.

And here she is, complete!  It's bright, colorful, and makes that wonderful crinkly sound that babies love.  It's safe for little mouths, and can be washed over and over...just do not put in the dryer, in order to keep the 'crinkle', crinkly!!  :)

Whenever you make something for the first time, you learn little tricks to try for the next one.  Next time I will try making the crinkle circle inside smaller, and NOT sewing it to the fabrics.  Perhaps it will lay flatter then, and be alittle easier to work with. It's just the cookie bag inside that isn't perfectly flat.  

Are you inspired?  What a cute gift!  And I like that it is circular...that's just a bit unique.  A triangular one would be fun too.  I think I'll be making some of these for my etsy shop, PerfectDarlings, in case you don't care to make one yourself.  But if you like to sew...this was really fun, and was complete in an hour.

Blessings!
Donna


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Today's Creative Blog

Toilet Paper Roll Pumpkin

 Are you ready to 'shop the house' and make a cute craft? 

All you need is a new roll of toilet paper, a square of fallish fabric that is about 18x18 inches (or a fat quarter), a thick stick, and some jute, twine, or raffia.

Open your fabric and turn it upside down.  I didn't even iron this piece, and it won't show.  Put the roll of paper right in the center.

Then begin taking the corners of the fabric and tucking it into the hole of the roll of paper.  You can work at this and redo it if you want to til you like the folds and tucks that the fabric makes.

More tucking...

Nearly done tucking...

I left a corner of the fabric up to serve as a leaf.  :)  Then used a thick stick stuck into the middle to be the stem.

And there she is!

I decided to make a little tag to hang on the pumpkin.  This is a gift tag that said "thanks"  on it, but I layered 3 colored shapes over it, added a button for the flower, and then the word 'fall.'

I hung it from the stem by jute, and she's done!  My mom in law, who doesn't think she is crafty, made one too!

Cute!


So, give it a try!  Fun craft to make with kids, youth, or a group of friends.  And when you are ready to take it apart, the toilet paper is still good to use, and the fabric is in perfect condition to use for something else.  

Enjoy!


(PS...I decided I liked the pumpkin better without the tag adornment...so the tag is now off the pumpkin and propped up against the real gourd to the side.  I love the tag, but just not on the pumpkin...rather as a part of the vignette!)
Blessings,
Donna

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