Ikea

November 1, 2017 by Sydney Leave a Comment

Thankful Pillow And Cricut Easy Press Tutorial

Some posts may contain affiliate links. For more information please see the disclosure page.

Cricut sent me an Easy Press for this post. All thoughts and opinions are mine alone.

Make this Thankful Pillow in just minutes with the Cricut Maker and EasyPress.

One of my favorite ways to decorate for holidays is fun throw pillows. Not only are they easy to change with the seasons but if I get tired and need to take a nap (which happens a lot more lately with 3 kids) it’s a soft place to rest my head. They are also pretty inexpensive to make too! I love getting my pillow covers and inserts at IKEA. I can walk out spending less than $10 and have supplies to make 2 pillows. Granted I usually spend an hour or so walking around and walk out with a few more things too but the supplies for the pillows are between $5-$7 depending on the pillow.

One thing I’ve had trouble in the past with pillows is they are so big they either don’t fit on my heat press and I have wrinkles in the vinyl from the pressure from the press OR it takes forever with an iron to cover the space of a 20×20 pillow. The EasyPress made making this pillow SO much easier. Just two simple rounds and it was done.

Supplies:

Vigdis Cushion Cover

Inner Pillow Cushion

Cricut Glitter Gold Iron-On

Cricut Light Gold Foil Iron-On **If you’re shopping on Cricut.com use code FREESHIP to score free shipping!

Barrier between iron-on and Easy Press (I use a teflon sheet but a hand towel works great too)

Cricut Maker or Explore Air

Cricut Brightpad

Cricut EasyPress

Essential Tool Kit – not mandatory but makes weeding SO much easier

Directions:

Open this design up in design space. Size it to your pillow. My pillow was 20″x20″ but I didn’t want it to take up the whole pillow so I opted for 11.5″x10.38″.

Click Make It and send to your Maker. **On the next screen make sure to “Mirror” slide bar on BOTH canvases.

Click continue and select your machine from the drop down menu. Select your material too. I did the letters in glitter gold and the leaves in the foil.

Once your designs are cut, turn on your Brightpad and weed your designs.

Turn on your EasyPress and set the temperature to 305°F and timer to 30 seconds. This sheet is a great reference for temperatures and times depending on your materials.

Place your pillow on a sturdy surface (like your counters) and preheat your pillow for 5-10 seconds.

Put the glitter gold letters down and center on pillow. Cover with teflon sheet or towel and place the EasyPress on the top half of the design. Press the green C button.

Apply medium firm pressure and release when the timer goes off. Move the EasyPress to the bottom half of the design and repeat previous step.

Turn your pillow cover over and heat again for 30 seconds. Flip pillow cover back over.

Slowly peel plastic backing off starting in one of the bottom corners and at an angle. If some of the letters are coming up (sometimes the thicker materials require a little more time to apply) put the plastic backing back down and press again.

Once you have the letters attached put the foil leaves down and arrange them like the design in Design Space.

Put the teflon sheet or towel over the plastic-backed foil and cover with EasyPress. Press the green C button.

Apply medium firm pressure and release when the timer goes off. Move the EasyPress to the bottom half of the design and repeat previous step.

Turn your pillow cover over and heat again for 30 seconds. Flip pillow cover back over.

Slowly peel plastic backing off starting in one of the bottom corners and at an angle.

Once everything is attached I like to put the teflon sheet over the design and run the EasyPress over everything one last time for 10-15 seconds.

Put pillow insert in and enjoy your work!

I love the EasyPress and especially love how much easier it makes bigger projects. Check back next week when I share with you my thoughts on the EasyPress vs. my heat press and which one I use on a daily basis.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.

February 4, 2016 by Sydney 5 Comments

Reversible Valentine’s/St. Patrick’s Day Sign

Some posts may contain affiliate links. For more information please see the disclosure page.

This easy (and affordable) holiday sign serves double duty for both Valentine’s Day AND St. Patrick’s Day.

I’ve said it before, and a lot recently, I love decorating for the holidays. We just started decorating this year (well last year starting at Halloween) so our decorations supply isn’t too big yet. I like creating our decorations because it’s fun and also it’s way more affordable than going out and buying everything.

As much as I love crafting and creating I love spending time with my boys even more. That’s where the idea for this sign came from. We were at IKEA (their favorite store ever, behind Toys R Us of course) a few weeks ago and I found these super cute rolls of Valentine’s Day wrapping paper. They were only $4.99 for four rolls so I decided to get them. Then Rohrl, my three year old, say the same set but in green and decided he wanted it. Of course I couldn’t say no to him so in the cart they went. Then, when we were getting ready to leave the boys saw their favorite picture frames, The Tolsby, and wanted to get one of those too.

That’s when the idea popped into my head. I could make a Valentine’s Day sign AND a St. Patrick’s Day sign with everything in the cart. So we picked up four frames and headed out to get some ice cream…because you can’t leave IKEA without getting ice cream, right?! By the way, this post isn’t sponsored by IKEA we just love their stuff!

When we got home I started up my Silhouette Cameo and opened the design I used for my Love Mason Jars. I changed the font, made the letters a little bigger then printed them on silver vinyl. I then changed the V and E to C and K and changed the heart to a horseshoe and printed those on gold vinyl.

I cut the wrapping paper into 4×6 in. pieces (the size of pictures the frames hold) and stuck the letters on each sheet. Lastly, I paired up each word (The L’s back to back, the heart and horseshoe back to back, the V and C back to back and the E and K back to back) then put them in their frames.

The sign turned out just as cute as I had pictured it and they are making their home in my boys’ play room. Would you love to make this (pun intended) but don’t have a vinyl cutter. No worries…hop on over to my Instagram @sydney_tastefullyfrugal today at 12pm MST and I’ll be giving away a Silhouette Cameo along with a few of my best blog buddies! Check out what projects they created below and don’t forget to enter the giveaway, it ends on 2/11/16!

Pocketful of Posies – Sultry and Saucy One of a Kind DIY Dip Cups.

Hobnail House – Silhouette Craft Blog Hop: Cut Vinyl Art Upcycle

In The Loop – How to Create a Silhouette Using the Silhouette Cameo

Craving Some Creativity – Silhouette Project Challenge: Distressed Laundry Room Sign

DIY Passion – Cheeky DIY Tote Bags that will Make You Smile

Domestic Abiliy – Paper Boxwood Wreath

Our House Now A Home – A Silhouette Giveaway and Creating New Aall Art

My Life From Home – Silhouette Challenge: What’s Cooking? Recipe Holder

Holy Craft – How to Use a Photograph to Make a Custom T-Shirt with Your Silhouette

Knock it Off Crafts –
DIY Otomi Coasters using a Silhouette Machine and Silhouette Giveaway!

One Project Closer – DIY Princess Party Decorations

Dream Design DIY – Chalkboard Workout Calendar and Silhouette Giveaway

The Country Chic Cottage – Makeup Organizer

Refresh Living – Custom Word Throw Pillows with Vintage Fabric

The Deans List – Scalloped Milk Glass for Valentine’s Day

Tried & True – “Life Is Good” Bicycle Lover’s Tee

Tastefully Frugal – Valentine’s Day/St. Patrick’s Day Reversible Sign

March 28, 2015 by Sydney 23 Comments

DIY Storage Jars For Less Than $1

Some posts may contain affiliate links. For more information please see the disclosure page.

Don’t throw those empty pickle jars away; make these cute storage containers for less than $1.

I remember when I was 9 months pregnant with my first son, waiting every day for him to join our family (he was a few weeks past his due date) I stumbled upon this great website, Pinterest. I spent my days filling boards full of all these cute baby things, crafts and recipes that I knew I would have time to do now that I was a stay at home mom. Boy, was I wrong!

That was 3 years ago and while I have gotten a ton of recipe inspirations from Pinterest I have only done a handful of the hundreds, well really more like thousands, of crafts and projects I’ve pinned. So when my sweet friend Kendra from Joy In Our Home invited me to join this Monthly Pinterest Challenge group I knew it was just the motivation I needed to tackle some of these projects.

Moving from a 3 bedroom house to a 2 bedroom town home one of the areas I can use the most help in is organization. I’ve seen those cute storage jars with the glass knobs on top for years and decided that would be my first Pinterest Challenge to tackle. I looked at Home Depot and Lowe’s and a few online stores and the cheapest I could find those cute knobs for was $3. Now three dollars doesn’t seem like a lot of money but I knew I could find something even more affordable. So when I was at IKEA the other weekend and saw these Clear Satta Knobs I knew they would be perfect; especially since they were just $1.99 for 6.

So with knobs, a few empty jam jars and pickle jars, and a can of Rustoleum Metiallic Paint & Primer in Satin Nickel in hand I was ready to make my jars. The only other tool you may need is a Center Punch to make the whole in the lid. My husband had one already but you can buy them at anywhere hardware store.

Step 1: Clean jars and remove labels. I found the easiest way to get the labels off without having any sticky left over is to run the jars under warm water and use your fingers to scrub off.

Step 2: Use the center punch to poke a whole through the middle of the lids.

Step 3: Paint lids and let them sit overnight.

Step 4: Thread screw for knobs up through the bottom of the lids and attach Satta knob on top of lid.

Step 5: Fill your cute jars with whatever you have lying around that needs to be organized.

The jam jars are perfect to hold washi tape and the pickle jars are great for makeup wedges, which my boys and I love painting with (another Pinterest tip).

Where could you use a little extra organization? And for more fun Pinterest inspiration check out what my friends Havalah from Sisters, What! and Amanda from Burlap and Babies made this month!

DIY Felt and Leather Triangle Garland || Sisters, What!
DIY Storage Jars for Less Than $1 || Tastefully Frugal
DIY Ombre Mason Jars || Burlap and Babies

Sharing at Thrifty Decor Chick

October 29, 2014 by Sydney 18 Comments

Make Your Own Disney Autograph Books for $1

Some posts may contain affiliate links. For more information please see the disclosure page.

Going to Disneyland can be such a magical experience. I remember as a kid, the excitement I had walking up to the gates and in through the Disney castle. We lived about 30 minutes from Disneyland until I was 6 so we went quite a bit; but every time I always got just as excited as the last. One thing you don’t realize as a kid, well maybe you do but I never realized it, was how expensive Disneyland can be.

We took our boys their last week during our vacation to California and, though a lot has changed since the last time I went twenty years ago, I still got a giddy feeling in my stomach riding the tram to the gate. But this time I realized how expensive things were. And how kids want EVERYTHING they see! Big Disney Balloon $15, Stuffed Mickey $40, Bottle of water $3. Lucky for us, we went for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party so there was plenty of trick or treating and other activities to keep them distracted from wanting everything they saw.

One of my fondest memories of our Disneyland trips were getting all the characters’ autographs. I remember picking out my soft-covered booking, a special pen and then waiting in line to get Minnie or Daisy’s autograph. I still have that book, packed away in storage somewhere, but it was something I wanted my boys to experience to. Before the trip, being the ~~cheap~~ frugal mom I am, I looked online to see how much those books were. They cost anywhere from $10-$20! And I had to get two!! No thank you, I could find a much better way to spend $40 (like buying 2 slices of pizza, chips and a drink while we were there, but that’s another story). We were doing this trip on a budget and I just couldn’t justify spending that kind of money on something as small as a book.

So I decided to make them! You may remember the spañita I talked about at The Spa Party I went to a few weeks back. Well part of the loot I grabbed were a few of these Farggrann notebooks. They are the perfect size for little hands and would be great to use for the autograph books. The price tag was even better free! If you don’t have any on hand they are only $.99 so they will fit into almost any budget! So I grabbed my Mala pens and set to work creating the books!

Now God blessed me with many talents, art and drawing were not on that list. I pulled up the Disney logo on Google and probably sat there for 45 minutes trying to perfect it. Finally I had enough confidence to try it on the book. The Mala pens were actually not dark enough, which was perfect because I could draw the design and then use a wet cloth to erase any mistakes. So I ended up using a silver Sharpie to finish them. And there you have it. Less than an hour (less than 15 minutes if you can draw) and less than $1 and you have yourself a perfect Disney autograph book!