Decorate The Dunny!

Home Decorating:

OK, I know it seems a little strange to be decorating my loo (!), but this looks really nice in my children’s bathroom! As you all know, I’m very keen about low cost makeovers, and it occurred to me the other day that another very low cost way of changing the look of your bathroom is to give your toilet a makeover! There are also so many really ugly toilet seats around (think lace, glitter and swimming dolphins), so I wanted to do something that was a bit more funky and modern.

This project could be especially nice if your toilet is in a room of its own, and the room is otherwise unable to be decorated much. In my case, the toilet in my children’s bathroom is in the smack-bang-centre of the room and therefore is the main focus of the room!

Of course these photos are more about the concept rather than the finished product. There are SO many options with this project! Whatever you wanted to put on there, really! You just need to be able to still sit on it and clean it! I also tried adding more material onto the toilet seat for a different look too. 

If you wanted to try something like this in YOUR bathroom, all you’ll need is some fabric or paper, scissors and some contact.

Firstly, give the toilet a quick clean!! Then trace the area of the toilet that you want to stick something onto. I traced straight onto the back of the contact. Then I cut the shape out.

Cut out the shape of the material or paper that you’d like to use. Just make sure that you’re going to have enough contact around the edge of your shape to keep it stuck firmly on. 

I then gave my material a quick iron. 

It was then a simple matter of sticking the material onto the contact, 

and then sticking it onto the lid of the loo. 

It’s still very easy to clean, and you can just rip it off and chuck it out when you’re sick of it!

It's just for fun! Enjoy your decorating!

Emma

Simple Buttoned Cushion

Sewing:

This is a really simple way to make some great cushions for your house.

I simply cut 2 squares of fabric half an inch smaller than the cushion size you want to use (this gives the cushion that nice firm and plump look).

Sew around all 4 sides - leaving a gap of about 1/2 the 4th side open. This will give you the space to insert the cushion insert. Then either hand sew or machine sew the seam shut.

Finally add a simple fabric covered button to the centre of either side in a contrasting colour. 

Happy sewing!

Caity x

Building Block Stamp Paintings

Artwork:

This project would have to be one of the SIMPLEST and EASIEST artworks I have ever done on this blog.

I wanted to create a large size, modern painting in neutral colours… but of course with minimal cost! It’s similar in technique to my Sweet Potato Stamp Painting, but takes less time. I have also used children's building blocks for stamping before - they work well!

I used MDF panels again for this project- they’re so cheap at $3.50 each from Bunnings, and they’re a very decent size (these ones shown are 60cm x 90cm each). I didn’t even worry about painting the MDF first for this project – the brown colour gives a really nice natural tone against the white. It’s just the look I was after!

The other good thing about using MDF panels is that they’re very light and easy to hang. I’m going to hang these paintings with a few of those Command picture hanger sticky strips on the back of each panel. Sorry about the orientation of this photo...

Completing this project really was quick. Firstly I selected one of my children’s building blocks for the stamp shape. I chose this block for its square end size plus its length (I wanted to easily hold it when I was doing the stamping).

I used plain old white paint – whatever you've got in the cupboard will do. Then I just started stamping straight onto the MDF and kept on until I’d finished! 

The whole project (from start to finish, getting paint out on a tray, then cleanup etc) took me 1.5 hours. Easy! As you can see, the stamping isn't perfect, bu it doesn't matter. It'll still look good when all the stamped squares sit together.

It’s a pretty nice large artwork for about $10 in total (if you include the paint).

Give this project a go! – there are endless possibilities for design and colour.

Happy painting!

Emma

Pinwheel Cushions

Sewing:

I was looking through my latest fav home and design mag and saw these great pinwheel cushions. Nice bright bold colours and they looked amazing - but they were over $120 each - which is just crazy!!!! 

So I thought I'd just make some for myself!

These are so simple to make. Each cushion consists of 4 half square triangles (HST) and I just used a variety of bright bolds and greys I had in the cupboard already.

For the back just use Em's simple no-zip cushion tutorial if you don't feel like putting a zipper in!

These really brighten up my spare room.

Happy sewing!

Caity x

Cheap Decorating with Fabric in Old Photo Frames

Home Decorating:

This project’s a great one for re-using stuff that you might have stored in a cupboard somewhere, particularly old wooden photo frames!

I know that the ‘framed fabric’ concept is not a new one, but I thought I’d use it as one of my projects for the blog because it fits in nicely with the ‘using what you've got’ decorating style.

This is another bedroom in our ‘guest cottage’, which is a spare house on the property that I did up myself for friends and families to stay. As I've mentioned before in previous posts about this house, I tried to spend the absolute bare minimum when decorating it.

I was very lucky to already have a good supply of second-hand furniture (all of the furniture you can see in these photos is second-hand), and I was also able to find some good bargains for the soft furnishings. 

For example, (in one of the other bedrooms in this house), the material that I made the curtains and cushions out of cost me $1 per metre from a Spotlight bargain table. In this bedroom featured here I purchased these doona covers on special from Ezibuy, but used everything else that I already had.

I had lots fabric leftover from another ‘red’ project that I’d done, so I used it again in this room for the cushions. Then I wanted to coordinate some artwork with the bed covers.

So I simply cut out some pieces of material, placed them inside the photo frames, and hung them up again. So quick and easy!

Happy decorating!

Emma

Simple Baby Boy Cot Quilt

Quilting:

Finally, a new quilt is on its way - it's been a long time between quilts this year. But a request for a commission of a baby quilt from a friend finally got me moving again.

This quilt is a simple pattern of rectangles 9" x 11" in dimension. I'll do some basic straight line quilting and think an orange binding might look the best. I'd also love to find an orange spot for the backing, but will see what I come across!

I'm looking forward to making a few more quilts again now I've broken the drought!

Happy quilting!

Caity x

Cardboard Wall Dots For Simple Party Decorations

Craft:

This weekend we had my daughter Poppy’s 6^th birthday party at our lovely local Memorial Hall. Our Hall is very large and consists of several rooms, so I had to find some cheap and easy ways to decorate it (nicely!) for the party. I decided to focus on decorating a couple of key areas for maximum impact, which led me to my idea for my Cardboard Wall Dots.

I also made up some new No-Sew Bunting to go with my Wall Dots, which looked very nice.

My Cardboard Wall Dots were very simple to make! They also hardly took any time to do. The only materials you’ll need are:

-          Fabric

-          Cardboard boxes

-          Serrated knife for cutting out the shapes

-          Spray glue

Firstly, cut (“slice”, I suppose I really mean) your shapes out of the cardboard with your serrated knife. 

Then place the dots on your fabric and cut around them. Leave a bit of material right around the dot, so that you’ve got enough to fold over once you’ve applied your spray glue.

Give your dots a quick iron to get rid of any creases. 

Then spray the wrong side of the material with spray glue, and place your cardboard dot in the middle of each piece of material. 

Give it a while to become sticky. Then fold the edges over the cardboard and give them a little while to dry.

Then simply stick them up on the wall with blu-tack. They will look terrific.

If you decide to try this project, I hope you enjoy it!

Emma

"I Wear My Heart On My Sleeve" Jumper

Sewing:

I love this jumper - it's just a thin wool one I picked up on sale a few years ago - but it seems it's been attacked by silverfish while sitting in my cupboard since last winter.... what to do....

Some cute little patches to freshen it up and it's a new top!

To make this I simply cut out 2 hearts from a furnishing fabric sample I had.

To attach the hearts to the jumper you can either hand sew with a button hole stitch, running stitch or machine sew with a tight zig-zag or satin stitch.

I'd recommend using some flisofix or similar to attach the hearts to the sleeves first to make sure they are really secure.

I hand-sewed a buttonhole stitch around mine for 2 reasons:

1. I wanted to watch Offspring while I made it

2. I was too lazy to get the sewing machine out!

Happy sewing!

Caity x

Quick Makeover for a Child’s Jumper

Sewing:

(Sorry about the orientation of this photo! Blogger has decided yet again how my photos should appear!) You get the idea though!

This weekend we were very excited to have a 5^th birthday party of one of Poppy’s lovely little friends. There are so many beautiful “little girl” things around to purchase, but I wanted to give her something useful and practical. I also didn’t have much time this week so it had to be quick!

So I purchased two size 5 sloppy joe jumpers from Target, and gave them an easy makeover by sewing on some “dots” of pretty material.

This project was very, very simple. Firstly I cut out two round shapes from my selected materials and gave them a quick iron.

Then I ironed down a little seam. 

I pinned the material dots onto the jumpers in the position that I wanted them. 

And then it was a quick matter of sewing around them! It doesn't even matter if your sewing isn’t perfect – the messy look just adds to the appearance of the jumpers.

The only problem was that the little girl I gave them to said “no, they’re too big”. !! She’ll love them though I’m sure!

Happy sewing!

Emma