Haiku Saturday

go away rain rain rain
hot sticky humid weather
Chicago springtime

Fab Friday Favorites

It's been a couple weeks since my last Fab Friday Favorites. Did you miss it? Most of these projects are from posts a few weeks old, but they are still great projects!

I've seen decorated rubber gloves in stores like Marshalls and TJ Maxx and have thought they were adorable, but they cost almost $20 for a pair. Too expensive! Super QT On the Hill shows you how to make them. These might almost make washing dishes fun (almost).

I think we've all probably seen pictures of stacked suitcases used as tables. One Cheap B*tch uses that idea but painted the suitcases a uniform color. I think the results look stunning. I have the perfect place in my living room (once the dog bed goes in my son's room when he's off to college in the fall) for this. And I will use the suitcases to store out of season clothes! Good looking and practical. Nice job!

Jen at Tatertots and Jello made this adorable ruffled pillow. I like it because its very big and very ruffley and makes such a statement. And look at that gorgeous bed! She has a great tutorial showing how to make the pillow. Oh and by the way - she used an old bedskirt to make it!

Sabby In Suburbia shows how to transfer images printed on an ink jet printer to a painted canvas using modge podge. Love it!

Kristi at The Speckled Dog (love the blogs looks and content!) updated this paper towel holder with paint and a funky knob and completely transformed it. I think it looks great and adds a design punch to a utilitarian object. See you can decorate anything - even a paper towel holder!

Starburst mirrors are pretty iconic in Mid Century Designs. Craving Some Creativity shows you how to make one for about $5.  I'm seriously looking to see where I can put one in my condo because I want to make this!

Lyssa at The Crafty Clique made this fun coffee table. I really love the numbers.

This adorable bracelet is made using Shrinky Dinks for Ink Jet Printers! I remember making shrinky dinks as a kid. I didn't know they still existed. Stories by Mel shows you how to make it and add scrapbook paper to the backs of the pictures to finish them. What a fun technique.

I hope you enjoyed this weeks Fab Friday Favorites!

How to Leave a Clickable Link in a Blog's Comment Section

Do you comment on blog posts and leave your blog's address under your name? Want to learn how to make it a clickable link that takes people directly to your blog? It's super simple and just requires a little HTML code.

Type your comments and add your name. On the next line you want to type <a href="URL of target site">anchor text</a>

The word "anchor text" is a description (the title of a blog, post, anything you like) and is what will be displayed on a browser. For example, the HTML for the hyperlink to my blog should be typed as:

<a href="http://www.blackkatsdesign.blogspot.com">Black Kats Design</a>

And will display Black Kats Design

If you want to display your URL and have it clickable just type

<a href="http://www.blackkatsdesign.blogspot.com">http://www.BlackKatsDesign.blogspot.com</a>

And it will display http://www.BlackKatsDesign.blogspot.com

Told you it was easy peasy! Leave me a comment and try it out.

Edited to add: Linking up to these great parties! Come join in the fun.

It's Craft Time - Burlap and Freezer Paper Stencil Coasters

This is another project I made weeks ago when my friend Alison was visiting. She did the sewing and I did the stenciling.

First make sure when you purchase burlap that it is cut on the straight of grain. With mine, the lady at Joanns just cut it and I wasn't paying attention. When I brought it home and trued it up I lost almost a 1/3 yard of fabric.

Cut a burlap square for each coaster you want to make. Mine are 5" square. Cut one square of craft felt 1/4" smaller than the burlap square.  Use pinking sheers and cut the edges so they have a nicer appearance. Center a piece of felt on a burlap square. Stitch 1/8"  in  from the edge of the felt all the way around the coaster. Hand sew a running stitch using colored floss on your sewn line. I lightly frayed the edges of my coaster by pulling out a burlap thread or two on each side.

For the stencil, find an image you like. My experiment piece was a retro starburst flower type of design. It looked great but took me longer to cut out with an exacto knife than I was willing to spend. Once I had the freezer paper stencil process down I used an image of a bird that was much quicker to cut out with a pair of scissors. Use your computer software to size your picture to what you need. I used Photoshop, but you can use whatever drawing / painting program you have and are comfortable with. Print the picture and hold it up to the coaster to double check your size.

Transfer the picture to the dull side of your freezer paper. I found it easiest to tape my picture to my window put up a piece of freezer paper with the shiny side toward the window and trace on the dull side. Trace as many images as you have coasters. Each stencil can only be used once. Make sure you leave plenty of room around each image as you will be cutting out the image and need the "frame" around it left intact.

Iron the cut out stencil (shiny side down) onto the coaster. It only takes a second or two to adhere with a hot iron. You can also eye ball and iron on any pieces which were not attached to your stencil. I had the piece between the birds legs and the branch to iron down. Paint within the stencil with your choice of regular craft paint. Paint with a pouncing motion instead of a sweeping motion. Let the paint dry for 5 minutes or so and peel off the freezer paper stencil. Let the paint dry completely before using the coaster.

With the bird coasters, I stenciled first and Alison sewed when they were done. With my second set of coasters, Alison had already sewn the coaster and then I stenciled. Both sequences worked fine.

Linking up to these wonderful parties!

New Pillows!

When my friend Alison visited this last time, she made me new pillows for my couch. I can sew, but Alison is an expert seamstress and actually enjoys the process of sewing (me - not so much). I don't have a before picture, as we were so excited we started without thinking. Here is the before fabric (if you remember my living room tour here, the pillows matched the trim on my rolling ottomans.

Here are the finished results. We kept the same shape. Don't they look great? I just love how the colors are the same, but they are different animal patterns. Both have turquoise ends which coordinates with my wall color. I took my black slipcover off the loveseat for a summer look and it really needed a spark of somethin', somethin'. These pillows do the trick. Thanks Alison! (pay no attention to the messy coffee table in the last picture. In it I'm actually working on a craft project - burlap coasters with freezer paper stencils! More to come on them soon).

I'm joining up to these fantastic link parties! Come check them out.

Congratulations Graduate!

My darling Son graduated from High School yesterday. I'm such a proud Momma! It's so hard to believe that he's 18 and a High School Graduate. Seems like just yesterday he was 6 and finishing Kindergarten. How time flies. This fall he's off to college at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia to study photography and graphic design. He will be so far away from me (the Chicago area) and I will be living alone for the first time in my life. Big changes in store for both of us!

Barcode Art

I've become mildly obsessed with Barcode Art. I don't know what sparked the obsession, I just know I want a print in my condo. My problem? Cost. I'm super cheap. Do you think I could make it? I'm thinking it's just a lot of painters tape for the stripes and a number stencil on a canvas. I think under $20 bucks total cost with a 40% off coupon for the canvas. What do you think?

All Modern.com wall sticker art for $90.

I just love the barcode graffiti at Senses Lost.

Barcode protest art shown at Ad Land.

Barcodes Inc has an online generator where you can change the size and the output in order to create your design.

You can barcode yourself at Barcodeart.com. The barcode above contains data about my age, country, height and weight. At the site you can purchase your barcode on fun things like tattoos and dog tags. You can also get a custom painting for $350.

I'm adding the project to my lengthy craft to-do list. If you make one, show me! I'd love to hear how it went.