Homemade Cleaning Supplies

Posted on May 25, 2013 by Jen

For awhile now I have been interested in more natural cleaning products. It’s the whole move towards simplicity and more natural ingredients that our family has been moving towards slowly but surely.

The week after Easter this year I finally made my own laundry soap. It was SO EASY!!! I can’t believe I waited so long to try it. Now we are at the end of May and I still have about 1/3 left. It should easily last until the end of June. So for 15 minutes of my time and about $7.50 I have had laundry soap for 3 months. I am definitely converted!

Here is the laundry soap recipe that I used. Most seem to be pretty similar so I finally just picked one and went with it.

I ran out of chemical cleaner so yesterday I picked out some all purpose cleaners to try. I really don’t like the smell of vinegar so I found this citrus cleaner to try. I used three oranges, but there is still room in the jar so four would have been perfect.

The jar looks so pretty sitting on my counter! But it takes 2-3 weeks to meld, stew, ferment? I don’t really know what it’s doing except that it will be a lovely smelling (hopefully) all purpose cleaner eventually.

That didn’t help me for today when I needed some so I tried this all purpose cleaner. You probably have everything you need on hand. It worked wonderfully on my kitchen counters and it didn’t smell very vinegary at all, yay!

There are a boatload of recipes out there, everything from glass cleaner to toilet bowl cleaner.

Any suggestions for what I should try next?

Handmade Greeting Cards: aka Fun Mail

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Jen

I love handmade greeting cards, totally love them!! Fun mail is one of the best things in the world so I also love to randomly send out handmade cards just because. This week I needed a thank you card for a very dear friend and so I thought I would stitch one up with the plum pop color palette.

I adore how the threads separated in the lazy daisy stitch to make it look doodley (did I just make that word up)?

Did you make anything inspired by one of the color challenges? I would love to see it in my Flickr group!

Fabric Lovliness

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Jen

Have you ever fallen in love with a piece of fabric but don’t know what to do with it? Sometimes fabrics don’t need anything but to be displayed! They are so beautiful on their own that all they need is the embroidery hoop frame.

Fabric only hoops are now in the shop!

If you still need a teacher gift I have an apple fabric hoop and another that is perfect for the coffee lovers!

I have limited amounts of fabric that I use for these hoops so grab yours before they are gone!

Find my shop here!

Pretty Palette: Fruity Ice

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Jen

This color palette is so bright and summery! It brings to mind the beach with those sandy yellows and fruit smoothies with those delicious looking pinks. Or maybe strawberry lemonade?

I’m excited to stitch something up with this color palette!

Did you make something for plum pop? I made a greeting card this week and I can’t wait to share it with you. I would love to see your projects! Feel free to jump in at any time with any of the palettes.

What can you create with these colors? Do you have watercolors, scrapbook paper, buttons, yarn, or embroidery thread like me? Pick your favorite medium and create a work of art this week using these colors. Then share it with us in my flickr group.

What do these colors bring to mind for you?

Felt Sewing Kit for Kids

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Jen

This project is so fun and a great way to let kiddos try an easy bit of sewing. My son wanted to make a pirate sewing kit so that’s what we did and it turned out super cute!

He learned some very handy things by making this sewing kit: how to thread a needle, how to stop and start his stitching, running stitch, and how to sew on buttons.

Here is the inside. It has a pocket for his scissors, a pocket with a button closure to hold extra thread, and a small piece of felt to hold pins and needles.

Supplies:

felt – 4-5 colors
needle
thread
2 buttons
scissors

1. Cut your felt. I will put the colors we used next to the sizes in inches.

Black – 6 x 8

Green – 3.5 x 3.5

Red – 3 x 2

Blue (pocket)- 3.5 x 7.5

Blue – 5 x 7

Black (button tab) – 1.5 x 4

2. Sew your pocket together. To make a pocket out of your long rectangle, fold the bottom up 2.5 inches. You can pin it to hold it and then sew a running stitch from the top of the fold on one side, down around the bottom, and back up the other side. We made our flap look like a triangle by cutting the corners off, but you can make it rounded too if you prefer. Sew your button on by making an X with your thread, we did it three times. Once the button is on, fold your flap over and pinch where the button lays so you can snip a hole with your scissors.

3. Attach pockets and needle holder. We pinned our pieces in place and then stitched them onto the blue background piece with running stitch. Make sure you only stitch around three sides for your scissor pocket!

4. Attach your design. This is when you can design the front of your kit. My guy wanted a skull and crossbones so I just freehanded with a marker onto a piece of white felt and we cut it out. I cut out circles for the eyes and he added details for the nose and mouth with stitches after all the pieces were attached.

5. Put it all together. Now you get to sew on the blue piece with all of the pockets to the cover (the black piece for us). Pin it together and then sew a running stitch all the way around the edges. It’s ok if you have to stitch along a pocket again, our green pocket has extra stitches over it.

6. Sew your button tab and attach your button. Sew about 1/2 of your tab to the back of your cover first. Close your kit and see where the tab lines up. This is where you want to sew your button on. Once your button is on, fold your tab over and pinch so you can snip a hole.

He did such a fantastic job for his first try, I’m so proud of him! He’s thinking about making a bag or pillow next.

Now I need to go make one for myself because I’m constantly using my couch as a pincushion!

Would you try this with your kids? What design would you put on the front of yours?

Linking up this week to Tatertots & Jello, Flamingo Toes, I Heart Naptime, Whipperberry, Skip to my Lou, Craft-o-maniac, Sumo’s Sweet Stuff, Funky Polkadot Giraffe, PolkaDots on Parade, Someday Crafts, Ginger Snap Crafts, House of Hepworths, The Girl Creative, Reasons to skip the housework.