Birthday

My 25th birthday is tomorrow. No real plans since money is pretty tight this year, but I did manage to scrap enough cash together for this....

 

Hopefully I will have time tomorrow to make my favorite dessert Molten Lava cakes and when I do manage to throw them together I promise I will take pictures.

Recent Crochet Project

I finally finished making this lap afghan (that I have been working on and off for something like 4 years) and my cat has already claimed it. He seems to like most blankets but has a preference for crocheted ones.

Pillows!

When I was buying fabric for my vanity bench and to cover the boxes, I stumbled upon pillow forms that were on sale. Since I remembered seeing a tutorial on All Things Thrifty I snatched them up. Here's the final result. I didn't get progress pictures because my mom and I made this while visiting my Grandma since I don't currently have regular access to a sewing machine.

And here's the link to the turtorial for making your own!

http://www.allthingsthrifty.com/2009/10/why-you-should-make-your-own-pillows.html

Fabric Covered Boxes

I've been sick on and off since the beginning of this year which has been making it hard to get anything done. Now that I'm finally starting to feel better I've been busy crafting all kinds of things. The first thing on my to do list was covering my old shoe boxes in fabric. I know there are tons of tutorials for this and I looked at quite a few before starting, but in the end I just went for it.

To start I measured the sides of the box and added at least 1/2" to each side. After cutting the pieces I used spray glue to attach the fabric.

Next I cut a square out of the bottom and cut a diagonal on the side that would be tucked into the box. This is to help the fabric lay flat and make a nicer corner.

 

I used tacky glue to glue down the sides. You can keep using the spray glue but I found that it was getting too messy for my taste so I switched to tacky.

Here's a shot of the inside corner...

And here's how the box looks with the two sides finished.

 

The next step is to cut a piece the is the width of the final side you are going to cover and the length of the entire box with 1 inch extra on both sides. Spray the bottom and sides making sure none of the glue gets on the finished sides. Having a inch extra allows you to have some wiggle room when laying the fabric down at this point. Then just glue down the excess and any part that looks like the glue missed.  

 

 Repeat the process for the lid and you are all done.

I have made a couple of these so far and I'm very pleased with the results. Since the are shoe boxes they won't last forever but they should last until I decide to completely redo my room again.

After

Before

Vanity Bench

When my Great-Grandmother passed away I inherited her dresser, vanity and bench. I've had them for a year now and I have to say that I love them dearly but they definitely need some TLC. Since I have no experience staining or re-upholstery, I decided to start with the bench before tackling the much larger pieces. I was so excited to start that I just ripped up the old bench before taking a picture of the supper ugly yellow lizard skin-like fabric that was supper caked with dirt. Then it stayed in pieces for about a month until I found the perfect fabric during a sale at the fabric store. I used a 1 in foam piece and simply stretched the fabric over the top and stapled the fabric on the underside. Next I lightly sanded and stained the legs of the bench.

Luckily my art degree came to some use as I used to make my own canvas while I was still in school. Then once everything was painted and recovered I just used to original screws to put the bench back together. Here's a close up of one of the corners once everything was all done.

I'm super excited about this fabric and am already plotting ways to use this pattern in other elements going into my new bedroom. Sadly the other furniture will have to wait a while since I am out of funds for the moment, but I will post about the boxes I plan to cover hopefully sometime this weekend. In the future I promise to have more in progress shots. I was just so excited to get started!

After!

Before

Intro

Hi my name is Staci and I'm addicted to all things crafty and artistic. I've created this blog to help deal with and document each new hobby I discover. Recently I have caught the home decorating bug, but I have also been baking more often as of late. And crochet has always had a dear place in my heart. Speaking of things dear to my heart, while attending college I adopted the strangest cat I have ever met and now don't know what I would do with him. All this things together lead me to my title... Cats, Crochet and Cupcakes.

I'm a college student still one class short of graduating but I ran out of money and had to head back home to sunny southern California to try and get my life back on track. Since leaving my university I have been feeling stuck and uncreative. My hope is this blog will give me a chance to reconnect with everything I love doing and somewhere along the way help me decide what my next step in life will be.