How To: Make a Burlap Banner

I am helping to host a baby shower for my cousin this Saturday and the shower is going to be at my house.  This is her second baby, but a different gender, and so we are doing a small shower for her with just family.  The shower is going to have a modern country theme, so I wanted to make a Burlap Banner for it.  So, while I was making one for her shower, I thought I would make one for Easter as well!

What You Will Need

1. Burlap - I purchased mine at the fabric store for $3.99/yd.  I purchased 2 yards, but it is very wide, and used less than 1/2 yard.
2. Craft Fuse - I purchased mine at the fabric store for $2.99/yd.  Again, I purchased 2 yards and used about 1 yard (because it isn't as wide).  You can also use interfacing or Wonder Under.  Make sure to the get the iron on kind.  It's the easiest!
3. Jute Twine - I purchased mine at the craft store $3.99 for 250ft.
4. Craft Paint
5. Stencil Brush
6. Alphabet Stencils (I will show you how to make your own if you have a Silhouette)
7. Glue Gun
8. Iron
9. Scissors

Lay out your burlap and the craft fuse over top of it.  Make sure to follow the directions and put the shiny side down.

Using a hot iron, iron the craft fuse onto the burlap.  This will make the burlap stiffer and keep it from fraying.

Lay the burlap out on a flat surface so you can begin tracing your triangles.  You can download my template or make your own.

Layout your triangle template and trace with a marker or pencil.  Alternate the way the triangle faces to maximize your space.

Cut out each triangle with a pair of scissors.  You don't want to use your good fabric scissors for this.

Now you should have all of your triangles cut out.  I was able to do 16 triangles on about a 24x36 inch piece.

Next you will need to stencil on your letters.  You can either purchase stencils at the craft store, or I decided to make my own with my Silhouette.  If you decide to make your own, you will need some Clear Craft Plastic, which is what I used, or you can try to use Silhouette Stencil Material. The Silhouette brand has an adhesive backing, which I read online was quite sticky and sometimes left a residue.  I didn't want to chance that, so that is why I purchased just the Clear Craft Plastic, which worked great.

In your Silhouette Design Studio, type out what letters you would like to stencil on your banner.  Pay particular attention to the font.  For a stencil, you can't have any letters that have floating holes.  Every piece needs to be independent (ask me how I know this!)  On my second round, I chose the font "Stencil" which worked really well.

To find the right settings for cutting, you can choose the Stencil Material (Silhouette brand) and then make a few changes.  These were the settings I found worked best after making a few test cuts.

Pop out all of the pieces of your stencil and then cut them into individual stencils using either scissors or a paper trimmer.

Besides letters, I also wanted an Easter Egg in between my two words.  I found this cute Easter Egg Swirls in the Silhouette Design Store for 99 cents and downloaded directly into the Design Studio.  I had to alter it to make it work as a stencil by removing the outermost edge.  To do that, right click on the image, click on Ungroup, then click on the outermost edge and hit delete.

Using the same cut settings as before, I cut out the egg with my Silhouette and then cut it down into its own stencil.

To make sure all the letters were placed evenly, I measured 2 inches from the top of the letter to the top edge of the burlap and then used painters tape to secure the stencil in place.  

Using a stencil sponge brush, tap the craft paint on top of the stencil.  You will want to coat the burlap pretty thoroughly.

Once you have painted the burlap to your satisfaction, carefully remove the stencil and set it off to dry.  I found that my paint leaked through, so I made sure to put something under when I was painting and where I set them to dry.  Luckily, craft paint is water based and fairly easy to remove if needed.

When your paint is dry, turn down the top edge about a half an inch and press firmly to crease.

With scissors, snip off the edges that hang over.

Now, get your twine and give yourself an extra couple of feet to hang the banner with on the end before gluing.  Make sure your end is going the right direction BEFORE you glue anything (again...ask me how I know this!)

Place a small dab of hot glue on the two ends and one in the middle and then fold over on your crease to secure.

Repeat for each triangle.  Make sure you leave a few feet on both ends for hanging before you cut your twine.

And that's it!  I love how it turned out!  The Happy Easter ended up being kind of long.  I wish I had just done Easter with the cute eggs on each end, but LIVE AND LEARN!

Like I said, I also made one for the baby shower, will I will show you in a few days!  Overall, I would say this craft was fairly easy.  It does have a lot of steps and making the stencils added some extra ones, but it was fun to try something new and I am very happy with how it turned out!

Have you made any burlap banners? Have any other pointers?  What fonts have you found are good for stencils?  Until next time!

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How To: Make Homemade Pancake Mix

Hopefully you are well on your way to getting a morning routine established.  As I mentioned in my last post, I make breakfast for my kids each morning.  Having a good breakfast helps me and my kids start out the day right and my kids have the brain-power and energy necessary for their day.  I also don't want them to be hungry before lunch, so getting them something that will sustain them throughout the morning is essential!  I have a few go-to breakfast meals, that my kids love and gives them what they need, and I thought I would share my favorites with you today.

A few years ago, shortly after Kevin and I got married, I sat down to do our budgeting and our grocery bill was enormous.  After further analysis I was spending a small fortune on cold cereal and other breakfast items.  Kevin told me that his mom (who also had 5 children, all of them boys!) used to make pancakes just about every to feed her hungry brood and not break the bank.  So, I went to the store prepared to purchase some pancake mix.  While standing in the aisle staring at the different choices and how expensive they were, I decided I could come home and make my own for much cheaper and probably healthier too! So I came home and started experimenting with different recipes.  I didn't want to go through the hassle of having to make the pancakes completely from scratch every morning, so I decided to make my own mix with all the dry ingredients and then I would only have to add in the wet ingredients.  And of course I got a pretty glass jar to put my mix in.

Homemade Pancake Mix

   INGREDIENTS:

• 12 1/2 cup flour (can be white or wheat or a mixture of both)
• 5/8 cup sugar
• 5/8 cup baking powder
• 1 2/3 tablespoon salt
• 1 cup flax seeds milled

  DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large bowl or container, wish together flour, sugar, baking, powder, and salt.
2. Mill flax seeds (if you purchased them whole) and add them to your mix.  Wisk together.
3. Place mix in container and use as needed.

  Notes: I purchase my flax seeds in the bulk section at my local grocery store.  I mill them in my magic bullet 1/4 cup at a time.

You can also find this recipe in my online recipe book at PlanToEat.com.

To make pancakes with this mix you will need:

• 3 cups dry mix
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups milk
• 1/4 cup oil

This recipe makes about 18 4-inch pancakes.  You can cut in half or double as needed.

Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl add in dry mix and eggs

2. Add in milk and oil.  I rarely measure my wet ingredients.  I usually just eyeball it.  Wisk together until it is mixed throughly.

3. Spoon onto hot griddle.  If I have all 5 of my kids home, I will usually put 6 pancakes on my griddle at once.

4. Flip when bubbly

5. When cooked thoroughly, eat with your favorite toppings and syrups!

My children prefer Homemade Syrup.  They also like to cover their pancakes in peanut butter (which they learned from me) which gives them some extra protein and makes it stick with them even longer!

Tip: Let any leftover pancakes cool completely and then put in a container or bag to be eaten later.  These will easily last for up to a week, probably longer if kept in the fridge.  This is helpful if you are busier some morning and don't have time to make them from scratch.

Variations on Pancakes:

In the fall, my family loves Pumpkin Pancakes.

I have also been known to have some fun with pancakes on St. Patrick's Day!

Besides pancakes I routinely make big batches of muffins.  We eat them fresh and then I put them in freezer baggies for my husband to grab for work or kids to grab for snacks.  If we are having muffins, I usually make some eggs to go with them.  We also eat oatmeal, and occasionally cold cereal if I have a busy morning and there are no pancakes or muffins.

Here are some links to my favorite muffin recipes.

Bran Muffins
Streusel Topped Blueberry Muffins
Whole-Wheat Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

I also make Egg & Bacon Muffins frequently for my husband to take with him.  He prefers them with the bacon cooked, cut up, and put in the eggs.  He also prefers them as mini-muffins instead of full size as the texture is better.

What are some of your go-to recipe's for breakfast? Any time-saving or money-saving tips?


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How To: Sew a Travel Pillow with Seatbelt Strap

My family takes many road trips and with 5 kids, space is a premium! Every kid wants to be comfortable and be able to rest/sleep with their favorite pillow.  But, full size pillows take up a lot of room.  It's also hard for the kids (especially the one stuck in the middle) to find a place to put their pillow to rest their head.  So, before our next road trip, I decided to make the kids each their own pillow case for a travel size pillow and add a cute little strap on the back so it can be attached to the seatbelt.  Rather than make a simple pillow case that is open on the end, I decided to make an envelope style so that the pillow won't slip out.

Supplies Needed:

• 1/2 yard of main fabric
• 1/2 yard of trim/accent fabric
• 6" velcro
• Thread
• Traditional sewing supplies & machine (a serger is also helpful but not necessary)
• 14x20 Travel Pillow 

Directions:

1. Wash, dry, and iron your fabric before starting

2. Cut the main fabric to 34" x 16"

    Cut the accent fabric to 12" x 16"

    Cut the accent fabric to 7" x 5"

    Note: Make sure fabric patterns are going the direction you want them to if they are not uniform.

3. Sew a 1/2" hem on one of the 16" sides of both the main fabric and accent fabrics.

     a. Turn fabric down 1/2" and iron

     b. Turn down fabric again and iron

     c. Sew along edge.

These will be your finished edges.

4. Pin right sides together along the 16" raw edges and either serge or sew.  This creates one long piece.

Iron seam to one side.

5. Take your strap piece and iron a very small hem on both sides.  Fold over and iron again.  Then sew along edge.

6. Serge along raw edges or you can sew finished edges on all 4 sides.  Fold over edge and iron so that it won't show.

7.  Put your velcro (both sides) along one of the serged edges and mark where it needs to be cut (if it needs it).  Remove the rough side and sew the softer side to the strap piece.  

8. Measure 6" down from the finished edge and 8" (or the middle) from the side and make a marking to position your strap.

9. Place your strap piece down in the middle (as shown below).  Carefully open it from the opposite side of the velcro and pin. Sew along edge of non velcro side to hold strap in place.

10. Put the velcro pieces back together so you can find the placement for the bottom piece.  You can peel back the top piece as you secure the bottom velcro piece with your sewing machine.

11. Lay out the pillow case, right sides together folding the accent fabric over the top of the main fabric.  The main fabric should be 19".  The accent fabric should overlap it by about 5".  You may need to adjust the length, but they should overlap and should not be longer than 19" total in order to fit the pillow correctly.

12. Pin the sides together and use either a serger or your sewing machine to sew the sides.

You are DONE!  You can now turn it right side out and admire your beautiful work!

So far, I have made three pillows (one for each of my girls) and plan to make 3 more.  They strap on to the seatbelt great and my kids can't wait to use them on our next road trip!

Have any problems or questions?  Feel free to leave a comment below and I am happy to answer them!  Happy sewing and road tripping!