Fall Treats

Little Owl Cupcakes

Fall is by far my favourite season. The crisp air, snuggling under cozy covers, the comfy layers and boots, waking up with a cup of warm coffee and the smell of pumpkin and spice. . . everywhere!

I wanted to spread the fall festive cheer and decided to make some super simple fall treats!



These cute little owls are adorable and so easy to make!

Here's what you'll need!

• Cake mix of your choice (I wanted pumpkin but they were all out so I went with a rich red velvet)
• Frosting of your choice
• Two packages of Oreos
• One bag of Reese's Pieces

How to create these little critters:

• Bake cupcakes according to instructions and let cool
• Put on a thin layer of frosting on all cupcakes
• Split oreos in half and use the side with creme filling for the owl's eyes, push firmly onto top of cupcakes
• Use the brown pieces for eyes and stick in a yellow or orange piece for the beak
• To create the feathered look I filled a sandwich bag with icing and clipped the tip to make a makeshift icing bag. I pipped eyebrows above the eyes and little squiggles in rows below the beaks for the body.
• Let sit, then share and enjoy!

WhOo's Going to Make These Sweet Treats?

DIY Baby Blanket

A Quick & Easy Project

This was a blanket I made while I was counting the days for my little one to arrive. The blanket stitching at the end was the perfect way to pass the time until my girl decided to make her debut! It's a great project to customize yourself for a baby shower or your own little nugget. 

What You'll Need:

1. Three prints of flannel (I used these great one sided receiving blankets here) 
2. Pen & Paper
3. Scissors
4. Pins
5. Needle & thread

Here's What to Do:

• Trace any letters and designs onto your first desired print and cut out. If you're not the best doodler you can print out images or bold letters and use those as easy stencils!  

                                 

• Place your cutouts as desired on the fabric you want for the front of your blanket and pin into place. 

                                                                              

• In a contrasting or coordinating thread (I went with hot pink) stitch around each cutout to securely fasten it to the front of the blanket.                    

 

• Once the front of your blanket is as desired, line up the front fabric with the remaining third fabric (wrong side to wrong side) and sew all the way around.
• With the same bold thread as before use the blanket stitch to go around the outside of the blankets, you can make the stitches as close or as spaced out as you like.

You're All Done!

Finally, gift it or wrap your little bundle of joy in it!

Happy Sewing!

DIY Fabric Flower Letter

Adorable Floral Letter 

This is a great project I found on where else? Pinterest! I wanted to recreate it for my daughter's nursery door. But I've seen these floral letters used for home decorations, wedding tables and much more. You can make them festive with holiday colours or make it to match your decor. 

Here's What You'll Need:

1. Cardboard box (I used a family size Cheerios box)
2. tape & scissors
3. decorative paper
4. scraps of fabric
5. hot glue gun
6. ribbon

Let's Get Started:

I traced out the letter of my choice on my cereal box (It took me a few tries to get it just the way I wanted). I cut the remainder of the box up into the same size strips, these will be used to make the letter 3-D. Mine were 1" wide, but you can make them smaller or larger depending on how deep you'd like your letter to look. Tip: If you're planning on making larger flowers a deeper side helps contain them, whereas a smaller edge shows off smaller and flatter fabric flowers well

Next, tape the strips to each side of the letter, making sure to use a little extra tape on any place it curves so there aren't any gaps! I then chose to cover my outside edges with a decorative turquoise paper so you wouldn't see the plain cardboard. 

Now, we're ready for the flowers! You can make them all uniform or mix and match different styles and colours. I used a couple of different fabric flower techniques and a variety of colours to give it a bright cheerful look. Here are several great blogs with different types of fabric flowers that you can easily create. Mix 'em up or pick your favorite! 

• Full Textured Flower from Make It & Love It
• Rick Rack Rosettes from Crafting Chicks
• Fabric Rose from Project Wedding
• Dahlias from It's the Little Things
• Tight Lollypop Twist from Mad Mim 
• Pansy & Dahlia Flowers from Flax and Twine

(If you're wanting to hang your letter now is a great time to punch holes on the back of your letter and tie on a ribbon of your choice!)

Once you're satisfied with your fabric flowers it's time to attach them to your letter! I laid mine out until I had a look that I liked then hot glued the bottoms of each flower to the bottom of my letter. I fluffed up each flower. You can also hot glue paper folded like an accordion or styrofoam on the bottom of your letter before gluing your fabric flowers down to give them varying heights. 

And Viola! You have a fresh, fun, fabric flower letter! Make a bunch to spell out something fun or just make one for a special someone. 

Happy Crafting!

DIY Owl Costume

A Simple Halloween Costume for Your Little Pumpkin

With the air starting to turn crisp it's finally starting to feel like Fall, I can't believe October and Halloween are just around the bend. And for me, Motherhood! My little one is going to be here any week now so I wanted a simple fun DIY costume I could make for her while I (not so) patiently wait for her arrival! 

Here's What You'll Need:

• A onsie in the colour of your choice
• At least four varying colours of felt (don't have to match your onsie-mine didn't!)
• Scissors
• Pen
• Needle & Thread or hot glue, whichever you prefer

Let's Get Started:

1. We're going to make the top 'tuft' of feathers. Lay the felt of your choice over the neck of your onsie. Trace the neckline on to the felt, under the neck seam and up to the top of the shoulders. Make a wavy line underneath or however you prefer and cut out! *TIP: only draw half of the bottom then fold in half and cut so it's perfectly symmetrical.  
   
   
   
   
   
2. Next, cut out little 'feathers' from the varying colours of felt. Mine were about an inch wide and I had 17 feathers. 
   
3. Arrange them on your onsie fanning out as you go in the order of your liking. You can pin them into place once you settle on a design and stitch across the top of each to hold them into place or hot glue them down. *TIP: If you're using glue make sure to put a piece of cardboard or something on the inside of the onsie so the glue won't seep through to the other side.
   
4. Next, tack down or glue three little feathers on the backside to make a cute little tail  
   
5. Accessorize as you wish and you're all done!

I accessorized with a knit owl hat from The Daisy Baby and these sweet little lace leg warmers from Huggalugs!

Cutest little owl you'll ever see!

DIY Wall Art

A quick and easy DIY to brighten up your walls or perfect for a personalized gift!

I had the opportunity recently to team up with Adventures and Tea Parties, a wonderful DIY blog from across the pond to write a guest post featuring my wall art above! Make sure to check out her blog for great ideas and stay tuned for my art tutorial! 

When it's live I'll post a link Here.

DIY Furniture Make Over

A dresser into a changing table

I'm dubbing it "Make it-Monday" here at Midwest Girl as a designated day to post all my favorite DIYs. So for the first official 'Make it-Monday' project I'm bringing you an easy up-cycle technique you can use to create the perfect changing table for your baby out of an old dresser or use the idea to make over any of your worn but loved furniture pieces for an updated, fresh look!

We had an old dresser from the 70's I found in a little shop that I took the back mirror off of and painted black to make into a coffee bar which we have used and enjoyed for a few years. As you can see below it was pretty worn and battered from several moves.  

I removed the wheels on the bottom, because as convenient as it was to have a rolling bar, I didn't want baby going anywhere during a diaper change! Depending on the type of finish you have on your furniture you might need to sand everything down to get a clean application that will stay. Remove all drawers or moveable pieces and paint them separately so nothing will stick together. I invested in a white paint that was both paint and primer (great for less coats) and that was wipeable for easy cleaning.  

I gave everything a thick two coats and let dry for a full day. The bottom set of drawers look like they are two but really it's just one deep drawer. I didn't want up to six drawer pulls for one drawer, I thought it was a bit excessive, so I used wood filler to cover the bottom row of holes. Follow the directions and let sit as long as needed. Sand down smooth then paint over and viola, no more holes!

I picked up an array of drawer pulls at Hobby Lobby and Lowes. I wanted it to look shabby chic, so I went with an assortment of crystal, white, pink and turquoise to match the rest of her room. And I decided to get all single drawer pulls instead of any of the traditional 'handle' pulls.

Helpful Hint: Can't find ones you like or that match your room? I bought some plain knobs and pasted on fabric that was used elsewhere in her room with mode podge for an exact match!

And there you have it, an old coffee bar getting a brand new look and a great new purpose!

Happy Make It-Monday!

DIY Baby Mobile

an easy DIY for the nursery!

One of the crazy and fun symptoms of pregnancy is that urgency and the undeniable need to nest. Luckily for myself and moms-to-be everywhere getting the nursery together is one of the best parts of pregnancy. Additionally it allowed me to scratch that DIY itch as well! So here is step-by-step instructions on one of my latest projects.

Here's What You'll Need:

• A small loom or hoop
• scissors
• scrap fabrics in colours of your choice
• a piece of felt in colour of your choice
• glue gun
• ribbon
• extra trinkets you may want to include

Let's Get Started:

1. Start with your loom, hot glue the ribbon to a point, wrap it around on itself to make it extra secure then glue it straight across to the other side to cut the circle in half. Repeat this step again cutting the circle in half again to create a taunt ribbon + where you will be able to hang it from the ceiling later.
   
2. Next cut all your desired fabrics and the felt into circles. These will be made into your flowers. I made all mine the same size about 1.5" circles, but you can make them varied if you wish. You will need one felt circle and 4 fabric circles to make one flower.
3. Put a dot of hot glue in the center of a felt circle. Fold a fabric circle in half and stick on one half of the circle, fold a second piece of fabric in half and do the same to the other side. Press and let dry. 
4. Move the fabric corners out of the way and put another dot of glue close to the center, adding a third folded piece of fabric to it. Repeat on the opposite side. Press and let dry. Your fabric flower is complete, "fluff" to get the full effect. Repeat for as many flowers as you want!
5. Next tie ribbon onto the loom cutting at varying lengths. Hot glue the felt to the bottom of each ribbon so the flower faces outward. (You can also glue a matching flower to the back of this to have a more 3D or full flower effect)
   
6. I glued extra flowers higher up on the same ribbons at varying heights. I wanted mine to have an ombre effect going from white to pink to turquoise so I glue accordingly, but you can mix it up however you want! You can also tie on keys or other trinkets to add to your mobile, just make sure any beads or pearls are very secure because they could pose as a choking hazard if they came lose!

Just tie another ribbon to the cross on top and hang from your baby's nursery ceiling!

Stay tuned for more easy DIY projects

DIY Ring Box

A Special Little Touch for Your Big Day. . .

The boy's youngest brother was our ring bearer and I wanted him to have something special and fun to hold our rings in down the aisle! 

I picked up a tiny wooden box at Michaels, they had a few to choose from that were on clearance for $1.99! I chose one with a cutout on the top because I already had an idea of what I wanted to do with it. I had a very light brown paint that I did one coat on the whole box, so it was like a light stain. I was going for a vintage look to match with our overall look. 

There are so many things you could do with it, I considered painting the whole box one of our wedding accent colours, you could mode podge a continuing pattern through out your wedding or do several coats to give the box a dark finish. Just make it yours!

I painted the indented space on top of the box with our accent colour yellow. After everything dried I used a scrap of lace from my wedding dress and glued it on the top. I used our other wedding colour, coral, and filled the box with a scrap of textured fabrics leaving two little holes where the rings would go!



It was the perfect little touch to our big day and Jack, the boy's youngest brother looked absolutely adorable carrying it!

DIY Fabric Flower Bouquet

Keep Your Wedding Flowers Forever

For those of you who don't know me I am both ridiculously sentimental and crafty, so going any other route with my bridal bouquet just wasn't an option. I made my own out of fabric flowers, which given my past career (and forever hobby as a designer) it only seemed appropriate. It also meant I got to include tons of vintage brooches that were my grandmothers to boot AND it would preserve perfectly forever so it can serve as the ultimate keepsake from our wedding day! 

You don't have to be crafty to make your own, it was a lot of fun to play around with until I got it how I liked it. Here's a list of supplies that I used but the options are endless!

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

• Hot Glue Gun
• Glue Sticks
• Fabrics in colours and many options of your choice
• Twine or ribbon of choice
• a button or bead to match your theme
• A wiffle ball (I got mine at the dollar store)
• A triangular structure- I used a party blower (again from the dollar store)
• Faux greenery (Dollar Store)

EXTRAS TO ADD

• jewels or beads
• feathers
• brooches, pins or buttons
• pearls or ribbon
• you could even use fake flowers to make it easier!

STEP BY STEP:

1. I stuffed the party blower with scraps of fabric until it was full so it would feel stiff to the touch and not flimsy. 
2. Hot glue the rim of the party blower and stick on the wiffle ball. Let Dry to be secure.
3. Starting from the bottom or wherever you want your ribbon/twine to show (I did mine 1/3 of the way up) hot glue gun a circle for the first wrap. Let dry. Pull taught each time you wrap it around the cone and secure with a dot or line of glue every couple of wraps. Push down the ribbon/twine each time to insure there won't be spacing or gaping later!
4. If you choose to have faux greenery- I think it's great to break up the flowers and make it look more natural. hot glue the bottoms and place them through the wiffle ball and glued securely to the top of the cone or the bottom of the wiffle ball depending on how yours is set on. This is why I loved using wiffle balls for the inside because I prefer smaller bouquets so it was a great size to start with and the holes helped with spacing and securing flowers later!
5. Next if you've chosen to make your own fabric flowers get started! There are tons of different ways to do it. Here are several great tutorials for different kinds of flowers from Skip to My Lou to help you get started. When in doubt cut out several round shapes from one or two similar fabrics and put a dot of glue in the center of the circle and glue it to another circle. Do this to several circle all being glued to the same bottom layer until it's as full as you like! Experiment and have fun with it. Different fabrics will give you different looks too! Not feeling so crafty? Forego the fabric and you can buy a variety of fake flowers you like instead and skip this step all together!                          
6. Here is an optional step. Break out all your trimmings and details! I put something special in the middle of each one of my flowers. I alternated between vintage buttons, my grandmother's brooches, rhinestones and pearls! It gave it that extra something meaningful and a little bling never hurt anyone either!
7. Next is the placement of everything! Play around with it a little until you get it just how you want it! Then stick the "stems" into the wiffle ball holes or glue the flat bottom flower to the sides filling in the gaps as you go! Don't be afraid to rearrange it, I took mine apart a couple different times until I got it just the way I wanted!
8. If you didn't use your ribbon/thread for the entirety of the handle now's the time to fill in the remaining part with whichever trimming you choose. I picked a thick cream ribbon that had been from my Grandmother's sewing things. It was the perfect vintage and bridal touch I was looking for! For the bridesmaid flower bouquets I just did the twine all the way through.
9. Now, that it's almost complete you need to stop up that party blower bottom, you're not going to be blowing on your bouquet so no one even needs to know it's there! For my bridesmaids I picked the perfect sized rhinestones to finish off the bottom with a sparkle, and for my own I used a pearl!
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
10. You can finish them off anyway you like! I added pearl bracelets to my bridesmaids bouquets so they could keep them afterward and a touch of yellow with a ribbon. On my own I glued on white feather plums and draped a strand of my mother's pearls to add to the vintage vibe!

I had a lot of fun making these and they are so easy to personalize and make special in a lot of different ways from recreating your favourite flower, using touches of your bridesmaids favourite colour or like me using pieces from family members to incorporate! 

8 Days and Counting!

DIY Bridesmaid Bags

Fun Way to Ask Your Girls. . . 

Among all the wedding planning the boy and I had to sit down and come up with our bridal party, which wasn't an easy feat. Having four younger brothers himself and each of us having best friends that were the opposite gender made it a little difficult. We're having an intimate wedding so it didn't make sense to have five or six up on each side, essentially that would be a third of our guests! We decided to  only include family or friends that had been apart of most our lives to help narrow down our list. We wound up with three each, three ushers and two younger ones being included. We also decided to ditch the traditional route and have a mix of girls and guys on either side.  This forced us to have some creativity with the names of each bridal party member. Here's what we came up with:

The Boy's Side:

Best Man

Best Woman

Coolest Groomsman

My Side:

Maid of Honour

Man of Honour

Best Bridesmaid

Butterfly Girl & Ring Security

So all that left was how to ask each of them in a fun way to be apart of our wedding.

Here's what we came up with for the girls. . .

I put together a little nail care kit with nail clippers, toe separators, nail file and cuticle stick all in one of the colours of our wedding. I got each of them nail polish that would go with their bridesmaid dresses (I picked nude it's one of my favourite nail colours and think it always looks so fresh and gave my butterfly girl coral to match the big girl's dresses!) and threw in a fun matching lip gloss in there as well. I made each of them a manilla tag that said Will You Be My (or Our) ___? I tied it all together with some twine.

Next I made little notecards on card stock, one asking them to be apart of our wedding day and bridal party and giving some brief information on the wedding like the day and location. On the next one I told them our wedding colours which are: Coral, turquoise and touches of yellow. I went to Home Depot and picked up paint swatches in the colours I wanted and cut out little squares for each one. 

The final card was for just the bridesmaids with details about their dress. Again, I went a slightly more non-traditional route although it seems to be a catching on trend. I'm allowing the girls to pick their own dresses. Not only do I have three girls of varying height, skin tone and hair colour but completely different tastes in style. They manage to dress themselves adorable any other day so I'm not sure why my wedding day would be any different? I included that I wanted them to all be knee length (except the maid of honour) and pasted on an array of coral colour swatches for them to choose from. This way they will all coordinate but be comfortable and happy in what they're wearing, this is also a great way so they can buy a dress in whatever price range they're comfortable with! I asked for them all to wear nude shoes to tie everything together. I'm really excited to see what they come up with! 

I wrote on the bottom the link to one of my Pinterest boards where I've been pinning the cutest coral dresses so just in case they are stuck they can go here for inspiration and really get an idea for the feel of my wedding I'm trying to create! Gotta love Pinterest!

I used craft scissors and cut brown lunch bags in half, taping the bottom together so they would lie flat with turquoise duct tape. I stamped each of the girl's names on the outside and put all the cards and the goodies inside. I used a flower hole punch at the top of the bag and hot glued on pieces of lace on the inside flap. I laced the lace through and tied a big bow to keep everything secure! They were complete!

I mailed them in bubble wrap lined envelopes just to make sure they made it intact, especially because one had to go completely across the country to my best friend!

Next up will be the boys. . .

12 Months of Christmas

Paying it Forward

This Christmas at the dinner table as we were all talking about how thankful we were to all be together as a family and enjoying the holiday, my mother came up with a challenge for everyone. I'm calling it twelve months of Christmas. The surge in charity donations and volunteers in the months surrounding Thanksgiving and Christmas is astounding, which is wonderful, but what about the rest of the year?

It seems the world is cheerful and comes together but once a year, and the remaining days people are often left to fend for themselves. We all have so much to be thankful for and are not in 'need' of anything, and I think many people in the same situation take that for granted. I'm not talking about who has the latest video game, the most expensive designer purse or who has gone on the most exotic vacation. I'm talking a roof over your head (no matter how big or small), food in your belly and being surrounded by ones you love. Some people are not so lucky. We may not be able to change their fortune or their situations but you have the power to change their mood, their view and even their day. Just letting someone know that they aren't alone or that someone cares about them may be the biggest change of all. 

My mom challenged us to pay it forward this year. 

Twelve good deeds. Twelve touched lives, big or small.  That's only once a month.

I want to start a ripple effect. Here. Today. 

I challenge you to do the 12 months of Christmas with me! 

You don't even have to celebrate Christmas to be able to join in! Blog about it, Instagram it #12xChallenge, Tweet it, Facebook it, Share it with your friends, or do it in secret. If everyone did twelve selfless things this year and touched twelve new lives we can create a ripple effect by paying it forward. Post links to your blogs, pictures or pages. I'd love to hear some things you've done to pay it forward or ideas you plan on doing in the near future. 

Pay It Forward.