Easter Archives - Teach Love Craft

Posts Tagged ‘Easter’

23
Apr
2014

Jute Cross Wall Art

Written by: Lisa

In the weeks leading up to Easter, I’d wanted to make something that showcased a cross. It’s always nice to have a few Easter-specific decorations to add to the overall spring décor.

I’ve liked the look of the nail art that took Pinterest by storm earlier this year. You’ve probably seen it; usually it’s a state outline such as this one. Given its materials, to me, this would be the perfect means for my Easter cross.

I chose to work with jute for this project (I’ve got tons left over from my wrapped Easter eggs). I’m sure you could use twine, yarn, or string as well.

What you need:

Wood- we have plenty of remnants from which to choose

Fine grit sandpaper

Circular Saw- if you need to cut your wood

Stain or paint

Stain rag or paintbrush

Clear finish- I used some that we had on hand

Nails

Hammer

Jute

Step 1:

Using a circular saw cut your wood down to the size/shape you want it to be. I settled on a good old fashioned rectangle. This will be leaning against a wall on a shelf, so I didn’t make it that large, only 10.5 x 13. Give your wood a quick sand to ensure there are no jagged pieces anywhere.

Step 2:

Stain or paint your wood. I wanted to keep the natural look of the wood so I decided on stain. I’ve used Minwax before and was happy with the results—this time I went with the color Provincial. Follow the directions on your stain can to make sure you use the correct procedure. After your stain dries, apply a coat of finish. Let dry completely- I decided to let it dry overnight and pick up with the rest of the project the next day.

Step 3:

I did a quick sketch of my cross on paper so I could choose the shape/size I wanted it to be. I also made sure to decide on where I wanted my nails to go. I settled with only doing nails in the corners of the cross—quite different from the state nail art that uses tons of nails.

Step 4:

Lay your sketch on top of your wood. You could just hammer in your nails where you want them to go, and when finished, tear away your paper. However, I chose to use an awl to mark where my nails would go. I then took off the paper and got to hammering. Remember not to nail them all the way down—you need to have nail exposed to wrap the jute around!

Step 5:

Now that you have your outline/nails in place, start wrapping. Make sure you tie a knot around your first and last nails so it doesn’t unravel. I chose to keep my wrapping to a minimum because I wanted this design to be simplistic and not too “perfect” looking.

I’m quite happy with how this came out. It’s a nice nod to the meaning behind the holiday.

26
Mar
2014

Jute & Twine Wrapped Easter Eggs

Written by: Lisa

If you’ve had a winter like us here in Maryland, you are awaiting the arrival of Spring with bated breath. Although the outdoors may not reflect Spring weather quite yet, there’s no reason your indoors can’t begin showcasing some warmth and happiness.

When it comes to decorating for the Spring & Easter, I like to bring the outside in—which means green & natural with a smidge of rustic. Some jute and twine wrapped eggs were a good craft to kick off my spring decorating.

What you need:

Plastic Easter Eggs
Twine
Jute
Hot Glue Gun

Step 1:

Gather your eggs. I bought 2 sizes of the plastic eggs because I wanted a bit of variety. I found my eggs at Hobby Lobby for $1.00 —score! I decided to place a dab of hot glue where the 2 egg halves come together to seal it closed. I wasn’t sure if the egg would pop open as I was wrapping, and didn’t want to deal with that possible disaster.

Step 2:

Warm up your glue gun, find some filler TV show, and get to wrapping. I chose to start wrapping the jute at the base/bigger end of my eggs. I found it helpful to wind a bit of the jute/twine and then glue it to the base. Glue and wrap on repeat until the entire egg is covered. I was able to get 3 eggs done before an hour TV show came to an end.

Here’s something to consider: The jute eggs went much faster than the twine eggs. I only had very thin twine on hand, so it took a bit longer to work with in order to ensure that it was wrapped tightly (no gaps) around the egg. I do enjoy the look of both textures, but in the future I might go with a heavier twine!

Here they are, all ready to find a home somewhere in my house:

I really like them! It’s a nice change from the bright colored eggs that everyone else seems to have.

12
Mar
2014

A Lovie for My Lovey

Written by: Rona

Easter is around the corner. It will be L’s first. Since she won’t be eating any chocolate bunnies this year, a bunny lovie was in order. My search brought me to these adorable bunnies on Etsy. I love that each one is uniquely handmade. After I added one to my cart, I started to toy around with the idea of making one myself. There is something to be said about a lovey made by your momma. The more I thought about it the more I wanted to give it a try. I’m not a seamstress. Like any self taught sewer, I learned by watching my grandma and YouTube videos. My skills have improved over the years through many failed and unfinished projects. I felt pretty confident and if it didn’t end well I can always fall back on the bunny in my cart.

I whipped up a sketch of my dream bunny. Notice I kept the shapes simple for easy sewing. Then I enlarged each body part on separate sheets of paper and cut out my patterns. I didn’t calculate the exact scale though this would make a good proportions or similar figures lesson. I just went with proportions that looked good to me. I created a PDF of the template I used in case you want to give this project a try.

I found some soft flannel, minky, fleece and felt scraps in my stash. I also dug out some leftover piping, embroidery floss, ribbon and yarn to use as accessories. As for the stuffing, I upcycled an old pillow. I like to air out old stuffing in the sun for a few hours. This will fluff, refresh and sterilize (not my first time upcycling old pillows, can’t you tell?).

After deciding which fabric would be used for each body part, I used blue taylor’s chalk to trace the pattern onto the wrong side of the fabrics. To make the cutting process quicker, I folded my fabrics so I can cut two pieces at once. The ears were a bit tricky. Since the shapes of the left and right ear are mirror images, after I traced one ear I flipped over the pattern to trace the other. I almost forgot to do this and would have ended up with two right ears. Keeping the fabric pinned, I cut out each body part. I usually like to cut ¼ inch outside of the chalk line for seam allowance and use the blue line as sewing guidance.

Now onto the sewing. The inner ear felt pieces had to be sewn on top of each outer ear piece first. After that, I sewed the ears and limbs, leaving an opening at the bottom of each piece. I carefully turned each piece inside out and inserted stuffing. I left the ears relatively flat so they won’t be too heavy to “stand up”. Originally I used minky for the limbs since it’s super soft and has interesting texture. After stuffing them, I realized a bunny with tiny bumps on its arms and legs would look weird/slightly creepy so I made the switch to flannel to match the ears.

Next, I sewed the upper and lower body together creating front and back pieces. I added piping in between to fancy her up. For the face, I chalked an outline then used embroidery thread and a tiny piece of felt to go over the features. I also hand stitched on a little heart and border on the lower body to give her a little style.

I eye balled the placement of the ears, limbs and whiskers, flipped them towards the inside then pinned into place. Then I laid the other body piece right side down and pinned the edges together leaving an opening on the side. Everything was going so smoothly up till this point. I even thought to myself “Wow, this bunny takes less than hour. Maybe I’ll make another!” Then I started to sew the body together…There were some thick patches that caused thread feeding/tension issues. Things started to bunch up, thread was breaking, and I was re-threading the bobbin every five seconds. I started to get flash backs of other sewing projects that went horribly wrong and exchanged a few choice words with my sewing machine. After quite a few tension adjustments and test runs I was finally able to sew around the body. Phew…I think next time (maybe?) a walking foot or thinner cotton fabric will help avoid the headache in this step.

The only thing left to do was to add stuffing. I wanted the body of the bunny to look plush so I packed in the filling. Then I sewed opening closed with a running stitch. Notice the lighting difference in the photos below. After the sewing ordeal, I decided to walk away from it and finish the next morning.