Decoration: Giant Candy Hearts

OK so they're not quite the same as candy hearts, but they were fun to make.

Inspiration:  My 3-year old loves to help me decorate the house for holidays and she loves to paint at her easel.  Since most her paintings are just big blobs of color, I thought it would be cute to cut them out in heart shapes to hang them as decorations.  I wanted to add some words to them as well.

How We Made Them:  My daughter painted on large sheets at her easel.  I always try to restrict her to about 3 colors (and try not to let them be a combination that makes brown!).  We hung them on the clothesline in our basement to dry.  The next day, I used a Sharpie to draw a large heart and cut them out.  Then I wrote out block letters with sayings from Valentine's Candy on them.  Finally, we taped them to the wall in the hallway.

Alternatives:

• We made some that are mostly green and shamrock shaped for St. Patrick's Day (they're still up on the wall).
• As long as you can come up with a large shape, you could do them for any holiday.
• After drying, you could also make these multi-media by gluing on pictures cut out from magazines or shapes cut out of construction paper (or my personal favorite, small shapes cut for paint samples).

Sewing: Nook Cover

I got a Nook Color and decided I needed a cover to carry it in my big bag.  However, I didn't like the hard covers so I made my own.

Inspiration: A geocaching friend made me a holder for embroidery supplies a number of years ago.  It was a little bigger than my Nook but I used the basic design she used to create my cover.

How I Made It:  I used paper to make a pattern.  A piece of each of the 3 pocket layers.  I decided to add an additional pocket with a snap so I can store my micro SD cards.  I used some material I bought years ago for curtains in the dining room (that I never made).  The two upper pockets are just folded layers of materials.  The lowest pocket has batting.  The whole outside has batting.  After sewing the pocket piece together, I pinned it to the outer and inner fabric and batting.  Sewed the whole thing, turned it (I sewed it inside-out) and then hand-sewed it closed.  I wish I'd have added a material loop to the cover to attach to a button.  I didn't so instead I used 2 buttons and I use a pony tail holder to keep it together.