Bunny & flower pot tutorial!

I love that spring is here! The rain today is a sure sign, now if only it would warm up!!

I have been working on a lot of maps these days, but also some fun burlap daffodils and bunnies! 

These were a little tedious but so much fun! 

First I made the pompoms from a thick wool yarn. They fluffed up as soon as I started cutting! For the large pompom I wrapped the yarn around my hand! It worked great, just take of your rings! Ha!! 

For the daffodils I used rit dye to dye the burlap yellow. Burlap dyes beautifully! I just do it right in the sink!
For the Orange centers I simply added some liquid dye to water in a spray bottle and sprayed until I got the desired color. 

I cut 6 petals and sewed them together with embroidery floss. I glued the center in place and made stems from floral pics and green burlap. 

To assemble I added a styrofoam ball inside a 4" pot. I used a dowel rod and inserted it into the large pompom and stuck into the ball. I arranged the flowers and then covered with spanish moss. They were so fun to finish up and will look great in my window all spring! 

I had a bunch of bunnies ready to go for Easter! Think Spring!! 

My first big SALE!

I have been thinking a lot lately about my shop and where it's headed & after a lot of consideration and really evaluating my shop, I have decided to change my focus and put more effort into the the items I really enjoy making and that perform really well.

I love to create, so sometimes I go gang busters and make 10-15 new items and fond that I really could have made 3-4 and that would have been ok!

I have changed some of my processes and my focus.

So my trials and errors are your gain! I have decided to have a big clean up sale!
All the items in my sale area are in stock and there is only 1 available!
Once they are gone, thats it! Some other items in my shop are simply going to be deleted.

I want to offer the best of my products, the ones I truly get excited to make every time I get an order.

So I would love it if you would check out my first ever sale at The Little Green Bean here. Many items are discounted over 50% from the original price! They won't last long! Thanks so much for all of your support! 

Scrap map tutorial

I am just in love with the the "scrap maps" I have been seeing recently!!

I decided to try making one myself for my craft room. I have so many pieces of scrap fabric I figured this would be a great way to use them!  I just pulled from the bin, 50 different pieces to use! It was so hard to resist the urge to coordinate it all.

First I downloaded the states from Dream a little bigger  she has each state ready to download and import into the silhouette!! 

You can then cut them out using your silhouette cameo machine! 

I couldn't decide exactly how I wanted to do this so I tried cutting the fabric with the silhouette directly first. 

The only problem with this is it was very tedious to cut each scrap to fit the state and then arrange them all the right way on the mat. 

Next try- cut the states out of heat n bond, iron onto fabric and hand cut! That worked! 

That went much quicker!! Now I will tell you, the states are not all the right size. Most of the east coast is too big, you will need to re size them before you cut! See New Jersey here, way to big! 

Once I had all my shapes sized to fit like a puzzle & cut out, I appliquéd them to the burlap! 

Next up, the sewing. I did not want this to be super perfect. I call it intentionally messy! Zig zags and straight stitch! I used black thread and simply started sewing. 

This took a lot less time than I thought it would! And I just love the result!!

Tonight I'll be mounting it and finishing the edge! I can't decide, scrap edge or fray the burlap?!

I can't wait to hang it in my room!! I do plan to mount it to a painted board and hang on the wall. There are so many ways you could do it!

I will also be adding this to my shop in March after I get back from a much need week in the Dominican!!! Stay tuned!

You can follow The little Green Bean on instagram for updates on the maps, and so much more!

Happy Thursday!

Closet turned office

January has been the month of purging for me! I have cleaned out so many spaces in my home and gotten rid of a ton of stuff! It feels great and should have been done years ago!! This weekend the kids and I tackled a closet. This area used to be an entry way to the home. Once we added on, the closet became a catch all. 

So we emptied it out and I made an office for my hubby!! 

The kids helped remove old wall paper. And we peeped the walls for paint!

Removing the wall paper made me so glad we hung it properly! It was so easy! 

The space is quite small so I wanted to keep it neutral and functional!

This mirror was glued to the wall and I didn't even want to attempt removing it for fear of a giant hole in the wall. I painted it with chalkboard paint and trimmed it out with vintage rulers! Perfect for the construction office! 

Here's how it came together:

We built the desk from plywood! It will be perfect for the computer and doing paperwork. 

We made this bench form an old door. Perfect below the window for reading! 

I love the space! It adds so much to this part of our home!! 

I hope this leaves you feeling inspired! You don't need a ton of space to create a perfect little office!!

Missy

The little green bean

Ps! I almost forgot! I am part of a fun giveaway on Instagram today! Be sure to check it out! There are some fun Valentine's Day prizes from several businesses! 

Transformation Tuesday-My workspace

I have posted about my craft room several times over the years. What can I say, I love my space! I also love to share and hope that it inspires even 1 person! I have an amazing room thanks to my hubby, he owns his own construction company and he really can build anything! So 1 1/2 yrs ago when I decided I needed him to remove a wall to join 2 rooms and make my room bigger, he didn't even argue! (yes he is a saint!) When we did that re model the room was primarily gray, and while I love neutral, after some time it was just OK.

Something else I realized was it just wasn't as efficient as it could be. I had items out all the time that I rarely used and things shoved n drawers and cabinets that I forgot I had and bought more of! 

It was time for a change! I was going to add some color, clean, purge & re-organize! And then I did just that! 

Here is what I new for sure; 

I wanted red and aqua accents. 

I wanted clear containers

I wanted more shelves for the walls to hold the clear containers

I needed more fabric storage (a lot was in a cubby)

I wanted more of what I love in this room

So I spent one Saturday afternoon shopping like it was my job. 

Target, Hobby Lobby & TjMAXX received a lot of my money that day! 

After cleaning, painting and a lot of re thinking my placement here is where I landed:

The walls are all the same gray color, but I used a wall stencil & some aqua paint to add the design! 

I am in this room, well a LOT. So I needed it to be functional but pretty & uplifting! 

As you can see, I have a lot of fabric. Now all of it is out right where I can see it. 

Later this week I will post a how to on the mini foam core bolts I made. 

Loving the 6ft long Ironing board!!! 

This room is really 2 room turned into one. The other half is more for paper crafting and has another great work counter that my kids love to use!

Everything now has a place and it works the way I need it to! 

If you have any questions on what I did, where I got specific items or organization in general, post them in the comments. I would be happy to help you out! 

Thanks for looking!

Faux metal letters

I found these amazing letters on clearance for $4 each. Originally $35! 

There was just one problem, I couldn't find and E. Could be why they were on clearance! Ha! I figured I could find one online somewhere, so I bought my L,O,V letters. Well I found several "E" letters online. Even the one that matched this set. It was $40. After getting the other 3 so cheap I didn't want to spend that much on one. I decided to try and make one!

I used a priority mail box, a ruler, xacto knife and a marker.

I used the L as my template. 

Pretty so I had an E! I wanted the metal underneath so I could distress it like the metal letters. 

I started with my rustoleum metallic silver paint. 2 coats because I was painting on cardboard and I wanted to distress without showing cardboard. 

Next I sprayed on 2 coats of red. I waited very impatient as they dried. 

I did add a coat of the red to the front of the metal letters. The color was close but not quite the same. 

Once the letter was try I lightly sanded the edges and then added some clear coat. 

The sanding worked! It totally looks like metal!! 

I am so excited about my letters! 

I wasn't sure if it would work, but looking at them all together you really can not see a difference! Good enough for me!