Recycled barn wood frame

As I have been working on scrap maps I had an idea for a frame. My parents had a very old barn that my husband resided. So of course I insisted that he keep all the barn wood. It's like pure gold!

This weekend he made a frame from the wood for one of my scrap maps! The map is made with a moda fabric kit quilted onto a burlap background. .

I love the colors and how amazing they look with the wood! 

The layers of chippy paint, the natural weather to the wood! It's just perfect!! I am not sure if I can part with this one! How many maps can I hang in my house?

Happy Monday friends!

Fabric mini bolt tutorial

I did a post about this a few years back but I'm still getting some questions! I decided to do an updated post on how to make fabric mini bolts! 

I have become quite the fabric collector over the last few years and when I'm not careful I end up with piles like this: 

So before I let the fabric take over my room I made mini bolts using foam core. 

I bought a bunch of standard size boards all in white. One board will get you 8 mini bolts. I cut them down to 7.5" x 10".

You will also need long quilting pins. The small ones bend really easy. I fold each piece of fabric lengthwise and then into 3rds.

 I can wrap anywhere from 1/2 yard to 3 yards on one bolt. 

Begin by wrapping one end onto the bolt. 

Continue tonwrapmuntil you get the end of your fabric. 

Fold over the end to form a triangle.

 Fold over the edge and insert a pin to hold it into the bolt. 

You may need 2 depending on how wide the triangle is. 

That's it! They are so easy and store your fabric so neatly. 

This is a cubby from target meant for a kids room, it works perfectly and was rather inexpensive. 

I also have a cabinet that my hubby built years ago for me. 

I keep all my fabric organized by color to make it look pretty and it's easy to find! 

Now for the scraps. They all use to be in one large bin. But I have recently bought this great cabinet at wal mart and some great bins from Hobby Lobby to sort all of my scraps by color. It works great and I use more scraps now that they are organized and out in the open! 

I hope that answers all of your questions on the mini bolts! If not feel free to message me and ask! 

Hand painted wood signs

Now that it's finally warming up I can work in the garage again! This weekend I took full advantage of the warm sunshine and worked on some new wood signs.

My mom owns a green house and is making a gift shop this year!

I love to paint signs and this was a great reason to do so! Each sign is hand painted with decor arts chalk paint. I really love the finish of their paint and wax. I also stain some of the wood and distress with a palm sander. I use my silhouette cameo machine to make all of my stencils.

This guy above is pained onto a reclaimed wood pallet board. I am in love with how it turned out. I may just have to keep this one for myself!

I have several others that I am working on and wanted to share a few with you. 

I added burlap flowers that I used my sizzix to cut out. I sewed cute little buttons in the center and glued them in place. 

I really love mixed media, so I am working on adding in different elements to each sign. 

More to come later this week and if they do well, I may just have to add some to the shop!!
 Thanks so much for stopping by!

How to dye burlap-a tutorial

Happy Friday!! The sun is shining and I hear robins singing!
So it's really no secret that I love to dye burlap! I use the liquid rit dye and it's so easy!

You can make any color you want! 

Today I'm going to make coral. I simply did this in a washtub in my craft room. 

I used Ivory burlap to start. 

Mix 1 tablespoon of tangerine and 1/2 tablespoon of scarlet into hot water. Remember, the more water you add the lighter the the color will be. 

Add your burlap, and let soak. Stir it around a bit and continue to check the color often. The longer it soaks the darker it will get! 

Once you have your desired color remove from the water and wring it out well. Depending on how much color you have added you may want to wear gloves so you don't stain your hands! 

The color will get lighter as it dries. I did 3 different shades. I used the same batch of dye, I just added a little more color to deepen the shade. 

Now is the toughest part, waiting for it to dry!!
 I have this awesome metal shoe rack from Amazon that works great to dry fabric in front of my fireplace! 

Here are the 3 colors all dry. So yummy! 

Now you're set to create your fun project! 

I made flowers for a pillow!

Now you have the entire weekend to go & play with some Rit dye and burlap!!
Have fun! 

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!