American Flag Collage

We are very patriotic at the Grow Home. Maybe you've seen how we decorate around here for the 4th of July here or here. This year my sister completed our newest American decoration.

It's a 40" x 30" collage made up of 50 stars made from items like seashells, dominos, and buttons on a blue sea of ribbon, cutlery, and paper, 13 stripes of torn patterned paper with silk flowers, beads, dice, Christmas ornaments, game pieces and more.

My mum wrote a fun little I Spy game to go with our custom collage. You can enlarge the above picture or look at the smaller photos to see details and play along.

I Spy 4th of July

I spy a mouse, a rabbit, a hog

an elephant pin and a print of a dog

I spy a knife, a spoon and three more

2 pencils, a sword and two closed yellow doors

 

I spy the queen, her guard and a bus

a bridge and a crown of silver for us

I spy santa, 2 stockings, and a present that’s blue,

An ornament, a tree and a gift bag for you

I spy a strawberry, and a measure for heat

a Band-Aid, a lion and 2 shoes for your feet

I spy a crab, a pepper, a button shell

cotton candy and a blue devil from hell

white stars against a blue night sky

bottom left

top right

bottom right

Let me know if you play along. For more fun I Spy fun, check out this website.

Heart Table Runner

I whipped up this table runner to coordinate with the Valentine's Day pennant I made last year. Since I set the goal to create more tutorials this year, I've included pictures and directions.

Heart Table Runner
You'll need:
Heart Pattern (see below)
White felt (sold by the yard)
Red and white fabrics (probably a yard total)
Buttons and ribbon
Sewing Machine
Needle and Thread
Pinking Shears and rotary cutter

First, make your heart pattern. Fold a piece of 12 x 12 scrapbooking paper in half and draw this:

Unfold and cut it out along line. Lay pattern on top of two layers of white felt and cut out using scissors or rotary cutter. Repeat until you have 6 white hearts cut out. Now, cut out your red and white fabric hearts.

See, you have 6 white hearts and 6 red/white hearts. Now, place a red/white heart on top of a white heart and pin with the right side facing up. I only do one pin in the middle but you can do a few if that makes you feel more comfortable.

 

Don't stress if the sides don't perfectly match. We'll take care of that later. It's time for some sewing. You can see how the felt is totally wider than my red fabric. So, I'm using my top piece as my guide.

 

 Sew all the way around the heart. I use about a 3/8 inch. Don't go smaller but you can go a little wider. Do this for all 6 of your hearts.

Using your pinking sheers, cut all the way around the outside of your heart. The width from the stitching doesn't matter as long as you don't cut your stitches. Now, let's attach our hearts.

 Using a needle and thread (I used red thread) you are going to connect the hearts with a ribbon on the back and buttons on the front. You'll do this pointy ends (of the heart) together and then rounded ends together.

 I used 3 inch long strips of 1/2 inch ribbon but you can use wider or more narrow ribbon if you like, depending on the size of your buttons. This is a picture of the back.

This is how the rounded edges are attached.

Attach all the hearts and you are done. You can make it longer or shorter. Just remember to do an even number of hearts.

Enjoy! Thanks for visiting my blog today. Thank you Tip Junkie for featuring me. And, welcome Craft Critique Valentine's Day Carnival visitors. Please leave me a comment and say, "hi." You may also enjoy my new pink candy tutorial.