Pony 'O Holder with Streamers

I made this post way back in October of last year but I was never happy with it. Whenever I opened the post the formatting was way off. After some trial and error, mainly error I'm ready to post this again. So here goes...

Here lately I have been obsessed with bow making. I started looking at all the cute bows in boutiques and thought I could do that. After a little research online (not to mention several burned fingers from hot glue) I have developed a few styles that work with my daughter's hair type. One of my favorites is pony o's with streamers, they are so easy and simply to make. I get so many comments from these simple bows when we go out. As I started making bows tonight, late at night as you can tell by my pictures, I thought I would share the process of how I make them. This isn't my original idea I got it from this website. It's full of creative tutorials and all free.


The first thing you need to do is gather your supplies.
8 - 10 ribbons I chose sheer, grosgrain and satin ribbons in various widths. Mine are 1/4 to 1 inch.

Scissors
Tape measure
Needle and thread
Hot glue
Pony 'O
Lighter, Fray check or some other method to seal ends of ribbon. (I personally rather use clear finger nail polish.)

The next step is to cut ribbons to desired length, I chose 10 inches. The ribbons hang down 5 inches on each side of bow. As you are cutting the ribbons leave one ribbon an inch longer than the others this is attaching to pony 'o. I found a narrow ribbon works best for this. I didn't take a picture of this step, just measure and cut pretty simple.
 
After all the ribbons are cut it's time to seal the ends. Again, I personally like clear nail polish. It's a personal preference of what works best for you. I heard some people use a wood burning tool to cut and seal the ribbon at the same time.

Next layout the ribbons in the order you want them, this isn't that important once you attach the ribbons they all squish together.

I tried skipping the next step and the ribbons just fell out. I did omit gluing the ribbons to each other as the original tutorial stated. I had too hard of time getting the ribbon to go through the glue, I probably just used too much. I really like glue!

Thread the needle and weave it through the ribbons all except the longer one. Do not stack them the process is more like making one wide ribbon. After you have the ribbons weaved wrap the thread several times around the ribbons and pony 'o. Tie the thread attaching the ribbons and pony 'o, I put a drop of hot glue on the knot to make sure it doesn't come undone.

Here is where the longer ribbon comes into action. I tie it around the thread to cover it and add durability. It's hard to see in this picture but the lavender ribbon is tied around the pony 'o and bundle of ribbons. You could even add extras at this point like flowers or buttons.

Here is my cute not so willing model wearing it. She was too busy playing with play dough to take a good picture.

The above picture is her Halloween bow. I have made several so far. Why not they are so cute and easy? Look at these to get some ideas, you could match an outfit or holiday.

I also made a shorter matching pair, these are cute on "puppy dog ears." My daughter calls these her rainbow bows.

Are you ready to make some pony 'o with streamers yet? Don't forget to check out stores for 50% off ribbons, Hobby Lobby usually has theirs on sale.

Fairy plaques

I was recently at the Dollar Tree and found these cute wall stickers that I just had to use in my daughter's room.

Now came the next question, how to use them. I could of just stuck them on the wall and they would have been cute. I wanted to do something different, besides the last time I tried just putting stickers on her wall they lasted about a day before she pulled them off.

I had three 5x7 wood plaques that I purchased from Wal-Mart for a project I never completed. Sound familiar? Never finished projects.

Don't look at my nails, I was painting with black earlier in the day.

I had already painted them white, that would have been OK but I wanted something brighter that would add color.

These are the colors my daughter finally settled on after about 20 minutes of debating. Warning there is a difference in the final project.

The process itself was very simple. I just painted the plaques with the colors she chose, they were a little too bright for her room so I mixed a little mixing medium and white together with the paint color. The final look resembles a water color. I really like it.

Next I positioned the stickers in the location I wanted, pressing down to remove all air bubbles. Have you noticed the color change yet from what she originally wanted? Girls, go figure we can't make up our minds.

My daughter had to pose with her favorite.


I can't explain the hair!! This is how both of us look first thing in the morning. Curly hair, gotta love it?

I could have stopped right there and they would have been fine but I went a step further. I chose a sealant to spray over the plaque for added durability, hopefully this will deter little fingers.

I made a spray booth out of an old box, it worked great. I read the idea somewhere I just can't remember where. Thanks for the idea...

After looking at a couple of ways to hang the plaques I chose to simply hot glue a cute ribbon to the back. The plaques are very light so the ribbon is plenty of support. I forgot to take a picture of this step, pretty simple cut ribbon to desired length, put glob of glue on top two corners of plaque and press ribbon in glue; don't burn fingers.

This is how they look hanging on my daughter's wall.

There were a few extra flowers and stuff so I just placed those around the plaques.

I had one extra fairy, want to know I did with it? You will just have to wait. I will say that it's cute and storage at the same time.

What ideas have you tried with stickers?

My diamond in a rough....

I am so excited to show off what I found today. To start off with I see so many bloggers that find great deals on furniture that just needs a little TLC. Well check this out, all of my searching craigslist has finally paid off. Isn't it pretty?

I can't wait to get started, now I just have to decide if I want to paint, which I doubt it that wood grain is too nice, or stain. I leaning toward staining, the current stain does not really go with the rest of my decor so I will have to strip the whole thing. Unfortunately this will be a spring job, it's just too cold outside. Dang Oklahoma winters, it did get above freezing today, barely I think the high was 36.

After looking at it some more can you guess how much I paid? This is the best part....$15. That's right a mere $15. It is made very solid, I took my builder, handyman, contractor and furniture re finisher (aka step-Dad) along with me to make sure it had good bones. He gave the thumbs up. Heck, for $15 you can't hardly go wrong. One last look, check out the molding. I can just see it all finished. I will post updates after I finish it.

I will take any suggestions on tips and ideas. What's the best face lift project you have tackled?

A cheap and easy Holiday update.

This year my Mother gave me several of her Christmas decorations from my child hood. One of the decorations included two bells that have a little rustic looking roof over them. I have always admired these decorations and to me it wouldn't be Christmas without them. These bells have to be almost 30 years old so it looks rather dated. A few years ago I helped my Mother update them by adding new greenery picks, the old ones were the really fake looking plastic kind, very 70's. I decided to take that a step further this year by removing the ribbon (a red velvet that had seen better days) and ggreenery and starting with all new. My theme colors this year are purple and pink, us Punky girls like our girly bling. The process was very easy to do, I used some ribbon and greenery picks I purchased from the dollar store on clearance after Christmas last year. All the "new" items cost less than a dollar, not bad for a dramatic change.
The materials and tools I used:
Staple gun and staples (Already had, it's a "staple" in my house. Get it, staple, I'm weird I know.)
2 greenery picks (2 for $1 purchased for 50% off)
2 inch wide ribbon ($1 purchased for 50% off. I only used about 4 feet of a 9 foot roll.)
1/4 inch wide ribbon (I have tons of ribbon from making bows. I used about 2 feet of white.)



This is after I ripped everything off.

The first thing I did was remove the greenery pick and ribbon. I used the old ribbon as a template for how long to cur the new ribbon. My first step was staple a loop of approximately 3 inches on the back of the house to serve as the hanger. The next step was cut the purple ribbon to approximately 10 inches long then reassemble the bell using a piece of white ribbon approximately 6 inches long. I stapled both ribbons to the inside wall. Finally I stapled the greenery pick in place. I am very happy with the way they turned out. They are the same and different at the same time, just like my Mother and I. (Corny I know.)

After and Before.
The purple ribbon is so shiny it kept causing a glare on my picture.