Fastest, cheapest dog or toddler toy ever!

It took me longer to make the tutorial for this than it took to make the actual toy! So gather some supplies & entertain someone smaller than you!
I originally made this tutorial not too long after Easter, but I was having problems with photos & Blogger, so I put it off. So maybe you don't have any easter basket celophane sitting around. You can buy this stuff, too, if need be. Other things that work: the rinsed out and dried bags from cereal boxes and chips. Go see what you can find.

(I apparently am still having difficulties with Blogger and photos. But since I'm not winning any blogging awards anyway, I guess done is better than perfect, and I present to you my humble work.

Happy Scrappy Bathmat

Oooh! I'm so happy! I've had the idea for this in my head for awhile. I started sewing it several weeks ago & it had to be put aside. I was itching to finish.

Isn't it cute? & I love looking at all the scraps, remembering what I originally sewed with the fabric. & it's comfy on my feet.

Want to make one too? Here's what you need:
ugly old terrycloth bathmat

scrap fabric, cut into 3" widths*

sewing machine and thread**

* Obviously, you can cut the strips into whatever widths you'd like.
** Yes, you can do this with needle and thread, but it goes so much faster with machinery. :)

Sew scraps into lengths. I made this with piecing and without. I think long-term, the pieced lengths will be better, but if you need a quick fix craft project, you can skip this step.

I think I've mentioned this before, but I am a fast & lazy kind of sewer. At this point, you could serge the long edges of your strips, but I didn't. I like the frayed edges...and I'm lazy.

Then, due to my laziness, I did NOT measure / draw lines on my bath mat. NOR did I run a running stitch down the center of each length of scraps. I recommend both of these steps if you are a more meticulous sewer than I. I matched the edge of the fabric with the edge of the bathmat, centered my needle over the scrap & started sewing. I backstitched the beginning and ending of each line, but not when switching fabrics in the middle of a length. Instead of sewing the running stitch, I pushed the fabric lengths under the needle as I sewed, creating the gathering. I'm unsure if this actually saved time in the end, as I had to sew slower to do this.

When I was ready to start the next row / column, I laid the next strip alongside the first, but then pushed it nearer the first stitched line, so there would be density to the rows. Make sense? In math terms, my sewing lines should have been 3" apart, but I made them more like 2 1/2", so the strips would overlap when laying flat.

Finish across the mat. When you get a few rows in, roll up your mat & use a hair clip to keep it rolled.

Enjoy the new beautiful out of old ugly!

pretty trash bucket

I transformed a costco laundry detergent bucket into a pretty trash can for the twins' room. It was easy peasy!

Supplies: ugly bucket, mod podge or white glue, scrapbook paper (or wrapping paper, children's artwork, see what you can find), a scrap of sandpaper, foam brush.



Measure the top and bottom circumfrence of your bucket. My bucket was slightly tapered, being larger at the top than the bottom. It ended up not being a big deal because of the papers I had available to me. However, if you are planning vertical stripes or a pattern, you will need elongated rhumbus shaped pieces, not just straight strips, if you have a tapered bucket.

Roughen up the surface of the bucket with the sandpaper. This will give more ridges for the glue to adhese to.



Cut your papers, or tear for a decoupauged look. I found a few pages that my kids had made and then abandoned, so I used those. After all, this was for their room. :)

Protect your work surface, and then paint the bucket with a layer of mod poge or some slightly thinned white glue. Lay your papers, smoothing from one end to the other, to push any bubbles and wrinkles out. If you don't like what you've made, you can pull off the papers gently while the glue / podge is still wet and reposition.


When you've covered your bucket, go back over the scrapbook papers with a good coating of mod podge / glue. If you have a lot of cut / overlapping edges, this is a good time to press the edges down and add mod podge.



Let cure. After drying, trim the papers that are hanging off the edge of the bucket. If any edges have lifted, or if you'd like a shinier surface, add another layer of mod podge / glue and let dry again.

Then enjoy your beautification!



You can see ours has a lot of depth, because I was using already "made" artwork. That accounts for a lot of the wrinkles I ended up with - the paper was already stiff with glue. I was worried that the dimension would lift or be foder for little fingers to pull, but it's held up so far through the 6-7 months we've been using it like this. (Just one tiny tear.) It's a waste basket in a bedroom - it's not like it's getting wet or kicked around. Have fun with it!