Make a Panda Bear Hooded Towel

My son loves panda bears (love panda bears, too? You might like my panda party, panda ears tutorial or panda pancakes). Now that he's 2 and huge, he needed some bigger towels for bath time. What better creature to make a hooded towel like than his favorite snuggly panda?

I followed the same technique taught by Amber at Crazy Little Projects. If you have never made a hooded towel, do yourself a favor and read her very thorough tutorial. Then come back here and see how to adapt it to make a panda.

Supplies

• White bath towel
• White hand towel
• Black bath towel
• Black washcloth
• Fusible Interfacing (I used Heat'n Bond Lite Iron-on Adhesive)
• Matching thread
• Sewing machine, scissors, iron, Walking Foot if you have one.

Cut list:
White hand towel: Cut in half across the narrow width
Black bath towel: Cut off the top third of the towel across the longest width of the towel
Black washcloth: Cut out 4 ear shaped pieces (remember to cut them bigger than you need them). Then iron on the fusible interfacing to the remaining washcloth material. Cut out two kidney bean shaped pieces for eye shadows and a nose.

Hood

1. Fold in the front edge of the towel past any band that might be on the towel. Using white thread, sew across. This is the front edge of your hood.
2. Switch to black thread. Stitch around the curve of the ears, leaving the flat edges open. Flip ears so stitches are inside.
3. Iron down the eye patches and nose. Use a zig zag stitch to applique these pieces to the hood.
4. Cut slits in the hood where you want the ears to go. Insert ears and sew to hood from the inside.
5. Fold hood in half down the middle of the face, right sides together and sew with white thread.

(Are these instructions not making sense? They assume you're familiar with basic hooded towel construction. Be sure to read Amber's great hooded towel tute if you haven't yet.)

This is what your finished hood should look like:

Body

1. Placing right sides together and being sure to line up any bands on the narrow ends of the towels, lay the long black bath towel strip along the long edge of the white bath towel . Sew together and open. 
2. To keep the seam flat, I opened up the back side of this seam and stitched down the length of the towel on both sides.
3. Make a tuck along the top edge of the black section and pin in place (refer to Amber's tutorial).
4. Center the hood seam to line up with the tuck and sew, attaching the hood to the body of the towel

Enjoy!

How to Make Envelopes from Magazine Pages

I have a confession. I suffer from DCMS - Dysfunctional Card Mailer Syndrome. I'm not too bad at acquiring and writing cards but boy do I have a hard time getting them in the mail. I've had my Christmas cards ordered since before Thanksgiving but it's the week before Christmas and the only ones that have been mailed, have been sent in boxes with presents. So, uh, five of them. My reason? No envelopes.

My Christmas cards are 4 x 6 and between funds being tight and being super busy, I just haven't had a chance to go buy the right sized envelopes. Well tonight I decided: No more slacking! I whipped up some envelopes with old magazine pages. I used a December issue of a magazine to have holiday-centric images. You could also use this technique with scrapbook paper or old calendar pages.

Supplies:

• Magazine, calendar or scrapbook pages
• Card or letter to mail
• Glue stick
• White out tape
• Self adhesive gift tags
• Pen

Make the envelope:

Step 1: Pick a magazine page you like and turn it face down. Center your card on the page

Step 2: Fold in the long sides of the page against the sides of the card

Step 3: Dog ear the corners

Step 4: Using the bottom of your card as a guide, fold the bottom edge up. Mark the diagonals with a pen.

Step 5: Apply the glue stick on both sides from the line down to the fold (as indicated by the blue arrows)

Step 6: Fold the bottom up and press along the edges to seal.

Step 7: Dog ear the top edge. Fold the top edge down against the side of the card and crease. Open and apply glue across the top and on the dog ears (as for the flap of an envelope)

Step 8: Fold the flap down to close. Press to seal

Address the front:

To make festive holiday labels (and to create a clean space to write the address if mailing), apply a self adhesive gift tag to the front.

If you are going to mail your cards, be sure to avoid confusion with the post office by whiting out the "from" on the tag before writing the recipient's address. Use another label for a return address in the traditional place, or write it along the envelope flap on the back side.

Now you have envelopes that will stand out from the crowd as well as save you money and help save some trees!

Tute-Less Tuesday: Pom-Pom Ornaments

Materials:

• Glass Bulb Ornament (6 for $2 and up)
• Sparkly Pom-Poms ($1 and up)

Some crafts are so easy they really don't need instructions. This is one of them. But in case you need them:

Step 1: Remove top from ornament
Step 2: Insert pom-poms (AKA "puffy balls" in our house)
Step 3: Replace top

You can, of course, do this with any color but red and green were my choice. These sparkly pom-poms were in the $1 section of Jo-Anns near the registers.

Make Easy Glittered Bulb Ornaments

These ornaments are quick and easy to make and are a great project to do with kids or beginning crafters (the blue ornament in the photo was made by a nine year old girl!). Really, I'm not sure if you could design a better project: quick, easy and affordable.

Materials Needed:

• Clear bulb ornaments (I got a 6 pack for $2 at Michaels)
• Glitter (on hand or $1)
• Mod Podge (on hand or use watered down white glue in a pinch)
• Mod Podge Holiday Rub-Ons (on hand)

Directions:

Step 1: Take the top off the bulb ornament

Step 2: Use a brush to paint some Mod Podge inside the bottom of the ornament. 
(pretty much any formula Mod Podge will do. In a pinch, you could also use watered down white glue)

Step 3: Add some glitter
Shake it around to cover all of the Mod Podge. I used a mix of chunky glitter from the dollar store and fine glitter from the $1 section of Michaels.
Pro tip:  Use a popsicle stick or funnel to scoop the glitter into the ornament without making a mess

Step 4: Cut out a rub-on and apply
Use the popsicle stick to rub hard over the word to apply it to the surface. When you're done, peel it off slowly to make sure the whole thing stuck. If needed, replace the film and continue rubbing until the full word is adhered.

Step 5: Set aside to dry
You can return the top right away if you're a anxious to hang them on the tree. They will dry faster, however, if you leave the top off. It may take up a full day (or more if you put the tops back on) for the white from the Mod Podge to disappear completely.

Keep repeating the process with different glitter colors until you have your own sparkly jewel toned ornament collection. I did a variety of small ones and then made a large one and added some blue and silver dollar store bells to the side for an embellishment.

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Make a Christmas Countdown Chalkboard with Mod Podge

This post is brought to you by Mod Podge and The Blueprint Social. I received free product and was compensated for my time creating this project. All opinions expressed are 100% mine.

I love Christmas! As soon as the table is cleared on Thanksgiving night, I am counting down the days until the calendar flips over to the big 25. I love Advent calendars as an interactive way to countdown to Christmas but I needed something else. When I got a big box of shiny and glittery Mod Podge and paint in the mail, I knew my something else needed to have some bling. After a couple weeks of pondering, my Christmas Countdown Chalkboard was born.

Supplies Needed:

• Wood frame OR a framed chalkboard
• Chalkboard paint  (if you're using a plain frame)
• Scrapbook paper
• Sparkle Mod Podge
• Glossy Mod Podge
• Gift Tag shape from package of Podgeable Shapes
• Paint (I used Folk Art brand)
• White
• Metalic Gold
• Gold Chunky Glitter
• Ribbon scraps (I used a combo of metalic gold and red)
• Mod Podge Dimensional Magic
• E beads (red and iridescent)
• Glue
• Paintbrush and/or Foam brushes
• Scissors

Prep the Frame 

Remove the wire hanger from the frame and paint it white. Once its dry, paint the center with two coats of chalkboard paint if you are using a plain wood frame. Obviously, skip this step if you purchased a framed chalkboard. Set it aside to dry.

Make the Gift Tag

Take the gift tag Podgeable shape and trace the outline onto the back of the scrapbook paper you would like to use. Cut out the paper shape.

Podgeable shapes are lightweight acrylic pieces that can be Mod Podged on both the front and back for cool dimensional effects. This was my first time working with them and I love how great they make the finished piece look.

Paint one side of the tag with chunky gold glitter paint. Next, give it a generous coat of Sparkle Mod Podge (on the same side you put the glitter on). Apply Sparkle Mod Podge to your scrapbook paper as well and flip it design-side down onto the podgeable. Rub the back to get out any air bubbles before applying another generous coat of Sparkle Mod Podge, being sure to seal the edges. Place it acrylic-side-down to dry (I propped it up on a paint bottle so the edges would be free to dry without sticking).

When the Mod  Podge has dried enough to touch the back (the clear side may look cloudy for a while but it will dry clear and sparkly), cut two pieces of gold ribbon the length and width of the podgeable with a little extra to wrap over the edge. Apply Sparkle Mod Podge to the back side of the ribbon and adhere it to the front of the gift tag. Wrap the extra around the back and adhere with glue.

Make the "X-mas countdown" label by using a fine point brush and gold metallic paint to write on a piece of white scrapbook paper. Use the Glossy Mod Podge to adhere it to the front of the Podgeable using the same technique described to adhere paper to the back of the Podgeable. When the Mod Podge is dry, use Mod Podge Dimensional Magic to cover just the white tag. This will give it a finished look similar to poured resin or expensive puffy stickers but with way less mess. (if you have never used Dimensional Magic before, check out Plaid's great how-to video here). Set the tag aside to dry.

Mod Podge the Frame

To cover the frame with scrapbook paper, make template pieces from some plain paper (pic 1). This allows you to tweak the shape without messing up the pretty paper. Then trace the template shapes onto the back of the scrapbook paper and cut out the pieces (pic 2). To adhere, apply a generous coat of Sparkle Mod Podge to one side of the frame (pic 3) as well as the back of the scrapbook paper. Press onto the frame, rubbing to get out the bubbles before applying another generous coat of Sparkle Mod Podge over the top (pic 4). Repeat with the other three sides.

Finishing Touches

To give the plain wire hanger some bling, I strung red and iridescent E beads onto the part that stuck up above the frame. I also threaded some gold and red ribbon through the hole on the gift tag.

Before using the chalkboard, you need to remember to prime it. To do that, rub the side of a piece of chalk all over the board and then rub it in/off with a rag. Lastly, reattach the beaded wire hanger and glue the tag onto the edge of the frame. 

Once the glue is dry, you can write your countdown message on your chalkboard!

Finished Product:

I hope you enjoyed my project and feel inspired to make your own. For more great holiday inspiration, visit Plaid, online here:

Inspired by Plaid on Facebook | Plaid Crafts on Twitter | Plaid on Pinterest

Get Inspired:

I'm not the only one blogging about great holiday projects made with Mod Podge this holiday season! Check out more of my fellow bloggers' great projects below:

This post is brought to you by Mod Podge and The Blueprint Social. I received free product and was compensated for my time creating this project. All opinions expressed are 100% mine.