I finally got around to getting the sunshine print I made for Ronan’s nursery printed out at ArtsCow and realised that I’d made a silly error in my original print, and hadn’t left enough of a border for framing.

Yeah, not my smartest move.

I’ve uploaded the new files, with the space for framing to the original post, so please download them there. I’ve also added an additional version of the “Happy” print with the US spelling of “gray”, so there are now three prints contained in the zip file.

You can see clearer how close the lettering is to the frame – I’ve already re-ordered it so I should be able to show you the finished version some time in the next week or two. It’s framed in a 50c frame from the Salvos, spray painted with black gloss. You’ll also notice that I’ve removed the glass – I do with all of the frames hanging on the wall, with the kids around I just don’t like risking having a stray ball catch a frame and possibly hurt one of the boys. My husband thinks I’m crazy.

These prints have been a big hit on Pinterest and Facebook, thank you everyone who’s linked and pinned them!

This is one of those projects that I’ve had in my head for months now and it just feels so good to finally get it done! This was originally destined for the glider that lives in my sewing room, but the boys have fallen in love with the texture on the chenille and I keep on finding that it’s made its way into their room.

The chenille is quick to sew up, but takes a while to fluff – it’s the kind of project you need to set yourself up in front of the telly with, so allow yourself 1-2 hours to complete the entire project.

You Will Need

• Red, Yellow, Orange, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet cottons, I’ve used a combination of homespun and kona solids – the kona solids fluffed up a lot quicker than the homespun did. You will need about a fat eighth of each, but when you get down to the lower colours (blue/indigo/violet) you can get by with even less OR pre-bought chenille strips, such as Blooming Bias, in the same colours.
• Background fabric – enough to cover your cushion, I used seeded homespun from Lincraft. My cushion cover was 15x15inches, so the envelope cushion cover was made using a 15×15 square, and two 11×15 rectangles.
• A wire brush
• Cutting the fabric will be made a LOT easier by using a rotary cutter, ruler and cutting mat, but they’re not essential.

Full instructions behind the jump…

Creating The Chenille Strips

If you have pre-bought chenille then skip ahead to Creating The Rainbow

1. Cut 3/4inch strips along the bias. You will need enough to make about 3-4 layers, but this doesn’t have to be exact so you can just guesstimate, the strips don’t need to be the full length of your rainbow curve – I’ll cover that later.

2. Keep going until you’ve cut all of your colours, remember that you’ll need less strips as you progress further down the spectrum. I’d advise ironing your fabric better than I did

3. Place your longest strip of each colour on the fabric for the front of your cushion, work out the length of the curve for each colour and trim, keep these separate from your other strips.

4. Using those strips as a guide layer your other strips on top. If there are any that are too short, just overlap them, as circled above. Once they’re fluffed up it won’t be noticeable at all.

5. Stitch down the middle of the strip, the edges don’t need to be perfectly lined up so don’t be too precious with it. I used white thread but if I made it again I would use thread that corresponded to the colour of fabric, as sometimes you still see the white stitches peeking through occasionally.

6. And continue for your remaining colours.

Creating The Rainbow

1. Pin your red strip to your cushion front. Once you’re happy with its placement, attach it to your cushion front by sewing a line straight down the middle, as close as possible to your previous stitches.

2. Repeat for the following colours. The placement now with affect how your finished rainbow looks. I wanted a clear gap in between my arches, but if you want it closer then butt the strips up as close as possible to each other, even overlapping.

3. Once all your strips are attached, you will end up with something like this. Trim the excess chenille strips from the sides.

4. Sew your cushion as you would normally. I’ve used an envelope style, if you’re unsure how to do this please follow my envelope cushion tutorial.

5. Start distressing! To create the chenille you need to dampen the strips and then  distress them. I rubbed a wet flannel over them and then started scrubbing with a metal hairbrush from the dollar store. I did that for about fifteen minutes, then put the cushion cover in the washing machine on a hot wash and fast spin, once that had finished I rubbed it for another ten minutes or so and then put it in the dryer to fluff up. This photo is the end result of all of that, and I’m planning on doing it all again to fluff it up even more. It feels like you’re rubbing at it for ages, but I promise the effect and texture is well worth it.

A-mah-zing. Seriously, who’s sofa doesn’t need a little hit of rainbow?

Linking up to Tip Junkie this week, click through to see more awesome projects!

Rebecca from Simple As That created a rainbow themed printable for St. Patricks day last year featuring words from 20th Century author Gilbert Chesterton, “Without the rain, there would be no rainbow”. Words to remember, and a print that you can display all year round – it would look awesome in a rainbow themed nursery!

Yesterday I was searching Pinterest in search of new rainbow themed tutorials to link up to and stumbled on to this beautiful little rainbow sunshine soft toy from Holly at Chez Beeper. As soon as Ronan fell asleep this afternoon (which took a while because this kid has got some serious grumps going on!) I stitched together a sunshiney version with yellow minky and orange and yellow ribbons.

No face to speak of yet. I’m hoping to grab half an hour to do it sometime this evening, but until then it’s still pretty cute.

Apparently not cute enough to break the boy out of his grumps though

If anyone has a tutorial for that, it would be super appreciated right now.

Continuing the rainbow love with this beautiful crochet coin purse tutorial created by SparklePetal.

If you’ve never added a zip or lined a crochet project before this is the one to start with, the tutorial is super detailed with loads of photos – perfect for beginners, or crocheters like me who haven’t picked up a hook in months!

Not long before Christmas I picked up a small ironing board at a garage sale for the grand total of $1, it was the perfect size for bringing into the kitchen and ironing on the worktop whilst I watch the kids (Or more truthfully, for when I’ve piled fabric on top of the full size ironing board in my sewing room and I’m forced to start moving stuff into the rest of the house to have space to actually create, but if anyone asks, I’m sticking with the kids excuse!).

It took me about fifteen minutes to make, and totally transformed my cheap little ironing board, from a stained, burnt mess with no padding to speak of, to an awesome feature of my sewing room – and the themed fabric totally makes it for me!

You Will Need

• Your ironing board – this same method can work for both small and full size ironing boards.
• Elastic – enough to reach two thirds of the way around your ironing board.
• Cotton fabric.
• If you need to replace the padding as well then you’ll need either cotton batting or a replacement felt padding – they’re about $15 at Bunnings or another home store.

Full tutorial behind the jump…

1. Flip your ironing board over and trace around the outside onto your batting or replacement felt. I’m using remnants of a felt pad that I zig zagged together after using the majority of it for a full size ironing board. If you’re using batting I would recommend 3-4 layers.

2. Create the shape for your cotton cover using your cut batting as a template, just add an extra 8cm all the way around – it doesn’t have to be exact! Cut along your drawn line.

3.Zig zag or overlock around the edge of your cover. Fold over 1cm and stitch to create a channel for your elastic. Don’t forget to leave a few centimetres gap to thread the elastic.

4. Using a safety pin thread your elastic all the way around the cover. Knot securely and stitch the hole closed.

5. Slip your cover on and stand back and bask in your awesomeness. The fit should be nice and close with no movement as you iron – if there is any then unpick the channel and tighten the elastic slightly.

The world is your oyster, so long as it’s 100% cotton you can use any fabric you like to cover your ironing board so you can perfectly co-ordinate your cover with your sewing room or (heaven forbid!) laundry.

I now need to update my iron to go with my sweet new cover, but this one has served me so well for so many years now that I’d feel guilty getting rid of her. Does anyone have any recommendations for awesome irons for quilters?

Wendy from Ramblings From The Sunshine State created this rainbow themed wreath as part of the decorations for her daughter’s birthday party. All it took was a wreath form (use a pool noodle taped in a circle if you struggle to find them in your local craft store!), some yarn and some felt. I know flower wreaths are all the rage right now (or they were last year? I don’t know, I’m so unhip…) but I love the addition of the miniature felt bunting – too cute!

Wendy didn’t give detailed instructions for making her flowers, but if you need some held there’s picture tutorials on how to make several different styles of flower on Here In The Waiting Place.

In a jar.

Within each of those stars are a blessing for her life as an adult, there are eighteen stars, and they cover everything from job interview success to never dating idiots, some are funny (May your armpits always remain miraculously hair free during the summer months) and some are serious (May you and those around you always know your worth), each star is a blessing, and she can either chose to leave them as is within their jar, or open them up and see everything that I wish for her. These are great for milestone birthdays (or anniversaries) but I think would be especially awesome for a baby shower, with each attendee writing a blessing, and the resulting stars being displayed in a jar in the nursery.

You Will Need

• Coloured paper. I’ve used a pad of scrapbook paper, but coloured printer paper is fine. DO NOT use scrapbooking card, the stars will not be able to be smushed into shape when it comes to the final step.
• A rotary cutter, ruler and mat.

Full tutorial after the jump…

1. Cut your paper into 1.5cmx 30cm strips. When cutting from a pad of scrapbook paper I like to insert my cutting mat between the sheets. This way I don’t have to pull them out and risk losing what’s left over or it getting crumpled.

2. Write your blessings inside each of the strips making sure to leave an couple of centimetres clearance at each end.

3. Tie a knot in the strip, near one end, press the folds.

4. Tuck the flap on the bottom of the pentagon into the envelope of paper above it. Tear or cut some off if it’s too long (that’s why you leave some space before and after the writing).

5. Fold the long strip around the pentagon, keep on wrapping until you near the end.

6. Tuck that flap into the star, again, cut any excess off if it doesn’t fit.

7. Pinch the edges of the pentagons together to form the points of the star. This should cause it to puff up and become three dimensional.

And you’re done! It’s likely to take a few tries to perfect it, but once you’ve got it you can make these with your eyes shut. It took me about fifteen minutes to make the eighteen stars I needed.

Before you stop and ask yourself, why are there so many posts about rainbows? I thought I’d explain!

I’m playing around with a monthly theme idea on CB, not promises whether it’s here to stay or not, but I’m hoping it will give me a bit more focus when it comes to creating tutorials and coming up with new ideas for round ups.

This month I’ll be focusing on Roy. G. Biv, rainbows, and crafts based around the spectrum.

It’s so official I even made a graphic for it:

No backing out now.

So stay tuned, for some pretty sweet tutorials, lots of colour and CB’s first ever quilt along.

Sneak peek of the quilt…

He looks so calm and relaxed here, but the bags under my eyes tell a totally different story.

I’m welcoming in 2012 with a face lift for CraftBlog, so if you’re normally an RSS reader, pop on over and take a look around at my awesome new look, it’s pink and black, and I’m more than a little excited that it co-ordinates so well with my hair.

Over the next few weeks I’m hoping to iron out any problems with the new design, launch the CB newsletter and start accepting regular advertisers and sponsorship.

2012 is shaping up to be an exciting year of positive changes and exciting opportunities for me, and I hope you all come along for the ride, crafting implements firmly in hand.