Continued from last week...

Girls night dinner at Gogo Sushi : )

Sorry to leave you guys hanging like that last week. Are we ready for two more cheap, easy & awesome DIYs? YES WE ARE!!

BTW, please know that my Blogger formatting is still being crazy. I swear I'm not typing centered but for some reason, it shows up that way when its published. I've tried everything but technology has bested me. I give up; we'll just read everything aligned to the center tonight. Sorry (if this bugs you as much as it does me).  (;_:)

Here's the finished project for my coworkers' Christmas gifts.

Infinity scarf tutorial:

       Last year, I sewed scarves for Mike and Wes. This year, I thought it would be fun to make some for the females. 

       Materials needed- fabric (I'm using an old dress that doesn't fit me anymore, a dress that was gifted to me to use as fabric because it didn't fit its previous owner & some scrap cloth from a different project), scissors, tape measure, sewing machine & pins

       This project was actually free because all the fabric was used or scrap. But, if you didn't have old clothes or fabric, you can buy some cheap-o t-shirts from the Dollar Tree to use. 

Dress from Jessa, dress I bought myself & fabric for pillows I made Athena & Sonja.

1. Measure and cut the cloth into strips. It doesn't matter how many strips. I cut a few and sewed them together to have a variety of colors. The length and width depends on how big you want your scarf to be. I made three scarves: one for Jessa, one for Courtney and one for Wes' mom (not pictured because I was in a hurry and forgot to take a picture before I wrapped it). The scarf I used for this tutorial is the one pictured after step #3. 

    My measurements were: 

       red cloth (2 pieces) - 23 x 5 inches,

       beige cloth (1 piece) - 33 x 5 inches,

       patterned cloth (1 piece)- 28 x 5 inches

2. Hem the edges of the cloth, if needed. I used some really thin fabric so I hemmed mine to ensure that it won't fray or tear with use. Then lay the strips of cloth in whatever order you want & pin it all together to make a round piece of fabric

3. Sew the pieces together where you had pinned. And there it is... an infinity scarf!!

There are literally hundreds of Sharpie ceramic mug blogs/tutorials out there. Trust me, I read a bunch of them to get a good idea of how it's supposed to be done. I love the idea of customization and personalization so I definitely wanted to make some of these mugs for Christmas gifts. I took notes on the best advice from other crafters and came up with this.

Jessa & Mason's mugs. They're having a Pokemon themed wedding in March and I thought this would be a great pre-wedding gift.

Sharpie ceramic mug tutorial:

Materials needed- cheap ceramic mugs (the cheaper the better is what most bloggers say for this project), Windex & paper towels, Sharpie permanent markers

1. Take off the manufacture's sticker, bar code, price dot, etc from the mug. Make sure to really tear it off. We don't want anything catching on fire in the oven! Then wipe down the mugs with Windex.

2. Draw, color, go to Crazytown Decoration-ville on your mug. I did one for each of my coworkers (#team HCR) and then I did 3 pairs. A pair for Wes' video gaming best friends, and then a pair for my friends Courtney & Alex and Jessa & Mason. Wait three days before moving onto step #3. This will give plenty of time for the ink to settle in.

Down, Right, Fierce Street Fighter Move for Travis.

3. Place the mugs into a cold oven (aka DON'T pre-heat), turn the oven on to 450 degrees Fahrenheit and let bake for thirty minutes. After the 30 minutes, turn the oven off but do not open it. The mugs need to stay in the oven to cool. I let mine cool over night. Then the next morning, you have neat mugs that you decorated yourself. Oh, how thoughtful!!

I made three sets: the first is for new parents Courtney and Alex, the mugs read Mom needs coffee/Dad needs coffee; the second pair is for Wes' friends, Travis and Cameron, they have Street Fighter commands drawn on them; and the last pair are for newly engaged Jessa and Mason who are avid Pokemon fanatics, I drew Pokeballs on the mugs but you can't see them in this picture. I did research for the Street Fighter & Pokemon mugs so I wouldn't draw anything incorrectly.

A few weeks ago, Wes & I had his two best friends over for dinner (for Christmas). We all chipped in and got Wes a PS4. (This was my idea even though I don't know a lick about video games.) I also bought him Fallout 4 and an extra controller--so they could all play together. Wes also got his friend a PS4 game. And I drew Street Fighter super attack command moves onto their mugs (my idea but Wes had to show me what the commands looked like).  LOL 

So...it's been a few weeks since I wrote this and give Travis & Cameron their mugs (I think we all had our dinner on December 27th). It has been reported that the Sharpie has started to wear off. Do no put these mugs in the dishwasher and wash them very gently to avoid fading.