101 Things To Do With Bubble Wrap - #2 Thanksgiving Decor

Yes, I’m still trying to burn through all the packing material I brought home from the stockroom a month ago. You’ll recall from my last post – assuming, of course that you avidly follow my blog and did indeed read my last post, that two of my Etsy Sisters, ReallyBadKitty and DRyan327 took all the bubble wrap. However, they left me with a HUGE bag of foam sheeting. So, what to do? What to do? I don’t know!

Well, a week ago, while I was successfully avoiding all the things I should have been doing by catching up on my blog reading, I ran across this little gem of a Thanksgiving project. Hand Turkeys! How stinkin’ cute are these?! The grandparents usually get some kind of something from the kiddos on every holiday (Hallmark holidays included.) I thought this was pretty darn perfect.

We made sets for ourselves and both sets of grandparents. I think they’re so cute, and we had a lot of fun making them. Of course, I did the sewing, but the kiddos stuffed them and glued the feathers on (with a tiny bit of direction from me.)

Now just what do these turkeys have to do with all that packing material, you’re asking? Well, guess what those perky little turkey fingers are stuffed with. G’head! Guess!! That’s right! Foam sheeting! We cut the foam sheets into little pieces, rolled them up and stuffed the fingers with them. It was the perfect stuffing material – faster and easier than batting. I even ran some floral wire through the sheeting so you can bend the fingers this way and that. We stuffed the bodies with those beanie baby beads so they’ve got good heavy bottoms. They sit very nicely on the mantle.

So, that used up a quarter of a sheet. Now what do I do with the other 100 sheets of foam I have? I’m still fishing for ideas!

Have a very happy and safe Thanksgiving!

101 Things To Do With Bubble Wrap - #1 Pawn it off on your Etsy friends

Actually, it’s the Etsy friends that got me into the bubble wrap mess to begin with. OK, ok, I can’t blame my inability to fill landfills w/packing material entirely on my Etsy friends. Hmmm…or can I? Last I checked, this was MY blog and I could do with it what I want. Yeah! So there ya have it!

It’s all ReallyBadKitty’s fault. With a shop name like “ReallyBadKitty”, could it be anyone’s fault but hers?!?!?

Sure, she makes pretty little bouquets...

...holiday décor ...

...and cute hair clips out of buttons, but don’t let that fool you. She’s bad news!

And then there’s that Purple Toes Jewelry chick (aka: DRyan327) – she was a witting accomplice.

Those smoking rabbit earrings should’ve been a dead give away that this gal was nuthin’ but trouble. Poor bunnies!

And just look what she does to watches!!

Grandpa's pocket watch never saw this coming!

All joking aside, I met these talented ladies when I joined the North Dallas Etsy team earlier this year. They’re both jewels and I’ve had such a great time getting to know them and the other Team members. And yes, they took all the bubble wrap and will be using it to package up their wares. So when you buy stuff from their shops, you’re not just getting a great handmade treasure – you’re helping save the planet one bubble at a time. How much better can you feel about buying something?!

So the bubble wrap’s gone, but I’ve still got a ton of foam sheeting. I’m still looking for ideas on what to do with that. I have to admit, I really like Haptree’s suggestion of turning a room in the house into a padded cell. Goodness knows I could use a room like that!

Something Very Cool

Yikes! I've got so many things to do these days. The Man decided would should have a 4th of July party, which means we've got to get the house in order. This is a bit of a problem for me, because since I've started blogging and tweeting and working my Etsy shop, well...let's just say I've let a few things slide. I mean, there's only so many hours in the day, right? And with all these other important things, like blogging and tweeting and working my Etsy shop...OH! and playing with my kids..., well the housework has taken a back seat.

So last week I was working on recovering our porch swing. One of our resident squirrels tore it apart this spring. Argh!! She seemed to think the fluffy batting inside would make a great nest. She was wrong about that in so many ways, but that's a story for another time. Anyway, back to the swing....

I've been dying to get my sewing machine out for a while. I like to sew stuff for the house. I'm not that good at it, but I enjoy doing it. And I think it's good for me. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and sewing constantly teaches me to embrace my little imperfections. (Or at least that's what I tell myself.) Well, a couple of weeks ago, I stumbled upon Odds & Ends' blog (I sure do wish she'd blog more, hint, hint). She had a link to a tutorial on turning plastic shopping bags into fabric by fusing bags together with an iron. At last! Something to do with all those shopping bags that I can't put in my recycle bin!!! Oh happy Day! (Yes, I use 'reusable' shopping bags, but no matter how I try, I still manage to amass way too many of the plastic ones.) So...since I had the sewing machine out, I might as well have a little fun and try something new, right?

Voila! A fun little cover for my DayTimer!


I followed the tutorial that was in the Etsy Storque a while back. Of course, I didn't follow it right (I don't follow directions very well.) My 'fabric' didn't turn out as pretty and smooth as I thought it would, but I kind of like the crinkly look of mine (breath...embrace the imperfection...become ONE with the imperfection...breath.)

So here's what I didn't pick up from the tutorial:

• The 'fabric' shrunk quite a bit - probably because I didn't have the iron set right and because I forgot to flip everything and iron the front AND the back. I'd already pretty much ironed the hell out of the front trying to get all the layers to fuse together before I remembered I was supposed to iron the back too.


• I really should have made sure the bags were clean before I started fusing them. (There's a little extra character in places, but nothing too disgusting.)

And here are the happy surprises:

• I wasn't sure if drawing or writing on the bags before fusing would work, but it worked just fine. I used Sharpie markers for the text and the panda's thought bubble. I drew them on a white bag and then used a clear produce bag for the top layer so the ink wouldn't come off during the fusing. Worked like a charm!


• I also wasn't sure if I could cut out images and place them under the clear top layer. I thought it might be really obvious that I was 'cutting & pasting'. But again, this worked great.


• I used fusible interfacing on the back of the 'fabric' to stiffen things up and give a more stable sewing surface. I also used it to extend my fabric with the red ribbon on the inside flap (to resolve the shrinkage problem). I wasn't sure if the interfacing would fuse to the bags, but it worked perfectly!

It was a really fun project, and it didn't take long at all. I'm going to do it with the kids next time -- let them cut pictures and words out of the bags, draw on them with markers, etc. I don't know what we'll do with the 'fabric', but I'm sure we'll come up with something very cool.