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Indoor Hopscotch using Painter’s Tape

Need an activity to do indoors that will help the kids burn off a little excess energy? An Indoor Hopscotch Game with Painter’s Tape is just the thing you need.

indoor_hopscotch_painters_tapeIndoor Hopscotch using Painter’s Tape

When the weather outside is frightful and your kids are less than delightful, lay a roll of painter’s tape on your floor and soon your kids will be having fun indoors.

(I’ve included affiliate links for your convenience. I earn a small percentage from a purchase using these links. There is no additional cost to you. You can read more about affiliate links here.)

How about that for a quick little limerick? Well, this project is almost as quick. All you need is a roll of painter’s tape (I used ScotchBlue for delicate surfaces, but you can use any type) and a pair of scissors.

scissors_tape

Lay out your hopscotch grid on the floor. (It was easy on our square tile floor because the tile layout acted as a guideline for our course.)

lay_out_hopscotch_on_floor

Add numbers inside the squares.

painters_tape_hopscotch

And let the kids loose. Soon they’ll be a hop skippin’ and a jumpin’ that energy away…

boy_playing_indoor_hopscotch

…well, maybe not all their energy.

boy_jumping_in_air

Important note, don’t leave the tape on the floor for weeks on end or you may struggle to get the adhesive up. But, in the meantime, have fun and let’s pray we can all venture out safely soon!

Anyone else have any great ideas to let kids burn off energy indoors? Please, leave me a comment, I need help here.

PHGFancySign

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How to Make a Felt Letter Pillow Cover

DIY Wanderer Felt Pillow

DIY Felt Letter Pillow Cover
How to Make a Felt Letter Pillow Cover

Friends! I’m so excited to be back today with a new project for you, a DIY felt letter pillow cover. One of my favorite things to do is to scour home decor stores for inspiration for my kids’ rooms.  I love trying to recreate trendy looks for my home, but on a budget. Today’s project accomplishes this goal! I’ve seen some really cute letter pillow covers and I knew I could DIY one myself.  Originally I made one for my son’s room. It turned out so well that my daughter requested one for her room too. Lucky for you, a sewing machine is optional – so this project is for truly for anyone who wants to make their own Felt Letter Pillow Cover.

Let’s get started!

Materials:

(I’ve included affiliate links for your convenience. I earn a small percentage from a purchase using these links. There is no additional cost to you. You can read more about affiliate links here .)

Materials Needed to make a DIY Felt Letter Pillow

Instructions:

Step 1:  It’s helpful to type up and print out a word template for this project or use letter stencils.  It’s not totally necessary, but when tracing your letters onto the felt it helps keep all the letters relatively uniform.

Cut out letters from paper word template

Making Your Word Template:

Open up Word or Google Docs and type out the word you want.  Add a space between the letters. (I used the Impact font at font size 150pt for this project.)

You can make your letters bigger or smaller. Just be aware, it gets a little tricky to cut out smaller letters. Cut your letters out of your template and let’s move on to the next step.

Tip:  If your word contains more than one of the same letter – you only need to cut that letter once. For instance – WANDERER has two E’s and two R’s, but I only needed one template for each letter because I could use the same one to trace two letters.  This should save you a few minutes.

Step 2: Trace your letters onto the felt using your stencil or cut out letters (or draw them freehand if not using a template).

Trace Letter with Pen or Chalk onto felt

You can use pen, chalk, or pencil to trace.  Just make sure you can see the lines so you can cut them out.

Trace Felt Letters with Pen or Chalk onto you Felt Piece

Step 3: Cut out your letters using scissors.

Cut your Letters out of Felt after tracing Continue to Cut out all Felt Letters

Step 4: Space your felt letters onto your pillow cover.  (I made a lumbar pillow cover from canvas drop cloth for this project, but you can also buy a plain cover.) It’s helpful to play with the placement and see where you want to start the word on your pillow cover.

Layout Felt Letters on your Pillow

Attaching the Letters:

  • Sewing – Pin your first letter to the pillow cover.  Hand sew or use your sewing machine to sew the letter onto the cover. You can use matching thread or a different color to give it more of a rustic vibe.  My thread was white on brown felt.
  • Fabric Glue – Glue your felt letter to your pillow cover.

Sew your felt letters on your pillow cover or use fabric glue

Step 5:  Continue to sew or glue the rest of your letters onto your pillow cover.

Use fabric glue or your sewing machine to attach felt letters to your pillow

Step 6 :  After you finish sewing on the letters, cut off any loose strings.  If you used fabric glue, you want to let this dry for 24 hours before attempting to wash it.  (Please refer to the instructions on your specific fabric glue. )

Cut loose strings from your protect after sewing felt letters

Step 7 :  Insert your pillow form into your new cover.

Insert your pillow form into your new felt letter pillow cover!

All done! This looks fantastic, don’t you agree?!

I have seen these letter pillow covers in stores for over $25!  Yet, I was able to make this knock off for less than $5 with a simple DIY canvas pillow cover and some inexpensive felt.

Kids Love these DIY Felt Letter Pillow Covers

I love the way this pillow turned out. As I mentioned, my daughter requested one for her room. (Although she’s having a little trouble choosing which word she wants!)  So far she’s come up with: Cupcake, Ice Cream, Unicorns – she can’t decide.

DIY Felt Letter Pillow Cover Tutorial

This project would also be cute as a personalized pillow cover. Or make it as a gift for someone who has young children.  It’s the perfect touch for a nursery or kids room.

DIY Felt Letter Pillow Cover perfect for Kids Rooms

Another idea would be to create one for each holiday: Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas are great occasions to display a felt letter pillow.

DIY Felt Letter Pillow Cover

I hope you guys enjoyed this tutorial for a DIY felt letter pillow cover.  You might also like to learn how to sew a rope basket at Decor Hint (where I blog regularly).

I’ll be back next month with another fun project for you! In the meantime, be sure to check out some other sewing tutorials on Pretty Handy Girl.

Thanks for reading!

karen signature

~ See More of Karen’s Tutorials ~

 


karen from decor hintHello!  I’m Karen, the creator of the Home Decor and DIY Blog: Decor Hint . I’m a Native of the East Coast, but I currently live in beautiful Seattle with my hubby, our two wonderful children and our spunky wheaten terrier.

You can usually find me with some sort of craft in one hand and a coffee in the other. And I’m always rearranging furniture or moving lamps from room to room. I have a passion (read: obsession) for decorating, DIY, and gardening. In short, I love making my house into a home.

Like many, I’m inspired by what I see in home decor magazines, but I’m not so inspired by the price tags.  Consequently, I love finding and creating beautiful budget-friendly home decor items. In a head to head competition, I bet you’d never know the difference between the designer items and my DIY creations!  Many of my DIY projects focus on sewing, crafting, upcycling and organizing. Some of my favorite projects have been making pretty wreaths , sewing my own tassel hand towels, and crafting these trendy wood bead garlands . I can’t wait to inspire you and spark your creativity through my DIY projects.

You can always connect with me on Pinterest , Twitter or Instagram.

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Faking Wall-to-Wall Carpet with an Area Rug

Faking Wall-to-Wall Carpet with an Area Rug | Pretty Handy Girl

The closet renovation is coming along nicely, even though I’ve only been able to work on it in fits and starts. After I added a new light switch for the closet, I added any missing insulation. Then I filled any and all gaps with Great Stuff. This closet had always been very cold in the winter or super hot in the summer. I decided to climate control the closet as best as I could while the walls were open. Then I closed up the walls with sheet rock and painted the small closet. You would not believe how well sheet rock (aka drywall or wall board) insulates! When I added the last piece, it made a huge difference in the climate control in the room. Who knew?!

Every room we renovate, we like to leave little messages in the wall or on the floor. The boys and I had fun drawing before adding the carpeting.

Faking Wall-to-Wall Carpet with an Area Rug | Pretty Handy Girl

The closet dimensions are just under 5′ x 8′ which is perfect for an area rug. I wanted the closet to be as comfy and inviting as possible for the boys, so I settled on a super soft chenille shag rug.

I also purchased enough carpet padding from Lowe’s to line the closet floor. In the interest of climate control, I bought the thickest padding and opted for the Stainmaster brand to resist spills from seeping through to the subfloor.

Ready to get started Faking Wall-to-Wall Carpet with an Area Rug?

Materials:

Faking Wall-to-Wall Carpet with an Area Rug | Pretty Handy Girl

  • Utility knife
  • Scissors
  • Metal ruler or straight edge
  • Sharpie
  • Staple gun and staples (1/2″ – 5/8″)
  • Area rug large enough for your space
  • Carpet padding

Instructions:

Lay the carpet padding on the floor. Line up two edges and fold the other edges up against the wall.

Faking Wall-to-Wall Carpet with an Area Rug | Pretty Handy Girl

Use a pen to draw along the corner where the wall meets the floor.

Faking Wall-to-Wall Carpet with an Area Rug | Pretty Handy Girl

Cut the carpet pad to size. Read more

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DIY Door Stop with Handle

door stop title

Hi Pretty Handy Readers!  Jaime here from That’s My Letter sharing a quick and easy scrap wood project.  Today I’ll show you the step by step tutorial for how to make a DIY Door Stop with a Leather Handle.

door stop 1

They say necessity is the mother of invention and this is clearly a case in point.  My girls’ bedroom door wouldn’t stay completely open on its own.  You might have a similar door in your home that you want to stay wide open except gravity keeps pulling it closed?  In our house nothing is level so naturally the door wants to close and we needed a door stop that was easy for my girls to use.

door stop 3

I used a piece of scrap 4×4 wood and made a simple leather loop handle so now my girls can easily move the door stop when they want to shut the door.  (Please note our door is solid wood and moderately heavy but if you have a very heavy door you might want a larger piece of wood.)

door stop 2

In addition to using the door stop to keep the door wide open, my girls also use it to keep the door slightly ajar at night.

Supplies:

  • 1 – 4×4 scrap wood @  3 1/2″
  • 1 – leather belt scrap 1/2″ w x 9″ l
  • 1 1/2″ wood screw
  • washer
  • drill & drill bits
  • glue
  • sandpaper
  • paint

Instructions:

Step 1: Cut the 4×4 scrap wood at 3 1/2″ (or longer if you have a heavy door).  Sand edges smooth.

door stop step 1

Step 2: Paint as desired.  I used painters tape to mask off a portion to make the pink stripe. Read more

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The Best Piece of Furniture for My Growing Son

La-Z-Boy Leah Sleeper Chair and a Half

Can we take a moment and talk parent-to-parent? You know how parents of grown children will tell you to cherish the moments you have with your children because they grow up so fast. You know it’s true, but you can’t really fathom the speed until you look back at photos that seemed like they were taken yesterday.

That’s my oldest son in the picture above. He was 7 in that photo. Today he is 11 going on 12 in a few months. Somethings don’t change, like his love of reading. But, his feet, his legs, his arms and his body continue to grow. And his brain? I gave up trying to help him with his math homework this year. And, I can’t outsmart this tween anymore, he cataloged his Halloween candy so I can’t sneak any.

I recognize that we only have a short time before this boy towers over me. In a mere blink of the eye, his room will be empty while he’s away at college.

La-Z-Boy Leah Sleeper Chair and a Half

Soon he’ll be packing up his things to bring with him as he moves out of the house. That’s when I will remind him Read more

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