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Painted AMERICAN BIRDHOUSE – Tutorial

June 11, 2012 By Laura 27 Comments

Summer holds a whole lot of good things, and for us, it really kicks into high gear in the beginning of July, with back to back celebrating of the 4th of July, and our oldest daughter’s birthday! Then the summer rides out with a little more down time, just chilling on the beach, making day trips, and hanging out chatting and laughing around the camp fire at night. So about this time in June, we’re getting excited for all of the fun to come, just around the corner! The gardens are planted, we’re reaching the end of our school books, and we can just feel the summer vibe coming on the sea breeze!

What really gives me so much joy, is helping make my home and gardens, reflect the seasons and holidays! Around here, about mid-June through July, it is all about red, white and blue! Our family’s homestead is that much more enjoyable, with the little bits of decor I add, and it just puts the happy in my heart, to see it. But the greatest joy in it all for me, is planning and creating all of those little things around our home. Like this American Birdhouse I am sharing with you all today. Honestly, day or night, you can turn the music up loud, put some art tools in my hands, and COLOR ME HaPpY!!

So I’ll just tell you how I did this. While I didn’t photograph every step of the action, I can tell you what I did, and give you some photos I took of what the birdhouse looked like after those steps.

To start, I picked out an unpainted wooden birdhouse at Michael’s Arts and Crafts. There were a few styles to choose from, but this one would best work with the paint-job layout I had in my head.

I primed it with some grey primer I had on hand, and then I painted it white with acrylic paint. Because of the grey primer, it did take 2 quick coats of white to cover. This paint dries fast, which I love, so I can keep the fun rolling.

Next, I asked my husband, Michel, to cut some stars and stripes out of vinyl for me, the next job he ran, to use as masks. I wasn’t sure of the size I wanted to work with for either the stars or stripes, so he cut out 2 sizes of each. Sticking some cut pieces on the house helped me decide which size I’d like better, and I went with the fatter stars and stripes. NOTE: Just to confuse things, Michael used some scrap vinyl he had, that happened to be red and blue…to put on my white house. I know….it looks done already, huh? I would have preferred white masking, but c’est la vie….it was just a mask. Don’t let it confuse you-as it was trying to confuse me. It was going to be way better looking when I was done with it, but the colored vinyl did give me a good preview of the final layout!

So here it is, with the masking still on, and all painted in. Looks like a hot mess to me! It did take more brain power than I had planned on burning, trying to think in opposite terms here: “Ok….where the red and blue mask is, it will be white….and I am painting the white I see, red and blue. Right?….Wait……”. Ugh. See? White vinyl would have taken less thought for me.

But I managed, believe it or not, to not screw it up much. Although everyone was instructed not to talk to me or ask me questions whilst paintbrush in hand. I’m good, but I’m not that good. ; )

So here is what it looked like after all of the masking was peeled off. Revealing that I really did it right!

It’s looking pretty good already, huh? But it was still not done yet!

My vision was an older looking American Birdhouse. So I finally really attacked it, with my sand paper! I go to town, distressing. I don’t know what it means, but I suspect distressing my creations gives me an unnatural level of joy. Sometimes, I need someone around, to stop me. For me, this is when many things I make, really come to life, and become what I created them to be.

So, after Michael took away the sand paper, I did just a few more little things: 1) I dusted it all off with a soft rag. 2) I rubbed on a good coat of clear wax, and let that dry. 3) Then, ever so tentatively, I added some dark wax too. I am so careful with that stuff, because it is powerfully staining! I carefully and minimally applied it, to age it exactly to a specific, pinpointed year. (Ha ha…I have no idea what year, really….I’m just kidding. lol) I’m not sure if you can even tell how much it was aged in these photos, with the effect of the dark wax, but it really was the final touch of perfection, for me to call it d-o-n-e.

And here it is! . . . . . .

This is the front and it’s left side, obviously. But I tell you this for you to notice, how the stars wrap around from one side, diagonally, all the way to the other. And the stripes do the same thing.

So I am about to show you all sides . . . . . .

Of course, I would love to show you close-ups of the detail in my distressing . . . . . .

It truly is what makes this an American Beauty, to me!

I just love how it came out. Do you? You can bet your American bottom, I’ll be Pinning this baby!

Coming up soon here on the blog, I’ll be showing you where I put this, to be displayed for awhile this summer.

Tell us, do you had any special summer decor to your home this time of year? We hope you have a moment to tell us about it, or say hello, before you ski-dattle! If not today, thanks so much for coming by! We’re always glad you did.

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Flower Photography, and History Repeating

June 3, 2012 By Laura 6 Comments

I don’t know where time has gone, but I sure wish it would slow down some. I’ve done the best I can all along, to cherish every moment of watching all of my children grow up, knowing it will all happen too fast. It’s yet another reason I school my kids myself. I don’t want to miss any of their fleeting childhood. Still, it seems like yesterday that my first baby girl, Alexis Grace, was born. She grew up in the blink of an eye. Next thing I knew, she was in high school, and taller than me! She’s athletic and strong, and it blows me away.

And now she has a real job! She’s been trying to figure out how to get one sooner for awhile now. She has worked with both Michael and I in our businesses quite a bit, in the past few years, weeding and prepping truck lettering with Michael, and as my photographer’s assistant when I was doing a lot more portrait work. We’ve paid her of course. Also, she’s actually been pretty creative at finding safe ways to make a little cash of her own, in the meantime, too. I’d venture to say she chooses to spend her time differently than typical girls her age. She’s a determined soul, who loves to research, earn her own way, and make things happen. If anyone is interested for their own young teen kids, I can share those ideas at another time. She’s always been diligent with every dollar she’s gotten. Since she was little, she’s been strict with her own budget for spending and saving. And now, she’ll be making a real pay check from someone else, other than us. There was a lot to consider, knowing she has a lot on her schedule, especially with schooling, and more upcoming heavy sport seasons. Not to mention of course, being such a young age still, at 14. But she gets excellent grades, is self-disciplined with her daily responsibilities like clockwork, and has been really wise with her money. There was really no reason to not let her. She was hired in a heart beat. We just had to get some extra paperwork signed off here and there, because of her age.

She’ll be working at a nursery here in town, watering all of the flowers, helping customers, etc. It’s a job we’re comfortable with as her parents, because we’ve known the owner for years. He’s a good client of Michael’s, so we trust him to watch out for her, and he has a good staff. Also, it’s all outdoors, where Alexis loves to be. It’ll be real hot some days this summer, when the humidity kicks in. But it’s still pretty ideal work for her. I’m excited for her!

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The funny thing is, I used to work at a nursery and greenhouse for a couple of years in high school, right around the same age as she is. I have to admit, I was not all that interested in plants and flowers at that time. But I was working with my friend, so it wasn’t all that bad. I learned what I had to know, to take care of the plants and flowers, and help customers. But it was just a job to me. My second job, actually, working with a lot of plants and flowers. I started working when I was 9 years old, cleaning an older couple’s home and maintaining their impeccable landscaped yard on Saturdays, until I was about 14. I got paid well too! But I was well into my married years, before I honestly took an interest in real gardening and such. However, when I fell in love with it all, I fell hard! I really love working in my gardens.

The funny thing is, my daughter is as passive as I was about gardening right now, as I was at her age. She’s not as into it as my younger daughter is. To her credit, she’ll volunteer to water the gardens on summer nights, which I always appreciate. But I have wished she would love gardening as much as I do. So this job of hers, gives me hope. Already, she jumped in and helped plant some flowers the other night with me. It could very well be that all she learns at her job, will serve her well, years down the road. I think it’s a wonderful education to have. I know I was happy to have some agricultural knowledge and experience to draw on, once I decided to start gardens of my own. I believe she’ll be a valued employee, because she is definitely a people-person, always smiling, loves to help people, takes pride in her work, and despite her supposed lack of interest, she really remembers the names of flower varieties! I’m just so excited she’ll be working in this environment, in particular. I mean, what a great first job on her own.

Well enough chatting. Yes? I’ve been having fun taking photos of the beautiful blooms around our home. Some are on the edge of neighbor’s property. I am always so happy with my camera in my hand. So I thought I’d share with you some of my photos.

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An Iris.
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004_geranium-flowers Geraniums.

005_chrysanthemum-flowers A Chrysanthemum.

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Azaleias.

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Azaleias.

Foxglove.

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And more Foxglove.

I think this last shot is my favorite, tied with the Iris. What’s yours?

Also, I’d love to know how old you or your teens were when you got your first job, and what you did. Scroll down and tell us about it.

So glad you came by. : )

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Pinwheel Wreath | Tutorial and Decor

May 29, 2012 By Laura 19 Comments

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Is there anyone, who doesn’t love pinwheels? They are just so fun, so whimsical, and can give anyone that feeling of childhood joy as it spins, no matter how old we are. I am so smitten with pinwheels lately, that projects involving them just keep popping into my head! This idea of a pinwheel wreath, however, has been on my brain since last year! I wasn’t sure exactly how I would design it, but I figured it out as I went along, and the results just make me smile! Just like I knew it would.

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What do you think?

I found it fun and easy to make. They don’t spin, as this project was strictly decorative. But I’m already thinking about designing another one that works! For this pinwheel wreath however, I just wanted it to have a summer feel, with lots of pops of color, so I chose summer hues accordingly. But imagine all the different and fun color combinations that you could come up with!

Let me show you how easily I made this wreath.

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Supplies Needed:

**I got everything on this list at Michael’s Arts & Crafts**

a styrofoam wreath base
a pad of double-sided cardstock (called a Solid Mat Pad) -papers size 4.75 in x 6.75 in.
4 or less double-sided designer 12×12 in scrap papers you love (heavier stock)
eyelet brads
eyelet setting tool set (had in my toolbox)
a small hammer (had)
long pins (- with the ball on the end. I got metallic ones.)

Optionals:

wide ribbon of choice
scissors, or a Fiskar Trimmer! (Which I highly recommend as a constant craft tool I have!)

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Next I am going to show you how to fold paper for pinwheels. But to start, you need your pinwheel paper in squares – size depending on how big or small you want your pinwheels. (You may want to experiment to decide that.)

The multi-colored pad of 2-sided paper I bought was 4.75 in x 6.75 in. So the easiest and fastest thing for me to do was to take 2 inches off, and make them square, at 4.75 in x 4.75 in. So I had a little pile of those cut to size in no time (with my Fiskar Trimmer), and ready to fold.

As you may be able to tell in the above 3rd frame photo, I did not open the paper to make the second fold, the first time when I photographed this. But you should…..it’s easier and makes a nicer second fold. I also zoomed in, so don’t let sizes fool you. But looking at the 4th frame, I am sure you get the idea of how the folding needs to get done. It kind of looks like a little square kite!

Next, is the cutting that needs to be done on the creases. Now, you CAN just use scissors for this! Just be sure to note where you need to stop cutting. There are 4 cuts on each square, and none of them go all the way to the center. But for mostly all of my craft paper cutting, I use my awesome (older model) Fiskar Trimmer. In case you have one, or are going to get one for this craft, I have made some labeled photos with directions and tips here below, of exactly how you can cut them all quickly and easily. I hope they explain well for you.

So if you just study these photos above and read the notes, you’ll find that cutting the square papers can be done in a zip! That’s what I love about the Fiskar Trimmer…….it’s fast, and the cuts are straight and perfect. I use it a lot!

In this photo above, I’d like you to take note of the eyelet setter tool set, and the pins. I hope you are familiar with eyelet (brads) and the tools needed to set them? They are used a lot in scrap booking as well. In a nutshell….a tip makes a hole in the paper for the brad to be put in. The setter is used on the backside of the eyelet or brad, to ‘splay’ the metal open and hold it in the paper. You do this with a little hammer, and it’s fun! You’ll see how it looks finished in a moment.

Here I have my little squares of paper all cut. When folding a pinwheel, you need to bring every other corner to the center of the square. So I have numbered them to give you the visual of that. Also, you can now get a good look at how the cuts do not go all the way to the middle, and about where they should stop.

I could not take photos of every step of this process, because it takes a lot of tight holding with very busy hands, and I couldn’t hold a camera too! But if you need to see how eyelet brads are set step by step with the hammer method, you can check this video here. There are newer tool sets out on the market, that set eyelets or brads with a spring-action tool, and another method as well. You will see the options at the video link above, but the hammer method I use is demonstrated.

FRAME 1

Every other corner is brought to the middle, with the point quite passing the middle. Each corner overlaps the previous, and you really need to hold them all exactly in place. Then, taking your eyelet hole puncher, you tap out the hole with the hammer on the top of the setter. With 4 layers of paper here, you really need to hit it hard a few a couple of time! ALSO NOTE: Just like when using an ordinary paper punch, you don’t want to punch a hole off the edge of an of the papers. This can be tricky with 4 corners on top of each other! So be sure they are all in place before making the hole.

FRAME 2

The eyelet brad has been put into the hole, held in there carefully while flipping the pinwheel over, and the back of the eyelet has been hammered and ‘splayed’ (I like that word…lol) out, to hold the eyelet in place. Careful not to crush your pinwheel too much!

FRAME 3

What the finished eyelet looks like on the front.

Seriously easy as 1-2-3! (On repeat mode. ; )

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OHHHHhhhh….It’s about to get even more fun, now!

Taking your pins, and putting each one through the eyelet of each pinwheel, you can start pushing them into your styrofoam wreath! The pins can be easily put in and taken out, so you can really play and see what you think looks good to you. You’ll also get an idea of how many pinwheels you’ll need, and how many bigger pinwheels you’d like to use, if any. I added 3 larger pinwheels to my smaller ones. The larger ones were made with 12″x12″ 2-sided designer scrap papers.

Before you get all of your pinwheels put in and in place just how you’d like it, you may want to add ribbon to the inside and outside of your foam wreath. I think the ribbon just makes the whole wreath look more finished. There are different ways you can do that, such as wrapping and winding around the wreath. But I had beautiful turquoise wide ribbed ribbon that laid flat nicely all around the inside and outside, so I chose to do that.

To attach it, I used E6000 glue. Maybe not the best technique. But I squiggled it on, and spread it with some little ripped paper and let it get a tad tacky, before laying the ribbon down. I was concerned it would soil through, but spreading it out and letting it set really helped, and it worked. You may want to use hot glue, or just pin it all the way around. I was thinking….my metallic pins would have looked pretty cool. Like shiny studs.

With the ribbon glued all around the outside and inside perimeter of the circle, I looped another cut piece to hang the wreath from later, before pinning all of the pinwheels in place.

And that is the gist of how my pinwheel wreath was made! Now you can just enjoy several photos of the finished project!

Ahhh yes…..My husband used a flat head nail, and nailed right through the ribbon to hang the wreath. Then, I just glued a big cute button on the nail head! Love buttons! I think it adds such a cute element, and I also really dig the white stitching on my pretty ribbon too.

018_pinwheel-wreath-decor My summer-fun pinwheel wreath is hung in our sun room, as a fun and cheery welcome on the wall right in front of anyone who walks into our home through our front door. I not only love it, but our kids do too, of course! I hope you are inspired to do a project as fun as this one.

pinwheel-wreath-tutorial-decor Speaking of pinning, feel free to pin this collage to Pinterest, if you are on there! I will be! We also have added a new ‘P’interest social button in the header, and I’d love it if you’d like to follow me on there as well!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. I invite you to leave me your thoughts or questions! Happy Summertime!

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Our Antique School Desks and Books

May 21, 2012 By Laura 20 Comments

Lately, I’ve been putting time into some things I can’t speak much of, yet. Well, I could. But there has been too many time in my life, when I have spoken too soon, about many things, that never really came to be, in the end. So I am finally starting to remember to keep my mouth shut about some things, until they are a little more certain! How about that, huh? I’m only in my 40’s. Anyway, just so you know, I’ve been more creatively productive than it has seemed lately. ; ) Doesn’t it bug you when people speak so vaguely? Me too. I’m sorry. I do hope to share more with you all, soon.

But today, I wanted to show you a couple of home treasures of ours, that I love. They are some old little school desks. If you like antiques, and/or you like old school things, you may find these pieces interesting.

This first school desk is one my husband, Michael, picked up at a yard sale he stopped at. He saw it, and knew I would love it. Because I not only love antiques, but love all things ‘old school days’ related! He paid $15 for it, and once he did, the seller told him it was made around 1932. It’s all solid wood, and pretty small, as it seems most school desks were back then. As you can see, I just have it set tucked in under a wall table.

Just inside the desk, are these two really old books.

This book, Twelve Ways to Build a Vocabulary, is by Archibald Hart, with a foreword by Johnson O’Connor. I came across it at a tag sale, on a table with a lot of other books, and bought it for $1.00! The kids and I love vocabulary, and this book is just interesting to read through. Printed in 1939, it has an old worn linen cover, fragile binding, and yellowed pages throughout.

This one, titled The Complete Home Handyman’s Guide, was Michael’s grandmother’s. I couldn’t tell you if she ever read it, but I did have the blessing of getting to know her in the years before she passed, so I can tell you this much; she was as good as any handyman around! She did all of the work of the greatest of handymen, and well into her 70’s! Michael said he grabbed this book out of a box of others his parents had. It was printed in 1948.

We have other wonderful old books in our home as well. Some more meaningful than others. But all of them make my nose tingle, when I flip through them. What’s up with that?

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Our second desk is a little more sentimental. Michael used this desk as a little boy. He tells me that it originally came from his aunt’s home, who had 5 girls. He recalls when he was little, that they had about 3 of these little desks, as well as teacher’s desk. They did not home school, but just used all of the school furniture in the playroom, to pretend with. At some point, one of them ended up coming to Michael’s family’s home, and he used it in his bedroom, while he was in early elementary school.

Through the years Michael and I were dating, Ido recall seeing it in his parent’s basement. It was of no interest to me at the time. When his parents sold their home and moved away, Michael took the desk, and it then sat in our own basement for years. Eventually, I fell in love with home schooling, all things from old schooling days, and antiques in general. When I remembered we had this old school desk of Michael’s in the basement, I couldn’t wait to bring it upstairs!

Although I have to admit, we truly have no room for it in our school room, and it is constantly in the way! It’s far too small for any of our kid’s to really use. And believe it or not, it’s heavy! Still, I love to see it. It’s charming, isn’t it?

Well, most of it. There is a reason I have only showed you the desk on this angle, so far.

Here, let me show you the other sides……

Can you believe this mess? Guess who did this? Michael! When he was little, and the desk was his in his bedroom, he put all of these stickers on it. He says they were the stickers he got in school from the teachers, and when he came home, he would put them on his desk.

I think for the years this desk was in the basements at his old home and ours, the stickers is all I saw when I looked at it. It’s pretty much baffling to me. I have always told my kids, “We only put stickers on paper! Never on walls or furniture!”. Guess Michael never got that memo. Even the kids were like, “DADDY did that? Oh my……gosh!”.

I told Michael, “Guess who’s cleaning them off? I don’t care if you’re 43 now.” ; ) Of course, they are still on there, so far. He’s not that afraid of me, much. But I haven’t really put my foot down yet either. In a way, I find it endearing to know he did all of this as a little boy. I bet he was so cute. And now we have the whole piece in our home, with 4 of his own little children. But then, did you really look at all of the stickers closely?…..

What-in-the . . . . . . Really? A teacher was passing these out in school? Lord have mercy. That’s a little disturbing. Don’t you think? I don’t even get it. What does it mean? I do know, that every time I look at it, I look for the woman’s arms. Where are her arms? Further disturbing. Yeah, he needs to clean these off. It would be nice cleaned up and refinished to it’s natural state anyway. Meanwhile, I keep this side turned to the wall.

Another feature about this desk, is that it’s on boards. I guess they used to screw the desks to the floor, so the kids weren’t moving them all over the place. Or something. I just tell mine to sit still. Anyway, this desk is so different than our other one we showed you, that is all wooden. Isn’t it?

I have no real year of this desk, but we can see on the base that it was made by Kenney Bros. and Wolkins, a manufacturer in Boston. I did some research online and looked at hundreds of photos of old desks, but never found any just like the two we have. Still, I don’t imagine they are anything that unique or valuable in worth. They are kind of special to us though, and that makes them worth something.

Could you tell us anything about the two desks we have here? Do you enjoy antiques, or love old school pieces too? I really do. I bet there are other home schoolers who do, too. If not, we hope you at least enjoyed seeing ours, today. Thanks so much for coming by, and visiting us.

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Boys’ Hardware Accessories

May 14, 2012 By Laura 24 Comments

It seems to be somewhat easier, to come up with crafty ideas for my girls. But the other equal half of my kiddos, are boys! I know they get just as excited when I am making something for them, too. So I try to see what cool ideas I can come up with, that they’ll dig.

Something recently got me thinking about hardware. Hardware is just cool, and definitely boyish! With all the various sizes and shapes that it comes in, for all kinds of building and fix-it projects, I got brainstorming what cool projects I could come up with for my boys. In this post, I’m sharing some hardware jewelry and belts I made for them.

I picked up a couple of adjustable belts at an army surplus store, and some suede string in a few different boyish colors, at the craft store. I also gathered some heavy duty sewing thread, a sturdy quilting needle, and of course, a variety of hardware!

I have to say, picking out the hardware was pretty darn fun! I went to the hardware store with all of my kids in tow, and we were there for a good while! I think we were making the store clerk a little nervous that we’d mix up the hardware in the 2 aisles of tiny organized drawers of hardware! But we didn’t. ; )

I knew I’d be getting some good ole hexagon bolt nuts and flat washers. But I was eager to see what other cool little shapes I could find as well. I thought the square nuts and star lock washers were very cool, so I got a bunch of them as well. Now, if your husband is handy as mine is, you may already have some of this kind of hardware at home. My husband did have a big tin of hardware, but they were really old and dirty. While it would have been great to recycle that, I wanted new and shiny pieces for these projects.

To make bracelets, choose a hardware element, and then figure out how much suede string length you’ll need to tie round one side of a boys wrist, and double that length, with a little extra for tying. Do the same with a piece for the other side of your hardware element. For a necklace, cut a single piece long enough for the desired length and tying. The above photo demonstrates how you can attach the suede string to the hardware: with your piece of string folded in half, feed your two loose end through the backside hole of your hardware, out of the front, and then bring those ends in between and through the loop on the opposite end. Pull and the loop will close onto the hardware, as seen.

Here are three finished bracelets, using a single piece of hardware. If you prefer, the end of the strands for any of the jewelry shown, could be finished with clasps, but we didn’t bother. We just tie them on. It adds to the casual feel! (Warning: You do need to tie them tightly though, or they tend to just come untied.)

Here is a necklace, using a flat washer and a square nut.
It’s fun to play around with the hardware, and seeing what combos you can come up with, for a different design or look.

This is the front view of another necklace, using a double strand of suede in 2 different colors, holding a hex-nut in the middle and square nut on each side.

This is a side view of the same necklace.

Now, for the tricked out adjustable belts! These take just a little more time and simple effort! But if you get the smiles from your boys that I did, it’s well worth it! Well, actually it’s only fair to admit that their big sister asked me if I’d like some help sewing the hardware these, and I happily said “yes!” So maybe you’ll have a helper too, but might I at least suggest that you at least use the help of a thimble! Pushing a needle through the material of these belts can result in some sore fingertips.

These first couple of steps that I explain next, are actually easy to do, and probably steps you’d figure on your own would be helpful to do first. But, I thought I’d just suggest them just in case. More than anything, they are most complicated for me to explain! So bare with me. (Or skip the directions if you don’t plan on needing them.) :

The first tip I have for you, is to get a waist measurement of the belt wearer, if you can. Or, you can just use the belt on the boy(s) to figure things out, which is what I did! These adjustable belts can be cut to length, so that is a wonderful thing. But because of the hardware elements you’ll be hand sewing on, you need to know where that buckle is going to be on the belt!

Here’s how I did it:
I simply slid the belts right through the loops of my boys pants that they had on, just sort of overlaying the excess of the belt over the buckle, to figure out how much of the belt you’ll be needing. Slide the buckle along the belt, and determine how much of the belt end would be fed through the buckle, when putting it on. By doing that, you’ll get an idea of where to lock the buckle into place, with the toothed lever underneath. Mark each side of the buckle with chalk. Then you can really feed the belt through the buckle, and mark off where the ‘tail’ of the belt is, that is coming out of the buckle, and which is actually the opposite end of the belt. You are marking it off with chalk, because you don’t want to sew any hardware on that area, or it will not fit through the buckle. (Think about it. 😉 So you’ll only want to be sewing elements on the area of that will actually be around their waste – not the piece that will be going through the buckle. (Am I over-explaining here? This is the longest paragraph in the whole post – I swear. 😉 Once you have the buckle in place on the belt, with the right amount of tail, you will see the excess of belt material that you can cut off. Be sure to cut the right end, that is already a rough end! It’s the end closest to where the buckle is. You do not want to cut off the sealed end with the metal piece!

Once the buckle area is chalked off, and the tail is marked off, you can make a couple of tick marks between belt loops if you’d like, so you generally where the are of belt will be showing. This is not necessary, but an added step if you want the hardware to show in just the right places, and not hiding under any loops. Then you can remove the belt off the pants, and cut off that excess material you won’t need. They come pretty long from the army surplus store, even at the shortest length. Them I took off the buckle for the time being, to be able to work with the belt easier. Next, I laid the belts flat on the table, and I figured out how spaced I wanted the hardware pieces, by just generally laying them out, and then measuring the estimated space. After marking where I wanted my first piece, I measured and made a tick mark about every 2 1/2 inches from there.

Here are a couple of finished belts. The hardware pieces are just quickly hand sewn on. I secured each each side of the hardware with 2 stitches, using the heavy duty thread. I also did one stitch in the center of the hole (of the hardware) just through the belt material, to take up some thread slack on the back side, while crossing over from one side of the piece of round hardware to the other. This allowed me to sew on a whole piece of hardware at a time, before finishing off the stitch and cutting the thread. (I started with long doubled thread, so that I could sew on and finish off a few pieces of hardware at a time, before really needing to re-thread a new strand of thread.)

I’m happy to say, my boys were thrilled with their new accessories! So much so, that they were happy to model for me, so they could show you how cool it looks sporting these hardware accessories. Take a look for yourself…..

Yup, this is Mama’s boys. And I love it! (Although their triplet sister, and big sister, are just as much my blessings!)

I think they’re looking cool (with or without accessories), and I think they know it. Rico Suave 1 and 2……no? ; ) lol.

012_boys-hardware-accessories They don’t normally tuck shirts in, but they’ve been wanting to, to show off their belts. Their Daddy tucks his shirts in, all lot of the time. I don’t get it, but I love him anyway. lol

013_boys-hardware-accessories So there you go: My boys sporting their cool new accessories, Designed by Mama! And yes, I did edit out all of their bumps, scrapes and bruises, acquired by all of the ways boys full of antics get them! But tell me what you think; Is wearing hardware possibly the new cool? Or do my boys just make it look good?

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