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Friday, October 11, 2013

Ramadan and Eid ul Fitr 2013 (Better late than never...oops)

Ok so I realize this is about 2 months too late, but I figure better late than never.  Just wanted to recap on my Ramadan 2013 and Eid 2013 decor.  

What started it all was making my own Ramadan countdown calendar with my niece while she was in town.  I had a lot of felt left over from previous projects and thought this would be a good time to use it.  Now, let me be clear...I SUCK at sewing.  I'm worse than a beginner.  If I can make it, anyone can! I just took strips of white and green fabric, put them on the blue fabric and sewed around and created pockets from the bottom up.  I then sewed the blue onto the large brown piece.  At one little spot, I sewed a ribbon in between the blue and brown layers that would reach all across the calendar.  When that was all done, I attached a small plastic crescent moon that I cut out of a clear plastic cutting board.  Haha.  

Once it was all sewn together, we used hot glued to write the numbers on and covered them in glitter, added some moons and stars, and a cute little Eid pocket.  

We also made a pillow with some fabric and paint on hand, using my favorite Eidway Stencils-Link here.
To tie all the blues and browns together, I added my peacock feathers in a vase and laid a beautiful, silver prayer rug that my friend brought back from Saudia Arabia.



The rest of the decor was just printables that I have put up available here: Ramadan series printablesRamadan subway art.  

That's my niece, opening up her first fast! Every time she fasted, I put a little treat to go in the calendar pocket so she had something to look forward to.  


Eid Countdown printable in a glass vase.  I cut out a little chalkboard vinyl circle and stuck it on the frame and used a chalkboard marker to count down the days! 


The Eid decor was just a string a pom poms, white, light pink, and hot pink cascading down! And some Eid Creation decoration swirls (link here: Eid Creation Product page) with some more Eid printables.  
With a Eid mubarak pillow using my eidway stencil (link here)

I also happened to have a light pink and hot pink scarf that worked perfectly in this ensemble! 



The Ramadan and Eid materials used were all things I had already purchased and was trying to use them up! I think I only bought the black paint for stenciling the pillow.  And I got black so I could use it more than say a pink or a yellow.  
Sorry this was too late, but I hope it inspires you to create something! =) 


Eid Al Adha 2013



There's something about decorating for Eid that is so much fun.  I was getting lazy for a bit and was thinking "eh", I won't do it this time, but then I got inspired by all the fall colors that I'm seeing all over the internet.  I say internet because there is nothing "fall"ing in Dubai; no trees, no leaves, no crisp cool autumn breeze. :( But that doesn't mean I can't bring a little bit back into my home! 


The idea for these stencils was inspired by Nat at My Sister's Suitcase in this post.

I started off by using my Eidway stencils  on some candles.  I taped the stencils on, put a layer of Mod Podge and poured some glitter over it.  I peeled the stencil off rather quickly so I could fix anything if it went underneath but it was pretty clean so I didn't have to do much! I have to say, I love these stencils, I've used them for baking and decorating so much! I figured since it's Eid-Al-Adha, I would definitely use the sheep stencil and then I used the mosque and the crescent moon/star one.  (I already had the glitter, Mod podge, and stencils on hand and all three candles cost me $6).  


I made this really easy picture in Picmonkey, using a Eid Mubarak in arabic clip art with a chalkboard background.  I made it in a A3 paper size which is about 11x16.  I bought the frame from Daiso(!) so that was $2.  Once it was hung up, I felt it was kind of plain so I decided to embellish it with some felt flowers.  I've always wanted to make these and have SO MUCH felt leftover from a quiet book project. 



I used the Paper & Stitch blog for an easy how-to.  I used her "Rosette" tutorial to guide me for the first time.  Once I made one, I was on a rolllllll.   Once they were made and I placed them in a way that kinda made sense, I hot glued them onto the frame.  



Then I had hubby print me off some printables that I quickly made, again in PicMonkey! 






  I also used the branches that I used for my Spring decor (see link here). I knew I wanted to use yellows, reds and browns. and luckily I just happened to have a scarf with all these colors in it so I spread that over some candle holders for height underneath and laid everything out and it all kinda came together! The 'Eid Mubarak' pillow I made for Eid al Fitr 2013 (which I just realized I never posted about!) I'll have to do a later-post about that soon.  

All in all this whole tablescape cost me less than $10 cuz I tried to use whatever I had on hand! I'm glad I decided to go for it, it makes me feel all happy when I walk in the house! 



This post was linked up to Classy Clutter link partyIheartnaptimePosed Perfection
*I'm new to the whole link party thing so if I'm doing this wrong, forgive me! 

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Free Ramadan Printables




This set of Ramadan printables is a collection of lyrics from Dhawud Wharnsby Ali's song "We've scanned the sky".  It's a great song to hear to get you in the mood for Ramadan and I love the words!
As always, these are in a 8x10 default size but you can always resize them.  I used digital scrapbook paper that I got as a free download a LONG time ago, I wanted to link back to that website, but unfortunately it's no longer there :(









Don't forget the previous Ramadan Printables,  Ramdan Countdown, and the Eid Printables


Eid Printables-Free


Here are some printables for Eid.  I am going with a pink theme this year but if you email me, I can change the colors for you if you want something different.  The standard size is an 8x10 but you can always use your photo editor to scale it down or up.  (I love picmonkey.com)




Monday, July 1, 2013

Eid Countdown Free Printables

Here is an easy way to remember how many days until Eid! We only have a limited number of days to make the most of this blessed month of Ramadan but it's still nice to have something to look forward to!

Here are two printables.  Simply print and place in a frame and use a dry erase marker on the glass of the frame to countdown!



Ramadan Subway Art-Free Printable!

I'm getting excited for Ramadan coming up.  These long fasts are going to need some motivation and artwork around the house will do just that.  Here's a free printable for you to brighten up your day if you need a little pick-me-up while you're fasting! :)

Click on the image below and "Save image as..." to your computer.  The default size is 8x10 but you can easily resize it before you print it using your editing software.  


(This is not for commercial use and cannot be reposted without a link to my blog.)

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Coffee Filter Peonies Tutorial

So, I have yet to find "normal" U.S. style coffee filters in Dubai.  My go to shop for everything is Daiso, this Japanese, dollar store type of place.  And I guess the coffee machines in Japan are a little different because these are folded and glued.  So what I did was poked a hole in the bottom, pinched it together and then scrunched it up.  I used about 6-7 of those for one peony.  I also didn't have floral wire or floral tape (ghetto, I know) so I used wooden skewers and green tape, haha.  Oh, at that point, I don't think I had a glue gun either, so I used rubber bands! After a few though, I got tired of using the rubber bands and just stapled the bottom of the flower together and then wrapped the tape around.  You can also stick them with a straight pin onto a styrofoam ball if you don't want them on a dowel.  

See pictures below for how I did it!