Flag Day DIY inspired by Disney's Animal Kingdom

DIY Tibetan Prayer Flags Inspired by Disney's Animal Kingdom

Flag Day is intended as a celebration of the adoption of the American Flag - it is always celebrated on June 14th. As it happens, the US Army's "birthday" is also on this day. If you are interested in more history on Flag Day, you can check out this Wikipedia article. But for Flag Day this year, I decided to take a more non-traditional track.

I have always loved the themeing in the Animal Kingdom of Walt Disney World. Even as a new park (when it was not very fun for our family - and SUPER hot) the themed areas seemed superior to much of the rest of the Disney Resort. I have especially become a fan of the Tibetan prayer flags near Expedition Everest. I've always been a spiritual person, and drawn to these flags and their purpose wherever I see them. They are meant to be torn and impermanent items. If you want a little more information about them, you should check out The Peace Flag Project. I think they are just beautiful. So when I found this tutorial for making miniature prayer flags from Small World Land, I knew I had found a project for me.

For this project, I used the printable document supplied in the tutorial. I sized it to 150% and printed it directly only my fabric. If you've never printed on fabric, it's a very simple process. I used these instructions from Instructables. I didn't have any freezer paper, so I used Silhouette's Sewable Heat Transfer Fabric Interfacing. I'm glad I did. I was able to print on it with no problems. I was even able to iron two small strips of flags together to make them double sided. I then just cut them apart and strung them on button-hole thread. (It's thicker thread than what you usually sew with.) And I love the result! I have my own little string of prayers hanging in my studio. They are a lovely reminder of the prayers I wish to offer up to the universe.

Until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!

DIY Disney Tote Bags

The links for the posters in this post are no longer available. But you can find some great Disney poster art on the Disney Movie Rewards website under digital rewards. They seem to rotate in and out with some regularity, but if you keep a look out, you can find some very fun and unique stuff in there! And of course you can run an Etsy search to see what else might be out there. Enjoy this rerun of one of my favorite Disney gift ideas!

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Breaking up is hard to do, and it's always hardest when we have to say goodbye to Walt Disney World. We all tend to be tired and cranky, and we usually like to maximize our time there, so we are leaving on the last plane home - our friends like to call it the Disney Express. It's a plane filled with other tired, cranky, bloody stumps of people. I think it's incredibly important to have a little something special for the ride home.


I decided to make these cute little tote bags for each kid for "leaving day." I filled them with homemade Rice Krispie treats, a game to pass the time, and a few other little treats I found along the way. If you have a dining plan with snacks left on it, this is a great way to use them up. Stop by any gift shop and pick up bags of pretzels or other packaged goodies that fit within the plan.

For the tote bags I used Transfer MAGIC's Inkjet Transfer Paper for Light Colored, Light Weight Fabrics. I still got a plasticy finish to the transfer, but on the canvas bags, it was fine. The images are from the same series of vintage Disney poster images through Nukes at Etsy. These are top quality and big, so at a dollar an image, you can't go wrong. I used Photoshop to size and reverse the image for transfer. If you have text on your image, DON'T FORGET TO REVERSE your design before you print!

I found these tote bags fairly inexpensively at Hobby Lobby. I found a 4 pack for $8.00. (If you use your 40% off coupon, they are really a steal!) They are 100% cotton canvas, and the iron-on paper worked beautifully on them. Since I already had the transfer paper they were only $3.00 a bag. That's a price I can live with!

Leaving The Mouse is never easy, but a little goodie bag can help ease the transition home. Until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!

Flag Day DIY inspired by Disney's Animal Kingdom

DIY Tibetan Prayer Flags Inspired by Disney's Animal Kingdom

Flag Day is intended as a celebration of the adoption of the American Flag - it is always celebrated on June 14th. As it happens, the US Army's "birthday" is also on this day. If you are interested in more history on Flag Day, you can check out this Wikipedia article. But for Flag Day this year, I decided to take a more non-traditional track.

I have always loved the themeing in the Animal Kingdom of Walt Disney World. Even as a new park (when it was not very fun for our family - and SUPER hot) the themed areas seemed superior to much of the rest of the Disney Resort. I have especially become a fan of the Tibetan prayer flags near Expedition Everest. I've always been a spiritual person, and drawn to these flags and their purpose wherever I see them. They are meant to be torn and impermanent items. If you want a little more information about them, you should check out The Peace Flag Project. I think they are just beautiful. So when I found this tutorial for making miniature prayer flags from Small World Land, I knew I had found a project for me.

For this project, I used the printable document supplied in the tutorial. I sized it to 150% and printed it directly only my fabric. If you've never printed on fabric, it's a very simple process. I used these instructions from Instructables. I didn't have any freezer paper, so I used Silhouette's Sewable Heat Transfer Fabric Interfacing. I'm glad I did. I was able to print on it with no problems. I was even able to iron two small strips of flags together to make them double sided. I then just cut them apart and strung them on button-hole thread. (It's thicker thread than what you usually sew with.) And I love the result! I have my own little string of prayers hanging in my studio. They are a lovely reminder of the prayers I wish to offer up to the universe.

Until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!

DIY Disney's Dumbo Poster T-shirt & Pants

I'm a HUGE fan of the Dumbo ride. (And if you haven't seen the refurbished Dumbo ride & Storybook Circus, you are MISSING OUT! It's the best refurb to date.) I may have been accused of having more children, just so I have a good excuse to spend my days in Fantasyland. Not that one really needs an excuse; unless said person is dragging a tween boy around to all the "kiddie" rides. SO uncool. Nevertheless, this project was inspired by my affection for the lovable elephant.

For this T-shirt project, I originally used Transfer MAGIC's Inkjet Transfer Paper for Light Colored, Light Weight Fabrics. I still got a plasticy finish to the transfer, which I hate wearing, but the image looks perfect. Unfortunately, the design peeled off after one wearing in the Florida heat. I was so disappointed that when I got home I immediately made a new T-shirt using Lesley Riley's TAP Transfer Artist Paper. It's FAR superior to anything else I have used. And the transfer is just as sharp. I will be using this for the rest of my transfer projects for sure. You can see a close up in the bottom photo.

I purchased a series of vintage Disney poster images through Nukes at Etsy. These are top quality and big, so at a dollar an image, you can't go wrong. Because this is a jpeg, I used Photoshop to size and reverse the image for transfer. My Silhouette SD has trouble importing jpegs; perhaps the other models, or newer software has made this easier? I wouldn't know.

Fabric for these pants is from Spoonflower: Circus Elephants by pennycandy. And the pants pattern is Anna Maria Horner's Quick Change Trousers, because I truly can't get enough of them.

Until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!

DIY Disney Tote Bags

Breaking up is hard to do, and it's always hardest when we have to say goodbye to Walt Disney World. We all tend to be tired and cranky, and we usually like to maximize our time there, so we are leaving on the last plane home - our friends like to call it the Disney Express. It's a plane filled with other tired, cranky, bloody stumps of people. I think it's incredibly important to have a little something special for the ride home.


I decided to make these cute little tote bags for each kid for "leaving day." I filled them with homemade Rice Krispie treats, a game to pass the time, and a few other little treats I found along the way. If you have a dining plan with snacks left on it, this is a great way to use them up. Stop by any gift shop and pick up bags of pretzels or other packaged goodies that fit within the plan.

For the tote bags I used Transfer MAGIC's Inkjet Transfer Paper for Light Colored, Light Weight Fabrics. I still got a plasticy finish to the transfer, but on the canvas bags, it was fine. The images are from the same series of vintage Disney poster images through Nukes at Etsy. These are top quality and big, so at a dollar an image, you can't go wrong. I used Photoshop to size and reverse the image for transfer. If you have text on your image, DON'T FORGET TO REVERSE your design before you print!

I found these tote bags fairly inexpensively at Hobby Lobby. I found a 4 pack for $8.00. (If you use your 40% off coupon, they are really a steal!) They are 100% cotton canvas, and the iron-on paper worked beautifully on them. Since I already had the transfer paper they were only $3.00 a bag. That's a price I can live with!

Leaving The Mouse is never easy, but a little goodie bag can help ease the transition home. Until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!

DIY Finding Nemo Outfit

For our last trip, Happy had completely outgrown all the pants and Ts from the year before. I decided he needed a pair of Nemo pants and a matching shirt for our day in Epcot. One should look his best when he meets Crush for the first time!

As before, and because I love, love, love, this pattern, I made Anna Marie Horner's Quick Change Trousers (size 18 mos. this time). I love how all the seaming gets hidden with the reversible design. And all is not lost if, say, a Mickey Ice Cream Bar gets dropped on them. Just wipe 'em up as best you can, flip 'em in-side-out and carry on: a momma's dream. I found both fabric's at JoAnn's. I think they are both the store brand.

To make the T-shirt, I imported clip art of Dory I found on-line into a Silhouette SD file. The font is Findet Nemo. If you decide to do something similar, remember to reverse the image in the Object > Transform menu (I used "flip horizontally"). I then printed it onto Print 'n Press Iron-on Transfer paper for Inkjet Printers (by june tailor) - don't love the shiny quality of the iron-on, but the transfer was perfect. Next time I would have the Silhouette cut out Dory and I would cut out the text myself before transferring. Live and learn, right? Also, after one washing the image was cracked and wrinkly. If you want the t-shirt to last I highly recommend using Lesley Riley's TAP Transfer Artist Paper. The results of this are far superior to anything else I've tried.

Again, I can't say enough about the Quick Change Trousers. I wash the dickens out of them and they have lasted through two kids! And the more pairs I make, the faster I can whip them up. Definitely a nap time friendly project. Until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!

Disney DIY Directional Sign T-shirt

The idea for this T-shirt sprung from a fantastic garden sign I spied on Pinterest just days before. I thought it would be great to have signs pointing to my favorite Disney places, and especially appropriate for our Fantasyland aficionados (our young ones & their moms). Alternatively, I could see this design being easily adapted for Disney Cruise destinations.

Once again, I used the Silhouette SD image library and their heat transfer paper. This image is Directional Wooden Sign, design id #16471. It did not have any wording on it originally, so I altered it by adding my own text using the font Artistamp Medium. It's a free download here. Remember, if you are doing an iron-on with text on it, it's essential to read the directions of the media you are using carefully! Some require you to reverse the image before printing. If you don't it will look like you are reading it in a mirror. I may have a bit of experience with this.

I liked this design so much, I decided to make an adult shirt for myself. I was very happy with the way the image showed up on a darker shirt. I used the Silhouette heat transfer paper for dark fabrics. Again I will mention that this medium wants to peel off the T-shirt after the 4th or 5th washing. I did send it through the dryer - it would probably help it last longer if you didn't. Even so, it lasted plenty long for me to wear it a couple times while we were at Disney, and get several comments on it as well. And it's not often that I have the chance to wear matching Ts with my boys. I'll take it whenever I can get it!

Have fun dreaming up all the Disney places you'd put on your sign. Until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust.

Tinkerbell Treasures: DIY Haunted Mansion Ts

Last year, most of our kids were old enough to know that Tinkerbell is really me, so to speak. So instead of doing a daily gift, I made a sort of Disney care package. Something to get the vacation off to a magical start. And nothing is better than a one-of-a-kind Disney souvenier to pump the excitement level up another notch.

We usually travel in the fall, with a crew of boys and girls; the bigs are between the ages of 12 and 9 and the littles are still toddlers. It can be tricky to make something that appeals to all ages and both genders, but with a little tweaking, it can be done.

T-shirts are the great equalizer. All kids need shirts and most of ours are trashed by the end of our vacation (Mickey ice cream bars, those sharpies in Epcot, turkey legs, and ketchup do a number on our kids' clothes). An additional T is always welcome. 

I like to reference Disney without using the licensed images when I can. It fosters creativity and is almost always cheaper. Here, I used my Silhouette SD, design id #12940 (bat flourish) to reference the Haunted Mansion. I then added my own monogram using Ravenscroft font. You can certainly find commercial iron-ons and patches, but I like to make our Ts something that no one else in the parks will have. It's especially satisfying when a complete stranger asks where they can get one of those Ts! For these, I used Silhouette Printable Heat Transfer Paper for the T-shirt on the left, and inkjet transfer/iron-on paper (which can be found at any office supply or craft store) for the T-shirt on the right. 

The trick is remembering to reverse the image before printing or you will get a mirror image of the original design. As you can see, I forgot to do that for the T-shirt on the right! Fortunately, the image was fine both ways.

One criticism I have of the Silhouette heat transfer paper is that it only lasts about 4 washes before the image starts to peel right off. It helps to wash the shirts inside out. Otherwise, these were perfect for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. And If you've never been to this special ticketed event, our family highly recommends it. The lines are super short, the parade and fireworks are more magical than ever, and they are giving away candy all over the park. We've attended the Party two different years, and we've been delighted both times.

You can expect to see lots of custom T-shirts featured here in Merryweather's Cottage; as I said, we can never have too many! Stay tuned for more great designs, and until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!