DIY Friday – travel pet pillows

Around this time last year when we were away on holidays, I shared a little picture of the pet travel pillows I made especially for us to bring with us since we’re crazy cat people to our core and really miss little Juniper and Toshi while we’re away. I figured being able to smoosh our faces into poor replicas of them would stave off a small amount of home sickness whenever we’re away. And since we’ve brought them with us 3 times since, it actually works!

And here’s how I did it …

Last year when I made these travel pet pillows, I had taken photos of each step, but when I went through my external hard drive I couldn’t find a single picture. So apologies for the lack of tutorial photos. It’s a fairly straight forward project anyways, and I’ll try to explain as best as I can how I did it. 

I first photographed Juniper and Toshi on their own, in good light, making sure they were facing me and being their cute selves. I opened each photo in Photoshop [or the Linux equivalent ‘Gimp’] and traced around them using the paint tool set to white. I carefully did this and coloured out the rest of the photo until the entire photo was white, with the exception for each fur baby. 

I saved each image as a jpgon a USB key and went to one of those gift kiosks in a local shopping centre that specialises in printing images onto objects. They printed Juniper and Toshi onto a square pillow each. As these were going to be travel pillows and the smaller they are the better, I sewed the pillow closer to the silhouettes of each cat and filled them with extra stuffing I had. That’s it really! 
We bring our travel pet pillows every time we’re away from home. Even during our Christmas holidays when we’re staying down the road with family for a few days, our pillowed kittens come with us too. As crazy as it sounds, it’s a little ritual we now have to take Juniper and Toshi out when we first get to our hotel and squeeze them a bit. 
Husband even has a few sneaky photos of me passed out, face mask on with a kitten pillow under each arm for every holiday we’ve been on since I made them. And no, you won’t find those pictures hitting the internet any time soon. Sorry 😉

Canadian man cave – man pillow

Hey, remember the lumberjack man pillow I made for my broseph’s Canadian man cave last month? I’m not a particularly good sewer, so that should speak volumes about how straight forward this project was. I didn’t even use a machine and sewed it all by hand, old school style. Wayfair.co.uk graciously provided the perfect pillow for my project and in return you can check out my full project today on their site HERE
Just like New Kids on the Block, you can follow the tutorial step by step, oooooh baby. Good luck getting that out of your head. I’m not even sorry. 

xx A

Crafty Christmas tutorial link-up

As promised in my edible Christmas ornaments post, here is the list of all the projects involved in Lupin’s Christmas Link-up! The perfect little projects to get you in the mood for the encroaching season … 

ROW 1 – felt house gift tag holder by i ManuFatti, Christmas trinket mobile hoop by Carina’s Craftblog, felt polar bear ornament by La Creature and You, and Christmas Hoop by Claire Payne.
ROW 2embroidered Christmas mug rug by Button Button, polymer clay star ornaments by Saraccino, and knitted Christmas stockings garland by Knit Me a Cake.
ROW 3DIY Christmas ribbon by Adventures & Tea Parties, embroidered mistletoe ornament by Bugs and Fishes, scented salt dough ornaments by Retro Delicious, and crochet Christmas tree decorations by Homemade@MyPlace. 
ROW 4Christmas cross stitch raccoon ornament by Hugs are Fun, polymer clay Christmas tree by Little Creatures, Christmas wish-list felt envelope by Jumbleberries, and felt Christmas tree toy by Pinwheels and Stories. 

ROW 5let it snow embroidery pattern by A Little Happy Place, festive wanderers embroidery pattern by Unexpected Kitty, festive felt and fabric coasters by Betz White, and holiday ribbon pillow by Mrs. Saint Nick.
ROW 6felt gingerbread man gift tag by Grace’s Favours, crochet Christmas star jar covers by Dinki Dots, and edible Christmas ornaments by moi! 
ROW 7cross stitch Christmas trees by Made by Mrs M, secret love letter Christmas gift tag by Crafts of Texture, applique love Christmas card by Halcyon Threads, and Christmas mini mitts by The Crimson Rabbit. 
ROW 8felt reindeer ornament by Pickle-Lily, Christmas carousel by Aura Verde Crafts, embroidered Christmas stocking ornament by Cocojude, and stenciled Christmas embroidery hoop by Angharad. 

Enjoy! xx A 🙂