How to Make Heating Rice Packs

Making these heating rice packs are soooo simple and actually really cheap to make! I went to Joann's Fabric and bought remnants. I ended up buying enough fabric to make about 50-60 rice packs for$17. I then started out by buying a 20 lb bag of rice to see how much I'd be using. After knowing the math, I bought 50 more pounds at Costco for about $15. I did most of my bags to finish at about 8" x 6".. But when cutting, I didn't want to waste fabric, so some are a bit bigger or a bit smaller based on the remnant size.

Get your fabric and your cutting supplies.
I cut the width with an extra 1/2 inch so we have a 1/4 inch seam allowance on each side.
Then the length is double because we will be folding it. Again leave a seam allowance.

Square up the edges.

Iron out each cut. Then fold in half, with the right-side in, and iron the fold.

We are no going to sew around the three open edges.
Begin sewing the first short edge. Sew halfway down the first side,
do a few back stitches and cut the thread.
*Make sure you are sewing with the right-side in, so you can flip
 it later and have the seams on the inside.

You are going to leave an opening (to pour the rice in) that is anywhere from 1-1.5" in length.
Leave the space and begin sewing again. Finish the 1st short edge, the long edge, and the final short edge.
Remember to do back stitches so it stays sewn.

The next step is to turn the bag right-side out.

Begin pushing the fabric through the opening.

The middle section sometimes is a little hard, but just keep pulling. You can do it! :)

Once it is right-side out, use a closed pen or a stick of some sort to
push the corners out. Insert the pen through the opening.

Push the pen into each corner, this will help in the shaping of the bag.

Get your rice ready. Any rice or feed corn will do.

Each bag will use anywhere from 2 cups (1 lb.) to 6 cups (3 lbs) of rice.

I would recommend using a funnel (I did for the second half of my bags). In the beginning, I didn't have a funnel. I put the bag in a bowl and poured the rice.

You don't want to fill the bag all the way up because you want it to be able to mold to the body. Fill it anywhere from 1/2-3/4 of the way full. 

Once the bag has rice in it, you'll need to hand sew the opening up.

Start the needle from the inside so the ends of the strings are inside the bag when it is sewn.

Once you get to the end of the hole, tie a not then push the needle back into the bag and come up through the top. When you cut the thread, the end will go back into the bag.

How To Decorate Notebooks to Make Personalized Journals

 Hello Everyone!

I ended up decorating 30 journals for the cancer patients. I know this post is coming a little late BUT I have some news for this project. I will still be doing projects each month but all donations will be made the first week of September. So any projects you choose to help with, can be done this summer and will be collected in August to be delivered in September.

Here's how I did my journals:

You'll need a paper cutter, decorative paper, mod podge, paint brushes,
and the chosen notebook. I prefer the composition notebooks
but spiral notebooks work as well.

Cut the chosen paper to fit the notebook size.
For these composition notebooks, I did a "binding" piece and
 two cover sheets. The binding piece was anywhere from 3"-6" wide.

Put a LIGHT layer of mod podge (not as shown in the picture)
on the binding area. About 2" on the front and back as well as the folded area.

Line up your binding sized piece of paper and push it down on the notebook. Some of the mod podge may squeeze out. I just have a lightly damp paper towel near by so I can wipe that up easily.

Lightly mod podge the rest of the cover page and lay the cut paper.

I like to jazz my journals up a bit, so I added an
extra strip of paper to add more color.

I used some ink around the edges to make a little "antiqued". I also put some stamps and wrote some quotes on pages throughout the journal pages.

Here is how I completed a spiral notebook journal.
Simply take the spiral out of the notebook. Match you cover paper up to the front page
and use a mini hole punch. Mod podge the paper on and re-spiral the notebook together.
Again, add decor to the front and throughout the pages.

Here is a smaller journal I completed. Just have fun with the supplies
you have :)

Another Example of one I made.

Here are 20 of the journals completed. There are three different sizes.
This was so easy and really fun to be creative. 

I will be doing a post on how to make the heating rice packs shortly. And then I'll give the schedule for projects throughout the rest of the summer! I can't wait :) Thanks for anyone who is helping!