One Crazy Stampin' Mama

Pocket Calendar Cover

2012-02-12T12:19:00.000-08:00

Hi blog friends! Can you believe that my baby is 2 weeks old already?!?!?! I just can't believe it! Time flies with a newborn! Even though those sleepless nights seem never ending, LOL! Well, we are slowly adjusting around here. Quinn is starting to sleep a little better at night which is nice. Hopefully we'll get onto some sort of schedule around here soon. I actually had a moment the other day to do a little paper crafting project. It's nothing fancy, but I thought I would share it with you here.

But first, a photo of Quinn at one week old:

{Love her!}

Now onto my project. I don't know why, but I always have to have a paper calendar that I can write on every year. I do have a slight obsession with calendars. And with lists. I'm a nerd like that. Maybe it helps me to at least feel like I'm organized! Well, I like the monthly kind of calendar where you can see the whole month at once. I have an iPhone, but I just can't seem to get into the calendar on it. I think because I can't see the whole month at the same time. Anyway, I always buy one of those cheap pocket calendars with the plastic cover on them. You can probably find one for $1 at a dollar store, but I got this one for not much more than that at Target. A lot of them aren't very cute either, but they're cheap & a great size for my purse (or now, diaper bag).

I like to make a new cover for my pocket calendar, though, to make it so much cuter! This is so fast & easy too & yes, it's not necessary, but it's just so much prettier when I pull it out now! All I do is take the calendar out of the plastic cover. I open it flat & measure it onto some pretty designer paper. Then I cut the paper. I add an embellishment to the front cover-in this case I just stamped my initial & punched it out with my circle punch & then layered that onto a scallop circle that I punched out & glued this onto the cover. Then slip the cover & the calendar back into the plastic case-done!

So fast & easy & look how cute it is:

These make a great little gift too, especially for teachers!

She's Here!

2012-02-03T18:41:00.000-08:00

After 41 {long} weeks I am happy to introduce you to our newest addition:

Quinn Marjorie

Born January 27, 2012

at 11:43 am

8 pounds, 9 ounces

20 inches long

We are doing great & adjusting to the sleepless life of a newborn! I just wanted to post a quick pic (she's 5 days old here) & to let you know that I will be crafty again, but probably not very soon! :)

Ribbon Board Makeover

2012-01-24T08:09:00.000-08:00

To be honest, I get bored with my home decor very easily. I don't know why. I do something I love, but then get sick of it quickly & want to change things again. Oh it drives my husband nuts! Especially now with Pinterest there are just too many fabulous ideas out there that I constantly see & want to try for our house. I really try to only make changes when they fit into our budget. I've found that I am pretty content to just change out small, simple decor items & it gives me the updating I need without changing big, expensive items in our house.

The source of my latest irritation-my kitchen. Since we rent I obviously will not be doing any crazy remodels in the kitchen or anything, but it drives me nuts because it is so dark in there. We hardly have any natural light in our house, especially in the kitchen. And I am tired with the color scheme of my kitchen towels/accessories. Isn't that crazy? I know, I am a little nuts. But we've been using the same dark blue & white & yellow kitchen towels for 8 years now. It's definitely time for a change & to brighten things up in the kitchen.

I found some kitchen towels in a pretty bright blue color & thought they would add just the right touch of color to the kitchen. Next on my list was to makeover my dark denim & yellow ribbon board. It's pretty big & hangs on one wall in the kitchen. I went to JoAnn's not knowing what I was looking for exactly, except that I wanted to do something with that same bright blue color & then maybe add dark brown or a cocoa brown color. I came across some dark brown polka dot fabric & since I love polka dots (& didn't find anything else I liked) I decided to buy that. Then I found some ribbon in the same color as our new kitchen towels & then added some big white buttons too.

Here's the new ribbon board:

And in it's spot in the kitchen:

I didn't even take the denim fabric off of the old ribbon board, just the old ribbon & then stapled the new fabric & new ribbon right on. Then I sewed the buttons & we now have a whole new ribbon board! So easy, inexpensive & it makes me feel better when I walk into the kitchen now that it's had some sort of little update! And this was a quick & easy project to do while waiting to have this baby! :)

Crafting with Kids: Stamping

2012-01-24T06:32:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking that I should be better at posting the crafts I do with my kids on the bloggy blog here. I know I always like to come across new ideas for keeping my kids busy & maybe I can inspire you along the way too. The other day we decided to do a little stamping. My advice is to keep it as simple as possible! Use limited supplies! They still have fun & there isn't quite as much chaos or mess. So I laid down some scratch paper & told them to only stamp on the paper & not on the table, they each picked a few stamps to use & then they each picked a color they wanted to use. They had a great time!

Sometimes they just stamp papers to hang up in the house, sometimes they stamp cards to give to people. This time my oldest was making some thank you cards for those who bought Girl Scout cookies from her to give when we deliver the cookies:

Since she's a Daisy Girl Scout she used the daisy stamp in yellow & then she used the "thank you" stamp in a royal blue color which is the color of her Daisy tunic. I typed up the message on the computer & printed out a bunch for her & then she signed her own name. This project was simple enough & it kept them busy for a while-perfect!

I'm still here...& I'm still pregnant!

2012-01-23T07:17:00.000-08:00

Yes, friends that's right. I am still with child. Remember how we were being induced last Wednesday? Well, really it's a long story, but to make it short for the blog, we went for it, but my body & the baby just weren't responding. I only dilated to 3cm & then nothing else all day. It got to the point where if we kept pushing the pitocin I most likely would have ended up having a c-section. So we decided to stop for the day & to wait & see if my body will start things naturally. Well my due date came & passed on Friday, which I have to say is probably not what any pregnant woman ever wants to happen. {Especially since this is baby #3 & the other 2 came early!} But hopefully this little girl will come soon...please!!!

So I decided to get my Silhouette out & my heat transfer vinyl & make some shirts for my 3 girls. The older girls' shirts are old ones that I grabbed to use, so hopefully they still fit them! And then I thought I had a plain white long-sleeved onesie for the baby, but I couldn't find one. And I love that this project took less than an hour to finish!

I think they turned out pretty cute too:

I can't wait to see these sweet sisters all dressed in their matching shirts!

Wet Bag

2012-01-17T07:06:00.000-08:00

I made one last quick baby project yesterday-a wet bag. I figure this will come in handy in the diaper bag for any baby items that become wet, you know, from spit up, blowouts, etc. It will be a great bag to throw that wet stuff in & keep everything else in the diaper bag dry. It has a zippered top & then a handle that snaps so that I can hook it on the stroller or anywhere else too.

Isn't the fabric cute? I found it at JoAnn's a while ago in their new Babyville line & I bought a 3-pack of it with one of my coupons, click here to see it online. It's Polyurethane Laminated PUL fabric meant for making waterproof cloth diaper covers, but can be used for a variety of other projects as well. It's polyester fabric with a Polyurethane coating. And it's machine washable which is awesome!

So after I finished the wet bag I packed up my sewing machine & cleaned up my craft area because I am being induced tomorrow morning. The day is finally here! We are going to meet this baby! So I know I won't be doing much crafting for a while as we adjust to this new little princess in our home. So wish me luck & stay tuned for some photos!

Girly Thank You Cards

2012-01-16T06:45:00.000-08:00

I realized the other day that I already need a few baby thank you cards. And I know I'll probably need some more. I came up with the simple card above. Since I was making a bunch of them I wanted a pretty simple design. And I didn't want a card too baby-themed so that if I have extras I can always use them for other thank you needs later on. But I did want it to be a little girly! It's hard to see in the picture, but I love the pretty doily stamps. I used 3 different sizes & stamped them in a very light pink, a slightly darker light pink & a kraft brown color. I love the rounded corners & the simple scallop brown border. I think they dress up this simple card a bit! Well, another thing checked off the "prepare for baby" to-do list!

Knit Baby Blanket

2012-01-13T16:34:00.000-08:00

I have this super soft knit blanket from Gymboree that I love & I used with both of my older girls when they were babies. It is the perfect weight for a blanket-not too thick, not too thin. When I saw this tutorial for a knit receiving blanket over at Make It and Love It last year I realized that I could actually {probably} make one of these blankets myself. And I bookmarked it for a possible baby gift idea. Fast forward a few months & being pregnant with my own baby girl, I found this adorable owl knit fabric at JoAnn's. I love these cute owls so I bought some of the fabric up right away to make a knit baby blanket with. And I finally finished it today! Yay! With only one week left to my due date! I didn't actually know if I would be able to get it done, but here it is:

And I used a cute, bright pink polka dot knit for the back:

Oh it is so soft, I love it! And pink & brown-some of my fave colors together!

So I haven't had much practice sewing with knits before & let me tell you it can be a bit tricky. I decided to try out my walking foot on my sewing machine for this blanket & it really did make a huge difference! It was still a little tricky to sew the knit fabric, but it was much easier than using my regular sewing foot. I think with some more practice it would be a lot better. Don't look closely at my binding, the stitching is definitely not straight since the knits stretch & move a little while sewing. But I still think it turned out pretty well & can't wait to use it with our baby girl!

Monogram Frilly Frame for the Nursery

2012-01-12T10:24:00.000-08:00

I'm sure you've seen all of the monogram takes on this fabulous IKEA frame in the blog world. Here's one I made for the new baby's nursery:

I loved this frame when I saw it at IKEA & was wondering what I could do with it. Then I found this fabric that coordinates with the nursery bedding (we already have the nursery set up, just moving the 2-1/2 year old out & the baby in) at JoAnn's & I knew I wanted to do some kind of decor with it for the new baby. Add in blogs & Pinterest where I started seeing this frame with all sorts of creative transformations & I decided on doing a monogram for the nursery. This was such an easy project too-just a little spray paint, fabric & a wooden letter! And I love how it turned out!

I know it's a little bright, but here's the nursery so you can see how it coordinates:

(Don't mind the baby stuff being stored in the crib!)

I loved this bedding when I found it at Target when I was pregnant with our last little girl. I love the bright pink for a change & the hint of green, instead of pastel baby colors. I am glad I finished this & got it all hung up before our little one arrives!

Still no baby...but I made a ruffle cake!

2012-01-10T21:49:00.000-08:00

Well, no baby yet, I am just baking away over here! But I feel like this little bun in the oven is done! I guess she thinks otherwise, however. I'm not actually due for one more week, but after a couple of false alarms where we thought she may debut early, now it just seems like it's taking forever for her to get here. Oh & we've all had colds here at our house, which has not been fun. In the meantime I have been managing to stay pretty busy. Just sitting around waiting to have a baby would drive me nuts, so I've been cooking, cleaning, {somewhat} organizing, chasing after the older two girls, taking care of coughs & runny noses & I've even got a couple of crafty projects going. Today I decided to try my hand at a ruffle cake. I'm sure you've seen them all over Blogland & on Pinterest. I have been wanting to make one for months & months, but never really had a reason to do it. So today, I thought who needs a reason to bake a cake & just went for it. This really was super easy to do too & it looks so pretty.

Here's my rendition of a ruffle cake:

So I ran out of frosting about 3/4 of the way going around with the ruffles, so I just added the ruffle border at the top to finish it off. It was pretty funny. Good thing we're just going to eat this one ourselves! Again, I can't even tell you how easy this was! I love it!

2012 Wall Calendar

2012-01-02T08:43:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

I finished my 2012 wall calendar right in time for the start of a new year. Now all I have to do is wait for it to come in the mail! Every year I create a new wall calendar in My Digital Studio. I love this digital software, so easy to use & it has such cute images by Stampin' Up! I love that the calendar pages are full 12" x 12" sizes too because then when the year is over I keep the top scrapbook pages of the calendar & stick them in our family scrapbook. It makes a really nice way to have a monthly year-in-review of our favorite photos & memories from each year. This year I kept my calendar pretty simple. Nothing fancy here, but I still like how it turned out & thought I would share some of my favorite pages with you.

Here's the cover:

(Yes, the cover of my 2012 calendar says 2011 because I take photos from 2011 to make the calendar with, but the actual calendar pages are for 2012-does that make sense?)

Here are the pages for January:

And here are some other pages that I love:

We always love changing the calendar with each new month & looking back on the photos from that month of the previous year-such good memories!

Nursing Cover

2011-12-30T21:36:00.000-08:00

Today I am officially 37 weeks pregnant, which means this little baby is considered full-term! Yay! Now she can come anytime as far as I'm concerned! Of course, now that I've been feeling better & we've hit our goal of keeping her in until 37 weeks, she'll probably be stubborn & arrive late. We shall see! In the meantime I have been trying to keep myself busy instead of just waiting around for a baby to come. Well, besides being busy with my two older girls. So I have been making meals for the freezer like mad & I have been slowly working on some more baby projects. My project yesterday was this nursing cover. I had never attempted to make one before. I looked at a bunch of different tutorials before & terms like "boning" & "D-rings" were intimidating me a little. But, yesterday I just decided to go for it. And it was so easy! This project probably took me about 2 hours from start to finish.

The neck strap is adjustable. Hence the need for D-rings. Which, by the way, are not scary at all, but very simple to use. And the boning goes into the top hem so that the nursing cover curves out so you can see the little one while nursing. Again, using the boning was really easy to use.

Then I added a couple of terry cloth pockets to the inside bottom of each corner. These pockets are a great place to store a breast pad & the terry cloth is so handy if you need to wipe up any little dribbles. And of course this is great because you can just throw it in the washer anytime you need to.

A closer look, it's just a square of terry cloth, folded in half into a triangle & then sewn in place when you sew the hem down.

What a great baby shower gift this makes too! It's inexpensive, easy to make & super handy to have!

If you want to make one yourself I recommend checking out the following tutorials, I sort of used a combination of the 2 to make this one:

Nursing Cover Tutorial at Diary of a Quilter

Nursing Cover Tutorial at Our Seven Dwarfs

Infant Car Seat Canopy

2011-12-27T09:30:00.000-08:00

I managed to get another baby project done! Yay! Sitting at the sewing machine counts as resting right? {wink, wink} I have a car seat canopy that we used with my last little one & it is so handy! It was very cute too, but the fabric was really thin & bright which made it very bright for when she was in the car seat. I wanted to make a canopy that was thicker & darker, you know, so that it will hopefully help to promote sleep when we need it to! I found this floral fabric at Hobby Lobby in AZ a while back & loved it immediately. I bought 2 yards of it & have been waiting for a project to use it with. I love how it turned out for the canopy. I made the straps out of a bright pink polka dot fabric just for fun & I used thick (2") velcro to attach the canopy onto the car seat so that it's really secure.

Here's a picture of the lining fabric:

I used a dark gray flannel. Like I said, I want this to not only keep the baby warm & out of the wandering hands of strangers, but to help keep it dark & cozy in there as well for when it's time for a little snooze. I am so excited I got it done!

It's Done!

2011-12-23T10:00:00.000-08:00

Right in time too! We had a little scare last week when I started having some contractions & we thought this baby was trying to escape a little early. Well, 5 weeks early actually. I've had doctor's orders to rest, rest, rest & so that's what I've been doing. We just need to try to keep her in until 37 weeks, one more week to go & then she will be considered full term. Luckily my contractions have been very few & very far between since then so I think the rest is helping. I am so glad that I was able to get all of my Christmas stuff done before I had contractions too. My plan after finishing the Christmas stuff was to move on to baby stuff. So this rest has put a little kink into getting all of the baby projects done that I wanted to (bibs, burp cloths, knit blanket, knit hats, car seat canopy, etc.). But it did finally give me the time to sit down & bind the baby quilt! I finished it yesterday & gave it a wash in the machine & I love it! I love how soft & ripply it gets after you wash it. I just want to wash it a few more time so it really gets that worn-in look & feel. The colors may be a little different than norm for a baby quilt, but that's how I like my baby stuff-with fabrics that you wouldn't necessarily consider "baby." And you know I love pink & brown together.

The back is all the large flower print too & I just love it:

I am so happy that I finished this before she arrived!

Now let's just keep our fingers crossed that she'll stay in for at least one more week!

Wow!

2011-12-20T07:04:00.000-08:00

That's all I can say about these cupcakes!

I had seen these Homemade Hostess Cupcakes over on the Somewhat Simple blog a while back & they looked so good (& pretty easy) so I bookmarked it. I've always had these in the back of my mind, waiting until I needed to bake some cupcakes to try it out. We had a little family Christmas party on Sunday & I was supposed to bring a dessert so I decided to make these. And they were really easy & fun to make! And they are SO GOOD! Seriously good. So good you want to eat 5 of them. They were a huge hit at our party, not one left! Oh it makes me want to eat one right now just looking at the picture! I am definitely going to be making these again & I recommend you try them too! Yum!

Handmade Christmas 2011: Insulated Casserole Carrier

2011-12-19T06:19:00.000-08:00

Do you remember the insulated casserole carrier I made here? So easy to make & what a great gift for those who cook & carry. It will keep dishes hot or cold. I love the cherry print & the bright red polka dot lining on this one!

Here's the inside:

This is a really fast project to make & is a great gift to give!

Check out the original tutorial from 2 little hooligans here.

Handmade Christmas 2011: Yummy Snack Mix

2011-12-16T06:55:00.000-08:00

We love snack mix around here! So I thought a Christmas-style snack mix would make the perfect simple neighbor/friend/teacher/whoever gift this year. First I used the Num Num Mix recipe from Somewhat Simple to make the Chex part. I had made this recipe for a Halloween-style snack mix back in October & it is super good. I thought it was just a little too sweet for my taste though. So this time around I cut the ingredients for the glaze in half but still used the same amount of Chex cereal-perfection! Then I just added some pretzels, peanuts & Christmas M&Ms. This is the perfect combination of salty & sweet & is pretty addicting once you start eating it! Then I divided it into mason jars-one of my favorite ways to package a goody. I made a simple label for the top & tied some pretty ribbon around the lid & they were ready to go!

I hope everyone likes this snack mix as much as we do!

ANOTHER HOT Paper Coterie Promo Code

2011-12-15T09:25:00.000-08:00

Yes, friends there's another Paper Coterie promo code that's good through tomorrow Dec 16th for $35 of FREE product! That's right! Just enter the code H2SMERRY at checkout & it will deduct $35 from your total! And they have a lot of things for under $35 which means you will get them for FREE, you just have to pay shipping. I'm thinking about getting one of their Memory Keepers for the new baby. Check it out!

Thanks to Collin over at Hip2Save for sharing this!

HOT Paper Coterie Promo Code

2011-12-13T08:59:00.000-08:00

I told you I would share the next time I came across a good deal at Paper Coterie & look what I got in my inbox last night:

Apparently they are offering 60% off all of their products for 4 days only! Just enter the promo code ENJOYHOLIDAY. Sweet! What a great way to get some last minute gifts-calendars, journals, photo books, etc.

Handmade Christmas 2011: Digital Holiday Cards

2011-12-12T07:35:00.000-08:00

I just love how our Christmas card turned out this year! Super simple!

Last year after making a gazillion handmade cards I had told my husband not to let me do it again this year. I love making cards, but for Christmas, I just need way too many cards now. So I decided to create a digital Christmas card in my Stampin' Up! My Digital Studio software to have printed. Getting a decent picture of my girls was an adventure all of its own, but this one was good enough for me. Luckily I had found a good Groupon deal so I had to pay fairly little for my cards too & they were printed on high-quality matte card stock & included free envelopes & shipping. Score! So when I got my cards I did use my corner punch to round the four corners of each card. Yes I have problems. But I love the look of the rounded corners & the company I used to print the cards didn't offer that option. It didn't take too long & it really makes the cards look nice. I still do miss the handmade cards, but this sure was fast & easy! Even if you don't have a program to create your own digital holiday card check around on sites such as Shutterfly or Pear Tree Greetings or even Costco, they have some really cute designs! And a lot of companies have been offering great deals. I know my sister-in-law ended up using maybe 3 or 4 different companies to create her cards with this year, but she got almost all of them for free! And how fun it is to have a few different designs to mail out! Just an idea if you haven't already sent out cards-it's not too late!

Handmade Christmas 2011: Gift Tags

2011-12-10T07:28:00.000-08:00

I'm all about keeping it simple, but still handmade this year for Christmas. Especially since I am now 8 & 1/2 months pregnant! These gift tags are so, so easy. Take your favorite card stock (mine is this lovely kraft color), stamp in Christmas-y colors & then use a fun punch to punch them out. Then you can just use a small piece of double-sided tape to stick them on presents or you can punch a tiny hole at the top & use some ribbon or baker's twine to tie them onto a gift bag (above). So easy!

I made a bunch of these the other night, some in red, some in green:

Then I made a bunch of these Santa gift tags for the gifts from Santa. All we'll have to do is write the girls' names on them & they'll know it's from Santa:

These honestly took me about 15 minutes to make. I usually like to make a bunch of different gift tags but, like I said, this year I'm keeping it simple!

Handmade Christmas 2011: Sugar Cookies

2011-12-09T07:03:00.000-08:00

So a few months ago I got this set of cookie stamps from Stampin' Up! I thought they were so cute & seemed like an easy way to make cookies with my girls. In the set there is a pumpkin, a heart & a snowflake:

All you do is switch the silicone stamp on the wooden handle. So we tried to make these with the pumpkin stamp around Halloween. The instructions said to use a recipe where the cookies don't puff up too much. So I tried one of the recommended recipes that came in the cookie stamp set. All went well until we baked our cookies & they puffed up! Such a bummer! You could hardly see the pumpkin stamped on the cookie. I was frustrated too because I used the recipe that they recommended.

Anyway, I decided to give the cookie stamps another try for a gingerbread party we were going to. This time I used my favorite sugar cookie recipe because the cookies hold their shape really well when you bake them. They turned out so much better this time!

Here they are:

It would have been cute to sprinkle them with some clear or blue sugar before baking them, but I wanted to add a little bit of frosting because it's just so yummy too. So I made my light blue frosting, stuck it in a plastic candy bottle & just applied it over the snowflake in the center:

So cute & so delicious!

These would be great to bundle up & deliver during the holiday season too!

Honestly, you should try the sugar cookie recipe from Our Best Bites. It's very easy & I get mass compliments on it every single time I make them!

Handmade Christmas 2011: Card Stock Ornaments

2011-12-08T07:12:00.000-08:00

I was in charge of planning & organizing the Christmas progressive dinner for the women of my church this year (about 80 women total). Luckily I had a lot of wonderful women to help me & I think it turned out pretty well. We wanted to have a little something that the women could take home with them, but something that was Christmas-y & spiritual too. And with such a large group of women we needed something that was pretty inexpensive too. I came up with this simple card stock Christmas ornament.

I used my Big Shot to cut out the red scallop circles (I think I cut about 5 sheets of card stock at once so it wasn't too bad). Then I stamped the wreath & the "Merry Christmas" onto white strips of card stock & used my circle punch to punch them out. I also typed up a Christmas scripture on my computer, printed it out & then used the circle punch again to punch it out for the back of the ornament. We glued them all together, punched a small hole in the top & used some pretty green ribbon I had leftover from my niece's bridal shower to add a loop so it could be hung from a tree.

Here's the back side with the scripture on it:

These were quick & easy to put together & very inexpensive.

I hope all of the women liked them!

Daisy Tote Bags

2011-12-07T16:04:00.000-08:00

My daughter is in a Daisy Troop this year. It has been so much fun so far. For their meeting this month I was in charge of getting some tote bags for the girls to keep their Daisy books in or anything else they might need to bring to meetings. I had to order these ready-to-decorate canvas totes online since I couldn't find enough in my local stores (I needed 17!). Then I used my Silhouette to cut out each girl's name in the blue & a cute little daisy from the yellow vinyl. I had a bit of a hard time at first getting the heat transfer vinyl to adhere well to the canvas totes. But I used a few tricks that seemed to help: I put a large, thick book inside of the bag before I started so it would be nice & firm to iron on, I heated the canvas bag itself first for a few seconds with the iron, I also used a very thin cloth to lay over the vinyl when ironing it on & then held my iron down firmly for about a minute. Hopefully all of the decals stay on the totes!

I also added some bling to the center of the daisy for a little fun:

They turned out pretty cute, I hope the girls like them!

Handmade Christmas 2011: Crayon Purses

2011-12-02T06:29:00.000-08:00

So you've seen this project here. When I was making that one for my niece, my oldest daughter really, really wanted me to make her one too. I decided to make a crayon purse for each of my girls for Christmas this year. They will love carrying these to church & having their own little purse to hold their crayons & paper or small coloring books. These don't take much fabric & come together really fast too which is great.

Here's a pic of the other side of the bags:

I love the cute ruffle & the big button. I know these are going to be a hit this year!

Handmade Christmas 2011: Photo Tile Coasters

2011-11-28T06:09:00.000-08:00

A few months ago I saw these fantastic photo tile coasters over at the blog Oopsey Daisy. And I bookmarked the tutorial for future reference knowing this would make a great little Christmas gift. Since then I've seen these pinned all over Pinterest too. They are so cute & they were super easy to make & inexpensive-the best kind of handmade gifts! And I always love a chance to play around with resin! With my parents coming next week I suddenly was realizing I needed to get their gift done ASAP.

Luckily we had these awesome family photos from last year, so I made some photo tile coasters:

I just printed my photos in 4" x 6" size from Costco (only $0.13 each), bought shiny white 4" x 4" tiles (only $0.16 each), bought the small circle felt mounting circles (can't remember how much they cost, but not much for a lot of circles) & then bought a small box kit of resin (was $9.99, but I used a 50% off Michaels coupon).

So I just cropped my photos to 4" x 4" size & glued them down on the coasters with a glue stick. Then I covered the tiles with resin to seal it on there. Plus the resin will withstand the heat or cold that comes from placing a glass or mug on them. My tip with the resin is to follow the directions EXACTLY! And not to put too much on because it spreads & levels out by itself. I had some overflow over the sides which I then had to use a razor blade to scrape off later, but if you raise them up a little bit on something before you put the resin on it will just drip off over the sides & you probably won't have to do that. Tip for next time! I let them dry for 3 days & then just stuck the felt mounting circles on the bottom. Done! For the original tutorial for this & more detailed directions click here.

I decided to go ahead & make us a set too while I was at it:

I love them! They are so nice & shiny! And they really do look so much better in person than in my photos here.

I tied a pretty ribbon around the set for my parents & they're all ready for gifting:

Thanks to Alison over at Oopsey Daisy for the fabulous idea! You should just check out her blog anyway because it's great!

Handmade Christmas 2011: Digital Scrapbook

2011-11-25T20:06:00.000-08:00

This gift, technically, is semi-handmade I guess! I uploaded the photos & added the text & created the book, but the design & templates & production came from Paper Coterie. I made this digital scrapbook for my husband for Christmas. He's always hard to shop for. A couple of months ago he hiked Half Dome in Yosemite with his brother so I thought it would be neat to put all of the photos into a book for him. Plus, Paper Coterie had a coupon code for a free $30 credit. This book was 8-1/2" x 11" size, hardcover & cost $32. So I had to pay $2 for the book (plus $9.21 for shipping). Not too bad though for the entire book. I love Paper Coterie & this is the third book I've made through them. The quality is great, their designs are super fun, the program is really easy to use & they always have these great coupon codes which make for a great deal! The code I used is already expired, but if I see another one I'll try to remember to post it on here for you. There are also so many other companies right now that are offering great deals on digital scrapbooks, so you should check for them if you have someone on your list that you're not sure what to give for the holidays.

Here's the front cover:

Some of my favorite inside pages:

And you can even customize the back cover too:

So give a digital scrapbook a try this year, it is a great gift that will last for years to come!

What is everyone looking at?

2011-11-22T08:40:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Blogger Stats I can see what you all have been looking at around here on my little blog. What has been at the top of the list, by far, for the past couple of weeks? My Handmade Christmas 2010: Hot Cocoa Mix & Chocolate Dipped Marshmallows that I made as neighbor/friend/anyone gifts for last year:

I thought I would share the link to it again in case you are in need of a fun, easy handmade gift for this year, just click here to see that post again.

Handmade Christmas 2011: Shopper Tote

2011-11-21T06:32:00.000-08:00

Here's another handmade Christmas present for ya! Can I just say I am so thankful to have Pinterest in my life this year? I have just found some amazing handmade gift ideas & tutorials. Thanks to everyone who is willing to share their awesome ideas on there! So I saw this shopper tote on Pinterest & you can find pictures & the full tutorial at The Crafty CPA. I love this style tote bag! So great for a teacher gift too, or for anyone who loves a good tote bag really. I think next time I would actually make the bag a bit larger & I would make the handles a tad shorter, but it's still a great bag. I did make one change which was that I only measured in 2 inches when boxing the bottom corners & I think the tutorial said to go in 5 inches if I remember right. I love that this bag has 2 outside pockets, one on each side, in between the handles too (it's hard to see the pocket in the photo).

And here's a shot of the inside of the bag:

I always like to use a lighter color lining inside of my bags, just so it's easier to see what's in there. I also love to add 2 large pockets, perfect for your phone & other small items you want to keep handy. Thanks again to The Crafty CPA for the inspiration for this one!

"Yay for You" Cupboard Door Chalkboard

2011-11-17T21:56:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago our ward (church congregation) had a Super Saturday & this was one of the projects. What is a Super Saturday? It's a day full of fun crafts that you can sign up to make. I signed up for the cupboard door chalkboard. And then my hubby had to go into work & I didn't make it that day. But I was still able to get the cupboard door & do this project at home.

One of the ladies had gotten a bunch of cupboard doors for only $7 each! This one was unfinished so I first threw a coat of primer over the entire thing. Then I painted it the soft blue color. I got this color in a sample size at Home Depot, it's a Martha Stewart paint & was less than $2 & I still have a bunch leftover. Then I painted the raised center of the cupboard door with chalkboard paint. I ended up doing 4 coats of the chalkboard paint because I wanted to make sure it would work really well. Then I hot glued on some clips onto the bottom that I got at Staples.

Now the cupboard door that I chose was a big one. I mean, really big. I took this picture just to show you how large it is. It's all hung up in it's new spot in our kitchen above the girls' little table:

I had decided that I wanted to add some kind of sign saying "Yay for You" on it. I wanted this chalkboard to be a place where our family can write all of the good things we've been up to or the things we are proud of. And also a place where we can hang favorite artwork or awards or anything else special to us. I want it to help us do a little more positive reinforcement around our house & help our girls to strive to do well. So I decided to add a cute little pennant banner at the top that says, "Yay for You":

And I used my Big Shot so cutting out the pennants was super fast & easy. I love how the banner turned out! The colors really brighten the whole thing up & make it more fun.

Here it is already being put to use:

My kindergartner loves it! I think this is going to work out just great!

Handmade Christmas 2011: Alphabet Bean Bags

2011-11-14T06:11:00.000-08:00

Do you remember my Handmade Christmas 2010 projects from last year? Oh it was so much fun! I love making people gifts & being able to really customize things for them. I am not going to be making as many handmade gifts this year as I did last year, but I thought it would still be fun to post them for you all to see. Maybe inspire you to make some handmade holiday gifts of your own? So here's hoping that I have the time & energy to get all of the projects made that I have planned!

Anyway, here is the very first handmade Christmas gift for 2011-alphabet bean bags.

I made these as a gift for my 2-year-old this year. One of her favorite things to do during her gymnastics class was to play with the bean bags. And since she follows right along with her big sister & is already starting to learn a few letters, I thought I would make them alphabet bean bags. Well, really she just knows A for her name, but soon enough she'll be ready to learn the others too.

Do you want to make some for yourself? Here's what I did:

They were a little time consuming to make, but very easy. I used my 5-1/2" x 5-1/2" square acrylic ruler to cut 52 squares from the fabric. I so love this fabric, by the way. It's from the Michael Miller Ta Dot collection. So bright & fun! I had first lined the fabric with some fusible interfacing just so that they'd be a little stronger since I know they will get tossed around a lot. Then I used my Silhouette machine to cut out the letters from white heat transfer vinyl. I liked this large chunky font too. I ironed the letters onto half of the squares of fabric. Then I sewed two squares of the same color together, one letter square & one plain square, with the right sides together, leaving a 2 inch opening. Then I clipped the corners & turned each square inside out. I ironed them nice & flat. Then I filled each one with pinto beans. Tons of beans! For this size bean bag I measured out 3/4 cup of beans for each one. (I needed 8 16 oz bags of pinto beans, which I got for $0.38 each at Target.) Then I top stitched around the entire bag, just shifting the beans around inside as I sewed around the entire square, closing up the opening as I did this. And that's it!

They turned out super cute! Much better than I had hoped for & they feel pretty sturdy too. I know they will provide a lot of fun for my girls & will be educational too!

My Favorite Cupcakes for Fall

2011-11-12T06:49:00.000-08:00

Ok, so these are my favorite cupcakes for Fall! Every year during the Fall I get a craving for these yummy spice cupcakes. The best part-there's nothing fancy to making these. I simply open a box of Duncan Hines Spice Cake mix & bake them according to the directions. Then I top them with a very thin layer of vanilla frosting. I don't like too much frosting taking away from the spice cake taste. Cream cheese frosting would be yummy too but the folks in my house aren't too keen on that, so I just use the vanilla. Then my girls helped to decorate-their favorite part! We put a pumpkin candy on some, we sprinkled cinnamon on others & then we put both onto others. And then we taste tested a few! So good!

Baby Monthly Onesies

2011-11-10T22:02:00.000-08:00

I first saw this idea on BabySteals.com a while back. They had these cute iron-on vinyl circles with month ages on it that you could simply adhere to a onesie & then take a photo of your little one every month to document their growth over that first year. What a great idea! Since I've seen them there, I've come across many other crafters in blogland & on Pinterest creating their own baby monthly onesies. I knew that I wanted to do this for Baby #3 as well. My plan is to take a photo every month of this baby girl on the quilt that I'm making for her so I decided to use some of the leftover fabrics from the quilt to make the circles for the onesies with so that it all coordinates.

Thanks to my wonderful Silhouette machine this project was super easy! I just drew a circle the size I wanted in the Silhouette program & then cut out 12 of them with the 12 different pieces of fabric. Before I cut the fabric I had ironed some sewable Heat n Bond onto the back so that I could then easily iron the circles right onto the onesies. There are great directions online for cutting fabric with your Silhouette if you need more details. After the circles were ironed on then I sewed each one down with a tight zig zag stitch on my sewing machine. Then I used my Silhouette once again to cut out the month ages in some white heat transfer vinyl & just ironed those onto the center of each circle. Done!

So the hardest part of the whole project for me was picking out which size onesies to use for each month. My babies tend to be on the smaller size, so their age doesn't usually match up with the clothing size. Especially with these Carter's onesies, they always seem to run a little big to me. So I just guessed the best I could & hopefully they will all fit this little girl on the right month.

Isn't it amazing how much babies grow over their first year? Here's the size difference between 1 month & 12 months (which are actually a newborn size onesie & a 9 month size onesie since my babies rarely even hit the 12 month size onesies):

And a close-up of one of the monthly circles:

I have about a million things to do & I have quite a few sewing projects I want to make for Christmas presents, but all I seem to want to work on are the baby projects! I am so glad I got these all done & ready for baby. I can't wait to see her wear one each month! This would make such a cute baby shower gift too!

Welcome to the World

2011-11-07T06:16:00.000-08:00

This is the baby card that I made to go with the gift for my friend's shower. I love the pennant punch! It punches both the triangle & the scallop triangle with just one punch & they layer perfectly! I love the pretty doily designer paper too. This is a very simple card & it was really fast to put together. Unfortunately it was raining outside when I wanted to take a picture so I attempted to rig a spot up inside of my house. My house does not have good natural light, so this is the best I got. The colors look so much better in person! Baby, welcome to the world!

Fabric Basket

2011-11-05T09:19:00.000-07:00

I went to a baby shower for one of my good friends from church last night. She is due about 2 weeks before me & she is also having a girl! This is her first baby & I am so excited for her & her hubby! They will be fantastic parents. Anyway, one of my favorite gifts to give to first-time parents is a goodie basket with all sorts of baby medicines, creams & other items that we have found useful & necessary with our babies. You know, all of those things you don't really think about when you first have a baby, but then eventually you'll end up needing them. At least this way they will be prepared for those unexpected illnesses, bouts of gassiness, or that first round of teething. So I saw this super cute fabric basket pinned on Pinterest & found the tutorial for making it over at the blog Pink Penguin, click here to see it. So cute! I thought what better way to deliver all of the baby goodies than in an adorable fabric basket like this one. So I just followed the easy tutorial & made one of my own. Now, it is pretty small, so just keep that in mind, but it is a great way to use up scraps of fabric.

Here it is all filled & ready for gifting:

Everything wouldn't look quite so squished if I had taken them out of the boxes, but that might be a little weird for a baby gift, right? I hope all of this stuff comes in handy for them & their new little baby girl!

A New Bag for Winter

2011-11-03T06:44:00.000-07:00

I decided that I needed to make myself a new bag for Winter. Of course, I went to my favorite tutorial for the Tohoku Tote! I love this speckled gray fabric. And I love the black bow & straps with it. It's a little dark, but perfect for the Winter season.

And I just cannot seem to get myself away from the gray & yellow combo right now-love, love, LOVE those colors together! So here's a peek at the inside:

Make sure to click here if you want to make one of these bags for yourself. It's super easy to make & doesn't take much time at all!

Happy Birthday to You

2011-11-02T06:29:00.000-07:00

Here's the birthday card I made for my niece. I love the numbered candles in this stamp set. So fun! And, of course, I love pennant banners! Wow, it was really sunny when I took this picture! It kind of washed out the nice chocolate brown on the card. Can you tell I am into these colors lately since I've been working on the quilt for Baby #3? :)

Cute Crayon Purse

2011-11-01T09:07:00.000-07:00

I've seen cute little purses like this before around on blogs or Pinterest, where there are pockets on the outside to hold crayons. So clever! I decided to make one for my niece for her 6th birthday. It was so easy to make & hardly took any time at all! I didn't use a pattern or template, but just kind of figured it out as I went along. I love how it turned out! And my 5-year-old loved it too & was immediately asking for me to make her one so I think I will just have to make a couple of these for my girls for Christmas this year. They're great to take along to church or doctor's appointments or restaurants or anywhere when you might need to have your child quiet & entertained for a while. For the size bag I made I could fit 9 crayons in the outside pockets. I used the twistable crayons just because they're pretty clean & kids can just twist them up when they get low.

Of course I wanted the other side to be cute too, so I added a ruffle & a button:

Inside I put a blank pad of paper, an alphabet activity book & a small Tangled coloring book:

I hope it gets lots of use!

The Quilting is Done!

2011-10-25T18:04:00.000-07:00

Boy it's been crazy busy around here! But I managed to finish the quilting for the baby quilt. Yay! I simply sewed through the corners of each square, creating an X across each one. My biggest problem was keeping the backing fabric flat & from bunching up & getting pinched while sewing. I had even used a spray adhesive to try to hold it in place too. But I think it turned out pretty great:

And here it is all trimmed up:

Now I just have to do the binding! I love sewing the binding! Ok, so I've only done it a couple of times, but I do love it! I have a couple of projects I need to sneak in first, though, so the binding is going to have to wait for a little bit.

Pretty Doilies Card

2011-10-19T16:31:00.000-07:00

So a couple of weeks ago I was released from my calling at church as the Laurel Advisor (teaching & working with the 16-18 year old young women). I have to admit this was probably the first time I have been released from a calling that I've actually been really sad about it! I have LOVED spending time with these amazing young women & getting to know them better. Their faith is inspiring & I have grown spiritually myself so much throughout the 18+ months that I served them. I wanted to make some simple cards to send to each one with a little message from me. These cards turned out very pretty. I like how girly they are with the doilies & the lace border. And I didn't even use a single stamp on these! Now I'm off on a new venture in a new calling in Relief Society (the women's program at my church). I will be in charge of planning the monthly Relief Society meetings. Luckily I have a large committee to help me so I know we will come up with some great ideas!

The Quilt Top is Done!

2011-10-13T16:51:00.000-07:00

Well I got it all pieced together! Yay! We are on our way to a little baby quilt!

Mama's Halloween Costume

2011-10-12T09:58:00.000-07:00

Did you see this post over at Make It and Love It last year? Ashley made her own darling skeleton Halloween costume complete with a baby skeleton in the tummy since she was pregnant. It was so cute! I saw this iron-on vinyl on Mamabargains a week or so ago & bought it right away since this year I am pregnant for Halloween. All I did was to grab an old black maternity shirt & ironed the vinyl on. Easy! Then I copied Ashley & added a little pink bow to the baby's head just because it makes it even cuter! And with another baby girl on the way it works perfectly! I was thinking how could you make it cuter if you're expecting a baby boy? Maybe add a little blue bow under the baby's head like a bow tie? Anyway, what a great, simple Halloween costume this is for Mama!

Here I am all dressed up:

Just don't mind the no makeup! At least I had showered & dried my hair though! :)

What's Up?

2011-10-07T21:48:00.000-07:00

So what has everyone been up to? I have been working on a few gifts. They are finished, but I don't want to blog them before I give them to the recipients! Yesterday I ironed & cut out the squares of fabric for a quilt I want to make for Baby #3:

You know me, I just have a thing for pink & brown together. I'm worried this quilt is going to be a little dark, but I think it will be cute. Hopefully I can start sewing it tomorrow!

Insulated Casserole Carrier

2011-09-26T09:23:00.000-07:00

Another project that's been on my to-do list for a while & is finally done! Yay! I saw this great tutorial over at 2 little hooligans a while back & thought it was such a great idea! I use my casserole dishes a lot to make goodies to take places so this is a great {& really cute} way to keep those yummies hot or cold for transport. I also came across this post over at homemade by Jill & decided to do the modifications that she used when she made her casserole carriers-making it a little bit larger to accommodate the Pyrex handles on my casserole dishes & then using belting for the straps instead of sewing fabric ones (saved a lot of time). I am so happy with how this project turned out! I had the fabric leftover from another project so all I had to buy was the velcro, belting & the Insul-Bright. Luckily it was Coupon Commotion last week at JoAnn's! And this was pretty fast & easy to make too. I am thinking I may need to make a few more of these for Christmas gifts for this year!

Here it is all opened up:

Then just close up the long sides:

And then close up the other sides & you are ready to go:

Awesome!

We have a winner!

2011-09-24T09:01:00.000-07:00

And the winner of my Blogiversary giveaway is:

Garrett and Leslie who said:

I like December because of the cooler weather

and the charitable spirit it brings.

I also like May with the blooming

flowers and my birthday! Haha

September 20, 2011 10:51 AM

Congratulations!

Email me your address & I will send you your 2012 Desktop Calendar!

Thanks for playing everyone!

Simple Autumn Wreath

2011-09-22T12:59:00.000-07:00

I modeled this Autumn wreath after the Simple Spring Wreath I made way back in April. Yep, I've had that Spring wreath up ever since & now that our weather has been nice & cool & tomorrow is the first day of Autumn, I decided it was time to change the wreath. I have seen so many cute Autumn wreath ideas on blogs & Pinterest lately, but I decided to go with this one simply because I had everything on hand already ( well, except for the styrofoam wreath form). At first I was thinking of doing a Halloween wreath with black, orange, purple & green, but then I figured I better just make a more generic Autumn wreath that I can leave up for a bit longer. I did the same type of flowers that I made on the Simple Spring Wreath, except this time I used felt which is sturdier & fluffs up nicely which I love! Another simple & inexpensive decoration for our home!

*If you want to see a tutorial on how to make the cute flowers check out this post over at Make It and Love It (scroll down past the baby hat part). So easy & I love how different fabrics give the flowers a different dimension!

Updating the Pregnancy Journal

2011-09-21T15:53:00.000-07:00

Well I promise I have been getting a little crafty lately, but sadly nothing is quite ready for blogging about. I always seem to get myself into the middle of 5 different projects at once. Add into that one daughter who started kindergarten (luckily we settled into a routine pretty quickly) & another daughter who is a little bit more needy while big sister is away at school (clingy, whiny, doesn't know what to do with herself, etc.). I have managed to finish my younger one's baby album though! Yay! Right before baby #3 comes! I've also been trying to keep my pregnancy journal updated. It's been pretty easy since I'm doing it digitally this time around. It's been a big time saver!

Here are 2 of my most recent pages:

If you want to see my previous pregnancy journal post click here.

Happy Blogiversary to Me!

2011-09-19T13:41:00.000-07:00

This month I am celebrating 4 years of my little crafty blog here! To the few of you who read or follow along & put up with my sporadic posting, thank you! To celebrate I am giving away one of my brand new 2012 Desktop Calendars.

Click here to read about & see more images of this cute little calendar.

To enter to win:

1) You must become a follower of my blog, sign up in the sidebar to the right. Leave a comment on this post telling me that you now follow my blog or if you already follow, just tell me that you do!

2) For an extra entry you can leave a comment telling me what month of the year is your favorite & why.

Good luck!

*Must comment by Friday, September 23 @ 11:59 pm, PST. Winner will be announced on Saturday, September 24. I am also only able to ship within the US, thanks!

Animal First Birthday Card

2011-09-16T11:14:00.000-07:00

We have a birthday party to go to tomorrow for the little boy of some of our good friends so I was in need of a birthday card. He is turning one & he loves animals, so I thought this card worked out perfectly for him! Sometimes it's hard for me to come up with boy cards because I'm so used to girly stuff around here, but I really love the colors & stamp set on this one!

A Fun Gift Set

2011-09-09T06:15:00.000-07:00

I had been wanting to make something for my aunt who has helped us out a lot lately with some last minute babysitting. I think the Tohoku Tote is becoming my go-to pattern for tote bags. It is such a great bag! It's easy to do so I can get it made quickly & it's such a great size. I love this bright, fun fabric too! I also decided to make a zipper pouch to go inside of the tote bag, but then at the last minute I decided to add a strap. So I guess it's actually a wristlet now? Anyway, I love how both the tote bag & the zipper pouch turned out.

Here's the tote bag:

To get the free tutorial for the Tohoku Tote just click here. Thank you Cheri from I Am Momma-Hear Me Roar for now making it a public tutorial for anyone to use! Also, it is the new Create With Me project for September over at Ucreate, click here to read about that. It sounds fun, I'm going to link up this bag! I didn't do the pleat or the bow on this bag, but I added a large double yo-yo flower to the front for a little embellishment & I think it looks great!

Here's a close-up of the zipper pouch-I love the bright yellow ruffle:

A close-up of the double yo-yo flower:

And both the tote bag & the zipper pouch are lined with this fun bright blue fabric:

These two projects just make me happy! I was tempted to keep them for myself, but I do hope my aunt is enjoying them!

Back to School Celebration

2011-09-08T05:56:00.000-07:00

My first born started kindergarten yesterday. I don't believe it! {sniff, sniff} She was a little nervous to start kinder because it's full day (8:15 am-2 pm), at a new school, with a new teacher. So we decided to have a back to school celebration the night before school started to help her get excited for her first day. We didn't do anything fancy, just decorated with some stuff we had around the house already, but she definitely had fun & felt extra special. It turned out great!

I used my Silhouette to cut out the ABC, apple & 123 to hang on the wall:

We covered the kitchen table with the roll of paper from our easel. The girls thought it was so fun to color all over it & they couldn't even wait to start:

We also added a basket of apples & the alphabet letters from the fridge to decorate our table.

We made some cupcakes-Kaylee picked out the Funfetti cupcakes & frosting & I made some simple apple toppers for them:

We also made her favorite dinner-spaghetti, zucchini & garlic bread. We talked about how fun school is & then we got her school supplies ready & picked out her outfit for her first day. Then my husband gave her a father's blessing & I can tell it really helped her to feel comforted about starting kindergarten.

I have been seeing so many cute chalkboard signs all over Pinterest lately for various things-as an announcement for pregnancy or engagement, showing how far along you are in a pregnancy, sending a birthday or holiday message & even as a way to document what grade your child is in. I love the chalkboard idea! So I went to Michael's a few weeks ago looking for a plain, small chalkboard to use. Of course, they didn't have any. But I did come across this plain, inexpensive clipboard & I got an idea. I simply taped off a nice rectangle, painted it with about 3 layers of chalkboard paint & then embellished it with a cute apple stamp layered with a punched circle & scallop circle & then tied a little piece of ribbon through the hole.

Here it is:

It was so simple & cheap to make & we can use it year after year, girl after girl as a fun way to document the beginning of each new school year. I love the idea of having them write their own names on it so you can see how their handwriting changes as they grow!

And here she is on her first day of school, our brand-new kindergartener:

She looks so grown up!

Aidynn & I sure missed her during the day!

2012 Desktop Calendars

2011-09-07T10:25:00.000-07:00

My 2012 Desktop Calendars are here!

(Sorry there's a little glare on the photo since I took the pic outside.)

I am so excited to be able to offer these to you again this year. They're the perfect size for sticking on top of your desk or on a bookshelf or on the counter by your phone. They are the perfect little gift for everyone on your list-family, friends, co-workers, teachers, etc.

The calendar will come packaged as shown in the photo above. You will receive the calendar pages (12-one for each month of 2012), a clear plastic frame (4" x 6" size) & pretty red ribbon. Each calendar page is professionally printed as a 4" x 6" photo & then you insert the current month into the clear plastic frame. The ribbon holds it all together, with the extra months pages behind the frame, making it look pretty for gift giving!

Here's a sample of the pages for the entire year:

Are you ready to order?

Just email me any time!

The 2012 Desktop Calendars are $7 each

(add $3 for shipping)

I accept cash, check, credit card, PayPal

Do you pin?

2011-09-01T16:23:00.000-07:00

I do! I joined Pinterest a few weeks ago & I am hooked. It's so addicting & time wasting, but also so much fun! They also have an app for your iPhone which I now find myself browsing every time I have a spare minute! Pinterest has basically become a place for me to bookmark things I want to make, bake or create instead of just bookmarking them all on my computer. It's also a great place for inspiration. And it's a great place to search for any specific ideas you are looking for. Planning a Yo Gabba Gabba party? Try searching it on Pinterest & you will come across a ton of great ideas. It's basically a big sharing forum for everything from recipes to photography tips to fashion ideas. So cool! If you want to see what I pin you can follow me on Pinterest, just click on the icon in my sidebar!

Summer Quilted Table Runner

2011-08-30T15:29:00.000-07:00

This project has been on my to-do list all summer long! I have been wanting to make a quilted table runner ever since I came across this great tutorial over at Diary of a Quilter. Well, finally with one week left before school starts I made mine! I love these bright fabrics! Perfect for a summer table runner don't you think? And it was so easy to make too which is awesome. I think I'm going to have to leave it out until Christmas just because I love it so much! Or maybe I'll make one for Halloween or Fall, that would be really cute too.

Here's a close-up of the simple strips:

And I just used the simple blue floral fabric on the back which looks really pretty too:

Thanks to Diary of a Quilter for the great table runner tutorial!

Baby Boy Tie Onesies

2011-08-24T15:25:00.000-07:00

I see people making these super cute onesies with little ties on them all over the place & I just love them! I have been waiting for someone to have a baby boy so I could try them out! Luckily my good friend from church just had a baby boy so I finally got my chance. I dug through my scraps for some boy-ish looking fabric. Sadly, I didn't have many options as most of my scraps are pink & girly! Note-look for some boy fabrics in the remnant bin to have on hand!

Well, these were just so easy to make. I used my Silhouette to create a tie shape in the size that I wanted. Then I used the Silhouette Sewable Fabric Interfacing & cut the tie shape out with my machine. It's so great because it cuts the shape out of the fabric & the interfacing all at once! Then I ironed the little ties onto the onesies & then finished them up by sewing around the entire tie. These are so simple, but adorable. They would be so cute with some little pants for baby boy to wear to church! I just love onesies for babies! They just seem so cozy!

Here's a close-up of one of the ties:

Yay for babies!

It's a...

2011-08-24T15:22:00.000-07:00

GIRL!!!!

Yes, we will be welcoming Baby Girl #3 into our family in January! We had the official ultrasound yesterday & everything looks great! We are so excited & also so grateful that she is healthy!

Ruffle Zipper Wetbag

2011-08-15T19:46:00.000-07:00

So this little project has been on my to-do list F-O-R-E-V-E-R! I am so glad that I got to make one while I still had some summer left to use it! I basically just used the same method I used to make the ruffle zipper pouch (click here, thanks again Tasha at Creation Corner). With this wetbag I made it 14" x 14" & lined the inside with a cheap shower curtain liner to make it waterproof. I made this one large & used the scrap fabrics from my summer tote (click here to see it) so that it all coordinated & I can use it to hold our wet swim suits after the pool or beach. I added the little strap just so it's easy to carry around or to hang up to dry out.

Here it is being put to use already after a day at the pool:

It would be so great to have one of these wetbags, maybe slightly smaller, to keep in the diaper bag or car too for when those little ones have little accidents!

**I also came across a super cute tutorial over at A Lemon Squeezy Home that is specifically for a wetbag if you want to try one yourself you should check it out!

One More Summer Tote

2011-08-05T06:30:00.000-07:00

Are you sick of seeing these yet? I love them, what can I say? And I finally made myself one! I know, I know, summer is almost over, but I know I'll still get lots of use out of this. I love this bright fabric. I went with green too, which is unlike me. I guess I'm trying to get out of my comfort zone a little more.

I had to do the ruffle, it's just so cute:

All loaded up:

To see the awesome tutorial for the summer tote click here.

You still have time to make one too before summer is over! :)

Ruffle Zipper Pouch

2011-08-03T13:18:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I finally used the zipper foot for my sewing machine last week! I know, it took me long enough, right? I've been wanting to try a zipper pouch for a long time, but for some reason sewing a zipper just seemed intimidating to me. Well, Tasha over at Creation Corner shared this great tutorial for sewing a zipper pouch over at My Junk Drawer back in May. I love Tasha & I love her tutorials so I bookmarked it right away & added it to my to-do list. I have finally had a little spare time to do some sewing for myself & decided to try this out. It took me less than an hour & look how cute it is! I was too lazy to do the ruffle how Tasha does it in the zipper pouch tutorial, so I just did a ruffle how she shows in her summer tote tutorial, click here to see that. I had to get used to using the zipper foot a little at first, but I have to say that I was so excited to find it easier than I thought it would be to sew a zipper! Yay! Now I want to sew zippers in everything!

I used the green polka dot fabric to line the inside too:

I have to say I was pretty impressed with myself since this was my first time attempting a zipper! Thanks for the great tutorial Tasha! So I decided to give this one to my SIL since it matches the tote bag that I made her for her birthday. I think it'll come in handy!

Ice Cream Birthday Party

2011-07-22T06:33:00.000-07:00

We decided to have an ice cream party for my daughter's second birthday. She's not big on cake, but she loves ice cream! And it's the perfect cool treat for a hot summer birthday! I wanted to share a few of the things we did for her little party, it turned out so great!

I made her invites with the Stampin' Up! digital designing software, called My Digital Studio.

Here's the front:

And the back:

I also went ahead & made some thank you cards too:

They turned out really cute! They look even better all printed out. I love the colors!

I also decided (2 days before her party) to make her a little ice cream cone shirt:

I used my Silhouette & the heat transfer material & it was so fast & easy. It probably took me all of 10 minutes to finish. My only complaint is that my fabrics were a little sheer so you can see through them, but it still looked cute.

I also made a birthday hat headband:

Tasha over at Creation Corner has made these & they are just so adorable! Mine definitely isn't as cute & embellished as Tasha's, but it looked pretty cute. Tasha has a great tutorial on her blog on how to make these, check it out here.

Here's the birthday girl with her cute shirt & pettiskirt:

And her super cute birthday headband:

I made a birthday banner using my Big Shot:

With an ice cream cone in the middle, of course:

I made some of those tissue paper pom-poms to hang up too. They are super easy & look really cute. Here is the ice cream creation center:

I made some chocolate dipped cones which were a huge hit:

Some were plain chocolate, some had nuts & some had sprinkles. We also had all sorts of toppings so people could made their own sundaes too. And we had root beer in case anyone wanted a root beer float.

I tried out these yummy sauces from the Our Best Bites cookbook:

It's the hot fudge sauce, the buttermilk caramel sauce & the strawberry sauce. All were delicious! I'm not sure if these recipes are on their website or not too, but you can check here.

Enjoying her ice cream:

She had a special {pink} ice cream bowl too!

After ice cream, the kids went swimming in the little pool in the backyard. It was an easy, stress-free party & we had a blast!

Happy Birthday, Aidynn!

Baby Doll Bassinet

2011-07-20T06:34:00.000-07:00

My youngest just turned 2! She has entered the phase of everything baby. She loves real babies, baby dolls, feeding her babies, pushing them in the little stroller, changing their diapers, clothes, etc. So I knew I wanted to make her a little baby doll bassinet with handles so she would have a little bed for her baby & she could carry her baby around in it. I bought the fabric 2 months ago & then I procrastinated. Of course. So here it was, the week of her birthday & I hadn't even started yet. Yikes! Well, I basically knew what I wanted to do, but wasn't totally sure how I was going to go about doing it. So I searched the trusty Internet. I came across this super cute bassinet tutorial on a blog called Nothing Fancy. I didn't follow it exactly, but it gave me a good starting point. I made it & then wasn't happy with how it was so floppy. And I had put 2 layers of batting in it too! So I ended up doing little stitches in each corner so that it stood up better. I'm really happy with how it turned out! I love the cute floral fabric & the yellow polka dot lining!

And I just had to make a little pillow & blanket to match:

It fits her baby doll perfectly:

All snuggled up for a nap:

I also made a little matching diaper bag (just a basic tiny tote bag) into which I put some baby doll food & spoons, but I forgot to take a pic of it. Bummer.

I think her gift was a big hit:

She's been feeding her baby all of the time & putting her to sleep in her little bed. And she's been carrying her baby all over the house too! It's so cute! I sure love this age (well, except those pesky tantrums)!

New Summer Decor

2011-07-18T13:13:00.000-07:00

I have this little red shelf in our entryway that I like to use to display seasonal or holiday crafty cuteness on. For summer I wanted to do something new. I love the look of these embroidery hoops that I have been seeing everyone use. What a cheap & interesting way to decorate! I had bought this fabric which I love, love, love! It just looks like summer to me. So I stuck some in the embroidery hoops-done! Now I have been looking at them on my shelf though, wondering if I should do something else to them??? Maybe some type of embellishment? Fabric flowers? I don't know!

Yes, Another Summer Tote!

2011-07-08T06:22:00.000-07:00

Here's another one I made! This was for another sister-in-law as an early birthday present. Her birthday isn't until October, but she comes to the beach pretty often & with 3 boys I knew this bag would be perfect for her. So I made it & gave it to her early so she can enjoy it all summer long! These fabrics & colors just look like my SIL-I love it!

Another Summer Tote

2011-07-07T06:18:00.000-07:00

Remember the first summer tote I made here? I am loving these summer totes! They are perfect for gifts! I made this one for my sister-in-law for her birthday. I love picking out fabric so that the gift is really personalized. My SIL isn't really a ruffly kind of lady so I just made the tote with 3 pockets on each side. It turned out great!

My Pregnancy Journal

2011-07-06T06:30:00.000-07:00

Yes, friends you read that right! I am so excited to say that we are expecting Baby #3! Hence the long breaks between posts lately, I've been feeling a little crummy with morning sickness that seems to hit every evening & lasts all night long. Plus, you forget the pure exhaustion that you feel when you are in the first trimester! I'm almost 12 weeks along now & have been feeling a little better lately so hopefully I can some more crafting done. Except that now it is summer which means many lazy summer days with my girlies! I {heart} summertime!

So with both of my girls I bought a cute little pregnancy journal at Hallmark which I used to record all of my pregnancy thoughts & milestones in & I loved it. I love that they each have a little journal now in their keepsake boxes that they can read when they are older all about my pregnancy with them. So this time I headed over to Hallmark again, but couldn't find a pregnancy journal. Not a single one. I looked around online a little too, but couldn't find anything I liked. So I decided to turn to my trusted program from Stampin' Up!, My Digital Studio, to create a digital pregnancy journal. I'm making it a 5" x 5" size so that it's smaller like a journal. So far I really like how it's turning out. It is so easy to journal my thoughts & feelings & everything that's been going on, plus it's super easy to add photos too. And I'll just keep adding pages to it as my pregnancy progresses & then once the baby is born I can either have it professionally printed into a 5" x 5" album or I can print the pages out & put them into a book myself. I decided to go with the gender-neutral colors of yellow, green & brown since obviously we don't know the sex of the baby yet. I thought I would share a few of my favorite (not too personal) pages with you today. I am keeping it pretty simple!

This is the cover:

The first glimpse we had of our little peanut:

A journaling page about telling our families the news:

And the adorable family photo my oldest drew for me after we told her we were going to have another baby:

I'll try to remember to share some other pages as I get them finished too.

Root Beer Float Cupcakes

2011-06-20T06:52:00.000-07:00

I have been seeing around online where people make soda flavored cupcakes by simply using a box of white cake mix & a can of their favorite soda. Yes, that's really it! I had been waiting until Father's Day to try out these cupcakes using root beer since that is one of my husband's favorite sodas. So I just mixed a box of white cake mix & one can of root beer together, put it in the cupcake liners & baked them at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes. So easy!

Then for the frosting I made a root beer flavored buttercream. I used this super easy buttercream recipe except I used 1 teaspoon root beer flavor instead of the 1 teaspoon vanilla. I have to say that it tasted pretty good! I was so happy that it turned out well! And when you have the frosting on top of the root beer cupcakes & you taste it all together, it is so good! And, of course, the striped paper straws just made them pretty cute! Just like a real root beer float! These were definitely a hit for Father's Day! I'm interested to try them with other soda flavors as well. Maybe cherry coke next? Hmmmm....

Teacher Totes

2011-06-16T09:40:00.000-07:00

Well, yesterday was my daughter's last day of preschool! {I can't believe I'll have a kindergartner in the fall!} I made these totes for her 2 awesome teachers on Tues, finishing them just in time! I bought these super cute corduroy fabrics a while back knowing that I wanted to make her teachers some simple tote bags for end of the year gifts, but I totally procrastinated. Even though I rushed through these I really love them. Luckily they are just super simple totes, lined with cute polka dot fabrics & a pocket inside too. Nothing fancy, but perfect for teachers to tote around books & papers.

Here they are:

I love the linings too:

I hope that they get a lot of use out of these!

Summer Tote

2011-05-24T07:56:00.000-07:00

Last month Tasha from Creation Corner shared an awesome tutorial for a Summer Tote for the "Sincerest Form of Flattery" series over at KojoDesigns. Her tote was a knock off of a bag fromPottery Barn. I think we can all agree that Pottery Barn comes up with some pretty amazing stuff, however, their prices can be a little steep. Well, the Summer Tote bag that Tasha made is adorable! Definitely the simple charm of Pottery Barn but with a little ruffle which makes it fun.

I have had this on my to-do list since I saw her tutorial. Our cousin turned 21 yesterday & I knew this would be a perfect gift for her that she can use on all of her trips to the beach this summer. I found the fabrics at JoAnn's & I love them! While I was at the store I wasn't quite sure if I was going to like the 2 fabrics together, but I think they worked out great! And I have to tell you that Tasha's tutorial was so clear & easy to follow! I made this in just one afternoon!

Of course, I had to fill it up as soon as I was done with it & try it out myself-pure awesomeness!

Here's the side with the pockets:

And the other side with the super cute ruffle:

Here's a little close-up & just to show you some of the stuff I put in it-3 towels in the main bag & then 2 bottles of sunscreen, a bottle of water & a swim diaper in the outside pockets:

And I still had room for more!

I also added a little piece of fabric with a snap on it to hold keys:

You definitely don't want to lose those at the beach!

I will definitely be making more of these soon!

Thanks again for the great tutorial Tasha!

And you should check out her blog, Creation Corner, she makes some amazing things & I am always feeling inspired when I visit!

Mama's New Bag

2011-05-24T06:43:00.000-07:00

Do you remember the Tohoku Tote that I posted here? Do you remember how much I love, love, LOVE it? Well, I figured since I am all caught up on making gifts {for the moment} that Mama would make herself a new bag! And I had splurged on this gorgeous gray & yellow floral fabric a couple months ago & knew that I wanted to use it on this bag.

It looks so cute:

Again I did a large pocket (left) that could hold diapers if I want to use it as a diaper bag too & then 2 smaller pockets (right) for smaller items like my cell phone. I also added a piece of fabric that snaps together in a loop that I can hook my keys on to so they don't get lost. I hate digging through my purse for my keys!

Here's the inside:

Here I am wearing it {happy, happy} so that you can see it's size:

Don't you just love the gray & yellow together? I am lovin' it!

New Photo Book from Paper Coterie

2011-05-18T07:22:00.000-07:00

So there's a new online company called Paper Coterie that allows you to make photo books, calendars, journals, guest books, growth charts, etc. And their stuff is super cute! Well, they had a little "open house" a couple of weeks ago & gave out codes for $40 to use on their website for FREE! I just happened to have a file of photos from our Florida trip {two years ago} sitting on my computer, waiting to be put into some kind of scrapbook. I figured this was the perfect opportunity to make a little vacation photo book & to check out this new company.

I have to say, first off I fell in love with all of their designs. I can't tell you enough how cute all of their stuff is! Check it all out here. There are so many photo book options too-baby, family, love, children, vacations, etc. The prices aren't bad either. For the 8-1/2" x 11-1/2" book with 30 pages the cost is $32 (extra pages are $1 each). My $40 credit easily covered that! Also, it was so easy to use the program to make a photo book. I loved how easy it was to plug in my own photos & journaling. And also it was so easy to customize & personalize things if I wanted to (like page elements & stuff). Ok, so it was easy enough to use, but how would the quality be? I'm happy to say it's excellent! I was definitely pleased with my photo book. Wanna see?

Here's the cover:

And some of my favorite pages inside:

The back cover:

Ok, so don't mind my poor photos, but the book looks awesome, right? I love it! And my family loves it. And my husband is just so happy that I finally did something with those vacation photos!

And look at the cute envelope that the book was wrapped in:

Oh yeah, they also included this darling little necklace of their logo for free too:

So cute!

I definitely suggest that you check out Paper Coterie for your next photo crafting project!

My First {Real} Quilt

2011-05-17T07:19:00.000-07:00

One of my blog readers mentioned to me a while back about how much she enjoyed taking a quilt class at her local fabric store. Why hadn't I thought of this before? That is a great idea! Especially since I've had "making a quilt" on my to-do list for quite some time now. So back in April I took a quilt class. I learned so much! Not only did I learn a lot about quilting, but I learned some great sewing tricks & tips as well. Plus, it was a lot of fun!

I actually signed up for 2 quilt classes. At the first class we made the quilt top (basically just one large quilt block):

Then at the second class we finished it off just like you would a larger quilt:

And here's the back:

It's just so cute! At first I thought it would be the perfect little quilt for my girls to use with their baby dolls, but after all that hard work, I think I may hang it up on the wall! Even though this is a teeny, tiny little quilt, I am so glad I took those quilting classes. I learned a ton & now I'm not so intimidated to try a larger quilt. I love learning new things!

Princess Party Thank You Cards

2011-05-16T07:11:00.000-07:00

I decided to try out My Digital Studio to make some thank you cards for my daughter's birthday gifts. There is nothing fancy to these, I kept them really simple. I made them postcards so they are just two-sided.

Here's the front:

Here's the back:

I needed 16 of these so I made the back fill in the blank so that it was easier for my daughter to only have to write a few words on each one. She's not used to writing that much yet, so she actually only wrote about half of them herself & then she just signed her name on the other half & I filled the out for her. This was the first time I had printed anything with the professional printing services that Stampin' Up! offers. They turned out really nice! I like the matte finish of it & the thick weight of the card stock. They were shipped to me super fast too, I was amazed!

Blank Card

2011-05-14T07:10:00.000-07:00

I put 10 greeting cards in the Mother's Day gift box, so this is the last one I did. It's just a blank card. These are great because then you can always customize it for whatever you need at the moment-birthday, thank you, thinking of you, hello, etc.

And I love this design & these colors together:

I think this card is beautiful, and I think because of the colors it would work for a male recipient as well.

Thinking of You Cards

2011-05-13T07:06:00.000-07:00

I also made a couple of thinking of you cards for the Mother's Day gift box. These are also good to have on hand.

I love the bird & branch punch on this one:

For this one I stamped the floral image twice-in dark brown & then in a lighter brown. It looks a little fuzzy here though, almost gives me a headache!

I love these colors together though:

Again, these cards were pretty easy & didn't take a lot of time, but are great for when you need to make a lot of the same design.

Thank You Cards

2011-05-12T07:03:00.000-07:00

Here are the thank you cards that I put in the Mother's Day gift box. You can never have too many thank you cards!

I used a new flower punch on this one:

And I am totally in love with yellow & gray together right now:

Both of these cards were very quick & easy to make too-some of my favorite kind!

Birthday Cards

2011-05-11T07:00:00.000-07:00

Here are the birthday cards that I made to include in the Mother's Day gift box. I wanted to include a variety-feminine, masculine, kids, generic. I think they turned out well.

I love all of the different colors too. Cards just make me happy!

Cards in a Box

2011-05-10T06:44:00.000-07:00

These were the gifts that I made for Mother's Day this year. My all-time favorite handmade gift to give is a pack of greeting cards. They look pretty just tied with a ribbon, but I wanted to do a little something more for Mother's Day. I decided to re-use the box that the envelopes came in to create a little box to organize & contain the cards & envelopes. I just cut off the lid & the flaps, covered it with some pretty paper, made a couple of dividers & then embellished it a little. It was super easy to make. And I love how they turned out! And I really love when I can re-purpose items. It justifies why I always hang on to everything!

So here is one:

I made 10 assorted greeting cards (I'll post those soon) & also included the blank envelopes:

Here's another one:

This would be a simple, inexpensive gift for any occasion!

I had a nice Mother's Day, I hope you did too!

Tab Top Can Treats

2011-05-09T06:34:00.000-07:00

So I was really hoping to have this posted before Teacher Appreciation Week, but life happens & blogging didn't! I'm sure you've probably seen this idea before & you've probably even seen the awesome tutorial that Our Best Bites had on their blog by now, but I still want to share it here in case you need a cute little gift/treat at some point.

Here were my treat cans for my daughter's preschool teachers:

Just click here to see the whole tutorial from Our Best Bites on how to make these & they even include free printables for the front of the can. So easy & they look super cute!

Here's what I put inside of mine instead of M&Ms:

Even though the cans are pretty small, I still fit 10 pieces of bite-sized candy bars in there. I wanted there to be a variety of candy in there since you never know what people like.

This was so easy that I even made one for one of the girls that I teach every Sunday at church & gave it to her for her birthday. I just used one of my stamps & some punches to decorate the front of this one:

I will definitely make these again!

Thanks to the ladies at Our Best Bites for sharing!

The Tohoku Tote

2011-04-28T06:46:00.000-07:00

I love love LOVE this tote bag! And, no, I definitely did not come up with this fabulousness on my own. Cheri over at I Am Momma - Hear Me Roar did. Her blog rocks! I love checking out her latest creations. Well after the devastating earthquake & tsunami hit Japan back in March, Cheri decided that she wanted to make it easier for people to donate to the humanitarian effort in Japan by offering the pattern to this bag free with a donation of $8 or more. What a great idea! She calls this the Tohoku Tote because that's where all of the profits will go. Click here to find out more information about the Tohoku Tote & how you can donate to the humanitarian effort in Japan.

I decided to try making this bag for my sister-in-law for her birthday. The pattern was so easy to use & the instructions were so easy to follow! Thank you so much, Cheri! And I love the fabrics I used for this bag. They really went together so well. And the size is great too.

Here's a picture of the inside of the bag:

I added a large pocket on one side & then two smaller pockets on the other side. I was envisioning this possibly being used as a diaper bag too, so I thought the big pocket would be great to contain diapers & the smaller pockets are perfect for your cell phone, car keys, or other small items you want to keep handy.

I love this bag so much that I almost {almost} kept it for myself!

Here's the card I made too, trying to match the fabric on the tote bag:

I just love these bright colors together! So happy!

Fun Floral Tote Bag

2011-04-27T06:31:00.000-07:00

I made this tote bag for my mother-in-law for her birthday. I love this floral corduroy! And I love making tote bags! They are pretty easy to do & I like changing little things each time I make one so that they are customized for the recipient or for whatever purpose I wish the bag to serve.

I also added a fabric yo-yo flower to the front of this one:

Here's a shot of the inside:

It's hard to tell, but one side has a large pocked & then the other side has a pen pocket plus two other smaller pockets (perfect for a cell phone or something that size).

So you know how I like to make cards to match the gift if possible. This is the card I made to go with the tote bag:

Not colors that I would typically use on a card, but since I was drawing the colors from the corduroy it worked out ok!

Easter T-shirts

2011-04-25T22:51:00.000-07:00

I meant to post these last week, but it didn't happen. But I still wanted to show them even though Easter is now over.

I used my Silhouette to make them & it was so fast & easy!

I used the white flocked heat transfer vinyl, cut out the bunny shape with the Silhouette & then ironed them onto the shirts. After that I attached a small yellow gingham bow.

I love how they turned out!

I only wish I had a good photo of my girls wearing their shirts, they looked adorable!

Princess/Arts & Crafts Birthday Party

2011-04-21T09:20:00.000-07:00

I know, where have I been? Well, I had been planning & preparing for a fabulous princess/arts & crafts party! My first-born turned 5 yesterday & we celebrated with a birthday party for her last Saturday. This was the first year that she really wanted to have a party with some of her friends. And what better way to celebrate than to combine two of her favorite things-princesses & arts & crafts! What I loved about this party was that it was really easy to put together & a lot of the stuff we already had at home.

{Beware-this post is a long one!}

To start I made the invitations through Shutterfly. I had an awesome coupon code for 10 FREE cards & I needed 9 invitations so it worked out perfectly!

And they even had this darling princess crown design:

(Don't mind the smudges, I just blurred out our address & phone number!)

We were hoping for nice weather because we wanted to do the party in the backyard & it couldn't have been a more beautiful day-warm, but not too hot!

Here is how we set it up:

We used some paper from our Ikea easel & painted a birthday banner:

I just covered the ugly folding tables with some cheap plastic {pink!} tablecloths. I only wish I had something I could have covered the ugly folding chairs with, but oh well! I had bought a large generic princess coloring book (11" x 14") months ago & thought this was the perfect time to use some of those coloring pages. We put one at each seat to serve as a placemat, plus the girls could color on it while we were waiting for all of our guests to arrive. We did put a little piece of masking tape on the back of each corner to hold them in place on the tablecloth. Sometimes we get a little breeze in the afternoons. We also put some crayons in paper cups for them to use on their placemats:

A close-up of one of the spots:

We got some clothesline rope & used our staple gun to attach it to different areas of the fence & put a bunch of clothespins on it so that the girls could hang their finished paintings up to dry:

It also made for some really cute decorations when they started hanging them up there:

{Painting was, by far, the favorite activity for all of the girls & I love seeing their creativity in each painting!}

I also made each party guest an apron. This was the first craft we did. The girls colored on the apron using fabric markers (which I bought using my coupons for JoAnn's which saved $$). The fabric markers were great because they were easy for the girls to use & they dried really fast. We hung them up on some clothesline too until we were ready to use them:

I bought a pack of these canvas aprons at my local teacher supply store which was much cheaper than buying them individually. Then I used my {awesome} Silhouette machine to cut out the crowns & the names in some heat transfer vinyl which I then ironed onto the aprons. So easy & they looked really cute:

The next craft the girls did was to decorate a princess hat. I used a princess hat we already had in our dress-up bin as an example & made the princess hats out of felt, interfacing, ric rac, tulle & some elastic for the strap:

Then the girls used foam shapes & rhinestones to decorate them how they wanted. The foam shapes were adhesive & stuck really well, but we did have to use a little glue to attach the rhinestones. Luckily we had plenty of adult supervisors to help with that & it wasn't as messy as I had feared!

The next craft they did was to make some beaded necklaces. Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of them doing that!

Here is the birthday girl in her decorated princess hat & apron:

{She just had so much fun!}

We also set up our easel with some sheets of paper & paint so that the girls could paint pictures whenever they wanted:

Like I said, that was probably their favorite activity! And when the paintings were dry, we rolled them up & put them in their goody baskets for them to take home.

Here are the goody baskets:

I found these cute baskets at Target in the $1 bin a while back & I knew they would be perfect to act as little artist bins for the girls to take all of their goodies home in. I was going to use my Silhouette to cut some princess crowns out of chalkboard vinyl (which is really reasonably priced through Expressions Vinyl), but then I found these already made at Michaels for super cheap! I just punched holes in them, tied them onto the baskets with some white yarn & then wrote each girl's name on it with my chalkboard markers:

My first thought for some party decorations was to do some kind of cute paper lanterns, but they are a little pricy! Much more than I had thought they would be! So I have been seeing these tissue paper pom-poms all over the internet lately & they seemed easy enough:

My mom & I made them & they really didn't take much time at all! Plus with the colored tissue paper they looked so great! We used white yarn to hang them everywhere!

We hung on the lights outside, off of the shade cover, off of the ceiling fan in the kitchen over the dessert table, on the umbrella outside:

On the big tree:

They looked so nice!

My daughter wanted a pinata as well, so we found a princess crown pinata at Target that we hung from the tree:

We also had a little "guess how many jellybeans in the jar" game. The chalkboard crown & the small plastic paint jar also came from Michaels:

I just stamped a crown, put some bling on it & punched it out with my circle punch to put on the top of the lid of the jar. I also stamped a crown on the notecards for each girl to use to write down how many jellybeans they thought were in the jar.

Here's a close-up:

{There were 712 jellybeans in that jar! Yep, my hubby counted every single one!}

I'm really bummed that I forgot to get a photo of the whole dessert table all together, but at least I got some photos of the desserts. I made an artist's palette cake:

Some princess crown sugar cookies:

And some princess crown {pink} chocolate lollipops:

I also used my Silhouette to make a little subway art for the dessert table. I wrote words that describe my daughter, nicknames, things she loves, etc. & cut it out in some bright pink vinyl. I already had the flat canvas so I stuck it on that. Then I covered it with a couple of layers of Mod Podge. The canvas was bigger than I had thought it was so I added a pink bow at the top to fill up some of the extra white space.

I really like how it turned out:

And now that the party is over, we can put it up in my daughter's room!

Of course, I had to make a little birthday shirt for the birthday girl too:

I love those $5 t-shirts from Target (sometimes they go on sale too) & then I used my Silhouette once again to cut out the crown & the little heart from some heat transfer vinyl & just ironed them onto the shirt. Sorry for the glare from my flash, but the silver heat transfer looks awesome in person!

The birthday girl all dolled up for her party:

{Oh how we love her!}

And she loved her pretty pettiskirt that I bought her from Fairy Flowers Boutique:

Their stuff is very reasonably priced, super cute & ships really fast!

Whew! Typing up this post may have made me as tired as I was after the actual party! But it was all worth it!

Simple Spring Wreath

2011-04-07T18:57:00.000-07:00

I jumped on the Spring wreath bandwagon this week & made my own. I've been seeing so many on people's blogs that are just so cute! If it looks off-centered in the photo, that's because it is! I don't know why, but that clear wreath hanger doesn't work well on my front door & made the wreath very crooked. I actually have the wreath hung on a door inside of our house, but the lighting was absolutely horrible in there for taking a photo. Oh well, you get the idea. So I've been on this 3 flower thing for a while & that's what I did on this wreath as well. I wanted my wreath to be very simple, but I'm thinking that maybe it's too simple. Maybe I should add a couple more flowers? I loved using the burlap to wrap around the styrofoam wreath-so fast & easy! And it adds such a nice texture too. I also love these colors in the fabrics-cocoa brown, apricot & ocean blue. Such happy colors! I am so glad that Spring is here!

A Hint of Easter

2011-04-04T06:18:00.000-07:00

Can you believe that Easter will be here in 3 short weeks?!?!?! I really can't believe it is April! Wasn't it just Christmas? Time Flies! Well, I have slowly been making some decorations for Spring. I don't really have any specifically for Easter so I made a couple of quick projects this week.

This first idea I got from the girls at eighteen25. They simply bought some cheap, plastic Easter eggs at Target (they already have holes in each end) & strung them together & hung them up. So easy! Mine were a little heavy, so I had to swag them to give some support in the middle.

It adds a nice touch to our mantle:

To see theirs & also to check out their latest Spring subway art click here.

This next project was just as easy. I've had the white "Happy Easter" vinyl for a couple of years now & just hadn't done anything with it. So I bought a pack of think 11 x 14 flat canvases at JoAnn's. They were really inexpensive, plus I used a coupon-yay! I simply painted it a pretty light purple color, let it dry well & then stuck my vinyl on.

Here it is:

Nothing fancy, but it looks nice. I've been debating if I want to embellish it or not. Maybe some cute buttons or fabric flowers? I don't know?

Well that does it for our Easter decor around here! At least for now!

Embroidery Hoop Art for Spring

2011-03-31T06:40:00.000-07:00

I have been seeing all sorts of these cute embroidery hoop art pieces on crafty blogs for a few months. I am so grateful for the Internet & for the inspiration of all of you crafty people out there, by the way! So I've been meaning to shift gears at our house & welcome spring. I thought I'd give one of these embroidery hoops a try. (Of course as I went outside to take the photo I grabbed it wrong & now it puckers over there on the left where my fingers slipped. Oh well, just ignore that!) So I wanted mine to have a vintage feel to it. I used my Silhouette machine to cut out this cute doily shape on some flocked white heat transfer. Then I ironed it onto some muslin fabric which I then put into the embroidery hoop. To embellish it I made the 3 fabric rosettes from some scraps of Stampin' Up! fabric that I had. I had never made rosettes before. To be honest I actually hated these ones at first. I was going to rip them off & try something else, but now that I am getting used to them I am really liking them. Funny how that happens! To finish the rosettes off I simply glued some pearl beads in to the center.

Here's a close-up:

I wish you could see the flocked heat transfer doily in person, it really looks cool! And overall this was a really quick & inexpensive project-which I love!

With a Cherry on Top

2011-03-30T06:35:00.000-07:00

I needed a birthday card for Gramma Mugs' gift too, so, of course, I decided to make one that matched her cute quilt. I love the bright, cheery colors of this card, just like on the quilt! And I love the greeting: happy birthday-with a cherry on top. This card just makes me ready for summer!

My Very First Quilt

2011-03-28T22:22:00.000-07:00

My hubby's grandma always makes everyone in the family large (60" x 80"), soft flannel blankets. They are awesome! In our house we each use our blankets just about every day. Well, she's always saying how she should make herself a blanket, but she never has. So I thought that it would be the perfect gift for her birthday this year {89 years young!}. Now my plan was to make the blanket how she does with the same flannel on each side, not quilted. I'll spare you all of the details, but I ended up having to make it quilt-style. It took a lot of time since I wasn't planning on doing a quilt so I had to look things up frequently to make sure I was doing it right & I only really worked on it when my youngest was napping & a couple of nights when my hubby was at work & both girls were asleep. But, now that it's finished & has been given to Gramma Mugs I have to say that I really enjoyed the process & although it's not perfect, I am happy with how it turned out.

Here it is all finished (it's folded in half & then hung over the fence since it's so large):

The back is just the pink polka dot fabric:

I really love the bright, cheery colors & I really wish you could feel it-so soft! I hope that she gets as much use out of her flannel blanket as we do out of ours!

Happy Birthday, Gramma Mugs!

Busy, busy, busy!

2011-03-21T22:12:00.000-07:00

What have I been up to?

I have been busy, busy, busy!

Working every spare moment on this:

I took on quite the project in a short timeline.

More soon.

Wish me luck!

Another Coloring Wallet

2011-03-17T06:27:00.000-07:00

I made another coloring wallet to give to sweet Avery for her second birthday.

I hope she loves it!

And I hope it keeps her busy when her mommy & daddy need her occupied!

I love these fabrics too-so pretty!

Cupcake Punch Card

2011-03-16T06:23:00.000-07:00

I finally used my new cupcake punch from Stampin' Up! It is awesome! It punched out everything you see there on the white square in the middle. So fast & easy! I made this cute cupcake card for my friend's daughter who just turned 2. I always love brown & pink together! Happy Birthday, Avery!

Chalkboard Canister Labels

2011-03-15T06:13:00.000-07:00

You've seen this idea before, I know. But I got some new canisters at Tai Pan Trading a couple weeks ago & I knew when I bought them that I was going to use my Silhouette to make some of these cute chalkboard labels for them. I just think they're so cute! And, no, my four-year-old did not write on them, I did! Ha ha! But I like that if I want to change up what's in them I can simply erase the writing & write on them again.

So I keep the 3 on the left on the counter & then the spaghetti canister in my pantry, but here they all are:

I love that you can see through the top of them too:

I'm going to go back & get 3 more too for in my pantry for whole wheat flour, powdered sugar, dark brown sugar. I'm so excited to keep all of my goods nice & fresh in these convenient canisters & to get a little more organized in my kitchen!

Embellished Frame

2011-03-14T06:50:00.000-07:00

Would you believe that after all the craziness around here lately then we all got the stomach flu? Yep, ALL four of us! That was no fun. And it really put a damper on my crafting! Well, finally we are feeling better. And I needed to prepare a lesson for church yesterday. For part of my lesson I wanted to display my framed The Family: A Proclamation to the World, an article from my church that shares our beliefs on family & why they are so important. But, I wanted to jazz it up a little. As you know, I have been addicted to these adorable fabric flowers so I used some of my Stampin' Up! fabric to make some for this frame.

Here's a close-up:

So cute! I am lovin' these flowers!

I also photocopied the proclamation, shrunk it down a little & then embellished it so that I could give it to the girls in my class as a handout:

I hope they like it!

Happy National Craft Month!

2011-03-01T21:52:00.001-08:00

Did you know that March is National Craft Month? Here's to happy crafting this month! I have so many projects on my to-do list, but have been lacking the spare time. First we were out of town, then we had family visiting us & now my toddler is sick. So I hope you all are celebrating National Craft Month by creating lots of wonderful new things! And hopefully I can catch up soon!

Notepad & Pen Holder

2011-02-21T06:11:00.000-08:00

Don't you just love this fabric? It's the Stampin' Up! fabric that I mentioned in my previous post that coordinates with that beautiful designer paper on the card. I think I might have to order some more of this because it's just fabulous! So the project above I'm simply calling a notepad & pen holder because that's exactly what it is! I needed a quick gift for my sister-in-law & this is what I came up with. It's similar in theory to the crayon wallet I made for my niece, except this is the adult version. I love notepads, I love pens, I love making lists, I love taking notes, etc. Yes, I'm a dork like that! So I love this little project! It will hold a notepad, a couple of pens or pencils & even has some extra pocket space for some stamps or receipts or any other small pieces of paper you want to stick in there.

Like I said, I needed something that was pretty quick to make so my first thought was to simply use felt for this project. I love felt & I have a ton of it right now! And it hardly took any time to make the notepad & pen holder using felt, but when I was done I just really was not happy with how it turned out.

Here's a photo:

Cute, yes. But I didn't like how the cream-colored felt was so sheer & it was also very flimsy. I knew that it probably wouldn't hold up well if thrown into a purse or diaper bag. I decided that I had time to make another one, this time using cotton fabric & lining it with a heavy-weight fusible interfacing as well. Well, I LOVE how it turned out. And this one is very sturdy! I love the dimension of the felt flower on the front & I love the pretty satin ribbon that ties it closed.

Here's a photo of the inside:

After I took the photo above I just kept looking at that ugly notepad! The part where it says "Top Flight" was driving me nuts! So I decided to add a strip of coordinating designer paper to wrap over the top to cover it up. And now it looks even better!

Here it is:

Now it's ready to give away! This is another one of those great, simple projects that I can't wait to make for myself too, when I have the time! I hope my SIL likes it!

A Quilt-ish Card

2011-02-18T06:34:00.000-08:00

I have quilts on the brain right now. One of my crafty goals for 2011 is to make a quilt. It is now the middle of February & I am feeling a little overwhelmed about this goal. But lately I have been doing a lot of research online about quilting so hopefully that will help. I really don't know what I am doing, so we'll see how this goes!

So with thoughts of quilts in my head paired with this new, beautiful designer paper from Stampin' Up!, my sister-in-law's birthday card was created! I love this designer paper! It's called Springtime Vintage & it is divine! It is very feminine & it looks lovely, like real fabric. And you know what? Stampin' Up! sells this as real fabric too! Yummy! I used that for the present that I made for my SIL that coordinates with the card (pics to come in another post). I just love when everything coordinates! This card was very easy to make too. I just punched out nine 1-1/4" sized squares out of nine of the coordinating papers & glued them down on a piece of Naturals Ivory card stock so that it resembled a quilt. I added a vintage flower adornment on the lower right square because it adds a little dimension & it is just so pretty. Then a simple "birthday wishes" stamp & I glued it all onto the Baja Breeze card. I love how this card turned out! Now if only real quilting was so easy!

New Felt Flower Headbands

2011-02-17T06:27:00.000-08:00

Did you notice the cute felt flower headband that my older daughter was wearing in this photo from the other day?

Yep, I've been making some felt flowers again. I love felt! I had seen this technique for making flowers around in the blog world, but Make It and Love It just posted a tutorial last week for knit baby hats that feature this type of darling flower on it. Click here to check out her awesome pictures & tutorial. They are so easy & fun to make & they are so cute that I just want to stick them on everything! And with my Big Shot I can cut out all of the circles I need at once. I love the weight of the felt for attaching onto headbands. And I just fluffed up the layers a little bit for these ones, but they also look super cute when they're not fluffed up & have a button glued in the center.

Here's the light pink one I made:

And the bright pink flower I glued on the bright green headband:

So fun!

Coloring Wallet

2011-02-16T06:33:00.000-08:00

So I also made this cute coloring wallet as a gift for my niece for her birthday & am just getting around to sharing it with you today!

Here it is all folded up:

And here it is once you open it:

I've seen so many coloring wallets like this around online & I thought it was time that I made one too! I actually have one for my girls that I bought a couple of years ago, but it's pretty big so we hardly ever take it with us. For the coloring wallet I just drew up a template on some paper & got to cutting & sewing. It has a pocket that holds a pad of paper 4" x 6" in size (pretty easy to find the refills at Target or Staples) & also a strip of pockets on the side to hold 6 crayons. Then it folds up & secures closed with some velcro. And the best part is that this project doesn't use much fabric at all & it's so quick to make. Of course for my little niece, Princess Ainsley, I used some pretty princess crown fabric that I had, lined it with bright pink fabric & added a sparkly heart jewel to the front. I can't wait to make some for my girls. And actually I think this is going to be my go-to gift for kiddos this year! It's the perfect size to stick in your purse or diaper bag to keep the kids occupied at church, restaurants, waiting rooms, road trips, etc.

Sweet {heart}

2011-02-15T06:17:00.000-08:00

I put my Silhouette machine to use again last week to make a couple of last-minute Valentine's Day t-shirts for my girls. Since this was my first time trying out heat transfer vinyl I decided to use a couple of their older shirts just in case I messed something up. But it was really easy to do! And so fast! I can't believe it! I only cut out the graphic once, but I used the positive & negative space so that I could make two shirts from one cut. I'd hate to waste perfectly good vinyl!

So here are the shirts:

Very simple, but cute.

And here are my adorable little models in their "new" Valentine's Day shirts:

And they are sweethearts (most of the time)!

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T06:12:00.000-08:00

Who waits until the day before Valentine's Day to make their husband a card? Me! So that explains this super simple {super quick} card. I like how it turned out even though it's so basic. I love the look of the five shades of pink/red & the simple "love you" in the corner. And I know that he knows that I love him even if I didn't make him a super fancy, frilly card!

Happy Valentine's Day!

A Cape for a Princess

2011-02-12T06:36:00.000-08:00

After I made Ainsley's older sister a cape (click here to see it) for her birthday back in October, I soon realized that I would need to make my little niece a cape for her birthday as well. And I loved making it for her! It had to have a princess crown on it (her birthday party theme is princess this year) & I loved the purple satin & the super cute glitter polka dot flannel that I found to use on the back. I knew I couldn't put her initial on the crown because both of her sister's names start with "A" as well, so I decided to go with a simple heart. After all, her birthday is Valentine's Day so it works! It was such a windy day outside so this is the best photo that I got. I hope she likes her new princess cape!

One Crazy Stampin' Mama

Pocket Calendar Cover

She's Here!

Ribbon Board Makeover

Crafting with Kids: Stamping

I'm still here...& I'm still pregnant!

Wet Bag

Girly Thank You Cards

Knit Baby Blanket

Monogram Frilly Frame for the Nursery

Still no baby...but I made a ruffle cake!

2012 Wall Calendar

Nursing Cover

Infant Car Seat Canopy

It's Done!

Wow!

Handmade Christmas 2011: Insulated Casserole Carrier

Handmade Christmas 2011: Yummy Snack Mix

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Handmade Christmas 2011: Digital Holiday Cards

Handmade Christmas 2011: Gift Tags

Handmade Christmas 2011: Sugar Cookies

Handmade Christmas 2011: Card Stock Ornaments

Daisy Tote Bags

Handmade Christmas 2011: Crayon Purses

Handmade Christmas 2011: Photo Tile Coasters

Handmade Christmas 2011: Digital Scrapbook

What is everyone looking at?

Handmade Christmas 2011: Shopper Tote

"Yay for You" Cupboard Door Chalkboard

Handmade Christmas 2011: Alphabet Bean Bags

My Favorite Cupcakes for Fall

Baby Monthly Onesies

Welcome to the World

Fabric Basket

A New Bag for Winter

Happy Birthday to You

Cute Crayon Purse

The Quilting is Done!

Pretty Doilies Card

The Quilt Top is Done!

Mama's Halloween Costume

What's Up?

Insulated Casserole Carrier

We have a winner!

Simple Autumn Wreath

Updating the Pregnancy Journal

Happy Blogiversary to Me!

Animal First Birthday Card

A Fun Gift Set

Back to School Celebration

2012 Desktop Calendars

Do you pin?

Summer Quilted Table Runner

Baby Boy Tie Onesies

It's a...

Ruffle Zipper Wetbag

One More Summer Tote

Ruffle Zipper Pouch

Ice Cream Birthday Party

Baby Doll Bassinet

New Summer Decor

Yes, Another Summer Tote!

Another Summer Tote

My Pregnancy Journal

Root Beer Float Cupcakes

Teacher Totes

Summer Tote

Mama's New Bag

New Photo Book from Paper Coterie

My First {Real} Quilt

Princess Party Thank You Cards

Blank Card

Thinking of You Cards

Thank You Cards

Birthday Cards

Cards in a Box

Tab Top Can Treats

The Tohoku Tote

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