When crafting goes wrong.... Sigh.

I've mentioned before that one of the hurdles I got over that allowed me to enjoying crafting so much more... was realizing it doesn't have to be perfect.  Getting over that mental road block has allowed me to really get into crafting and have a lot of fun.  But sometimes, it's just a fail, and thats that!

I have been wanting to make a magnetic recipe board for a while.  I wanted to make it specifically as a gift to Pattie.  She's always talking about how she hates leaving a recipe on the counter because its never at the right angle to glance at easily.  (truth be told she's come up with a smart solution, resting the recipe card between two knobs on her upper kitchen cabinets, pretty smart!) Anyway, I started seeing lots of these popping up on blog world.. here's an example from From Glitter to GumDrops :

Cute, right?? I was kind of stumped on where to buy metal from. I mean, I know I'd go to Home Depot but I'd have to ask for help, which would mean actually finding an employee there... and thats where you loose me. 

So when I was at Michaels, with a gift card burning a hole in my pocket (Thanks Dad and Pattie!)  I stumbled on the cutest scrapbook paper. I should pause to say that with all my crafting, I've never really been inspired to make a full on scrapbook.  I dunno, just doesn't do anything for me.  There are so many options and so much potential, but all the power to you, it's not my thing.  But when I come across cute paper I have to grab it, knowing I will find a way to use it.  So as I was walking around Michaels, paper in hand, I decided to just wing it and make my own menu boards.  I quickly stumbled on a roll of magnet sheeting... magnet on one side, paintable white surface on the other. PERFECT! 

So I thought.

I started with painting my boards, and then cutting out the pieces of paper I wanted to use, and mod-poding them on. Easy enough, and it looks just like I thought it would.  But then when I open up the magnet roll, the white, paintable (a.k.a. prettier) side is not magnetic.  If I want to be able to slap a recipe card with a magnet on this I'm going to have to use the dark side.  Then I used hot glue to adhere the magnet sheet to the board, and you can see the outline of the glue thru the magnet. 

I made two, one intended to be my trial one I'd keep, and one that I planned to give to Pattie.  They now are sitting in my living room with no home, and no plans for me to use them.  I'm posting this not to show you my bad sides.. but just out of curiosity to hear what you would have tried to do differently?  Go to Home Depot and scrounge for an employee?  Do you have another idea for what might have been a better product to use?

Whatdya' think?

Jack was featured!!

My lil' man got his very own feature on my friend's blog!

I posted a picture of him on facebook this morning sporting his new superman outfit (that I LOVE!)

Not much later I was asked if it was ok if my friend stole the picture, and then I saw this!

http://www.zebraloudsounds.com/2011/01/jack-jack-is-superman.html

I just love him to pieces :)

Baby Olivia!

I have been wanting to post about this for-ev-er! But a horrible sequence of events prevented me from doing so.  I don’t think Josh’s sister, Jenny reads my blog, but… I didn’t want to take the chance.  She is due with a baby girl the end of this month.  Her baby shower was several weeks ago, but I woke up sicker than a dog the day of, and didn’t think it would be very responsible to go get a preggo lady sick!! 
So finally, I can reveal what I made.  So much of a cute gift is in the packaging. So I wanted to get a cute basket.  Her baby furniture is white, so it seemed pretty smart to spray paint the basket white.

I had originally wanted to get a small chalkboard plaque to write her name on, but it wasn’t happening.  So I went to Joanns and found this cute little plaque.  Some paint, distressing, and scrapbook paper… and I ended up with this! The letters didn't show up well in any of the pictures. It's light in person too, but not this light!

Now to fill it!  Pattie had just showed me her first rag quilt she finished and I was in love.  I was even more excited when she told me about a baby-blanket sized pattern that was in the book she used.  She gave me the instructions and off to Joanns I went.  It was actually really easy!! 

I started with 9 fabrics: 3 darks, mediums and lights.  Sticking with a baby theme, this proved to be harder than I thought! Jenny also isn’t a foo-foo super princess-y kinda mom so I was trying to stay away from tiaras and fairies for the most part.  Once I was home, I cut all the fabric into strips (there are a million different patterns out there, so I won’t get too into the specifics on measurements.  I can send you them if you are interested!) and then you sew strips of the same fabric together, so its double sided.  Then, cut those into blocks.

Next you sew your blocks into rows, then sew the rows together.

The trick is you leave a 1/2 inch seam on each block.  Then when you are done, you go back and cut about every 1/4 inch on each seam (highly recommend spring loaded scissors!) … and ya, it takes forever!  Put in a movie, stretch your arms and get to work!  Then when you are done, wash, dry, and bam! its all puffy and cute!! 

I was so in love with how this turned out! The best part is, all the ruffles and fluff hide your mistakes.

The one other thing Jenny mentioned that she needed was a new boppy cover.  She had almost all the baby essentials already from when her son was a baby… now she just needed it girly.  Just so happened I had just made a new cover for Jack’s boppy so I had the pattern ready to go.  I fell in l-o-v-e with this fabric:

Isn’t it cute? And not princess-y at all!  This is only the 2nd time I’ve put a zipper on something (first one was Jack’s boppy!).  It’s easier than I had thought, for sure. 

It’s definitely not perfect, but I got the fabric on sale for $2.50 a yard, you can’t beat that!

So that’s what I made for Jenny.  I was so excited to give it to her! Here was the finished product:

Sorry for the lame setting, I took these pictures in the hours before Christmas scramble when I knew I’d be giving her the basket and was running out of opportunities to take pictures! 

Christmas Gift Revealed - Monogrammed Wreath

The 3rd gift I made was for my sister, Lizzie.  I guess I lied earlier, because I was nervous to give her this, too!  But while I was disappointed in the one I gave Katie, I was super excited with out this one turned out.  I have actually wanted to do one of these for us ever since I saw it on The Bird's Papaya.  However, we don't all have the same last name yet (nudge nudge, Josh!) so alas I will have to wait. 

I knew I wanted to make something for Lizzie, but I didn't know what.  She moved into her now, husband's home, so it still is very bachelor pad-y.  She is definitely itching to add her flare.  So she told me the direction she wanted to go in was dark blues, purples and blacks, but still with a beachy feel.  For some reason, this wreath popped into my head! So I got started. 

First I got a wreath at Michaels, and spray painted it black.  I did a few coats, but didn't go nuts, I didn't mind some of the brown sneaking thru.

Next, I took a stab at making fabric flowers.  I have seen these tutorials popping up everywhere.  The basic principle can be applied.  Take a strip of fabric, tie a knot at one end, hot glue it to a piece of felt, and then twist and glue your way into a flower.  For some reason, when I was walking around Joanns, burlap kept popping into my head, so I went with it.  They are super easy to make, just be careful pushing the fabric into glue.  Hot glue gun=hot!  (DUH!)

I also made some in plain white fabric I had on hand.  To add a more beachy feel I added a shells.  The neat story behind these, is that they are actually decorations we used for Lizzie's bridal shower 2 years ago.  I had held on to them knowing I'd find a use, and well, here you go! 

Lastly, I added some ribbon to hold the C in place, and it was good to go!!  This is the picture Lizzie sent me, of the wreath hanging on her front door. I'm so thrilled she likes it!!





Another Christmas Gift - Superhero Cape!

Ok, I'm just gonna put this out there now to please excuse a)all my iphone pics, I was so lazy about getting out my camera, the only time I did was when I lost my phone for an entire day 2 days before Christmas. (I have never lost my phone before!) b) the mess in the background of all the pictures! Just keepin' it real people.

Anyway, Josh's sister, Jenny, told me that her son Kai LOVES wearing the capes they have at his school, and could I make him one?  How cute is this:  I asked Jenny what is favorite color was, and she laughed and said pink.. soooo why don't we go with red.  ha!  Now thats a cool kid.  If you know Kai, you know he's obsessed with the Disney movie, Cars.  So when I was getting the red fabric I couldn't resist sneaking in some Cars fabric for the inner lining.  I added a super hero "K" on the back for good measure. 

There are a million guides and templates online for how to make the perfect cape.  Jenny told me he's just about 3 feet tall, so I ended sizing down 1 yard of fabric to about 26 inches when it was all said and done.  Then I cut it at an angle so the top was narrowed in from the bottom.  I added a seam for a drawstring, and that was that! 

(it was laundry day, my sheets were in the wash, ha!)

I am hoping Jenny will send me a picture of him in it, if he ends up wearing it.  Kai is shy (also terrified of Josh, haha!) so he wasn't into trying it on Christmas day!

The thing I love about this too, is that I think like many people, we were on a tight Christmas budget.  For the money I spent, this means a lot more than what I could have gotten as an equivelent toy for the cost.   Here is the break down:

Cars Fabric:  $8.99 - had a 40% off coupon so the cost was $5.39

Red Fabric:  $3.99

Felt for the K $.59 (I think!)

Black Shoelaces:  $2.99

Thread - already had

Total Cost:  $12.96 (plus some tax!)

First Christmas gift, revealed! { finally! }

Wow... Dec 10th was my last post.. whoops!  I learned a valuable lesson these last few weeks.  It was Jack's first Christmas, and things were chaotic.  I had this great idea of making a handful of my gifts this year, which I am so glad that I did, I just wish I was a little more proactive about it.  We ended up having to jam pack so much in (also in prep for getting the girls xmas morning) that I didn't take a minute to just breathe.  The day after Christmas I was so disappointed in myself for missing moments I could have had with Jack, making his first Christmas special.  Josh rationalized that he's 5 months old, he doesn't know any different.. but we never even got a picture of the kids in front of the tree.  It was a valuable lesson for me to keep in mind going forward to stay true to what is important to us, and realize the rest will find its way to work itself out. 

Now that I got that off my chest, I can finally reveal a bunch of things I was working on!  I don't think anyone that I made gifts for read my blog (I only have 6 followers, lets be honest!) but I didn't want to risk it. 

I was most nervous about my gift to my oldest sister, Katie.  She moved up to Northern CA a few years ago, and I'll admit the distance makes it harder to know what to get her for a gift.  We don't have those day to day interactions where you catch her eyeing a cute top at at store, or saying she needs something for the house.   One thing I know about Katie, and her husband, Devin, is that they LOVE The Beatles.  A few months ago I stumbled on a ton of subway art ideas.  I really love the look.  One day the idea came to me to make a subway art, Beatle themed.  Then I took it one step further that I wanted the background to be a faded black and white version of the famous "Abbey Road" picture. 

Sigh, if only it was all that easy. I could give you a long winded excuse for why it went from this grand idea in my head to something of a much smaller scale... but I'll save you the details.  The bottom line is, Katie swears she loves it... I hope so!!  In our mad dash frenzy to get everything done in time, I completely forgot to take a picture! So Katie was kind enough to snap one and send it over.  Here it is:

It's mounted on a piece of MDF board, painted black.  My days with subway art definitely aren't over.  I'm on a mission now!