Saturday, August 27, 2011

Playing with Ribbon

Here are a few things I made earlier this week. First up we have 3 new hairbows. My favorite is the polka dotted one with the hot pink button.
I also made a small football hairbow with a matching pacifier clip. I'm still learning with the pacifier clip and have seen them made several different ways. This one was made with a badge holder clip.
Unfortunately I could not get a very good picture of the pacifier clip & hairbow, but my little model will be here in just 3 short days, so I should be able to get better pictures then.Thanks for stopping by!

Friday, August 26, 2011

Treasure Bags

Hey guys & girls. Tonight I've got pictures of 2 of the little boy treasure bags I made the other day. These were made for Anthony & Gabriel with leftover pieces from their nap mat covers that Momma made. First up is Anthony's. He chose camo fabric.
Now, Anthony being the child he is decided he didn't want a bag with ribbon, even if it was black ribbon. He was wanting a little bag he could keep his very small stuffed puppy in at night so he wouldn't lose it. I ended up making a much smaller bag (maybe 3 inches x 4 inches) with dark brown bias tape instead of ribbon. He loves it & it's in the bed with him now.
Next up is Gabe's bag. He just turned 4 & loves his nap mat cover, so for part of his birthday gift I made him the bag out of his leftover Toy Story fabric.His party is tomorrow, so I'll know then how he likes his bag. Hopefully he will love it. Little boys always need somewhere to stash their treasure!

Thanks for checking out my treasure bags! They were so quick & easy and definitely fun. Just the kind of project I love to make :)

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

A Busy Craft Day (but no pictures)

I've had a blast this evening crafting. I didn't get home from my doctor's appointment & shopping until about 1pm, but since then I have made a pacifier clip, 3 drawstring fabric bags for little boys to keep their treasures in, & 4 hairbows. Oh, and a big mess, but I cleaned most of it up. I had so much fun & have other ideas I can't wait to try. I didn't do any housework today :( but I figured that was ok since I worked my butt off yesterday cleaning & overdid it just a little. Tomorrow I'll get caught back up. Then I'll take pictures of what all I made today & post them on here before making more fun stuff. Until then, have a good evening!

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Good Behavior Incentive Game

My friend Christy devised a little incentive for her son Trent the other day. I paired her idea along with another Pinterest.com idea I found & came up with a little board game for the boys to play. We kinda named it Roubique Monopoly, but then I used Scrabble pieces too, so it's just a mixture of board games. The rules are printed on the board, but basically the boys get 2 rolls of a die each day to earn incentives (shown in the picture squares). They can lose a roll for whining, etc as printed in the rule section. The green squares are just blank & don't have an incentive.
The prizes or incentives are 15 additional minutes of Wii, computer, DS, or iPod time, 15 minutes of Momma time, a fruit rollup, 50 cents, 1 dollar, a piece of candy, 2 pieces of candy, a Redbox rental, & playing a board game.
I made the game pieces with a paper clip & a Scrabble sticker with a J for Joey & an A for Anthony. Today was our first day & Joey lost a roll. They both seem to really enjoy the game, so hopefully we can keep it up a little while.
Joey really thinks we should sell this game to other parents having trouble with their children. I just laughed & told him we didn't need to mass produce right now.

Anna Catherine's wall hanging

I just can't say enough about Pinterest.com - the best website in the whole world! I have found so much inspiration there & for once I'm actually following through with the ideas. The last few days the boys & I worked together using this inspiration to make the wall hanging below.I am so in love with how it turned out. Here are a couple more views so you can see the detail on the letters. We used scraps of paper glued on to cardboard-type letters that I cut out myself (after tracing them of course). I used modge-podge over the paper when we finished.

I cut Catherine out of pink vinyl with my Cricut & decided to dot the i with a double layer flower topped with a button. Below you can see Anthony helping out when we started. He painted the letters with acrylic paint in case there were any gaps in the paper. I didn't want the kraft brown to show through.
I told him he had his undershirt on backwards, but he said it really didn't matter. He glued scraps of paper on 2 of the letters, Joey did 1 letter, and I did the last letter (and went back & patched gaps on theirs). To me it's even more special since we all worked on together. Anthony saw it finished & was a little disappointed we didn't put buttons all over ANNA, but I like it just how it is.


Thursday, August 18, 2011

Neck Tie Bib--Work in Progress

Let me start off by saying I am now officially addicted to Pinterest.com. I have found the cutest ideas on there! I'm trying to actually make the ideas instead of just always saying "Ooh--I could make that!" Here's the neck tie bib I found on there today.It didn't have a pattern. It was actually from this blog, but didn't have a pattern or instructions. I used my regular bib pattern & made pattern pieces for the collar & tie. I have never tried making pattern pieces before, so this is definitely a work in progress.

I am too much of a perfectionist, so I'm not completely satisfied with how it turned out. There are definitely some changes I need to make to my pattern pieces. I didn't have a whole lot of fabrics appropriate for this project either, but I'm trying really hard to make stuff using what I have since I have so many craft supplies already.

The pictures actually make this bib look better than it did while I was sitting at my sewing machine, so I guess maybe I just needed to step away.



On another note, Anthony & I had a great time today on his last day before kindergarten. We worked on another craft project I'll share later, played with Play-Doh, cleaned toilets (his favorite chore), ate lunch at Chik-fil-A, and made cookies.

Isn't he adorable? He had to wear his apron & chef hat he got at Nanny's Vacation Bible School. He is so excited about getting to ride the school bus with his big brother tomorrow. I've gotta go, but thanks for checking out my blog!

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Pillowcase with French Seams

For some reason I decided I wanted to be able to make a cute pillowcase. The first tutorial I found online was exactly what I was looking for! It makes a standard pillowcase with a cuff & narrow decorative trim. Plus it had French seams, which I have been wanting to try.

I found 3 pieces of coordinating fabric (thanks Mom!) & got to work. This wasn't the fabric I had in mind for a pillowcase, but I wanted to test it out first without using my favorite fabric since I've bought all they had left on the bolt at Hancock's & now I'm hoarding it.
I think it turned out really cute though! It's hard to see the narrow trim because only about 1/4 of an inch of it shows, but it's green with a print on it.

Above you can see what French seams are--they don't have any raw edges to ravel. The raw edges are actually encased in the seam. It wasn't hard at all & I think it gave it a nice touch.

Here's the finished product! It was a little big on the pillow I put it on, but it wasn't the fluffiest pillow. I'm gonna find a really fluffy pillow & see how it fits. If it's still a little long, I may shorten it next time. Thanks for stopping by & looking at what I made!

Monday, August 8, 2011

Pear Bib

Next up I've got a cute pear bib. I'm not a big fan of eating pears, but I do think they are cute fruits.

I made this one with yellow fabric that had little white polka dots on it. The leaf is made with 2 different pieces of green.
Gotta have a back view for those curious shoppers who want to see the whole item. The pear is trimmed with a tan colored bias tape.

It's hard to see in the picture, but the green leaf is half polka dots & the other half has darker green squares on it. I'm having too much fun with these fruity bibs!

Watermelon bib

Hey bloggy friends! I'm back, but with ulterior motives...I want to list some stuff for sale on Etsy, but have to put the pictures on my blog or facebook first, then save them back down so they'll be small enough to Etsy. Anyway, first up I've got a watermelon bib I made.


I love watermelons. I'm gonna have to make one of these for Anna Catherine. This one has small light pink gingham for the main part of the watermelon.


Here's a picture of the back--a pretty solid green. I used hot pink bias tape to make the straps that tie in the back to hold the bib around a sweet little baby neck.

To make the watermelon seeds I used black buttons. I think this turned out super cute. What do you think? Hopefully someone shopping on Etsy will find it irresistable!