Tis the Season!

It's December...let the holiday crafting begin!  Hooray!

What better way to kick of the Christmas season than with a homemade Advent calendar?  I finished this baby about 30 minutes ago, giving me an hour to spare before I need to leave to pick Bailey up from preschool.  Yep, that's right.  I'm proud to say that I have perfected the fine art of procrastination.  I do some of my best work under pressure.  :)

 At first I had planned to only have the countdown cards as part of the calendar, but then I came across this foam countdown tree at Target for only $5.  I attached the tree to a piece of foam board (also from Target - $3) with hot glue.  Even though the foam ornaments were sticky-backed, they got a shot of hot glue too. 

The tree has a cute little peg that you move along the string of lights as you count down the days until Christmas.  Bailey will get a kick out of it.

Each colorful card is simply a piece of sturdy cardstock from my stash with scrapbook sticker numbers on the front and a cute sticker on the back.  As we count down a day, we'll turn the card around to display the sticker.  I hot glued four strands of Christmas ribbon from my hairbow-making supplies across the bottom of the board and used tiny binder clips to attach the cards. 

Each card contains a slip of paper with a fun holiday activity written on it.  I wanted the flexibility of being able to switch around the activities as needed and to use the calendar again in the future.

Our list of activities includes...
writing a letter to Santa
choosing a new ornament for the tree
going to a performance of the Nutcracker ballet 
making a gingerbread house
buying gifts for the Angel Tree and DFW Pug Rescue
reading a Christmas book
drinking hot chocolate while watching a Christmas movie
learning a new Christmas song
baking a treat for your teacher
having a picnic in front of the Christmas tree
making reindeer food
baking cookies for Santa
making a snowman pizza
visiting Santa's Village

When Bailey gets home from school today, she'll open the first card and discover that tonight after dinner, we get to go shopping for new ornaments.  I can't wait to see what she chooses for herself, and she'll most likely have a hand in choosing Jake's too!

Happy holidays!

Boo! Wreath - Part Deux

My younger sister recently moved back to Texas after living in California for a few years.  I decided she needed a feathery Halloween wreath just like mine for the front door of her new house.  Jake and I made a quick trip to Hobby Lobby and found a wire wreath form, a black feather boa, a small wooden Boo! sign, and a package of glittery purple spiders.  This time around I used small pieces of black pipe cleaners to twist-tie the boa to the wreath form.  They blend right into the feathers and you can't even see them.  I used a few dabs of hot glue to attach the Boo!, the spiders, and a few of the glittery black bats leftover from my wreath.  I thought about attaching a big black gingham bow at the top, but couldn't get it to look right, so this wreath is ribbon-less.    

I'm still finding tiny black feathers all over my kitchen, including inside my toaster!  But my sister loved the wreath and it looks great on her front door, so this one goes down as a crafty success.

Boo! Wreath

When it comes to holiday decorating of any sort, I take a minimalist approach, which is really just a fancy way to say that I stick a few pumpkins by the front door and call it Halloween.  But last year I decided that I wanted to make a Halloween wreath to along with the pumpkins, so I worked my magic with a wire wreath form, a feather boa, and some twist ties and this is what I came up with...

They are impossible to see, but hidden amongst the black feathers are little glittery black bats.  I promise they really are there.  And there is also a sheer black ribbon tied into a bow above the word "Boo." 

Trust me, it's much more impressive in person!  ha!  When I put it up last year just a few days before Halloween, I promised myself that I would tweak it and give it some more personality before the next Halloween rolled around.  Hey, I've still got a few weeks, right?  I'm thinking of recovering the bats with some bright purple glitter (if I can find the right color) and giving the wreath a new bow, maybe something black and white like gingham or a damask print.  More than likely it'll still look exactly the same this time next year, but we'll see!

Ruffled Rainbow Streamers

The thing that Bailey was the most excited about regarding her birthday party wasn't the presents.  It wasn't the cake either.  It was the decorations.  She must have asked me every single day for 2 months straight if there would be balloons and streamers at the party.  The balloons didn't exactly work out (a 45 minute wait for 6 balloons at the party store...um, no thanks), but the streamers were so awesome that she didn't care about the lack of balloons.  She was thrilled with the ruffly rainbows!

When I saw this tutorial on MADE way back in May, I knew that I wanted to try making these ruffled streamers for our birthday party.

These ruffled streamers were so easy to make!  I decided to layer three colors (red, yellow, and blue).  All you do it set the tension on your sewing machine to the highest setting (9 on my machine) and sew in a straight line.  It was a little tricky in the beginning to manage three strips at once, but I got into the groove pretty quickly and managed to create a long enough ruffled streamer to decorate my entire kitchen in about 15 minutes.  Piece of cake!

(these lasted about 2 minutes before he ripped them off)

My crepe paper was really thin, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the red, yellow, and blue streamers created a rainbow effect when layered together.  Bonus!

(the ruffled streamers in action, over in the top left corner)

The rainbow streamers were so nifty that I really wanted to keep them after the party was over, but my husband mistakenly threw them away in a fit of helpfulness.  But hey, for $3 I can make some new ones for the next party...and I didn't have to clean up the kitchen after the party, so I'm not complaining!  :)

If you like it, 

Pin It

Muno! He's Tall and Friendly

There was a time not too long ago, when I had no idea who Muno, Brobee, Toodee, Foofa, Plex, and DJ Lance were.  Yo Gabba Gabba was just a crazy kids' show that Joel McHale made fun of on The Soup.  Even after my daughter was born, I was still clueless.  But then one day while strolling through the toy aisle at Target, it happened...

And so it began!  By the time she was three, Bailey had completely fallen head over heels for Yo Gabba Gabba.  As silly and weird as this show seems to adults, it really does teach a number of valuable lessons...always buckle up in the car, try new foods, don't say mean things to friends, and most importantly, don't bite your friends.

For Bailey's third birthday, I made her a set of Yo Gabba Gabba felt puppets...

This year's Yo Gabba Gabba birthday theme was an easy choice.  I wanted to continue the tradition of giving at least one handmade gift, but I had no idea what to make.  Then a few months ago, while on a routine (and by that I mean I feel compelled to go at least once a week) trip to Hancock Fabrics, I found a huge piece of red dot minky fabric hidden at the bottom of a big pile of remnants.  As soon as I saw it, a lightbulb went off....Muno!  He's the tall red cyclops with bumpy skin.  His shape seemed easy enough for even me to pull off.

Fast forward to 10:00pm the night before the birthday party.  My pattern making skills leave quite a bit to be desired and I was running short on time, so my Muno doll eventually transformed into a Muno pillow.  I used some scraps of black and white fleece for the eye and mouth.  In about 30 minutes, I had a soft and cuddly handmade gift.  He's the perfect companion for Bailey's Brobee pillow (purchased at Target in the kids bedding section).  Not exactly what I had in mind originally, but Jake and Bailey both love it, so I consider this a crafting success.  :)

 

Handprint Keepsake

In May 2009 I celebrated my first Mother's Day as a mom.  My daughter Bailey was 10 months old and I wanted to make a special gift for her Nana, Grandma, and Great-Grandma GeeGee (and myself).  I needed a handprint for her baby book, so I decided to make a few extra copies to frame as gifts.  Trying to get a 10 month old baby's hand inked up and put onto cardstock without smearing the handprint is nearly impossible, but somehow I managed to get four prints that looked pretty great.  When framed, they made great little Mother's Day gifts.

This week, I learned that the only thing harder than getting a handprint from my baby girl is getting one from a squirmy 10 month old baby boy!  It was like trying to wrestle an octopus!  Luckily, I only needed one print for this project and that's exactly what I ended up with.

This time around, I paired each handprint with a photo and placed them in white mattes...

I framed them using black frames from Wal-Mart and now I have a keepsake that I will always treasure...
 

I love them!  Now I just need to find the perfect place to hang them.

Hair Bows

Yesterday's ribbon rainbow was cut, stitched, and hot glued into hair bows this week.  A teacher at my daughter's school asked me to make five matching sets of hair bows to match five outfits for her soon-to-be adopted daughter.

This is what I came up with...

Now, I've only seen the outfits in photos, but I think these hair bows will match perfectly and look great.  I hope the little girl loves them!

A Ribbon Rainbow

Rainbows are great...rainbows of ribbon are even better!  I'll reveal the results of this project in a few days.  Stay tuned!

Bulletin Board Update

This is my sewing space...

It's a mess and could really use some organization and personality.  Over the next few weeks I hope to give this area a little extra TLC.  I have lofty ambitions for a shiny new (hopefully sturdier) sewing table, clear bins for fabric that I can organize by color, and a shelf with a rod underneath for ribbon storage.  And maybe even a few cute decorations on the walls.  But for right now I'll settle for a a new bulletin board for the wall behind the sewing machine.  I am a notorious note-taker and list-maker, so I need a place to organize all of my random post-its, coupons, and any other very important miscellaneous stuff that needs a home, like my pug puppet.  Do I need a pug puppet?  Probably not, but it's one of my favorite things I've ever made and it makes me smile.  :)

Now on to the crafting!  I started out with this plain old bulletin board that I purchased from Target for around $10.  Boring!

I gave it two coats of aqua spray paint that I had leftover from a previous project.  The I used my handy dandy hot glue gun to attach a piece of cute pink fabric to the cork board.

Much better indeed!  Bright and cheery to match the rest of the room, my kids' playroom.  I think pug puppet likes his new home! 

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go make a few more lists to add to my new bulletin board.  :)