Fall Pumpkin Give Thanks Wood Art

Autumn is here. Deep, rich reds, browns, and oranges are here, along with steaming cups of cappuccino, warm sweaters, and quilts to snuggle under.

Fall inspired the project I'm going to share with you today. Probably my favorite part of this project is that I didn't have to visit a craft store to make it. For maybe the first time in my crafting career I just made do with what I had on hand! Fortunately, it doesn't require much in the way of materials. 

I used a scrap piece of wood, kid paint, nails, embroidery thread, and my silhouette to cut the banner pieces. 

 

A few weeks ago I made another like it and used scissors to cut the banner pieces and wrote on them with crayon. Again, using what I had, because my Silhouette was boxed up and I didn't feel like dragging it all out. 

Fun, right? And so easy! 

Hope you're enjoying Fall so far and staying warm!

Minion Bulletin Board

Hey bloggity-blog!

Today's post is one of my most fun projects to date. My brother called to ask if I could design some minions (characters from the Despicable Me movies) for his wife's bulletin board at school for parent night THE DAY BEFORE she needed them.

Uhhh.....yes, I'd love to, brother. ;-)

So, I spent a couple of hours designing three different minions in the Silhouette software. I have a minimal skill set in computer design learned while teaching high school computer courses with the Adobe creative design software. Fortunately, many of those tools I mastered in Adobe carry right over to the Silhouette studio software. I did not use any files to outline the minions. I used only basic shapes and then manipulated the points along the line of the shape and grouped shapes to achieve designing the different pieces of the minions.

Side note...don't accidentally google minon when searching for minion inspiration. Just trust me on this one.

Here are the three different minions I designed.

By flipping the minions you can achieve different looking minions with the same shape. We also added hair pieces to give each minion its own personality.

Here's the board all put together. My sister in law did an awesome job placing the minions on the board and she gave them their balloon, flag, and banana accessories.

This little guy floating away with his balloons is my favorite.

"Oh, bello!"

It's a minion thing.

 

If you've never seen the Despicable Me movies, then you can watch the 50 second YouTube video here to see minions in action. Or this one here. And, if you still want to see more....you can watch this one here. Personally, I think the third link is the funniest.

Okay...confession...I just can't stop watching these minion clips! They're different from what was in the movies. This last link seriously had me laughing out loud. You can watch it here. Because who doesn't have all the time in the world to waste on watching 1 to 2 minute clips on minions? ;-) I joke, I joke.

Speaking of no time to waste....

Have your kiddos gone back to school yet? My oldest baby begin his first year of school on Friday. I am excited for him to begin, but definitely having a hard time figuring out how he got to be school age so darn fast! Haha!

Hope you all have a great rest of the week!

Fabric Scrap Stash Buster - Mini Monsters

Hello craft blog!

Today for your reading pleasure a scrap fabric stash buster! AND...a craft made for BOYS! Those are hard to find. :-) Obviously, also easily made for girls too. Just switch up the color palette.

I spent some time recently sewing for a little guy's fourth birthday and whipped up this quick and easy mini monster to match the pajama pants I made for him.

The eyeballs were cut from the pajama fabric.

First step is to cut your front and back pieces.

Mine are approximately 9" tall by 6" wide.

Then, sew the face pieces on the front fabric.

Second step sew the arms and legs straps.

 

 For the legs and arms I took a 10" long by 4" wide strip of fabric, folded it down to 1" width, and sewed it as one piece around all four sides, then cut it in two and put the open ends inside the monster. Do this twice, once for arms and once for legs.

Third step tuck the arms and legs inside the monster, with front and back piece right sides facing each other, then sew around the perimeter with a 1/4" seam allowance, leaving a two to three inch gap open for turning and stuffing.

Last step turn and stuff, then top stitch as close to the edge as you are comfortable going around the entire monster to close up the hole left for turning and stuffing. I used a zig zag stitch for this step just for fun.

The back of the monster.

Also, the fabric I used for his matching pj pants.

This was such a quick and easy project I whipped up another one for my nephew just because he asked.

He's a super helper and begged to do the stuffing himself.

My son in red on the left and my nephew in green on the right.

My mom made the blue monster for my son quite some time ago.

She's who I steal all my best ideas from. ;-)

This weekend I purchased the materials for my son's quilt and it is next up on the project block.

What have you been working on lately?

Independence Day Thank You, Flavored Popcorn in a Mason Jar

Here's a quick Independence Day idea for you. Last summer I made these flavored popcorn filled mason jars as a thank you for all the veterans on our block and in our family. My three year old helped make the popcorn (I just googled for flavored popcorn recipes) and then he helped deliver them with me.

The veterans LOVED it! I think it is so important to not only feel thankful for their sacrifices, but to intentionally go out of your way to show them appreciation. This is just one quick and inexpensive way to do that.

In post editing of the photos the popcorn turned out with a greenish hue, but it was in fact blue colored popcorn. We used jello packages for the flavoring and color.

Land of the Free Because of the Brave

I designed the tags in Silhouette studio.

What are you doing this year to thank our current military and our veterans? Remember...freedom isn't free!

First Birthday Party Picnic

My youngest turned one a month ago now and I put together a picnic inspired party in the park for him. I enjoyed thinking and planning this one out a couple of months in advance. I made lists upon lists for the prepping and the day of the party. We had the party thirty-five minutes from our home, so for my sanity I didn't want to forget anything. It almost worked...the only thing I forgot was an ice cream scoop. That's a success in my book! :-)

I designed the invitations in PicMonkey and then printed them as 4x6 photos at Walmart. I glued them to white cardstock to give it a little more stability before placing them in paper sack envelopes to mail. I used washi tape to keep the back fold down and stuck one first class stamp on each sack and they mailed without any issue at all.

I followed this tutorial to fold the paper sack envelopes. She used super cute inserts for her picnic party details. If you're looking for party inspiration her blog is a great source to use.

A Party Style blog

 



The wind was blowing like crazy that day, so my tissue paper pom poms are a little crazy looking in this photo and you can barely see the torn fabric ribbon banner I made. On both sides of the corner post of the pavilion I taped photos, one for each month of his first year.

 



We had a simple menu of hamburgers, hotdogs, bagged chips, fresh mixed veggies, strawberries, and watermelon. I purposefully kept it simple and easy to prepare and I am so glad I did!

My grill master husband.

 

I found those cute picnic baskets at a local estate sale for a few bucks. We used one for the bags of chips and one for the thank you favors, bagged homemade chocolate chip cookies. We used this pudding cookie recipe by Chef In Training. It is by far the best chocolate chip cookie I've ever baked myself...soft, gooey, yummy! And, they're so easy to bake, my self-proclaimed non-experienced baker of a husband actually made them for the party. I take these cookies to lots of get-togethers and they're always a hit.

 

These are the notes we stapled to the cookie bags as a thank you favor.

I made the template in Word and printed ten cards to a page of cardstock.

 

I found the plastic serving trays at The Dollar Tree and Walmart.

The silverware is placed in red tin cans from the Target dollar spot.

The fly nets over the veggies and fruit came from a yard sale, a quarter each...Score!

 

I baked all the cakes myself. I might be crazy.

The banners on the rectangle cakes are made from a tiny gingham print fabric.

The checkered tablecloth came from the Dollar Tree.

I made the card for this cake using my Silhouette.

My mom made this adorable bib for the birthday boy.

The zigzag fabric came from a local quilt shop,

and I found the gingham at a local antique shop.

She used a white terry cloth towel for the backing.

His priceless reaction to the crowd of 50 singing Happy Birthday to You.

 

 

With some advanced planning and a vow to keep things simple I thoroughly enjoyed throwing this first birthday bash for my son. With every party I throw I learn something new and learn to be more organized. Now to start pinning for next year....LOL!

My First Quilt

For my son's first birthday I wanted to make something really special for him. I decided to go with a baby blanket and followed Andrea's Basic Straight Line Baby Quilt Tutorial over at Knitty Bitties.

Her tutorial is very easy to follow and the cheater binding method she uses is pure genius. This blanket is the biggest sewing project I've completed to date and I was so excited about how well it turned out.

I spent weeks going to fabric stores and picking out just the right combination of fabrics for the quilt. So glad I did too. Next up a pirate themed quilt for my older son!

Baby Bib

Remember when I told you once upon a time, my mother is the real talent behind this craft blog?

No?

Well, she is. She can sew anything...and she sews it well. She was actually taught how to sew correctly by a legitimate home ec teacher (very much unlike my self-taught methods via blog tutorials and you tube videos). When she watches me pin fabrics together I watch her cringe watching me and I know what's coming next....

"Mrs. Carrington would be rolling over in her grave if she knew I was letting you pin that way."

Yes, yes she would.

But, hey. I do the best I can and I'm getting better.

Moving on....

So today's project is courtesy of my talented seamstress of a mother. Granted, this is a very easy, beginner level project as sewing goes, but it's still much better than what I can crank out at this point!

She followed the tutorial over at Sew She Sews. You can visit the tutorial here http://sewshesews.wordpress.com/2010/04/08/quilted-patchwork-bib-pattern-and-tutorial/. Her instructions and the photos to go with make this a very easy to tutorial to follow if you're just learning...like me. :-)

Mom made one of these for St. Patrick's Day and most recently, Easter. My beautiful second son was kind enough to model the Easter bib for us.

 

Between the jellybeans and blue chevron is a tiny strip of yellow ribbon.

 

My son's first birthday is at the end of May. I'm thinking I'll need to commission Grami for a birthday bib as well. ;-)

 

Linking up here this week.  



Changing Pad and Diaper Holder plus Custom Wipes Case

In my last post you read about the baby shower we hosted for my cousin's wife. Today I'm going to share with you the fruits of my hand made baby gift making labors.

Maybe what I love most about this particular project is that I used the same fabric for her changing pad and diaper, wipes holder as I did for her bridal shower a year earlier. Ah, the wonder of "neutral" fabrics.

I followed this awesome tutorial over at Cluck, Cluck Sew to make the changing pad and diaper holder. Great instructions, and it was a very quick sew, even for a total beginner/novice like me.

First up though, the custom wipes case. This has been done over and over, so nothing new here. A friend made one for me for my first son and I loved having it in my diaper bag. There's just something about a custom wipes case that makes getting wipes out for diapers, sticky faces, snotty noses, and dirty hands just a little sweeter. I simply traced the case on one piece of felt and one piece of fabric for the front and the back, then hotglued it on, and trimmed it in black grosgrain ribbon. Added a bow and black button to the top, easy peasy, and cute!

 

The changing pad.

I used a black minky fabric for the inside.

Would easily hold a few diapers and the wipes case.

 

All wrapped up neat and tidy with a velcro clasp.

When it gets dirty just toss it in the wash and use again.

 

Creating handmade baby things is my new sewing obsession. The projects just seem simple and quick, very satisfying to this newbie on the sewing machine. Right now I'm in th emiddle of a baby quilt for my son who will turn one in May. It seems rather large for a baby, so it's okay that I'm just now getting to finishing it. ;-)

 

Have a happy Friday!

Rubber Ducky Baby Shower

It's been approximately nine months since my last craft post, so how about another just for fun?

Last June my cousin's wife gave birth to her first child. The month before we threw her a rubber ducky themed baby shower. It turned out pretty cute (and was surprisingly frugal).

Maybe you have a baby shower coming up and you can get some inspiration from these photos of ours! :-)

I purchased the booklet at Hobby Lobby for 2.50, when they were half off. To the window I added a personalized insert I created with my Silhouette software. The rubber ducks and "bubbles" were scrapbook stickers also purchased at Hobby Lobby. It's just sheets of paper on the inside. We asked the guests to leave their words of wisdom for the new momma.



Sam's Club is our go to bakery for cakes. They are inexpensive and just as tasty as a custom cake. We just added the rubber ducky momma and baby to match the theme of the shower.

So, this idea isn't a new one, but it is cute!

Add sherbert to froth it up, and float a few rubber ducks.

 



Waaaaaay at the end of the table are some cute baby booty mints.

Next to the punch bowl are cocktail picks.

We cut the ducks using a Cricut and

added a cherry and pineapple below.

 

On the guest tables.

This U shaped table layout makes for great viewing.

 

The banner is made from a duck pattern cotton and a terry cloth yellow bath towel.

You can see the momma there in the upper righthand corner.

 



I love to browse the Internet for ideas for any showers we throw, so hopefully some of you reading this now can do the same with this post. Have a great rest of your Wednesday!