for baby...again

I haven't done much in terms of creating (unless you count messes) except for the appliques I made for a new baby gift. Lots of babies being born around here and I tend to stick to the same gift! Here's a lion and a dog that I added to a few onesies for this particular baby boy. Now, I need to come up with some for a baby girl that will be born very soon!

posting at mint green with envy

Since I don't post over here as much as I would like, I thought I would try posting on Bridget's blog - Mint Green With Envy! I am posting a tutorial for a child's Personalized Pillow Case. My kids are already using theirs and tonight had a pillow fight with them. So, they are a hit - ha! Check it out.

lil cutie pouch

I have had Noodlehead's Lil Cutie Pouch book marked for quite awhile now - wondering if I could make something with a zipper. I know, I know...it's not too hard to sew with a zipper, but I have this fear you know. One of the first dresses I ever made (which was a Sew Easy pattern by the way)had a zipper in the back and I struggled putting it in such a small 12 month sized dress. That might have scarred me a little.

Anyway, the directions for the pouch were so clear and it was easy to make. I made it for a friend for her birthday and filled it with chap stick and gum and then made a matching key fob to go with it.

And, yesterday I went to Hobby Lobby and bought 7 more zippers, so that I can make an entire collection of these little pouches. They are perfect to attach to the inside of your purse so that you have easy access to the essentials.

my new favorite necklace

I have been making these soldered stick pendants (just 1/2" X 1 1/2") lately and I love that I can add a few to the bigger charms on a chain to make a little ensemble of my favorite things.



I have been finding images to put on the back of these new stick pendants. So far I have New York (Statue of Liberty and Empire State Building), Utah (vintage beehive), Paris (Eiffel Tower)- (not shown) and California (the beach and a few others). I am hoping to find great images that will represent many of the places you all might be from! Let me know what you might like on the back of these charms. I am interested in hearing. I will list the ones I have just made soon in the shop.

she loves pigs

She loves them because they are pink (I think). She has about 3 or 4 stuffed pigs that she carries around and puts in bed with her at night. They are named piggy, cotton candy, taffy and one is even named Traci Underwood after moi (lucky me!). Whenever I ask her what she wants me to put on a shirt for her, she says, "a pig." I laugh and go on and add a bird, a cat, or a something else that is not a pig. I didn't think that she was serious about having a pig shirt, but after having her ask me to make one for almost a year, I decided it was time to give her "the pig shirt" she had dreamed of...
Don't tell, but she wore it for two days straight just so that she could wear it to preschool on the second day. It made me feel good that she liked it that much.
I tried to put the snout up high enough to make room for a mouth, but she said her pig didn't have a mouth because, "pigs don't talk mom." Then she said they "oink" out of their noses. She said she just wanted a bow on the top of the pig's head so that she would look like a girl pig. So, pigs don't talk, but they wear hair bows? I appliqued the pig face and snout on using my usual method - wonder under (or Heat n' Bond) and stitching around the fabric for securing it and adding detail. I used dots of fabric paint for the nostrils on the snout and for the eyes.

i made this bird for mallory

But, I never got a great photo of her wearing it. They were all blury. She was too interested in playing on the computer instead of posing if you can believe? Then, when she came home after wearing it that day at preschool, she had blue marker all over it. I have tried to soak it in Oxy Clean, but there are still marks of blue. So, it's sitting on my dryer waiting for me to try something new to it. Soon... Oh, and the bird applique is from my drawing that I have a pattern for on my side bar.

did you say you wanted to see more appliques?

I don't think that any of you did. But, it seems as though that's mostly what I am working on lately. I had another baby shower to go to last week and that calls for more appliqued onesies. At least in my mind it does. And, just to warn you...I have a few more baby showers to go to yet, so I don't think these are going away any time soon.

This time I only officially appliqued on one of the onesies. I found a cute doggie silk screened shirt in a catalog and made my dog to look similar. I love this little dog and re sized him a few times with the copier so that I could add him to a few other items in the future.

On the other I used a freezer paper stencil that I made from the image I found here (The Boy Trifecta Blog) and stenciled him on with fabric paint. I added a button for the heart. Don't mind the wrinkles!

making valentines

The school my kids go to doesn't allow any food/sweets for holidays, birthdays or parties. Sometimes it's a bummer because it seems like the cute crafts have candy involved. I do know that in the long run we make up for the lack of sweets at school by having way too many at home. So, it may be a good rule for their school. Maybe. Because of this rule, I have to be a bit more creative when it comes to Valentines cards every year. Last year I found some for the boys that turned in to little soccer fields or basketball courts (little balls included).


This year, I found some for my nine year old that folded in to paper airplanes with 4 different styles. He thought they were cool, therefore, I was happy. For my six year old, I turned an easy Valentine cross word into a Valentine postcard. We added sports themed pencils to the cards for the boys and plastic heart bracelets for the girls. We just wanted these to be a bit better than the commercial ones where they just sign their names. Hopefully the kids will like the word search as well as the additional trinkets.



As for my four year old...she goes to preschool, so her Valentines were full of candy!

charms for girls

These aren't necessarily for little girls, but for hometown girls - Little stick charms to remember your roots. I am a Kentucky transplant and have been here over 11 years, but I grew up in San Diego, California and still consider myself a California girl. I am starting to feel like a Kentucky girl too since I really love everything about Kentucky. These stick charms are only 1/2"X1 1/2" and are perfect for adding them to a chain that already has an initial charm. I am going to make a few more and stick them in the shop soon.

for gavin

A few weeks apart from each other - Abby and her cousin Gavin. So, I made few appliqued onesies for Gavin to welcome him as well. His dad is a surfer, so I thought the VW Bug with the surf board on top would be perfect. I also made a different version of the monkey applique I made here. I added the word monkey with a freezer paper stencil and fabric paint. As I was cutting it out with an exacto knife, I was wishing I had a Silhouette or a Cricut. Got to save my pennies for one of those!

for abby

A new little niece means a new little dress with a bit of applique. I didn't make the dress - it was an Old Navy special (love the additional 40% off sale items). I love the pink and red together. Since it's a 12 month dress, I thought it might be nice to add a cupcake (it will be around her birthday) and in Valentine colors (it will be around Valentines Day). I hope I didn't go over the top by adding her name. It just seemed like something was missing when I got the cupcake appliqued on. Well, she won't be able to hand this one down unless she finds another little Abby to give it to! Now, all this dress needs is a pair of leggings and I found a pair of red glitter shoes at Target (you know the ones) in a size that I think will fit a 1 year old!

be mine banner

I love seeing all the many Valentines banners out in blogland right now like here, here, and here. I already have 3 banners hanging up at my house right now for Valentines Day(this one, this one and this one), but I wanted to make one anyway. I decided I would make one for a friend. I had an idea of what I wanted and then when I went upstairs I started to make something totally different. A lot of times I end up making something with what I have on hand because I want to do it right then and don't have the patience to wait until I can get something at the store. Plus, I have this idea that some day I can use up all the fabric (scraps and all) that I have in my sewing room. Impossible? Maybe, but I am up for the challenge.
The banner is simple - just 14 6X8" tan rectangles layered in two's and sewn on three sides - leaving the top open. That made seven rectangles. Once turned right side in and pressed, I was ready to cut the BE MINE out of black felt with Wonder Under on the back. I used the Pointedly Mad font from dafont.com. I cut the heart out of red felt with Wonder Under on the back using a heart stencil. I ironed the letters and heart on each rectangle and top stitched around them. Then, I had a long piece of red double fold bias and attached them to in between the fold.
Don't mind the blurry photos. We have had overcast days and it seems like sunny days are few and far between. I guess I need to take what I can get!

mallory's turns four - think pink!

A party of pink, pink, Princesses, Tinker Bell, Dora, unicorns, Tangled and more pink. This is what Mallory requested for her birthday party. So, I went with the theme "Anything goes as long as it's mostly Pink!" I decorated with lots of pink, a few princesses and a couple splashes of blue since she did invite two boys along with seven girls.

CROWNS - I made these out of large sheets of stiff felt. I found the pattern for the princess crowns from the Koala Brains blog. I added silver sequins to the bottom of each crown. Then, I chose a different color of felt for each heart that I appliqued on to the crowns. The fun part came when I went through all my brads and buttons and added them to the crowns. I was even more excited when I realized I had every one's initials in silver glittered chip board alphabet letters that I glue gunned on. I used a piece of 1" wide elastic and sewed it to the ends of each crown in the back making them fit everyone for awhile - a little give as they grow. For the shape of the boys' crowns, I followed the pattern from the Juicy Bits blog .

TISSUE POM POMS - I followed this tutorial on Martha Stewart.com. I used 10 sheets of tissue for each. They were easy, although some of them were a little bit funky in shape after I fluffed them!

CUPCAKE TOPPERS - I used Photoshop Elements to make 2" circles using the shapes in Artworks and Effects. I added "m's", "4's" and cupcake graphics from my digital scrapbook images to the circles. I punched out the circles with my 2" circle punch. Then, I punched color and patterned paper from my 2 1/2" scallop punch. I attached them to toothpicks and they were ready to put in cupcakes.

GIFT BAGS - For the girls, I had some Tinker Bell fabric I got on the cheap when Wal Mart was clearing out their fabric department a couple of summers ago. I just made simple bags with a drawstring at the top. I added each girls initials to the front of the bags. Now, for the boys, I had some vintage Disney Robbin Hood fabric that my mother in law had given me. They too got initials on the front. I filled the bags with candy jewelry, swirly straws, and PEZ.

GAMES AND ACTIVITIES - Each girl had a wooden unicorn (knights for the boys) waiting for them to color. We added liquid glitter to the manes when they were done. Then, they went to another table and made bracelets out of Life Savers, Fruity Cheerios and thin elastic which they wore throughout the party. We played our version of Pass the Pig. We passed Mallory's favorite stuffed animal - Traci , the Pig (named after me!), and when the music stopped, whoever had the pig was out. The last one remaining, won. After dinner, cupcake eating and present opening, we played Freeze Dance until the parents came.

BIRTHDAY SHIRT - I found a blank pink shirt hanging in her closet and appliqued a cupcake with a #4 on top of it. Quick and easy. The great thing was that she had leggings and a tutu skirt that matched pretty well to go with it.

END RESULT - Loads of Fun!