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!

new valentine and french charms

I am loving these stick charms - especially pairing them with larger charms on my necklaces. I made a few today for the shop. I plan on making many more. Here are a few of the ones I listed.

gifts from mom

My mom is amazing in so many ways. To be honest, I love being the beneficiary of her talents. Last summer she came up with this cool camera bag (she needs to make a pattern for it!). I saw the one she made herself and wanted one. I knew I wouldn't sew one for myself. I had forgotten about until I opened up my birthday gift last week. Yippee! I have one and I love it. She made mine from decorator weight fabric (Amy Butler, I think?). It has a pocket on the inside and I love the detachable strap. It sits right on my hip when I wear it across my body. Perfect.

And, if any of you have been reading this blog over a year, you will know that I had great intentions of making this bag - the Amy Butler Birdie Sling. I had most of it cut out and even had the fusible fleece attached. But, it sat on my sewing table for too long until my mom came here in August. She took it home with her. She still has to clean up after me! She finished it for me (really, made the entire bag) and sent it back with my dad when he came to visit in November. I had forgotten about it (I tend not to remember much!) and when he pulled it out of his suitcase, I was in shock. It looked much better completed than sitting in pieces on my table.

christmas card 2010

front
back

I like to see every one's Christmas Cards and try to get ideas for next year. I didn't have a family photo taken this year, unfortunately, but I was able to find a cute photo of each of the kids to add to this one. I ordered my cards at OvernightPrints.com as 4X6 postcards with envelopes for such a reasonable price. I love that they offer a gloss sheen and rounded corners. It's the reason I chose them for my business cards as well.

shop reopened and updated just a bit

I put the shop in vacation mode for the past week and a half to spend time with my family. It was so nice, but when I looked for my shop on etsy - vacation mode means your shop is like a black hole. So, it was time to bring it back to life and this time with a few more charms. I have tons more initials to list as well, but as I was listing the current ones at midnight, a child woke up at that time sick. The poor boy was up all hours of the night (as were his parents!) and I hope he gets better soon. We have avoided sickness all vacation...until now. Hopefully, we will all be recovered for a New Years Celebration (or my birthday tomorrow!).

I have some new pendants/charms I am going to be working on for Valentines - the stick sized ones (1/2"X 1 1/2") with some cute sayings and maybe a little glitter. I'll work on those when the kids get back to school. In the mean time, we will work on recovering.

easy last minute gift - key fob

I am have made some key fobs in the past and even gave many away. I still have pieces of the key fob hardware stored away. You can buy it on ebay pretty inexpensively. Well, I realized on Tuesday that I still needed a few teacher, visiting teaching, and bus driver gifts this week. It was time to make some more key fobs, but just a bit differently than the last time.

I cut out a piece of 5"wide X 11"long fabric and then another piece of extra stiff stabilizer of the same size. I ironed the stabilizer on the back of the fabric. Then, I ironed the fabric in half lengthwise. I opened it back up and then folded each end in to meet that folded line in the middle. Lastly, I folded it in half so it was a nice folded 1 1/4" strip (the correct width of the fob hardware). I sewed a top stitch (1/4" from the edges) down each side and then attached the key fob hardware and key ring. Viola - a quick, yet cute and usefull gift to give.

I made one of these for myself last spring and it is still holding up. I love the stiffness of the stabilizer because it makes it like a loose cuff around your wrist - making it easy to hang on to my keys. I made all of these with Amy Butler's Love fabrics.