Saturday, February 25, 2012

Felt Quiet Play Mat

So if you've seen my Pinterest boards ever, you know that I love felt crafts and have a whole board devoted to them (see here).

Last fall when I started my blog I was also trying to come up with a cute, fun, homemade gift idea for a 2 y/o girl.  I saw this awesome quiet book at Nap Time Crafters.  When I was brainstorming on the phone with my mom we came up with an idea for a "dolly dress up" quiet book made with felt.  Well needless to say, this project did not pan out though I spent MANY MANY hours on it... it just wasn't what I wanted it to be.  Someday I will revisit it but in the meantime I was still searching for something handmade to do (and in a time crunch now).  I had a ton of felt which I had bought for the quiet book so I was looking for an easier felt idea and found this post for a felt play mat....

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Sweets!

Normally I do not get into Valentines Day at all, but this year I put a little effort into it the night before :).  My little Monkey and I made treats for his daycare friends and teachers. We love to bake in this house- even my husband. He makes some really phenomenal pumpkin bread among other things.




Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Baby Shower Gifts 2012: Take Two

This past Sunday I attended my second baby shower of the year already. I have a third one in a week and a half (which I haven't hardly started crafting for!) and a good handful of other friends who are pregnant and I would love to make a little something for. Whew. But I guess it means a lot of fun crafting time!

So this friend from work is into the whole Punk Rock Princess look. She loves the skulls w/ bows. But I couldn't bring myself to craft/sew anything with skulls for a little girl so I had to do the hot pink/black look.

I ended up finding some cute punk rock girly flannel that didn't have skulls and turned it into a couple of cute burp rags.

I just cut out two matching pieces of the fabric & some batting, matched up wrong sides and sewed around the edges.  I clipped the corners and then turned it inside out.  I also added my handmade just for you tags!

These weren't the only burp cloths she got that were homemade and I decided after seeing the others, I really need to topstitch to give it a nicer finish.



I also was really excited to make some flower headbands. I have a boy but I just love making flower headbands so it's awesome to have a reason to make some.....

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Graphic Arts

Saturday I spent some time working on business cards and custom stamp designs.  I picked a really cute design for the business cards that included some button flower graphics.  So when I started thinking of the custom stamps I want to order I decided to design a button flower to be similar to what is on my business cards.

 Here's how I did it...

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

And I'm back!

Sorry for the long vacation from blogging. In November I ended up with a few unexpected 700 mile round trips to spend some time with my Nana (grandma) who's leukemia returned after being in remission for about 4 months. And then another trip in December to attend her funeral service.  I really miss that lady!  She was the original crafter/DIYer/thrifty shopper in our family- my mom and I- we just follow in her footsteps. Then of course there was Christmas and a mad rush to finish Christmas gifts and then this last month has just been recovery from the holiday madness, spending some family time before the Husband started college courses again.  But here I am and excited to get back into blogging.

Well, lets get onto the craft stuff.  A little of what I've been up....

Baby Shower Gifts (For Shower 1 of 3 in January/February 2012)



My FIRST EVER blanket.  Okay, so it's a little bit of a cheater.  Last fall Walmart was phasing out their pre-cut fabrics to make way for the bolt fabric comeback.  So I picked up some "kits" at crazy prices... Way less than what the material itself would've cost me.  And since I was am a beginner when it comes to sewing it certainly wasn't a stretch for me to buy them.




Some burp rags for the same friend.  At the same sale at Walmart I scored some really cute flannel in 5 different patterns.  Each pre-cut piece was just about perfect for a burp rag.  I just added some batting (which I needed for my blanket anyway! And got with a 40% off coupon at JoAnn).  I was running out of time and am not a big fan of hand sewing so you'll notice one I tried out the fringe look on.  I'll be going with that for
future burp rags.

  I came up with the tags because on my blanket, the spot I left open to turn it right side out- well it was not the most amazing job of hand sewing it shut that has ever been done (remember I am still a BEGINNER!) so I wanted something to cover it up a little.  I used a fabric marker, a $1 clear stamp and white ribbon.  And I really loved how they turned out.

I just loved the monkey flannel fabrics, I almost couldn't use them/part with them because they were SO stinking cute.

Does anyone else ever have the problem of not wanting to use fabric because it's so pretty/cute you just almost can't cut it up????


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