Spring has Sprung

And with spring comes new babies. I have so many friends who are pregnant right now or have just had a beautiful little baby. I made this set as a gift for one of my good friends, who just had an adorable little girl last week.

The butterfly is one of the patterns out of the Amy Butler sewing book I reviewed in this post. It came out ok I thought. I'm pretty sure subsequent butterflies will be a little more polished though. I added bells in each of the wings so it makes some fun noise too. It's fun trying out new patterns, I really enjoyed it. I'm trying to get up the courage to try one of the bags. :)

Ribbons and Bows

A friend invited me over the other day to make bows. I was excited because I have looked at lots of stuff on the internet about how to make your own bows, however I'm a visual learner and it helps me out a ton to see things done right in front of me. It was lots of fun to get out and visit with other women, while making some cute little bows for my girls hair. Here is what I got accomplished.

My oldest is really into blue right now, so I thought these would be very fitting for her. No girly pink, but a pattern that still gives it femininity.

Then I had some fun creating this cute butterfly. It had a learning curve that took a little time to figure out, but once I got that it wasn't so bad. I really wanna make some adorable little ladybugs, but I need to source out some red ribbon with black polka dots. Anyone have any suggestions of online sources for some inexpensive ribbon?

Pajamas Take Two

I made a set of pajamas for my son for Christmas. It was pretty much the first time working with children's clothes. I'm not sure if you remember the lesson I learned with pattern matching. It was funny to me when it happened. I'm so used to trying to get the most use out of a sheet of paper with as little waste as possible. Well when I was cutting out the material I adopted the same theory. Little did I know that you needed to watch the pattern of the images on the material and keep them going the same way.



I give you Exhibit A - Note how some of the penguins are upside down and others are upright. Hahahaha. I know what you are thinking. I totally should have known better. Ah Well. That's what I have to say. It's not like my son will care one bit, right?

I made another pair for him and this is how they turned out. I will have you note that I did everything right this time. :) The stripes are going the same way. I must be getting the hang of sewing clothing Eh! Isn't he just a little cutie. He points to each ball saying "see ball?" over and over.

Similar......Yet Different

Spring has sprung around here for me and I couldn't be more pleased. I have planted my seedlings to start growing indoors, and I can't wait to get my garden planted outside. I put together two cards that were very bright and fun. They use similar concepts and paper but are different. I like doing this sometimes because it's nice for my brain to only have to come up with one type of card and then tweak it a little so that it's different. Thinking of You

and a Thank you card.

I can't wait to sample some real cherries soon. Delish!

Birthday gift for a Princess

My niece had a birthday a little while back, and I made her a crayon roll to go with a coloring book. I've been really trying hard to make handmade gifts for birthday parties this year. I guess that the coloring book isn't handmade, but we will just look the other way on that one, because there is no way any child would want to color in my drawings lol. I found some really cute princess crayons that I thought would be very fitting for a little princess to color with as well.
I saw a crayon roll made by someone else on the web, forgive me I can't remember who :( But she hid the seam lines and I just love the way it looks. So shamelessly I copied, I admit it. Genius whoever she is cuz it makes it look so finished and beautiful.

I love making these, they are so fun, and easy too. Perfect to take with you anywhere to keep little hands busy.

Baby Legs Tutorial

I know there are lots of tutorials out there on the web for these, but I thought I would just add mine to the mix lol. I am one who is all about simplicity, so mine is a little different from the one you find on flickr. So here goes...Find a sock that is for an adult and comes to just below the knee. I got these at AE on clearance for $2.50 nice eh! Cut off the toe portion and the heel like in the picture.

You should then have two pieces that look like this.

Turn the smaller piece wrong sides together to form the cuff.

Insert that piece into the larger tube with right sides together. (see picture)
Pin in a few places around to hold things together properly.

Sew around those edges using an edge finishing stitch.

Pull the sock right side out and you are done. Voila! Easy Peasy, just what I like.

Here's a shot of Ellie wearing them, don't they look cute. My girls wear them when they are playing dress up, but want to keep their legs warm as well. They also wear them under their nightgowns for the same purpose.

I made another pair that I stuck on Vanden, he thought they were great, Dad however, didn't think they were that awesome :)

I however think they accentuate his chubby little thighs quite perfectly. ;)

Back in The Saddle Again

I haven't quite found a place for everything in my new craft room. My hubby put up some shelves in the closet and I used some crates stacked for my material and yarn. I hope to get it totally organized soon. Then I will show you a picture. I have a card to share with you that I made the other day. It was quite fun. I got the inspiration from Heather's blog (click the Ustamp button on my sidebar to find her)

The stamp set is from Rachelle Anne Miller and the Papers are SU. I used watercolor paper to stamp the image on with Staz-on Black ink and colored her in using my ink pads and waterbrush. The ricrac ribbon is CTMH. The sentiment is a rub-on.

I hope you enjoy her she made me feel very much like spring.