Random Scrapbook Pages

I used the Everyday Paper Dolls cartridge on my Cricut for these two pages.  I can't wait to make some paper dolls.  There are also backgrounds you can cut out and lots of accessories, like these zoo animals and train.  The rest of the pages were done at my mom's house, without the Cricut.

Welcome Little One Card

My first Cricut project!  This sweet card is going to my sister, she just had a beautiful baby boy!  The bottle, pacifier, and the words are from the Simply Charmed cartridge.  I also ordered the Everyday Paper Dolls and the Plantin Font.  I found them the cheapest on Amazon, and then got free shipping because I spent more than $50.  The amazing part is that I got two of them in only two days!  The third is coming from somewhere else.  The Cricut was very easy to use.  There was a little bit of a learning curve while trying to get them to cut out in the correct size, but I think I've mastered that now.

I am so excited to make the paper dolls!  I think I am going to make a set for my niece for her upcoming birthday.  The picture on the back of the cartridge doesn't even give you half of the options, There are 6 images for every button, and then you add 6 more by using the shift key - awesome!

Cricut Expression - It's even pink!

Look what I got!  I'm so excited to finally have my very own Cricut!  Now I need to buy cartridges.  So, if you have a Cricut, please leave a comment for me and tell me what your favorite cartridge is, and the one you use the most.  If you want to leave a link to pictures of projects you've made, that would be awesome.  You'll be seeing some fancy scrapbook pages from me soon!

Spaghetti Bird Nests (Kids Craft)

This month in our homeschooling preschool, we are learning about birds.  I found this great project for spaghetti nests, and thought it would be fun to do with the kids.  We mixed our spaghetti with glue and paint and layered in a bowl covered in wax paper.  My kids loved making colored noodles!  So much so, we made way too many and our nests got really thick!  The directions say it may take a day or two to dry.  We left ours on the counter for about 5 days and they weren't even half dry, and they were starting to smell, so I broke out the hair dryer and stood there for quite a while (I was reading a book).  So if you choose to do this with your kids, just break out the hair dryer right away, or if you live where it's actually sunny and warm in April (not snowing), you can put it outside and it'd dry faster.  I also hard boiled some eggs so they would have an egg to put in their nest.  I intended to dye the eggs blue to look like Robin eggs, but we didn't get to it. 

Rebekah's nest before drying.

 Caleb's nest before drying.

Rebekah's finished nest!

Caleb's finished nest!

Fabric Choices for Little Girl Skirt

Help us decide what fabric to pick for this skirt.  It's for a little girl, about 8 years old.  These are the fabric choices that I had already in my stash, so which one do you like the best?  The last picture is to show that if I used only the corduroy pants as the fabric, it would be and inch shorter than requested (and that's with a frayed hem). 

Very technical measuring tape isn't it?

Little Girl Jean Skirts

 

Two jean skirts made for a little girl in my church.  Both pairs had butterfly's on the back pockets already, which make them extra cute!  The first skirt has a frayed hem, and the second has a normal, double rolled hem.  I also have a khaki corduroy one to make for her, but I need her to pick the fabric.  

Jean Skirt Using a Pair of Capri Pants

I made this skirt for a friend using a pair of capri pants she found at Goodwill.  I left the original hem on the pants and then added piece of denim from another pair of jeans.  When I pinned the piece to the pants, I also pinned the hem of that piece, and sewed the hem at the very end (in case I had to adjust it due to the fabric pulling).  Here are photos of the front and back of the new skirt.  If you missed my original tutorial on how to turn jeans into a skirt, you can click here. 

Butterfly Pin Cushion

I always struggled to get the pins out of the little plastic box they came in, it seemed I could never grab just one at a time.  A pin cushion was the perfect solution.  After seeing this tutorial on Make It & Love It, I was on the look out for a cute ceramic candle holder.  Instead, I found a cute little butterfly candy dish!  I found it at Micheal's for about $2.  With Easter coming up, there are a lot of cute containers in fun colors available.  I was able to use a scrap of fabric from my stash that matches my Target bulletin boards.  I hot glued the fabric into the container, which ended up a little wonky, but that just adds character, right?  Then I hot glued a blue bow and a sparkly butterfly button onto it to add a cute touch.  I think it turned out great, and because it's not as tall as a votive holder, I shouldn't be able to knock it off the table as easily (I hope). 

Thankful for Electricity

Today my simple joy is having electricity!!!!  We had a terrible storm Sunday night and were without power until around 11am today, Tuesday.  There were 8 power poles that snapped in half, as well as several trees down blocking the road.  I am very thankful that everyone we know is safe!  Our only casualty's were our gas grill and a plastic fisher price slide (that we found about 8 houses down, smashed).  The above picture is the power company convention behind our house, thank you to all the power company workers that worked through the night replacing poles and stringing lines! 

This is the storage building's roof, which is across the street and down a little bit from us.  

During the storm, my sister in law was giving birth to our new nephew, Taylor.   Welcome to the family!

 My sewing machine and computer were out of commission, so I found some time to scrapbook in the afternoon.  I started working on 2010 pictures, here are my first three pages. 

 

Little House on the Prairie Dress, Apron, and Bonnet

She was beaming today when she tried on her finished prairie dress.  She plans on wearing it on a field trip in the near future.  I think it turned out really cute.  The bonnet is my favorite part, I considered making myself one to wear this summer, but I think people would think I was strange...  For those who missed my earlier post, I used the McCall's pattern 9424 for the dress and the bonnet.  The bonnet had some hand sewing that I wasn't anticipating, but the finished product is adorable.  The pattern came with the directions for a pinafore, but this little girl requested a half apron instead, so I used the pattern for the ruffle on the bottom, but had to finish it on my own.   I can't wait to hear about her field trip!

Today's Simple Joys

Church

70 degree weather

Grilled hot dogs

Fishing with the kids for the first time this season (only one pole ended up in the water!)

Binder Cover - Recipe Book

This binder cover was part 2 of my mom's birthday gift.  I added some plastic pages and page dividers, as well as a few handwritten recipes to make it a recipe book that matches her new apron.  I found the binder cover tutorial at Lola...again.  Inside, on the left, there are pockets for pens and a larger pocket for whatever else you'd like.  The other side has a vertical pocket that's big enough for a whole piece of paper, perfect for holding magazine pages or computer print outs.  I followed the tutorial exactly, except where the author added a magnetic snap, I added a large button, which gave it a more rustic feel, perfect for my mom's log home kitchen.  This cover took me about 4 hours to complete, a little more than I expected because there are so many pieces to cut out, and some that need interfacing too!  So, about 2 hours of my time was cutting and ironing, which is my least favorite part!  I was so excited with the finished product that I may make another one for myself... someday!

Today I am grateful for beautiful spring weather!  I took my kids to a nature preserve today and we did a little trail walking.  I'm also thankful that I didn't have to bring a stroller, Rebekah walked a whole mile without complaining!

Apron

Happy Birthday Mom!  This apron was part 1 of my mom's birthday present.  The pattern is actually from Martha Stewart, click here.  The template that she provides needs to be printed out and taped together, which is a little bit of a pain, but really not that difficult.  Don't worry about getting it taped together perfectly, it's an apron, so there's plenty of fudge room!  The pockets on the front were really easy to create, the whole apron panel is just fold up and sewn in place.  I did add the checkered stripes on the top and bottom myself, to give it a little more character.  The fabric is actually home decor fabric, found at JoAnn's, which is a little thicker than plain cotton.

Today's simple joy is my mom!  Thank you for being a great one, have a wonderful day!

Baby Toys

I made a tote bag full of baby toys for my sister's baby shower gift, and included a book from my favorite children's author, Sandra Boynton (we really like Snuggle Puppy and Pajama Time too).  I made a stuffed chicken, a stuffed block, and a cloth chain ready to be chewed on.  The cloth baby rings came from Make It & Love It, as well as the idea for the block, although I just made up my own pattern for the block, it has 3 sides of cotton fabric, one terry cloth, one fleece, and one corduroy.  I wanted to make it a little more textured.  The rings were not hard to make, but turning them right side out and stuffing them was really a pain!  I don't know if I'd ever make them again, well, maybe I'd make it a little bigger so it'd be easier to work with. 

The idea for the chicken also came from Make It & Love It.  She made an elephant and a giraffe, which was really cute, but I wanted a chicken to match the bedding set that my sister has picked out for her baby's room.  I drew a chicken free hand and used red ribbon for the tail and crown, and orange ribbon for the feet.  The lower picture shows the orange fabric on the back.  I may try and PDF my drawing later today for anyone that wants to make their own.

Baby Shower Cake

This is the baby shower I made for my sister (her last name is Funk and the gender is unknown).  I had to make a cake large enough to feed 80 people, so I started with two half sheets, 12 x 18 inch pans and squished them up next to each other.  Then I made four blocks using 6 inch square pans (I had to trim an inch off of the blocks to make them more cube-like.  It took 12 boxes of cake, 42 eggs, 2/3 of a bottle of oil, and 7 batches of icing!  It's sitting on a piece of ply-wood that's covered in Saran Wrap Freezer Paper, which was so much better than the standard foil that I usually use!  A big thank you to my husband for providing the idea.  What I like about it was the white color and the fact that it doesn't rip when you cut the cake with a knife!  All in all, it was a wonderful shower, Rebekah and I had a great time.  (Come back in the coming days to see the gifts we gave the mom to be).  We can't wait to meet Baby Funk!