Halloween Costume in April...

APPARENTLY, I never posted on this blog about Edrie's Halloween Costume and I LOVE how it turned out and involved way too much lost sleep not to have it on the craft blog... SO without further adieu...

Last year Edrie was the hungry caterpillar and this year she was an owl. Her costume was heavily inspired by pinterest and my mom, once again, indulged me in my over-ambitious craft adventures. She did half of the felt cutting and all of the wing sewing! The knit hat was super easy and very much finished halloween morning. 

We even trained her to say 'hoot hoot' I almost died from the cuteness!

Card Books

Saw this idea on pinterest and loved it! I used the template from the blog to cut out the shape from cute scrapbook paper. Then I used stickers to spruce them up! This top one is full of all the cards we got throughout our pregnancy and after Edrie was born.

These two are for Christmas cards. I love the idea of bringing them out every year to look through! I made one for all of our 2011 cards and then another that I'll fill with just our family cards! This was a great 20 minute project to start and finish after the baby went to bed. Made me feel very accomplished! Looking for more quick, satisfying projects!

Block Ornaments

 

A few of my friends hosted a craft day last month and we made these awesome photo block ornaments. You can find the tutorial here. I LOOVE how these turned out. I made mine for two babies who were born this year.

Salt Dough Ornaments

This was another project Jenni and I tried to complete with the kids underfoot. It went pretty well! I love how they turned out! Jenni just made a quick batch of salt dough, we rolled it out and stuck the kids' hands/feet in. Then we made a hole for the ribbon. I baked them for about a billion hours at 200 degrees.

   

I sprayed them with Shellac and put a little glitter to fancy them up! Excited to have these to compare to next year!

Reindeer Onesie

 

  

Jenni and I got together last week to attempt crafting with three little ones underfoot and we were successful! Edrie was strapped into the moby, Jenni's girls watched a movie and we embarked! We didn't completely finish, but we got a good start on it and had fun! 

I'm not so good with the machine applique so I just hand stitched this onto the onesie. I LOVE how it turned out. The original plan was for this to be the top to some christmas pajamas, but really I don't think my three month old cares about christmas pjs so she will probably be wearing this lots and lots the next few weeks!

Rest of the Pre-Baby Handmades

 
I completed all of these projects before Edrie arrived, but was lazy about getting them blogged. She has herself a stocking to match the rest of the family's. I just have to embroider her name on it and decide if I want to embroider the back of ours with mom and dad...
 



 

A tiny knit hat to fit a newborn. I washed it and forgot all about it in the load so it went in the dryer. I was really sad thinking it would be too small after it was accidentally felted. But it actually fit her perfectly for the first week or so.

 

And a little snail onesie...the snail is from Alicia Paulson's first book. She is almost too big to wear this too =( 

Candy Canes & Treats!

I made a few of these sweet ornaments for friends and family this Christmas. This fit the bill of quick and easy with an adorable and big impact. All it took was some denim, felt, and embroidery floss and I had myself a candy cane!

I love how simple they are! But don't you love them? You could do so many cute shapes - tree, wreath, snowman.... love them! 

I also made some of this awesome (and WAY easy) snack mix for me to give as thank you gifts for my preceptors at work. I'm all done orienting at my new nursing job!

Lastly, my hubby and I only exchanged stockings so I decided to make some of his favorite treats - chocolate covered pretzels. I wasn't going for most beautiful snack of the year, but I think they'll do the trick. Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! 

three years in the making: christmas stockings

Three years ago, the first Christmas we lived together, I bought the pattern for these stockings. I tried to make us some that year, attempting to model them after the ones my mom made us growing up. I failed miserably - got VERY frustrated and gave up. The following year, we got married and just after the holidays moved to Missouri so there was little time for crafting. Then there was last year. I had a few weeks off of school and I thought there would be NO problem knocking out a few stockings. I was so wrong. A little being came into our life and TOTALLY took it over. I did have time to get fabric, thread, and I cut out a few pieces, but no sewing was undertaken. THIS was going to be the year. No excuses. And, remarkably, they got done! 

Not without a fair bit of strife, but done. The pattern has a cuff that was just straight, but I wanted ours to be scalloped like the ones my mom had made. I'm not much of a seamstress so I struggled to make my own pattern piece and get everything to match up. I made Grant's first so it suffered a bit more, requiring complete redoing and embroidery of the cuff. But after that the other two whipped up pretty quick. They are, by no means, perfect, but perfect is overrated, right?

Can you imagine how excited I was to find CHRISTMAS PUPPY fabric for Olive's??? Totally made my day. Grant and I picked it out together. He thought her stocking should be smaller, but how would I get all her toys and treats from the doggie bakery in there? Big it is!

I embroidered our names on them, leaving the other side blank so that if/when we have babies we can decide if we want to put Mama/Papa on ours. My parents' stockings always said Mom/Dad so I kind of feel like its weird if the parents' say their names. Is that just me??

So the 'better' side is actually them hanging the other way, but since, in theory, they will be used for longer after we have kids we are using the crappier side for now. I'm SUCH a freak for thinking that all through, huh??

mittens

hi there! this Christmas we decided to forgo exchanging gifts with our families and with friends we did ornament exchanges. it was so refreshing to have that burden lifted. this is the first of two ornaments i made.

i made these little mittens for some of my classmates and also sent them to some friends. i am really happy with how they turned out and especially like that all of the materials came from my stash!

fun, cute, simple...just the way i like my crafts!

archived: button wreath ornaments

i was trying to be sneaky and not mention what specifically was pictured in this post last week. but since i had so many (read: three) people ask about it i thought i'd post the link so you can make them too.

they are pretty freaking cute wreath ornaments made using buttons. they are, of course, a martha idea. you can find details here.

we adorned them with little jingle bells and made them in lots of different colors. i plan to give these packaged in little oragami boxes made out of christmas wrapping paper. here is the tutorial i've been using for the oragami - works really well, just be precise about your folds.

archived: halloween costume ideas

Alisha asked if I had any unique ideas for kids costumes... i replied that all of my 'ideas' are replicas of others, and most frequently that 'other' is martha. Here are the links I sent her.

Could they be any cuter?

Can't you just see Ella James in one of these?

goldfish, spring chicken, lambs

this is good for a mommy or daddy who want to be festive, but not go all out (click for more)

lobster

little red riding hood & wolf

egg (kinda makes me laugh)

sunflower

butterfly

ladybug

lilly of the valley

autumn

**all photos from familyfun.com or martha

archived: whew...

attempting to organize myself for Christmas Crafting

i have been in a funk ever since returning from our wedding & honeymoon(s). i think i was just so overwhelmed with all that was going awry and also not feeling well. this weekend i really started to feel better physically and i decided that if i wanted the overwhelmed feeling to go away i had to start on something.

so i cleaned. and cleaned. and cleaned. our place was never as dirty as it was in the months leading up to and following the wedding. it FEELS so much better. as a result of my time spent cleaning, this has become my best friend. (seriously - IT.IS.amazing!!)

being in a clean house makes such a difference in my attitude! i have to remember this. since my house was clean i was able to tackle the other major thing i'm taking on - 100% handmade (by me) Christmas. this is what i did to get myself ready and organized - took me several hours on saturday, but i now think it is possible to get everything done in the next two+ months!

1. Use this template (blogged here) to make a list of who you need/want to give gifts to.

2. Use your notebook and etsy to come up with ideas for what to make for whom.

3. Print out any tutorials/patterns you will need to use.

4. Organize them by type of gift in a binder with dividers.

5. Make a supply list.

6. Buy supplies

7. Be crafty!

I'm very excited about this and REALLY hope it all works out. Could be interesting with us hosting our first Thanksgiving (for 10-12!! yay!) and G plugging away at his dissertation, BUT i think its doable!!

archived: stockings? yes please.

photo from wee wonderfuls

last year i attempted to make stockings - i completed one and hated it so i think i will start anew this year. i'm thinking these will be PERFECT! i think they are adorable and love the idea of not padding them as this was my least favorite part last year.

PS wee wonderfuls is an awesome blog with lots of cute freebies!

archived: valentine's craftiness

i went into work early yesterday so i left early and was able to have a night full of crafts. time and motivation aren't usually on my side for things like this on weeknights, but it worked out. as you can see i made pink cupcakes with pink frosting and little pink hard candies on top AND little sewn heart cards. it was all very fun and i'm proud of my creations. i'll show you the process...

i mostly like this one cuz you can see my ring... oooo....ahhh! see the pink cake batter??

pretty, plump, pink...

obviously grant enjoyed...you may have to click on the picture to get the full effect

i found the idea for these cards on a blog (that i didn't bookmark so i can't direct you there). they were really easy, but so cute. you just cut the paper and then tack the hearts down with rubber cement. put a few stitches in the center with the sewing machine and voila...

i decided i worked hard so i should get a reward.. oh so good!

*** an aside... i just realized how everyone else but me was able to do things like center parts of their blog text or make it colored, bulleted, etc...wow apparently blooger is much more advanced than the 'edit html' tag leads one to believe. i will now be writing blogs under the 'compose' tab.***