Fall Wreath

I decided to finally make my own wreath. With all of the great tutorials online and time on my hands there wasn't a reason to through down a $40 bucks on what I could make myself with supplies around the house and $20 trip to the Lobby of Hobbies ;)  First thing first I found my Pinterest-inspiration! 

 

This awesome pin of course led me to nowhere...I hate when that happens. But hey, who needs a tutorial when you have glue sticks?!?!I looked at it and thought... Yea I can do that!

So I bought the wreath from Hobby Lobby with some cheap faux flowers and the Letter K and a strand of bling in the floral department. I dug through my scrapbook paper at home and found appropriate paper and some orange and green ribbon with a chevron burlap type I bought a while back( it was thick but I figured I could just cut it to the width I liked.

 2 pieces of advise from this novice if you want:

1.) Don't overdo it! You want the wreath to show through!

2.) Just because you bought a group of flowers doesn't mean you should use all of it, especially if there are parts you don't like! Pick it apart and use what you like. Mine had all these gross purple/green pieces that I was not a fan of. So, I picked them out and trashed them. More room for the cute stuff I love!

Here are my supplies (minue the burlap/chevron ribbon, letter K, and mod podge) You can see the gross leaves on the flowers that I ended up pulling out and trashing. Also, excuse the mess on my craft table. I have a bad habit of starting 5 projects at once! LoL

First I cut pieces of ribbon and tied them to several branches I also glued down several pieced of bling!

Next I modpodged my scrapbook paper to the wooden letter. (just cut it to shape and smear a layer of modpodge on the wood. Then lay the paper on top and use a card to smooth out and bubbles, work from the center outward)

Then I went hotglue crazy. I glued flowers everywhere.I would weave some into the branched and secure them with hot glue. 

I even tied a piece of each ribbon together with the help of a twist tie and glued a flower on top. I then glued it to my now dry letter K. I even glued my letter K down. I was worried it wouldn't hold but it has. It's January now and this hung outside for a month and has been hanging in my craft closet for two months with all of the pieces in tact. 

What do you think? I think I came pretty close to the Pinterest idea I found. I love finding new ideas on pinterest!

Halloween 2012

This year was my first Halloween with my lil' man Sawyer! I was sooo excited to dress him up since he had absolutely no preference as to what he would be this year! He was 3 months old at the time and I was disappointed to see that almost every costume for that age was a baby bunting costume. I wanted something a bit more creative and special so I went pinterest crazy! I found this cute picture of a Popeye on the blog CraftyB It was ADORABLE and so different from all that I had seen that I had to have it! Unfortunately it didn't have directions and I had never before used my sewing machine I got the Christmas before. (seriously, it took me half an hour to learn how to thread the machine). So here is my end result after hours of trying to teach myself to sew on a costume design I only had a picture of. 

One of my favorite parts of her design was having a tiny hat! So cute! Everything on his costume was made from scratch, except his Polo boots of course! 

The view from the back

This last one is of Sawyer with his Aunt Courtney at the fall festival. 

Here is a quick description on how I did it. Now remember I have NO idea what I'm doing, and was only worried about the outfit surviving Halloween night. Therefore I am sure you all are capable of finding a much better method! Just thought I would share some things I did!

Step one: The "backwards bib"

I cut out two pieces of fabric using a bib as a template. I placed them right sides together and stitched around, leaving the bottom open. I then turned it right side out and topstitched it closed. I then stitched 3 pieces of black trim and pressed them flat. I pinned them and stitched in place to be the border. 

I used a sew on clasp to close it in the front. I then cut the stars and used pieces of iron on adhesive to stick them down. I tried stitching them in place but didn't like the end result, so I redid it with just iron on since it only had to last one night. 

Step 2: The Pants

 I used blue fabric and this tutorial on Prudent Baby . I then sewed a few trim pieces to the top for belt loops. 

The belt is just cord from hobby lobby and belt clasp that I stitched it through and cut a few holes in. 

Step 3: The Muscle Arms:

I cut out four pieces of fabric and used a printout of anchors to trace on the fabric with a fabric paint pen. The arms were like tubes he could put his arm through that were open at the top so I could stuff them. I used cotton balls that I pulled apart to stuff them. I then sewed a trim piece of blue around the top to close in the cotton. I attached the soft side of sew on velcro so I could velcro the muscle sleeves to the onesie. I had 2 reasons for doing this. 1: It would be way easier to just slip the sleeves on his arms instead of going on attached to the onesie. 2: I was worried the sleeves might bother him and this way I could easily pull them off if they did. (of couse he loved the sleeves and chewed on them the whole night!) 

Step 4: The Onesie

I bought a black onesie from Hobby Lobby and yellow buttons along with sew on velcro. I sewed the buttons onto the front of the onesie. I then sewed the rough side of the velcro on the top edge of the sleeves (this way it wouldn't rub against his arms when we put it on). 

Step 5: Mini Hat

I followed this tutorial for the hat Tiki Doll tutorial. The only change I made was that I sewed several lines around the brim before attaching it to the hat. I also added non-roll elastic to hold it in place. (not too tight!)

Finished!

  Sorry there are not more pictures or details. I will try to go back and add further explanation on the muscle arms when I get a chance but Sawyer is due to wake up any minute so I'm out of time. Hope you guys enjoyed reading and seeing my first sewing project! Thanks for stopping by!

My friend ModPodge!

Mod Podge is Uh-May-Zing

If you haven't discovered ModPodge yet you are missing out! It is the easiest craft I've done and one of my favorites. Here are some of my projects I've finished.

This was my first. I bought a set of paper from Hobby Lobby so they would all compliment each other. I then modpodged it down and used a paint pen to write the quote I wanted. 

 This was one I made for my classroom since I had a extra scrapbook paper laying around.

 I made these for Christmas gifts for my nephews. I modpodged their pic to canvas, added paper on the sides and went around the edges with black paint on a sponge brush. 

 I pulled the quote off the internet and painted it with a paint pen.

I got the lamp below at a yard sale for $1 then went to work with a stencil, paint, and fringe on the lid to beautify it for my classroom. I modpodged the paper on the stand and taped it off and spray painted the base.

I've done a few more for gifts since I got a Cricut (which makes adding words much easier) but unfortunately I didn't take any pics of those! Right now I'm working on my lil guy's Popeye halloween costume so hopefully I will have pics when it's finished! Thanks for stopping by!

DIAPER CAKES

I LOVE to make diaper cakes! They are so handy, and you can decorate them any way you want. Plus you can hide surprises throughout them and they can double as a decoration for the shower. Here are some of the cakes I've assembled to date.

AllyJo's cake

 Kinsley's Cake 

 Taryn's Cake

 (that says princess not princes ;) and you can see some of the extra goodies attached )

 Elijah's Cake

 Here's a pic of the letters I made for his room. His mom used the cake as decoration in his room for several months so I didn't add any extra goodies inside.

Before I make a cake I ask the mom what type of diapers she wants, since she can't return them. Then I ask if she wants to use it in the room to decorate, if so I buy a larger size, if not I stick to size 1. If it's not used for decor then I get to add all kinds of goodies to the outside and inside, and make some layers out of blankets, stick onesies rolled up with the diapers etc... I try to make it as useful as possible. Have to run! Hope yall enjoyed the pics!

Cowprint furniture

More animal print!

Well baby Sawyer is asleep with his daddy so I have a few minutes to post another past project. After completing the zebra dresser my big sister Kacie asked me to do one for her little boy Mason for his cowboy room. Here are the dresser and side table she got to use. 

Dresser

Side table

I forgot to take a "before" shot. The dresser was painted red and pink, so after a little sanding I primed then painted brown. The drawers had been covered with fabric so I just painted them white.Again I sketched the print then painted and touched up with a paint pen. Then finished with polyurethane and clear coat finish on the drawers. You can see the cute knobs my sister found in Canton! They just had to be spray painted and looked great!

That's all!

First Project- Zebra dresser

First blog.. EVER!!!
Welcome to my first blog! Now that I am a stay at home mom I decided I needed a new hobby, and after hours of pinning on pinterest decided I could try my hand at a blog. I'm a certified teacher and am taking the year off to be home with my handsome little man Sawyer (we pronounce is Soy-yer). Usually when people ask his name we tell them "soy-yer" to which they reply "SAW-YER?"  To which I'm tempted to reply "I don't know, do you go to a 'loy-yer' or 'law-yer' when you need legal help?" ;) Either pronunciation is fine with us, we just find it funny when people try to correct how we are saying it. Anyways, my little guy is 2 months old

Feel free to ooohhh and ahhhh over his adorable-ness! 

I thought I would start off by adding a few of my past projects in these first few blogs. 

My first project: Zebra dresser for my baby sister.

After my husband and I married we began compiling our furniture. I had a great dresser and bedside table from my parents. Unfortunately my sisters and I had split the set and my little sister had the other bedside table, and it was her only form of a dresser. She was in cosmetology school so I decided to make her an offer she couldn't refuse. I would replace it with a real dresser custom to match her red and zebra bedroom. 

 She agreed so I began searching craigslist and found this treasure for $15 in our town! It had one broken track which was easily fixed. First I took off the fixtures and sanded the gloss off the dresser. I painted the outside black and the drawer fronts white after filling the holes from the old fixtures with wood putty and sanding it down. I then went to work with a pencil sketching zebra stripes. I painted them black then touched them up with a pain pen for cleaner lines. 

 Tah-Dah! I had bought wooden knobs which I painted red and drew stripes on with the paint pen. 

 We went over the outside with polyurethane but didn't put it on the drawers since it would cause the white on the drawers to yellow. Instead I just sprayed them with a clear coat finish like I use for mod-podge projects. There is probably a better way but I already had this stuff and it's held up for the last 3 years. :) 

Finished project! I was proud for my first attempt at painting furniture. Who knew those hours of doodling zebra stripes in college would come in so handy.  Baby is waking up so that's all for now. Next time I will add the dresser I had to then paint for my older sister. Thanks for reading!