Monochromatic Animal Prints

I finally finished! After sketching my designs on the canvases with pencil, I painted each animal using acrylic paints. I used two shades of each color and mixed the two for the third color (or for the third and fourth color since the dog has four shades). I used the lightest shade for the backdrop and the darkest shade for the outline and features. I tried to be light on the paint so that it would give the look of some texture. It turned out the best on the dog. I love how they turned out!

Here are some close-ups:

Orange Cat

Blue Dog

Pink Mouse

I think that maybe I'll do different animals for each child we have...or maybe I'll do something completely different. I do like the idea of Owen being able to have these when he and his future wife have their first baby.

Fabric-Wrapped Flashcards

Like all babies at some point, my child developed a love for paper. Well, as much as he needs fiber in his diet I'm sure, I don't think he needs to get it by eating paper. This upsets him--especially on those days when mom and dad are playing with cards. I decided he needed some cards, too.

I made some quick and easy, nearly waterproof, durable cards just for him.

First I found some animal pictures by searching under Creative Commons on Flickr. Second, I put them in a Word file and made them identical in size. Third, I went to FedEx to have them printed on cardstock, laminated, and cut out with a margin of laminate around the edges. It was quite inexpensive--if I remember correctly it cost under five dollars.

I suggest leaving a large enough edge of laminate around your picture so that you will be sewing only through the laminate and not the laminate and paper. This will probably keep your pictures from soaking up any moisture and rippling. (I didn't do this, so I can't vouch for it.) If you try it and it works, let me know!

Now I wanted to be sure my son's little gums wouldn't be cut up by the sharp laminated edges of his cards, so the next steps involve sewing fabric onto them. This is the slightly more complicated part, and if you look closely you will notice I decided not to be a perfectionist about this. After all, my baby just wanted to eat them, so who cares if my stitches are perfect? He sure doesn't and he's who matters in this case.

You'll have to excuse my lack of sewing expertise.

Fourth, cut rectangles of fabric that are significantly larger than your card. You need to be able to fold the fabric over and under itself to make a clean edge over and against the card. Fifth, sew the fabric around your card. You're basically sewing a hem on your card. This will prevent your fabric from fraying and will cover the sharp edges and corners of the cardstock to protect your baby's gums.

I sewed two parallel sides of the card first and then sewed the perpendicular sides. By doing this I was able to sew the corners after I had folded them in like I would when wrapping a present. I wasn't very particular about my sewing or the cutting of my fabric, so my stitching lines aren't always the straightest. I was also hesitant to press my edges which would have made this step super easy! But I was worried about the hot iron melting the laminate.

My son loves these cards. The laminate makes them basically waterproof, but the sewing punches little holes in the laminate and paper so that moisture can get in. Some of my cards are slightly rippled because my son chews and sucks on his cards (which is what I made them for). They do serve their purpose, though, and the laminate and sewing have kept them together.

Make Your Own Onesie

For a baby shower I threw, I had the guests decorate onesies. I bought multiple white onesies in various sizes and some fabric markers. Each guest, including the mom-to-be, made a unique design especially for the new baby. This is one of the onesies I made for my friend:

The activity was so much fun! I loved seeing what everyone did.

I enjoyed making the onesies so much that I decided to make some for my baby boy. I made a dinosaur one that I based off a copyrighted image (so it isn't shown), and I made this gecko one. I think I'm going to have to make more!

Book Wreath

All you need for this fun wreath is some old books, a straw wreath, ribbon, and hot glue.

First, wrap and glue ribbon all around your wreath.

Second, attach some ribbon to your wreath so you can easily hang it up.

Third, cut your books up. I cut mine into rectangles measuring 3" x 4.5."

Fourth, place the center of your rectangle over the end of an unsharpened pencil and then mash the paper around it.

Fifth, put a dot of hot glue on the end of your mashed paper and glue it to your wreath. Repeat with each piece of paper until your entire wreath is covered. Note: cover your wreath loosely at first, leaving plenty of space between each piece of paper. This will allow the glue to dry and keep your pages from pushing each other off (and making you glue them down all over again). After you've done a loose covering you can go back and fill in the gaps until your wreath is nice and full.

Sixth, admire your handiwork!

April Showers Paper Art

I had several of my friends over this last week for a craft afternoon. We were originally going to decorate a frame and do something with "spring has sprung." I didn't really want to do that though, so my husband suggested "April showers bring May flowers" and this is what I created:

St. Patrick's Day Card

I love making cards! This is one of the seasonal cards that I've made. The copper wire is probably my favorite part. All I did was wrap it around the papers I layered and twisted it together. The little touches make things extra special!

Fabric Flower Shamrock

For St. Patrick's Day I decided to replace my fabric flower heart with a shamrock. It was pretty simple. This time I used a green satin (or was it taffeta? I don't remember.) that was 100% acetate. It was more difficult because I wanted smaller flowers (more nearly burned fingers this way), and the acetate didn't burn quite as well as my 100% polyester red satin. It didn't melt the same and caught fire easily. I think I will look for something else or stick with polyester for my next burnt-fabric flower craft. For instructions, reference my fabric flower heart post, but instead of doing a heart do a shamrock. I like to keep things simple. :)

Simple Valentine's Day Boxes

At a valentine card party, I learned how to make origami boxes. After making one, I decided to make a bunch more to decorate, fill with candy, and place around my house. They're really easy to make and super cute! I took a bunch of pictures of the process but realized a video would be much more useful and easier to follow.

I also searched for online instructions; if you'd rather use those, click here. If you use the online instructions, I suggest you don't make the "mountain folds" as it calls them. This will make it so you have an x on the top of your finished box. Instead draw the lines with a pencil or otherwise mark the center.
The squares of paper I used were 12x12 (the box in the top left), 8.5x8.5 (three of the above boxes), and 6x6 (the striped box).

Love Birds Banner

I made this using cereal boxes, scrapbook paper, red paper raffia, a pen, black stamping ink, tape, fishing line, and hot glue. Not only is it inexpensive, but it is also easy to make! It took me awhile to get the letters and birds drawn...but once that was done it went quickly (except I had to do it over several days because of my baby and his lack of a schedule).

First, cut out your cardboard (cereal boxes), letters, and birds. My cardboard rectangles were 3 13/16 inches by 5 inches. I was able to get 8 rectangles out of one cereal box; you need 9 rectangles total. To add detail, I used a black pen to make dashes around my birds to look like stitches. (I tried actually stitching first...bad plan. The birds were too small and the needle just ripped through to the edge of the paper.)

Second, smudge black ink down one side each of your cardboard rectangles.

Third, tape raffia strips on your cardboard rectangles so that the raffia separates the smudged ink edge from the rest.

Hot glue would also work.

Fourth, attach the letters and birds to your cardboard rectangles. I used photo squares.

Fifth, create bows with your raffia. Cut a strip of raffia and tie a knot in the center. Then unwrap the raffia so it flares out like a bow.

Sixth, attach bows to rectangles and draw simple embellishments. I added a few hearts, x's, and o's just on a few.

Seventh, hot glue words to fishing line/jewelry line. Make sure you put the words backwards when you glue them so they will actually be correct when you turn them around again.

I put dots of hot glue on each rectangle and then pressed the line down into them. Then to make it easy to hang each word, I created loops on the ends.

Eighth, admire. :)

I hope you all like it!

Fabric Flower Heart

This is a simple project I came up with for Valentine's Day that I really like. All it took was fabric, candles, paper, and hot glue. And, I guess, a frame in which to display the finished product. I hope you like it!

First, make your flowers. I'd never done this before. I'm quite nervous around fire too, but it wasn't bad at all. If I can do it, you can do it.

a. Cut circles of various sizes out of your fabric. They don't need to be perfect circles. I free-handed mine. Be sure to use a fabric that melts (a synthetic fabric like polyster), not a fabric that burns (like cotton). I tried cotton and it just went ashy...and smelled bad. I used 100% polyester satin from my old high school choir dress--don't tell my mother. (It's not like I've worn it since high school and I've graduated from college now. It was just taking up space with lovely red fabric for my project!)

b. Melt the edges over a flame. I used birthday candles held up with a clothespin. (Breaking the bank, I know.) If the circle catches fire, just blow it out. It adds character to the flower and looks pretty, so don't despair.

c. Holding the circle over the flame about 1-2 inches, slightly pucker the centers of the circles if desired. Be careful, since this can cause the centers to melt into black goo or make melted holes if you hold it for too long. Trial and error. You'll get the hang of it quickly. I thought this made them look more like real flowers and less like, well, circles.

d. Form your flowers by placing your "petals" inside each other and hot gluing them together. Most of my flowers were three layers, but I made some with only two that looked pretty. You can also use thread to sew them together. I tried that, but it was taking longer than I had patience. Hot glue was faster and easier for me.

e. Optional: Glue beads or buttons in the center of your flowers. I originally planned on doing this...but decided I liked how it looked without them better.

Second, place a piece of paper in your frame on which to glue your flowers.

Third, place your flowers on the page in the form of a heart.

Fourth, hot glue the flowers in place. Realize that as you glue your flowers in place, the shape may shift. I ended up altering my design and fiddling with it a bit after I'd glued several flowers in place. The other flowers had shifted, and it didn't look the way I wanted anymore. So make sure you have some extra flowers to help you rearrange the unglued portion if necessary.

Fifth, admire your handiwork. :) This is my favorite step.

Places I've Linked:

Crossword Christmas

I thought of this craft late at night last week when I was feeding my baby. Ok, so it was sometime really early in the morning actually. Anyway, it's really easy and just takes time. I think the change of font and ink highlight the true reason behind the season like I intended it to do. It's kind of a crossword/scrabble Christmas picture. I hope you like it!

First, figure out the words you want to use and how to arrange them. Create a grid in which you write out all your words. It doesn't need to be fancy, you just need to make sure none of your words are running together.

I created a big list and then I tried to use a crossword generator online. I wasn't pleased with the results, so I ended up figuring it out on my own by cutting out squares of scratch paper and arranging them in different ways. I didn't use all my words, but I made sure to include the ones that I really wanted to and, of course, the highlighted words "Messiah" and "believe." After a lot of trial and error and time, I came up with something I liked. Mine is 14 "tiles" by 14 "tiles."

Second, figure out your measurements. How big is the frame you want it to go in? How many tiles by how many tiles is your crossword? How small will your tiles need to be to fit inside that space and still have a gap between each tile?

My frame (a graduation shadow box I found at a thrift store) fit a sheet of paper that was 10 3/16 inches square, but only 9 11/16 inches square would be seen. My paper tiles needed to be 9/16 of an inch square to fit 14 x 14 with small gaps in between.

Third, cut out your paper and assemble an example lineup. You can use the lineup to make sure your squares will be able to accommodate your whole crossword and to use as a reference so your words are more or less straight on the page.

Fourth, print your letters on your tiles and set them on the paper. I suggest not taping or gluing them down until you have them all set out in case they don't fit exactly like the lineup. I had to move mine over several times because I didn't want to write on my paper to make grid lines or anything.

Fifth, use double stick tape or scrapbook photo squares to adhere your tiles to the page.

Sixth, frame.

Finished! Super easy, huh? What do you think?

Places I've Linked