Homemade Christmas Gift #4 (2011)

.Little Boy Flannel Scarf.

Using this tutorial...I made little D a scarf that he doesn't have to tie.

And while I was at it, I made one as a gift as well!

It's brilliant really.

Just put it on your neck...pull one side through the hole...and off you go!

Homemade Christmas Gift #2 (2011)

.Little girl aprons.

Instead of using coordinating fabric for the neck and ties,

I used ribbon and oversized ric rac.

Then added the same ric rac to embellish the bottom.

They were super easy to make...

and using leftover fabric from other projects

makes them super affordable.

Miniature anything is cute.

Miniature aprons...super cute.

Button...Button...who's got the button?

My super talented cousin Hannah made a really cute pillow over a year ago.

I kept telling her I wanted to make one just like it.

Then she made another cute one for Christmas.

Again...

Well, just add it to the list.

So.

I was determined to have a button pillow.

And button pillow I made.

Spooky Style!

(if you couldn't guess...I stitched those puppies onto an envelope pillow case)

Can I just say...I will NEVER sew that many buttons onto one thing again.

Brain Damage!

But spooky nonetheless!

baby item #3...nursing cover

I'm not gonna lie...I am pretty sneaky when it comes to breast feeding in public with no one the wiser. Yep, totally fed Dallin, when he was 9 months old, while standing in line to ride on Pirates of the Caribbean...even my family didn't realize...tee hee!

This time I figured I could at least make something to cover myself up...incase I'm not as good this go round :) Besides, I have been loving this fabric for a few months, but had no reason to buy it...how 'bout a nursing cover...perfect reason.

I used this tutorial from Sew Much Ado.

Her tutorial was super easy to follow...and even though I say my sewing skills are not that fantastic...I feel like it looks like I bought it from a store...I'm giving Abby all the credit for keeping the tutorial simple...so thanks!

I love it!

baby item #2...car seat cover

I decided this little one (32 days and counting) needed one of those infant car seat covers. Since he is coming at the start of fall and will be a little one through the winter, as much as I can alleviate "strangers" hands on him in public the better. Shopping for fabric was hard for me. I didn't want anything "babyish" and all the fabrics I found in "boy colors" were still "girly prints"...frustrating. I finally decided on a gray/blue/pale yellow print. Bonus, it matches my diaper bag...

To make the cover, I used this tutorial from Sutton Grace.

It was so simple.

(yep, stripes on the inside)

(oh, and I didn't even realize that it has some of the same colors as the car seat...that's what you get for packing the car seat away for 3 years and forgetting what it looks like.)

After making the cover, I even took apart the cart seat, washed the seat fabric and wiped down the seat...check another task off the list.

More pillows

After making the pillows for the baby room, Lil D decided that he needed a few more pillows for his window seat...with dinosaurs of course.

I still had 2 more pillow case covers from Ikea, so we went on a hunt for the perfect fabric. Lil D informed me that we would be making a brachiasaurus, which is blue and a "platicus", which is green (I'm not sure which dino that actually is, but Dino Dan says it's one:)

We went to a few fabric stores and I struggled to find blue and green fabric that I liked, would work for a dinosaur and didn't look really "babyish". I bought two quarter fats, and then kept putting off making them, because I didn't love the fabric. Then the other day, Lil D and I were walking through Walmart and lo and behold...the perfect dino fabric...

who would have thought...Walmart:)

I used my zooballo cricut cartridge and some heat n bond to make iron ons...

and just ironed on the dinos.

I think they turned out simple, but super cute. Lil D loves them, which is really all that matters...and I love that if he changes his love of dinosaurs to something else, I can just pull them off and use the pillow covers for something else.

And as long as I was doing pillows today...why not finally take the cloth napkins I bought at Target over a year ago and make that yellow pillow I have been wanting.

I do love a simple envelope pillow cover!

I think I am finally pillowed out!

On to finishing the picture wall for the nursery...it's turning out so cute!

A little chocolate for the baby room.

I wanted to make a simple valance for the baby room.

I found this brown corduroy at Joanns at 50% off and thought it would be not just a great color but I really liked the texture.

I had some extra fabric, so I made an envelope pillow cover and added a little elephant to the corner.

I cut the elephant out with my cricut using the Zooballoo cartridge.

(I use ultra heat n bond to adhere the fabric)

Then I recovered the previous bench seat cushion with this great soft brown fabric that I also got at 50% off. It really is so soft and heavy and I love it.

Getting closer to being done...and loving everything in this room.

Pillows for the baby room.

I know that my nursery theme is elephants (as chosen by Lil D)...

but I wanted to make some ABC 123 pillows that will carry over when this little guy grows out of his nursery.

The pillow covers are from Ikea. An awesome trick my cousin taught me. Buy the Ikea pillow covers for very cheap, and then add anything that you want to them.

That is my kind of sewing.

As I do with most of my projects like this, I adhered the fabric to ultra heat n bond then cut out the letters with my cricut. These letters are from the Mickey Mouse cartridge. Then I iron them on and stitch around the outsides to secure them.

Only a few more projects and this baby room will be ready for a baby.

She does it again.

In June my very crafty cousin made this cute pillow.

Then she went and did this...

I totally need one of these too!

Homemade Christmas Gifts #1

This is a formal announcement to any of my family members...

If you want to be surprised on Christmas,

avoid any blog posts entitled "Homemade Christmas Gifts".

********

A friend of mine got this Cricut cartridge from her mom...

it was so cute I had to figure out a way to use it.

I decided that these little monsters would be super cute on shirts...so I did the same thing as I did here and here and came up with these...

After ironing the fabric to heat n bond, I cut the pieces out on a cricut expression, then ironed them to the shirts. To ensure those cute little monsters don't go anywhere, I stitched around the outside...I had to handstitch the onsie monster because I was afraid I would kill it with my machine. I added googly eyes with some sewing glue (that ensures me they won't fall off in the wash...I guess we will see).

For the little girl I made a matching hair bow (which I'll show in another post) and

for the boys, I got "monster" trucks and some monster blocks.

Can you do a monster theme at Christmas...sure, why not right?!

Tree button pillow (made by my cousin)

Do you see how cute this is?

My very talented cousin made this pillow...I am in LOVE with it.

(hope you don't mind I stole your pic and posted it Han...)

Birthday Boy shirt...

I posted some of Lil D's birthday decor and a Mickey shirt here. Today I finished his Birthday shirt...I hope he loves it:)

I bought a white t-shirt at Walmart for $3, and the fabric at Joanns.

I used the same process to make this shirt as I did with his Mickey Mouse birthday shirt.

I cut out the three with my cricut (disney cartridge) and after ironing it on, I did a satin stitch around the entire thing.

I cut out the letters with the same cartridge, ironed them on and then did a straight stitch to finish them off.

I love the colors (Lil D's favorite color is green)...If I were to do it again, I would lay it out differently so you could see the 3 a little better...but I do love it!

Now Lil D has a shirt for his actual birthday and a shirt for party day!

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M-I-C-K-E-Y...you know the rest...

Lil D's 3rd birthday is this Tuesday...we are having a family party this year, but that doesn't mean I can't have a theme and have a little fun making some decor:)

I was standing in the party store trying to decide what to do this year. Lil D doesn't have a real strong opinion about it...he just loves green...ask him what he wants for his birthday..."all green stuff"...SO, since we did Monkeys for his 1st birthday and cars for his 2nd birthday, I decided to go with his current love...

MICKEY MOUSE (clubhouse)

I bought some invites (I don't have time to make them this year)...a table cloth...some napkins...and wrapping paper and headed home. I wasn't sure what I was going to do yet...till I got to the craft closet and remembered I had a Disney cricut cartridge...hello fun! One of the functions is a Mickey head with all of the letters and numbers cut from the middle of it. So my first project: A happy birthday banner made from Mickey heads.

Lil D LOVES to help with the cricut, scary as it may be...he can open it...put the cartridge in...load the paper and cut the paper all by himself...nice!

So here is my lovely assistant showing us how to get those Mickey heads cut out...

The cricut (with Lil D's assistance) cut out each Mickey head with each letter along with 4 Mickey heads cut out in Mickey scrapbook paper. Because many of the letters have centers, I backed each one with a white square...

then I put the letter back in, and the center in with some glue...

Then removed the letter...the center is now perfectly placed...

(or you can just eyeball it:)

I used black brads to attach the heads together...

It's a REALLY long banner...but I can't wait to hang it up!

(I'm having a hard time waiting till Tuesday)

Since we are having Lil D's party at Chuck E Cheese (read...the house demo is beginning and I refuse to have people at my home for a party in the mess), I am making cupcakes (I LOVE to decorate cakes...but cupcakes will be easier to eat away from home). I am going to use my new cupcake holder covered in Mickey wrapping paper. I will be making chocolate cupcakes with white frosting (in red and yellow papers)...and these cute little Mouse heads will be the cupcake toppers...(They are 2 inches tall)

I decided that I needed to take the mouse head with a three cut-out another step farther. I bought some black fabric, with little tiny white dots, and cut out a 5 1/2 inch mouse head with a 3 in it. The cricut works great on fabric...but it must be really stiff. I used heat n bond, since I was going to iron it on anyway, and that makes it plenty stiff. I also tape my fabric down to the sticky pad (just for added assurance that the fabric won't slip)

I ironed Mickey's head :) to the front of the shirt and the 3 that was cut out to the top back of the shirt. Then I did a satin stitch all the way around the head and number.

On a green shirt, of course, 'cause Lil D LOVES green!

I can't wait until Saturday, for Lil D to sport his shirt and to get it all put together...I'll post pics next weekend of it all put together.

I am also going to make a "birthday boy" t-shirt for him to wear on his actual birthday.

(the thread I was using kept breaking during my first attempt, so I am going to try again tonight with some different thread...any suggestions would help...my black thread did great on Mickey so I don't know what the problem is).

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