Valentine Presents: Photo Albums

Technically these were supposed to be stocking stuffers… two months late isn’t so bad right? =)  I got these little photo albums from Target and printed some of my favorite pictures from the year to fill them.  I ended up printing more than a hundred pictures when I only needed 72, but it was hard to narrow them down that much!  I have one for each of my children, so they can easily enjoy looking at our pictures.  I’m so behind on scrapbooking I really wanted to do something!  Serenity loves seeing pictures of us when they’re on our website, I thought she’d love this. =)  A quick, easy, and sugar-free Valentine for them. =)  We got PLENTY of candy from class Valentines =)  

Gift Idea: Cupcakes!

My Mom bought me these awesome felt food patterns and so I've been sewing up a storm over here!  Serenity got invited to her first birthday party for a classmate, and she said that Lauren would love to have cupcakes.  So I made a batch of four cupcakes.  To make it a little special, I folded a box out of cardstock to look like a bakery box, and Serenity decorated it with the words, "Lauren's Cupcakes."  I think it would also be adorable to include a muffin tin from the dollar store, or a little chef's hat or apron to go with it!  What do you think? 

Making a Photo Quilt:

One Christmas my family made a photo quilt for my Grandmother.  It was one of her most treasured possessions, and I’m so glad we did it!  Sewing-wise it can be a very simple project, so I thought I would give you a simple tutorial and some tips from when I made mine!

The pattern itself is very simple, because I wanted the photos to be the focus.  So I did a double border.  One is solid, the other is set with squares like sashing.  The photo squares themselves were five inches finished (5.5 cut), because then I could get two per piece of fabric that I printed on. 

My favorite squares are the ones where the photo takes up the whole square instead of having any kind of border.  If I did it again, I would have all the text on their own boxes, and the photos take up the entire square.  The boxes that have captions on the photos look a little strange with the bright white background and then the photos. 

To make it a family project, each of my siblings was responsible for collecting pictures or stories to go on the blocks.  I think for mine each family contributed two or three blocks.  They chose their favorite pics of their kids, or quotes, or stories, and I combined them into the quilt.  Using her favorite colors, of course.  She was so proud of that quilt, and loved showing off both the pictures of her family and the quilt itself that we made her. 

Water Bottle Collages: Gift for Babies from Sibling!

Another idea from Teach Preschool, these water bottle collages were such fun!  When Serenity was about five months old one of her favorite toys was a Sprite bottle.  My Mom told us that next to boxes that’s the best toy for a baby. =)  So I thought that this was a great present that Serenity could make for Donovan!  She was thrilled to make something for her brother, and he actually plays with it!  He’s only three and a half months, so he’s just now grasping at his toys, but he grabs for this one whenever he sees it!  I just provided the dry bottle and strips of paper, and Serenity figured out how to get them in the bottle. Some are folded, some are straight.  It’s a nice, colorful mix!

Rainbow Tent Kits

Well I have gotten lots of response from the Rainbow Tent Kits I did as favors for Serenity's birthday!  Max and Frank voted them best goodie bags ever. =)  And I got some pics from my sister of her kids using them immediately!  So I thought I'd share a few pics of the tent kits in use:

Here is a link to the original tutorial that inspired me =) Mine are very similar to hers, except I couldn't find sheets that were cheap enough, so I bought a bolt of wide muslin and used RIT dye in my sink to make the rainbow colors.  I was in a hurry with the dye since I had to time it between feeding my newborn, so they look a little tie-dyed.  But for this I thought it worked!  I also used satin ribbon for the loops instead of cutting up knit.   The kits include three large pieces of muslin that I dyed into rainbow colors and sewed loops to each corner.  I got clamps, clothespins, rope, suction cups and flashlights from the dollar store to complete each kit!

Baby Giraffe Quilt... with Ribbons!

I’ve been staring at a blank blog long enough. I just couldn’t decide where to begin! So I’m just going to post several articles just to get things rolling, one for each general category I plan to write about. So first, here is a baby quilt I made for my friend Jennie. She loves giraffes, can you tell?

Lately I am all about texture when it comes to baby blankets, so I mixed minkee fabric, flannel, cotton, and fleece. I also added little ribbon loops to give the baby some more textures to grab! I just love Taggies and it’s so easy to add them to an appliqué project. The quilt itself is just half square triangles. Pinwheel patterns are one of my favorites =) Then I used fusible webbing to attach the fleece giraffe, and I sewed a running stitch around it with embroidery floss.

I didn’t take step by step photos, but this is a really basic design, so here’s what I did.

1.) Sew the quilt top. I used 5.5 inch half square triangles, and I just google half square triangles to figure out what size squares to start with to end up with the right size. I have to do this every time, I can never remember! Then just arrange the half square triangles into a pinwheel pattern. Then you end up with about a 40 by 50 quilt.

2.) Baste the ribbon into loops. I tried to pick all colors and textures of ribbon for variety =)

3.) Iron the wonder under onto the back of the appliqué. And try to face it the right way. I didn’t. At least the first time.

4.) Iron the giraffe onto the quilt, after arranging the tags as you like. I made my tags into a little mane and tail.

5.) Do a running stitch to help secure the appliqué and because it’s cute!

6.) I just layered my backing, batting and quilt and tied it. Easy! Then I used my sewing machine to apply the binding.

Enjoy!

Oh, and as another example of the awesomeness of taggies, here is a pic of my baby with the taggies ball she gave Daddy for his first father's day. Ok, she was still in my tummy at the time, but that didn't stop Daddy from playing ball with the baby (bouncing it off Mama =)