Lots of Crafts (and a Tutorial for Ali)

For the last while I've really gotten into looking through different craft blogs for crafty ideas. I'll put ideas I want to try into different folders. I'll never get around to trying most of them but it's handy to have when I'm looking for a decorating or gift idea. With Christmas and baby showers happening over the last two months, I've had the excuse to try out new craft ideas.

This first one isn't new since I've been appliqueing for awhile now. It is the first time that I've appliqued anything for Zach though. We used this shirt to announce to our family that I'm pregnant. With my family we had Zach where it when they'd visit and when we talked to my parents on Skype and just wait for them to notice it. With Derrick's family we wrapped it up as one of Zach's presents and put it on him during the chaos of opening presents.


The project cost me $0 since I used fabric scraps I had and I got the shirt for free from a Gifts of the Heart Exchange. It's a bit stretched out for Zach but you can't beat free.


For parents/grandparents, I tried digital scrapbooking for the first time. I created the pages using a blog we found where the creator, Summer Driggs, offers tons of free digital scrapbooking kits she created. You can find the blog here. After putting the pages together we got them printed in calendar form. The pictures are different depending on which side of the family the specific calendar was for. Here are a few sample pages.

March

May

June

September

Since I have a boy and most of my friends had boys over the last while, I haven't had much opportunity to make cute girl things. Two of my sister-in-laws will be having girls during the first part of the year and I decided to try making shoes (some with matching onesies) and a flower hat.

I based the shoes on this free pattern I found online for making baby shoes. If there's enough interest I could make a tutorial since I made several changes.







Here's the hat I came up with for Jason and Cassie's baby Emilee. I made up the hat without using a pattern and made the flower using this tutorial. The pattern only shows how to make a 2-layer flower and I made up the bigger white layer.



I posted this picture back in October but my friend Ali asked how I made it (sorry it's taken me so long).


I didn't take pictures while making it but here's the basics of what I did:

I got the idea from the following picture on this website.


Supplies:
- Flower pot or some other container
- Wooden dowels
- Floral foam
- Receiving blankets, burp cloths, or wash cloths
- Clear plastic wrap
- Hot glue gun
- String
- Tape
- Paper: Scrapbook or plain
- Ribbon

Instructions: (I don't remember exactly how I did it but here's the general idea).

To create the flowers:
- Fold a blanket hot dog style (for lack of a better term) a few times to get the desired width. Roll into the spiral shape.
- Secure spiral shape by tying a piece of thin yarn around it. I used white so it wouldn't be as visible.
- Place a dowel on the back middle of the "flower" and secure with tape. I used box tape.
- Cut a piece of clear plastic wrap big enough to cover the "flower" with a couple of inches left over. Cover the "flower" and secure with a ribbon. I used a little bit of yarn underneath the ribbon to make the tie more secure.
- Repeat the above instructions to make desired number of "flowers".

To put into the pot or other container:
- Cut a piece of floral foam so it fits snugly into the container. You can fill in any gaps with extra floral foam.
- Poke the dowels into the floral foam. Vary the depth for more visual interest.
- Since the dowels kept wanting to twist on me I secured them in place using a generous amount of hot glue.
- Cut up strips of paper and use scissors to curl it (like with ribbon). The paper will cover the ugly floral foam. Too speed things up I shredded a good amount of paper in a paper shredder and mixed the prettier curled paper with it.

*There's probably a better way to do this but all I had to work with was a picture :). Good luck!