Babies, babies....EVERY WHERE!!!

Lately, it seems like everyone is having a baby or just found out they are pregnant.  Since I made a pact with myself to give meaningful homemade gifts, that means my time during naps and after bedtime mas recently been spent making a little boy trousseau.

Here are some pictures, but tutorials for the onesie card and the felt photography letters will follow soon.

And yes... those letters are all HAND-stitched.  I can't get felt to go through the sewing machine correctly, so there you go.  Lots of tiny stitches and knotted embroidery floss (and a few choice words)---- and a beautiful baby photo prop is made.  I discovered a few very nice shortcuts-- I share them in the tute.

Balloon Birthday Card

Our friends are having a birthday party for their soon-to-be 1 year old daughter.  Since they've requested "No Gifts", I decided to go the extra mile for the card.

And since it took me about 3 hours to make this card, I'd say that's going the extra mile.  But, since I also got to work with Pomegranate to make the card and we practiced counting and colors, I'd say it was worth it.

Supplies:  two pieces of cardstock (I chose two shades of blue), some string (I liked the gold for bling, but would do this with embroidering floss too), round circle punch (mine was 1"), glue, scissors, spray adhesive, black sharpie.

Oh yeah- and a whole lot of paint chips!

Just use spray adhesive to put the two sheets of cardstock together.  While that sets, start punching out circles (I did 50 total, but only used about 40 of them).  Cut out little triangles (to be the balloon's knot) and glue them to the circles.  I used a bit of white paint to put the dots on a yellow paint chip for the "E" on the front and and cut out the pennant pieces.  After writing the letters on the pennants, I let the whole mess dry over night on wax paper.

Day #2:
Some of the balloons are raised on frog-legged paper strips.  I glued the strings on to the balloons at the same time that I put them on the card (to save a step).  I put a base layer down and left some holes for the frog-legs.  After gluing them on, I put the final balloons on and let the card dry open and flat.

While it dried, I glued the pennants to the strings for "Happy Birthday".  I sandwiched that between wax paper and set a stack of books on it, because the paint chips were having a hard time staying folded around the string.

Day #3:
Tie two banner strings together, with the "Birthday" string a little longer.  Glue ONE side to the card and allow to dry for a couple of hours.  Then position the other side and glue it down, put wax paper over it and again, place some heavy books on the card to make sure everything stays put while it dries.  And ... you're done!

It probably doesn't take 3 days for this card.  But I only get brief periods to work on delicate things like this.  And with drying between each step, I just picked it up when I could.

CHANGES FOR NEXT TIME:
1.  I wouldn't use white glue to adhere to the card.  It's got too much water and makes the paper pucker.  Maybe if I used a paint brush to apply it in a very thin even coat?  I thought that using doubled up card stock might help, but I think it was just too  much glue!

2.  Make bigger balloons.  I only have a 1" punch, so I was limited.  But with a larger punch, you can get the same effect without making SO MANY balloons.

3.  Get brighter and more colors.  I just used what paint chips I has, but I think the over all card could use brighter colors.

Try it-- it's a great present card that shows you still care even if you don't bring a wrapped gift.  And, best part, total cost (aside from time, of course) = free.  I didn't buy a single thing for this.  :)

WINNERS!

"Hello?!  Winn-ing!!!"

Not sure if you blog-o-sphere friends have been following Kojo and Delia's Color My Summer series, but they also hosted a contest for a new summer craft.  I entered two projects, as did my sister, Erin, and she won 2nd place for her Rainbow Plastic Cup Sun Catcher.  And I got a surprise Honorable Mention for my Personalized Summer Sleep Sack.  Tutorials for both projects will be up in the next couple of days, but for our first time competing, I think we did great!

Go check out Erin's blog for more of her crafty endeavors.  She's just posted some awesome teacher appreciation ideas.  I almost wish my girls were in school just do I could copy her projects!

Watch here for tutorials for our winning projects!

Blog name-- what the WHAT?!

So- Cricket and Pomegranate?  Gotta have a story, right?  Well, of COURSE there is a story!

When I was pregnant with #1 (Pomegranate), I was in the middle of graduate school.  (Did I mention that I am a Physician Assistant?)  So I was sitting in the library with classmates and we were discussing baby names-- mainly, had we chosen one for our baby girl.  Well, we hadn't, but I joked that I wanted something really creative.  My classmate, Jaclyn, said that I shouldn't give her a Hollywood baby name, like Inspektor or Moonbeam or Apple.  So I said, "Does that mean I should cross 'Pomegranate' off the list?"  We all laughed, of course, because if you are going for fruit names, that one will ALWAYS be misspelled.  But it stuck for next 21 weeks until she was born and got her real name.  And when people asked about her in email, it was always misspelled.  Did you know that the seed in a pomegranate is called the "aryl"?  Well it is and I spent a good 2 weeks trying to convince my husband that we should name her Aryl.  This is why only one of you is pregnant-- so someone stays sane.  Not that it's a bad name, but I'm not in love with it now that the hormones are gone.

As for Cricket, she is #2.  As with our first daughter, we did not name her in utero.  We didn't even really decide on a name until a week before she came and then only tentatively.  So we referred to her as "El Dos" until we found out she was a girl.  Then I called her Cricket, because I was so busy during the day (still in Grad School and with a toddler to chase and a husband deployed) that I didn't really notice her kicking and squirming until night time.  Then she'd move around so much I had a hard time falling asleep.  You know-- like that one cricket that is hiding in your echoing living room and you can't find it, but it just keeps chirping all night long until you're about to go crazy!!??  Yeah- that was her!

Since most of my crafts are for these two, I decided to name the blog for them.  And since the second child always gets the short end of things, I decided to give her top billing here on Blogger!

So that's the story.  Aren't you glad you know?  

Barnyard Birthday: Cricket's 1st birthday

My little Cricket turned 1, and she LOVES animals, so we did a barnyard theme.

 I scoured the internet and found some animal and barn images for the invitation.
I used MS Word to make a "BINGO" card-ish design with my information in the middle.

 I used spray adhesive to put the white and color paper together, after printing our little "No Gifts" message on the back.

 I found a refrigerator box being thrown out in our neighborhood.  They collect all cardboard separate form the trash, so I'm always on the look-out for great big pieces when I go running.  I used two sides of the huge box to make this.  Add in a can of spray paint and some white Duct tape and there's the barn!  The kids at the party loved this and we got some great pictures of all the party animals!

 You can see the benches on either side of the barn too.  Those are actually book cases on their side with a cushion made from a memory foam mattress topper.  We needed more seating for kids during the party and this was the quickest fix.  Also, they will go in our playroom for storage and seating after the party.

Here's the cake.  I got the little barnyard figurines from Oriental Trading Company.  The cake is chocolate with green buttercream frosting and an Oreo pigsty.  The letters are melted white chocolate that I piped onto wax paper and chilled.

All the kiddos had visors to wear and we gave out gift baggies with farm stickers, foam magnet kits and animal temp tattoos- thanks Oriental Trading Co!  (*** Magnets are dangerous for kids that will still swallow stuff, so I made sure to explain to their parents that small pieces and a magnet were in the gift bag!)

Still a favorite present for the birthday girl!

Ever seen a Cricket dressed up like a Duck?  Now you have! (Animal visor from Oriental Trading Company)

Scrabble Birthday

What do you get for a 5 year old girl that isn't a Disney Princess?  Oh- and she's being home-schooled??  Well, I decided on fun and educational-- Oh yeah, and HOMEMADE!

Our friends have two daughters with close birthdays (now ages 2 and 5).  We got the obligatory store-bought noisy instrument toys for the 2yr old party.  But for her older daughter, I decided to put spelling and math together and made Scrabble tile bean bags.

 First, I used some pillow cases for fabric.  Here, the fabric stores are all the way downtown, and finding parking adds another 30+minutes to the 45 minutes drive, so I just get pillowcase variety packs (6 in a pack for $3) and use that for my fabric.  I used white for one side and multicolored for the other side.  All prewashed (though you won't be washing the bean bags, so it probably doesn't matter!).  I starched the crap out of the colored fabric, but NOT the white!!  Trace squares and cut them out.  The starch helps make the cutting out part easier and the sewing part too.
***I'd recommend printing out the letters first to make sure you cut out squares that are big enough to iron your letters on and still have a decent seam allowance.  I cut it pretty close on these.

Print out your Scrabble letter on the iron-on transfer paper.  MAKE SURE you print the out mirror image-- it's in the printer settings, not in Word itself.  There, I just saved you about 45minutes!  The small letters are for the coordinating t-shirt I made to go with this.

 In addition to printing a reverse image (remember we are ironing these onto the white squares), just use regular printing settings.  The image on the RIGHT is with "Best Printing" selected--- way too much ink.  Also, you don't need to Bold the letters.  It bleeds too much to see the numbers clearly.

 Pre-wash a t-shirt for the smaller Scrabble tiles.  I just used her name (and made on for her little sister too, since no 2yr old knows how to share!).

 Follow instructions on how to transfer the iron-on image.  The instructions come with the paper, and night vary with brand, so read yours carefully!

 See, aren't they SO pretty!?  And if you remove the backing paper and realize that you didn't iron it enough-- just use Parchment paper and iron it some more.  YOU CANNOT IRON over the transfer without a backing-- it will melt.  There, saved you another 30 minutes and a bucket of tears!

 Since I starched the squares, I only needed to pin the corners.  I sewed around them, leaving a small opening to turn the pocket at the BOTTOM of the letter.  I figured it would be the least conspicuous when I hand-stitched them closed.

 Turn inside-out and press on the white side with PARCHMENT PAPER!!  Again, you REALLY don't want to melt the letters at this point.

 Rig up a funnel and use beans or rice (like I did) to fill the bags about 3/4 full.

 Don't they look so pretty all full of rice!  Just need to hand sew them closed and then I'm set!

 I used the fusible hemming tape to keep these small letter in place on the t-shirt (ironed on with parchment paper press cloth) and then sewed around each letter.

 Spray paint a cookie tin white and place all the rice bag Scrabble tiles in side (I spelled "AUDREY" out on the top) and then put the shirts in too.  I made a little topper (since it looked plain) out of colored cloth tape and used this rosette tutorial.

The whole family was thrilled with the gift-- which is what you want to hear after making 26 little rice bags and two personalized t-shirts!!  When I walked up to the door with the present, I heard the birthday girl say "Someone is bringing me a cake!".  With the rosette topper, I guess it did look like a cake!!

There it is-- total cost = $10.  Total time = about 8 hours total, but that was with me teaching myself how to make the roses and hand-stitching the baggies closed.  And I'm estimating time-- it was more like "Last of the Mohicans" and "Oceans 11", plus 3 episodes of "In Plain Sight: Season 1".  So... whatever that ends up being. (wink!)

Craftiness can consume you!

I've got a lot of projects to put up on this blog.  BUT...

I've entered a couple of them in the "Color My Summer" competition, so I'll have to wait to post them until I figure out if I've won anything.  (Crossing fingers!)  It's my first competition, and I just starting crafting earlier this year.

Anyway- check back soon for the myriad of projects that I've completed.

Valentine's Day 2011

Since I'm done with my Master's degree and settling into full-time motherhood, I've started exploring the crafty side to keep my mind sharp and keep myself entertained!

Here are a few from Valentine's Day 2011:

 Earth-friendly valentines, made from homemade paper hearts with wildflower seeds added in.  I put them in a plastic cup with a baggy of potting soil (to keep accidental messes to a minimum) and a personalized leaf.  We used wooden coffee stirs, since I couldn't find popcicle sticks out here.

My original "Freezer Paper" stencil try was on a red polo shirt, but the weave made it impossible to get the lettering to come out crisp.  So I bagged it and turned the wrecked polo into a little dress for my 2 year old.  A nice little Valentines mistake resulted in a comfy dress for my daughter-- not to bad!

 Here's the second Freezer Paper stencil, on a regular pre-washed red t-shirt.  Mr J actually wears it quite often (surprise!).  This picture doesn't show it, but the yellow is actually sparkly golden letters.  You know- to be really masculine!

 We tried dying pasta a long time ago and finally found a use for it-- and for the frame with the broken glass (thanks, AF movers!!).  I used a multipurpose glue to adhere the pasta after carefully marking out the quadrants on the background material.  Total time (minus dyeing and drying the pasta), about 1.5 hours.  And it's so colorful, we left it up for St Patty's too!

This was Mr J's Valentine's present.  The culture here is very pro-family, so he wanted some nice framed pics of the girls.  I painted our generic Wally World frames and then tied them together with matching layered-circle flowers.  (Yes-- that is a real lion cub and YES!! My 2 year old is holding it!)