Monday Moments

I can't believe it's Monday again, already! This is Caroline in one of the two outfits she wore during her pictures. I cannot wait to get the photos from the photographer! 


I had originally picked out a dress for her, but started to panic and second guess myself, so I bought this little outfit as well. When I asked the photographer which she thought the baby should wear, she immediately pointed to my first choice and said it was better. As, a matter of fact, the only sewing I finished last week was shortening the straps on that dress. 


I started the diaper cover, but my machine was giving me fits about it. It looks so cute with what I have done so far! My mother-in-law told me it might be the type of needle I was using, so I am going to try that and see if I can finish it. I have another plan for it, even though pictures are done. 

Free child's crown template and tutorial!

I'm going to confess something. The people at My Memories have been sending me freebies to pass on to you all since the giveaway I did last year. I haven't been hoarding them, they were just kind of lackluster, and I figured if I didn't have any interest, there wouldn't be much interest from you all, either. 

However, they have recently stepped up their game. You have to bear with me a little, here. They still don't look incredible, but you can completely customize them! This is the exciting part. 

The latest freebie (and you only have a few days to grab it before the links turn into the newest offering) is a crown template! How cute is that idea? You could make one for every kid at your child's birthday party with their names on it! 

So, here is what the freebie from My Memories looks like, and a little tutorial on how to put it together.

Crown Tutorial

1.  Print your Crown templates on cardstock and gather supplies.  (Recommended supplies: craft knife, cutting mat, metal edged ruler, small scissors, stapler)


2.  Using the craft knife and metal edged ruler cut along outside line.
TIP: a small pair of scissors could be used as an alternative, especially when adding decorations to the top points of your crown



3.  Align bottom edges and staple together.


4.  Repeat on other side to form a circle

Using MyMemories Software to Customize your Crown
 

1. Download template file and install it into your software
2. Using MyMemories Suite, choose Create Album From Designer Template and find your project
3. Now you can add pictures, print and enjoy the provided template, or customize it with your own papers and embellishments.

TIP:
You can right-click on the white guide and lock it in place to keep it from moving while you are working. Make sure this is the top layer of your project before printing.

Instead of adding the paper as a background paper, you can add it as an embellishment so that you can move the paper around.  This is especially useful when using papers with stripes or circles, so you can decide which part of the paper you want to use.

Once it is added as an embellishment, you can now select the paper and move it into the position you want it.


Just SAVE and PRINT on cardstock!

Download the pink crown template here! There is also a boy and birthday version available if you would prefer. 

Now, here is the part where I show you how cool these can be! 

I forgot to change my printer settings on the first one I printed and came out with the cutest tiny size crown for Caroline with an adorable purple fairy. Gabe wore his Batman crown all day but refused to let me take a picture. I blame this on the long photo session from Wednesday (more on that later). 

I didn't line my template up quite right, but I failed to realize that until after I had centered the name and my embellishments, all from the Cute Spooks Combo Pack. 

Which brings me to another scrapbooking tip. Halloween kits can be awesome for birthday layouts! They often have little "stickers" of children in superhero or princess costumes, very popular themes for kids birthdays! All I did, in the case of the fairy princess crown was add a pretty pink background paper from another kit. Completely changes the feel! So, grab the freebies if you want them, and as always, if you want the software my discount code for $10 off and $10 worth of kits is in my sidebar! 

Monday Moments

Something monumental happened this weekend. My husband and I became grandparents. 

I am, obviously, step-grandma, but my husband is 100% grandpa to this little cutie. It's kind of bittersweet, as this baby lives across the country and we probably won't meet her until late this summer. A family of five living on a single income cannot swing that trip, even for something this adorable. But we will get to meet her, and we're so happy for my step-son and his wife. 


Happy, of course, while teasing my husband about how old he is. He only has eight years on me, but now that he is a grandpa I have to get a jab in when he complains about the heat, or people driving too fast, or the neighborhood kids gathering on our lawn. It has really been too fun! 

Monday Moments and sewing inspiration

I have set up an appointment for Caroline to have her first set of professional portraits done since she was born! 

I am very excited. However, I ordered her a dress online and unlike nearly every six month sized dress out there, it came with NO diaper cover. After searching the mall and finding cute ones in denim, pink and purple, none of which match the bright blue of her dress, I think I have resigned myself to making one. 

These ones look super simple, and my local fabric shop did just send me an e-mail that they now carry ruffled fabric. I think a shopping trip is in order! 

Embellished fabric bulletin board

This blurry photo of my niece is actually back story for the Mother's Day gift I made my mom. See that large, framed poster behind her head? My mom bought it years ago at a garage sale. If I remember it right, she actually thought the poster was ugly, but the frame was the perfect size for that bare spot on her wall. She started tucking pictures into the frame, then taping them to the glass when she ran out of valuable frame space.

I had the idea that she needed a fabric bulletin board and began bookmarking (I should really be pinning) tutorials. In the end, I kind of cobbled together my own way of doing it. 

I knew it would hang in her kitchen and hold her photos, which gave me the idea to do a scrapbook style embellishment cluster in the corner. I took the selvage of the fabric (from my stash, probably three years old) to Michael's and tried to match as best I could. It was hard! I definitely found myself wishing I were using one of those scrapbook paper turned fabric lines, a la Basic Grey or Riley Blake's Fly a Kite, so I had all of the embellishments, buttons and ribbons pre-coordinated! 

Finding the buttons was perhaps, the hardest part of this. I ended up having to use a heavy duty staple gun to secure all of the layers, and those big, thick staples needed rather large buttons to cover them! I kept finding just the right thing, but in the wrong size, or in packages small enough that it would have cost me $15 just in buttons (or jewels, or glittered chipboard disks...I contemplated a lot of finishing options)! I ended up finding a package of coordinating buttons in the Hobby Lobby that were a few different shades of brown and cream with four different designs on them. They came 15 to a package and were $1.99, which was perfect since I needed 36 of them for this board! 

I think I may start with the buttons when I make one of these for myself, which I am definitely planning on doing! I got a new desk for my sewing machine and one of these would be so cute to hang above it! 

I have been bitten

The paper piecing bug has bitten me hard! Now that I know I can do it, I find myself absentmindedly searching Flikr for New York Beauties. 


I'm sure I will tackle some, eventually. In the meantime, I had an idea for a mini involving my tea kettle and searched for a tea cup to make. I found this pattern and it was free! Score! 

I made tea cup number two. I liked it, and it was pretty easy, except that my little experience led me to follow the directions instead of doing what I thought was right..and then unpick some seams. If you want to attempt it, switch numbers 7 and 8. Other than that, no complaints. 

I think the size scales well with my kettle. Plus, I got to use some of the decorative stitches on my machine! Ideally I'd like to pair these two with some broken dishes and/or some Dresden plates. I think just the names of those blocks make them good matches for kitchenware. 

Monday Moments: Tuesday Edition

Happy belated Mother's Day to all the moms and moms-to-be out there!


My Memories blog hosts a challenge every Wednesday and this week the rules were that you had to create a page about a mom. I had been wanting for awhile to make a page for my grandma, who didn't live to meet any of my mom's grandchildren (she died just days before my niece was born). 

That first little blurb tells a story about how my grandmother hated having her picture taken. It was sort of a running joke in the family about who could get the worst picture of her, because once she saw the camera she would turn her head or sneer. Then one year, she went and got her picture taken at a studio. She smiled and looked right at the camera, and gave a copy to all of us, because she wanted there to be one good photo of her when she was gone. 

I had planned for that beautiful photo to be in this scrapbook page, but discovered that I lost it. I lost my one and only good studio picture of my grandma. Not a happy discovery. This is a crop of a picture I took at the last family reunion I went to of her with six of her seven children. 

As usual, I cobbled together bits and pieces of several different kits for my page. The glitter alpha was a freebie from Megan Turnidge, the wings are from a baby kit, the papers and cloud are Mye De Leon (same kit I used to make this other page), brads are from a mothers and daughters kit, and butterflies are from a photo kit. 

In other news, I did not complete my goal of finishing my quilting. Ugh! I didn't even start working on it until Wednesday, ran out of thread Thursday and got to the fabric shop on Friday just in time to grab the last spool in my color. Whew! I'm beginning to think of this as the quilt that never ends. 

I took the kids outside to play yesterday. My neighbor was pulling out of her driveway in her minivan and stopped in front of my house to say, "You would think, as a stay at home mom, that I would have all of this time, but I just don't! I'm so busy!" I smiled at her and yelled a very supportive, "I know!", because I had just been thinking about all of the laundry and dishes and sewing that wasn't getting done while I was in the yard watching my kids. Sadly, I don't think "It's the thought that counts" quite works when all you're doing is thinking about cleaning the house.