Summer Lovin'

Um...yes, it's been Summer for over six weeks now. Better late than never, right? My four kids and I have been having fun swimming, picnicking, visiting the park, beach and museums, swimming, having play dates and swimming some more.  My sanity saver this Summer was to keep my freezer stocked with meat, vegetables and popsicles so I wouldn't have to run to the grocery store as often with four kids in tow.

After a few weeks of my kids reminding me, "It's not Spring anymore, Mom, it's Summer!", I found the motivation to change out the seasonal banner we hang on our mantle.  The design changed a lot from the original plan I had for it, but such is life.  This was cut from cardstock on my Silhouette and the letters were attached with adhesive foam dots.

I also found a bit of time to make some little girl gifts. I saw a super cute dress-shaped hair bow holder in a catalog and thought I could make my own personalized version.  I used scrap fabric with interfacing to attach it to stiff felt and another piece of regular felt for the back. For the skirt I glued tulle and ribbon between the felt with Aleene's tacky glue and then stitched it all in place.  The name was cut from my Silhouette and ironed on after the sewing.

The first one came out nice, but I thought it needed sleeves.  So I added puffy sleeves made from tulle for the next one.  Much better!  The whole project took less than 2 hours.  Not too bad for a simple and useful gift.

Although I feel very busy with all the kids home 24-7, I will miss them when they go back to school.  I will not miss their fighting and little spats.  I will miss their peaceful playtime babble and unstructured days of fun.  And my two little ones at home will still be around to keep me company.  Time for focused learning, time for my own Bible study group to start again, time to pray for my kids at school.

"There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens"
Ecclesiastes 3:1

Spring things

I’m loving the perfect California Spring weather, blooming Amaryllis and little hummingbirds that visit our yard.  Last week I put up my new SPRING banner to welcome the season. It ended up a bit different than my original computer sketch. I wanted to use a new shape for the background and then I found a new font (Sancreek Regular) that reflected the budding life of Spring.

They were created in Adobe Illustrator and cut out using my Silhouette Studio software. Silhouette Studio can do a lot more than the older Craft Robo program, but I still prefer drawing everything out in Illustrator, since I know it like the back of my hand. The letters are popped out with foam tape to add dimension.

I also made these little cuties for my girls recently. I used a free pattern and tutorial, called Fluffy Stuffy Bunny, from a blog called Allsorts. My friend introduced me to this blog, and it’s so inspiring for someone like me, who once wanted to be a children’s book illustrator. I love how she makes everything so colorful and fun.  How nice it would be to have time to design cute projects like this! For now I am still busy changing diapers, wiping noses and sweeping under the kitchen table several times a day. But, yes, my kids are totally worth it!

I didn’t follow her instructions exactly. Not wanting to buy any new fabric, I used what I had – no fuzzy material, just cotton prints. The dresses are reversible and my kids have fun changing them every so often. I also wanted to make each one to fit the unique personalities of my girls (as much as a little stuffed animal can) so I added an embellishment to each head and let them choose the dress fabric.

For the face I didn’t want to embroider much, so I only stitched the mouth. I hole-punched a brown scrap of heat transfer for the eyes, and used a heart punch on pink heat transfer for the nose. No Silhouette needed for cutting this time! This was a great way to use scraps of heat transfer. My girls were excited to take these to school for Stuffed Animal Day. And my little one sleeps with hers every night. Priceless!

Today my kids and I were talking about all of our fun Easter traditions and how it wouldn’t mean much if we didn’t have faith in Jesus. Isn’t it nice to know that Easter is about more than just plastic eggs, Spring flowers, and fuzzy bunnies and chicks? It’s about the new everlasting life we can have in Jesus Christ. What hope! Here are some Bible verses I like to think about during this season:

“Come now, let us settle the matter,”says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” Isaiah 1:18

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:5-6

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17

“He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.” Mathew 28:6a

If you want to know more about new life in Jesus Christ, click here. Happy Spring and Happy Easter!

sewing fun

What does it mean when I've been invited to a birthday party and a baby shower (besides a full calendar)? Another opportunity to make some fun gifts for my sweet friends - yay!

For my daughter's 3-year old friend, I designed a shirt using heat transfer with my Silhouette and a matching skirt. For the scripture reference on the shirt I used Matthew 19:14, which says, Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Children are truly precious in His sight! As always, I had great fun picking out the fabric too. I love looking at various color and pattern combinations. Luckily, I was able to find just the right combination using fabric and trim that I already had.

For my dear friend's new baby, I made another tag blanket. Since the gender was a surprise, the challenge was to make it neutral yet exciting (while using fabric and ribbon I already had). The colors I chose were a bit unconventional, but babies like to focus on things with high contrast. This time I made it a bit smaller than my first one, hoping that it can double as a "lovey" in a stroller or crib if the baby so chooses.

I had lots of fun trying to photograph these in an interesting, eye-catching way. I'm practicing in case I can actually find a way to open up my "Little Design Angel" Etsy store someday. Right now it seems impossible with my needy (yet precious) 5, 3, and 1 year olds. But I trust that God will provide the resources necessary for a little business if and when He wills it. For now, I'm focusing on being a Mommy to the little ones God so graciously gave me.

teacher gifts

My daughter graduated from preschool this month. *tear* She had wonderful teachers who helped her immensely, especially in her struggle with Selective Mutism. She was able to make some friends and even (finally) speak to her peers this year. With all her newfound bravery, her teacher “predicted” that she will become a motivational speaker someday. She tells me she wants to be a mom when she grows up and being a motivational speaker is a certainly a big part of mothering. ;) She’s already practicing on her little sister. We are so proud of her and so grateful that God placed her in just the right class with just the right teachers. I made them some aprons as thank you gifts…

Naturally, I was short on time so I purchased blank canvas aprons at Walmart, designed heat transfers with their names, ironed them on and sewed “puffy” pockets on them. I’m still learning a lot about my Silhouette machine and its products. This time I learned that it requires a lot of time to iron the heat transfer material on canvas so it really sticks. For each apron I had to iron for 60 seconds at a time, 4 times. Hopefully the aprons will stand the test of time. *fingers crossed* The filigree art was from my "Dover 922 Decorative Vector Ornaments" clip art book. I LOVE this book. It's been such a time saver and has beautiful and classy designs.

a pony party

It's been a long time since my last post. I've gotten swamped with design projects. But I'm back now and have lots of new stuff to post.

My sweet little niece recently turned 4 years old. As if I wasn’t busy enough, I agreed to design the invitation. I just can’t help myself – I love making invites! My niece loves ponies, animals and cute princess-sparkly-stuff. Of course, there were pony rides at the party. So I made 2 versions with custom pony designs. She picked this one with the big pink pony. I’m grateful for Digital Freebies and Shabby Princess for all the free digiscrap elements I was able to use. I also found a cute "handwritten" font from Kevin & Amanda. I printed them on a color laser printer, glued them to pink cardstock, used fancy corner punches and ‘voila’, we had a custom invitation for just pennies.

My sister-in-law, Grace, and her friend made the cutest bandanas for the kiddos, complete with matching sheriff stars. She also made adorable little cowgirl outfits for her girls. (I mentioned before that she is crazy when it comes to this kind of stuff.)

All the kids and parents had a great time. My next big project has been a baby shower for my sister. I’m working on preparing all the photos of her shower to be posted soon. So...Ya'll come back now, ya hear!

baby girl gifts

I will take any excuse to break out my sewing machine and sort through my stash of fabric.  My cousin is about to have a baby girl.  Joann’s was having a sale on flannel.  What a wonderful excuse to be creative!  Knowing that my own little baby loves the tags on toys, I decided to make a soft play mat with fun little ribbons to play with.  I really don’t like to spend a lot of time cutting fabric, so I made the mat 44”x 44”, since the flannel is 45”. For the ribbons, I folded each color a little differently to add textural interest.  I also heat sealed the cut ends with a lighter before I sewed them in, to make sure they don’t unravel.  The prep work took the most time; the sewing went pretty quick. I was finished in about 2 hours and pretty happy with the results.  I’m planning to make another play mat for my sister’s baby this Spring.

I also made a nursing cover – one of the most used baby items I have.  The secret to the nursing cover is a 12” piece of corset boning slipped into the casing on top.  This makes it pop out just enough for you to see your baby while you nurse, but still keeps everything private.  It’s just a rectangle with straps sewn to the front and D-rings for closure.  Super easy – a great project for beginners.  If I can get more corset boning, I will make another nursing cover too.

I love babies…precious gifts from God that are fearfully and wonderfully made.