valentine butterflies

Love is in the air!  I have too much fun re-living my childhood when Valentine’s Day rolls around.  My daughter has to bring 15 signed valentine cards to school this week and we decided to make them by hand instead of buying them this year.  I saw a cute idea in Family Fun magazine to make butterflies out of old fashioned candy sticks.  So we took the idea and changed it so suit our own needs.  I found valentine message suckers at the store that would make a perfect fit.  First, I scanned in a mock-up butterfly shape and traced it in Adobe Illustrator.  Next, I printed some of my digital scrapbooking papers on cardstock.  Then I used my Silhouette to cut these out.

You can also use traditional means.  Trace the shape on paper and cut it out with scissors.  Then hole-punch the center 2 times so a sucker can be weaved through.  Use a 1/8" hole punch if you have one. My 5 year old practiced writing names on each one.  We both had fun.  Happy Valentine’s Day!

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.

high-five party favor

My daughter recently turned 5 years old. Her birthday is right after the holidays, when most people are worn out from celebrating, so I try to at least make it special for her at school. This year I used my handy dandy Silhouette SD digital cutter to make some cute boxes to hold treats. It was so nice to see her happily handing them out to each child in her class. To fit the sticker sheet, stamp and candy inside, I needed to make a box that was at least 5" long. The design time was minimal because I was able to find a triangular box design on the Silhouette website. (Now that I have 3 kids, I take any shortcut I can get!) Then all I had to do was add a "5" as a window cut-out and a print a cute little celebratory strip to wrap around the box. It says "Jump and jive, 'K' is..." The result was a perfect little party favor that was quickly ripped open by each excited child. Oh well. I knew they wouldn't last forever. That's why we take photos, right? The important thing is that it made some special little kids smile, especially my daughter.