I hope every Mother out there is having a wonderful day today!
I love this free printable from MoodKids! How fitting for Mother’s Day! I can’t wait to print and frame this! They also have two other great printables, ‘Home is Where Mom Is’ and ‘Keep Calm and Call Mom’. All three are great!
Amidst all the sewing this week, my son and I took some time out to be crafty! We are making Valentine’s!
Quilt inspired Valentine’s that is!
I was totally inspired by S.O.T.A.K. Handmade’s pixelated heart pillow. When I first saw it I thought I’d make a few for Valentine’s gifts, but then realized I might not make it in time…. So instead of sewing it, we decided to glue it!
Consider your self warned though…. If you use my printable you must cut a bunch of 1/4 inch squares. You may think, oh, these are small. Easy! Right? Easy yes, quick no! It took me much longer to cut out all the squares than I thought it would. But once you get them cut…. Fun times! My son decided to take a shower while I finished cutting the little squares and I was still cutting when he got back. I heard him (’cause he’s really loud! Are all 4 year olds this loud???) telling his Dad that he had to get back upstairs to make his Valentine. When he came back he was like, ‘WHAT???? you’re STILL cutting???’ Yes, dear….. I’m still cutting out little bitty, teeny, tiny squares!
But once the cutting was done, we were on our way to some super cool Valentine’s!
As we were starting, I was about to correct my son, yes, he’s 4, and get him to get all the little 1/4 inch squares of paper to align perfect in the grid. Then I breathed, because I can get a little OCD when it comes to details like this, and let him go! And I love how his turned out! Even if it doesn’t fit in the teeny tiny grid! HA!
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And of course, he loved his role of acting SUPER excited to get mail! I also added a little heart glued to the outside of the envelope. You know I’m a sucker for the wrap around address labels or something, at least, added to the envelope too. So this year, instead of the address label, I’m adding the ‘coordinating’ heart on the outside!
Ready for the printable? I have a few versions!
If I scared you about cutting all those little pieces, you can download the card with it already colored in. With the grid, here. I think the grid gives it a little more of a quilt-y feel.
Or you can download the already colored in version without the grid, here.
And if you are a little on the OCD side like me, and are super excited about cutting all the little pieces, you can download the grid with the ‘gluing guidelines’, here!
Enjoy and Have a great Valentine’s Day!
Have you been to see Santa yet? Have you written your letter to Santa? We did both today!
This year I made a fill in the blank letter to Santa. My son was able to fill out some parts, but others, like the gift list, I filled out for him. He was quick to mark the Nice and not the Naughty box!
If you haven’t already written your letters, click Here to download the PDF of this one!
I’ve been on the fence about fill in the blank thank you letters lately. So I’m not sure why I decided to make one for his Christmas letter, but I did and it worked out perfectly! He’s loving learning to write his letters so it was not only a cute looking letter, but a learning experience as well!
And then he got to read it to Santa. they really had a good chat about everything on his list. One thing he’s obsessed about is Spider-man and most of his list is Spider-man related toys. Santa had a good question… If he gets the web thrower, is he ready to pick up the webs it throws? He told Santa yes, but he told me that Spider-man doesn’t pick up his own webs… hmmmm… I’ll have to talk a little further with Santa on this one!
Shared with these Link Parties!
Today I’m welcoming Joe from Simple World 123! Joe is not only the creative guy behind Simple World 123, but he’s also my husband! I was artistic and crafty and did some sewing before I met my husband, but for years it had been on the back burner. That is until we started hanging out and then living together. We would spend hours in our basement making art. We had separate rooms, but would chat back and forth while making art. We’ve always bounced ideas off of each other and if you follow our work over the years you’ll see images from my pieces show up in his pieces and images from his pieces show up in my work! But our work is very different!
He isn’t a blogger and doesn’t have a website, but he does have an etsy shop! I’ve gotten some fun feedback from his t-shirts, so I thought it would be fun if he joined in with us and shared a game design. And he did… Today he’s sharing a Tic Tac Toe design. You can do anything with it, but we made a Tic Tac Toe shirt! Joe came up with the design and the idea of having it as a removable piece of the shirt and I did the sewing!
So technically you can print the design and use is as a paper project with no sewing. Or you could make the whole design like I did and not have it on a shirt. Maybe a take and go game for the car or restaurants. Anything really. But Joe’s idea was to make the shirt, so that’s what I made. Feel free to use as much as the tutorial as you’d like!
So if you want to make what we made, here’s how we did it!
Step 1: Gather Materials: Fabric for binding, Fabric for envelope back, printable fabric, t-shirt, velcro, thread, rotary knife and seam ripper. And you can print the images here.
Step 2: Print the design onto printable fabric. Follow your paper’s directions on how to set the image.
Step 3: Cut the pieces. Cut the tic tac toe board to 7.5 x 7.5 inches. The binding needs to be 1.5 x 35 inches. Cut two pieces for the envelope back at 7.5 x 6 inches. For the play pieces cut (5) 2 1/4 x 2 inches squares for the carrot back piece and (5) 2 x 2 inch squares for the bunny back pieces. With the velcro I used (2) 6 inch pieces and (2) 2 inch pieces.
Step 4: Hem over one edge of each of the envelope backing piece.
Step 5: Sew on the velcro. I offset mine about a 1/2 inch from the edge.
Step 6: Iron over the binding.
Step 7: Sandwich the fabric pieces together with the pieces wrong sides together and add the binding.
Step 8:Sew velcro to t-shirt.
Step 9: Sew the play pieces together. Follow these directions!
And there ya go! I debated putting snaps or buttons onto pieces and the board so that they can attach. I debated long and hard over this part of the deign! I decided that the piece just won’t stick to the boarg…
And will you make yours a Tic Tac Toe shirt?
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I’ve been seeing some great printable paper ‘toys’ lately! I’ve been a member of the Calendar of the Month Club monthly calendar from Scout Creative for the last year or so and they are so fun to print and put together. (and you can still print out past months…)
So here are some of my favorites! Take a look, print and fold!
1. I love this forest scene with a tree, squirrel, bunnies, wolf, owl and monkey from KIRIN via My Owl Barn. I love that the monkey is in with the rest of the typical forest animals!
2. This alphabet is what reminded me this week of all these papercraft ‘toys.’ This alphabet by Digitprop could be great for SOOO many things!! Fun for a nursery, a great way to start learning the letters, or as they say leaving a note for someone! I love it!
3. How cute if this Basket Monster monitor monster by Scout Creative for HP and Best Buy???
4. Do you know Made by Joel?? He’s awesome! He’s kinda famous for his paper city printables that are also awesome. But I LOVE this little circus guy.
5. And another one by Scout Creative. This month’s calendar is a really cool Hot Dog Stand. I should have printed this to go along with my Hot Dog Bun vest… But I guess National Hot Dog Day was in July and this is August. OK, I don’t feel so bad! hehehe….
Have you noticed that Valentine’s day is coming??? If you’ve read any other crafty or sewing blog, you’ve probably figured it out by now… The Valentine’s Day posts are in full force! I love a good reason to be seasonally crafting, so here I go… I’m jumping in and sharing my Valentine’s Day crafts and sewing projects this week.
To kick off the week, I thought I’d do a little repost…. This year my son’s school doesn’t share Valentine’s, so I thought I’d re-share the ones we did last year. We?? Um, oh yeah, actually that was me! But he did have fun with the finished project!
I made recycled heart crayons, printable cards and printable envelopes for the crayons.
Jump on over here for the tutorial for the crayons!
The envelope you ask??? You can print it by clicking here. And not quite sure how to put it together? It’s pretty simple, but click here for the mini tutorial!
Oh, and if you like the envelope images, check out the cute little coordinating cards! You can print these by clicking here!
Check back each day this week for more Valentine’s Inspiration! What are you making this year? Do you even do Valentine’s day?
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Here comes Santa Claus, Here comes Santa Claus, Right down Santa Claus Lane, And I’ve got a blog that’s filled with toys (i.e.printables) For boys and girls (and grown-ups) again.
A little summer Christmas cheer! This past summer I was out thrift shopping and came across two versions of old ‘Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer’ books and some wonderful vintage blue ornaments. Both of the books were 2 bucks so I snatched them right up!
I didn’t think much about them. Wrapped them up and stuck them on a shelf until just a little while ago… I think I’ve mentioned that my son LOVES Christmas and Rudolph and singing Christmas carols. To add to the fun, we went on a Santa Train adventure and the conductor was full of useless information and could belt out a song without any sense of tune or rhythm. (His singing did end up being one of the most memorable parts of the whole adventure, but I digress…) Anyway, he mentioned the story of Rudolph being a marketing ploy back in 1939. I knew this as well, but the year stuck with me this time. (And why do you tell this story to a train full of little kiddos who still believe in Rudolph, Mr. Conductor???)
Back to the books… So I got the old trifted finds books down and we started reading them and I noticed the date on the really old one… 1939! 1939 is the year that Montgomery Ward had Robert L May write the story for a promotional give away to entice customers! Mine is missing the cover or else it would probably be worth something, but even so I’m sure it’s worth more than the 2 dollars I paid for it. The story is a version that I have never heard before! And the graphic illustrations by Denver Gillen are just awesome!
I want to scan the whole book and print it so that my son can actually play with it and enjoy it without me saying, ‘Nope, that’s just for Momma to read and touch!’ But in the meantime, I made a printable to share (for your personal use only….)
Yes, the words aren’t from ‘Rudolph’, they are from ‘Here Comes Santa Claus’. Did I mention my son loves Christmas carols? Oh, yes, I did! He REALLY loves them. He sings them all the time! I could go on about funny kid stories, but I won’t right now… Anyway… We were listening the other day in the car and Elvis started singing ‘Here Comes Santa Claus’ (on the radio, no Elvis is not alive and riding around Seattle with us!) For some reason the words to the song just really grabbed me. Combining Santa with the true reason of the season… I don’t know why it hit me the other day, but for some reason I fell in love with this song all over again! Hence my printable!
There are so many beautiful Christmas Carols! What’s your favorite???
And did you see me somewhere in the post??? I’m thinking about using this as my About Page Photo!
ok, Yeah! I’m back to sewing!!!
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November 12, 2012 Update- These cards are no longer available for download! They have been updated for 2012 and are available in my etsy shop!
Have you gotten your Christmas cards in the mail yet?? Have you ordered them?? I have got to place my order as soon as I write this post. I was starting early, but somehow time got away from me…. somehow…. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I proceeded to make 3 cards instead of 1 and continure to keep tweaking them… and thinking about them and tweaking them… and…. Must stop tweaking holiday cards. Must stop. Order….. But first, I’ll share!
The last few years I’ve been designing my own cards instead of ordering stock cards. And this year I made mine, my Mother’s and an extra. I had an idea of exactly what I wanted and made it. Then had an idea for another one. Kinda like it better, but am sticking with my first thought. And lucky for you, you’re welcome to share in my handiwork and download yours and make it your own as well!!
This is the one I am using! At least one picture from each month of the year. I’m not sure why exactly I wanted to do it this way, but the idea has been in the back of my head for months! So I’m sticking with it! And while I was at it, I couldn’t just make the cards… I also had to make coordinating envelope liners and address labels (click here for the tutorial. yes, I’m kinda obsessed with liners and wrap around labels).
Does this one look familiar??? Ahhh, yes! It’s the paper cut I did last week. If you’re on my Mom’s mailing list, keep your eyes open for this one to be landing in your mailbox real soon.
And this is the third one I made… And right now, the one that no one is using! I just had an idea and made it.. Next year! See, I’m preparing early. Next year I won’t need to make a card!!
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Wow! That was a lot of work… I need to get sewing…
Well, I do love printables, but what I’m really thankful for is…
Family, my husband, my adorable adorable little son, friends, health, our home, our creativity, (for the moment) my unemployed status, blogging, friends I’ve made blogging… And I could go on…
I wanted to start a new tradition this Thanksgiving with I’m Thankful For cards for each family member to write what they are thankful for right now. So I made the cards and was just getting ready to share them with you! And speaking of friends I’ve made through this whole blogging thing, right when I was working on my cards, I get an email from Lisa from My Little Buffalo with the most adorable turkey thank you note. If you remember, Lisa helped me with my blog’s graphics earlier this year. I love her art!! I totally switched gears and she agreed to contribute her art to my card and my readers! So I replaced her turkey with the one I had done (which wasn’t nearly as cute by any means) and changed the color scheme to go with her art….
And Wahla!
I hope everyone has a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving!
What are you thankful for this year?
Ahhh! Where does the time go? My last party post was supposed to be on Friday, but it’s Sunday already!! Oh, my!!
I love to make handmade party favors for the kiddo’s parties! Last year was the Dragon Wings, this year it was Fish, the Cat in the Hat’s ‘buddy’! Or arch nemesis… Depending on if your reading the original The Cat in the Hat or watching the new Cat in the Hat cartoon series. Apparently over the years the Cat and Fish have become pals!
I really wanted to give the fish in goldfish bowls… But, we are talking a three year old birthday party! I was talked out of the real glass bowls by just about everyone! I think it was my Mother’s last email on the subject that finally made me give up on convincing people (and myself) that glass bowls was the way to go for a birthday party favor. She wrote, ‘All I can see is one child dropping the bowl and it breaking into a million pieces and the child is screaming wildly and all the other children and parents are freaking because they do not want anyone to step on all the broken glass, and then we’d have to fly someone to the ER to stitch the cut and stop the bleeding……….’
So we went with clear bags… Then I wanted to make clear bags so it looked like those bags you get from fish store when you bring home a fish…. But I ran out of time for that project. I did start it, but accidentally cut the clear vinyl wrong. And at that point I gave up on that and used these clear bags. As one parent told me about making the bags, ‘Now that would have been over the top!’
Fish was a pretty welcome guest. I loved watching the kids walking around the table eyeing them before they sweetly asked, ‘Can I have a fish?’ Of course!
And now for the tutorial so you can make some too!
Step 1: Gather Materials
Fleece. Or you could use felt, too.
A little bit of felt, black and white
Thread, to match the fleece and black and white
Scissors
Cutting Blade
Yarn, about 1 foot of black yarn, cut into 6 2″ inches
Stuffing
Pattern, print the pattern here.
Step 2: Cut out all the pieces. I cut the eyes for the tutorial opposite than I had on the actual favors! On the tutorial I did white with black centers versus the black with white centers. Which do you liked best? I’m thinking I like the black with white centers best….
Step 3: Eyes first! Sew on the black piece first. Make sure the eyes are facing opposite directions, one for each side of Fish! Then stitch in the u-shape. Lastly, stitch the eye to the body. Place the yarn in place under the eye. (I don’t trim the yarn until the very last step!) Or, like I mentioned above, you can do it opposite, with black and white centers.
Step 4: Fins are next! Sew the fins together. This step was a tricky one for me. I stitch them together and then trim them up a bit for a cleaner look. You could just use one layer of fleece, but I liked the thickness of the two layers topstitched together. Fold over the edge of the fin by about a 1/4″ and sew onto the body at the mark shown on the pattern.
Step 5: Sew together the underside! First sew the two half circles together along the straight edge. Next, sew one half circle to the teardrop shape at the curved end. lastly, turn right side out.
Step 6: Sew the body together. This will be done in a couple of steps. This step sew together the top, follow the dashed lines on the pattern. Start with the ‘nose’ and go to the top fins. Stop and pick back up again on the other side of the top fins and continue to the tail fins.
Step 7: Sew on the underside. Place the underside, with bottom lip towards the inside, with the center of the top curve to the end of the stitch line. Start on one side and sew around to the point of the ’teardrop’ shape. Stop and start again at the ‘nose’ and stitch around to the point of the ‘teardrop’ again, but this time continue to the tail fin.
Step 8: Pull the fish right side out through the top fins.
Step 9: Topstitch the tail fins.
Step 10: Stuff Fish.
Step 11: Topstitch the top fins.
Step 12: Trim eyelashes! And wahla! You’re done!
Now just find a clear bag, print the thank you’s and hand over to kids for a sweet gift! Download the thank you’s here. Or if you have older kids, consider the glass bowl… I still love the gold fish bowl!
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