Getting Organzized

My work has been so busy lately that all my other projects have taken a back seat. My craft area is still a huge mess. I have a bunch of started projects that I haven't gotten a chance to finish and since I haven't had time to get my craft room ready everything is thrown across my dining room table. I have decided that I need to get organized. I found some great online tutorials for making a travel journal, binder cover, and some free planner templates. I wanted to use the travel journal idea and make my own planner for sewing/craft projects. Since I really don't have the time right now I decided that instead I would do "A goal a day" to conquer all my unfinished projects. I will pick one specific thing I need to get done everyday and make that my goal for the day. Remember to be specific when picking your goal, the more specific the better. For example I need to get my daughter's tutu finished by Saturday instead of making finish tutu my goal for today, my goal for today is to finish attaching all the tulle pieces that are missing. My goal for tomorrow is to sew the ribbon sash on the tutu. If I can get my 2 goals done then I will be finished with the tutu. It's that easy. Remember to be very specific when choosing your goal. You might also be tempted to pick more than one goal a day. Don't! If you start picking multiple goals a day you might not get them done, we all know how busy life can be, and then you would be right back where you started!

Mother's Day Gift Ideas

Mother's Day is almost here, it's May 9th for all those who don't know. I decided the best gift to give my mom and mother-in-law this year was a framed picture of their kids/grandkids. I found and printed the cutest pictures and I found some cute cheap frames at Target. I love Target they have such good stuff! To make the gift extra special my little sisters and I are getting together this weekend to make our Flower Card and personalized Bookmarks. I plan on changing the bookmark slightly. Instead of using fabric we will be using our favorite school picture or any wallet size picture will do. You can use any scrap fabric you have aroundt he house to make the flower card. Any mother will truly love these gifts!

DIY Invitations and Book Labels

My daughter's first birthday is fast approaching and I am trying to start her birthday planning early. I wasn't sure what theme I wanted to do for her first birthday, do you even need one, but a good friend suggested a princess theme since that's her nickname. I came across some great FREE printable invitations that are breautiful, Free Invitations.They have a wide variety and they even have a cute recipe card template. I think I will be using the Frame Monogram invitation but I haven't decided yet. They add new invitations frequently, I LOVE the peacock feather invitation. I also came across cute templates for This Book Belongs To labels. These labels are an image file so you have to print the whole block and not just the ones you like but they are still very cute. They can come in handy for school books and gifts.

Some of my favorite craft sites

Since my daughter has been sleeping a lot more now, thank god, I finally have some spare time. I have been really getting into crafts lately and am always looking for some great free crafts I can attempt. Most of my crafts relate to stuffed animals or clothes for my daughter. I found some really great websites that I wanted to share.

1. The Creative Place -Random crafts
2. How About Orange - Great recycled paper coasters under Most Popular Projects
3. Pin Sew Press - Random sewing tutorials
4. Ready Set Craft - Random paper crafts great inspiration for homemade cards
5. The Red Thread - Good paper mache craft for kids under My tutorials
6. Prudent Baby - Lots of free tutorials under Babies&Kids, Nursery
7. MMM Crafts - Great Stuffed Monkey Tutorial under Free Patterns and Tutorials

Earth Day Crafts

Happy Earth Day everyone! So I thought the best way to celebrate Earth Day and to teach your children the importance of Earth Day would be to  do a craft together. I found some great crafts online that I wanted to share. Enjoy!

1. Memory Tree Do It Yourself Project from Repurposed Fabrics - great mother's day gift
2. Repurposed Clothes Collage Pillow - great sewing project for adults
3. Earth Day Garland - great craft activity for kids

Do you love crafts?

I have recently begun digging crafts. I don't have very much spare time right now but the little time I do have I like to use sewing or making some cool new craft. My husband has been helping me get my craft room ready and I am very excited to start! I found a great blog at Mothering, Wanda Wen. I love Mothering Magazine and Mothering.com they have lots of great stuff! I am really excited to make this fabric postcard. The Creative Place also has lots of great craft projects. Enjoy!

Make your own cloth diapers UPDATE

I recently did a post on how to make your own cloth diapers and I wanted to give everyone an update. I haven't had a chance to finish my diaper, work has been very hectic nowadays, but I have made good progress and I wanted to share what I learned. I decided to make the all-in-one diaper. First off I got all the fabric I needed at my local Joann's store except for the PUL. I could only find PUL on ebay. They have lots of different colors online and the price wasn't bad, I paid $10 for one yard. I used 1 layer of knit fabric for the outer layer along with 1 layer of PUL. Joann's sells fabric to make cloth diapers it's cotton and it's similar to the old style cloth diapers. I used 1 layer of this fabric to make the hidden inner layer. For the soaker I decided to experiment a little. Joann's sells bamboo batting which is made of 50% bamboo and 50% organic cotton. They sell this in bags and I bought the craft sized bag since I was just experimenting. It is a little pricey $15 regular price but it was on sale for 50% off the day I bought it. I used 4 layers of this material for the soaker. I then used1 layer of the thinnest fleece I could find. Joann's doesn't sell micrfleece but the fleece I found was fairly thing but a little softer to the touch. It's an important note that I bought a yard to two yards of every fabric, depending on the width. Based on what I have cut so far I estimate I can make around 3 large diapers with all the material I bought. I decided to use velcro instead of snaps because they are easier to fasten while my daughter is squirming around. You will probably need 1 yard of velcro per diaper if you plan on having laundry tabs and double sided tabs. I decided to make my soaker much wider then what the pattern called for. I liked the shape of the soaker the pattern provided but I felt it was to thin towards the middle and top. So far I have been following the picture instructions without any problem. I am new to sewing and it hasn't been challenging for me at all. I will post pictures and another update when I have made more progress.

Free Girl's Dress Pattern

I have decided to start using the sewing machine that I bought a couple of years ago. It's been sitting around collecting dust in my craft room and I finally decided to use it. I have been looking for some good easy patterns to begin with and I found this free dress pattern at Little Comet Tails. It comes with a sleeve add on pattern as well. The pattern is very simple and it is easy to follow. It only comes in a size 2T I believe but you can set the scale on your printer to make it slightly bigger or smaller. You can use a variety of different fabrics so I decided to start with a piece of fabric that I had lying around since I am just practicing. I haven't been able to finish the dress yet, I only have time to sew when my daughter is sleeping, but it's going well. I will post an update when I have finished my dress.

Making your own cloth diapers

I really love my cloth diapers and I would never switch back to disposables. I am using the Flip cloth diaper system during the day and the Thirsties AIO diapers at night. My daughter has been growing so fast that she has outgrown her diapers. Since the AIO are so expensive I decided to look into making my own cloth diapers. I am no expert at sewing but I decided to go ahead and give it a try. I found some great free cloth diaper patterns. Little Comet Tails has a good pattern for AIO, pocket, and fitted diapers. She also tells you which materials to buy and she has picture instructions. You can use snaps or velcro using this pattern. An added bonus is she also has a simple dress pattern on her blog. You can find a variety of cloth diaper patterns at Celtic Cloths. I think that the Little Comet Tails pattern is simpler so its easier to follow but Celtic Cloths has more free patterns available. I bought all of the fabrics I needed at Joann's except for the PUL. I could only find PUL on ebay. I am currently in the process of making my first AIO pocket cloth diaper and I will post an update once I am finished!

Craft Project - Recycling Greeting Cards

Christmas is now over and are you wondering what do I do with all these Christmas cards? It seems like a waste to just throw them away. A good craft is to let your kids cut out the pictures, or if they are to young you can cut them up, and make their own wonderful picture.

Materials
Construction Paper
Christmas Card or any other greeting card (Birthday, Valentine's, Baby Shower, Etc)
Glue
Scissors
Any other decoration you want to include (glitter, paint, crayons, cotton balls, pom pom, stickers, sand, craft foam)

Directions
1. Cut out the pieces of the card that you want to appear in your picture.
2. Glue the picture(s) to your construction paper to create a new picture.
3. (Optional) Decorate your scene with glitter, paint, cotton balls, pom pom, craft jewels, etc.
4.  Frame your picture by adding a white or black construction paper border.

Baby's First Christmas Ornament

Since this was my daughters first Christmas I wanted to make an ornament to celebrate the day. I went to Buy Buy Baby and I bought the hand print ornament kit.

Step 1
I worked the mixture to remove the air bubbles and I shaped it into a ball.

Step 2
I placed the ball on top of a sheet of aluminum foil and I rolled it out into a circle. You have to use a metal aerosol container because the rolling pin provided doesn't work at all.

Step 3
I placed my daughters foot on top of the mixture. I then washed her foot. I was a little surprised to see how big her foot was! You can get your child to open their hand by clapping it against your hand. You can place the foil on top of your hand and then clap. Warning: If your child is a little older they might try to put the mixture in their mouth.

Step 4
The circle they provided to cut the mixture in shape was useless so I used an angel cookie cutter instead.

Step 5
Place a straw in water and the place the straw at the top of the mixture. Twist to remove the material. This will become the hole where you will place the ribbon.

Step 6
Let the ornament dry for 2 days

Step 7
Place the ribbon, I used 2 Christmas ribbons, through the hole and tie a knot.