Saturday, October 22, 2011

Tissue Paper Jar Tutorial


I love these jars! They are so fun and easy to make. And are a great use of those empty food jars instead of filling up those land fills!

Supplies:
  • Clean jars, with label removed. If you don't have goo-be-gone (like me) you can run your jar under some warm water to loosen up the glue and any stuck paper left on your jar. With a little elbow grease, some glue will rub right off under the warm water. Others you may need to scrape off with a straight edge knife. But a bit of sticky residue won't hurt this project a bit.
  • Mod Podge or other decoupage medium of your choice
  • Tissue Paper
  • Paint brush
  • Scissors
  • Paint for lids of jar
  • Ribbon (optional)
  • Paper for tags (optional)

1.Gather supplies and protect your work area if need be.

2. Paint your lids. I used acrylic craft paint. I recommend using spray paint if you have it because in order to get good coverage with the acrylic I did 2 coats of white and 2 coats of my chosen color and you can my brush strokes. Ick!

Make sure you let each layer dry well between coats or you'll lift the previous layers up as you paint! You don't want this to happen, trust me!!!! When the paint dried I put a coat of Mod Podge to help "seal" it and get rid of the chalky matte finish the acrylic left, but you don't need to. 



3. Decide on the design you want on your jar and get your tissue paper ready. Remember the more layers of tissue paper the more opaque your colors will be.

Jar #1: Pink pockadots

Using one piece of tissue paper, cut a rectangle that big enough to wrap around your jar once. Secure your first edge down, then working around your jar about 1-1.5 inches at a time glue down the paper with the mod podge. When you've gone all the way around cut away any extra tissue paper from the seam and the top and bottom.


Jar #2: Pinks and orange

Tear off approximately 1 inch squares of tissue paper. Don't worry about being exact. Variations in size and shape of pieces are good. You need a minimum of 3 colors could have as many as you can fit on your jar. Start gluing your pieces down. Overlapping your edges just a little. Try to keep from placing 2 of the same color right next to each other. With only 3 colors it's hard to avoid at least having a few pieces touch but don't fret over it. Continue till your jar is covered.



Jar #3: Pink and Green

With scissors cut out squares that are just big enough that when placed on diagonal 2 will fit from top to bottom with a little overlapping at the tips, if you have a taller jar or want a smaller pattern you could do more but 2 worked great for me. Then take your secondary color (green) squares and cut half of them in half to make the triangles that go along the top and bottom. Then glue them down in the diagonal checkerboard pattern you see. Then with the leftover squares cut them into quarters and place one little square of the opposite color (green on pink and pink on green) in the middle of each of the big squares.

4. Coat your decorated jar with a layer of mod podge. This is to assure you have all your tissue paper secured down and to protect it from any moisture they may come into contact with.

5. I made some very simple tags but you could go as fancy as you want. All I did was cut some rectangles from some cardstock. I used my nifty round corner punch for the corners.

Then a simple hole punch to lace the ribbon through, and a calligraphy pen to write my words.

6. When your jar and lids are dry attach your tag with a simple piece of ribbon or yarn and fill your jar!

Easy peazy and they are such a cute way to store those little odds and ends!

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Baby Sling

I love the idea of baby wearing but I don't really want to buy one of those bulky looking backpack looking carriers. And I want a carrier that doesn't look so modern so I can use it at renaissance faires. So I did my research and what I really want is a Moby Wrap! The seem very safe but still cute and comfortable to wear. My second choice was a baby sling. Now this is something I could make! So I did.



Pretty cute huh? I'm going to have to wait to see after baby is born whether I like the Moby or the sling better. I think they will both have their place and time.

Here is the tutorial I used to make this sling.

If you want more information on baby wearing, Baby Wearing International is a great starting place. It has a great safety page and gives you a general description of the different kinds of cloth carriers.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Wedding Quilts

Okay, this is a extremely overdue post! But I just have to show off the quilts that my mom and my aunt made for my husband's and my wedding.... which was over a year ago! But to be fair my mom didn't finish hers till this last winter.

Mom's Quilt:

My mom made this quilt out of a bunch of my husband's and my old jeans. And yes, it's very wrinkled. But it's super heavy so it's been folded up in the closest all summer and there was no way I was gonna try to iron it.



I love how she used the pockets!


She even embroidered our names and our wedding date!


My mom is awesome about details. See this yarn. This yarn was leftover yarn that we used on our favors.


And she did this whole quilt without a pattern! My mom is just awesome!


Aunt Donna's Quilt:


Now this quilt is just so pretty! I love the colors and fabrics she choose.

 

See the leaves in the quilting? They are throughout the whole quilt and in the center of each wheel. My aunt said she was so thrilled that the lady who did the quilting did that, and I love it to!


And she's made one of these quilts for each of her nieces that have gotten married (no nephews have gotten married yet)! And there have been several of us! I hope I can do something this awesome for any nieces and nephews I have! But I'm also assuming I'm going to have far fewer nieces and nephews concidering there are 6 kids in my mom's family and I only have 2 sisters and my hubby only has just the 1 sister.

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Friday, September 9, 2011

Baby Mobile

First it's fabric show off time!!!!



I love them! Don't you? I found this fat quarter bundle at JoAnn's and knew I had to have it for baby! The colors fit in perfectly with our theme and it's just the right amount of girly that I love it and the hubby doesn't feel like puking from girly overload.

What's our nursery theme you ask? Oh that's right I haven't mentioned it yet, have I? Well it was a fierce battle between my husband and I and the winner was........... my hubby. I let him win this once, with the stipulation that for the next baby I get my Dr. Seuss nursery. This dear little one gets Where The Wild Things Are, my hubby's favorite children's book! Still so much fun and I'm looking forward to making all sorts of stuffed monsters.



Remember last week when I mentioned the mobile I wanted to make. Well here it is!



I decided to not paint the beads like stated in the tutorial. I think they look quite good unpainted and I think the multicolored beads make it a bit more visually stimulating for baby.

And yes, it's hanging from the side of lamp. I didn't have a good place to hang it up and I wasn't gonna try to get it hung from the ceiling since my hubby and I are moving in a few months. But doesn't that fabric just look awesome with this? I can't wait to see how the nursery ends up turning out.

And a thank you to Jaime of Sew She Sews for sharing the awesome tutorial with everyone.

Friday, September 2, 2011

Hubby Made My Day!

Adam: I thought of something today.
Me: Oh really and what is that?
Adam: *pointing at my belly* I realized today that someday she's gonna have sex and I don't like it!
Me: *giggled hysterically, gave Adam a kiss* I love you!
Adam: What?
Me: You're cute.
Adam: But it's not right. There are good convents around here right?
Me: *giggling* I don't know.
Adam: Or how about a Buddhist temple, there are good ones in Nepal right? I think we should encourage her in that direction.
Me: *still giggling* But I want grandbabies someday.
Adam: But that means she'll have to... I don't even want to think about it.

I love my husband! He's gonna be such a good daddy!

Thursday, September 1, 2011

IT'S A..........

This is a side view of our healthy little miss. The dotted circle is her head. She refused to let us see her face, all we could get was a profile or a forehead and eyeball shot.

This momma to be has been waiting to make any baby items until we knew what we were having! And I'm so excited to get to make all the cutesy girly stuff I've been eying! But of course I couldn't resist making something before knowing! What crafter can wait when they are expecting?

But aren't these booties cute? It's a short cuffed version of the Lion Brand's- Easy Booties. This leftover bit of cotton yarn has been taunting me and I just had to use it up! I love the colors. Might have been a bit to girly for a boy but that doesn't matter now, does it?

And what baby craft shall be expected first.... I'm thinking this mobile from Sew She Sew's. Time to hit the craft stores!
Picture from Sew She Sew's mobile tutorial.

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Goodbye Grandma Bev

This past weekend my husband and I made a very sad trip to Iowa to say our final farewells to my husband's wonderful grandmother. The visitation and funeral were beautiful. And I will tell you now, pregnancy hormones make it just that much harder to deal with a loved one's passing. It's still very hard to believe she's gone. We are very grateful that we got to see her a few weekends ago, right after they found the tumor that took her life. But despite the reason it was a nice trip. We got lots of much needed family time in and got to see a friend of ours who was back home for the month between his military assignments.

The flowers we got from the bouquet at the very end of the funeral. The poor pink rose started wilting right away.


Step-Grandpa had already started going though her things so we got to take 3 of grandma's house plants home. He told me I could take as many as I wanted because if people don't take them they are just going to die since he doesn't have a green thumb like grandma had. And my husband got to take an old cigar box that had belonged to his grandpa (whom passed in 1999 from cancer). Inside was an old safety razor and pipe that had belonged to great grandpa. He was very happy to get those things.

A very beautiful peace lily, violet and ivy. I love the little behind and legs pot hanger, I hadn't even noticed it was there till we got home. But for some reason I find plants to be one of the best things to get from a passed loved one. I think it's because you know all the love and work they put into that plant. And keeping that plant alive and well can be a very meaningful way to keep someone's memory.

Today I'm 20 weeks pregnant. I think what has been hardest of all for me is knowing how excited grandma was to be a great-grandma. She was dropping some not so subtle hints last Christmas at my husband and I. My husband being the eldest grandchild (21 at the time) and first to get married.

Well tomorrow morning we find out the sex of the baby. We are very excited. But with this excitement there is some sadness and a bit of apprehension. My husband and I are going to be happy with whatever the baby is but since this has all happened even my husband who wanted a boy very badly is now hoping for a girl. Because if this baby is a girl, she is getting grandma's middle name Ann. My husband and I decided to wait till we know before we decided if it will be her middle name as well or if we will use it for her first name over the name we currently have chosen.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Maternity Renaissance Dress


This dress is coming along so nicely, but I've got so much I need to do still! The chemise, detachable sleeves and all the trims and adornments that will really make this dress amazing! I was planning on having it wearable come next weekend for a renaissance faire but there was major communication breakdown between the former entertainment directer and the brand new one and the royalty group I travel with got the raw end of the deal and aren't playing the royalty! So this dress is getting put on the back burners for a second time! *sad face* But not all hope is lost for this dress. I for sure get to wear it the end of October! But now I'm going to be at a different faire selling CD's for my awesomely talented husband and the Scoundrels he sings with (I guess they are pretty good to... ok they're awesomely talented to!). So I have to get to work on the maternity stuff for that.

Here's a close up of those pleats. A lot of work, but they look amazing! And don't you love the pink on pink? I just love it! And I'm nearly positive it's 100% cotton fabric and I got for only $2 a yard! You can't get much better than that!


And the trim! Leftovers from another dress I made! Just the perfect amount to, I only have 2" left


And the beefy hook and eyes for front closer. I'm going to put a frog on as well but I know I'm going to need more than one poor little frog trying to keep all that dress together in the front. Just hope these do the trick!

Note to self: Time to repaint fingernails!


And what else have I been working on? Christmas gift making! What am I working on now? One of the only things you can make fuddy duddy penny pinching dutch grandparents that only like useful things and don't need anything for around the house since they keep everything until it falls apart. (I say that will all the love in my heart! It's just who they are. I wouldn't change them for the world!) Socks!



As you can see I've just gotten started on Grandpa's. But don't you love the colors! I have a feeling I'm going to have troubles letting go of the pair for grandma! Such pretty colors! And grandma and grandpa would be so proud, I got the yarn on clearance! 

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

4 months!... Really?

So it's been nearly 4 months since my last post! EEEK! What a bad blogger I am! But what a busy and exciting 4 months it has been! So lets start at the beginning.....

April and May: I spent April in on mass sewing mode getting ready for the start of my husbands and my Renaissance Faire Season! And at the end of April we started our 8 out of 10 weekends of Faires! Gone on the weekends and sewing during the week. What fun it was but talk about exhausting. Speaking of exhausting....

May, not so exhausting part: May 1st was my husband's and my 1 year wedding anniversary! Yay! One year done, another 50+ to go. But look at what he got me!  

He got me Syphillis, Mono and a White Blood Cell to fight them off. Aren't they cute! They are Giant Microbes! They are on ThinkGeek.com. And my husband bought me the book "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies", which I've just finally started reading. And if you are wondering, yes my husband and I are geeks!

May, the exhausting part: Aside from the nonstop traveling and sewing I had something else tiring me out all month. On May 24th my husband and I found out I'm pregnant! It wasn't planned, I was on the pill and until both the lines turned pink I swore up and down that I wasn't pregnant and it was just stress! Hahaha, the joke was on me! After a few hours of shock my husband and I got super excited. We wanted kids we were just planning on waiting a few more years. But now we wouldn't change a thing! 

June: The day before I found out I was pregnant I started getting all day  nausea... And it stayed and the exhaustion got worse. Way worse. I managed to make it through our last two weekends of faire mostly unscathed beyond a sore foot from a bench falling on it. And for most of the month I took the great liberty of doing not much more than sleeping, eating, going to the bathroom and watching movies. But midway though the month my husband and I went to our first Dr's appointment and we had a sonogram and got to see our little 9 week old gummy bear and it's heartbeat! It's amazing just how real that little picture made things!

July: I finally started having some more energetic days and my all day nausea was now just evening nausea. And it was just in time for me to actually enjoy our 4th of July weekend at my parents house! Where my already showing baby bump just made my family gitty. My parents are so excited for their first grand baby and both of my sisters are super excited for their first niece or nephew. And my dog Jack Jack, whom has been staying with my parents since we moved, finally came home with us. And we brought home one of the kittens that one of my parent's momma cats had. His name is Puck. I'm so happy to finally have fuzzy babies at home with us again!

August (aka:now): As of today I'm 16 weeks pregnant! And yes, relief has come! The nausea is finally gone and I'm getting my energy back! I finally feel like a real person again! YAY! And even more exciting news; I've started feeling the baby move. In fact little one is wiggling about right now!