Cupcake Quilt

SO I'm going to be honest...I did this project a WHILE ago! In fact, the baby that this was made for is now 6 months old...and this was her shower gift. YIKES! But as I mentioned, there's been a lot going on recently, so I can't get too bent out of shape over it ;-) 

So once upon a time...my lovely cousin was having baby! For her "sprinkle" I wanted to make her and the baby something special..one of a kid and from the heart! 

So I thought for a while and this is what I came up with!

The best part is, it turned out so close to what was in my head! That almost never happens. Know what I mean? I always seem to come up with these ideas and I get so excited about them but they hardly ever come out the way I had hoped. Not this time! I was really pleased! And it was soooo simple...other than the fact that I didn't know how to quilt. Details. Details. But even that turned out ok! 


I went to Christmas Tree Shop to get an inexpensive lamp shade. As a matter of fact, the Mommy-to-be-again, was shopping with me. She probably wondered why I was buying such a boring shade! Now since I used hot glue, I had to work quickly so these are the only pictures I have. But seriously, you don't need them. It wasn't hard. I just measured the shade from top to bottom...which luckily for me was 12 inches so I didn't have to cut my paper! I folded the paper like an accordion, every 3/4 inch or so and hot glued them to the shade. Easy peasy! 

The quilt on the other hand was harder for me since the only one I've ever made was TINY and several years ago. I played around with some patterns, but ended up going for tried and true...squares! Just to ensure that this pretty Mama actually received a gift on time. haha I fell in love with the pattern of the polka dot fabric and since it the gender was a secret, I thought it would be a good choice! 


I was so thrilled with the way it came out..and having some left over red felt and a fake flower stem was just the "cherry on top." HA! Sorry, bad pun. But that's all it was really, a little red felt sewn into a circle and a fake flower stem that I clipped the flower off of and hot glued it inside. Done and done. 

Here's the woman of the day and her giant cupcake!

(I promise she's not naturally this orange!)

I think she liked it! And thought it was...dare I say..."Sweet?" 

Countdown Muffin Tin

The parents of the kids I watch went to Paris for a few days and I wanted to do a countdown project with them to help me them through the week. 

I didn't have much to work with and between camps, classes, and playdates we never seemed to find the time to go to a craft store...so we made due. It may not be the cutest thing ever made, but it certainly did the job and the kids had fun making/using it. They helped make the actual "calendar" then I sent them out of the room to fill it so they would have a surprise a day until their Mom and Dad came home. I loved watching them work together to pick out the papers, cut them to the size, and the older one did a great job with the numbering.

 

So in every cubby, I put a note for each child and a little treat. Before their parents left, I had them write a note a day for each boy, just telling them something about where they would be on the trip or giving suggestions to combat the "I'm Bored" summer phenomenon.

 

(Yes that is a Dora bracelet, the little guy LOVES Dora..and jewelry.)

The kids couldn't wait to take off a number each day and see what Mommy and Daddy had to say, as well as what little toy or candy they would find. Next time I will plan ahead and get cute papers, or magnetic paper even...though I don't think the boys will know the difference. :)

Prom Dress scraps to Necktie

So to get to this craft, you need to get through all my big sisterly love! 

May and June were really crazy, but great months for my family. My little sister went to her senior prom,

Then my little brother had his 8th grade dance..

In June they both graduated. Sissy's off to college, 

And B-ry will be going to high school!

It's hard to believe the time has gone so fast...but it certainly has been fun so far! I can't wait to see all these two will accomplish in the coming years! We are very proud of both of them.

OK, now on to the crafting! So, Sissy got her dress hemmed..of course, because we're a family of shorties :)  (except for Daddy!)  and she asked if I could make her date a tie from the scraps. I said "Of course" before I thought about whether I knew how to do that or not...but I figured, it's a pretty simple shape...plus I had a month. I was using one of hubby's ties as a template when I noticed the inner lining...so I grabbed an old one, took off the silk and this is what I was left with...

Perfect, right?! A little fabric interfacing and I was on a roll. I got the fabric to stick to the lining, but then I ran into a problem. I couldn't sew it shut because you would see the stitching, so I ended up hand stitching it shut...verrrry carefully. The fabric her dress was made from was NOT forgiving at all. It showed every little pull, so I was careful not to make many!

 He said that everyone loved it! And look at how it matched his boutonniere...

Awesome!

And of course it made the Queen happy..

*Yes, that means she was Prom Princess last year, and both Homecoming and Prom Queen this year. 

Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!

:)

And with those pretty purple flowers in the background...Perfect!

I-Can't-Believe-It's-Not-Make-up

My cousin's little girl absolutely loves playing with make up. Last year, the Easter Bunny brought her some plastic play cosmetics, but little Avery wasn't buying it. She knew they were fake, and wanted the real deal! Smart girl! Well, I had seen a post on Playing House about making realistic fake eye shadow and decided to give it a try. 

So I had one of these laying around...ok, ok I have a ton of them.

I thought it would be perfect because it was mostly black and I could personalize it when it was all done. The first thing I did was clean out the old eyeshadow. 

 After I got it all out, I rinsed the compact with soap and water, and I was left with a nice blank canvas.

 

 Next, I used the metal to outline the piece of foam to be cut. I used adhesive backed foam, just for convenience...but you could certainly use regular foam and glue. 

I cut out several different colors and glued them in to the empty spaces. It came out pretty darn cute! And I think the little one approved!

Come back tomorrow to see how I did the nail polish!  

Faux Chocolate Bunnies

Here comes Peter Cottontail, hoppin' down the bunny trail :-)

With the Easter Bunny on his way, I'm sure we would all appreciate a calorie-free treat!  

 

These little cuties are made of an inexpensive fabric (left over from a costume I made for my sister) that I painted "chocolate" brown. This was a really quick and easy craft, which made it even more enjoyable! One tip I have to share: Be sure you enlarge the pattern enough..the smaller bunny was really hard to stuff. I used the basic pattern from here, but ignored the legs to make the bunnies look more like their chocolate cousins. 

They almost look good enough to eat!

I think I'm going to try some Peeps and eggs next...hopefully before Easter, hehe.

Hippity Hoppity Easter's on its way!

Book to Vase

This is a super easy project with adorable results! 

For a full tutorial, visit Sweet Paul.

Turn one of these: 

Into one of these:

Cute, right?! They are fun individually or you can make several with different sized books and group them together. Love it. 

I have to change the ribbon color now that the wall is blue...but I can't decide what I want to replace it with...

                        

Sorry about the quality of all these pictures, my camera is slowly dying...It's now refusing to take any flash photos. Maybe Christmas? :-)