Newborn Momento Shadowbox

I recently had baby boy #2!  If you're like me, you like to keep little momentos from important events in your life all while avoiding CLUTTER!  I created these shadowboxes for each of the boys to display in the nursery.  This project would also be great for a wedding, engagement, prom or any other exciting event that you want to remember!

What you need:  

Shadowbox (I got mine from Target. You can find them at craft stores too!)

Double sided tape or pins

Momentos  

I like this shadowbox from Target because it has black felt as the background.  Other shadowboxes have plain cardboard, which means more work for me!  

Momentos I used:  hospital ID bracelets for Mommy, Daddy & Baby, footprints, card from hospital bassinet, hat from hospital, pictures 

I hope the boys appreciate these little keepsakes when they get older & we tell them about the day they were born!  

Fabric Scraps Wreath

Easy Fabric Scraps Wreath

by ME

Hi, it's Flannery. Have we met?  I used to blog here. Life forced me to get sidetracked and I haven't been very creative lately. 

BUT, I am in Philly visiting Court for spring break and.......NATURALLY....I'm creatively inspired.

I'm also in no mood to leave the house (cause I'm really super lazy on vaca) so I had to make something with what Court had on hand.  

So after perusing Pinterest, I decided to recreate this fabric scrap wreath. 

Court has the best fabric scraps so it was an easy choice of projects. 

I used a wire wreath like this one and tied fabric scraps on to the wire frame. 

The wire frame had four levels.  I tied fabric onto the outermost and innermost levels.

If you wanted your wreath to be even fuller, you could fill three or even four levels.

My fabric scraps were roughly 1.5-3 inches wide and 5-6 inches long.  

It varied because I was working primarily with scraps and not cutting uniform strips from large pieces of fabric.

Though of course you could cut uniform strips.

It's also dependent on what look you like. I like that they all vary in width and length.

Do you recognize any fabric?

I tied scraps in between loads of laundry, dirty diapers and meals.  It was so easy!

At the end, I just looped a pretty piece of ribbon around the top.

It looks really sweet in Court's sewing studio.  

Makes me want to make more.

I've seen Etsy shops that sell them in specific colors like this one here.

Court had a lot of pinks and reds so I deliberately sifted through her stash for shades of blues and yellows to balance it out.  I think the navy blue brought such a fun pop of color, don't you?  

So here's to hoping I don't go another however many months without blogging.  I miss being creative and having that outlet even though the craziness of life has not allowed it.

So tell me, do you ever let life get the best of your outlets and personal needs?

::GumDrop Trees::

{every year we make these}

we put on some christmasy tunes

make some hot chocolate and marshmallows

and spend the afternoon

discussing what Santa might bring

it's a tradition

this year we added colorful toothpicks

it was a big deal

and added quite the excitement

my job was cutting the toothpicks in half

the best part is eating the gumdrops

that are left over

Ta Da!

i'm off to sit in front of the fire

have a good night!

Eleanor's Sweet Pincushion

This momma is proud.

Look at what she hand sewed at camp this week!

Her very own pincushion.

I was just telling another blogger friend, shouldn't I be able to work on this with her?

Do I really have to send her to camp to do this?

 But I haven't the slightest clue how to teach her to craft and sew, how to break down these projects to a 5 year old level.  And besides, if I didn't send her, then I wouldn't get the fabulous 20 minute ride home from camp where I get the excited low down on her day.  That is the BEST.  Don't you think?

Watermelon Applique Shirt: Last But Not Least

So here is our final Watermelon inspired project for the Wayward Girls. (For a recap of the project, check out my post here.) Court, in all her sewing and appliquing glory, created this beauty.  She started by free hand drawing the main body of the fruit (including the rind and seeds). 

Nom Nom Nom Nom.

Once she had the fabric heat 'n bonded to the shirt, 

she did a straight stitch and a zig zag stitch to finish it off.  

Sweet and so perfect for summer.

Maybe they should go in the Etsy shop?

Would you buy one?

Craft Challenge: Watermelon-themed Pillow

So we've made bloggity-blog-blog-blog friends with another set of sisters! The Wayward Girls! The thing I love about blogland, and you'll read other blogger's comments on this, is that you make penpals, almost. You connect with other bloggers, talk about blogging, crafting, sewing, whatever. I personally don't have a lot of friends who craft, sew or blog. Luckily I have my sisters to enjoy that with, but it's also nice to make friends who do it, too. (Come on, everybody's doin' it....)

Anyhoo, our new friends the Wayward Girls decided to give us a creative CHALLENGE. They gave us a theme and all three of us had to come up with a project reflective of that theme and then blog it.

Our theme?! WATERMELON. Perfect for summer!

My project came to me almost immediately.

Uh, obviously I'd do a pillow! My obsession with pillows runs far and wide.

Except for this pillow, I did red and white stripes with a black button.

No green, I know, but I couldn't help it. I couldn't shake the idea.

The problem I had with this mission was finding the exact fabric I wanted. See, I knew I wanted pretty wide stripes--3 inches or more. But I couldn't find the fabric at my usual haunts. Enter: Online Fabric Store. I knew I could count on them to have the right stuff.

This fabric is screen printed, not the sailcloth-type that I originally wanted. So it was pretty hard to get ironed flat. I'm still workin' on it.
I did a pretty good job lining up the stripes, though, non?

Okay, so that's my WATERMELON project, Wayward Girls. What do you think? Does it remind you of a watermelon?!


Next up........Mols! Look for her fabulous project tomorrow!

Arghh!!!!! Watch out for the Plush Monsters!

My Eleanor is taking an art/sewing class at this super cool place here in Chi called LillStreet.  We love, we love, we love.  This class she is taking is focused on 'plush monsters.' What's with the whole Ugly Doll thing anyway?  

So obviously, this is not a tutorial.  Think of it more as an inspiration on what you could do with your kiddos and stuff you probably already have in your craft closet.  

When Eleanor arrives at class every week, the teacher has a basket full of felt shapes already sewn, leaving a small gap to create a pocket.  The kids stuff the shapes and then they staple or hand sew them closed.  After that, they adorn these cute guys!  

This is Mary Larkin--Eleanor gifted her the purple guy.  She was quite pleased.

This guy here is "Pillowhead." 

This is his friend "Sweetie Bone."

My personal fave.

From L to R: Featherhead, Hula Lady, and Button.

This pair here is Feather Lady Love and One Eye Love.

(Mom, one of his eyes fell off but don't laugh, k?)

The guy with the big black fuzz ball is Daddy Garland (??) and his little baby Rosie.

Not sure why daddy has a namesake plush monster, but I keep telling Gar to take it as a compliment.

Here she is setting our photoshoot.

Eleanor wanted me to tell y'all that "LillStreet is fun.  It's the best thing ever in the whole wide world!"  That's quite an endorsement.  Now don't you think these monsters would be great on a rainy day this summer?!

Easy Bird Feeder Tutorial--Use Whatcha Got!

Okay, so we are on our SEVENTH snow day here.  The roads are fine but the school building is leaking.  Nice.  We need some quickie crafts.  I'm all out of ideas and inspiration.  So...in light of that, I'm sharing with you this quickie project the girls did in preschool.  So easy, you probably have all of the ingredients (or if you are like me, you don't because your pantries are bare due to snow and puky kiddos).  Try it, we're calling on spring with this one.

Supplies:

--bagels

--buttah

--birdseed

--yarn (or some other tying mechanism)

Seriously, that's it.

Halve your bagels.  

Spread each side with buttah.

Cake it with birdseed.

Tie a piece of yarn on it to hang.

Hang.

Done and done.  

Will the birds show?  

I'll let you know.  

Ooh..that rhymed.  (Gettin' a bit slap happy here folks.)