Paper Rose Wreath

I'm kinda lonely today. For someone who enjoys staying home, being home, never leaving home... that's saying a lot! I honestly don't go and do many things during the week. I'm just kind of a hermit in that way, I guess. I'm definitely a introvert... some people just drain the energy right out of me! I need to re-charge. I need to be in my safe place.

Well... I've been recharging and in my safe place all week. I think I've left the house once... or twice? And that was to go my parent's house, ten minutes away. ;] I usually try to keep my weekends open, because Jake works half days on Saturdays and then we usually try to do something together later on. Well, he's working all day today (and I don't know about tomorrow... I hope he gets tomorrow off!!) and I'm antsy to get out of the house and do something. Maybe Ryan and I will go to the county fair later...

Or I suppose I could mow the lawn. That's boring, though... hmm. Any suggestions??

ANYWAYS. I started this project... *whispers* last November. It's very time consuming, especially if you have a little one! I could really only work on it at naptime, but I didn't want to devote EVERY SINGLE naptime to it... so it took some time to finish. And then I would go weeks without even thinking about it, because it's just easy to forget about. Oops.

I've seen this idea all over (where else?) Pinterest and decided to give it a go. Most of the ones I had seen were made out of colored paper, but I really liked the one I saw made from an old book. So I bought a 400+ page book at the thrift store. It was over 100 years old and it was in German, so I have no idea what it was even called or about. I wasn't planning on putting a bow on it like there is, but I ran out of paper! And I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this bow, so we'll see if it goes, stays, or changes...

If you'd like the tutorial on how to make one, go here; or just search Pinterest and you'll find a bajillion and one of them to follow ;] I didn't make mine exactly how this specific tutorial showed, but it gives you the general idea.

Here is my slow but sure progression (terrible phone pics, be forewarned!)...

[November 2011]

[April 2012]

[July 2012]

[Finished! Sort of. July 2012]

Now I just need to decide if I want to keep the bow or not. Or if I should just change it. Or try and find another 100 year old German book at a thrift store ;] 

Making New Stuff Look Old {tutorial}

It's no secret: I love old stuff.

Coffee cans.
Buttons.
Cigar boxes.
Blue Mason jars.
Books that are falling apart.
Window frames.
Tea canisters.

...but finding those "treasures" can difficult and sometimes expensive. But we all know how much fun creating something yourself is, though, right? I saw this really neat way how to make something look as though it has layers of aged peeling paint, and I thought it looked really awesome! So I gave it a try and got really excited about sharing it. I hope you have fun with it, too!

You need:

An object to paint (I have the letter "H" but you can paint just about anything!)

Paint (I have brown, vanilla and light blue)
Brush

Sandpaper

Bar of soap (like Dove)

Decide how many layers/colors you want on your object. Paint your base color. If your object is already a color you like then you don't have to do this step.

I liked painting it so it looks kind of grainy, like wood. 

After it is completely dry, rub a bar of soap in the spots you want it to look aged/peeled.

 (I'm not really left handed. This was for photo purposes only. Haha...)

Then paint your second layer of paint. 

After it is completely dry, use sandpaper to remove the paint where you soaped your object. Only the paint covering the soap will come off easily, so you can sandpaper the entire thing lightly and it will only remove the wanted paint. 

If you want more paint to look aged on this layer, add some more soap, and then your 3rd layer of paint. Avoid the areas that you already sanded. I rubbed some of the blue paint around the edges of the already peeled areas. If you want, you can wait to do the sanding until the absolute end... but you need to remember where you "soaped" with each layer and put it in the same spots. I decided to play it safe and sand it between layers. 

Then sand the top layer. 

To add to the aged look, rub some brown or dark paint onto the object. 

The finished product:

The H was the second time I tried this technique; I painted this letter D last night, and interestingly, I like my first try better than my second. ;) Unfortunately my last name does not start with a D so I cannot trade. This basket is the start of a birthday gift for a friend who also has the same "rustic/vintage" taste that I like. The mason jar will be turned into... well, you'll have to wait until the next post for that. :)

I think I like that it shows more of the layers of paint... you can see the vanilla color a lot more. It looks more "rough" and I like that! 

High Definition? Naw, just last names. :) Maybe I'll "touch up" my H a little so it looks more rough. Yes, I think I will do that...

Enjoy! 

Baby and Toddler Leg Warmers { tutorial }

"Baby Legs" (I think that is a registered trademark, so pretend I didn't say it) are like little leg warmers for babies. They are perfect for use with just a onesie... they make diaper changes and potty trainer easier (quicker access) and protect those tender knees when learning to crawl. You can buy them online, but at $12+ a pair... they are definitely not in my budget! :] So I found a tutorial to make them.

I looked in the "little boys" section for some long socks but couldn't find any... boo. So I wandered over to the girl's section, and was blinded by a huge variety of rainbow covered socks. Like a huge display of them.

Side note: am I the only one who is "annoyed" by the amount of boy clothes vs girl clothes at stores?? I guess "annoyed" is a strong word because it's not like I enjoy shopping anyways.

Carrying on...

I picked out the least girly socks I could find from the girly sock section... but I decided they were still pretty girly. So I'm going give them to a friend of mine (shhh, don't tell her!) who is having a baby girl in around the beginning of November. It's like the perfect time to have cute little leg warmers... she can wear them just with a onesie, or under a skirt a pair or shorts for a cute layered look... oh, it's going to be so much fun for my friend to dress up a little girl!

Another side note: YES, boys can wear leg warmers too... look how cute this little guy is from the Baby Legs website! (although I think MY son would be sweating buckets wearing the shirt + sweater + vest combo )

Anyways. HERE is the tutorial for the leg warmers. I put one of the pairs I made on Ryan, just to test them out... they are pretty much super cute. 

Drool Pads for Ergo Carriers {tutorial}

Ryan likes being carried in our Ergo carrier, but he tends to chew on the straps when he turns his head... he's at the age where anything and everything possible has one destination: his mouth! I can only imagine that as he gets older and taller than he will want to chew on them all the more. Since I wear him every day (multiple times!), I can't really be throwing the Ergo in the wash all the time to get the spit and saliva off of the straps from his chew-fests. I thought about buying the "official" drool pads with the carrier, but after seeing another tutorial, I figured I could just easily make my own.

The supplies! I don't think I need to list everything off... but you need the basic things (sewing machine, scissors, pins, etc), plus three fabrics (two for the outside and a middle layer, something like flannel) and velcro. I tend to raid the remnant rack at JoAnn fabrics... you can get nice fabric for half price there. Or I go to the thrift store and search there... I'm cheap, I know :] 

My outside layer that I wanted to "show" is a soft cotton, the back side is a soft flannel, and the inside is flannel as well. The inside flannel, which is the blue one, is just one of those flannel baby blankets. THRIFT STORE! :] The green fabric and grey fabric are from the remnant rack. 

I cut three rectangles from each fabric, for each drool pad. I cut out a 9 1/4" by 6 1/2" piece of paper and used that as my template to sew by, but I left the pieces of fabric with random edges that I would trim later. I like to do things the hard way. If I was doing it easier (and I totally suggest you do it this way), I would have just made my pattern 1/2" bigger on each side and just cut each piece of fabric out from there using my rotary cutter and mat. But no, I like to do things the hard way. :]

Lay each layer of fabric on the table, starting with the side UP that you want facing OUT. Place your second 'outer piece' face DOWN on that, and then finally put down your middle piece. 

If you want a strap to hang toys from, cut a piece of fabric, fold it, and sew it. It doesn't matter how long it is. 

Like I said before, I like to do things difficultly... so I drew around my pattern and planned to sew on that line.  DUMB. I don't know why I did that. The line isn't straight. I've never used a line before for sewing. Like I said before, I should have just made my pattern a little bigger and cut it out with my rotary cutter. OR... I could have used a ruler and made straight lines. That wouldn't have been a bad idea. No big deal, though. The above photo shows how you should place the "toy strap" on the fabric... but you want to place the loop towards the inside,  BETWEEN the two "outside pieces" of fabric (in my case, between the green patterned fabric and the grey fabric).

Pin it!

Then you sew around the edges, but leave an opening so you can turn your fabric the right way. After that, you trim away the excess fabric. It's best if you leave some fabric in front of the opening so that you have some fabric to tuck inside when you sew it again.

Turn it right side out. You should iron it flat at this point... but if your iron is still in storage (*sigh*) from when you moved to Kenya for a year... just pull the edges out as flat as you can.

Then stitch around the edge again, tucking in the little flaps in the opening.

Cut two piece of velcro to fit, and pin them on as shown above.

Then sew them on!

Aaaand... you have drool/chew strap covers. Not perfect by any means, but a fun and pretty simple project!

Unfortunately (well, actually, fortunately) my baby is taking a nap so I can't model him in the Ergo with his new strap covers. But I will sometime soon, and post a photo. But for now, you'll have to deal with my chair wearing the Ergo for me. ;]

*edited on 8/1/11 to add*

If you're here  from Craft Gossip Sewing... eek! I'm totally flattered and equally freaking out right now! I've never been featured on any other blog before!! Thanks for dropping by my humble little blog... link back to your blog so I can come say hi to you, too!! Oh, and here is one (not so great) photo of Ryan enjoying the Ergo with the toys and strap covers... I keep forgetting to take a  better photo! 

Paper Bows {tutorial}

I recently posted this photo on Facebook:

...and got quite a few compliments on my home made bows, as well as a request for a tutorial. The bows are super, super easy to make. So, here is the tutorial! 

BONUS: Can you guess what products are advertised on the paper made into the two bows on the left-ish side of the box?

Here's what you need:

Magazines

Scissors

Tape

Paper cutter (not necessary, but extreeeemely nice to have)

FIRST?

Find a pretty picture, or one with fun colors. 

Rip the page out, and cut the page into 9 equal strips. I recommend using a 1" width or less. These were cut to 3/4". 

 Then, leave three of the strips the full length of the magazine page.

Cut the next three strips off by an inch.

Cut the next two strops off by two inches.

And cut the last one down to 3 inches.

Then I like to fold the strips in half, so I have a midpoint and know where to fold the paper.

 And then I fold the ends, about to the halfway point.

Fold both ends of each piece and tape them securely. Loop the last one in a circle. 

Then tape them together, separating the longest three to create a 6 point star.

Continue taping each piece in, taping the next smallest strips in a staggered pattern.

...I cheated and added two more strips because it wasn't full enough. 

Tape the circle into the middle. 

And as my sister Erin would say... "VOILA."
(she really did say it; she's sitting next to me)

You can make different size bows; on this one, I made bigger loops to make a bigger, more full bow.

More clues for the bonus question... does this picture help at all? :]

and: 

If you can't figure them out...

...you'll just have to wait.

:)