When we decided to move the baby's room to a larger space, that meant we could get artwork for the walls!  (Our first child's room was tiny and had pitched ceilings - nowhere to hang anything on the walls.)  In looking for inspiration online, i found some really cute bird collage-looking prints.  Guess how much they were?  Over $100 apiece.  The little voice inside my head piped in: "i can make that!!!"

So I did.  It took a couple prototypes and alot of cursing, but I'm really happy with the finished products.

Stuff You'll Need:

-mod podge.

-a spongey brush.

-a wide color variety of scrapbooking paper. (look for pieces with small patterns/textures)

-canvas or something similar to glue your collage onto.  (I've also seen them done on plywood and styrofoam - you could also just put them on paper and frame them)

-scissors.

-patience.

-a glue stick or two.

Here's how I did it.  I printed out the pictures I saw online for inspiration.  Initially I was going to copy them completely but ended up only minorly copying them.)  Then i started cutting.  This is the thing with collages.  You cut.  Alot.  I used regular scissors but i guess you could use tiny scissors too, that might help when you need to cut an extra small piece. 

Arrange your pieces on whatever you're going to mount (heh) them on.  Eyeball them and put them where you want them.  HINT: walk away and do something else for a while, then come back and look at them later with a fresh set of eyes.  You'll probably see something you'd like to change.  Once you're satisfied with their placement, use a glue stick to glue all the pieces down.

Once the pieces are set in place, it's time to get your mod podge on.  God, that sounded lame.  Take your spongey brush and brush a thinnish layer of mod podge over the entire thing.  It will look gray and milky, but don't worry, it will dry clear. 

Here's the thing about mod-podge.  I makes your stuff bubble up - especially large pieces.  Eventually, once it dries, it will almost all flatten out again.  I ran into trouble with my first prototype because I mounted (heh) the pieces onto a piece of paper, then attempted to mod podge the whole piece of paper to a 9 x 11 canvas.  Didn't work so well.  I'm sure if you're some sort of mod podge genius you could make it work but in my case I had to scrap them and start anew.  As evidenced here -

Plus, glueing the entire paper to the canvas made for some awkward - looking edges which i just wasn't happy with. 

So I decided to start afresh (is that a word?) and just glue the collage pieces directly onto the canvas.  Much better.  I did paint the canvasses with a cream-colored acrylic paint before I glued the pieces on. 

So.  Slap a couple of layers of mod podge on your collages.  Make sure you wait until one layer is completely dry before you put on your next layer.

Here's more of the finished product.  I'm pretty proud of them!

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This weekend I made the invitations for my cousin's baby shower. I went with a buggy theme. I bought two packages of sage green blank cards and envelopes. Ten of each in each package. Then I bought one sheet of black scrapbook paper, and three sheets of patterned scrapbook paper, and 4 packages of miniature pacifiers that I believe are meant for scrapbooking.

I cut the notecards in half..I just wanted one square,  I didn't want it to fold into a card, if that makes sense. The I used notebook paper to make a buggy stencil. I just freehanded it. It took about a million tries. So then I traced the stencil onto the scrapbook paper. I glued the buggy shape on the card, and then cut two strips of black paper and two circles of black paper, and glued them down for the legs and wheels. Then I glued one of the little pacifiers coming out of the buggies.

That's it! I wrote the shower information on the back with purple marker, and I was done! Man, my instructions sound so easy, you'd never think it took me nine hours.

My oldest daughter turned 9 recently and we decided to have a Pop Star themed party for her.   I searched the internet for ideas and consulted with M and E leading up to the event and finally came up with what I thought was a Stellar Party. 

Here's what I did:

Gift Bags:  Each girl recieved a gift bag that included a boa (I bought really cheap ones from Michael's for $2 a piece because there were 7 girls invited), a pair of star shaped sunglasses, lip gloss and some Hannah Montana gear including a magnetic picture frame.   The bags were given out as soon as each girl arrived so they could have their accessories.   If I were to do it again I would definitely find more accessories, bangle bracelets, necklaces...maybe even some microphones.

Glam Station:  This was run by my sister.  The girls got to sit at the Glam Station and get their make-up done (bunch of glittery stuff) and then get sprayed down with glitter spray.

Photo Shoot:  Each girl was given their own personal Photo Shoot in front of my homemade back drop.  The back drop was soooo easy and turned out perfectly in the pictures.  I bought a really cheap pink table cloth and pinned it up to the wall and put double sided tape on the back of some cardboard silver stars in various shapes and handed them to the kids who delightfully hung them on the back drop.   One thing I would do differently here is not hang the back drop in our giant yellow room because it took way too much effort to de-orangify the way the back drop turned out.  I was able to print out a picture for each girl to take home along with their magnetic picture frame. 

Karaoke:  Kind of self-explanatory, right?  Luckily my niece owned a machine and plenty of Hannah Montana CDs. 

Other Ideas I Just Didn't Have Time Or Funds To Pull Off:

Pop Star Trivia games,  Dance-Off,  Red Carpet set up outside....

I guess the possibilities are endless.  I'd have to say that this is my most successful theme party yet! 

 

I've been kind of obsessed with looking at pretty quilts for a while now.  I have a few quilting books and am part of a few quilting photo pools on flickr.  I've done some tiny quilting projects (christmas ornaments, etc) in the past few years.  This is my biggest one. 

When I found out I was pregnant, I went out and bought fabric for a baby quilt.  I bought orange and pinkish fabrics.  For a girl quilt.  It was way too early to be buying gender-specific stuff but i did anyway.

So, instructions.  Here's what you'll need:

-your fabric.  probably about a quarter of a yard of each color/pattern block you'll want.  the white in my quilt is flannel, i used probably about half a yard of it. also, a yard of fabric for the backing and about a quarter of a yard for binding. 

-batting or cotton or whatever for the middle layer.

-matching (or contrasting - your call) thread.

-a sewing machine.  i mean, you could do this by hand if you're amish.

-a rotary cutter and mat.  seriously, this makes things SO MUCH EASIER.

-an iron.

-a large flat area on which to work.  i did the bulk of my work on the floor and on the top of the washing machine.

-basting safety pins

Cut your sqares.  I cut mine to 5" by 5".  I don't know why.  There was no technical reason (you'll find this to be a common theme).  This was probably the most labor-intensive part, especially for a preggo with a big buddha belly.  Hence, cutting on top of the washing machine.  I cut a million squares.  Way too many.  Oh well.  If you want the white sqares in there, you have to cut twice as many of those.  Duh.

Lay your sqares out.  Re-arrange them until you're satisfied with the pattern.

Now start your sewing.  Sew your short rows first.  I had eight rows of six squares.  Make sure you sew the same distance in on every square.  I'm sure there is a technical term for this but I don't know it.  It's just important to make sure every square is sewn the same.

Iron all the seams flat .  You may be tempted to skip this step.  Don't.  Ironing is really important in quilting.  I like using the steam setting.  Mainly because the "sssss" of the ironing is satisfying to me.

Now sew all your rows of blocks together.  Again, make sure the hem allowance (THERE!  thought of the technical term) is the same on every row. 

Iron again.

Your quilt top is done!!  Good job.

Now is when you're really going to need your large, flat work area.  Lay your rotary mat down.  Now you're basically going to make a fabric sandwich.  Yum.  Lay your backing fabric down, right-side-down.  Then lay your  middle fabric down.  then lay your quilt top on top, right-side-up.

Now you baste the layers together.  Do this so that when you actually quilt the fabric together, the layers don't shift.  There are many different ways to baste.  I do it with special basting safety pins which are similar to regular safety pins but bent, so they're easier to manipulate through the layers.  Start in the middle and work your way to the outside.  I had one safety pin on each white square.

Now you are ready to quilt.  You can quilt in any pattern.  Since my quilt is so squarey I decided to do some curvy lines for the quilting.  The first few I marked with chalk, then I gained confidence and did the rest free-hand.

Now you have to square up the quilt.  I found this process slightly terrifying because I felt like I was ruining all the work I had previously done.  Lay your quilt on your mat.  Eye it out and cut one side so it's completely straight.  Then cut the edges off.  Once you've done one edge, the rest are easy.  Just square it up using your mat and ruler thingy.

Now that your quilt is perfectly rectangular, it's time to bind it.  I made my own binding tape.  Here's how you do it.

Cut strips of fabric.  I cut mine 2" wide.  Cut enough to go completely around the quilt and then some.  Sew the strips together so you have one long strip.  Now iron that strip in half, lengthwise, with the wrong sides together.  The steam setting helps immensely.  Once you've done that, go back to the beginning of the strip and iron each raw edge to the center line.  Then iron it in half.  Basically, if you cut 2" strips, you'll end up with 1/2" binding tape. 

There is a little sewing do-hickey that helps you do this.  It's called a bias-tape maker, I believe.  I have one.  I can't for the life of me figure out how to use it correctly and accurately and find it turns out better if I just do it myself.

Now attach your binding.  This is the most complicated and time-consuming part for me.  You can also pay someone to have this part professionally done for you.  You sort of fold the binding over the raw edges of your quilt and sew it on.  You want to sew as close to the edge of the binding as possible in order to get enough quilt under the binding for it not to fray out.  Corners are tough.  Leave a few inches of binding at each end, and when you're done, fold them over and sew it shut.

There are many, many online tutorials, videos and resources to help with the whole quilting process.  Use them!  I especially find them helpful for binding and binding corners.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with my quilt.  Here's what I would have changed.

-I did lay my sqares out, but somewhere in the process of sewing the rows together, they got mixed up.  The end result isn't too bad, there are just colors close together that I would have liked spaced out more.

-I pre-washed my fabric because I was scared that if I waited and washed the quilt once it was all assembled, the colors would bleed onto the white flannel.  I wish I wouldn't have done this.  I guess if your assemble your quilt THEN wash it, the fabric shrinks up a tiny bit and corrects any puckers that occured during your quilting.

-I would have ironed the quilt top better.  I did iron it, but I would have made sure every seam was pressed tight.  You can really see the imperfections in the final product.  I mean, I can.

-I just kind of suck at binding.  That will come with more practice, though.

More photos:

I wanted to share this idea for some quick cash.

http://www.cash4books.net

All you have to do is type in the ISBN number of the book you have, and this website will tell you if they are buying that book, and how much they will give you. If you decide to sell to them, you print off a postage label, tape it on your box, and send it off. The website will send you a check or deposit to your PayPal account. You pay nothing. Not even postage. I have used this before and I forgot all about it! Now I'm psyched to go home and type in all my ISBN numbers. I have two old paperbacks here at work, and I typed them in.  I get $2.56 for them. Imagine if I had 25 books? This is a good way to beef up your bank account with minimal effort.