Finals

The other day my mom asked if I saw one of the segments on the Today Show.

"No mom. Derrick was watching SportsCenter."

"SportsCenter is on in the morning?"

"Yes mom. SportsCenter is on all day."

And now it's the NBA finals. And we are geared up and ready to support our teams.

Clothes Pins and Picture Frames

I have had this big frame hanging out in my craft room for about a year now. I have too many ideas that I want to use it for but I finally narrowed it down to one that I love.

First of all, I love Instagram. I love posting pictures, following my friends, and I love the filters you can use to edit your pictures. There are a lot of ways out there to print your pictures but I don't have a large area on my fridge to stick StickyGram magnets and I don't really need any Printstagram stickers. I just wanted my pictures printed. I found an app called PostalPix that will print and ship your Instagram pictures for pretty cheap and they are perfect for this project.

Supplies:
Large frame
String, yarn, or jute
Hot glue
Mini clothes pins
Pictures
Spray paint

Once again, I don't have a Ron of pictures to go along with this post but hopefully it is pretty self explanatory.

The first thing I did was spray paint my frame. I went with and orange-red color but it could change in the future to green or yellow :) I can't seem to make up my mind!

Next I ran down to Joanne's and picked up some mini clothes pins. They were in the back corner in the wood section (it took me a while to find them). I took them home and (roughly) painted them with some toll paint and a sponge brush. This was a great activity to do while Derrick was building a wall in our front yard. It didn't take too much concentration so I was still able to cheer him on while I painted!

Then I went inside and grabbed my yarn, my hot glue gun, and my frame. I decided that three strands would look best on my size frame but it could vary depending on what frame you use. I eyeballed where I wanted the yarn to lay, turned over the frame, and started gluing! As I was gluing I pulled on my yarn to make sure it would be nice and tight.

Once the glue was dry I added the clothes pins and pictures and ta-da!

A simple project that adds a neat element to my entry way! Now go make one-you'll love it :)

Taggy Blanket

I feel like all of my friends are pregnant! I think I know at least 10 people who have recently had babies or have one on the way. It is so fun seeing their bellies grow and hear about their pregnancy woes. I was invited to three baby showers last week and wanted to come up with something creative to give away.

I decided to make taggy blankets! They were so fun and easy to make!

Supplies Needed:
Ribbon-I tried to get a variety of textures so that it kept the little one's attention
Fabric-I used cotton and minky but I have seen this with many other fabrics too. The possibilities are endless here.
Thread
Pins
Sewing Machine


If you are a crafter you might have all of this on hand and you wont have spend any money! I didn't have ribbon so I waited for it to go on sale at Michaels and then grabbed a bunch.

I started by cutting a 14"x14" square from each fabric.

Next, I cut strips of my ribbon. I did mine 7" long so that when they were folded over they were long enough to put fingers through/suck on. 

After your ribbon and fabric are cut, pin your ribbon to your fabric. I decided that three ribbons on each side looked the best and I just eyeballed where to put them. You want to fold the ribbon in half and pin the open ends to the fabric like the picture below. 

I don't have a picture of the next step (sorry) but it isn't too difficult. Once you have your ribbon pinned on, pin the minky fabric piece to the one with the ribbons on it. You want to make sure that right sides are together. 

Now it is time to sew! Start in one corner and sew all the way around the outsides of your two pieces of fabric. Minky can be pretty tricky to sew on so if you have a walking foot for your machine it might help. I didn't use one because this project was pretty small but I think it would have helped :) As you are sewing, you will want to check to make sure that you are catching each piece of ribbon and that the ribbon doesn't bunch up. PS don't forget to leave a small opening so that you can flip it all right side out! 

Your finished project will look like this!!

Measuring Up

Derrick is such a creative husband and is always coming up with new ideas. I was having a hard time coming up with something to give his mom for Christmas and he immediately rattled off 5 or so ideas. (All were handmade of course). We decided to make her a ruler. (a what?) Yes, that's right, a ruler.
When I was growing up one of my favorite things to do was to go to my grandma's house and stand by her closet door so she could measure my height. We had measurements for all of us kids, my parents, and my grandparents and we were always eager to see who had grown since the last measurement. Derrick's idea was to make his mom a giant ruler so that she could start doing the same with her grandkids. I started looking online for some ideas on how this ruler should look. Our inspiration came from this picture from derlillieblog.blogspot.com

So cute, right?


Here is how our project went down:
1. We found a 6 foot piece of wood at Home Depot. This was actually really hard because all of the pieces were warped! It took us a while to find a straight one, but eventually we did
2. Decide on a paint color. This also took us a long time because we weren't sure what would look good in her house! I finally picked a burnt orange color.
3. Using my nifty Silhouette and vinyl, I cut out the lines and numbers for the ruler.

4. Stick the vinyl to the board and look what you've got!