Latest from my craft room

I've been spending a lot of time in my craft room lately, which I love! Baby gifts for my nephew due in September has been the focus of my attention, among a slew of other random projects. I wasn't sure that sewing for a baby boy would be as fun as it is for baby girls, but I was wrong! I had to resist the urge to make ruffles and bows, but I enjoyed finding new ideas. I've included links to the tutorials I used for most of the items. I wish I could say I came up with these ideas on my own, but the truth is that I'm just really good at copying other peoples' ideas. :)

Onesies and mittens

Tummy time mat with loops for toys - - idea from here

Door muffler and taggie

Picture of how the door muffler is used

Burp cloths

Pee pee teepees

Changing mat, wipe case, carrier

Nursing cover

Quilt

Baby Gifts

As soon as I found out my best friend was having a baby, my mind started turning with ideas of all the things I could make for this little one. Of course, I had to wait until she found out she was having a GIRL until I could get started. I loved quilting, sewing, and crafting for this little one. Her momma is extra special to me and Baby P already has a special place in my heart.

The quilt was the first thing done. It was definitely a labor of love, but so much fun. It was my first experience quilting, so I did a lot of learning along the way. This series of tutorials by Diary of a Quilter was incredibly helpful! I would have been completely lost without it and the YouTube videos I watched. Despite the many mistakes and imperfections, I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

I made a Onesie Dress with a tutorial from Barefoot in the Kitchen. I love how it turned out!

My absolute favorite gift I made was this appliqued owl onesie. I was so in love with it when I was finished that I wanted to keep it! I had never done applique before, so it was a learning experience. It took quite a while and resulted in a few injuries, but I finished victorious. I used this printable owl pattern.

Apparently tag blankets (or taggies) are all the rave lately. I see them all over the place. I think they're great for sensory integration for the little ones. I used some scraps and my ridiculous ribbon supply to put one together for Baby P.


Every new momma needs a good nursing cover and burp cloths! This nursing cover from Sew Much Ado is my favorite to make. Obviously I don't have any experience using it to know how well it works, but it sure is cute! Burp cloths made from cloth diapers and a flannel insert are also a favorite of mine to make for new moms.

What's a little girl to do without some cute bows for her hair?!? I made a couple to go with the onesie dress and the owl onesie, plus a few extras. I found this collection of 40 hairbow tutorials, which was amazing and super helpful.

Finally, I made a little wall hanging for the nursery. Brittney's mom and Ryan's mom sang this song to them when they were both babies and I'm sure Baby P will fall asleep to it every night too. I used my Silhouette for the letters.

Craft Room Closeups

As I was planning my craft room, I wanted to do something cute, practical, and cheap. With the hopes that it will eventually be turned into a nursery, I didn't want to spend a lot of money fixing it all up for my crafting. I feel like I accomplished this goal pretty well. Of course, I always spend more money than I was planning!

I already posted about the embroidery hoop wall. Above my sewing area, I wanted to do something that would provide storage along with being visually appealing. I bought unfinished wood boxes at Michael's and picked out paint colors to match the fabric in the embroidery hoops. I used scrapbook paper on the bottom of the boxes and covered it with a few good coats of Mod Podge. I was thankful for Chris' help with hanging the boxes. I LOVE how they turned out! They're great to hold some of my sewing and crafting supplies.

I also needed an area by my desk to hold my countless lists and notes. I found a cork board on sale at Micheal's for about $3 and painted the trim on it to match the boxes. I also bought a small pizza pan at Dollar Tree and spray painted it for a magnet board. I had put together a dry erase board using a picture frame, but it broke in the process of hanging it up. So, I just stuck with the magnet and cork boards.

I've seen this idea floating around Pinterest using a picture frame and wire to display pictures. I love the shabby chic look so this was right up my alley! I was super excited to find a picture from in the clearance/damaged section at Michael's. It didn't have the glass in it (which I didn't need anyway), so it was marked down from $40 to $10. I spray painted it the same color as the magnet board, fastened some wire to the back, and displayed some pictures with adorable clothespins I found in the dollar bin at Michael's.

One other touch of my room that I love is this wall hanging. It was given to me as a gift at the end of my first (and only) year teaching in Illinois. A parent of one of my students made it for me. I absolutely love it!

The poem reads:

The Choice

"You could have chose to teach, where the grades are A-B-C's.
Instead your students make their marks in measured IEP's.

You could be simply standing in front of your classroom all day long,
Instead you're bending, stretching, lifting, while trying to stay strong.

You could have conversations with your students, deep in thought,
Instead you praise the effort of one tiny little grunt.

You may not think I noticed, that you could have had much more,
That you could have chose a different path, a different classroom door.

But you chose to be with us, picked the hardest job to do,
To make a difference in the lives of kids who cannot choose.

Words cannot come out to tell you how much that means to me,
My eyes try to convey the thoughts of how it feels to see.

How I wish that I was able to come to you and say,
How hard it will be to leave you, to grow up, and be on my way.

If only you could hear the gratitude spoken by my own voice...
Instead, just know how much I love you for making this choice."

By Sherry Schultz

I love it because it perfectly describes the wonderful, life-changing year I had teaching students with severe disabilities. It's a great reminder and inspiration to me!

Craft Room

The craft room is mostly put together and ready to be used! I am really liking the way it turned out. It's cute, inspirational, functional, and didn't cost a fortune to decorate! There are still a few small things that need to be done, but those will happen with time.

Looking into the room from the door.

Extra twin bed and hutch for fabric storage.

Closer look at sewing area...I will do a post about the boxes on the wall soon.

Inside of hutch with fabric storage. I need to organize this a little better and find a better storage solution for all the ribbon on the top shelf.

Book shelf on the wall coming into the room (you can see the door on the right side of the picture). I need to find some fabric to put in the window.

Stay tuned for more detailed posts about the projects I did around the room and my favorite touches!

Now I'm off to do some sewing!

Touches to the craft room

I've slowly been adding little touches to my craft room. I came across this idea on Pinterest. Now, I can't seem to link it back to the rightful owner. So I'm stealing someone's idea without giving them credit!


I love how this turned out! It adds just a little extra pop and interest above the bed. This was such an easy and relatively inexpensive project. All of the supplies came from my favorite place, Hobby Lobby. The total for all the supplies was around $25, but that included a lot of extra fabric for future projects. The hardest part of the whole deal was getting it hung up on the wall in a manner that looked appealing to the eye, but not too perfect.

I'm linking this project up to the Pinterest Partayy going on over at What the Graham?!, Baby Gator Den, Design Build Love, Hernando House, Merrypad, and The Stucco Bungalow. Head on over to these great bloggers to see other awesome projects inspired by Pinterest!

Craft Room Sneak Peek

My craft room has gone from this:


to this:


I still have a lot more organizing, decorating, and sprucing up to do before I do a big reveal. Stay tuned!

Felt Food

I recently finished a craft project that was a little different, but a lot of fun. I made felt food for a friend's daughter who just turned 2. Felt food has become really popular in the realm of "unique" toys for kids. The idea of having play food made out of felt rather than hard plastic is genius. I think it's much more realistic, inviting, and creative.

Here's how my felt food turned out:

Top to bottom: ruffle chips with bag, chocolate chip cookies, ear of corn, banana, orange slices, fried egg, strawberries, carrots, bread slices, crackers, tomato, lettuce, lunch meat, slice of cheese. I also made bacon strips, but they didn't make it into the picture.

Thankfully, I was able to find wonderful tutorials on how to make most of the food items.

Thanks to:
I used this tutorial to make the strawberries.
This for the fried egg and orange slices.
This for the sandwich and chips.
This for the banana and corn.
This for the crackers.
This for the carrots.
I didn't use a tutorial or pattern for the cookies or bacon strips.

Living Vicariously

I was working on some sewing projects today and remembered that I never got around to posting about a few sewing projects I finished a while back.

On days when I don't feel like mopping the floor, washing dishes, doing laundry, cleaning the bathroom, or chipping ice out of the refrigerator (more to come about this later), I sit on the couch and browse the lovely world wide web for crafty projects. I'm not ashamed to admit that I "stalk" a few handfuls of blogs. Most of the projects that I end up falling in love with involve making things for children. Well, since there definitely aren't any of those around, I just make things for other people's children.

One of my dearest, sweetest friends has 2 adorable little girls. Adorable little girls deserve adorable little gifts.

First, I made a crayon roll. I had seen these around on different blogs and just thought they were genius. I used this tutorial to make mine. It was a lot of fun to make, even though I had to take out a few seams here and there!

Here it is all rolled up. I used a hair-band and a button to hold it closed.

Here it is opened up. I wanted to use crayons in a variety of sizes, because it was for a toddler.

Then, I made this little taggie giraffe. Do you know about taggies? They are mostly seen as blankets, but I thought this giraffe was cute. It's simply a stuffed animal (or blanket if you choose to make that) with different textured ribbons around the edge. Apparently, babies love to touch the different ribbons. It's a great sensory toy! I used this tutorial for my taggie giraffe. This took me a while to make. The first one I put together had a really skinny neck. So, I made another one, but it's body was really skinny. Finally, I was able to make one that was reasonably proportioned and somewhat resembled a giraffe.

The fabric on this side is a knit and the other side is a minky micro-fiber fabric.

Ironically, while I was in the middle of making these two projects, my dear, sweet friend asked if I would make her a bag to go over the handle bars on her stroller. I was a little bit intimidated by this, because I couldn't find a tutorial or directions. I overcame my fears and set to work creating something. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned it out. Now I'm thinking of how I can change it a little to make it a purse or bag of some sort that I could use.



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