Diaper Party/Baby Shower Give Aways!

So before I share with you today's project, I wanted to share my Cricut Goldilocks story from last night.

I started off yesterday wanting to make another burp cloth for today's post so I tried to cut the fabric using the new mats I just bought not but two weeks ago. To say the least, it didn't stick and the whole piece of fabric turned into a ball around the blade.

So I turned to my older mats (the 12x24 ones I haven't used) this time the mats were too sticky and thus tore the Heat n' Bond off the back! I eventually threw in the towel and decided to share with you a neat personalized gift for a diaper party (or baby shower).

These diaper wipe cases are easy yet fun to match with whichever diaper bag is on the registry.

All you need is one fat quarter, some batting for the top, and about a yard of ribbon and a glue gun.

To start this project off, you hot glue the batting to the top of the case. Then cut out the fabric for the top by tracing the case and adding half an inch around.

Hot glue the fabric on to the edges being careful not to hot glue the case closed. No worries if this isn't perfect because the ribbon will cover most of the imperfections. Hot glue the ribbon to the top edges starting and ending in the back.

Before beginning on the back I printed out tags on printable fabric. Yes!! printable fabric I used my regular printer! Anyway I cut the back out adding the half inch around and then stitched around the tag.

Here is an up close of the tag.

I used the same procedure as the top minus the batting.

After all the hot gluing was done and the project was coming to an end, I went through and looked at the edges cutting off any glue that escaped using my Xacto blade.





I gave these away at a diaper party we attended packaged with the diapers for each wife. One was having a girl and one was having a boy. Here are the finished backs...

Hope you enjoyed this project! And hope you will personalize your next diaper party or baby shower!

Homemade Canvas Wall Art Using My Cricut!

Ok, I know what you're thinking and I promise this is the last butterfly project for a while :)

As I was wondering through Joanns for inspiration I ran across these cute 5"x5" stretched canvas squares. I thought they would make some great wall art if grouped together. I wanted some dimension so I bought the 3"x3" squares to glue on top.

I painted the larger squares a kind of sea foam green color (which matches my blog colors, I did not plan that lol) and the two smaller squares a metallic gold.

Looking back on it, I think I would have painted the smaller squares a different color because I feel they look a little oriental next to the green. I hot glued the two smaller squares to the larger and arranged them diagonal from each other.

But anyway, I used my two favorite cartridges (I only have 5 total so far :) Straight From the Nest and Give a Hoot.

Starting with the first one...

I cut the cherry branch at 4.5" and bent the branch to contour down the sides. I cut two sets of the flower layer and used some of them to paste to the bottom canvas.

I also used some of the centers and glued them on the round "flower buds" to add a bit more color.

The butterfly is 3" and pasted on the gold square.
I should have taken a picture of this from the side, it turned out really great and will look phenomenal on the wall.


Now my favorite! (bet you guessed that lol)

Here I cut 5 butterfly images out at 3", 2.5", 2", 1.25" and 1".

I used my bone folder and bent them being careful not to fold them over all the way. I glued two on the gold square and three on the green.







Ok, on to the phrases...

Here I cut the shadow and phrase at 2.5".

You all know I like to use all my paper whenever possible, so here I actually cut out the flourishes from the larger butterfly scraps and glued them to the corners.

I also cut around the smallest butterfly and pasted that to the other corner. Now, I manually cut this out with scissors but I am sure you can use the Cricut Craft Room to cut around it using the solid image.



This is one of my favorite phrases. Its something my mother used with me and I will hope to use with my children.

Anyway, the phrase and its shadow is cut at 2.5".

I again used the flourishes from the butterflies, on the corners.






I originally thought I would group these canvas pieces together, but looking at it now I think they could be really nice in a single row or even as separate little artworks. 

I only spent $10 on this project so it was well worth it! At the stores I think this could easily go for $30.

Make your own craft stamps!

Going along with making homemade ink, I tried my hand at making homemade stamps! I went to Joann Fabrics and bought a sheet of foam and used some plexiglass I had on hand.

We didn't score the plexiglass very straight, it isn't that hard to do but we were impatient. Here is what I started with...

(See my amazing table I painted a while back!?!? Absolutely love it!)











Ok back on subject, I used Cricut Craft Room to arrange the images in a pattern I liked. With the dots, it was easy to make it precise due to the grids on the virtual mat.

I used Cricut Essentials and Give a Hoot cartridges. Here are the stamps themselves...

A deep cut blade is needed for this project (positioned at 5). The cut settings were speed 4, pressure 5, multi-cut 1.

I placed the paper side down on the mat and cut. The blade didn't actually cut the paper backing which worked out really well.

To place the border patterns I kept the images and the surrounding foam together and cut around the other stamps. Then I placed the rectangle of foam onto the plexiglass and took the extra pieces off after the pattern was stuck on.

I learned to do that half way through the lattice border piece. It helps to keep the image from distorting when pulling off the extras.

As I mentioned before the plexiglass is not cut straight but they still work just fine.

I wanted to show you how well these work so I did a sample of each.

The border stamps are a bit speckled because I did not have my sponge loaded enough. I fixed that and the others came out nicely!

And yes, this is my homemade ink in a nice muted  gray :)



I would love to hear your thoughts on this project, leave a comment below!

Make your own distressing ink!

Hello everyone! I have been wanting to try distressing some of my scrapbook paper but didn't know where to start. I researched online and there were a lot to choose from and it seemed to me it was pretty basic ink (nothing too abnormal). So, I wanted to challenge myself to see if I could make my own. After a quick look around my house I found gel food coloring, makeup sponges, rubbing alcohol and liquid glycerin (had to buy this at Walmart).

Here's how I combined them:

15 drops of qlycerin
2 drops alcohol
1 big squeeze of color (about the size of a nickle)

The best consistancey I found was that of heavy whipping creme (before its whipped), work with it to find what works best for you and your sponges.




After mixing it in a small plastic bowl, I dipped the applicator in the liquid and placed in an empty foundation compact. As you might have noticed the sponges are wedge shaped, they don't really work for applying to a stamp. I will check at Target or somewhere to find the rectangle flat makeup sponges. Those should work better for stamping!

I haven't found the best applicator for this ink yet, that will be the next thing to try. Here are some samples of the ink at work...

The bottom right is an example of how they blend.













And the close up to the distressed edge example.

I have seen some inks that react nicely with water and hoped this ink would too. It did a nice bleed away like the real ink!

Fur-baby Friday: Doggy Toy Box

Sorry I am posting a little late in the day, our puppy woke me up at 3A.M.

When we adopted our first puppy Lucy, now 1 year old, we had so many toys for her that we bought her a toy box from Target. Now that we have our second puppy, 11 weeks old, we have acquired even more toys.

After stepping on numerous toys, I decided it was time for a second toy box.

 I took an old cardboard box and cut it into four sides (the bottom is cloth). I then used the cardboard as a template and cut two of each.

After all the fabric was cut I sewed each piece together to make a large "pocket" for the cardboard to fit in.

I sewed each corner so that each section was its own so the pieces stay in place.

When I was ready to sew the bottom shut, I pinned the bottom fabric in place and sewed along the edge (very slowly and carefully).

Working with this much cardboard was very difficult so the sewing isn't perfect and the fabric puckered. After every thing was said and done this project was very quick and turned out great! Now we have a place for ALL the toys!

Don't Throw Away Your Scraps!

As I was doing yesterday's project, I started out to make a scrapbook layout but it morphed into decor instead. As beautiful as that turned out, I was fascinated by the scrap paper that was left behind. So today I want to share my scrap-scrapbook layout!

I started off by cutting the 15 1.5" butterflies on the top. Then I centered the name (I did this to make use of the center of the mat since it was the sticky-ist part). 

After I had realized that this would be cute as a layout, I flipped one of the flourishes at 3.5" and placed two spaces between them.




Lastly I cut the square in between them using my Xacto blade. I trimmed the sides and bottom to make room for the green boarder created when placed on the backing.

This layout only took a second to put together and I didn't have to throw my paper away!

Comment below to share how you saved your scraps!

Monogrammed Art Using Cricut Craft Room Basics!

Throughout the last couple of weeks posting and creating with you, I have discovered a passion for creating decor pieces especially for the wonderful new comers to our lives. I have always loved interior design and even studied it in college. Here I have used the Cricut Craft Room Basics for the font and the Give a Hoot cartridge (the flourishes are from Straight from the Nest cartridge).

You have all seen me use this Give a Hoot cartridge many times before, but I find that depending on the colors and mixture of images you use,  the creation will be unique every time. The options are endless!

So here it is...

There are 15 little butterflies cut at 1.5". I wanted a clear and defined "G" so I pasted down a lighter color to the backing paper. The big "G" is 6".

To create the bend in the butterflies, I took my the bone folder tool and creased each in the middle on the color side. Then I gently folded each making sure I did not fold all the way in half. 

The full name is done in the same darker color as the butterflies and flourishes.

I placed the butterflies at as many different angels as I could without pointing them in the wrong direction. I think this is more true to the actual flight patterns of butterflies, but I could be wrong :)

There was already so much dimension with the folded butterflies (you can see in the picture to the left) that I didn't want it to become overwhelming. What seemed to work was placing all other components flat to the backing. This eliminated too much distraction.







I have linked this project up with Jaihart's link party!

I think this is a great piece that could be the center of any nursery decor, but it could be used throughout the home too. My husband and I had butterflies throughout our wedding, so it would work perfectly in our home to remind us of that very special day!

Check back to see what I did with the paper the butterflies, name, and flourishes were cut from! Its a unique way to use every last bit of paper!