Number 14

Just thought of another motivational tool to get me crafting. The next person to sign up as a follower, I will make them something personal. Not saying you'll like it or that you want it, but the offer is out there. Sorry for the 13 followers that already exist. You get nothing. Sometimes nothing is a good thing. =)

So number 14 if you are out there and want something, just become a follower and email me your address and you'll get something in the mail.

Bib Kerchief

In the beginning of the year I had this brilliant idea to motivate myself to get crafty. I would make one thing from each of my DIY books and if I didn't, I had to get rid of those books I did nothing with. Sounds easy enough right? Well it's now the last week of July and I FINALLY made something from one of my many books! Lotta Jansdotter made this super cute baby book called Simple Sewing for Baby. There is a pattern for a handkerchief which is so intelligently named Bib Kerchief! Of course I used the pattern, but I couldn't follow her directions. Instead I made my bibs double sided to get multiple uses out of them.

Fabric that was supposed to be for Dylan's pj's that never fruition.

Fold your fabric in half as the patter is just one half.

Where it says "Fold" that is where your fold should be.

Unfold and viola! You have your bib.

If you are making yours double-sided remember to have your fabric both front facing. Leave a two inch gap to reverse it.

After it's sewn flip the fabric out through the two inch hole. I used a letter opener to punch all the corners out. Next step, iron.

There are multiple ways to close the two inch gap. This one is the blind stitch. You can Google a tutorial. Basically you stitch parallel to form lines with the thread. Then you just pull and all the stitches disappear and no one can tell where you started or ended.

The second way is to do a top stitch, which is just sewing right over the gap. The only issue is that the thread is somewhat visible. The good thing is no one is looking and it's so much faster then hand sewing. A good piece of advice is to use thread that matches the material, if you don't you can definitely notice the stitching.

The only time I get to sew is when the kids are asleep so I don't have a model. I used Dylan's Hello Kitty backpack as my model. You get the picture. I do want to mention that I did not do a top stitch all away around the bib. I thought it would look cuter once it's washed and somewhat puffy. A top stitch is good if you want your bib to lie flat at all times.

Album of the Year

One hobby I will never truly be interested in is scrap booking. For one very good reason, I'm not good at it. I love looking at scrap booking magazines and seeing how people use so many multi-media, layering and painting techniques. It's so amazing that I'm completely intimidated and in awe. I would love my journals to be oh-so-cool.

So of course when Dylan was born I made her a scrapbook and now that Max is here there is no way I can't make him one too. So after months and months of planning I finally finished the fete. If you get started in scrap booking you can spend big bucks. So, what I did instead is I bought a pre-made one from Michael's. It has the album, paper and some stickers. Then I splurged and bought more fun paper that were more skater boy slash rock and roll (i.e skulls, camouflage, etc). The album only gives you enough paper for one paper per insert. With the extra paper I bought I get to do two pages per insert. The leftover paper can be used for card making. I also saved all the cards from his Red Egg and Ginger party and his first birthday. I used the graphics and embellishments from the cards instead of buying them. I also bought two types of scrap booking tape, the acid free sticker tap and the acid free corners. The corners just in case 50 years down the line his kids want to make a funny picture video of him with some cheesy music, they won't have to tear apart the album.

Take your standard card.

Cut the design you want.

Apply it wherever you want.

All the embellishments are from cards!

Remember to keep some keepsakes. Such as their first baseball ticket!

Keep any invitations, especially the ones his Daddy made!