JOY! NOEL!! Christmas DIY

Last year was the first year we had our mantel in working condition for Christmas. Well, I attempted to decorate it but ... with our little ladies arrival the day after Thanksgiving, the mantel did not get the attention it deserved. I don't think I even have a picture of the sad turn out.

This year as I was decorating for Christmas I was dreading the mantel because I just didn't know what to do with it! During the rest of the year I have a large family photo centered on the mantel, but surrounded by Christmas decor the photo looked MAJORLY out of place and I needed something large and symmetrical to be the focal point to build from. So I started pondering... then I remember a piece of poster board I bought for Q's birthday but didn't use and a large frame we had stored in the basement.

So I busted out the handy ol'stencils (used previously here and here), craft paint and brushes and got to work. Here's the rundown:

JOY NOEL Christmas Sign

1. Cut the poster board to the size of a large old frame, this one (18x24) we had lying around and weren't currently using.

2. Mixed up some paint colors. I used espresso brown, leaf green, and bronze mixed in different proportions for the two colors.

3. Paint and remove the stencils. This is when I noticed something was off, it was the O, it needed to be green to tie the JOY together (and direct your eye to read JOY not JOEY). Once fixed it looked MUCH better, see photo in step 4.

 4. Decorate the mantel and enjoy the festive holiday decor!

 

 

I contemplated adding a star burst in the upper right corner but didn't end up pulling the trigger. Maybe something I can add next year!

This project was essentially free. I had everything on hand but recently had purchased the poster board for $0.50. The craft paint is about 5 years old, YIKES, and the frame is about 6 years old, both were happy to get some new life!

That's my Shiny ~

J

Sleeping This Weekend & A Sparkly T-Shirt

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Friday Night: 
I slept on the floor next to Q's crib.

Why:
At 4:00 AM our little 12 month old baby daughter LAUNCHED herself out of her crib and on to the floor. Yes, yes you just read that correctly. She is 12 MONTHS and 1 week to be exact, and yes her crib is moved to the lowest level, the side rail was not down and she did not use any type of stuffed animal to aid in her escape. So needless to say, we were a little frazzled and worried. She thankfully landed on her bum so no major injuries occurred other than my nerves being SEVERED! Until we figured out a solution I wasn't going to leave her in there unattended, so what did this Momma do? I rocked my baby back to sleep put her in her crib and slept on the floor until morning. Saturday we hunted down and bought a crib tent. Yes, I know not my idea of cute and precious nursery decor either but at least she will be SAFE!

Saturday Night:
I slept on the couch with a bucket and a towel

Why:
Near 10:00 PM my belly started doing flips. Looks like Q's little stomach bug was not going to be polite and leave me alone. My barking dog friend had returned AGAIN (more about that here).

Sunday Night:
I slept in C's bed

Why: Sunday morning the bug continued it's TORTUROUS rounds and went after our sweet little boy next. He had a rough Sunday and did fairly well sleeping until some time in the middle of the night when he said "lay in my bed Momma", and of course I couldn't resist the request of the cutest little sick boy. So I crawled in, thankfully I was so tired I actually slept.

Hopefully we are on the other side of this mayhem and we are PRAYING that our family can be healthy for awhile after this long stretch of sickness. So yet again I apologize for the delay!

Bedazzled 1 T-Shirt Tutorial:

Supplies:
t-shirt or onesie
stencil
fabric paint
small craft paint brush
ladybug buttons (or buttons of choice)
Scrap book ready to stick gems

1. Pick out your desired number or stencil.  Use some kind of tape to tape down your stencil in the desired spot on your T.

2. Squirt out a little of your fabric paint. Get your small craft paint brush. Carefully paint the outline of your number first, don't use to much paint and try not to push your brush right up against the edge of the stencil too hard, this will result in the paint bleeding. A little bleeding is okay but you don't want it too look messy. After you paint the outline fill the rest of the number in. Remove the stencil and let the paint dry.

3. Bedazzle time! I used the scrap book ready to stick gems. They actually worked GREAT! Not one fell off. I did this for two reasons, I went out to get my remaining supplies on black Friday so the store was crazy and I was not about to continue hunting for other gems among the madness. Second, it saved me a gluing step and I wasn't intending on this being more than a one time wear shirt (after washing only about 1/2 the gems made it). To add longevity you could just put a dot of fabric glue on each gem before sticking. I used two sizes of gems and outlined the number. This is what ascetically looked best to me. Have fun with it and do what you think will look best!(forgot to take a picture of the sticking, sorry)


4. Sew buttons on to your shirt. I choose to sew the buttons on to one shoulder of the shirt to look like little ladybugs where crawling up her sleeve. I thought it looked cute and really pulled the tutu and shirt together. 

TA DA a special little shirt for your special little person!

Cost:
Onesie:$2.00
Stencil: $0 Already owned (I bought this pack of letters and numbers for $5.99 at Walmart, used for this project originally)
Gems and one Pack of Buttons: $3.00 (with sale, I only used three of the 9 buttons)
Fabric Paint: $2.00 (I only used a smidgen of paint, I have lots left for more projects)

Total Cost: $7.00

Time: 2 hours, I spent about an hour making this shirt and probably another hour shopping (I went to three different stores, mostly due to the fact that I didn't have a clear picture of what I wanted when I started).

Enjoy bedazzling and stenciling a jazzy shirt for a special person! Have any of you made a shirt or something special for a birthday boy or girl to wear? I hope you all had more comfortable sleeping situations then myself this weekend. Have you found your sleeping routine disrupted by anything ridiculous, oh say like a 29 1/2 inch little gymnast doing an aerial out of her crib?

That's my Shiny ~

J

A Tutu Tutorial ~ Ladybug Bubble Hem Tutu

I apologize for the delay in adding these tutorials, WE HAVE A SICK CHILD A-G-A-I-N!! Our little birthday girl got a stomach bug and lost her lunch Wednesday evening. Lets just hope the rest of us can stay healthy and we should be in good shape! 

The origin of how I put the ladybug tutu together actually started as fixer for Q's baptism dress. My Meme (Q's Great Grandma) made her a dress to wear for her baptism, it ended up being more like a shirt on our long lean lady. I really didn't want her to miss out on the opportunity to wear something so special and made just for her, so my wheels started cranking and I thought of the idea to make her a slip / tutu to wear under the dress. My mom and I went and scoped out fabric and we landed on some baby pink organza with and without sparkles. 

Here is that tutu / slip:

Crisis averted! The slip worked great and it actually took the dress from something simple and made it extra special!

 

Now, back to the tutu of the hour. Here is the run down on how I made Q's ladybug bubble hem tutu. It started with heading out to buy fabric and supplies for the outfit I was envisioning for Q's birthday celebration. My original plan was to make a no-sew tied tulle tutu, like this one. I've never made one before so I thought I would give it a try. BUT when I was looking for tulle, I found this AMAZING red and black polka dot organza AT 40% OFF!!! I could not pass up the PERFECT fabric for a ladybug theme AND on SALE! So I quickly revised my plan (organza frays so the no sew technique went out the window) and decided to make another bubble hem tutu. This time I would make it less of a slip and more of a tutu by adding volume. So instead of two layers of organza I did three layers, one layer of organza and two layers of tulle.

The How-To:

1.Buy organza and / or tulle fabrics. I bought organza for the top layer and red tulle and black tulle for the layers underneath. (1 layer organza, 2 layers of tulle). I bought each in a half of a yard. This created the perfect length for the bubble hem for Q, depending on the length needed you may need more. You should determine this before buying fabric or have a rough idea of the desired length, you will need to double that length in EACH fabric for the bubble effect

2.Get your fabric home and determine EXACTLY how long you want your tutu. Then you will need to lay out your fabric flat. Fold the material in half, long end to long end (making sure the outside or front of your fabric is facing outward). You should now have a long skinny tube with one open end and one closed end (see picture below, what it will look like after sewn). The closed end will be your bubble (bottom of tutu).Double check that this is the correct length you want, if what you have laid out so far will be too long you will need to trim off the desired amount to shorten the tutu. Measure from the fold or bubble up to the top determine how long you want it and then adjust the bubble hem so you have one longer side peaking over the other, trim off the desired amount. 

3.Once you have the correct length pin the open side of your fabric. Take your fabric to your machine and sew with about 1/8  to 1/4 from the edge (organza frays leave some room). Repeat this process with all of your layers of fabric. You should now have three long tubes of fabric (see pic above for reference). 

4.Find your original hem on what you want to be your top layer, pin all three of your fabric pieces together near the top seam . Now you will sew about 1 1/2 inches from that seam to create a pocket for your elastic and ribbon. This will also attach all of your material to each other.

5. Now all three pieces of your material should be connected. Get a Popsicle stick or something hard and skinny. Measure and cut elastic for the waste, measure and cut your ribbon about triple the length of your elastic. Tie your elastic and ribbon to the stick. Shimmy it through the pocket you made in the top layer of fabric and begin bunching the fabric over the elastic and ribbon. 

6. Remove Popsicle stick once you have fed the elastic completely through. Bring the two ends of the elastic together and stitch them closed either by hand or if you can wriggle it in to your machine. Make sure ribbon is pulled through even on both sides of the skirt.

 

7. Turn skirt inside out and bring the open pieces of your top layer together at the back of the tutu. Fold the two pieces together so the seam will be on the inside of the skirt and sew together to close the opening.

VIOLA! A bubble hem tutu for your special little gal!

Ladybug Bubble Hem Tutu Cost:

Fabric: $4.10

Elastic: $0 I had it on hand (probably $1 worth)

Ribbon: $2.00 (1 yard)

Total Cost: $6.10

Total Time: 2 1/2 hours including shopping for the fabric (1 hour shopping, 1 1/2 hours making the tutu)

For extra cuteness I added six randomly placed ladybug buttons to the tutu. I used the same buttons on the shoulder of Q's shirt (I will post that tutorial hopefully later tonight or tomorrow morning). 

Happy sewing!

That's my Shiny ~

J

A 1st Birthday Ladybug Bash!

Hello friends! I hope you all had a FANTASTIC Thanksgiving. Sorry I was M.I.A. last week. This lady was taking care of 2 sick babies (pink eye, ear infections and a wicked cough) AND lets just say diligently preparing for the 1st Birthday of our favorite little gal.

We had an AMAZING holiday weekend, the kids recovered and we enjoyed lots of family time! We relaxed and did TONS of prep for the birthday fun! Thanksgiving will now forever be a double bonus for this family as it marks the birth of our little lady! Last year (2010), my water broke at 3:00 AM on black Friday. It was an interesting day to be giving birth but we couldn't be more thankful for our little Thanksgiving treat!

We celebrated her 1st birthday Saturday with family and friends and had a wonderful time. Q was her ADORABLE little self! She REALLY seemed to understand that the festivities were for her and enjoyed being the center of attention as we all expected! We had lots of fun making her day extra special with a ladybug theme that I probably took a little too far.... but when else can you be ridiculous with a theme if not at a 1 year old's birthday EXTRAVAGANZA!!!

Here is a little of the fun in review:

A BIG ladybug cake

Her special birthday outfit (I'm so happy with how it turned out)! A shirt with ladybugs crawling on the shoulder and a big bedazzled blue 1 and the CUTEST bubble hem layered TUTU!! (can you believe I found that fabric!! and at 40% OFF!!)

Q and her friends had a blast playing pin-the-dot on the ladybug, she honestly LOVED playing this game, we left it up and she has been non-stop sticking and unsticking all the dots.

A little ladybug cake too, just for the birthday girl. Along with SCRUMPTIOUS ladybug chocolate covered pretzels!

Some special decorations, made by the best biggest brother around (and lots of help from Momma).

LETS GET MESSY!!! The red frosting was interesting, looked a little gory but still ADORABLE! She dove right in!

AWESOME gifts from our loved ones. We are so blessed!

What a great day! We are SO thankful for our little spunky, go-getter, firecracker girl!

STAY TUNED: later this week I will give you the how-to for the cakes, pretzels, t-shirt and tutu!

That's my Shiny ~

J