Super Hero Bubble Party

For my daughter's first birthday we had a Super Hero Bubble party.  She has several older cousins so I wanted something that the older kids would enjoy!

The cupcakes . . . . lemon cupcakes filled with lemon curd . . . .yum!

Simple flower display.

Bubbles or dots   . . . on the napkins

The party girl's dress.  I made this dress based off the tutorial by Made by Rae.  Isn't she cute!!

Super hero capes.  I personalized each cape with first letter of each kid.

The superhero birthday girl!

Captain B and Captain E! Captain E has the fanciest cape. I made it after reading this tutorial Reversible Superhero Cape. After making 1 I decided I couldn't make 6 of them in time.  So for the other ones I just cut out the same shape and used a pinking blade on my rotary cutter to do the edges.  I also used jersey and fleece since they don't fray.  They turned out just as well and the double sided one and it only took me 45 minutes to make 5 of them.

Bubbles!!  The kids all loved their capes and had so much fun playing outside with the bubbles and running around with their capes.  A very special day for our special little girl.  Happy Birthday!

Doll clothes for baby Stella

For my daughter's first birthday we decided to buy her a doll.  We ordered a baby Stella doll from Manhattan toys.  It is a completely soft doll with embroidered facial features.  My daughter has dark hair so I wanted the one with dark hair.  When the doll came it was dressed like this.

Cute  . . but I wanted something with a bit more character (and less pink and purple) so I made a cute sweater and leggings for baby Stella.

 So now my daughter has a store bought but unique doll.

I made the sweater from a pair of socks  and the leggings from an old tank top.  Hopefully later I'll put up a tutorial showing how to make them.

WHooo WHooo- Owl Costume Tutorial

So I have been working on a costume box for my neice's birthday.  She turns 2 in March and was just here for a visit at our house and she kept walking around saying "Owl . . .sleeping". We're really not sure what she is talking about since my daughter doesn't have an owl toy and neither does she. But I thought it would be great to make her an owl costume.

I started with 5 colours of felt. I used what I had in my stash. 
Materials: 
You need a piece 11 x 28 to 36" for the base piece.  For the feathers you need about 10 felt rectangles (10 x 8)  or  6" strip of 3 colours that measures about 21" 
elastic - about 12"

grey, brown, white, brown

1. Measure the child's arms and head.  My niece's arms are 13" and her head is 18.5".   A little bit of math: you need the diameter of the head so divide the number by 3.14 (18/3.14 =  5.89, which I will round up to 6). Add the arms plus the diameter of the head (13 +13 + 6 = 32).  So I need fabric 32" long and 11" wide.  The fabric I have in my stash is only 28" long so that is what I'm going to use.

Felt piec measuring 11 x 28" (folded in half in photo)

2. Take your fabric and fold in half and then again. Measure out from the corner to make the head hole (Half of the diameter measurement from step 1, for me 3"). Mark a radius of 3" and then cut it out.

Measure 3" radius from folded corner

Cut out quarter circle (will be a circle when opened up)

3. On the opposite corner measure up 6" on the long edge and over 3" on the short edge. Use a ruler and cut a straight line between marks.

Add caption

Cut angle.

Open your fabric and you have this.

4. Cut the feathers. Cut 6" strips from the other colours of fabric. Measure over 1.5" and mark. Measure from the corner to this mark.  Cut the diagonal.  Measure over 3" on the top of the fabric and cut down the 1.5" mark to make a long triangle. Keep measuring over 3" and cutting to the opposite side to make 5 sets of triangles.

6 inch strip of grey

Measure over and mark 1.5 inches on top edge and 3 inches from corner. Draw on Triangle

Cut out triangle.

Keep cutting out triangles.  Repeat with other colours

5. Lay out 3 triangles across the end and stitch down.

Row 1 - 3 triangles

Continue to sew on triangle feathers for the next 6 rows or until you run out of space.
 Row 2: 2 triangles. 
 Row 3: 3 triangles
 Row 4: 4 triangles
 Row 5: 5 triangles
 Row 6: 4 triangles, on top of 5th row

Row 2 - 2 triangles.

Finished wing.

6. Repeat for the other wing.

7. Make arm loops: cut two 6" pieces of elastic. Lift up feather triangles and stitch elastic to each side of base piece of fabric.





8. Voila!!  You have an owl costume.  Change the colours and you can make any bird.  Blue  = Blue Jay
Black and Grey = Chickadee.  Red = Cardinal

Let me know how my instructions are and if you need any clarification. 

Craft Night with Friends

Tonight I am hosting my first ever Craft Night at my house!!  I've invited over all the women I know who like to make stuff and all the ones who keep saying "I wish I had the time" or "I'd love to learn how to do that."  I have a great crafting space in my basement so they are going to bring their stuff to work on.  For the beginner crafters I suggested making baby leggings or baby headbands.  I'll be sure to take lots of pictures to show what everyone is working on.

Baby Headband - tutorial from Make It Love It

Activity book page (bird nest)

Bird to sit on the nest

Magnetic apple tree activity book page

Knitting

Knitting inspiration for 2 people learning how to knit.

Thanks to everyone who came.  It was fun and inspiring. Keep crafting and see you next month! 

Nari Baby Hip Hugger

I'm hoping to win a  Nari Baby Hip Hugger from Baby Half Off.  I have a bit of an addiction to baby wearing and this is the newest one that has caught my eye. It is a waist belt and a seat for your baby.  From the Nari Baby website " If you have a kid who likes to be picked up and put down repeatedly"  That is my daughter so I'd love to give this a try.   I think it will be great for my 10 month old and well into her 2nd year

Window Treatments finally Done!

Well I finally finished making the new window treatment for our living room. It took a lot longer than I expected. The weekend I planned on making them it finally snowed so we dropped everything and went cross-country skiing.  I sewing the swag and jabot and got them mounted on the board. I was lazy and attached the brackets using some of the same holes as the the former curtain rod had used. BAD IDEA! They were way too high. The other problem is our window is off centre on the wall. I had tried to make one side wider than the other but it just looked terrible.  So 2 fixes needed: one, lower the brackets; two, shorten the board and move all the swag and jabot pieces in and centre everything on the window.  Now it's finished!!  Doesn't it look wonderful? I also repainted the base of the side table and our old/new again coffee table that if very kid friendly and makes a fun crawling tunnel.  My dad made me these boxes for my first apartment and they were up in the garage but this will be our coffee table for the next few years.

Procrastinating other sewing projects and a new fireplace

Felt Flowers

My 10 month old daughter, I'll call her Bunny (her Dad's nickname for her), has long enough hair to put into pigtails and I love doing her hair. Tonight I was looking for ideas for making flowers for headbands.  I made these really cute felt flowers like the ones from the Make-It-Love-It Blog.  Instead of making these I should have been cutting out fabric for the new swag and jabot for over our window.  I don't feel like tackling that in the evening I'll start fresh in the morning when I am (hopefully) well rested and Bunny can play with Daddy.


 We just had some work done on our living room to remove the stucco ceiling and replace the horrid pot lights that gave no illumination with ceiling fixtures. We have everything done and back in place and just need the new window treatment.

Fireplace - Before

Fire place - After

Here is the other project I just did in the living room. I've hated the half brick on the fireplace since we moved in.  I love the fireplace and having a fire in it. I'm have some very special memories of cozy fires in our living, the most memorable being the night I gave birth to our daughter, at home, in the living room by the light of the fire.

But it needed a makeover.  So a painted the bricks a very pale grey colour and voila!  A new  bright look to our room!