Instead of doing all the things I *should* be doing today, I was inspired to make these photo tags for each of our Christmas stockings as I was in the middle of decorating the house for the holidays:
I made Paxton one too...but he doesn't have a stocking yet! I gotta get on that...
My friend Kortney made this cute skirt to match the Bears shirt I made for Ayla. She sells them on Etsy and does custom orders if you've got a little girl to shop for!
Looking for something to do this afternoon, I decided to see if I could make Ayla some Easter puppets to play with this week. A little bit of scrap fabric, buttons, and a hot glue gun, and here's what we came up with:
It's been a long process, several coats of paint, and a lot of debate about colors and furniture, but finally we have Ayla's room "finished". I hesitate to say that because I think I still would like to add some more things to the walls and the shelves by the dresser, but for now, it's done. Mostly because the bedframe is painted and set up! Yay!
Here is my mock-up picture:
And the finished room (which I did not stick as closely to as I did in the nursery, as you can see):
We haven't painted the dresser yet...and I'm not sure if we will anytime soon or not. I kind of like the wood now...
And finally, here are some detail pictures of around the room.
The last picture at the bottom is Ayla's version of the wall canvases...she did a good job, didn't she? After she made it, she asked if we could hang it in her new room. How could I say no?
It really wasn't too hard...but I can't guarantee their launder-ability. :) I'll wait until after the photos are taken before I wash them!
The steps:
Pick a simple block font and cursive print to make your t-shirt saying.
Print it on computer paper.
Choose a t-shirt to alter and a contrasting color fabric for the block letters.
Use straight pins to pin the saying to the front of the shirt where you want it to be, layering the contrasting fabric BEHIND the front of the t-shirt. (contrast fabric, then t-shirt, then printed paper on top).
Hand-stitch with a backstitch around the outline of the letters, including any center sections (as in B, R and O).
When you've finished stitching, gently tear away the paper (GENTLY). You should see an outline of the letters you just stitched on the t-shirt.
Inside each letter, carefully separate the t-shirt from the contrasting fabric so that you can cut a small hole in the t-shirt fabric. Do NOT cut through the contrasting fabric or the stitching.
Trim carefully around the inside of the stitched outline to reveal the contrasting fabric underneath.
Turn the t-shirt inside out and trim away any excess contrasting fabric.
When the block letters are finished, pin the cursive word above the block letters on the front of the t-shirt. Use several pins to be sure it stays put.
Hand-stitch with a backstitch along the cursive font.
When you've finished stitching the font, gently tear away the paper and you're finished!
Tip:
Use a light gray font on the paper and a contrasting thread color so that you can easily see where you've stitched.
I need some practice still, but I like how they turned out. And I like the price. I had everything on hand except the t-shirt for Ayla and brown thread. Total cost: $4.50. When compared with the prices you'd pay in a store...likely $30 each or more...
Inspired by the Imaginisce Twitterpated paper line, I just finished up the wall canvases to hang over Ayla's bed in her new "big girl" bedroom. I'm so thrilled with how they turned out:
I painted the sky and landscape background (using the light blue wall color of her room for the sky and the green paint color that we originally were going to use, and then painted over because it was too dark).
Then I added grass and hill details with acrylic paints. That took a couple of tries...but with Ben's suggestions, I like the final result. The good thing about paint...you can paint over it if it doesn't look good!
I decided not to paint a border or frame on this set of canvases because I wanted them to just kind of pop out of the wall. I'm liking the resulting effect.
Once the backgrounds were painted, I added the paper pieced trees, birds, butterfly & bee. I had a great time picking out patterned papers from all different paper lines to make the right color scheme and piece together all the elements.
After everything was glued together and glued down and covered in Mod Podge, I added button eyes to the birds, brad eyes to the bee, and some black string antennae for the butterfly & bee.
This afternoon I put together a little magnet board toy for Ayla. It's basically a build-a-scene magnet board. It has a 12 x 12 background scene and several 3-D chipboard magnets made from chipboard stickers and rubons on cardboard (these are made by Imaginisce). The 12 x 12 scene can be slid into the large photo corners (which are adhered directly to the magnet board). This way, the scene stays put, but can be changed out for other scenes (which I have yet to make).
This project is actually a test-run to see if she likes it and uses it (because it's all made from paper and chipboard, I doubt it will hold up well). If she does, I'll make several scenes and buy her several sets of magnets in different themes. And I'll try and make them from more durable stuff...laminated papers, mod-podged chipboard, or even plastic magnets.
So far, she was pretty excited about it. Ben hung it up in her playroom downstairs after she woke up from her nap today and she shuffled the magnets all around...
Next week I'm going to have to think of actual things to write about...because I'm giving my camera at least a full 24 hour break, if not longer! It's been overworked this week during my Week in the Life project.
I am glad I did the project, and I think a few years from now, I'll really enjoy going back and reading the journaling and seeing the photo collages and seeing what a regular week was like for us in 2008. Right now, it looks a lot like a regular old boring week. But this week only happens once, so I'm glad I managed to capture it in all its reality...
So, finally, here's what Sunday, October 19th, 2008 looked like for us (sorry for all the really dark photos or overly bright photos...I told you my camera has been overworked!):
I'll share pics of the album when I complete it...hopefully by next weekend.
I've made it to the weekend in my Week in the Life project! That means only one day left...Sunday. I'm not sure how I'm going to photograph church tomorrow morning, although to be completely honest, I don't think anyone would think it was weird at all if I did. I'll have to think on that.
But meanwhile, here's what Saturday, October 18th, 2008 looked like at our house:
(And just so you know, Ben actually spent the majority of the day working hard on a web project. The pics of him shown here are during a few short breaks where he emerged! Didn't want you to think he was a slacker...although if he was who could blame him on a Saturday?)
Seeing the end in sight has made me excited about putting together the album, so tonight I got a headstart and began printing my photo collages and journaling and decided on an album to use. Now I just have to figure out a design plan and I can get this finished by the end of next week. It's going to be pretty basic, letting the photos and journaling be the main focus.
