crafts

Did you see?  I've added a new section to my web site.  Introducing "Signs by Andrea".  I've had so many people ask me about the signs I've made for gifts over the past couple of years, that I have finally decided to start selling them.  

Interested?  Want one? Good!  I'll make you a personalized, one-of-a-kind sign for your home or office.  Or, you can buy one for a gift -- Christmas, birthdays, and don't forget the most perfect occasion of all for a personalized sign -- WEDDINGS!  Every bride will be thrilled to proudly display her new last name.

Check 'em out, tell a friend, and keep 'em in mind the next time you want to give the PERFECT personalized gift!  I'll ship to anywhere in the United States!

I've always liked my Baby Bjorn and carried Ayla all over Rochester in it her entire first year (and a little beyond!).  Paxton is going to prove to be a little more difficult to carry with it, because he's so big! 

A friend of mine here in Birmingham uses a sling that she made to hold any of her three kids (3, 1, and 1 month), and it's SO cute.  She was nice enough to make me one too (I even got to pick the fabrics), and I'm in love with it.

Paxton loves it too.  I carried him around tonight for about an hour when I went to pick Ayla up from VBS, and he never made a peep.  Just sat there and enjoyed the ride with his little hands folded in front of him, smiling at everyone. 

Thanks to Hilarie (who SO needs to open her own Etsy shop with these and the adorable bags she makes) who made it for me! (She didn't ask me to drum up business for her, but I could probably convince her to make a few more if any of you want to buy one from her...just let me know!)

I threw a lingerie shower for my friend Tiffany this past weekend and wanted to share my centerpiece idea....a little bit of tulle, lace trim, beaded trim and a hot glue gun...so easy!

Plus, I HAD to make her one of my signs....every bride should get one:

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:

For a bridal shower recently, I made this monogrammed name plaque for the bride & groom:

The last name was kind of tricky to add.  I had to cut out a negative stencil of the cursive word.  It worked out pretty well though in the end.  It was a big hit at the shower, and it looks like I might have a few people interested in buying custom signs from me! 

Inspired by these adorable t-shirts made by Amy Tangerine, I made these for Ayla & Baby Boy:

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:

1. Pick a simple block font and cursive print to make your t-shirt saying. 
2. Print it on computer paper.
3. Choose a t-shirt to alter and a contrasting color fabric for the block letters.
4. 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).
5. Hand-stitch with a backstitch around the outline of the letters, including any center sections (as in B, R and O).
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. Trim carefully around the inside of the stitched outline to reveal the contrasting fabric underneath.
9. Turn the t-shirt inside out and trim away any excess contrasting fabric.
10. 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.
11. Hand-stitch with a backstitch along the cursive font. 
12. 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...

I put these thank you cards together this afternoon for my upcoming baby shower...

...love how they sort of "match" the new nursery decor...which will look something like this Photoshopped mock-up:

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.  

Here are some close-ups of the critters:

Hope Ayla likes 'em! :)

I spent this weekend painting, cutting, gluing and piecing...to make these for the new baby boy's nursery:

which were shamelessly "inspired" and lifted by these prints from Babies R Us:

I used 16" x 20" canvases, scraps of various patterned papers and just went to town paper piecing them all together.  Since I had pictures to work from, I was able to free-hand the various shapes pretty well.  Once all the animals were put together, I used my sewing machine to stitch a border around the outline of each animal.  Then I painted the backgrounds of the canvases and taped off borders to make the brown border around each canvas.  Finally, I used mod-podge to put them all together and protect them. 

Here are close-ups of each:

This was a fun project and I love the textured finish...much better than buying prints I think....but thenit did take two full days of work to finish them!

Ben was out of town Friday & Saturday for a wedding in Austin, TX, so I took the opportunity to do a few decorating projects around the house.  I've had the decorating itch ever since we took down all the Christmas decorations.  Inspired by my sister-in-law Rachel, I decided to try out my new sewing machine (new-to-me anyway) and tackle a couple of sewing projects. 

I headed out to Hancock Fabrics in search of some fabric to create a curtain in my office and was pleasantly surprised with some great sales (decorator fabric at only $3.50 a yard!).  Although I was looking for a cream/green swirl design, I came across this fabric that had all of the colors from my office in one pattern: tan, red, green and turquoise.  So I decided this was the way to go.  I also picked up some red fringe trim and red ribbon to accent the curtain panel.

I originally wanted to make a curved panel that was longer on each side, but decided that anything curved was a little too ambitious for my novice sewing talents.  So instead, I decided to make a single panel and create a roman shade with ribbon gathering up the two sides.  It took me a while to get it finished, but I'm awfully proud of my new curtain. :)  Any finished sewing project that doesn't result in tears is a success in my book:

And, since the sales were so good, when I saw this blue and cream fabric, I decided it was time to recover a couple of pillows in our livingroom as well.  I wish I had another use for that fabric, because it was so pretty...but I settled for just a yard and a half to make two pillow covers.

My third sewing project of the day...recovering an old comforter with a homemade duvet cover made from two twin sheets for Ayla's new bed.  I don't have a photo of it...but it's just a brown comforter...not too exciting. :)  But, it was only an $8.00 comforter, which I think is pretty cool!

I might just have to add a few more sewing projects to my to-do craft list.  I seem to be getting the hang of it....as long as you don't look TOO closely!