Birthday Ideas

My little girl is turning two in May. I have no idea what to do for her birthday party. Last year was Elmo themed. Here are the cake & cupcakes I made.



These ones looked better when I first made them. The frosting got too soft and so the eyes started to move around. At least now I know to keep things like this in the fridge!

My problem is that she isn't in to any one thing/character for more than a couple of weeks at a time. Right now she is on a Lion King kick, but that will probably be over before May gets here. She does like the Disney princesses, Ariel in particular, but she also likes Curious George. And she is really into colors right now. She loves to point out the colors she sees!

So basically I'm lacking direction and would love some input on where you all think I should go with this. Thanks!

Oh, and to get the fur look on the cupcakes I used what is called a "grass tip" and I think it is Wilton number 233. Super time consuming but way cool looking!

Soda Can Picture Frame

I bought a cheapy cheap unfinished wood frame for $1 at Michaels and after seeing this mirror decided my picture frame could do the trick. And in the spirit of Tab-ing, I of course used a can of Tab.I just cut the top and bottom off of a soda can and the cut a slit up the side so that I had a rectangle of aluminum. Then I cut that into *roughly* 3/4 inch squares. I felt no need for perfection in this area of the project. Hot pink acrylic paint & a little (or a lot) of hot glue later and I had a masterpiece.

But it didn't seem right to give an empty picture frame to my cousin who just so happens to be a new dad. So after the suggestion by my little sister, we printed a picture of his son to go in it...

After we photoshopped him snuggling a can of Tab, of course!

Everyone loved it!

Thanks sister for the photo idea. Thanks husband for your awesome photoshop skills!

Half Apron - Tab Style :)

My SIL asked me recently if I wanted a bag full of old jeans. She had purchased the jeans at Goodwill, or wherever, with the intention of making a quilt but was no longer going to be doing that. I happily took the bag of jeans and knew that even if I didn't make a quilt I would come up with some good use for them. And I did! I made this half apron for my grandma for her birthday last month.

For my "stencil" I cut the "I" & the heart out of cardstock, laid it on the denim and painted with acrylic paint. I didn't do any fancy mixing with fabric medium or any of that (mostly because I'm cheap and this was a gag gift anyway). In my googling of the matter, the only downside to using straight acrylic paint on fabric is that it makes it stiff. Which it did, but not enough for me to do anything about it! For the "Tab" stencil I printed two pictures of the can of soda onto cardstock. From one I cut out where the pink went and painted that on then for the other I cut out where the silver (top & bottom of the can) & wording went. Add a Tab colored ruffle to the bottom and some ribbon to tie it and in the words of my almost 2 year old, DATAA!!! (she says tadaa backwords...it's pretty cute)

Please forgive the unedited, late at night, taken by the husband picture (yes, this was the better of the two).

I Need Baby Shower Ideas

I'm throwing a baby shower for a friend of mine at the beginning of May. I've never hosted a baby shower before so my list of ideas is quite small. I would love your input on fun games, delicious desserts and/or cheap decorations. Other than the invitations and a few of the food items I don't have anything!!! Oh, and not sure that it makes much of a difference but she is having a girl.

Thanks!

Soda Can Bow Holder

For my aunt's birthday I made her some bows that she had asked me for. Given our tradition of Tab-ing people I decided at the last minute that I needed to some how *creatively* include a can of Tab in with her gift. So I turned a Tab into a bow holder! All I did was hot glue some ribbon around the outside of the soda can...

and clipped the bows to it. It doesn't hold very many bows, so it's not very practical, but I wasn't going for practicality. It made her laugh and that was the point!

Final Mop Up & Plans for April

I didn't do a Mop-Up round up last Friday because I had planned on doing it yesterday. Well I'm a day late. But I'm happy to say that I got through 10 of the 11 projects that I had wanted to finish in March. And somehow, I don't feel relieved. Maybe it has something to do with the handful of projects I started in March and have yet to finish...haha. I guess I can't help but have at least half a dozen projects going at once!

So what was the final Mop-Up project for me? Finishing my mom's Christmas present. For Christmas I decided to put all of her old pictures in albums (that my little sister bought). So I sneakily took stacks of photos out of the box under her dresser and organized them before placing them in albums...20+ years of photos in a box this size.

I underestimated how much could fit into a box that size and ran out of albums. Ten photo albums, each with a capacity to hold 100 photos, and I needed at least three of four more. I gave her what I had finished on Christmas and told her I would finish the rest at a later date. So I spent the last few days putting away the rest of the photos. And while I realize that the pictures probably won't be viewed very often (if ever) it is nice to know that they are organized and easily accessible instead of shoved into a box in a giant mess.

Have you checked out Dollar Store Crafts lately? You should check out the April Stash Bust. I'm way excited for this. I really need to work on using supplies I already have, since my craft corner is kind of bustin' at the seams! And to go along with it there is a Stash Swap! You send something out of your stash that you have an overabundance of to another swap member and someone else will do that same to you. I've been wanting to do something like this for months, so I'm very excited!!!

So what's on my stash-busting list? Aprons using a bag of old jeans I got from my SIL and hopefully I can put a dent in my pile of things that need to be scrapbooked.

Bunny Bags

How cute are these little bags?! I made these to give to the kids in my primary class. I saw something similar in a book that I borrowed from my MIL and decided to give it my own twist. I love how they turned out.

Inside I put a few plastic eggs filled with bunny marshmallows and a little flower pot with a packet of seeds (since our lesson is on being thankful for trees, plants & flowers I thought this would be fun for them to take home).

TMOC Part 3: Cookbook

My husband and I started dating when I was 17 (he was 22...and given the whole situation, it's a miracle my parents agreed to let us go out, but that's another story all together). He is the oldest of 6 and happens to have a sister just my age (really, our birthdays are just one month apart). In my family growing up, once you turned 10 you had to learn how to do grown-up chores, like mow the lawn and cook and clean. So I had a good 7 years of cooking under my belt when I met his family. Needless to say, I was a little shocked that his sister didn't really know how to cook much. So for Christmas two years ago, since she was no longer living at home, I made her a cookbook. It was compiled of recipes that were all either fast, easy or super cheap (or all of the above). To top it all off, I tried each recipe out first to make sure it wasn't disgusting and took pictures of each one to put in the cookbook. One of the things I hate about cookbooks is that they get professional food stagers and photographers to make the food look perfect. Mine rarely looks like the pictures!

Anyway, she liked it so much that this past October she asked if I was going to be making her another cookbook for Christmas. Hmm...I hadn't really thought of that and it was WAY too late in the year to be taking on something like that (at least for the way I like to do it). After that comment I decided I would make her another cookbook for this Christmas. And I already have an idea (or two) for next year's installment in her series of cookbooks.

So this month I have been compiling and testing and photographing recipes for a cookbook. Since I haven't done any of the computer work on this yet, I don't have anything to show for it. So here are a few pictures of things I included in the last cookbook I made for her.

Grilled Cheese BLT

BBQ Chicken Potatoes

Baked Steak Burritos 

This will probably take up two or three months in my TMOC. Maybe next time I'll share a few of the new recipes.
p.s. Sorry for all the background info...sometimes I ramble.

McKlinky is now up

Sorry guys. I totally spaced it yesterday and forgot to add the McKlinky to week 3 of the Round-Up. It is up and running now...so get to showing off! :)

The Mop-Up Round-Up: Week 3

Three weeks down, one to go! I am doing great getting things accomplished. But before I show off the fruits of my labor, I thought I would show off some of yours. There haven't been very many projects linked up...and by that I mean 4. Yep, only 4 so I'll show them all to you! Ready? Here we go!
Shannon over at Quarry Orchard recycled an old *kind of creepy* piece of art from this:

To this:


She also made some lovely sisal covered styrofoam balls.


Next up is Summer from Sumo's Sweet Stuff and she shared a tutorial for an easy baby book:

as well as an ingenious storage solution. Yep, those are gift boxes covered in fabric.


Now for what I've been working on this week.
Projects #1 & 2 - Red Corduroy Skirts
I actually made the skirts before Christmas but just got around to adding the super cute flowers (as well as the hook & eye on mine).

Project #3 - Paper Holder
Remember this post? Of course you don't (that was FOREVER ago!). Anyway, I finally got around to finishing the one I started...also before Christmas. Notice a theme for this week? :)

The Domesticated Skirt

As soon as I saw this skirt

*The Domesticated Skirt* 

over at Sew A Straight Line I knew I had to try my hand at it. Well it just so happened that my mom wanted to go to Joann that same morning, so off we went in search of three unsuspecting fabrics. I am very pleased with the final outcome.

And I happened to have enough left over for this:

What can I say? I like when we match. :)

I've got a few ideas to tweak it a little bit to help the inside wrapped part stay inside. I'll give an update if I find a solution that I like.

I also have a few projects in mind for some of the scraps, but it might be a while before I get to them.

Clover Candles

I saw these candles on the Martha Stewart website that had blades of grass glued to them. I like the look but came up with an idea that I like even better. I glued clovers to my candles instead of grass...and I love them! They make me smile every time I walk by them. I just used a glue stick (like Martha suggests) to attach the clovers and then put a coat of Mod Podge over them for protection (I have no idea if they are safe to burn, you'd have to ask Amy, but I have no intention of burning them anyway). I also tried using Mod Podge in place of the glue stick, but it wasn't any easier and a little bit messier...so I would stick with the glue stick.

Pictures are up

I finally got around to uploading pics for week #2 of the Round-Up.

Mop-Up Round Up Week Two

Week two was not as productive as week one for me as far as crafting goes. We spent the last several days trying to learn how to use the potty and boy is it exhausting! Here is my round up for this week:

Project 1 - Luck Wreath

Wait, you can't see the wreath in this picture. That's what I get for trying to take a pic while hubby was in the room! He thinks it looks like he has a halo over his head.

Project 2 - Case for body pillow
I made this using leftovers of the sheet set that I turned into curtains and a bed skirt.

The Mop-Up Round-Up: Week 1

Well, this was definitely the motivation I needed to get things done! I was very productive this week (although I'm not going to share everything I accomplished just yet...we're starting potty training soon, so I probably won't get much done that week but still want to have something to share with you all).

Mop-Up #1 - Bow Wreath
I LOVE ribbon wreaths and especially love the look of this one. Although I think it still needs something...I'm just not sure what. I know that it is no where near Christmas, but this ribbon was taken off of Christmas packages (I just can't bring myself to throw it away) and seeing it in the box on my floor, well, I just couldn't resist.

Mop-Up #2 - Bloomers Turned Skirt
I love the paisley fabric, but the shape of these bloomers was not made for my child. So, I whacked off the bottom (which was only about 1/2" in the longest part) and added some ruffled eyelet fabric along with a little eyelet flower and now it is a cutie skirt!

*please excuse the poor "before" picture...this was actually taken after I had sewn the eyelet ruffle along the bottom, but hopefully you get the picture of how they looked*

Mop-Up #3 & #4 - Shirt Turned Skirt
Yes, I have a thing right now for making skirts for my little girl. I'll have done 5 by the time the Mop-Up is over! These were hand-me-downs from my sister's neighbor. I always liked the pattern of the fabric, but I didn't love they way they looked on her. So after being inspired by Disney (specifically this post) I decided that those shirts were about to meet the sewing machine.

Now it's your turn! Link up some of the projects you finished this week! I can't wait to see them and next week I plan on showing off some of your accomplishments as well.

Introducing....

I have a little confession to make...I have a hard time finishing projects. You see, by the time I get 75-90% of the way done with something I can see the final results in my head. Since I can already "see" how it looks, I decide that it is time to move on to something else. As I was writing down all of my "almost finished projects" I was kind of disgusted and disappointed in myself that I had that many! How many would that be, you ask? ELEVEN!  That is only counting things that I have actually started, and not anything that has been on my to-do list for quite some time. That may not seem like a lot to you, but for me it is! So, in an effort to finish things up I'm dedicating the month of March as the...

MARCH MOP-UP!  

*Mop-up: Perform the minor tasks that conclude a project or activity (definition courtesy of answers.com)

My goal is to finish at least three projects each week and post my results on Fridays. I would love for you all to join me, so I'll be adding a MckLinky each week for you to show off what you've accomplished. I can't wait to see your results! The first MckLinky will go up on Friday morning, so get crackin'!


EDITED TO ADD:
I got the March Mop-Up button up & working and I would love for you to put one on your blog! You can copy the code below, or from the top right of my blog. And I've already finished three of my projects today! Hooray!

<div align="center"> <a href="http://ashleyscrafts.blogspot.com/search/label/March%20Mop-Up" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt=" MopUp " src="http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx291/bowutifulbows/marchmopup-1.jpg"/></a><br /> </div>

Denim Shorts Turned Bubble Skirt

I basically combined this tutorial with this tutorial and came up with this!

I know it's not a great picture (don't you love the ragamuffin hair?! I'll try to get a better one) and apparently I need to attach some bloomers underneath because she kept pulling the skirt up. WAY UP! Like to her armpits...yeah, not so attractive.

TMOC Part 2: Knotty Scarf

This scarf was my inspiration:

and this is my end result:

Sorry, the picture is kind of blurry. Here is an up close so you can see the detail better

It looks much better on than just sitting on the floor. I'm fairly pleased with it, but I don't super love it (and I have a hard time giving gifts that I don't super love). I might try this again using a different material. If I do, I'll post pics and you all can help me decided whether or not to re-do this one.

Boy's T-shirt into Girl's T-shirt

I wanted to make a cute shirt to match this skirt that I made for the little one. Well...I waited too long to get the clearance shirt I wanted from Target! I was totally bummed, but then I saw this shirt in the little boy's section.

It was boring (this is after I had taken the front pocket off) and looked like a shirt for a boy, but for $1.25 I was willing to try my hand at making it look like it was meant for a girl.
Here is what I came  up with:

Not too shabby! Here it is with the skirt:

And a little modeling session, for you:

I do actually do her hair *most days* but this was first thing this morning and I was too excited to see how it looked on her to waist time with pony tails.

Linked to:
Whatever Goes Wednesday
Blue Cricket Design