Baby {boy} Wreath

A friend of mine is having a baby. And I enjoy making yarn wreaths. So... I decided to make her a sweet baby boy yarn wreath for her hospital or house door. I started by buying a 10" foam wreath form at 40% off from Michael's, some nice & fuzzy baby blue yarn, as well as some embellishments (blue clothes pins & sweet little baby feet charms), and a clip-on flower. 

I began by tying the yarn in a tight knot around the wreath (at any point) & then began wrapping... it took me let than 30 minutes because I was watching a sitcom & finished right as it was going off. I went ahead & stuck the flower on it to get an idea of how it would look.

Once that was complete, I cut some pennant style triangles out of 'baby boy appropriate' scrapbook paper. I then cut a backing for those out of appropriate matching card stock. My friend lent me a hole punch that creates a much smaller hole than a regular punch, so I used it on each corner of the triangles & stuck the letters on there (BOY. 'It's A' wouldn't fit) ;) Found some smaller ribbon than the jute I was going to use and threaded the white ribbon through each hole on the banner letters. I gave it some slack & tied each end around the wreath. 

Now, here's where pure creativity came into play. I had all intentions of stopping there. But I knew something was missing. So I got three various types of 'baby boy' ribbons & tied them around the wreath on each side. On the ends of the skinny white ribbon, I tied on some embellishments - the charms & clothespins.

Stuck the blue/white flower in the appropriate place, attached a ribbon for hanging, and viola! 

Not the best I could do, but it's a start. I plan on selling them for both boys & girls in the future. But I have some work to do. I want to laminate the pennants so the wreath can {for an intents & purposes} hang on an outside door. 

Hope you enjoyed!

It's an EGG, it's a BUNNY...it's a Bunniegg!

In 1999, I began testing the creative waters for the first real time in my life. In a magazine, I discovered this:

And I made four of them. The little hands on the front held name tags for my mom, dad, boyfriend & myself. These little guys have traveled through the years with me from house to house, state to state, cupboard to cupboard. They've held up surprisingly well & we've had no casualties. They're simply blown eggs & I'm not the most delicate person when moving, but somehow they've stood the tests of time. As you can see, they're kind of stuck in the 20th century. Afterall, they were made in 1998 (?). I decided it was high time to bring some new ones into the 21st century... and the idea for a 'Blown Egg...stravaganza' was born. My crafty-partner-in-crime & I decided we'd get together & create some new "egg people". Her son wanted to make one for his teacher & I just simply wanted some new ones :) 

So this evening we got our supplies together

And started by painting our pots 

so the layers could dry as we blew out our 

EGGS

We then started blowing our EGGS

1) gently poke a hole in the top of your egg

2) gently poke a larger hole in the bottom of your egg

3) slowly use a needle to make each hole wider

4) wipe off top of egg, begin blowing with your mouth sealed on the egg

5) blow harder

6) seriously. blow harder.

7) watch as your egg empties into a bowl

8) watch as your egg gets stuck halfway out the hole

9) blow harder

10) empty out your egg 

Be CAREFUL

Next up is to choose whatever face you would like for your Bunnieggs

You can use either permanent marker or black paint. We chose to go with black paint this time! In the 1990's, I used permanent marker. You then use pink paint for the inner ears, nose, and rosy cheeks. Fill your pots with moss. Dab a little glue on the ears (cut out of white felt), fit them wherever you'd like on your egg (you'll notice ours are all different). To make the ear stick back, bend it & dab a tiny bit of hot glue behind the part that stands up (at the base) & stick it to the part that is already glued to the egg. They will stand up FOREVER! You can glue your Bunnieggs into the pot. Just dab a little on the base & put them wherever you'd like in the pot. They'll stay attached for a loooooong time!! :)

Now.... last part & you'll notice all but one of our Bunnieggs is missing his sweet little paws. We simply ran out of time & those will come this week, but we did make one to share with you. This is ultimately what your Bunniegg should look like:

Just cut them out of the white felt & attach w/ hot glue! 

Voila! 

BUNNIEGGS!!!

So much fun! 

Craft Room: REVEALED

Alright guys. I know I've strung you along for long enough now. So here we go.... 

When we moved into our first home in July 2010, my future craft room kind of became the 'catchall'. Over the last year I inherited ALL of my childhood memories & keepsakes. Think about that for a moment. Every single thing your mom or dad may have saved in an attic, a closet, under a bed, even in a storage unit... it ALL came home with me. My parents sold their home, threw some favorites into storage & hit the wide open roads of the United States in an RV. So everything came to me. My craft room kind of became the place to put it all so that we could figure out what to do with it later on down the road... ya know... pass it on to our own kids, keep the memory & delete the item (?), or just stick it in storage boxes under the stairs. So my room started as this:

QUICKLY

to this:

And I knew something HAD to happen... and SOON!

So I nabbed my best friend for help & moral support & off we went... I picked up a jug of paint at Menard's that I *thought* best matched the idea in my mind, inspired by this past post (check it out). This inspiration was a lamp I found at a local Goodwill. It was as simple as that. I saw the lamp & from there a design was coming together in my mind. Now, we had a few problems along the way. Such as not unloading my huge, heavy as an elephant hutch... resulting in this....

Yeah, that left a bruise. 

At least a 300lb hutch with about 20 scrapbooks & photo albums in one part of the bottom. One the other furniture was moved into the middle of the room for painting we later realized we had {thismuch} room to squeeze into for unloading the bottom storage of the hutch. LOVELY.

But regardless, after a LOT of blood (seriously), sweat (fo' real) & tears {of laughter}, my CRAFT ROOM is complete. And I am in pure unadulterated love. 

Check it out!