B cards

Why do I love business cards? I might be a little crazy. But seriously, after college, it made me feel like a big girl to carry them around and trade them with high school friends when we were home for Thanksgiving. And now, why do I love them? They are so tiny and cute! And if I'm giving them to someone, it means I'm meeting someone new, which is something I love to do. And, potentially, am finding a new customer, which is becoming more important as I try to get into the sales game. Also, my kids just started a new school, which means I met lots of new moms and I wanted to be able to quickly give out info.
So, I've ordered a TON of them recently. And am SO sad about not being in love with any of them. I ordered "mom" cards from vistaprint which have my name and say "mom to Nash and Margot" and they're cute. But the two that break my heart are both from Tiny Prints. I love Tiny Prints! Or maybe I don't. These things are just, well, tiny!

After spending way too much money on little cards, I made my own. I knew I could make my own, but honestly, I just thought I wanted something professionally done and I was sure to love. I'm not going to say I like mine better, but I like them! I rounded the corners on mine, I like the bold graphic, I like that it's not hard to read. I like em. That's it. I even thought about rounding the corners on the Tiny Prints cards! But I won't. I'll just feel triumphant in my quest to make a fun little business card. And I won't spent gobs of money at Tiny Prints or Iomoi again. I guess that's why I keep making things - I usually like what I make better!

Cakepops

Why am I so bad at making cakepops? Half of them broke or fell sideways off the stick, or the stick came right through the top. Bakerella is a genius and her book is adorable. I want to make every design in it. But clearly, that is not an option for me since the little balls don't even come out half the time!
I have a friend from long ago who is always posting advice on Facebook about making cakepops and is full of suggestions to her friends on how to improve their cakepops. I have just decided that she must be living a lie. No one can be that good or knowledgeable about making them.
But I want them to be perfect. Even considering they're not, they are still pretty cute when they're all wrapped up and tied with a bow.
But none of this really matters because my 4 year old completely flipped out when his fell of the stick as soon as he picked it up. It didn't fall onto the floor. No one yelled at him or gave him a nasty look. He just wanted it on the stick! But, sailors don't always make good friends, and cakepops don't always stay on the stick. I offered him others, and it didn't matter, he was just devastated. So I am done with cakepops. Though my husband sincerely hopes I might consider making cakepop truffles.

Thanks, Teachers!

 

It's Summer vacation! My kids have only been in school for a month, but they have had a great time and these wonderful teachers! So a thank you gift was in order. I borrowed a great idea from my awesome crafty friend Robin and made these cards with little flags that have "thank you" stamped on them. And then I taped a Starbucks gift card to the back. I'm sure the teachers appreciate the Starbucks more than the card, but they were fun and quick to make!
Robin uses these for a few different holidays - with a lollipop in them for Valentines day, with a flower in them for Mother's Day, and they are always super super cute. Maybe I'll try to come up with some other ideas to share.

So, how it's done. Simple! Go take a picture of your cute kid with their hand in a fist or giving thumbs up. I used a lollipop stick with some decorative paper for my flag, and used a xyron for my adhesive so I'd get a good seal on my flag. Cut a hole with an xacto, slide in your stick, and then tape it in the back so it'll stay. Presto.

Love it! Thanks, Robin!

What I'm obsessing over

 

I was browsing at the Container Store and picking up some boxes for some Ebay stuff, and I saw these boxes, made to haul beer around. I knew straight away I had to make doll houses out of them! We went to two birthday parties this weekend and each little girl had their gift "wrapped" in a dollhouse! They each took about an hour to make, though I'm sure I could shave that down once I had the measurements.
Supplies: 12x12 decorative paper, paper cutter, I used my sewing machine to do some cute stitching on the windows and doors, rubber stamps (I eventually added the little girl's name in an arch over the door which was super cute), and I used a xyron machine to fix the paper to the houses, but you could use a spray adhesive, or paper glue. Go wild!

Other obsessions include this paper which I printed for free off The Small Object! I love her things! Why can some people just do a little scribble and make it look so amazing? Considering Sarah is now selling things at Anthropologie, I consider free printables off her blog a major score. There's a link to her blog on the left toolbar.

Lastly, I am amping up my camera strap making! And I am obsessed with these colors and patterns from Anthologie, which I got at the quilting store in St. Charles on Mother's day. Gorgeous colors. After I get my pattern for the strap down pat I'll publish it here.

Does that make two blog posts in two days for me? Woo hoo!

Crawfish Boil Time!

 

Where did it all come from??
I got a template for the utensil holder a long time ago from The Small Object but it's no longer available there. There are lots of other great tutorials and fun free things to print! I purchased the crawfish image I used here from this Etsy shop.

I also bought the kids AMAZING shirt from Etsy here and they were adorbs. You don't get much cuter than "I wanna be loved bayou!"

Of course you can find Tabasco Toppers at Sucre Shop.

I am on a sign-making mission and hope to have more "don't eat da straight ones!" signs, along with some others soon in my Etsy shop.

We love our crawfish boil! I just need to work on starting to prepare and craft for it more than one week in advance. Starting tomorrow, I'm looking what holidays are in the next two months and brainstorming.

With the awesome press and from my Afiko Men I am hyped up to get back into blogging. Hope to post one to two times a week! So stay tuned for frequent updates!

Praise for Passover Projects!

Guess what, guess what? They liked it! They really liked it! Who, you ask? Everyone! My new Passover projects were blogged about on The Long Thread, which is one of my favorite blogs and the AMAZING famed blog Apartment Therapy!
My Passover pillows on Apartment Therapy are here.
Mention here at the end of her blog report (no picture, but I'm right next to Martha Stewart! Good enough for me!)
Can't wait to improve on these projects for next year.

Passover Craft Designs 2011

Passover Craft Designs 2011, a group on Flickr.

Share your designs in this group pool!

Passover Kitch

I started looking a few days ago for some fun projects for Passover. I have to admit, the search for Passover crafts was inspired by the Peeps bunting which is completely adorable and posted everywhere. Why doesn't Passover have a cute little pink bunny as its symbol? We've got some much more difficult material to work with! Didn't find what I was looking for in my searches- I found a bunch of Matzoh covers (which we've been making since pre-school) and the like. I hope I've come up with a few new, fun projects for you to do for Passover.
Pillows! Perfect for leaning on during Seder. From my fave songs Diyanu! and Chad Gadya.


A faux seder plate- perfect for an April Fool's Day post! Using only candy as ingredients, this seder plate definitely is not kosher for Pesach! Do you think it resembles the real thing?


Since banners/bunting are so popular, I wanted to make one. But what to include? I settled on my favorite Pesach haiku....


These guys are probably my favorite, they're the AFIKO MEN! A group of Passover Superheroes ready to fly in & entertain your little one during Seder.

I do have a few sets of the Afikomen for sale on Etsy with a link on the left sidebar.

Pillow instructions!
To make the pillows I used a freezer paper stencil method. I searched Google images for a picture of a goat I liked and printed it out. Then I traced it onto the dull side of a piece of freezer paper. I cut it out with an exacto and ironed it onto my fabric. I stippled two coats of fabric paint, let it dry and peeled off my freezer paper. I did the same basic method for the lettering, just picked out the font and size I wanted and printed it off my computer.
You can use a pre-made pillow cover to keep things simple! I sewed a simple envelope pillow cover, since I already had the form, for the Chad Gadya pillow, but for Di-diyanu I just cut a size I liked and sewed three sides, the stuffed it and sewed it shut.
You can do this with any Passover saying or image! "Next year in Jerusalem", "goat for sale, two zuzim", "ma nishtanah...".

Faux Seder Plate!
This is a great learning tool for kids and so much fun! My kids love looking at my cupcake decorating book which uses all candy materials to make different animals or figures. This is the same idea.

The egg is made from Wilton white melting candy. I actually used an egg form, which I sprayed with Pam, poured in the melted candy and swirled it around while it hardened. I was having a hard time getting the egg out of its mold, so I dipped one end in a bowl of warm water and that loosened it right up!

The shank bone is rice krispy treat which I molded by hand, then I held a few matches to it to give it the roasted look.

I went a little nuts (no pun intended) on the charosis. How do you mimic apples and nuts and wine? Well, I just decided to go for it and throw a bunch of stuff on there. I tinted some frosting to Manaschevitz color, then threw on some chopped red tootsie rolls (for apples), M&Ms, and chocolate. Well... I tried!

The maror is a slice jumbo-sized marshmallow dipped into non-pareils.

For bitter herbs I decided that rather than another leafy green, I'd make some salt water, with a stem coming out. I didn't actually make any cupcakes though (cheater, I know!) I just used a few ritz crackers on the base and mixed blue food coloring with store bought frosting. There were a lot of elements to this seder plate! I was saving time whenever possible.

I probably had the most fun making the parsley. I used green lime flavored tootsie rolls and tropical flavored fruit roll ups! I used a rolling pin to roll the tootsie roll flat, and a sharp knife to cut out the shape I wanted from it and also the fruit roll ups.

I set up a group on Flickr.com with close ups of each of the items. I hope you'll use some of my ideas, or use them to create new ones for yourself and have fun making some Passover kitch :) Would love to hear from you or see pictures of what you've made!

New Life For Old T-shirt

There was a huge stain on the front of my son's shirt. It was the kind of stain that maybe you couldn't see in certain light... so for months he's been wearing it anyway because I always forgot to throw it away. Last week while he napped I cut off the front pocket and sewed it to his t-shirt quilt. He loved it!! But today, suddenly, it's pretty much the end of the world that Mommy cut up his favorite race car t-shirt. How could I do this to him?? Luckily, I didn't throw away the rest of the shirt yet. So I fixed it. And I love it. And maybe I'll still be sewing this race car onto t-shirts for him when he's my age.

Craft Show

It's been awhile, but if I don't post now I never will and it'll be lost forever. So, just for the record, I'm posting pictures of my display at my first craft show which was August 14th. And it was pretty successful! The turn out wasn't great, but I had most of the sales for the day and ended up having fun and being pretty proud.




My thoughts following the show were that I'd definitely do it again, and that I'd spend LESS time preparing for it!

Pretty As A Picture

Freezer paper stencils are one of my favorite super-easy super-quick transformation crafts. We all know, by now, that my favorite crafts are ones I can do quickly! Screen printing makes a pretty big mess, and it doesn't make much sense to do all the prep work for just one print. On to the freezer paper stencils.

I loved a tunic from Mini Boden, but after weighing whether I wanted to pay $30 for it or try to recreate it... a trip to Target and one day later and I have something similar that I made!

I even cheated a little bit for this one. Usually if I'm doing freezer paper stencils, at least I want it to be my own design. But I thought this bow was so cute, I just printed out the picture, blew it up and traced it. So bad, I know. But it's cute, huh?

If you want to see the tunic, I fell in love with for Margot, it's here. Why don't they make this in adult sizes?

If you've never tried a freezer paper stencil, you totally should! Here's an easy tutorial on how it's done by one of my favorite bloggers, Amy Karol.

Another by the way, my vintage spool dolls are listed now on Etsy! You can see a preview on the column to the left, and click to view. Hope you like them!