Pillowcase Dresses

 Here are a few recent creations for some darling little girls!  I am always thrilled when we get to go to a birthday party for a little girl. That means sewing girlie creations that I rarely get to make!  Pillowcase dresses are so quick and easy so I love giving them as gifts. Each of these took me less than an hour to complete and less than a yard of fabric. I like to dress them up a bit with coordinating fabrics and such.

 SO what do YOU think???

I wish I had a daughter...

Pinterest strikes again! When I saw these ruffle butt onesies I just had to make them for someone. Luckily, my sweet friend Chelsey was just about to have her second little girl. I knew instantly what she would be getting at her baby shower. She already mentioned wanting Big Sister and Little Sister shirts her daughters could wear at the hospital. Thanks to some iron-on vinyl and pink onesies from Walmart. But they are so boring on their own. 

 
So this is what I did to the back. This is about 5 or 6 layers of ruffles!  {SQUEAL} They turned out ADORABLE!!!  I must say, as tedious and time consuming as it was to cut the strips, overlock the edges to help with fraying, ruffle the strips, and then sew them all on, they turned out great & I can't wait to make more. Just need more little girls in my life!

Christmas Gifts

Christmas has come and gone. All the gifts were completed (by the 22nd, I might add!)  Final count of projects:

13 hostess aprons

2 full aprons

9 BBQ aprons

12 Lego bags

3 robes

5 PJ bottoms

1 purse

 Here is my nephew's lego bag. I LOVE how this one turned out. The shark fabric is just adorable. These are great for all children but since I have A LOT of boys to make gifts for these were perfect. Basically this is a huge circle with drawstrings in it and when playtime is over you can just pull the drawstrings and put the pouch away.

Here is some of the assortment of aprons I made. Hostess aprons were a hit among the family.  Since most of my crafting is done at night I don't have very great pictures. These were pretty simple overall and the coordinating fabrics make them just adorable.

My boys just love their robes and have been wearing them around the house. I must say they look just adorable in them.

Adorable Apron

I am making aprons for Christmas presents so I have been on the lookout for online tutorials. When I found this tutorial I fell in love!  This is the cutest apron with such attention to detail. So one day during the boys naps I decided to test it out. I have LOTS of these to make so I wanted to see it if was possible to use this pattern.

Before the boys woke up from naps, I was done with the apron! It was that simple. Definitely going to be making these as gifts. Since making this one, I have gotten 1 more completed and 3 more are about 1/3 of the way done. Yeah!

Hero Snacks - Father's Day Gift

If I have learned anything over the past few years it is that when you make gifts for guys, snacks are always a hit! Every time I have to make something for a guy, I struggle to find an idea I feel they will truly enjoy. So when I saw this Hero snack kit on a blog, I instantly knew this would be perfect!

I took a taco box from Del Taco (that is used to house their 6 taco and 6 burrito deal) and covered it in paper. It has become a habit for me to save items that I can use for packaging or a cute craft. When I saw the Del Taco boxes I knew they were perfect for something! 

I then printed off the labels on cardstock, cut them out and then adhered them to the various packages of snacks with either glue dots or staples. I got snacks that I knew each guy would like (for example: Bryan's  vitamin pellets were sunflower seeds but I used honey roasted peanuts for my dad and father in law). 

Here is my sweetie on Father's Day afternoon enjoying his "hero juice"! 

Sweet Girl turns 2

Zachary is friends with a sweet little girl named Macy who just turned 2! Her mama has a small addiction love for pillowcase dresses so I knew the perfect gift for her. I found adorable bright colored fabric that matched Macy's bright and sassy personality and off I went. This was whipped up while all my little guys were napping one afternoon! Can't wait to see her in it!

Thinking WAY ahead

I saw these adorable stuffed sea turtles and knew my nephew (well, his mama!) would love them. Might just have to make him one or two of these for his 1st birthday. He is only a week older than my youngest so I have quite a while to get them made.

We all know, I am a planner :)

"His Banner over me is LOVE..." Song of Solomon 2:4

I love to craft and I love it even more when I get to create things for others. So when I saw this post for a blessing banner, God placed someone special on my heart immediately. You see my sister-in-law and her husband have been praying for a child for quite a while now. God for whatever reason has not allowed that to happen... YET!  Well, after seeking medical help they are going forward with IVF this month!  Our whole family has been praying that they would be blessed with a baby. I don't know any couple that would be better parents!  

When they do get blessed with a little one, Angie said she would decorate the nursery in brown and pink or brown, blue, and green.  With that information, I was off to the fabric store in search of fabric for her very own blessing banner. As some of you may know, IVF (invetro fertilization) is not an easy process and it involves hormone shots. This was quite scary for Angie and Tim. I wanted to get the banner made before she started her shots so she would have something positive and encouraging to focus on. 

 

Once I picked out the fabric, I cut out rectangles in each of the patterns as well as smaller white rectangles. This is where our family would all write our words of encouragement, Bible verses, etc for Angie and Tim.  Once all the cutting was done, the rest came together pretty quickly (sorry, but I am HORRIBLE at remembering to take pictures of each step as I work!).  I sewed on the top flaps of coordinating fabrics, then the banner was sewn onto a wide ribbon. To finish it off I tied a few different size and colors of ribbon in between the panels. 

Here is one side of the finished banner before the family wrote on it. There were 8 panels for writing and then the center was a panel with a pink heart on it. As I was pinning the banner together, God placed the verse, "His banner over me is LOVE..." on my heart. That is the perfect verse for this project. It was a project to show people that we love very much that we are here for them and behind them in all they are going through. 

If I only had a girl!

...she would LIVE in pillowcase dresses!  Now, I really do love being a mommy to my 4 adorable and energetic boys. They are loving, helpful, super sweet, and stinkin' cute!  While I would love a daughter, I wouldn't trade my boys for anything. 

But, when I come across adorable crafting projects for little girls I can't help but dream about how a little girl of my own would look sporting a huge hairbow or a homemade skirt I made for her. I have always been a fan of pillowcase dresses. Several friends of mine have precious little girls that model them often. So one day, while wandering around JoAnn's in search of inspiration, I decided I would make a pillowcase dress for my sweet friend Tracey's daughter, Emma who was turning 3. I found an adorable fabric, grabbed some coordinating ribbon and I was ready to sew!  

 After a quick search on Google for a tutorial, I whipped up a pillowcase dress in no time (well, almost no time. I had to stop at one point and wait until I went to JoAnn's again the next day for some bias tape). These dresses are SUPER easy to make. And of course I had to make hairbows to go with it!  Since Emma was having a sweets themed birthday party, she needed candy hairbows!

I would make one of these for every occasion...

if I only had a girl!

Mother's Day Gifts 2011

It was that time of year again. Time to create presents for the mom's in my life. This year TWO of my sister in laws were mommies so I made these frames for them. 

I didn't take pictures of the presents I made for my mom and my mother in law. They actually aren't fully finished yet for a couple of reasons. 1. Bryan needs to drill holes in the frames and 2. they are just adding on to the picture frames of all their grandkids from this post. My mom had one new grandson born this past year and my mother in law gained 2 new grandsons. Needless to say, they needed more frames added to their gift from last year :)

Christmas Crafting

So I made all the gifts we gave away for Christmas, however, I didn't take pictures of ANY of them :(  So horrible!  I guess I need to get back into blogging so I am in the habit of taking pictures of my creations.

End of the Year Gifts

My oldest son just finished his second and final year of preschool. It is both exciting and sad at the same time. Exciting because that mean we are heading into school years and I will be embarking on the roller coaster that is homeschooling. Will it be challenging, yes. But will the rewards outweigh the challenges, definitely. I can do all things in Christ. He has led us to the decision to homeschool our children, and He will equip me (yes, a credentialed teacher needs to be equipped! Teaching YOUR OWN kid is VERY different from teaching a room of 35 sixth graders).

Above is the adorable card I made using my Cricut (have I told you lately how much I LOVE that little machine!). CB (my oldest son) was certainly blessed with TWO #1 teachers this year! What a blessing they were.

For the gift, I had saved this one for just this occasion! As some of you know I have a large list of blogs that I read on a regular basis. When I see an idea that I love I save it in my Delicious list (an online bookmarking list, so your bookmarks are available anywhere that has Internet.) Anyway, a few months ago while I was peeking at Nap Time Crafts I saw this beautiful idea! You can't get much more simple than that: crayons, some Tacky glue, and a shadow box frame.
I cut out each teacher's first initial in a very large font so I would have a guide for where to place the crayons. I backed that paper with black so the letters would stand out. I love the All Mixed Up font cartridge! Such a cute font!!!
They loved them!!! I was so happy with how they turned out and even the wrapping was super cute. I had found bags that were covered in apples in the Dollar Spot at Target a LONG time ago and had put them away for teacher gifts. When I started planning on making these, I thought the bags would be too small since I was going to get 12x12 shadow boxes. However, when I was at Michael's I didn't see any I liked so I grabbed these 8x10 frames. They fit just right in the bags!!! With the addition of a bit of yellow and green tissue paper and a cute bow, they were the perfect way to say thank you for all CB's teachers had done this year!

Mother's Day Gift with Tutorial!

For my mom and mother-in-law I decided to create these adorable linked hanging frames that I saw on HowDoesShe? I LOVE this blog! The ideas are so cute and I am storing a bunch of them for future use! So here is what I did to make this project my own :)

While we were in San Diego on our anniversary trip, my hubby took me to IKEA! He sure knows the way to his woman's heart. Anyway... I saw these frames and knew they would be perfect for some kind of craft project, so we grabbed 3 packs (that is 9 frames). At the time I just wasn't sure what. Fast forward a few weeks and now it is time for Mother's Day crafting. These frames turned out to be just the perfect project. I had exactly the amount I needed since my mom has 4 grandbabies and my mother-in-law has 5.

I began by having my sweet hubby drill small holes in each of the corners. This is where the eye screws would be placed to link the frames. His drill was already out since he was hanging all my shelves and rods in the SCOR.

I painted the frames with a cream colored paint to go with the papers I had selected for use.
I traced the frames onto the back of my paper (I had taken the plastic from the center where the picture would sit).
My paper choices. My boys have "colors" that I have assigned to them so I used those. The purple was for my niece and the yellow was for my nephew (because that is his favorite color!).
Here are the cut out frames for my mother-in-law's gift.
Using Mod Podge (which I LOVE) I glued the paper to the frame. I also cut out each grandchild's name on white paper using my Cricut. Those were then applied to the corresponding frame. This one was for my newest nephew!
Next, I screwed the eye screws into the predrilled holes. I did that on all four corners.

Using cream colored ribbon, I tied the eye hooks together to link the frames. Lowe's didn't have any eye hooks or I would have used those (although the ribbon junkie in me LOVES how the ribbon looks).
To hang the frames, I just tied another long ribbon. Wish I had a nice metal handle like the one on HowDoesShe? but no biggie!
There you have it! You can totally add to these as well (although 5 was pretty heavy so I might would just start another one!). Since only 2 of the 6 kiddos on my hubby's side have had kids, I am sure I will be making another one of these somewhere down the road!

Washer Necklace For Teacher Appreciation Week

I saw this idea a while ago and have been saving this project for teacher appreciation week. These washer necklaces were SUPER easy to make (and fast - only took about 10 minutes). To finish them off I sewed each end of the ribbon through an extra washer. I didn't like the idea of tying a knot since I felt that would be irritating against the wearers neck. I used all ONE size washer but the tutorial called for various sizes. Either way, it is super cute!
My Cricut was chirping as it cut out these school building and letter for the teacher's card. Not my favorite card creation, but it was pretty cute.
*Sorry for the bad photography. Eventually I will figure out where to take pics of my creations so the pictures come out better! I had forgotten to take a pic of the necklaces so I was doing this at a light on the way to my son's school! LOL*

Little Teacher Appreciation Baskets

I saw this idea here and made it my own using all the baby food containers I have been saving! I didn't use all the sayings but I did fill the containers with paper clips, mints, change (for a soda), a post-it notepad, and cute magnets from the dollar bin at Michaels. To bundle them all together I put them in baskets I found in the Dollar Spot at Target.

Teacher Appreciation Treats

The preschool asked for parents to help with making their staff feel appreciated during Teacher Appreciation week. I asked what was involved and was told that for Wednesday the "theme" was yellow & lemons. So in true Allison fashion, I took that and ran with it.

I made these milk carton treat boxes for Christmas cookies and figured they would be perfect. I saw the idea here and figured out how to make them. (see tutorial below) Inside of the carton, I made cake mix cookies from lemon cake mix - box of cake mix, 1/2 c. oil, and 2 eggs. The teachers LOVED them. Really, they were so easy! To top it off I added in a water bottle, embellished with the scrap paper from the treat boxes, and a packet of Crystal Light.

Milk Carton Treat Box Tutorial

Maybe one day I can get this on video or do a better job of explaining this but for now this is all I got :)

1. Using a 12x12 sheet of sturdy cardstock, you will cut to size and score lines for the fold. These treat boxes were 4 inches tall so I cut the paper down to 8.5 inches tall by 12 inches wide.

2. Score paper 2 inches from the bottom.

3. Next, score paper 2.5 inches from the top.

4. Score paper 1 inch from the right side. This will make the flap for assembling the box

5. Continue vertical scoring lines measuring each one 2.75 inches from the last. (2.75 x 4 = 11 inches) This will make the sides of the carton.

6. Fold paper along all scored lines. Cut the the 2 inch lines on the bottom. Fold the 2nd and 4th flaps into triangles.

7. Glue box sides together. Fold bottom flaps in to create the bottom of the box. Then fold the triangle flaps up and glue it all down. You now have the bottom of the carton created.

8. Bring the front and back top edges toward the center, folding the sides in (like a milk carton top).

9. Hole punch the top and tie closed with a ribbon (after filling with some treats, of course)

I know this isn't the best tutorial :( I will try to post pictures that go along with each step soon. Might even try a Flip video if I can find a camera person.

Teacher Appreciation Treats coming soon!

The gifts for Chris's teachers are done and I am hoping to post pics and a tutorial for the milk cartons tomorrow. I am just WAY too tired tonight since I was up until 1:30am last night getting them done. Who is the crazy lady that signed up to make treats for the Preschool staff?!?! Oh, yeah, that would be me!

It was all worth it seeing how it brightened their day today. Chris and Cameron paraded around the school passing out the milk cartons (full of lemon cookies) and water bottles complete with Crystal Light Lemonade attached. They were blessed so all my hard work paid off! Teachers work hard and they deserve to be pampered a bit!!!

Check back soon for the treats and the tutorial!

Check back soon...

I will be working all next week on gifts for Mother's Day and Teacher Appreciation Week! Check back soon to see the final products. They can't be posted until after they have been given ;)

Girlie Creations

I finally have the chance to make some girlie items for a few friends with events coming up. The elation of getting to use various shades of purples and pinks and ribbon is almost more than I can bear! I have no daughters, no nieces, and haven't had any real reason here lately to make something for a little girl.

One of my friends is having a sweet baby girl very soon and her shower is this weekend. I cannot yet post pictures of what I made / am making for her little one since I don't want her to sneak a peek, so you will have to just wait until AFTER the weekend so see what I have been busy working on. Tomorrow I will have to pull out my Cricut and whip up a card to go along with the gift. My hot glue gun will also be heating up to finish the second part(s) of the gift that will make it complete.

Another friend has a daughter with a 2nd birthday that is fast approaching. I am also making her what I am making for the shower this weekend but I have some time to get that one finished (plus I need another Michael's coupon to make the project a bit more in my budget).

So check back soon... I have been busy crafting, just can't let you see what I have been busy making quite yet!

Christmas Creations, completed

I was busy all throughout December working on Christmas presents for my family and friends. I didn't get pictures of the sugar scrubs I created, but they were a huge hit. Not to mention they were super easy and inexpensive!

Sugar Scrub

16 oz plastic jar container (ordered from here)

1 1/2 cups white granulated sugar

3/4 cup olive oil (EVOO was used since it had less of a color than regular)

1 mL Essential Oil - I used grapefruit scent! (ordered from here)

For the brother in laws, we made movie night coupons complete with $1.10 taped inside for a Redbox movie! They also received a popcorn container from Target, 2 packages of microwave popcorn, and a king size pack of Red Vines!

For my new nephew, Joshua who was born on November 22nd, I made a picture frame. I got the idea from this blog, but since I never got over to Lowe's to get the wooden blocks cut, I used this MDF picture frame instead. I got the frame at Michael's, covered it with Mod Podge and some paper from a paper pad I already had. I then used my Cutting Up Cricut cartridge and cut out his name, birthdate, time and weight for the frame. To make his name stick out I cut a shadow of the letters about 1/2 an inch larger than the name.

For my mother in law, I wanted to make a family tree. With Bryan having 5 sisters, he has a large family that will only continue to grow. Only 2 of the 6 siblings have children so our number will significantly grow from the 18 people we have now. I had just gotten the Stretch Your Imagination Cricut cartridge for my birthday and it had an adorable tree on it with leaves that could be cut in a layer (a different color). I knew it would be perfect for making a family tree! I cut out the tree to be 11 inches and mounted it on a tan piece of 12x12 cardstock. I then dressed it up some with a bit of patterned paper. Using my Gypsy and the Opposites Attract Cricut cartridge I designed the word family and welded it together (made it cut out as one piece instead of individual letters).
To finish it off, I placed each of the leaves on the branches adhering them with glue dots. On the leave with names, I used foam mounting square to make them "pop" off the page a bit more. I wrote on each of the names of the family members, clustering the leaves by the families. I put Bryan's parents in the center and from there, you will find 6 other clusters of leaves (our cluster of leaves was the biggest with 5 family members).

For my mom, I made another set of seasonal word blocks like I had made for my mother in law for Mother's Day (seen here). Here is a link to the post where I got the idea. Unfortunately, I didn't take pics - they got finished literally hours before I had to give them to her on Christmas Eve - so I will have to try to sneak a pic of them on day while I am at her house. Hers are a burgandy wine color with patterned paper behind the letters. She like them a lot and immediately displayed them on her table as you walk into her house. They currently say "blessed" since she said that is how she feels!

Still working on a set of paper dolls for some precious little girls (we haven't yet done our Christmas celebration with their family yet). I will take photos of those when I am done. The Paper Doll Dress Up Cricut cartridge is stinkin' adorable!