Decorating on a Dime

Since we're a one-income fam until the hubs get out of med school, I've made it a personal goal to really design on a small budget. We've got a ton of things that we each had before we were married and that we have received as gifts, but I do try to mix things up a bit every now and then to keep our decor fresh. For this reason, I hit up Goodwill every now and then, buy things on clearance, and try new DIY ideas with stuff I have laying around.

I've seriously been crafting all weekend and need to blog on some of those ideas, but I just realized I never blogged about a craft I did months ago that I love. I saw this on one of my many craft blog searches, and I fell in love! I knew I had almost all the supplies around the house and gave it a try. I actually had some of the wire but couldn't find it (cue an organization of my craft closet!) so the hubs nicely went and bought me some. He had also just trimmed our tree and patiently waited while I picked out which branches I wanted trimmed down for the project. What a guy! I then used scrapbook paper I had picked up to coordinate with our living room and cut out 3 sizes of leaves. I then glued the leaves around small pieces of wire and wrapped the wire around the branches. I put them in a vase I had laying around and called it good! I still need to go back and add more leaves (they're even cut out and waiting), but I keep forgetting!It was a really fun project and I completed it pretty quickly! I really like how it spices up that corner of the room!

Linking up to Frugal Friday and Show And Share Day

Sunday Lyrics 7-31-11

Yes I will rise
Out of these ashes rise
From this trouble I have found
And this rubble on the ground
I will rise
Cause He Who is in me
Is greater than I will ever be
And I will rise

- Chorus from "Rise" by Shawn McDonald

Toddler Gift

Another couple in our lifegroup have a little guy who turned one in May. He is the cutest little boy ever! I couldn't make it to his party but made him a little gift that I hope he can use in the future. I've seen a ton of the little crayon rollups so I just winged it and sewed it up pretty quickly. I just took the length of the crayons I bought (Crayola Triangular Crayons) and cut two layers of the outside fabric about an inch and a half taller. I also planned on making pretty wide slots for them since they're big crayons so I made them about 17 inches wide (an inch extra for the seams). For the pocket fabric, I just made it twice as wide as what I wanted it to look like finished, and pressed it in half. I then took 1 of the outside layers and the pocket fabric and sewed the little slots (as straight as I possibly could). Then I just sewed everything together (right sides in, including very thin batting) leaving a small gap to turn things right sides out. After pushing all the corners out with a skewer, I did a 1/2 inch top stitch to finish things up and also stitched a small ribbon on to tie the roll up.
My friend said her little boy is still trying to eat the crayons but he'll hopefully grow into the gift!


Linking up to Frugal Friday, Free for All, and Show and Share.

First Attempt at Baby Booties

Time for another baby shower gift idea! I've really had fun pushing my limits on what I can make myself. This time I wanted to make a pair of cloth baby shoes. They seemed like it would be completely out of my sewing skills, but I didn't have too much trouble with it (besides sewing the wrong side and having to tear out the seams AFTER I sewed the whole shoe together... nice one). I used the template here, but made them slightly smaller since it would be for a newborn. I feel like my blog should really just chronicle how I see an idea and totally copy it! Haha! I do have some ideas of my own for the near future :) Here is the final product minus the elastic step - I knew I'd forget to take a picture the next day after the hubby went out and grabbed me some elastic. I paired it with a tie onesie in the same fabric and I thought it looked so cute and preppy!
And here's the package all wrapped up! (This was after I added the elastic to the back of the shoes - I was right and forgot to take a picture of just the shoes after that step!)I wasn't able to make it to the shower since it was during the day while I was at work, but I hope she liked it! I have heard that they look like baby Toms :)

I have seen reversible versions of these shoes and I want to give those a shot!

Linking up to Frugal Friday, Free for All, and Show and Share.

Baby Tie Onesie

On to other baby shower gift ideas... I made bows for my friends' little girls for Easter, but I still needed something for the little boys. None of the boys were really old enough to care what I got them (the oldest was under 2), so I decided to make them little tie shirts/onesies. I followed the tutorial at Crap I've Made and I thought they turned out super cute!

I can't decide which pattern is my favorite! The argyle is so preppy and cute but paisley is the classic tie pattern! Ah, geez, I think I love them equally :) I bought a fourth of a yard of each fabric at Hob Lob (at 30% off!) and it was plenty to make 6 ties, 3 of each pattern and I could make many more with that as well. The argyle was tougher since I tried to line up the pattern just right. I also bought a pack of onesies for the littlest ones in a 3-9 month size (random sizing, right?) and 1 12 month onesie and 1 little 2T t-shirt at Wal-Mart so they were very inexpensive and so fun to make!

Baby Shower Cards

As I said previously I went to a boat-load of baby showers in the spring. 7 to be exact. I guess this is a nice follow up to my last year in which we went to 8 weddings. So, while I am not (or try not to be) a cheap-skate, I do like to be frugal when possible. One way I did this was to make cards for the baby showers. I have a ton of scrapbook paper, so this was basically a free project. I used two different scrapbook papers and the general tutorial here. However, I just judged the size myself and mine was just one page, not a folded card. I added little bows on a few of them with some extra ribbon I had on hand. These were great for group gifts because we each got to write a little note all over the cards. These were fun and very easy to make!



I posted this to Frugal Friday and Free for All.

Bows!

Now that I have quite a few projects to blog on, I'll probably do some mass posting over the next few weeks (which is about a post a week at my pace) and then drop off the face of the blog world for months again. It's just how I roll. So, now that we've gotten more involved in our new church, I've gotten to know the people in my lifegroup a lot better. I seriously love them! And I love their kids... which is a good thing since there were four babies born in our group in a month and a half's time! It's been so fun! I actually know a TON of people that have recently had babies and I went to 7 baby showers in 2 months... no joke! So, that being said, I have been making little baby-inspired things left and right. Love it! I made a little bow holder for a friend and her little bundle and I thought it turned out very fun. It was also very easy and very affordable to make. To start off, I made a bow for decoration (I actually made about 6 of these with different materials and turned the rest into hairbows). I found a tutorial here and thought it would be perfect! I took some pictures of one of the bows while I was working on it, but it will be easier to just check theirs out.




I added the bow (which is different than the one I showed pictures of above) to a frame that I painted. We had a picture of the hubs' trip to Africa in this, but the glass broke in the move, so we repurposed it. I also bought some ribbon and modge-podged (gotta love that stuff!) the same fabric (which matched the little one's nursery bedding) onto the middle of it. I then glued the ribbon to the back and held it so it dried nice and tight. Note: I glued this to a little ridge on the back so it wasn't laying flat against the wall if they were to hang it. I doubt it makes much difference but just something to think about. I also added a little knob (from Hobby Lobby, my favorite place ever, at 50% off) at the bottom so they could hang her little headbands there if they want.
I had a blast making this! They've already shown me all the bows they hung on it and it gave me some major baby fever, especially for a little girl!

More baby craft ideas to come!