Diaper Cake

A baby shower is a great excuse to make a diaper cake! It was my second attempt (and first for a girl) and I was really happy with how it came out :)

To make one you need about 100 plain white diapers, ribbon, a cake board, cake dowels to stabilize the whole thing and lots of elastic bands. Oh and about 4-5 hours and lot of patience :)

I didn't follow any kind of pattern - I just found building groups of 9 or so easiest...

Once you are done with construction, you can cover the elastic bands with ribbons and hair accessories and some fun turrets and flags...

It looked lovely on the cupcake table :)

Cards and more cards...

Been making tons of new cards lately...

 

The pinwheels are my favorite!

Ruffle bag...

I saw one of these online and thought I'd have a go at making one for my niece's birthday. She loved it!

It's so nice to have some time to make things again now that the holiday season is over!

Christmas Gifts!!

I actually managed to finish the gifts for the family in time for Christmas! Now they have all been received I can share some of the things that I made :)

A pair of wine bottle lamps for Rita with personalized labels...

An embellished purse for Eileen...

A personalized advent calendar house for Jen, Rich and Mya...

Inspired by the fabulous Etta - "Curious Specimen" ornaments of Gregory and Declan...

And a personalized family wall hanging for Pete and family made from their favorite words and colors...

The responses were so great - I felt like a million dollars! It was really difficult to get them all done in time since we moved house and I started a new job after I had gotten started...but I'm so glad I stuck it out. Think I'll do it again next year. I may need to get started now ;)

Making gifts

There are a ton of how-tos online for bottle lamps and I love the way that they look. I bought this bottle from Macaroni Grill (it's one of the ones they use to serve water in) and Mike drilled a hole at the bottom using a 1/8" glass drill bit. That was the trickiest part and took about a half an hour. We did lose a couple of bottles along the way and learned that applying any pressure at all with the drill causes them to break :(. The hole is just big enough to stuff Xmas lights inside the bottle, again using a lot of patience :). The finished bottle lamp makes a perfect alternative gift to a bottle of wine and was so pretty we had a hard time parting with it! 

Store bought cards are so expensive these days so I thought it would be a good idea to put together a packet of handmade cards for a full calendar year and package them up as a gift. In this packet I tried to include a variety of different card styles and made 4 birthday, 2 blank, 1 anniversary, 2 thank you, 1 Valentine, and 2 Xmas cards.

I wrapped them up in an organza bow...

And made a little bag to put them in out of this adorable fabric...

 

Now back to making Xmas gifts...remind me next year to get started in about March...;)

Gifts for baby nephews

I decorated some onesies with appliques for my two nephews for their first birthdays.

How-to on Martha Stewart's website here!

An Irish Blessing

I have decided to try and more fully embrace the 'Handmade Pledge!' Basically, that means I'll be either making (or buying handmade) items as gifts (and greetings cards) going forward. I have already made a start on Christmas (and thank goodness since I can already see that it's going to take months to get done:)) and I'm really enjoying the process so far. It feels a lot more personal and regardless of they turn out or how they are received, I hope my recipients all know that my gifts and cards will be made with lots of love :).

For my first gifting challenge I was inspired by this creation by Donna Downey (here) to make this little canvas piece for my nephew, Declan's baptism. I found the Irish blessing online and thought it was perfect! He is only one so a little young for feedback but his parents seem to really like it!

Crafts, crafts, crafts...

I have really been enjoying making things lately and have been spending time on art and craft projects almost every day. Unfortunately I don't have much that I can share right now since most of my 'creations' are Christmas gifts for friends and family. After all, there are only 111 days left until the big day but who's counting?;). Anyway, here are a few cards I've made recently - I've been trying a bunch of different styles and really like how all of these came out!

Father's Day crafts...

It's so difficult to buy (let alone make) gifts for Father's Day! We wanted to put some time and effort into making something for Mike this year and were really proud of our creations in the end:). Here is Mike's 'Starbucks' lunch tote made from recycled Publix bags...

And while we're on the coffee theme - Maddy designed a cup holder so that he doesn't burn his fingers...

 

Hope he likes them!

Inspired!

I had such an unbelievably amazing time at 'Inspired' - Donna Downey's Art Retreat in Charlotte, NC. It was a birthday gift for my 40th from Michael and a complete surprise. I have no idea how he knew that I really wanted to go and it actually made me cry when he told me I was going :). Inspired is a 4-day event with workshops covering a wide variety of different arts and crafts. All instructors are really well-recognized in their respective fields and the classes were small enough to get individual one-on-one instruction with these incredible women too. As soon as I arrived I was greeted by Donna and her husband Bill as if I was a long-lost friend! They are so incredibly friendly and made me feel so welcome:). I have been following Donna's 'Inspiration Wednesday' videos on her blog forever and it was great to see the actual finished products. I bought a blank Inspiration journal so that I can start one of my very own ;).

We were given a goodie box when we checked in and giveaways throughout the event. I only just made the baggage weight requirement on the flight home I had so much stuff! I loved my handmade nametag and apron the best:)

My first workshop was with Christy Tomlinson (Christy's blog here). I was really excited about this one since I love her work and have been wanting to create a 'proper' multi-media collage forever. I was thrilled with my creation in the end and wanted my first piece to reflect my gratitude to my husband for everything...

The following morning we had class with Trish Baldwin (Trish's blog here) to play with wax.

Encaustic is an area I know nothing about which was pretty apparent in my end result! I 'threw my dolly out of the pram' a bit and actually disposed of my piece because it was so rubbish and everyone around me seemed to be creating masterpieces. So childish. Ironically, in the end I think I learned my most important creative lesson in this class, i.e. to let go and try new things with an open and positive spirit. I realize now that just because something isn't comfortable at first doesn't mean you won't learn to love it and create something amazing:). The next class was jewelry making with Becky Nunn (Becky's site here). I learned a bunch of new techniques to get a more profession-looking result and got the opportunity to play with products like Gel Du Soleil...

At dinner, Donna had everyone sing 'Happy Birthday' and congratulate me on my recent 15K. Donna has been such a running inspiration for me since she completed her Half Marathon so it was very special coming from her:).

The next morning we printed onto canvas and fabric with Alisa Burke (Alisa's blog here).

It was really good to get messy and let go :). I thought about how well Michael must know me now to have booked this trip and remembered the House of Blues where we met...

In the afternoon we worked with Lolly (Lolly's blog here) to make a fabric tree picture on canvas. I felt ready to get a bit more 'creative' and make something different in this class. I decided on an owl to serve as a reminder that one of the (few) upsides to aging is acquiring wisdom:). Hot-gluing jute on to the canvas required a massive amount of patience (not exactly my best attribute), so after 4 hours of literally blistering my fingertips with hot glue and nearly losing my ever-loving mind, it was so exciting to have a result that was truly my own :).

At Tracie Lampe's class (Tracie's Etsy store) we learned how to fuse plastic together to make purses. I love the idea that you can create from trash and help the planet a little ;)...

Here are some of Tracie's fabulous designs...

We actually turned this...

Into this...:)

I think in the past I have considered art as primarily a solitary activity. Creating in groups was a total eye-opener for me so now I'm following some blogs to stay up-to-date with both events like this and local gatherings also so that I can continue to create in this way.

All of these ladies were so creative and I learned so much from each of them. Brenda for example had painted a case to bring her art supplies in. She was featured in the latest edition of Art Doll magazine and it was the first time she had even submitted a piece!

I haven't done anything like this before and found it a bit intimidating at first since all of the ladies I met were so creatively talented:). However I can honestly say that every single person I met was really friendly and aside from learning so much from my classmates we had a lot of fun too. It seemed like I laughed from the minute I got there to the minute I left! Learning and laughing - two of my favorites :) Thank you ladies, thank you teachers, thank you Donna and thank you Michael for an amazing, inspirational experience that I will never forget...