Playroom Storage

With about a month to go before #3 arrives, I have been in crazy nesting mode. The day after we got back from our trip to Cali, I dragged my husband and kids to Ikea to get some much needed storage for our play area. I got great inspiration from here. I love Jen's style, and she has a gift for organizing! I like the idea of the 1x5 Expedits, but they didn't fit in our space. So I went for the 2x4 ones.

I love the baskets she chose as well. I went with the blue ones. And again, why reinvent the wheel when someone has already done such an ingenious job...I nabbed Jen's idea of using frames for labeling as well.  (See here for details.) I got cheap white ones from Ikea. I then used my beloved Silhouette Cameo to cut out cardstock. For the images, I just found different clipart images I liked that were clean and simple. These two pics below are my favorite ones.

Btw, I just want to say that I love Pinterest (which is what led me to Jen's blog). Such great ideas! Thank you to all those wonderful bloggers out there who inspire us. :)

Activity Book (Quiet Book)

It's been quite some time since I last updated. I'm not really good about updating frequently, but this time I had an excuse--we were traveling for the past two weeks. We went to visit my family in CA, and hubby had work to do in CA too. It was a long, but good trip. No more traveling for a while since #3 is coming soon (in 5 weeks!!).

I finished the activity book I was working on for my niece and gave it to her...so now I can post all the photos of it (my sister had snuck a peak at the post I had written a while back here...I guess it wasn't fair to tell her to not look...it's like telling someone not to look at a car accident as you drive by...kinda the same thing...?)

Anyway, here it is!

I used my Silhouette Cameo (which I love!!) to make the "cover page". 

1) First, Cally picks her vegetables in the garden. And then plays with her farm animals (Doesn't have much to do with food, but I wanted to include finger puppets.)

For more about these pages, see this post. The only changes I made from the previous post are the flowers which are brads, the sun and clouds, and the buttons for the door handles.

2) Then she picks her apples & strawberries.

Again for more about these pages, see this post.

3) Then "cuts" her veggies & fruit. See below for more details on these pages.

4) She then makes a pie with her ingredients.

5) And she can also "make" cupcakes. This cupcake page is also educational because she has to match the number of sprinkles with the number on the cupcake liners. More details below.

That's it! I wish I had had more time to make more pages. It was very time consuming as is. Maybe I can add to it in the future. Now I'm craving some cupcakes. ;)

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Here are the details for the last few pages of the book.

Cutting board: velcro strips to hold the fruit & veggie pieces.

Beet (these are "puzzles" since she has to assemble them before she can "cut" them)

Strawberry

Apple

Carrot

Weave the pie

This is the only fabric I had that had apples on it. Is it kinda gross that she is baking elephants?

Again my Silhouette Cameo came in handy. 

I used puffy paint for the numbers. For the cupcake liners I used stiff glittery felt.

Cupcakes

 No more activity books for a while. I definitely need a break. :) Happy Crafting!

Update (5/22/12): I'm so excited that I was featured on Sew Can Do. It is very encouraging to know that people are inspired by what I'm doing...gives me motivation to keep creating. It is definitely my stress relief and helps me keep my sanity during crazy days when hubby is traveling and this 8-month preggo belly of mine weighs me down... and my 17 month old is screaming for something... and my 3 year old just wants attention. But life is good and I'm blessed. :)
 

Update (8/30/12): Thanks to all the visitors who have found me through Pinterest. I am so excited that you all like this quiet book. Please take a look around and feel free to leave comments (they are very encouraging and let me know that someone out there is reading this). :) And again, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask. xoxo jean

***UPDATE*** (11/24/12): Several of you have been asking me for templates for this book. For some of the pages I used templates I found on other blogs (I have noted those throughout the post so please go to their respective blogs). For other pages I free-handed the items. And the cupcake one I came up with a simple template. Which you can find by clicking here. Hope that helps! :)

Let's Go Fishing!

I grew up deep-sea fishing with my dad. We would go out on our boat, get rocked by the waves, but enjoy the peace out on the Pacific Ocean. I can't believe I didn't get sea sick. Just thinking about the rocking now makes me want to throw up.

I'm excited because next week we are going to CA to visit my family and we are going to take C-bub and J-bub out on a boat. It's going to be on a calm lake with no crazy waves, so hopefully no one will get sea sick. Hopefully we will catch some fish. :)

To practice for our upcoming fishing adventure, C-bub has been playing more with the fishing play mat that I made for him a while back. I got inspiration from this adorable fishing set. And for the details of the pond, I got inspiration here.

Here it is~

Frog detail

Lily pad detail

Foxtail detail

Elastic loops to hold the fishing poles in place. There are two loops for the two poles that I made, but of course we have already lost one of the poles. Booo...

I had some Japanese handkerchiefs that I had found at an estate sale a while back. I used them to make the fish so they would look kind of like koi fish. 

Sorry I didn't take photos of the process of making the fish. Basically I cut out the fabric and sewed them wrong sides facing each other (making sure to leave the end of the tail open). Flipped the fish right side out. Then I put the screw in (head of the screw at the "mouth" of the fish) and filled with poly-fil around it. Then sewed shut. Having the head of the screw at the mouth and surrounding the rest of the screw with poly-fil ensured that the magnet would "hook" the fish at the mouth.

Screw that I used

For the hook of the fishing pole I used thick garden wire and shaped it into a hook. I then hot glue gunned a really strong magnet to the bottom of it. Then I used duct tape to wrap the whole thing.

For the "net" I used the bag that my SnoozeShade came in. I just sewed it in between the layers of my mat so that the fish would have a home when not in use.

Happy Sewing! :)

Tutorial: How to Make an Owl Taggie Doll

Lately, taggie dolls are my favorite thing to make. They are fairly quick and easy. They make great gifts. And babies love them.

I first made this cute giraffe for my friend's baby after being inspired here and here.

Then I made this dino taggie. (See tutorial here)

And of course, who can resist making an owl taggie. Real owls are kinda scary looking... 

but cartoon owls are so cute, aren't they? :)

Alrighty...here we go...

Materials needed:

-8"x10.5" piece of solid fabric (I used felt) 

-10.5"x11" piece of pretty fabric (for front)

-10.5"x11" piece of minky fabric (for back...you don't have to use minky)

-small pieces of white and black felt for the eyes

-scrap piece of yellow felt for the beak

-ribbon pieces

-polyfill

Steps:

1) Print out pattern (Click HERE to retrieve pattern--2 pages total).

2) Trace the fuschia outline onto fusible webbing (i.e. Wonder Under). This will be the solid piece for the owl's head. Trace eyes and beak onto fusible webbing. Make sure to trace the white part and black parts separately. Trace the beak onto the yellow felt.

3) Iron the outline of the owl's head (fuschia outline) onto the solid piece of fabric. Iron the outline of the whites of the eyes onto the white felt, the blacks of the eyes onto the black felt and the beak onto the yellow felt.

4) Cut out outlines. Note: For the blacks of the eyes, use sharp fine point scissors to carefully cut out the little inner circle (this will be the glimmer in the owl's eyes). ;) Peel off backing and set aside.

5) Cut out two green outline pieces from pattern and tape together along line.

6) Trace onto wrong side of pretty fabric. To make it easier later on to know where to iron on owl's head, you may want to trace a faint outline onto the right side of fabric as well.

Wrong side of fabric

Right side of fabric

7) Place solid felt cutout of head onto "right side" of the pretty fabric, using the pattern as a guide for where you should place it. (The solid felt "head" piece will be bigger than your pattern and outline. This is so we have a nice border for sewing later.) 

8) Iron on (make sure the fusible part is facing down). Iron on the eyes and beak (Note: I used hot-glue gun to glue on the beak to make sure it wouldn't fall off). Zig-zag stitch around the eyes to secure in place.

9) Pin ribbon pieces in place. (Make sure the loops are facing inward). Sew in place.

10) With right sides of fabric facing each other, pin the two layers together. Sew from "start" to "end" (backstitch at the beginning and end). Make sure to leave an opening where you will be flipping the owl right side out.

11) Trim off excess fabric and clip around curves. Make sure to leave enough fabric where the opening is so that you will be able to sew it closed. Flip right side out.

12) Stuff with polyfill. Use a slip stitch to close the opening.

Now you have an adorable owl taggie for your special baby. Happy Sewing!