April Day 50: Christmas card parts

I spent a chunk of the afternoon fighting with my Silhouette Cameo. For some reason cutting paper of all things is the most challenging. Card stock goes off without a hitch but when I try to cut regular scrapbook paper it ends of tearing. So after much experimenting I finally got it to work and then of course decided to use card stock for my project instead. I have decided to start making notes on scrap paper that I have cut so I know for sure what settings work with what. It's tricky because the Silhouette gives you paper weights but most scrapbook paper does not have the weight of the paper on the package so you just have to guess. These parts are for a few Christmas cards I am going to make. I still need to figure out how I am going to give the background a little more "umph" though.

April Day 47: Costumes

I have been exhausted lately but the afternoon light is so pretty and the temps so warm that I knew I needed to try to snap some photos of the boys in their Halloween costumes. Superman and Captain Kirk will have to do. I didn't have the time to really do anything to creative this year but maybe next year.

April Day 46 Christmas crafting

Today I said to heck with house work and work and worked on Christmas gifts. So, once again all I can post is a teaser of some stuff I cut out using the Silhouette Cameo. I hope to get started on cutting some snow flakes for cards and Christmas tags soon too. If I don't get it done now I am pretty sure it's not going to happen after the baby is born.

April Day 44_45 Needle felting

On Saturday I went down to the Southern Indiana FibreArts Festival at the Harrison County Fairgrounds. There were a ton of awesome vendors there selling the most beautiful fibre products imaginable. The colors were just amazing. One of the booths sold Needle Felting supplies. Needle felting is something I came across sometime in the past 2 years and thought I would like to try but I haven't exactly had the time or the supplies for that matter. I bought a simple little kit for making felt ornaments using a cookie cutter to shape the felt. I have been working on this one a couple of days. It's not really taking on any of the details of the shape though. I'm not sure if I used too much felt or just haven't poked it enough with my needle yet. There are artists out there that make the cutest felt animals and you can also "felt" shapes and decorations onto items such as felt blankets, pillows, ect.

April Day 42: Southern Indiana FibreArts Festival

Today I went down to the Southern Indiana FibreArts Festival at the Harrison County Fairgrounds. I have been wanting to check it out but have missed it for one reason or the other. We also needed some photos for our files at work so I had a good excuse. There were a ton of awesome vendors there selling the most beautiful fibre products imaginable. The colors were just amazing.

Lacy Day...uhm....

Not to make any excuses for my inability to keep up with this blog, but I have developed tendinitis in both thumbs which makes manipulating scissors and pencils incredibly painful.  And it's impossible to do any fine motor work with my hands when I have my braces on.  Boo!  But like I said, I don't intend to make any excuses.  I really want to catch up with this blog...just not right now when I have so severely overestimated the amount of free time I'd have to think/plan/do crafty and creative projects while trying to settle into my new role as a stay-at-home mom.  And it's not that I don't have some free time during the day.  The real problem is that I have zero spare mental capacity to put into dreaming up projects for myself.  It's mental exhaustion that's what's really killing my good intentions.

I actually started to make this cute fall decoration I saw on Pinterest, and I got a few felt flowers made and one letter cut out, but the parts have just been sitting on my table for weeks with no more progress.  When I have had time to do anything, it's usually taking pics of the baby.  Sometimes I even sneak a few minutes on the computer to edit them.  I have been doing okay with my camera, but not great.  I want to take a few minutes sometime to do a more elaborate setup than just laying the baby on the changing table and pulling it into the "good light" to snap a few hasty pics.  We bought a giant pumpkin with plans to hollow it out and stuff the baby into it for some pictures.  I'll post those pics when we get that done.  I'll also post pics when I get our Halloween costumes done.  I'm keeping it simple this year.  REAL simple.  You'll see soon ;-)

I picked up some freezer paper today and hope to find something awesome to do with it.  I have pinned a few things that you can do with freezer paper, but I've been it'll probably be awhile before I get around to utilizing it.  I have a couple of footprint projects on the back burner, too, but haven't had time to follow through with anything.  I should teach myself to make afghan squares because I have a crap-ton of awesome yarn stockpiled and I'm sure I could find time to make a square every day.  Then I'd have an awesome afghan to show for my 100 days.  Of course, if the whole point is to try new things and stretch my creative muscles, doing the same thing every day definitely defeats the purpose.

April Days 37-40 more crochet practice

For the past few days I have been trying to perfect my crochet skills. My goal is to make some simple hats for the boys. Nothing fancy. So I thought I would go ahead and try my hand at starting the circles. I got some tips from some online sources and stitched and stitched. I tried several times and each time it looked wrong and different. As it turns out it wasn't wrong it just wasn't the type of stitching I was trying to replicate just a different technique. After several attempts and finally figuring out my groove I decided I would just try to make a tiny hat so now that bear has a hat. It's only about 2.5 inches in diameter. Too bad it doesn't have ear hole or Charlie could have it for his Rabbit Boy. The blue one is the start of what I hope will be a real hat.

April Day 36

Cutting out felt squares for a Christmas project.

April Day 35: Deere Farms

Today we took the boys out to Deere Farms. They had a big time bouncing in the bounce pumpkin, playing in the corn box, climbing the tire tower, sliding down the culvert slide, running through the hay bale maze and going on the hay ride. Henry especially loved all the tractors. I took a lot of pictures some of which can hopefully be used for my job if we need them but this one is by far my favorite of the day.

April Day 33

I stopped into Target today to buy a new nursing top and checked out the colorful socks that I like for the Rabbit Boys. Alas, they were clearance-ing them out and there were only 3 pairs of crazy knee socks left. If only I had been there a few days ago I could have stocked up. That's the way it goes though, you find a store that carries something you like and then they quit carrying it.

April Days 30-32

Over these 3 days I have been working on a Christmas present. With that being said I can only post a teaser picture as I do not know who looks at this blog. I will say it involved Mod Podge, acrylic, and my Silhouette Cameo.

April Days 26, 27, & 28: Rabbit Boys

The past 3 days I have been sewing together the 4 blue Sock Rabbits, stitching the nose and mouth on them, and sewing on the button eyes. One of the argyle ones is for my niece Secily. I hope she likes it. The striped one is made differently. It is made with calf high socks instead of knee socks so the legs were separate pieces. You could easily put beans or something in it to weight it and it would sit very nicely.

April Day 24: By George I think I've got it!

With a few tips from Becca, rewatching a YouTube video and studying some diagrams- the crochet thing finally clicked and I figured out why my crochet didn't look right at all. Here is a little square I did.

April Day 23

This is just a mock up of an invitation for Kate's 1st birthday. Becca requested a little help in trying to figure out how she was going to tackle it.

Lacy Day 22: Felt Bows

I intend to make a few adorable ribbon clips for a friend's baby girl's upcoming first birthday, but despite having an entire box full of ribbon, I didn't have anything on hand that would be a suitable color and thickness, so I looked up a felt ribbon tutorial and whipped up a couple in some magenta felt that I already had.  I think they're cute, but they're really tiny.  I neglected to take into consideration how big the clip would be, so I'll likely end up redoing them or using them as present wrapping or something.  Or maybe putting grabby velcro on them and gifting them to someone having an infant girl.

April Day 22: Helping out

Today I helped Leslie put together a Baby Shower card for a friend. You'll just have to take my word for it though because I didn't snap a photo this time. It had a great little giraffe on it that I made with the Cricut.

Lacy Day 21: RAM Upgrade

Upgraded my older iMac with the max RAM it can handle.  Doubled my RAM from 2GB to 4GB, and it's faster at 667 MHz.  Should have significantly better performance when running CS6 now, which I am very stoked about.  I should have done this ages ago since I ordered the RAM ages ago, but I thought it required major Mac surgery involving removing the screen.  Turns out there's just a little panel at the bottom of the case and ONE screw to undo.  Sigh.  That's what I get for not looking up the instructions earlier.  

April Day 21: And they're off!

Today we went to see some harness racing in downtown Corydon at the Harrison County Fairgrounds. I managed to get several photos that I am pretty happy with. I especially love the one of Steven and Henry.

 

Lacy Day 20: Breakfast Sandwiches

How about a kitchen adventure for today's project?  

When I was working, I had been in the habit of eating breakfast at my desk.  Usually oatmeal or a granola bar.  Now that I'm home, I have a very bad habit of skipping breakfast or not getting around to eating it until lunchtime.  This is a very bad habit if you're breastfeeding, so I decided to make some breakfast sandwiches to stick in the freezer so I can nuke them and chow down first thing in the morning.  

I toasted whole wheat English muffins on a baking sheet in the oven while cooking my Egg Beaters in muffin tins on the bottom rack.  I took a cue from Pinterest and put them in the 350-degree oven for 15 minutes.  They turned out perfectly round and popped out of my silicone muffin tins with ease.  I used provolone cheese this time, but maybe next time I will get some asiago and whip up some hollandaise sauce to try to emulate Wendy's Artisan Egg Sandwich.  

I would estimate that the entire process took somewhere between a half an hour and 45 minutes.  The bulk of that was waiting around on the oven timer.  The most labor-intensive part was wrapping the sandwiches in shrink wrap.  

April Day 20: Rabbits are Very Prolific

More Rabbit Boy parts stuffed and ready to be sewn together. The striped one is made from 2 regular socks instead of knee socks. I don't like it quite is well with the legs being sewn on, but it's still going to be pretty cute I think. It's just pinned together now. One of the argyle ones is going to my niece for her birthday.

April Day 19:Cut and paste

I have been needing to make several Thank You cards. I cut out the parts for them a few days ago and finally got around to gluing one together today. I also helped Charlie make 2 fall trees - 1 to hang on the fridge and one for Daddy to take to work.

Lacy Day 19: Wallet Photos

I printed out some photos for my husband to keep in his wallet.  He asked for them, which is slightly odd since "analog" photos are really old-school for him.  He's so techy, I figured he'd just show people pics on his phone.  But I was only too happy to oblige.  I made two copies of each since I promised my dad we'd bring him some pics when we go up to visit this weekend.

This marks the first time I'd ever used Adobe Bridge for anything.  I was printing on 4" x 6" photo paper and wanted to tile a 2" x 3" image and didn't feel like doing to setup manually, so I googled it and found out that Bridge will do the proofing setup for you but won't actually print it.  It will, however, save a PDF that you can then print.  Kind of a roundabout way of doing it, but it worked.

(Didn't I say something about not making this blog into a baby photo bomb?  Well, at least I'm posting pictures of things I've done with the photos I've taken and not just straight up photos of the baby, right?)

Lacy Day 18: Birth Announcements

Today I sent the baby announcements off to the printers.  I did the layout and typesetting weeks ago before the baby came, but I took the photo today and edited it.  My Mac is in serious need of a RAM upgrade.  I have the max RAM that the computer will take sitting here on my desk, I just haven't installed it yet.  This project would have gone much, much smoother if I didn't have to wait on my machine to catch up with me.  Here are the front and back of the cards I'll be sending out soon.

I pulled the changing table over to the window where the light was better and took the photo.  After I put him down for his nap, I color corrected in PhotoShop and airbrushed out the rail of the changing table and some minor blemishes.  Then I added some selective blur and desaturated the image a lot.  I was going to use it as a black and white, but my husband didn't like the look of it, so I left a little color in.  I think it turned out pretty well, though I was rushed and may have cropped the image differently, adjusted the opacity of the "ribbons", and tweaked the blue in the cabuchon if given time to work on it.  Here's the finished image side by side with the unedited version in case anyone was overly impressed with my poor photography skills.  

April Day 18: Stylized trees

Today I did a little stylized tree doodling and copied a little poem I found online into my Smash Journal. You can see on the right that Leslie left my family a very nice little note on my page of doodles.

April Day 17: grrrr!!!!!!

Trying to sew arms for some rabbit boys. I don't know if it was the socks or what but it kept getting caught in the sewing machine. 4 arms should have taken me roughly 5 or 10 minutes tops but instead it was more like 30 minutes. Grrrrrrr.

Lacy Day 17: Memory Book

I worked on filling in some of the pages of the baby's memory book.  It's nothing special, just one of those fill in the blank type thingies with empty pages to paste in pics and mementos.

Lacy Day 16: Baby Photo Pendant

I made a little charm up last night between feedings.  I'd found a blank jewelry finding I'd scavenged from somewhere in my jewelry craftbox, so it was just a matter of sizing down a baby photo, cutting it out, gluing it on and following the same Mod Podge Dimensional Magic procedure with the nail polish as I did with the keychain I made weeks ago.  My how time flies when you have a newborn!  I have a lot of days to make up on, and I'll get to it soon.  I feel like taking little breaks to do something creative might just keep me sane.

April Day 15:Thank You cards

These are parts for some Thank You cards I have been meaning to make. I still need to cut out some more "Thank Yous" as several of them ripped. Need to check my settings on the Silhouette.

April Day 14: More Rabbit Boys

Today I sewed up 2 rabbit boy bodies. One of the argyle ones is a birthday present for my niece. She came up to me at Lacy's baby shower and said, "I know I may be a little old for stuffed animals but those sock bunnies are really cool. If you were going to get me a birthday present could it be one of those?" I still need to get some white socks to make the arms though and some polyfil to stuff them. I made a third body with separate arms and legs as well. This one is kind of an experiment because I accidentally bought regular socks instead of knee socks so the legs will be sewn on.

April Day 13: Tootsie Pop

Put together a scrapbook page from the supplies I organized a few nights ago.

April Day 12

This is another attempt at a digital scrapbook page. Some people really pile on the embellishments on these but I don't feel comfortable doing that. I am more of a "less is more" designer.

April Day 11:Paper and ideas

OK so I have a couple of things going on today.

First I worked on finding and coordinating some scrapbook papers for last years Halloween photos. A couple of weeks ago I scored 2 awesome autumn/Halloween 180 count paper stacks at Joann's Fabrics (compliments of my hubby) so I figure I need to put them to use. Picking out the paper is half the battle when it comes to scrapbooking.

The Samsonite case

Second is a project I am thinking about doing. I saw this great photo on Pinterest where someone had taken a vintage suitcase and turned it into a craft organizer. It just so happens I have two great suitcases in the basement just sitting there looking lonely, waiting to be put to good use. One is an aqua blue with white trim and the other is a brown leather Samsonite which is huge. I was thinking of converting one to what would be my portable craft organizer. Of course that means I need a reason to go and craft somewhere else but that can wait. I'm not sure where to start with this really.

Source: decorate.tipjunkie.com via April on Pinterest

April Day 10: Monsters...Cute ones

I keep seeing examples of adorable little doodled monsters or monster rubber stamps and have been wanting to doodle and color some myself. They are nothing fancy and there is no right or wrong to them. Charlie said the blue one was his favorite but then said he liked the orange one. I can't decide myself but I am pretty pleased with how my first attempt came out. I might cut them out and put them in my Smash journal or maybe use them in my scrapbooking.

Lacy Day 10: Baby Photos

So, I promise not to turn this challenge into a baby photo bomb, but I broke out the Nikon D5000, an incredible piece of equipment that I am barely qualified to wield, and used manual settings to take this picture of the new arrival.  I want to get a good one with his eyes open, but it's hard to find time to grab the camera when he's calm and not needing me to do something for him.

April Day 9: practice

I got caught up watching Season 2 of the Walking Dead and forgot to do my post last night. I didn't take a picture, because honestly it wasn't really much to look at, but I promise I practiced at my crochet today. Nothing fancy just trying to learn the rhythm of it.

April Day 08

Our little carpenter hard at work. I love getting these candid shots with my telephoto lens.

April Day 07: Pooh's Birthday card

I am day behind on posting this. I made this card for my dad's birthday yesterday, took the photo, and then forgot to actually post it. There is a bit of a story behind the tree. This particular tree that I used on the card is traced from a tree that decorates my dad's chimney. When my dad was building his log cabin, he decided  to have the stone mason incorporate an image into the stonework of the chimney. I traced it in Illustrator and cut it out using my Silhouette Cameo. (Have I mentioned how much I love that machine?)  When I first saw it I said, "I just drew a very similar tree at work for a logo I designed." (If I can find that tree I will post it later) Great minds think alike I guess.

April Day 6: Rabbit Boy

First off let me say Lacy hasn't posted because she has been kinda busy having a baby and stuff. So I guess we'll let that slide. She actually did do a post for day 5 but didn't get to publish it yet.

Today I stuffed and put together a rabbit boy while waiting at the Dr.s' office and doing my glucose testing. He still needs stitching shut and needs a mouth and nose. I bought some more socks at Target today too and I am hoping to get a special rabbit made in time for my niece's birthday.

April Day 5: Photo Book

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Lacy Day 5: Souvenir Penny Charm Necklace

So, as you can tell from my first few projects, I like jewelry.  I have tons of jewelry-making supplies from projects I've done in the past  (including making a couple of tiaras for weddings) but I never use it anymore.  I don't have a ton of beads or anything and I'm not one of those people crazy for beading, so I rarely ever make jewelry unless I can't find exactly what I want to buy.  Recently, I bought an orange dress to wear to my baby shower and couldn't find the perfect turquoise earrings and necklace set for a reasonable price, so I bought the materials and made them myself.  

I pinned this little gem of a charm bracelet forever ago with the thought that I could go find all of my old souvenir pennies and finally find a use for them.  So I raided my old jewelry box at my mom's house and scraped together some older ones from places I visited in college and started collecting more on my recent travels.  Now, everywhere I go, I have to squish a penny if I see a machine!  And I usually try to find the oldest penny in my purse because, as you can see, the older, all copper pennies turn out better than the newer ones made mostly out of zinc. 

So, as my penny collection has been growing, I've had this project in mind for over a year, but haven't ever gotten the energy to do it.  So the other night I was ordering chain for the shrinky dink necklaces I'm going to make of the baby's footprints and I decided to go ahead and order some copper chain and findings as well.  The chain came in the mail today, so I sat down this afternoon with the drill and it took no time at all to punch holes in all of my pennies.  I didn't try to face the right-side up or anything because sometimes there is more empty space on one side or the other, I just did my best to not drill through any of the artwork impression.  It also didn't take long to string them onto the chain I bought with the jump rings.  Most of the time I spent on this project was in ordering the right parts.  Once I had all the materials I needed in hand, it only took about a half an hour to put it all together.  

April Day 4: Crochet basic training

I have decided to try my hand at crochet. I did a little bit in high school and made some hacky sacks but that was about it. Since that was 10 plus years ago (egad!) I am pretty much starting from scratch. The first few rows I did were rough and one of them was hooked into the wrong chain and I didn't bother to count my stitches. However I am starting to figure it out again. Just need to learn my basic stitches and practice practice practice. Oh and maybe get a bigger hook. I hear "H" size is good for beginners since it makes bigger loops.

Lacy Day 4: Family Portrait

I was transferring some family photos onto a new digital picture frame and found some family pictures that my sister- and brother-in-law took on their way to church on Easter of 2005.  They didn't have a self-timer on their camera, so they never did get a pic with the entire family in it.  I thought they might appreciate having one of everyone together, so I added my sis-in-law into the mix, corrected red eye, and cropped it down to an 8" x 10".  I'd like to do some color correction on it, but the resolution is fairly minimal and every time I tried to make an adjustment I just made the artifacting worse, so I decided to let it be.