A Simple Nest

Girls Clothes

I came across 2 adorable dresses I want to attempt making copies of in the next year or two for my Zoe.  Adorable no?  

Trapeze Dress from Olive Juice

This Birthday dress found via A Little Sussy

Christmas Gift DIY-2010

While making presents for Christmas I discovered a passion for making toys.  I'm going to be opening up an etsy shop soon with "tall dolls" and balls.  And maybe a few random housewares for good measure.  Here's some of the gifts I made this season:

A rag doll for my niece with felt hair, underwear, and 3 outfits

 

 

A hand painted tea cup and saucer for my sister-in-law:

A hand-painted bowl for my friend:

A stuffed "bookworm" for my nephew (made from  Wee Wonderfuls Evelyn Inchworm pattern)

A stuffed globe ball for my niece:

I forgot to snap pictures of the monogramed mugs I made for my brothers family and the linen napkins I made for my sister-in-laws family.  I also still haven't taken pictures of the gifts to my husband and daughter, but will post those soon.  

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season!  Welcome to 2011!!!!

Tree Advent Calendar

 

Aren't advent calendars fun?  I especially wanted one to put daily Christmas activities on it like Jordan Ferny had suggested.  I'll also be adding a daily scripture too.  My little one is too young to help, but this would be a really great kid project.  Very easy!  They could practice their number writing skills, or cutting, or knot tying!  Yay for Christmas helping develop fine motor skills, hahaha.

Of course part of living simply means I wasn't going to go to the store to pick one up or spend hours (and dollars) making one.  So I looked through my crafting supplies and what did I find?  Green paint samples from Home Depot that I kept when deciding on colors a while back!  Yes!  FREE!!!!! (tutorial below)

Step One:  Cut 25 triangles out of paint samples or colored paper.  I used Bear paint samples from Home Depot which have 4 colors per card, meaning I needed 7.  (which is exactly how many I had, lucky)  I like to hand cut because it looks more tree like than perfect triangles...differing sizes slightly is a good thing I say.

Step Two:  Cut strips of brown paper in different widths.  I used a textured patterned paper I happened to have a scrap of, but more paint chips would be great too.  These can be taped or glued to the back of the tree and stick out for the stump

Step Three: Lay out the trees in a line so you can put them in a pleasing order.  Try not to have too many light colors or dark colors in one spot, space them out.  

Step Four: Now that they are in the right order, paint on the numbers with white paint.  You can write with a white pen or even white out too.  I like the hand done look, but if you are afraid of it, use rubber stamps or number stickers.  I actually tried to copy the font of some number stickers I had (which look a bit like stamps). Let dry before working further.

Step Five: Cut 49 pieces of 3 to 5 inch lengths string or twine.  I used thick linen string left over from a weaving project.  The longer the lengths of twine, the longer your garland will be.  Keep all strings the exact same length.  Now cut 2 foot long lengths for the ends.

Step Six:  Using masking tape (since it is easy to rip into the right size and shape) tape the piece of string to the trees so the string come right out the top.

Step Seven:  Tie Tree #1's string, one of the 12" strings, and one of the empty short strings together in one knot.  The further from the ends the knot is, the closer together the trees will be.  Check to make sure it is half the distance you want the other tree to be from it.  Then pick up tree #2 and tie it's string to the end of the short one just tied on to #1, plus a new empty string.  Keep tying 3 strings together in order until you reach the end, then use the other 12" string to end it with.  Always keep the same length of string from the end of the knot on each one so that the trees are evenly spaced.

You can be done here if you like.  I then wrote different activities to do each day until Christmas (see Jordan's blog post) like build a snowman, visit the Christmas lights as Temple Square, read Luke 2.  You could put a different Christmas scripture for each day to read too.   

VARIATION: You could put a decorated Christmas tree on the back, so that each day you have one more decorated Christmas tree.  In that case, cut two trees out at the same time back to back so that they will be symmetrical.  Same with the stumps.  Then decorate with small ribbons and paper punches or glitter glue dots.

 

Monster Feet

I came across these monster feet made by The Bakers Wife on Craft Gossip the other day and just can't wait til my little one is big enough to do kids crafts like this with me.  HOW CUTE!  Check out her tutorial!

Reusable Fabric Gift Bags: tutorial

I have been thinking of making a bunch of fabric gift bags.  Especially for Christmas (at least for family gifts so we could use them year after year...plus matching, ha).  I happened upon this tutorial from Lia's Space and just LOVE the little applique.  These would be great for party favors too!

Coffee Table Gallary for Baby

Cathe from Just Something I Made has a great idea for baby entertainment and stimulation.  Hanging photos from under the table!  What a fantastic idea!  Read her post on the SC Johnson Family Economics Blog, or download pictures from her personal blog (which has TONS of free downloads BTW) They can lay there and stare up at them and when they are older and explore, they can discover it again!  Plus it's one toy you don't have to worry about putting away.  I tried cards, but she wanted to eat them...I think this would be a great solution.

Paper Butterfly Tutorial

Paper butterflies are so easy and fun to use for many craft projects.  I made wall hangings and a mobile for my babies nursery pictured above.  I also like to use them as gift toppers.  You could make teeny tiny ones for scrapbooks, or use them in flower arrangements.  They sky is the limit!  View my video tutorial or use the written instructions for the how-to below.

 

Written Instruction:

1-  Fold 2 layers of tissue paper (or one layer of other paper) in half and cut out shape similar to the one shown in photo below.  A rounded top wing will look like an upside down figure 8 shape when unfolded.  A pointed wing will have a triangular or squared off top.

2-  Unfold and scrunch in the middle (for tissue) or acordian fold the paper horizontally.

3-  Twist bendable wire around the middle leaving the ends long and rounded back in on themselves to make the body and antenas and spread out the tissue or paper wings

Note that card stock is not a great choice as it tends to be too thick and rips to easily and does not flair out

Play around with the shape of the wing tips, it's fun.  Now let your imagination run wild with what you can do with these paper butterflies. 

 

This tutorial was part of these link parties:

 

Baby Quilts

When I got my sewing machine for Christmas, I got all excited about learning to quilt.  I still haven't made a single one. Here's some motivation for me though!  Look how CUTE these are from HI + LOW

 

This one is made out of four map napkins from Muji, one of my very favorite stores.  I am into maps lately and was cooking up a scheme for making a complex pieced map quilt, but this would be much easier, especially at my level. 

Dreamy Nursery @ All Things Thrifty

This all white nursery that I found at All Things Thrifty is such so so so beautiful...And I love that they used an old wedding dress.  Amazing.

Big Dice

Lemon Tree Creations shows how to make this big Di!  She uses it for a decoration in the family room, but I think it would also be so fun to make a couple for the kids to play with!  I love when everyday objects are made out of proportion, hehe.  (It's so funny to see the ipad for instance, when it looks like a Giant Ipod)