how to: silhouette pillow

I have been seeing custom silhouette pillows pop up around the blogosphere more and more lately, and I really like them. But they are a bit pricey, so I decided to try and make one myself. It was very fun and fairly simple. Here is how you can make one.

1. Take profile pictures of the people you want to include on your pillow. (it is pretty hard to get a one year old to hold still long enough to take a picture of her/his profile, luckily I found one that worked) 

2. Print out photos, and color them in with a sharpie, then cut them out.

3. Pin cut out paper silhouette's to felt and cut out felt silhouettes. 

4. Pin felt cut outs to pillow case fabric.

5. Sew around edge of felt silhouette. (This is where you have to go slowly and take some time, mistakes are easily noticeable and can make profile look strange.)

6. Sew pillow case edges and stuff a pillow insert inside and you are done!

1st birthday picnic party

For my daughter's first birthday I decided to have a picnic! I tied everything together with the color scheme of bright pink, pale blue, and mustard yellow. 

Here is the invite:

Lemon cupcakes, with strawberry frosting.

Every guest had their own sack lunch. I designed the menu in Illustrator then ran brown lunch bags through my desk top printer. I also created a sticker of my daughters face to seal the bags shut.

Some of the party people.

The kids got personalized muslin bags with little trinkets inside as party favors. I had the guests sign a book before they left so we can remember who was apart of this significant day.

Thanks to everyone who came and made this picnic party a success! And thanks to the many inspirational blogs such as Lovely Design, Oh Happy Day!, Party Perfect, and many more who gave me inspiration for this party!

madsen cargo bike

love it. want it. 

get it together

Confession: i am a disorganized crafter. So in the hopes of becoming more organized so I can enjoy making things, I thought of this. (actually I may have read the idea somewhere but it has been a while so I can't remember) Take all your fabrics and cut a small square (mine are about 1inch by 2inch) then clip them together with those triangular clampy things. The next time you are brainstorming for a project or at the store looking at fabric, you know what you have and if it matches!

baby shower idea...

This shower was inspired by the mother-to-be... she is the hostess with the mostess and sometimes seems straight out of the 50's (if you don't believe me check out her maternity photos here) and a great friend. There were 3 of us planning the shower and many more that helped out. I designed the invite to be like an anne taintor quipp. Then made a couple posters to have around that night. "pregnant 50's housewife attire" was requestd and I wish I had good photos of everyone. We also made a whole lotta (about 40) aprons as party favors (sadly I didn't get the best picture of them either).

if you know a boy turning 7 or so...

then you could make him this gift. I recently made a "secret compartment book" for my nephew's birthday. Overall it was such a simple and fun package to send.



how i did it: find an interesting book to work with, put a layer of mod podge around the outside edge of stacked pages, let dry for about a day with somthing heavy on top of the closed book, using an exacto knife cut out the secret compartment, mod podge the inside comprtment, let dry... and your done!

i am broken

any ideas for one armed crafters?

fabric love

hi my name is ashley and i am an addict.

i have developed a fabric addiction. this is a fairly common thing among crafters/sewers. fortunately (for my husband who funds my crafting ADD habits), i am more of a looker than a buyer. but in this case, i am going to bite the bullet and make a fairly large purchase soon.

what will i be buying you might ask?
the tula pink neptune collection. it's, well, see for yourself:




the anchors and chains, life preservers, koi fish, mermaid scales, and undersea scape.  ohhh, i am in love.  now i need to decide which fabrics to buy and what to make.

and how cool is tula? check out her surfboard art.

fantastic mr fox

just one more thing to be thankful for this thanksgiving...

thank you mr wes anderson.

i. can. not. wait.

mod podge rocks

stumbled across the mod podge rocks blog and wanted to share.  there are a ton of fun, cheap, and easy projects on the blog from home decor to kids toys.  and did you know that there are 15 varieties- paper, fabric, outdoor, sparkle, glow in the dark... is there anything you can't do with this stuff?

moss graffiti

how fun would this be on a backyard fence or walkway? 

click on either picture for recipe and how to.

**opps! sorry about the links not working on the pictures! they are here and here**

blackle

blackle is the new google.

seriously, check it out.

Blackle was created by Heap Media to remind us all of the need to take small steps in our everyday lives to save energy. Blackle searches are powered by Google Custom Search.
Blackle saves energy because the screen is predominantly black.
"Image displayed is primarily a function of the user's color settings and desktop graphics, as well as the color and size of open application windows; a given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen."
- from the blackle "about page"

interesting, right? every little bit counts!