More Owls!

I am officially obsessed with owls.  I found these super cute owl Valentine cards from Living Locurto blog and I HAD to use them for Audrey's little daycare friends.  Since babies can't do the whole Conversation Heart candy thing, I opted to sew them each a little owl.  They turned out so cute!  I got the pattern from the Rubber Punkin.  You can also check out Homemade by Jill's crinkly version.  I used fleece for the bodies (since I already had it) and used felt, ribbon, fabric, and batting that I already had.  Yay to fun and free projects!  The babies all loved them and the daycare lady placed an order for me to make a couple more for her two young grandsons for their Easter baskets.  I can't wait to get started on them!

Aren't they so cute with the ribbons as their little wings and feet??  Notice the feet ribbon from the gift bags at Baby Gap?  I'm officially turning into my MIL and saving WAY too many craft items!  (Love you Patsy! :)

Audrey's Birthday Bash!!

Audrey's first birthday party was last Saturday and I did a few DIY projects to get ready for it.

First, I made a paper banner that I hung across the mirror in our dining room that says "Audrey".

I used my paper punches to create this out of white, pink, and green card stock and a sheet of white scrapbook paper with multicolored polka dots.  I have a 1 in circle punch, 2 in scallop punch, and a 2 3/4 in circle punch, all by EK Success.

I got the little owl from a collage sheet of 1 in round owl graphics from Nice Designs on Etsy.  It cost $4 and she emailed it to me that day!  They are printed out on white card stock.

I used some scrap-booking paper I already had for the letters.  I traced a set of letter stencils I had at school and cut them out on the pretty paper.  I then took an exacto knife to make slits at the top and threaded the ribbon through. 

Another thing I made were the party favors for all of Audrey's little friends.  I made personalized bags that I put a sheet of owl stickers in and a handmade owl onesie (or shirt for the big kids).

 

The bags had a green circle for boys and a pink one for girls.  Then they had a scallop polka dot with owl in the middle and I hand wrote their names on the circle.  I then glued it on a white paper bag that I got in a set of 6 at JoAnns.

 The onesies where fun to make.  I asked each mom which size their kiddo wears.  I then picked out the pink, green, and brown polka dot fabric for the girls and a green polka dot fabric for the boys. 

This was my inspiration for the onesies.  This one is from Presents of Mind, a cute little shop on SE Hawthorne in Portland.  It was $20, so I knew I could make it for cheaper.  I got Carter's and Gerber onesies on sale at Babies R Us and the fabric on sale at The Fabric Depot (a HUGE fabric store in SE Portland).  I traced the owl onto webbed interfacing and ironed it on the fabric, then cut out and ironed onto the onesie.  I zig-zag stitched around the owl, then straight stitched up and back for the wings.  My onesies didn't have the little feet (I thought they looked a little weird) and they also didn't have eyes (I tried one and it is REALLY hard to zig-zag in a small circle!)

Audrey had an owl onesie as well.  Her's was made out of cupcake fabric and had a pink felt number one stitched in the middle instead of wings.  I used a fancier onesie, the fabric had a little bit of texture to it and there was a bit of pink stitching along the neck line.  The birthday girl needed her shirt to be special!

 She also wore an adorable headband made by my friend Michelle Armstrong, a pettiskirt tutu made by Boutique Hermosa on Etsy, and adorable Robeez-esque owl shoes made by Wildcubs on Etsy.

 I just love this tutu.

The shoes are adorable.  Robeez doesn't make shoes with owls on them, so these were so perfect!

The last was the food.  Unfortunately I was so busy, I didn't snap any pictures of the food table.  I asked a few of my friends to bring an appetizer to share and luckily, no one brought the same thing!  The food was so good!  I made pink punch that was in a pretty punch bowl and put out cute plates, cups, and napkins that I got at Amazon.  I also put out some sippy cups, plastic bowls, and baby spoons for the babies in attendance.  I had baby snacks on the coffee table and applesauce on the food table.  The babies got to eat, too!  My mother in law made adorable and delicious pink cupcakes in silver cupcake liners.  I made paper owl cupcake toppers for all of them, kinda like this one.

Mine were the scallop punched polka dot paper with a 1 in owl circle glued in the middle, just like the banner and treat bags.  I glued them to a white lollipop stick and put them in each cupcake.  I arranged the cupcakes in my white cupcake stand.  I can't believe I didn't take a picture of them!  Here's a tutorial if you want to make some of your own.

I asked my mother in law to also make Audrey's cake.  My idea was for her to have a giant cupcake on her high chair.  My MIL thought that sounded crazy, but she obliged and borrowed a cupcake pan from a friend to make one.  It turned out soooooo adorable and Audrey loved it!

Happy Birthday to my sweet baby girl.  She makes me so happy and I can't imagine my life without her.  I hope all of our guests had a nice time at the party.  We wanted them to feel as special as we do to have Audrey in our lives!

3 different parties, 3 different projects!

This weekend was a busy one!  I went to three different parties for three different occasions!  And of course I had to make something for each of them!  

Party number one was for my wonderful friend Kara's bridal shower.  I went in on a group gift with the girls, but I also added something extra: an oven mitt and hot pad that match her wedding colors.  They took awhile, since they are quilted and I don't have much experience quilting (i.e. no experience quilting!).  I used the patterns from the book, The New Handmade.  The book has lots of cute, simple projects that would make great gifts.  Although I can see every single flaw in the oven mitt, I think they turned out cute.  Here are pictures of both the sides.

For party number two, I took the kids and went to my friend Kelsey's baby's first birthday.  I got the birthday girl, Genevieve, a really cute baby's first birthday book by Karen Katz and I made her an adorable owl out of girly flannel fabric.  I used this tutorial to make it.  I think next time I make an owl, I'll put a bell or some crinkle fabric inside so it can make noise.  Babies love toys that make noise!

For party number three I made a diaper cake for my friend Bob's baby shower.  He and his fiance, Elle, are having a little girl, and since Bob went to U of O, I made a duck themed girly cake.  It had a little Oregon cheerleader teddy bear on top and lots of cute pink, yellow, and green decorations.  Inside the bottom layer was a little outfit I put together: a burp cloth, a onesie with a duck sewn on it, little yellow shorts, and a headband made by my friend at work, Michelle.  Bob and Elle loved it!

Another diaper cake

Baby Shower #2 for this spring at Mill Park was for my friend and colleague, Katie Mauck. Katie is having a little boy and his name will be Nash. Carla and I once again got together to make her an adorable diaper cake. Instead of trying to find fabric that would match her crib bedding that she registered for at Target, I just bought the flannel receiving blankets from the set. From that fabric, I made a burp cloth, bib, two different toys (a crinkly square toy and a wooden ring with fabric and ribbon toy), and a onesie with a cute owl sewn on it (that I designed myself - go me!)

Here is a pic of all the goodies inside the cake:

Here is the cake the night Carla and I made it. We still needed to decorate it, but it has most of the stuff on it: the Jittery Pals owl on top, blue Avent binkies, and washcloths folded up to look like roses stuck inside the bottom layer of diapers. We even put a thermal receiving blanket inside the bottom layer. The rubber duck ended up getting cut from the cake after this. He was just a little too awkward hanging out on the bottom by himself. 

I then started adding some stuff to fill it up, since it was a little bare. I added silk flowers and leaves, little clip on bumble bees to the ribbons, and 6 Ring-a-Links, 3 on each side. My son Nathan has two sets of alphabet blocks, so I snatched the letters to spell Nash from the set he never plays with. The cake was cute, but now it was a little too busy.

On the day of the baby shower, I covered the lower piece of cardboard with tissue paper and then Carla picked it up to decorate. She paired it down a bit, so the finished product was perfect. It still had all the goodies and was pleasing to the eye. What do you think of our masterpiece? I think it's pretty cute! And the most important thing is that Katie loved it!