So when my kids were first born, we did a traditional Easter basket for each of them. One full of toys and candy and such. But over the years it seems like the same old same old and my kids were longing for something more.
So this year, rather than Easter baskets, we decided to have a MATH EGG HUNT. In the place of an Easter basket, I wrote out riddles the kids had to solve to find the next eggs along with Math Problems they each had to solve. Once they collected all the eggs, they had to figure out the letters and see what little gift I had gotten them.
This did take me a couple of days of thinking to figure out but here is a look at their questions and math puzzles:
And here they are looking all all their clues after they had found the eggs hidden through out the house:
With that they solved a puzzle:
And they waited in anticipation of what they actually got:
In the end, Noah solved his puzzle as "FIGHTER" so he got a little lego star wars x-wing fighter and Olivia solved for "KITTY" and she got a little hello kitty keychain. They were both so much happier than when just presented with an Easter basket filled with goodies. We still had a couple of peanut butter eggs but they seemed to love their little toys more since they worked for it.
So one of my favorite types of projects are altering frames my family can use. I found these ikea frames a while back for 2 for $5 or so - they were unpainted and had a piece of plexiglass in them to use as a frame so I decided to turn them into a fun and special chalkboard for me to leave notes to my kids:
In the process I was also able to use up some of my chipboard page stash. I had some leftover chipboard pages from my 5" x 7" binder album. So here is what I did.
1. I painted the frame in a cream color and then I inked the edges to make it shabby. This was an ikea frame that had a 4" x 6" opening and was a plain wood finish.
2. Next I decorated one of our wood birds. For this I used some faber castel water color pencils. I colored the bird in and then use some water to blend him and covered the bird in a glossy accents glaze:
3. Next my frame will look like this. Now you will notice the chipboard in the back of it - this is the spare chipboard page from a 5" x 7" binder album:
4. So for this I took my 5" x 7" chipboard piece and I cut it down to fit in the frame:
You can see that I didn't even cut it perfect (But who is going to notice when it is in the back? Shh....)
5. Then I painted the chipboard piece with chalkboard paint - 3 coats total:
6. When you are done it will look like this:
7. Then finally I chalked it after letting the paint dry for 24 hours (per bottle instructions) and popped it into my frame:
And I am done! How easy is that? I plan on putting a tiny note for my kiddos each day in the frame.
So with all the beautiful patterns I have been sewing lately, there are times when I feel a little guilty that I don't get to sew for my son. It isn't that he and I don't do special things together (he accompanied me on a business trip last year and he is at times my little running partner), but I wanted to make him something.
And knowing that Noah is obsessed with Star Wars, I created this for him:
It is an AT-AT (I even had to ask him what the name of this supply dude was since I am not as familiar with Star Wars as he is).
He got his own AT-AT shirt.
And also I made this for him this week:
I found some old mugs I had (they might have even been mugs from our wedding registry) that I tuned into AT-AT mugs.
I will be back later this week for a tutorial on how to work with vinyl to create your own AT-AT shirt and mugs!
This week has been a wonderful time for me to sit back and chill a bit. I travelled some where the last 3 weekends. And this is the first week I haven't see the call of travel looming ahead of me. The honest worse part of traveling has to be the unpacking. I loathe it. Everything that is packed so neatly going is not so neatly coming back. Then there is the laundry to do. Then the unpacking and reorganizing and repacking again.
So one thing related to the laundry which seems to be out of control are our socks. Many are missing their mate until the next load so they used to hang around in a special box in my sock drawer. But the missing ones seemed to start taking up more room than my good pairs so last week I implemented a new sock folding schedule in our household:
I now hang a reusable Envirosax in my utility room. All socks go in there - anything that is sock related and belonging to any members of our family. Once a week, the kids will on the weekend take all the socks out and fold the pairs. Any missing socks will go back into the Envirosax until the following week so that we can look for match ups again. This seems to make my life (and theirs a lot easier). I was tired of trying to remember where random socks ended up and this way everything is contained. My kids like to make a game out of it to see who can match more and then they have to put everyone's socks away.
People often ask me if I plan on having any kids. As sweet and sassy and cute mine are, the answer is no because
1. I am too old
2. David is too old
3. The kids are just at a nice age where they can do so many things on their own. We have gotten rid of our crib. We haven't had diapers in the house for over 1.5 years. They can bathe themselves (with supervision) and they even will get up on Saturdays and prepare their own breakfasts so we can sleep in.
4. Did I mention I am too old?
I have also been busy this week trying to get back on a decent workout schedule. Traveling and working out do not go hand in hand. With 3 days of running, 1 day of the stairmaster and 1 day of hot vinyasa yoga, this has been one of my best work out weeks in a while and it is nice.
Besides the usual work, I have also been working on this album. I had been thinking about it for a while and after coming out of a season of bad weather, some health problems in our family and finally seeing sunshine, the song "Lovely Day" popped into my head and started me on this journey for this album:
This is a mix of colors that are my style and what I love - greens, blues, yellows and browns mixed with pops of red. The album is done and we are going to turn it into a kit for Retailers coming in May! I cannot wait to share the rest with you!
Here it is! My first sewing tutorial! So as I mentioned a couple of days ago, I worked on this apron for my 4 year old girl:
Would you like to make one for your little girl or guy? Here are is what you will need for a size 4-6 year old.
Supplies:
1. 1/2 yard of fabric for the apron, straps (black polka dot)
2. 1/4 yard of fabric for the front pockets (hello kitty)
3. 20" of 1/2" bias double fold tape (the grey that encloses the front hello kitty pockets)
4. Thermoweb fusible interfacing- I like the medium for this project as it gives the apron pockets some firmness and stability. You just need enough for the front pockets of the apron (The hello kitty piece)
5. Thread and sewing machine!
Cutting Instructions:
Let's start with the apron pocket front. Out of the hello kitty fabric cut a 13" wide by 6" tall rectangle. You will also need to cut the same amount of the interfacing.
Cut your bias tape so it can go along the top width of the apron pocket front. It will be 13" long.
Next cut out 2 of the apron pieces (mine are the black polka dots) in a 13" wide by 8" tall retangle. The width of this piece should be the same width of the pocket front piece.
Now you will curve the corners. I freehand curved my corners or you can use a cup or plate edge to round the corners of your apron. You will do this for the lower corners of the apron pocket front and the two apron pieces. They should all look like the photos below:
Next lets's cut the apron ties. You will need three total - the two tie pieces are 28" long by 3.25" wide. They are shown in this photo below. The bottom piece is just folded.
Then you will need to cut the middle apron tie piece. This piece will be where the apron fits onto:
Now be sure to press each piece with an iron. I hate to say it but sewing goes a lot better when you iron everything.
Assembly:
Ok the first thing we will is iron on the Thermoweb Interfacing to the back side of the apron pocket front. In my case it is the hello kitty piece. Follow the instructions on your package of interfacing to be sure that the adhesion is good. Next, pin the bias tape on the top of the apron. The raw edge of the apron pocket piece should be inside the double folded bias tape. Now sew across the tape to finish the top part of this pocket edge.
Now, we will flip this over and line it up to one of the pieces of the apron. And you will sew it in place. Basically, you will sew around the edge of the apron pocket front to attach it to the apron piece. Be sure to use the backstitch when you start and stop to reinforce the pockets piece. At this point, I also decided where I wanted my 4 pockets. My pockets are not all spaced out evenly I wanted some smaller pockets for pens and such. To make the pockets just sew a straight line down from the top of the bias tape to the bottom of the apron piece. Be sure to do the backstitch and forward stitch a couple of times because these will be pockets that are used a lot!
Ok, now lets sew the piece you just created to the back piece of the apron. Match the right sides together and sew the around the "u" part. Leave the top part of the apron open. I am sewing this with a 3/8" seam allowance.
Now clip corners (one trick I learned was using some zig zag scissors to speed up the process and help prevent fraying). Clipping corners is very important. It will help your curves look right:
Ok now flip your apron piece over and inspect it. Iron and reclip corners if needed. Next to make it super fancy and to help everything hold in place, we will topstitch around the apron. Start at the top of the "u" and topstitch 1/4" around all the way to the other side of the "u"
Ok now we will sew the 3 apron strap pieces together. The smaller 13.5" piece goes in the middle. So sew as shown here:
Next fold the right sides together and sew the open edges with the 3/8" seam allowance. BUT DO NOT SEW THE MIDDLE 13.5" piece (the apron will go in here) - this part stays open.
Here comes the hardest part turning everything right side out. Good thing I am Asian and have chopsticks around:
The only opening that will be here is the middle part where you will insert the apron into. Iron the straps. Iron your apron straps when it is turned right side out.
Now your apron should be able to fit inside the apron strap in your opening:
It is inserted about 1/2" in and pinned in place. I then topstitched the entire apron strap to finish and you are done!
It has been a series of very busy weeks for me. I have been traveling to teach some fun projects like this:
I am excited that this weekend we are not going anywhere. We are just going to celebrate Easter as a family and chill at home. No driving, no teaching, just chilling. We will go to church, I will cook some meals and I plan on doing an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids. Last year I did a fun riddle egg hunt where they had to solve puzzles to get clues to go to the next place the egg was hidden. This year I am turning it into a math egg hunt. They will solve math problems and find egss to get their treats.
I am also working on something special - a fun little girl's april tutorial:
My little girl was helping me do some Make And Takes this last weekend at The Crafty Scrapper and she wanted a little apron to be able to pass out things to everyone. Here she is in action:
You can see she takes her job really seriously. Well I decided that it was time for me to put my years of sewing into drafting my own apron for her complete with "four pockets" <- she was insistent on the number of pockets. So I created a fun little tutorial on how to create your very own and I will post it this week!
We announced this week the arrival of our Hello Actually Card Kit. This is one that Julia and I put together and I love love love the colors and all the fun things we put to go along with it. If you would like one of these for yourself, grab one here. Then head on over to the Classic Card Kit Page for the galleries on the right hand side (including mine)!
Here's a list of all the amazing product in the Hello Actually Kit. We have also partnered with Thermoweb to bring you some extras in this kit including a mini tape runner and some glittery photo corners!
This kit is an amazing value at only $25.49 with $5.50 flat rate shipping in the US! Add one or all the add ons and they will ship for free!
So those people that know me often wonder if I get any sleep. I move quickly through my work, my hobbies, my tasks, my activities with my family and move on to the next thing. The big surprise is that I usually get 8 hours a night - some nights it is all 8 together and some days I piece meal them when I can.
I try to think of my time in little discrete and concrete blocks of getting things done. Some things take me a couple of days to break down like sewing this dress:
Sewing, which I had done in the past in small bits and pieces, has become a full blown hobby for me (along with my other ones). I am learning about how things are put together and now I can pretty much eyeball an outfit and in my head draft the patterns to put it together.
I love that I can put together a dress for my daughter like this in under an hour:
Little bits of creativity and my family benefits.
My husband celebrated his birthday in the past couple of weeks and I was able to put together a fun cake with the kids for him:
And lastly I have been busy with work. Thursday is the launch of our latest Classic Card Kit and I got the chance to put everything together and make some cards like these:
and this:
2014 has been keeping me busy but I am toying with the idea of capturing all the pieces of my life and hobbies back on this blog again. I am slowly processing through what that all means and how to put it all together and share with you how to maximize the time you have creating things you love.
