Retail is SO Boring

I went out a little while ago to try to find a picture album for Rosie's first baby pictures. Unless you want something severely overdecorated and ridiculous or something sadly bare, there is nothing out there for you. Frustrating, to say the least. Some of these people who decorate these things need to just edit themselves. Edit, people! So this is what we ended up getting.

This was the lesser of several evils but still horribly boring, right? It's a nice color so I can work with that. I thought to myself, "Self, you can add a pretty ribbon. That would be one small step for you and yet one giant leap for this horribly banal photo album.". Then I got to thinking, "Self, you could be really clever and connect it to her baby announcements that you still need to blog.". Good ideas all, Self. I'll try it.

I added 2 strips of cardstock; 1 patterned leftover from her baby announcements and 1 plain white; and I added a wide satin ribbon with a bow. So you see, retail doesn't HAVE to be boring. It just is. It is up to us as creative, wonderful crafting people to make life exciting sometimes. And it doesn't always take a lot of supplies, money or work. I was able to use supplies I already had (so this upgrade was essentially free) and about 10 minutes to make a completely new photo album. And this one has come leaps and bounds from the original.

So go out and be creative! I challenge you to accept the inevitable drab that comes from mass producing items and make it your own. I'd love to see what you can do!

Wrapping with Yarn

Now that our little girl is here, I can FINALLY reveal some of the artwork I'd been working on for her. If any of you had been following my pinterest account, I had become a bit obsessed with wrapped yarn letters. There's so much you can do with them as far as certain looks and styles, and they're a very unique addition to your decor.

After much trial and error (unfortunately, it's inevitable), I finally came up with something I liked. I started out by pulling a couple bobbins out of the skein of yarn I bought for the occasion. It was easier to wrap the letter with a more reasonably sized yarn ball. When I was searching for help with this project, I was surprised by the lack of instruction I found. They pretty much said keep practicing until you get something you like. Here are some of the techniques I found worked very well with this project. You will have to practice a lot to get the effect you like, though. Sorry for that.

I got my wooden letter at Joann's for maybe a couple dollars, and I've got yarn all over the house so that wasn't hard. Some other things you'll want are a hot glue gun and some assorted clamps to hold wrapped sections in place. First, I cut several small pieces of yarn to wrap around the end caps of the letter.

You'll be wrapping the yarn around the stalks of the letter so this will help cover those hard-to-wrap ends. Use the glue gun to tack these pieces of yarn in place. After way too much practicing, I finally figured I would try to wrap the letter in the way that it is written. I made a diagram I used to keep this in mind.

This is how I draw my Rs, and I found it worked very well as a guideline for wrapping the yarn around my letter. Of course, I also had to choose one of the hardest letters in the alphabet, but that just figures. From here, I just wrapped each letter stalk as indicated in my diagram, being sure to wrap about twice as much yarn very carefully (the yarn will tend to stack up on itself if you wrap it too much) where stalks met. Then you can use your glue gun to tack in place any yarn strands that are moving on you. I did all my tacking on the back of the letter because if will seep through the yarn and make it very hard and unpleasant-looking.

I also used some of my clamps to hold in place yarn sections as I was working on other pieces of the letter. You'll also see in this picture that you will be wrapping over the end caps you wrapped at the very beginning. I was actually able to wrap pretty far over the end caps by using my glue gun to tack yarn sections.

So, after much frustration, I was finally left with a project of which I was extremely proud. I wasn't able to reveal it before Miss Rosie came because we were keeping her name a secret, and this is for her bedroom door. Joey has a J on his, too, but I used paper to decoupage his. Also very fun and easy. :)

Of course, I also had to knit her a little rose that I attached to her letter. So now Miss Rosetta has her very own wrapped yarn letter for her door, and I am still trying to think of other projects where I can make wrapped yarn letters. It's really fun and pretty addictive. Good luck and happy crafting!

The Perfect Pillow

In the recent very long search to find the perfect back support pillow for Baby 2.0's new green glider, of course, we found nothing we liked. I'm sure you've noticed this happens a lot. I did, however, find the perfect fabric at Hancock Fabrics. So I went for it! This is probably one of the easiest projects you will ever take on if you ever need a nice decorative (or fully functional) pillow for a certain space.

It goes along with our color scheme perfectly (grey, blue, lime green and pink), and we were able to get just the right size pillow form. So I did get the pillow form, I got a yard of this gorgeous fabric (in case I wanted to make other things with it), some 7/8" wide black satin ribbon and a couple buttons for the envelope closure at the back of the pillow. Easy peasy.

I cut the fabric to fit the form so the finished size was exactly the size of the pillow, in this case 12" x 16". The hardest part was definitely working that satin ribbon around the edges. I wanted something to break up the front and the back of the pillow, but I have never done piping or anything like that. I took the cheater's way out, and I folded the satin ribbon in half and sewed it right to the pillow cover. It was a bit tricky, but I LOVE the way it turned out.

Adding the buttonholes, and consequently the buttons, was the finishing touch on this lovely addition to the nursery. I chose some giant buttons so they were more of the design of the pillow as opposed to just being functional. They look good, too. :)

And voila! You have a beautiful personalized back support (or decorative, if that's your thing) pillow that you have created yourself. Not to mention it took all of a couple hours to finish this project. I love quick projects! Happy Crafting!

DIY: Trendy Baby Decor

I'm going to apologize for this "tutorial" right now. Yes, I'm implying it's not really a tutorial. It's more like half of one. I wasn't entirely sure this was going to work out when I started it, but, as it turns out, I really liked the end result.

I think we've all seen those beautiful chandelier butterfly mobiles that are pretty popular right now. They're all over etsy, pottery barn has one and you can find them on amazon. The only problem with these is 1) they're usually between $50 and $80 and 2) butterflies are really your only decorative option. Enter... the brain trust...

Trendy Chandelier Mobiles: a la Rayna

Supplies:
colored papers for die cutting
die cutting method (cricut, punch, freestyle with scissors, etc.)
ruler
metal ring (I used 10" diameter)
.5mm stretch magic beading string
18 gauge wire
wire cutters / curlers
coordinating ribbon for wrapping exposed metal wire and ring
* I used 1/4" for the smaller inside wire
* I used 3/8" for the larger outer ring
scissors
various adhesives
*I used glue dots for adhere birds to stretch string
*I used scotch tape to wrap loose ends of stretch string around exposed wire and ring
*I used Aleene's Jewelry & Metal Glue for adhering wire to ring and ribbon to wire / ring
various clamps for holding wrapped ribbon when your hands start to cramp

I first had to strategize how I was going to lay out my mobile. This probably took the longest amount of time for me as it was a LOT of trial and error. I designed it as an outer metal ring with a 4-point inner crossbar. In the end, I ended up with these specs where the red dots represent where I tied each chandelier string:

• 1 middle string: 24" long
• 4 strings radiating out at 21" long
• 4 strings radiating out at 15" long
• 16 strings along outer ring at 12" long

With the spacing I chose and the die cut sizes (birds: 2", clouds: 2-1/2"), the individual string specs worked out like this:

• 24" string: 6 die cuts (2 clouds, 4 birds)
• 21" strings: 4 die cuts (1 cloud, 3 birds)
• 15" strings: 3 die cuts (1 cloud, 2 birds)
• 12" strings: 2 die cut birds 

Phew. Now that that's over... 

1.) I first made my inner crossbar with the 18 gauge wire and adhering it to itself with  the jewelry and metal glue. Be careful with this stuff. I almost bonded my fingers together about a million times. But it works some serious magic with the wire and the ribbon. I wrapped the outer ends of the crossbar around the outer ring with the wire curlers and also used the glue to adhere these 4 points in place.

2.) Using the specs listed above, I then attached all the die cuts to the chandelier strings and then attached the chandelier strings to the crossbar and outer ring with the stretch beading string.

3.) I used the scotch tape to wrap all the stretch beading string loose ends from the chandelier strings around the inner crossbar wires and outer ring.

4.) After all the loose ends are taken care of, wrap the inner crossbar wire with the thinner wire. I fastened the ends of the ribbon to the wire with the jewelry & metal glue. Pure magic. Just don't glue your fingers together. This step serves to hide all the loose ends of the stretch beading string so you don't have those ends hanging out and looking gross.

 
5.) I then used the thicker ribbon to wrap the outer ring. I used more technique for this one as it will be more easily viewed.

6.) I then tied 4 20" pieces of stretch beading string to each junction of the inner crossbar and the outer ring by which I could hang the mobile. In doing this, I ended up with loose ends again so I used a cool 4-point wrap technique to hide the ends and also add some decorative flair to these junction points. And I used lots of jewelry and metal glue!

7.) After all that, you just have to gather your 4 hanging strings and be very careful about making sure they're all level so your mobile isn't hanging all weird and crooked. Unless, of course, you want it that way. :) Hang it, and you have a perfectly beautiful (and cheap) trendy baby mobile with the die cuts of your choice!

I will admit that I had a lot of these supplies to begin with, but the beauty of this project is that you can really make it with whatever you have on hand. I ended up making it myself for less than $15. It's much more personal, fitting her room perfectly, and I got to choose the colors and shapes I wanted. I also wanted those clouds in there, and I couldn't find any that were just the way I wanted. Again, I'm picky like that. Know any babies coming your way? This would be a really fun and very personal shower gift for that new little bundle. Happy Crafting!