Random old projects

Here are some random old projects in no particular order.

 

 

Little Miss A had hip dysplasia as a newborn so she got to wear this lovely contraption for a couple months (It's called a pavlik harness). No fun, I tell you, no fun! I couldn't leave it alone though so I jazzed it up by sewing ribbon to the straps. Much cuter that way!

 

 

 

 

This was my first project with shirring. The dress= cute. The bow= not so much. She was not a fan.

Mr. potato head Halloween costume. I must admit that this cute project was mostly designed and made by E. It has Velcro pieces so he could change the face every 5 minutes.

 

 

 

Glass etching. I learned this technique in 7th grade art but had long forgotten its existence until it started showing up all over the internet. I found some silhouettes I liked online and printed them. Then I used an Xacto knife to cut then out of contact paper. From there I placed the contact paper over my glass and painted on the etching cream.

Car seat cover. My mom made one of these but I was ready for a change. Luckily I was able to use hers as a pattern only making minor adjustments to make my own version. I'm thinking I need to make another one for #5 who will be here in a few months!

This was something I made for my cute nephew who is a SF giants fan! I never knew making T-shirts could be so easy until I found this tutorial.

 

 

 

I actually made 3 of these purple Easter dresses. Two for the daughters of a friend.

 

 

 

 

This is another of my favorite dresses!

I got tired of L's car seat so I took it apart and changed out the fabric. This was one of my most time consuming projects to date but I love the way it turned out.

 

 

 

 

 

The minifigure display. This project looked great... in my head! Unfortunately, I didn't plan it out that well and it fell apart quickly and didn't even work that well before it fell apart. No worries though, I am planning round 2 in my head now!

 

 

 

 I absolutely love this dress. too bad it went through the washer with a pen on its first wash! One of these days I will learn to check pockets before I load the washer. In the meantime, I am afraid this won't be my last tragic laundry mishap.

Favorite painting projects

Moving so much has had a few benefits. One, we haven't had time to accumulate a ton of junk. Two, everything gets a thorough cleaning fairly frequently. And three, I have gotten to paint a lot of fun rooms! After I finished my herringbone wall (here) I stood back and declared it my favorite wall I had ever painted but then I got to thinking about all the other rooms I have painted and now I am not sure if I can choose a favorite!

So here's a look back at my favorite painting projects!

First was L's farm room. This was such a fun project, though I can't take all the credit. My sister-in-law did the hard part of drawing the design from a Little People coloring book. I then bought a several quarts of 'mis-tint' or 'oops' paint from the Home Depot and Lowes. They were of course all awkward and ugly colors so I mixed them until I got the colors I wanted and over the course of 3 weeks painted it in between taking care of a newborn.

 

 

 

The other room I did in that house was E's square pattern room. My mom helped me with that one and I love the way it turned out. I am actually considering doing a variation of it again when I get to their ( #1 and #2 share a room now) room in this house!

I can't seem to find a picture right now :(

 

 

 

My other favorite room was A and B's room. A boy/girl nursery can be difficult but once I decided on colors (THAT took a while) it came together nicely. It looks like the only pictures I can find of this one are before it was finished (with no carpet!) and a snapshot with all of their new Christmas toys, but you get the idea.



Thomas Cake

This thing took me ALL DAY but it was a fun project for L's 3rd birthday! The pan is actually one my mom bought for my brother's birthday cake 26 years ago! I would say it's gotten it's use!

Happy Birthday Bunting

I love to decorate for birthdays! We have decorations for holidays that come around once a year, so why not for ones that some around 6 times a year!? A couple years ago my mom made me some awesome placemats and a table runner for birthdays which we love! I have been using the same paper Happy Birthday sign for 5 years but a couple months ago we had a birthday and I couldn't find it! Well it was the morning of the birthday and I just couldn't let a birthday slip by without a bright, cheery sign. I happen to have a ton of fabric scraps so I was able to make this out of almost nothing! I cut the triangles and stiffened them up with fusible interfacing. I then cut out the letters and attached them to the triangles using a fusible adhesive. Then I sewed them all to some jumbo ric-rac I had around. I talk like it was so simple, which it was, but designing it and making it took half a day. haha!

Sewing Room- Herringbone wall

This is the first room I have painted in this house and I had a few things I knew I wanted about it. First, I knew I wanted that exact shade of blue and white and I wanted a design on one wall. I was first planning on doing a stencil design but I realized after a little research that they didn't give the rich even coverage and clean lines I was looking for. Then I found the herringbone pattern on www.lifewithfingerprints.com and knew that was exactly just what I wanted!

I started by painting the entire room blue and the ceiling white

Next, I taped out my design for every other section. 10" wide and 6" vertically. I then sealed my paint edges using this technique and painted every other vertical section white. I removed my tape immediately and had prefect, crisp lines! 

This $20 laser level made the project a whole lot easier!

After the paint dried completely, I followed the same process with the remaining columns. 



I used a TON of tape!



The final product. The whole process took me about 4 days but I think it was totally worth it! I am in love! :)