Baby Soft Blocks with Ribbon Loops

As promised here are the soft blocks I made for my little man last week. These are a bit more complicated than the taggie blankie, but still totally doable if you can sew in a straight line. Look, Ma! A 3-D sewing project!

I followed a wonderful tutorial from Zaaberry. She walks you right through the process with step by step photos. Each of my four blocks has two sides of soft minky fabric, two coordinating cotton prints, and a variety of ribbons.

This project is a great ribbon stash buster.  I knew I was hoarding small ribbon remnants for a reason! It was fun to go through my pile of ribbon scraps and find different colors and textures that coordinated with my fabrics. I had a surprising number that worked with my color scheme!

When the ribbon was wide, I sewed in a single loop. When it was more along the lines of 3/8" wide, I sewed in two loops. Given that little man immediately grabbed one of the loops and started flailing it around as soon as I gave him a block, I'd say this project was a success! :)

Taggie Style Baby Blankies

My sewing machine has been working overtime this past week, and I've loved it! For a while now I have wanted to try making a taggie-style blanket for my little man. He chews on his burp clothes like none other so I thought I would give him a dedicated chew cloth. Ha! 

There are tons of tutorials online; the two I found most helpful were from Lil' Luna and Melissa Sews. I recommend checking out their websites if you would like to try making one yourself. It is actually very easy! For mine, I opted to use a soft brown minky fabric on one side and a cotton elephant print on the other.

The ribbons are white grosgrain and aqua satin. I purposely chose ribbons with different textures to increase the sensory experience. That might be too highfalutin for a 5 month old, but it made me feel like I was giving him an "educational" toy! :)

I also made these two to give to my cousin's new twin boys.

One is brown minky with chartreuse cotton. The ribbons are brown satin and more white grosgrain.

The other is white minky with chartreuse cotton. I wanted them to be different so each boy had his own, but also complementary.

I also made a set of soft blocks this week (I told you I had been a busy sewer!). Stay tuned to hear more about those in the coming days!

Map Bunting

Our son's nursery decor has been a work in progress. I know some mamas have everything picture perfect months before their little one arrives. I sometimes wish I was one of those super moms, but alas I'm not. There are still two gaping blank walls in our little man's room that need attention. I've had the idea for this map bunting for ages and it is finally complete! It is destined for the longest wall in the nursery.

My husband and I have collected quite a supply of road maps since we have been married (moving across country will do that for you!) and I haven't been able to let them go even though we probably won't need most of them again. Being a paper crafter I always thought I could use the paper for something, wrapping presents at the very least. When our little man came along we ended up with a loosely themed transportation motif in the nursery. So a bunting made from old maps was perfect! It also has the added sentimental value that the maps represent places my husband and I have either lived in or traveled to together.

Each flag measure 4" wide x 6" long. These dimensions are primarily a result of the fact that most road maps are folded 4" wide. I cut along the fold line to minimize the creases in each flag. 

The flags are strung together with red and white baker's twine.



This was a very easy (and cheap!) project but I think it turned out very cute. I can also see this sort of banner working well for a going away party, or any other travel themed fete. I hope you enjoyed it!

Baby Tags

I went a little crazy making baby tags this week. What started as an idea for making a single tag turned into a runaway crafting extravaganza of "Ooh! Let's try this color combo next!"And it was so fun!

I used two Papertrey Ink dies, Tag Sale #3 for the tag base and Wonderful Words: Baby for the script font, and then lots of combinations of card stock, pattern paper and ribbon. On a few I also stamped a polka dot pattern in Versa Mark ink for a subtle background texture. 

I'll be back next week with more crafty inspiration. Until then!

For the Twins

Last week my cousin and his wife welcomed twin boys. They already have two sons so now they have four boys!! This is the card I made to welcome the newest additions to their family.


 The little giraffes are from the Papertrey Ink set Sweet Baby, die cut and stamped in Sahara Sand ink.

The white background was impressed with my Book Print impression plate, the alphabet side, and popped up with dimensionals. I also wrapped white embroidery thread around it a few times and tied it in a bow.

The final touch was to add some flagged die cuts to the top right corner, accented with a white button. I hope they like the card and I can't wait to meet my new baby cousins!


SUPPLIES
Stamps: Sweet Baby (PTI)
Paper: Sahara Sand (SU!), Stamper's Select White (PTI)
Ink: Sahara Sand (SU!)
Tools: Sweet Baby die, Double Ended Banner die, Book Print impression plate (PTI)
Embellishments: button, embroidery thread

You're Out of This World

We went to a birthday party for a little boy who turned 2 recently and this is the card I made for him. All of the images are from the Papertrey Ink mini set Out of This World. The rocket ship was die cut twice, once from white card stock and once from silver card stock. I used an aqua painter to color in various parts of the white rocket with Real Red and Night of Navy ink, then fussy cut the body of the silver rocket out and paper pieced it on top of the white layer. The finished rocket is popped up with foam tape.

The outline of the flame was embossed in black, then I again used my aqua painter to fill it in using Real Red, Only Orange and Summer Sunrise inks. The stars at the top of the card and the countdown numbers along the bottom are all embossed in silver. The white panel is matted on silver card stock that was trimmed on both sides with pinking shears.

Inside there are more embossed silver stars and I stamped the greeting from Script Sentiments in Real Red ink. Whew! Quite a lot going on with all of the embossing and piecing things together, but I like how it turned out!

This will be my last post until next week. Tomorrow we are taking our little man up to Ohio for the first time to visit family for the 4th of July holiday.  

Happy Independence Day and see you next week!

SUPPLIES
Stamps: Boy Basics: Out of This World, Script Sentiments (PTI)
Paper: Night of Navy (SU!), Stamper's Select White (PTI), silver card stock
Ink: Real Red, Night of Navy, Only Orange, Summer Sun (SU!), Versa Mark
Embellishments: silver embossing powder
Tools: Rocket die (PTI), pinking shears