The one where the razor attacked me...

This little shower gift was suggested to me by a friend. She had one and it was SUPER cute - and didn't look that hard to make. And it wasn't - once I figured out what I was doing. Note to self: take a picture of the prototype to go by while crafting. I am extremely happy with the way it turned out though (after the trials and errors). Behold, the fancy-fied wipey travel case for baby mamas.



I bought 1 fabric quarter ($0.99), some ric-rac ($1.99) and a wipey travel case ($2.99).
1. Cut the fabric quarter down to the relative size of the case. Do the same with some quilt batting (I already had on hand).
2. Place the batting on the case, laying the fabric on top. Starting at the clasp (but being careful to avoid both it and the edges) start gluing the fabric down, matching the edge of the fabric to edge of the case.
3. Glue all the way around. Clip the fabric to accommodate the hinge - gluing toward the hinge but never on the hinge. The fabric will hold itself in place back there.
4. Once you finish this, the batting should have made the case feel a little plush to the touch. Close the case to make sure you there isn't glue preventing it from functioning. (This is where I went wrong, thus pulling out the razor blade to scrape off my mistakes - and incurring some minor, but cumbersome, injuries).
5. Take your ric-rac (or border of your choice) and start gluing from the edge of the hinge, around the the front - laying it along the edge of the fabric to hide the not-so-pretty raw edge. Continue around the case until all is bordered and looking fabulous.

And Wah-lah. A travel baby case - that didn't cost alot, is super-cute, super-functional, and a great shower gift. Add a pack of wipes to start baby-mama off and you are done. It really will be an easy gift now that I know what I'm doing.... but we learn from our mistakes, right?

Happy Weekend!

Sew Much Fun....

Here is another (what turned out to be) a great craft for a baby/wedding shower. A personalized quilt. I precut 7 inch square quilt patches out of an off white fabric.. enough for each attendee and some extra. Bought a few paint pens and rounded up a slew of colorful permanent markers (thanks Erin!), and made sure people had magazines or plastic table cloths to bare down on because the ink will bleed some.

At the beginning of the shower, we told everyone what the idea was - showed them a sample patch and gave them the entirety of the shower to decorate their personalized quilt patch. Even though the less-artistic were a bit apprehensive, I think everyone was genuinely excited about the end result. I gathered all the pieces and am sewing it together to send to our mommy-to-be before the baby's arrival.

This would work great with messages to an engaged couple and use their wedding colors to finish out the blanket!

I don't play games, but I LOVE the bingo....

Since I can't do anything the easy way - I wanted to share my efforts with anyone who may find they - like me - can not leave well enough alone.

I recently hosted a Baby shower - and instead of using the free bingo templates online (I found impersonal), I created my own bingo cards that reflected the mother-to-be and the shower theme (Dots and Daisies, MTBs favorite things). Since it was the first baby shower of all my girlfriends, I wanted to go all out. It's just my nature. It turned out to be well worth it.  I can't even believe we're moving into this stage of adulthood... amazing (and scary)!

If you're interested, the How-To is listed below. 

How To: 

-Situate the page landscape - create two 5 column by 5 row tables a half page in size.

-In each table cell - put in whatever graphic you desire (I chose polka dots bc the MTB LOVES them). 

- Now you can use this as a background, printing a few pages off and then running an online bingo template onto the more personalized Bingo squares. Stop here for for bigger crowds.

- Use notebook page reinforcers (those little sticker dots with the hole in the middle) or markers to make bingo dots to keep down on paper clean-up. 

.. or if you dare you can continue to my convoluted concoction of a bingo card....

- Create identical tables on another document for a blank template (sans graphics) to make your own bingo items. 

- Center the fonts for each cell and type away - putting something from the mother-to-be's registry in each cell.  Remember to leave a free space in the middle. (Note - now you must rotate the items across cells, otherwise everyone will get bingo at the same time. NO FUN!)