Juicy Bits

36: dahlia decoupage

I've mentioned that I've designed a playroom or general hanging out space for my nieces.

I'm still not done.

I'm wondering if I ever will be.

It's fun, but it's been going on a long time.  At least now it's to the point where they can use the room.

Anyway, I can't show you the whole thing, but I can show you one fun project:

a giant dahlia table.

The table is from IKEA.  

I used mod podge to make the dahlia out of pieces of fabric.

This is my first attempt at decoupage.  I'm pleased with the results, but it was definitely a learning process.  If I did it again I would fusible interface the back of the pieces for stability and so you don't end up seeing through them so much.

Does anyone who has done this kinda of thing before want to give me some pointers?  I got lots of bubbles.  Almost none were there to begin with.  I was really careful to smooth out each piece.  But they appeared later.  Some fabrics seemed to really be a problem.  The majority of them I was able to poke with an exacto and smooth flat, but some are there to stay.  I'm wondering if it's because the table is in the garage.  Could it be the heat/elements?

Hmmm...

JT

35: the monster bash part two: the day

And now for the play-by-play of the big day:

 First, of course, there was a flurry of getting ready.

It really wasn’t too bad that day, as I had stayed up late the night before (Note to self: you CANNOT put M&Ms onto a sundae until right before you serve it…they bleed).

 And Aurora had a friend to keep her occupied.

When the friends started to arrive, there was the Make-a-Monster craft and even monster coloring pages.

Of course they mostly wanted to check out Aurora’s playroom/toys.  Aurora got more into it after everyone had left and made some cool creatures.

Then we played monster hide-and-seek.  The girls covered their eyes while I went and hid our monster.

Then they ran to find him and were supposed to touch him and run screaming back to “home”. 

I had a cell phone sewn into the back so my husband could “ROAR” at them.

As suspected, most of the girls loved the screaming and running part.  The little baby that was there….not so much.

But in general it was very fun.  And prizes were collected.

The monster squeakers were the big hit.

Then it was time for lunch.  Sandwiches and fruit and veggies, etc.  I ordered some for the grown-ups at Panera, but made some simple crustless ones for the kids.  I never got to the mini-monster pizzas I had planned.

Next, since it didn’t rain after all, we headed outside.  The swings are always a fav.

I brought the other games out so everyone could try as they liked.

The prizes were available for everyone who tossed a beanbag,

Or did the monster stomp,

Or knocked over the bowling pins.

Next up…Pinata.  This was a request from Aurora, I think only because she knew there would be candy in it. 

It proved very difficult to break, and in the end the dads had to step in.

And have a little fun of their own.

And then it was time to sing!  Aurora is really much more of a fan of ice cream than cake so we had monster sundaes. 

Yummmm!

Before everyone went home, they had to get their very own monster.

They all have good homes and are quite beloved.

All in all, I couldn’t have asked for a better day.  Aurora never got really overwhelmed so she was able to enjoy the whole party.  Theo slept for pretty much all of it.  And I had “hosting” to do, but it wasn’t out of control and I got to enjoy it too.

Happy Birthday, Roar!

JT

 (Most photos by Christianne Ebel )

34: the monster bash part one: the look

Get yourself ready for some seriously photo-intensive posts.  I can't help myself.  There are just too many good shots.  Just about all of them are from my good friend Christianne Ebel.  The few that aren't watermarked are mine.

So, since I have so much to show you, I decided to split it up into two posts.  One on "the look" of the day...mostly stuff I made/designed, not many people shots.  And one on the events of the day which is more a play-by-play of the day.

These first shots are the favor table I set up.  The "banner" on the wall is made from my wall dots, but I fused a letter on each one.

Next are some general decor shots of around the house.

We had some games for play at any time which included, stomping on monster "stilts", monster bowling, and this bean bag toss.

Of course there were prizes.  

Among the cutest were these little monster finger puppets and adorable buttons from Nifty Stuff Made by Voz on etsy.  Look at those cute sayings on the buttons: “I’m odd”, “I love books”, “I make art” and my favorite and the one I kept, “I eat cake”.

You can see all the prizes here.

Some of these were also in the pinata so it wasn't entirely candy filled.

There was a make a monster craft table for gluing together silly creations.

And coloring these cute monsters I found online.

We tried to put as many monsters as we could find all around the house.  Here is Aurora queen of all her monster subjects.

This watermelon monster is a complete knock off from mypapercrane.

And the sweet day was topped off with what my daughter calls "monster mish mash sundaes" (a favorite at Friendly's) instead of cake.

Can I just say how totally amazing it was having a professional photographer shoot the day?  A part of me misses having pictures that are my own, because I definitely have my own perspective, etc.  But it totally freed me up to enjoy the day and participate more.  Plus the results are gorgeous and I love that I'm actually in some of them (you'll see later) so I it accurately reflects the day.  I'm lucky to have such a friend like Christianne because she not only did it last minute, but for way less money than she charges and deserves.  

My husband agreed to spend the dough on this party with the agreement that we won't do it for every birthday, but I'm going to have a hard time going without it next year...

JT

33: struggling

I'm pulling my hair out right about now.

This is going to be my first photo-less post.  I hate to do it, but I'm having issues with Typepad right now.

I really want to post the party pix for you all, but I just can't do it.  They're so beautiful when I look at them on my computer and they really suck when I post them.

This has been happening to all my photos.  I doubt you'd notice, but since Typepad changed their compose editor it's seriously desaturating my images.  So in the last 8+ posts you're getting sub-par pictures.  (Except the mug shots of the monsters b/c I did that in another program).

It's killing me.  I was sort of living with it until now, but I just can't do that to this set of photos.  They're all about the color and it's just not there.

The support people are sort of trying to help.  They claim not to see the difference as much as I do.  They say it's an issue with the color space I'm saving them in.  Could be.  The thing is I didn't change the way I did anything.  And If I now post the exact same picture already saved on my computer that I had posted before, it looks different.  How could that be, if they're not doing something to it?

So if you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.  

Otherwise please bear with me as I try to get this worked out...

JT

EDIT:  Sometimes the scientific method actually works.  After much experimenting, I discovered that the problem is with the sampling of the image to create the "thumbnail" size pictures that appear on the blog.  If I put the images in as full size at first, the color is SOOOOO much better and then I can resize as I like.  This is clearly an issue for Typepad, but at least I now have a work-around in case they never fix it.  Of course, they still look pretty bad on other computers, but I'm just going to pretend I don't know that.

32: C is for crown

My little princess is 4 going on 24...No she doesn't wear makeup or get pushed to grow up too fast, but sometimes I can't get over how wise she seems.  So when she gets excited about something young, sweet, and wholesome, I'm all for it.

As most of you know, I made a cute wool felt crown for Theo's birthday and Aurora loved it.  So, of course, I had to make another more girly version.  

And this time, just for you, I made a tutorial.  Without further ado...here it is:

Materials:

2 pieces of wool felt at least 5.5" x 14.5"

Some additional scraps of wool felt

2 1/4" x 10" scrap of fabric

5 1/2" long piece of 3/4" elastic

1 piece of heavyweight fusible interfacing  5.5" x 14.5"

Coordinating thread

small decorative items (vintage buttons, etc.)

Crown Pattern

I used 100% wool felt.  I can't say enough good things about it.  It just feels soooo nice.  I'm no expert so I don't know what the difference is... I can't say it needs to be 100%.

Directions:

1. Cut out crown pieces (using pattern) of 2 different colors of wool felt.  It is possible to line the pattern up with the fold as indicated, but since the felt is so thick, I found it easier to make a full size pattern piece (it doesn't fit on regular paper so I didn't provide it) by taping two halves together.

2.  Trim the outside crown piece down about 1/4" on all sides except the ends.

3.  I used pinking shears on the top edge to fancy it up a bit.  You can do this on 1 or both long edges.

4.  Using the outside felt as a guide, cut a pieces of heavyweight fusible interfacing about 1/8"-1/4" smaller on all sides.  (It's probably possible to skip this since the felt is pretty thick, but I did one with only a lightweight interfacing and I really preferred the stiffness of the heavyweight interfacing).

5.  Fuse the interfacing onto the exterior crown piece according to manufacturer's directions.

6.  Cut 2 squares of scrap felt one 2 5/8" and one 2 1/4".

7.  Draw or print your child's inital so it is approximately 1 1/2" to 1 5/8" tall.  (This doesn't HAVE to be an initial, it could be lightning bolt, flower, butterfly, fleur de lis, or really anything you can think of)

8.  Cut out the letter pattern and place it on the front of the crown, as shown, to check the size.

9.  Cut the letter out of a felt scrap.

10.  Cut out decorations from the felt scraps or anything you want.  Get creative...you can really do anything you'd like on the sides.  For my daughter's I did double flowers with a vintage button in the center.    For my son's I did 3 squares turning each one 45 degrees and added a button in the center.  The patterns are provided for both.  See the detail pix below.

11.  Lay the crown and all decorations out flat to see how you like the placement.

12.  Sew the initial onto the smaller front square.  I used a blanket stitch on my machine.  Obviously any of it could be done by hand.

13.  I used a decorative stitch on my machine to sew the smaller square onto the larger one.

14.  Sew the whole block onto the center of the outside crown piece.  (NOTE: I sewed on all the decoration before I sewed the 2 layers together so the stitching would not show from the inside.)

15.  Next, sew the side decorations onto the outside crown piece.  For the flowers I stitched around the edge of the large one, but just used the button to sew on the smaller one.  For the squares I stitched around the smallest and largest ones.

16.  Sew the two crown layers together along the top and bottom, centering the outside layer on the inside one.  I used another decorative stitch on my machine for the bottom.  (NOTE: If you use a fancy stitch, you might want to leave the bottom until after you've inserted the elastic so it can go down as far as possible between the two layers.  I think this makes it stay on the head better.)  Your ends should line up fairly well...if not, trim them a little.

17.  Cut a piece of 3/4" elastic 5 1/2" long.  (NOTE: I suspect this size should fit just about any kids...it fit both my 1 year old and 4 year old and I could even stretch it onto my head.  But you might want to take measurements of your own and make adjustments.  If you have a smaller 1 year old, it's possible it would be big.)

18.  Cut a piece of fabric 2 1/4" x 10"

19.  Fold the fabric strip in half the long way with right sides together and sew a 1/4" seam down the long edge.

20.  Turn the strip right side out.  Press it flat so that the seam is in the center of one side.

21.  Insert the elastic, scrunching up the fabric as necessary so the ends meet.

22.  Baste each end through the fabric and and elastic.

23.  Insert this elastic piece with the seam to the back, into on end of the crown between the two layers.  I inserted it about 1/2" in, but you could use this step to adjust your length.  Putting it as close to the bottom of the crown (but still between the two layers) as possible helps the crown stay one better without covering your little one's eyes.

24.  Sew across the ends through both layers and the elastic in the middle.  Backstitch over that line for added durability.

25.  Insert the other end of the elastic into the other side of the crown, making sure it's not twisted.  Stitch across that end in the same manner.

26.  Trim all threads and you're done!

Now your little one is royalty...

JT

 

31: monsters on parade

I made my first softies.  A few years ago my sister had made me and Aurora some seriously cool monsters, and I'd been wanting to try it ever since.  So for her monster party I made each child a small one as a favor that I put in the little monster tins.

Each monster is about 7-8" tall.  I made four different designs, but they're each unique with different fabrics etc.  I made them entirely out of fabric that I already had on hand.

This was an ambitious project but fun.  These are most of them (there were a dozen total).

The purple one in the center is the one Aurora claimed for herself.  It's my favorite design with the little ogre ears.  I feel like he should be sitting on my shoulder all the time keeping me company.

I already have a few requests from my family for more, so I suspect there might be a few christmas monsters to be made.

JT

30: where to begin?

Right about now, I'm breathing a sigh of relief.  The birthday party is behind me and life should go back to normal (whatever that is).  I guess to most that sounds a bit ridiculous...it's not like it was a wedding or anything.  

But for me, this was a monumental labor of love.  I have issues where I tend to be a bit (downplaying here...) over ambitious when I take on project.  I'm not perfect, but that's who I am...

Anyway, The mosnter bash went great.  Aesthetically it was everything I'd hoped and more importantly Aurora and her friends had a great time.  I have plans to tell you all about it, but my husband asked me "How many posts are you going to get out of this?"  I promised him 6.  :)

OK, I'll try not to drag it out quite that much, but really it's going to take me a while to process it all.  And I do have a special treat for you.  My good friend and super-talented photographer Christianne shot the photos that day, so it should be amazing.

So these shots are merely a tasty tidbit.  I appliqued the "4" onto a tee for her to wear that day.  And I made her felt crown similar to Theo's.  As promised, I do have a tutorial for making those, which should be coming soon.

For now my plan is to get a little of the sleep I've been missing lately.

JT

29: pebbles and a gumdrop

Just surfacing from party prep for a brief post.  Yes, I want everyone to think it all comes together effortlessly, but let's get real...that stuff takes work.  

Sometimes I daydream about having my own set of "minions" to do all the boring grunt work.  Then I could flit about doing cool little designs and take all the glory without doing the un-fun part.  To that end, I did have help this weekend.  My sister popped in from Ireland and has been a great help.  But, of course, as I show you all the details, you should picture me as super-woman in your head, doing it all myself.  :)

Before things got too hectic here, I did have time to do a few more projects for my nieces' playroom.  It's actually nearing completion so it won't be long 'til before and after pictures.  

I made these glass pebble magnets from Brassy Apple's fun tutorial.  

And I made my first Gum Drop Ottoman from Amy Butler. 

It was fairly easy to make, but, man, that thing uses A LOT of filling.  I bought the recommended amount, but I think it could have used another bag or 2.  Especially since it's already taking a beating from 3 energetic girls.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled sewing...

JT

28: ROAR!

That's what we call Aurora.  Or one of the names anyway.  She started out as "Boo" or more frequently "Miss Boo" or "The Boo".  One of the reasons we choose her name was because we loved the nickname Rory.  But we almost never call her that (yet).  We just stop at "Roar".

As previously mentioned, she will be having a monster themed birthday party in just a short while.  These are the invites I made for it.  I suppose a monster says something more like "RAAR"...but now you understand my choice.

I sewed the little monster separately and ended up gluing him on rather than sewing, because I didn't like seeing the stitching inside.  They weren't overly difficult to make, but seriously time consuming.  I don't recommend this general idea unless you have less than like 10-15 invites to send.

And they gave me a chance to use my fabulous birthday gift...

JT