Initial Letter Canvas

This is another great gift to make for a baby shower (if you know the babies name) or even a kid's room are these initial letter canvases. I like to find out what colors are going to be used in the (in this case) babies room and find fabric that will add something special to the room. 

A- for Aurora

L- for Lincoln

These were gifts for co-workers/cousins to be.  

I loved working on both pieces. Super easy and really cute.

Here's what you'll need:

• 8x10 canvas
• Small foam brush
• Gloss or matte Mod Podge (MP) depending on your preference. (I used gloss)
• Initial Letter (should sit nicely in the center of your canvas, but can be as large as entire canvas itself, if that's your preference)
• 2 Different coordinating fabrics
• Coordinating ribbon
• Newspaper
• Iron
• Ironing Board
• Xacto Knife
• Scissors
• Paintbrush
• Gorilla glue

I didn't take pictures of the step by step process, but I'll walk you through what you'll need to do.

Set up your workspace first. Lay down your newspaper and all the supplies that you'll need. Make sure to iron out your fabric ahead of time. Using your foam brush cover your canvas (just the front) with a layer of MP. Lay down your fabric over the canvas (centered) and smooth out any air pockets. Allow some time for this to dry and then proceed to "wrap" your canvas all the way around with your fabric making sure to use plenty of MP to seal is down. Don't forget to MP the front of the canvas as well. Put your canvas to the side.

Now comes the hard part. MPing your coordinating fabric to your initial letter. This is going to take time, but stick with it and the results are extraordinary. You'll wrap the entire letter with the fabric and as always be generous with your MP for a good seal. On the "A" above I layed down the fabric to the front first and in the triangle cut into to fabric with my Xacto knife. I made three cuts. This fabric will wrap around the wood in the middle. Don't worry if you have spaces in the sides that are not covered. I like to go back at the end and add scrap fabric to fill in those spaces. Continue on with the entire letter until completely covered. Cover the front and sides with MP. 

Before you add your initial letter to your canvas, you'll need to attach your ribbon. Follow the steps listed in the ABC Canvas posting. Ribbon added the the side of the canvas is totally optional. Less is more, remember that.

Now you'll use your Gorilla glue. Add several drops to the back of your letter and attach to the middle of your canvas. Hold firmly for a few seconds.

Now you're done! Happy Crafting! 



Diaper Cake

I've been privileged to host a couple baby showers at work. Not only did I make what has become my signature gift, so to speak, a really cute wall hanging, but I decided for my friend's Tricia and Peter Cisneros' shower that I wanted to do a fantastic centerpiece for their table. The quest for how to make the perfect diaper cake began and I scanned the web for the easiest and prettiest looking diaper cake. You must, absolutely must check out this website for super easy instructions.

http://www.fun-baby-shower-ideas-and-more.com/diaper-cake-instructions.html

After I constructed my cake, I put ribbon around where the rubber bands were and then hot glued wooden stars (that I had painted black and then painted a coat of glitter paint on them, all ahead of time of course). To the top I found a super cute ribbon pick at Target that worked perfectly. As you can see in the photo below I added additional green ribbon to the top of the cake. Nothing was ever hot glued to the actual diapers so that the cake could be deconstructed and used by the happy parents to be.

Helpful Tip: After cake is constructed leave the cake in the pan you used as your base for the largest "layer" of the cake or transfer to something else such as a heavy cardboard base. I used the original pan I shaped the first "layer" in. Pick up some tulle to wrap your entire cake up for easy transport and tie off with a bow. When I got it to the office I removed the tulle and flipped the base over so that the cake was raised higher on the table.

Some diaper cakes you see may have additional items included in them; ie. toys, bottles, etc. I wanted a nice clean look, especially as this wasn't your typical baby shower with shades of blue, pink, or yellow. I used Tricia's favorite colors, green and black!

Going along with the green/black baby shower, I searched online for something that would make this say baby shower without being too much. Card and Party Giant, http://store.cardandpartygiant.com/baby-shower-stroller-fun.html, had just the thing I was looking for. Although I could have ordered online, I chose to go to the store instead just to make sure the colors would work, and they did. I embellished baskets for each table with ribbon and stars and filled them with skittles and sour patch kids.

And here is the happy parents to be sans baby Lincoln. (Who is just so super cute!)

ABC Canvas

     There is quite the baby boom going on at my office...and being the crafter that I am and the fact that I adore babies, I have been crafting up some fun gifts. I am trying to make sure as I create new gifts that I take lots of photos of the process to share with you, so that perhaps, you might be so inclined to try it yourself. :) Some of the best ideas I've gotten have been shared with me by others. You take that idea and you make it your own...that's why I love crafting so much! Anyways, I'll get off my soap box and get on with the project at hand!

 

This adorable ABC Canvas was a gift for co-worker Kim Crawford who just had her baby shower today.

Here are the supplies that you'll need:

• Gloss Mod Podge       
• Paper Mod Podge
• Scrap newspaper
• Paper cuter
• Scissors
• Paint brushes (at least 2-3)
• Small foam brush
• Xacto knife
• An 8x10 canvas
• Small scrap of card stock
• 1 sheet of alphabet scrapbook paper (I found this one at Joann Fabric's. I also bought 2 sheets just in case)
• A small stapler or staple gun (I suggest staple gun as this will save you much frustration. That's going to be one of my next purchases!)
• Staples
• Ironing board
• Iron
• Fabric (Coordinating with whichever scrapbook paper you pick out.) Fabric should be large enough to cover the entire canvas plus a little bit extra. Helpful Tip: I like to shop at Joann's for this as well, because they have a great selection of small fabric samples and they are arranged by color!
• Ribbon (Should coordinate with both fabric and scrapbook paper)

 I like to lay out all the supplies I'm going to work with (I use my nice big dining room table as my work space. Make sure you have plenty of room! I used half my table for the project and half for folding laundry. A girl's gotta multi task! I also like to have something to drink near me and put on some music to craft to.

Here are your first steps. As you can see in the photo above the scrapbook paper I chose had not just one of each letter, there were several of each, so I took my time cutting out each piece using my handy dandy paper cutter and chose which ones would work best for this project. I chose both upper and lower case letters and added numbers 1-10 at the end. It is best to lay them out on your canvas to make sure that they fit well and then just move them onto another scrap of paper of to the side. Once you have done that you can start by ironing out your fabric. It does not need to be perfect as you are going to be glueing it down to the canvas in another minute, but it helps make that process a bit smoother. :)

Using your regular gloss Mod Podge and your foam brush, coat your canvas (just the front side with Mod Podge). Then you'll lay your fabric down (centered so that you'll have enough fabric to cover the back). Smooth out any bubbles. Next you'll start adding MP to each side (one at a time) and basically it's like wrapping a present. You'll end up with extra fabric at the back, but that's okay. This is where you'll use your Xacto knife. Before you get to that part make sure you are coating the top of the fabric with your MP to seal in down. You'll want to MP the part of the extra fabric that goes over your canvas that you'll be cutting off. (There's a method to my madness, I promise!) Let this dry for a bit. Maybe 20 minutes or so. When you come back with your Xacto knife you have a nice stiff fabric with will cut away quite easily.

The next step is laying down your alphabet. As shown in the photo below I did just this portion first (sans glue) to see how it would fit and then glued that section first so I'd know how to evenly space the rest of my letters.

I did not MP the top of the fabric. There was no need since I was adding the Paper MP to each piece of my alphabet. I coated the back with a paintbrush, laid it down, and then immediately coated the top. Once you are done with all the pieces and your canvas is filled, go back over each row with your Paper MP and give it another coat. This will seal everything in nicely. Take a break and let this dry for a while. When you're ready to finish your canvas open up your regular gloss MP have your foam brush on hand and your coordinating ribbon.

Starting at one of your ends use your foam brush to put on an even coat of MP to adhere your ribbon to. Do this all the way around your canvas. I even like to coat the top of the ribbon with MP to really make sure it stays put, but you don't have to. Next you'll flip it down so the back of the canvas is facing you so you can put on your hanger.

How much ribbon you use is up to you. Staple at least 3-4 times on both sides for a nice snug hold. Do not MP this ribbon!

You're almost done! I've started adding my initials to my projects. Ultimately I'm going to create my own logo, but I'm not quite there yet.

Using a small piece of card stock I simply wrote what I wanted to on it and MP'd it to the back of my canvas. Let this dry and you are finished!

Paintings

Here are just a few paintings that I have done over the years.

Milkyway Brownies

We had zero trick or treaters this year, yep, zero. Didn't help that we got home pretty late and our doorbell is almost invisible. Kids typically only stop for candy at our place if I am sitting on our front steps with the bowl of candy, but not this year. What should one do with all this left over candy, especially when most of it is in the chocolate family? Bake! I made the most delicious brownies ever and all I did was use a boring box of store brand brownie mix and some milkyways. You have to try it! You'll love them!