Fresh Picked for Mom

Mother’s Day is coming up on Sunday and no crafter wants to be caught without a sweet something for Mom!  I got the inspiration for this and the printable tag from the girls at eighteen25 and put my own spin on it with the help of some Fancy Pants Summer Soul. 

I used a wooden pint berry box and covered it with plaid Summer Soul paper and a border punched trim.  The fruit was cut from Summer Soul and Be You papers with my Silhouette.  How cute are they?? 

        

All the products are from the “Fresh Picked” line of soaps at Bath and Body Works.  They smell super yummy and could not have been more perfect for my theme. 

And this little Silhouette strawberry just makes me smile.  They’re my mom’s favorite fruit and I know she will get a kick out of how adorable this is! 

I hope you all have something sweet planned for the moms in your life too!

Fleece Baby Toys

I have a new tutorial at May Arts right now…  a little something for the wee ones.  As I mentioned, my best friend recently had her second baby and I am now 29 weeks with our little girl.  Add another few pregnant friends in there and we could pretty much start our own daycare!  I need some new baby toys around here STAT.
So I whipped up a couple of soft fleece toys with ribbon tags for tactile stimulation.  I chose different shapes and textures for the ribbon because we know babies love to discover the world through touch.  I used fleece so these would be washable as well as snuggly.  They’re safe, bright, and soft.

Supplies (per toy):

• Two squares of fleece, approximately 8” x 8”
• Smaller scraps of coordinating fleece for the appliqué
• Coordinating embroidery floss

For the navy/gray/orange: (all May Arts)

• 1 yd. 330-28
• 1 yd. 3/8” HA31
• 1 yd. 5/8” DD03
• 1 yd. ¾” QH03
• 1 yd. 391-58-31

Or for the pink/aqua: (all May Arts)

• 1 yd. 330-94
• 1 yd. 3/8” HA17
• 1 yd. 5/8” DD17
• 1 yd. 1.5” 336-15-17
• 1 yd. 357-34-04

- Cut two circles from your squares of fleece.  I traced a small plate but there is no set size for these.

- Freehand or trace an appliqué shape from the coordinating fleece scraps.

- Use the embroidery floss to sew the appliqués to the circles.  You could machine stitch these if you prefer but I liked the chunky look.

- Now cut two lengths of approximately 5” from each type of ribbon.

- Fold the ribbons in half with the patterns to the outside.  Pin each ribbon piece towards the INSIDE of the fleece circle as shown:

- Place the other circle on top of this, right sides in, creating a “ribbon sandwich”.  Give yourself a generous seam allowance to be sure you firmly catch all the ribbons and sew almost all the way around.  Leave enough of a gap to turn the circles right sides out.

- Trim the edge and turn your circles through the hole.  Stuff with polyfil/batting.  Carefully turn the edges of the hole under and hand stitch the circles closed.  You will see that the ribbons are now sticking out towards the outside.

And that’s it! One sweet little baby tag toy to give or keep for your little one!

I'm linking this up to the party at Tip Junkie!  Check out all kinds of great crafty inspiration!



 

Awesome Stuff

Last week some of us at Pink Paislee were playing along with the gals at Basically Bare.  You DO know about Basically Bare, right?? They make super fun “naked” albums and embellishments from chipboard, cardboard, felt, canvas and acrylic.  And these were a perfect pairing with the Indigo Bleu line!

I created this mini album of “Awesome Stuff @2” to document all the things my two year old loves right now:

This album has a pocket on every page and an insert to go in it… so cool!

Here’s a look at my pages:

I love this album.  Owen already loves it too… he likes to flip through it and pull out the inserts, naming all the pictures. 

And speaking of Basically Bare… I have a Miss Art’s Papercrafting School class coming up this month using another album from this company!  Stay tuned for sneak peeks and details coming soon!