Amber, Dom & Baby Makes 3!

I came across this fab post from Cakies about a month ago and just knew we had to make this for little H for his upcoming 1 year birthday party! I passed on the link to my hubby (who would be taking care of any woodworking/drilling/nailing that had to happen) and he quickly agreed we needed this in our home post-haste. So this past Sunday Dom headed with Hayden in the stroller to Home Depot (a mere 3 miles from our house) to procure the wood while I headed to IKEA for the fabric (I don’t ever need an excuse to go to IKEA!). I’ll skip past the boring pics of us trying to drill wood in our apartment (mostly because I forgot to take any) and get right to the awesome result pics:

We were so thrilled with the outcome that we set it out immediately to try it out. Dom and I took turns hiding out in it while we watched episodes of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations and ate Pocky. I wonder who is going to get the most use out of this thing…

Check out my Pinterest board of tents for more ideas!

[prw username="ambersiscoe" boardname="tents" maxfeeds="10" divname="myList" printtext="0" target="newwindow" useenclosures="yes" thumbwidth="130" thumbheight="130" showfollow="medium"]

Day Eleven – Tee-Shirt Apron

For day eleven I created a tee shirt apron! It was pretty fast, and I loved that the tutorial included spoon slots in the turned up part. I have already started using it!

Original Shirt	All cut up	Folding and pinning the edges up
Creating the ties	Finished apron!

Day Tweleve – DIY Snow Globes

These were beyond fun to make. I really struggled with finding cute little items to put into each one until my husband suggested going to Uncle Fun, which is a super awesome gag gift store here in Chicago. I used jars I saved up from salsa, things from Trader Joes and baby food jars. Here is the original tutorial (via the now defunct Ready Made mag – boo).

Super gluing Bowler Dude	Hold for 1 minute…	You gotta add bling!
Ready to bowl!	Babar	Tin soldiers & a pelican
Babar a globed up!	Plastic hearts for shakin’	Sparkles!

Well, I can’t believe it’s over!! And I honestly can’t believe I did all 12 crafts in 12 days. I love most of what I got out of the project, and the best part is I have kick-started my idea engine into gear and have lots of cool things planned for 2012!

For project #10 I wanted to do a super cute pencil pouch. I had picked up this fabric at the craft store a few months ago knowing that I would eventually make something awesome out of it. I have never sewed in a zipper before, so this tutorial definitely had some trial & error involved. I also accidentally sewed the keyring inside the pouch! I just ended up snipping it off, so it wasn’t a big deal. After reading and rereading (and rereading some more) the tutorial I figured out the whole zipper situation and it ended up pretty cute! I will be making more of these in the next couple of weeks for sure. With an actual functioning keyring to boot! Here is the tutorial I followed (FYI – I didn’t do the applique. I decided the apple fabric was cute enough on it’s own)!

All my fabric chopped up and ready to go.	Sewing in the zipper…	Zipper success!
Pouch parts ready to go.	The final project – pretty cute!

So I have completed days 8 and 9 and am ready to show you the results! These were 2 projects I was looking forward to a lot. I have had them bookmarked for a while and now I am happy to have tried them out and to show you the results!

Day Eight – Baby Sun Crinkle Toy

I had planned on giving this one as a gift – but as you can see it didn’t turn out as colorful and awesome as the original tutorial. I will definitely be making another one. In the meanwhile, Hayden will be my guinea pig for playability!

Sooo many choices…	Hmmm, I need circles.	My circles and long triangles ready to go!
Sewing up the “arms”	Sewing everything inside the large circle	Completed circle
Let’s use a seaweed snack bag for the crinkle!	Chopped up and ready to go…	Completed Sun!

Day Nine – Popsicle Stick Magnets

This tutorial couldn’t be easier. In fact, it’s not really a tutorial! Just check out the pics and make your own!

The supplies	Painting!
Half way there…	And the final product!

Secret Project!

So my friend Lori brought over some chalkboard spray paint a few days ago, so I HAD to try it out on something! And since I had been saving up bottles for my day 6 tutorial I had some leftover. So after 3 coats of paint here is the results:

I thought I was so original, but after a quick Google search I found several tutorials out there for this exact same project! One tip I did pick up was to take the chalk and rub it over the entire bottle and then wipe it off. It gives the bottle that cool old chalkboard look!

Tonight I did record album bowls! And they turned out super cute. Watch out family/friends/strangers I meet on the bus. I know what YOU’RE getting this Christmas!!

My thrift store finds	Record prepping	It’s important to stay hydrated
Melted album	Forming the record	Finished bowl!
	It’s so easy to do I made 7!

You can check out the official tutorial here!

For Day 6 I have been saving a bunch of glass bottles to “inner paint”. Again, this is a ridiculously easy project to complete and fast to boot. My fav little bottle was one I picked up yesterday at Caffe ROM downtown. It’s called Sanbitter and it tastes horrible. I loved the bottle though, so it was worth the $2.50 price tag.

The fact that the word “bitter” is in the name should have tipped me off…
Pre-paint	Paint-filled
Bitter bottle	Collection!

My only suggestion for this project is to fill your bottles with a little more paint than necessary. I did a test bottle this past weekend (I know, I’m a cheater!) and noticed the next day that once the paint starts to dry and shrink some cracking can occur. I simple spun my bottle around and “re-painted” the inside. Do this several times a day after each coat has dried and you will have awesome results!

For today’s craft I did garland! I am DIY garland FAN-atic (get it?!) and this is a variation of a version I did a while back. It’s super easy to do, and you can make a load of garland in a short time. Plus, how cathartic and relaxing is it to just punch, punch, punch away the stresses of your day?!

The tools – I played around with a few shapes!	Punching!	My garland-to-be
Setting up the sewing machine	Sewing the garland	The completed project!

I used colored cardstock to punch my pieces, but you could also use paint chips, or recycle last year’s holiday cards as well!

One of the things I have been excited to try out for a while is the whole “PAINT IT WHITE!!!” craze. Basically this boils down to: find some crazy sculpture/knick-knack/trash item and, wait for it… PAINT IT WHITE! Now, here in
Chicago it’s illegal to sell spray paint. So I picked some up while I was downstate visiting family. I purchased 3 high-gloss colors – red, yellow and white. You could also use matte if that’s the look you are going for.

The tutorial I followed (here) suggests collecting items of similar style/interest and painting them all white to create a collection. I hit the Salvation Army this past weekend and could only find ONE item I wanted to paint. I did however find this gem, which was a little too frightening and bordering on crazy cat lady for my tastes:

So I settled on this playful, innocent little guy:

Cute right? I mean, how harmless can this little fellow be?? Well behold SATAN RACCOON!

Hello! Sorry I didn’t post day 2 yesterday. I was so busy preparing for my friend Lori’s craft-a-thon that night that I had no time! So here are days 2 and 3 for you!

Day 2 – Pencil Roll

For day 2 I did a pencil roll as a Christmas gift. My sewing skills lie somewhere between non-existent and beginner, so while it’s not perfect I am happy with the way it turned out!

Pinned Up	Sewn (note my amazing skillz)
Pencils inserted (don’t worry, I am buying new ones when I gift it!)	Detail of pencils

While the tutorial claimed this project took only 10 minutes it, of course, took me 5 times that!

Day 3 – Tee Shirt Scarf

Now this really is a fun and easy project!! My friend Lori hosted a “Pop Up Craft Party” and invited everyone over to make scarves (and drink wine!). You really can do this project in 10 minutes, and I love the outcome of what using different patterned shirts can do for your scarf.

Lori explains to us that this is a “serve yourself” wine party. We had no problem with that.	Heather chops it up with some mad scissor skills.	We dubbed Heather’s scarf the “New Year’s Eve Scarf” – notice the bling!
My yellow scarf and snazzed up University of Illinois Tee	Lori shows off her modeling talent!	The ladies and their final products!
	It was a good evening…

There are several tutorials out there for tee shirt scarves, but here is the one I followed (video included!).

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s craft – “Paint it White!”