itty bitty babies

I have 4 friends / family having babies soon so I got a little crafty.

These onesies were very easy and adorable.  Tutorial and patterns here

What really inspired me was the diaper motorcycle tutorial here.

 I love him, so cute for a shower gift.

Rock Star birthday

My oldest 4th birthday party was at a dance party venue.  It was his first kid's birthday party and he was super excited.  In order to convince him it was a good idea to NOT go to a bounce house like the last 20 kids parties I had to make the theme good.  Hence was born the rock star birthday party with guitars.  

The goodie bags were muslin bags that I stamped.

I cut guitar shapes from my cricut (using my gypsy to cut a circle in the top one). Then I inserted plastic cups from Stampin Up.  I filled the cups with mini m&m's.  This was the only candy in the goodie bag since the party was 5 days after halloween.

 I had found 24 packs of crayons on sale at Walmart around September.  I peeled all the crayons and broke them into a silicone mold of stars.  Cooked in the oven till they melted through.  Once they were mostly dry I put them in the freezer for a few minutes so that they easily released.  Custom crayons - hardest part is peeling the paper off.

 I had found little guitar favors on ebay and decided they would be adorable in soap.  Soap is super easy to make when you buy the 2lb block.  Just melt it and pour over some plastic bracelets and guitar or bouncy ball in a dedicated muffin pan.  Spray with alcohol to get out the bubbles and add scent.  Once dry again pop in the freezer for a few minutes to help pop them out of the muffin pan.

 For the treats I baked cupcakes in ice cream cones.  After they were frosted I rolled them in silver sprinkles so they resembled microphones.  Serving 3/4 year old cupcakes in ice cream cones is genius.  The cones get a little soft, but the mess is so much more controlled.

 For the trip in I crocheted a hat and then sewed on a felt guitar with a button for the hole.  Super quick and good to get him in the rock star mode.

 I also made a birthday crown out of felt.  This took about an hour and he thought it was awesome to make him stand out.  He wore it to school on his actual birthday too.  And luckily the Gap has a lot of guitar things lately, so his button down has little guitars all over it.  All about the theme.

Also on my cricut I made a birthday banner.  The key to this is to mod podge it together and then use an acrylic sealer when you are done.  Without the sealer it remains sticky which is bad for storage.

 He really got into it.  He loved his party (even though there were no bounce houses).  I had a great time planning so it was win win.

my little caterpillar

I have wanted to knit a halloween costume since I learned how to knit 3 years ago.  I finally found a pattern on ravelry that could help get me started.  This pattern was where I started and then I just made it up as I went along. I tried to document my modifications here. I couldn't pick a yarn so I went with all of them!  The costume is based on "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" book.  I'm loving it.
The hat pattern was purchased here.  She was a great seller and the pattern was really well written, I modified it a little for bulky yarn but I will certainly be buying from her again.

I need to weave in some loose ends, but I was too excited to try this on my little one!

First Birthday Celebrations

So Pinterest has inspired many crafts for my son's first birthday.  Loved the balloon wreath

 Freezer paper stenciling is super easy and comes out amazing!

 This giraffe cake was on my must do list - then I did it 3 times...

Buntings are big - I love this little shirt

 I also did a bunting using my cricut.  Should have used different paper because it didn't 'pop' as much as I would like

first cricut cake

My cricut cake arrived in time for father's day.  I didn't have a ton of time to play with it, but this didn't take long.

 Not a lot of planning here, hence the off center saying as I did the stars first.

 The sides were tricky, but for a first cake I think it was a success.

fish mobile

Paper mobiles are huge right now.  But they charge you an arm and a leg for something you can customize and make pretty easily.  After a trip to the Camden Aquarium where they have a huge scale version of this I was inspired.  It took some time, but I love the out come.

First I got a wire wreath circle from the craft store.  Then I found my shape and used a die cut machine to cut out my fish.  I think I cut somewhere around 150 as I wanted this to be very full. 

 I bought some clear  thread from the jewelry section of the craft store and started putting the fish on.  I poked a tiny hole in the middle of each fish then I used a mini super strong glue dot to make the fish hang vertically.  I also Put a small piece of cardstock on the other side of the glue dot since they were starting to all stick together.  (As this was for my baby's nursery I went a little nutty and punched tiny little hearts to attached to the back)

NOTE:  I have seen tutorials where they actually sew across the paper with the clear thread.  I think this might be a better strategy, but mine was done when I saw this.

I kept attaching fish and wire all different lengths around the wreath.  I ended up with 3 rows of varying lengths.  On the end of each string I added a few beads and sealed off with a crimping bead.

Use some ribbon to attach to the ceiling and you are all set.  Minimal cost, not labor intensive, utterly beautiful for your babies nursery - or where ever you need a mobile.

Hats, Hats and more Hats

My favorite thing to knit is a hat...it's easy, looks cute, and it's useful.  

Here is a gallery of kids hats...this might be where you start to understand the obsessive part...

I have a thing with variegated yarn - it just looks so awesome in the ball - so many colors.  Unfortunately it usually doesn't turn out so great, but I keep trying.

 I love a good cable...

 This is just a simple knit hat and I embroidered the baseball stitches on it

 Making your own hats is especially useful when you want to match a jacket.

 When I was pregnant with my second son I learned to crochet.  This was my first crochet project.

 it was perfect for his little newborn pictures

Once I started crochet it was too fast to stop - these hats take a night or two - ok, they aren't functional, but so cute!

I tried to make this one functional - I made him wear it this winter - I can't help it - so cute!

 Animal hats take it to a whole new level.  This froggy one came out a little big, but we made it work... he shared with Daddy for trick or treating!

Owls were huge this year - and I caught the trend.  A big owl for my big kid

 And a little subtle owl for my little one

 Shrek hat is a great time - this was for the older boy, but he wasn't feeling the modeling that day.

 This is a fan favorite.  Lightening McQueen is a big deal in this house - so I created this pattern for him and he wore it out

 A few days before we went pumpkin picking I NEEDED to have pumpkin hats for both of them.  Probably the last year my older one will let me put a pumpkin hat on him.

 These were the pumpkin hats that were one of my first knitting projects

 These were super fast elf hats for Christmas pictures and Christmas Eve

 The baby needed some cables too

 Double knitting opened up a whole new world of ideas.  A quick knit cap can be customized into anything.

 I made a little chart for this "Mom" hat so that the little one could show some love.

 Sock monkey hats were big this year too - this one was made from super bulky yarn and was really warm.

 The St. Patricks Day hats were a quick fix (the holiday falls in busy season for us auditors - it's gotta be fast).  I  used the double knit to put their names on the hats.

 The giraffe hat was a personal favorite (mine and his)

All my knit and crochet items are logged on Ravelry with links to the patterns.  My Ravelry name is 2boymommy if you want to use any of the patterns