little fingerprints

we made fingerprint gifts for Nana's birthday.  the boys just love painting, so I didn't need to twist their arms or bribe them to help me make these.  they do have their limit on how long they'll let me paint their fingers and press them onto things before they try to take over, though!

we painted a cute ceramic mug I found at Target with Martha Stewart opaque glass paint and then baked it in the oven.  I bought extra mugs just in case, and I'm glad I did!  I thought a grey mug with mostly white prints and some color here and there would be cute, but for some reason the white did not work well at all :\  so I went with just the color paints on the white mug and they worked great.

while we had momentum going we did a picture frame with regular acrylic paints.  I'm hoping to get a good picture of the boys at my sister-in-law's wedding this weekend to put in the frame!

I was going to have the boys make a card, but decided to decorate a plain white bag that doubles as a birthday card instead.  this was a two day project...

but I really love the balloons :)

painted tote

the boys helped me paint a canvas tote to give to Nana for Mother's Day.  they loved making it, and it was fun to do with them.  Leo was so cute while we were making the flowers, too.  after each fingerprint he'd say "it's so pretty!"

we did fingerprint flowers and footprint butterflies on one side, and I wrote their names and ages underneath their heels.  I used two paint colors together on each fingerprint to give the flowers more interest, which is easiest to see on the orange/red one in this pic, but it really made the bluebonnets pop.

I wanted to duplicate the same scene on the other side, but the boys ran out of steam so we just did some handprints on the two front pockets surrounded by a few flowers, and I doodled the rest to fill in some.  I really want to make myself one, so maybe I can get around to that before they get too big!

smiley Jack

we went to Oklahoma to visit Nana over the weekend.  Jack did awesome on the car ride there and back, and was so good while we were at Nana's house.  he's been real smiley and giggly lately so I'm glad she got to see :)  Leo had to stay home with Matt, but it was nice getting out with Jack and my mom.

Jack is starting to stay awake longer during the day and enjoys when people make faces at him, so we've been "playing" more.  Leo doesn't like to share his space with Jack so I've been entertaining Jack at tummy time since he's not even aloud to watch Leo play with trucks!  I'm hoping that passes soon.

 



pretty beans

I've been watching OneVeryHappyBird on youtube recently while eating lunch.  she has some simple and cute ideas, and her voice is soothing to listen to!  I loved the doily gift bag she made and was able to try it out finally on a bag of Boston Baked Beans for my Nana's birthday basket.

I got the candy that comes in a box since it's already in a clear bag, and I glued a small doily on top and added the tag I cut from the end of the box so she knew what they were.

I think it looks a little more special and it was quick and fun to make :)

crochet washcloth

I crocheted some washcloths to put in a basket for my Nana's 80th birthday.  I used a natural looking ecru yarn by Sugar 'n Cream and this pattern.  with an H hook, the 2.5oz skein got me two washcloths with maybe 12" left over!  cuttin' it a little close so I'm glad I was able to make two finished washcloths and didn't have to buy another skein just for a few yards or something.  I'd like to do more but I think each one took me about two hours to do, so if I have time and get a chance I might go get another skein and make two more.

I ironed some ribbon to a piece of 8.5"x11" freezer paper and ran it through my printer to make the label so she sees that I made them for her in case I don't get to see her open the basket.  makes it cute, too :)  there's so many tutorials out there that tell you how to use your inkjet printer to print on fabric, but here's one I found that covers the basics.  I don't recommend using ribbon for smaller fonts since it spreads a little before the ink dries and looks fuzzy.  since this is just packaging, and even though I heat set it after I printed, it won't make it through the wash.  there is some kinda liquid stuff (Bubble Jet Set, I think) you can treat fabric with to make it washable after printing, but I haven't tried any yet.